Sunday, February 16, 2014

ESAD Occasions Blog Hop


It's time for another ESAD Blog Hop, this time to showcase products for the current Occasions Catalogue that went live in the South Pacific market on 28th January.  The first time I looked through I wasn't sure there was a lot that really grabbed me, but on closer look there is a really good range of products and this blog hop will show you some of them in some amazing projects. It doesn't matter if you have hopped here from the link on Gail's blog Stamp With Gail, or if you are starting the hop here, just follow the links at the end of each blog to hop to the next one until you have made it all around to the blog you started at.  

I have chosen the cute a la carte stamp "Blessed Easter" and as usual wanted to show you a few different ways this lovely stamp can be used.  As you can see from this image it is a single stamp with three beautiful tulips and an Easter sentiment.  This is a wood mount stamp and I chose to cut off the sentiment before mounting so that I could easily use the images separately.

While the stamp has an Easter theme, it is easily transferrable to other occasions, in this case I have used it on a birthday card.  For this card I have used the oval Framelits to cut a window in the card and stamped on vellum to give a luminescence to the image.  I added some bling with some of the cute little gold sequins that are also one of the new products in the catalogue. The sentiment, from Blooming with Kindness, was cut using one of the Banners Framelits Dies, also from the catalogue, they are great for getting perfect ends on sentiment banners. 

Next up I created a 'card in a box' with the tulips, stamping and cutting them out multiple times to create the bunch of flowers look.  I added some butterflies stamped on vellum and attached them to thin strips of window sheet so that they appear to flutter slightly as the card opens or catches a breeze.  I used the Easter sentiment that is part of the stamp, but this would be a great project for Mother's Day, or even a get well card for someone in hospital where flowers can't be taken.  

Finally I wanted to show you another option for the Blessed Easter stamp.  This time I have attached it on the front of a little chocolate box made with the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch.  This is a great punch that is so much more than a tag topper!  I will be posting a tutorial for this box in upcoming weeks. I have used some of the Watercolour Wonder DSP behind the tulips - this is a great DSP with lots of soft images, I also used one of the sheets on my card in a box above. This treat box holds two small blocks of chocolate, I got these from Aldi and the gold on the top goes perfectly with the Gold Baker's Twine around the ribbon.

I hope you have been inspired by my creations, now it is time to hop on over to the next blog to see what the very creative and talented Sharlene Meyer has to show you on her blog 

What is ESAD?
ESAD stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and it is an on-line group just for Australian and New Zealand Stampin' Up! demonstrators. We so love what we do and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors, but we share our love for what we do with each other as demonstrators. We run swaps, challenges, tutorials, product know-how, and cyberstamps, and we are always there to help and support each other when it is needed. So if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, then please feel free to contact me for an invitation to this wonderful group.


Happy Stamping

Saturday, February 1, 2014

My Challenge Helper!

Let me introduce the newest member of our family, Makucha, he is an adorable little rescue kitten and is clearly my kitten.  This morning he had fun on my desk as I tidied up the mess and when it was all clear he chose the centre of my workspace as the perfect place to have a nap.  Even after I carefully slid the paper he was on off to the side (I have a huge desk), he stood up, stretched and moved back onto my cutting mat!

I decided the best thing to do was go through my Feedly feed and see what new posts were up on some of my favourite blogs.  I spotted these two challenges from Friday Mashup and Just Add Ink and started planning my creation.  Luckily kittens don't sleep for too long before they are off to explore the next thing and I got chance to create.

I loved the lovely yellow colours in the inspirational photo so chose some of the new Watercolour Wonder DSP and coordinated my colours with that. I have really enjoyed using negative space lately and did so again on this card, I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark and used White embossing powder, I sponged around the sentiment with Tangerine Tango to give some depth.  I also sponged around the DSP layers, I haven't sponged as much lately but do love the way it accentuates the edges and adds depth.  I finished off the card with some cute little flowers from Petite Petals, again tying in the inspiration photo.

And wouldn't you know it, the kitten is back! Maybe he can help me tidy my desk again.

Happy Stamping