Welcome to the ESAD Christmas in July Blog hop!!

I do hope you’ve come prepared for a wonderful ‘Christmas’ journey so if you havent got your cuppa and some biscuits you’d better go get some now … I’ll wait till you get back to continue.

What is ESAD?

ESAD stands for Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators and it is an online group just for Australian and New Zealand demonstrators for Stampin’ Up!®

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 its needed. There is also the online chat networking that is available whenever youre online.

So if you are a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand then please feel free to click here to join our wonderful group.

You should have come here from Clare’s blog but if you havent dont worry … just keep hopping until you get back to me.

Now, like all good bloggers, we all LOVE comments so please be sure to leave us a comment as we just thrive on them!

I have had one of these Simply Scrappin’ “I Wish” kits for eons – maybe even last Christmas and I hadnt pulled it out to use so I thought I’d better take this opportunity and use it before its retired.

Here is what I created ….

We have ….

• A Christmas planner
• A Gift box with toffees inside
• A Gift Bag
• 6 Christmas Cards with matching Envelopes
• 8 Christmas Tags

Now all of these things I made with just half of one of the kits – oh and I had quite a bit left over that I didnt use including adhesive die cuts, cardstock and patterned paper.

So I could still make a bundle more cards, tags and even a scrapbook layout if I wanted to – or I might even dress up a canvas for the Grannies for Christmas.  So just imagine how much you could make with a full kit!

The Christmas Planner

I love the idea of these planners so when I was making projects for this blog hop I thought I’d love to make one of these so I went looking online for ideas and maybe a tutorial.

After spending half a day (I kid you not!) of looking and not really finding what I wanted I sat down and decided to design one myself!  So I did and I love how it turned out!

The Planner takes one sheet of 12×12 cardstock to create then I’ve just added pieces of the Designer Series Paper and adhesive die cuts from the kit to decorate it.  Easy!

Here are a couple of shots inside the planner ….

Then we have the cards ….

These cards were actually made using the Stampin’ Up!® Notecards.  Using the Notecards made them so quick and easy to put together and they come with envelopes so I just stamped some snowflakes from the Snow Swirled Stamp Set and I was done! Easy!

A Box for the special someone with the sweet tooth!

How cute is this box?  These Acetate boxes are so easy to make and you can put anything in them from toffees to candles!  Oh if you are buying someone a gift card you could pop that inside and then fill it up with toffees or Werther’s Caramel Chocolates – now I did buy a bag of those but they umm disappeared … well one does have to do quality control do they not?? I do know that hubby took two of them – the hide of some people!

A Gift bag …..

How nice is this little bag?  Now you could put just about anything in here too … a CD, stamp set, punch, set of car keys, toy car even (being a replica of the new one in the drive-way maybe? please Santa???)

Not forgetting … the gift tags ….

Now these were fun to make and I will probably make a few more – but how cute is that Penguin??  I do so love Penguins   I’ve been eyeing off this Punch Pals set for a couple of years now and thought why not?? My customers need new stamps for their Christmas Stamp A Stacks!

Wow .. .I apologise this post is so long!  I didnt mean for it to be so if you’ve got this far I thank you from the bottom of my Christmas heart!  It does happen to be my favourite holiday and its a shame its all over so quickly.

Now before I go I do have to tell you that if you do happen to see those Werther’s Caramels to grab one bag for you and one bag for me cos they are D-I-V-I-N-E!

Now that you have got this far its time to hop onto the next ESAD Blogger in the Blog hop being the gorgeous Gardenia Pepworth

Now dont forget to leave everyone a comment

In my ‘reading’ I did find some gorgeous cards and projects to inspire and case.  Now when you do case a card or something you’ve found online the ‘proper’ thing to do is to give credit to the person who inspired you.  In today’s case this card is one I cased from the very lovely Lynda Shrimpton.  Lynda is an avid blog reader – I know this cos not only does she frequent my blog but those of my demonstrator friends and she always leaves the best comments! Thanks Lynda

Isnt this a great card??

Now I did change the colours somewhat as I wanted to use this as one of the cards for today’s Stamp A Stack.

Recipe

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Weathered background, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Inks: Sahara Sand, Close to Cocoa
Papers: Close to Cocoa, Naturals Ivory
Accessories: Stampamajig, Sponge Daubers, Stampin Dimensionals
Technique – Shadow Stamping

If you look closely at the card you can see a faint shadow on the swirl. This is done by using the two inks – one light and one darker and you definitely need to use the Stampamajig to place the second stamping.

If you love this effect and would like to see how it is done why not book in for my Technique Class or have me come show you at a Workshop in your home.

Now I have some sad news …..

As you know we have the colour renovation happening when the new Idea Book & Catalogue comes out in September (not long now) and some of our beloved colours are being discontinued. Now while Stampin Up! have tried to keep up with the demand some of the colours will be gone early due to demand and everyone ordering and the first item to go is Close to Cocoa A4 Cardstock.  So while the full packs are no longer available you can get it in the mixed Earth Elements pack but again this is only while stocks last.

So please if there is any other retiring colour cardstock, inks, markers or refills you ‘need’ get it early before its too late!

Have a totally blessed Sunday!

Last week my lovely Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator friend Sonia Garbut announced she was a guest designer for a new online class called Inkspirations4U and was offering a free pass … well…. Sonia’s 2yo daughter pulled out my name so I won a free pass!

How exciting is that?  I never win anything!

Before the projects started rolling in Madeline gave us a colour challenge to get us started.

Now those colours happen to be some of my favourites but boy did I have a hard time putting them together!

Here is what I came up with ….

I love this flower image from Asian Artistry. Its just gorgeous … and so is that dragonfly!

I used my Stampin Write Markers to colour the image however I wanted it to have a soft feel to it so I coloured the leaves and stems with the Basic Grey marker and then stamped it off once. I then inked the flowers with the Pretty in Pink marker, huffed and then stamped onto Naturals Ivory cardstock.  I also sponged around the edge of the naturals ivory piece but again after dabbing the sponge on the Basic Gray Ink pad I dabbed it off first to give a softer edge – it tends to blend into the Basic Gray piece behind it this way.

Using the Rich Razzleberry as the base card fulfilled the ‘colour challenge’ although I wasnt totally sold on the card. I thought the Rich Razzleberry was too dark for this sympathy card so here are a couple of variations …

with ribbon

changed base card to Pink Pirouette

Now as much as I love Rich Razzleberry I think the softness of Pink Pirouette on this last card fits the ‘soft sympathy’ feel I was after.

The projects coming through the Inkspirations4U classes are so nice and its not too late to join and well worth the US$20 it costs so why not pop over to Inkspirations4U and join up – would love to see you there!

I know its later in the day but it IS still Saturday!  Here is this week’s sketch from the lovely Carol for the Utah Divas International Sketch Challenge.  Easy enough right??

Well I was half way through my card when I thought that if I rotated the sketch it would make a great landscape card – and then I looked at the sketch again and yes its meant to be a landscape card!

Here is the card I made …

The cocoa on the blue was actually inspired by one of the coffee cups I have and think it turned out well.

I love this litte floral design stamp from Vintage Vogue – its so versatile and makes awesome background paper.

The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Messages and fits perfectly in the small oval punch or even the word window. I’ve added a small flower from the Trio Flower Punch for that extra little bit.

Now when I was making this one I thought that a flower in the place of the ‘friend’ layer would look nice so I made another.

Now with the second card I changed the ink to Creamy Caramel to stamp onto the blue and sponging around the edges.

The Happy Mothers Day Sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Messages.

I have been busy this past week making swaps for Convention and doing all those behind the scenes things for convention – making sure I have decent clothes and shoes to wear and all the other bits and pieces.  As a Convention Special I am offering free postage on all mail or telephone orders between now and 31st May. So if there is something you wish to order now is the time and the more you purchase the more you save!

Now its time to send you skipping off to the next Sketchy Diva being the lovely Ruthie!

You can do this and more just by being a member of my Latte Stamp Club you can do this and more!

What is a Stamp Club?

• The Latte Stamp Club meets monthly and for 6 months, the workshop is free of charge and you will get to make 3 items created just for my stamp club members.

• Each Latte Stamp Club member must place a minimum order of $50 each month

• Each month each Latte Stamp Club member will take a turn of being the ‘hostess’ and as a hostess will earn hostess benefits being a free Hostess Stamp set as well as a minimum of $30 of  free products from the Stampin’ Up! Idea Book & Catalogue or the current Mini Catalogue. Now when it is your turn to be hostess then you are welcome to get outside orders to boost your hostess benefits.

Not located near me?  Not a problem!

You are then able to join my Latte Long Distance Stamp Club.  If you like the idea of the stamp club but are unable to make the time to attend or cant attend on the specified date then  contact me to arrange a spot in my Latte Long Distance Stamp Club. You will still be required to place a minimum $50 order each month, and each member will still get to be ‘hostess’ and receive the hostess benefits!

Maybe you’d like to start your own Latte Stamp Club with just you and five of your friends – I just need 6 people to start a club and then you can share all the joys of the monthly Latte Stamp Club and taking turns in playing  hostess with your friends.

Please note that this is a 6 monthly commitment so you wont be able to drop out during those six months and you will need to complete the agreement to participate each month. If you find you can not make the Stamp Club meeting for any reason you will still be required to place a $50 order and you will receive kits to make the projects for that meeting along with any templates and full instructions.

Here is a sample of one of the cards you will make as being part of my Latte Stamp Club!

How sweet is this card?? This is actually one of the easiest cards I’ve made and is a case of a card in the Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue and could be used for any occasion.

Recipe:
Stamps: Tiny Tags
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Kraft
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Melon Mambo Polka Dot Grosgrain ribbon, Jewelry Tag Punch, Manhatten Flower Textured Impressions Folder, Linen Thread

Have questions? thats fine – just contact me today to ask any questions you might have or to reserve your spot at my Latte Stamp Club. 

First club will meet in June as long as I have numbers – I already have three willing to join so email or ring me today to reserve your spot!

Dont stress if you have just give me a call to arrange a gift voucher and receive a bonus $5 on top of what you pay for mum! She’ll love you forever … and so will I!!

Now onto the Technique Challenge for the Soul Scrappers forum ….

I thought this week I’d look at frames – well not because I need to get my eyes checked but I have this really lovely stamp set called Frames with a Flourish and it gets so neglected. <awwww>  So I pulled it out this morning and thought well lets see what different ways we can use it. I am sure you have those ‘frame’ sets or dies in your stash that you just ‘had‘ to have yet rarely use.

So first off I thought that I could use that dotty fancy frame as a pattern on my background so came up with this ….

I’ve just used the stamp to create the pattern on the background Pretty in Pink piece and stamped in Regal Rose. It works quite well with the staggering of the images I think.

I then took the square floral frame from Frames with a flourish and stamped it in Regal Rose onto Whisper White. I think cut around the frame and then sliced it in half diagonally.

Then using the two corners I attached them to my photo and used them as photo corners.

I then layered the photo and the photo corners onto a Pink Pirouette mat so that you wouldnt loose the photo corners into the background.

I’ve then stamped the dotty frame onto Whisper White and created my page title with that piece and here is my finished layout …

Its a little cute dont you think?? so is that kid!

I even attempted a ‘boy’ layout ….

What do you think? does it pass??

I’ve used the circle frame from Frames with a flourish and the party hats come from Party Hearty stamp set.

Now stamps arent the only things we have frames in. There is also now our lovely Big Shot and all the awesome dies. Here is a layout I’ve created using the Top Note die …

I’ve used the die to create the Journalling box and also the photo descriptions and just switched the colours around on each of them.

Well I hope you’ve liked what I’ve done for the challenge and feel free to have a play yourself and either post your creation over on the Soul Scrappers Forum or comment on this post and insert a link to your blog post or online gallery. I do have a little surprise for the Challenge Winner soit could be worth your while to have a play and enter.

I thought today I’d share with you my ‘re-vamped’ craft nook which is where I create and work and do my blog posts

Its not a new area but I do have a very new Ink Pad Storage unit that my lovely Brother In Law made for me!  I’ve seen these online for a few years and have often wished I had one and now I do!

Here is the unit empty & sitting on my sofa waiting for me to clear the space on my desk to fit it in.

How cool is it?? It will hold 60 ink pads, ink refills and Stampin Write Markers. So now I have all my colours in the one place!

Mind you getting this wonderful new unit it meant I had to remove the shelf I already had there and rearrange where I kept things. Now if you are a crafter you will know just what havoc all this rearranging does to ones ‘neatness’  and if you know me at all you’ll know I dont have that gene – my sister got my share (and some) of that!

Now here is my lovely unit all filled – well except for one spot and after transferring all my goodies over I’ve realised two things ….

1. I dont really need 3 Chocolate Chip reinkers!
2. I need reinkers for all my ink pads!

It looks pretty sweet hey??  If you would like to purchase one of these units then please email me for price and postage details – Australia only (sorry) Dimensions are 805mm W, 125mm D and 330mm H.

Hubby did suggest it needs to be painted and when I suggested he was welcome to do that any time he then decided the ink pad shelves wouldnt then slide in and out easily! Typical!!

Now as for my work area I have a corner (nook) of the living room and have an L shaped desk with a hutch. So this is my area to the right…

You can see here that my computer is there and I have my Ribbons,  Designer Series Papers and cardstock on the shelf above.

They are stored in the Cropper Hopper Vertical Storage. I do have those lying on their sides though so its easy to just stretch and grab whatever cardstock I need and it also comes in handy when I am ordering so I know at a glance what cardstock I’m low on.

I also have my drawers to the right of my computer which house all my scraps and off cuts. I have a drawer for each colour family and then if I need a smaller piece its easy to find.  When I get to a stage when the drawers are so full they wont close I just make up ‘collage’ bags and give them to customers with their orders and they love it!

Now here’s the view on the left of my table featuring my new storage unit

I now have all my inks and markers right in front of me and I love it!

My desk sure does look good when its this tidy!!

I am thinkin its time to do some more creating

Being its Saturday its time for another Utah Divas Sketch Challenge. The lovely Carol (our sketch master who does all the sketches by hand) has had surgery on her hand in the last week so please say a prayer for her – she does so much for the sketch challenge team.

I looked at this sketch and deliberated for some time on what to do. I realised today that its not until I pick the Designer Series Papers or Stamp Sets that the cards come to me. I had been creating some projects with the Raspberry Tart DSP and here is what I cam up with for today’s sketch ….

I wouldnt normally put the Bloomin with Beauty stamp set with the Raspberry Tart Designer Series Paper but I do like how this has turned out.  Now are you sitting down?? I even used my blender pen to colour the flowers! Yes thats right I used the blender pen!

Recipe

Stamps: Best Yet, Bloomin with Beauty
Paper: Whisper White, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, Pretty in Pink, Raspberry Tart DSP
Inks: Jet Black Stazon, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Old Olive.
Accessories: 1″ circle punch, 1 1/4″ circle punch, 1 3/8″ circle punch, 1/4″ Pretty in Pink Grosgrain ribbon, Blender Pen, Stampin Dimensionals.

I do hope you like this card as much as I did making it. I do love these flowers and do love to water colour them.

If you would like to learn how to watercolour your stamps then please dont hesitate to give me a call – I can tailor a workshop to suite what you want to learn and do!

Now its time to skip along to the next blog in the Diva Sketch Team and this week its off to the lovely Max for her wonderful creation!

What is ESAD-SU?

ESAD stands for Extra Special Australasian (Australia and New Zealand) Demonstrators and it is an online group just for Australian and New Zealand demonstrators for Stampin’ Up!®.

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 its needed.

So if you are a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand then please feel free to click here to join our wonderful group.

Now you should have come here from Kristine Thompson’s blog but if you havent you can click on her name and start there as she was the first blog in the hop or you can just keep hopping to the next blog until you get back to me – either way its all good

Now you’d better go grab yourself a cuppa as you’ll be hopping for a while!

I have been admiring the Cottage Wall Designer Series Papers ever since they were released in USA/Canada and when I opened the Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue for the first time and saw them in there my heart just about leapt out of my tshirt!

I wanted to make something a little special so I put on my thinking cap and came across these little Haute Tote’s on Creations with AR – Adela is a sweet lady from USA who I’ve come to know through Stampin Up!

Just how sweet are these bags???

I thought I’d make two to highlight the gorgeousness (yes that IS a word!) of these papers. All the papers used in these two projects are all from The Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper Pack.

The first set I’ll show you is the darker Razzleberry set.

The set includes a covered post-it notes block, covered mechanical pencil and a couple of very scrummy Wicked Scents melts – and how clever is Miss Kerri to make them in a colour to match the papers???

The bag was quite easy to make and I would love to have come make one at a class – I will have details of that class up soon.

The bag also has a little pocket inside – just like a real bag for popping in a gift voucher or gift card like the iTunes card shown here.

These bags make an awesome gift bag for a girl of any age and I’m sure the younger girls will love carrying it around and showing it off – bit like the bigger girls too!

Now on the front  you might see the little pocket on the handle.

It actually opens up to reveal a little ‘to and from’ tag

Makes an awesome little gift dont you think?? and for a lady of any age!

Now onto the other bag ….

This time I’ve gone for a set of cards inside the bag.

Since starting with Stampin’ Up! and doing classes I’ve found out that people love to give a gift of cards in a set and others also love to get them given to them as gifts.

This set has three cards with envelopes and the bag. This leaves room for some chocolates or something small – like maybe a gift voucher or gift card.

I’ve used the Cottage Garden stamp set to make these cards as it was designed to match the Cottage Wall Designer Series Papers. The set is extra special as its only in Australia and New Zealand markets right now – its not even in the upcoming Mini Catalogue being released in USA in May.  How special is that??

I love making these little 10×10 (cm) cards as they are quick and easy and great for making into sets like this and giving as gift cards.

You might see on the above photo a little tag hanging from the handle of the bag.

I’ve made a tag using the Large Oval Punch and the Scalloped Oval Punch and the sentiment ‘just for you’ from Teeny Tiny Sentiments which happens to be obscured by the beaded dangly I attached so I apologise for that.

I do hope you like these little bags and the gift sets I’ve made for today’s blog hop.

Now if you do make it around all 26 of the blogs and leave comments on all of them you are then in the running for some Blog Candy!  Yes we have blog candy!  There will be two winners – one from New Zealand and one from Australia. All you have to do is to visit and comment on each of the blogs in todays blog hop and then send an email to the lovely Sharlene Torres and advise that you have commented on all the blogs and give her your name, email and location.  Its that easy!  I will be donating one of my gift bags as the blog candy!

Now for you to continue on your journey you need to hop along to Linda Craven’s awesome blog – Linda is a dear friend and a very talented stamper and you will just love what she’s made – no I havent seen it but she always makes great stuff.

Have fun hopping around all the blogs today – and dont over-do it – we dont want you hurting anything! So look left and right and then left again before you leap! OK so I’ve had too much chocolate today

Thanks for stoppin by

Its been a rather hectic week this week and hoping I do catch up to Friday very soon! I’d hate for Saturday to start and me still being stuck on Wednesday – that just wouldnt be fair!!

Its my turn again to host the Technique Challenge over at the Soul Scrappers forum that was started up by the lovely Erika Martin. We have over 500 members there now in just two months so thats an awesome achievement on its own! There are lots of Challenges, Sketches, ideas and wonderful people to share their talents and help so if you are a scrapper 0r even if you’d like to be a scrapper then pop over to the Soul Scrappers forum and check it all out!

My Technique Challenge this week is to create your own Designer Series Papers using your stamps. Being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator I love the papers they have and how they all coordinate with the colour families and stamp sets but sometimes you want a paper just a bit different or maybe in different colours.  So today I’m going to share with you how to make your own papers using your stamps and inks.

Supplies needed:

• Cardstock,
• Inks (I used Versamark, Mellow Moss, Pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst and Apricot Appeal)
• stamps (I used Vintage Vogue and En Francais)
• Stamp a majig
• chalks ( i used versamark and chalk for the script in the centre)

I love using my stamps to create designs and the perfect patterned paper for my layout.  This way I can have colours that match my photo’s and I can make my own embellishments and accents and not only that – you know that no one else will have this designer paper you create yourself!

Technique Instructions:

• Start off with a piece of plain cardstock.  You could use any colour however I found those of the Soft Subtle family and lighter shades would be  better as you need to see the design youre creating!  I tend to use Whisper White or Very Vanilla  as my base and then build these up with colour.
• I first used the swirl from Baroque Motifs to create my border. You can use the stamp a majig to do this too so that you get the right swirl in the right place if you wish but you really cant go wrong with this stamp!
• Then I inked up the larger flower from Vintage Vogue (Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue) and stamped randomly in Pretty in Pink. I then did the same using Apricot Appeal. I then used the smaller flower to ‘fill in the gaps’ using Barely Banana and Almost Amethyst.
• I then tore up scrap paper to cover where I’d stamped and filled the centre in using the En Francais background with Versamark. I then grabbed my pastels and my handy sponge and ‘popped’ the script. Doing the centre this way gives it a softer hue rather than stamping it in the Creamy Caramel ink.
• Now look at your page and see if you are happy with the result. You may feel the need to fill in any ‘white space’ either by sponging or adding some more small flowers or maybe some leaves.

I was rather happy with the result of this page and was a little hesitant to put a photo over it!

I was strong and placed the photo on a Pink Pirouette mat  – I’ve also used some rub-ons on the photo but what I did was put the white part of the same rub on up the top left of my photo and the opposite dark part over the bottom right corner and onto the Pink Pirouette mat.

I didnt add much to this layout as I didnt want to detract from the Designer Paper I’d just created and sometimes less really is more!

I made a couple of flower accents from the Vintage Vogue (Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue). One small one down on the bottom left and then layering both flowers in colours from the layout and a button from the lovely Sherbet Designer buttons.

From this close up you can see that I’ve stamped the larger flower in Pretty in Pink and the small flower in Barely Banana. I’ve then adhered the button to the top. I’ve cut a very thin slither of Apricot Appeal cardstock and threaded it through the button holes and tied it. Now you need to be careful not to pull the knot too tight as the cardstock will break and I know this for a fact!

I do hope you like this challenge and I now challenge you to make a layout using your stamps. You can then leave me a comment and insert the link to your image online or email me a photo of your layout.

Why not pop over to the Soul Scrappers forum and upload your challenge there – there is always a winner each challenge and a small prize. You can find the messages about this challenge here. Its free to join and there really are some wonderfully talented ladies there who share, encourage and inspire!

If you would like to learn how to do this Technique then why not come along to my Scrap A Latte Summer Flower Layout class on 7th April. Class is $15 and I provide all the supplies you will need. Bookings are essential as I only have a small house and seats are limited. There is no need to bring any photo’s as you can add them later.

Dont forget that the Summer Mini Catalogue and Sale A Bration finish on 31st March and you only have till then to …

• order anything you still want from the Summer Mini Catalogue
• earn free Sale A Bration stamp sets
• receive bonus stamp set to the value of $79.95 when you join my Stampin’ Up! team