I'm Back and I'm Blog Hopping

I have decided that the best way to give life back to a long neglected blog is to join in on a blog hop with twenty four other Stampin' Up! demonstrators from Australia and New Zealand. The 'ESAD Blog Hop' is a way to show off lots of different ideas and projects from the fabulous new 2014-2015 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue and I am super excited to be involved.

So what is ESAD?

ESAD stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and is a Facebook group just for Australian and New Zealand Independent Stampin' Up! demonstrators.

We love what we do & love to share with our customers, friends and blog visitors. We also share what we love in our ESAD Demonstrator community, through swaps, challenges, sharing knowledge, ideas & friendship and we're always there to help and support each other.

So if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand then please feel free to leave me a comment with your email address then I'll contact you with information on how to join our group.

Whether you have arrived at my page from Christie Kunkel's blog or you are starting your journey here on my page THANK YOU for popping by and I hope you enjoy what the 24 of us have created to inspire you.

For my blog hop project, and first creation posted on my blog for a very long time, I have created a pretty frame to decorate my craft room. This project is a hybrid of digital and handmade work and includes a brand new My Digital Studio download from the new catalogue, as well as the beautiful 2013-2015 In-Colours.

The idea for my project came from wanting a pretty way to remind myself on a daily basis to think positive and be thankful.

I absolutely love My Digital Studio and how simple and easy it makes it to design beautiful digital work. A quick flick through the catalogue and I found the perfect MDS download to use for my project. 'Grateful Hearts Framables' has some really beautiful quotes that can be used for all sorts of creations, from cards through to large home decor items. An easy download into MDS and some colouring in of the image in my chosen Stampin' Up! colours (Strawberry Slush; Pool Party; Coastal Cabana; Crisp Cantaloupe) and I had the perfect inspirational centrepiece for my frame.

Next step was to print my quote out on my home printer and then back that onto some Pool Party card. The base paper for my frame is some Crisp Cantaloupe designer series paper from the 2013-2015 In-Colour Designer Series Paper Stack.

Then it was time to add the pretty....

The Spiral Flower Die has to be one of my most favourite products that Stampin' Up! has released lately. Using the Big Shot, this die and some of my favourite coordinating colours of cardstock, a bit of spritzing and a bit of rolling and waah-laaah I was able to create some beautiful roses. 

The little leaves under the roses are made from the Bird Builder Punch. Add a doilly, some pretty little Designer Series Paper Bitty Butterfly punched flutterflies, and some pearls and there you have my framed artwork which will remind me each time I look at it to be thankful for all the wonderful things I have in my life.

I really hope you like what I have made today and that it may inspire you to make something pretty for your own home and to remember that 'There Is Always, Always, Always Something to be Thankful For'.

Now it's time for you to hop along to Andrea Buckland's 
blog and check out what she has created from the gorgeous new catalogue.

Here is a list of the other blog hop participants too.
Just click on their names for a link to their blog.

1.   Emily Campbell

2.   Kelli Gordon

3.   Sharlene Meyer

4.   Delys Cram

5.   Keryn Campbell

6.   Monique Fielder

7.   Kathryn Ruddick

8.   Narelle Hoggard

9.    Ann Gerlach

10.  Libby Dyson

11.   Kelly Kent

12.  Amity Knight

13.  Christie Kunkel

14.  Louise Layton ------ That's ME!

15.  Andrea Buckland

16.  Yvonne Walker

17.  Sally Williams

18.  Debbie Lamb

19.  Nerida Carter

20.  Richelle Fletcher

21.  Norelle Targato

22.  Rochelle Block

23.  Clare Mcilhatton

24.  Tracy Speight

So much excitement!!!!

September 1st..........the first day of the month and the first day of Spring. 

Both exciting things but nowhere near as exciting as what this day means in the Stampin' Up! world. 

Today the brand new 2012-2013 Annual Idea Book and Catalogue is released AND just to up the excitement factor even more the 2012-2013 Holiday Catalogue too.

Here are the front covers of both which hide the fabulously gorgeous products inside. Just click on the covers to see inside.

Get your wishlists ready!!!!

2012-2013 Annual Idea Book & Catalogue

2012-2013 Holiday Catalogue

If you would like your very own copy of either (or both) of these catalogues to peruse to your hearts content; or wish to order any of the goodies that their pages contain or just have any questions please contact me. I will be only too happy to help.

Pedal Presents

Today I am back to show you the card I created for the first challenge that I set for the girls in my stampin' team. With the gorgeous Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue having been around for a couple of months now I was pretty sure that the majority of the girls would have some new stamps that needed inking. So my challenge was to create a project that used a new stamp set and a most favourite Stampin' Up! colour.

Here is the card I created using the very cute 'Pedal Presents' stamp set from the Autumn/Winter Mini and my favourite colour at the moment- Blushing Bride. My card also shows off some other gorgeous products from the mini catalogue- the very pretty Twitterpated designer series paper; pleated ribbon; and the new edgelits dies and embossing folders for the Big Shot.

I love this card. Perfect for any occasion.

If you have not had chance to see the Autumn/Winter Mini catalogue yet and would like to have a look at it's gorgeousness then please contact me and I will pop one in the mail for you. If you would also like to have a play with these products yourself and perhaps show them off to your friends too then I would love to plan a workshop with you. June and July are fantastic months to host a workshop with freebies galore on offer. More on that in my next post but if you would like to see what I'm talking about before then have a look-see here.

Looking forward to popping back with more to show you in the next day or two and letting you know more about how to get your hands on some fabulous FREE stampin' goodies.

Sweet Baby for Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 161

I am having a love affair with the Baby Bundle stamp set at the moment. In fact I have been having a love affair with it since it arrived in the Stampin' Up! catalogue last year, it is just that at the moment I happen to have some very special bundles of joy to be making cards for.

When I saw my gorgeous friend, Sarah Klass, post this card as an entry into the fabulous sketch challenge over at Sweet Sunday Sketches I knew that the sketch would be perfect for the sweet baby card girl I had the happy pleasure of needing to create. Here is the sketch itself;

Team the sketch up with the previously mentioned, most favourite, Baby Bundle set, some pretty shades of pink, brown and vanilla, a spot of watercolouring, a three ribbon bow and this is the card I came up with.

Oh I do love pretty pinkness and a beautiful pink little baby to love and cuddle. I can't wait to see this particular most beautiful of babies again. I just need to finish off her gift (hmmmmm.....I wonder what that will be?!?!?! :) )

I am going to be very brave and also enter this card into the Sweet Sunday Sketches Design Team call- eeeeek wish me luck!

Will be back soon,

Pocketful of Posies for Just Add Ink challenge

I interrupt the posting of the card I made for my A Klass Act challenge (as promised yesterday) to enter a card in this week's Just Add Ink challenge. It has been.....oh....I don't know....forever since I entered any challenges on the JAI website so I thought I would have a play this week.

The challenge this week was to CASE (Copy and Selectively Edit) one of the creations of  design team member, Delys Cram. I spent a good while last night scrolling through Delys' blog in order to choose something I would like to CASE. I can tell you it was hard to choose just one card and I actually have some of Delys' cards now filed away on my computer to go to for inspiration in the future.

Last month I was lucky enough to be a part of the Stampin' Up! 'Paper Party' when my good friend, Robyn, joined my team. The 'Paper Party' means that Robyn and I will now be able to choose and receive a pack of Designer series paper for the rest of this year for FREE- Yippppeeeee! (How great is this company I work for?). My first choice this month was the delightful 'Pocketful of Posies' paper. I have been dying to use it ever since it arrived on my doorstep yesterday. So using THIS card of Delys' as inspiration I created my card using this gorgeous paper:

The lighting is not so great in this photo- it is a gloomy old day in Perth today. Isn't that paper gorgeous though? The colours I have used to compliment the paper are Rich Razzleberry and Baja Breeze and there's just the teeniest bit of bling sneaking in there too.

Here is a little piccie of the original card by Delys too.

So I will be back later as promised with a cutesy bike card which I designed for my AKA challenge.

Yoohoooo I'm Back!

Eight months........eight blog posts.......and only four of them showing any form of creation on my part. Oh deary me!!!! What else can I say?

With that in mind I was shocked to learn that there are still lovely people out there checking in every now and again to see if a small miracle has occured and I have blogged any of the things I have been creating. So with those faithful few in my mind I am resoluting to get back to blogging.

Contrary to what you might have been led to believe by my blog silence I have indeed been creating as much as ever.  So I do have plenty to share with you. The question is where to start??? Way back at the start of the year and go forwards? Or start with what I have been up to this week and go back? Ummm.....ummmm.....ok executive decision made let me start with this week.................

A couple of weeks ago I took it upon myself to start setting challenges for the fabulous team of stampin' girls I am a part of. We are already a very sharing, caring group and I thought that setting challenges on our 'A Klass Act' Facebook page would encourage even more of the same, with the whole team getting to have a squizzy at each others gorgeous creations.

So last week I set a 3-2-1 challenge, an idea I came upon when taking part in UnConvention a couple of weeks ago (more about that in a few posts time). The challenge I have set for the girls is to create a card/layout/3D item that included 3 stamped images (including sentiments) or photos; 2 embellishments and 1 piece of DSP. Below are the examples I created for my challenge.

Firstly a card example using the very sweet 'Baby Bundle' stamp set, some masking, some watercolouring and lots of baby blues (the sentiments come from the retired, but still very loved, Nursery Necessities set).

Then a scrapbooking layout. I have been falling in love with scrapbooking again (it's been a long while since I have scrapped) and am getting so much enjoyment out of it. This layout features three photos of my beautiful smiling boy, some cute bunting and some very fun colours.

So there we are........I'm back and will be back again in the next couple of days with my example for the first challenge I set for the Klassy chicks----Promise!!!

Introducing the new Autumn-Winter Mini Catalogue

The brand new Autumn-Winter Mini catalogue has arrived and it is full to the brim with GORGEOUS new goodies. To have a look for yourself click on the banner below or on the catalogue image in the sidebar. Enjoy!!!!





 

I am hoping to pop back here very soon to give my much neglected blog some tlc and you never know share some of the many things I have been creating lately.