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September 2015

Cardmaking Inspiration

A Holiday Catalogue Blog Hop with the Art With Heart Team  Art with Heart Blog Hop Badge (250x250)

How did you enjoy the ESAD Blog Hop earlier this week? So many fabulous ideas, and all so totally different, that today I am doing it all again with some of the Art with Heart Stampin' Up! team girls.

When new catalogues come out, one thing Stampin' Up! demonstrators LOVE to do is participate in card swaps so we can share all sorts of ideas and inspiration with each other. It's a great way to get lots of samples of finished cards, without having to buy all the stamp sets in the catalogue.

If that interests you, you should seriously consider joining Stampin' Up! on an active team like ours where you not only meet awesome stamping friends, but you get lots of opportunities to stamp with them and share your creativity. Ask one of us today (after you've done a full lap of the blog hop!).

Today for my post, I want to show you two different cards I made, with the same stamp set, for two different card swaps.

The Stamp set is from the Sparkly Season Bundle

Sparkly Season Bundle

As soon as I saw this stamp set, I knew it was going to have to join my collection as I just love the nutcracker stamp - reminds me of the beautiful collection my favourite auntie used to bring out each Christmas to decorate her house.

I stamped the Nutcracker on the new Thick Whisper White card and water-coloured it using the aquapainter with Real Red, Cherry Cobbler, and Garden Green ink pads and then some tiny touches of extra shading with the Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow and Smoky Slate markers.

Sparkly Season cards (1)

Yes, I had to make 12 cards for the swap . . . 

Sparkly Season cards (4)

 

For the other card swap, I chose to use the ballerina stamp from the same bundle of products.

Sparkly Season cards (5)

This one is also water-coloured, but because she is such a tiny image, I decided to step her up into a shaker card, and I chose to use several bits out of the To You and Yours Shaker Card Kit - this is such an awesome kit with so many bits and pieces in it!

To You and Yours Shaker Card Kit (499x499)

Here's a close up of some of the gorgeous sparkly sequins from the kit, surrounding the tiny dancer. So cute!

Sparkly Season cards (2)

Plenty of other bits and pieces to use in the Shaker Card Kit, and plenty more stamps in the Sparkly Season stamp set that I haven't used yet!

Well, if you arrived from Jenny's blog, then it's time to let you continue on the blog hop. If you are just joining us here, click the Next button at the bottom of each post to travel through the blog hop. We hope you are inspired to get creating with the new Holiday Catalogue.

The next blog in the hop belongs to the delightful Tina Gillespie. Art With Heart Blog Hop Next Blog Badge (250x202)

 

 

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

  1. Rachel Woollard
  2. Ros Davidson
  3. Kate Morgan
  4. Judy May
  5. Claire Daly
  6. Jenny van Dijk
  7. Kathryn Ruddick
  8. Tina Gillespie
  9. Kathryn Mangelsdorf

Stampin' Up! Punch Art Bird Cards

A Holiday Catalogue Blog Hop with ESAD

ESAD Blog Hop Header Holiday 2015 (499x185)

Today I am celebrating the Stampin' Up! 2015 Holiday Catalogue with some of my ESAD friends and we welcome you whether you are starting here at my blog, or have come to me by following the blog hop links, with the last stop being Rochelle Blok.

If you started right at the start of the blog hop, you are about half way thru already. If you'd like to join in and see what other demonstrators have created, there is a next button at the bottom of each post to take you to the next lot of creative projects.

You've probably seen a LOT of Christmas projects by now, so I thought I would do something different today.

About a month before a new catalogue comes out, demonstrators are able to purchase items from it on pre-order so we can make samples etc to show you prior to the catalogue going live for customers. One of the things that many teams do is product shares, so that we can get lots of samples of things like the new papers/ribbons/embellishments without having to win tattslotto to pay for it.

Into the Woods DSP (200x88)   Happy Haunting DSP (200x94)

I love participating in these product shares as it's a great way to get just enough of all the papers and ribbons to have a bit of a play with them and see which ones you just need to have full packs of. However, this year we had a funny bit of a conversation about what on earth are we going to do with that really ugly Into The Woods Designer Series Paper, apart from file it in the round filing basket.

Because I can never bear to throw anything out, I decided to challenge my team on our team forum to create something really cute with it just so that we are using it up instead of keeping it in our stash for that rainy day that never eventuates.

My team girls came up with some really cute projects and made the most of this difficult paper and so when I was planning for this blog hop, I decided to focus on the paper too - along with our other difficult to use paper Happy Haunting Designer Series Paper which has gorgeous Tangelo Twist and Basic Black colour scheme, but Halloween patterns which we really don't do a lot of.

So what did I create?

Stampin' Up! Circle Punch Bird Cards (1)

Lately I have been making stacks of cute little bird cards - and since the cards are Note size, they go beautifully in these gorgeous bags which were inspired by Caroline Hallett in the UK - here's the link for her video for these bags.

There's four cards and envelopes in each bag - one set is done with Whisper White to link with the patterned paper, the other set is done in Very Vanilla.

Stampin' Up! Circle Punch Bird Cards (3)

Stampin' Up! Circle Punch Bird Cards (2)

Another new product I have used here which has been very popular is the Woodland Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. I have brayered the inside of the folder with Perfect Plum ink to get the shadow between the trees.

On the second lot of cards, I brayered the inside of the same folder with Sahara Sand. It's so soft on the Very Vanilla card base.

Stampin' Up! Circle Punch Bird Cards (6)

Stampin' Up! Circle Punch Bird Cards (7)

Here's a close up of each bag.

Stampin' Up! Circle Punch Bird Cards (4)

Stampin' Up! Circle Punch Bird Cards (5)

Aren't they just the cutest things!

But that's enough from me - I should send you on your way to visit the other ESAD girls.  And in case you have just joined us here and are wondering 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.

The next blog on the blog hop belongs to Monique Fielder. Click on the next button to go there.

ESAD Blog Hop Next Button Holiday 2015 (200x200)

Don't forget to leave a comment below, and if you do get lost, here are all the links in the blog hop so you can come back and try to find your way.

1. Libby Dyson

2. Paula Reid

3. Keryn Campbell

4. Carly Middleton

5. Rachael Lewsley

6. Narelle Fasulo

7. Emily Campbell

8. Emma Palonek

9. Jo Weedon

10. Rebecca Scurr

11. Andrea Buckland

12. Rochelle Blok

13. Kathryn Ruddick

14. Monique Fielder

15. Bernie Collins

16. Liv Ingle

17. Sally Williams

18. Ria Kaire

19. Delys Cram

20. Jessica Williams

21. Lou Kitzelman

22. Barbara Williams

23. Kelly Kent

24.  Jenny Hayward


Spring into Stamping!

Can you believe what an utterly gorgeous sunny day Melbourne put on for the first day of spring?

It was still a little chilly, but that sunshine was glorious!

That, along with the launch day today of our brand new Holiday Catalogue, sure put a SPRING in my step and made me feel like there are plenty of sunny days to come!

Holiday2015_blog

I know we say it nearly every time, but THIS has got to be the very best Stampin' Up! seasonal catalogue ever! Fifty-one pages chock full of sparkle and glimmer to make the coming months just so much fun and full of giving!

If you'd like a hardcopy of the catalogue, instead of trying to peer at it online, please drop me an email or text message - or if you're a Facebook user, you can message me there.

I am so excited by all the giving this catalogue inspires, that I am going to be giving away some extras myself over September.  Lots in fact!

Who likes free stamping products?

Today I gave away a "By The Tide" Clear mount stamp set, a Cherry on Top Designer Series Paper stack, a Crushed Curry Classic Ink Pad, an Island Indigo Stampin' Write Marker and a bottle of Stazon Cleaner, all free to a couple of lucky people, and I just happen to be looking for the next 3 people who would like FREE products!

If you are interested in free paper, ink pads, stamps or accessories, leave your phone number in the comments below (I won't publish the comments so no-one else will see your number) and I will contact you to let you know how you can have new products from the new catalogue without having to pay for them!  (Offer only available to residents of Australia).

Spring has truly sprung, and I'd love to SPRING you some free stamping supplies so don't wait, leave your contact number in the comments, and don't forget, I am looking for just the first three people!

Talk soon!

Kathryn