Stampin' Up! Spiral Flower Die

This was the second project we made at the classes I held last week. We used the new Spiral Flower die out of the Occasions cattie. The die makes quite a large flower but you can cut off a few notches to make it smaller, as I've done ever so slightly, on the top flower. Now that I'm looking at the photo, I'm wishing I made an even smaller flower and assembled three instead of just two. I think the rule of thumb is to have an uneven amount of embellishments, so I must remember this for next time. 

There are a mixture of products from both the Sale-a-Bration catalogue and the Occasions catalogue on this card. 

And, here's a close up of the flowers:

Stamp set: Express Yourself (hostess set)
Card: Real Read, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White
Designer Paper: Fresh Prints Designer Paper Stack (OC)
Ink: Real Red
Accessories: Pool Party Twine (from the SAB freebie Sweet Sorbet Accessory pack)
Tools: Big Shot, Spiral Flower Originals Die, Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, Modern Label Punch, Bird Builder Punch (leaves)

Pop back again soon to see some more cards I've been working on. Have a great weekend everyone!

Join Stampin' Up!

I was a Stampin' Up customer (for a very short time) before I became a demonstrator and to say I fell in love with the products is an understatement! I'm as in love with them today as I was back then - especially since I don't pay full price for them now! If you love the products too, you may want to think about joining Stampin' Up yourself. You'll get 20% discount off all your orders which represents a considerable saving but what then?

Well, that's up to you. Getting your supplies at a discount might be enough. Or you may decide to share your love of crafting and Stampin' Up products, in which case you can make your hobby pay for itself. Or you may decide to take it to the next level, in which case you'll start earning an income from it. If you'd like to talk to me to see if it might be right for you, feel free to email me, phone me on 09 416 7476 or click here for more information.

Also, from now until 31st March while Sale-a-bration is on, if you sign up to become a demonstrator you pay only $189 and choose $305 in products. Such an awesome deal!

Anyway, onto the project I'm showcasing today - this is one of the cards that we made at my recent classes. I've cased it from Michelle Last - a very talented demonstrator from the UK.  

And, this is the inside: 

Stamp set: Perfect Pennants
Card: Whisper White, Real Red, Crumb Cake
Designer Paper: Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack, Sweet Sorbet Designer Paper - (FREE with SAB)
Ink: Coastal Cabana, Early Espresso Stampin' Marker
Accessories: Real Red Taffeta Ribbon, Large Rhinestone Basic Jewel Tools: Scallop Tag Topper Punch, Full Heart Punch, Paper Piercing Tool
Have a fabulous Wednesday and I hope to see you back here soon!

Happy Watercolour card

This is my favorite time of the Stampin' Up! year! There's no limit to the number of free gifts you can earn when you order during Sale-a-bration.  So go ahead, stock up on adhesive and cardstock! Pick out some new goodies from the Occasions Catalogue and enjoy your free gifts from Stampin' Up! You get one FREE gift for every $110 you spend.

Sometimes it's hard to see the potential of a stamp set when you see it in a catalogue, so I'll be sharing some of my favourite swaps and projects to make the Sale-a-bration products come to life! I hope you enjoy looking at them and if there is anything that I can help you with, please don't hesitate to contact me. 

Here are the make and takes we made at my Occasions catalogue launch a few weeks ago. For the first card we've used the Stamp set Happy Watercolour. It was a quick and easy one layer card and is cased from Leonie Schroder. 

Stamp set: Happy Watercolour (OC), Four You
Card: Whisper White, Coastal Cabana
Ink: Coastal Cabana, Black Staz On

These tags were cased from Julie Davison - but I've used the new fringe scissors which shooshes them up a bit. 

Stamp set: Petal Parade (SAB set), Express Yourself (hostess set)
Card: Whisper White, Calypso Coral
Ink: Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry
Accessories: Rhinestone Jewels, Sweet Sorbet Accessory pack
Tools: 1" Circle Punch, Fringe Scissors, Word Window punch, Small Flower punch from Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack

Have a great week and happy stamping!

ESAD Occasions Catalogue Blog Hop for 2014!

Welcome to the ESAD  Occasions blog hop! for 2014 whether you started with my post or you arrived here from the very talented Dianne Dunk, make sure you continue by clicking on the link in each blog and you will enjoy a fabulous round of 25 projects. 

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 love what we do and love to share with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors. We also share what we love in our ESAD Demonstrator community, through swaps, challenges, sharing knowledge, ideas and 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 and I'll contact you with information on how to join our wonderful group.

Now onto my projects - I've made a card with a matching little box using the stamp set Love Language. It's such a cute little set and is very versatile and reasonably priced at $NZ35.95 for wood mount or $NZ28.95 for clear.  

I've used a few new products from the Occasions catalogue on this card. Can you see? There's the stamp set as I've mentioned, the designer paper which is the Fresh Prints paper stack, the new Scallops textured embossing folder on the large heart and the little wooden heart comes from the Essentials Wooden Elements on page 18 of the catalogue. Too ca-ute!! 

Did I mention that there is no fussy cutting? The small heart punch and the full heart punch are used, along with the Hearts Collection framelits die which cut out the largest heart in Whisper White. I've run it through the new Scallops Textured Impressions embossing folder and then sponged it with Baked Brown Sugar to give it a bit of a distressed look. Finally the Brown heart has been cut out from the Hearts a Flutter framelits die and then embossed with the Adorning Accents embossing folder.  

The box uses the new Scallop Tag topper punch, which is very popular at the moment. It is so quick and simple to make and in this day and age, that's exactly what we like :-) The box is filled with little treats and the treats are Jaffa's. It doesn't take many to fill the box, which will be disappointing for my daughters, as they are the recipient of these little goodies for Valentines Day. Yes, I did make two because I thought it might be too much of a teaser to make them share one between them :-)

I hope you enjoyed looking at my projects you can now hop onto Paula Reid and check out her fabulous project. Don't forget to leave a comment for each blog as I am sure they would all love to hear from you.

Have a great day!

Stampin' Up! Springtime Hello

Come and look at this lovely swap I received from Sally Rice. Sally has used a stamp set that I didn't really take much notice of initially, but now it has made it onto my ever growing Wish List. 

Stamp set: Springtime Hello
Card: Naturals White, Pool Party, Crumb Cake
Ink: Black Stazon, Pool Party, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Crushed Curry Stampin' Marker, Crumb Cake (sponged)
Accessories: Summer Starfruit Stitched Ribbon, Linen Thread
Tools: Scalloped Tag Topper, Big Shot, Needlepoint Border EF, Honeycomb EF, Envelope Punch Board (used for corner rounding)

Make sure you pop back here on Sunday at midday because I'm involved with the ESAD Occasions Catalogue blog hop. It's been over a year (maybe even longer), since I've been involved in a hop. They are so much fun and it highlights how many amazingly talented demonstrators we have. I only hope that I make the grade, because as you know, my specialty of late is to case other peoples work. At a hop, you shouldn't really do that although I don't know that it's actually forbidden - it's just more exciting if you can create something original. So, peeps - watch this space and I'll see you back here on Sunday! 

In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!

Stampin' Up! Perfect Pennants

Take a look at this fabulous swap from the talented Nadia Irving. The scallop tag topper punch was a popular choice in the swaps and many of the cards feature either the scallop or the angled tag topper punch. They are so versatile and as you can see, are not restricted to be used only as tags, but as an embellishment on a card. 

Stamp set: Perfect Pennants, Petite Petals
Card: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Real Red, Old Olive
Ink: Versamark, Real Red
Designer Paper: Fresh Prints DSP stack
Accessories: Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon, Early Espresso Embossing Powder
Tools: Petite Petals Punch, Bird Builder Punch, Scalloped Tag Topper Punch 

Have yourself a great day! Thanks for stopping by :-)

Stampin' Up! Perfect Pennants

This was the card I made my friend and fellow Stampin' Up! sideline Sally Williams for her birthday last Tuesday. The tag on the card was cut out with one click of my gorgeous new Scalloped Tag Topper punch. It's one of the new products available in the Occasions catalogue and is super easy to use! 

Stamp set: Perfect Pennants
Card: Whisper White
Designer Paper: Watercolour Wonder
Ink: Island Indigo, Summer Starfruit
Accessories: Whisper White Bakers Twine, Natural Chevron Ribbon, White Doily
Tools: Paper Piercing Tool and Pierce Mat, Scalloped Tag Topper punch, 1" Circle punch, White Gel Pen 

Does this card look familiar? I've cased it from the new Occasions catalogue on page 15. That's the coolest thing about all the Stampin' Up! catalogues - they're jam packed with inspiration and so you're never stuck for ideas. 

I hope your weekend has been going well :-)

Stampin' Up! So Very Grateful

I am in love with the new Occasions Catalogue. So many CA-UTE products! When I was making out my wish list, I found that it was easier to write down the items that I didn't want! Seriously, there are heaps of new goodies and this catalogue is truly FABULOUS!! 

As promised here's a swap I received from Karen Williamson, which I love!! The flowers are to die for... lol. That's a pun on words because the flower is made from the new spiral flower die. 

Stamp set: So Very Grateful, En Francais
Ink: Early Espresso
Card: Naturals Ivory, Early Espresso, Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla
Designer Paper: Naturals
Accessories: Natural Chevron Ribbon, Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon
Tools: Big Shot, Spiral Flower Die, Arrows EF, Scallops EF, Scalloped Tag Topper, Modern Label Punch, Bird Punch

Have you got your copy of the Occasions catalogue yet? If not, email me  and I'll pop one in the post for you (cost is $2 to post within New Zealand) or you can pick up your copy from me.  Or, you can join us tomorrow at my catalogue launch. There are still a few spaces left, so contact me to book your place. Hope to see you there!

Stampin' Up! Happy Watercolour

This was the swap I made for the Creative Inkers Occasions Catalogue swap. I'm so happy that I partook in this because I received some amazing projects in return. I can't wait to share them with you :-)

Stamp set: Happy Watercolour
Card: Smoky Slate, Whisper White
Designer Paper: Watercolour Wonder
Ink: Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight, Black Stazon
Accessories: Basic Pearls, Whisper White Bakers Twine, Tea Lace Paper Doilies
Tools: Big Shot, Banners Framelits Dies, 

Have you seen the Occasions Cattie yet? If not, and you would like one, please email me HERE and I'll pop one in the post for you. The cost is for postage only which I'm guessing is around $2. Or, you can pick up one directly from me. I'm also hosting an Occasions Catalogue launch on Saturday 8 February from 2pm if you'd like to come along. Bookings are essential so please contact me so I can reserve a place for you. More details are to the left of my blog.

Don't forget to pop back again soon to see some gorgeous projects that the talented ladies in our team made. 

Stampin' Up! Texture Boutique Embossing Machine

Stampin' Up! have just released a new tool :-)  It's the Texture Boutique Embossing Machine and it's super easy to use!

Watch this video to see how simple it is to use:

The Texture Boutique tool is embossing made easy. It's the perfect, portable tool to create embossed cards, tags, embellishments and more. Use it with our Stampin' Up! exclusive Textured Impressions Embossing Folders. This portable machine only embosses - it doesn't cut. It comes with two plates and a shim. This is a great tool to have if you love to emboss. If you would like to purchase one of these at only $59.95 please email me.  There are only a limited number available at the moment - so once those sell out you'll have to wait until the new annual catalogue comes out in July.