Bethinking

Merry Christmas

Okay, so I know that Christmas has passed, but I wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone anyway, and share this layout that I've done based on my Christmas card photo shoot with my girls. The layout took ages to come together - way too much procrastination on my part. In the end I used Real Red and Pixie Pink to bring out the colours in the girls' clothes, with some gold accents. The Stampin' Up! Chipboard letters and heart are sponged with gold ink and then are embossed to make them shiny. I've added some glitter, too. All the flowers are from either "Bodacious Bouquet" or "Big Blooms", and I've also added glitter to some of those. I used a stamp from "Label Classics" to create a journalling frame, and also wheeled across the red cardstock with the "Star Studded" wheel, which you can see better in real life. We had a great Christmas this year, and I hope you all did too!

Friendship Blooms

I'm really liking my "Friendship Blooms" stamp set. To make this card, I stamped the outline flower image with Chocolate Chip ink, then masked the big flowers while I stamped the background flourish and flowers in Pale Plum, Cool Caribbean and Barely Banana. I used some Certainly Celery for the leaves, so this is mostly a "Soft Subtles" colour family card! The flowers are coloured in using the Stampin' Pastels and a sponge dauber, which is a really quick and effective way of colouring. I like the feel of using the chalks to colour as they're so soft.

I punched out the "Happy" using the circle punches, and added some fake stitching as a final effect. Friendship Blooms is one of the stamp sets that you can earn free during Sale-A-Bration in January and February. Please contact me ASAP if you'd like to book a workshop for that period, as I'm running out of spare time slots!

DSP samples

I made this 6 x 6 sample book so that I can show people how gorgeous the Stampin' Up! Designer Series Papers are. The cover has strips from some of the different papers, edged with Close to Cocoa ink, and the title stamped with the Big Deal Alphabet. I cut out the letters and used some Crystal Effects to create shine and dimension. I've also used my Round Tab Punch from the Mini Catalogue to create tabs to label the different sections of the book, as you can see in the close up! It's then all bound with my Bind-It-All.

I'm planning to use a similar book idea to create a mini album at a class I'm running early in the new year. Please let me know if you'd like to find out the details of when the class will be. Thanks!

Bud Basics

Another sample to show you using products from the new Summer Mini catalogue. This time I've used "Bud Basics" for the flower images, and "Edgy Eloquence" for the greeting. Bud Basics is a really interesting set. It's a 2 step stampin' set which has a wheel that coordinates with the stamps. So, I've rolled the wheel, then filled in the outline of the flowers with the solid stamps from the main stamp set. I love product coordination!

The colours I've used are from the Earth Elements colour range - Creamy Caramel, Ruby Red, Old Olive and Summer Sun. A little bit of Olive organdy ribbon and it's finished - how easy is that!

Sale-A-Bration!

Sale-A-Bration is almost here! This is Stampin' Up!'s best promotion of the year, when customers, workshop hosts and new demonstrators can get great stamp sets for free.

How does it work? For every $100 you spend in January or February, you get to choose a free stamp set from the Sale-A-Bration brochure. There's 4 sets to choose from, and personally I love them all. The cards on the left are made with the "Friendship Blooms" set, which is one of the free sets.

If you host a workshop with over $600 in sales, then you also get to choose an extra free stamp set, as well as all the usual hostess benefits. Also, if you join Stampin' Up! as a Demonstrator during Sale-A-Bration, you can choose a free stamp set from the main catalogue, of any value - that's worth up to $79.95! So, if you've been thinking about booking a workshop or becoming a demonstrator, then please contact me  at mail@elisabethstewart.com and I can send you more information. This is an opportunity too good to miss!

Origami Box

I know I've posted about these Origami Boxes before, but I made another one yesterday and was reminded just how easy they are. I was also impressed by how good this looks made with the Holiday Thyme patterned paper. There's actually no stamping on the box, I just followed the instructions shown on Kristina Werner's blog here and it was so simple. The box is filled with some yummy White Chocolate and Macadamia fudge as a Christmas thank you to my daughter's music teacher.

We also made a Christmas card to fit inside the box, using Hung Up on the Holidays, Peaceful Wishes and Warm Words, in Real Red, Bashful Blue and Whisper White.  With added some glitter and ribbon, too! If you'd like to order some Holiday Thyme paper for yourself, you've only got until December 15th to do so, so please contact me on mail@elisabethstewart to place your order!

We Have A Winner!

We have a winner! Some of you will remember that I was holding a competition for anyone who hosted a Stampin' Up! workshop with me during October or November. All those people went into a draw to win the Simply Sent Kit, "A Wish for You". Last week at my Mini Catalogue launch we drew the winner - congratulations go to Jodi Muldoon! So Jodi, (if you're there!) thanks for hosting your workshop, and I'll get the prize to you as soon as possible! Have fun creating with your Simply Sent kit.