ESAD 2018 Retirement List Blog Hop - Bye Bye Pieces & Patterns

Hello there! Hope you have had a fabulous week, I can't believe we are almost into May, where has the year gone?! I'm popping in to share with you a card I have made for the ESAD Retirement List Blog Hop, if you are starting with me, WELCOME! or you might be well into your journey and have just hopped on over from Cheryl Algie's blog. 

Yes, a new Annual Catalogue (catty) is about to start on the 1st June, which means that we have to say goodbye to some much loved products (sigh) but that's ok I got over it pretty quick when I saw the new catalogue and my wishlist began to grow and grow and grow!! Make sure you don't miss out on any items you may have on your wishlist and haven't purchased yet. Click on the graphic below to see the list.......

What is ESAD I hear you say? The graphic below explains it so much better than I would 😃.

This time last year, when the current annual catty came out, there was a suite of products that caught my eye with its bright pop of colours and quirky, eclectic images, Pick a Pattern. It makes really fun projects! Today I have a bit of a mixed media (aka messy fun!) card for you.

I firstly started by spritzing some Flirty Flamingo onto the Shimmery White piece and then spread some Silver Embossing Paste in a thin layer on top of that. I then opened up the Sparkle Embossing Folder and pressed the embossed side (bumpy side, pattern sticking up, not the debossed (smooth)  side ) into the paste. I love doing mixed media type techniques like this as you never know what the result is going to be. We did this card in class last night and everyone's was slightly different, with some really cool results.

One of the Pick a Pattern Designer Series Paper pieces was scalloped using the scallop die out of the Seasonal Layers Thinlits, this die alone is worth purchasing this set! The "Hello There "sentiment from the Pieces & Patterns stamp set is so much easier to stamp now with the Stamparatus.

 The Stamparatus makes it so much easier to go back and stamp another layer of ink in exactly the same place to build the colour up. In case you haven't heard, Stampin' Up! have developed their own stamp positioning tool and it is the bomb! I had another brand before it's release and let me just say, I'm not sure where that old one has got to as it is not nearly half as good as the Stamparatus! Customers who didn't manage to secure one in the pre-order release can purchase one when the new catalogue comes out June 1st. Click the image below to see a YouTube video explaining how it works and let me know if you would like me to get you your own on June 1st.

The inside of the card also relieved some love.....

Another example of how awesome the Stamparatus is, is demonstated on the inside of my card. See that row of little flowers? The actual stamp is only four flowers long. The Stamparatus' unique hinge feature allows you to move your stamp along in perfect alignment, no more wonky lining up, it does it for you. It's a bit hard to explain in words how this is achieved, the easiest thing would be for you to watch that YouTube video I linked above 😉. The finishing touches are a piece of Pick a Pattern Washi Tape and some Rhinestone Basic Jewels.

Enough from me! You need to keep going and see what everyone else has to show you. Your next stop is Beryl Crisp, click the arrow below and you will magically hop on over to her blog! Also, if you get lost along the way, there is a list of all the participants for you at the end of my post, you can also click on a person's name there and be magicked over to that blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Cheers Megan xx

Blog Hop Participant List

1. Lou Kitzelman

2. Kelly Kent

3. Bronwyn Eastley

4. Jackie Aitken

5. Jo Stubbings

6. Peta Stephen

7. Sharon Dalton

8. Lauren Meiklejohn

9. Courtenay Heuston

10. Nicole Wilson

11. Jo Weeden

12. Libby Dyson

13. Cheryl Algie

14. Megan Lenske **YOU ARE HERE**

15. Beryl Crisp

16. Fi Cobbin

17. Rose Packer

18. Cathy Pinchbeck

19. Carolina Evans

20. Renee Lynch  

21. Sandra Mastello

22. Katrina Duffell

23. Rachael Lewsley

24. Leonie Schroder

25. Emily Campbell

26. Monique Fielder

27. Michelle Strazds

28. Jessie Holton

CASEing the Catty #137 - FYI You're Fabulous!

Hi everyone! Hope you had a fabulous weekend. It's a pretty special weekend for me as this is my first post as a CASEing the Catty Crew Member! The Crew advertised last month that they would be accepting new Crew Members & if you were interested let them know & participate in the challenges for the month of June. I was one of the lucky ones to be chosen to join a very talented group of ladies who each week take inspiration from our gorgeous catalogue images and CASE (Copy & Selectively Edit or Copy & Share Everything) to create their own masterpieces! If you are not starting with me you have probably hopped over from Rachel, I'm sure you loved what she had to show you!

This week we are CASEing the Artistic Expression section of the catalogue pages 132 -181.

I have chosen to case the card above on the left.

It's quite obvious I've kept with the flamingo's! Instead of the two coloured birds, I've just done the one, fussy cut out & popped up on some dimensionals in front of a some silhouetted flamingos for drama, drama, drama. The semi circular greeting element has also been CASEd.

The steps I took to make this card were:

• start with a Basic Black card base (inside I have done a Whisper White (WW) insert with some palm fronds stamped & stamped off in Flirty Flamingo (FF))
• then a matt of  FF and on top of that a WW matt
• the Fabulous Flamingo Stamp Set is a three step stamp set, I've stamped the solid image four times with the Archival Black Stamp Pad onto the WW matt **TIP- have some baby wipes on hand to keep those fingers super clean, it is really easy to get black where you don't want it! Not that I am talking from experience (wink, wink).
• on a scrap piece of WW stamp the base layer of the flamingo in Powder Pink (PP) the second layer in FF and the final outline layer in black & fussy cut around. I may have said this before but I have quite a few pairs of scissors & put off buying the Stampin' Up! Paper Snips, when I finally did, it was why did I wait? They are a dream to use, especially for fussy cutting!
• pop coloured flamingo up on dimensionals and layer in front of black ones
• die cut a large stitched circle with the framelits in FF & a smaller one in PP
• emboss the FF circle with the Sparkle Embossing Folder & trim to a semi circle, adhere to front
• stamp FYI You're Gorgeous (Tabs for Everthing Stamp Set) in Black onto PP circle & adhere some Rhinestone Basioc Jewels, layer on top popped up on dimensionals.

Want to know something crazy? I made this card 11 times for a recent card swap I participated in, it took all day but I was happy with my swap & hope those that received it were too.

Now that's all from me this week it is time for you to keep on hopping to see all the amazingness that the crew has created for you this week, your next stop on the hop is my fellow crew member Rose who is also new to the Design Team, so make sure you leave her some blog love & leave her a comment (click on the next blog button below or her name). For those of you not so familiar with this "blogging" thing we do, if you are reading our blogs in their entirety on your email program, you need to actually click on the title of our email, this will take you to our actual websites and there is where you can leave a comment!! Go on I dare you!

Product List

Fabulous Flamingo Photopolymer Stamp Set

[143758]

Tabs For Everything Photopolymer Bundle

[145364]

Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies

[145372]

Sparkle Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

[141468]

Big Shot

[143263]

Basic Black A4 Card Stock

[121688]

Flirty Flamingo A4 Cardstock

[141421]

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad

[140931]

Powder Pink Classic Stampin' Pad

[144084]

Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad

[141397]

Paper Snips Scissors

[103579]

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals

[144108]

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

[144220]