ESAD Seasonal Catalogue Blog Hop

I have to admit to not being totally enamoured with this seasonal catalogue at first glance - but then I saw all the AMAZING things people were creating with the products, and my wish list went from about 3 items - to about 30!! Hopefully, this blog hop will do just the same to you!!

We have 24 super talented Stampin' Up! demonstrators from around Australia and New Zealand - I'm not sure I can include myself as super talented - I always feel so much pressure when I see who else was signing up to do the hop! Hopefully I can live up to my own hype!!

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 so love what we do and not only do we love to share it with our customers, friends, and wonderful blog visitors, but we share our love for what we do with each other as demonstrators. We run swaps, challenges, tutorials, product know-how, and cyberstamps, and we are always there to help and support each other when it is needed.

So if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator located in Australia or New Zealand, then please feel free to click here to join our wonderful group.

So.... anyway... you possibly came from the uber talented Sharlene Meyer's blog - and her gorgeous creation using the Tea for Two suite for the new My Digital Studio. If not, stress not! It's a circular hop - just follow the links and you'll find your way back there eventually!

Ok... on to my projects. I chose the Dress Up Framelits for my product - I just love them. There are so many gorgeous ideas with this set. There is a matching stamp set, but I wanted to have a play with the framelits using DSP and other ways to make them pretty!
So, I googled, and pinterested, and generally wasted a LOT of time, and then played with a HEAP of different ideas - and then I put them all to one side and went with a very basic set up for each of my projects!

The framelits come with three shapes - a mannequin dress form, a cap sleeve dress and a strappy dress. I wanted to showcase the two different types of dress - and how you can alter each dress to get some really cute options. The frame above shows the cap sleeved dress, altered from left to right - cutting the sleeves down to make straps, making it longer, the original - with a ribbon belt added, a longer version with a rounded neck, then the final one with a cardigan over the dress. 

I love how the simple act of using the 3/4 inch circle punch to scoop the neckline changes the look of the long dress. (I'm so sorry for the photos - the glass from the frame made it so hard to take a decent photo!)

Here's a close up of the un-altered dress - although I cheated a bit - and it IS altered!! I cut the top and bottom out of a piece of Print Poetry DSP, and placed it so the pattern was in the best place - then covered the join with the Midnight Muse ribbon - but the shape is unchanged, and THAT was my point!

This frame shows the strappy dress - altered in much more obvious ways than the cap sleeve. How CUTE are those shorts in the middle?? I saw that idea on Patty Bennett's blog - and thought I have to do that! Left to right, the alterations are: the plain strappy dress with a cropped cap sleeve cardi over the top, the original, shorts made using the floral frames framelits, strapless, and a plain strappy dress, with a shorter strappy dress over the top - with the neckline cut out using the floral frames framelit. Pretty!!

Here's those shorts up close - LOVE!!

Once I had played with altering the dresses, I wanted to do a frame as a thank you for a friend of mine who has been a HUGE help to me latel, - and she is totally into dresses and clothes and so this was the perfect gift for her!! So I chose the summer smooches DSP, and cut out some different dresses, and lined them up together.

I saw lots of dresses on the net with additions, and bling and belts and all sorts - but these patterns were just so busy and beautiful on their own, that everything I tried just ruined them! I am in love with that green chevron pattern dress!! How cute would that be in real size???

Finally...... I have another friend who has taken on a big challenge in her life lately, and I wanted to do a little something for her. I saw the Feel Goods stamp set - and the wording just spoke to me - so I created a little piece of art for her, using the dress framelits, and the blackboard technique - I LOVE this technique - I don't think it is possible to get it wrong!!

I know some people use embossing powder, but I prefer using just craft ink - I think it looks more authentically dusty!

And here are the other two cards in the little set

Wow - if you are still with me - good job!! Otherwise, you may have just scrolled down to find out where to go next!! Well, it's here to Monique Fielder's gorgeous project using the Just Thinking Stamp Set.
Thanks for stopping by!!