ESAD 2013-2014 catalogue Blog Hop

Wow - seems all my titles lately have "blog hop" in them! I MUST post here as well as on my facebook page!

Anyway...... this ESAD Blog Hop is to showcase all the gorgeous things in the brand new shiny 2013 - 2014 annual Stampin' Up! catalogue.

Who or what is ESAD?? ESAD stands for "Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators" and it is an online 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 are always there to help and support each other. So, if you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, located in Australia or New Zealand then please leave me a comment with your email address and I'll contact you with information on how to join our wonderful group :)

If you joined me from Christie's blog, welcome :)

The product I chose to focus on was the Epic Day Designer Series Paper (DSP) - it is not normally my type of paper - it's very bright, but with vintage sponging and distressing - two things I tend to stay away from!! But I don't know what it is about this paper that I just LOVE!! I do like co-ordination, so the fact that there is a whole suite of products to go with the DSP might have something to do with it!

My first project is something I did after our UnConvention in May. I couldn't afford to go to real convention, so a group of us got together on facebook and did some challenges and had some chats and generally had a lot of fun! But it got us thinking - do we want to be on facebook next year, or in Melbourne at the real thing?? SO - I went out and bought a cheapie money tin - you know the ones you need a tin opener to get your money out?? (Here is the before pic - isn't it gorgeous??!!)

 - so I covered it using the Epic Day DSP, (this is the muted page with lots of empowering words!) and decorated it using the washi tape, and the designer stickers. There are some great sayings on those stickers that fit right in with saving! "Stockpile" "Squirrel Away" "Stash" - plus this quote:

It says "dream what you want to dream, go where you want to go, be what you want to be"
I also used the new rotary stamp to stamp the date on one of the stickers - just to remind me when this needs to be full by!!

And here is the finished tin:

MUCH better :)

And on a totally different brightness scale - here is a scrapbook page I made using the brightest pieces of DSP I could stand - but I wanted to use the new single stamp "sunshine" - and so the bright colours really fit with that :)

(I totally CASEd this layout from Carol Payne - it is a progressive page - starting with a 6x6, then A4, then finally 12x12)

(please excuse my photos! My house is very dark, and taking these was really tricky! I will give it another go, and see if I can replace the pictures!)

My next project is a sampler for my stamp room wall - it's made to fit a 6x8 frame, with 6 "mini canvases" using the DSP and co-ordinating product. Love the washi tape! I stuck it to a piece of pool party cardstock, and then punched out little flowers for the middle of the rosettes. Too cute!

Finally - a version of these DSP paperclips appear in the new catalogue - but I changed them a bit. I had been playing round with the oval punch bows for a couple of projects for my catalogue launch, and wondered about putting them on top of a paperclip as a bookmark - well it totally worked!
I LOVE these things!! There is a tutorial here for the oval punch faux bow - too easy!! for the paperclip, swap the button for a thin strip round the middle, and thread it through the paperclip before gluing it to the back of the bow :) (make sense???)

These are SOOOO addicting, and so easy to make!! I DARE YOU to try and make only one ;)

Ok.... that is me - although I still have tons of stuff I wanna do with this DSP! I'll save it for another day, and maybe post before the next blog hop!!

Now it's time to head on over to Tanya's page - I nearly died when I realised who I was next to!! When my money tin is full, and I make it to convention next year, I will TOTALLY be stalking this lady!! :) Enjoy her gorgeous projects!