ESAD Christmas in July Blog Hop

I hope you’re ready for the ESAD Christmas in July Blog Hop!

What is ESAD?

ESAD stands for Extra Special Australasian Demonstrators and it is an online group just for Australian and New Zealand demonstrators for Stampin’ Up!

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 its 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.

My blog may be the first stop in the blog or you could have come from the lovely Vicki's blog! Remember that a blog hop is a bit like a circle, it really has no beginning or end. You can keep going round and round.

The photo above shows the two projects I am going to be sharing with you today.

Firstly we have this cute little box, with the recessed window in the lid. I love how the Designer Series Paper that I have used, Candy Lane, is not a Christmas designed one - but it fits perfectly.

And here is the inside. You could fill it with whatever you wanted. It fits four pots of chunky glitter in it perfectly. I think some Rocky Road or White Christmas would go perfectly in there as well.

This photo is the inside of the card. It actually has a pocket which you put a satchet of cocoa or tea etc in it. It is very cute!

Here is a photo with the top folded down! I just love the Holiday Lineup stamp set. I makes the cutest cards.

And here is the front of the card. Now I wish I could say that I designed this pocket card..... but alas I didn't. This is actually a Madeline Morcelo design for the upcoming Inkspirations 4U class, which starts on 2nd August 2010. Now I am a guest designer for this and if you'd like the opportunity to win a FREE pass, check out this post!

Anyway I hope that I have inspired you today and that you've enjoyed your stop here at my blog.

Your next stop is to the fantastic Sharlene's blog.

Till next time, happy stamping...

Blog Hop Candy Winner is...

Lynda Shrimpton

Lynda wrote

"Heya Leonie,

As instructed.. .I am reporting in to u to claim my.....I-did- the-blog- hop-and-I- have-not- worn-my-fingers- to-the-bone prize...LOL! !!

For me I started this AM (Fm Nicoles Blog....Stampin Down Under).....and went fm there....granted a wee convoluted, but I enjoyed it completely. Good news is I MADE IT!!

I also realised that I was familiar with a lot of ur special ESAD ladies...just was not aware how many of them wer PART of the group..LOL!!

For me the stand out products wer "Butterfly Prints" with co-ordinating punch (woo hoo), Kaleidoscope DSP and the circle cutter. However I also saw things on the blogs that I had glossed over in the catty , but found myself going back for a 2nd look!!

You haev my sincere thanks for co-ordinating such a HUGE event and I hope now that u can put ur feet up (relishing the cooler weather....yeah) and sip on a latte or 2!!

Yours in crafting,Lynda xx"


Congratulations Lynda on hopping to all those sites and leaving a message. And thanks to everyone else who hopped along too! This is the candy that I am sending to Lynda to say thanks for joining in the fun. And she will receive parcels from other members too! I say that Lynda's Christmas is going to be a happy one!

If you missed the blog hop , you can click here to start the ESAD Summer Mini blog hop tour.


Now I believe that we all had so much fun that we have decided to do another one in January for the Sale-A-Bration promotions. Be sure to come back in January to check that blog hop out too!

Till next time, happy stamping...

One layer card

Here I have made a one layer card, using the Season of Joy stamp set. I just love this set! It first became available in the spring mini last year and I was so glad to see it bought back into the current catalogue this year!


Now if you know this set, you'll realise that it already has a perfectly good Christmas tree in it, which I used here. However I decided to check out it's versatility and I used the flower stamp to build my own tree! This card was so quick to make and you don't need to own 'everything' to be able to make it.

Card: Whisper White
Ink: Summer Sun, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red
Stamp Set: Season of Joy

Till next time, happy stamping...

3 Brad challenge!

Okay things we going swimmingly beautiful on day 1 of the cyberstamp. Okay I was probably ahead because I had already done my sketch challenge earlier in the week. Then out of nowhere, Tanya Kitto, decided to throw up a surprise challenge. We had to use three brads on a card. Pretty simple really!

Well I decided that I'd rework my sketch a little and turn it on it's side and I came up with this. Can you see my brads??? They are faux brads. Honestly I could have used real ones, but just thought that I'd buck the trend a little. It's that inability to follow directions to the tee, rearing it's head again!


This is a little brighter than cards I normally make - but I think it's cheery!

Card: Bordering Blue, Real Red, Green Galore, Night of Navy and Whisper White
Ink: Real Red, Versamark, Green Galore, Summer Sun (marker)
Punches: 1/2" Circle, Curly Label
Embellishments: Crystal Effects
Stamp Sets: Season of Joy, Cute & Curly

Till next time, happy stamping...

Celebrate Christmas

Well can you believe that it's only 44 days to Christmas???? I certainly can't! If you are anything like me they days just seem to get away from you and suddenly important dates just arrive without much notice. Well it feels that way anyway! As a special help to you I have installed a Countdown to Christmas tree on my side bar, so if you need a bit of a shock feel free to come in and have a look at how many more days have passed.

Well I had a workshop today with some lovely ladies and since we are gearing up for the Christmas season, I thought that I would make a bon bon as a prize for a party game. I have put a dauber and a couple of flowers in as a gift to the winner.


Isn't it just divine? We are having a huge Christmas this year and it appears that I might have to make up about 25 of these. I am just going to go to the $ shop and get some little trinkets to put in. Just another thing to put on my never ending to do list! There isn't really much required to actually make these little beauties!

Card: Very Vanilla, Night of Navy
Ink: Old Olive, Ruby Red
Ribbon: Very Vanilla 1/4" grosgrain
Stamp Set: Season Of Joy

Anyway I hope to be back sooner than last time. I am so excited to be participating in a cyberstamp this weekend and I am even providing a sketch challenge. Yes, you guessed it - I have already got it organised but I can't show you just yet! This is my first challenge so I hope that it goes okay!

Till next time, happy stamping...

An easy gift to post!

Okay it's getting close to Christmas and my attention is turning towards what to do for the grandparents. I am not sure about your family, but our grand kids are adored in ours. Grandma and Nanny are often talking about what the kids have been up to or in the case of my kids chatting to them on the phone, or listening to them read stories. Unfortunately for us we live too far away to be able to spend each Christmas with our extended families. So I thought this year I would case a gift that was given to me by my previous Secret Sister, Dianne Spies.

This is a little brag book - I am sure that given a few weeks in granny's purse it may not look the same and be like that favourite book we all used to read over and over again as kids.


So the picture above is the closed version and below is the fully opened view.

Now as you can see it has three sections and a slip for each one. The sections fold out, so you can put a photo on either side of the slips, holders and one on the red section behind the holders. All in all this little beauty will hold 15 photo's.


This was really easy to make and didn't take very long at all. I love the simplicity of it!

Card: Real Red
Ink: Baja Breeze, Real Red
DSP: Ski Slope
Punches: Eyelet Border, 1" Circle, 1/2" Circle, Round Tab
Ribbon: Whisper White Taffeta
Envelopes: Note card
Stamp Sets: Season Of Joy, Snow Swirled

Till next time, happy stamping...