PLAYING WITH SOME LOVELY NEW PRODUCTS!

Welcome back, This is a long post so grab a cuppa and enjoy! I have all sorts of goodies to share.

Although it's perilously close to Christmas and I'm behind the timeline for making all those things I had planned - I have been having fun playing with some of the gorgeous new products coming up in the new catalogue available January 3. I needed a few (Non Christmas) gifts sorted so thought I would showcase them all in one place.
I am focusing on the Sweet Soiree stamp set which I picked as a prize at the end of Onstage. The coordinating Sweet Soiree DSP is gorgeous with silver foiling on most pages. The colour palette is quite broad too. The DSP is slightly heavier than ordinary cardstock so it's perfect for making boxes, bags and party favours. By making all these projects in the one colour palette I have saved a little time.

Berry Burst

Daffodil Delight

Old Olive

Marina Mist

Powder Pink

Calypso Coral

Rich Razzleberry

Silver Foil

Whisper White

You may have seen the Journal I created for the Just Add Ink Post here. All the details of the thinlits etc are in this post -and a great tip about using the Alcohol Stampin' Blends for this type of collage/ mixed media work which helped with colouring the bird.

But here it is in it's gift bag along with the other half of that present- a coordinating set of all occasion cards. The bag is constructed using 2 identical sheets of 12 x 12 DSP and shows the reverse pattern on the folded down lip. It's an old pattern that has been around for a while- but I love taking old designs and refreshing them with new products. - why reinvent the wheel I say. The Paper has such lovely bright and fresh designs they are a feature in themselves.

The bag has a tag to match made using some of the wonderful framelits in the Sweet Cake Framelits Dies, and one of the coordinating new embossing folders. The Sweet Soiree Embellishment Kit contains loads of cute little bits including the silver printed foilage on vellum and the little paper tassels.  There are enough elements in the kit to create a whole set of cards in a flash. The little silver rose is cut with one of the framelits too, I can see that being terribly useful.( it looks amazing in white too)

When I get a new stamp set I try to make both male and female "flavoured" cards -I like to get value for my dollar on all of my sets.

 Females and flowers are easy but the boys can be a bit harder. I have used the lovely Tie Dyed Circles Technique (instructions here) for the masculine panels, and layered up some leafy bits from the framelits, and kept the sentiments quite simple. For the embossed background I used my favourite Sponged Mask Embossing Technique rather than directly colouring the paste- I find it gives a softer tone which is often variegated and lovely, and as a bonus it preserves the paste. ( More details on that technique here)

 For the female card I had lots of fun with the embossing paste and the fabulous new rose in the Sweet Soiree Decorative Masks. I am yet to acquire the glittery embossing paste so for my version I simply sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds onto the embossed panel while it was wet and waited for it to dry. Meanwhile the mini roses are stamped using the Babywipe technique using Berry Burst, Calypso Coral and Daffodil Delight - always a delightful result.

Since Shelley has always taught us that you should never have a naked Envelope I simply embossed the flaps for this set using another set of new products - the Petal Pair Textured Embossing folders. I also used the floral one to emboss the Acetate Box- I love how that just dresses it up.

The fabulous DSP is great for party favour boxes so I created a whole lot of pinch boxes ( also another old design - thanks to Pootles for her video) which are just the right size for some gifts I have for a party soon.

The little favours are a folded star ornament (I can't find the original post at the moment but I will be creating a special post for these with instructions as I get ready for my stamping retreat in January.)

I needed a softer paper for these so used the Colourful Seasons pack, but I think these colours coordinate well with the Sweet Soiree too. The little sentiments come form Ready to Pop which is one of those surprise sets that doesn't immediately grab you but has loads of useful treasures in it. I use this set all the time.

 I do have a sweet little video of the stars blowing in the breeze but a technical hitch means I'll share that on Facebook later!

And once we all get together to share the party fun I'm sure there'll be a team photo so I created a scrapbook page ready to add a snap. I used a few Memories and More cards - old and new, as well as the leftover tie dyed circle panel and some more DSP.

I hope I've been able to get you thinking about ways you could use this amazing bundle. If you need to order any of the products just contact me for a catalogue. You'll be amazed at how many different things you can create.

I hope you have a creative week and remember, 

"don't just post online,

 post something pretty!"

cheers, Liz