OnStage Live Amsterdam and my secret Presentation

SPOILER ALERT/ SNEAK PEEK of New Product

Now I'm not one for publishing new product too far ahead of a new catalogue launch, but this seems different and will be a one off. 

A while back, I was asked if I would be willing to do a Product Presentation at last weekend's OnStage Live event in Amsterdam, a secret that I've been hiding for a while.

I felt so honoured and excited to have been invited, but none more so than when I saw the email of what products I'd be presenting. Goodness me I was a lucky girl. The Suite was just adorable and I couldn't wait for it to arrive to get playing. 

I studied the papers a while, I researched and got playing and discreetly transported out my creations, managing to keep the entire presentation a secret from my team until we were checking in our suitcases at the airport. I didn't want the girls to think me twitchy, if suddenly I needed to open my case to lessen it's weight or appear overly anxious if my case didn't arrive.

On the day of my presentation, I met our lovely CEO, Sara Douglass, just moments before I went live. Eager to sit in on a Presentation, she chose to come and sit in on mine. I was both delighted and nervous all in one. Not just a presentation to our European market, many of whom I look up to, but to our very own VIP Sara Douglass. 

Thankfully I pulled my presentation off without fault. What a fabulous experience! I had just 10 minutes to present to nearly 200 experienced Demonstrators at a time. As if once wasn't enough, I had to repeat my presentation three times over, with my first presentation being to a Dutch market, fully translated. 

The Product Suite that I had to work with, was this nostalgic, retro style Birthday Memories suite. Oh my word, I nearly fell off my seat when I saw it. Those papers! That Stamp Set! Could I do it justice?

Following my initial excitement, the panic set in. My style doesn't usually involve such bold colours, so how would I be true to myself and come up with something I felt happy to present? ... by presenting a Party in a Box ... Yes, generate a Party. 

This sheet of paper had to be used in it's entirety to showcase the beautiful scene, so the Party in a Box was a must. The gift box could be used afterwards, but initially housed a stack of Birthday Invites, Cupcake Toppers and Cupcake/Treat bags. 

I made the decision to couple the set up with the Confetti Celebration Stamp Set to create this Surprise Birthday Invitation. 

I thought this worked really well. The little flag banners attached to cocktail sticks made great cupcake toppers. 

I simply embellished a Petite Cafe food safe bag to house the treats or cupcake that the child would go home with. 

This project lead to something a little more my colour palate. As the colours toned down somewhat, I started to feel more in my comfort zone. 

Here I created a Box Frame Gift idea for a little boy. Perhaps for a 1st Birthday? 

I just loved the simplicity of this Box Frame and the Honeycomb Balloons and couldn't resist but couple it with a card that offered such fun. 

This suite offers Framelits to die cut many of the gorgeous images and characters in the Designer Series Papers, so I die cut the fox and fussy cut the Racoon and Turtle to produce this cute card.

I just love the font of this Birthday sentiment.

I was feeling happier now that I had started to produce something a little less vibrant, but felt I needed to cover the softer female palate. 

When I first saw the Pink Papers of this suite, I immediately thought of my Auntie's picture hanging on her wall. It was an Illustration by the Famous British Illustrator, Mabel Lucie Attwell. Researching her work and the era in which she worked, it became clear that large numbers on Birthday cards were very much the norm and that both bold colours, but equally soft muted colours were often seen. This lead me to designing this card ... which soon became my favourite. 

Isn't she cute?! Stamped onto Crumb Cake cardstock, I then used the super soft Watercolour pencils to add a wash of colour around her and to colour in the balloons. The ribbon from the suite edged the sentiment panel to pull in the colour of the number balloon. 

Still wanting to produce something femininely pink and girlie, I moved on to designing these two cards. I used the floral bouquet to edge the white cardstock to add a kind of vintage look to the card.

Finally the Make & Take that everyone had supplies to make, involved die cutting the fox and his banner, to create this great celebratory card.

Can you tell that I absolutely love this suite now and I do believe you will do too. 

If you'd like to receive this bundle soon after it's release on 1st June, then be sure to get in contact with me and I'll happily help process your order.

Well that's all the sneak peeks from me for a while, but I hope this has given you a taster of what amazing things are to come in the up coming catalogue ... but in the meantime, don't forget the fabulous deals that could be had from the Retirement List. Up to 50% off some items. 

Use this code at checkout for a free gift from me. 

Place a qualifying order and not only receive a gift, but be put into a Free Prize Draw, in my 5 year Celebration (Click the image below for more details).

Acorny Thank You for Team Training Today

Today was Team Training for the Stampin' STYlettes and here at The Crafty oINK Pen, we gathered together to Share, Inspire and Create …. oh and Talk, Laugh and Eat Cake.

The morning was spent catching up on various Business topics to help focus each of us on the direction we personally choose to follow with our Demonstratorship, leaving the afternoon to Craft.

Although many of us Demonstrators design and create our own projects to share within our events, we do receive odd suggested projects from the Stampin' Up! Home Office through a dedicated website for Demonstrators. These Nutty Notecards shown here, was one of them. 

I chose to highlight to the ladies how resources at our fingertips can be adapted to create a project of our own. I saw some clever adaptation of the Kraft Tag a Bag Gift Box on Pinterest to house a selection of Christmas Cards and thought it was a perfect idea for this little set. The cards I chose to use were your standard C6 size cards. 

Acorny Thank you Stamp set couples beautifully with not only the Acorn Builder Punch, but also the Into the Woods Designer Series Paper. 

Here I showed the girls how you can sponge the patterned papers to generate a slightly different feel and colour, rather than spritz. We then added extra embellishments with some gorgeous Wooden Elements and some Ribbon found in our Clearance Rack (Daffodil Delight). 

Into the Woods Elements are just gorgeous and add a real textured dimension. You can add ink to generate yet more colour and depth to them if you wish.

This mini project was a small gift packet with Notecard and Business Card Gift Tag. 

We've had a lovely day and I'm so lucky to have such a lovely team of ladies. A welcoming group, with plenty of laughter and chit chat, as well as crafting and sharing of tips and techniques. Its the friendships that we build that I love about being a part of Stampin' Up!

If you'd like to join my Team and start gaining a minimum of 20% discount on your quality craft supplies, then be sure to get in contact. I'm always at the end of a phone or an email and would be happy to have an informal chat with absolutely no pressure. You can read more about it HERE, but If you'd like to Join the Fun and sign up online now and receive your fully customisable Starter Kit for just £99 (choosing £130 worth of products), then you can do so HERE, 24/7. 

After a totally nutty day, I'm in for a relaxing evening with hubby this evening. I hope you're enjoying your weekend. 

Mikaela x

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Man Up! with Blue Ribbon

I can not believe that this class posting, somehow didn't make it to publishing??

This was a Saturday class I recently did, tailored to everything Masculine.

Many of my ladies had expressed their concerns of making masculine cards, so with Father's Day at that point, on the horizon, I decided to set the theme and challenge myself to come up with something that I hoped everyone would actually enjoy making and might just inspire them to want to make yet more masculine cards.

We made use of the stamp set Blue Ribbon, which I'm pleased to say isn't on the current Retirement list and is so versatile. We covered a few different techniques in this class, making a Rosette for the Kraft Box Topper to add dimension and interest.

For one of the cards, we covered the ever so popular Chalk Board and Drift Wood Ink Techniques, which I believe lend themselves beautifully to masculine cards. 

I have to say, I too have fallen into the trap of enjoying feminine cards more so than masculine, but I really enjoyed creating this little set and was thrilled with the versatility of both the stamp set and the variations possible.

Supplies used:

Stamp Set: Blue Ribbon

DSP: Comfort Cafe

Cardstock: Soft Suede, Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Midnight Muse

Inks: Summer Starfruit, Cajun Craze, Midnight Muse, Soft Suede, Whisper White

Punches: 2 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" circles

Accessories: Natural Trim Ribbon, Naturals Designer Buttons, Kraft Gift Boxes

I plan on making a few feminine cards using this very stamp set, so watch this space!

Flattering Femininity

This weeks classes were all about Femininity and everything beautiful, which seemed the perfect way to launch the new Spring/Summer Seasonal Catalogue. 

Packed full of beautiful and unusual embellishments, this catalogue left me inspired. I had Mothering Sunday in mind when I thought of this class, but each item could be suitably tailored to any other occasion. The new Catalogue takes us right through Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Easter, Father's Day, Weddings and Bridal/Baby Showers it really packs a punch for a 39 page publication.

In bygone years, ladies were adorned with Lace, pearls, flowers and brooches and so I simply couldn't resist but make use of the Soda Pop Bottle Tops, flattened by going once through the Big Shot, to make a stunning Brooch effect. Who would have thought that a retro bottle cap could be used in this way? 

The Soda Pop Tops come as a pack of 16 in total, 8 each of 2 sizes for just £3.75 (129388) and you'll see how I used the smaller ones in my second card on the flowers. You can punch custom centres from Designer Series Paper or stamped images using the 1/2" and 1" circle punches to fit. Here I used the gorgeous 'Collage Curios' Stamp set for the image and covered it with a layer of Crystal Effects to give a gentle glaze to the surface. A little goes a long way with the Paper Doilies, so I gathered half of one behind to gave a pretty lace back drop. You get 24 doilies, each 10.2cm diameter in white for just £2.75 (129399).

 

Collage Curios Stamp Set (9 images)

Wood: 129099 £18.95

Clear: 129102 £14.95

Co-ordinates with 1" Circle Punch

For subtle added detailing, I used the ever so pretty new Textured Impressions Embossing Folders that come as a pack of two, 'Needlepoint Border' £7.50 (129383), which I just love and I'm sure you will be seeing again, so subtle, but ever so pretty!

The colours I chose coordinated with the 'More Amore speciality Designer Series Paper'  ..... Pool Party, Primrose Petals, Very Vanilla and Basic Grey.

I've seen these Plant Pot cards all over the internet and couldn't resist but make one, as what lady wouldn't want to receive flowers, Mothering Sunday or not? The flowers were spritzed with Stampin' Mist Stamp Cleaner and scrunched in my hand before leaving to air dry a little and layered. The centre of the flowers were once again embellished with the smaller Soda Pop Caps, flattened. There's something about an old fashioned ticket and I just love the Stamp Set 'That's the Ticket', which I used for the sentiment tags. I chose to adapt the Precious Baby ticket for 100% Perfect Mum, from the 'For my Family' Stamp set.

That's the Ticket (8 images)

Wood 128072 £20.95
Clear  128075 £16.95

Co-ordinates with Ticket Duo Builder Punch from the Annual Catalogue




The Kraft Gift Boxes are available in packs of 4 for just £2.75 (124106) and are really quite sturdy. 

A pretty strip of More Amore speciality Designer Series Paper and three Vintage dimensional flowers that I gently added Primrose Petals ink to, by using a dauber. You can add whatever colour you like to coordinate with your project or simply leave them Vanilla, they are so pretty. 

Now, if you don't already have a copy of the new Seasonal Catalogue, get in contact or click the photo of it on my home page to view online ... put your feet up and enjoy!