ESAD New Catalogue Blog Hop - Fabric Fun

So are you enjoying the new 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! catalogue? To give you some idea of a few of the new products you can hop your way around a series of ESAD blogs to view a wide variety of projects made using them. Hopefully you have come here from Christie's blog and will have a look at what I've made using some of the new Stampin' Up! fabric and Big Shot dies.

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 fee free to click here to join our wonderful group

I have been busy with the new Deck the Halls fabric - so exciting to have fabric in patterns and colours to match the Stampin' Up! inks! The first item I made was a basic tote bag (you can find the pattern here). I used the Tasteful Trim Big Shot die to cut out the contrast fabric and adhere it using the new iron on adhesive, I also added stitched layer for extra contrast. 

The flower was made using the new Fun Flowers die and it is such an awesome die - totally gorgeous and it makes such lovely layered flowers, I added a matching button in the centre from the Regal Designer Buttons pack.

I can see me using these flowers to embellish a number of projects in the future including hair clips, boxes, cards, notebooks as well as other bags - what would you use them for?


The second project I have made is actually still a work in progress as what started out as testing how the Big Shot dies cut felt and other fabrics (i.e. how many layers they can cut at once). I couldn't bare to waste them, so I added a few felt flowers to brighten up my yoga/meditation blanket and then it sort of spiraled out of control!

The flowers are from the new Fun Flowers die and the butterflies were cut using the Beautiful Wings Big Shot die. The flowers and butterflies are now making their way all around the edge of the blanket, they are all hand stitched together before being hand sewn onto the blanket.

I love how the die shapes all layer together perfectly, I've done all the colours and placement of the items randomly and love how the final product looks like I've spent hours matching up colours and arranging them!

Thanks for stopping by to look at my work, the next blog on the hop is Sharlene's here so go and see what she has been busy making.

Rag Bag

Opps so here’s yet another item I made last year and forgot to blog............mainly because it was put into use before I had time to photograph it! I saw a tutorial on Angie K’s blog eons ago here and was (im)patiently waiting for the scallop square die to be released in Australia until I could make one myself.  Well the die came, I found some appropriate fabric in my stash and over a period of a few days (my 4yo likes to “help” me when I sew so things tend to take a bit longer than normal!!) I made myself a rag bag……………. 

Pretty cool hey! I totally love it and use it a lot………can’t wait for the Stampin’ Up! fabrics to come to Australia so I can make a super colour coordinated one!

Accessories: Scallop Square die, Cherry Cobbler button, Big Shot.

Non SU: Fabric, thread, sewing machine, bamboo batting, scissors & stiffener. 

Felt Flowers

Since we've had a very long and hot summer, I've been a bit more indoors than normal and was watching some You Tube videos recently and got inspired to make some fabric flowers using the ever versatile Big Shot!

Pretty cute hey! I made the yellow one into a hair clip and the others I'm debating upon using as either a bag embellishment or on a headband. They are approximately 4" in diameter and are so easy to make - the red one I sewed entirely during my sons 30 minute swimming lesson this morning and still had time to watch him and chat to one of the other parents! They were made entirely using the Circles #2 die, 5 of the large circles, 5 of the medium circles, 3 of the small circles make the petals. An extra medium circle covers all the bits on the back and then I cut one green extra large circle for the leaves (cut an entire circle, cut in half and put back through the circle die to cut into leaf shapes - if that doesn't make sense I'll take some photos and add it to this post later). I also used a designer button for the flower centres (apart from the red flower - thats a button from my button box - I don't have the brights button collection yet!). Here's the back of the hair clip one - you can see the leaves better on this photo too.

Accessories: Big Shot, Circles #2 die, Designer buttons

Non SU: Felt, thread, needle, hair clip, scissors.