OnStage Auckland 2016

I was very honoured to be selected as one of three Display Stampers for the OnStage Local event in Auckland, which was held on Saturday 16th April. 

I hope you like what I have created!

This stampset from the upcoming Catalogue is called Pop of Paradise, and it is gorgeous!  I think it will be very popular.  It is very on-trend, with a flamingo, pineapple, some tropical leaves and 4 sentiments.  The new in-colours are called Flirty Flamingo (a gorgeous pink to stamp Mr Flamingo in!), Sweet Sugarplum, Peekaboo Peach, Emerald Envy and Dapper Denim - I love them all!  Much nicer than the retiring in-colours that we will be saying goodbye to, much more my style!  So, you see, it was quite easy for me to design some gorgeous cards with this set!

First off I used Tip Top Taupe as a base to do a display of all 10 of our in-colours together.  I made a banner using the rainbow effect, doesn't it look cool!?

Here's a closer look at a couple of the flags, and how I decorated each one with cut-outs from my new stampset.  This is Watermelon Wonder and Flirty Flamingo.

I also made a balloon card with all 10 colours in the balloons, and some new Tip Top Taupe ribbon behind the "very special day' sentiment.

This is my third Tip Top Taupe sample, and it pairs here with Flirty Flamingo to make a cute vintage card featuring my cute wee flamingo and pineapple stamps from Pop Of Paradise.  Everything is stamped off, except for the coffee stains from Timeless Textures, and the Happy Birthday greeting from Butterfly Basics was heat-embossed in gold.  The Tip Top Taupe ribbon is scrunched along the side, and the edges have been purposely frayed a bit.  I also sponged the ribbon with TTT ink to make it a bit less 'white' so it could tie in with my vintage card.  The edges of the Very Vanilla cardstock are sponged and distressed with my scissors blade, and the bottom layer is a piece of the in-colour paper stack that I sponged the edges and then screwed the whole layer up in a tight ball and then smoothed out again to create some dimention and age.  

Dapper Denim is the first of the new colours that I'll show you, it is a lovely deep blue, I used it as the mid-tone in this ombre background, along with Night of Navy, Marina Mist and Mint Macaron.  Again you can see the Tip Top Taupe ribbon peeking out behind the "thinking of you" heart-shaped greeting.  I hand-cut my heart shape, but there is a co-ordinating die in the new Sweet and Sassy framelits. 

This is a Dapper Denim 6x6" page, punch-art styles.  I stamped and cut 4 of the fruit salad leaves in Cucumber Crush, and one palm leaf in Early Espresso, and used them to make a palm tree on a tropical island.  Mr Flamingo is there with his pineapple, enjoying the sun and sea.  The starburst sun is from the bakers box thinlits dies, and I hand-tore the shapes of the island and the ocean. I would have loved to pop some sunglasses on him and a cocktail glass, you'll just have to imagine him there on his holiday.  Now, we were mistakenly told that the Memories in the Making Project Life collection was carrying over (sob, its not - its Moments Like These that is going through) so the card and washi tape I have used here are sadly retiring.  The DSP and cardstock show off Dapper Denim quite nicely on this page though I think. 

Lets take a look at Flirty Flamingo next, this is a lovely soft pink that is going to be a great addition to our colour range.  I was only supposed to make 2 samples using it, but it ended up being used a wee bit more than that, but thats okay cos it means there is more to love!  First up is my Bakers Box, it's gold embossed with some polka dots, and then has a belly band in Flirty Flamingo from the paper stack.  The pink heart is popped up on some dimensionals, and Mr Flamingo has a white bakers twine bow around his neck and a golden palm leave behind him.  Not sure what it means LOL, but it sure looks cute!

Next I had a go at masking, to get my three sleepy flamingoes in a row.  Don't look too closely, its not my best stamping ever, but it does look pretty cute!

I adore this next card.  I did a background watercolour wash in Flirty Flamingo and stamped a bold black flamingo on top.  I thought it looked pretty good, so you get to see two photos of this card!

Next up is Sweet Sugarplum, which is a beautiful soft purple.  These two items are kind of a package deal, I designed the card and sour-cream pouch to go together, so they have the co-ordinating coloured flowers on them (Mint Macaron and Flirty Flamingo), and this is our first peek at the gorgeous new ruched ribbon.

The flowers are all familiar to you I'm sure, but I added a fruit-salad leaf to show how we could use it in partnership with some of our carryover floral sets.  I sparkled all of these ones us with some clear Wink of Stella, and popped an embossed "thank you" banner from Pop of Paradise over the top.

The sour-cream pouch (very easy to make, I simply followed one of the many tutorials on Pinterest) uses the Sweet Sugarplum floral piece from the DSP paper stack, and looks great with the big bow in the ruched ribbon, with a little added gold sequin trim for some interest.

Peekaboo Peach was the next colour to work with, and again I have used the new ruched ribbon, doesn't it look amazing!?  First I have paired Peekaboo Peach with Basic Black and gold, to create a background that is peppered with gold sequins, and then I popped up a "thinking of you" heart and let the colours and the ribbon do the talking.

Next I paired Peekaboo Peach with Watermelon Wonder and Flirty Flamingo.  I sponged all three colours onto my stamps (the flamingo and the balloon) to make an ombre effect, which I then replicated with the polka dot DSP paper stack for the background.  Everything is sparkled up with Wink of Stella and looks good enough to eat in real life, but its hard to show that in a photo!  I loved the idea of putting the balloon string into Mr Flamingo's mouth, so that is just drawn on with a marker, and I used "Party Animal" for a fun sentiment.

Emerald Envy is the last of the new colours to recognise.  I thought Emerald Envy would make a great masculine card with the elements of my Pop of Paradise stampset, which I generally struggle with keeping cards simple for guys, but I thought this turned out okay.  I orignially went quite grungy, with some camoflague splotches from Gorgeous Grunge included, but in the end I thought the colours popped more without the camo effect, so I made it again without them.

I do have a secret to tell you about this second Emerald Envy card, but not just yet, lets just enjoy the card for a minute first.

How cute is that flamingo with the bow tie around his neck!  The "Celebrate" and the bowtie are both from the carryover Celebrate Today bundle.

Next up is Cucumber Crush.  I wanted to make a masculine version of the Peekaboo Peach card, so again I went for a background stamped page, with black sequins this time, and a strong black "Hello" greeting.  This is punched with the 1 3/8" circle punch and popped offset onto a banner featuring Cucumber Crush and Basic Black.

Next I used the Mini Treat Bag dies to make a card or money holder for a fun masculine gift.  I paired Cucumber Crush with Dapper Denim and gold, and used the metallic thread behind my two swooshing palm leaf / feathers.

I had the perfect stamp to showcase Delightful Dijon, so both of these cards are all about the Pineapple.  First up is a monochromatic card, with a row of sparkly pineapples on an embossed large polka dot background, with a strip of striped Delightful Dijon cardstock behind it, and that cute Thank You banner again.

And then we have another punch-art type card, this time using 4 of the palm leaves in Cucumber Crush and one in Soft Suede to make our tree trunk, with two sparkly pineapples sitting at the base.  My husband immediately objected that its coconuts that grow on palm trees, as pineapples grow in the ground, so the "hello" up in the tree is a nod to the coconuts that are probably growing underneath it.   My favourite thing about this card was using the pineapple stamp in the background to make a tone-on-tone background paper. 

Mint Macaron was fun, its my favourite of the carryover colours, so I've used it to make a tag and a 12x12" page.  I'll show you the tag first, I've used Shimmery White cardstock, and sponged it to create a beachy setting. The flamingo is clear embossed (I inked my stamp up first in versamark and then immediately into Flirty Flamingo, and then stamped and put my clear embossing powder straight on) so that I could use emboss resist when I sponged around it, without compromising my flamingo stamp.  I just had to be really careful on his face, because its not inked there.  The water is painted on with my aqua painter, and the sand, and sea were both stamped on top with speckles from Timeless Textures for the sand, and grass blades from Sheltering Tree.  Mint Macaron and Soft Sky make up the background sponging.  The tag is cut with the Scalloped Tag punch, though it is wider than the 2"

platform on the punch allows for, so I rounded the final corners by hand, and the ribbon is the white Organza ribbon with is carrying over.  I used basic pearls in increasing sizes so that it appears our "hello" greeting is in a thought bubble.

Here I've scrapped a photo of my 3 daughters at the middle girls 7th birthday last month, and whilst I love the finised page, I do have to confess to a major faux pas here.  I swear I didn't notice until the day AFTER the OnStage event - its so obvious looking at the photos, but in the excitement of creating and displaying the page, I didn't notice until it was too late..... but I have used a retired colour here by accident!  While cleaning up my desk, I noticed that while I was putting away my "Melon Mambo" cardstock pack, that it wasn't Melon Mambo at all, it was in fact Strawberry Slush, which retired two years ago!!!  It blends so perfectly with the Flirtly Flamingo striped DSP that I didn't even notice.  It's only when you compare it to the stamped flamingo and pineapple (which ARE Melon Mambo)  that you notice that they don't match.  So folks, my sincere apologies, that was a genuine mistake!

Additionally, I've used a Project Lift card again for my journalling that didn't carryover (but we were told that it was, so not my fault this time!).

I thought I did a pretty good job of matching the colours of the girls dresses to Mint Macaron and Flirty Flamingo, but to me the whole thing is overshadowed now by the comedy of errors lol, so lets just stop and appreciate Mr Flamingo dressed up for his party, with his party hat and bow tie on, and this time his balloon is on a real string.

Last but not least is Watermelon Wonder, and I've made another 12x12" page for you (once again using a Memories in the Making PL card for my journalling - sorry!)

Again I have used some Cucumber Crush fruit salad leaves to combine with some carryover flowers, I think they look great together.  The DSP in the background looks amazing, and I've used some new Watermelon Wonder ribbon on the join of my DSP and the 12x12" Whisper White base.

My last project is a card using Botanical Blooms, I'm late to the party with this set so it was actually my first time ever to use the framelits!  So I used Watermelon Wonder with Flirty Flamingo, Sweet Sugarplum and Peekaboo Peach, I think they make a lovely combination.  Cucumber Crush for the leaves, and again a strip of the new Watermelon Wonder to connect the cardstock base to the DSP panel down the left, and this time the Hello is cut with 1 3/8" punch and then mounted on the starburst from the bakers box dies.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my cards as much as I enjoyed making them, it was a real privledge to be chosen as a Display Stamper, and I'd love to do it again one day!

The catlogue is out on May 1st, if you are a demonstrator you can pre-order these colours before then, but for customers the magic date is May 1st.  Thanks for visiting my blog!

Oh, and the dirty little secret I was keeping about the Emerald Envy flamingo card???  I accidentally used Strawbery Slush cardstock on that one too - doh!

Emily X