Gotta love a little 'Latte Love'

 Hello & welcome to my blog,

My name is Alison & I live in beautiful Melbourne, Australia. For those of you who have previously visited my blog & are now returning, thank you. For those of you who are here for the first time, welcome!

 Here's a little bit about me. I love creating cards & gifts for my loved ones & this blog will show you how to create something special for those you love. I blog twice a week, once on a Sunday where I mainly showcase a stamp set or dies, embossing folders, projects & sometimes special DSP and Wednesday evenings when I highlight a technique, fun folds or tools & tips. I would love to hear from you if you have any questions or suggestions & my email address for that is craftedbyalison@gmail.com.

This week's blog is about a new Online Exclusive. There is a suite called A Little Latte which includes a stamp & die bundle named Latte Love, A Little Latte DSP, gorgeous 3 toned Adhesive Backed Swirl dots & Natural Polka Dot ribbon. I'm a lover of coffee so when this became available I snapped it up. This is my first play with the suite & I had a lovely time creating.

The first project I made had a sad overtone. We lost a fellow teacher to cancer earlier this month & I decided that the team she worked directly with could do with a little reminder that they are loved with a small treat. To this effect I rounded up some coffee sachets, wafer biscuits & chocolate sticks then designed a cute little gift pouch to hold them. Here are the finished pouches ready to be given out. 

The pouches are all made with the DSP. I cut them to 19cm x 13cm & scored them at 1cm, 4cm, 10cm & 13cm along the long side and at 3cm along the short side. After folding & burnishing I cut up along each of the score marks on the long side to the score mark on the short side. I cut small wedges in the small 3cm x 3cm squares & cut away the small 1cm x 3cm strip as well as a small wedge up into the 1cm strip. This allowed for the pouch to have a box-like base. Before glueing the base I punched & diecut small windows at the top of the front panel to allow a glimpse of the bickies. I used a variety of embellishments using diecut cups & beans from the DSP as well as a few stamped beans. The sentiments are from various current & retired stamps & dies including Celebrating You, Framed Florets, Artfully Layered & Latte Love stamps as well as Stitched So Sweetly, Beautiful Shapes & Latte Love dies.

The card was created as I wanted to stamp & colour some mugs & loved the hearts on one of the DSP sheets. 

I used a Pecan Pie base with the DSP matte & used a strip of contrast DSP across the centre on which I placed the coloured mugs, sentiment & other embellishments. 

Now you may have noticed that the mugs face both ways. The stamp only faces one way but I created the opposite image by a technique called mirror stamping. That's when you (carefully) stamp onto window sheets or acetate then place blank cardstock over the top & press down, picking up the ink from the acetate & creating a reverse image from the original stamp. 

These images were then coloured with Light & Dark Pecan Pie, Light & Dark Misty Moonlight, Light & Dark Pebbled Path & SU700 & SU900 which are from the Natural Tones range. Here are the remainder of the mugs that were not used on the card.

There are still so many beautiful papers to work with so I know that there will be more creations to show you in coming posts, but for now, that's all the creations I have to show you.

 Now I'd like to share a little bit of information about how to purchase any of Stampin' Up®s beautiful products.

Stampin' Up® has a number of ways to purchase their lovely products. You can look through their physical catalogue or browse through the Annual catalogue online  but there are also some products that are only available exclusively online that don't appear in any catalogues. These products are called the Online Exclusives & are only online. Check out the online exclusives in my online store. Stampin' Up® adds more product items to the online shop so don't forget to keep checking the store to see what's new. There are some lovely new products now available including kits, embellishments, stamps, dies & embossing folders. Something for everyone! If you would like a copy of the catalogue please send me a message at craftedbyalison@gmail.com or on my Facebook page, craftedbyalison. 

NEWS & REMINDERS: 

1. Stampin' Up® launched their new Mini Catalogue which runs until April & there are lots of lovely things to get your creative juices flowing. If you would like one then send me a message at craftedbyalison on Facebook or email me at craftedbyalison@gmail.com & I'll send you one. 
2. Don't forget the Online Exclusive products with new products added and available now Check out my online shop here. 
3. Stampin' Up® have a great range of Kits including crafting, card making & gift giving. Click here to check them all out in my online shop. As Stampin' Up® have so many beautiful kits available I will be featuring a different kit in each blog so that you can see the range. 

This week's kit is A Million Thanks. It's an all inclusive kit that includes stamps, ink spot, stamping block, 9 card bases & envelopes, diecuts & embellishments & is perfect if you like to send cards to thank people.

If you love it too then here is a link to my shop.

A lot of demonstrators use the special Host Code for their customers but I'm trying it this year as a new idea to see if this is what you, my customers would like to use. If you shop with me then don't forget to use this month's host code FPEXGVDF. This will allow me to pass on any hostess benefits to customers when the sales reach the required qualifying amount.

Lastly, there have been lots of new items added to the clearance rack so make sure you check them out using the link above to my online store.

If you would like to purchase any of my creations that I feature in my blogs they can be found in my FaceBook shop at craftedbyalison or you can order something unique. 

If you would like me to send you a copy of the new Annual catalogue then please message me via my FaceBook page, Crafted by Alison or send me an email at craftedbyalison@gmail.com.

My next blog is on Wednesday & I will share with you a fun fold with a twist. In Sunday's blog I will show you a lovely new stamp set called Hooray for Surprises. I hope you can join me for both of them.

Well, that's it for another week. I hope you enjoyed this post & come back for more next week. Til next time, take care & keep creating! XX Alison.

Shop with me

Stamps, Dies & punches

• A Little Latte suite
• Latte Love bundle

Cardstock, DSP & paper goods

• Basic White Thick cardstock
• Basic White cardstock
• Pecan Pie cardstock
• A Little Latte DSP
  
  

Inks & Markers

• Early Espresso Classic Stampin' pad
• Pecan Pie Classic Stampin' pad
• Pebbled Path Stampin' Blends
• Pecan Pie Stampin' Blends
• Misty Moonlight Stampin' Blends
  
• Neutral Tones Stampin' Blends, Light
• Neutral Tones Stampin' Blends, Medium Light

Embellishments

• Adhesive Backed Swirl dots

Adhesives

• Multipurpose liquid glue
• Dimensionals
  
• Mini Dimensionals
  
• Mini Glue Dots

Tools

• Paper Trimmer
• Take Your Pick tool
• Stampin' Cut & Emboss machine
• Embossing Heat tool