Lovely Lavender creations

  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.

Stampin' Up® have just launched their new Annual Catalogue & it's a beauty! It's set out quite differently to previous catalogues but there are benefits to that. They now have sectioned it to have beginners, which is a step by step collection of materials in kits, then there is quick & easy where you select base materials & packs of pre-printed or diecut materials plus some stamp sets then there is create your way where you choose all the materials, stamps etc yourself & create your way! In the quick & easy section Stampin' Up® have also provided some inspiration with a colour wheel & information of various ways to use colour combinations. There is a section explaining 4 different ways to vary your colours - Monochromatic, Complementary, Analogous & Triadic. It's a wonderful tool to help with creativity but it's not what this week's post is about, that is something I will explore in future posts. 

Today's post is all about Lavenders. I am sharing some beautiful ideas for using DSP to compliment your stamps & dies. Lavender is one of my favourite plants. It reminds me of my Mum & of trips to see my husband's Aunt & Uncle. They lived in Regional Victoria near Ballarat & on the way we would pass a gorgeous Lavender farm. There was another Lavender farm near Daylesford that we visited plus we also had lavender bushes in our garden for a few years. This came in handy for making dried bouquets & sleep pillows. Lastly, but by no means least, we were lucky enough to visit a lavender farm in the
south of France when we explored on a river cruise. So, as you can see, I do love my lavender! I have made some 3D projects as well as a card so I hope you like my creations today.

Once I started, the ideas & projects just flowed & I could have continued on with more but they can wait for another day. In the end I completed a small gift bag, a gift mug & a card with decorated envelope. I'll go through them one at a time.

Firstly I made the gift bag. The following pictures show some of the steps to create a small gift bag. I have made a document with a full description of the measurements & cutting instructions. If you would like a copy of it, please email me at craftedbyalison@gmail.com

The DSP is 11 1/2 x 9". There are 2 pieces of 3 x 1 1/4" co-ordinating cardstock & 1 1 7/8 x 3 5/8 " piece. The cardstock is for strengthening where the ribbon handles are & for inside the base.

There is a one inch foldover at the top of the bag.

Here are the cardstock placed to reinforce the bag which were adhered prior to the bag being assembled.

The sides of the bag were gently pinched in at the top.

Next up I created a mug to use as an alternative to a gift bag. Again there is a PDF available if you would like one.

This mug was made using a scoring board and a punch board. 

It was made with one piece of 9 1/2 x 7 3/4" cardstock for the mug, one piece of 7 1/4 x 1 1/2" for the handle & another piece of cardstock big enough to create 2 circles for the inside & outside of the base. 

It was decorated with six 3 1/2 x 1 1/4" pieces of DSP for the mug panels & one piece of 1 1/4 x 6" DSP for the handle. Each of the panels are 1 1/2" and there is a 1/2" strip used to adhere the mug shape.

Finally, I made a card! I based it on a sample from page 25 of the Jan-Apr '24 mini catalogue.

On a Pretty Peacock card base I added a DSP matte then diecut a contrasting matte, also from DSP, using the Perennial Postage dies. This was then decorated with a variety of DSP designs as well as some Sahara Sands & Fresh Freesia cardstock.

All of the pieces were angled & layered using glue dots or dimensionals. The square Sahara Sand shape was embossed with a cute stamp design while the rectangle Sahara Sand shape was used to stamp the sentiment using Crumb Cake ink. There is also some foliage diecut in Just Jade to add a little more interest & soften all of the shapes.

The final element was some retired Fine Sparkle dots.

I love how it turned out & it can be used with either the gift bag or gift mug.

That's all I have for you this week. I hope you enjoyed these creations. 

Now I'd like to share some of the latest news from Stampin' Up®.

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®'s newAnnual Catalogue is live! It's a beautiful piece of artwork as well as an amazing resource for crafting. As mentioned before, it's very different to any other catalogue that I've seen from Stampin' Up®. They have changed the front cover from featuring cards or supplies to a casual stamping picture as well as a radical change to the layout of the contents. There are still lots of beautiful pics of the products & ideas aplenty, it's just set out differently. I think you'll love it. If you would like a copy of the new catalogue 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 about being organised. It's the Birthday Card Organizer kit. 

I love to be organized but it doesn't always go to plan. That's where an Organizer comes in handy. I purchased this kit & created all of the cards & gifted it to one of my dearest friends who loves to send cards. She was so happy with the cards & the organizer. I loved seeing her face light up! 🥰 Here's what Stampin' Up® say about the kit...

This kit comes with everything you need to help you get organised and never miss out on a birthday celebration. It comes with the supplies to make 12 birthday cards with matching envelopes that you can easily customise. This kit is filled with pre-cut floral and background pieces to really make your crafts unique. And don’t forget the 8" x 10" (20.3 x 25.4 cm) yearly birthday organiser with sticker sentiments in multiple language options for perfect (and practical) personalisation! You can keep track of all your loved one’s birthdays, then make and save a card for them in the cardholder for each month. 

The Organizer kit is also a perfect gift just as it is. Gift it to someone who isn't very organized & they can create then add cards to the album & be more organized.

If you feel that you'd like to add this to your list then click here to purchase one from my online store.

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 R2DMYQ42. 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 plus there is a so make sure you check them out using this link 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 current Annual catalogue or the new one when it's released 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 & features a gorgeous fun fold. In Sunday's blog I will be creating with the Flower Cart bundle, a super cute set with lots of possibilities.  I'm really looking forward to sharing them with you. 

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.

Here are some links to the products I used today & some craft room essentials.

Shop with me

Stamps, Dies, Embossing folders & punches

• Painted Lavender stamp set
• Painted Lavender dies
• Perennial Postage dies

Cardstock, DSP & paper goods

• Basic White Thick cardstock
• Basic White cardstock
• Lost Lagoon cardstock
• Fresh Freesia cardstock
• Pretty Peacock cardstock
• Highland Heather cardstock
• Perennial Lavender DSP

Inks & Markers

• Highland Heather Classic Stampin' pad
• Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' pad

Embellishments

• no current items used this week

Adhesives

• Multipurpose liquid glue
• Tear and tape
• Dimensionals
  
• Mini Dimensionals
  
• Foam adhesive strips
• Mini Glue Dots

Tools

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