The Wacky Watercooler Welcome 2015 Blog Hop

It's a brand new year and a brand new Blog Hop!  This time we're celebrating the brand new Occasions Catalogue and, of course, Sale-a-bration.  This is going to be a lot of fun!

Our Blog Hops run in a circular manner.  What that means is that as you go from one participant to the next, you will inevitably, wind up at the point where you began.  I hope you'll find the time to check out all our blogs.  Once you've finished, you'll have to ask yourself what your own favourite in the new Catalogues might be.

If you've been moving forward in the blog hop, you'll have joined me after checking out the very creative Christine Giuda's wonderful post.  Isn't she talented?

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For my first project I drew Kath Ricks' name which meant that I had to go back through her blog posts to find my favourite among her past Occasions or Sale-a-bration projects.  It was a tough choice.  I changed my mind several times.  Kath simply had too many great projects and, finally, I made myself choose just one and stick with it.  I decided to CASE this project from February 14/12 simply because I absolutely loved the fold that she used and because I knew I could make the card out of our current Occasions and Sale-a-bration products.  This is Kath's card

Don't you just love that double "z" fold?  Open or closed, this is a wonderful card.

For mine I used a base of So Saffron and stuck to that colour as well as Crisp Cantaloupe throughout.  There is also white in the card thanks to the Irresistibly Yours Designer Series Paper offered in the Sale-a-bration brochure.  Using it is just like doing the emboss resist technique without having to heat emboss first.  I'm hooked on this paper!  I also added gold by heat embossing the butterfly using Gold embossing powder and, of course, I used the Gold 1/8" Ribbon.

I love the way the card opens up when you untie the bow.  That's what drew me to Kath's card and convinced me that I would CASE it.

The stamp sets which I used are all from the new Occasions Catalogue:  Painted Petals and Butterfly Basics.  The sentiment inside the card, however is from the Annual Catalogue:  Something to Say.  I love the Butterflies Thinlits Dies and have used them to cut out the butterfly on the front of the card and to make the stencil for the inside of the card.

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For my next project, I used a mixture of retired and current products.  It was such a lot of fun!  The inspiration for the colours and the products came from the stamp set itself.  I used the little pirate image from the Hey, Valentine stamp set (Occasions Catalogue).  That allowed me to go wild with my Blendabilities.  For the black, however, I turned to my Stampin' Markers and then I added a bit of gold and silver using my Stampin' Dazzle markers.

I took advantage of the wonderful Core'dinations that are currently available from the Clearance Rack at a fraction of their original price.  I love the texture of the paper for the sky and also for the water.  Sanding the embossed areas really made everything "pop".  Of course I had to add some additional dazzle since we're talking about treasure and that explains the tiny circles of gold and silver as well as the rhinestones.

  If you've wanted to try out the Blendabilities, this is the right time to do it.  During Sale-a-bration an assortment of Blendabilities is available free with a purshase of $60 (Canada).  Pricing will vary on location in the world.

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 My final project is a framed piece.  I had a lot of trouble choosing my favourites from the current Occasions catalogue.  Bottom line, depending on the day, I have a new favourite.  There is just so much great stuff from which to choose.  I went for the Painted Blooms Designer Series Paper, chose several colours  to compliment my chosen design, and then added some butterflies cut with the Butterflies Thinlits Dies.

I used a square black frame and then added layers.  First is a layer of Whisper White followed by layers of Rich Razzleberry, Blackberry Bliss and a square of the Painted Blooms.  For my small square I began with a layer of Rich Razzleberry and then added Whisper White and a square of the new Chalkboard Paper heat embossed with White embossing powder.  The sentiment, from the Hello Life stamp set, looks wonderful against the intense matte black of the Chalkboard paper and also expresses exactly what I wanted for this project.

I went a bit crazy with fussy-cutting out the fern from the Butterfly Basics stamp set.  That was a whole new world of torture and I doubt I'll ever cut that particular image out again.

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Well that's it for this month's projects.  I hope you've enjoyed them.  Didn't I warn you that there were some amazing products in the new Occasions Catalogue and Sale-a-bration brochure?

If you get a moment, please leave a comment.  I'd love to know what you thought of my creations.

Your next stop will be at the creative Marie Green's blog.  Prepare to be amazed.