Hi everyone!  Today is the day for the big SUDSOL blog tour.  I love all the ideas you can find on a blog tour and hopefully my projects today will give you some new ideas to try at home.  For this tour, the focus is on the fun new things in the Occasion Mini and the Sale-a-Bration catalogs.  I decided to show you some of my favorites with 3 different projects; and since I have a lot to share…lets get this show on the road!

A Scallop Circle Mini Basket

So, for those of you not familiar with SUDSOL, it is a community and content website specifically for Stampin’ Up! demonstrators who are interested in really focusing on thinking about their stamping business as an actual business.  So, there are lots of great ideas, tips, and sharing of projects – including a library full of templates and project patterns with photos and instructions created by other demos (not a member? click the link above to sign-up for a 2 week FREE trial to check it out).

Anywho, I was browsing the library and found this totally novel idea for how to turn a Scallop Circle (from the Bigz Big Shot die) and turn it into a little box – or in my case, add a handle and make it a basket. See:

Seriously, I would have never thought to score and cut a scallop circle die cut to make a small rectangular box.  But isn’t it cute !!  I pulled out my coordinating Sale-a-Bration items: Fresh Vintage stamp set, Everyday Enchantment designer paper, and the Everyday Enchantment brads and ribbon pack; and went to town decorating!

So, I started by pulling out the pattern I liked from the designer paper and making a 1/2” band around the box.  I had a piece left over from cutting my band and so I cut that in half (making two 1/4” strips) to make my basket handle.  I didn’t like the seam where I glued them together at the top of the handle, so I pulled out the Lucky Limeade organza ribbon and wrapped it around the seam to hide it.

As you can see, I have chocolate in my basket (yum! chocolate!)  I actually have 2 undecorated Reese’s mini peanut butter cups in the bottom of the basket and 2 decorated ones on top.  I used the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer punch along with the Fresh Vintage stamp set to decorate my candy.

SU Demos – you can find the instructions for this box in the SUDSOL library here. 

A Fresh Vintage Thank You Card

Alright, so I had the chocolate and the basket, I needed a card to go with it.  So, I set out by pulling out my next favorite item – Framelits Labels collection!

I wanted to use the big flower image from the Vintage Fresh stamp set and was super excited to see that one of the labels seemed to have curves that exactly fit the shape of the flower’s flourish.  So, I started with that as my guide for the layout.  Then I wanted to use my current favorite ribbon – Pleated Satin Ribbon in Blushing Bride.  Yes, you heard right… they pre-pleat the ribbon for you!

Anyway, I knew I wanted to use the labels and the ribbon and so then I just fiddled with placement and papers until I thought it looked alright.  Here are a few touches that might be hard to see in the above picture:

Sponging of the Blushing Bride label and the Basic Grey cardbase with Blushing Bride ink.  Oh, and popping up the smallest label.

I stamped the repeating flourish pattern from the stamp set along the bottom of the card front with my stamp-a-ma-jig and then layered the ribbon along the top edge.

A Fresh Vintage Stand-Up Card

Alright, so I had been tasked to create 3 projects for this blog tour and I was now up to 2.  I decided to turn back to the SUDSOL pattern library to see if there was something that really pulled me in.  I ran across this stand-up card pattern and thought it was something I had never done before and it looked like fun.  So, I gave it a go and this is the results!

I love how this card style will actually lie flat for mailing in an envelope but stands up when you pull it out.  Cool, huh?

I tried to keep in theme by using the same color schemes (or at least more Blushing Bride and Pool Party), designer paper, and stamps. I decided to pull out one more new Occasion Mini product to play with for this project – Twitterpated designer buttons. I was inspired by some recent vintage-y scrapbook pages I had seen and wanted to try out lots of layers for the focal point and then have some sentiment that suited staring at me from a shelf. Thus – Beautiful Life.

SU Demos – you can find the instructions for this card style in the SUDSOL library here.

Whew! You made it!  I had so much fun creating these projects and I hope you enjoyed them as well.  I’d love to hear which was your favorite – please leave me a comment and let me know!

CONTINUE on the Blog Tour

Adriana Benitez                            Annette Bogue

And after the tour I’d love to have you come back and visit here again; or for SUDSOL members, check out more of my projects in my gallery on the SUDSOL site.

To Order Stampin’ Up! Products Anytime, click here!