Flowers Fair for AYSI

It's time for a fill in the blank challenge at As You See It. This is the challenge where we ask you to complete a sentence then show it to us in craft. 

I did have to wonder to begin with whether or not it was Christmas cards I sent the most of. It certainly is the most I send in one hit - I feel as though I need to remortgage the house when I go post my overseas cards! Birthday would surely be the next largest in number for me. 

My design team card for the last challenge was inspired by (enabled by) Joanne James and it's true again this week. After the things she'd made with Flowers Fair made me buy it myself, I set about emulating a card that she had made for Colour INKspiration, where I also design. 

Her lovely card made me realise that it had been many years since I'd attempted colouring on dark card, so there was something of a re-learning process involved in getting here.😀

I started by white embossing the image onto Basic Gray card. Then I painted the interior of the flowers and leaves with diluted Basic White ink with a water painter.

Once the white ink was dry - and it takes a little while - I painted over the white with the colours I wanted: Melon Mambo, Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight and Granny Apple Green. I used re-inkers and a water painter for this. Because I diluted the white ink, rather than using it at full strength, the final painted effect is translucent. 

I mounted the panel on a piece of Melon Mambo, then onto a Basic Gray card base. The sentiment is from Rolling Waves, stamped in Basic Gray and cut with a banner from Stylish Shapes with one end trimmed. The sentiment is popped up on dimensionals. The Melon Mambo embellishments are from the retired Glossy Enamel Dots assortment.

Thank you, Joanne for the impetus to get this gorgeous background stamp. 😀

So what kind of card do you mail the most, after Christmas cards?

Visit the As You See It page to link up your entry and to see the rest of the team's inspirations.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. 

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Help Me Grow for Around the World on Wednesday

 

Welcome to the latest hop for Around the World on Wednesday. I hope you're all feeling ready to create!

On the second Wednesday of each month, the team put together a thematic hop to give you some inspiration for your own crafting. We love it when you try out something new or CAS(E) one of our projects. The team is truly international, with members from each time zone of the world that Stampin' Up! operates. You're with me, in New Zealand - the first place in the Stampin' Up! world to change the date. 😀

This month, our team leader Angie gave us this sketch to play with. 

I do love a sketch challenge and I have just received the Help Me Grow bundle from the March Online Exclusive drop so was up for experimenting with that. 

I used a base of Early Espresso and added a woody piece of DSP from Country Woods - what a great DSP collection that is!

After working out the sizings for the Basic White blocks, I embossed them with the Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder, to keep in with the garden theme. Then I spaced them out as shown in the sketch. Initially it threw me that the gaps between blocks in the sketch is not even - some gaps are wider than others. Probably that was the most difficult thing about this card for me! 😀

I enjoyed using the dies from the Help Me Grow bundle to create the focal point. I cut a rectangle using a die from Textured Notes. To ground the pot, I sponged some Daffodil Delight ink, with a blending brush, over the rectangle. I used one of the stamps to stamp in the illusion of ground with Early Espresso ink.

I cut a pot and saucer from Crumb Cake, then inked in some shading with Pecan Pie. I cut foliage and tiny flowers (thankfully, they cut in bunches) from Basic White. I cut one set of the tiny flowers with the Basic White backed with Foam Adhesive to get more depth. The foliage was brushed with Granny Apple Green and the flowers with Pretty in Pink. I like that by inking, you get pleasing variations in colour.  I had fun assembling the floral pot before adhering it to the rectangle. 

The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso on Basic White and the back of the label die cut from a scrap of DSP that matched the card front. 

To finish off, I added a trio of Pretty in Pink gems.

Next up on the hop is the wonderful Leonie Stuart, who is sure to have another gorgeous take on the sketch for you.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. 

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Here's a blog roll in case you get lost, or want to revisit someone.

Jan Clothier - NZ

Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Cheryll Miller - AU

Marga Bultena - DE

Aurélie Fabre - FR

Kelly Taranto - US

Lori Willcox - CA

A Beach Theme for Colour INKspiration 207

 

Welcome to the 207th challenge at Colour INKspiration! Thanks for all the gorgeous entries for last challenge. We have another pretty combination for you this time around, chosen by Crew Member Cheryll Miller. Soft and pretty. 

This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday 22 April, 5pm AEST.

If you haven't played with us before, we are a group of Stampin' Up Demonstrators from the South Pacific. Challenges are shown and entered via our Facebook Group page. If you don't belong, and would like to, click here. Don't forget to answer the three easy questions you'll be asked when you ask to join the group.

Each challenge, Top Picks and a winner are chosen by the crew and the winner offered a chance to Guest Design with us for a future challenge. We welcome Rochelle Blok as our Guest Designer for this challenge.

If you don't have an exact challenge colour, feel free to replace it with whatever you have that's closest, for example Petal Pink for Bubble Bath. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

Winter is starting to make himself felt today, so I fancied a little bit of tropical in protest! I wanted to be transported to somewhere warm and beachy. I started by randomly blending some Daffodil Delight, Bubble Bath and Pool Party over a piece of Basic White. I then sponged some Coastal Cabana around the outside edge to kind of fence the colours in.

So the next question was - what next?! Well, a collaboration between two sets is what happened next. Shell Collecting meets Rolling Waves. I stamped some shells from Shell Collecting in Pool Party ink over the card front.

What's the beach without some water? So I splashed a little Wink of Stella over the surface like water splashing on skin.

The sentiment is from Rolling Waves and cut using a die from Textured Notes. Then I die cut some palm fronds and sea shells and arranged them under and over the popped up sentiment. 

So there's my little piece of tropicana done and dusted. What will you do with these colours?

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done with these colours in the Crew Inspiration Album on the Colour INKspiration Challenge Facebook page.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. 

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Hippest Hippos for The Paper Players 780

Welcome to a new week at The Paper Players. LeAnne is our hostess this week, with a seasonal theme for us. Many thanks to all of you who played along in Ann's Tic Tac Toe challenge last week - the gallery was awash with wonderful cards!   

Of course, in New Zealand we're heading into autumn but that was not the reason that LeAnne's theme caused me a couple of headaches. The set that I'd been expecting to use - well, turns out that I sold it! And also the next set I went looking for had met the same fate! The cupboard was looking pretty bare now but I did remember that Hippest Hippos (retired) had a rather sweet umbrella in it, so that was what I went for. 😀

  

I decided that it was a good time to have a bit of a farewell to the retiring 2024-2026 In Colors too. I stamped the ballerina Hippo in Tuxedo Black and coloured her with Smoky Slate and Pretty in Pink blends. I die cut the umbrella from Basic Gray, and also from a piece of Pretty in Pink DSP, then paper pieced them together. The ballet skirt is also paper-pieced.

I thought the umbrella gave the idea of showers but it needed something else to suggest spring. So I sponged in a grassy knoll with Shy Shamrock, then die cut some flowers from Petunia Pop and the DSP. Then I die cut some flower centres from Peach Pie and placed them to give her a garden to dance in.

Then I needed a sentiment. The new Delicate Whispers set provided me with a lovely 'Hello Friend' which I stamped in Tuxedo Black. The card base is Petunia Pop, as are the Flat Pearl embellishments. 

If you want to stock up on any of the retiring In Colors: Petunia Pop, Pretty in Pink, Peach Pie, Summer Splash and Shy Shamrock, you'll need to do it fast. Once they're gone, they're gone and the In Color products are usually very popular. 

What's your version of Spring Showers? The team and I would love to see!

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:

1. Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
2. Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
3. Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
4. Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
5. Have fun, and thank you for playing with us!

Don't forget to check out the great inspiration from the rest of the design team.

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Help Me Grow for FMS 730

Well, Easter Sunday lunch for the big family is done. The dishes are done. Everyone's gone home. So I made my way to the craft room to play around with this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. Well earned recuperation!

Having recently acquired the Help Me Grow bundle (online exclusive) I'm still in play mode and had yet to do anything with the garden tools stamps and dies. This card is an attempt to remedy that. 😀

I've partially embossed the card front with the Lazy Daisy embossing folder (online exclusive) because it's not only an awesome folder but it fitted the garden theme well too. 

I used the ever-faithful Stylish Shapes dies to create the frames. The foliage - and isn't that a gorgeous piece of foliage - is cut from Soft Sea Foam. The tools have Smoky Slate business ends and Bubble Bath/ Berry Burst handles. I sponged the edges to create some depth around them. 

I used the veggie-row label die to create the 'thanks' and tucked it in among the garden tools. I finished off with some Sparkle Dots.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. 

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

 

Flowers Fair for Paper Players 779

Ann is our hostess this week. As this month has a fifth Sunday, that's our excuse at The Paper Players to have a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge. 

I hope you'll have as much fun with it as everyone seemed to have with Claire's sketch last week - it certainly brought fabulous entries into the gallery!

I like a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge as there are guidelines but also lots of leeway. I started by choosing the centre column, mainly because I wanted to play with a new stamp that arrived yesterday: Flowers Fair. I'm kind of kicking myself that I haven't had it longer as it was part of the March Online Exclusive drop. I foolishly thought I didn't need it - at least, not until I saw what my friend Joanne James had been doing with it!

Anyway, this is my second attempt with this set. It also dawned on me that the 2024-2026 In-Colors would be retiring soon and I haven't used them anywhere near often enough. I'm really going to miss Pretty In Pink, as that's been my go-to pink for nearly two years now. And Petunia Pop - what a colour! And those bright summer greens, Shy Shamrock and Summer Splash.... how will we do without them? 

Here's the run down on the card. I started by stamping Flowers Fair in Tuxedo Black on Basic White card stock. I started with a standard card front, 10cm x 14cm. Then I went to work, whiling away a half hour doing some very therapeutic colouring with my Stampin' Blends: Petunia Pop and Pretty in Pink for the petals, Shy Shamrock for the foliage, Peach Pie for the centres and some light Gray Granite for the shadowing. The addition of some simple shadowing really gives the flowers a lift off the page: little effort, big result. 😀

Once the colouring was done, I carefully ripped the bottom 2-3cm off, making sure to get a reasonably jagged line. I kept the smaller piece to use for the inside. I attached a piece of Petunia Pop DSP from the In Color DSP stack to the Petunia Pop card base. Then I took my stamped piece and tied some Linen Thread around it, before attaching that piece to the card front.

The sentiment is from Delicate Whispers and is cut with a label die from Nested Essentials. I added a shadow label in Petunia Pop too. Then I added a trio of In Color flat pearls to finish off.

What will you do with this Tic-Tac-Toe? The team and I would love to see!

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:

1. Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
2. Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
3. Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
4. Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
5. Have fun, and thank you for playing with us!

Don't forget to check out the great inspiration from the rest of the design team.

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Rolling Waves for Atlantic Hearts 674

 I was taken by this sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and had to play along. 

I stamped a panel of Basic White with the watery stamp from Rolling Waves, sponged and stamped in some sand, then added some wave die cuts. Then I cut them into strips of various widths. 

I embossed a Basic White card front with the retired Seabed embossing folder before adhering it to a Coastal Cabana card base. 

When adhering the strips that made up the beach scene I alternated adding them flat and popped up on dimensionals for interest.

I added a sentiment, stamped in Basic Gray and cut with a label from Textured Notes. The 'Happy Birthday' is on the inside. 

On a scrap of Basic White, I sponged some Peach Pie and Pumpkin Pie in an uneven manner, then splattered it lightly with some Pumpkin Pie ink. From this, I die-cut some seashells and starfish and added them to the waterline. 

I finished with adding a few mother-of-pearl gems from the Pearlised Circles pack.If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. 

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.