Garden Gatherings for Colour INKspiration 214

 

Welcome to the 214th challenge at Colour INKspiration! Today's cheerful colours come from a photograph taken by our Crew Member, Lou Kitzelmann, at the Yuushien Garden, Daikonshima  while on holiday in Japan.

This challenge runs for nearly three weeks and will finish on Monday 10 August, 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 Sandra Hebel 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 Highland Heather for Fresh Freesia. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

Well, with an image like this and the colours, it was hard to go past a floral set. I've been having a lot of fun with the Garden Gatherings bundle recently, so reached for it once again. 

I used Basic Black for the card base and Tuxedo Black to stamp the sentiment.

Using Old Olive ink, I stamped two stems and then used the daisy-like stamp to create one stem in Melon Mambo and the other in Berry Burst. 

Then I used the smaller leaf stem with Granny Apple Green and stamped the berries in Fresh Freesia. 

These three stems were die cut out. 

I cut two of the squat vases, one in Fresh Freesia and one in Melon Mambo, then embossed them with the Lazy Daisy folder. Then I sponged the left hand edges with the matching ink to add some shading.

I cut the taller vase in Berry Burst and stamped over it with the small flower head stamp to add a pattern, then added some Berry Burst ink to the left side to add shading. 

I die cut a small flower in Fresh Freesia and a leaf stem in Old Olive.

For the background, I embossed a piece of Basic White with the Lazy Daisy folder before tearing the top and bottom edges. This was adhered to the Basic White card front.

Then I added the three vases of flowers, each popped up on dimensionals.

The sentiment was die cut using a banner die from Stylish Shapes.

To finish off, I added some Fresh Freesia gems from the retired Purple Fine Shimmer Gem pack.

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done with the 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.

Rolling Waves for The Paper Players 795

 After Jaydee's gorgeous colour challenge - and the lovely vibrant entries it brought in - we have  a Clean and Simple Beach theme challenge for you this week from our hostess, LeAnne.

So this week is a double challenge. Your project must use a beach theme AND be in Clean-and-Simple style. At the Paper Players, we take this to mean that there should be lots of clean, white space with minimal layers, minimal embellishments and an overall uncluttered look. 

I started with a Thick Basic White card base and a Basic White card front. I sponged some Pool Party  ink with a blending brush onto the central area of the card to suggest the ocean. 

Of course, my go to beach bundle at the moment is Rolling Waves. I cut one of the wave dies out of Basic White and added it as a horizontal axis for the card design.

Using Basic Gray ink, I stamped the sentiment.

A bit of scurry around in my bits box unearthed some diecuts left over from previous projects so I was happy to use a Coastal Cabana palm leaf and some sea shells /starfish in Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Petal Pink.

I played around with the idea of adding some sparkly embellishments but decided that they added nothing but some distraction and left them off. I often think it takes a bit more courage to leave things out than it does to add things in!

Anyway, I hope you find some time during the week to join us in this challenge. Visit The Paper Players page to see what the rest of the Design Team have done, to link up your entry or to get more details on the challenge. 

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

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.

Magical Hot Foil for Freshly Made Sketches 745

It's been a long time since something truly different, and truly exciting, has arrived in my craft room: something never before seen or used or played with. And that folks, is Stampin' Up!'s brand spanking new Hot Foil System.

Once I'd worked out the technicalities of how to operate it (actually, really simple) I tried out a few things like using different dies, using different coloured foils and trying out different papers to foil. Now it was time to actually make something with it all, so I turned to the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to do just that. 

As part of my experimentation, I'd used the Garden Silhouette Hot Foil Die with gold foil on vellum.

Then I coloured the flowers from the back using Melon Mambo Stampin' Blends, with some  touches of Granny Apple Green and Daffodil Delight.

I cut this down to a long strip 9cm wide then folded it over a 9cm square of Bubble Bath card stock, attaching it with Stampin' Seal from behind. 

I can see that one possible negative of this lovely Hot Foiling is going to be the trouble in getting a good photo of it!

I used a Bubble Bath card base. The Basic White card front is embossed with the retired (but never to be parted with) Subtle embossing folder. I wanted some texture for interest but nothing that would compete with the busy gold foiled square, so it was the perfect choice. 

I ran a narrow strip of Bubble Bath through the same folder as a base for the sentiment.  For the sentiment, I hot foiled the Sweetly Sentimental Hot Foil dies, then cut them out with the matching cutting dies. There were a bunch of sentiments, which are great to have on hand ready to use - but I liked this one for a wedding. It's popped up on dimensionals.

While looking for embellishments, I wanted something elegant but not too flashy. I chose the sparkling white Shimmering Dots to finish things off. 

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.

Recipe Challenge for As You See It 377

 At As You See It, after the Fill in the Blank challenge comes the Recipe Challenge. Just take the five given ingredients, add whatever you like from your own stash and see what you can cook up. Be sure to visit the As You See It page so you can see what our Guest Designer has done. The winner of our Colour Challenges is invited to be Guest Designer at our next Recipe Challenge. 

The five ingredients: Enamel Dots, Flower, Large bold sentiment, die cut and shades of yellow had me going down a retro path straight down to my craft library. One of the delights of crafting is  building up a library of useful and pretty things to use for future projects, all the while adding new items and weeding out the less useful, just as you do in a traditional library.

I don't have a lot of DSP so I went to the very pretty retired Floral Delight DSP since I remembered that it used a lot of yellows - and lots of florals so it would kill two birds with one stone. I cut some scrap rectangles into triangles and created a strip-pieced background, making sure to keep the florals in the most prominent positions at the centre and at the edges. 

I mounted the strip-pieced panel onto a piece of Daffodil Delight adn then adhered it to an Old Olive card base. 

The big, bold sentiment and die cut ingredients were also ticked off in one step with this retired die cut 'Happy Birthday' from the craft library. I cut one from Old Olive and one from Daffodil Delight then layered them so the Daffodil acted like a shadow. Then I applied a liberal coat of Wink of Stella before adhering it to the card front. 

Then the final ingredient, Enamel Dots, was also taken care of from the craft library: I still have some of those wonderful Glossy Enamel Dot Assortments, which included some in a golden  yellow.

The team and I would love to see what you cook up with our five ingredients and your own flair!

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done, and link up your entry, on the As You See It page. The team and I are all keen to see how you see it!

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.

Garden Gatherings for Paper Players 794

This week at The Paper Players, our hostess is JayDee. She's given us a bright and summery colour challenge to play with. We had such gorgeous entries last week with Ann's theme challenge, I'm excited to see what everyone does this week. 

My first task was to decide which SU colours I'd use. I went for Timid Tiger as my coral, Flirty Flamingo as my pink, Granny Apple Green for my green and Daffodil Delight for my yellow. 

For further inspiration, I used the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and you can still play along there for another day or two. 

My current play set is Garden Gatherings because I'm enjoying the mix of leaves, florals and vases to play around with. I'm pairing it up with the very pretty Beautiful Ordinary Life DSP, which I'd overlooked on my first looks through the catalogue. The colours in it are just so pretty!

I started by cutting a piece of the honeycomb DSP, then a smaller piece of Basic White to fit inside it while leaving a wide border to show off the design. I stamped a stem and added some Flirty Flamingo flowers and then some softer Timid Tiger blossoms. I cut a vase from another piece of DSP, making sure to pick a part where there was a mix of the coral and pink colours.

I decided to emboss the background with the Lazy Daisy folder to carry the floral theme through. Then a strip of Flirty Flamingo coloured DSP for the horizontal element. 

Then I added the sentiment, stamped onto Flirty Flamingo, cut with a die from Stylish Shapes and popped up on dimensionals.

Finally, I added a trio of yellow dots from Array of Dots, making two of them flower centres.

Update: Delighted to be a Perfect Princess at Freshly Made Sketches.

The team and I would love to see what you do with Jaydee's colours. You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at The Paper Players.

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.

Gears & Textures for CAS Colours & Sketches 589

Just a quick post today. I was procrastinating at my desk, avoiding planning next month's class, when I spied the new challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. Next thing you know, stuff has jumped onto my desk, rather like a boisterous puppy, wanting to be played with. 

Nothing to be done but go with it!

I started with a scrap of Nature Walk DSP and cut a stitched square from it using Stylish Shapes.

From a scrap of retired  copper Specialty Metallic papers, I cut two cogs in different sizes from the Gears & Textures dies. From Pecan Pie, I cut an outer cog and from Early Espresso a ladder.

I stamped the Pecan Pie outer wheel with a Pecan Pie and a splatter stamp from Gears & Textures before adhering it over the copper die cut cog so there was the appearance of an inner and outer ring.

Note: Gears & Textures is still available as a bundle for a 10% saving.

The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso and is from Garden Gatherings.

After layering up the elements with respect to the sketch, I added a trio of Faux Bronze Pentagons. 

Masculine birthday card all done!

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.

Fern & Flora for Colour INKspiration 213

 

Welcome to the 213th challenge at Colour INKspiration! Today's colours are a strong and moody combination, chosen by Crew Member Sharon Dalton.  

This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday 20 July, 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 Kerstin Stempelmessi 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 Night of Navy for Secret Sea. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

To begin with, these colours had me a bit stumped and there were a couple of false starts. But that is one of the joys of joining in challenges - you get pushed to try new things. 

Regular readers will know that I've been having quite a love affair with the Fern & Flora bundle. The fern die cuts are wonderful but the negatives are also pretty. So I decided to use them as a stencil. The largest fern I stencilled with Timid Tiger and the medium sized fern I stencilled with Strawberry Slush. I really like the way that there are tonal variations in the ferns from the way they were stencilled. Blending brushes make the ink blending very easy.

I trimmed the panel down and matted it onto a piece of Strawberry Slush then adhered it to a Secret Sea card base. 

I experimented a bit with the sentiment, originally having a narrow horizontal of Secret Sea and then trying some linen thread. In the end, I decided to leave it just like this: a sentiment from Rolling Waves cut with a die from Nested Essentials with a shadow of Secret Sea. 

The sentiment is popped up on dimensionals. The finishing touch is a trio of Flat Pearls in Timid Tiger. 

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done with the 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.