An Eclectic Mix for Paper Players 771

Thank you to everyone who played along with Jaydee's super sketch last week - the gallery was amazing! I'm sure it will be this week too with this week's theme from Claire: Love is in the Air,

Today's card is a real mix of things from the stash and the new box, which is something that's nice to do. I like it when you can mix and match what you have with something new for a fresh look. 

The starting point of this card is the new - and gorgeous - Lovely & Beautiful specialty DSP.  The other starting point was a card by my team mate, LeAnne Pugliese who recently made a card that featured hearts layered with scalloped hearts. This reminded me that I had a pair of punches that I got when I was on the Artisan Design Team so I hunted them out. 

I layered heart in the Lovely & Beautiful DSP with scalloped hearts in Petal Pink and Peach Pie to pick out DSP colours. Then what? That was the question!

I needed a ground for the hearts, so embossed a piece of Basic White with the Exposed Brick embossing folder then flicked over some splatters of Petal Pink and Peach Pie ink. At that point, I decided on a Calypso Coral base in order to bring out the richness of the colour from the DSP.

Next question: what sentiment? Well, I got out Lifetime of Love and inked up the 'Love You' from there then cut it with a banner from Stylish Shapes. I felt it needed something else, so I added a gold bow with the sadly retired Elegant Trim... it's nearly all gone now!

The final thing was the addition of a trio of Pearlised Faceted Circles in Calypso Coral. These little beauties are part of the Lovely & Beautiful suite but of course, work well with lots of other things too. 

What will you do with Claire's theme?

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

Eliz Stewart

Christy Stanford

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

Capturing Smiles for Freshly Made Sketches 721

I was happy to play along with the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches when I found myself with a little spare time today. The arrival of my pre-order goodies for the March Onine Exclusive drop yesterday was, of course, an added incentive!

So first out of the box was the charming Capturing Smiles bundle. This set, which has a range of scrapbook appropriate sentiments, also has dies that allow you to make up a lovely camera and various other camera-related bits and pieces. While this is going to be a great set for scrapbooking, I thought it would also make for a cute birthday card. 

I picked a favourite colour combination: Basic Gray, Pool Party, Lost Lagoon and Pretty in Pink. I played around and made up some film strips and a camera. I thought the sentiment worked well with a 'Happy Birthday' on the inside. The camera is just so dinky and can be made up in many variations. 

Another new item out of the pre-order box was this lovely Lazy Daisy embossing folder.  I may have fallen a liitle bit in love with it this afternoon. It looked great on line but the minute I put it through the Stampin' Cut and Emboss Machine, I realised that it was amazing!

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

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.

 

Beautiful Gallery for AYSI 365

It's time for a recipe challenge at As You See It. All you have to do is create something using the five given ingredients plus whatever you've got in your stash. 

I think that the ingredients: A celebrate theme, vellum, shades of red, punch or die and bling is a recipe for going completely over the top - not my comfort zone! But I've given it a good crack....

It all started with a single card front of that delicious DSP. It was all I had left from two packs of the Traditions of Christmas DSP from the September- December mini catalogue. This last remnant seemed perfect for the blingy redness of the recipe!

I've used vellum to tone it down to provide a resting place for the floral spray and sentiment. The 'celebrate' is from Beautiful Motifs so it seemed sensible to look at Beautiful Gallery to give me a focal point. I do love that spray of three flowers. I gold embossed it to be in keeping with the DSP then coloured it with Cherry Cobbler and Real Red Stampin' Blends, along with some touches of Daffodil Delight and Old Olive. 

The sentiment is stamped in Cherry Cobbler to match the card base and cut using Stylish Shapes. The bling element of the recipe is some of the bright gold Flower Accent embellishments. 

What will you do with this recipe? You can see what the rest of the team have done - and link up your own entry - at the As You See It Challenge page.

You can join in with us until Wednesday February 11 11.55pm PST. 

f 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.

 

Shell Collecting for The Paper Players 770

This week Jaydee is our hostess and she's given us this gorgeous sketch to inspire us. I do love a sketch, don't you? Thank you to everyone who played along with our Signs of Winter CAS challenge last week. A great gallery for us to choose from, as usual!

Sometimes when I get a new set, I just see possibilities for it in everything. Shell Collecting has been like that for me this week. I love the scallop shell in the set and thought that would be just right for the four shapes in the sketch. Everything else just followed naturally. 

So I started by stamping the scallop shell four times in Crumb Cake. I coloured it with a mix of Petal Pink and Pretty in Pink Stampin' Blends. After fussy cutting them out, I sponged a little Crumb Cake around the fan edge. 

I chose three of the smaller shells and stamped them in Pool Party on a piece of Basic White as a background. Then I added a vellum overlay and attached it to a Crumb Cake base. Then I arranged hte scallop shells with dimensionals. 

The sentiment is stamped in Crumb Cake and is from Sweet Jar. It's cut with one of the banners from Stylish Shapes. The shadow is in Pool Party and I also added a Linen Thread bow. 

The embellishments are the pink toned Pearlised Faceted Circles. 

How do you see Jaydee's sketch? You can see what the design team have done and link up your own entry at The Paper Players page.

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

Eliz Stewart

Christy Stanford

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

 

Shell Collecting for FMS 720

I'm really enjoying playing around with the new Shell Collecting stamp set. I saw how it could work with the latest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

I was aiming for a simple card that would work also as a masculine card. So I went for Balmy Blue, Pool Party and Basic Gray as my colours.  I stamped two shells in Basic Gray and coloured one in Balmy Blue and one in Pool Party before fussy cutting them. 

Because I love beach themed products, I have developed quite a library of items and I also love it when I can mix and match old with new. In this case, I got out one of my all-time favourite embossing folders, Sea Bed.

I added in some splash in Balmy Blue using a stamp from Gears & Textures. The sentiment is from Sweet Jar and is cut with one of the banners from Stylish Shapes (which I've used so much it's now a bit bent and I fear it will actually break from overuse!).

I probably should have consulted the sketch and not worked from memory. If I had, the cluster might be closer to the centre than the top but I like it where it is. 😄😄😄

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.

 

Gears & Textures for CAS Colours & Sketches 577

After last week's heat wave, this week we're having solid rain. Both are excellent reasons to inhabit the Craft Room.  Today, after completing some DT work and some tidying, I've played with the sketch at CAS Colours & Sketches. 

I'd actually left the craft room when I saw this sketch so had to skitter back there because it seemed to me to be made for the Gears & Textures bundle, which I've been playing with a lot. 

The gloomy weather made taking a photo challenging, so you might have to read on to hear about what colours this actually is!

I used Night of Navy for the base. I used the three long stamps to create the diagonal patterning. I used Night of Navy for the solid girder stamp, Smoky Slate for the ladder and Misty Moonlight for the chains. 

The cogs are cut from Silver Foil, from my stash, and the ring from Misty Moonlight (appearance in the photo not withstanding!) I popped them up on dimensionals then added the sentiment over them.

The sentiment stamp is from The Right Word and it's cut with a banner from Stylish Shapes. The embellishments are Faux Bronze Pentagons. 

So, the sketch let me create a masculine CAS card very quickly. Thank you CAS team!

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.

Season of Chic for Paper Players 769

 Players made an awesome start to 2026 with LeAnne's colour challenge last week - such pretty cards in the gallery! Let's see what you do with Joanne's Clean and Simple Challenge this week.

So it's a double challenge this week. Not only is the theme 'signs of winter' but the additional challenge is to do it in a Clean and Simple style. 

By Clean and Simple, we mean minimal layers and embellishments and plenty of clean, uncluttered space. 

In the Southern Hemisphere, it's the middle of a very hot summer so it was nice to focus on something cool. I had to have a hunt around my Stamp Library to find something suitable and remembered the lovely snowflake dies in Season of Chic, an old favourite set of mine. Sadly now retired, this set is a beauty, with something for every season. 

So I started with a trio of snowflakes, one in a scrap of silver Glimmer Paper and two from a piece of Balmy Blue DSP from the Beautiful Bokeh stack, which I think could be another retired item. 

Keeping with the colour palette, I stamped the sentiment in Balmy Blue using a sentiment from Season of Chic. 

By now it was clear that this card was going to be one that made use of my Stamp Library and not the current shelf, so I also got out one of my all-time favourite embossing folders, Distressed Tile. I was originally doing an embossed rectangular standard card front but decided I wanted something a bit different so went for a jaunty angle piece instead. 

The finishing touch was a trio of Basic Rhinestone Jewels. 

What will you do with this double challenge: signs of winter (but not Christmas) in a  CAS style?

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

Eliz Stewart

Christy Stanford

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