Thinking Stamping

Sunday, 12 July 2026

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.

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:

Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
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.

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.

Wednesday, 8 July 2026

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.

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

Sunday, 5 July 2026

Summer Happiness for Paper Players 793

Last week, we had such wonderful entries for Joanne's sketch challenge - thank you everyone! This week, Ann is our hostess and she has a theme challenge for us.

Summer Love is asking for any kind of romantic occasion card. I'll confess that my card is very summery and less romantic because I love summer and the beach. Somehow, the beach and summer seems closely linked to a spot of romance - or at least, it did when I was young! So I broke out the new Summer Happiness bundle, new from Online Exclusives.

I started by adding a wave die from Rolling Waves to start the beach feeling. Then I had a bit of fun choosing which of the summer images from Summer Happiness to stamp and die cut. I settled on a pair of flowers and a camera, cut from Basic White and coloured with Stampin' Blends: Daffodil Delight, Flirty Flamingo and Pool Party. The sunglasses were stamped onto Pool Party and the jandals onto Flirty Flamingo. The glasses and camera are popped up on dimensionals.

I finished off with a trio of Strawberry Slush flat pearls.

The team and I would love to see what you do with Ann's theme. 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:

Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
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.

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.

Friday, 3 July 2026

Garden Gatherings for As You See It 376

Welcome to a new challenge at As You See It. It's our Fill in the Blank challenge and we're asking you to tell us about your favourite Embossing Folder.

This is a tricky thing for me because I love embossing folders. I use them all the time. I choose to use them over patterned paper almost always. So asking me for my favourite embossing folder is a bit like asking me which is my favourite child... I love them all! Over the years, my favourites have been the Subtle folder, Exposed Brick and Softly Falling.

Of current folders, my favourite changes pretty much daily. The new Floral Spray is awesome but the one I keep coming back to is Lazy Daisy, so that's what I've used today.

To add a bit of interest, I embossed a piece of Basic White, then tore one edge of it before attaching it to the card front.

I've used my latest acquisition, Garden Gatherings for the flowers. I cut two vases from scraps of Beautiful Ordinary Life DSP. The squat one, I ran through the Lazy Daisy folder to give it some patterning.

The flower stems were stamped in Pretty Peacock. The flowers were stamped in Flirty Flamingo, daubed with touches of Melon Mambo. The front vase and flowers are popped up on dimensionals.

The sentiment is from the same set and is cut using a banner die from Stylish Shapes. I finished off with a trio of dots from Array of Dots.

The team and I would love to see what you do with your favourite embossing folder for this challenge.

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!

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

Fern & Flora for CAS Colours & Sketches 588

I thought I'd play along with the colour challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.

I was aiming to stay very clean and very simple with this card. So I stamped a simple floral spray, from Fern & Flora, in Blackberry Bliss and coloured it with Garden Green and Gorgeous Grape coloured pencils. Then I added in the sentiment in Blackberry Bliss.

Then I used my paper trimmer to score a rectangle by scoring a line 1cm in all around.

The final touch was to add a trio of Purple Fine Shimmer Gems.

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

Sunday, 28 June 2026

Help Me Grow for Paper Players 792

Many thanks to those of you who played along with my CAS Weather theme last week at The Paper Players. This week, JoAnne is our hostess and she has a sketch for us. I love a sketch challenge and I really enjoy seeing how one starting point can end up with such different projects.

I thought I'd pay some attention to the 2026-2028 In Colors this week so I did something I seldom do when I'm making cards... I reached for DSP! In this case, the 2026-2028 In Color Painted Patterns. There's a pack of this DSP in each of the colour families, but I only have this one. I chose a striped background in Peaceful Pine as the base, and a contrasting Crisp Cantaloupe dotted piece for the horizontal element.

I embossed the white panel with the retired (but much loved) Subtle embossing folder.

Then I went to work on creating the pot plant. I used the Help Me Grow dies for this, cutting a pot and saucer from Golden Glow. I added some splatter stamping in the same colour to give the pot a sense of both depth and age.

I cut the foliage from Peaceful Pine (2 sprigs) and arranged them in the pot. The flowers were cut from Crisp Cantaloupe, some with adhesive foam backing so they'd be able to pop up easily. I used a blending brush to apply a little Crisp Cantaloupe ink on some of the flowers to add variation of colour.

The sentiment is from Rolling Waves, stamped in Peaceful Pine. I trimmed the card down and angled the end. I debated about popping is up on dimensionals but didn't - some regret on that point!

The final touch was a trio of Crisp Cantaloupe dots.

The team and I would love to see what you do with JoAnne's sketch. 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:

Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
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.

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.