Thinking Stamping

Friday, 22 May 2026

Spotlight on Nature for As You See It 373

It's Speed Stamping Week at As You See It. This regular challenge is one people either love or hate - or maybe they love to hate it? Anyway, it is a bit of a thrill and if you ever wanted to combine adrenaline rush with stamping, this is your challenge!

If you've never taken up a Speed Stamping challenge before, this is how it goes.

You have ten minutes to complete your card.
Thinking time is not included, so you can have planned it in your head.
Supplies can be assembled but not used. So block up your stamps, get the embellishments out on the desk, put the dies beside the machine and so on.
The timer starts the moment you cut, ink up, stamp or emboss anything.
Thankfully, clean up is not on the timer!
Don't forget to tell us what your time to completion was.

Spring bulbs threw me a bit because although I have lots of flowers, most of them were not bulbs. I actually used Google Image Search to identify the flower in Spotlight on Nature (retired) and it told me this was most likely a tulip, so I ran with that!

I stamped the image in Gorgeous Grape then used a blending brush and Fresh Freesia ink to add an explosion of colour around the flower heads. Then I used a water painter and some Fresh Freesia ink to add splatter.

I added the sentiment, from Rolling Waves, in Gorgeous Grape ink.

As I still have just under 8 minutes left on the clock I decided to go a bit further and cut the image out using Everyday Arches. I embossed a Basic White card front with the Beautiful Pattern embossing folder and adhered it to a Gorgeous Grape card base. (These things were in my 'if I have time' plan.)

To give it all a bit more oomph, I popped the arched panel up on dimensionals and finished off with a trio of Purple Fine Shimmer Gems.

The inside was pretty simple - just a quick stamp of the top part of the floral image and a quick brushover with the blending brush.

Then I stopped the timer...

I quite surprised myself as I'd expected to be a bit closer to 8 minutes. But I was well planned in my head and had all my supplies on hand.

What will you do in your ten minutes? You can see what the rest of the team have done and link up your entry at the As You See It Challenge page.

Sunday, 17 May 2026

Piece of Cake for The Paper Players 786

Thanks to everyone who entered Claire's bright and summery colour challenge last week. The gallery was small but oh, so lovely! Our hostess this week is Ann and she has a double challenge for us. The theme is Food and the style is CAS!

I've done a lot of craft room clean up, clean out and reorganisation lately. The happy consequence of that is to reacquaint myself with some of the forgotten items in my craft library. One of these is the ever-so-lovely, but retired, Piece of Cake bundle. I'm sure many of you will have it stashed away.

I decided to take the wedding cake option because I had some of the Lovely &Beautiful DSP on my desk and it had me in the matrimonial mood.

I stamped the cake, the stand, some hearts and the sentiment in Tuxedo Black. I coloured them with Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Fresh Freesia and Petal Pink. The cake and stand could be cut out with the matching punch but the hearts... they had to be fussy cut!

Initially, I left the card front plain but couldn't help myself. It had to be embossed so I used the Beautiful Pattern 3D embossing folder for some subtle but elegant detailing. I cut a narrow strip of the DSP and applied it as two strips, then added the cake and hearts on dimensionals. I added the sentiment as a third tier of the cake and finished off with a trio of iridescent pearls.

The team and I would love to see what you do with Ann's CLEAN AND SIMPLE FOOD THEME. Remember it's a double challenge with both a theme AND a style.

Visit The Paper Players to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry.

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.

Wednesday, 13 May 2026

Fern & Flora 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, Angie has given us the theme of 'Let's Celebrate!' That's a pretty open theme but I think the best celebration is a birthday, so that's what I've gone for.

My own favourite bundle from the May-August Catalogue is the fabulous Fern & Flora bundle. Maybe it's because our national emblem is a silver fern but all the die cuts and stamps are just wonderful.

One of the more interesting techniques I've come across over the years of stamping is retiform and I like to get it out and experiment with it again from time to time, so I'm also celebrating this technique. I thought it might work well with Fern & Flora.

While in experimental mode, I thought I'd try working with analogous colours for a change. Usually, I've done this with complimentary colours. For stamping, I used Granny Apple Green, Lemon-Lime Twist and Lemon Lolly. I did add a touch of Daffodil Delight to the colouring of the moths, the matte and the die cuts. I also added some Mossy Meadow to the die cuts but both of these additions were still in the same colour grouping.

After creating the cells and adding the stamping, I coloured some of the images with Lemon-Lime Twish and Lemon Lolly Stampin' Blends. I added the sentiment, from Rolling Waves, in Basic Gray.

To finish off, I added a double bow in Linen Thread to the cluster of foliage and a trio of Dewdrops embellishments. I also stamped an extra moth and popped it up on dimensionals over where it has been stamped. While not easy to see, it did get a coating of Wink of Stella too.

Next up on the hop is the wonderful Leonie Stuart in Australia who will share yet another way to celebrate with 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 - You are here

Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Fern & Flora for Colour INKspiration 209

Welcome to the 209th challenge at Colour INKspiration! Thanks for all the gorgeous entries for last challenge. Today's palette was chosen by Crew Member Rose Packer.

This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday 25 May, 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 Laird-Smith 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 Gorgeous Grape. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

This colour combination was an interesting one with two strong colours and two softer colours. I thought I'd try some collage stamping and see what happened and was very pleased with the result!

My current favourite bundle is Fern & Flora, so that's what I turned to for this project. I began by stamping some foliage in Cloud Cover, then added in some bars in Basic Beige.

I stamped two of the flowers and leaf stamp in Tuxedo Black on Basic White. To colour them in Gorgeous Grape and Garden Green, neither of which have a Stampin' Blend, I went old school and busted out my Blender Pen. For small areas, the Blender pen and ink work well. Then I die cut them out and arranged them over the stamping, popped up on dimensionals.

Then I stamped the small moth (butterfly?) in Basic Beige, die cut her out and added her in on dimensionals too. Somewhere in amongst all that, I stamped in the sentiment in Gorgeous Grape... this required a deep breath and some big girl pants since it was straight to the card base! 😁😁😁

I finished off with a trio of Cloud Cover flat pearls.

I matted the panel to Gorgeous Grape, then attached it to a Thick Basic White card base.

What will you do with these colours?

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done with thm 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, 10 May 2026

Flowers Fair for Paper Players 785

JayDee's Feminine theme challenge at The Paper Players last week was really popular and the gallery was full of wonderful cards. Thank you to everyone who entered.

This week, Claire has a bright colour challenge for us.

I had a bit of a struggle with this challenge as usually, the colours kind of speak to me and let me know what they want to be. As pretty as these colours are, they weren't speaking to me this week! 😁😁😁

So I went for a floral approach and got out Flowers Fair. After stamping in Tuxedo Black, I went to colour them and discovered (remembered) that there are no Stampin' Blends for Gorgeous Grape or Coastal Cabana. But no problem because both colours (and Granny Apple Green) are all available in Coloured Pencils. It's been a while since I used my coloured pencils and it was very relaxing.

I decided it needed a bit of a pep up so I used one of the newly arrived Water and Dotted Line Decorative Masks to stencil in a watery sky with Coastal Cabana ink and a Blending Brush.

Then I trimmed the panel down using the largest of the Perennial Postage dies and matted it onto Coastal Cabana.

I'd stamped the sentiment, from Rolling Waves, in Gorgeous Grape, then cut it with a banner from Stylish Shapes. It was looking a bit lost amongst the profusion of flowers, so I added some horizontals of Linen Thread and a bow to anchor it more.

To finish off, I added a trio of Purple Shimmer Gems.

The team and I would love to see what you do with Claire's vibrant colours. Visit The Paper Players to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry.

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, 8 May 2026

Scenic Coast for As You See It 372

It's theme week at As You See It and Heather has chosen a great theme for us (in my opinion) which is 'Beach Combing.' I'm a bit biassed because I love the beach and I especially love wandering along seeing what the sea has washed up.

At first, I thought I'd get out my Shell Collecting set or maybe the Rolling Waves bundle as both would work brilliantly for this challenge - or indeed any beach themed project.

Instead, I went for a bundle from the new May-August Catalogue: Sunset Coast. Among the attention-seeking die cuts featuring silhouetted sailboats and lighthouses is a quiet little set of seashells and it was these that I wanted to concentrate on using.

I started with a piece of scenic DSP from the Scenic Coast collection. One of the other dies is a sunburst which I cut out from the paper, after backing it with adhesive sheet to make it easy to stick down.

I cut a strip from the same piece of DSP and used the reverse side to create the horizontal. I cut the net from a piece of Crumb Cake and then some shells and starfish from scraps. I clustered these, some being up on dimensionals.

Although the card base is Highland Heather, I stamped the sentiment in Gorgeous Grape on a scrap of Basic White and flagged one end before adding it, on dimensionals.

The finishing touch was the addition of a trio of Sunset Sparkle sequins. I picked these ones because the colours reminded me of paua shells.

So, what will your beachcomber card be like? We'd love to see what you do.

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

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

Sunday, 3 May 2026

Help Me Grow for The Paper Players 784

Welcome to a new week at The Paper Players. I loved Stef's sketch challenge last week and judging from the wonderful entries in the gallery, so did you! JayDee is our hostess this week and she has an interesting theme challenge for us - Feminine. Isn't it interesting that so many of us struggle with the idea of producing a 'masculine' card that we give so little thought to what makes a feminine card?

I often think when I finish a card that I'd either give it to a man or a woman - or that it's really only for a woman but without actually setting out to make a feminine card. So this challenge really made me think about what it is in a card that makes it specifically feminine.

A few things came up. Subject matter - well, flowers usually feel more feminine. Colours - soft colours especially pinks. Texture - lace and curvy patterns. Sometimes technique - watercolouring often softens colours and feel in a design. So those are the things I went with for today's card.

I'm still having my little love affair with the Help Me Grow bundle, so that's where I turned today.

I cut one pot and saucer from Barely Blush and one from Crumb Cake. I sponged them with ink and added in a tone-on-tone splatter stamp to give the pots some dimension.

All of the leaves and flowers were cut from Basic White (although I wish I'd used Fluid 100 Watercolor paper) then watercoloured them with Old Olive, Granny Apple Green, Barely Blush and Flirty Flamingo inks and a water painter.

To add some lacy (therefore feminine) texture, I used the Eyelet Blooms die, which is the April Product of the Month. Products of the month can be purchased for $11 with a qualifying order of $150 or more in the given month. Past products of the month can also be purchased, if they have not yet sold out.

The sentiment, from the retiring Sweet Jar set, is stamped in Crumb Cake and cut with a banner from Stylish Shapes. The trio of embellishments are Barely Blush dots.

The team and I would love to see your version of feminine. Visit The Paper Players to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry.

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.