Seaside Wishes for As You See It 340 and Atlantic Hearts 613

 At As You See It, we had some very pretty and clever entries for our last colour challenge. As always, after a colour challenge comes a 'fill in the blank' challenge. This one asks us to consider our crafting resolution.

When I first started making cards, I was delighted to discover the world of the on-line card challenges. I had notebook where I wrote down my favourite challenges and when they came out. Each Saturday, I'd shut myself in my craft room and while away some time making entries for the ones I was most inspired by each week. 

Somewhere in the journey, much of my time now goes into  designing and prepping classes and designing projects for the various challenges I'm now on the Design Teams for. While the teams and classes are a new way of enjoying card making, entering a challenge 'just for fun' is somehow quite a different feeling. 

So my resolution is to do more 'just for no-reason' creating by entering a few more challenges as a player. 

As part of this resolution, I've not only made a 'just for no-reason' card but joined in at a challenge I've never played with before. The Atlantic Hearts Challenge is one I've seen played by a few players through other challenges, so I looked it up to see what was on offer this week. Isn't it a fun sketch?

As we're off for a family beach holiday soon, I was thinking of the beach. Here's my version of it, using the Seaside Wishes bundle - which includes a hybrid embossing folder. It makes realistic little sand dollars. While I love the sand dollars, I'm also very fond of the starfish and the lacy coral too.  I made a little cluster of sea life for the main element of the sketch. 

I used a strip of the Country Woods DSP for the horizontal line. The weather colours work well for a marine theme. I've used Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Petal Pink and Misty Moonlight for the sea life since those colours were in the DSP.  After adding it to the card front, I embossed with the Seaside Wishes hybrid embossing folder. 

The card base is Pool Party and I've added in some splashes of water in the same colour, around the focal point cluster. 

The sentiment is from Country Birdhouse, cut with the Stylish Shapes dies. The embellishments are Tinsel Gems. 

The team and I would love to see what your crafting resolution for the year is. Visit the As You See It page to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry. You can join in the challenge until Wednesday February 5, 11.59pm PST.

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 shop with me from  anywhere in New Zealand here.

Unbounded Love for The Paper Players 721

Welcome to a new week at The Paper Players. It was great to start the year with Elizabeth's bright colour challenge. I so enjoyed looking through all the great cards in the gallery. There were several I wished I'd made! I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with for this challenge.

This week, it's a Clean and Simple Challenge and our hostess this week is Jaydee.

In general, we consider a Clean and Simple card to be uncluttered with lots of open white space and minimal layering or embellishment.

This challenge threw me for two reasons. Firstly, not one stamp set I own - current, retired, Stampin' Up! or not Stampin' Up! - contained anything remotely postal. The closest I could come to was my Perennial Postage dies.

The dilemma of the dies brings me to my second reason for finding this challenge tricky. It's a CAS challenge and generally I like to limit my layering for a Clean and Simple card. I'm not entirely sure that I'd class the card I produced as being CAS. All I can really say is that it's on the cusp of CAS-ness! 😀

I solved my lack of postal stamps by making three mini-envelopes out of some 2024-2026 In Color DSP squares. Then I cut some Basic White to fit inside them. I used the Unbounded Love set to add a sentiment to the first two envelopes.

I used a die from the retired Give it A Whirl dies to cut three stitched hearts in Pretty in Pink to add to the third envelope and to scatter around the cluster.

Because the colours (Shy Shamrock and Pretty in Pink) are quite sweet, I used a Basic Gray card base to help tone them down. 

In the end, with both Valentine's Day and my wedding anniversary on the horizon, this card is going to be useful. 💕

We'd all love to see what you do with this CAS Challenge. You can see what the rest of the design team have done, and link up your 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

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

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.

Get Ready for the Creativity Abounds Floral Delight Stamp Camp!

 

Exciting times at Creativity Abounds as our next stamp camp is nearly here! This time, we're featuring the gorgeous summery suite, Floral Delight.  Each of the members of the team have put together one project for the tutorial bundle. We've all done a second project to share with you during Stamp Camp. That's 26 projects in total.

How often do you buy a suite then run out of ideas for it? Get this suite and you'll get access to all 26 projects - plus make and take kits for thirteen of them - for no extra. You can find all the details for Stamp Camp right here.

Usually on our monthly hops we give you a sneak peek of the tutorial project for the bundle(that will still happen) and then we go on to give you a bonus project and tutorial on the same theme. This time we'll  be giving you a look at what the Stamp Camp Live project is going to be. You'll learn how to make it during the Camp.

This is the project I'll be sharing with you in a Facebook Live during Stamp Camp on the weekend of February 22-23 (or recorded if you can't make it to the camp live.)

It's a slimline slider card.

It opens to reveal whatever hidden message you'd like.

And this is the card you'll receive a kit and PDF/ Video instructions for as part of the tutorial bundle. You'll receive the 13 kits from your demonstrator prior to camp starting.

Here's a sneak peek of the whole PDF/Video Tutorial bundle of projects: one from each of us in the team. 

If you live in New Zealand and would like to join the Stamp Camp, visit the link above for details, or you can message me. All that's required is that you purchase the Floral Delight Suite from me (or a demonstrator in your area who is part of the team).

Don't delay purchasing in case it sells out or there are shipping delays.

Here's the team and where they're from.

If you already have the suite but would still like to join in, simply purchase items of equivalent value from my online store. Let me know that's what you've done so I can send you the kits and your invitation. It's as simple as that. 😀

You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand here.

Follow the hop to see all the 26 projects you'll get instructions for at Stamp Camp, plus a look at the projects included in the make and take tutorial bundle.

Pretty Petals for The Paper Players 720

Welcome to a new year of challenges here at The Paper Players! I hope you are all feeling relaxed and keen to play along with us. Our hostess, Elizabeth, has started the year with a bright colour challenge.

I couldn't help but think floral with this combination. I'd recently purchased the Pretty Petals bundle from the Online Exclusives, so had a play around with it with these colours. 

The first job was to choose which pink, orange and green to use. I opted for Garden Green, Melon Mambo and Pumpkin Pie. 

The leaves and flowers are separate stamps. I started by stamping the leaves in Garden Green and adding in flowers in Melon Mambo onto Fluid 100 Water Colour Paper. Then I painted over the images with a Water Painter so that it created a kind of faux no-line watercolour.

While it was wet, I added in some touches of Pumpkin Pie to the flowers, using a drop of ink. As the flowers also have a separate die, I stamped and water-coloured a second set so I could add some popped up flowers for extra dimension.

I diluted the remainder of the Pumpkin Pie ink drop further and splattered it over the image before cutting the flowers out with one of the dies from Spotlight on Nature. I cut a different circle with the same set from Melon Mambo. 

 

I stamped the sentiment in Garden Green from the same piece of splattered water-colour paper using the banner from Stylish Shapes as well as a shadow from Pumpkin Pie. The sentiment is from Country Birdhouse.

I embossed the Garden Green card front with the Starstruck embossing folder, which is one of the free gifts you can earn with a qualifying purchase during Sale-a-bration. Isn't it a pretty folder?

The finishing touch was a trio of Peach Pie Glimmer gems.

We'd all love to see what you do with these colours. You can see what the rest of the design team have done, and link up your 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

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

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.

Darling Dinos for AYSI 339

Welcome to the first challenge of the year at As You See It! I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas and a restful New Year so are ready to head to the craft room refreshed and excited!

We're kicking off with a colour challenge from Heather C. 

It's an interesting combination of colours but as soon as I saw it, I started thinking 'dinosaurs'. Odd, I know! Perhaps it's my little love affair with the new Darling Dinos bundle....

 I started off by choosing one of the three cute dinosaurs, and some rocks, stamping them in Basic Gray and colouring them with Stampin' Blends. I used Smoky Slate, Peach Pie and Berry Burst. They were easily cut out with the bundle's dies.

I really like the way that you can easily insert different words to complete the sentiment and it's also easy to make the sentiment multi-coloured. So the start and end of the sentence were stamped in Basic Gray (one stamp) then I picked the punny 'T-rrific' and stamped it in Berry Burst. 

The label is from Nested Essentials. The embossed background is Starstruck, one of the Sale-a-bration rewards you can earn with a qualifying purchase during January and February. Lovely, isn't it?

The finishing embellishment was a trio of 2024 In Color Resin dots in Peach Pie.

I so enjoyed colouring the dinosaur that I repeated him on the inside, added in a Berry Burst mat and a birthday greeting. 

I used a Basic Gray card base because I was thinking that this would make a perfectly good masculine birthday. 

The team and I would love to see what you do with Heather's colour mix. Visit the As You See It page to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry. You can join in the challenge until Wednesday January 22, 11.59pm PST.

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 shop with me from  anywhere in New Zealand here.

Pretty Petals for Around the World on Wednesday January 2025

 

Welcome to the first hop of the new year at Around the World on Wednesday!

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. 😀

Our task this month is to present a 'this or that'. Our team leader, Angie, has given the challenge of trying something two ways. Well, I don't know about you but I often have 'this or that' moments in my making: this label die or that? this colourway or that? this sentiment or that?

This time, I was experimenting with a new bundle from the Online Exclusives section, Pretty Petals. I'd overlooked this bundle when it was first shown in preorder last year but after seeing the work of the Artisan Design Team - and particularly the work of our own team member Mikaela - it somehow made it's way into my cart. 

So, my big 'this or that' is to do with colour: a bright combination or the more subtle 2024-6 In Colors?

In each card, I did the same things, just with different colours. Using Fluid 100 Watercolor paper, I stamped the foliage, then added in the flower stamps. Using a Waterpainter, I went over the stamping to create a kind of no-line watercolour effect. Then I painted in some touches of a third colour using reinker.

I die cut out using the largest of the Perennial Postage dies and used watered down re-inker and Water Painter to add in the splatters of colour.

The sentiment is from Cheerful Daisies and the label is from the matching dies.

Finally, I added three embellishments.

Which do you prefer?

1. Subtle In Colors?

Colours: Shy Shamrock, Pretty in Pink, Peach Pie. 

Embellishments 2024-26 In Color Resin Dots.

2. More Regal and Bright?

Colours: Garden Green, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie.

Embellishments: Glossy Dots Assortment.

Isn't it amazing the difference a change in colour can make?

Keep on hopping to see what This or That the rest of the team have been experimenting with. Next up is the wonderful Leonie Stuart from Australia.

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 shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand here.

If you get lost, or want to re-visit somewhere in the hop, here's a list of all participants.

Jan Clothier - NZ - You are here

Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Cheryll Miller - AU

Ximena Morales - DE

Aurélie Fabre - FR

Annette Ball - CA

Kelly Taranto - US

Chris Smith - US

Tricia Butts - US

Theresa McEntee - US

Bree Renwick - US

Lori Willcox - CA

Teri West - US

Cake Celebrations for Colour INKspiration 180

Happy New Year! Welcome to the 180th challenge at Colour INKspiration. It's the first challenge of 2025 and will run for FIVE weeks until Monday 10 February.

Today's colour palette was chosen for us by Crew Member Brenton Golley. 

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. 

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

As Basic Beige is a colour I've not yet made friends with, this palette was a bit of a struggle to get into. However, once I decided that Beige was basically cake, it got a lot easier!

Out came the Cake Celebrations from the Online Exclusive section and play commenced. 

I cut the two tiers of cake from Basic Beige and stamped in some texture, then added some Chocolate (aka Pecan Pie) icing. A Petunia Pop cake stand stamped and die cut, as were some flowers and a cake topper and all was nearly done. 😀

I cut hexagon die from Nested Essentials and stamped over it with 'celebrate' in Basic Beige ink as a base for the cake. 

To help ground the cake cluster, I added in a strip of Petunia Pop DSP from the 2024-2026 In Color DSP stack.

The embossing folder is Starstruck, one of the Sale-a-bration items that can be earned with a qualifying purchase during January and February. Sale-a-bration details are here.

Since it didn't quite feel right not to have a 'Happy Birthday' somewhere, I added it to the inside.

We'd love to see what you do with the challenge colours. You can join the group in the following link, if you aren't already a member. Don't forget to answer the questions when you ask to join. 

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.