Retro Rubber Challenge 70 - DT card

Welcome to another challenge from the team at Retro Rubber, the challenge that lets you get out your old stamps for another outing. This week, we have a theme challenge for you: Back to School.

Of course, in New Zealand, it's not back to school at all. For us, it's business as usual, with only a term and half until exams. School is work as I'm the library manager in a secondary school, so naturally books and school are closely related for me! Hence the card...

One of my first on-line purchases was the Bibliophile stamps and co-ordinating dies from Papertrey Ink because it's hard for me to go past a book stamp! I got it sometime in 2015. The best bit of the set is really the reading quotations because the dies to make the book spines are large, meaning there's not that many different ways to lay them out on a card front. However, you can play around with colour and there are many different ways to combine the various reading quotes from authors as well as lots of different bits to create interesting spine designs.

The Dictionary background stamp from Stampin' Up is one of my favourites. It first appeared in the 2013-14 Annual Catalogue, although I wasn't a stamper back then.

We'd love to see what you do with this theme: maybe something bookish, maybe something mathematical, maybe something science-y, or perhaps a good luck to a student for a new year -  or even something for a beginning teacher as one of the Design Team members has done.

There's only a couple of other things to remember if you decide to play along with us.

1. Use at least one stamp that's older than a year.

2. Tell us how old that stamp is (approximately).

3. Don't link up to more than a total of ten challenges.

You have until 8 September to link up with us at Retro Rubber Challenge.

Ingredients

Card: Bermuda Bay, So Saffron, Pool Party, Whisper White

Stamps: SU Dictionary, PTI Bibliophile

Inks: Pool Party, Tuxedo Black

Other: PTI Bibliophile co-ordinating dies

The Paper Players 359 - DT card

Welcome to another challenge from The Paper Players. This week, we have a sketch to get your mojo going.

I liked this sketch so much that I made two cards for it and have spent most of the morning deciding which one I liked the most! In the end, it was this one with the bokeh background that won the day. The other was a Christmas card and it seemed just too soon for that!

The dragonfly has Wink of Stella wings and some rhinestone back dots and is sitting on a bed of silver metallic thread, atop a vellum circle.

We'd love you to join us at The Paper Players. If you do, please remember these simple 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. Entries linked to more than 4 challenges, including ours, will be deleted without notification.
5. Have fun!

If you'd like to play along with us, get your entry in by Friday September 1, noon PST. We'd love to see what you do with this sketch.

This card was also inspired by the colour challenge at Global Design Project.

If you hurry, you might just sneak in there before the deadline too!

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a demonstrator, please contact me. I'd love to help you out with ideas and Stampin' Up supplies. You can reach me through messaging me on my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog, or by leaving me a comment below.

Ingredients
Card: Night of Navy, Bermuda Bay, Shimmery white cardstock, Whisper White, vellum

Stamps: Dragonfly Dreams, Lift Me Up

Inks: Night of Navy, Flirty Flamingo, Bermuda Bay, White craft ink

Other: Silver metallic thread, sponge dauber and mask, SSS curved stitched die, dimensionals, Layering Circle framelits, Detailed Dragonfly thinlits, clear Wink of Stella, rhinestones.

As You See It 157 - DT card

This week's challenge at As You See It is just so very pretty, I can't wait to see what everyone does with it! Last week's colour challenge drew such a diverse set of entries and they were wonderful. A small but select gallery and one that was very difficult to choose a winner from!

I enjoyed using it to give my brand new acquisition Oh So Eclectic and matching dies as well as using the wonderful new In-Colours from Stampin' Up.

I thought it looked pretty in the catalogue but my word... in real life it is utterly gorgeous. I look forward to making many more things with this set.

So please, join us in the sketch challenge and show us how you see it. 

You have until 11.55 p.m. Wednesday September 6, PST.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. You can message me through my Facebook page, linked on the sidebar of this blog or you can leave me a comment below.

Ingredients

Card: Berry Burst, Whisper White, Powder Pink

Stamps: Oh So Eclectic, Thoughtful Banners

Inks: Tranquil Tide, Berry Burst, Lemon-Lime Twist

Other: Eclectic Layers thinlit dies, Glitter enamel shapes,  Clear faceted gems, dimensionals

The Paper Players 358 - DT card

Last week's summery colour challenge at The Paper Players certainly threw up a whole range of projects from flowers to caravans and they were all a delight to look at. This week, we have a theme challenge for you.

Colouring any image - so many choices! As I'd used my favourite colouring stamps recently (Best Birds and Butterfly Basics) I turned to my pre-order box of goodies. Out came Beachy Little Christmas. Perfect for those of us who live in warm climates or like me, live somewhere where Christmas is mid-summer. This will be available for order after 1 September, from the new Stampin' Up Holiday Catalogue. There are several images but I liked this beach-ornamented Christmas Tree for my first experiment.

For this, I used blender pens and ink to colour the tiny ornaments and the bucket. I stamped the shells, also part of the set, then coloured them, over-stamped them with a darker splatter and fussy cut them to add in under my tree. I used the fine splatter stamp from Touches of Texture for my 'sand' and for the shells.

Since my box also held some mini-sequin trim, I used a bit of that under the sentiment and pulled a few off the string to put in the centre of the round baubles on the tree.

There are just a few rules to remember if you're joining us at The Paper Players. 

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. Entries linked to more than 4 challenges, including ours, will be deleted without notification.
5. Have fun!

I enjoy seeing everyone's creations, so please join in.

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a demonstrator, please contact me. I'd love to help you out with ideas and Stampin' Up supplies. You can reach me through contacting me on my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog, or by leaving me a comment below.

Ingredients - All products Stampin' Up

Card: Pool Party, Crumb Cake, So Saffron, Shimmery white cardstock, Whisper White

Stamps: Beachy Little Christmas, Touches of Texture

Inks: Garden Green, Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Cherry Cobbler, So Saffron

Other: Seaside embossing folder,  blender pen, Burlap ribbon, Gold mini-sequin trim, dimensionals, Metallic enamel shape

Retro Rubber Challenge 69 - DT card

This week at The Retro Rubber Challenge, we have a great sketch challenge for you. It's a great sketch because it's got an interesting asymmetric element but still has lots of open space that lets you do pretty much whatever you want with it.

One of the nicest things about Retro Rubber Challenge is that you get a chance to go re-introduce yourself to all your old favourites. One of my favourite sets is Butterfly Basics (2015 Occasions) and my favourite background stamp is Dictionary (2013-14 Annual) and this card uses both of them. I've used Timeless Textures (2016 Occasions) to give texture to the card base and I like the way it makes it looks antiqued. The sentiment is from Thoughtful Banners (2016-17 Annual)

I used an aqua-painter to colour the floral image. After I'd stamped the background in Smoky Slate, I lightly distressed the edge and stamped the net around two sides.

As always with Retro Rubber, there are just a couple of simple rules. You must use at least one stamp that is older than a year. You must give us an approximate age for your stamp and you must link to no more than ten challenges in total.

We'd love to see what you make of this challenge and you have until August 25 to join us.

This card was also inspired by the challenge at House of Cards this month: to use a floral image and/or the colour palette. The colour palette was the basis for the card as well as the floral image.

Ingredients

Card: Elegant Eggplant, Smoky Slate, Perfect Plum, Whisper White

Stamps: Butterfly Basics, Dictionary, Timeless Textures, Thoughtful Banners

Inks: Smoky Slate, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive

Other: Elegant Eggplant enamel dot, Elegant Eggplant Stamp'n'write, dimensionals

The Paper Players 357 - DT card

Last week, I was stunned by the wonderful entries in our Great Outdoors Challenge. It was very hard to pick a winner! This week, we have a bright and cheery colour challenge for you and I'm keen to see what everyone does with it.

During the week, I got a box of goodies from Stampin' Up, so I was really keen to start playing with some of my new things. First out of the box was Lovely Inside and Out, bundled with the Lovely Words thinlits. The summery colours got me thinking of the beach and the stylised floral images in the stamp set got me thinking of the flowers on the pohutukawa tree, so often seen on the coast around Christmas time.

It's great the way that the thinlits co-ordinate with the Layering Oval framelits. I cut the word out of the white card base, then an oval out of the card front that had been stamped with the Hardwood background stamp. On a separate piece of Bermuda Bay, I cut the word 'friend' out again and this time used the oval framelit to cut it out with a border. I've layered those three pieces together, which gave some extra strength to the cut out and gave a wee white outline shadow to the Bermuda Bay 'friend'.

When it's shut, it looks like this:

If you'd like to join us at The Paper Players, there are a few simple rules to keep in mind.

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. Entries linked to more than 4 challenges, including ours, will be deleted without notification.
5. Have fun!

Pop over to The Paper Players and see the inspiration from other members of the design team to help get your ideas flowing.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral

Stamps: Harwood, Lovely Inside and Out

Inks: Bermuda Bay, Calypso Coral, Pear Pizzazz

Other: Lovely Words thinlits,  Layering Oval framelits, dimensionals

CAS(E) This Sketch 234

I love this sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.

I'm certainly going to file it for future reference, although I think that anyone who knows me would be hard pressed to believe that I made this card. Very seldom do I use so much designer paper as I much prefer unadulterated space or backgrounds that I've stamped or sponged, or created in some other way, myself. In this case though, the ingredients seemed to call each other in that mystical way that craft ingredients sometimes do.

The Lovely Inside and Out set and matching thinlits only arrived at my house earlier this week. I almost didn't get them but I've now made two things with them. After the second date with them, I think I'm falling in love! 

The Berry Burst has played nicely with Copper. I toyed with adding more touches of copper such as metallic thread or copper embossing, or some Berry Burst ribbon, into the sentiment but decided not to as I like the starkness of it contrasting with the busy background.

Ingredients

Card: Berry Burst, Whisper White, Copper foil, Fresh Florals DSP

Stamps: Lovely Inside and Out

Ink: Berry Burst

Other: Lovely Words thinlit dies, Layering Circles framelits, Glitter enamel dots, dimensionals

Freshly Made Sketches 300

I'm so happy to finally get a quiet day in the craft room, especially since my box of wonderful goodies from the Holiday Catalogue preorder arrived during the week. That's one of the benefits of joining as a Demonstrator - early access to new catalogue items.

I was drawn to the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. It's not only a great sketch but a pretty big milestone for the team there - 300 sketch challenges under their collective belts! Congratulations and a big thanks to them for constantly coming up with interesting and diverse challenges for the rest of us to enjoy.

So, pretty much everything in this card is from the forthcoming Holiday Catalogue, except the Whisper White card, the metallic gold thread, the gold embossing powder and the metallic enamel shapes. The rest is from a super suite called Year of Cheer, which includes stunning white and metallic papers, a versatile stamp set and lots of interesting embellishments. 

There's even a new colour foil card, Champagne, that will be available after 1 September. I've used it in this card. At first glance, in this photo, it might look silver but it's actually a warm, soft colour somewhere between gold and silver. 

I couldn't resist tucking in some gold thread around the sentiment to echo the lovely scribbly circle stamp, even though I know less is more.

This card is really the result of my first play with some of the delicious products in the Holiday Catalogue. Make sure you contact your demonstrator so you don't miss out on one - ordering begins on 1 September. 

If you live in New Zealand and you don't have a demonstrator, please contact me by clicking on the link to my Facebook page on the sidebar and messaging me, or you can leave a comment. I'd love to be your demonstrator.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Champagne foil card, Year of Cheer Specialty DSP

Stamps: Cheers to the Year

Ink: versamark

Other: Year of Cheer embellishments, foil snowflake, metallic gold thread, gold embossing powder, metallic shapes

As You See It 156 - DT card

Welcome to another challenge at As You See It. Our last challenge - how to restore your mojo - produced some great cards and some even better ideas on what to do when your mojo deserts you.
This week, we have a striking colour challenge for you.

Interesting colours, are they not? At first, I was a bit stumped about what to do with them as they're a bit out of my comfort zone but that's the point of a challenge!

Sitting on my desk was the Beautiful Bouquet bundle I recently purchased. I've been trying it out in different ways but I'd not yet made a bunch of flowers with it. I wasn't even sure these colours would make a bunch of flowers but it turns out they do.

I'd overlooked the teeny tag and the various words that fit it which are part of this set. I like the little 'for you' and I'll leave the inside unstamped at this time because I think this is a card that could have a lot of uses: birthday, thank-you, get well or even congratulations.

We'd love to see how you see this set of colours. You can join us over the next fortnight up until 11.55 p.m. Wednesday 23 August PST.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. You can ask questions or shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand. Click on the link to my Facebook page in the sidebar of this blog.

Ingredients

Card: Real Red, Lemon-Lime Twist, Whisper White

Stamps: Beautiful Bouquet

Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Real Red, Lemon-Lime Twist

Other:  Bouquet Bunch framelits, Pattern Party decorative masks, Real Red baker's twine, Garden Trellis embossing folder, sponges, dimensionals

All products Stampin' Up.

The Paper Players 356 - DT card

There were so many stunning cards in last week's Tic Tac Toe challenge that choosing a Cut Above was difficult. I'm sure there will be many more fabulous entries in this week's theme challenge at The Paper Players.

I'm not a camping or hunting kind of person but I do like to watch the stars. When we were in Tahiti recently, my husband and I spent a bit of time lounging at night, just watching the stars. There was so little ambient light that they were magnificent.

In New Zealand, a major constellation is the Southern Cross. It, and the two 'pointers' Alpha and Beta Centauri, are on our flag. So in this card, I wanted to show the Southern Cross across the Milky Way because it's such an icon of home.

I also love to play with sponging, masking, spritzing, smooshing and all those kind of things so this is where all those ideas ended up...

I wanted to give a sense of the grandeur of the night sky which is why the trees are small and lead into the distance. That grand sweep of night sky, dwarfing the world below it, created a sense of isolation which is why the sentiment is what it is.

As you change the angle you view this card, the night sky changes. Sometimes the Cross and Pointers merge into the background of the Milky Way more than from other views, which I like.

In this photo, you can see a little better how this sky was created. I've masked out the constellation using peel-off stars before sponging on a mix of colours. Then there's some water spritzing and some stamping with silver ink using a texture stamp before removing the peel-off stars. I only wish I had a better variety of sizes to get the constellation looking more accurate but I think anyone from New Zealand or Australia would recognise it anyway.

We'd love to see what you do with this Great Outdoors theme challenge over the next week.

There's just a few simple rules to remember:

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.Entries linked to more than 4 challenges, including ours, will be deleted without notification.
5. Have fun!

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a demonstrator, you can contact me to shop with me or ask questions, by clicking on the link to my Facebook page in the sidebar. I'd love to hear from you.

Ingredients

Card: Night of Navy, Perfect Plum, Whisper White, Basic Black

Stamps: Timeless Textures, Thoughtful Banners, Thoughtful Branches (retired)

Inks: Perfect Plum, Island Indigo, Elegant Eggplant, Night of Navy, Silver versafine (non SU), Tuxedo Black

Other: Peel-off stars (non SU), metallic shapes, dimensionals, sponges

All products Stampin' Up unless indicated

Retro Rubber 68 - DT card

Thanks for joining us for another challenge at Retro Rubber: the challenge that lets you ink up the stamps in your stash more than a year old. This time, Jane has given us a colour challenge.

So, the challenge is simple: make a card using the colours inspired by this photo, use a stamp that is at least a year old, tell us approximately how old that stamp is and don't link up to more than ten challenges in total.

I was struck by the greens, the red, white and pink and also by the sense of light and airiness.

The sentiment is from Happy Birthday, Everyone which was a host stamp set from the 2015-16 catalogue. Flowering Fields is from from Sale-a-bration in 2016.

The Real Red strip across the bottom is embossed with the new Garden Trellis folder.

I don't often use ribbon and especially not bows but this card just seemed to call for one, so I've used Real Red cotton ribbon to give it one.

You have until August 11 to join us. We'd love to see what you do!

Ingredients

Card: Garden Green, Whisper White, Real Red

Stamps: Happy Birthday Everyone, Flowering Fields

Inks: Garden Green, Old Olive, Real Red, Blushing Bride (Stampin' Write markers), Tuxedo Black

Other: Garden Trellis embossing folder, Real Red Cotton ribbon