Saturday 30 December 2017

Freshly Made Sketches 318

The quiet time between Christmas and New Year isn't so quiet with a number of family birthdays but there was time to get in to play the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.


The first thing I have bought from the Occasions Catalogue, live on 3 January, is this set called Petal Palette. It has a co-ordinating set of thinlits, Petals and More. It offers many sentiments and lots of possibilities with its watercolour style stamps and gorgeous die cuts.






If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. If you would like a copy of the forthcoming Special Occasions Catalogue and don't have a demonstrator, then contact me. You can message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

Ingredients
Card: Old Olive, Whisper White, copper foil
Stamps: Petal Palette
Inks: Old Olive, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, versamark, Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake
Other: Petals and More thinlits, copper embossing powder, dimensionals, Stitched Oval framelits, rhinestones, Old Olive Stampin' Blend to tint the rhinestones.





Friday 29 December 2017

As You See It 166 - Design Team Card

Welcome to the final challenge of the year at As You See It. We finish up on a theme challenge, with lots of possibilities: Sparkle.



My 'sparkle' is in the glimmer paper and in the hope a sparkle in the eye of the recipient.


The stars of the show in this card are the amazing Celebrate You thinlits from Stampin' Up's Saleabration catalogue. The Amazing You stamp set is a standard Saleabration item, available free with any $110 spent. The gorgeous thinits are a special item - available free with any $220 purchase - and even better, they will be available for purchase in the next Annual Catalogue. The 'You' and 'amazing' are part of the set - there's also 'celebrate' in another font. The double sided adhesive sheets make adhering the die cut words so easy.


You have until Wednesday 10 January, 11.55 p.m. PST to join us. We'd love to see how you see this challenge!

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

Ingredients - all items Stampin' Up
Card: Dapper Denim, Whisper White, Silver glimmer paper, Color Theory DSP stack
Stamps: Amazing You
Ink: Tuxedo Black
Other: Celebrate You thinlits, multipurpose adhesive sheets

Saturday 23 December 2017

Last minute Santa - TGIF 139

It's a great challenge for this time of the year from TGIF - last minute Santa.


The cards are done, my classes are done, the presents are bought. Time to think now about Christmas Day. Family members are coming to lunch so I wanted something festive for the table. Last night, I whipped up these faux crackers as table favours: an old design but a great one. They look lovely in the Year of Cheer specialty paper, with a touch more glitz coming from foil snowflakes cut with a die from Seasonal Layers.




Update: Happy to be the winner at TGIF Challenge!

Ingredients
Card: Year of Cheer Specialty DSP, Whisper White; gold, champagne and copper foil
Stamp: Merry Patterns
Ink: Gold versafine
Other: Seasonal Layers dies, envelope punch board, silver and gold cord (retired), mini-dimensionals.

Wednesday 20 December 2017

Colour Inkspiration 24

This week is insanely busy but the gorgeous colours on offer at Colour Inkspiration called to be played with.


Despite the Christmas vibe of the inspiration photo, I'm just over Christmas cards so turned to Oh So Eclectic instead. A supply of birthday cards is always good to have.


I really love the distressed leaf stamp that's part of this set all by itself but for this card, I stamped it with Pool Party, then lightly daubed the bottom edges and centre with Tranquil Tide for more variation.


The main flower and the sentiment are popped up on dimensionals.


This is a lovely colour combination and I like the calm, restful feel they create when put together.

Update: Delighted to be the winner at Colour Inkspiration with this card.

Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up
Card: Pool Party, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Tranquil Tide
Stamps: Oh So Eclectic, Big on Birthdays
Inks: Pool Party, Tranquil Tide, Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler
Other: Eclectic layers thinlits, dimensionals, clear faceted gem, Tranquil Tide Stamp'n'Write marker.



Saturday 16 December 2017

As You See It 165 - Design Team Card


Welcome to the penultimate challenge of 2017 at As You See It Challenge. It's hard to know where the year has gone - but I do know where it's going. Christmas, you say? Sure. New Year? Sure. But with the New Year comes the Special Occasions catalogue and Saleabration! I've used one of the forthcoming product suites, Petal Palette,  for Amanda's lovely sketch.




The watercolour style stamps in Petal Palette lend themselves to colouring in any medium but I have used the new alcohol markers, Stampin' Blends, which are also available in the Special Occasions catalogue.


I'm sure you know by now that I'm not a huge user of Designer Paper, but I couldn't resist the black and white patterns in the Petal Passion DSP stack. These too can be coloured.



It comes with a whole lot of sentiments in this funky font. I think I'm also going to get a lot of use from the dotty background stamp that's part of the set too. And look at that lacy die cut, part of the Petals and More thinlit dies.


Join us in this sketch challenge and show us how you see it.

Remember also that this blog will shortly be changing its name to Thinking Stamping. If you follow me by email - thank you - and you will be automatically redirected to this blog. If you lose it, you'll find me at www.thinkingstamping.co.nz

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

Ingredients
Card: Basic Black, Whisper White, Calypso Coral, Petal Passion DSP
Stamps: Petal Palette (available 3 January)
Ink: Tuxedo Black. Stampin' Blends in Old Olive and Calypso Coral (light and dark)
Other: Petals and More thinlits, White baker's twine, dimensionals, rhinestones.




Wednesday 13 December 2017

Fab Friday 127 Free for All


Fab Friday is having a Free For All party. Hopefully, that includes not-cards!


Many years ago, I worked at a school where a lot of us patched and quilted. One of the others started a Christmas decoration group. Now, nearly 30 years later and even though we're all scattered around, we get together near Christmas and exchange decorations over a lovely lunch at one of our homes.

Over the years, we've diversified into different crafts and interests. For many years, I made different angels. Then, I went through an embroidery stage, making various cross-stitch, hardanger and blackwork decorations. I even had a brief flirtation with beading. Some of the others always work in felt. One woman loves to make 3D stuffed creations so often makes gorgeous things like tiny teddies in Christmas fabrics, complete with mini-button joints. Our trees are an eclectic mix of handcrafted decorations. 

Some years, the decorations are quick makes. Sometimes they're labour intensive, taking two or three hours per item. It's the same for the whole group depending on the idea we've had - and that's always a closely guarded secret! We take along our seven of the same decoration and come home with a basket with seven different ones.

This year, it's been a quick make but I'm pleased with how they've turned out.



I really like the way the checked paper has made such a fabulous pattern when it's made into a circle.


Regular readers - don't forget that shortly, this blog will be re-named Thinking Stamping. Don't be alarmed. If you follow me by email, you will automatically be re-directed to the new address www.thinkingstamping.co.nz

Ingredients
Card: Year of Cheer DSP, Copper and gold foil
Dies: Seasonal Layers thinlit dies
Other: Clear and gold faceted gems, scoring board, circle dies, metallic thread, hot-glue gun

Sunday 10 December 2017

The Paper Players 374 - Design Team card

It's hard to believe that the end of the year is almost on us. This is the last Paper Players challenge for 2017. Look for a new challenge on 7 January 2018 but we end 2017 on a rich and vibrant colour challenge from Claire.


I'm rapidly approaching mid-summer and my roses are still surviving the heat and dry - just - but these colours brought them to mind. So, I got out an old favourite, Birthday Blooms.


I've black embossed them on watercolour paper and used inks and an aquapainter to colour them in. 


The other inspiration for this card came from the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.


Update: Very happy to get an Honourable Mention at Cas(e) This Sketch.


Why not put aside some quiet time in the busy season and join us for our final challenge of 2017?

There are only a couple of things 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 anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

If you live in New Zealand and you would like to join my Stampin' Up team, message me for a chat. And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand.

Ingredients
Card: Garden Green, watercolour paper, scrap of Basic Black
Stamps: Birthday Blooms, Thoughtful Branches
Inks: versamark, Garden Green, Lemon-Lime Twist, Powder Pink, Melon Mambo
Other: white and black embossing powder, aquapainter, metallic shapes, clear Wink of Stella for the flower centres.
All products Stampin' Up.







Some Blog changes and FMS 316


If you are a subscriber to my blog, and  I thank those many of you who are, you will start to notice some changes in the next week or two.

The name of this blog will be changing from Scrapbooking Stuff to Thinking Stamping.

The title in the header will change. 

The blog address has already changed to www.thinkingstamping.co.nz but if you follow me by email you will have been redirected there, probably without you even noticing!

If you would like to email me, my new address is jan@thinkingstamping.co.nz.

Again, I do appreciate that many of you have chosen to follow me by email. Thank you all so much!

Since I'm making this post, a thanks card seemed appropriate. I'm piggybacking my second card for  Freshly Made Sketches 316 here but you will have read about it in yesterday's post here.

You'll remember this fabulous sketch.


And you'll also recall the panel made by swooshing ink pads directly onto paper that resulted in this card.


Ingredients
Card: Melon Mambo, Garden Green, Whisper White, Basic Black, Lemon-Lime Twist (for the letter shadows)
Stamps: Thoughtful Banners
Inks: Melon Mambo, Lemon-Lime Twist, Powder Pink, versamark
Other: White embossing powder, Small Letter framelits, dimensionals

Saturday 9 December 2017

Freshly Made Sketches 316

Today was a day of experimenting and at the end of it, a strange thing had happened: I'd made two cards , each with a completely different feel, from the same sketch. I don't think I've ever done that before. The inspiration came from the super sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.


So, the first experiment was with the new Stampin' Blends alcohol markers. I had Birthday Blooms our for another card and it's such a lovely set that I couldn't help but ink it up again.


The Stampin' Blends go on so well, blend so easily and are available in great colours. I'm still learning how to drive them but wow - I'm enjoying them!


Ingredients
Card: Pool Party, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Basic Black
Stamps: Birthday Blooms, Thoughtful Branches
Inks: versamark, Tuxedo Black 
Other: Stampin' Blends, white embossing powder, dimensionals, clear faceted gem

The second card also came about today while I was mucking around with applying ink straight onto the paper. A swooshing kind of motion gives some interesting effects. I ended up with a panel that looked useable, so I made it up using the same sketch.


Ingredients
Card: Melon Mambo, Garden Green, Whisper White, Basic Black, Lemon-Lime Twist (for the letter shadows)
Stamps: Thoughtful Banners
Inks: Melon Mambo, Lemon-Lime Twist, Powder Pink, versamark
Other: White embossing powder, Small Letter framelits, dimensionals


Wednesday 6 December 2017

Retro Rubber 77 - Design Team card

This week at Retro Rubber Challenge, we have a Christmas colour challenge for you.
All you have to do is design a card that uses some, or all, of the colours in the picture plus make sure that you use stamps that are at least a year old and tell us their approximate age.



I'm not sure when Lovely as a Tree came out but it's been in every Stampin' Up catalogue I've ever seen.


The stars and the sentiment are from Holly Jolly Greetings which came out in the year before last's Holiday catalogue.

We'd love to have you join us in the Christmas challenge, our last for 2017.
Just remember - use the colours, use a stamp older than a year, tell us how old (approximately) and don't link up to more than ten challenges in total.

Ingredients
Card: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, silver glimmer paper
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Holly Jolly Greetings
Inks: Garden Green, Island Indigo, silver, Tuxedo Black
Other: sponges, silver cording trim (retired), Softly Falling embossing folder, Cherry Cobbler enamel shape, dimensionals




Sunday 3 December 2017

The Paper Players 373 - Design Team card

It's hard to believe it's already December but here at The Paper Players, we're getting right into the swing of it with Laurie's theme challenge.


This challenge really was a challenge when I hunted through my stash and found not one scrap of paper or stamp that was remotely related to Christmas baking: not a mince pie, Christmas pudding, gingerbread man or pavlova to be seen! Not even a candy cane!

So, that got me to actual Christmas baking and how to present it as a gift. That I could have a go at!

Stampin' Up's cute pizza boxes came to the rescue. After cutting out a window from the top and decorating it up, this what I ended up with. 


The box held nine pieces of Cranberry and Pistachio Nougat perfectly. I'd like to say it was made by love by me but time constraints meant it was made with love by someone else.


To go with it, I made a 3x3 card and also decorated the envelope. I stamped the sentiment in Real Red, then overstamped in Versamark. I rubbed some of the Versamark off with a baby wipe. After adding the powder, I used a paint brush to brush off any other areas I wanted to remain red. I used the same method for the sentiment on the envelope.


We'd love to have you join us in this sketch challenge. If you do, there's just a couple of things 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 anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. If you live in New Zealand and you would like to join my Stampin' Up team, message me for a chat. And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand.

Ingredients
Card: Cheers to the Year DSP, Gold Foil, Whisper White, Pizza box
Stamps: Merry Little Labels, Labels to Love, Oh what fun (envelope)
Inks: Real Red, versamark
Other: Gold embossing powder, Layering circle framelits, gold mini-sequin trim, dimensionals, Seasonal Layers thinlits, clear faceted gems.

All products Stampin' Up.

CAS Colours and Sketches 251

Today's card was inspired by the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches.



The centre panel is sponged gently in Tranquil Tide, Lemon-Lime Twist and Berry Burst then I've given it a very light bokeh effect layer with a circular mask and white pigment ink.


After inking the sentiment in Tuxedo Black, I re-stamped it with versamark, added powder and removed it from the spots I wanted to leave black. The final touch was to add in some gold glimmer stars die cut from the mini-treat bag framelit set. The centre panel is popped up on dimensionals.

Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up
Card: Tranquil Tide, Lemon-Lime Twist, Whisper White
Stamps: Big on Birthdays
Inks: Tranquil Tide, Berry Burst, Lemon-Lime Twist, white pigment ink, Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Other: sponges, circle masks cut into window sheet, gold embossing powder, dimensionals.


Friday 1 December 2017

As You See It 164 - Design Team Card


This week at As You See It, we have a very pretty colour combination. The graphic made me think of a pastel Christmas but that one didn't quite work out as well as I'd hoped!


So for my second go-round, I went for a summery birthday card. I started by making a bokeh panel using the three challenge colours.


Using Happy Birthday, Gorgeous, I made some balloons using Pacific Point and Pool Party. The were popped up on dimensionals and then I scattered some Flirty Flamingo enamel stars to add some more festive notes.


You can join us in this challenge any time up to 11.55 p.m. Wednesday 13 December PST.
We'd love to see how you see these colours.

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. If you live in New Zealand and you would like to join my Stampin' Up team, message me for a chat.

Ingredients
Card: Pacific Point, Whisper White, Shimmery cardstock, scrap of Pool Party
Stamps: Happy Birthday Gorgeous
Inks: Pacific Point, Pool Party, Flirty Flamingo, White pigment ink
Other: Balloon punch, dimensionals, sponges, Flirty Flamingo enamel shapes, mask for bokeh.
All products Stampin' Up