Colour Inkspiration 26

Colour Inkspiration is a Facebook challenge that gives us a lovely colour palette to play fortnightly.
Here's the current challenge.

The colours and gorgeous graphic just screamed the seaside, so I got out Seaside Shore. It's been a bit neglected of late but it is a set I love.

The masked column uses all four colours. The shells/starfish are stamped in Sahara Sand and clear embossed. The seaweed was stamped in Tranquil Tide and clear embossed then I water-coloured the interior.

The fish are gold embossed and coloured with Stampin' Write markers. One is directly embossed onto the column and the other fussy cut so it could be popped up on dimensionals to give some depth.

This inside sentiment is from Seaside  Shore.

Update: Delighted to make the Top 5 at Colour Inkspiration!

Ingredients

Card: Tranquil Tide, Shimmery cardstock

Stamps: Seaside Shore, Perennial Birthday

Inks: Sahara Sand, Bermuda Bay, Emerald Envy, Tranquil Tide, versamark.

Other: gold and clear embossing powder, dimensionals, Stampin' Write markers in the three greens, aquapainter, sponges

Retro Rubber - Design Team Card

Romance is in the air at Retro Rubber Challenge this week, or at least it was for me. It's always good to have an engagement/wedding/anniversary card in the stash. This week's challenge will let you do that AND give some love to some of your old stamps.

At Retro Rubber Challenge, the rules are simple: Use a stamp that's at least a year old, tell us the approximate age of it (or them) and don't link up to more than ten challenges in total.

Use this lovely graphic to inspire you: colours, theme, patterns, shapes.... whatever you see in it that gets you wanting to create.

This card uses two older stamps. Firstly, the Brushstrokes background stamp (2015-16 Annual Catalogue) and then the very versatile Sunshine Sayings (2016-17 Annual Catalogue). Both stamp sets, along with the gorgeous Sunshine Wishes thinlits, are still current.

I chose one of the latest in-colours, Powder Pink, along with gold for this card since the inspiration photo was so pink and gold. I chose Very Vanilla as the base.

The 'love' is stacked to give it dimension and I've sponged it at the top with Powder Pink and moved through to Flirty Flamingo at the bottom. Black was too harsh for these colours, so I've used Early Espresso for the rest of the sentiment.

You have the next fortnight to join in with us at Retro Rubber Challenge and we'd love to see what you do with this gorgeous inspiration. Pop over to the site and see what the rest of the Design Team have done with it.

I am also going to enter this card into two other challenges.

Stamp, Ink, Paper 135

You can join Stamp, Ink, Paper up until 4 February

and

SU Only Challenge 193

Hearts Aplenty

You can join this challenge up until February 10

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 new Special Occasions Catalogue or the Sale-a-bration brochure 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 - all products Stampin' Up

Card: Powder Pink, Very Vanilla, Gold Foil

Stamps: Brushstrokes background stamp, Sunshine Sayings

Ink: Powder Pink, Early Espresso, Flirty Flamingo

Other: Sunshine Wishes framelits, dimensionals, sponges.

The Paper Players 378 - Design Team Card

Last week's Love Notes challenge gave us so many wonderful entries at The Paper Players and we were delighted by that. I think this week's gorgeous sketch by Nance will also be popular, since it has such scope. Pop over and see what the rest of the team did with it.

My favourite new set from the Occasions Catalogue is Petal Palette and I'm still experimenting with it. I'm equally taken by the gorgeous Petals and More framelits that go with it. They make cutting out the stamp shapes a cinch but I'm most in love with the branch of leaves and the cut work lattice.

Equally lovely are the strip embossing folders, Petal Pair. I've used one of these for the horizontal element of the sketch. I've water-coloured the spray of roses. Unusual colours but I was inspired by the irresistible colours at Just Add Ink this week.

We'd love to have you join us at The Paper Players this week. Here's a reminder of the rules of the challenge.

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!

Here are the details of the challenge at Just Add Ink and you can join up there until 10 p.m. Wednesday night (AEDT)

Update: Delighted to be an Honourable Mention at Just Add Ink this week.

Ingredients - all products from Stampin' Up

Card: Tranquil Tide, Whisper White, Crumb Cake

Stamps: Petal Palette

Inks: Tranquil Tide, Lemon-Lime Twist, Crumb Cake, Black Stazon

Other: Petals and More thinlits, Stitched Shape framelits, Petal Pair embossing folder, dimensionals, rhinestones

Freshly Made Sketches 321

A quick swim and a trip to the movies is a pretty perfect way to finish off the weekend but first, I did manage to get this card done for the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.

Perennial Birthday is another new set that I bought from the Occasions Catalogue but I'm only just starting to play with it. This challenge seemed a good chance to give it an outing.

I've been using Stampin' Blends a lot lately so decided to use my watercolour pencils and blender pen this time. I like the soft look they give. Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry blended nicely in the large bloom too.

Ingredients

Card: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Shimmery cardstock, Whisper White

Stamps: Perennial Birthday

Inks: Stazon, Tuxedo Black, Smoky Slate

Other: Watercolour pencils, dimensionals, rhinestones, blender pen

All products Stampin' Up

TGIF 144

Sometimes things are just meant to be. My classes resume next week after the summer holidays and I was in my room finishing off the samples when I came upon the challenge at TGIF: box cards.

So, it's not often that my class cards are challenge cards but this week...

The basic flower arrangement, based around Beautiful Bouquet,  is the same for each but the bases are cut in all five of the 2017-19 In-colours with Fresh Florals DSP.

I've added in a butterfly on a stem of clear window sheet, just to see how he looked. And I think he looks very fine! Sadly, since both the punch and Papillon Potpourri are retired the class ones might be sans butterflies.

Of course, doing this as a class is complete madness since to make things run more smoothly on each of the nights, I will do a lot of the stamping and die-cutting beforehand. It's just as well that my husband and I are binge-watching Vikings on Netflix during the hot summer nights - great chance to do all that Big-shotting. I'm sure my students will love doing them but I think that reason might prevail on another occasion. :-)

Ingredients
Card: Fresh Fig, Berry Burst, Lemon-Lime Twist, Tranquil Tide, Berry Burst, Fresh Florals DSP, Whisper White, window sheet
Stamps: Beautiful Bouquet, Butterfly Basics/Papillon Potpourri
Inks: Fresh Fig, Berry Burst, Lemon-Lime Twist, Tuxedo Black
Other: Layering Circle framelits, Bouquet Bunch framelits, Eclectic Layers framelits, Bitty Butterfly punch

As You See It 168 - Design Team Card

I was excited to see Amanda's sketch for the team at As You See It this week because it really got me thinking about how to play it.

I'd had Sunshine Sayings out to make a card for another design team and it was still on my desk. I got to thinking that the flower die in Sunshine Wishes would work well in this sketch.

The Powder Pink flower is the shadow image. The Melon Mambo one is layered onto a black one which is peeping out as a shadow, giving it more depth. There is clear Wink of Stella inside the petals of the blooms.

You have until Wednesday 7 February, 11.55 p.m. PST to join us at As You See It and we'd love to see how you see it.

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. Sale-a-bration is on and there's a new Special Occasion Catalogue out. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Powder Pink, Whisper White, Fresh Florals DSP

Stamps: Sunshine Sayings

Inks: Tuxedo Black

Other: Sunshine Wishes thinlits, Enamel dots, dimensionals, Pick a Pattern washi tape, clear Wink of Stella

Stamp, Ink, Paper 134

Today was our third scorching hot day in a row and in the end, I was driven from my craft room into the swimming pool. Once the heat of the day passed from extreme to bearable, I got back in to finish this card for Stamp, Ink, Paper's interesting colour challenge.

Interesting because they're similar colours which, to me, was a bit scary. I decided to play around with some ombre effects, so I've blended the three colours together over some white embossed images from Amazing You, a Sale-a-bration item that I can't get enough of. I just love those flowers!

Then I've used two inks on the sentiment. I left other embellishments out to let the colours do all the work.

I'm happy at how smoothly the colours blended together to show off the white-on-white embossing and the warm colours certainly reflected the temperature today!

Update: Delighted to be a Top Pick at Stamp, Ink, Paper this week.

Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up

Card: Calypso Coral, Whisper White

Stamps: Amazing You, Perennial Birthday

Inks: Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Berry Burst, versamark

Other: White embossing powder, sponges.

Cas(e) This Sketch 255 JAI 392

I was happy to use the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch as inspiration for today's card.

I am continuing my exploration of Petal Palette, a gorgeous set that I bought from the new Occasions catalogue. This card uses not only the stamps but also the co-ordinating dies (Petals and More) and embossing folder (Petal Pair).

This card is a rarity for me, made as it is from a single sheet of Heavy Whisper White card, with no extra layers or inserts. I have embossed straight onto the card front then picked out the design by softly (and carefully) sponging on Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz. This sponging was a technique I was shown by my upline's upline - so I guess my Stampin' Up grandmother - Pauline.

The embossing folder is just the right size to emboss the back flap of the envelope perfectly.

Since I'm playing with my new stamps, dies and - newest of all - embossing folder, I'm going to also enter at Just Add Ink's Challenge too.

Update: Delighted to get an Honourable Mention at Just Add Ink this week!

Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up

Card: Heavy Whisper White, gold foil, Whisper white

Stamps: Petal Palette

Inks: Versamark, Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz

Other: gold embossing powder, Petals and More framelits, Petal Pair embossing folder, dimensionals, metallic shapes, sponges.

The Paper Players 377 - Design Team Card

There were lots of great cards in the colour challenge last week at The Paper Players. This week, as normal, we have a Clean and Simple Challenge for you and Joanne has chosen 'Love Notes'.

Recently, I had a friend come round and we had a 'play-date' with our respective new SU gear. We'd both got an order on the same day, so got together to play with it all. Interestingly, despite both of us having big orders, we had only one item - a Sale-a-bration set - in common.

So the stamps, Heart Happiness, and the heart framelits that cut them, do not belong to me ... yet.

The card base is from Tutti-Frutti Cards and Envelopes, a Sale-a-bration item: one item with each $110 in an order. What I particularly like about them is the co-ordinating envelopes that come already lined.

We'd love to have you join us at The Paper Players this week. Here's a reminder of the rules of the challenge.

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. Sale-a-bration is on and there's a new Special Occasion Catalogue out. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand.

Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up

Card: Tutti-Frutti Card and Envelope, Crumb Cake, Whisper White

Stamps: Heart Happiness, Petal Palette (sentiment)

Inks: Pool Party, Crumb Cake

Other: Pool Party and Crumb Cake markers, Pool Party enamel shape, dimensionals.

SIP 133 and ATSAM 275

I have a son who is a musician and so when his birthday rolls around I like to make something a bit special and with a music theme. I've played around before with the idea of using acetate as a card base and this is what I've done here. There is a panel for writing on at the back of the card.

I like the way that the front of the card seems to float over the background when it's folded.

It was difficult to photograph the card sitting open as it reflected background things like a mirror from many angles!

The inspiration from this card come from the sketch at Stamp, Ink, Paper and the photo inspiration at Addicted to Stamps and More, where I was struck by the bold black and white against gold and the stripes, which were a bit like lines of music from distance.

Update: Delighted to be a Top Pick at Stamp, Ink, Paper this week.

Further Update: Delighted to be an Honourable Addict at Addicted to Stamps and More.

Ingredients - Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted

Card: Acetate, Whisper White, Basic Black, Gold foil, unknown music paper

Stamps: Sheet Music, Big on Birthdays

Inks: versamark, Smoky Slate

Other: Layering circle framelits, Stitched Shape framelits, Music Clef die (Darice), gold embossing powder.

Retro Rubber 78 - Design Team Card

Jane has some wonderful challenges for us this year and our first challenge of the year is a fantastic one: white on white with one neutral colour allowed.

The only rules for our challenges are simple: use at least one stamp that's older than a year, give us the approximate age of that stamp and don't link up to more than ten challenges.

In fact, the dies and all the stamps in this card are older than a year. Floral Phrases came out in the Annual Catalogue in 2016. Bloomin' Love stamps and dies came out in the Occasion Catalogue in 2016. I've gone for a simple but romantic occasion card.

Here's a closer view...

You can join us up until 26 January, so get out your old stamps and show them some love. We'd love to see what you do!

I'm going to enter this card at Inspire.Create Challenge where the order of the day is a love theme.

Update: Delighted to be a Runner Up at Inspire. Create this week.

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 new Special Occasions Catalogue or the Sale-a-bration brochure 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 - All products Stampin' Up

Card: Whisper White

Stamps: Floral Phrases, Bloomin' Love

Ink: Versamark

Other: Bloomin' Heart thinlits, gold embossing powder, dimensionals

The Paper Players 376 - Design Team Card

After last week's Punny Valentine Challenge at The Paper Players, we have an exciting colour challenge for you: three core colours plus one other of your choice.

I had a bit of trouble including a fourth colour but went for using some touches of copper to help accent the sentiment.

I enjoyed using a new set from the Occasions catalogue, Perennial Birthday. Apart from a number of great birthday sentiments,  the other stamps in the set are floral bits and bobs to let you build up a garden or bouquet, so I was pleased to see that it could also create a more masculine offering.

After repeat stamping HAPPY BIRTHDAY in the three colours on the background, I made a cluster for the second part of the wording. The sentiment is in Dapper Denim. There's a scalloped circle in Tranquil Tide on a copper foil circle. That's popped up on dimensionals over a pair of Everyday Labels in Eastern Palace DSP. Then there's a bit of copper metallic thread tucked in behind.

At The Paper Players, we'd love to see what you do with these colours. Here's a reminder of the few 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!

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. Sale-a-bration is on and there's a new Special Occasion Catalogue out. 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 - all products Stampin' Up

Card: Dapper Denim, Very Vanilla, Copper foil, Tranquil Tide, Eastern Palace DSP

Stamps: Perennial Birthday

Ink: Dapper Denim, Tranquil Tide, Lemon-Lime Twist

Other: Layering circles framelits, Everyday Labels punch, dimensionals, Dapper Denim enamel shape (retired), Copper metallic thread

As You See It 167 - Design Team Card

Welcome to our first 2018 challenge! We enjoyed seeing all the different ways people included some 'sparkle' into our last challenge and selecting our Top Pick and Featured Artist was tough.

Amanda has given us an interesting sketch this time around.

It seemed to me that this sketch was calling for the sentiment to be centre stage, so I used a new set, Happy Wishes. This set is one of the new Level 2 Sale-a-bration rewards, so is free with any qualifying order of $220. This is the first time I've played with it and the first choice was which of the many different combinations of words to use. In the end, 'Best Wishes' gave the most open-ended option.

First, I stamped 'best' in Lemon-Lime Twist, then daubed on some Emerald Envy on the top portion, then uses a Berry Burst marker to highlight the flowers and finally - stamped it! I coloured some of the white dots on the letters in Berry Burst to carry to colour through and added in 'wishes'.

This lovely, fresh colour combination comes from this week's challenge at Fab Friday and I will enter this card there. If you're liking these colours, there's still time to join in there too (before 18 January).

At As You See It, we like to see what you do with the challenge. You can join in with us up to 11.55 p.m. on Wednesday 24 January PST. Link up and show us how you see it!

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. Sale-a-bration is on and there's a new Special Occasion Catalogue out. 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 - all products Stampin' Up

Card: Emerald Envy, Whisper White, Fresh Floral DSP

Stamps: Happy Wishes

Inks: Emerald Envy, Lemon-Lime Twist, Berry Burst

Other: Stitched shape framelits, Lots of Labels framelits, dimensionals, Berry Burst marker, Emerald Envy enamel dots (retired), Petal Burst embossing folder.

Inkspire Me 333

I am delighted to be able to play with Inkspire Me because I loved the idea of being able to add my own colour to the neutrals.

I chose a colour that I seldom ever use - Pumpkin Pie. I found myself colouring in the flowers from Amazing You, a Sale-a-bration set, in the bright orange almost against my will!

I started with a sponged stencilled background in Smoky Slate. I stamped the flower from Amazing You in Tuxedo Black and stamped extra leaves around it. The spray is built up with Pumpkin Pie blooms, and die cuts in Smoky Slate and vellum from Bouquet Bunch framelits.

The sentiment is from Perennial Birthday, a new set from the Occasions catalogue. The Pumpkin Pie sequins are also from the Occasions catalogue and I've added a small rhinestone in the centre of them and one in the flower centre to make three.

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. Sale-a-bration is on and there's a new Special Occasion Catalogue out. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand.

Update: Utterly delighted to be the Top Pick at Inkspire Me!

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Whisper White, scraps of Smoky Slate and vellum

Stamps: Perennial Birthday, Amazing You

Inks: Smoky Slate, Tuxedo Black

Other: Stampin' Blends in Pumpkin Pie, Bouquet Bunch framelits, dimensionals, Pattern Party decorative mask, sponges, Tutti-Frutti adhesive backed sequins, rhinestones.