Wednesday 31 July 2019

The Paper Players 452

There's a great sketch at The Paper Players this week.


It seemed perfect to play around some more with Very Versailles, which is one of my favourite sets from the 2019-20 Annual Catalogue. I love the collage elements in this set. I can't decide whether the foliage or the script is my favourite image. It doesn't really matter, because I can use them both!


I found some old silver metallic ink when I was doing a tidy up of my room and used it for the script. Bad decision, as it's really hard to photograph well, although you can see it better in the closeup.
It did tie in nicely with the silver foil accents though.


If you live in New Zealand and don't have a demonstrator, I'd love to be yours and help you with ideas and to supply you with Stampin' Up! products. You can message me by leaving a comment or going to my Facebook page, linked in the side bar of this blog. Or you can click on the SHOP NOW icon in the sidebar, or any of the pictures below, if you'd like to purchase any Stampin' Up! products.

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Note: Silver ink is a non-SU product

Tuesday 30 July 2019

Retro Rubber 116 - Design Team Card

This week, it's time for my favourite kind of challenge: a Tic-Tac-Toe. Since Jane, our team leader, has let me design this week's challenge I really hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

It's very simple. Choose one line - horizontal, vertical or diagonal - and include all the elements in your card. Of course, since it's Retro Rubber you still have to make sure you use at least one stamp that's at least one year old and tell us the approximate age of it.



I've gone for the centre vertical: green, texture and nature. It was great to have an excuse to get out my favourite set from the 2018-19 Annual Catalogue, Rooted in Nature. This is such a versatile and gorgeous set that I hope it will be around for at least as long as Lovely As A Tree was. 

I think this tree image plays nicely with the Layered Leaves embossing folder, which is one of the ways I've incorporated some texture into this card.


To create this tree, I coloured directly onto the stamp using Stampin' Write markers. I used Soft Suede for the trunk and branches and a mixture of Mossy Meadow, Old Olive and Pear Pizzazz for the foliage. Then I used a Stampin' Spritzer and allowed a very fine mist to waft over the stamp. I did this a few times until I was happy with the amount of moisture: too much and the colours run together in a muddy mess but not enough and they don't blend.

I die cut the tree three times and stacked it so there'd be more height and strength to it but, in the end, put dimensionals under it as well.


The die-cut circle was sponged in Crumb Cake then overstamped using one of the stamps from Artisan Textures - another set from last year's catalogue which, like Rooted in Nature, has carried over. I chose this stamp not only to ground the tree but also to pick up on the texture from the Burlap Ribbon.

You can see what the rest of the design team have done, and enter the challenge, by visiting the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a demonstrator, I'd love to be yours and help you with ideas and to supply you with Stampin' Up! products. You can message me by leaving a comment or going to my Facebook page, linked in the side bar of this blog. Or you can click on the SHOP NOW icon in the sidebar, or any of the pictures below, if you'd like to purchase any Stampin' Up! products.

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Wednesday 24 July 2019

CI 60 Crew Card


The new challenge at Colour Inkspiration is a real beauty! If you haven't played with us before, we're a group of Australian and New Zealand Stampin' Up demonstrators. You can play with us by joining in our Facebook group here which will let you play along, comment and vote for your favourite from the top 5 selected by the crew.

At first, I thought these four colours were not natural playmates. Once I got playing with them, I began to see the way they bring out the best in each other.


I began by creating the inky background. I sponged, I blended, I spritzed, I overstamped (in Pretty Peacock, Petal Pink and Whisper White) and fully anticipated that the colours I'd draw out would be the Blueberry Bushel or the Pretty Peacock. Terracotta Tile had other ideas and ended up becoming the star colour, backed up by Pretty Peacock. I'd never have thought to put them together but they're a great couple!

Images © Stampin' Up! 1990-2019

Having used some of the stamps from Tasteful Textures in the background, I used one of the matching dies to create a window in the solid panel that holds the sentiment. The Tasteful Textures bundle is sure to be a favourite, so expect to see more of it on my blog, Facebook and Instagram.

Images © Stampin' Up! 1990-2019

I think that this card would work well as a guy thank-you, as much as for a woman.

We love to see what you do with these colours. You can see what the rest of the team have done by continuing the hop. Next up is Leonie Stuart.


If you live in New Zealand and don't have a demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas and provide you with Stampin' Up products. Message me by visiting my Facebook page  - there's a link in the sidebar of this blog. Or you can leave a comment below. You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar or clicking on any of products below will take you to my on-line store.


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