Thinking Stamping: December 2021

Friday 10 December 2021

Snowflake Wishes for AYSI 265

It's hard to believe that we're about to launch the last challenge of the year! I hope 2022 brings you all a happier and healthier year than this one.

We're finishing on a fun note. It's time for our beloved (and feared) Speed Challenge.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create a card with a snowflake theme in UNDER TEN MINUTES.

To be clear, the ten minutes does not include thinking time, getting out your gear or clean up. You can block up your stamps, set up your die cut machine, plug in the heat tool and lay out your papers. However, once you take a cut or ink up a stamp, the clock has to start.

I've gone for a simple black and gold combination - not so wise because metallics are so hard to photograph well - but I like the result.

I cut a piece of Brushed Metallic cardstock and embossed it with the Tasteful Textile embossing folder. I die cut the large snowflake from So Many Snowflakes out of the Basic Black card front so that the embossed gold peeked through.

Then I added another die cut snowflake in Brushed Metallic gold and a smaller one in Basic Black. The sentiment is gold embossed.

I finished up with some Gilded Gems.

Total time taken: 8 minutes 52 seconds.

We'd love to see what you do with this challenge. Visit the As You See It Challenge site to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry.

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 by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar or on any of the products below.

Product List

Snowflake Wishes Photopolymer Stamp Set (English)

[158267]

$55.00

So Many Snowflakes Dies

[153560]

$76.00

Basic Black A4 Card Stock

[121688]

$18.50

Brushed Metallic Cardstock

[153524]

$32.00

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$20.00

Metallics Embossing Powders

[155555]

$38.00

Tasteful Textile 3 D Embossing Folder

[152718]

$19.00

Gilded Gems

[152478]

$14.75

Wednesday 8 December 2021

Dressed to Impress (with a little help) for Around the World on Wednesday Inspiration Hop

Welcome to the latest Inspiration Hop from Around the World on Wednesday. In case you haven't visited us before, we hop on the second Wednesday of the month, with a theme to inspire you in your craft rooms. We're 'Around the World' because the team includes people from all the markets Stampin' Up! is available in. I'm here in New Zealand then there's people from Australia, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Canada and the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii). Here we all are....

Each month, we have a theme. This month, it's one with many interpretations: Something Old, Something New. Demonstrator Preorders for the January-June 2022 Catalogue opened on December 1 but my order hasn't arrived yet, so I can't share with you the great pleasure of mixing up new products with existing ones. I'll have to save that for another time!

Instead, my mind wandered down the path of recycling. As a former Teacher-Librarian, I often fossick around second hand book shops, Jumble sales and library discard sales. It's amazing what gems you can pick up for a few cents. One such book was A History of Fashion by J Anderson Black and Madge Garland, with updates and revision by Frances Kennett published in 1985 by Orbis. It already had some pictures cut out of it and that, along with its age, is probably why it ended up in the discarded book sale. I've used it before, sometimes just using text, but today I picked out three pages to use with the Dressed to Impress stamp set.

Originally, I intended to use more of the stamp images but decided to let the pages speak for themselves and used the images from the set on the inside of the cards instead.

This first card used a facsimile of an advertisement for bustles. I mounted it on Basic Black and added a strip of text from the page to make it up to the size of the card front. Amazingly, the ad matched Pale Papaya perfectly - one of the 2021-2023 In Colours.

I like that such an outdated fashion item underscores the truth of the sentiment. I've used Tasteful Labels and Layering Circles dies. Some Matte Black dots finished things off nicely.

The second card uses much the same idea: an image that shows old-fashioned style in order to highlight the value of the sentiment. In this case, the image was so pretty, it was just a case of using new products to bring out the best of it. Amazingly again, the touches of lavender in the image matched another of the 2021-2023 In Colours: Fresh Freesia. I used Basic Gray for the base. The Fresh Freesia mat was embossed with the Tasteful Textile embossing folder. I broke out the Fresh Freesia ribbon to pick up on the very feminine feel of the image and a few 2021-2023 In Colour Jewels finished it off.

The third card in the set is based around this very stylish image of a 1950s New Look Dior cocktail dress. So lovely was it, that it needed very little done to it! I left some lines of text at the bottom of the image to keep a reminder of the origins of this image: a book that had been thrown out.

The Painted Texture embossing folder picked up the texture of the tulle underskirt and a plain white-on-black sentiment, along with three Elegant Faceted Gems were all that was needed.

Marrying up pages from old books with current products is one way to very easily create unique cards: most times, there's only one image in the book so it can only be used once!

I choose the images or portions of text then let the words and colours dictate how the card will turn out. I've got a retro 1950s science book with some great illustrations of the solar system that I think will work well with Stellar Birthday to play around with next. And, of course, the fashion book has many more pages... and I've got a book of hand-painted bird images to move onto - all bought for cents and saved from the rubbish heap.

Next up on the hop is the ever fabulous Leonie Stuart. Visit to see how she's interpreted the idea of "Something Old, Something New."

If you get lost along the way, here's a blog roll- with links - to help you get back on track.

Jan Clothier - NZ - You are here

Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Cheryll Miller - AU

Danielle Kassing - NL

Aurélie Fabre - FR

Mikaela Titheridge - UK

Elaine de Montmorency - CA

Sharon Hashimoto Burkert - US

Teri West - US

Cheryl Hamilton - US

Product List

Dressed To Impress Photopolymer Stamp Set (English)

[158321]

$38.00

Pale Papaya A4 Cardstock

[155669]

$18.50

Basic Gray A4 Card Stock

[121689]

$18.50

Fresh Freesia A4 Cardstock

[155614]

$18.50

Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad

[149165]

$15.75

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$20.00

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

[132708]

$12.00

Tasteful Labels Dies

[152886]

$65.00

Layering Circles Dies

[151770]

$69.00

Fresh Freesia 3/8" (1 Cm) Open Weave Ribbon

[155615]

$14.75

Elegant Faceted Gems

[152464]

$15.75

Matte Black Dots

[154284]

$14.75

2021–2023 In Color Jewels

[155571]

$14.75

Basics Embossing Powders

[155554]

$38.00

Heat Tool

[129056]

$60.00

Tasteful Textile 3 D Embossing Folder

[152718]

$19.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$7.25

Snowflake Wishes for CI113

Welcome to the final challenge of the year at Colour INKSpiration! We've got a an interesting, modern palette for you. You can go down the Christmas road or not, as the fancy takes you!

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. This time however, we don't have a GD since we had under 10 entries in the last challenge but we are introducing to you our latest Crew Member, Michele Miller. Welcome, Michele!

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

The other thing you need to know about this challenge is that it will run for SIX WEEKS! That's right - once Christmas is over, the presents are unwrapped and the guests have gone, you'll still be able to join in with us!

Although I hadn't intended to, I have gone down the Christmas road with this colour combo.

The Expressions in Ink Specialty DSP included both Pale Papaya and Polished Pink, so I started with a piece of DSP that has both. I like the swirly, sunset sky feel of this paper.

I embossed the sentiment, from So Many Snowflakes, in Black directly on to the paper to add some extra sparkle. 😀