Thinking Stamping: March 2023

Wednesday 29 March 2023

Greatest Journey with Night Sky Tutorial

Hello!

My latest Video Tutorial is now live. It features the Greatest Journey bundle and shows you how to turn a piece of blank card into a stunning night sky.

Here's the link to the tutorial.

Don't forget that you can shop with from anywhere in New Zealand right here. I'm always happy to answer questions and you can reach me using the contacts tab on this blog.

If you haven't already, subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don't miss the weekly new tutorial.

Happy Stamping, everyone!

Sunday 26 March 2023

Season of Chic for CAS Colours and Sketches 507

I was procrastinating in my craft room, so ended up putting together a card for the latest challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches. It didn't help me get the jobs done but it made me feel better. 😀

I started by water colouring a scrap of Shimmery White Cardstock with Granny Apple Green and Soft Sea Foam. Once it was dry, I die cut some leaves using the Chic dies: four small and one medium.

I kept things very simple, adding in a sentiment from Season of Chic, then matting the panel onto a Basic Gray base.

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

Season Of Chic Bundle (English)

[158816]

$121.50

Basic Gray A4 Card Stock

[121689]

$19.50

Soft Sea Foam A4 Cardstock

[147012]

$19.50

Basic White A4 Cardstock

[159228]

$21.75

Shimmery White A4 Card Stock

[121717]

$21.00

Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad

[149165]

$17.00

Granny Apple Green Classic Stampin' Ink Refill

[147163]

$8.50

Soft Sea Foam Classic Stampin' Ink Refill

[147166]

$8.50

Water Painters

[151298]

$28.00

Friday 24 March 2023

Greatest Journey for AYSI 295

The last challenge in our cycle of challenges at As You See It is one you either love or hate: the speed challenge! This time, the theme is 'the outdoors' so it covers everything outdoors from camping and mountains to gardens. However you see it. 😀

If you've never played along on our speed challenges, this is how it works. You have TEN minutes to make your creation. Before you panic:

you are allowed to have planned your card in your head
your stamps can be blocked up
the dies can be out of the packet on the desk
the embellishments can be on hand.
clean up time doesn't count!

BUT once you cut a piece of card, use the Stampin' Cut and Emboss machine or ink up then the clock has to start.

It's amazing how much adrenaline the simple act of timing your crafting can create. 😀

I quite like a speed challenge so I enjoy the process. One of the things I've learned is that when you're trying to create quickly, then patterned paper is your friend.

The Greatest Journey suite from the January-April 2023 Mini Catalogue is great for all things outdoors, so I made use of it for this challenge.

The Enjoy the Journey DSP has many pieces that contain stylised outdoor scenes, so I cut a 4cm slice of one with some mountains and trees as the anchor for this design.

I used one of the dies from Something Fancy to cut a shape from the green bricks paper.

The mountain biker die is from the Greatest Journey dies while the sentiment is from the same bundle.

The lovely stitched banner is from the Stylish Shapes dies and is popped up on dimensionals.

And the time:

We'd love to see what you can come up with when you have a ten minute time limit. Visit the As You See It Challenge page to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry.

Product List

Greatest Journey Bundle (English)

[160594]

$110.50

Something Fancy Dies

[160424]

$59.00

Stylish Shapes Dies

[159183]

$63.00

Enjoy The Journey 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[160586]

$25.25

Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana

[131302]

$19.50

Basic Black A4 Card Stock

[121688]

$19.50

Basic White A4 Cardstock

[159228]

$21.75

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

[132708]

$12.75

Matte Black Dots

[154284]

$14.75

Wednesday 22 March 2023

Dainty Delight for Colour INKspiration 140

Welcome to the latest challenge at Colour INKspiration! This soft and sweet palette was chosen for us by Crew Member Lou Kitzelman.

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. We welcome Yvonne Spikemanns Van-Bruggan as our Guest Designer for this challenge.

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

The colours seemed like a good option for flowers and a wooden fence idea. I'd seen a few of these lattice or trellis style cards appearing on the internet, so decided I'd give it a go.

Because I was looking at the idea of a vine climbing a fence, I added in some Timber 3D embossing on the card front.

You can see how I made this card here:

We'd love to have you join in the challenge with us. Visit the Colour INKspiration site to check out the album of Crew Cards for inspiration. You can also add your entry there. We all enjoy seeing what you do with our colour palettes, so join in!

Product List

Dainty Delight Dies

[160674]

$76.00

Something Fancy Bundle (English)

[160425]

$97.00

Early Espresso A4 Card Stock

[121686]

$19.50

Soft Sea Foam A4 Cardstock

[147012]

$19.50

Petal Pink A4 Cardstock

[147009]

$19.50

So Saffron A4 Card Stock

[108611]

$19.50

Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock

[106550]

$21.75

Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad

[147114]

$17.00

Timber 3 D Embossing Folder

[163094]

$21.00

Elegant Faceted Gems

[152464]

$15.75

Wednesday 15 March 2023

On the Ocean Tutorial

I recently purchased a bundle from the January-April 2023 Mini Catalogue that's not in my usual zone. It contains no flowers, leaves, butterflies or nature - except perhaps an ocean and a cloud! It's the On the Ocean Bundle.

I've started experimenting with it and I'm sharing with you how to make on the of the cards I've tried out. It's this pirate ship (or romantic sailing vessel) with a sunset.

You can see here just how easy it is to make this card in the tutorial below.

Don't forget that you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand. You can visit my online store here.

Friday 10 March 2023

Spring Cleaning for As You See It 294

As always, after a recipe challenge, it's time for a theme challenge at As You See It. Deborah has set us the theme of Spring Cleaning. Interesting!

I'm a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to a deep clean of my workspace. I'll put away the things I've used and give the desk a wipe over. But that bits box.... I'm always reluctant to delve into that unless I'm looking for something I'm pretty certain I threw in there as a left over from something else. Sound familiar?

So I got brave and upended it on my desk.....

Then I sorted it into categories. Is my librarian background showing? 😄

And then I made a card from some of what I found there. Everything was from the scrap box except the card base and bling, plus I added the sentiment.

I'm glad I looked because all these elements were too good to waste. Don't you just love that Split Texture die? And the gilded butterfly? And the Stitched Greenery piece?

And then, since I'd sorted everything out, I made two more cards with the bits.

For these ones, I added in the card bases, sentiments and labels, bling and for the mountain scene card I added the embossed panel. I remember making that mountain scene when the 2021-2023 In Colors first arrived on my desk. Now they're about to retire and I'm just using this one now - although the card I made with a sister panel turned out really well! You can see it here.

Best of all, after making these three cards, I had a serious assessment of what was left and threw out anything that I was confident I'd never use.... the Bits Box is only half-full now. 😀

Don't forget to visit the As You See It Challenge page to see what the rest of the Design Team have done and to link up your own 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.

Wednesday 8 March 2023

Forever Fern for Around The World on Wednesday

Doesn't a month roll around quickly?! It's already time for another Inspiration Hop with Around the World on Wednesday. On the second Wednesday of each month, the team put together a thematic hop to give you some inspiration for your own crafting. We love it when you try out something new or CAS(E) one of our projects. The team is truly international, with members from each time zone of the world that Stampin' Up! operates. You're with me, in New Zealand - the first place in the Stampin' Up! world to change the date. 😀

This month's theme is an interesting one. Our team leader, Angie, got us to vote for our favourite Stampin' Up! Colours. Then she put together the top picks and we had to use at least three of them in a project.

To be honest with you, I'm something of a colour fickle-ist: my favourite colour changes with the day and I couldn't even tell you which colours I voted for in our poll! Probably Rich Razzleberry because I do keep coming back to that one but what the others were, I couldn't say!

For today's project I used Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Soft Sea Foam and Rich Razzleberry plus one of my all-time favourite bundles, Forever Fern. What will you choose?

For the decorative edge on the Basic White panel, I used the Blooming Happiness dies - the ones that bundles with Happiness Abounds. The sentiment is also from Happiness Abounds.