Thinking Stamping: April 2024

Friday 26 April 2024

Thoughtful Wishes for AYSI 322

Welcome to a new challenge at As You See It Challenge. After the colour challenge, it's always a 'fill in the blank' and with those, you never quite know what you're going to get. This time is was a challenging one - what is my least used colour? And what's yours?

There's a few colours that would have completed the sentence but they all come from the same group of colours. For some reason, I shy away from orangey colours. I never got friendly with Grapefruit Grove or Pale Papaya. Peach Pie might be a challenge. I can use Calypso Coral at a pinch. But really, if I didn't own Pumpkin Pie, it really wouldn't bother me at all. So that's it - PUMPKIN PIE is officially my least used colour.

I thought it didn't look too bad with Pebbled Path, so that's what I used for this card.

I started by white embossing the leaf stem from Thoughtful Wishes on to Fluid 100 Watercolor paper.

Then I blended Pumpkin Pie ink over it, making sure to have it heaviest at the bottom and getting lighter as it went up the page.

Then I added some splashes of water to lift the colour slightly in places and gave it a light spritz with water.

Once it was dry, I stamped some more of the stems in Pumpkin Pie over the top, making sure to have a variety of heights.

Before mounting it onto a piece of Pebbled Path card, I added three strands of Pebbled Path jute twine around it. I got the three strands by cutting a length of twine and pulling out the individual strands of twine.

The matted piece is attached to a Pumpkin Pie card base. I used another strand of the twine to tie a bow around the three horizontal strands.

The sentiment is white embossed on Pebbled Path and is cut with one of the dies from the new Unbounded Love dies.

Both Unbounded Love and Thoughtful Wishes are in the 2024-25 Annual Catalogue, coming live on May 1.

Make sure you visit the As You See It page to see what the rest of the Design Team have with this sketch - 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 here.

Wednesday 24 April 2024

Beauty of the Deep for Colour INKspiration 164

Welcome to the 164th challenge at Colour INKspiration. It's that time of the year when we say goodbye to one set of In Colors to make room for a new palette. So this challenge is about saying farewell to this bright, vibrant group of colours. If you'd like to join in, you can use one of them, or all of them or any number in between.

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're very pleased to welcome Kay Mather as our Guest Designer for this challenge. This challenge is open for two weeks and closes Monday 6 May, 7pm AEST.

If you don't have an exact challenge colour, feel free to replace it with whatever you have that's closest, for example Lemon-Lime Twist for Parakeet Party. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, and metallics are free colours, as are flesh toned Stampin' Blends.

While the sad news is that these colours are retiring, the good news is that the Beauty of the Deep stamps and dies are carrying over. These colours make me think of a bright coral reef and pretty tropical fish so here's where that idea ended up....

Beauty of the Deep is an image-only set, so the sentiment comes from the new Country Birdhouse set. It will be available from May 1.

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done with these colours in the Crew Inspiration Album on the Colour INKspiration Challenge Facebook page.

You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking here.

Creativity Abounds Virtual Stamp Camp

The next international virtual Creativity Abounds Stamp Camp is being held the weekend of June 15-16. The featured products for the camp are the Country Birdhouse Bundle, Country Woods DSP, Eyelet 3D embossing folder, Petal Pink and White 1/4" ribbon pack and the Basic Gray and Smoky Slate pearls.

To get your invitation to Stamp Camp, simply purchase the featured products from me by the 25 May.

If you are a demonstrator and already own these products, simply order goods of equivalent value from me, message me to let me know you want to come to camp and you will still receive your invitation and kits.

What do you get from the Creativity Abounds Stamp Camp?

PDF and Video tutorials for 13 projects using the products
Make and Take kits for the projects (excluding the items you've purchased)
Access to the exclusive Stamp Camp Facebook Group where you can interact with the team and other participants from around the world, join in the challenges and chats and share your projects.
View the Facebook Lives for an additional 13 projects made using the products -that's a total of 26 projects for your purchased products. The Lives are recorded so you can access them at any time.

If you do not live in New Zealand but would like to participate, there are team members in all Stampin' Up! markets I can refer you to.

Thursday 18 April 2024

Creativity Abounds Techniques

This month the international team at Creativity Abounds has a great theme for our bundle and hop: Techniques. Who doesn't like to try out a new technique?

All thirteen of us have contributed a project to our Exclusive Tutorial Bundle, which you can earn as a free gift from me with a purchase of $90 or more (excluding P&P) or by being a member of my team.

There's a sneak peek of my project and the whole bundle at the end of this post....

BUT

In addition to the exclusive bundle that you can earn, we also put together a monthly hop on the same theme for added inspiration for you. So if you hop around from this post, you'll see a dozen more techniques to get your mojo flowing.

Because each of us has used the same technique for our hop card and our tutorial card, there's no instructions in the hop this time but if you receive the tutorial package with a purchase, you'll find both PDF instructions AND a video tutorial for the technique.

The technique I'm showcasing is Ink Smooshing. There's a number of ways you can go about this but generally it involves some ink, some water and some sort of squashing with some sort of equipment. I'm sharing with you what I do when I intend to die cut the resulting panel.

Here's my alternative project.

I love the way that this technique, done this way, gives such wonderful blends and transitions of colour.

Here's a sneak peek of the card, using the same technique, that's part of the Creativity Abounds Tutorial Package.

And here's the sneak peek of the whole tutorial package.

If you've enjoyed our Stamp Camps, the next one is mid-June featuring the Country Birdhouse bundle. More details coming soon.

Here's our whole team. If you're interested in the tutorial but don't live in New Zealand, contact one of our team members from where ever you live.

You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand here.

Friday 12 April 2024

Gorgeous Garden for AYSI 321

Two weeks have flown by and it's time for a new challenge at As You See It. As always, after a sketch challenge comes a colour challenge. Aren't these colours lovely? The rules for a colour challenge are that you must use all the given colours in some way but no other colours except a neutral of your choice.

Usually, my neutral is Basic White. But I've gone a bit rogue on this one and have used Basic Black instead!

I ink smooshed the four colours on a piece of Fluid 100 Watercolor paper. I did arrange them in a loosely ombre fashion, moving from Daffodil Delight, to Bubble Bath, to Flirty Flamingo, to Calypso Coral.

From a piece of Basic Black, I die cut the foliage die from the Gorgeous Garden dies and backed it with the ink smooshed panel.

This lovely pair of dies is available, heavily discounted, in the current Last Chance Sale. If you don't already have them, why not treat yourself?

The sentiment, from Inked & Tiled, is white heat embossed on Basic Black and cut using one of the Everyday Details dies. It's backed with one of the circles from Stylish Shapes cut in Calypso Coral.

For embellishments, I coloured some Basic Rhinestone Jewels with a dark Calypso Coral Stampin' Blend.

Make sure you visit the As You See It page to see what the rest of the Design Team have with this sketch - and to link up your own entry.

You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand here.

If you purchase Gorgeous Garden from me, you will receive as a free gift, a tutorial bundle. This will give you step-by-step instructions for four original projects: two by me and two by UK Demonstrator Joanne James, aka The Crafty Owl.

Other Tutorial Gifts with Purchase from Joanne and Jan are:

Cheerful Daisies bundle
Hooray for Surprises bundle
Gorgeously Made bundle

Simply purchase the bundle and we'll give you the inspiration to get going with it!

Thursday 11 April 2024

Faux Torn Paper Masking for Stampin' Fancy Friday

This month, the theme at Stampin' Fancy Friday is 'A Favourite Technique'.

We don't blog hop as such but the team at Stampin' Fancy Friday do a daily inspiration post on Instagram. The team at Stampin' Fancy Friday are all current or past members of Stampin' Up!'s Artisan Design Team, so it really is a great place to pick up ideas or recharge your creative mojo. Follow @stampinfancyfriday if you don't already. 😀

A favourite technique of mine is Faux Torn Paper masking. It's very easy to do and gives an interesting look. Simply tear a piece of photo copy paper or grid paper to use as a mask, blend over your chosen ink colours, stamp, remove the mask then carry on with whatever embellishments you like.

I used the Season of Chic bundle because I love the marine images and dies - and that wonderful net die makes everything look good! Season of Chic is retiring at the end of April, so look out for it in the Last Chance Sale.

The colours I've used are Pool Party, Coastal Cabana and Azure Afternoon.

If you're unsure of the technique, you can see a video of another card I made using the same technique here.

You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking here.

Wednesday 10 April 2024

Around the World on Wednesday This or That

Welcome to a new hop with the crew at 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, our challenge is a "This or That". When I'm making things I often have a moment where I can't decide which colour to use, which DSP is best, which sentiment. Sometimes when I'm prepping classes I make two or three variations before deciding which one I'll use. I doubt I'm alone in that process!

This challenge celebrates that process. We were challenged to make two versions of the same card. Turned out that I'd inadvertently done that in last month's hop when I couldn't choose whether to go for a dark or light background. You can see it here.

For this challenge I'm going to show you two versions of a card I made for a recent class. I was playing around with a new fancy fold that I saw while participating in the last Creativity Abounds Virtual Stamp Camp. US Demonstrator Lorraine Tierney presented this during the camp using Notes of Nature. These Stamp Camps are worth it for all the new ideas you'll see and the new people you'll interact with.

I've experimented using the Simply Zinnia bundle from the Online Exclusives. Here are the two versions closed up.

Each card is the same design just with different DSP, sentiments and colours. The vibrant Flowering Zinnias DSP offers many options for different panels, including the panorama background.

The sentiments are from the Hooray for Surprises set.

Here they are from behind, showing off the message panel.

So, if you'd come to my class, which one would you have rather made?

Blackberry Bliss/Melon Mambo 'You're the Best'?

Or the more subtle Old Olive/Petal Pink 'Make a Wish'?

Next up on the blog with another 'this or that' for you to ponder, is the wonderful Leonie Stuart in Australia.

You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand here.

Here's a list of participants, with links, if you get lost or want to revisit someone.

Jan Clothier - NZ -You are here

Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Cheryll Miller - AU

Danielle Kassing - NL

Trusty Tools for Colour INKspiration 163

Welcome to 163rd challenge at Colour INKspiration. This bright, almost rainbow palette was chosen for us by crew member Monica Formosa.

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're very pleased to welcome Teah Karr Woodward as our Guest Designer for this challenge. This challenge is open for two weeks and closes Monday 22 April, 7pm AEST.

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

I had a class last weekend and one of the participants talked about how she was doing things to thank the people who were painting her house. The idea must have stuck because the next thing I knew, I was digging out Trusty Tools to make this card!

I even used the Painted Texture embossing folder to partially emboss the background!

You can see how I made it, including easy partial embossing and some tips on getting accurate die cuts in the tutorial.

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done with these colours in the Crew Inspiration Album on the Colour INKspiration Challenge Facebook page.

You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking here or any of the products below.

Product List