For the Books for Colour INKspiration 179

 

Merry Christmas, and welcome to the 179th challenge at Colour INKspiration. It's also the last challenge of the year and will run for FOUR WEEKS, until Monday 6 January 2025.

Today's colour palette was chosen for us by Crew Member Monica Formosa. Such a lovely alternative Christmas palette!

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 delighted to have Janette Goodall guesting with us 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 Cherry Cobbler for Real Red. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh toned Stampin' Blends.

Now, while this is a very pretty alternative Christmas palette, I've chosen to use it to play with one of the pre-order bundles I have from the January-April 2025 Mini Catalogue. 

As a voracious reader, ex-English Teacher and Librarian, For the Books was always going to make it into my collection! This is the first inking and so is something of an experiment to see what the stamps can do.

There are three different groupings of books and, since they are photopolymer, they're easy to stamp in a line. I used two of them to create the haphazard shelves, using Tuxedo Black to stamp them. Colouring them in with Stamping Blends was fun but the most satisfying bit was adding in the spectacles to the top of a book tower. 😀

To add some interest, I added in an embossed mat of Basic White. I had a piece embossed with the Dotted Circles 3D Embossing folder in my bits box, so re-purposed that. 

I used some Linen Thread to add a bow to bring out the Crumb Cake of the shelving.

I also thought that the sentiment had a sense of thanks about it, so converted the inside to a holder for a book voucher. For decoration, I added in the third book stamp and the spectacles. 

We'd love to see what you do with the challenge colours. You can join the group in the following link, if you aren't already a member. Don't forget to answer the questions when you ask to join. 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.

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 stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.