Prairie Grass for Paper Players

We had such wonderful entries in Jaydee's Tic-Tac-Toe last week, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's creativity this week. Our hostess this week at The Paper Players is Stef. She has a theme challenge for us: Round We Go! Feature Circles on your card. Interesting, right? 

As it happens, I'm very fond of circles and often use them in my work. Today I've used them to create a background for a new stamp from Online Exclusives, Prairie Grass. 

To start off with, I created some circle masks from some scraps of window sheet. I used four different punches to create the masks. The exact sizes are not really important. I was looking for a good range of sizes to play around with.  From memory, the smallest was a 1/2" punch and the largest 1 3/4" to give you an idea but I could equally have used circle dies to cut them.

Then I used  Azure Afternoon and Lemon-Lime Twist inks and used Blending Brushes to apply colour through the mask. I started with the largest circle at the bottom, added in the next largest circle twice, then placed the smaller two around them until I was happy with the composition. Fair to say, this is part of the process where there's some trial and error to get a pleasing layout. I used varying intensities of the colour to add variation too. 

Using Tuxedo Black, I inked up some of the grass images and stamped them over the circles. I think another time I'd try out black embossing to see how that looks.

The sentiment, from The Right Words is stamped in Tuxedo Back onto Lemon-Lime Twist and cut using my favourite banner die from Stylish Shapes. The Right Words is rapidly becoming my go-to sentiment only set because of the range of occasions covered, the variety of font styles and the two-part greetings. 

To finish of my circle-theme, I added in some Black dots from the Neutral Matte Dots to tie in with the black twine from the Basic Essentials pack.

I like this layout and I think it would work with many colour combinations especially a sunrise or sunset colourway.

You can see what the rest of the design team have done, and link up your entry, at The Paper Players page.

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:

1. Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
2. Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
3. Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
4. Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
5. Have fun, and thank you for playing with us!

Don't forget to check out the great inspiration from the rest of the design team.

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

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.

Perfectly Pears for Atlantic Hearts Challenge 636

Doing well this week on my playing 'just for fun' resolution! Today, I'm joining in with Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

I love a sketch challenge and this one was begging me to use the new Painterly Pears suite, just released in the Online Exclusives section of my store. 

I'm loving the beautiful images of fruit and flowers, the rich colours and the vintage feel of the stamps, dies and DSP. Of course, there are gorgeous embellishments too: a Mossy Meadow and Gold ribbon and pretty dots. 

This card came together pretty quickly, especially as I played the sketch in a straightforward interpretation. Three strips of Painterly Pears DSP with the ends carefully torn attached to a Basic White card front, embossed with the Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder. 

I cut a circle with one of the Spotlight on Nature dies and stamped the sentiment in Secret Sea before attaching it to the strips of DSP.

The pears were stamped in Old Olive and Darling Duckling then die cut. I added a die cut stem in Old Olive as well as some fruit blossoms. They were stamped in Secret Sea with Darling Duckling centres then die cut.

These bits and pieces were arranged on the circle, around the sentiment. Some were popped up to add dimension. The final touch was a trio of low profile Sparkle Dots in Secret Sea.  All done!

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.

 

Gallery Blooms for Paper Players 744

Wasn't Elizabeth's one-layer challenge both a bit daunting and a lot of fun? We got such creative entries, I can't wait to see what you do with this Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge from Jaydee.

I do like a TTT challenge and for this one, I've used the first column as inspiration: CAS, Flowers, Postal Element. 

I've been playing around with Gallery Blooms quite a bit lately, mainly because I really love the big spray of flowers in the set. I started by stamping it in Tuxedo Black onto my white card front. I coloured it using Petunia Pop, Daffodil Delight and Shy Shamrock Stampin' Blends.

I used a sentiment from The Right Words, a sentiment only set that is proving to be invaluable. Not only does is have a group of really useful sentiments in a variety of fonts, each sentiment come in two parts so you have the option of using a related sentiment on the inside of your card. 

Then it was time to employ the postal element of the grid: Perennial Postage dies. I cut out a postage stamp from the centre of the blooms. Then I popped it back into place using dimensionals - which means that I also employed the Eclipse Technique. 😀

I used Iridescent Pearls as embellishments.

As I worked, I wondered what it would look like on a coloured base, so I did the same thing again (almost) by using a Petunia Pop base. The birthday sentiment is also from The Right Words and I used some Shy Shamrock embellishments to finish off. 

Which line of the Tic-Tac-Toe will you choose as inspiration?

You can see what the rest of the design team have done, and link up your entry, at The Paper Players page.

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:

1. Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
2. Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
3. Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
4. Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
5. Have fun, and thank you for playing with us!

Don't forget to check out the great inspiration from the rest of the design team.

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

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.

 

Thankful Garden for As You See It 351

 It's time for a colour challenge at As You See It this week. Don't forget that the Featured Artist in this week's gallery will be offered the opportunity to Guest Design with us in our next Recipe Challenge. That's a fun way to put your toe in the water of being on a team if you've not done it before. 

With that gorgeous floral graphic and the sunny colours, it was hard to go past florals for this challenge. My go-to florals at the moment (by a narrow squeak) is the Thankful Garden bundle. I love the stamps and dies with the extra bits but the addition of a layered set of stencils gives even more otpions. You'll find this set in the Online Exclusives section of the store. 

With such impactful colours and a large striking floral image, this card didn't need much else. I started by stamping the large image and using the layered stencils, and blending brushes, to colour it. I used a sponge dauber to colour the centre of the bloom in Peach Pie. Once the colouring was complete, I die cut the image. 

I used the Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder to give the card front some texture. The sentiment was stamped in Basic Black and cut using one of the Textured Notes dies. I cut a shadow die from Peach Pie to underline the sentiment.  The card base is Melon Mambo.

To finish off, I used a trio of Peach Pie Resin dots.

The whole team would love to see how you see these bright colours.  You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at the As You See It Challenge 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.

Perfectly Pears for Freshly Made Sketches 692

Even though today is a busy day, I couldn't help but find time to play along with the new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. What a fabulous sketch from Narelle!

I've been playing around with the Perfectly Pears bundle lately in preparation for a Stamp Camp with the Avid Craft Collective in August. This gorgeous suite will be available from the new drop of Online Exclusives on 1 July and I've become quite addicted to it!

I started by stamping the small pear image three times in Secret Sea. I used the watercolour-style fill stamp to colour the fruit in Darling Duckling, Old Olive and in one, a touch of Cherry Cobbler as well. After colouring the foliage with Stampin' Blends, I die cut them out, along with a couple of trellis pieces in Basic Beige. I also stamped some pear blossoms in Secret Sea, with Darling Duckling centres, and die cut those out too.

Originally, I used a piece of the Painterly Pears DSP for the vertical block in the sketch but switched it out to a piece of Basic White, embossed with the Exposed Brick 3D Embossing Folder.

The sentiment is from the Perfectly Pears set and is cut using a banner from Stylish Shapes. 

To carry through the Basic Beige from the trellis pieces, and to help ground the pears, I added in some script stamping from Elements of Text, using Basic Beige ink.

After that, it was fun to arrange the elements over the embossed section, popping up the pears and sentiment on dimensionals. The finishing touch was to add in three of the pretty Secret Sea Sparkle Dots.

Update: Delighted to be a Perfect Princess at Freshly Made Sketches.

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. 

Details of the Painterly Pears Stamp Camp in August will be available soon but you can message me if you can't wait! Don't forget this suite will be available on 1 July.

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

 

Textured Notes for Colour INKspiration 190

 

Welcome to the 190th challenge at Colour INKspiration. This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday July 7, 7pm AEST.

This colour palette was chosen for us by Crew Member, Nikki Spencer. It's a warm, rustic, neutral palette just perfect for the winter season. Now the shortest day is behind us, we can start looking forward to warmer weather soon! 😀

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 Spikmans 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 Very Vanilla for Basic Beige. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

These colours just seemed perfect for one of my favourite sets of the moment, Textured Notes - especially when paired up with Elements of Text. Both of these items are Online Exclusives, so you need to go to the online store to see them. It's a section well worth checking out. 

I used Cajun Craze for the card base, a matte of Basic Beige and then used the largest Textured Notes dies to cut a rectangle. 

I used a favourite technique of mine, which is Faux Torn Paper. I ripped a piece of copy paper in half and used the halves as a mask on the white rectangle to create gap in the centre. I started by sponging some Basic Beige in the centre, using Blending Brushes, and started adding in some Crumb Cake towards each edge.  Then I stamped some text in Basic Beige using one of the text stamps from Elements of Text. Then I stamped some leaves in Cajun Craze and Crumb Cake, using foliage stamps from Textured Notes. Finally, I added in some half strength Cajun Craze splatters using one of the splatter stamps from Elements of Text. Note - do this before removing the masks.

The scariest part was stamping the sentiment in Cajun Craze directly onto the card front. The final part was to add in a trio of Neutral Matte Dots. 

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.

Textured Notes for Paper Players 743

Well, Elizabeth has given us an interesting sketch for this week's challenge at The Paper Players!

Her only requirement is that we make a ONE LAYER CARD. 

So that means that all we have to work with is a folded card base and all stamping and inking is applied directly to that. One team member said that if it needs glue, it isn't one layer! That's a handy thing to remember when you're doing this challenge.

I've used masks to create  the illusion of layers. I masked off the edge of the card front with carefully placed painter's tape. Then I stamped the leaves from Notes of Texture in Mossy Meadow and added some splatter in Crushed Curry from Elements of Text.

Then I used a rectangle of card to mask off the stamping, leaving half centimetre gap between the painters tape and the rectangle. Then I sponged in some Old Olive starting at the corner and letting it bleed out in each direction. When you take away the rectangle of card, you're left with a solid line of colour that gives the illusion of a layer. 

Then I sponged in some Crushed Curry lightly around the stamping to give it some grounding.

I repeated this in the diagonally opposite corner but instead of foliage I used one of the greetings and I deliberately scaled this corner to be slightly smaller than the top one. 

Once all the sponging and stamping had been completed, I carefully (very carefully) removed the tape from the edges of the card front. Voila - all done!

I'm really interested to see how everyone goes about creating a one layer card - and remember that if you've used glue it probably isn't one layer!

You can see what the rest of the design team have done, and link up your entry, at The Paper Players page.

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:

1. Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
2. Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
3. Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
4. Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
5. Have fun, and thank you for playing with us!

Don't forget to check out the great inspiration from the rest of the design team.

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

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. 

 

Thankful Garden for Stampin' Fancy Friday

This month at Stampin' Fancy Friday, our challenge inspiration is flowers: you'll see the team all playing with some kind of flowers.

The team at Stampin' Fancy Friday don't blog hop but we do a daily inspiration post on Instagram (and Facebook). 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. 

You can view our interpretations of the month's challenge on both Instagram and Facebook. 

Follow @stampinfancyfriday if you don't already. 😀

So, one of my favourite floral sets is the Thankful Garden bundle. It's found in Online Exclusives and is a set of stamps, dies and stencils which can be used separately or together. 

I love the softly coloured look that comes from the layered stencils. 

I was also trying out some of the new In Colors 2025-27. The dark blue/grey is Secret Sea, the softer blue/grey is Cloud Cover and the pink is Strawberry Slush. I've added in some Daffodil Delight to the flower centres with a dauber.

I've stamped and coloured two of the floral image so I could cut out one of the flowers and add it to create a trio. The third is popped up on dimensionals to add some height.

The softly patterned, slightly brick-like DSP is from the In Color paper stack but the big find in the Online Exclusive drop is these fabulous stitched edge Everyday Arches dies! I can't believe I've lived so long without them!

Finally, I added some of the flat pearl In Color embellishments for a bit more colour. 

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 here. 

Impressions Abloom for CAS Colours & Sketches 562

Every now and then I remind myself of my New Year crafting resolution, which was to play along with more challenges just for fun and to forget about class projects and design team commitments.  To be honest, it's not going so well! Today I decided to have a look around my favourite challenges and see what I could play along with, since it's a public holiday. 

CAS Colours & Sketches had a highly unusual challenge. Usually a sketch is a creative springboard but this one had serious restrictions. It had to include 9 rectangles exactly and they had to be white  or plain coloured with no pattern.  

Well, that cut out my first response which was to emboss the rectangles to add some texture and my second - which was to try some faux tiling. I was about to run for the hills and find somewhere else to play when I felt a bit of stubborn come on... I would make this sketch work!

Here's where it ended up....

To create the rectangles I used the smallest rounded corner rectangle die from Nested Essentials. I spaced them evenly over a piece of Basic White because at that stage I wasn't sure whether I'd used a coloured card base. Ultimately I chose to use Thick Basic White cardstock for the base to help keep the CAS look.

Then I had a bit of fun playing around with the dies from Impressions Abloom to create a floral bouquet. I used Petunia Pop, Pretty in Pink, Shy Shamrock and Daffodil Delight because I wanted a punch of colour.

By now, it was looking quite cheery so it seemed more like a birthday card that anything else. I used the sentiment from The Right Words and a banner die from Stylish Shapes. 

To finish off, I added in three Basic Rhinestones to help draw the eye to the sentiment. 

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. 

Update: Delighted to be a Fab Fave at CAS Colours & Sketches.

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

Masculine Cards for Creativity Abounds June

 

This month the international team at Creativity Abounds are exploring masculine cards.This hop - and the associated tutorial bundle - is always popular and will give you a lot of examples for all sorts ideas for masculine cards: colours, layouts, sets, papers, techniques, bundles.

Even if you don't have the exact sets, you'll find inspiration in the different projects each of us has created. If you get the tutorial bundle, you'll have step-by-step instructions for thirteen projects, all of which you'll see as you go around the hop.

You can earn the Tutorial Bundle as a free gift from me with a purchase of $100 or more (excluding P&P) or by being a member of my team. You can shop with me, and join my team, from anywhere in New Zealand. If you would like to buy the tutorial from me for $25, message me.

This card is a bonus project: a masculine card to give you some ideas. I think the Country Woods DSP (and also the Botanical Textures DSP) are just perfect for a masculine style card.  The stamped tools and sentiment are from Trusty Tools - a set that's just right if you have a DIY-er or handyman in the family. 

And here's a sneak peek of the card I made for the June tutorial bundle.  There are step-by-step instructions on how to make it - as well as the other twelve projects. 

Here's a sneak peek at all the projects in the tutorial.

Here's the whole team and where we're from.

There's still time to join the Celebratory Sips Stamp Camp

Our next International Virtual Stamp Camp is June 28-29 (South Pacific)

This time, we're using the Celebratory Sips bundle from Online Exclusives as our Featured Product for the Camp.

Purchase of the suite from a member demonstrator gets you free access to the camp, a 13 project tutorial complete with make and take kits, and 13 completely different projects demonstrated throughout the Stamp Camp Weekend. 

If you live in New Zealand and plan to join the camp, you will need to order the Featured Product not later than 14 June to be sure you will have the products by the time camp starts. you can still order and if they don't arrive in time, you can access the camp group and watch the live presentations at your leisure.

You can find the details here. Note that a postage charge applies if make and take kits are posted out and you cannot purchase the featured products from us using Stampin' Rewards.

 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.