Wednesday 27 March 2024

Latte Love for Colour INKspiration 162


Welcome to 162nd challenge at Colour INKspiration. We had such pretty and diverse entries for our last challenge, I can't wait to see what you make of this stylish palette chosen for us by Crew Member Rose Packer.


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 Gail Ellis as our Guest Designer for this challenge. This challenge is open for two weeks and closes Monday 8 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 Balmy Blue for Boho Blue. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, and metallics are free colours, as are flesh toned Stampin' Blends.

I'm having a bit of a love affair with my first ever coffee themed bundle, Latte Love from the Online Exclusives collection. As soon as  I saw Early Espresso in the mix, that was it! All I could see was strong, rich coffee. So I started with three flat whites: two in Boho Blue cups, one in Azure Afternoon - two with heart tops and one with a fern and went from there.



I liked the Painted Texture embossing folder for the background because it reminded me of swirls in the crema of the cup and I added some coffee splats for good measure. 


It needed a wee pop of something else to bring it all together so I added in a mat of Silver Glimmer paper, which is also an Online Exclusive product.


This set lends itself so readily to being a gift. Who doesn't love a coffee card to pop in their wallet to reward themselves with? It's a perfect little 'thank you' for someone.

You can see how I made the gift card holder on my Jan Clothier - Independent Stampin'  Up! Demonstrator Facebook page.


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

Tuesday 26 March 2024

Latte Love for The Paper Players 682

I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things after a fortnight's holiday, so I jumped on board with the latest challenge at The Paper Players.

 


Latte Love was still on my desk from yesterday and it seemed the perfect set to play with this great sketch. 

I switched out the squares for stitched circles from Stylish Shapes

The coffee based paper was neutral, largely using Pecan Pie, so any colour combination would work for the die cut cups. Once I'd picked Early Espresso, Coastal Cabana and Granny Apple Green I picked one for the base and the mat layer.

The inside is adapted to be a gift card holder for a coffee card as a thank you. 


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.

You can earn a free Creativity Abounds tutorial package from me with any purchase of $100 before postage. This month, our thirteen PDF package is on the theme 'Anything but a Card'. Here's a sneak peek of the package.


Product List

Sunday 24 March 2024

Simply Zinnia for Freshly Made Sketches 628

After nearly two weeks away from home, it almost felt strange to sit down at my craft desk again. I was looking for some inspiration to get me back in the game and it came in the form of the latest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

So I started simply with the gorgeous triple bloom image from Simply Zinnia and went from there.


After colouring the image with Stampin' Blends, I die cut it and popped it up on dimensionals. The sentiment is stamped, cut into pieces then fussy cut to give three lines of text. 


The final touch was adding some of the adhesive backed sequins for a bit of bling. And I just can't not mention the beautiful Zinnia embossing folder that's equally lovely on both sides. 

Update: Delighted to be the Queen of Clean 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.

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

Product List

Thursday 21 March 2024

Simply Zinnia for Creativity Abounds

 


This month the international team at Creativity Abounds has a fun inspiration theme for you: Anything but a Card.
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, 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 ideas for 'Anything But A Card' to help get your mojo going.

My project this month was inspired by a photo frame I bought on impulse in a sale, thinking that one day it might be useful. Sound familiar?

I used the Simply Zinnia bundle from Online Exclusives for this project.


To recreate this project you'll need a photo frame 8"x 8" (20cm x20cm) with a mat opening of 5"x 5" (12cm x12cm). If you don't have one of this size, you could adapt the measurements and method to what you have. 

Materials
Basic White 
15cm x 15xm (6"x 6")
1/2 sheet (approximately) of card for stamping 

Flowering Zinnia DSP - green stripe - 15cm x 4cm (6" x 1 1/2")

Tuxedo Black Memento ink
Stampin' Blends: Old Olive, Lemon-Lime Twist, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Cherry Cobbler

Zinnia 3D embossing folder

Instructions
  1. Add the strip of DSP horizontally on the Basic White square, approximately 3 cm ( 1 1/4") from the bottom edge. Emboss with the Zinnia embossing folder.
  2. Stamp the trio of zinnias stamp in Tuxedo Black on Basic White. Colour the leaves in the green blends, the flower centres with the Daffodil Delight and the flowers in a mixture of Melon Mambo and Cherry Cobbler. Die cut them out.
  3. Stamp one of large single zinnia images and one of the leaves in Tuxedo Black. Colour with blends and die cut.
  4. Take the decorative mat out of the photo frame so you can use it as a guide to placement of the die cut zinnia stems. Attach two of the die cuts to the embossed square, one to the left side and one to the right. Make sure to vary the height so the final effect is not a row of soldiers. When happy with the placement within the mat opening, adhere them flat to the embossed panel.
  5. Attach the embossed panel to the mat panel from the frame. Lay flat face up so you can add the final pieces.
  6. Take the third of the zinnia stems and attach it centrally with dimensionals. Make sure that some of the stem breaks the frame and is visible on top of the mat panel. 
  7. Attach the single zinnia and leaf on top of the mat in the bottom right corner.
  8. Place back in the photo frame. All done!
Note: If you want to, you can include a sentiment in the Zinnia Garden frame.

Here's a peek at the project I've included in the Creativity Abounds Tutorial bundle for this month.


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


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.

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.