12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar for Paper Players 761

This week at The Paper Players, our hostess is Joanne and she has a sketch to inspire us. Thank you to everyone who played along with Jaydee's CAS Foliage challenge... so many gorgeous entries! I'm keen to see what you do this week!

Sketches are my favourite kind of challenge and I wanted to use the 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar products. I treated myself to one of the Advent Calendars - 12 mystery pockets of crafting goodies. I had thought I'd open one a week from now until Christmas, then realised with a crash that Christmas was only 9 weeks away. So I opened doors 1-3 and got a packet of DSP, a set of dies and some gold gems for embellishments. The Advent Calendar arrived with a double stamp set with some two-step images and a whole raft of sentiments. So I decided to use these things for my Design Team card. 

And here it is...

 

I stamped and die cut the Flamingo Pink flower, die cut the lacy bloom and stamped a centre in it, then used the dies to cut some Old Olive foliage. These I arranged over the two strips of DSP.

I must apologise to our hostess, Joanne, at this point because try as I might I just could NOT stamp the sentiment above the strips as in the sketch. I tried but it just ended up underneath, so I suppose you might charitably say that I rotated the sketch a little bit.  Sketches are inspiration, right? 😀

To finish off, I used the dies and a scrap of retired gold glimmer paper to make a butterfly then added in a trio of the gold gem embellishments. 

I can't wait to see what's behind the remaining doors of the Advent Calendar. I was also very sorry to see that it has now sold out! So if you don't already have one for yourself, I'm afraid you've missed out - unless some kind crafty friend has bought you one as a gift!

How do you see this sketch? The Paper Players would love to see what you do with it. 

You can see what the rest of the team have done and link up your entry on 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

Christy Stanford

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

Friendly Foliage for CAS Colours & Sketches 571

I'm supposed to be finishing off prepping for tomorrow's Christmas Stamp-a-Stack class. Instead, I've found myself having a quick play along with the challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.

I've been a little obsessed with my new Friendly Foliage bundle and wanted to try out some of the dies and single stem stamps, so the autumnal colours of this challenge seemed just the thing. This bundle is part of the November Online Exclusives drop.

I started by stamping some of the longer leaves with a mix of Crushed Curry and Calypso Coral. I stamped the shorter leaves in either Calypso Coral or Timid Tiger. The lacy die cuts are from Crushed Curry. 

I arranged them as a bouquet and attached them to a label cut from Traditional Labels. The card front is embossed with the Beautiful Pattern folder, another of the upcoming Online Exclusives.

The bow is made with the white and gold baker's twine from the Christmas twin pack. A trio of Timid Tiger Flat Pearls finishes things off. 

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.

Friendly Foliage for Freshly Made Sketches 709

 

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of playing around with the latest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

In truth, I was looking for an excuse to play with my latest new toy, the Friendly Foliage bundle which will be released in the November Online Exclusives drop. 

I stamped the foliage image in Strawberry Slush, die cut it and then backed it with Cloud Cover.

I cut two strips of 2025-2027 In Color DSP, one from Strawberry Slush and one from Cloud Cover and arranged them in staggered fashion on the card front. 

The card front was embossed with another product from the November Online Exclusives, the Beautiful Pattern Embossing Folder. Well named, isn't it?

I stamped the sentiment, from Friendly Foliage, using Secret Sea ink to pick up the colour of the card base. To finish, I added a trio of Flat Pearls in Secret Sea. Simple, yet effective I think.

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.

 

Branching Out for Colour INKspiration 198

Welcome to the 198th challenge at Colour INKspiration. This challenge runs for nearly three weeks and will finish on Monday November 10, 7pm AEST.

This colour palette was chosen for us by Crew Member Alisa Tilsner.

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 Jenny Engelke 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 Cherry Cobbler for Real Red. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

While these colours didn't immediately speak to me of Christmas, the graphic did. It was a great chance to play around with an idea I had for the Branching Out bundle. I had wondered whether the pine needle stamp might work as Pohutukawa blooms for a New Zealand Christmas vibe. 

The pohutukawa is often called the New Zealand Christmas tree as it blooms with red over the Christmas season in coastal areas, making a really festive display. The idea of the beach worked well with the Pool Party and Coastal Cabana - and of course, the beach is a popular Christmas/New Year location for many kiwi families.

I started by cutting a Very Vanilla label from the Branching Out dies and a slightly larger one in Real Red. On the vanilla, I stamped in some branches in Crumb Cake, added in some 'blossom' in Real Red and some Coastal Cabana splats to suggest sea spray.

I sponged some Pool Party ink behind the blooms to create the impression of the ocean being glimpsed through the branches. 

I love the gold embossed sentiment which is from Ornamental Christmas. To bring in more gold, I die cut some of the leafy vines from Branching Out and used them like ribbon to draw the eye to the sentiment. I used some of the gold Sparkling Sequins, although I almost used the Pool Party ones instead. 

The card base and front are Coastal Cabana - such a gorgeous colour - and I've embossed the front with the new Online Exclusive folder, Beautiful Pattern.

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.

 

An eclectic mix for Paper Players 760

Many thanks to those of you who entered last week's colour challenge. Who knew that  purple and green could lead in so many directions, from Christmas to Halloween?!

This week, Jaydee is our hostess and she has a double challenge for us: A foliage theme but in a Clean and Simple style.

So what the Clean and Simple mean? For us, it means to keep things uncluttered - lots of white open space, a single focal point, minimal layers and minimal use of embellishments. 

For my card, I've used a mix of several die and stamp sets. That's one of the pleasures of having a stamp collection - mixing and matching as you feel like. 

I started with a die cut leaf from Thankful Garden. I still had some left over ink smooshed watercolour paper from this project in my bits box so used it now. 

It seemed a bit lonely by itself, so I cut a smaller leafy bough from Gallery Blooms in Early Espresso.

I needed a sentiment, so used one from Beautiful Motifs and cut it using a banner die from Stylish Shapes.

Once I had the bones of a design, I needed a background to put it on. So I punched a circle from a piece of masking paper and attached it to my card front to create a circular mask then I got to work on it. 

I started by adding some script using Early Espresso ink and a stamp from Elements of Text. Then I added some splatters in Timid Tiger, using another stamp from Elements of Text.

 

Then I added some colour with a blending brush using Crushed Curry and Timid Tiger inks. Once that was all done, I removed the mask to reveal the decorative circle.

After that, it was a simple matter to add the foliage and sentiment plus a trio of rhinestones.

We'd love to see your foliage themed creation - but remember to keep it clean and simple. 

You can see what the rest of the team have done and link up your entry on 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

Christy Stanford

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

Delightful Wishes meets Branching Out for AYSI 359

 Hello and welcome to a new challenge at As You See It. It's recipe week and Deborah has given us these five ingredients to cook with: Flowers, Frame, Happy Sentiment, Dies or Punches, Shades of Orange. You're free to add any other ingredients from your pantry to the recipe. 

Ahh, so many choices to make for this one! 

Did shades of orange mean I couldn't use any green? My self-appointed answer was that green came under the heading of 'other pantry ingredients' so as long as it was mostly orange, that was ok. 

What counts as a shade of orange? I dragged out all the ink pads that matched and came up with Cajun Craze, Peach Pie, Timid Tiger, Pumpkin Pie and Calypso Coral.

What stamp set to use? Well, I went with the Delightful Wishes bundle since it hadn't seen any love lately but paired it up with the new Branching Out bundle for dies and sentiment.

In keeping with the shades of orange, I used Very Vanilla for the card front and frame interior as it added further warmth.

The five recipe ingredients?

1. The Frame - made using the Branching Out dies.

2. Flowers - the blossoms from Delightful Wishes.

3. Happy sentiment - "Happiest Birthday Wishes" from Branching Out

4. Die Cut - the frame, the flowers, leaves and branch.

5. Shades of Orange - Cajun Craze, Timid Tiger, Peach Pie

What can you cook up with these five ingredients? Visit the As You See It page to link up your entry and to see the rest of the team's inspirations.

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.

Seaside Wishes for Freshly Made Sketches 707

Sometimes, a stamp set just takes hold of you. So today's project is one from the stamp archive. I had a hankering to play with the retired Seaside Wishes bundle and Freshly Made Sketches had just the sketch for it. 

To make the four panels of the sketch, I cut a piece of Basic White into four sections, then embossed the top left and bottom right with the Seaside Wishes embossing folder. I added in some Pool Party splatters using a stamp from the set. 

I die cut a sea urchin in Basic White and coloured with Misty Moonlight and a blending brush. I cut some seaweed in Pool Party then stamped and die cut a pair of starfish in Pretty in Pink. 

The sentiment, stamped in Misty Moonlight, is from Simply Said. The embellishments are from pink gems.  The card base is Misty Moonlight.

This card has quietened the hankering to play with this set but.... if only I hadn't misplaced the sea urchin die somewhere in the process!

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.