Beach Day for Paper Players 798

Hello and welcome to a new challenge at The Paper Players! First though, a big thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy week to play along with my theme challenge last week. It was great looking at the creations for the little ones. 

This week, Stef has a colour challenge for us. 

I'm not sure why but to me, it seemed to call out for a beach scene. Maybe it's the blues of the ocean and browns of the sand? Anyway, I've made a lot of beach themed cards with the wonderful Rolling Waves bundle and the Summer Happiness bundle but neither of them conjured up something for these colours. I could have forced it but instead went to an older beach -themed set that many of you will have on your shelves, as it was a beauty. And that is the Beach Day bundle.

I started by stamping in black the umbrella, deck chair, beach ball, sandcastle, gull and sandy seashells. I coloured the images with Stampin' Blends in Azure Afternoon, Real Red, Pool Party and Crumb Cake. I brushed on a light dusting of Crumb Cake with a blending brush over the sand area. I added the sentiment.

I used a post-it note to create a horizon line to blend over some Pool Party ink - maybe it's sky or maybe it's sea. I was aiming for a confusion of both!

I used the Party Banner dies to cut out the scene, adding a peep of a Real Red banner at the bottom. I used the dies to cut hole and make some reinforcing rings before adding the linen thread bow.

I have built up a stash of sea and beach-themed products over the years and so used the absolutely fabulous Sea Bed folder (retired) for the card front. 

I also have a diminishing stash of the retired Glossy Dots Assortment but raided it for three Pool Party gems to finish this card off. 

I hope you find some time during the week to join us in this challenge. Visit The Paper Players page to see what the rest of the Design Team have done, to link up your entry or to get more details on the challenge. 

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

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

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

 

New In Colors for Paper Players 797

I'm delighted to welcome you to a new challenge at The Paper Players because I'm the hostess this week. I've got a theme challenge for you which I hope will appeal: For the Little Ones. So maybe you need a card or two for some new babies in your life (and their parents) or maybe you need a birthday card for a tot in your life. Or maybe you need a 'No reason except that I love you' card for that special grandchild, godchild or niece/nephew.  For whatever reason you need a something for a little one, then this is your challenge.

There are some births imminent in my world at present, so I thought I'd go for the baby card option. As I usually do when I go for a baby card, I make a boy, girl, gender neutral option while I'm at it.

This year's In Colors work well for this with Hydrangea Hue, Barely Blush and Golden Glow. I used patterns from the 2026-2028 Painted Patterns DSP to create the little onesies. I still love the retired All For Baby set with the cute collection of baby clothes and accessories - such as the tiny hangers - for my baby cards, so that's what I've used. 

To frame the clothes collection, I used the Party Banner dies, cutting a second in the key colour to create an edging top and bottom.  The tiny hearts come from All for Baby and I've given them a little sparkle with some Wink of Stella.

For the background embossing, I used the retired Crazy Crochet 3D folder, as it has the look of a handmade baby blanket about it. 

To finish each card, I used a trio of the matching In Color Dots.

I hope you find some time during the week to join us in this challenge. Visit The Paper Players page to see what the rest of the Design Team have done, to link up your entry or to get more details on the challenge. 

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

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

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

A Beachy Combination for AYSI 378

This week at As You See It, we have a theme challenge for you: Summer Days.  There are so many wonderful things to choose from when thinking about summer but for my family, it's the beach.

There are several good beaches less than half an hour from home but for a holiday, we like to go north where it's just a tad warmer. We often end up at Ohope. We've gone there with various of our adult children and our granddaughter for the last three summers, so there's a few scrapbooking opportunities awaiting me in the craft room. This challenge seemed a good chance to tuck one of them away.

It's a nice simple, one-photo layout and I started by laying down some watery background using the Water mask from Water and Dotted Lines, a blending brush and some Hydrangea Hue ink. This was on a piece of 12 x12 White Willow.

Using one of the wave dies from Rolling Waves, I cut two pieces of frothy wave from Blueberry Bushel to lay down a strong horizontal. I drew on Blueberry Bushel and Hydrangea Hue as best matches to the blues in the sky.

After that, it was simply a matter of adding some beach themed bits: the starfish and shells are from Rolling Waves while the jandals and sunglasses are from Summer Happiness. In my stable of colours, I didn't have a pink that matched little Miss's outfit but the Melon Mambo went well with it. The Coastal Cabana tied in nicely with her Crocs and as for the Daffodil Delight - well, there's the sunshine for you!

To finish off, I made a signpost out of the words from Summer Happiness.

 I added a touch of journalling and the date at the bottom of the page, just in case any of us who were there should ever forget the hullaballo that broke out seconds after this photo was taken, when the wind grabbed the Bluey Hat and tossed it into the ocean - never to be seen again!

And of course, Little Miss 3 does not have a Starfish face. That's just my attempt to give her a shade more privacy. 😀

The team and I would love to see your summer themed project - maybe a card, maybe a layout, maybe a 3D item.

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done, and link up your entry, on the As You See It page. The team and I are all keen to see how you see it!

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.

Hot Foiling for Paper Players 796

It's a new week at The Paper Players and our hostess is Stef. LeAnne's CAS Beach Challenge saw some gorgeous entries in the gallery, so thank you to all who entered. I'm sure Stef's lovely sketch will fire up your creativity just as much!

I recently indulged myself by purchasing Stampin' Up!'s new Hot Foil system and I'm still having a lot of fun experimenting with it. 

I started by stamping Botanical Glow in Peaceful Pine on a piece of White Willow, then gold foiling over it with the Botanical Glow Hot Foil die. I cut out three squares using Stylish Shapes and attached them to the card front, which I then attached to the Peaceful Pine base. 

The butterfly was made using the Butterfly Flight hot foil dies and Gold Foil. This set has the option of bundling with stencils that colour the butterflies - which, of course, I have too! I coloured it using Flirty Flamingo, Melon Mambo and Berry Burst. I used the matching cutting dies to cut out the butterfly, then added it up on dimensionals to the card. 

 For a little card, I managed to try out a lot of products because I used Gold Foil and the Sweetly Sentimental Hot Foil dies to create the sentiment!

To finish off, I added a trio of Peaceful Pine Dots.

I hope you find some time during the week to join us in this challenge. Visit The Paper Players page to see what the rest of the Design Team have done, to link up your entry or to get more details on the challenge. 

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

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

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

Garden Gatherings for Colour INKspiration 214

 

Welcome to the 214th challenge at Colour INKspiration! Today's cheerful colours come from a photograph taken by our Crew Member, Lou Kitzelmann, at the Yuushien Garden, Daikonshima  while on holiday in Japan.

This challenge runs for nearly three weeks and will finish on Monday 10 August, 5pm AEST.

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 Sandra Hebel 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 Highland Heather for Fresh Freesia. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

Well, with an image like this and the colours, it was hard to go past a floral set. I've been having a lot of fun with the Garden Gatherings bundle recently, so reached for it once again. 

I used Basic Black for the card base and Tuxedo Black to stamp the sentiment.

Using Old Olive ink, I stamped two stems and then used the daisy-like stamp to create one stem in Melon Mambo and the other in Berry Burst. 

Then I used the smaller leaf stem with Granny Apple Green and stamped the berries in Fresh Freesia. 

These three stems were die cut out. 

I cut two of the squat vases, one in Fresh Freesia and one in Melon Mambo, then embossed them with the Lazy Daisy folder. Then I sponged the left hand edges with the matching ink to add some shading.

I cut the taller vase in Berry Burst and stamped over it with the small flower head stamp to add a pattern, then added some Berry Burst ink to the left side to add shading. 

I die cut a small flower in Fresh Freesia and a leaf stem in Old Olive.

For the background, I embossed a piece of Basic White with the Lazy Daisy folder before tearing the top and bottom edges. This was adhered to the Basic White card front.

Then I added the three vases of flowers, each popped up on dimensionals.

The sentiment was die cut using a banner die from Stylish Shapes.

To finish off, I added some Fresh Freesia gems from the retired Purple Fine Shimmer Gem pack.

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done with the 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.

Rolling Waves for The Paper Players 795

 After Jaydee's gorgeous colour challenge - and the lovely vibrant entries it brought in - we have  a Clean and Simple Beach theme challenge for you this week from our hostess, LeAnne.

So this week is a double challenge. Your project must use a beach theme AND be in Clean-and-Simple style. At the Paper Players, we take this to mean that there should be lots of clean, white space with minimal layers, minimal embellishments and an overall uncluttered look. 

I started with a Thick Basic White card base and a Basic White card front. I sponged some Pool Party  ink with a blending brush onto the central area of the card to suggest the ocean. 

Of course, my go to beach bundle at the moment is Rolling Waves. I cut one of the wave dies out of Basic White and added it as a horizontal axis for the card design.

Using Basic Gray ink, I stamped the sentiment.

A bit of scurry around in my bits box unearthed some diecuts left over from previous projects so I was happy to use a Coastal Cabana palm leaf and some sea shells /starfish in Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo and Petal Pink.

I played around with the idea of adding some sparkly embellishments but decided that they added nothing but some distraction and left them off. I often think it takes a bit more courage to leave things out than it does to add things in!

Anyway, I hope you find some time during the week to join us in this challenge. Visit The Paper Players page to see what the rest of the Design Team have done, to link up your entry or to get more details on the challenge. 

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

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

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

Magical Hot Foil for Freshly Made Sketches 745

It's been a long time since something truly different, and truly exciting, has arrived in my craft room: something never before seen or used or played with. And that folks, is Stampin' Up!'s brand spanking new Hot Foil System.

Once I'd worked out the technicalities of how to operate it (actually, really simple) I tried out a few things like using different dies, using different coloured foils and trying out different papers to foil. Now it was time to actually make something with it all, so I turned to the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to do just that. 

As part of my experimentation, I'd used the Garden Silhouette Hot Foil Die with gold foil on vellum.

Then I coloured the flowers from the back using Melon Mambo Stampin' Blends, with some  touches of Granny Apple Green and Daffodil Delight.

I cut this down to a long strip 9cm wide then folded it over a 9cm square of Bubble Bath card stock, attaching it with Stampin' Seal from behind. 

I can see that one possible negative of this lovely Hot Foiling is going to be the trouble in getting a good photo of it!

I used a Bubble Bath card base. The Basic White card front is embossed with the retired (but never to be parted with) Subtle embossing folder. I wanted some texture for interest but nothing that would compete with the busy gold foiled square, so it was the perfect choice. 

I ran a narrow strip of Bubble Bath through the same folder as a base for the sentiment.  For the sentiment, I hot foiled the Sweetly Sentimental Hot Foil dies, then cut them out with the matching cutting dies. There were a bunch of sentiments, which are great to have on hand ready to use - but I liked this one for a wedding. It's popped up on dimensionals.

While looking for embellishments, I wanted something elegant but not too flashy. I chose the sparkling white Shimmering Dots to finish 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.