An Eclectic Mix for Paper Players 812

Joanne's classic Christmas combination brought out such wonderful entries last week. I feel sure that Jaydee's Clean and Simple challenge will do the same... just create us something in a clean and simple style on the theme of Christmas. 

Please note that by 'Clean and Simple', the crew at The Paper Players mean:

• Lots of clean, open space (ie not full faces of patterned paper).
• One main focal point
• Few embellishments
• Minimal layers (ie avoid a lot of matted layers. No layers or one layer would keep it safe.)

So, go ahead and embrace Jaydee's double challenge: a Christmas theme in a Clean and Simple Style.

To help keep the CAS vibe, I've used a base of Thick Basic White card. I've added a partial emboss across the top corner using the Swirls of Magic embossing folder. 

Then I played around with the Shining Stars dies, which were the October Product of the Month. I inlaid several sizes together in Basic White and Gold Foil. 

Keep your eyes out for Product of the Month as these are available for $11 with any qualifying order while stocks last. Since they sold out, sadly these are no longer available - but the November POM is, so take a look. 

To balance out the top left cluster, I added the sentiment in the bottom right. I gold embossed the lovely 'Merry Christmas' from Noel Tidings. 

I toyed with adding a few glittery embellishments but decided against 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

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

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.

 

Candle Party for FMS 762

 Just a quick post today. I escaped into my craft room while my granddaughter was having a spot of TV time and had a play around with the new Candle Party bundle. It was it's first time out of the packet and for inspiration, I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

My starting point was the small scalloped edge die that's part of the set. Consequently, I was drawn into a slimline card format to let the scalloped rectangles have enough space.  

I was looking for a bright, festive colour combination so went for Azure Afternoon, Lemon-Lime Twist and some Daffodil Delight. 

I made a mix of stamped and die cut candles in Azure Afternoon and Lemon-Lime Twist then chose four to use on the diagonal of the card. The set offers a lot of combinations of size and pattern of candle between the stamps and dies. 

For the centre, I stamped the birthday cake and gave it Lemon-Lime Twist candles and Daffodil Delight flames. Then, I had a light-bulb moment and stamped the 'celebrate', cut it out and made it the cake. It's popped up on dimensionals for emphasis. 

Then I used some of the other elements from the dies: confetti and stars to further add to the party atmosphere. I also added some Shimmering Dots and added Wink of Stella to the flames. 

So, a nice simple birthday card that's given me some ideas about what this unassuming little bundle can do. I think it's going to be a great set to have on hand for birthday for people of all ages. 

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.

Noel Tidings for Paper Players 811

This week at The Paper Players, our hostess in the lovely Joanne and she has a beautiful traditional Chrismtas colour palette for us. Many thanks to those of you who entered in Claire's Plaid theme challenge. I enjoyed seeing the varied and ingenious ways people incorporated plaid into their creations and I look forward to equally creative ways of using these Christmas colours. 

I was excited for this challenge as I love this combination of colours but alas, it seemed that my mojo had gone AWOL. The ideas in my head just didn't cut it on paper and even when this one was done, it just wasn't filling me with love. However, as often happens in that situation, when I came back to it later in the day it turned out it wasn't as bad as I'd first thought and with a tweak or two, made the cut. 

Does that happen to you too? When thought and execution just don't want to play nicely? 😀

I started with a Cherry Cobbler base as it's my favourite red. Then I cut the wreath in the Noel Tidings bundle from Mossy Meadow and Old Olive and layered them together. I had some ovals of Neutral Noel DSP left from another project so used one of them as the centre for the wreath. 

I cut some stars from Gold Foil using the Shining Stars Product of the Month die set. These are sadly now no longer available but it's a good habit to get into to see what the Product of the Month is, just in case it's a must-have for you!

I used some off-cuts from a reverse hot foiled Magical Christmas dies to cut some red berries using the berry dies from Noel Tidings. Both the stars and berries were added to the wreath.

The sentiment is from Magical Christmas Hot Foil dies made with Red Foil. It's popped up on dimensionals. The bow at the top uses the Multicolour Christmas Baker's Twine.

You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, on The Paper Players page. I can't wait to see what you do with these classic colours.

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

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.

Elegant Leaves for AYSI 385

 I do like a speed stamping challenge every now and again. It's good to be reminded that cardmaking can be an adrenaline inducing activity! 😀

This week at As You See It, we're asking you to use shades of green to create us something in ten minutes or less.

Before you decide that's not even possible, here are the rules:

• You can plan out what you're going to make 
• You can gather your supplies eg get out the stamps sets and block the stamps, get out the embossing folder or dies or embellishments
• Clean up time is not included

BUT

• Once you ink up a stamp, crank the handle of your Cut & Emboss machine or cut with your trimmer then the clock has to start.

I thought I'd go for green spring leaves so got out my favourite bundle, Elegant Leaves. I stamped the outline vein stamp three times: twice in Garden Green and once in Granny Apple Green. I used the fill stamp by inking it in Lemon Lime Twist then adding in some extra colour with sponge daubers and Granny Apple Green and Garden Green inks. 

Once they were stamped, I die cut them out. 

I used the timber impression die to create the horizontal line on a Basic White card front, then added the leaves (popped up on dimensionals).

The sentiment, stamped in Garden Green, is from the new Birthday Shoutout stamp set from the November Online Exclusives.

To finish off, I added a trio of Granny Apple Green Shimmering Dots. 

The inside was very simple with a pair of leaves, stamped identically to the others, on the Basic White inner. 

And the final time....

We'd love to see what you can do in ten minutes or less.  You can see what the rest of the design team have done, and link up your own entry, on 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.

Lily of the Valley for Paper Players 810

This week at The Paper Players, our hostess Claire has a theme challenge for us: to use plaid in our creations. Many thanks to those of you who participated in Christy's sketch challenge last week. We were delighted by the gorgeous entries. 

I've taken a subtle approach to plaid for my card. I love the Forever Plaid embossing folder, so that was always going to be utilised for this challenge. I remember there was some funky Pool Party plaid DSP in the Valley in Bloom DSP, so hunted out a piece of that. From those two things, the rest of the project evolved.

Hunting out the Valley in Bloom DSP reminded me that it's been a while since I played around with the Lily of the Valley bundle. So I built up a plant with various stamped images and die cuts. I coloured the flowers with Pool Party Stampin' Blends and added some Wink of Stella to the stamped images.

The finishing touches came from a trio of Pool Party Shimmering Dots.

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

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

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.

Tide & Treasures for CAS Colours & Sketches 597

My box of November Online Exclusive preorder arrived yesterday and in it was a new Hot Foil die: Tide & Treasure. That figures, since there's nothing I like more than leaves - except seashells. 😀

Naturally, I was looking for something to test it out with and the sketch at CAS Colours & Sketches obliged nicely.

I played around hot foiling in gold and silver on White Willow, on two-tone Pool Party and Strawberry Slush, then using Reverse Hot Foil plate to use up the scraps. The dies with this set cut out some of the seashells from the all-over pattern so I had a big pile of.... stuff... some of which turned into a card. 

And, I might also add, it turns out to be jolly difficult to get a half-decent photo of hot foil!

So I used Pool Party ink, a blending brush and the dotted lines part of the Water and Dotted Lines Decorative Masks to create a ground that was reminiscent of water for the sea shells. Then I added in the shells, ever so slightly overlapping. They fitted down the page not touching but I liked the look of them cascading down the page in a group rather than looking like they were social distancing.

The birthday sentiment is from another of the new November Online Exclusive drop, Birthday Shoutout. I think this is going to be a great addition to the stash as how often do we wish for a set that's just 'Happy Birthday' in different fonts and sizes and with some variant wording?

I did add some mother-of-pearl sequins from Sparkle sequins - but then I took them off again! Anyway, that's it for the first outing of Tide & Treasures and I still have quite a lot of stuff left on my desk....

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.

 

Fern & Flora for Colour INKspiration 220

Welcome to the 220th challenge at Colour INKspiration! Today's inspiration picture is of a European Bee Eater and was chosen by Crew Member, Lou Kitzelman. 

This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday 9 November, 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 the fabulous Sandra Hebel as our Guest Designer this time around. 

If you don't have an exact challenge colour, feel free to replace it with whatever you have that's closest, for example Crushed Curry for Darling Duckling. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

One of my favourite bundles of 2026 has been the Fern & Flora bundle (and, of course, the Fern & Flora embossing folder). I love the fern die cuts, so started with three different cuts - one in each of the challenge colours. 

I used one of the background texture stamps from the set and stamped a roughly rectangular panel in Darkling Duckling, then arranged the trio of fern fronds over it. The whole panel was attached to a Cajun Craze card base. 

The sentiment is from a different set, Friendly Foliage and is stamped in Pretty Peacock and cut using the label die from Fern & Flora. I added the same die cut in Pretty Peacock underneath the sentiment to accent it.

The finishing touch was the addition of a trio of Darling Duckling flat pearls. 

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.