Thinking Stamping

Jan Clothier - You are here

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

Wednesday, 24 June 2026

Fern & Flora for Colour Inkspiration 212

Welcome to the 212th challenge at Colour INKspiration! Today's colours offer up a retro mid-century design graphic and a chance to play with some of the new In-Colors, along with a favourite classic.

This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday 6 July, 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.

If you don't have an exact challenge colour, feel free to replace it with whatever you have that's closest, for example Petal Pink or Pretty in Pink for Barely Blush. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

I thought these colours worked charmingly together and I was taken by the circular elements of the graphic. So I got out my circle stencils, created by punching out different sized circles on some scraps of window sheet. Using a blending brush, I created some overlapping circles with Golden Glow, Barely Brush and Crisp Canteloupe.

What next, I wondered? Well, what happened was that the Fern & Flora bundle was on my desk, since it's a current favourite and before I knew it, that fern image had just inked itself up and stamped itself over the circles. 😁

So I die cut a large fern from Lost Lagoon and added that. The sentiment was cut using a die from Textured Notes (recently retired but too good to part with). I popped it up on dimensionals and gave it a Golden Glow shadow.

I added a pair of moths, stamped in Lost Lagoon and coloured with Lost Lagoon and Golden Glow Stampin' Blends. They were die cut, then popped up on dimensionals.

To finish off, I added a trio of Golden Glow dots.

Originally I'd intended to have a Thick Basic White card base - and I still do have - but I decided at the last minute to add a Lost Lagoon mat. Funny how cards sometimes evolve and sometimes there's an actual plan... this one was more an evolution than a plan!

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.

Sunday, 21 June 2026

Using the Stash for Paper Players 791

Welcome stampers to the latest challenge at The Paper Players. I'm hostess this week and I have a double challenge for you. It's both and theme and a style challenge: create something that uses the weather and is in a Clean and Simple style.

At The Paper Players, we think of CAS being uncluttered with lots of white space, with minimal embellishment.

Despite having set the challenge, I did have a few problems finding something weather related that I wanted to work with, so I actually borrowed a bundle from my daughter: the retired Rainbow of Happiness stamps and Brilliant Rainbow dies.

These dies made creating a rainbow so easy! I cut rainbows in Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Blueberry Bushel then assembled it roughly in ROYGBIV order - allowing for missing colours.

Then I used the cloud dies and arranged them under the rainbow. To add a bit more interest, the centre ones are popped up on dimensionals.

The sentiment is stamped in Blueberry Bushel to go with the card base. Then a trio of Basic Rhinestones finished it off.

A bright, simple card just right for cheering up someone's day. 😀

The team and I would love to see what you do with this thematic CAS challenge. Visit The Paper Players to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry.

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:

Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
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.

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

Jan Clothier - You are here

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

Friday, 19 June 2026

Fern & Flora for As You See It 375

It was Joanne's choice for colour week at As You See It and she's chosen a bright and breezy, summery colour palette that I'm sure you'll enjoy working with.

It was kind of hard to go past florals, although I didn't come at it head on with florals - more a sideways approach using the Fern & Flora bundle.

I stamped two of the small stems of flowers in Tuxedo Black, then coloured them with Melon Mambo, Berry Burst and Lemon-Lime Twist Stampin' Blends. Then I die cut the pair of them out.

On the card front, I stamped the small tally lines in Coastal Cabana and a fern in Lemon Lime Twist as a background. Then I arrange the two die cut stems over it, with the top one popped up on dimensionals.

I stamped the sentiment in Tuxedo Black then die cut it with a stitched rectangle from Notes of Texture (retired) and shadowed it with some Coastal Cabana.

I stamped one of each of the moths in Tuxedo Black, then coloured it with a Coastal Cabana Stampin' Write marker (retired) and Berry Burst Stampin' Blends. Then I added some highlights with a white gel pen before die cutting them and adding them to the mix popped up on dimensionals.

The finishing touch was a trio of Basic Rhinestones coloured with a dark Melon Mambo Stampin' Blend.

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!

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

Sunday, 14 June 2026

Summer Happiness for The Paper Players 790

I do like a beach theme, so I picked up the Summer Happiness bundle from the July online exclusives pre-order. Preorder opportunity is one of the best perks of being a Demonstrator. 😀

It seemed a perfect chance to try it out, with Christy's beautiful summer colour palette this week at The Paper Players. There were lots of super entries in Stef's Masculine theme challenge last week, so if you entered - thank you!

I started with a Coastal Cabana base. I blended Coastal Cabana ink through the new Water mask with a blending brush to create a light-on-the-water effect.

Then I used some of the dies and stamps from the bundle to create some jandals, a camera, a pair of sunglasses and two flowers with Lemon-Lime Twist centres and clustered them over the water. I particularly liked the stamped glasses and camera, worked tone-on-tone.

The sentiments in the set lent themselves more to scrapbooking, so I used a sentiment from Rolling Waves then completed the card with a trio of Strawberry Slush flat pearls. What a marriage Summer Happiness and Rolling Waves will be!

The team and I would love to see what you do with Christy's bright colours. Visit The Paper Players to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry.

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:

Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
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.

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

Jan Clothier - You are here

Friday, 12 June 2026

Fern & Flora for CAS Colours & Sketches 587

I had a play around with the sketch at CAS Colours & Sketches today, using the Fern & Flora bundle.

I like a tag card, mainly because I really like my (sadly retired) Tailor Made Tags set. This set is, for sure, a keeper! I started by cutting out one of the largest round-cornered tags from Basic White and another from a scrap of the Moonlit Flora DSP. I added a bow of linen thread to finish the tag look. I also cut a hole reinforcer circle from a scrap of Golden Glow and added it to the white tag. I stamped some of the tiny strokes in Old Olive, making sure to off set it rather than having side-to-side images.

I die cut different ferns in Golden Glow, Old Olive and Mossy Meadow and arranged them over the tag.

The card front was embossed with the Fern & Flora embossing folder - already a firm favourite with me!

I stamped the sentiment in Mossy Meadow and cut it down. I stamped three moths in Mossy Meadow, coloured them with Golden Glow and Old Olive Stampin' Blends and added some highlights with a white gel pen.

The final finishing touch was a trio of Golden Glow pearls.

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

Sunday, 7 June 2026

Fern & Flora (and friends) for The Paper Players 789

As always, Joanne's Tic Tac Toe challenge brought lots of wonderful projects to the gallery. Thank you, everyone who entered. This week, it's theme week at The Paper Players. Our hostess is Stef and the theme is: Masculine.

Well, I had a lot of fun with this although if you don't live in New Zealand (or maybe Australia) this card might not mean as much at first sight. But believe me, here it has instant brand recognition!

New Zealand is a sports-mad country and no sport excites the population quite like rugby. It's fair to say it's our national sport - even a national obsession! And the apex team is the All Blacks, our national rugby team.

The All Black's black shirt, often with white trim, is legendary and the emblem of all New Zealand sporting representatives is the silver fern.

So an All Black shirt, complete with silver fern, is about the most masculine appropriate card you could have in this country!

I turned to my craft library and used the Handsomely Suited dies to create the collar and buttons, although the collar could easily be cut by hand and the buttons made with any small punch or die.

I used a Basic Black card base, a mat of silver foil then another rectangle of Basic Black for the shirt. The thing that can't be replaced in the supply list is this glorious fern from Fern & Flora, since it's just perfect for a New Zealand silver fern emblem. Handsomely Suited also had the perfect sentiment and die for this card. I knew I kept that bundle in my craft library after it retired for a reason!

A simple inside completed the deal. (Although the Black Ferns are the national Women's Rugby team. 😀)

The team and I would love to see what you do with Stef's theme. Visit The Paper Players to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry.

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:

Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
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.

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

Jan Clothier - You are here