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.

 

Creative Celebrations for Paper Players 809

After last week's Clean-and-Simple Challenge, this week Christy has a sketch challenge for us to play with. 

I'm still working on my experiments with using Ephemera packs. I just can't make myself craft with notecards and the ephemera pack alone. So I've included an embossing folder - because really, I can't craft without one - and some coordinating DSP. 

So my products are the Season of Celebration Mix and Match Ephemera Pack, the coordinating Creative Celebrations DSP and the Softly Woven 3D embossing folder. I ended up with these products because I was looking for some crafting to take away on holiday with me that wouldn't require a lot of gear. So armed with my paper trimmer, the ephemera pack and DSP plus some pre-cut card bases and some pre-embossed card fronts away I went to Australia. 

As holiday crafting, it worked well but I still have a lot of it to play with, so out it came for today's challenge.

Christy's sketch called for a slightly narrowed card front with a decorative edge. I've been a bit creative with that by adding in some DSP in the same colour as the card base as the decorative edge. 

 

The horizontal row of presents came straight from the DSP. The gorgeous reindeer was from one of the die cut pop-out pages of the DSP while the sentiment was from the ephemera pack. 

After that, it was a simple matter to add in a trio of sequins from the Sparkle Sequins pack.

Using the ephemera packs and the matching DSP is a different crafting experience from doing it all from scratch but I've discovered it's a nice way to create with limited supplies and space, and that you can create nice things quickly. Most importantly, I discovered that you still have to apply your creative skills to get a good result and so it is still a satisfying craft experience. Previously, I always skipped that part of the catalogue but it turns out to be worth a look. 😀

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.

Best Birds for AYSI 384

 This week at As You See It, it's theme week and the theme is feathers. 

Maybe you're going to play with just feathers, or maybe you're going to play with the feathers that are still attached to a bird?

Since I sold my Feathery set, it was down to feathers-still-on-a-bird! And my favourite ever bird set is a really old one: Best Birds. Long since retired, it still has a place in my craft library. 

For inspiration, I used this picture of a NZ  Wren, or Piwauwau because I liked the bright greens of the feathers.

After stamping the bird and bough in black, I coloured using Stampin' Blends: Crumb Cake, Granny Apple Green and Lemon-Lime Twist. 

I used the retired Stitched Rectangles to give some more detailing to the card front. 

I stamped a trio of blooms in black ink, coloured them with Petal Pink Stampin' Blends and die cut them out. They're popped up on dimensionals to give a bit of a lift. The centres of the flowers are tiny Iridescent Pearls. 

We'd love to see how you see the feathers theme.  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.

Holly Jolly Branches for CAS Colours & Sketches 596

 Well, I did manage to procrastinate inside my craftroom again. This time it was the colour palette at CAS Colours & Sketches. In my defence, I did make it to the ironing board and tame the ironing mountain as well. 😀

I thought I'd use one of my Christmas sets, the Holly Jolly Branches bundle but for a non-Christmas purpose. I love those funky shaped trees. 

I die cut one of the largest trees in Mossy Meadow and two of the middle sized trees: one in Cajun Craze and one in Golden Glow. I stamped a small pattern over each of them in matching ink.

I embossed a strip of Basic White with the Rustic Check embossing folder then ripped a bit from each side to create a distressed edge. After adhering it to a Basic White card front, then attaching it to a Mossy Meadow card base, I added the three trees. 

I stamped the sentiment, from Elegant Leaves, in Cajun Craze ink. I cut it using a banner die from Stylish Shapes. This is popped up on dimensionals. To finish off, I added a trio of Golden Glow flat pearls.

Delighted to be chosen as a Fabulous Favourite at CAS Colour & 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 stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Elegant Leaves for Paper Players 808

Thank you to the people who played along with my colour challenge last week. I was delighted by the varied uses people found for the one set of colours.

This week at The Paper Players, Stef has a double challenge for us: make something on the theme of 'Happy Autumn' AND make it in a Clean and Simple style. 

At The Paper Players, we have a reasonably relaxed view of clean and simple, or CAS, cards.

We are looking for cards that:

• Have lots of open, white space
• One focal point
• Minimal layers
• Simple embellishments (or even no embellishments)

Even though it is spring here, I've had a lot of autumn stuff on my desk largely because I love leaves and there have been some great new leaf sets at Stampin' Up! I've used the Elegant Leaves bundle (again!).

I started by stamping the leaf vein stamp in Cajun Craze on a scrap of Basic White. Then I coloured the filler stamp with sponge daubers using Timid Tiger, Crushed Curry and a touch of Cajun Craze. This two-step stamping let me have a pretty variegated autumn leaf, which I then die cut. 

I used one of the small skeleton leaf dies and a scrap of Gold Foil to make the tiny leaf. 

I used the new Rustic Check 3D embossing folder on a piece of Basic White to make the horizontal strip. With a linear pattern like this one, it's easier to tear the strip once it's embossed to help keep the lines straight. When it's a less obvious pattern, I usually emboss a torn strip.

The sentiment is made using the Sweetly Sentimental Hot Foil dies and Gold Hot Foil. 

Note: To do this, you also need the Stampin' Up! Hot Foil System.

I mounted the card front onto a base of Thick Basic White. No further embellishment was needed. 😀

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.