Elegant Leaves for Freshly Made Sketches 757

Well, it turns out that I do my best procrastination in my craft room. I'll blame the lovely sketch at Freshly Made Sketches but the score for today is: jobs ticked off the list 2, cards made 3. And if I did it in minutes, it would be more like: job list 45 minutes, craft room 3 hours. 😀

I just wanted to create my own way today so I went back to my roots: lots of white space, layering of elements, pretty colours, nature imagery - in this case Elegant Leaves, since foliage is one of my go to things. 

The card base is Thick Basic White. The card front is embossed with the Textured Tree Ring 3D embossing folder. I was late to the party on that one - I bought it a couple of weeks ago but now it's on the Last Chance List. So it's still not too late to add it to your craft library. 

I replaced the small rectangle in the sketch with a small arch cut using the Everyday Arches dies. I added some background patterning using Gears & Textures in both Granny Apple Green and Lemon-Lime Twist inks.

The fun part was making the leaves. The Elegant Leaves bundle has so many options for creating leaves both stamped and die cut - not to mention two-step stamping options and layering stamps with die cuts - that my desk ended up littered with leaves in various configurations. 

The ones that made the final cut were: large leaf stamped with Granny Apple Green on Lemon-Lime Twist cardstock and sponged around the edges with Granny Apple Green ink, large skeleton leaf die cut from some DSP from Valley in Bloom, and medium leaf done in two steps. The outline/vein stamp is in Granny Apple Green and the infill stamp a mix of Granny Apple Green, Garden Green and Lemon-Lime Twist which were applied with sponge daubers.

I added a double bow made with Linen Thread to give the impression they'd been tied together as a bouquet of leaves and then added a trio of Shimmering Dots in Granny Apple Green.

The sentiment is made with the Sweetly Sentimental Hot Foil dies and some Gold Hot Foil. Note that this requires the Stampin' Up! Hot Foil system but you could add any sentiment, either stamped or embossed. 

I enjoyed making this card much more than I would have enjoyed spring cleaning the bathroom cupboards or cleaning out the garage then making a dump run... and those jobs will still be there tomorrow. 😀

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.

Butterfly Flight for Paper Players 807

There were many and varied landscapes on display in the gallery last week at The Paper Players for Ann's Nature's Landscapes theme. Thank you, if one of them was yours!

This week, it's my turn to host the challenge and I have a bright spring colour palette for you to play with. I know many of you will be looking out towards an autumn landscape but here, in the South Pacific, we're enjoying the return of spring. I'd love to see what you do with these colours. 😀

You are free to add black and white, as long as the challenge colours remain the stars of the show!

When I bought the Butterfly Flight Hot Foil dies, there was the option to bundle it with the Butterfly Flight Decorative Masks. While these masks make colouring in the foil outline of the butterflies very easy, they work perfectly well without the Hot Foil die. As you see here, using the the masks alone gives a lovely soft variation of the butterflies. 

I used one of the arches from Everyday Arches to cut the centre from a Basic White card front. Then I embossed the outer portion with the Textured Tree Ring 3D embossing folder (now on the Last Chance list). Then I popped the centre arch back in and added the sentiment from Gathering Gardens - also now on the Last Chance list. The 'Happy Birthday' is on the inside, along with the other two stencilled butterflies.

The card base is cut from Thick Basic White. The white foliage is cut using some of the standard cutting dies that are part of the Butterfly Flight Hot Foil die set. The embellishments are the Granny Apple Green dots from 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.

Pumpkins for AYSI 383

 It's Recipe Week at As You See It this week. I like a recipe challenge and it's a challenge type that's not around as much as some, so there's novelty value in it too. If you've never played with our Recipe Challenge before, it's pretty simple: take the five given ingredients, mix them in with your craft stash and see what you can cook up. Or in MasterChef terms, take the mystery box and add your chosen pantry staples and see what you can make. 😀

Having said how much I like a recipe challenge, this one did throw me a bit. It was the PUMPKIN... There are lots of pumpkins in the Stampin' Up! repertoire but just not in my Craft Library. We don't have Halloween or Thanksgiving so, apart from making soup, I don't have a lot of call for them!

Some creative thinking was called for. I made my own pumpkins out of the insides of the letter O from the Alphabet a la mode set and from stitched circles from Stylish Shapes. Then I cut some foliage from the Help Me Grow dies in what I hoped was a pumpkinesque style! I used Pumpkin Pie, Timid Tiger and Golden Glow card for the pumpkins and I blended the same coloured inks around the edges to add som depth. The foliage is cut from Old Olive and Garden Green.

The rest of the recipe was easy: Forever Plaid embossing folder for the card front to add the checked element, Linen Thread to create the crossover and Sunset Sparkle sequins for some shine.

As well as two of the pumpkins, the sentiment also uses die cuts. It's cut using the ever-useful Stylish Shapes dies. The sentiment is white embossed on Garden Green and is from Elegant Leaves.

We'd love to see what you cook up with these ingredients. 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.

Welcome Noel for Paper Players 806

 I thought that JayDee's sketch for last week's challenge was a keeper and, judging from the beautiful entries in the gallery, so did many of you. This week at The Paper Players, our hostess is Ann. Her chosen theme is Nature's Landscapes. Anything from mountains to deserts and anything in between!

I do seem to be in Christmas card mode at present, probably because I'm planning out a number of Christmas classes. I've been doing a lot with Noel Tidings and Welcome Noel bundles and I've used Welcome Noel again for this card, along with some library items.

I started with a piece of Basic White, some torn Post-it Notes, a blending brush, Hydrangea Hue ink, Shaded Spruce ink and the small pine tree stamp from Welcome Noel to create a snowy scene.

Once the scene was created, I used the bauble die from the (retired) Ornamental Christmas from the 2025 Christmas catalogue to cut out a bauble from it. From a scrap of Gold Foil I cut the bauble topper. Using the star die from Welcome Noel, I cut the small star. 

I blended Hydrangea Hue ink around the edge of the bauble and stamped in the tiny deer in Early Espresso ink. 

To bring in more of the forest idea, I embossed the card front with the (retired) Evergreen Forest 3D embossing folder from my craft library.

After ruling in a hanging wire for the bauble, I attached it with dimensionals. 

The sentiment is one of the greetings in the Magical Christmas Hot Foil Dies, created with Gold Hot Foil. It too is popped up on dimensionals. 

Note: Hot Foiling requires the Stampin' Up! Hot Foil System and a Stampin' Up! Cut and Emboss Machine.

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.

Butterfly Flight for CAS Colours & Sketches 595

I'm always keen for a sketch challenge. To be honest, I'm also always looking for a reason not to be doing chores. Happy marriage = wet day + craft room time + sketch at CAS Colours & Sketches. 😀

So, I saw the circle shapes as butterflies. I used my Butterfly Flight Hot Foil dies and Gold Hot Foil to create a set of butterflies. Then I used the matching Butterfly Flight decorative masks to colour them with a blending brush and a mix of Daffodil Delight, Timid Tiger and Calpyso Coral before die cutting them out. Special tip: these decorative masks make beautiful butterflies even without the Hot Foil dies.

To give the butterflies something to ground them, I added in some stencilled lines using the dotted lines from the Water and Dotted Lines duo.  I used Granny Apple Green ink and a blending brush.

The sentiment used the Sweetly Sentimental Hot Foil dies, again with Gold Hot Foil. To finish off, I added a trio of Granny Apple Green shimmering dots.

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.

New Music Stuff for FMS 755

 I'm having a play around with the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches today because I have new stuff to play with. Although I've been a Stampin' Up! woman for some time now, sometimes you just have to go off piste. I'm always on the lookout for good music themed items for my collection as I have musical family members. When my Paper Players buddy JayDee used some Spellbinders musical items recently, I tracked them down within New Zealand so avoided heavy shipping costs.  They are now in my possession. 😀

The die sets and embossing folder come from Spellbinders Bibi Cameron Musical Notes Collection. All other products are Stampin' Up!.

I enjoyed creating the violin and bow from Pecan Pie, Early Espresso, Basic Black and some copper foil. I added in some adhesive sheet to give both height and strength, especially to the very delicate bow die cut. 

Since I used copper foil for the bow, I used the Sweetly Sentimental Hot Foil die with Copper Hot Foil to create the sentiment.

It was nice to get a first card done with these items - already I have ideas for other projects. 

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 805

Christy's CAS Bear challenge threw up some gorgeous bear themed cards. Thank you, if you were one of the people who took up the challenge. This week at The Paper Players, JayDee is our hostess and she has a lovely sketch for us to be inspired by. I love a sketch challenge - they're my favourite kind. 😀

Today I've played with a type of product I don't usually have in my craft room and that's items from the Quick and Easy Section of the catalogue - because I like crafting from scratch. Bit of a masochist like that! 

You might laugh at the reason why I ended up with the Season of Celebration Mix and Match Ephemera Pack and the coordinating Creative Celebrations Mix and Match 6x6 DSP pack. My husband and I recently went for a winter escape to tropical North Queensland for a couple of weeks. I couldn't face the prospect of no crafting for that long, so I got the above mentioned items, cut some coordinating card bases, pre-embossed some card fronts with the Softly Woven 3D embossing folder and took them on holiday with me.... along with some embellishments, a paper trimmer and my basic tools.

True craft minded people will understand it. My husband was rather less understanding when I pulled the items out of my suitcase. You can't spend all your time on The Great Barrier Reef or exploring the Daintree Rainforest! 😎

Anyway, I still have things left to use up so I used some of the remnants for this card. 

The wreath and the sentiment are from the ephemera pack. The Softly Woven embossed card front is well travelled, having been to Australia and back. The card base is Real Red. It too is well travelled.

The embellishments are from the adhesive backed Sparkle Sequins. 

The reason I love a sketch challenge is that I'm always fascinated at how the same starting point can lead to so many different interpretations. How will you approach this sketch? The team and I would love to see. 

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

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