Delicate Whispers for CAS Colours & Sketches 586

It's the end of a public holiday here in New Zealand, with the first Monday in June being King's Birthday.  Instead of tidying up my craft space ready for Class Week, I ended up playing around with the Colour Challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. 

It was quite a challenging trio of colours and I had a couple of false starts with some other sets before I got to Delicate Whispers. 

I repeat stamped the toi-toi image in Night of Navy, then added some different foliage in Balmy Blue. I coloured the leaves of those images in light Gray Granite Stampin' Blends, and the flowers in Dark Balmy Blue. Then I shaded the whole area with a light wash of Balmy Blue.

Then I got to work with a rectangular mask and blended the edge heavily with Balmy Blue, bleeding it out towards the further corners. Then I added a touch of Night of Navy to the corner. I added in the sentiment - although if I'd thought about it more, I should have stamped the sentiment first just in case there was some kind of stamping disaster with the words! 😀

I decided to mat the panel with Balmy Blue before adhering it to a Night of Navy card base. I added some tiny Basic Rhinestones to the flower centres then a couple of larger ones around the sentiment. All done!

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 The Paper Players 788

LeAnne's sketch last week was a beauty and we had wonderful entries in the gallery. Thank you to everyone who entered. This week at The Paper Players, our hostess is Joanne and she has a Tic-Tac-Toe for us. Simply choose any row: horizontal, vertical or diagonal and make sure to include each element in your design.  Quite often, you'll get to the end and find that you've completed more than one row - and that's fine too. 

I went with the top row: circles, flower and die cut.

I'm still having a play around with my latest acquisition, the Lily of the Valley bundle. 

I stamped a Lily-of- the-Valley spray in Granny Apple Green ink and coloured the bells with Barely Blush Blends. I die cut a spray of Lily-of-the-Valley in Basic White and coloured the stem with Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends and coloured the flowers with Barely Blush blends. Then I cut a second white stem, coloured the bells then cut them off and added them on dimensionals to the first spray to create depth.

I stamped the leaves in Granny Apple Green and rather than stamping in colour or colouring them, I painted them with Wink of Stella which gave them a nice shimmer and bled the outlines just a little to give some very subtle colour.

Since one of the elements to include was circles, I punched out twelve circles, embossed them with the Exposed Brick 3D Folder before adhering them to the Basic White Card front. This was attached to a Barely Blush card base. Then the flower stems and leaves were added. 

To get some more circles in, I die cut a stitched circle from Stylish Shapes for the sentiment (stamped in Basic Gray) and backed it with a banner dies cut from the same set in Barely Blush. The final touch was the addition of a trio of Barely Blush dots (more circles).

We'd love to see what you make with Joanne's Tic-Tac-Toe.  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:

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

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

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.

Fern & Flora for Freshly Made Sketches 738

 There's a delightful sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches that I had a play with today. 

I started with the line stencil from the new Water and Dotted Lines Decorative Masks to add in an area of the dotted lines using Shaded Spruce and a blending brush. 

Then I sponged some Hydrangea Hue over the centre of the stencilled area to create a pool of colour.

I stamped the sentiment, from the Friendly Foliage set, directly onto the card front. 

I cut a small fern from Basic White and attached it to the front of card. As tempted as I was to add some embellishments, it just seemed unnecessary.

So, a simple and clean sympathy card, easily done. 

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.

Nature's Symphony for Colour INKspiration 210

Welcome to the 210th challenge at Colour INKspiration! Thanks for all the gorgeous entries for last challenge. Today's palette was chosen by the whole crew as a celebration of the 2026-2028 In Colors.

This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday 8 June, 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 two Guest Designers for this challenge: Anne Matasci and Kristen Rhodas.

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

One of the things I like to do with a new set of In Colors is to try them out as a matching set to see how the vibe changes with the colours and to see how they sit together as a group. 

For this, I chose the Nature's Symphony bundle, stamping and die-cutting one large foliage image in each of the colours and then die cutting a large foliage spray from each of the five cardstocks.

 

I used some of the 2026-2028 In Color DSP, settling on using two of the patterns - the smaller polka dots and the narrower stripes. I cut 5 cm strips of the DSP and added them to Basic White card fronts that had been embossed using my old favourite, Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder.

I arranged the die cut foliage over the base and added a double bow made from Linen Thread. The sentiments were stamped in Basic Gray and are from Rolling Waves. The round sentiments are cut using Stylish Shapes and the rectangles from Notes of Texture (now retired).

To finish off, I added a trio of In Color embellishments. 

I was very happy with each of the colours, once I'd tried them out and think they work well as a group too. I look forward to seeing what you do with them for this challenge. 

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

Lily of the Valley for The Paper Players 787

 Ann's CAS Food challenge certainly produced some delicious entries and I enjoyed visiting them in the gallery. Since sketch challenges are my favourites, I'm keen to see what everyone does with LeAnne's pretty sketch this week. 

It turns out that, where craft stuff is involved, I'm pretty weak-willed. I was NOT going to buy anymore from the May-August Catalogue but somehow, the Lily of the Valley bundle and Valley in Bloom DSP just fell into my cart and bought themselves! 😁

As luck would have it, this stuff (along with one or two other things) showed up on my doorstep on the day I was working on the sketch.... silly not to try it out, right?

To begin with, I cut a rectangle of DSP. Originally, I picked it for the other side but when putting it together I had a change of heart. Shame, because the other side dictated the choice of Darling Duckling, Garden Green and Granny Apple Green for the flowers. 

After attaching the DSP to the Basic White card front, I ran it through the Floral Spray embossing folder. I like it but next time I'll try embossing the white before adding the DSP. 

I stamped the leaf outline in Garden Green then used the leaf-fill stamp in Granny Apple green before die-cutting it out. I die cut four of the lily-of-the-valley stems: 1 x Garden Green, 1 x Granny Apple Green and 2 x Darling Duckling. I added some extra colour to the Darling Duckling - one with a light blend and one with a dark blend then cut off the flower heads and added them to the green stems.

I tucked in a piece of die-cut lattice before attaching the flowers to the card front. At the last minute, I added a circle of vellum, cut with Stylish Shapes, just to lower the strength of the DSP.

The sentiment is from the Lily of the Valley set and I've shadowed it with a piece of Pool Party card. To finish off, I added a trio of Shimmering Dots.

I'm very happy these products chose to fall into my cart and I'll enjoy coming up with some  more things to do with them!

The team and I would love to see what you do with LeAnne's sketch. 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:

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

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

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.

Spotlight on Nature for As You See It 373

It's Speed Stamping Week at As You See It. This regular challenge is one people either love or hate - or maybe they love to hate it? Anyway, it is a bit of a thrill and if you ever wanted to combine adrenaline rush with stamping, this is your challenge!

If you've never taken up a Speed Stamping challenge before, this is how it goes. 

• You have ten minutes to complete your card.
• Thinking time is not included, so you can have planned it in your head.
• Supplies can be assembled but not used. So block up your stamps, get the embellishments out on the desk, put the dies beside the machine and so on.
• The  timer starts the moment you cut, ink up, stamp or emboss anything.
• Thankfully, clean up is not on the timer!
• Don't forget to tell us what your time to completion was. 

Spring bulbs threw me a bit because although I have lots of flowers, most of them were not bulbs. I actually used Google Image Search to identify the flower in Spotlight on Nature (retired) and it told me this was most likely a tulip, so I ran with that!

I stamped the image in Gorgeous Grape then used a blending brush and Fresh Freesia ink to add an explosion of colour around the flower heads. Then I used a water painter and some Fresh Freesia ink to add splatter.

I added the sentiment, from Rolling Waves, in Gorgeous Grape ink.

As I still have just under 8 minutes left on the clock I decided to go a bit further and cut the image out using Everyday Arches. I embossed a Basic White card front with the Beautiful Pattern embossing folder and adhered it to a Gorgeous Grape card base. (These things were in my 'if I have time' plan.)

To give it all a bit more oomph, I popped the arched panel up on dimensionals and finished off with a trio of Purple Fine Shimmer Gems. 

The inside was pretty simple - just a quick stamp of the top part of the floral image and a quick brushover with the blending brush.

Then I stopped the timer...

 

I quite surprised myself as I'd expected to be a bit closer to 8 minutes. But I was well planned in my head and had all my supplies on hand. 

What will you do in your ten minutes? You can see what the rest of the team have done and link up your entry at the As You See It Challenge page. 

Piece of Cake for The Paper Players 786

 Thanks to everyone who entered Claire's bright and summery colour challenge last week. The gallery was small but oh, so lovely! Our hostess this week is Ann and she has a double challenge for us. The theme is Food and the style is CAS!

I've done a lot of craft room clean up, clean out and reorganisation lately. The happy consequence of that is to reacquaint myself with some of the forgotten items in my craft library. One of these is the ever-so-lovely, but retired,  Piece of Cake bundle. I'm sure many of you will have it stashed away.

I decided to take the wedding cake option because I had some of the Lovely &Beautiful DSP on my desk and it had me in the matrimonial mood. 

I stamped the cake, the stand, some hearts and the sentiment in Tuxedo Black. I coloured them with Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Fresh Freesia and Petal Pink. The cake and stand could be cut out with the matching punch but the hearts... they had to be fussy cut!

Initially, I left the card front plain but couldn't help myself. It had to be embossed so I used the Beautiful Pattern 3D embossing folder for some subtle but elegant detailing. I cut a narrow strip of the DSP and applied it as two strips, then added the cake and hearts on dimensionals. I added the sentiment as a third tier of the cake and finished off with a trio of iridescent pearls.

The team and I would love to see what you do with Ann's CLEAN AND SIMPLE FOOD THEME. Remember it's a double challenge with both a theme AND a style. 

 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:

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

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

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.