Textured Notes for As You See it 355

Well, at As You See It it's once again time for our loved (and sometimes loathed) SPEED STAMPING CHALLENGE! What's speed stamping you ask? In this instance it means you have to complete your card on the given theme inside of ten minutes.

Before you go into complete meltdown mode, there are a few provisos that make the challenge do-able.

What you can do before the timer starts

• Plan. Take all the time you need to plan out what you're going to make.
• Set Up. You can get out your stamps and block them, put your dies on the table, get out the card stock pieces and ink pads, put the embellishments to hand: anything that's setting up what you will need.

But

Once you make a cut, put a stamp to ink, actually use your Cut and Emboss machine: anything that counts as creating, then the timer must start.

Thankfully clean up time is not included in the ten minutes either! 

The speed challenge is one of those times when your cardmaking becomes an adrenaline rich activity!

The theme for this one is LEAVES. I got to choose this challenge and I love foliage. My go-to at the moment is Textured Notes,  which I'm enjoying pairing with Elements of Text, .

Patterned paper is a good friend when it comes to speed challenges so I got out Woven Textures because I like the natural patterns. DSP gives big bang for little effort - just cut and stick. That leaves lots of the clock left for stamping.

A quick pass through the Cut and Emboss machine and the Textured Notes dies gave me a rectangle with a pretty edge all ready for stamping.

I stamped the large leaf stamp twice, using Mossy Meadow ink, but without re-inking for the second impression.  I added in some text background stamping using one of the stamps from Elements of Text, using Gray Granite then some Crushed Curry splatters with another from the set. I created a similar, but smaller, cluster in the opposite corner. 

I stamped the sentiment in Basic Gray. Then I added in some Crushed Curry around the stamped areas using a blending brush. 

After adding the DSP to the Gray Granite card base and the stamped panel, I popped in three Glossy Enamel Dots in Crushed Curry (retired) to finish off. 

And then.... don't forget to stop the timer!

I'd love to see what you can cook up in ten minutes or less!  You can also see the rest of the team's inspirations there. 

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.

Impressions Abloom for As You See It 354

The new theme for this week's challenge at As You See It almost had me stumped. I don't have a single stamp or piece of DSP that's in any way related to picnics. Clearly some creative thinking was going to be needed for this one

Creative thinking was involved in this card but alas, most of it was not mine. Tammy Wilson from Stamp, Paper, Scissors is the inspiration for this card. I first encountered her work when we were both on the 2020 Artisan Design Team and I've followed her ever since. She posted this fabulous card where she made watermelons using the dies from Impressions Abloom. 

Since no picnic is complete without some sliced watermelon, the card was born!

I chose Forever Plaid to emboss the background, since it's reminiscent of the generic checked picnic blanket. 

To create the watermelon, I used the large oval label die from Impressions Abloom to cut an oval from Strawberry Slush cardstock. I cut it in half and sponged Strawberry Slush ink in the centre, using a blending brush. 

To create the rind, I used the stitched edge label die to cut an oval edging in Shy Shamrock cardstock. I cut it and added it to the outer edge of the Strawberry Slush slices. (A little fudging around is required.)

Following Tammy's lead, I cut the pips using the small leaf die from the Birthday Celebration dies. These can still be found in the Last Chance section, if you don't already have them. 

The sentiment is from the Sweet Jar stamp set, and I've cut is using one of the Spotlight on Nature dies. The Shy Shamrock circle underneath the sentiment was cut using my old favourite set, Stylish Shapes. 

To finish off, I added in some flowers - which were also cut using the Impressions Abloom dies - to create the feel of wildflowers in the meadow. The very final thing was to add some Strawberry Slush gems for a touch of bling. 

I hope your path to a picnic themed card is easier than mine was! I look forward to seeing your creation in the As You See It gallery. You can also see the rest of the team's inspirations there. 

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.

 

Circles for As You See It 352

 It's fill in the blank week at As You See It Challenge. Joanne has asked us to consider which shape we'd use if we could only use one shape in our projects.

Well, for me it would be circles because they are so versatile. Die cut or punch them for sentiments, use them as a base for a cluster of other elements, use them to create bubbles or zones, circular cards, cut them into halves or quarters to create secondary patterns - the sky is pretty much the limit.

For this challenge, I've gone for the 'cut them up to create secondary patterns' model. If you go hunting around the internet, you'll find lot so examples of this kind of thing. It's really very easy to do and gives quite a striking result depending on the colours and sizes you choose. 

Stuck in the depths of winter as I am, I had some yearning for summer - hence the summery colours I've chosen. I used some retired circle dies to cut 4 sizes, one set in warm colours and one in cool colours. I layered them up then cut each circle in half. Then joined them together again. I don't know why I didn't use my stitched circle dies from Stylish Shapes because that would have given some extra detailing to the design - something for next time!

A nice long linear sentiment is needed to cover the join - and it's true that that is NOT a circle! So when you're making your card for this challenge, remember we're looking for the majority of the shapes to be your chosen shape.

I did actually consider making this card into a circular easel card, which would have been easy enough to do, but I decided instead to make a square card so that I could get the best bang from the Dotted Circles 3D embossing folder. I embossed the card front carefully to get a circular frame to nestle the reconstructed circles into. 

The sentiments were heat embossed in white onto Basic Black. 'You make a difference' is from Thankful Garden and 'You are seriously the best' is from Textured Notes.

And in keeping with the circle theme, many great embellishments are also circles. I've used the wonderful golden patterned circles: Flower Accents.

We'd love to see what your favourite crafting shape is.  You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at 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.

Thankful Garden for As You See It 351

 It's time for a colour challenge at As You See It this week. Don't forget that the Featured Artist in this week's gallery will be offered the opportunity to Guest Design with us in our next Recipe Challenge. That's a fun way to put your toe in the water of being on a team if you've not done it before. 

With that gorgeous floral graphic and the sunny colours, it was hard to go past florals for this challenge. My go-to florals at the moment (by a narrow squeak) is the Thankful Garden bundle. I love the stamps and dies with the extra bits but the addition of a layered set of stencils gives even more otpions. You'll find this set in the Online Exclusives section of the store. 

With such impactful colours and a large striking floral image, this card didn't need much else. I started by stamping the large image and using the layered stencils, and blending brushes, to colour it. I used a sponge dauber to colour the centre of the bloom in Peach Pie. Once the colouring was complete, I die cut the image. 

I used the Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder to give the card front some texture. The sentiment was stamped in Basic Black and cut using one of the Textured Notes dies. I cut a shadow die from Peach Pie to underline the sentiment.  The card base is Melon Mambo.

To finish off, I used a trio of Peach Pie Resin dots.

The whole team would love to see how you see these bright colours.  You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at 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.

Trusty Tools for AYSI 350

Hello everyone! We're back to the beginning of our challenge roster with a sketch, this time from Joanne. 

Are your ideas flowing yet? I love a sketch challenge because I find the structure really gets my mojo going. 

For this challenge, I used the Trusty Tools stamps and dies  - a great masculine set if you have a DIY-er in your family. Instead of going for traditional 'tool' colours, I went for something bright and breezy: Lemon-Lime Twist and Azure Afternoon with Smoky Slate.

 

For the three vertical elements in the sketch, I chose three of the tools in the set. I stamped them in Tuxedo Black then coloured them with Stampin' Blends in Lemon-Lime Twist, Azure Afternoon and Smoky Slate. I used the pegboard die from the set to create a board for the tools to 'hang' on. For added colour, I put a piece of Lemon-Lime Twist behind it. 

It's a little early for Father's Day but I'm sure it will be upon us before we can blink, and I'll be ready! The sentiment label is cut using a banner from Stylish Shapes. 

To finish off, a tie of Black Baker's Twine from the Essentials Pack and some Neutral Matte Dots. A Basic Black card base brings it all together. 

The whole team would love to see what marvels you can create in ten minutes or less.  You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at 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.

Beautiful Gallery for AYSI 349

 Time moves quickly and it's already rolled around to our most feared challenge of the roster - the SPEED CHALLENGE! For this challenge,  the theme is water but the time remains the same: create your card in ten minutes or less. 

Before you decide that's impossible, here's how it works.

1. Thinking time is not included. So you can have it all planned out before you start the timer.
2. Prepping equipment is not included. So you can get out the stamps and have them blocked up, the embellishments and dies can be on the table ready to go. The cardstock can be on the desk. 
3. Thankfully, clean up is not included either. 

BUT

The moment you ink a stamp, cut a piece of card, die-cut or emboss anything, then the timer has to start. 

Over the years of doing the speed challenge, I've worked out a couple of tricks. One is to use pretty papers so they'll do all the heavy lifting that time-consuming techniques would usually do. 

In this instance, I've turned to the Beautiful Gallery 6x6 DSP stack and I chose a moody water scene.

Part of the Gallery Blooms dies is one that cuts out three inset rectangles in a single pass. So I used it once on the scenic DSP and once on a piece of Cloud Cover. Then I replaced the centre scene rectangle with the matching Cloud Cover piece.

I stamped the sentiment, from Beautiful Motifs, in Secret Sea onto the Cloud Cover frame.  The whole thing was adhered to a Secret Sea card base. 

As I still had some time to spare, I added in three Secret Sea In Color Flat Pearls. 

How long did this take? I was pleasantly surprised to see that it only took...

The whole team would love to see what marvels you can create in ten minutes or less.  You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at 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.

5minutes 17 seconds

Impressions Abloom for AYSI 348

Welcome to a new challenge at As You See It! Let's hope that this round is not as challenging as our last recipe challenge when the As You See It Challenge page was out of action for most the entry period! Thank you to our loyal followers who stuck with us and entered as and how they could, or messaged us to tell us there were problems.

This challenge is my pick and I owe thanks to my fellow team member Joanne for the inspiration for it. 

Which is your favourite? Spots or stripes?

It's a bit of a tough call, right? I like them both. As I was stiing at my desk pondering what to do, I leafed through the patterns of the new Floral Impressions DSP, one of then new Online Exclusives. I noticed that one of the 'B' sides had very pretty little circles on it. I decided to make that the base of my card.

Then I used the Stylish Shapes dies to cut out several circles of various sizes from one of the floral 'A' sides of the paper, then arranged them to the left of the page. I was wanting them to look like floral bubbles floating upwards. Whimsical, I know!

After white heat embossing the sentiment onto Pool Party card, I used another of the Stylish Shapes dies to cut it out. I popped it up on dimensionals over some strands of Linen Thread and added a Linen Thread bow. 

To complete the spotty theme, I added in three of the new In Color Flat Pearls, choosing to use Timid Tiger to pick up the Timid Tiger florals in the bubbles.

The whole team would love to see whether your prefer spots or stripes. You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at the As You See It Challenge page. (At least, this week you can!)

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.

 

Darling Dinos for AYSI 347

I'm excited for the  new challenge at As You See It - it's a recipe challenge. All you need to do is to take the five ingredients and see what you can cook up with them.

Dinosaurs are favourites of mine, as in the Darling Dino bundle. I chose two of the dinosaurs from the stamp set, inked them up with Tuxedo Black and coloured them using Stampin' Blends in Gray Granite, Old Olive, Crumb Cake and Pecan Pie.

So that's two of the recipe ingredients ticked off: animals and colouring.

I die cut out my dinosaurs and also a rectangular panel using one of the Textured Notes dies.

So that ticked off a third ingredient of the recipe: punch or die cut.

A fourth ingredient was texture or embossing. Now normally, I'm all over embossing. I use embossing far more than I use patterned paper but.... in this instance, I really wanted to use the Woven Textures DSP. So, no embossing but definitely texture. I think that the decorative edge of the rectangle counts as texture too.

So that ticked off ingredient four: texture or embossing

Twine was the final ingredient. That was easily ticked off by adding some lines of Crumb Cake twine from the Basic Essentials Baker's Twine pack along with a bow. 

Then to finish off, I added a trio of Pecan Pie dots from the Neutral Matte Dots pack.

The whole team would love to see what you can cook up with these five ingredients plus your own extras. You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at 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.

Celebratory Sips Stamp Camp

If you're interested in joining me for an international virtual Stamp Camp featuring the Celebratory Sips Suite, all the details are here.

You'll get PDF and Video tutorials for 13 projects using the suite, plus make and take kits for them

PLUS

an additional 13 projects delivered as Facebook Lives during the Stamp Camp weekend.

A total of 26 ready-to-go projects. 

Impressions Abloom for ASYI 346

As we come to the end of the catalogue year, we've had time to look at what's retiring and feel sad for the favourites that will soon be unavailable. Of course, just because they retire from the catalogue doesn't mean they disappear from your stash shelves! We sell off some things but there are always things we just won't part with. The latest challenge at As You See It asks us to think about what some of those things are.

So, while I'm sad to some stamp sets passing, the questions today is about tools. Embossing folders are one of my favourite tools and my current favourite is the Distressed Tile 3D embossing folder. I won't be parting with mine!

One of the great pleasures of old favourites is pairing them up with new products. I've used the about-to-be-released Impressions Abloom bundle in some of the new In Colors: Strawberry Slush and Darling Duckling, with a touch of another favourite - Granny Apple Green.

I like the look of splitting the embossed panel into three: a simple thing but it gives quite a different look to a card front. The sentiment is white heat embossed and I've added some Basic Rhinestone Jewels as embellishments. 

The whole team would love to see what you do with these colours. You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at 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.

 

Impressions Abloom for As You See It 345

 It's colour week here at As You See It Challenge. I'm especially excited for it as this colour combination was my choice! I hope you are keen to pick up the colours and make something for the new challenge. 

It's been quite hard trying to keep my New Year crafting resolution in sight -which was to play more challenges just for fun. This week, I kind of kept at it by combining my Design Team card with the latest challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.

Still on my desk was the pre-order bundle from the May Online Exclusive drop, Impressions Abloom.

The dies in the bundle are fabulous, with not only dies that match the stamped images but with a lot of extra bits and pieces too. It's some of those that I've enlisted for this card.

The sentiment is from the set and I've used one of the rounded rectangle dies from Nested Essentials to cut it with. 

The Pressed Flowers embossing folder is part of this new suite and I'm loving it. I think it works with many sets and not just this one. 

To give subtle emphasis to the centre panel, I edged it with a Gorgeous Grape Stampin' Write marker and popped it up on dimensionals. 

The embellishments are Fine Purple Shimmer Gems, which are carrying over into the new catalogue.

The 2025-26 Annual Catalogue and associated On line Exclusives Drop will be available to view and order from on 6 May. 

The whole team would love to see what you do with these colours. You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at 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.

Beautiful Butterflies for AYSI 344

Welcome to a new challenge at As You See It. As always, a sketch challenge follows a speed challenge. This one is super, with lots of room for creative interpretation.

I stamped three small butterflies from the Beautiful Butterflies bundle using Tuxedo Black. I coloured them in with Lemon Lolly, Lemon-Lime Twist, and Peach Pie Stampin' Blends before die-cutting them out. These became the three circular elements of the sketch. 

I die cut a small butterfly from Lemon Lolly cardstock and attached that to the first butterfly. I added some Peach Pie gems along the thorax.

Using Lemon-Lime Twist ink, I added in some text using one of the stamps from Elements of Text, then some dots is Peach Pie from the Beautiful Butterflies. Using a blending brush, I also lightly added in some Lemon-Lime ink around the stamped area.

The sentiment, from Hooray for Surprises, was stamped in Tuxedo Black. Then the whole panel was matted onto a piece of Lemon Lime Twist, then attached to the Basic Black card base.

The whole team would love to see what you do with this sketch. You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at 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.