Beautiful Butterflies for PP 738

Welcome to a new week at The Paper Players! We had some gorgeous entries last week for Ann's colour challenge. I'm sure everyone will step up for Stef's CAS Things that Fly Challenge. 

So this week, it's a double challenge. Not only is the theme things that fly but it  must be done in a CLEAN and SIMPLE style: minimal layers, lots of open space, minimal embellishments.

To help keep a clean feel, I opted for a Thick Basic White card base. I die cut a large white butterfly from Beautiful Butterflies. Butterflies are one of my favourite flying things. 😀

 

I used one of the retired Seasonal Masks from my stash to create an airy rainbow across the card front. 

The sentiment, also from Beautiful Butterflies, was stamped in Gorgeous Grape. To tie in with that, I used three dark Purple Shimmer Gems to finish off the card.

The rest of the team and I look forward to seeing what you create. 😀

You can see what the rest of the design team have done, and link up your entry, at 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

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

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. 

Joseph's Coat for Creativity Abounds

 

This month the international team at Creativity Abounds are exploring different techniques.This hop - and the associated tutorial bundle - is always popular and will give you a lot of examples for all sorts of card-making techniques. Some of them will be new to you, some of them will remind you of things you'd forgotten about. All of them will give you some inspiration to try out something new.

Even if you don't have the exact sets, you'll find inspiration in the different projects each of us has created. If you get the tutorial bundle, you'll have step-by-step instructions for thirteen projects, all of which you'll see as you go around the hop.

You can earn the Tutorial Bundle as a free gift from me with a purchase of $100 or more (excluding P&P) or by being a member of my team. You can shop with me, and join my team, from anywhere in New Zealand. If you would like to buy the tutorial from me for $25, message me.

I've chosen to re-visit a technique I encountered early in my card-making journey and it fascinated me. It's called Joseph's Coat. 

Here's an example of it made using the Beautiful Butterflies bundle. 

And here's a sneak peek of the card I made using Joseph's Coat for inclusion in our April Tutorial Bundle. In the bundle, there's step-by-step instructions on how to make it. 

Save the Date

Our next International Virtual Stamp Camp is June 28-29 (South Pacific)

This time, we're using the Celebratory Sips bundle from the upcoming Online Exclusives release as our Featured Products for the Camp.

Purchase of the suite from a member demonstrator gets you free access to the camp, a 13 project tutorial complete with make and take kits, and 13 completely different projects demonstrated throughout the Stamp Camp Weekend. 

Message me if you'd like more details or if you would like to register and pre-order the suite.

(Postage charge applies if make and take kits are posted out)

If you don't live in New Zealand but would like the April Technique tutorial, here's the rest of the team and where they're from. Just approach a demonstrator in your own market and go from 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.

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.

 
 

Beautiful Butterflies for The Paper Players 728

Hello Stampers! 

Claire's Spring Flowers Theme challenge last week really brought out everyone's creativity and we had such beautiful projects. I'm sure that Jaydee's colour challenge will likewise bring out everyone's creativity. 

Jaydee's challenge to us was to create using any combination of pastel colours. I loved this challenge as I have a soft spot for Stampin' Up!'s Subtle collection of colours. In fact, when I first started stamping, it was the Subtles family that I first bought. 

The softness of the colour put me in mind of butterflies and reflectiveness. So I started by die-cutting the large butterfly from the Beautiful Butterflies bundle and blending in Lemon Lolly, Balmy Blue and Fresh Freesia with blending brushes. The resultant mix created some areas of a most pleasing pale green as a bonus.

I mounted that to a larger solid butterfly die and also added in a smaller Lemon Lolly die cut butterfly.  The thorax is decorated with some Fresh Freesia tinsel gems. 

Well, now I had a butterfly and she needed a setting. So the rest of the card evolved! 😀

I embossed a piece of Basic White with the Beautiful Butterflies hybrid embossing folder that is part of the Beautiful Butterflies bundle. I chose a piece of mottled Fresh Freesia paper from the Beautiful Bokeh DSP stack, stamped the sentiment in Smoky Slate and flagged the end. 

And just like that, the card was done!

We'd all love to see your pastel creations. You can see what the rest of the design team have done, and link up your entry, at 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

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

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.

Creativity Abounds February 2025

This month the international team at Creativity Abounds has a great theme for our bundle and hop: Fun Folds. This hop - and the associated tutorial bundle - is always popular and will give you a lot of examples for fancy folds 

Even if you don't have the exact sets, you'll find inspiration in the different folds each of us have used.  If you get the tutorial bundle, you'll have step-by-step instructions for thirteen projects, all of which you'll see as you go around the hop.

You can earn the Tutorial Bundle as a free gift from me with a purchase of $100 or more (excluding P&P) or by being a member of my team. You can shop with me, and join my team, from anywhere in New Zealand.

There are two parts to this post: a bonus project and a sneak peek at my tutorial project.

1. Bonus Project Teepee Fold

The fold I'm showcasing is one I haven't used for some years, the TeePee Fold. Once I got it out and started playing with it, I don't know why I haven't been using it more! It was an excellent chance to explore the Darling Dinos bundle, a current favourite of mine. 

The triangular shaped card stands by itself and can be made so that it folds neatly into a standard envelope. It has three faces that can be decorated, or you can - as I have - leave one relatively blank to write a message on. 

Here's a look at each of the three faces.

2. Tutorial Project Teepee Fold

Here's a glimpse at the card I've created for the tutorial bundle. Same fold, different bundle. I've used the Beautiful Butterflies bundle for this one. Step-by-step instructions are in the tutorial package, along with 12 other projects from the rest of the Creativity Abounds team.

Here's a glimpse at the other twelve projects in the tutorial package. Take the hop around the rest of the team and you'll see exactly which Fancy Folds are being showcased.

If you live in New Zealand, you can get this tutorial bundle free with a qualifying purchase from me. If you live somewhere else, you can get the bundle from a team member in your country. 

Here's who we all are and where we're from.

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 shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking here. 

Beautiful Butterflies for AYSI 341

 It was so great to see so many entries in our last  As You See It challenge where people posted their crafting resolutions for 2025. I hope you enjoy this next challenge because it's my first challenge of the year. It's a recipe challenge: just take the five given ingredients, add your own bits and bobs, and see what you can cook up!

When I sat down to create this card, I did begin to wonder what planet I'd been on when I thought up a mixture of a celebration theme, heat embossing, ribbon or twine, punch or die and pastel colours!

A deep breath and a look over at the Beautiful Butterflies bundle sitting on my desk lead me to this....

The sentiment, which ticked off the 'celebration' part of the recipe, is from the Beautiful Butterflies stamp set - which this month is one of the free items you can choose as a Sale-a-Bration reward with a qualifying purchase. 

To get the heat embossing part of the recipe in, I white heat embossed the sentiment onto a strip of Beautiful Bokeh DSP. Pleasingly, it was an off-cut from another project so was technically a scrap!

I also used Resist Embossing to create the large butterfly. I heat embossed the image in white onto Basic White card, then sponged over Lemon Lolly, Balmy Blue and Fresh Freesia inks with blending brushes to colour the unembossed spaces.  These colour choices ticked off the 'pastel colours' part of the recipe. They are all members of Stampin' Up!'s subtle colour family.

The large butterfly was die cut out, and I also die cut a small butterfly, and these ticked off the 'use a die' part of the recipe. I sponged the small butterfly with some Lemon Lolly ink and layered it over the large one. 

The final element was to use ribbon or twine. I added in a small silver bow using the regrettably retired silver twine from the Elegant Trim pack. If you're like me, you'll have a sizeable stash of it tucked away!

In case you're wondering about that gorgeous embossed butterfly background, it's the Beautiful Butterflies embossing folder. As it's a hybrid folder, it is part of the Beautiful Butterflies die set and cannot be purchased separately. 

The team and I would love to see what you cook up with this recipe. Visit the As You See It page to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry. You can join in the challenge until Wednesday February 19, 11.59pm PST.

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 shop with me from  anywhere in New Zealand here.