As You See It 172 - Design Team card

After last week's really tough recipe challenge at As You See It, it was a pleasure to turn to this utterly gorgeous colour combination. Isn't it sensational?

It turned into a real challenge for me as I really wanted to do those colours justice. After a couple of false starts, I went back to the ever-lovely Birthday Blooms.

I enjoyed water-colouring the blooms with inks but enjoyed the fussy cutting rather less so! I think the softly stencilled brick wall makes a nice background for the florals.

We'd love to see what you do with this challenge. You can join us up until Wednesday 4 April. 

Pop over to As You See It Challenge and see what the rest of the team have done with this recipe.

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. We're in the days of Sale-a-bration and your chance to earn free stamping products when you make a qualifying order - so your moneygoes further - or the chance to earn two free stamp sets on top of the normal starter kit if you join my team. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand. Just click on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar of this blog.

Product List

Birthday Blooms Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[140658]

$40.00

Beautiful Day Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[145915]

$44.00

Petals & More Thinlits Dies

[145655]

$71.00

Tranquil Tide A4 Cardstock

[144252]

$17.00

Powder Pink A4 Cardstock

[144251]

$17.00

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

$19.25

Watercolor Paper

[122959]

$10.75

Tranquil Tide Classic Stampin' Pad

[144085]

$14.00

Powder Pink Classic Stampin' Pad

[144084]

$14.00

Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad

[131179]

$14.00

Pattern Party Decorative Masks

[144103]

$12.00

Stamping Sponges

[141337]

$7.25

Aqua Painters

[103954]

$24.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$7.25

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

$14.00

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

[144220]

$10.75

The Paper Players 374 - Design Team card

It's hard to believe that the end of the year is almost on us. This is the last Paper Players challenge for 2017. Look for a new challenge on 7 January 2018 but we end 2017 on a rich and vibrant colour challenge from Claire.

I'm rapidly approaching mid-summer and my roses are still surviving the heat and dry - just - but these colours brought them to mind. So, I got out an old favourite, Birthday Blooms.

I've black embossed them on watercolour paper and used inks and an aquapainter to colour them in. 

The other inspiration for this card came from the sketch at CAS(E) This Sketch.

Update: Very happy to get an Honourable Mention at Cas(e) This Sketch.

Why not put aside some quiet time in the busy season and join us for our final challenge of 2017?

There are only a couple of things to remember.

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. Entries linked to more than 4 challenges, including ours, will be deleted without notification.
5. Have fun!

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

If you live in New Zealand and you would like to join my Stampin' Up team, message me for a chat. And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand.

Ingredients

Card: Garden Green, watercolour paper, scrap of Basic Black

Stamps: Birthday Blooms, Thoughtful Branches

Inks: versamark, Garden Green, Lemon-Lime Twist, Powder Pink, Melon Mambo

Other: white and black embossing powder, aquapainter, metallic shapes, clear Wink of Stella for the flower centres.

All products Stampin' Up.

Freshly Made Sketches 316

Today was a day of experimenting and at the end of it, a strange thing had happened: I'd made two cards , each with a completely different feel, from the same sketch. I don't think I've ever done that before. The inspiration came from the super sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

So, the first experiment was with the new Stampin' Blends alcohol markers. I had Birthday Blooms our for another card and it's such a lovely set that I couldn't help but ink it up again.

The Stampin' Blends go on so well, blend so easily and are available in great colours. I'm still learning how to drive them but wow - I'm enjoying them!

Ingredients

Card: Pool Party, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Basic Black

Stamps: Birthday Blooms, Thoughtful Branches

Inks: versamark, Tuxedo Black 

Other: Stampin' Blends, white embossing powder, dimensionals, clear faceted gem

The second card also came about today while I was mucking around with applying ink straight onto the paper. A swooshing kind of motion gives some interesting effects. I ended up with a panel that looked useable, so I made it up using the same sketch.

Ingredients

Card: Melon Mambo, Garden Green, Whisper White, Basic Black, Lemon-Lime Twist (for the letter shadows)

Stamps: Thoughtful Banners

Inks: Melon Mambo, Lemon-Lime Twist, Powder Pink, versamark

Other: White embossing powder, Small Letter framelits, dimensionals

Retro Rubber 71 - DT card

Welcome to Retro Rubber's newest challenge. It's everyone's favourite, Anything Goes.

It's not quite anything goes though. Since it's Retro Rubber, you do still have to use at least one stamp older than a year, tell us approximately how old it is and not enter more than ten challenges in total.

I always enjoy using this set, Birthday Blooms, which was first available from the 2016 Occasions mini-catalogue. Timeless Textures first appeared in the same catalogue. I like how it looks with the bright colours from this year's In-Colours: Berry Burst, Tranquil Tide and some touches of Lemon-Lime Twist. The sentiment is from Big on Birthdays, from the January this year.

I stamped the bloom on watercolour paper, then coloured it using diluted ink, fussy cut it and popped it up on dimensionals. The background I created using various elements from Timeless Textures. Then finally, I added in a few of the lovely glitter enamel shapes in Berry Burst.

We'd love to have you join us for this challenge, so dust off some of those old stamps, show them a bit of love and show us what you've done. You have until September 22 to link up at Retro Rubber.

Don't forget: at least one stamp over a year old, tell us the approximate age and don't link up to more than ten challenges in total.

Ingredients

Card: Berry Burst, Whisper White, watercolour paper

Stamps: Birthday Blooms, Big on Birthdays, Timeless Textures

Inks: Black Stazon, Berry Burst, Tranquil Tide, Lemon-Lime Twist

Other: Glitter enamel dots, dimensionals

All products are Stampin' Up

Inkspire Me 303

It's been a while since I've played at Inkspire Me but a very wet and dreary Saturday gave me guilt-free time to work in my craft room. I'd had a request for a pink and flowery 50th birthday card and the sketch for this week's challenge gave me inspiration... or it that inkspiration?

I gold embossed the image from Birthday Blooms on to shimmery cardstock then water coloured and fussy cut it before adhering it to the scallop-edged square.

The numbers were cut from glimmer paper and popped up on a matching scallop-edged circle.

The colours used in the colouring were Blushing Bride, Flirty Flamingo, So Saffron and Old Olive.

Ingredients

Card: Blushing Bride, Gold glimmer paper, Shimmery cardstock

Stamps: Birthday Blooms

Inks: Flirty Flamingo, Blushing Bride, So Saffron, Old Olive, versamark

Other: aquapainter, layering square framelits, layering circle framelits, dimensionals, gold embossing powder, Olivia dies from Provocraft.

Freshly Made Sketches 284

I got out Birthday Blooms last week because going through the retiring list reminded me that I'd not used it in a while. Thankfully, it's not retiring but it was still on my desk after I'd made a card for another challenge and I decided that I wasn't done with it yet.

I've taken inspiration from this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

Last time, I coloured that glorious bloom with watercolour on watercolour paper. Today, I've used colour pencils and blender pen on shimmery white. I've gone for a very opulent look which seemed right for an anniversary.

I made two gold embossed outline images of the blooms, coloured them with watercolour pencils then fussy cut them. The flower centres have had a coat of clear Wink of Stella. One bloom I cut down smaller. The sentiment is also gold embossed. The layout gave me plenty of places to tape the foiled acetate without any tape showing.

Update: Delighted to be named a Perfect Princess at Freshly Made Sketches.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Shimmery white cardstock, foiled acetate 

Stamps: Birthday Blooms, Falling for You

Colour: versamark and gold embossing powder, watercolour pencils, blender pen

Other: dimensionals

Colour Inkspiration 7

Easter is also the start of first term school holidays. This translates into more crafting time for me, so I was happy to get a chance today to work on the latest palette from Colour Inkspiration.

When the retiring list came out, I went through my catalogue marking the outgoing items. This was not only good to do in terms of saying goodbye to things but it was a great way to be reminded of things that were still in. One of those was the ever so lovely Birthday Blooms set that I hadn't used in a while.

In all of the two years that Tip Top Taupe has been an in-colour, I've never quite made up my mind about it. I loved how it looked with Mint Macaron and Watermelon Wonder and I sometimes thought it looked stylishly elegant and sometimes I thought it looked dull and uninteresting. Colour procrastination... 

I watercoloured the flowers after stamping them in Tip Top Taupe then fussy cut them and gave the centre a lick of Wink of Stella.

After creating the background, I layered over it with vellum. I embossed the sentiment using clear embossing powder because I like the glossy yet subtle effect of it.

So today I'm coming down on the side of liking Tip Top Taupe ... a lot.

Update: Delighted to be a Top 5 Pick at Colour Inkspiration!

Ingredients

Card: Tip Top Taupe, Whisper White, Vellum, watercolour paper

Stamps: Birthday Blooms

Inks: Versamark, Tip Top Taupe, Pink Pirouette, Mint Macaron, Daffodil Delight.

Other: Clear embossing powder, clear Wink of Stella, aquapainter.