Retro Rubber 84 - Design Team Card

Retro Rubber's challenge this week is exciting: it's an inspiration challenge. Let this lovely picture inspire you any way you like. Colour, subject matter, style... whatever inspires you.

The only other thing you need to keep in mind is, that since this is Retro Rubber, you need to use at least one stamp that's older than a year and tell us what roughly how old it is. To be considered for our top pick, please don't enter more than ten challenges, including ours.

What I like about the picture is the colours. I've used various pinks and green for this card.

Butterfly Basics is an old favourite of mine. It came out in the 2015 Occasions Catalogue.

Pop over to the Retro Rubber Challenge site and see what the rest of the team have done. Then play along with us and show us your take on the inspiration photo.

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'd like to know more.

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 by clicking the SHOP NOW icon in the sidebar or from my Facebook page.

Other: Retired brad base and candy dot.

Product List

Butterfly Basics Photopolymer Stamp Set

[137154]

$50.00

Bold Butterfly Framelits Dies

[138135]

$35.00

Flirty Flamingo A4 Cardstock

[141421]

$17.00

Pink Pirouette A4 Card Stock

[116203]

$17.00

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

$19.25

Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad

[141397]

$14.00

Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad

[126953]

$14.00

Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad

[126981]

$11.95

Old Olive Baker's Twine

[134579]

$6.50

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$7.25

As You See It 173 - Design Team Card

Welcome to the new challenge at As You See It. Our last serene colour challenge brought out your creativity and there were wonderful entries in the gallery. I hope this super sketch brings on your mojo as well. I chose to use the design on a portrait oriented card front rather than a landscape one, because that was how I saw it.

When I saw this sketch, the first thing I thought of was resist embossing. Despite the current popularity of Brusho, I wanted a more subtle background. I used watered down inks from my ink pads to create the wash over the white embossed flower. Butterfly Basics remains one of my favourite sets. I wonder whether it will make the cut into next year's catalogue? As you read this, I will be at On Stage and will know the answer!

Once the ink background was dry, I painted in some of the outlines of the flower and stamped in some of the other images from the set. I also added more colour to create shadows around the flower and stem.

We'd love to see what you do with this challenge. You can join us up until Wednesday 18 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

Butterfly Basics Clear Stamp Set

[138816]

$76.00

Tailored Tag Punch

[145667]

$38.00

Basic Gray A4 Card Stock

[121689]

$17.00

Flirty Flamingo A4 Cardstock

[141421]

$17.00

Old Olive A4 Card Stock

[106576]

$17.00

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

$19.25

Watercolor Paper

[122959]

$10.75

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$18.25

Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad

[141397]

$14.00

Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad

[126944]

$14.00

Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad

[126953]

$14.00

Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder

[109130]

$10.75

Aqua Painters

[103954]

$24.00

Twine Baker's Whisper White

[124262]

$6.50

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$7.25

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

[144220]

$10.75

The Paper Players 368 - Design Team card

It's time for a new challenge at The Paper Players and this week it's a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge from Jaydee. I had so many favourites from last week's sketch challenge that I had a hard time picking just one to be A Cut Above, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone does with this.

To play, choose any line and make sure you include each element of the line in your creation.  Since I'd only recently made a tree-Christmas-gold card, this time I went for birthday-die-cut/punch-butterfly.

This card didn't really end up how I thought it would. I had in mind the masked and stamped Lemon-Lime Twist background, then stencilled over with glittery embossing paste. Sitting on that would be a pink die-cut butterfly with some foliage but after that... the vision was a bit vague.

The rest... evolved. Since I had the new in-colours out on my desk along with a spool of glorious crinkle Berry Burst ribbon, I suppose it was a case of natural selection.

In this photo, it is possible to see the lovely shimmer that mixing embossing paste with Diamond Dazzle glitter gives to the background. The outer part of the butterfly's wings have a coat of clear Wink of Stella.

We'd love to have you play along with us this week. If you do, there's a couple of things to keep in mind.

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.

Ingredients - All Products Stampin' Up

Card: Berry Burst, Whisper White, Powder Pink

Stamps: Big on Birthdays, Sheet Music, Oh So Eclectic

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

Other: Eclectic Layers framelits, Butterfly framelits, embossing paste, Dazzling Diamond glitter, palette knife, mini-dimensionals, clear Wink of Stella, clear faceted gems, rhinestones, Berry Burst Crinkle ribbon, linen twine, sponges, daubers.

Paper Players 360 - DT Card

After last week's gorgeous sketch challenge, this week at The Paper Players we have a theme challenge for you.

Back to school is the challenge this week. Of course, in my part of the world it isn't back to school. We still have a term and a half left of the school year and we're a month away from the next school holidays. Still, the start of the school year will come again and it doesn't have to be the beginning of the year to give an encouraging card or a thanks to a teacher either.

This challenge is interesting for me, as I am teacher-librarian at a local secondary school. Although the first instinct with a school theme is bright, primary colours and ABCs, or maybe apples and numbers, I started thinking about the teenagers I mix with every day at work. 

It's a common idea that reading is dead and teens are only interested in their phone or their gaming consoles. Some are but there are still plenty of readers out there. Some of them are even reading on their phones or i-pads because it's not the medium that matters but the story. I'm really lucky to be able to spend parts of my working day talking to them about what they've read, hearing them enthuse about their latest read, musing about when their favourite author's next book will be out and helping them with what they'd like to read next.

Now, I'm a Good Reads girl and keep track of my reading and want-to-reads on Good Reads but not everyone does. I've noticed students scribbling down book suggestions on bits of scrap paper or coming in with a tatty list, which is why my project is an altered notebook made to be a reading journal: a place to jot down titles, interesting quotes, questions and thoughts about your books. There's a matching book mark because no matter how many book marks you have, it's never enough and our print collection is still more heavily used than our e-book collection.

We'd love to have you join us at The Paper Players this week. If you do, there's a couple of simple rules to keep in mind.

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!

Any products are welcome but if you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up Demonstrator to help you with ideas or provide you with wonderful SU products, then please message me on my Facebook Page (link in the sidebar of this blog) or leave a comment below. I'd love to help you craft.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Basic Grey, Lemon-Lime Twist, Fresh Florals DSP, a notebook

Stamps: SU Butterfly Basics, SU Dictionary, Dark Room Door Bookworm

Inks: Lemon-Lime Twist, Basic Grey, Smoky Slate, Tuxedo Black

Other: Grace Taylor Washi Tape, American Thickers chipboard letters, sponge, Lemon-Lime Twist ribbon, White baker's twine, SU scallop-top tag punch.

Retro Rubber Challenge 69 - DT card

This week at The Retro Rubber Challenge, we have a great sketch challenge for you. It's a great sketch because it's got an interesting asymmetric element but still has lots of open space that lets you do pretty much whatever you want with it.

One of the nicest things about Retro Rubber Challenge is that you get a chance to go re-introduce yourself to all your old favourites. One of my favourite sets is Butterfly Basics (2015 Occasions) and my favourite background stamp is Dictionary (2013-14 Annual) and this card uses both of them. I've used Timeless Textures (2016 Occasions) to give texture to the card base and I like the way it makes it looks antiqued. The sentiment is from Thoughtful Banners (2016-17 Annual)

I used an aqua-painter to colour the floral image. After I'd stamped the background in Smoky Slate, I lightly distressed the edge and stamped the net around two sides.

As always with Retro Rubber, there are just a couple of simple rules. You must use at least one stamp that is older than a year. You must give us an approximate age for your stamp and you must link to no more than ten challenges in total.

We'd love to see what you make of this challenge and you have until August 25 to join us.

This card was also inspired by the challenge at House of Cards this month: to use a floral image and/or the colour palette. The colour palette was the basis for the card as well as the floral image.

Ingredients

Card: Elegant Eggplant, Smoky Slate, Perfect Plum, Whisper White

Stamps: Butterfly Basics, Dictionary, Timeless Textures, Thoughtful Banners

Inks: Smoky Slate, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive

Other: Elegant Eggplant enamel dot, Elegant Eggplant Stamp'n'write, dimensionals

Retro Rubber 63 - DT card

The gallery for our Spring Flowers challenge was amazing! It was a hard job choosing the winners - there were just so many great cards. Obviously, you like inking up your old favourites just as much as we love seeing them.

So please, join us again this week for our colour challenge.

The first challenge for me was working out just what those colours were! At different angles, the colours on the screen seemed to alter and I seriously began to think that maybe I was colour blind! After consultation, discussion and much screen gazing I decided that the colours were a lime green, a muted teal green and a greyish mauve in a light and a dark. Translating these to Stampin' Up colours I got Lemon-Lime Twist, Lost Lagoon and Wisteria Wonder. I don't think you will have such a problem as the challenge post on the Retro Rubber blog has some guidelines.

One of my all time favourite sets is Butterfly Basics (Occasions catalogue 2015) and it was with real pleasure that I used it for this challenge along with possibly my most-used set, Papillon Potpourri (AC 2012-13) I lament the upcoming retirement of the latter of these sets as I will really miss these butterflies!

I like to layer the butterflies to give them some added interest.

They've been water-coloured, highlighted with white gel pen and then had a touch up with clear Wink of Stella.

And since I was particularly happy with the envelope, thought I'd include a picture of them together.

As always, our rules are simple:  you must use at least one stamp that is a year or more old, you must tell us how old that stamp is (approximately) and not link up to more than ten challenges in total.

You have until 2 June to join us and we'd love to see what you do with these interesting colours.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a demonstrator, I'd love to help you. You are welcome to message me or shop with me from anywhere in the country. Links to my Facebook page and on-line store are on the sidebar of this blog.

Since this card uses two of my all-time favourite sets, I'm also entering this card into the 100th Stamp, Ink, Paper Challenge which is to use your favourites. 

So sorry, SIP Design Team - I have accidentally linked up without changing the picture. I think I needed more coffee. :-(

Ingredients

Card: Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White, Lost Lagoon, watercolour paper

Stamps: Butterfly Basics, Papillon Potpourri

Inks: Lemon-Lime Twist, Wisteria Wonder, Lost Lagoon, Tuxedo Black

Other: Stitched framelits, Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly punches, clear Wink of Stella, dimensionals, aquapainter, white gel pen.

All products are Stampin' Up.