As You See It 169 - Design Team Card

Amanda has given us an interesting challenge at As You See It this week. It's to use our first ever stamp set or craft tool.

I had to do a bit of thinking about this as I got two stamp sets at the same time. The first two sets I ever bought were By the Seashore (this one) and Aviary. Soon afterwards, I got my first set of sentiment stamps - Say it in Style from Clearly Besotted. While I'm doing firsts, then Hardwood was the first background stamp I got (I think).

I have mixed in some new stuff as well. When I first got By the Seashore, I certainly didn't have Stampin' Blends to colour them with! The abstract beach and sky behind the sea creatures, I created using Kim Jolley's Not Your Mother's Shaving Foam method. I've posted a link to this wonderful tutorial before but if you google her or the method, you'll find it easily.

We'd love to have you join us and show us what your first stamp or tool was. As You See It lets you play along in whatever style you like - as you see it. Link up with us by Wednesday 21 February.

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. Sale-a-bration is on and there's a new Special Occasion Catalogue out. 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.

For further inspiration in this card, I used the sketch challenge at Inspire. Create.

I'm entering this card there and you can join them up until 20 February.

Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up unless otherwise stated

Card: Bermuda Bay, Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Whisper White

Stamps: By the Seashore, Wetlands, Hardwood, Say it in Style (Clearly Besotted)

Inks: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Island Indigo

Other: Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay and Pool Party, Layering Circle framelits, linen twine, shaving foam, sponges, dimensionals

Retro Rubber 65 - DT Card

There were lots of gorgeous entries in last week's Anything Goes Challenge which made the choosing jolly difficult! This week, there's a sketch for you to work your magic on.

All the stamps used in this card are retro, but none more so than By the Seashore, a set I'll never part with as it was the first Stampin' Up set I ever bought back in 2013. I love the seashells but the starfish is my favourite. They've been stamped, shaded with colour pencils and blender pen and sponged on the edges to help give them more depth. The background grasses are from the recently retired Wetlands and the sentiment from Thoughtful Banners, released in the 2016 catalogue and still current.

The background beach and sky I created with watercolour pencils and an aquapainter.

The Seaside embossing folder really helped to create the beach feel with those lovely sinuous lines.

Here's a quick reminder of the few rules we have at Retro Rubber. 

• Use at least one stamp more than a year old and tell us how old it is (approximately)
• Don't link up to more than ten challenges in total.

You have ten days to join us at Retro Rubber for this challenge and we'd love to see what you do.

Ingredients

Card: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay, Shimmery cardstock, Whisper White

Stamps: By the Seashore, Wetlands, Thoughtful Banners

Inks: Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay, Early Espresso

Other: Linen thread, Seaside embossing folder, dimensionals, Watercolour pencils, aquapainter.