Hippest Hippos for The Paper Players 751

Thank you for all the beautiful entries in Claire's colour challenge last week. I enjoyed seeing the rich autumnal colours used in such pretty ways. Our hostess at The Paper Players this week is Elizabeth and she has given us the Clean and Simple theme of 'Critters'.

Sometimes, I overthink things. I came to work on this challenge and realised that while I was very clear on what Clean-and-Simple meant (lots of white space, minimal layers and embellishments) I was much less clear on what a critter was.

I can remember Ellie-May Clampett talking about her critters on The Beverly Hillbillies way back when I was child. So maybe a critter could be any animal? A dictionary search told me that it was a word derived from 'creature' originating as a dialectal pronunciation and often used in informal way. It also told me that in American usage it is often used to refer to domesticated animals.

None of this was really helping me decide whether I could use my Beautiful Butterflies stamp set in the challenge as it was my only current set that contained a creature of any kind. Part of me felt like this was going in the wrong direction.

By chance, while looking through a box of old children's books in the garage, I came across some of  Mercer Mayer's Little Critter series. This led me to conclude that critters are cutesy, anthropomorphised animals. This I could work with!

It was off to the retired shelves to find Hippest Hippos, an old Sale-a-bration bundle. I started by stamping the dancing hippo in Tuxedo Black then colouring it with Smoky Slate, Strawberry Slush and Pretty in Pink Stampin' Blends. I die cut it out. I paper pieced the skirt using a pattern from the 2025-2027 6x6 In Color DSP stack. I also used that to paper piece the umbrella from the dies and to create the love hearts.

The sentiment is also from Hippest Hippo. To texture the background, I used one of the folders from the Glass & Gardens pair of embossing folders. 

 Although the trio of hearts were acting like embellishments, I couldn't resist adding in a trio of Strawberry Slush gems too. 

So, how do you see critters? We'd love you to show us this week at The Paper Players - and remember to keep it CAS. You can see what the team have done and link up your entry on 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. 

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Fun on Wheels for PP747

 I hope every one enjoyed Ann's pretty colour challenge. I certainly enjoyed looking at the creations! Thanks for playing along with us at The Paper Players. 

This week, LeAnne has a double challenge for us: something with wheels AND in a clean and simple style.  I suspect that for many of you, the hardest part will be keeping things clean and simple (CAS).

By CAS, we mean: minimal use of layers, minimal use of embellishments, lots of open white space.

Looking through my 'current set' shelf, I found not one thing with a wheel on it. So it was time to move to my 'retired' shelf aka 'my stamp library'. Fun on Wheels really was a fun set and I keep it because it's so good for teens with the scooter and skateboard, and the cyclists in the world with a couple of options on offer.  Plus, I love the map stamp, which I've repeat stamped in Azure Afternoon.

I stamped the vintage cycle in Versamark and embossed it with WOW Black embossing powder before die cutting it and putting it  over the maps.  I love the way this image looks as if it's coming out of the page straight at you. 

If I'd realised when I started how the design would evolve, I'd have embossed the cycle straight onto the card front: another option to get a similar result.😀

I black embossed the 'Happy Birthday' sentiment from The Right Words then cut it out with a banner die from Stylish Shapes. The embellishments are Basic Rhinestones coloured with Azure Afternoon Stampin' Blends. 

What sort of wheels will you play with this week? You can see what the rest of the team have done and link up your entry on 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. 

You can stamp with me, and shop with me, from anywhere in New Zealand. Click here.

Cheers & Sips for Paper Players 742

Hello everyone! Time for a new challenge at The Paper Players and our hostess this week is Claire. She has given us a two fold challenge this week. It's both a Clean and Simple Challenge and with  the theme of Fresh and Fruity.

So, what does Clean and Simple mean? It means that your project should have a lot of clean, white space. There should be few layers or embellishments. The finished project should feel crisp and uncluttered. 

I've been playing around a lot with the Celebratory Sips suite from Online Exclusives. and there are the sweetest little strawberries, citrus slices and mint leaves with which to embellish your drinks. 

 

I used the dies to cut a tall and short class but did not stamp them first. They were cut from a piece of the Celebratory Sips DSP but not stamped with an outline, although I did stamp in some ice cubes. I ran the tall glass through the Cut and Emboss machine with the impression die to give the effect of cut glass. 

I used the glass embossing folder from the Glass & Gardens embossing folder duo to give some texture to the background. Then I stamped some berries, citrus and mint and coloured them in with Stampin' Blends. The strawberries are coloured with Strawberry Slush and Lemon-Lime Twist. The lemons with Daffodil Delight and the limes with Granny Apple Green. 

Once they were die cut - and some of the citrus split to fit the edge of the glass or cut into smaller segments - I had fun arranging them in and around the glasses. 

I added in a sentiment from Cheers & Sips and some Holographic Resin Dots (perhaps pushing the boundary of CAS but I did it anyway)!

I can't wait to see all the Clean and Simple creations in this week's challenge!

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. 

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. 

Reindeer Fun for The Paper Players 716

Time is certainly zipping by - it's not only time for a new challenge at The Paper Players but it's getting very, very close to Christmas. Our hostess this week, Jaydee is getting us into the Christmas swing for sure with this CLEAN and SIMPLE theme challenge. First though, I'd like to say how much I enjoyed looking at all the creations for Claire's bright and fun colour challenge last week. Great work, everyone!

In general, I tend to be happiest when I'm creating more towards the Clean and Simple end of the cardmaking spectrum so I enjoyed this challenge. 

If you're wondering about Clean and Simple, at The Paper Players we mean that we'd like to see projects that have a lot of open white space, few layers and few embellishments. That can be quite a challenge, even for our design team! (Especially when we go off and create and miss seeing the CAS part of the instruction - I've done that at least once! 😄)

Believe it or not, this card is created with the Reindeer Fun bundle. One of the things I most enjoy about this bundle is that while you can have as many prancing, flying reindeer as you like, there's plenty to play with without them too! And the sentiments are just great - love this 'Merry Christmas'!

I also enjoyed the chance to pair it up with another Christmas favourite of mine, the Christmas Tidings embossing folder. Sadly, it's retired now if you were hoping to add it to your stash but if you still have it in yours - don't forget to get it out and give it a run. If you don't have it, you could use whatever Christmassy folder you have. If I didn't use this one, I'd use the Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder.

To make the presents, I used some scraps from the Take A Bow DSP stack and the Festive Glimmer Paper pack. To jazz them up, I did add three adhesive Peppermint Dots (probably not strictly CAS), while the sentiment was cut using one of the banners from Stylish Shapes.

We'd all love to see your Clean and Simple Christmas projects. 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

Jolanda Johnstone

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.

Mediterranean Blooms for Paper Players 703

 Hello and welcome to the newest challenge at The Paper Players. Thank you to everyone who joined in last week for my colour challenge. I feel more confident now that I've had my first turn at being the hostess. I really enjoyed seeing the different ways people used the colours I'd chosen. 

This week, Claire has a Clean and Simple challenge for you with the theme of FRUIT. Who doesn't love fruit?

The trick this week is to remember that not only does the theme have to be fruit-related but it also has to be done in a clean and simple style.

What does Clean and Simple mean? Well, it means that you should:

• Keep layers to a minimum
• Keep lots of clear, open space
• Keep embellishments to a minimum.

I almost went wrong with this step, even though I favour a relatively clean and simple style. I launched into making my card then realised it had turned into something multi-layered and complex. Nice card, but not right for this challenge!

So, back to the drawing board.  I went and came up with this....

I started by fussy cutting a bunch of lemons from the ever-so-pretty Mediterranean Blooms DSP along with some extra flowers. 

I cut a circle using the Spotlight on Nature dies, then stamped the sentiment in the lower right quadrant.

The background panel is embossed using the Cute Crochet embossing folder. 

After assembling adding the circle to the front, I added in the fussy cut lemons then added in some extra flowers popped up on dimensionals. Because really, you've got to have a little bling, I added in some Basic Rhinestone Jewels as centres.

You can pop over to The Paper Players page to see what the rest of the design team have done and to add in your own entry. We'd love to see what you do with these colours!

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

Cynthia Stevenson

Jolanda Johnstone

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.

Hooray for Surprises for The Paper Players 699

We've got a great challenge for you this week at The Paper Players. As always after a colour challenge comes a CAS challenge. This time, Joanne has given us a Happy Birthday theme to play with. 

I started out my crafting journey very much a CAS crafter. Turns out that when I was working on this challenge, it seems things have moved on a bit for me! I had to make a real effort to pare back the layers, keep a lot of clean space, keep away from too much texture and to keep embellishments discrete! 

I think I got to CAS in the end though....

I used the wonderful Hooray for Surprises stamps and dies for this one, although I resisted adding in any hidden panels or messages - which is the true beauty of these products. Instead I made a rainbow of birthday cakes: Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green, Azure Afternoon and Gorgeous Grape and a little flower of each colour too.

After die cutting the cakes and working out where they would be in the final arrangement, I went in and stamped a candle on the card front. I decided to pop all the cakes up on dimensionals, although originally I'd intended to make a mix heights.  Then I added in the small flowers as decoration and popped a small Basic Rhinestone Jewel in the centres.

The card base is Azure Afternoon and the sentiment is stamped in that colour too. 

Don't get so carried away with the idea of a Birthday Theme that you forget about the CAS part of the challenge: Keep it Clean And Simple. 

You can pop over to The Paper Players page to see what the rest of the design team have done and to add in your own entry.

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

Cynthia Stevenson

Jolanda Johnstone

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.

Magical Meadow for Colour INKspiration 156

 

Welcome to the latest challenge at Colour INKspiration. I had the pleasure of choosing this bright and festive palette, so I'm especially interested in what you do with it!

If you haven't played with us before, we are a group of Stampin' Up Demonstrators from the South Pacific. Challenges are shown and entered via our Facebook Group page. If you don't belong, and would like to, click here. Don't forget to answer the three easy questions you'll be asked when you ask to join the group.

Each challenge, Top Picks and a winner are chosen by the crew and the winner offered a chance to Guest Design with us for a future challenge. This challenge is open for three weeks so closes on Monday 11 December 7pm (AEST).

If you don't have an exact challenge colour, feel free to replace it with whatever you have that's closest, for example Cherry Cobbler for Real Red. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, and metallics are free colours, as are flesh toned Stampin' Blends.

The bright, strong colours spoke to me of Christmas and a clean design. The Christmas Tidings embossing folder made an interesting background without dominating the page. Since being involved in the Creativity Abounds Stamp Camp, which featured the Winter Meadow suite, I've been using the Magical Meadow set a lot. I've come to really love the foliage die cuts it offers.

You can follow along with how I made it in this tutorial.

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. 

Free Gifts with Orders 

• Any order of $90 will receive the Creativity Abounds Tutorial Bundle, with 13 projects based around the September - December Mini Catalogue, as a thank you gift. 

• And if you purchase the Joy of Noel bundle, you'll also receive a project bundle from 'Join in with Joanne and Jan' which will give you two project tutorials from me and two from my buddy Joanne James, aka The Crafty Owl. 

Product List

Festive & Fun Cling Stamp Set (English)

[162078]

$55.00

Magical Meadow Bundle (English)

[162144]

$121.50

Basic White A4 Thick Cardstock

[159230]

$19.00

Basic White A4 Cardstock

[159228]

$22.25

Real Red A4 Card Stock

[106578]

$21.00

Shaded Spruce A4 Cardstock

[147006]

$21.00

Basic Black A4 Card Stock

[121688]

$21.00

Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin' Pad

[147088]

$19.00

Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad

[147084]

$19.00

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$20.00

Basics Embossing Powders

[155554]

$38.00

Christmas Tidings Embossing Folder

[162115]

$18.00

Stylish Shapes Dies

[159183]

$63.00

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

[144220]

$12.75