Thinking Stamping: Congratulations card

Showing posts with label Congratulations card. Show all posts

Friday, 8 May 2026

Scenic Coast for As You See It 372

It's theme week at As You See It and Heather has chosen a great theme for us (in my opinion) which is 'Beach Combing.' I'm a bit biassed because I love the beach and I especially love wandering along seeing what the sea has washed up.

At first, I thought I'd get out my Shell Collecting set or maybe the Rolling Waves bundle as both would work brilliantly for this challenge - or indeed any beach themed project.

Instead, I went for a bundle from the new May-August Catalogue: Sunset Coast. Among the attention-seeking die cuts featuring silhouetted sailboats and lighthouses is a quiet little set of seashells and it was these that I wanted to concentrate on using.

I started with a piece of scenic DSP from the Scenic Coast collection. One of the other dies is a sunburst which I cut out from the paper, after backing it with adhesive sheet to make it easy to stick down.

I cut a strip from the same piece of DSP and used the reverse side to create the horizontal. I cut the net from a piece of Crumb Cake and then some shells and starfish from scraps. I clustered these, some being up on dimensionals.

Although the card base is Highland Heather, I stamped the sentiment in Gorgeous Grape on a scrap of Basic White and flagged one end before adding it, on dimensionals.

The finishing touch was the addition of a trio of Sunset Sparkle sequins. I picked these ones because the colours reminded me of paua shells.

So, what will your beachcomber card be like? We'd love to see what you do.

Visit the As You See It page to link up your entry and to see the rest of the team's inspirations.

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.

Friday, 25 July 2025

A Bit of Everything for AYSI 353

It's time for a recipe challenge at As You See It. If you've not played along with one of these, it's really easy. Just take the five 'ingredients' from the challenge graphic, add whatever bits and pieces you want from your own stash and see what you can cook up!

Today's selection of ingredients seems to be steering us down the road of elegance and glamour. I've used an eclectic collection of items to bring you this card....

1. Black, White and/or Gold - I've stuck to these three colours because I like the combination.

2. Heat Embossing - I've heat embossed gold splatter on the card front, which has been embossed with the Damask Designs embossing folder. The splatter stamp came from Perfectly Pears.

3. Rhinestones or Sequins - I've used my old favourite, Basic Rhinestones.

4. Punches or Dies - I've gone overboard with this one. I've used Stylish Shapes, Thankful Garden, and Gallery Blooms dies.

5. Gold Foil or Paper - some of the dies are cut from Gold Foil.

The sentiment is stamped in Tuxedo Black and is from Perfectly Pears. I also added in a bow from Twisted Gold Cord.

We'd love to see what you come up with from these five ingredients. You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at the As You See It Challenge page.

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

Thursday, 26 June 2025

Perfectly Pears for Freshly Made Sketches 692

Even though today is a busy day, I couldn't help but find time to play along with the new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. What a fabulous sketch from Narelle!

I've been playing around with the Perfectly Pears bundle lately in preparation for a Stamp Camp with the Avid Craft Collective in August. This gorgeous suite will be available from the new drop of Online Exclusives on 1 July and I've become quite addicted to it!

I started by stamping the small pear image three times in Secret Sea. I used the watercolour-style fill stamp to colour the fruit in Darling Duckling, Old Olive and in one, a touch of Cherry Cobbler as well. After colouring the foliage with Stampin' Blends, I die cut them out, along with a couple of trellis pieces in Basic Beige. I also stamped some pear blossoms in Secret Sea, with Darling Duckling centres, and die cut those out too.

Originally, I used a piece of the Painterly Pears DSP for the vertical block in the sketch but switched it out to a piece of Basic White, embossed with the Exposed Brick 3D Embossing Folder.

The sentiment is from the Perfectly Pears set and is cut using a banner from Stylish Shapes.

To carry through the Basic Beige from the trellis pieces, and to help ground the pears, I added in some script stamping from Elements of Text, using Basic Beige ink.

After that, it was fun to arrange the elements over the embossed section, popping up the pears and sentiment on dimensionals. The finishing touch was to add in three of the pretty Secret Sea Sparkle Dots.

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

Details of the Painterly Pears Stamp Camp in August will be available soon but you can message me if you can't wait! Don't forget this suite will be available on 1 July.

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

Sunday, 26 January 2025

Floral Delight for The Paper Players 722

Welcome to a new challenge at The Paper Players. We had so many fantastic entries in Jaydee's Clean and Simple Postal challenge that it was hard to choose from them all. This week, our hostess is Joanne and she has a great sketch for us to play with. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

I've been playing around with the Floral Delight suite since I'm involved in presenting the Creativity Abounds Virtual Stamp Camp next month. I'm not usually a big user of DSP but the papers in this suite are just so pretty that they kind of called to me. 😀

I used the hexagonal stitched die from Nested Essentials to cut a piece of Floral Delight DSP as the 'rectangle' element of the sketch. I used the banner die from the same set to cut two flags of contrasting DSP to make the two side pieces of the sketch. The line of Daffodil Delight ribbon, and the bow, were additions to the sketch.

The background is Basic White, embossed with the Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder, on a Thick Basic White card base.

Of course, the sentiments are what this bundle does best: The lovely two layer 'wishing' and the choose-your-own ending to it: in this case, 'all the best' for a congratulations card.

The embellishment is one of the Tiny Bee Trinkets that are part of the suite, or which can be purchased on their own. Little sweethearts, aren't they?

We'd all love to see what you do with Joanne's sketch. 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:

Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
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.

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

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

Friday, 8 November 2024

An Old Favourite for AYSI 336

I found this week's challenge at As You See It a real challenge as I just couldn't find anything on my current shelves that contained either acorns or seeds. Minor panic stations for a while there until I went to my retired shelves.

I have a curated collection of special stamps that I keep, mainly made up of stamp sets that either are one-of-a-kind images or sets so beautiful I just don't want to part with them. The long retired Dandelion Wishes fell into the latter category. Getting it out again to play with new things was a real pleasure.

I started by stamping the trio of dandelion seed heads in Petunia Pop, then added in some stamped seeds-in-the -wind. I sponged some Petunia Pop over the seed heads and seeds lightly, and more heavily in the seed head centres. I cut the image out with one of the dies from Spotlight on Nature. I cut a second circle, with a different die, from Petunia Pop. I off-set layered them and mounted them to one side of the card front which had been embossed with the Dotted Circle 3D Embossing Folder. After trimming off the excess, I mounted the front onto the Petunia Pop card base.

Having decided that there was an air of celebration in this design, I splattered some Wink of Stella over the seed heads before attaching it to the card front. I like the little hints of shine it gives.

The sentiment is from the Something Fancy stamp set and is cut using one of the Something Fancy dies. I raided my dwindling stash of Silver Glimmer paper to cut a shadow shape for under the sentiment. At the last minute, I added in a twist of Silver & White Sheer ribbon under the sentiment. The final step was the addition of three Petunia Pop Shimmer Gems.

The team and I would love to see what you do with this acorn and seed theme. 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 November 20, 11.59pm PST.

You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand here.

Friday, 10 February 2023

Dainty Delight for AYSI268

It's Fill in the Blank week at As You See It this week. What's your favourite thing about Spring?

The return of flowers is the obvious and most beautiful thing but I decided that I wanted to do the return of the butterflies instead. It turns out that it's pretty much impossible to do butterflies without including at least some blossom as well! 😀

I had two in-person classes yesterday so my craft things were spread out between my craft room and my teaching space. I decided to use the things I had out in for classes and only had to go fetch the Butterfly Brilliance dies, the Bricks & Mortar embossing folder and some inks.

After some ink-smooshing and some die-cutting, this is where I ended up.

The sentiment and die is from the Something Fancy bundle. The embellishments are Iridescent Rhinestones.

If you'd like to see how I made this - and maybe CAS(e) one of your own - watch this tutorial. I've included some tips and tricks to make it even easier.

Don't forget to visit the As You See It page to see what the rest of the team have done with this sketch and to share your own take on the sketch. We'd love to see how YOU see it.

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 on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar or on any of the products below.

Product List

Dainty Delight Dies

[160674]

$76.00

Something Fancy Bundle (English)

[160425]

$97.00

Basic White A4 Thick Cardstock

[159230]

$18.50

Basic White A4 Cardstock

[159228]

$21.75

Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper

[149612]

$19.00

Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad

[147106]

$17.00

Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad

[147104]

$17.00

Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad

[147100]

$17.00

Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad

[147052]

$17.00

Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad

[126981]

$11.95

Deckled Rectangles Dies

[159173]

$63.00

Brick & Mortar 3D Embossing Folder

[149643]

$21.00

Iridescent Rhinestones Basic Jewels

[158130]

$15.75

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals

[144108]

$9.00

Saturday, 9 July 2022

Artistically Inked for Stampin' Fancy Friday July

Today, I'm sharing with you the card I made for the latest inspiration at stampinfancyfriday on Instagram.

The Stampin' Fancy Friday team are all past or current members of Stampin' Up!'s Artisan Design team. Each month, we have an inspiration theme. Our projects are released over the course of the month for you to enjoy. If you haven't already followed us, then hop over there now and do it!

The theme this month is Fancy Florals. There are so many gorgeous floral sets in the catalogue but I came back to a favourite of mine, Artistically Inked.

'Best Wishes' is such a useful sentiment: engagements, weddings or special birthdays. And isn't the new Fern 3D embossing folder fabulous?

You can see how I made it, and see a couple of my tips and tricks, in this tutorial.

Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Happiness Abounds for Paper Players 593

Today was the day I broke out a new set from my box of 2022-23 Catalogue goodies. It was a new bundle, Happiness Abounds. Despite being a photopolymer set - which I avoid if I can - I got it for the gorgeous images and huge range of sentiments in pretty fonts. Some of my team mates at As You See It also made it seem irresistible, so I don't think I'll regret it. 😀

I used the challenge at The Paper Players as inspiration to get started. I've gone down the middle with embossing, floral and rhinestones/pearls/dots.

What had intrigued me in the catalogue were the little dies that give decorated edges but when I got the set in my hands, I was very interested in the die that seemed to cut out a lacy pattern. So I used it as the basis of this card.

It was crying out for something interesting to peek out from behind it so I used the Gold and Rose Gold Metallic Specialty DSP. I like that it gives such a textured gold look, yet is remarkably smooth and light weight to use. I gold-embossed the sentiment to add a further touch of opulence.

This set offers several outline flowers and they were a pleasure to colour with Stampin' Blends. The leaves are stamped directly onto the base and coloured with Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends.

I'd originally been going to use Champagne Rhinestones to keep the gold theme going but in the end, I used the 2022-24 In Color Matte Dots. Since the Dots of each colour are not uniform but ombre, the softest of the Sweet Sorbet Dots turned out to be a perfect match for the Flirty Flamingo roses.

So the first outing for Happiness Abounds was a simple one, but I think this set suit many styles and techniques and I'm sure there will be much more experimentation in the days ahead.

Product List