Showing posts with label Encouragement card. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Encouragement card. Show all posts

Friday, 11 July 2025

Circles for As You See It 352

 It's fill in the blank week at As You See It Challenge. Joanne has asked us to consider which shape we'd use if we could only use one shape in our projects.



Well, for me it would be circles because they are so versatile. Die cut or punch them for sentiments, use them as a base for a cluster of other elements, use them to create bubbles or zones, circular cards, cut them into halves or quarters to create secondary patterns - the sky is pretty much the limit.

For this challenge, I've gone for the 'cut them up to create secondary patterns' model. If you go hunting around the internet, you'll find lot so examples of this kind of thing. It's really very easy to do and gives quite a striking result depending on the colours and sizes you choose. 

Stuck in the depths of winter as I am, I had some yearning for summer - hence the summery colours I've chosen. I used some retired circle dies to cut 4 sizes, one set in warm colours and one in cool colours. I layered them up then cut each circle in half. Then joined them together again. I don't know why I didn't use my stitched circle dies from Stylish Shapes because that would have given some extra detailing to the design - something for next time!

A nice long linear sentiment is needed to cover the join - and it's true that that is NOT a circle! So when you're making your card for this challenge, remember we're looking for the majority of the shapes to be your chosen shape.


I did actually consider making this card into a circular easel card, which would have been easy enough to do, but I decided instead to make a square card so that I could get the best bang from the Dotted Circles 3D embossing folder. I embossed the card front carefully to get a circular frame to nestle the reconstructed circles into. 

The sentiments were heat embossed in white onto Basic Black. 'You make a difference' is from Thankful Garden and 'You are seriously the best' is from Textured Notes.

And in keeping with the circle theme, many great embellishments are also circles. I've used the wonderful golden patterned circles: Flower Accents.

We'd love to see what your favourite crafting shape is.  You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at the As You See It Challenge page

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.

Sunday, 22 June 2025

Thankful Garden for Stampin' Fancy Friday

This month at Stampin' Fancy Friday, our challenge inspiration is flowers: you'll see the team all playing with some kind of flowers.


The team at Stampin' Fancy Friday don't blog hop but we do a daily inspiration post on Instagram (and Facebook). The team at Stampin' Fancy Friday are all current or past members of Stampin' Up!'s Artisan Design Team, so it really is a great place to pick up ideas or recharge your creative mojo. 

You can view our interpretations of the month's challenge on both Instagram and Facebook. 

Follow @stampinfancyfriday if you don't already. 😀

So, one of my favourite floral sets is the Thankful Garden bundle. It's found in Online Exclusives and is a set of stamps, dies and stencils which can be used separately or together. 

I love the softly coloured look that comes from the layered stencils. 

I was also trying out some of the new In Colors 2025-27. The dark blue/grey is Secret Sea, the softer blue/grey is Cloud Cover and the pink is Strawberry Slush. I've added in some Daffodil Delight to the flower centres with a dauber.


I've stamped and coloured two of the floral image so I could cut out one of the flowers and add it to create a trio. The third is popped up on dimensionals to add some height.

The softly patterned, slightly brick-like DSP is from the In Color paper stack but the big find in the Online Exclusive drop is these fabulous stitched edge Everyday Arches dies! I can't believe I've lived so long without them!

Finally, I added some of the flat pearl In Color embellishments for a bit more colour. 

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



Sunday, 13 April 2025

Notes and Totes for Paper Players 733

Thank you to everyone who played along last week for my travel theme challenge at The Paper Players. I enjoyed visiting every entry in the gallery before deciding on a Headliner. 

This week, our hostess is Stef and she has a colour challenge for us.  


My first job was to decide which colours I'd use from my Stampin' Up! stable. Since I was feeling in a pastel kind of mood, I went for:

Purple = Fresh Freesia 
Yellow = Lemon Lolly
Aqua = Pool Party
Green = Soft Sea Foam

My second job was to decide what set I'd use. Since I'm still enjoying exploring with pre-order items and I'm still kind of in beach mode from my Australia trip, I opted for the Notes & Totes bundle (available from 6 May).

My third job: actually make something! Here's how that turned out....


I enjoyed playing around with some of the various die pieces to make a beach bag. Although the dies can be used to make a 3D beach bag to hold things, it works well like this to create a bag that can be filled with beach goodies. I cut one of the bag pieces in Fresh Freesia and stamped it with the little flower stamps in the same colour, and then cut some straps in Fresh Freesia. I attached that to the background. This piece was embossed with the Timber  3D folder then sponged with Pool Party ink.


Then I made a newspaper, a drink bottle, some sunscreen and a pair of sunglasses using the other three colours. I really love the seashell and starfish too.

The sentiment is a portion of the 'Sending warm wishes' stamp. I used one of the dies from Textured Notes to cut out the words. 

There was real pleasure in arranging all the elements. The final touch was to add three Pool Party dots from the Glossy Dots Assortment. If you don't have any of them, get some from the Last Chance Products list before they're gone. 😀

The Notes & Totes bundle will be available from 6 May.

We'd all love to see what you do with Stef's pretty colours. 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.

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)
Jan Clothier - You are here


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.









Wednesday, 28 August 2019

Colour INKspiration 62 Crew Card


Welcome to the new challenge at Colour INKspiration. If you haven't played with us before, we're a group of Australian and New Zealand Stampin' Up demonstrators. You can play with us by joining in our Facebook group here which will let you play along, comment and vote for your favourite from the top 5 selected by the crew.

This week's palette is so rustic and lovely! Doesn't the graphic just make you want to play along? In addition to Crumb Cake, Crushed Curry, Call Me Clover and Whisper White you can freely use Very Vanilla, Basic Black, metallics and skin-tone blends.



I loved the graphic so much that I played it quite literally, taking the daisies and country-style feel. The Tin Tile embossing folder chose itself for this card. I highlighted the pattern with a light Crumb Cake sponging both to show off the pattern and to give a distressed, rustic feel to the design.

Images © Stampin' Up! 1990-2019

I've been enjoying making waterfall style cards because it shows off die cuts and punched shapes so well. The punched flowers from Daisy Lane have paired up nicely with some of the die cut foliage from the Wild Rose dies. The Perennial Essence floral centres finish them off well.

Images © Stampin' Up! 1990-2019
Next up on the hop is Cathy Pinchbeck. I'm sure she will delight you!


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 clicking on any of products below.




Product List

Tuesday, 27 August 2019

Retro Rubber Challenge 118 - Design Team Card

This week at Retro Rubber Challenge, Claire has given us a sketch to play with. As always at Retro Rubber, you need to use at least one stamp that's at least a year old AND give us an approximate age. We like to give you the chance to bring out your old favourites and ink them up!


Earlier this year, I did some shaving foam backgrounds with my classes. There were a few bits left in the snippets box that caught my eye as I was thinking about this challenge. I cut a piece out using one of the Stitched Shapes dies and the rest of the card built up from there. Don't you love the sense of movement you can create by swirling the liquid re-inker into the foam?


Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm a big fan of Rooted in Nature, from the 2018-19 Annual catalogue. This was yet another chance to play with it!


The braided linen trim finished off the wee bouquet of foliage and I frayed the ends to give it a fuller look. Of course, the real finishing touch is the exquisite Subtle embossing folder which changes the plainest paper into a sumptuous piece of antique linen parchment!

To see what the rest of the team have done with this sketch, and to link up your entry, pop over to the Retro Rubber Challenge site.

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 clicking on any of products below.


Product List

Sunday, 26 March 2017

Just Add Ink 252

There's also a colour challenge at Just Add Ink this week.

Tempting Turquoise and Flirty Flamingo are colours that I don't often use but they look great with Smoky Slate so I was tempted into playing with them. I haven't used the umbrella girl from Beautiful You very much but when I have, I've been drawn to use watercolour and it's happened today too.





I think it does have an encouraging feel, so I'm happy with how this card has turned out.

Update: Delighted to get an Honourable Mention at Just Add Ink

Ingredients
Card: Smoky Slate base,  Flirty Flamingo, Watercolour paper, DSP from Carried Away, Whisper White
Stamps: Beautiful You
Inks: Flirty Flamingo and Stampin' Write marker, Tempting Turquoise, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray Stampin' Write marker, Black Stazon
Other:  Flirty Flamingo ruched ribbon, Tempting Turquoise enamel shapes, Stitched oval framelit, dimensionals, aquapainter