Spotlight on Nature for As You See It 373

It's Speed Stamping Week at As You See It. This regular challenge is one people either love or hate - or maybe they love to hate it? Anyway, it is a bit of a thrill and if you ever wanted to combine adrenaline rush with stamping, this is your challenge!

If you've never taken up a Speed Stamping challenge before, this is how it goes. 

• You have ten minutes to complete your card.
• Thinking time is not included, so you can have planned it in your head.
• Supplies can be assembled but not used. So block up your stamps, get the embellishments out on the desk, put the dies beside the machine and so on.
• The  timer starts the moment you cut, ink up, stamp or emboss anything.
• Thankfully, clean up is not on the timer!
• Don't forget to tell us what your time to completion was. 

Spring bulbs threw me a bit because although I have lots of flowers, most of them were not bulbs. I actually used Google Image Search to identify the flower in Spotlight on Nature (retired) and it told me this was most likely a tulip, so I ran with that!

I stamped the image in Gorgeous Grape then used a blending brush and Fresh Freesia ink to add an explosion of colour around the flower heads. Then I used a water painter and some Fresh Freesia ink to add splatter.

I added the sentiment, from Rolling Waves, in Gorgeous Grape ink.

As I still have just under 8 minutes left on the clock I decided to go a bit further and cut the image out using Everyday Arches. I embossed a Basic White card front with the Beautiful Pattern embossing folder and adhered it to a Gorgeous Grape card base. (These things were in my 'if I have time' plan.)

To give it all a bit more oomph, I popped the arched panel up on dimensionals and finished off with a trio of Purple Fine Shimmer Gems. 

The inside was pretty simple - just a quick stamp of the top part of the floral image and a quick brushover with the blending brush.

Then I stopped the timer...

 

I quite surprised myself as I'd expected to be a bit closer to 8 minutes. But I was well planned in my head and had all my supplies on hand. 

What will you do in your ten minutes? You can see what the rest of the team have done and link up your entry at the As You See It Challenge page. 

Thankful Garden for Paper Players 753

Thank you everyone who contributed to the wonderful gallery last week for Jay Dee's sketch. Beautiful work! This week at The Paper Players, Joanne has a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge for us. This one's a lot of fun.  Just choose a line: a column, a row or a diagonal and let it guide your creation. Once you finish, you'll probably discover that you've fulfilled more than one!

I've chosen the top row: celebration, flowers and stencil.

One of my favourite florals at the moment is Thankful Garden. I like it because it offers two kinds of flowers and has nice sentiments. However, I really like that it has a set of stencils to colour the images with along with dies to make the cutting easy. 

My card base is Secret Sea, a colour I've come to love. I stamped the large flower image twice with Secret Sea then coloured them using the layering stencils.  I daubed the flower centres with Darling Duckling. The flowers were coloured with a base of Pretty in Pink and additional layers in Strawberry Slush. The foliage is done in Shy Shamrock.

I set one of the coloured and stamped images aside. I used masking paper to create a mask for the large floral image, covered it over then stamped the same image in Pretty in Pink randomly over the paper. After removing the mask, I cut out the flower with one of the Everyday Arches dies. I cut the next size up in Secret Sea and layered them together. 

From the second coloured flower image I fussy cut the flowers. The topmost flower I mounted on dimensionals directly over its own image in the arch. The smaller flower I added, also on dimensionals, to create a three-flower cluster. 

I embossed the white card front with my favourite Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder before adhering it to the card front, then added the archway of flowers. 

The sentiment could have been anything but I do like the 'celebrate' from Beautiful Motifs. I stamped that in Secret Sea and die cut it with a banner shape from Stylish Shapes - my most used die set. I cut a smaller banner shape and added it underneath the main banner to add some colour details. When adding the banner (also on dimensionals) I made sure to tuck it under the third flower of the cluster.

Finally, I added some Flat Pearls in Secret Sea to finish off. 

What will you do with Joanne's Tic Tac Toe? 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.

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.