Thinking Stamping: Friendship cards

Showing posts with label Friendship cards. Show all posts

Friday, 27 June 2025

Thankful Garden for As You See It 351

It's time for a colour challenge at As You See It this week. Don't forget that the Featured Artist in this week's gallery will be offered the opportunity to Guest Design with us in our next Recipe Challenge. That's a fun way to put your toe in the water of being on a team if you've not done it before.

With that gorgeous floral graphic and the sunny colours, it was hard to go past florals for this challenge. My go-to florals at the moment (by a narrow squeak) is the Thankful Garden bundle. I love the stamps and dies with the extra bits but the addition of a layered set of stencils gives even more otpions. You'll find this set in the Online Exclusives section of the store.

With such impactful colours and a large striking floral image, this card didn't need much else. I started by stamping the large image and using the layered stencils, and blending brushes, to colour it. I used a sponge dauber to colour the centre of the bloom in Peach Pie. Once the colouring was complete, I die cut the image.

I used the Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder to give the card front some texture. The sentiment was stamped in Basic Black and cut using one of the Textured Notes dies. I cut a shadow die from Peach Pie to underline the sentiment. The card base is Melon Mambo.

To finish off, I used a trio of Peach Pie Resin dots.

The whole team would love to see how you see these bright colours. 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, 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:

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.

Anne Marie Hile (on leave)

Ann Schach

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, 7 March 2025

Thankful Garden for Freshly Made Sketches 676

Today I was meant to be packing to go to OnStage Brisbane but the imminent arrival of Tropical Cyclone Alfred has mucked that up somewhat. So what's a person to do when they're feeling a bit stressed? Well, it's to the craft room, of course! And a bit of a take on the latest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

I wasn't really at my best but I found the colouring of the lovely hydrangea images in Thankful Garden really relaxing! This bundle is one of the new Online Exclusives which has just dropped. They're worth a look as there's some really interesting things there, some of which you'll see in the coming weeks. 😀

As much as I enjoy using the stencils which are part of the bundle to with, today I was in the mood to colour with Stampin' Blends so the flowers are a mix of Bubble Bath, Fresh Freesia and Highland Heather with Granny Apple Green for the leaves.

I added in a more than usual number of Fine Purple Shimmer Gems to finish off. The base is Highland Heather.

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

Sunday, 3 November 2024

Regal Flora for Paper Players 714

Elizabeth has set the challenge this week at The Paper Players and I'm sure it will be a popular one, especially in North America. But no matter where you live, there's always time to be thankful to people.

I've always been taken with one of the sentiments from the Something Fancy set, so this was the perfect time to get it out. 'Grateful for the everyday magic of you.' Isn't that great?

Something Fancy is a sentiment only set, so I've paired it up with one of the loveliest suites in the Mini Catalogue: Regal Winter. The Regal Winter DSP is so lush and opulent while the Regal Flora bundle has lots to offer as well.

I started with a rectangle of the DSP that's predominantly Night of Navy and a strip of the reverse.

Possibly my favourite thing from the whole bundle is that wonderful label with the two rounded corners and long-stitch details. Just the thing for the sentiment plus a gold foil companion to act as a shadow.

I used the baby wipe technique with Gorgeous Grape and Pretty Peacock re-inkers to stamp some leaves, then used direct to rubber colouring to stamp the small flowers. Once they were die cut, I sponged the edges lightly with Night of Navy ink and a blending brush. That took the starkness from them (a nervous moment for me as I like stark!) and also made them blend in more with the look of the flowers in the DSP.

To help create the bouquet, I die cut some gold foil foliage using one of the Lifetime of Love dies. The bow is the new gold cord from the new on-line exclusives.

I felt the card front needed some texture - and seriously, when doesn't a card need some texture?! So I used the cross hatch pattern from the Basics 3D Embossing set.

The finishing touch was the addition of three of the pretty gold-flecked Night of Navy Regal Foil Gems.

The team would all love to see what you do with the "Give Thanks" theme. 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

Jolanda Johnstone

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

Friday, 30 August 2024

Seaside Wishes for FMS 651

The sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was just too tempting this week, especially since I was looking for inspiration to try out yet more new things!

Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy. I love sea themed sets. I love hybrid embossing folders. So why ever thought that I did NOT need to have the Seaside Wishes bundle is something the completely escapes me. I saw it in the annual catalogue and tried to exercise restraint.... which held until about three weeks ago when I finally ordered it. Now that it's arrived, I'm calling myself six kinds of fool for delaying so long! 😀

Here is my first outing with it....

The first thing I noticed is that the hybrid folder is wonderful all on its own, as you see in the white panel. I did a second pass and using the dies to get the sand dollar in the cluster, which I cut from Basic White and sponged with Misty Moonlight. The second thing I noticed was how realistic the embossed sand dollars look.

The third thing I swooned over was the lacy die cuts, which I cut from Basic White and sponged with Misty Moonlight (larger) and Pool Party(smaller).

It paired up a treat with DSP from the Country Woods collection which, despite the name, has quite a weathered beach feel to many of the papers. For embellishment, I added in a trio of blue gems from the Tinsel Gem Three Pack.

And did I mention there's a splatter stamp in the set? Who doesn't love a splatter stamp! Plus there are some textured rocks that haven't seen ink yet but I'm itching to try them out too.

I think I'm going to have some fun with this set! Watch this space for more experimentation!

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

Saturday, 16 January 2021

Friends are Like Seashells for Fab Friday 205

Fab Friday Challenge is back after the holiday break with a great challenge that inspired me to get into my craft room this afternoon. Admittedly, little incentive is required but it's still a great sketch to work with. 😀

I'm enjoying getting to know the Sand & Sea suite from the new January-June Mini Catalogue so the Friends are Like Seashells bundle was the go-to place for this challenge.

I've also used some of the DSP from the Sand & Sea DSP pack. This is great for coastal themes, with one side having seashell imagery and the reverse having watery/sandy patterns.

I stamped the sand dollar, starfish and scallop shell images in Basic Gray and coloured them with Stampin' Blends. Although there are dies that match these images, I fussy cut them because I wanted a minimal border for them.

Before assembling the cluster, I used the splatter stamp to add in some 'sand' for the shells to sit on. I added in some linen twine and some Opal Rounds to finish off.

Update: Delighted to be the Fave at Fab Friday!

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.

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