Just a quick post today. I was procrastinating at my desk, avoiding planning next month's class, when I spied the new challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. Next thing you know, stuff has jumped onto my desk, rather like a boisterous puppy, wanting to be played with.
From a scrap of retired copper Specialty Metallic papers, I cut two cogs in different sizes from the Gears & Textures dies. From Pecan Pie, I cut an outer cog and from Early Espresso a ladder.
I stamped the Pecan Pie outer wheel with a Pecan Pie and a splatter stamp from Gears & Textures before adhering it over the copper die cut cog so there was the appearance of an inner and outer ring.
The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso and is from Garden Gatherings.
After layering up the elements with respect to the sketch, I added a trio of Faux Bronze Pentagons.
Masculine birthday card all done!
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.
Thank you to everyone who entered into JayDee's CAS Floral Challenge last week. Great entries!
This week, Claire is our hostess and she has a lovely sketch challenge for us to play with. I love a sketch and I especially enjoy seeing the different cards that come from the same starting point.
I was going for a masculine card so reached for the Gears & Textures bundle. The various gears and steam-punky bits are a lot of fun and look different with a switch up of colour and arrangements.
I took my colour choices from a scrap of Nature Walk DSP. The pointy shape was cut down from the last remaining triangle of that pattern and fortunately, worked in well with the sketch! I eked out enough of the reverse from another scrap to use the reverse side for the horizontal - ask me why the strip is that width!
The sketch had some curly elements in the horizontal, so I added in some die cuts in Early Espresso. In the interest of adding in some other colours to lift it, I added in a third die-cut in Pecan Pie for the centre.
The large cog was cut from a scrap of the bronze sheet in Metallic Textured Specialty paper. The circle is cut from Early Espresso and, although it's hard to see in the photo, stamped with Early Espresso ink splatter to add some texture.
I wanted something subtle to emboss the background with, so went to the retired (but very useful) Subtle embossing folder. I'll bet many of you still have this one in your stash!
The sentiment is from Sweet Jar, stamped in Early Espresso and cut with a banner from Stylish Shapes.
The embellishment is a trio of Pecan Pie dots from the Natural Matte Dots pack.
I'd love to see what you do with this sketch!
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.
Welcome to the 203nd challenge at Colour INKspiration! Thanks for all the gorgeous entries for our first challenge of the year. We have another pretty combination for you this time around, chosen by crew member Monica Formosa.
This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday 23 February, 5pm AEST.
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. We welcome Verity Pursgloveas our Guest Designer for this challenge.
If you don't have an exact challenge colour, feel free to replace it with whatever you have that's closest, for example Gray Granite for Smoky Slate. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.
I've been having a bit of a love affair with the Gears & Textures bundle so thought I'd give it a run with these less expected colours.
I started by stamping some lines, cogs, chains and ladders in Smoky Slate and different generations of Balmy Blue as a background. I tore a narrow strip from the bottom and mounted it on a piece of Smoky Slate before attaching it to the Azure Afternoon card base. Then the fun part began.
I created two lightbulbs in Afternoon Azure - I think these are my favourite things in the whole bundle. 😀
Then I cut some cogs in various sizes from Balmy Blue. I dabbed Versamark unevenly over them and silver embossed them to give a semi-distressed-but-still-reasonably-clean look. I cut the same cogs in Azure Afternoon and adhered them behind to create a shadow effect. Then I cut some small cogs and pieces in Balmy Blue and Azure Afternoon to add to the centres of the larger cogs before arranging - along with the light bulbs - on the base. I did rule in the lines to represent the light bulb cords. (Note to self: do this before adding cogs!)
You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done with these colours in the Crew Inspiration Album on the Colour INKspiration Challenge Facebook 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.
After last week's heat wave, this week we're having solid rain. Both are excellent reasons to inhabit the Craft Room. Today, after completing some DT work and some tidying, I've played with the sketch at CAS Colours & Sketches.
I'd actually left the craft room when I saw this sketch so had to skitter back there because it seemed to me to be made for the Gears & Textures bundle, which I've been playing with a lot.
The gloomy weather made taking a photo challenging, so you might have to read on to hear about what colours this actually is!
I used Night of Navy for the base. I used the three long stamps to create the diagonal patterning. I used Night of Navy for the solid girder stamp, Smoky Slate for the ladder and Misty Moonlight for the chains.
The cogs are cut from Silver Foil, from my stash, and the ring from Misty Moonlight (appearance in the photo not withstanding!) I popped them up on dimensionals then added the sentiment over them.
So, the sketch let me create a masculine CAS card very quickly. Thank you CAS team!
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.
The Avid Craft Collective - Julia Quinn, Tracy Held and I - are getting ready for our next online Stamp Camp. This time, we'll not be showcasing a suite but a collection of products that we like from the January-April 2026 Mini Catalogue.
Gears & Textures is an image only set, so we'll be using the Simply Said stamp set for our sentiments this camp. If you don't have it already, you can add it on to your camp order or choose to use another sentiment set you have in your stash.
When is the Stamp Camp?
We will be going live to present the making of the nine projects on Saturday 24 January at 11 am NZT.
Of course, the presentations will be recorded so that you can rewatch them or watch at your leisure if you can't make it at the live time.
How many projects will we make?
There will be instructions for nine projects: three fancy folds and six standard cards.
Each of the three ACC members have created three projects especially for the tutorials.
How can I participate?
There are three ways to join in the stamp camp. The Ultimate Package and Kit Package are only available to New Zealand residents.
1. The Ultimate Package
The Gears & Textures bundle (stamps and dies)
1/4 pack of Nature Walk DSP
a 6" x 12" piece of each of the three colours in the Textured Metallic Specialty Paper
a pack of Faux Bronze Pentagons
Kits containing the cut cardstock required to make each of the nine projects
Envelopes
PDF tutorial with full instructions in metric and imperial
Access to the Exclusive Facebook Group including recordings of the live presentations.
COST: $170 (plus postage if not pickup)
2. The Kit Package
1/4 pack of Nature Walk DSP
a 6" x 12" piece of each of the three colours in the Textured Metallic Specialty Paper
a pack of Faux Bronze Pentagons
Kits containing the cut cardstock required to make each of the nine projects
Envelopes
PDF tutorial with full instructions in metric and imperial
Access to the Exclusive Facebook Group including recordings of the live presentations.
COST: $85 (plus postage if not pickup)
NOTE: This does not include the stamps and dies, so unless you already have them or plan to get them, this is not a good option.
3. The Virtual Package
PDF tutorial with full instructions in metric and imperial
Access to the Exclusive Facebook Group including recordings of the live presentations.
COST: $40
Here's a peek at the three projects I have contributed.
How do I join in?
Decide which option you'd like.
Decide if you'd like to add on the Simply Said stamp set.
Contact me by commenting below if you'd like to join in. If you are a customer or class member of mine already, you can text me.
Registration for the Ultimate Package and Kit Package closes on 9 January to ensure that the ordered products will arrive in time to get to you before 24th.
The Virtual Package is available until the products are retired.
Julia, Tracy and I look forward to sharing some creative crafting time with you. Please ask if you have any questions. 😀
Welcome to the last As You See It Challenge for 2025. We're ending the year with a colour challenge and, although the graphic has a Christmas vibe, those colours could take you anywhere.
To me, they had a masculine feel so it seemed a good chance to try out one of my new preorder sets from the January-April 2026 Mini catalogue. This bundle is called Gears & Texturesand I love it. Really, I just had fun playing with some of the stamps, then added in a few of the fabulous die cuts.
One of my favourite things about the set is the dinky little light bulb, so I couldn't resist hanging one in the mix!
The sentiment is from Simply Said and is on a label cut from Nested Essentials. The Brass Hexagon embellishments are also from the January Mini Catalogue.
This set is part of the offering for the Avid Craft Collective Online Stamp Camp in January 2026. Watch out for details if you'd like to join me, along with Australians Tracy Held and Julia Quinn, to make 9 cards using the set and some super DSP. You'll get PDF tutorials and access to an exclusive FaceBook Group where there will be presentations on how to put together all the cards. If you're keen, message me.
What will you do with these colours?
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.
