Thinking Stamping: Ink blending

Showing posts with label Ink blending. Show all posts

Tuesday, 13 January 2026

Nature's Symphony for Atlantic Hearts 664

I couldn't resist having a play with the sketch at Atlantic Hearts Challenge.

I was probably influenced by the absolutely gorgeous foliage die in the new Nature's Symphony bundle. It seemed to be perfect for this sketch and I also had a hankering to make a starry evening sky which I thought would work well with the semi-circular shape in the sketch.

I cut a mask using the retired Deckled Circles then went to work with blending brushes, a spritzer, some white ink with a water painter and some Wink of Stella to create the sky. The ink colours were Pretty in Pink, Flirty Flamingo, Fresh Freesia, Highland Heather and Blueberry Bushel graded and blended. Next time, I'll try less pinks and more blues for more of an evening sky rather than a sunset sky.

I cut the panel down using one of the Textured Notes dies and created a mat piece in Gorgeous Grape with the largest of those dies. The foliage is stamped in Highland Heather while the die cut foliage is in Blueberry Bushel.

The sentiment is stamped in Blueberry Bushel, the foliage is in Highland Heather and it is cut with another of the dies from Textured Notes.

The finishing touch is a trio of Pearlised Faceted Circles in the palest colour -which is nicely opalescent.

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, 6 July 2025

Prairie Grass for Paper Players

We had such wonderful entries in Jaydee's Tic-Tac-Toe last week, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's creativity this week. Our hostess this week at The Paper Players is Stef. She has a theme challenge for us: Round We Go! Feature Circles on your card. Interesting, right?

As it happens, I'm very fond of circles and often use them in my work. Today I've used them to create a background for a new stamp from Online Exclusives, Prairie Grass.

To start off with, I created some circle masks from some scraps of window sheet. I used four different punches to create the masks. The exact sizes are not really important. I was looking for a good range of sizes to play around with. From memory, the smallest was a 1/2" punch and the largest 1 3/4" to give you an idea but I could equally have used circle dies to cut them.

Then I used Azure Afternoon and Lemon-Lime Twist inks and used Blending Brushes to apply colour through the mask. I started with the largest circle at the bottom, added in the next largest circle twice, then placed the smaller two around them until I was happy with the composition. Fair to say, this is part of the process where there's some trial and error to get a pleasing layout. I used varying intensities of the colour to add variation too.

Using Tuxedo Black, I inked up some of the grass images and stamped them over the circles. I think another time I'd try out black embossing to see how that looks.

The sentiment, from The Right Words is stamped in Tuxedo Back onto Lemon-Lime Twist and cut using my favourite banner die from Stylish Shapes. The Right Words is rapidly becoming my go-to sentiment only set because of the range of occasions covered, the variety of font styles and the two-part greetings.

To finish of my circle-theme, I added in some Black dots from the Neutral Matte Dots to tie in with the black twine from the Basic Essentials pack.

I like this layout and I think it would work with many colour combinations especially a sunrise or sunset colourway.

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.

Wednesday, 12 March 2025

Textured Notes for Colour INKspiration 183

Welcome to the 183rd challenge at Colour INKspiration. This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday March 24, 7pm AEST.

I'm especially invested in this challenge since it's my Crew Pick. Apart from the beautiful butterfly image itself, I was drawn to the possibilities of creating with the rich, complementary colours. I hope you enjoy crafting with these colours too.

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 Sharon Cheatle as 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 Night of Navy for Blueberry Bushel. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh toned Stampin' Blends.

I was delighted to have a chance to play around with one of the new Online Exclusive bundles, Textured Notes.

I'm in love with the images in this set and they were perfect for what I wanted to do.

I'm not sure what the name of this technique is but it's a thing I do often. I blended Crushed Curry, Balmy Blue and Blueberry Bushel onto a piece of Basic White card with a blending brush. Then I spritzed and splattered it with water. Once it was dry, I stamped images in Blueberry Bushel and Balmy Blue.

After mounting it on a Blueberry Bushel card base, I added a strip of Crushed Curry, embossed with the Corrugated 3D Embossing folder, which is also an Online Exclusive and part of the Botanical Textures suite.

The sentiment is stamped in Blueberry Bushel and the label dies are from Something Fancy. The embellishments are from the Glossy Dots Assortment.

We'd love to see what you do with the challenge colours. You can join the group in the following link, if you aren't already a member. Don't forget to answer the questions when you ask to join.

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.

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

Sunday, 9 March 2025

Beautiful Butterflies for The Paper Players 728

Hello Stampers!

Claire's Spring Flowers Theme challenge last week really brought out everyone's creativity and we had such beautiful projects. I'm sure that Jaydee's colour challenge will likewise bring out everyone's creativity.

Jaydee's challenge to us was to create using any combination of pastel colours. I loved this challenge as I have a soft spot for Stampin' Up!'s Subtle collection of colours. In fact, when I first started stamping, it was the Subtles family that I first bought.

The softness of the colour put me in mind of butterflies and reflectiveness. So I started by die-cutting the large butterfly from the Beautiful Butterflies bundle and blending in Lemon Lolly, Balmy Blue and Fresh Freesia with blending brushes. The resultant mix created some areas of a most pleasing pale green as a bonus.

I mounted that to a larger solid butterfly die and also added in a smaller Lemon Lolly die cut butterfly. The thorax is decorated with some Fresh Freesia tinsel gems.

Well, now I had a butterfly and she needed a setting. So the rest of the card evolved! 😀

I embossed a piece of Basic White with the Beautiful Butterflies hybrid embossing folder that is part of the Beautiful Butterflies bundle. I chose a piece of mottled Fresh Freesia paper from the Beautiful Bokeh DSP stack, stamped the sentiment in Smoky Slate and flagged the end.

And just like that, the card was done!

We'd all love to see your pastel creations. 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.

Wednesday, 12 February 2025

Seaside Wishes for Colour INKspiration 181

Welcome to the 181st challenge at Colour INKspiration. It's the second challenge of 2025 and will run for two weeks until Monday 24 February.

Today's colour palette was chosen for us by Crew Member Lou Kitzelman. Isn't it beautiful? So summery!

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.

If you don't have an exact challenge colour, feel free to replace it with whatever you have that's closest, for example Misty Moonlight for Azure Afternoon. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh toned Stampin' Blends.

Since I'm currently on a beach holiday with the family, a set like Seaside Wishes was easy to reach for. I love both the stamped images and the die cuts. The hybrid embossing folder is part of the bundle, but I've not used it in this project.

I also turned to a favourite technique, faux torn paper: any excuse to play around with ink blending!

After creating my torn paper masks and attaching them to the Basic White card front, I sponged on Pool Party, Coastal Cabana and Azure Afternoon, using a blending brush and working out from the centre to each edge from lightest to darkest. Blending brushes make it easy to get smooth transitions of colour.

Then, without removing the masks, I stamped in large starfish using Azure afternoon, small starfish using Summer Splash and bubbles with Coastal Cabana.

The white lacy die cut was sponged with Azure Afternoon. The small die cut starfish is Summer Splash on Summer Splash. I added three Summer Splash shimmer gems and stamped the sentiment in Azure Afternoon.

We'd love to see what you do with the challenge colours. You can join the group in the following link, if you aren't already a member. Don't forget to answer the questions when you ask to join.

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.

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

Friday, 21 June 2024

Magnolia Mood for Freshly Made Sketches 641

Fun Friday for me is to play with a challenge, so for inspiration I looked no further than the latest offering from Freshly Made Sketches.

I'm still enjoying the Magnolia Mood bundle and this sketch drew me to it again.

I stamped, coloured and diecut out the large magnolia image and one of the smaller conebud images. They are coloured with Stampin' Blends in Old Olive, Fresh Freesia and Highland Heather with a touch of Daffodil Delight. I added in some extra die cut leaves to fill out the arrangement.

I masked off a 2cm deep section of the card base and then sponged with Daffodil Delight ink. Hard to see in the picture is the fine splattering of Wink of Stella I added at this point. Once the mask was removed there was a line of clear space. So then I had to be brave and stamp the sentiment directly onto the base!

After mounting onto a Fresh Freesia card base, I added in a trio of gems from the Purple Fine Shimmer Gem pack to finish off. Got to have a little bling, right?

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

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

The latest Step-by-Step Class

Join my friend Joanne Jame (The Crafty Owl) and I in a Step-by-Step Class for four beautiful projects. Simply purchase the Thoughtful Wishes Bundle and Thoughtful Journey DSP from either of us and we'll send you the PDF.

If you already have these products but would like the class, simply order products of corresponding value from us, let us know that's what you've done and we'll send you the class. If you live in NZ, you can buy from me anywhere in the country here.

Thursday, 11 April 2024

Faux Torn Paper Masking for Stampin' Fancy Friday

This month, the theme at Stampin' Fancy Friday is 'A Favourite Technique'.

We don't blog hop as such but the team at Stampin' Fancy Friday do a daily inspiration post on Instagram. 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. Follow @stampinfancyfriday if you don't already. 😀

A favourite technique of mine is Faux Torn Paper masking. It's very easy to do and gives an interesting look. Simply tear a piece of photo copy paper or grid paper to use as a mask, blend over your chosen ink colours, stamp, remove the mask then carry on with whatever embellishments you like.

I used the Season of Chic bundle because I love the marine images and dies - and that wonderful net die makes everything look good! Season of Chic is retiring at the end of April, so look out for it in the Last Chance Sale.

The colours I've used are Pool Party, Coastal Cabana and Azure Afternoon.

If you're unsure of the technique, you can see a video of another card I made using the same technique here.

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

Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Notes of Nature for Stampin' Fancy Friday

This month, the theme at Stampin' Fancy Friday is 'Something Blue'. With so many gorgeous blues in the Stampin' Up! stable, this is a great challenge - especially since blue is my favourite colour.

I love to create inky backgrounds, so enjoyed using Balmy Blue, Azure Afternoon and Blueberry Bushel with a hint of Boho Blue for this one, along with my favourite bundle - Notes of Nature.

Grab a cup of coffee and watch how I made it, then give it a go yourself. I'd love to see how it turns out!

And don't forget to follow @stampinfancyfriday on Instagram to see more blue-inspired inspiration this month.

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

Orders placed with me can earn free tutorials.

Any order of $90 or more will receive the Creativity Abounds Tutorial Bundle, with 13 projects, as a thank you gift.
And if you purchase the Gorgeous Garden dies or the Hooray for Surprises bundle, you'll also receive a project bundle from 'Join in with Joanne and Jan' which will give you two project tutorials from me and two from my buddy Joanne James, aka The Crafty Owl.

Happy Stamping, everyone!

Wednesday, 11 May 2022

Mountain Air for Paper Players 590

Life is beginning to settle down a little after the buying and selling of houses and moving after a quarter of a century! So it was with pleasure that I sat down to just make something for no particular reason at last.

Inspiration came from the colour challenge at The Paper Players.

I thought that the Night of Navy and Fresh Freesia had the look of a twilight about them so turned to Mountain Air.

To get some definition between the two die cut trees (from Majestic Mountain), I added in some extra Granny Apple Green by colouring one with a Dark Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blend.

The sentiment, and the lovely label, are from the Waves of Inspiration bundle. I threaded a narrow piece of Night of Navy card through the slots in the label and trimmed the ends. I think that's a nice way to accent the sentiment without bling - perhaps more in keeping with the masculine vibe I was looking for.

Update: Delighted to be named A Cut Above at The Paper Players!

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.

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