Celebratory Sips for Paper Players 736

 Claire's gorgeous sketch gave us such wonderful entries last week at The Paper Players. Thank you to everyone who joined in with us. I'm interested to see what everyone makes with Joanne's theme challenge this week. 

All of us manage to find new bits and bobs for our craft room. If you're a Stampin' Up! demonstrator you might well have added some new things in the last month as it's been the pre-order period for the 2025-6 Annual Catalogue. I certainly have!

One of the great pleasures of new things, I think, is mixing and matching them with the existing things in your stash. 

I thought I'd share something easy with you this week, that mixes some fun new DSP with an old set of dies and an old sentiment set. 

I've been playing around a lot with the Celebratory Sips DSP because the suite is the featured product for the Creativity Abounds Stamp Camp. If you're interested in joining in, the details are here. 

Anyway, the playing around has lead to some strips of off-cut pieces and some scraps, so I decided to use them up with a strippy background.

I took my scraps and cut them into trapezoid shapes, then adhered them in a pleasing pattern  on to a piece of Blackberry Bliss card. After trimming off the excess, I adhered that onto a piece of Lemon-Lime Twist.

Before adhering the panel to the Blackberry Bliss card base, I added a piece of the lovely Gold Mesh ribbon that's part of the suite. 

Since the background is quite busy, I wanted to keep the sentiment simple. So I chose a sentiment from Simply Said, stamped it in Blackberry Bliss and cut it out with one of the dies from Nested Essentials.

I finished off by adding a trio of Holographic Resin Dots, another great part of the Celebratory Sips suite.

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.

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.

Beside Me for Paper Players 729

Welcome to a new week at The Paper Players. This week, it's CLEAN and SIMPLE week. Joanne has challenged us to use only one single stamped image in our projects.  You can also use a sentiment stamp. 

Don't forget that in addition to using a single stamped image (and the option of a sentiment) you must keep your project CLEAN and SiMPLE:

• Lot of uncluttered 'white' space
• Minimal layering
• Minimal embellishments

I have had the lovely Father's Day set, Beside Me, for a long time but haven't really used it much. I really like this image of a dad pointing out the way for his young one so that's what I used as my single stamped image. 

Beside Me $55

I used a Basic White Thick cardstock for the base and stamped on a Basic White card front in Tuxedo Black ink.

 I coloured the image with Stampin' Blends: Bronze, Ivory, Pool Party, Misty Moonlight, Fresh Freesia, Balmy Blue, Highland Heather and Pretty in Pink. The Bronze & Ivory combo give a great range of skin tones depending how they're blended. 

I linked the image and sentiment together with a triangle of Purple Fine Shimmer Gems.

We'd all love to see your CAS Single Image 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:

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

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.

 

Darling Dinos for Paper Players 725

Welcome to a new week at The Paper Players. We had such a great week last week with LeAnne's bright colour challenge. I really hope you enjoy this week's challenge because I'm the hostess this week. 

There are two things to think about for this challenge: firstly, it's a masculine card and secondly it's a CLEAN AND SIMPLE challenge. 

By clean and simple, we mean there are minimal layers, lots of clean white space and few embellishments.

When I started out to create for this challenge, I was going to use Trusty Tools stamps and dies (which are a Sale-a-Bration reward this month). Before I could get to them though, my eyes fell upon the Darling Dinos bundle. Cute as that bundle is, I thought it could go masculine. So here it is....

Although it's a bit of a cliche, I went for blues as a base for my masculine colour scheme. I used Azure Afternoon for the card base and some of the sentiment and colouring. My sort-of-T-Rex is coloured with Stampin' Blends in Azure Afternoon, Balmy Blue, Smoky Slate and Lemon-Lime Twist. I also gave him some glasses and a top hat.

After stamping and colouring him, I masked him to add in some sponged Granny Apple Green and some stamped grass.

It took considerable strength of will to stamp the sentiment directly on the card base and not a shaped label, in order to reduce the layers and keep things more CAS! Not to mention brave because there's no second chances when you stamp directly onto the card front!

We'd all love to see what you do with this CLEAN AND SIMPLE MASCULINE challenge. 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.

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

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.

Delightful Wishes for Around the World on Wednesday

Welcome to the latest hop at Around the World on Wednesday!

On the second Wednesday of each month, the team put together a thematic hop to give you some inspiration for your own crafting. We love it when you try out something new or CAS(E) one of our projects. The team is truly international, with members from each time zone of the world that Stampin' Up! operates. You're with me, in New Zealand - the first place in the Stampin' Up! world to change the date. 😀

Our inspiration this month is  Techniques. Our team leader, Angie, has given the challenge of trying out a technique: something we've seen but never done, or revisiting a technique we've not done in a long time, or perhaps something we've seen from the Artisan Team. 

I'm revisiting an old technique that I've not done in years. In fact, I'd forgotten about it until I saw it used by Monica Formosa, one of my fabulous team-mates over at Colour INKspiration. This is her card and you can read all about it here.

With the new catalogue, it seems that Bokeh as a technique is getting new life. This technique though is a Reverse Bokeh: coloured circles on a white ground. 

Although this looks a simple technique - and in many ways it is - you do have to put some thought into the sizes of the circles you're going to use. You also have to put some thought into getting a good balance of both the sizes and colours of the circles. I had a couple of play arounds until I found an arrangement that felt balanced.

Monica talked of organising her circles into a rhomboid shape. I went for more of a rectangular look, since the die cuts I wanted to use were quite long. I used punches to cut out four masks from scraps of Window Sheet then blended the inks using a blending brush. The colours I used were Granny Apple Green, Balmy Blue and Daffodil Delight. 

The 'wishing' is cut from Balmy Blue and the shadow backing from Basic Black. I cut three layers of the backing to give the words some extra height.

I added in three adhesive backed Granny Apple Green sequins as the finishing touch. 

I thought this would make a great masculine birthday card, so I chose the birthday option from several the set offers, and cut it using the die from the bundle. The bundle I used is Delightful Wishes and will it be available in the January-April Mini Catalogue. 

Delightful Wishes and the accompanying suite are the featured products in the next Creativity Abounds Stamp Camp. You can find details about the camp here.

Keep on hopping to see what techniques the rest of the team have been experimenting with. Next up is Leonie Stuart from Australia.

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 here.

Here's a blog roll if you get lost on the hop, or want to re-visit someone.

Jan Clothier - NZ - You are here

Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Cheryll Miller - AU

Danielle Kassing - NL

Mikaela Titheridge - UK

Annette Ball - CA

Angie McKenzie - US

Tricia Butts - US

Lori Willcox - CA

Cheryl Hamilton - US

 

Sea Turtle for CAS Colours & Sketches 549

One of my favourite challenges, even though I don't often get time to play, is CAS Colour & Sketches.  

I like the alternating of sketch and colour challenges and the variety of challenges the designers offer up. 

Here's my take on it, using a favourite set of mine, Sea Turtle.

I blended a strip of Balmy Blue ink with a blending brush, then stamped some bubbles on it with Balmy Blue and Azure Afternoon. Then a school of Melon Mambo fish swam along.

The Blueberry Bushel small turtle and sand dollar, and the Melon Mambo starfish, were stamped and popped up on dimensionals. I added the sentiment in Blueberry Bushel ink from Simply Said. 

It wasn't until I came to blog this card that I realised I'd jotted down the sketch very loosely and perhaps haven't given the sentiment the prominence it should have. But this card was definitely inspired by the sketch so I've shared it anyway! 😀

Update: Delighted to be a Fabulous Favourite at CAS Colour & Sketches.

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.

 

Sea Turtle for The Paper Players 706

Welcome to a new week at The Paper Players! Elizabeth has fun, bright colour challenge for us this week.

With those bright colours, part of me wanted to go down the whole primary school road with maybe some numbers and some alphabets. However, that's not what happened once I sat down to craft. 

Instead, I found myself with Sea Turtle in my hands. 

The turtle is inked in Night of Navy, with some sponging around the edges which I applied with a blending brush. I used Boho Blue to stamp the water and for the card front because I wanted some contrast.

The square of DSP is from the Mediterranean Blooms pack. The starfish are stamped in Daffodil Delight. The fish and sea urchin are stamped in Real Red. 

The sentiment is from Garden Meadow and cut with one of the dies from Something Fancy.

We look forward to seeing what you do with these 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.

Jaydee

LeAnne Pugliese

Claire Broadwater

Joanne James

Anne Marie Hile

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

Cynthia Stevenson

Jolanda Johnstone

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 here.

Season of Green and Gold DSP for AYSI 329

 It's time for a new challenge at As You See It. As always, after our theme challenge comes the Recipe Challenge - just take the given ingredients and see what you can cook up with them!

You can add all sorts of other ingredients in your recipe but you must use all of the five given ingredients in some way: trees, embossing, twine, birthday and shades of green. 

This combination felt masculine to me and I enjoyed indulging in a good dose of greens along with some rustic texture. 

Perfect for adding in the shades of green is the new Online Exclusive DSP Season of Green and Gold. Although it's actually a Christmas paper, the reverses are great all year round. I don't think anyone would look at the DSP in this card and automatically think 'Christmas.'

I love tree stamps and have a few in my stash. I broke out one of my all-time favourite retired sets, Rooted in Nature and coloured the tree using Stamp'n'Write markers by directly colouring the rubber before stamping. I love that technique because of the gorgeous transitions of colour that can be achieved but with more control that some other techniques. I picked some colours from the DSP: Old Olive and Mossy Meadow, mixed with some Lemon Lime Twist and some Early Espresso for the limbs and trunk.

If you don't have a tree like this in your stash already, then the Loveliest Tree set from the 2024-5 Annual Catalogue would be a great addition to your collection.

The sentiment is from Simply Said, a good basic greetings set. I used Deckled Rectangles to cut the tree. I embossed the Basic White card front with the Timber 3D Embossing Folder. 

As embellishment, I added a button from my button box and threaded it with some Linen Thread, a favourite element of mine.

The team and I would love to see how you see these ingredients. Visit the As You See It page to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry. You can join in the challenge until Wednesday August 14, 11.59pm PST.

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 here.

Trusty Toolbox for Paper Players 698

It's time for a new challenge at The Paper Players! Jaydee has given us an interesting colour palette to work with this week. 

To me, the colours had a masculine feel. I turned to my go-to masculine set, Trusty Tools stamps and dies.

I'll admit that most of the men in my life are absolutely NOT handymen in any way but this set is just so much fun to play with! I'm enjoying putting together the tools and colouring the images plus I love those tiny nuts, bolt and screw die cuts.

My favourite thing is probably the peg-board die cut. It just calls out the have tools arranged over it!

I used some Basic Gray DSP from the Neutrals 6"x6" DSP pack as a background and paired it with my favourite red, Cherry Cobbler. After stamping the images in Tuxedo Black, I coloured them with Stampin' Blends: Cherry Cobbler and Smoky Slate. 

The sentiment is  from the Trusty Tools set but the label is from Everyday Details dies. In keeping with the masculine vibe I was going for, I resisted adding bling and instead added some of those dinky little die cut nuts and bolts in Smoky Slate. 

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. Please be considerate of our requests; entries that do not follow any of these rules will be deleted without notification.
6. 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

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Eliz Stewart

Cynthia Stevenson

Jolanda Johnstone

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 here.

Trusty Tools for Creativity Abounds

 

Wasn't last weekend's Creativity Abounds Virtual Stamp Camp a heap of fun?! If you enjoyed it, or would like to try one for the first time, our next camp will be mid-October. Watch out for details.

This month the international team at Creativity Abounds has a great theme for our bundle and hop: Masculine. If you're like me, you sometimes struggle with making a masculine card. This hop - and the associated tutorial bundle - will give you a lot of ideas.

All thirteen members of the international Creativity Abounds team  have contributed a project to our Exclusive Tutorial Bundle, which you can earn as a free gift from me with a purchase of $100 or more (excluding P&P) or by being a member of my team. 

There's a sneak peek of my project and the whole bundle at the end of this post but here's an alternative project to give you some ideas.

 

Both this project, and my tutorial bundle project, use the Trusty Tools stamps and dies. If you have a DIY male in your life, then this is the set for you! This combo gives you tools to colour and tools to die cut - including the pegboard to hang them on. 

I think the Metal Plate 3D Embossing Folder completes the workshop vibe, while the bright colours pep things up a bit. You can customise the inside of the card as you desire.

Here's what you need to make it for yourself, plus instructions. 

Materials

Card

• Azure Afternoon for base 21cm x 14.8cm, scored at 10.5cm (8 1/2" x 5 1/2", scored at 4 1/4")
• Basic White for front and inner 2 pieces 10cm x 14.3cm (2 pieces 4" x 5 1/4")
• Basic White for sentiment 2.5cm x 8.5cm (1" x 3 1/2")
• Basic White for stamping tools approximately 10cm x 14.5cm (4" x 6")
• Smoky Slate 8cm x 2.5cm for cutting the spanner ( 3 1/4" x 1")
• Basic Black 7.5cm x 10cm for the pegboard (3" x 4")

Stamps and Dies

• Trusty Tools stampset
• Trusty Tools dies
• Unbounded Love dies

Inks and Colouring

• Tuxedo Black ink
• Azure Afternoon Stampin' Blends
• Lemon Lime Twist Stampin' Blends
• Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends

Other

• Metal Plate 3D embossing folder
• Tinsel Gem Four-Pack
• Dimensionals

Instructions

1. Fold and burnish the score line on the Azure Afternoon card base.
2. Take one of the large pieces of Basic White and emboss with the Metal Plate 3D embossing folder. Attach this to the front of the card base.
3. Use the pegboard die to cut the rectangle of Basic Black. Attach this towards the bottom left of the card front. Leave a margin of about 1.3cm (1/2") to the left and bottom. The exact measurement is less important than keeping them even.
4. Using Tuxedo Black ink, stamp a tape measure, hammer, paintbrush and spanner. Colour them using the Stampin' Blends and die cut them out. You could choose other tools if you prefer.
5. Use the dies to cut out a spanner from the piece of Smoky Slate.
6. Arrange the tools evenly but overlapping on the pegboard. Pop some up on dimensionals to give a sense of depth.
7. Stamp the 'Happy Father's Day' in Tuxedo Black, die cut using the rectangle with the in-curve ends. Attach this with dimensionals over the pegboard of tools.
8. Add in three of the Lemon-Lime Twist Tinsel gems.
9. Decorate the inside as desired.

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. 

Here's a peek at my Masculine Tutorial Bundle project. 

Here's a sneak peek at the whole thirteen project bundle. You can get this bundle from me by placing an order of $100 or more, or by being a member of my team.

If you don't live in New Zealand, here's a peek at the rest of the team. You can earn the bundle from any of the team members in your market.