Noel Tidings for AYSI 382

It's fill in the blank time at As You See It this week. Although I've now made more Christmas cards, this was the SECOND card I made, so that's how I'll fill in the blank. How about you?

I did rather fall in love with the Neutral Noel suite from the September-December Mini Catalogue. There was something about the richness of the DSP and the traditional nature of the greetings and imagery that won me over. In fact, it was that lovely but simple 'Merry Christmas' that did it for me. 

I started with a Mossy Meadow card base. I cut a piece of DSP - and with the gorgeous patterns in the Neutral Noel DSP collection, I was spoilt for choice. Then I used the oval die from the Noel Tidings bundle to cut out the centre.

I stamped the sentiment on a piece of Very Vanilla in Pecan Pie ink and added it behind the DSP before adhering it all to the card base. 

I cut two of the oval pine wreath dies, one in Mossy Meadow and one in Old Olive. I adhered them around the oval aperture, off-setting them slightly to give a sense of depth. I cut out some berries from scraps of Cherry Cobbler to add some colour to the wreath.

The two little pinecones were stamped in Pecan Pie on Very Vanilla and coloured with Pecan Pie Stampin' Blends before I die cut them out and added them to the top of the wreath. To finish it off, I tied a double bow from Linen Thread.

Then, I added a trio of Gold Dots around the sentiment. 

I'm so pleased with this card that we'll be making it in next month's classes. 😀

We'd love to see how you fill in the blank. You can see what the rest of the design team have done and link up your own entry on 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.

 

Neutral Noel for Paper Players 802

I hope everyone had a great time playing with Jaydee's Tic Tac Toe challenge last week. From the wonderful entries we had in the gallery, it would seem you did!

This week, our hostess is Joanne and she has a theme challenge for us: Candles. Birthday, Christmas, whenever... you decide. 

I'm afraid that I was rather literal in my interpretation of the theme. I was looking through my stamp library seeing what inspired me with candles and I kept coming back to some fun stamped candles I did a couple of years ago. 

I took myself down to the local discount store to see what they had in the way of plain white candles. I wasn't too happy with the size of them as I'd hoped for something more substantial but sometimes, you just have to make do. 😀

Anyway, I assembled my supplies: Noel Tidings and Welcome Noel stamps, Mossy Meadow and Pecan Pie Ink, Daffodil Delight blend, plain white tissue paper, some waxed lunch wrap and a heat tool.

If you've never stamped on candles before, it's really very easy to do. 

1. Stamp the design you want onto tissue paper.
2. Do any colouring you like. I've coloured the windows of the house.
3. Trim around the stamping, leaving about 2-3mm. There's not really a rule about the margin but you don't need a lot of excess tissue to deal with. 
4. Place the tissue design on the desired position on the candle.
5. Cut a strip of waxed lunch wrap that's tall enough to cover the stamped area and that is long enough to wrap around the candle with some overlap so you can hold the ends and keep the waxed paper tight over the tissue paper. Make sure the waxy side is towards the candle.
6. Gently heat the stamped area with a heat tool. This won't take very long. Within seconds, you'll see the waxed paper go glossy. That's enough. Lift the waxed paper off carefully. You shouldn't be able to see any tissue paper - it should be sealed over with wax. 
7. If you can still identify the tissue paper, then reposition the waxy paper and give it another few seconds of heat. 
8. That's all there is to it!

The team and I would love to see your take on the candle theme. You can see what everyone has done and link up your entry at The Paper Players. And again, thank you for continuing to play along with us!

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

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

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

Neutral Noel for Paper Players 800

This week is a special week for us at The Paper Players as it is our 800th challenge! That's some dedication from the women who started up the challenge, some of whom are still on the team. At roughly 50 challenges a year, that means it all started up sixteen years ago. Sixteen years ago, I didn't even know what a rubber stamp was, let alone how to use one!

To celebrate this wonderful milestone, our hostess Ann has brought out the very first Paper Players Challenge for you to play with again for Challenge 800.  We also thank the many of you who loyally play along with us so often. We're all interested to see what you do with it!

Since this challenge landed on my desk at about the same time as the pre-order for the September-December Mini Catalogue, the choice of set was made for me! It was going to be the Neutral Noel suite and a Christmas card. 

Instead of the central rectangle of the sketch, I used the large oval die from Noel Tidings to cut a Basic White oval which was then embossed with the Softly Woven folder. This folder has quickly become a favourite of mine already. 

For the strong horizontal element, I used one of the beautiful foil-heavy patterns from the Neutral Noel DSP pack. All of these are beautiful, single-sided and heavy-weight papers. 

For the Christmas cluster I used a mix of the stamps and dies from both Noel Tidings and Welcome Noel bundles. The little houses were stamped in Crumb Cake and Pecan Pie. The foliage was stamped in Mossy Meadow, the branches in Pecan Pie, the deer in Early Espresso while the berries were cut from Cherry Cobbler and the wreath from Mossy Meadow. This was all arranged and adhered, some on dimensionals.

The sentiment is gold embossed and cut with a label die from Noel Tidings. The trio of embellishments are the Gold Adhesive Backed Dots that are part of the suite. Pretty, aren't they?

The team and I would love to see what you do with this very special sketch challenge. You can see what everyone has done and link up your entry at The Paper Players. And again, thank you for continuing to play along with us!

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

Ann Schach

Jan Clothier - You are here

Stef Perry

Christy Stanford

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

Neutral Noel for Freshly Made Sketches 749

The rainy, cold afternoon meant more time at my desk. I'm still exploring possibilities with my pre-order goodies: the Noel Tidings and Welcome Noel bundles along with the Neutral Noel DSP. For inspiration, I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

My other experiments centred on the Noel Tidings bundle and mainly stamped images so this time, I wanted to try out the Welcome Noel bundle and some die cuts. I started with creating a couple of houses and added a stamped tree and deer. 

I used the Softly Woven 3D embossing folder for the front of the card and to warm things up, I used Very Vanilla rather than Basic White.

For the striped elements of the sketch, I used two patterns of Neutral Noel DSP. I cut them on the bias so that the vertical lines would remain vertical. It was a bit like being back in Soft Materials class in high school! For the centre stripe, I used the banner label die from the Noel Tidings bundle.

I finished off with a trio of Gold Adhesive-backed Dots. I stamped the sentiment and went to put it at the centre bottom of the front but... when I tucked it up in the cluster it just looked so much more at home that I left it there. 😀

Anyway, I was pretty happy with the result of this experiment and look forward to more playing!

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

Neutral Noel for Atlantic Hearts Challenge 694

When the winter rains come in to settle, there's not much to be done but hunker down in the craft room. It's a good time to do so with a box of pre-order goodies for the September-December mini awaiting attention.  That's my story... and I'm sticking to it!

For inspiration, I turned to the sketch at Atlantic Hearts. And for product inspiration, I picked up the Noel Tidings bundle, the Neutral Noel DSP and the Softly Woven 3D embossing folder. All of these products will be readily available from September.

I started by cutting an oval, from Very Vanilla, using a die from Noel Tidings, then embossed it with the Softly Woven folder to give me the central panel of the sketch. I stamped various leaves, branches and pinecones using Mossy Meadow, Old Olive and Pecan Pie before die cutting them out. I coloured the cones in light Pecan Pie Stampin' Blend and die cut some berries from Cherry Cobbler.

I chose two patterns of DSP from the Neutral Noel specialty DSP, cut them and adhered them to a panel of Very Vanilla before attaching the embossed oval.

Then I arranged the die cuts on the oval around a centre point.

To create the sentiment, I stamped the 'Season's Greetings' in Mossy Meadow on Very Vanilla and fussy cut the words out. I arranged them over a Mossy Meadow label shape from the set.

To finish off, I added a trio of Gold Adhesive-backed Dots from the same suite.

Given this is only the second experimentation with this bundle, I'm very happy with the result. Thank you for the sketch to inspire, Atlantic Hearts!

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. 

Update: Delighted to be chosen in the Top 3 at Atlantic Hearts Challenge.

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