Thinking Stamping: Romantic occasions

Showing posts with label Romantic occasions. Show all posts

Wednesday, 9 July 2025

Gallery Blooms for Around the World on Wednesday

Welcome to Around the World on Wednesday's July hop.

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. 😀

This month, we're doing something a little different. It's five years since Around the World on Wednesday started up, so we're doing some close-up looks at the team. Aurelie Fabre was a founding member of the team so this month we're all going to CASE one of her projects.

But our team leader, Angie McKenzie likes to keep us on our toes, so in addition to CASEing Aurelie, we're also using a Tic-Tac-Toe board.

After browsing through Aurelie's blog, I found this card to CASE. So pretty, isn't it?

So armed with this gorgeous design and the centre column of the Tic Tac Toe board (Circle-line-repeat), this is what I came up with....

I used the very pretty floral spray image from Gallery Blooms. I repeat stamped this using Gray Granite ink then coloured each repeat using Fresh Freesia, Old Olive and Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends. I die cut them out.

Aurelie's original card had a soft splatter of colour behind her repeated daffodils. I added in some soft splatter in Daffodil Delight but also some lines of text. Both the splatter and lines of text come from a set that I'm finding indispensable: Elements of Text.

After completing the background stamping on the card front, I arranged the die cut blooms over it, then trimmed off any overhang before attaching the card front to the Gray Granite card base.

I replaced Aurelie's sentiment label with a stitched circle from Stylish Shapes. The sentiment, stamped in Gray Granite, is from Beautiful Motifs - a sentiment only companion set to Gallery Blooms.

As beautiful as the Brushed Brass Butterflies from Aurelie's original are, I replaced them with some Antique Pearls for a more vintage feel.

Keep on hopping to see how the rest of the team have CASEd Aurelie. Next up is the wonderful Leonie Stuart from Australia. I'm sure she has a treat to share with us!

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 of participants in case you get lost or want to revisit someone.

Jan Clothier - NZ
Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU
Cheryll Miller - AU
Marga Bultena - NL
Ximena Morales - DE
Aurélie Fabre - FR
Chris Smith - US
Theresa McEntee - US

Bree Renwick - US
Lori Willcox - CA
Teri West - US
Cheryl Hamilton - US

Sunday, 23 February 2025

Darling Dinos for Paper Players 726

Many thanks to everyone who played along with my CAS Masculine challenge last week. That's two toughies in the one challenge so well done for being brave enough to take on both things in the one project!

This week, Stef has given us a great sketch to work with.

My card this week was inspired by this photo of my granddaughter visiting a local sunflower field a few weeks ago. She just loved those sunflowers and talked about them a lot!

She also loves dinosaurs, her favourite being triceratops. So I used Stef's sketch to make her a Valentine's card.

Darling Dinos had everything I needed! I started by stamping a row of sunflowers top and bottom of the Basic White card front. I coloured them in Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight and Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends. Hard to see in the photo, but the centres have a nice glimmer from Wink of Stella.

I embossed a smaller piece of Basic White with the Sale-a-Bration Starburst folder, since the design reminded me of flowers, and attached it to the centre of the card front

I stamped, coloured and cut Miss Triceratops. She's a mix of Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight and Pretty in Pink. I used one of the Spotlight on Nature dies to cut a circle on which I sponged some Granny Apple Green with a Blending Brush, then stamped on some grass.

After popping on Miss Triceratops up on dimensionals, I added in some Pretty in Pink love hearts.

Finally, I stamped the 'Love You' in Crumb Cake and flagged the ends before adding it.

All done (and hopefully perfect) for little Miss Three. 💕

We'd all love to see what you do with Stef's sketch. 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.

Friday, 14 February 2025

Delightful Wishes for Stampin' Fancy Friday February

This month, the theme at Stampin' Fancy Friday is a Red or Pink Amour Challenge. We were challenged to showcase red or pink - whatever we loved the most.

The team at Stampin' Fancy Friday don't blog but we 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. 😀

Well, I'm a pink girl through and through. Red comes out at Christmas but not that often for the rest of the year!

I've enjoyed playing with the Delightful Wishes bundle a lot but what I really enjoyed about this card was moving into a colourway I'm much more at home with.

I've used three pinks: Pretty in Pink, Flirty Flamingo and Melon Mambo and some Soft Sea Foam for the foliage.

All of the die cut flower pieces were cut from Basic White then had colour applied with blending brushes in various depths with either Pretty in Pink or Flirty Flamingo to get plenty of variation. The centres were stamped in Melon Mambo. The leaves were stamped in Soft Sea Foam.

I hope you can see in the closer shot the subtle shimmer of Wink of Stella on the flower bases.

The background is embossed with the Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder. The Pretty in Pink gems are from the In Color Shimmer Gems pack and the white twine from the Baker's Twine Basic Essentials pack.

Don't forget to follow @stampinfancyfriday on Instagram, or Stampin' Fancy Friday on Facebook, for more daily ideas.

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

Sunday, 2 February 2025

Layers of Beauty for The Paper Players 723

Goodness, The Paper Players had some wonderful entries last week for Joanne's sketch challenge. I'm interested to see what everyone does with Ann's theme challenge this week. Love is in the air - what will it be? Friendship? Engagement? Wedding? Anniversary? No reason except you're wonderful?

For me, it was Anniversary as our wedding anniversary is in just a few days time.

I do love the Layers of Beauty bundle as there's just something so relaxing about the way the five layers of stencils come together in such a satisfying manner.

For the flowers, I used three inks: Fresh Freesia, Petunia Pop and Berry Burst and for the leaves, I used Granny Apple Green for both leaf layers.

It's such a simple card to make: stamp the outline in Tuxedo Black, sponge in the colours through the stencils with Blending Brushes and die cut out.

To add in a little bit extra, I stamped and coloured the flower bouquet image twice. I fussy cut the large centre flower and the bottom rose, then dimensionaled them in place to give a better sense of depth.

I added the die cut bouquet to the card front with dimensionals for further lift. The card front was embossed using the Forever Plaid 3D folder.

The card base is Petunia Pop. The I masked the sentiment so I could stamp each word separately, then cut them into banners. To finish, I added three Purple Shimmer Gems.

The team and I would love to see what you do with Ann's 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:

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.

Sunday, 13 October 2024

Layers of Beauty for Paper Players 711

Doesn't time fly? It's already time for a new challenge at The Paper Players. Thanks to everyone who played along last week with my 'Love is in the Air' challenge. It was a delight to visit all the entries and something of a torment to have to choose only one winner from all the lovely creations! 😀

This week, our hostess is Joanne and she's choses an autumnal palette for our colour challenge: Shades of orange and brown.

As much as I love autumn colours, I promised myself that I'd stay away from autumn leaves - just because looking out my window, I'm surrounded by the bright greens of new spring growth!

So that did leave me in something of a dilemma about where to take these colours. I thought that the richness of them was for a special occasion or a special person. Maybe I just still had a romantic hangover from last week's theme challenge but I went with what I'm thinking of as an anniversary card.

As to my colours, I stuck with all the pies: Peach Pie, Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie with a cup of coffee - some Early Espresso! Actually, I did do the small flower centres in Crushed Curry - an orange/yellow colour - but it hardly shows! 😂

The Layers of Beauty stamp/die/stencil bundle was my starting point. I stamped the image in Early Espresso then used the five easy-to-layer stencils, with Blending Brushes, to colour. Then I partially die cut the image to create a bottom section of card front.

I embossed a whole card front using the Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder and layered the partial die cut section over the top.

The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso. Layered beneath it are three die cut pieces of foliage, cut from Basic White and sponged, using a Blending Brush, with Pecan Pie and Pumpkin Pie to softly colour them to match the flowers. The finishing touches were a trio of Shimmer Gems in Peach Pie around the sentiment.

We look forward to seeing your creations in shades of orange and brown. 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

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

Sunday, 6 October 2024

Lifetime of Love for The Paper Players 710

Hello Stampers! It's my turn to host at The Paper Players and the theme I've chosen is 'Love is in the Air'. I think it was the fast approach of summer and wedding season that got me thinking of it but if you want to play along with us, think anything romantic: wedding, engagement, anniversary, a love note - even Valentine's if you want to be really organised!

It might not even have been the approach of summer that got me thinking on this theme. In more likelihood, it was the near un-used Lifetime of Love stamps and dies sitting on my desk, looking at me reproachfully! I got this set because I wanted a set of good romantic sentiments in my stash - plus the dies were so pretty!

I also tried out a (new to me) fancy fold that's been doing the rounds on the Internet of late. I liked it so much that I've used it for some Christmas cards and now, this wedding/anniversary card.

It looks pretty closed up too.

The DSP is from the Unbounded Beauty 12x12 DSP collection. Isn't it dreamily pretty?

I stamped the images in Tuxedo Black then coloured them with Pretty in Pink Blends and Shy Shamrock Blends. For extra interest, I stamped an extra set of the three flower image, then coloured and fussy cut the large centre bloom before popping it up on dimensionals in the wreath.

I cut two wreaths from Shy Shamrock and overlaid them, then added in some glimmery leaves from the 2024-26 In Color Glimmer Paper pack.

The final touch was a trio of In Color Shimmer Gems in Pretty in Pink.

We look forward to seeing your romantic 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

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

Thursday, 16 June 2022

Forever Fern for GDP 347

There's a theme challenge at Global Design Project this week and it's a favourite of mine: plants and leaves.

So many options! When I look at my stamp collection, it's pretty clear I love plants and leaves. One of my all-time favourites in this area is Forever Fern and the coordinating dies, Forever Flourishing.

I'll take any excuse to get them out!

I also love playing around with ink, so I ink smooshed Soft Sea Foam, Mint Macaron and Shaded Spruce onto Fluid100 Watercolour Paper with an acrylic block then die cut some leaves from Forever Flourishing.

I also cut some - possibly leaves, possibly flowers, possibly seedpods - from Gold Foil. Whatever they are, they're great textural elements. 😀

From these, I made a cluster arrangement as the focal point of the design.

This card was also my first chance to try out the Fern 3D Embossing folder from the 2022-23 Annual Catalogue. Products have been a very slow shipping in the South Pacific, but once you get them it's easy to forget the wait - especially when they are as gorgeous as this folder!

The sentiment is gold embossed and cut with one of the Stitched Rectangle dies. I've added some of the very lovely new Iridescent Rhinestones as suitably romantic embellishments too.

To add a little extra interest without detracting from the main event, I off-set the card front on the base and adding some Mint Macaron on Mint Macaron stamping over the base.

Update: Delighted to be a winner at Global Design Project this week.

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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