Seaside Wishes for Freshly Made Sketches 707

Sometimes, a stamp set just takes hold of you. So today's project is one from the stamp archive. I had a hankering to play with the retired Seaside Wishes bundle and Freshly Made Sketches had just the sketch for it. 

To make the four panels of the sketch, I cut a piece of Basic White into four sections, then embossed the top left and bottom right with the Seaside Wishes embossing folder. I added in some Pool Party splatters using a stamp from the set. 

I die cut a sea urchin in Basic White and coloured with Misty Moonlight and a blending brush. I cut some seaweed in Pool Party then stamped and die cut a pair of starfish in Pretty in Pink. 

The sentiment, stamped in Misty Moonlight, is from Simply Said. The embellishments are from pink gems.  The card base is Misty Moonlight.

This card has quietened the hankering to play with this set but.... if only I hadn't misplaced the sea urchin die somewhere in the process!

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.

Going Dotty for Stampin' Fancy Friday

This month, the theme at Stampin' Fancy Friday is Going Dotty! We were challenged to showcase dots in some way.

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

I started with wetting a sheet of Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper then smooshing Shaded Spruce, Blueberry Bushel and Balmy Blue onto it. Once it dried, I cut a series of circles from it using the Stylish Shapes dies.

The card base is Blueberry Bushel and the Basic White card front is embossed with the hybrid Seaside Wishes folder, available as part of the Seaside Wishes bundle.

I stamped the fish and seaweed from Beauty of the Deep with  Jet Black Stazon onto Fluid 100 Water Color paper. I water-coloured them using a Water Painter and ink in Blueberry Bushel, Crushed Curry and Shaded Spruce. then die cut them out with Beauty of the Deep dies

The sentiment is from Country Birdhouse and cut with a banner from Stylish Shapes. 

The trio of embellishments are Tinsel Gems.

So, quite a mix of products in this one but I really like the bubbles of sea that climb the card front. 

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

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. 

Seaside Wishes for Around the World on Wednesday February

 

Welcome to the second hop of the new year 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 task this month is to interpret this sketch. I do love a sketch challenge - and I also love seeing all the different ways the same sketch turns out in the hands of different creators. 

Perhaps it was the prospect of an upcoming beach holiday, but I've been playing with the Seaside Wishes bundle a bit lately. It seemed a perfect choice for this sketch.

I started with a Misty Moonlight card base. The Basic White card front was embossed with the Seaside Wishes hybrid embossing folder, but used as a straight embossing folder. I stamped a the bubble/sand stamp in Pool Party around the centre section.

For the circular element of the sketch, I embossed and cut one of the large sand dollars using the hybrid embossing folder (which lets you cut and emboss at the same time) from Crumb Cake. I sponged around the edges to highlight the texture and too make the shape appear more three-dimensional.

I built up a cluster of sea life by die-cutting the skeleton shell shape in two sizes. The largest is in Misty Moonlight, while the smaller is cut in white and has Misty Moonlight ink added to it. Then I stamped a large and small starfish on Petal Pink, in Petal Pink and die cut them. 

To finish the cluster, I added a Linen Thread bow in the position suggested in the sketch.

For the horizontal elements of the sketch, I cut three narrow strips of DSP from the Country Woods collection.

The sentiment, stamped in Misty Moonlight, is from Country Birdhouse. 

I added in three blue tinsel gems to finish off. 

Keep on hopping to see what the rest of the team have done with this great little sketch. 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.

In case you get lost, or want to revisit a page, here is the blog roll for this hop.

Jan Clothier - NZ - You are here

Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Danielle Kassing - NL

Aurélie Fabre - FR

Annette Ball - CA

Angie McKenzie - US

Kelly Taranto - US

Tricia Butts - US

Theresa McEntee - US

Bree Renwick - US

Lori Willcox - CA

Teri West - US

Cheryl Hamilton - US

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!

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. 

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.

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.

Seaside Wishes for As You See It 340 and Atlantic Hearts 613

 At As You See It, we had some very pretty and clever entries for our last colour challenge. As always, after a colour challenge comes a 'fill in the blank' challenge. This one asks us to consider our crafting resolution.

When I first started making cards, I was delighted to discover the world of the on-line card challenges. I had notebook where I wrote down my favourite challenges and when they came out. Each Saturday, I'd shut myself in my craft room and while away some time making entries for the ones I was most inspired by each week. 

Somewhere in the journey, much of my time now goes into  designing and prepping classes and designing projects for the various challenges I'm now on the Design Teams for. While the teams and classes are a new way of enjoying card making, entering a challenge 'just for fun' is somehow quite a different feeling. 

So my resolution is to do more 'just for no-reason' creating by entering a few more challenges as a player. 

As part of this resolution, I've not only made a 'just for no-reason' card but joined in at a challenge I've never played with before. The Atlantic Hearts Challenge is one I've seen played by a few players through other challenges, so I looked it up to see what was on offer this week. Isn't it a fun sketch?

As we're off for a family beach holiday soon, I was thinking of the beach. Here's my version of it, using the Seaside Wishes bundle - which includes a hybrid embossing folder. It makes realistic little sand dollars. While I love the sand dollars, I'm also very fond of the starfish and the lacy coral too.  I made a little cluster of sea life for the main element of the sketch. 

I used a strip of the Country Woods DSP for the horizontal line. The weather colours work well for a marine theme. I've used Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Petal Pink and Misty Moonlight for the sea life since those colours were in the DSP.  After adding it to the card front, I embossed with the Seaside Wishes hybrid embossing folder. 

The card base is Pool Party and I've added in some splashes of water in the same colour, around the focal point cluster. 

The sentiment is from Country Birdhouse, cut with the Stylish Shapes dies. The embellishments are Tinsel Gems. 

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

The team and I would love to see what your crafting resolution for the year is. 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 February 5, 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.

Seaside Wishes for Stampin' Fancy Friday

This month, the theme at Stampin' Fancy Friday is a sketch. 

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.

This sketch seemed perfect for a stack-and-switch approach: a good way to make three cards in one go. I used an up and coming favourite of mine, Seaside Wishes, paired up with some Country Woods DSP.

I stacked the two pieces of my chosen DSP and cut them according to the sketch outline. Then I assembled them onto pieces of Basic White then ran them through the SCEM with the Seaside Wishes hybrid embossing folder. After that, it was just a matter of die cutting and sponging various other elements and stamping up some Petal Pink starfish, 

Here's a closer look at each one. 

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. 

Seaside Wishes for Around the World on Wednesday September

Welcome to a new month 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 theme this month is one that has many interpretations: The Way We Were.

The theme made me think memory keeping straight away. That's usually why we scrapbook, isn't it? To preserve special memories of the way we were.

Initially I thought I'd scrapbook a wedding photo, since things have really changed since that day! But while I was searching for the 'safe' place I'd put the wedding photos when we moved, I came across this photo of me with one of my daughters taken ten years ago. 

I've always liked it and seeing it again made me think of the New Year's Eve Eve when we took this photo on the beach front in a nearby town. The family went for a walk along the beach front after dinner at a local restaurant and the two of us just selfied this one. So much has happened in both our lives, as well as the world in general, over the last decade that it seemed just the thing to scrap it today: a reminder of simpler times and a happy moment together as a family.

I remember the surf was really thundering in to the beach that evening and we were standing over it on a newly built observation pier. So with the sea so front and centre in the photo, I went with my newest craftroom addition, Seaside Wishes. Even though the DSP is from the Country Woods collection, much of it seems maritime to me, with allusions to weathered beach baches, hot days and peeling paint. So it was a perfect starting point for this layout.

The sentiment from Seaside Wishes was just perfect for this photo and I cut it out using the lovely stitched label from Unbounded Love, along with a shadow in Misty Moonlight. The sand dollars are cut and embossed with the hybrid Seaside Wishes embossing folder, part of the bundle, from Gray Granite and Basic White.

The starfish are cut from Petal Pink, then embossed with the Distressed Tile 3D embossing folder. The touches of bling are another new thing - and I can't believe I hadn't noticed them in the catalogue until now - the Petal Pink and Pretty Peacock Foiled Gems.

So, a nice simple layout but one that brings back happy memories of the way we were. 😀

Next up, you can visit the fabulous Rochelle Laird-Smith to see what she has made of the theme.

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.

If you get lost on the hop or want to revisit someone, here's a list of participants.

Jan Clothier - NZ

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Cheryll Miller - AU

Danielle Kassing - NL

Aurélie Fabre - FR

Angie McKenzie - US

Kelly Taranto - US

Tricia Butts - US

Theresa McEntee - US

Lori Wilcox - CA

 

Seaside Wishes for FMS 651

 The sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was just too tempting this week, especially since I was looking for inspiration to try out yet more new things!

Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy. I love sea themed sets. I love hybrid embossing folders. So why ever thought that I did NOT need to have the Seaside Wishes bundle is something the completely escapes me. I saw it in the annual catalogue and tried to exercise restraint.... which held until about three weeks ago when I finally ordered it. Now that it's arrived, I'm calling myself six kinds of fool for delaying so long! 😀

Here is my first outing with it....

The first thing I noticed is that the hybrid folder is wonderful all on its own, as you see in the white panel. I did a second pass and using the dies to get the sand dollar in the cluster, which I cut from Basic White and sponged with Misty Moonlight. The second thing I noticed was how realistic the embossed sand dollars look.

The third thing I swooned over was the lacy die cuts, which I cut from Basic White and sponged with Misty Moonlight (larger) and Pool Party(smaller).

It paired up a treat with DSP from the Country Woods collection which, despite the name, has quite a weathered beach feel to many of the papers. For embellishment, I added in a trio of blue gems from the Tinsel Gem Three Pack.

And did I mention there's a splatter stamp in the set? Who doesn't love a splatter stamp! Plus there are some textured rocks that haven't seen ink yet but I'm itching to try them out too.

I think I'm going to have some fun with this set! Watch this space for more experimentation!

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.