A Beachy Combination for AYSI 378

This week at As You See It, we have a theme challenge for you: Summer Days.  There are so many wonderful things to choose from when thinking about summer but for my family, it's the beach.

There are several good beaches less than half an hour from home but for a holiday, we like to go north where it's just a tad warmer. We often end up at Ohope. We've gone there with various of our adult children and our granddaughter for the last three summers, so there's a few scrapbooking opportunities awaiting me in the craft room. This challenge seemed a good chance to tuck one of them away.

It's a nice simple, one-photo layout and I started by laying down some watery background using the Water mask from Water and Dotted Lines, a blending brush and some Hydrangea Hue ink. This was on a piece of 12 x12 White Willow.

Using one of the wave dies from Rolling Waves, I cut two pieces of frothy wave from Blueberry Bushel to lay down a strong horizontal. I drew on Blueberry Bushel and Hydrangea Hue as best matches to the blues in the sky.

After that, it was simply a matter of adding some beach themed bits: the starfish and shells are from Rolling Waves while the jandals and sunglasses are from Summer Happiness. In my stable of colours, I didn't have a pink that matched little Miss's outfit but the Melon Mambo went well with it. The Coastal Cabana tied in nicely with her Crocs and as for the Daffodil Delight - well, there's the sunshine for you!

To finish off, I made a signpost out of the words from Summer Happiness.

 I added a touch of journalling and the date at the bottom of the page, just in case any of us who were there should ever forget the hullaballo that broke out seconds after this photo was taken, when the wind grabbed the Bluey Hat and tossed it into the ocean - never to be seen again!

And of course, Little Miss 3 does not have a Starfish face. That's just my attempt to give her a shade more privacy. 😀

The team and I would love to see your summer themed project - maybe a card, maybe a layout, maybe a 3D item.

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done, and link up your entry, on the As You See It page. The team and I are all keen to see how you see it!

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.

Fern & Flora for Colour INKspiration 213

 

Welcome to the 213th challenge at Colour INKspiration! Today's colours are a strong and moody combination, chosen by Crew Member Sharon Dalton.  

This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday 20 July, 5pm AEST.

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 Kerstin Stempelmessi 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 Secret Sea. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

To begin with, these colours had me a bit stumped and there were a couple of false starts. But that is one of the joys of joining in challenges - you get pushed to try new things. 

Regular readers will know that I've been having quite a love affair with the Fern & Flora bundle. The fern die cuts are wonderful but the negatives are also pretty. So I decided to use them as a stencil. The largest fern I stencilled with Timid Tiger and the medium sized fern I stencilled with Strawberry Slush. I really like the way that there are tonal variations in the ferns from the way they were stencilled. Blending brushes make the ink blending very easy.

I trimmed the panel down and matted it onto a piece of Strawberry Slush then adhered it to a Secret Sea card base. 

I experimented a bit with the sentiment, originally having a narrow horizontal of Secret Sea and then trying some linen thread. In the end, I decided to leave it just like this: a sentiment from Rolling Waves cut with a die from Nested Essentials with a shadow of Secret Sea. 

The sentiment is popped up on dimensionals. The finishing touch is a trio of Flat Pearls in Timid Tiger. 

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done with the 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.

Fern & Flora for Colour Inkspiration 212

 

Welcome to the 212th challenge at Colour INKspiration! Today's colours offer up a retro mid-century design graphic and a chance to play with some of the new In-Colors, along with a favourite classic. 

This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday 6 July, 5pm AEST.

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 Petal Pink or Pretty in Pink for Barely Blush. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

I thought these colours worked charmingly together and I was taken by the circular elements of the graphic. So I got out my circle stencils, created by punching out different sized circles on some scraps of window sheet. Using a blending brush, I created some overlapping circles with Golden Glow, Barely Brush and Crisp Canteloupe.

What next, I wondered? Well, what happened was that the Fern & Flora bundle was on my desk, since it's a current favourite and before I knew it, that fern image had just inked itself up and stamped itself over the circles. 😁

So I die cut a large fern from Lost Lagoon and added that. The sentiment was cut using a die from Textured Notes (recently retired but too good to part with). I popped it up on dimensionals and gave it a Golden Glow shadow.

I added a pair of moths, stamped in Lost Lagoon and coloured with Lost Lagoon and Golden Glow Stampin' Blends. They were die cut, then popped up on dimensionals. 

To finish off, I added a trio of Golden Glow dots. 

Originally I'd intended to have a Thick Basic White card base - and I still do have - but I decided at the last minute to add a Lost Lagoon mat. Funny how cards sometimes evolve and sometimes there's an actual plan... this one was more an evolution than a plan!

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done with the 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.

Fern & Flora for Freshly Made Sketches 738

 There's a delightful sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches that I had a play with today. 

I started with the line stencil from the new Water and Dotted Lines Decorative Masks to add in an area of the dotted lines using Shaded Spruce and a blending brush. 

Then I sponged some Hydrangea Hue over the centre of the stencilled area to create a pool of colour.

I stamped the sentiment, from the Friendly Foliage set, directly onto the card front. 

I cut a small fern from Basic White and attached it to the front of card. As tempted as I was to add some embellishments, it just seemed unnecessary.

So, a simple and clean sympathy card, easily done. 

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

Flowers Fair for Paper Players 785

 JayDee's Feminine theme challenge at The Paper Players last week was really popular and the gallery was full of wonderful cards. Thank you to everyone who entered. 

This week, Claire has a bright colour challenge for us. 

I had a bit of a struggle with this challenge as usually, the colours kind of speak to me and let me know what they want to be. As pretty as these colours are, they weren't speaking to me this week! 😁😁😁

So I went for a floral approach and got out Flowers Fair. After stamping in Tuxedo Black, I went to colour them and discovered (remembered) that there are no Stampin' Blends for Gorgeous Grape or Coastal Cabana. But no problem because both colours (and Granny Apple Green) are all available in Coloured Pencils. It's been a while since I used my coloured pencils and it was very relaxing. 

I decided it needed a bit of a pep up so I used one of the newly arrived Water and Dotted Line Decorative Masks to stencil in a watery sky with Coastal Cabana ink and a Blending Brush.

Then I trimmed the panel down using the largest of the Perennial Postage dies and matted it onto Coastal Cabana.

I'd stamped the sentiment, from Rolling Waves, in Gorgeous Grape, then cut it with a banner from Stylish Shapes. It was looking a bit lost amongst the profusion of flowers, so I added some horizontals of Linen Thread and a bow to anchor it more.

To finish off, I added a trio of Purple Shimmer Gems. 

The team and I would love to see what you do with Claire's vibrant colours. Visit The Paper Players to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry. 

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

Christy Stanford

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

Layers of Beauty for Paper Players 772

 Claire's 'Love is in the Air' theme last week brought some gorgeous entries into the gallery. Thank you to all who played along with us. This week, Ann is the hostess at The Paper Players and she has a pretty colour challenge for us. 

With these colours, I couldn't go past florals so got out my go-to floral set Layers of Beauty.  I stamped the large bouquet in Tuxedo Black and used the coordinating layering stencils to colour the flowers in Petal Pink and Calypso Coral and the leaves in Lost Lagoon with touches of Mossy Meadow.

Then I used the matching dies to partially cut out the spray and attached it to a card base that I'd created using Window Sheet and Thick Basic White card. 

I stamped a smaller version of the flowers on the bottom right of the card inner and coloured it to match. 

The sentiment is from Sweet Jar and cut with a banner from Stylish Shapes.

The finishing touch was a trio of Faceted Circles in Calypso Coral for a bit of bling. 

What will you do with Ann's pretty colours?

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

Christy Stanford

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

Layers of Beauty for Paper Players 762

Oh my word, we had some lovely entries for Joanne's sketch challenge last week! I'm keen to see what everyone does this week with LeAnne's theme challenge: Thankful for you. 

One bundle I love, and keep coming back to, is the Layers of Beauty bundle: stamps, dies and stencils. 

With the 'grateful for you' sentiment, it was perfect for this challenge. 

I stamped the large floral image twice in Tuxedo Black ink. Twice so that I could colour the large flowers in the second one to cut out and pop up over the other one for more depth. 

Then I coloured it using the 5 step stencil using Pretty in Pink, Strawberry Slush, Granny Apple Green and a touch of Daffodil Delight for the flower centres. Blending Brushes make the application easy. Once coloured, I die cut the image and also die cut the largest bloom from the second image I'd stamped. 

 

The Basic White card front is embossed with the new Beautiful Pattern embossing folder, for a subtle yet elegant look.  I decided it needed something else to make it pop. Sitting on my desk were the Party Banner dies, so I took one of those and extended the length to make it fit the card front in a balanced way.

The paper I used was from a retired 2024-2026 In Color 6x6 DSP stack. I stamped the sentiment directly onto the banner. 

Then I attached the banner to the card front, the large spray to the banner and then added the second large bloom popped up on dimensionals. 

The finishing touch was the addition of a trio of Pink Gems. 

You can see what the rest of the team have done and link up your entry on 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

Christy Stanford

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

Prairie Grass for As You See It 357

 Welcome to a new challenge at As You See It. As always, a sketch challenge is followed by a colour challenge. This week, we're delving into some of Stampin' Up!'s 2025 In Color range. So often with the In-Colors, I look at an individual colour and it doesn't grab me but when you put them together, they're a great team. I think that's very true of this year's colours. I've become especially fond of Secret Sea and the Secret Sea/Cloud Cover combo. Anyway, we'd love to see how you see these colours working together.

Regular readers will know that  I've been experimenting a lot lately with circle masks as backgrounds for other stamps. This card is an extension of that playaround.

I started by stamping the grass image using two of the stamps from Prairie Grass in Secret Sea. The I used some masks I'd cut from scraps of window sheet using various sizes of circles to lay down some background pops of colour in Cloud Cover, Pumpkin Pie and Timid Tiger.

Then, I wondered what to try next. So I embossed the lefthand side of the card front using one of the folders from Glass & Gardens.

After stamping the sentiment in Secret Sea,  I used one of the rounded rectangle dies from Nested Essentials to cut out the sentiment. I attached the card front to the Secret Sea card base but added in a panel of Timid Tiger underneath where I'd cut out the sentiment label. Then I popped the sentiment back into place on dimensionals, which allows for a pleasing flash of colour to peek out from behind. 

I added a trio of Flat Pearls, one in Timid Tiger and two Secret Sea to finish off. 

So how do YOU see these colours?  Visit the As You See It page to link up your entry and to see the rest of the team's inspirations.

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.

Thankful Garden for Paper Players 753

Thank you everyone who contributed to the wonderful gallery last week for Jay Dee's sketch. Beautiful work! This week at The Paper Players, Joanne has a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge for us. This one's a lot of fun.  Just choose a line: a column, a row or a diagonal and let it guide your creation. Once you finish, you'll probably discover that you've fulfilled more than one!

I've chosen the top row: celebration, flowers and stencil.

One of my favourite florals at the moment is Thankful Garden. I like it because it offers two kinds of flowers and has nice sentiments. However, I really like that it has a set of stencils to colour the images with along with dies to make the cutting easy. 

My card base is Secret Sea, a colour I've come to love. I stamped the large flower image twice with Secret Sea then coloured them using the layering stencils.  I daubed the flower centres with Darling Duckling. The flowers were coloured with a base of Pretty in Pink and additional layers in Strawberry Slush. The foliage is done in Shy Shamrock.

I set one of the coloured and stamped images aside. I used masking paper to create a mask for the large floral image, covered it over then stamped the same image in Pretty in Pink randomly over the paper. After removing the mask, I cut out the flower with one of the Everyday Arches dies. I cut the next size up in Secret Sea and layered them together. 

From the second coloured flower image I fussy cut the flowers. The topmost flower I mounted on dimensionals directly over its own image in the arch. The smaller flower I added, also on dimensionals, to create a three-flower cluster. 

I embossed the white card front with my favourite Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder before adhering it to the card front, then added the archway of flowers. 

The sentiment could have been anything but I do like the 'celebrate' from Beautiful Motifs. I stamped that in Secret Sea and die cut it with a banner shape from Stylish Shapes - my most used die set. I cut a smaller banner shape and added it underneath the main banner to add some colour details. When adding the banner (also on dimensionals) I made sure to tuck it under the third flower of the cluster.

Finally, I added some Flat Pearls in Secret Sea to finish off. 

What will you do with Joanne's Tic Tac Toe? You can see what the rest of the team have done and link up your entry on 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.