Thinking Stamping: Sympathy Card

Showing posts with label Sympathy Card. Show all posts

Saturday, 30 May 2026

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.

Friday, 5 September 2025

Gallery Blooms for As You See It 356

Welcome to a new challenge at As You See It. This week, we have a sketch to inspire you.

I enjoy a sketch challenge and I particularly like seeing the varied projects that arise from the same starting point.

I had the Beautiful Gallery DSP on my desk. It's so pretty and I really haven't made enough use of it... yet.

I started by choosing a design from the DSP stack and cutting it to a suitable width. Then I cut it into horizontally into three pieces the same width.

I embossed the Basic White card front with the Damask Designs embossing folder, which is part of the Beautiful Gallery suite. After attaching that to the Secret Sea card base, I added the three strips of DSP, making sure to preserve the pattern and to space them evenly while keeping them to the left, as in the sketch.

I used the sentiment from Beautiful Motifs and cut it out using a banner from Stylish Shapes. As the colours in the DSP were Cloud Cover and Secret Sea, I cut out some small foliage using the Gallery Blooms dies and arranged them in behind the popped up sentiment banner.

To finish, I added three large Flat Pearls in Secret Sea to the left of the DSP strips, to suit the sketch, and added two smaller ones to accent the sentiment.

I'd love to see how you see this sketch! Visit the As You See It page to link up your entry and to see the rest of the team's inspirations.

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

Wednesday, 9 July 2025

Prairie Grass for Colour INKspiration 191

Welcome to the 191st challenge at Colour INKspiration. This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday July 21, 7pm AEST.

This colour palette was chosen for us by Crew Member, Nicole Wilson. It's a timely palette for the Southern Hemisphere with the Aurora Australis having shown itself many times in the last few months - although sadly, I've never seen it live.

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 Kisha Cook 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 Melon Mambo for Berry Burst. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

I'm currently enjoying playing with one of the new Online Exclusive stamp sets, Prairie Grass. It's one of those sets that I didn't need - but certainly wanted - and now I have it, it's becoming addictive!

The set lends itself to silhouette stamping, so the colours themselves were perfect for a Southern Lights-style blended background.

I masked off a column of card front and blended in Lemon-Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green, Berry Burst and Blackberry Bliss inks with blending brushes.

After removing the mask, I stamped the grasses over the top using Tuxedo Black ink. Then I cut the piece down using one of the Textured Notes dies to create the decorative edge. I matted this to a piece of Lemon-Lime Twist cardstock, then attached to the Blackberry Bliss card base.

The sentiment, from the Prairie Grass set was stamped in Tuxedo Black and cut with one of the Stylish Shapes banner dies. I cut a smaller banner in Blackberry Bliss and tucked it in behind the sentiment to accent it.

The finishing touch was the addition of some Blackberry Bliss Shimmer Gems.

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.

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

Wednesday, 11 June 2025

Impressions Abloom for CI189

Welcome to the 189th challenge at Colour INKspiration. This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday June 23, 7pm AEST.

This colour palette was chosen for us by Crew Member. Monica Formosa. It might get you thinking of florals or it might send you off in a completely different direction.

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 Petra Noeth 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 Daffodil Delight for Darling Duckling. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

You might have noticed that three of the challenge colours are from the 2025-2027 In Colors. We will be celebrating the new In Colors in the next few challenges but if you don't have them yet, feel free to use close substitutes.

I'm still really enjoying playing around with the Impressions Abloom bundle. For this card, I used the dies and created a bloom using various of the 'extra' bits and pieces in the set: i.e. the ones that aren't outlines of the stamped images.

To add interest to the Basic White panel, I embossed it using the Pressed Flowers embossing folder that is part of the Floral Impressions suite.

The sentiment is from a fabulous new words-only set called The Right Words. One of the many things I like about this set is that the sentiments are two-part: something for the inside and something for the outside. I've used the smallest irregular hexagon die from Nested Essentials to cut it out.

The background DSP is from the 2025-27 In Color 6x6 stack. I was going to use the mottled stripes on the other side but decided I liked this one better! Best of all, there's one of these stacks available for every colour family.

I've added some Secret Sea Flat Pearl embellishments to finish off.

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.

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

Sunday, 4 May 2025

Gallery Blooms for Freshly Made Sketches 684

I haven't been very good at keeping up my New Year Crafting Resolution to play along with more challenges just for fun. After just completing a run of customised wedding invitations, I sat at my desk and decided to play 'just for fun'. I turned to the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches for inspiration.

I wanted to give the Beautiful Gallery suite a bit of a try out so the choice was easy about what to play with. Here's how that ended up...

I used the Gallery Blooms bundle and twice stamped one of the images, then coloured in with Stampin' Blends in Lost Lagoon, Petal Pink and Calypso Coral. I die cut some flowers and foliage in Lost Lagoon, Petal Pink and Crumb Cake. These were arranged into a bouquet on a small circle from the Stylish Shapes dies.

I used DSP from the Beautiful Gallery DSP 6x6 stack for the right edge panel, then used a torn edge showing the reverse as the scalloped vertical in the sketch.

I used the Damask Designs embossing folder for the card front and some of the Pressed Flower Motif embellishments to finish off.

The sentiment is from the second stamp set in the suite, Beautiful Motifs, and is cut from using another of the dies from Stylish Shapes.

All of the elements of the Beautiful Gallery Suite will be available from 6 May.

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

Wednesday, 9 April 2025

Gallery Blooms for Colour Inkspiration 185

Welcome to the 185th challenge at Colour INKspiration. This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday April 21, 7pm AEST.

This sweet colour palette was chosen for us by Crew Member. Vicki Boucher. It might get you thinking of Easter, or maybe it will take you in a whole new direction!

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 Gail Ellis 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 Highland Heather for Fresh Freesia. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

As predictable as it is, green plus some colours make me think florals. Of course, the beautiful floral pre-order sets on my desk might also have swayed my thinking!

The Gallery Blooms bundle is gorgeous, especially this lovely spray. The DSP that is part of the suite has a definite vintage feel to it but once you move to different colours, it can take on a whole new feel.

I've used DSP from the Floral Impressions pack (available May 6) as a starting point for this design.

I stamped the bloom in Basic Gray, then coloured it with Stampin' Blends in Fresh Freesia, Petal Pink and Old Olive before die-cutting it out. I also cut some extra foliage and flowers from the Gallery Blooms dies to build my bouquet.

I used the Textured Notes dies to cut a rectangular panel upon which the bouquet is built.

The card base is Basic Gray. The Basic White card front is embossed with the Damask Designs embossing folder, which is part of the Gallery Blooms suite, available 6 May.

The embellishments are from the Petal Pink and Pretty Peacock foiled gems pack.

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.

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

Wednesday, 26 March 2025

Gallery Blooms for Colour INKspiration 184

Welcome to the 184th challenge at Colour INKspiration. This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday April 7, 7pm AEST.

This bright and cheerful colour palette was chosen for us by crew member, Alisa Tilsner. I wish my plot plants looked this good!

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 Sandra Hebel 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 Real Red for Poppy Parade. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

To me, these colours spoke of florals. As I'd been fortunate enough to go to On Stage in Brisbane I'd had the chance to pre-order from the forthcoming 2025-2026 Annual Catalogue. Amongst my pre-order items was a bundle called Gallery Blooms. It's part of a gorgeous vintage style suite called Beautiful Gallery. It seemed a shame not give it a try out for this challenge! 😀

I started by stamping the beautiful trio of blossoms onto Basic White in Tuxedo Black ink. I coloured the leaves with a mix of Mossy Meadow Blends and Garden Green Watercolour Pencil. Then I blended over the area with Azure Afternoon ink before embossing it with the Damask Designs embossing folder, which is part of the Beautiful Gallery suite.

I stamped a second floral image and coloured the flowers with Poppy Parade and Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends then fussy cut the flowers. I popped them up on dimensionals over the stamped image on the embossed card front.

From the die set, I cut out three agapanthus and three small leaves in Garden Green. I partially sponged the agapanthus with Mossy Meadow ink, cut down the small leave stem and tucked them around the three blooms.

The sentiment is from the second stamp set in the Beautiful Gallery suite, Beautiful Motifs. This set is mainly sentiments which will work well with any stamp set. It's stamped in Mossy Meadow, cut using a die from Something Fancy and with a Mossy Meadow shadow.

The embellishments are also part of the suite, Pressed Flower Motifs.

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.

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

Monday, 13 May 2024

Layers of Beauty for CAS CCS 536

I thought it was a bit of a tough challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches this week.

However, since I kept thinking about the combination I decided to have a go and see what happened.

Since I quite liked the result, I'm sharing it after all. 😀

I had my new Layers of Beauty stamps, along with the coordinating Layers of Beauty masks on my desk from their first play out of the box yesterday. I had a different idea in my head but somehow I couldn't go past using them again.

I used Pool Party and Lost Lagoon for the flowers, then soft Pebbled Path and a second layer of the same for the leaves.

The sentiment, stamped in Pebbled Path, is from the new Unbounded Love stamp set.

Update: Delighted to be named as a Fabulous Favourite at CAS Colours & Sketches.

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

Sunday, 26 March 2023

Season of Chic for CAS Colours and Sketches 507

I was procrastinating in my craft room, so ended up putting together a card for the latest challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches. It didn't help me get the jobs done but it made me feel better. 😀

I started by water colouring a scrap of Shimmery White Cardstock with Granny Apple Green and Soft Sea Foam. Once it was dry, I die cut some leaves using the Chic dies: four small and one medium.

I kept things very simple, adding in a sentiment from Season of Chic, then matting the panel onto a Basic Gray base.

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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