An eclectic mix for Paper Players 760

Many thanks to those of you who entered last week's colour challenge. Who knew that  purple and green could lead in so many directions, from Christmas to Halloween?!

This week, Jaydee is our hostess and she has a double challenge for us: A foliage theme but in a Clean and Simple style.

So what the Clean and Simple mean? For us, it means to keep things uncluttered - lots of white open space, a single focal point, minimal layers and minimal use of embellishments. 

For my card, I've used a mix of several die and stamp sets. That's one of the pleasures of having a stamp collection - mixing and matching as you feel like. 

I started with a die cut leaf from Thankful Garden. I still had some left over ink smooshed watercolour paper from this project in my bits box so used it now. 

It seemed a bit lonely by itself, so I cut a smaller leafy bough from Gallery Blooms in Early Espresso.

I needed a sentiment, so used one from Beautiful Motifs and cut it using a banner die from Stylish Shapes.

Once I had the bones of a design, I needed a background to put it on. So I punched a circle from a piece of masking paper and attached it to my card front to create a circular mask then I got to work on it. 

I started by adding some script using Early Espresso ink and a stamp from Elements of Text. Then I added some splatters in Timid Tiger, using another stamp from Elements of Text.

 

Then I added some colour with a blending brush using Crushed Curry and Timid Tiger inks. Once that was all done, I removed the mask to reveal the decorative circle.

After that, it was a simple matter to add the foliage and sentiment plus a trio of rhinestones.

We'd love to see your foliage themed creation - but remember to keep it clean and simple. 

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.

Country Woods for Colour INKspiration 197

 

Welcome to the 197th challenge at Colour INKspiration. This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday October 20, 7pm AEST.

This colour palette was chosen for us by Crew Member, Vicki Boucher. 

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 Jan McQueen 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 Secret Sea for Night of Navy. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

To me, the colours were rustic in feel, so I looked through the papers in the Country Woods collection because I was certain there was a lovely weathered looking paper using Misty Moonlight. Turned out that I was right - and there was also a woody weathered looking paper using Crumb Cake. From there, a card was born!

I wanted some large foliage so used the Thankful Garden dies to cut some in Crumb Cake and Night of Navy. (If you don't already have the fabulous Thankful Garden bundle, then go check out the Last Chance list.)

Then I decided that I wanted a compact sentiment that would fit into a circle die. So out came Simply Said and the Spotlight on Nature dies. The sentiment is stamped in Night of Navy to match the card base. There is a matte layer of Misty Moonlight. 

Since I had some die cuts left over, and some offcuts of the DSP, I used some of them to decorate the inside of the card. 

To finish off, I added some classic bling with the Rhinestone Jewels.

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.

Thankful Garden for AYSI 358

 It's time for a new challenge at As You See It. Thanks to everyone who entered in our colour challenge last time round. We had some great entries and I enjoyed seeing the different uses for the same set of colours. 

As always, after the colour challenge comes the fill in the blank challenge. This time, inspiration comes from however you complete the sentence. There's many things to love about autumn and it is my favourite season. I love the cool nights followed by crisp days of clear blue sky. I love the abundance of vegetables and fruits to be found at the Farmer's Market and a return of hearty casseroles and delicious pies to the kitchen - along with hot drinks in the evening.  However, I'm not completing my sentence with any of those things, since there's something I love even more about autumn.

My favourite thing about autumn is watching the leaves turn from greens to golds and reds. That's what I've tried to show in this card. 

I started by ink smooshing some scraps of Fluid 100 Watercolor paper using Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Old Olive and a touch of Cherry Cobbler. Once the paper had dried I cut some leaves using one of the dies from Thankful Garden.

I thought they'd look smart against a dark background, so embossed a piece of Basic Black with the Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder and attached that to a Basic Black card base.

I arranged three stems of leaves and attached them to the card front. I thought a touch of gold would work well, so heat embossed a gold 'thank you' from Perfectly Pears and cut it out using one of the banner dies from Stylish Shapes.

To pick out the gold some more, I used something I seldom use - ribbon. I added in a twist of Gold Mesh ribbon. Bling was difficult to choose. I thought of using Flower Accents but felt they were the wrong gold. After trying out a few other things, I settled on using some Flat Pearls in Darling Duckling. I like how they've picked up the yellows and the golds.

What do YOU love about autumn? 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.

A Bit of Everything for AYSI 353

It's time for a recipe challenge at As You See It. If you've not played along with one of these, it's really easy. Just take the five 'ingredients' from the challenge graphic, add whatever bits and pieces you want from your own stash and see what you can cook up! 

Today's selection of ingredients seems to be steering us down the road of elegance and glamour. I've used an eclectic collection of items to bring you this card....

1. Black, White and/or Gold  - I've stuck to these three colours because I like the combination.

2. Heat Embossing - I've heat embossed gold splatter on the card front, which has been embossed with the Damask Designs embossing folder. The splatter stamp came from Perfectly Pears.

3. Rhinestones or Sequins - I've used my old favourite, Basic Rhinestones.

4. Punches or Dies - I've gone overboard with this one. I've used Stylish Shapes, Thankful Garden, and Gallery Blooms dies.

5. Gold Foil or Paper - some of the dies are cut from Gold Foil. 

The sentiment is stamped in Tuxedo Black and is from Perfectly Pears. I also added in a bow from Twisted Gold Cord.

We'd love to see what you come up with from these five ingredients.  You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at 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.

Thankful Garden for As You See It 351

 It's time for a colour challenge at As You See It this week. Don't forget that the Featured Artist in this week's gallery will be offered the opportunity to Guest Design with us in our next Recipe Challenge. That's a fun way to put your toe in the water of being on a team if you've not done it before. 

With that gorgeous floral graphic and the sunny colours, it was hard to go past florals for this challenge. My go-to florals at the moment (by a narrow squeak) is the Thankful Garden bundle. I love the stamps and dies with the extra bits but the addition of a layered set of stencils gives even more otpions. You'll find this set in the Online Exclusives section of the store. 

With such impactful colours and a large striking floral image, this card didn't need much else. I started by stamping the large image and using the layered stencils, and blending brushes, to colour it. I used a sponge dauber to colour the centre of the bloom in Peach Pie. Once the colouring was complete, I die cut the image. 

I used the Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder to give the card front some texture. The sentiment was stamped in Basic Black and cut using one of the Textured Notes dies. I cut a shadow die from Peach Pie to underline the sentiment.  The card base is Melon Mambo.

To finish off, I used a trio of Peach Pie Resin dots.

The whole team would love to see how you see these bright colours.  You can see what the rest of the team have done, and link up your entry, at 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.

Thankful Garden for Stampin' Fancy Friday

This month at Stampin' Fancy Friday, our challenge inspiration is flowers: you'll see the team all playing with some kind of flowers.

The team at Stampin' Fancy Friday don't blog hop but we do a daily inspiration post on Instagram (and Facebook). 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. 

You can view our interpretations of the month's challenge on both Instagram and Facebook. 

Follow @stampinfancyfriday if you don't already. 😀

So, one of my favourite floral sets is the Thankful Garden bundle. It's found in Online Exclusives and is a set of stamps, dies and stencils which can be used separately or together. 

I love the softly coloured look that comes from the layered stencils. 

I was also trying out some of the new In Colors 2025-27. The dark blue/grey is Secret Sea, the softer blue/grey is Cloud Cover and the pink is Strawberry Slush. I've added in some Daffodil Delight to the flower centres with a dauber.

I've stamped and coloured two of the floral image so I could cut out one of the flowers and add it to create a trio. The third is popped up on dimensionals to add some height.

The softly patterned, slightly brick-like DSP is from the In Color paper stack but the big find in the Online Exclusive drop is these fabulous stitched edge Everyday Arches dies! I can't believe I've lived so long without them!

Finally, I added some of the flat pearl In Color embellishments for a bit more colour. 

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. 

Thankful Garden for Freshly Made Sketches 676

Today I was meant to be packing to go to OnStage Brisbane but the imminent arrival of Tropical Cyclone Alfred has mucked that up somewhat. So what's a person to do when they're feeling a bit stressed? Well, it's to the craft room, of course! And a bit of a take on the latest sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. 

I wasn't really at my best but I found the colouring of the lovely hydrangea images in Thankful Garden really relaxing! This bundle is one of the new Online Exclusives which has just dropped. They're worth a look as there's some really interesting things there, some of which you'll see in the coming weeks. 😀

As much as I enjoy using the stencils which are part of the bundle to with, today I was in the mood to colour with Stampin' Blends so the flowers are a mix of Bubble Bath, Fresh Freesia and Highland Heather with Granny Apple Green for the leaves. 

I added in a more than usual number of Fine Purple Shimmer Gems to finish off. The base is Highland Heather.

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 727

It's time for a new challenge at The Paper Players. Claire, our hostess this week, has given us a theme of Spring Flowers to work with. I loved seeing last week's entries for Stef's sketch challenge: so many great ideas and so many lovely cards!

I used Claire's challenge to play around with one of the bundles in my preorder for the next drop of Online Exclusives. These open for up in my Online Store on March 4.

The Thankful Garden bundle is a winner to me as it includes stamped floral images suitable for colouring, sentiments in interesting fonts, matching dies that offer extra bits of foliage AND a set of stencils that give the option of colouring the images or stencilling alone for a soft look. 

Here's my first play around with them.

I stamped one of the floral images twice, coloured them using the stencils. I coloured one with Pretty in Pink, Flirty Flamingo and Melon Mambo and the other with Petal Pink, Pretty in Pink and Flirty Flamingo. Then I fussy cut one of the flowers out to create a cluster of three. 

I used some of the dies to cut some extra foliage to build up the bunch of flowers. 

Another new product from the new Online Exclusives is the Textured Notes die set. I've used one of them to make a label for the sentiment, which is also from Thankful Garden. 

The text stamp that I've used in the background is also an Online Exclusive set, Elements of Text. I'm so glad that I got that set as the various font stamps are endlessly useful in backgrounds. 

The embossing folder is the Distressed Tile 3D folder, one of my favourites. 

Below you can see my second play around with this bundle. It's basically the same card but I've used the other large floral image, a different sentiment and die (but from the same sets) and different embossing folder. Instead of stamping a background, I added in some splattered ink. So, two related but different cards using the same products. Don't you love it when that happens?

We'd all love to see what you do with Spring Flowers. 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:

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

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.