Thoughtful Wishes for AYSI 335

 The recipe challenge is one of my favourites in the As You See It schedule. Sometimes it's just nice to be given a starting point to create with, then let it roll and see where it goes. This time, our five 'ingredients' are quite opulent - the caviar and lobster of the craft room!

To join in the challenge with us, just create something that included metallics, textured embossing, a 'thinking of you' sentiment, a tag and use warm tones. 

Here's what I came up with.

I chose a square format for a change. I cut one of the tags from the Something Fancy dies in Very Vanilla and a shadow from Mossy Meadow.

I stamped the little flowers stamp  from Thoughtful Wishes in Blackberry Bliss then coloured it with Peach Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Mossy Meadow Stampin' Blends. I added in some splatters in Blackberry Bliss.

After gluing the tags together in the desired position, I added in a bow of Linen Thread, one of my very favourite SU products of all time!

The die cut flowers and foliage were cut with the Thoughtful Wishes dies in Peach Pie, Copper Clay, Mossy Meadow and Blackberry Bliss. The card base is Blackberry Bliss.

The sentiment is  stamped in Blackberry Bliss on Very Vanilla and cut with a die from Everyday Details.

However, the thing I enjoyed playing around with the most was the card front.  I started by embossing a piece of Very Vanilla with the Distressed Tile 3D embossing folder - another favourite of mine. Then I applied some Copper Enamel Effects from the Metallics Enamel Effects Basics, using a dry Water Painter.  I love how this came out, with the richness of the copper picking out the embossed pattern, rather like a Victorian pressed tin ceiling. I'm keen to try this with the gold next time. 

The finishing touch was the addition of three Regal Foiled Dots. I picked Blackberry Bliss ones, each with flecks of gold foil - beautiful!

The team and I would love to see what you can cook up with this selection of deluxe ingredients. 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 November 6, 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.

Thoughtful Wishes for Stampin' Fancy Friday

This month, the theme at Stampin' Fancy Friday is the Colour Combo Challenge. The challenge was to create a colour combo based on something: an item in the catalogue, home decor, fashion - whatever.

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. Follow @stampinfancyfriday if you don't already. 😀

For my colour combo, I took a closer look at my new curtains. They are multi-coloured but I did notice these colours together in one part of the pattern and thought I could translate them into SU colours. Of course, left to my own devices, I usually turn to rich, earthy colours. The surprise addition to the mix was Peach Pie.

So, my combination is Copper Clay, Peach Pie, Pretty Peacock and Blackberry Bliss. To showcase them, I turned to one of my favourite bundles, Thoughtul Wishes.

I cut die cuts from the Thoughtful Wishes set in the four colours and arranged a cluster. Before attaching to the Basic White base, I embossed the Basic White with the Exposed Brick 3D Embossing Folder. I used the splatter stamp to stamp some Peach Pie around the area where I was going to place the cluster. Then I used some dilute ink and a Water Painter to splatter some touched of Pretty Peacock and Copper Clay on the base.

I used some of the 2023-25 In Color Jute in Copper Clay, split into strands, to wrap around the card front. The sentiment  used two stamps from the set. The 'dearest friend' was embossed in white on Blackberry Bliss. This was  popped up on dimensionals on the label where the 'I appreciate you' had been stamped in Blackberry Bliss. The label is from Something Fancy dies.

The final touch was the addition of three sequins from the Adhesive Backed Sequin Trio.

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. 

The latest Step-by-Step Class

Join my friend Joanne Jame (The Crafty Owl) and I in a Step-by-Step Class for four beautiful projects. Simply purchase the Thoughtful Wishes Bundle and Thoughtful Journey DSP from either of us and we'll send you the PDF. 

If you already have these products but would like the class, simply order products of corresponding value from us, let us know that's what you've done and we'll send you the class. If you live in NZ, you can buy from me anywhere in the country here. 

Thoughtful Wishes for AYSI 326

 I always enjoy a sketch challenge so I'm extra pleased that our challenge rotation at As You See It is back to a sketch.

Generally, I don't use a lot of DSP in my card-making but the exception is the wonderful Thoughtful Journey DSP. The evocative water-coloured scenes make cards a breeze. In this card, I've let the paper do most of the work, then added in a sentiment from the set and some die-cut bits to cluster around it.

I really like the extra foliage pieces in the Thoughtful Wishes die set. I've cut some from card, some from the new In Color Glimmer Paper and some from scraps of the DSP. I clustered them around the sentiment which is from the Thoughtful Wishes stamp set. The dies and stamps are available as a bundle, giving you a 10% saving - although if you purchase them in June, there's an extra 10% all bundles. If you're considering this - or any bundle - June is the time to do it.

As a texture lover, I couldn't help but emboss the background with the Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder. I also added in a trio of In Color Shimmer Gems in Petunia Pop.

Colours used were: Petunia Pop, Old Olive, Wild Wheat and Basic White.

The Design Team would love to see how you see this sketch. Visit the As You See It Challenge page to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your own entry. You can play along with us until Wednesday 3 July, 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.

The latest Step-by-Step Class

Join my friend Joanne Jame (The Crafty Owl) and I in a Step-by-Step Class for four beautiful projects. Simply purchase the Thoughtful Wishes Bundle and Thoughtful Journey DSP from either of us and we'll send you the PDF. 

If you already have these products but would like the class, simply order products of corresponding value from us, let us know that's what you've done and we'll send you the class. If you live in NZ, you can buy from me anywhere in the country here. 

Thoughtful Wishes for Sunday Stamps 336

In keeping with my resolution to create more just for fun, I decided to play along with the lovely sketch challenge at Sunday Stamps.

I'm still enjoying playing with the Thoughtful Wishes bundle and stunning Thoughtful Journey DSP so happily turned to those products for this challenge.

I started by die cutting out part of the DSP with one of the labels from Something Fancy, and I cut a shadow piece from Petunia Pop.

I cut some of the foliage from Thoughtful Wishes dies from Boho Blue, Petunia Pop and from the reverse of some of the Thoughtful Journey DSP in colours that coordinated with the picture panel. I used these to build a cluster around the sentiment.

I wanted to keep the background quite plain so that the sentiment was clearly the focal point, so I used the Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder to texture two strips of Basic White to create the split panel of the sketch.

To finish off, I added three 2024-26 In Color Shimmer Gems in Petunia Pop. The bow is my all-time favourite Linen Thread.

Thank you for a great sketch, Sunday Stamps!

If you also love the look of the Thoughtful Wishes bundle and Thoughtful Journey DSP, then here's your chance to get a step-by-step class for four projects put together by me and my UK friend Joanne James aka The Crafty Owl. Order from either of us and we'll send you the PDF tutorial free. You can shop with me from  anywhere in New Zealand here.

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. 

Thoughtful Wishes for AYSI 322

 Welcome to a new challenge at As You See It Challenge. After the colour challenge, it's always a 'fill in the blank' and with those, you never quite know what you're going to get. This time is was a challenging one - what is my least used colour? And what's yours?

There's a few colours that would have completed the sentence but they all come from the same group of colours. For some reason, I shy away from orangey colours. I never got friendly with Grapefruit Grove or Pale Papaya. Peach Pie might be a challenge. I can use Calypso Coral at a pinch. But really, if I didn't own Pumpkin Pie, it really wouldn't bother me at all. So that's it - PUMPKIN PIE is officially my least used colour. 

I thought it didn't look too bad with Pebbled Path, so that's what I used for this card. 

I started by white embossing the leaf stem from Thoughtful Wishes on to Fluid 100 Watercolor paper. 

Then I blended Pumpkin Pie ink over it, making sure to have it heaviest at the bottom and getting lighter as it went up the page. 

Then I added some splashes of water to lift the colour slightly in places and gave it a light spritz with water.

Once it was dry, I stamped some more of the stems in Pumpkin Pie over the top, making sure to have a variety of heights.

Before mounting it onto a piece of Pebbled Path card, I added three strands of Pebbled Path jute twine around it. I got the three strands by cutting a length of twine and pulling out the individual strands of twine.

The matted piece is attached to a Pumpkin Pie card base. I used another strand of the twine to tie a bow around the three horizontal strands. 

The sentiment is white embossed on Pebbled Path and is cut with one of the dies from the new Unbounded Love dies.

Both Unbounded Love and Thoughtful Wishes are in the 2024-25 Annual Catalogue, coming live on May 1.

Make sure you visit the As You See It page to see what the rest of the Design Team have with this sketch - and to link up your own entry.

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.