Magical Hot Foil for Freshly Made Sketches 745

It's been a long time since something truly different, and truly exciting, has arrived in my craft room: something never before seen or used or played with. And that folks, is Stampin' Up!'s brand spanking new Hot Foil System.

Once I'd worked out the technicalities of how to operate it (actually, really simple) I tried out a few things like using different dies, using different coloured foils and trying out different papers to foil. Now it was time to actually make something with it all, so I turned to the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches to do just that. 

As part of my experimentation, I'd used the Garden Silhouette Hot Foil Die with gold foil on vellum.

Then I coloured the flowers from the back using Melon Mambo Stampin' Blends, with some  touches of Granny Apple Green and Daffodil Delight.

I cut this down to a long strip 9cm wide then folded it over a 9cm square of Bubble Bath card stock, attaching it with Stampin' Seal from behind. 

I can see that one possible negative of this lovely Hot Foiling is going to be the trouble in getting a good photo of it!

I used a Bubble Bath card base. The Basic White card front is embossed with the retired (but never to be parted with) Subtle embossing folder. I wanted some texture for interest but nothing that would compete with the busy gold foiled square, so it was the perfect choice. 

I ran a narrow strip of Bubble Bath through the same folder as a base for the sentiment.  For the sentiment, I hot foiled the Sweetly Sentimental Hot Foil dies, then cut them out with the matching cutting dies. There were a bunch of sentiments, which are great to have on hand ready to use - but I liked this one for a wedding. It's popped up on dimensionals.

While looking for embellishments, I wanted something elegant but not too flashy. I chose the sparkling white Shimmering Dots to finish things off. 

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.

Piece of Cake for The Paper Players 786

 Thanks to everyone who entered Claire's bright and summery colour challenge last week. The gallery was small but oh, so lovely! Our hostess this week is Ann and she has a double challenge for us. The theme is Food and the style is CAS!

I've done a lot of craft room clean up, clean out and reorganisation lately. The happy consequence of that is to reacquaint myself with some of the forgotten items in my craft library. One of these is the ever-so-lovely, but retired,  Piece of Cake bundle. I'm sure many of you will have it stashed away.

I decided to take the wedding cake option because I had some of the Lovely &Beautiful DSP on my desk and it had me in the matrimonial mood. 

I stamped the cake, the stand, some hearts and the sentiment in Tuxedo Black. I coloured them with Stampin' Blends in Smoky Slate, Fresh Freesia and Petal Pink. The cake and stand could be cut out with the matching punch but the hearts... they had to be fussy cut!

Initially, I left the card front plain but couldn't help myself. It had to be embossed so I used the Beautiful Pattern 3D embossing folder for some subtle but elegant detailing. I cut a narrow strip of the DSP and applied it as two strips, then added the cake and hearts on dimensionals. I added the sentiment as a third tier of the cake and finished off with a trio of iridescent pearls.

The team and I would love to see what you do with Ann's CLEAN AND SIMPLE FOOD THEME. Remember it's a double challenge with both a theme AND a style. 

 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.

Simply Beautiful for Colour INKspiration 205

 

Welcome to the 205th challenge at Colour INKspiration! Thanks for all the gorgeous entries for last challenge. We have another pretty combination for you this time around, chosen by me! I picked it so long ago, I'd actually forgotten it was my pick. I hope you enjoy playing with it. 

This challenge runs for nearly two weeks and will finish on Monday 23 March, 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 Joanne James, AKA The Crafty Owl 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 Lemon Lime Twist for Granny Apple Green. Black, White, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige and metallics are free colours, as are flesh-toned Stampin' Blends.

Well, it was hard to go past florals with these colours and my go-to floral at the moment is Simply Beautiful. I stamped the flower and leaves in Stazon Black on Fluid100 Watercolor paper and used diluted Berry Burst and Granny Apple Green to colour them. Once dry, I die cut them. 

To complete the floral cluster, I cut one of the flower petal die cuts in Gold Foil, then took the centre pieces out of the flower to use as fronds in this little bouquet. They tucked in easily since the flower had been popped up on dimensionals.

The sentiment is stamped in Basic Gray, then cut with the largest stitched banner from Nested Essentials.

The card front is embossed with the Stone & Vine 3D embossing folder. For embellishments, I used some gold Flower Accents.

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.

Delicate Dreams for Paper Players 774

Stef's CAS theme challenge brought us a wonderful gallery and the team were delighted by your entries. This week, I'm the hostess and I've got a sketch for you. Sketches are my favourite kind of challenge and I love seeing the diverse creations that all come from the same starting point. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone does with this one!

I've been playing with the about-to-be-released Delicate Dreams suite. This is one of the March Online Exclusive offerings. I do gravitate towards foliage sets and this one has some lovely die cuts in addition to the stamped images. The DSP is a lovely specialty paper with coppery/bronze accents. 

So here's what I came up with....

Although it hasn't photographed particularly well, the Secret Sea DSP with the bronze flower outlines is very pretty in real life.  The spray is built up with a base floral image stamped in Gray Granite with various die cuts in Secret Sea, Gray Granite, Textured Metallic Specialty paper and Delicate Dreams DSP. 

The rectangular panel and sentiment are cut with dies from Textured Notes. The embellishments are Iridescent Foil Gems and the card front is embossed with the Exposed Brick folder.

I can't wait to see what you do with this sketch! You can see what the rest of the team have done and link up your entry at The Paper Players.

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.

Simply Beautiful for Freshly Made Sketches 718

When a mid-summer heat wave strikes, what's to be done but to disappear into my craft room? I used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches for inspiration.  

The sketch offered another chance to experiment with the new Simply Beautiful bundle. This can be found in the January-April Mini Catalogue. The embossed angled piece used the new Stone & Vine folder. 

The flower and leaves were heat embossed in gold. The centre of the flower was coloured with Darling Duckling using a sponge dauber. The Petal Pink and Old Olive were added with a mini Blending Brush. 

The very beautiful embellishments are technically called Pearlised Faceted Gems - but really they should just be called 'Gorgeous Bling'!

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.

Simply Beautiful for AYSI 362

 Welcome to a new challenge at As You See It! We're back to the start of our challenge rotation with a sketch and it was my pleasure to provide this one for the team. I don't know quite what I was thinking, given that normally I'm a clean stamper who like lots of open space. But there we have it - it's good to get out of the comfort zone sometimes!

I was lucky enough to receive my box of pre-order products from the January 2026 Mini Catalogue in time to play with some of them for this challenge. 

I opened up the Simply Beautiful bundle and the Lovely & Beautiful Specialty DSP for this sketch - mainly because I wanted to see what the flower-making dies could do! These products will be available to everyone from early January. 

The flower making dies in the bundle are just wonderful! I've used three different sizes to create this bloom and cut the stamens from gold foil. The leaves are Old Olive but I've sponged ink on the solid layer to give more variation in colour. The great thing is that there are more petal sizes, stamen and leaf options - as well as the dies that cut the stamped images from the set.  Lots of potential here, I think. 

The sentiments in the set lend themselves to weddings and engagements but it does also include the ever-useful 'thinking of you' which I almost used for this card. And of course, with such gorgeous florals and pretty DSP colours, any sentiment could be imported. 

I've embossed the card front with the Beautiful Pattern folder from Online Exclusives. I added in three pretty Pearlised Faceted Circles, which are part of the Lovely & Beautiful suite.

What will you do with this sketch?

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.

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.

Gallery Blooms for Around the World on Wednesday

Welcome to Around the World on Wednesday's July hop.

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. 😀

This month, we're doing something a little different. It's five years since Around the World on Wednesday started up, so we're doing some close-up looks at the team. Aurelie Fabre was a founding member of the team so this month we're all going to CASE one of her projects. 

But our team leader, Angie McKenzie likes to keep us on our toes, so in addition to CASEing Aurelie, we're also using a Tic-Tac-Toe board.

After browsing through Aurelie's blog, I found this card to CASE. So pretty, isn't it?

So armed with this gorgeous design and the centre column of the Tic Tac Toe board (Circle-line-repeat), this is what I came up with....

I used the very pretty floral spray image from Gallery Blooms. I repeat stamped this using Gray Granite ink then coloured each repeat using Fresh Freesia, Old Olive and Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends. I die cut them out.

 

Aurelie's original card had a soft splatter of colour behind her repeated daffodils. I added in some soft splatter in Daffodil Delight but also some lines of text. Both the splatter and lines of text come from a set that I'm finding indispensable: Elements of Text.

After completing the background stamping on the card front, I arranged the die cut blooms over it, then trimmed off any overhang before attaching the card front to the Gray Granite card base.

I replaced Aurelie's sentiment label with a stitched circle from Stylish Shapes. The sentiment, stamped in Gray Granite, is from Beautiful Motifs - a sentiment only companion set to Gallery Blooms.

As beautiful as the Brushed Brass Butterflies from Aurelie's original are, I replaced them with some Antique Pearls for a more vintage feel. 

Keep on hopping to see how the rest of the team have CASEd Aurelie.  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.

Here's a blog roll of participants in case you get lost or want to revisit someone.

Jan Clothier - NZ
Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU
Cheryll Miller - AU
Marga Bultena - NL
Ximena Morales - DE
Aurélie Fabre - FR
Chris Smith - US
Theresa McEntee - US

Bree Renwick - US
Lori Willcox - CA
Teri West - US
Cheryl Hamilton - US

An Old Favourite for AYSI 336

 I found this week's challenge at As You See It  a real challenge as I just couldn't find anything on my current shelves that contained either acorns or seeds. Minor panic stations for a while there until I went to my retired shelves.

I have a curated collection of special stamps that I keep, mainly made up of stamp sets that either are one-of-a-kind images or sets so beautiful I  just don't want to part with them. The long retired Dandelion Wishes fell into the latter category. Getting it out again to play with new things was a real pleasure.

I started by stamping the trio of dandelion seed heads in Petunia Pop, then added in some stamped seeds-in-the -wind.  I sponged some Petunia Pop over the seed heads and seeds lightly, and more heavily in the seed head centres. I cut the image out with one of the dies from Spotlight on Nature.  I cut a second circle, with a different die, from Petunia Pop. I off-set layered them and mounted them to one side of the card front which had been embossed with the Dotted Circle 3D Embossing Folder. After trimming off the excess, I mounted the front onto the Petunia Pop card base.

Having decided that there was an air of celebration in this design, I splattered some Wink of Stella over the seed heads before attaching it to the card front. I like the little hints of shine it gives.

The sentiment is from the Something Fancy stamp set and is cut using one of the Something Fancy dies. I raided my dwindling stash of Silver Glimmer paper to cut a shadow shape for under the sentiment. At the last minute, I added in a twist of Silver & White Sheer ribbon under the sentiment. The final step was the addition of three Petunia Pop Shimmer Gems. 

The team and I would love to see what you do with this acorn and seed theme. 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 20, 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.