The Paper Players 355 - DT Card

Welcome to a new challenge at The Paper Players! I loved seeing the different takes on last week's sketch. This week, we have a Tic Tac Toe challenge. Simply choose a line and make sure you include those three elements in your creation.

I've worked with the right hand vertical line: birthday - pink - circle and have used Beautiful Bouquet as the basis for this card.

There are a number of circles in this card. The whole thing is a circular easel card with a Blushing Bride circle matting the Whisper White centre circle. The flowers are circular in form and the pearls are also round. There are circular twists of copper metallic thread tucked in as well.

There are three different pinks: Flirty Flamingo, Blushing Bride and Powder Pink. This is what it looks like closed...

There are a few simple rules to abide by when you play with The Paper Players.

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.Entries linked to more than 4 challenges, including ours, will be deleted without notification.
5. Have fun!

We'd love to see how you play Tic Tac Toe with us.

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a demonstrator, I'd love help you find the pleasure of using Stampin' Up products. You can shop with me, or ask me for  stamping help, from anywhere in New Zealand. You can contact me by clicking on the link to my Facebook page in the sidebar of this blog, or by leaving me a comment with your contact details. (These won't be published.)

Ingredients

Card: Flirty Flamingo, Blushing Bride, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi

Stamps: Beautiful Bouquet

Inks: Flirty Flamingo, Blushing Bride, Powder Pink, Versamark

Other: Bouquet Bunch framelits, Copper embossing powder, Copper Metallic thread, pearls, dimensionals

As You See It 155 - DT card

As lovely as holidays are, it's good to be back home and back in my craft room. I did think I'd miss the challenge  deadline this week at As You See It but it turned out to be the perfect challenge for me at this moment. After two weeks on a tropical island holiday, a return home to depressing winter, a bit of jet lag and an in-at-the-deep-end return to work my mojo was definitely still on holiday! Yet the challenge at As You See It this week is the perfect antidote for this...

So, what do I do when I lose my craft mojo? Well, what I do it look for a challenge to enter. This does a couple of things for me. It gives me a reason to hunt for mojo but more importantly, it gives me a really useful tool for managing mojo loss: limitation. One of the most inhibiting things to mojo, I think, is when you have no clear idea where to start because you're in your normally happy place: the well-stocked craft room. A sketch or colour challenge is really good for limiting your choice and making the task more accessible. 

If I'm in real mojo trouble, I limit things even further. I might make myself use a particular stamp set, or I might make myself only use retired stock or things I got in my last Big Brown Box, or to use a particular technique.

What I did today was decide that I'd find a sketch challenge and that I'd use a current favourite bundle (Dragonfly Dreams) and a current favourite technique (sponging and masking). After a bit of a hunt around, I chose the sketch at Fab Friday.

Even so, sailing was not plain. There were two false starts before I got a dragonfly I was happy enough with to use. In the end, he was stamped in StazOn, painted in Sweet Sugarplum and Fresh Fig, washed with clear Wink of Stella and highlighted with a white gel pen and rhinestones. He's layered and mounted on the raised sentiment strip.

The circle was sponged through a circular mask. The colours blended were Sweet Sugarplum, Calypso Coral and Daffodil Delight. The leaves were stamped in Fresh Fig and then some Wink of Stella splatters were added in before the mask was removed.

I will enter this at Fab Friday. You can enter our challenge at As You See It over the next two weeks and we'd love to see what you do and to hear what you do when your mojo is AWOL. Just link up by 11.55 pm, Wednesday 9 August PST.

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a demonstrator, I'd love to help you find your stamping mojo. You can contact me by leaving me a message in the comments or by clicking on my Facebook page in the sidebar of this blog.

Update: Delighted to be in the Fave Four at Fab Friday with this card. 

The mojo must be working!

Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up.

Card: Fresh Fig, Sweet Sugarplum, Whisper White

Stamps: Dragonfly Dreams, Butterfly Basics, Thoughtful Banners

Inks: Sweet Sugarplum, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Fresh Fig, Black Stazon

Other: clear Wink of Stella, Layering circle framelits (to make the mask), sponges, dimensionals, rhinestones, Detailed Dragonfly thinlits, white gel pen, aquapainter

The Paper Players 354 - DT card

Welcome back to another exciting challenge at The Paper Players. This time, Jaydee has given us a fantastic sketch to work with. Aren't the possibilities just endless?

I've used an old, but still current, set called Best Birds. A couple of weekends ago, I was part of a local Stampin' Up Extravaganza and I got to thinking about one of the projects I taught there last year, which was an acetate window card front with an aquarium scene in behind. From that idea came this card for Jaydee's sketch.

The bird, the branch and leaves, and flowers were stamped onto watercolour paper, painted and cut using the matching dies. The bird is layered to give him more depth.

The 'congratulations' and the  cross-hatching on the inside are both embossed using copper embossing powder and there's a twist of copper metallic thread in behind the greeting too.

I used the ever-faithful Softly Falling embossing folder for the front.

I like the clean finish of this card. I think it would work well for a baby girl, or an engagement or even a wedding. A useful one for my stash!

Please join us in the wonderful sketch challenge. There are a few simple rules to keep in mind:

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. Entries linked to more than 4 challenges, including ours, will be deleted without notification.
5. Have fun!

You have until Friday 8 p.m. EST to join us and I'd love to see what you do with it.

If you live in New Zealand, I'd love to be your demonstrator. You can reach by through my Facebook Page - just click in the sidebar.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, watercolour paper, acetate window sheet.

Stamps: Best Birds

Inks: Soft Suede, Blushing Bride, Peekaboo Peach, Pear Pizzazz, versamark

Other: Birds and Blooms thinlits, Copper embossing powder, copper metallic thread, Softly Falling Embossing folder, glue dots, aquapainter, pearls.

All products Stampin' Up.

Colour Inkspiration 13

Our lovely winter holiday to somewhere warm is sadly now over and it's back to school tomorrow.
Tahiti must have been a good location for a holiday because never once did I hanker for my craft room! With the laundry mountain under control and the bags unpacked, I did cheer myself up at the return to winter with a retreat into my room to play with the gorgeous colours on offer at Colour INKspiration.

I really wanted to explore the possibilities of Beautiful Bouquet, a set I've owned since June but haven't really had much of a chance to play with. So, this is how it turned out ....

The tulip buds are stamped in either Sweet Sugarplum or Fresh Fig, while the tulip flowers I've inked up in Sweet Sugarplum and then daubed near the bottom with Fresh Fig. The sentiment was inked the same way. The leaves are inked in Lemon-Lime Twist with the lower part daubed with Wild Wasabi. The stems are a mixture of Lemon-Lime Twist and Wild Wasabi.

I stamped a few leaves and flowers and die-cut them to add depth and perspective to the garden scene.

I like how this turned out and I think that Beautiful Bouquet is going to be one wonderful stamp set.

Ingredients

Card: Fresh Fig, Lemon-Lime Twist, Whisper White

Stamps: Beautiful Bouquet, One Big Meaning

Inks: Fresh Fig, Sweet Sugarplum, Wild Wasabi, Lemon-Lime Twist

Other: Fresh Fig woven ribbon, Bouquet Bunch framelits, dimensionals (Mini and standard), Fresh Fig marker to colour edge of sentiment strip.

Retro Rubber 67 - DT Card

Well, there's lot of ways you can go with this week's challenge at Retro Rubber - Rainbows.

As always, the rules are simple: use a stamp that's at least a year old, tell us how old it is (approximately) and don't link up to more that ten challenges in total.

Playful Backgrounds and Thoughtful Banners came out during in the 2016-17 Annual Catalogue and Crazy About You came out in the 2015 Occasions catalogue. Thoughtful Banners was a set I always thought I'd use a lot but really haven't, so it was good to get it out and use the words for this card.

So, please join in our Rainbow Challenge - we'd love to see what you do.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Calypso Coral, Whisper White,  Marina Mist, Elegant Eggplant

Stamps: Thoughtful Banners, Playful Backgrounds, Crazy About You

Inks: Rose Red, Calypso Coral, So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Tuxedo Black

Other: Stitched circle framelits, Elegant Eggplant twine, Hello You thinlits, dimensionals, Calypso Coral star enamel shape

The Paper Players 353 - DT card

Welcome to Claire's CAS Summer Fun in the Water challenge at The Paper Players. I have to tell you that this challenge has special significance to me because as this post goes live, my husband and I will be enjoying the fun and sun in Tahiti, where we've gone for a winter get-away.

As gloom and winter ills have surrounded us for the last few weeks, the prospect of a warm beach and sunshine seemed very attractive so I was drawn to my new Colourful Seasons set and the deckchairs in it. I hope I'm sitting on one right now! I gave them a masked and sponged background: sand, sea and sky. I made the sponging a bit rougher than usual to add to the sense of ocean movement and sandiness.

The chairs are a two-step stamp so I stamped the base on to the sand but I paper-pieced the seat using papers from the Colour Theory paper stack. To get the shape right, I stamped the seat using versamark and clear embossed it before fussy cutting it. Then I shaded under the seat to give some solidity to the chairs. 

The drinks are popped up on dimensionals. I hope I've got some of those on the beach with me too!

I cut one of the snowflakes in Crushed Curry to be a stylised sun to ground the sentiment, which is from Clearly Besotted's Say it in Style. And I added in some starfish from By the Shore for some more marine life. 

I do hope you'll join us for this fun CAS challenge. Here's a reminder of our few 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. Entries linked to more than 4 challenges, including ours, will be deleted without notification.
5. Have fun!

Ingredients

Card: Bermuda Bay, Watercolour paper, Colour Theory DSP

Stamps: Colourful Seasons, By the shore, Clearly Besotted Say it in Style.

Inks: Bermuda Bay, Dapper Denim, Crushed Curry, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, versamark

Other: Seasonal Layers thinlits, dimensionals, clear embossing powder, glitter enamel dots, sponges

As You See It 154 - DT Card

Welcome to another As You See It Challenge. Today we've got a sketch for you and I can't wait to see how you see it. I found the asymmetry of the panel a bit tricky to get looking right, so much so that I wished I'd ignored it and done a curve!

I did enjoy getting out Happy Birthday Gorgeous from the new annual catalogue. It's got some great birthday greetings and some lovely balloons that I've used a few times but I'd largely ignored the many little floral bits and bobs that come with it.

So I used the little stylised flowers, stamping the outline in Fresh Fig and stamping the filler in Powder Pink. Then I had a choice of four different leaves but settled for these simple little ones in Garden Green for the base layer.

Then to decorate the top panel, I used the larger of two roses and a pair of other leaves. The rose was originally Fresh Fig on white but when I got out the Wink of Stella, the ink smeared a bit to give this very pale pink.

It doesn't really show up in the picture but there are a pair of score lines across the very top of the pink panel, just to add a bit of interest. I'd originally intended to use the 'Happy Birthday' on the inside but I've actually left it blank because it seemed to me that 'It's Your Day' could cover many things.

You have two weeks to show us how you see this sketch and we'd love to see what you do!

Please join us.

Ingredients

Card: Fresh Fig, Powder Pink, Whisper White

Stamps: Happy Birthday Gorgeous

Ink: Fresh Fig, Powder Pink, Garden Green

Other: dimensional, clear Wink of Stella, scoring blade