Colour Inkspiration 25 - Guest Designer

Welcome to the bloghop for Challenge 25 of Colour Inkspiration. I'm feeling very excited at being the Guest Designer this time around and I hope you'll find the time to play along with us this fortnight.

Colour Inkspiration is a Facebook challenge group that offers a new colour challenge on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month. You can find the page for this group here.

The challenges are always beautiful combinations and this one is no exception: so fresh and vibrant!

I knew right away what I wanted to do with these delicious colours. I wanted to make an album card for a special birthday.

I'd stored away on Pinterest a design for a fold-up scrapbook album that I thought would scale down to make a special birthday card. The design and instructions, by Canadian demonstrator Tamara Bertram, are here. I've scaled it down by cutting one piece of 12x12 DSP into 4 6x6 squares. 

So, folded up, it looks like this.

Untied and opened, it's like this.

I've added in some pictures of the family to fit the occasion and more DSP but you could also add in extra messages, if it was an occasion where lots of people wanted to leave a message.

Here's a look into each quadrant.

And, a place to write...

I had such a lot of fun making this and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I can see myself making more of these and in different sizes, too.

I'm looking forward to seeing what amazing things other people make with this wonderful set of colours.

Next up on the  hop is the wonderful Nikki Spencer.

All products used in this project are Stampin' Up and all current items are available for purchase through my on-line store. Just click the SHOP NOW button in the side-bar.

Ingredients

Card: Floral Boutique DSP (retired), Fresh Floral DSP, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Lemon-Lime Twist

Stamps: Happy Birthday, Gorgeous, Floral Phrases, Petal Palette

Inks: Night of Navy, Lemon-Lime Twist

Other: Layering Circle framelits, Stitched shape framelits, white organza ribbon

The Paper Players 375 - Design Team Card

I'm looking forward to a new bunch of challenges at The Paper Players this year. Our first challenge will give you a bit of a giggle. It's a theme challenge: Punny Valentine.

This one is a real mixture of bits and pieces. The flowers are from Touches of Texture. The fabulous bumble bee is from Dragonfly Dreams. The lettering and the hearts are from Labeller Alphabet.

The hexagonal embossing adds some theme-related texture.

The bee has his wings glammed up with some gold Wink of Stella and his white bits with clear  Wink of Stella.

We'd love to have you join us at The Paper Players this week. Here's a reminder of the rules of the challenge.

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!

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. Sale-a-bration is on and there's a new Special Occasion Catalogue out. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

If you live in New Zealand and you would like to join my Stampin' Up team, message me for a chat. And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand.

Ingredients

Card: Early Espresso, Whisper White, Gold foil

Stamps: Touches of Texture, Dragonfly Dreams, Labeller Alphabet

Inks: Powder Pink, Early Espresso, Gold versacolour

Other: Hexagonal embossing folder, mini-dimensionals, gold and clear Wink of Stella

CASology 281

I used to often play at Casology but in the last year, I've been too busy to play much. So, with the summer holidays in full swing, I was very happy to join this week.

I used my latest acquisition, Petal Palette, from the new Occasions catalogue for this one but did have a yearning to play with my favourite retired colours: Blackberry Bliss and Lost Lagoon along with a touch of their in-colour mate, Mossy Meadow. While I was in throwback mode, I used the good old baby-wipe technique for this card. 

This close up shows off the interesting texture to the stamps in Petal Palette.

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. If you would like a copy of the new Special Occasions Catalogue or the Sale-a-bration brochure and don't have a demonstrator, then contact me. You can message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

Update: Delighted to be the winner at CASology this week!

Ingredients - All products Stampin' Up

Card: Blackberry Bliss (retired), Whisper White

Stamps: Petal Palette

Inks: Blackberry Bliss, Lost Lagoon, Mossy Meadow (re-inkers, all retired), Tuxedo Black

Other: babywipes, rhinestones,

Hand Stamped Sentiments 280

One of the many lovely things about the summer holidays is more craft time. The first challenge of the year from Hand Stamped Sentiments is this sketch.

I'm continuing my experiments with the Amazing You stamp set from the Sale-a-bration catalogue, along with Stampin' Blends.

The flower was stamped twice in Tuxedo Black and coloured with Stampin' Blends - Daffodil Delight with a touch of Pumpkin Pie. The centre petals were fussy cut out of one flower and popped up on a dimensional on the other. The flower is in a soft pool of Smoky Slate, again created with Stampin' Blends.

The outer edges of the flower have layer of clear Wink of Stella to give some sparkle. The stamen area has been stippled with a black marker and a white gel pen to add some definition to them and the centre completed with a clear faceted gem.

This stamp set is a Sale-a-bration product, available for free with any qualifying order of $110. 

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. If you would like a copy of the new Special Occasions Catalogue or the Sale-a-bration brochure and don't have a demonstrator, then contact me. You can message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

Update: Delighted to be a Top Artist Pick at Hand Stamped Sentiments.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Smoky Slate,DSP from Petal Passion

Stamp: Amazing You

Inks: Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends in Daffodil Delight (light and dark), Pumpkin Pie and Smoky Slate

Other: Layering Square framelits, Faceted gems, rhinestones, dimensionals, clear Wink of Stella, black Stamp'n'write marker, white gel pen.

SIP 131

Today is the beginning of Stampin' Up's Saleabration and the launch of the new Occasions catalogue.  I was playing around with one of my pre-earnt Saleabration items this morning when I saw the challenge at Stamp, Ink, Paper.

Who doesn't love embossing?! As it happened, I'd seen on-line a wonderful card by Gail Davidson which inspired me to try out this card today, using the Amazing You stamp set and Celebrate You thinlit dies - both Saleabration items.

The flower stamp is gold embossed onto black, then coloured with Real Red watercolour pencil. This is on a gold foil mat, then adhered to a Basic Black cardbase. The gold foil 'Celebrate' is stacked on three black cuts of the same die to give it some dimension.  The 'lets' is black embossed to add some more shine.

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. If you would like a copy of the new Special Occasions Catalogue and don't have a demonstrator, then contact me. You can message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Gold Foil, scrap of Whisper White

Stamps: Amazing You

Inks: versamark

Other: gold and black embossing powder, Celebrate You thinlit dies, metallic enamel shapes, Real Red watercolour pencil, double-sided adhesive sheet.

All products are Stampin' Up.

Freshly Made Sketches 318

The quiet time between Christmas and New Year isn't so quiet with a number of family birthdays but there was time to get in to play the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

The first thing I have bought from the Occasions Catalogue, live on 3 January, is this set called Petal Palette. It has a co-ordinating set of thinlits, Petals and More. It offers many sentiments and lots of possibilities with its watercolour style stamps and gorgeous die cuts.

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. If you would like a copy of the forthcoming Special Occasions Catalogue and don't have a demonstrator, then contact me. You can message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

Ingredients

Card: Old Olive, Whisper White, copper foil

Stamps: Petal Palette

Inks: Old Olive, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, versamark, Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake

Other: Petals and More thinlits, copper embossing powder, dimensionals, Stitched Oval framelits, rhinestones, Old Olive Stampin' Blend to tint the rhinestones.

As You See It 166 - Design Team Card

Welcome to the final challenge of the year at As You See It. We finish up on a theme challenge, with lots of possibilities: Sparkle.

My 'sparkle' is in the glimmer paper and in the hope a sparkle in the eye of the recipient.

The stars of the show in this card are the amazing Celebrate You thinlits from Stampin' Up's Saleabration catalogue. The Amazing You stamp set is a standard Saleabration item, available free with any $110 spent. The gorgeous thinits are a special item - available free with any $220 purchase - and even better, they will be available for purchase in the next Annual Catalogue. The 'You' and 'amazing' are part of the set - there's also 'celebrate' in another font. The double sided adhesive sheets make adhering the die cut words so easy.

You have until Wednesday 10 January, 11.55 p.m. PST to join us. We'd love to see how you see this challenge!

If you live anywhere in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'd love to help you with ideas and Stampin' Up products. Please message me through my Facebook page, linked in the sidebar of this blog or leave a comment below. 

Ingredients - all items Stampin' Up

Card: Dapper Denim, Whisper White, Silver glimmer paper, Color Theory DSP stack

Stamps: Amazing You

Ink: Tuxedo Black

Other: Celebrate You thinlits, multipurpose adhesive sheets