This month, the theme at Stampin' Fancy Friday is Going Dotty! We were challenged to showcase dots in some way.
The team at Stampin' Fancy Friday don't blog hop but we 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. 😀
I started with wetting a sheet of Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper then smooshing Shaded Spruce, Blueberry Bushel and Balmy Blue onto it. Once it dried, I cut a series of circles from it using the Stylish Shapes dies.
So, quite a mix of products in this one but I really like the bubbles of sea that climb the card front.
Don't forget to follow @stampinfancyfriday on Instagram, or Stampin' Fancy Friday on Facebook, for more daily ideas.
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.
Welcome to a new challenge at As You See It. The last challenge in our rota of six types of challenge is the Speed Stamping challenge. It's a love it or hate it kind of challenge and generally, I love it.
It's simple: just make a new project on the given theme in TEN MINUTES OR LESS.
That might sound impossible, here's what you need to know:
Thinking time isn't included. So you can plan out what you're going to do before the clock starts.
Gathering supplies isn't included. So you can get out your stamp set, block it up, put the dies or folders or punches on the table, get the embellishments to hand etc.
Clean up time isn't included. Just as well, or we'd never get inside the time limit!
BUT
Once you cut, ink or punch the clock has to start.
If you've never tried a speed challenge before, give it a go. It can be quite addictive and often very satisfying to see what you can achieve in such a short crafting time.
For this challenge, Joanne has challenged us to get speedy by using a punch. This challenge made me realise that I don't really use punches that often. It turns out I'm more of a die cut crafter!
I do have a Modern Oval punch, so that's what I used. I got out my Neutrals DSP stack and punched out a variety of patterns, then arranged them on a piece of Basic White. I made sure that a light pattern went where I wanted to have a sentiment then I trimmed off any overhangs.
I stamped the sentiment in Early Espresso. This 'thank you' is from Something Fancy. I mounted that onto a piece of Pecan Pie and adhered the whole thing to an Early Espresso card base.
Another time, I might have the first column of ovals as vertical halves so that the unadorned right side strip is more obvious and perhaps run the whole thing through an embossing folder. Or maybe not! 😀
Anyway, we'd love to see what you create in ten minutes or less using a punch.
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 March 19, 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.
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.
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.
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:
Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
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.
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.
Many thanks to everyone who played along with my CAS Masculine challenge last week. That's two toughies in the one challenge so well done for being brave enough to take on both things in the one project!
This week, Stef has given us a great sketch to work with.
My card this week was inspired by this photo of my granddaughter visiting a local sunflower field a few weeks ago. She just loved those sunflowers and talked about them a lot!
She also loves dinosaurs, her favourite being triceratops. So I used Stef's sketch to make her a Valentine's card.
Darling Dinos had everything I needed! I started by stamping a row of sunflowers top and bottom of the Basic White card front. I coloured them in Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight and Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends. Hard to see in the photo, but the centres have a nice glimmer from Wink of Stella.
I embossed a smaller piece of Basic White with the Sale-a-Bration Starburst folder, since the design reminded me of flowers, and attached it to the centre of the card front
I stamped, coloured and cut Miss Triceratops. She's a mix of Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight and Pretty in Pink. I used one of the Spotlight on Nature dies to cut a circle on which I sponged some Granny Apple Green with a Blending Brush, then stamped on some grass.
After popping on Miss Triceratops up on dimensionals, I added in some Pretty in Pink love hearts.
Finally, I stamped the 'Love You' in Crumb Cake and flagged the ends before adding it.
All done (and hopefully perfect) for little Miss Three. 💕
We'd all love to see what you do with Stef's sketch. 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:
Create a new paper-craft project specifically for this challenge.
Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us.
Please provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge entry.
Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL, including ours
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.
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.
I used the Stylish Shapes dies to cut a circle out of Basic Beige. I used the same die set to cut the banner for the sentiment. I've used this 'happy birthday' so much! It's the most used part of the whole bundle.
I stamped the chain to hang the hoop in Tuxedo Black before embossing the card front with the Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder.
Once all that was done, it was a simple matter to arrange the birds and flowers then attach them. Some are on dimensionals to give more depth to the scene. The sentiment is popped up too.
The team and I would love to see what wonderful bird creations you make. 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 March 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.
This month the international team at Creativity Abounds has a great theme for our bundle and hop: Fun Folds. This hop - and the associated tutorial bundle - is always popular and will give you a lot of examples for fancy folds
Even if you don't have the exact sets, you'll find inspiration in the different folds each of us have used. If you get the tutorial bundle, you'll have step-by-step instructions for thirteen projects, all of which you'll see as you go around the hop.
You can earn the Tutorial Bundle as a free gift from me with a purchase of $100 or more (excluding P&P) or by being a member of my team. You can shop with me, and join my team, from anywhere in New Zealand.
There are two parts to this post: a bonus project and a sneak peek at my tutorial project.
1. Bonus Project Teepee Fold
The fold I'm showcasing is one I haven't used for some years, the TeePee Fold. Once I got it out and started playing with it, I don't know why I haven't been using it more! It was an excellent chance to explore the Darling Dinos bundle, a current favourite of mine.
The triangular shaped card stands by itself and can be made so that it folds neatly into a standard envelope. It has three faces that can be decorated, or you can - as I have - leave one relatively blank to write a message on.
Here's a look at each of the three faces.
2. Tutorial Project Teepee Fold
Here's a glimpse at the card I've created for the tutorial bundle. Same fold, different bundle. I've used the Beautiful Butterflies bundle for this one. Step-by-step instructions are in the tutorial package, along with 12 other projects from the rest of the Creativity Abounds team.
Here's a glimpse at the other twelve projects in the tutorial package. Take the hop around the rest of the team and you'll see exactly which Fancy Folds are being showcased.
If you live in New Zealand, you can get this tutorial bundle free with a qualifying purchase from me. If you live somewhere else, you can get the bundle from a team member in your country.
Here's who we all are and where we're from.
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.
