The Paper Players 380 - Design Team Card

Lots of you loved our Valentine's challenge last week, judging by the number and calibre of the entries. This week at The Paper Players, it's colour challenge week and Laurie has picked these:

I thought these would make a lovely Christmas card but I'm so not ready to start thinking about Christmas cards yet! From somewhere in my mind came the image of a great big red and white hot air balloon and it ended up like this...

The balloons are stamped onto Kraft with Real Red and I've coloured in and touched up using watercolour pencil and a bit of white gel pen. The edges of the Kraft panel are lightly sponged with Crumb Cake. The clouds are white embossed.

Where do these colours take you? We'd love to see what you make of them. Before you join up with us, there's just a couple of rules to keep in mind.

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!

Pop over to The Paper Players and see what the rest of the team did.

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. 

And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand.

Ingredients

Card: Real Red, Whisper White, Kraft (retired)

Stamps: Lift Me Up

Inks: Real Red, versamark, crumb cake

Other: Up and Away thinlit dies, Watercolour pencils, white embossing powder, sponges, white gel pen, dimensionals, 

Freshly Made Sketches 323

This week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches was intriguing - so intriguing that I had to have a go at it!

I don't use DSP that often but I do like the Petal Passion DSP from the Occasions catalogue and I've picked a light and a dark from that suite as the basis for the card.

The lovely, lacy die-cut is from the Petals and More set as is the label shape for the sentiment and the bird framelit. Copper is the accent in this card. The wee bird and the sentiment are copper embossed, the die cut lace is from copper foil. The bird is coloured with Stampin' Blends.

So, simple but sweet.

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. 

And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Whisper White, Copper foil

Stamps: Petal Palette

Inks: Versamark

Other: Stampin' Blends (Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler), Petals and More thinlit dies, Copper embossing powder, Black rhinestones (retired), Basic Grey marker.

CAS Colours and Sketches 258

Just a quick post this morning. I loved the colours at CAS Colours and Sketches this week. They just screamed floral so I got out my Altenew Peony Bouquet set. It's so lovely, it needs little else with it. Everything is directly stamped onto the card front except the central bloom which is die cut and popped up on dimensionals.

Update: Delighted to be a Top Pick at CAS Colours and Sketches this week.

Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up unless otherwise stated
Card: Powder Pink, Whisper White
Stamps: Altenew Peony Bouquet, Stampin' Up Big on Birthdays and Timeless Textures
Inks: Tuxedo Black, Powder Pink, Berry Burst, Wild Wasabi
Other: Altenew Peony Bouquet dies, Glitter enamel dots in Berry Burst, dimensionals

As You See It 169 - Design Team Card

Amanda has given us an interesting challenge at As You See It this week. It's to use our first ever stamp set or craft tool.

I had to do a bit of thinking about this as I got two stamp sets at the same time. The first two sets I ever bought were By the Seashore (this one) and Aviary. Soon afterwards, I got my first set of sentiment stamps - Say it in Style from Clearly Besotted. While I'm doing firsts, then Hardwood was the first background stamp I got (I think).

I have mixed in some new stuff as well. When I first got By the Seashore, I certainly didn't have Stampin' Blends to colour them with! The abstract beach and sky behind the sea creatures, I created using Kim Jolley's Not Your Mother's Shaving Foam method. I've posted a link to this wonderful tutorial before but if you google her or the method, you'll find it easily.

We'd love to have you join us and show us what your first stamp or tool was. As You See It lets you play along in whatever style you like - as you see it. Link up with us by Wednesday 21 February.

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. 

And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand.

For further inspiration in this card, I used the sketch challenge at Inspire. Create.

I'm entering this card there and you can join them up until 20 February.

Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up unless otherwise stated

Card: Bermuda Bay, Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Whisper White

Stamps: By the Seashore, Wetlands, Hardwood, Say it in Style (Clearly Besotted)

Inks: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Island Indigo

Other: Stampin' Blends in Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay and Pool Party, Layering Circle framelits, linen twine, shaving foam, sponges, dimensionals

The Paper Players 379 - Design Team Card

I loved Nance's sketch from last week and from the calibre of the entries we got at The Paper Players, you did too! I hope you enjoy this week's theme challenge from Claire just as much.

Valentine's Day isn't such a big thing in New Zealand, although more of a thing that when I was a teenager. I feel like I'm making New Zealand sound like some sort of joyless society, since I've previously said we'd don't do Halloween either. Rest assured, that's not true - we celebrate a lot of things with a lot of pleasure! Love is one of them so although my card could be for Valentine's Day, it would work for any romantic occasion.

Pink and gold seem very romantic to me and it's hard to go past the glorious floral design in Fresh Florals for a bit more of a romantic vibe. In fact, for this card I let the paper and the large letters do all the work and resisted adding anything else.

I cut three layers of Powder Pink card and stacked it to give the sentiment some depth. I had originally intended to leave the letters plain but I'd seen this picture at Inspired By... Challenge and the texture of the gold chain made me think about adding some texture to the gold letters.

So, I will link up to their challenge too.  

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. 

And, of course, you can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand.

Ingredients

Card: Powder Pink, Gold Foil, Fresh Florals DSP, Whisper White.

Stamps: Sunshine Sayings

Inks: Early Espresso

Other: Large Letter framelits, Garden Trellis embossing folder, dimensionals

Freshly Made Sketches 322

Today's card is for the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

It uses items from Stampin' Up's Sale-a-bration promotion. The Amazing You stamp set and Celebrate You thinlits can only be earned as gifts with each qualifying purchase of $110.

The centre panel was created by using a kind of reverse resist embossing, where only the clear-embossed areas are left exposed. 

The sentiment is completed on the inside of the card.

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. 

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Shimmery cardstock, Old Olive

Stamps: Amazing You

Inks: Tuxedo Black. Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, versamark

Other: Celebrate You thinlits, Garden Trellis embossing folder, clear embossing powder, sponges

Paper Craft Crew 278

It's been ages since I've played with the Paper Craft Crew, even though I always look. This week however, I not only have more time, but I needed inspiration for a 21st birthday card. This week's sketch was perfect.

Thank you, Paper Craft Crew, for a great design to work with.

Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up

Card: Whisper White, Petal Passion DSP, silver glimmer paper

Stamps: Amazing You, Perennial Birthday

Inks: Powder Pink, Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Blends: Rich Razzleberry

Other: Large Number framelits, Bouquet Bunch thinlits, clear faceted gems, rhinestones, white gel pen, dimensionals