Thinking Stamping

Tuesday, 8 December 2020

To A Wild Rose for Colour Inkspiration 91

With Christmas just around the corner, this will be the last challenge from Colour Inkspiration for 2020. In recognition of how busy the next few weeks will be for many of us, the challenge will remain open for FIVE WEEKS. I like this idea. When the rush of Christmas is over and we finally have a day or two to ourselves this challenge will still be open to give you some inspiration to get started.

Although the graphic for this challenge is Christmas in theme, you do not have to use that theme. All you have to do is to use AT LEAST THREE of the colours.

I've made a trio of square easel cards, each of which uses three of the challenge colours. They all use a bright, plus Granny Apple Green plus Glitter in the form of the now retired Silver Glimmer paper. One card uses Mango Melody, one uses Gorgeous Grape and one uses Magenta Madness. Do you have a favourite? Unexpectedly, mine is Magenta Madness.

Here's a close up of the Mango Melody one. All three are built the same way. The base is the width of an A4 sheet (21cm) by 10.5 cm. The embossed card front and stamped white inner are 10cm square. I scored the card front and embossed front piece separately before adhering them to get a nice fold. The extra layer makes them sit up nice and strong but also makes them lie less flat for the envelope, so if you were going to post them you might want to omit the embossed layer.

The flowers and leaves were cut using the Wild Rose dies that bundle with the To A Wild Rose stamp set. The background circles are cut using Layered Circle dies. The sentiments are from Well Said, paired with the Well Written dies.

We'd love to see what you make of these colours. You can add your project, see the other entries and look at the Design Team inspiration by clicking here.

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 on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar or clicking on any of products below.

Product List

Note: The Silver Glimmer paper is a retired product.

To A Wild Rose Photopolymer Stamp Set

[149452]

$55.00

Well Said Cling Stamp Set

[148796]

$95.00

Mango Melody A4 Cardstock

[147013]

$18.50

Gorgeous Grape A4 Cardstock

[147011]

$18.50

Magenta Madness A4 Cardstock

[153085]

$18.50

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

$20.50

Basic Black A4 Card Stock

[121688]

$18.50

Mango Melody Classic Stampin' Pad

[147093]

$15.75

Gorgeous Grape Classic Stampin' Pad

[147099]

$15.75

Magenta Madness Classic Stampin' Pad

[153117]

$15.75

Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad

[147095]

$15.75

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

[132708]

$12.00

Wild Rose Dies

[155886]

$0.00

Well Written Dies

[151816]

$84.00

Layering Circles Dies

[151770]

$69.00

Dainty Diamonds 3D Embossing Folder

[152702]

$19.00

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

[144220]

$10.50

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$7.25

Friday, 4 December 2020

Peace & Joy for AYSI 240

It's recipe week at As You See It. The challenge is to use all five ingredients in the recipe and see what you can cook up!

At this time of the year, one can never have enough Christmas cards, so I cooked up this one using the Peace & Joy bundle - with a bit of help from the Snowflake dies.

This is a nice, easy card that you could make many of in a short time. To make it easy to attach the gold foil 'Joy' to the Shaded Spruce 'Joy', I applied some double sided adhesive sheet to the foil before cutting it which effectively turned the die cut into a big sticker.

I embossed the Whisper White card front using the Subtle embossing folder before attaching the snowflakes. I did give the snowflakes a coat of Wink of Stella but it hasn't really photographed well.

The 'to the world' is popped up on mini-dimensionals and the gold cord is from the XXXX ribbon combo.

You can visit the As You See It Challenge site to see what the rest of the team have done and to link up your entry.

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 on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar or clicking on any of products below.

Product List

Peace & Joy Bundle

[155167]

$94.50

So Many Snowflakes Dies

[153560]

$76.00

Shaded Spruce A4 Cardstock

[147006]

$18.50

Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock

[121695]

$18.50

Classic Christmas 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[155969]

$24.25

Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin' Pad

[147088]

$15.75

Subtle 3D Embossing Folder

[151775]

$21.00

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

$14.00

Wonder Of The Season Ribbon Combo Pack

[153537]

$19.00

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals

[144108]

$7.25

Adhesive Sheets

[152334]

$21.00

Thursday, 3 December 2020

Very Versailles for Creating Kindness Guest Design

I'm so pleased to be joining the talented crew at Creating Kindness as Guest Designer this month. If you've not come across this inspiration blog before, add it to your must-look list. Each month, they come out with amazing projects, based around a theme, just to inspire your creativity. Often, there are videos of projects as well.

This month, the theme is 'Designer's Choice'. Well, plenty to work from there! As I've been pretty busy with prepping classes, events and other Design Team commitments, it's been a while since I've had a chance to sit and my desk and play. So the option of my own choice was a welcome one.

I got out a favourite stamp set, Very Versailles, and thought about some of my favourite techniques then waited to see what the result was.

The result was, perhaps, a little more over-the-top than my usual style but I like it - and I really enjoyed making it!

I like embossing, so after stamping the foliage in two generations, I added in another gold-embossed layer with the same stamp. I really like the sense of depth the three layers together create. I also gold-embossed the mirror frame stamp over the top of the Pool Party script, as a grounding for the popped-up sentiment.

Sponging is another favourite technique, so after the stamping was complete, I lightly sponged some Pool Party behind the foliage to create the illusion of sky.

To create even more depth, without adding extra physical layers, I sponged a partial frame in opposite corners. If you've not come across this technique before, I explain how to do it in this post. It's a very easy way to add some extra zip to your layouts.

I also have a soft spot for texture embossing. To create the mat layer that looks like rolled gold, I embossed a piece of gold foil with the Tasteful Textile embossing folder. The Subtle folder also makes a nice job of foil.

As you hop around you'll probably notice that the fabulous Cheryll Miller and I have had a moment of trans-Tasman communion. She's cased another card from my blog as her inspiration. We had a good laugh when I told her that this card was half a case of the same thing, so if you think you're seeing double - well, kind of. You can certainly see that we were both channelling the same inspiration but it's also interesting to see the differences too.

I hope you found something to try out for yourselves out of my Designer's Choice project. If you did, I'd love to see what you did with it.

A big thanks to the Creating Kindness team for inviting me along for the hop. Click on the next button to see what inspiration the wonderful Lou Kitzelman has for you... she's giving us a sneak peek at something exciting from the January-June 2021 Mini-Catalogue.

If you get lost along the way, here's a list of all the participant links.

Jan Clothier - Guest Designer – NZ
Lou Kitzelman – Australia
Cheryll Miller – Australia
Jay Soriano – UK
Jenny Hall – USA
Liz Yuille - UK
Charlet Mallett – USA

Product List

Very Versailles Cling Stamp Set

[149275]

$48.00

Just Jade A4 Cardstock

[153084]

$18.50

Whisper White A4 Card Stock

[106549]

$20.50

Gold Foil Sheets

[132622]

$10.50

Just Jade Classic Stampin' Pad

[153115]

$15.75

Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad

[147107]

$15.75

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$20.00

Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder

[109129]

$12.50

Tasteful Textile 3D Embossing Folder

[152718]

$19.00

Tasteful Labels Dies

[152886]

$65.00

Stamping Sponges

[141337]

$8.50

Gilded Gems

[152478]

$14.75

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$7.25

Heat Tool

[129056]

$60.00

Tuesday, 1 December 2020

Itty Bitty Christmas for Retro Rubber 149

Welcome to our final challenge for 2020!

This time round, we're giving you a challenge that will let you get out your older Christmas stamps and show them some love. All you have to do is let the picture inspire you in some way, use at least one stamp that's a year or more old AND give us an indication of how old that stamp is. We also ask you not to enter the challenge more than three times.

This pretty Christmas graphic gives you plenty to work with in the inspiration department. I went for the colours, which are classic Christmas: red, green, white, gold. I took the gold from the flames of the candles. I also used the red stitched star and the snow.

Itty Bitty Christmas is one of my favourite Christmas sets because it's all small scale Christmas sentiments that are endlessly useful on cards and tags. It first appeared in the Holiday catalogue of 2019 and is still available. When it first appeared, it bundled with the Christmas Layers dies, which I've used here with gold foil to create the swirly star layer. This die set is also currently available, although the two are no longer offered as a bundle.

The greenery is cut with the very handy Sprig punch. It, and the Stitched Stars dies are both still current products but first appeared in last year's Holiday catalogue.

One of the creative pleasures is to combine old and new, so there are some new items here too: the Gilded Gem embellishments, the gold twine and the Winter Snow embossing folder.

You can see what the rest of the team have done with this challenge, and link up your entry, by visiting the Retro Rubber Challenge site. We'd love to see what you do and what stamps you have in your stash.

Product List