I made this card for a recent team swap featuring the Stampin' Up! Friendly Hello Stamp Set and Designer Series Paper that you can Earn with a $180 purchase until March 16th during Sale-A-Bration. I cased this card design from Jan Clothier I collage stamped and coloured many of the elements from the Friendly Hello Stamp Set and coloured them with Stampin' Blends. I used the Stitched Triangle dies to cut the image up and assembled it over a piece of the Friendly Hello Designer Series Paper. The sentiment was stamped using the Stamparatus so I could stamp it a second time if required and helped as I was making 10 of these cards. I finished the card with a scattering of pearls that I coloured with the Pale Papaya Stampin' Blends. Click on the Photo below for a List of Supplies and visit my Shop SHOP NOW - go to my Online Store or contact me to place an order RIGHT NOW! EXTENDED TILL MARCH 16TH __________________________________________________ Be sure to check out my CLASSES below or consider Hosting a Party and share your love of Stampin' Up! and the NEW Catalogue with your friends. My Classes are mostly monthly on a Sunday exact times and dates are in the Classes Tab above. March Card Class 20th March 2022 Cost $25 We will be making projects with all brand new products, and fun to be had!! RSVP to me [email protected] or 0421074703 to RESERVE your spot. Enjoy Ellen

I've taken a quick break from my frenetic week by going to my craft room and playing with the new set, Beautiful You. It will be available 4 January with the release of the new Stampin' Up Occasions catalogue. I've had it since just before Christmas but have only got to open the box this morning! Inspiration came from the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. One thing I've never done before is paper piecing but this set just seemed to be asking for it. So here it is: In addition to piecing her clothing, I've given her hat a hat band using a white gel pen and a pearl accent. The interior of the hat is shaded with Soft Sky, which is echoed behind the sentiment. I've used Crumb Cake and a blender pen to give her the hint of skin. Ingredients Card: Night of Navy, Shimmery White, Whisper White, Soft Sky, Floral Boutique DSP Stamps: Beautiful You Inks: Night of Navy, Black Stazon, Crumb Cake and Soft Sky Other: White gel pen, pearl, dimensionals, blender pen.

The current challenge at Global Design Project is to case a card by designer, Michelle Last. This is a heavenly project because the card contains so many of the elements I love in a card: lots of clean white space, some texture, a coloured border and a focal point in the lower right corner. Glorious! I love the card we've been given to CASE and love even more Michelle's CASE of her own card! Additional features I've taken from the card are the scallop border on the focal point, the use of die cuts and the sentiment being contained within the borders of the shape. I'm still having a love affair with the new Eastern Palace suite, available next week to customers, so I turned to it again for this card. It seemed to be begging me to dig out of retirement the Beautifully Baroque embossing folder - one of my first Stampin' Up embossing purchases. I do love the way the medallion dies in this suite fit so well with both the layering circles framelits and the stitched framelits so that it's easy to build depth in a design. The little touch of copper adds opulence to the card. I ombred the sentiment with Sweet Sugarplum and Fresh Fig, a lovely tip I picked up from the Artisan blog hop featuring Eastern Palace a couple of weeks ago. Ingredients Card: Fresh Fig, Very Vanilla, scraps of Sweet Sugarplum and copper foil Stamps: Eastern Beauty Inks: Sweet Sugarplum, Fresh Fig Other: Eastern Medallions framelits, Layering circle framelits, Stitched Shaped framelits, Beautiful Baroque embossing folder (retired), Sweet Sugarplum candy dot, dimensionals.

I have a son who is a musician and so when his birthday rolls around I like to make something a bit special and with a music theme. I've played around before with the idea of using acetate as a card base and this is what I've done here. There is a panel for writing on at the back of the card. I like the way that the front of the card seems to float over the background when it's folded. It was difficult to photograph the card sitting open as it reflected background things like a mirror from many angles! The inspiration from this card come from the sketch at Stamp, Ink, Paper and the photo inspiration at Addicted to Stamps and More, where I was struck by the bold black and white against gold and the stripes, which were a bit like lines of music from distance. Update: Delighted to be a Top Pick at Stamp, Ink, Paper this week. Further Update: Delighted to be an Honourable Addict at Addicted to Stamps and More. Ingredients - Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted Card: Acetate, Whisper White, Basic Black, Gold foil, unknown music paper Stamps: Sheet Music, Big on Birthdays Inks: versamark, Smoky Slate Other: Layering circle framelits, Stitched Shape framelits, Music Clef die (Darice), gold embossing powder.

There is a very pretty, but quite difficult, colour challenge at The Paper Players this week. Such a soft and dreamy colour palette lead to this creation, featuring the new Special Reason bundle and the Sale-a-bration set, Delicate Details. I'm very happy with the result, but it's hard to go wrong with such lovely sets to work with. Ingredients Card: Smoky Slate, Copper Foil, Whisper White, Blushing Bride Stamps: Special Reason, Delicate Details, Touches of Texture, Timeless Textures Inks: Smoky Slate, Blushing Bride, Versamark, Tuxedo Black Other: Stylish Stems thinlits, Blushing Bride baker's twine and enamel shapes, Copper embossing powder, dimensionals

I was on Facebook chatting with some crafters the other day about favourite challenges. This card is inspired by two of them, even though I don't play them as often as I'd like. Global Design Project has a lovely colour challenge and Casology's cue word is 'Dream.' An interesting couple of things to combine really. Add into the mix that tonight, after my Thursday card class, I wanted to play with Touches of Texture because that's my featured set next month - and I just like it a lot! So, here's where I ended up: The masked and sponged strip has been flicked with water to lift some of the ink. Pear Pizzazz at the bottom leads up through to the Daffodil Delight, leading the eye from the earth upwards to the sun and the bee taking flight: a kind of visual journey to support the sentiment. The lacy pattern splats run through from horizontal to vertical up to the sun and bee also to lead the eye upwards. The bee's wings and the flower centres have a wee coat of clear Wink of Stella, not so visible in the photo. And a little peek inside... Ingredients Card: Flirty Flamingo, Whisper White, Watercolour paper Stamps: SU Touches of Texture, Clearly Besotted Say It In Style. Inks: Pear Pizzazz, Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight, Tuxedo Black Other: Wink of Stella, Pear Pizzazz marker, sponges, spritzer.

If the number and quality of cards we got for our last challenge at As You See It is anything to go by, then it was a good move to make our challenges run for two weeks. SO hard to pick winners! This time round we have another sketch for you. Here's what I've come up with. We'd love to see what you make of it too, so join us at As You See It during the next fortnight. Ingredients Card: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, Timeless Elegance DSP Stamps: Botanical Blooms, Endless Birthday Wishes Inks: Tuxedo Black, Watermelon Wonder Other: Botanical Builders thinlits, Lots of Labels framelits, Lucky Stars embossing folder, Cucumber Crush dotty lace ribbon, Itty Bitty punch, rhinestone, dimensionals

There's a very smart colour challenge this week at Just Add Ink. In the act of tidying up my desk after Christmas cards and my December classes, I came across a set that was a favourite of mine earlier in the year but haven't used much lately. Botanical Blooms is a lovely set and Timeless Textures is another favourite of mine so taking them in hand with those lovely challenge colours, this is where I ended up. The sentiment is from a set that will be available in the new Occasions catalogue, released on 4 January, called Big on Birthdays. The central flower was cut from white card. Originally, I was just going to sponge the edges in Old Olive but I ended up softly sponging all of it with the edges darker. I like the little vellum fern leaf slipped into the bouquet. The background stamps is a mix of elements from Timeless Textures and the little flower cluster from Botanical Blooms. Then there's a few rhinestones scattered to finish off. I like the freshness and elegance of this colour combination. Thanks for a great challenge! Update: Very happy to get an Honourable Mention at Just Add Ink for this card. Ingredients Card: Basic Gray, Old Olive, Whisper White, vellum Stamps: Botanical Blooms, Timeless Textures, Big on Birthdays Inks: Basic Gray, Old Olive, Tuxedo Black Other: Botanical Builder framelits, Rhinestones, dimensional, sponges

I hope you are as excited as I am about this sketch of Claire's! I think it's great and has just so many possibilities! Here at Retro Rubber Challenge, we love to get out our old stamps. If you do too then this is the challenge for you. Our rules are simple: use at least one stamp older than a year, give us an approximate age for your old stamp and don't link up to more than ten challenges in total. As I was looking through my shelf of retired or older stamps, I came across Kinda Eclectic. I was so pleased to be reminded of it because it was once one of my favourites. It came out around the time I started seriously stamping: it was in the 2014-15 Stampin' Up Annual Catalogue. I even dug out some brad bases and candy dots for this butterfly. I'd forgotten how great they were to use. At least linen twine - another of my favourites - is still current. Anyway, at Retro Rubber Challenge, we love to see what you do with your trip down the stamp version of memory lane. You have two weeks to join us. Pop over to the site to see the rest of the Design Team's creations. 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 - all products Stampin' Up Card: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, scrap of Rich Razzleberry Stamps: Kinda Eclectic Inks: Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Crumb Cake, Tuxedo Black Other: Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly punches, dimensionals, brad base, Brights candy dots, linen twine.

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

I was excited to see Amanda's sketch for the team at As You See It this week because it really got me thinking about how to play it. I'd had Sunshine Sayings out to make a card for another design team and it was still on my desk. I got to thinking that the flower die in Sunshine Wishes would work well in this sketch. The Powder Pink flower is the shadow image. The Melon Mambo one is layered onto a black one which is peeping out as a shadow, giving it more depth. There is clear Wink of Stella inside the petals of the blooms. You have until Wednesday 7 February, 11.55 p.m. PST to join us at As You See It and we'd love to see how you see it. 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, Melon Mambo, Powder Pink, Whisper White, Fresh Florals DSP Stamps: Sunshine Sayings Inks: Tuxedo Black Other: Sunshine Wishes thinlits, Enamel dots, dimensionals, Pick a Pattern washi tape, clear Wink of Stella

Sandie has a great new sketch challenge for us this week at The Paper Players. I love a sketch where there are so many possibilities about how it can be used. I'm still playing with things from the Occasions catalogue and Sale-a-bration, even though it's been out since the start of January. This Lots of Lavender stamp set is a Sale-a-bration item, so not something that can be bought, only earned free with a qualifying order. Message me to find out how. I started with a piece of Whisper White and stamped it using the bunch of lavender stamp and some of the leaves. Then I covered it with a layer of vellum. I like the soft, floaty, dreamy look a piece of vellum adds when used like this. The centre image is the same bunch of lavender stamp but coloured using Stampin' Blends. To get variations in the flowers, I've used Pink Pirouette (light and dark) and Rich Razzleberry (light and dark). I've added in a double twine bow, although there is a perfectly lovely ribbon as part of the stamped image. For the horizontal element of the sketch, I did something I rarely do. I used ribbon. This 5mm Old Olive ribbon is so lovely to work with as it has enough body to sit well but is soft enough to tie a sweet bow. It too is an item from the Occasions catalogue. Just because there was no sentiment on the front, I'm showing you the inside as well this time. We'd love to have you join us at The Paper Players this week. Here's a reminder of the rules of the challenge. 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. Entries linked to more than 4 challenges, including ours, will be deleted without notification. Have fun! Pop over to The Paper Players to see the creations of the rest of the Design Team. 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. If you make a qualifying order with me ($110 or more before postage) and you choose Lots of Lavender as your Sale-a-bration item, I'll send you step by step instructions for this card. Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up Card: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, vellum Stamps: Lots of Lavender, Beautiful Bouquet (sentiment inside) Ink: Tuxedo Black, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive Other: Stampin' Blends, dimensionals, linen twine, 5mm Old Olive ribbon.

Sometimes things are just meant to be. My classes resume next week after the summer holidays and I was in my room finishing off the samples when I came upon the challenge at TGIF: box cards. So, it's not often that my class cards are challenge cards but this week... The basic flower arrangement, based around Beautiful Bouquet, is the same for each but the bases are cut in all five of the 2017-19 In-colours with Fresh Florals DSP. I've added in a butterfly on a stem of clear window sheet, just to see how he looked. And I think he looks very fine! Sadly, since both the punch and Papillon Potpourri are retired the class ones might be sans butterflies. Of course, doing this as a class is complete madness since to make things run more smoothly on each of the nights, I will do a lot of the stamping and die-cutting beforehand. It's just as well that my husband and I are binge-watching Vikings on Netflix during the hot summer nights - great chance to do all that Big-shotting. I'm sure my students will love doing them but I think that reason might prevail on another occasion. :-) Ingredients Card: Fresh Fig, Berry Burst, Lemon-Lime Twist, Tranquil Tide, Berry Burst, Fresh Florals DSP, Whisper White, window sheet Stamps: Beautiful Bouquet, Butterfly Basics/Papillon Potpourri Inks: Fresh Fig, Berry Burst, Lemon-Lime Twist, Tuxedo Black Other: Layering Circle framelits, Bouquet Bunch framelits, Eclectic Layers framelits, Bitty Butterfly punch

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

Having two weeks of school holidays has been a great boon to my craft time and I'm really enjoying the chance to play lots of challenges and experiment with lots of bits. I'm really glad to have had the time to play at this week's colour challenge at The Global Design Project. I think it's a fun combination and it lead me to this congratulations card. Ingredients Card: Smoky Slate, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, DSP from Everyday Chic Stamps: Wild About Flowers, Thoughtful Banners Inks: Tuxedo Black, Melon Mambo Other: Melon Mambo thick baker's twine, dimensionals

I know that there is massive snow in the USA this week but here, it's a heat wave. The second week in a row of high temperatures has seen the swimming pool and the barbecue getting lots of use. Despite the heat in my craft room, I had to brave it for this week's wonderful sketch at The Paper Players. I've been continuing my watercolour experiments with Flowering Fields from the Sale-abration catalogue, which is a set that I hadn't anticipated liking so much until I started playing with it. I used an acrylic block to stamp Lost Lagoon and Old Olive onto watercolour paper. I white embossed the images then used inkwash to colour them in. I dried it with a heat tool because, in this case, I did not want to have a bleeding effect. I also stamped a few images in Old Olive to give the illusion of depth. Ingredients Card: Lost Lagooon, Whisper White, Blackberry Bliss, Wildflower Fields DSP, watercolour paper Stamps: Flowering Fields, Balloon Celebrations, Papillon Potpourri Inks: Old Olive, Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon, Versamark, Tuxedo Black Other: White embossing powder, honeycomb embossing folder, circle framelits, Itty Bitty Butterfly punch, Blackberry Bliss marker to colour cut white edges, dimensionals

The colours in this week's challenge at Inkspire Me are just made for my new current favourite set, Seaside Shore. As soon as I saw Seaside Shore in the catalogue, I wanted to make an aquarium card where it looked like the fish were in a tank. Here it is: Update: Delighted to win this challenge at Inkspire Me! Ingredients Card: Dapper Denim, By the Shore DSP, Very Vanilla, Window sheet Stamps: Seaside Shore Inks: Dapper Denim, Calypso Coral, Soft Sky Other: Lots of Labels framelits, dimensionals, Calypso Coral thick twine, Stamp'n'write markers - Soft Sky, Dapper Denim, Calypso Coral.

It's a long weekend here, Queen's Birthday celebration. It's not turned out quite as expected between heavy frosts and my husband managing to break his ankle. But eventually, I managed to get into my craft room and recover some of my equanimity. For inspiration, I've used the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and the really lovely colour palette at Pals Paper Arts. Awesomely Artist is such a lovely set and in celebration of it being in the new catalogue, I got it out for this card. The panel is sponged with Mint Macaron in the centre and Night of Navy around the edges. The dragonfly is stamped in Night of Navy on Night of Navy. The Mint Macaron dragonfly has a coat of clear Wink of Stella and some pearls and a Night of Navy shadow dragonfly under her. Update: Utterly delighted to be a Perfect Princess at Freshly Made Sketches Ingredients Card: Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Mint Macaron Stamps: Awesomely Artistic Inks: Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, Mint Macaron Other: dimensionals, sponges, Wink of Stella (Clear), pearls.

Sandie has a great new sketch challenge for us this week at The Paper Players. I love a sketch where there are so many possibilities about how it can be used. I'm still playing with things from the Occasions catalogue and Sale-a-bration, even though it's been out since the start of January. This Lots of Lavender stamp set is a Sale-a-bration item, so not something that can be bought, only earned free with a qualifying order. Message me to find out how. I started with a piece of Whisper White and stamped it using the bunch of lavender stamp and some of the leaves. Then I covered it with a layer of vellum. I like the soft, floaty, dreamy look a piece of vellum adds when used like this. The centre image is the same bunch of lavender stamp but coloured using Stampin' Blends. To get variations in the flowers, I've used Pink Pirouette (light and dark) and Rich Razzleberry (light and dark). I've added in a double twine bow, although there is a perfectly lovely ribbon as part of the stamped image. For the horizontal element of the sketch, I did something I rarely do. I used ribbon. This 5mm Old Olive ribbon is so lovely to work with as it has enough body to sit well but is soft enough to tie a sweet bow. It too is an item from the Occasions catalogue. Just because there was no sentiment on the front, I'm showing you the inside as well this time. We'd love to have you join us at The Paper Players this week. Here's a reminder of the rules of the challenge. 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. Entries linked to more than 4 challenges, including ours, will be deleted without notification. Have fun! Pop over to The Paper Players to see the creations of the rest of the Design Team. 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. If you make a qualifying order with me ($110 or more before postage) and you choose Lots of Lavender as your Sale-a-bration item, I'll send you step by step instructions for this card. Ingredients - all products Stampin' Up Card: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, vellum Stamps: Lots of Lavender, Beautiful Bouquet (sentiment inside) Ink: Tuxedo Black, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive Other: Stampin' Blends, dimensionals, linen twine, 5mm Old Olive ribbon.