Bring on the beach

I should probably give this card to myself, to celebrate our upcoming holiday in Samoa. I hope Pacific Point really is the colour of the sky!
The card combines challenges from Paper Players - PP354 - and Hand Stamped Sentiments - #299. I'm loving Stampin' Up's shimmery white paper - a dream to sponge colour onto, and the slight shimmer survives the sponging (although not being photographed!). For the beach/shells, I turned to my trusty New Zealand koru embossing folder, lightly sponging it first with Sahara Sand and Blushing Bride inks so it looked a bit sandy and shelly.
Here's the result:

Made using:
Stampin' Up:
Inks: Pacific Point, Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Sahara Sand, Watermelon Wonder, Real Red.
Paper: Whisper White, Shimmery White
Up and Away Thinlit dies (clouds) and Day at the Beach stamp set (starfish)
Other products: Sizzix Celebrate drop-in sentiments, francheville 'rope', craft creations koru embossing folder

New Product play

For this card, I accepted the invitation in SUO's #179 to use a new product from the Stampin' Up catalogue and used the colours in Global Design Project's #097: Crumbcake, Berry Burst and Wild Wasabi.
I can already see I'll be returning again and again to the Happy Birthday Gorgeous bundle: although then words made with the die look so prominent, there are heaps of ways to make each use different.
For example:

Made using:

Stampin' Up Card: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Berry Burst, Basic Black

Stampin' Up Ink: Wild Wasabi, Berry Burst, Basic Black

Other: Stampin' Up Happy Birthday Gorgeous stamp set and Happy Birthday Thinlits Die

Framed Daisy

For this card, I used the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch's #231 and Less is More's #338: 'Anything but stamps'. It's my first play with the new Stampin' Up colours and I liked this combination more than I thought I would: the Lemon Lime Twist paper undercut the softness of the Powder Pink nicely.
I ended up without a sentiment - mainly because all my die sentiments were too big for the delicacy of the daisy and I couldn't use stamps!
Here it is:

Made using:
Stampin' Up Paper: Lemon Lime Twist, Powder Pink, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight
Dies: Simon Says Stamp Stitched Daisies and Die-namics stitched rectangular frame.
Other: silver thread

Retro Rainbow

I love rainbows, and rainbow cards, so I was pleased to see this challenge from Retro Rubber:

I experimented with a technique I learnt in a class a couple of months ago: Joseph's Coat. I'd tried it with flower outline stamps, but wondered if it would work with something a bit more 'filled in' - like the 'I think you're great' stamp set from the 2015-2016 catalogue. Here's the result:

If I did this again, I'd probably use a lighter purple, since the Rich Razzleberry is a little lost against the Night of Navy. To frame the sentiment, I used a rectangle die that's a bit counter-intuitive, since it 'stitches' the outside of the frame - meaning that the frame becomes what you cut the rectangle out of (if you see what I mean). I liked the result:

For the inside, I tried using two of the rainbow colours together on the stamp:

Made using: 

Stampin' Up Ink: Watermelon Wonder, Daffodil Delight, Cucumber Crush, Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry, Night of Navy.

Stampin' Up paper: Shimmery White, Daffodil Delight

Stampin' Up Stamps: I think you're great (from the 2015-2016 catalogue) and Big on Birthdays

Other: Die-namics Stitched Rectangle Dies

Romantic Roses

For The Card Concept's challenge #76 (Romantic Roses), I made a clean and layered card. My response was a fairly literal take on the inspiration photo - well, what better than a bunch of red roses? - although I'm using the peony roses from Stampin' Up's new Beautiful Bouquet suite. Here's the photo:

and my card - I used the embossed panel to try to capture the texture of the shutters, and black glitter card for the wrapping for a bit of bling. 

Made using: 

Stampin' Up products:

Beautiful Bouquet stamps and dies; Stitched Shapes framelits

Whisper White paper

Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, Garden Green and Basic Black ink

Christmas embossing folder

Other products:

Craftwise metallic twine, Rosie's glitter cardstock

Zigzag birthday

I was happy to call myself patriotic when working with the Fusion inspiration colours this week in their '4th of July' challenge, since the colours of the New Zealand flag are also red, white and blue. For the layout, I turned to Fab Friday's sketch #115. I love the stamp set - a recent acquisition - kind of quirky and lots of possibilities.
Here's the card:

Made using:

Stampin' Up:  Whisper White paper, DSP from 'Pop of Pink' set and inks - Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Soft Sky, Real Red, Watermelon Wonder, Old Olive, Wild Wasabi and Basic Black. 

Stamp and Dies: Simon Says Stamp 'Artsy Flower Parts'

Rainbow Flowers

I tired a few different ideas for the lovely sketch from Less is More this week (#334), but in the end settled on keeping it really CAS by using my favourite little punch to make a rainbow of flowers. Here's the card:

Made using: ek tiny petal punch, Stampin' Up card (Whisper White, Wisteria wonder, Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi, So Saffron, Calypso Coral, Rose Red), Francheville rhinestones, Stampin' Up's Thoughtful Banners (sentiment) and some random purple card left over from my daughter's school days.