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