Thoughtful Branches - Available Until Supplies Last!

by Joanne James30. August 2016 09:00

   

Today I've made another card featuring the Thoughtful Branches set -  when I originally wrote this post this exclusive limited time stamp set was going to be available for one more day only, however Stampin' Up! have today announced that there are still supplies in stock so it will be available beyond 31st August until they are exhausted, but it will then not return in a future catalogue or publication. Here's a reminder of the images and framelits in more detail:

 

 

Today's card features the sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches, perfect for a clean and simple card featuring the large hydrangea bloom:

 

Here's my card:

 

Really not much to explain today: I used a Soft Sky card base, cut the flower head out of watercolour paper using the thinlit and used my aquapainter to give it an ombre colourwash in Perfect Plum. I added a stem in Pear Pizzazz and stamped the sentiment on the white panel in Perfect Plum too, then gave my flower head a liberal dose of clear Wink of Stella to add a subtle sparkle. Difficult to see on the photograph, but in real life it is just gorgeous!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

 

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Such an easy card to recreate, yet the ombre watercolouring really adds an eyecatching dimension to the card. You can see some of my other Thoughtful Branches projects below - this really is one set you do not want to miss out on - order yours today before it's too late!

 

 

 

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

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In Colour Perfect Pines Christmas Card

by Joanne James29. August 2016 19:00

We've had a Bank Holiday here in the UK today - not only a long weekend, but the sun has shone all day too! I spent my morning sewing name labels in new school uniform for the James juniors (I have the needle pricks to prove it - ouch!) then a pleasant afternoon outside and a little crafting time too. Today I have a card I made for the current challenge over at Fab Friday, where the challenge is to make a card that uses each of this year's new in-colours:

I decided to have a go at an in-colour Christmas card that used all five colours. Take a look at what I came up with: 

 

Here's the low-down on today's card:

Perfect Pines Christmas Tree - I cropped my Christmas tree with the Perfect Pines framelits. This set featured in last year's holiday catalogue and I was thrilled to see it carried forward into the annual catalogue. I love all of this year's in colours, however they aren't designed to be used as a set. So a word of caution - to prevent visual overload, it makes sense to choose one or two colours to focus on and allow the others to have a supporting role. Preserve white space too! I decided that Emerald Envy would be the main colour on my card, with Dapper Denim also providing some border colour and then the three lighter colours used sparingly elsewhere on my card.

Colour Blocked Fairy Lights - The simple appearance of this card belies how tricky it actually was to create. Why, you ask? Well, I had this idea that I would use the framelit to cut out strings of lights on my Christmas tree and place strips of cardstock behind. I wanted to ensure that each light was a single colour and that you couldn't see the joins between the coloured strips through the gaps. After much fussing and fiddling with my layout, I eventually worked out how to achieve the look I was after: I increased the height of each coloured strip by 1mm as I progressed down the tree, starting at 5mm and finishing at 10mm. I also cut away the top two strips so that only one of each of the colours could be seen extending beyond the tree across the card front. So easy when you know how - and yes, you are welcome!

Enamel Star - the only other things I added to my card were my greeting from the new Merriest Wishes stamp set and a Sweet Sugarplum enamel star that I added to the top of my tree. Love these enamel shapes in every colour!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

 

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Affectionately Yours - All About Copper

by Joanne James28. August 2016 10:00

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of our fearless leader Nance turn to host this week and she has a great sketch for you to work with:

    

When I saw our sketch for this week, I knew that it would be perfect to showcase some designer series paper and I knew exactly which one! I've been saving this sheet for just such an occasion and by pairing it with another new product from the forthcoming seasonal catalogue I knew I had my card. Take a look:

 

How sparkly is that?! Here's the low-down on today's card:

Affectionately Yours - The Affectionately Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper includes some colourful florals and two sheets that are embossed with copper. One of these is a monchromatic Crumb Cake base that is covered by an all over copper-floral pattern. I really wanted to feature this paper on its own on a card to really give it the opportunity to shine so today's sketch is perfect.

The Perfect Foil Mat - Did you spy the new product on my card? Yes, copper foil is coming in the new seasonal catalogue - woohoo! I am in love with this new copper foil and it was perfect as a mat for my patterned paper and embossed sentiment. The split in the top layer of the sketch allowed just a little bit more of this to shine through too - perfect. I just know I am going to use lots of this over the forthcoming festive season.

And Copper Thread Makes Four - As if copper DSP, copper foil and a copper embossed sentiment wasn't enough, I added a little twist of copper metallic thread to the end of my sentiment banner for a little extra decoration. 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

 

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any.

I liked this card so much, I actually made a couple more and some using a Crumb Cake/night of Navy colourway and the same design:

 

All I need now is to make a fancy box to put them in - a project for another day!

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

The Paper Players Design Team
 
 
Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:
 
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission.
3.  Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL.
4.  Have FUN! 

 

I look forward to seeing what you create with this week's sketch. I am hoping that yesterday's thunderstorms have now passed and I will get to spend some time outside today pottering in my garden and enjoying some later summer sunshine. I hope you all enjoy a lovely weekend too, whatever your plans.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Foxy Friends Cheshire Cat

by Joanne James26. August 2016 21:42

I've been busy today mass-producing cards to be sent out with my Autumn-Winter Stampin' Up! catalogues which are all ready to be sent out to the customers on my mailing list in readiness for the live date of 1st September. I'll share those cards another day - let me know if you would like a copy of the new catalogue and you don't already have a demonstrator and I will add you to my mailing list and send you one.

Meanwhile, today I'm sharing a card that I made at my Foxy Friends class earlier this month that is perfect for this week's challenge over at CASology where the code word is FUN: 

The focus for the class was to use the Foxy Friends stamp set and co-ordinating Fox Builder Punch to create some characters other than the obvious ones. If you look on Pinterest there are lots and lots of examples of things you can make with this versatile set. I thought I'd have a little fun and created this lovable character:

 

Here's the low-down on today's card:

A Cheshire Cat - I decided to use the stamp set to make a cat, but not just any feline - rather the Cheshire Cat from the novel Alice in Wonderland. Really easy to do - I just changed the colouring to the pink and purple that makes this cat easily recognisable. I positioned my cat behind the letter 'L', kind of curled around it as cats do.

Smile - It's Those Large Letters Again - Besides colour, the one thing the Cheshire Cat is know for, particularly in the Disney movie animation of the novel, is his toothy smile. I couldn't give him a toothy grin, so instead decided to use my Large Letter Framelits to create the word 'smile' to tie my sentiment to the image. I know these letter framelits are pricey, but for cards like this they are so worth it. Since I have them, I will definitely be making sure they pay for themselves with lots of varied use.

Colour Trio - To preserve the CAS feel of my card,I limited my colour palette predominantly to Flirty Flamingo Pink and Rich Razzleberry, although the white cardstock that I stamped my cat onto plays an important role as the narrow outline really helps to define the animal's shape. Here's my colour combination in case you would like to save it for future use:

 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

 

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Perfectly Wrapped In-Colour Thank You Notelets

by Joanne James25. August 2016 08:05

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a sketch for you:

    

With a birthday in the house recently and a batch of customer orders due I had a whole bunch of thank you cards to make, so I grabbed a pack of Stampin' Up!'s Whisper White Notelets and Envelopes and decided to use today's sketch as the starting point. I am also linking up with Fab Friday where the challenge is to use one or more of the in-colours. Here's my card:

 

Here's the low-down on today's card:

Perfectly Wrapped - I used the 'Perfectly Wrapped' stamp set on my card today - the flowers were perfect for the sketch and to tie in with the floral in-colour designer series paper that I used for my other punched circle. The larger flower works as the background to my sentiment and a trio of smaller flowers became the 'splatters'. By mounting all three smaller flowers together I could stamp them at the same time, and alternate the angle to stamp twice on the front of the card, but also stamp the inside and the envelopes, without needing to clean my stamp or re-mount. A great tip and time-saver when mass producing!

Touches of Silver - I decided to heat emboss both my sentiment and a border in silver to add some shine and texture to my card, along with a strip of silver glimmer paper, which I placed behind my front circle rather than in front as per the sketch so that it didn't interfere with my sentiment. Creative license :-) I finished my card with a sprinkling of rhinestones.

In Colour Collection - I made my set of thank you cards, featuring each of the 2016-18 In Colours. The card above features Emerald Envy; the selection below shows the remaining colours (from left to right) Flirty Flamingo, Emerald Envy, Dapper Denim, Peekaboo Peach, Sweet Sugarplum. I love them all; which one is your favourite?

 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

 

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

This card was all about mass production for me - I made 30 in one go! Stampin' Up!'s Whisper White notelets are perfect for the job too, with no cutting and scoring required. Which colour is your favourite? Do leave me a comment below, I'd love to know.

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's sketch; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

A Candy Cane Christmas Sneak Peek

by Joanne James24. August 2016 07:01

I have another Christmas card to share today, using this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and some scrummy new product as my inspiration:

Here's my card:

 

Here's the low-down on today's card:

Candy Cane Lane - The new Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper was the inspiration for my card today. This pack has some great festive patterns in red, white, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso, with everything from candy canes to gingerbread. I used one of the designs for my main DSP panel and fussy cut a trio of the shapes and popped them on dimensionals for the triangle elements of the sketch.

A Sweet Season - My sentiment comes from the co-ordinating 'Candy Cane Christmas' stamp set, which contains a few sentiments and is great for tags and treat packaging. I stamped it in Versamark and heat embossed it in white onto my Real Red card base.

Candy Cane Twine - To finish, I added some candy cane baker's twine - this twine is white with a red metallic twist - and tied in a sweet bow.

More festive loveliness and a great sketch - the paper does all the hard work on this one!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

 

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

The sun is shining here in the UK - we are off to the park for the day with a picnic. Back tomorrow with this week's challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Copper Star of Light Christmas Card

by Joanne James23. August 2016 15:33

Happy Tuesday everyone! It's Christmas in the house today and I have another festive 'sneak peek' for you from the forthcoming Autumn-Winter catalogue using this week's sketch over at Just Add Ink:

Before I share my card, I'd just like to give the lovely ladies over at Just Add Ink a quick shout out for choosing my light-up firefly card as their top pick a couple of weeks ago (you can see that card here if you missed it) - thank you ladies! This week they have a sketch - and you all know how much I love a good sketch! I took this one fairly literally - take a look:

 

Here's the low-down on today's card:

Star of Light - The stamps used on today's card all come from the Star of Light set in the forthcoming autumn-winter catalogue. This is a set full of stars and some beautiful sentiments and sayings and the detail lends itself beautifully to a heat embossed finish. Just check out the intricate pattern on that large die cut star! I chose a simple colour combination of copper and Island Indigo for today's card - the two colours compliment each other beautifully.

Copper Foil - There's another new product on this card: the gorgeous new copper foil that I used to die cut a couple of stars from to compliment my larger stamped one. I used the co-ordinating Starlight Thinlit Dies and my Big Shot to cut out all of the stars on today's card; they are part of a 'bundle and save' offer with the Star of Light stamp set - bonus!

Textured Border - I could have used more of the copper foil for my mat layer, but instead decided I wanted more texture. I simply sponged the edge of my cardstock with Versamark and then heat embossed using copper embossing powder to give a textured finish, and did the same to the piece that backs my sentiment banner.

Isn't it lovely? All copper and sparkly!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

 

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

I have a class scheduled featuring this set on 10th October; if you live in or around Northampton and would like to join me, please get in touch to book your place.

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with another Christmas card; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

You're The Icing On My Cupcake ... Or The Jam In My Jelly Roll!

by Joanne James22. August 2016 21:38

Happy Monday everyone! I've had a long day of school uniform shopping today but just have time to squeeze in another cupcake card, altogether more clean and simple to yesterday's; I had some leftover bits and pieces and wanted to use the colour scheme over at CAS Colours and Sketches which is almost identical:

Here's my card:

I went with a layered border so that I could leave lots of all-important 'white space' on the centre of my card and stamped my cupcake base directly onto the vanilla mat (using a couple of other neutrals for my case), then cut out the frosting top with my framelits and just popped it on a few dimensionals.

A super-simple card, although for me the funniest thing about this card is the sentiment: if there are any Lethal Weapon movie fans out there, every time I read it I think of the scene where Delores is hunting down Sergeant Murtaugh and says "Well you tell him he's the jam in my jelly roll!" You're the icing on my cupcake just doesn't seem to have the same ring to it!

Back with a Christmas card for you tomorrow - a seasonal 'sneak peek' :-) Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

The Best Things In Life Are Sweet

by Joanne James21. August 2016 10:00

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the super-talented Sandy's turn to host this week and she has a fun theme for you to work with:

    

I also used this week's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches for my layout. Ok, so first up - a confession! I was so excited to have some child-free craft time to make my card earlier this week, that I did go a little crazy with my layering and so my card is not maybe as CAS as it should be. That said, I love it too much not to share :-) So - here's my card:

 

Here's the low-down on today's card:

A Sweet Cupcake - What's sweeter than a cupcake? This delicious triple-time stamped number is so easy to create with the Sweet Cupcake stamp set. The photopolymer stamps make lining up the images a piece of cake (yes, pun intended!) and having mounted my card on a couple of layered circles I used the 'sweet' from the co-ordinating Cupcake Cutouts Framelits to finish my sentiment, which I brushed with clear Wink of Stella for a little shimmer.

Sugar Frosting - Those of you who attended Onstage in April or follow the Facebook page of the Stampin' Up! CEO, Sara Douglas, will have seen her demonstrate this set and finish with some textured frosting. I decided to get creative with my cupcake and give it a go! It was really easy to make - I've included the recipe on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' image below - an adds an interesting texture and dimension to the third layer of frosting. I went one step further and whilst wet sprinkled my frosting with Dazzling Diamonds to create a really sparkling sugary finish - yum! The photo below shows the dimension of the frosting in more detail:

Almost good enough to eat! Thank you Sara for this fun suggestion to step up our cupcake creations!

Playful Palette-inspired Colour Combo - I used one of the patterns in the Playful Palette designer series paper stack as the starting point for my card today and paired my Sweet Sugarplum, Blushing Bride, Very Vanilla combo with Chocolate Chip - feel free to save this colour combination if it's one that appeals to you:

 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project - including the recipe to create your own frosting - for you to pin for easy reference:

 

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

The Paper Players Design Team
 
 
Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:
 
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission.
3.  Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL.
4.  Have FUN! 

 

I look forward to seeing what you create with this week's theme.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Project Life by Stampin' Up! Hello Lovely Card

by Joanne James20. August 2016 22:08

I hope you are enjoying the weekend! I managed to squeeze in a little crafting time this afternoon and made a card for this week's challenge over at Mojo Monday:

I had been sorting through some Project Life and was struck by the lovely natural florals and phrases in my Hello Lovely card box so decided to use one of them as the focal point for my card today. Take a look:

 

Here's the low-down on today's card:

Hello Lovely Project Life - The Hello Lovely Project Life set has some great sentiments to illustrate your Project Life pages and record those special times with loved ones. They can also work as the focal point for a card too: I've used one of the 3" x 4" cards that I cropped to focus on the sentiment. 

Mix It Up - I am always torn when it comes to using PL cards for something other than memory-keeping; I love to use them in my recording too much! I wanted to use the leaf pattern and black and white watercolour striped cards for the circle and background elements of my card, but they both had designs on the reverse that I wanted to use for memory-keeping. How did I solve my dilemma? I found some very similar patterned papers in the retired English Garden and Go Wild designer series papers that I could use instead - crisis averted!

Pool Party Blue - Black and white are the dominant colours on my card, but the hint of green and the blue Pool Party base picked out from flowers on the PL card, belly band, twine and sequin embellishment play a key role in lightening and brightening this otherwise monochromatic colour scheme. 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

 

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with this week's card for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

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About Me

Hi I'm Joanne and live in Northampton and when I'm not looking after my husband and two beautiful children, am an avid crafter with a passion for all things Stampin' Up!

I must confess that I have never been a big rubber stamper - until I discovered Stampin' Up! that is. I love the fact that I can get such great results with co-ordinating stamps, inks, papers and punches - the possibilities are endless! Join me on my stamping journey as I share the things I love and be inspired to create amazing things yourself!

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