It's Your Birthday With Marquee Messages

by Joanne James29. September 2016 08:05

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

 

This struck me as a rather masculine colour combination, although this may be just because I have male cards on the brain lately with lots of masculine birthdays on the horizon. I decided to break out a stamp set that I've had for a while but not yet used - here's my card:

 

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

Marquee Messages - I used the stamp set 'Marquee Messages' on my card today, with a full-on birthday greeting. This is such a fun stamp set with a variety of greetings that mean it can be used for birthdays, invitations or to congratulate. I coloured the central element of my sentiment with Dapper Denim ink and my blender pen for a slightly ombre look. 

Little Foxy Stripes - The neat grey and white stripes on my background are from the Little Foxy DSP stack - yet not a fox in sight! It's always worth checking out the patterns as sometimes you can find neutral patterns such as this that make great backgrounds.

Paper-Pieced Neon -  For the arrow and box sign elements of my card I got out my paper snips and did a little fussy cutting to allow me to paper-piece them on my card. I wanted bold blocks of colour just like a neon sign; of could I had to add some pearl light bulbs and a couple of gold glimmer stars too for a real touch of glamour too!

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. 

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's colours; 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.

Merry Mice Fancy Frost Carol Singer

by Joanne James27. September 2016 07:00

As promised on Sunday, I have another mouse card today using the same stamp set and layout that I used yesterday, based on my sketch this week over at The Paper Players but using an alternative colour scheme and feature paper:

    

You can see yesterday's card here. Now for today's card:

 

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

Merry Mouse - Once again I featured the carol-singing mouse from the 'Merry Mice' set on my panel. This time I stamped him on Extra thick Whisper White in Archival grey ink and coloured him with inks and my aquapainter. I added a liberal does of clear Wink of Stella and stamped my sentiment directly onto the panel just below.

Fancy Frost - For my background panel, I used a piece of the new Fancy Frost Specialty Designer Series Paper. Over the past several years, Stampin’ Up! has released several white-on-white specialty papers that come with a clear, heat-embossed pattern.  This paper is different – this paper is dry-embossed (the paper is pressed from one side to create a design you can easily run you finger over).  The patterns are quite beautiful and whether you add ink or leave it as-is as I've done on my card today, this paper is going to be a firm favourite; check out this zoom in on the detail of that gorgeous pattern:

 

Cool Colours - Unlike yesterday's bold colours, I chose to use cooler colours on my card today, with Whisper White for my card and base panel, along with some silver glimmer paper and some clear Wink of Stella with my Smoky Slate mouse. Feel free to save this colour combination if it appeals to you too:

 

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 must confess I prefer today's card to yesterday's; it was my original choice for the challenge, but I was struggling to photograph the detail of the Fancy Frost Specialty paper and without it the card looked rather plain, whereas in real life it has a real 'wow'. Which of the two cards when compared do you prefer? Do leave me a comment below and share your thoughts.

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.

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Merry Mice Christmas Carol Singer

by Joanne James25. September 2016 10:00

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have a great sketch for you to work with:

    

This is one of my 'go to' layouts; I used it most recently on this card here. It works for so many designs. I decided today to use one of the cute little mice from the 'Merry Mice' set. Here's my card:

 

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

Merry Mouse - I featured the carol-singing mouse from the 'Merry Mice' set on my panel. I stamped him on Very Vanilla in Archival black ink and coloured him with inks and my aquapainter. I added a few pearl snowflakes and stamped my sentiment directly onto the panel just below.

Music This Christmas - For my background panel, I used the music paper from the This Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper. This is one of the great reverse patterns in this pack, that works for Christmas but will also come in handy for other cards too. This is the perfect background to compliment my festive carol singer.

Primary Colours - I chose to use Pacific Point for my card and panel base today, along with some Real Red baker's twine and a little Emerald Envy green too with my Tip Top Taupe mouse. The blue is not a colour that I normally use on a Christmas card, but I think it works. Feel free to save this colour combination if it appeals to you too:

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 is one of those sweet little cards that you could stamp a whole bunch of then colour in at your leisure - produce a whole bunch of Christmas cards and get some relaxation therapy into the bargain! I actually created a second version of this card too which is quite different that I will share with you tomorrow.

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week - their cards are varied and awesome:

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. We are off to basketball today and have plans for an otherwise restful day before the busy week ahead. Enjoy your Sunday - 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.

Santa's Train Watercolour Christmas Card

by Joanne James24. September 2016 20:11

It's the weekend and I managed to squeeze in a little crafting time this afternoon to make a card for this week's challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches where Amy has given us a great sketch to work with:

So many possibilities! I decided on a little watercolouring and another Christmas card - here's my card:

 

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

Santa's Train - I stamped the train from 'Christmas Magic' in archival black onto watercolour paper and got to work with my inks and an aquapainter to colour it in with a traditional predominantly red and green colour scheme. I also created a mask for the train and added in some trees behind to add some perspective to my winter scene.

A Wink And A Sparkle -  Difficult to see on my photograph, I added a touch of gold Wink of Stella to the bell and brass elements on my train, some clear Wink of Stella on the trees and snowy ground and some retired red Dazzling Details to my holly wreath for a little sparkle. It's very subtle but it looks very pretty in real life, I assure you!

Greetings From Santa - The 'Christmas Magic' stamp set has some lovely greetings, but none of them worked for the sentiment strip as per the sketch. Instead I chose to use this one from the 'Greetings From Santa' set which has a better fit.

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'll be back tomorrow with a card for our new challenge over at The Paper Players and I'm the hostess, so you won't want to miss it. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

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

Pines, More Pines and Pinecones!

by Joanne James22. September 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:

 

I spent some time deciding what to use on my card and eventually decided another Christmas card was the order of the day - take a look:

 

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

Pretty Pinecones - The Pretty Pines Thinlits Dies were the starting point for my card today. I have been wanting to use these gorgeous detailed dies to create a festive pine embellishment and today's layout was perfect for this. I used two different pinecones - the uppermost one has the pieces that can be pushed out, but I kept mine in place as I liked the effect (they can be held in place with a little tape behind).

Presents and Pinecones - I love the fresh reds and greens of the Presents and Pinecones designer series paper and knew they would be the perfect background to my embellishment. I actually cut one length from my DSP and used one side - the stripes - for the first panel, then the reverse - the pinecones - for the uppermost panel. The best of both worlds!

And Christmas Pines Makes Three - I used a sentiment from the bundled stamp set 'Christmas Pines' in Cherry Cobbler to complete my card. 

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. 

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.

Star of Light CAS Christmas Card

by Joanne James21. September 2016 20:30

I've had a full-on craft day today - I love it when I get so much done and it's rare these days to have such a productive block of time. Time to share today's card with you which uses this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch:

I love a good sketch and this one intrigued me this week! I was looking at stamp sets with split sentiments and came across my Star of Light set which has a number of these and took it from there. Here's my card:

 

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

The Light of The World - The Star of Light set has a number of paired sentiments, in addition to some single ones. I chose the one about the Light of Heaven becoming the Light of the World and positioned each part either side of my central star diecut.

Sparkle and Shine - I wanted to keep my card predominantly white and decided to heat emboss my central star in silver on white cardstock. I added a plain silver foil stat diecut behind, slightly offset, to create a 'shadow' and give more definition to the uppermost star. 

Final Touches - This card is all-white and ultra CAS, however I couldn't resist adding a trio of silver metallic dots to my extra thick white cardstock base to balance my final design.

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 this week's new 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.

Warmth and Cheer Masculine Birthday Card

by Joanne James20. September 2016 19:00

Hello everyone! I am still struggling with intermittent blog and website issues, in addition to a lack of email, so please bear with me! If you have emailed me since Saturday I won't have received your message, so I would urge you to give me a call with the details so that I can deal with it for you. 

As promised I have another card for this week's challenge over at TGIF Challenges where the theme is to use the negative space left after making a die cut in a positive way:

Today I have the masculine version that I made for my Dad, who celebrates his birthday today - you can see the feminine version I made for my Mother-in-Law on yesterday's post here if you missed it. Here's today's card:

 

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

Large Letter Top Tips - I used my Large Letter Framelits again to create the negative die cut space on my card, this time to spell out 'Dad'. I have two 'Top Tips' for you today when using your letter framelits in this way to cut out a word where there are repeated letters - two D's on today's card, for example - and where there are 'gaps':

  • In order to ensure all of the letters are aligned horizontally, I like to use a metal ruler. If you are using a magnetic platform in your Big Shot (and if not, why not?!) your ruler will 'stick' to your plate and make it really easy for you to align your framelits. On this card, I lined up the first D and A and cut them, then left the A framelit in place, whilst I moved the D to the end of the word and used my metal ruler to ensure they were level before putting through the Big Shot to cut my final letter.
  • Unlike yesterday's card, the letters in DAD have areas of negative space, which when you are reversing them as I am here, you need to retain these pieces and place them in the appropriate place in the negative letter to ensure your space is fully defined. The best way to do this is to place the letter you've cut out into the space, then stick in the smaller pieces, then remove your letter, leaving the smaller pieces behind.

Not Just for Christmas - Today's negative space showcases one of the gorgeous plaid patterns from the Warmth and Cheer DSP stack. These papers are perfect for autumn and festive projects, but also work well for general masculine cards too. I decided to go with the Delightful Dijon/Black colour combo for my card today - the pattern is bold enough to work really well in the negative space of my diecut letters.

Finishing Touches - The 'happy birthday' from 'Guy Greetings' completes my sentiment today, centred and heat embossed in gold with some fine gold thread wrapped around the bottom of the panel. No bows today as I needed this card to be post-friendly - besides, it's a guy card, so no bow required!

My Dad should have received his card in the post today, so happy birthday wishes to him (although he's unlikely to be reading this!)

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 a Christmas card for you; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

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

Floral Boutique Birthday Card

by Joanne James19. September 2016 07:00

Happy Monday everyone! Apologies if you struggled to see my blog yesterday; my web hosting company was undertaking some account migration activity that was supposed to be 'behind the scenes', but resulted in some outages along the way. My website still isn't fully functioning but my blog is at least now back online - let's hope it stays that way!

I am starting the week off bright and early with a card for this week's challenge over at TGIF Challenges where the theme is to use the negative space left after making a die cut in a positive way:

This is a technique I love to use and can be very effective. Here's the card I made for my lovely Mother-In-Law's birthday last week that demonstrates it beautifully:

 

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

Large Letters Framelits - I used my Large Letter Framelits to create the negative die cut space on my card. I've said it before, but in case you were sleeping/skipped a bit/not paying attention or all of the above, these framelits, whilst pricey, are an investment item - they will see you through so many projects they are well worth the spend.

Floral Boutique - My negative space not only makes light work of some important personalisation here, but it also serves to showcase this gorgeous navy and white Floral Boutique Designer Series Paper. The hand-painted blooms are gorgeous and the negative space does a great job of focusing in on the paper, which would not stand out as much if the positive die cut letters had been used.

Finishing Touches - The 'happy birthday' from Birthday Basics completes my sentiment, along with a couple of rhinestones and some Night of Navy solid baker's twine tied in a bow. I used the Floral Phrases stamp set to decorate the envelope and inside of my card too.

This type of card is quite straightforward to make; the most important consideration is to ensure your letter dies are perfectly aligned. I am happy to report that my Mother-in-Law loved her birthday card, which co-ordinated with some Floral Boutique goodies as a birthday gift. Me - I loved this card so much, I created a masculine version for my Dad, who celebrates his birthday tomorrow; hopefully I'll share this one later this week. 

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.

Fall Treats With The Halloween Night Suite

by Joanne James18. September 2016 10:00

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Laurie to host this week and she has a great clean and simple theme for you to work with:

    ppa-318-sep15

I toyed with some time about my card this week: pumpkins, apples, acorns - what to choose? I browsed through my new goodies and when I happened across this pumpkin patterned DSP hidden away in the Halloween Night Specialty pack, I knew what I wanted to do. I also used this week's sketch over at Pals Paper Arts for my layout today. Here's what I came up with:

 

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

Not Just for Halloween - Whilst many of the papers in the Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper Pack are overtly Halloween-inspired, this pattern of watercoloured pumpkins can also be used on more general Fall projects, as can the spotted paper I used for my banner and the stripes and checked patterns in the pack. This paper became the starting point for my card.

Spooky Pumpkin Fun - My layered square was the perfect place for my sentiment from the 'Spooky Fun' stamp set, along with a popped up trio of pumpkins, coloured with my Pumpkin Pie ink and a blender pen and cut out with the co-ordinating Halloween Scenes Edgelits Dies.

Festive Fall Colours - The colour scheme for today's card comes straight from the Halloween Night DSP: the warm orange tones of Pumpkin Pie, contrasted with Basic Black, Whisper White and Smoky Slate. More Halloween than Fall granted, but by emphasising the warmth of the orange, I think it works. Feel free to save this colour combination if it's one you'd like to try:

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. 

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 CAS challenge. We have a day of sport and birthday parties today - we are most certainly back into the swing of things as far as the new school term is concerned!

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.

Totally Trees Trio

by Joanne James15. September 2016 08:05

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

 

This colour combination initially had me stumped as it's not a trio I would necessarily put together. I played around with a few ideas then eventually came up with something using the new Totally Trees set. Here's my card:

 

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

Totally Trees - This modern set of trees is right up my street - it's the kind of stamp set that really appeals to me. It's a two step stamp set, with branches and leaves needing to be stamped and aligned separately. Whilst I used both stamps together to decorate my envelope, for my card I stamped the tree trunks in Soft Suede on a piece of Very Vanilla, then stamped them again onto Emerald Envy and Delightful Dijon cardstock. I then punched out tree tops using my 1 3/8" circle punch and popped them onto dimensionals.

Moroccan Border - I used a piece of Delightful Dijon patterned paper from the Moroccan DSP pack to border my central horizontal panel. Whilst there isn't much it showing, it adds a subtle pattern and interest to the mat, which is then mounted on a further mat of Emerald Envy. I also used a piece of the green and mustard washi tape from the Moroccan pack to decorate the inside of my card. 

Any Colour Embossing - Lastly, in order to allow my sentiment to stand out, I stamped it in Soft Suede then immediately heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. This does darken it a little and the glossy finish helps it stand out more. In case you're wondering which stamp set I took my sentiment from - it's one of the ones that comes with the Watercolour Wishes card kit. 

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. 

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's colours; 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.

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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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