It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! My good friend LeAnne is the hostess this week and she has a seasonal theme for us to work with:

I was rather pressed for time this week and had been wanting to play along with the team over at Merry Monday with that fun inspiration photo so took the opportunity to use some of my hoarded retired Adventure Bound DSP along with my new 'Hug In A Mug' Stamp Set and combined the two to come up with this card - take a look:

My pines were in-situ and ready to go so I simply heat-embossed my sentiment in white, having already created a shadow in Early Espresso, to enable it to stand out against the wood effect DSP, fussing cut my little mug and added some puffy frosting to my hot chocolate having added white embossing powder to Tombo glue and heated it to create the puffy effect - I made a video tutorial on this technique previously that you can see here. I added a stamped striped candy cane and that was my card done - so easy to recreate.

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 Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

This card is destined for a good friend of mine who recently emigrated to the USA; I miss our chats over coffee so I know this is one piece of happy mail that will surely brighten her day. 

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

I look forward to seeing what you create with this week's theme. Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly; I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Hug In A Mug Photopolymer Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	White Stampin' Emboss Powder
Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Soft Sky A4 Cardstock	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Brights Enamel Shapes

I have had a busier than usual schedule this week which has necessitated a few blog-free days - I hope you will all bear with me, whilst I like to think I'm organised clearly I'm not organised enough! So much to share and so little time really is my motto at the moment.

Anyway, today I am back with it and I have something a little different for you - this week the team over at Global Design Project have a family theme and CAS-ual Fridays are challenging us to make anything but a card - so I thought I would share one of my recent scrapbooking layouts:

Here is my layout featuring the Color Theory Memories and More card pack:

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

A Traditional Layout - Whilst I don't often share my layouts with you here on my blog, I'm a real fan of the pocket-style memory keeping that we introduced with the Project Life range and subsequently with Memories and More. The pocket cards make it so easy to put pages together quickly and I love that I can organise my pages with minimal supplies and 'pretty' them up as I go or add extra detail later. Here I've used the Memories and More cards in a traditional 12" x 12" scrapbook layout as I wanted to show how these cards can be used in a variety of different ways. The pre-printed sentiment cards mean that whatever type of layout you use, Memories and More cards make it easy to create a colourful layout with no stamping required.

Color Theory For All Seasons - This layout is one of four that I created using the Color Theory Memories and More card pack, as I created one for each season. I will share the other layouts in a future blog post; as you can see this page is my Winter layout featuring the rest of the James family on our annual ice skating trip. This is something we love to do every year and make a point of doing together, just the four of us - it has become a tradition and is generally accompanied by different novelty hats each year - in the photo above Rebecca is sporting a Christmas tree whilst Ben's has elf ears! In addition to the Memories and More cards, I used some coloured embossing paste with my Pattern Party Decorative Masks to add some texture and interest to my background, along with some diecut snowflakes courtesy of the Seasonal Layers Thinlits, a little glimmer paper and some glitter enamel dots to add some festive sparkle. I added stickers from the Color theory card pack for additional sentiments and accents.

Hidden Thoughts - My layout features space for journaling on the card above my photograph, but it also features a 'hidden journaling' card concealed beneath the photograph and revealed by pulling the tab on the left hand side attached to the card that says 'Details'. The circle tab punch is great for adding tabs to your journaling cards in this way.

I'll be back tomorrow with another project for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Color Theory Card Pack	Whisper White 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Cardstock	Embossing Paste	Pattern Party Decorative Masks	Palette Knives
Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Circle Tab Punch	Dapper Denim A4 Cardstock	Glitter Enamel Dots	Marina Mist A4 Cardstock
Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper	Seasonal Layers Thinlits Dies	Silver 1/8" (3.2 Mm) Ribbon

Today is a big news day: Alcohol markers are back! It's the first of November and as promised in an earlier post, today sees the official launch of Stampin' Blends to customers.  These high quality, dual-tip markers come in 12 exclusive Stampin' Up! colours; they each have a light and a dark shade for the ultimate blending experience. In addition, there are two further colours, bronze and ivory, and a colour lifter to give your blended images the finishing touch. 

Stampin' Blends are available in 2-marker combo packs, as single markers or as the whole collection. There are so many great stamp sets in the catalogue that are perfect for colouring; in addition to celebrate the launch of these fabulous new pens, Stampin' Up! have also released a new stamp set and card project kit designed to be use with Stampin' Blends:

Color Me Happy Project Kit (144069)

• You'll be coloured happy every time you create with this stamp set.
• The line-art images are perfect for colouring techniques.
• Quantity: 10 rubber stamps
• Suggested clear blocks (not included): b, c, g, h, i

Color Me Happy Project Kit (144609)
The Colour Me Happy Project Kit will be available while supplies last.

The kit includes:

• 16 card bases, 4 each of 4 designs
• 16 envelopes with printed design inside, 4 each of 4 designs
• Gold foil accents
• Die-cut cardstock background and accents
• Printed and gold foil die-cut accents
• White Baker's Twine
• Mini Pool Party tassels
• Circle and star sequins
• Gold foil tape

Coordinating colors: Basic Black, gold foil, Night of Navy, Pink Pirouette, Pool Party, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry

If you're a fan of Stampin' Up! Bundles, than you'll love that these two coordinating products (project kit and stamp set) are available as a BUNDLE...save 10%. 

I am so excited about the arrival of these new pens and I can't wait to share some of my coloured creation with you. In the meantime, here's a little video from the nice people at the Home Office showing these pens in action: 

I'll be back soon with more news and another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Stampin' Blends Markers Collection

Color Me Happy Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Color Me Happy Project Kit