Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Anne-Marie to host this week and she has a fresh colour challenge for you to work with that is perfect for Spring:

I decided some fresh spring florals were in order and using this week's Paper Craft Crew Sketch as inspiration, I decided to have a play with my new Needle and Thread bundle - take a look:

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

Pins and Needles - The new Needlepoint Nook Suite is perfect for creating the look of handcrafted embroidery with much less effort and has stamps, papers, accessories and framelits that fit the theme. My favourite aspect of this suite is definitely the Needlepoint Elements Framelits Dies - I used the largest of the needlepoint patterns for the background element of my design and added the needlepoint border to a vellum piece that co-ordinates with the Pretty Label Punch. Such a pretty touch! 

Hand-Stitched Stamping - The floral elements in the Needle & Thread set are distinctive stamps that have the almost photographic appearance of embroidered flowers, as they appear on the Needlepoint nook designer series paper that can also be found in this suite. I used my yellow and grapefuit grove to create a bright spray of flowers and added in a few additional diecut pieces too. I used a simple heat embossed sentiment in white onto Night of Navy - my chosen fourth colour - on the front of my card and used one of my favourite sentiments from this set on the inside:

I also added some of the new gingham gala sequins and a few loops of the lovely Grapefruit Grove Organdy Ribbon to finish the front of my card; this is one of the items you can receive free with a Sale-A-Bration order of £45 or more - and who doesn't love a free gift?!

A Well Written Tag Too - I often cut multiples of flowers or other elements when I'm making this kind of card as I decide on my finished design and this year I'm on a mission in my crafting to use up all the bits and pieces I get left over from a project as I craft, rather than putting them in my bits and bobs box to linger for months on end or eventually end up in the bin when I have a mad craft room tidy up! Today I made a tag with my leftovers, and added the word 'friend' from the Well Written Framelits set:

 This will make a great co-ordinating tag for a gift to go along with my card - and everything used up too! Here's one last photo of both items together:

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. 

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

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; I am hoping for a quiet day with maybe a little crafting too! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Needle & Thread Photopolymer Bundle (£43.00)	Pool Party A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Grapefruit Grove Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Vellum A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Organdy Ribbon Combo Pack (£0.00)	Gingham Gala Adhesive-Backed Sequins (£7.00)	Versamark Pad (£8.25)
White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.75)	Heat Tool (Uk) (£28.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)

We are still enjoying the tail end of the Christmas holidays for the youngest of the James Juniors so today we've been making the most of the fine and sunny day with a long walk and catching up with a movie that we've both wanted to see for some time - there will be time for crafting later in the week! Luckily I got a couple made at the weekend and am on a bit of an animal theme this week inspired by this week's challenge that we have over at The Paper Players and today I'm sharing a card using the sketch for this week's challenge over at CAS(E) This Sketch:

I went for a clean and simple card and a little watercolouring, with one of my favourite new stamp sets from the new Spring-Summer catalogue along with a new 'must have' staple  - take a look:

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

Let It Ride - The galloping horse on the front of today's card is courtesy of the new 'Let It Ride' set. You might be surprised that I like this set so much, as no-one in our family rides or owns horses (although Rebecca did have lessons for a while and made many requests for her own pony until she discovered hockey - phew!) I do have lots of friends that ride though and know I will get lots of use out of this set. I especially like the inspirational phrases that accompany these sketched images - I mean, 'Live life as if someone left the gate open' - what a great quote to live by!

Easy Watercolouring - I stamped my image onto watercolour paper and used my aquapainter to colour my horse, adding a little green to ground him. The sketchy nature of the images in this set really lend themselves to a watercoloured finish, without the need to be too precise. I layered the colour gradually until I was happy with the intensity, allowing each layer to dry briefly before adding more colour.

A New Craft Cupboard Staple - I cropped my main image with that perennial staple of my tool cupboard, my Stitched Circle Framelits.  My regular readers know how much I love these stitched shapes - they are great for adding an extra detail to a simple shape. Stitching generally is very on-trend in the craft world right now, and the new Spring-Summer catalogue debuts a new kid on the block though that is going to come a close second on my 'top 10 framelits' list I think: the new Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies set includes 13 dies, each of which feature stitching both inside and outside the frame and offer lots more ways to expand your creative options. I used them here to crop my sentiment panel, before heat-embossing my sentiment onto it. 

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 evening; tomorrow is the last day of the school holidays (finally!) and following my open house in the morning we will be spending the afternoon with friends. I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Let It Ride Cling Stamp Set (£22.00)	Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies (£33.00)	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies (£28.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Jet Black Stāzon Ink Pad (£9.25)
Watercolor Paper (£4.75)	Wood Textures Designer Series Paper Stack (£10.25)	Aqua Painters (£16.00)	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Early Espresso A4 Cardstock (£8.00)
Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)
Versamark Pad (£8.25)	White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.75)

Woohoo! Today it's Sunday and it's time for the first challenge of the year over at The Paper Players! We have all enjoyed the Christmas break and are back with a fresh new blog header and some snazzy challenge badges courtesy of Nance and two amazing guest designers: Su Mohr and Wanda Cullen. If you missed my introductory post over at The Paper Players earlier this week you can read all about these lovely ladies here. We are thrilled that they are going to be sharing their creative talents with us and you in 2019 - a big Paper Players welcome to both of you! 

For our first challenge of 2019 it's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host this week and she has a fun theme challenge for you to work with:

I had so many choices for today's card; in fact, I ended up making not one, not two - but four different cards for this week's theme, and then couldn't decide which one to use! I blogged one of them featuring a sweet little bumble bee yesterday - if you missed it, you can see that card here - and decided today to go with something old and something new with a card and matching treat box that is a tribute to all four-legged friends. First up, here's my card:

Now I must confess I almost didn't blog this card today, as my fellow teamie LeAnne also used the sketch layout from Global Design Project for her layout this week and used the new 'Nine Lives' stamp set that is the feline equivalent of the 'Happy Tails' set I chose to use and so there is a distinctly similar look and feel to our cards this week as a result. I figured though that whether you are a cat or dog lover, between us we have you covered so I decided to go ahead! You can check out LeAnne's card on the Paper Players blog post and read more about the detail of her card over on her blog WeeInklings which is well worth a follow. 

In the meantime, here's the low-down on today's card:

Happy Tails - The 'Happy Tails' bundle is one of my favourite bundles in the new Spring-Summer catalogue. The stamp set has a realistic dog with a collection of fun sentiments and decorative bits and pieces - a kennel, heart, collar and bone and a great selection of sentiments for all kinds of cards for the dog-lovers amongst us. The #GDP170 sketch was perfect to highlight lots of these co-ordinating words and images - and I chose to use this sentiment on the inside of my card too, with a few more pawprints for good measure:

Dalmation Dog - I created a dalmation with my black-on-white spots and added a red background so that he would really stand out. As if the stamp set wasn't great enough, it has a co-ordinating Dog Builder Punch too so that you can punch your puppy dog straight out with ease - no fussy cutting required!

A Kennel Treat Box - The minute I saw the dog builder punch I just knew I would need to create a little dog kennel for him using my retired Home Sweet Home thinlits - the box is the perfect size! I actually made this first and then took the embossed striped panels of my kennel and bright Poppy Parade red roof and incorporated the same texture and colour into my co-ordinating card. The roof of my box opens to hold a few chocolates or maybe even some doggy treats - I added a tag using another sentiment from the Happy Tails set, along with a punched heart, also courtesy of the Dog Builder Punch:

I hope you like my pair of projects today - they were fun to make! 

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. 

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

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; I'm hoping to get a little more time in my craft room and have some quality family time since our sporting commitments don't ramp up fully until next week. Either way, enjoy your Sunday and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Happy Tails Photopolymer Bundle (£29.50)	Simple Stripes Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (£8.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Poppy Parade Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.00)

I've been back in my craft room for a few hours today and yes, it felt good! I have some new makes to share with you this week as a result too. This evening I'm just popping in with a quick post to share a couple of super simple thank you cards that are perfect for the current challenge over at StampInkPaper:

Here's a close up of my card - I did a little basic ombre colouring on the lettering using two shades of the same colour Blend marker:

I made these with the James Juniors over the Christmas period - they make great thank you cards to send for gifts received. I encourage my children to keep up this polite tradition and they are not always that accommodating, however they had fun with this set and whilst they didn't write reams, it's the thought that counts and I'm sure the gesture will be appreciated.

These cards are also great examples of #SimpleStamping - a pack of notelets, a single stamped image courtesy of the 'Bee Thankful' stamp set in the annual catalogue and some Stampin' Blends and a little time for some colouring and done!

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 another project for the first challenge of the year over at The Paper Players - don't miss it! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Bee Thankful Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£13.00)

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)

Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes (£6.00)

Hello everyone - I'm back! Following a longer than anticipated Christmas break (sometimes, family simply has to come first) the new year brings with it lots of Stampin' Up! goodness: it's time to shake off the January blues, today is THE day - yes, the highlight of the Stampin' Up! calendar, Sale-A-Bration is here! No more sneak peeks - the catalogue is available, the shop is live and from now until 31st March the benefits are yours for the taking. You can click on the catalogue on the right hand side of my blog page or below to access the Sale-A-Bration leaflet to download a copy or click on the icon above or on the right to go directly to my online shop to place an order - we are LIVE!

So what is Sale-A-Bration? For anyone who hasn't come across it before, it's Stampin' Up!'s annual promotion that is loaded with offers whether you shop, join or host:

Earn a free Sale-A-Bration product for every £45 you spend between 3 January and 31 March. There is also the opportunity to earn even bigger rewards with a £90 purchase. It's the perfect time to purchase those products you've had on your wish list and earn more products for free! 

It’s the best time of year to join Stampin’ Up! There are 2 fabulous joining options during this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion: Option 1, you can become a demonstrator for just £99 and choose £71 more of FREE products for your Starter Kit. That's an extra £40 worth of product in your starter kit when compared to the usual £130. Alternatively there is option 2: for £125, you can receive £170 worth of craft items and this exclusive Craft & Carry Tote to carry it all around in too! The tote bag is absolutely fabulous and a must have for all crafters - check it out in this video:

Isn't it just great?! Plus, the whole kit ships for free! There is plenty of choice and flexibility, whether you want to be a hobby demonstrator and just use your discount to enable you to purchase craft supplies more cheaply, or alternatively would like to build a flourishing direct sales business and sell supplies to others - it's entirely up to you. 

Earn an additional £20 in hostess credits when you host a party and have party sales of £200 or more (this also applies to individual orders). So for party sales of £200, that makes a whopping £40 of Stampin' Rewards - more freebies! What's more, you can even apply your Stampin' Rewards to a Starter Kit and become a demonstrator yourself - I would love to welcome you to my team!

If you would like to host a party, real or virtual, please do get in touch; my diary is filling up but there are still lots of slots available and I would love to share these great benefits with you. If you've ever thought about becoming an SU! demonstrator, now is a great time to do so - I would love to have a no-obligation chat with you about joining my team and the benefits.

As if that wasn't enough, today also sees the launch of the new Spring-Summer catalogue - full of gorgeous new products:

Just click on the image above or in the sidebar on the right to browse the catalogue online, or contact me on 07773 421446 if you would like a paper copy posted out to you and you don't already have a demonstrator. If you are as excited as me and just can't wait, here's the link to my online store - everything is available to purchase from today!

If you would like more information on any of the above, please don't hesitate to get in touch! 

Thanks so much for popping by - it's always nice to share good news! Back soon with lots of projects showcasing products from the new catalogue. Until then, happy shopping!