Born To Shine

by Joanne James15. July 2019 11:00

Happy Monday everyone! Hands up who watched the Wimbledon men's final yesterday? Wasn't it just nail-biting?! To be fair, it was a great day of sport all-round: success for England at the cricket  and Lewis Hamilton won the GrandPrix at Silverstone, which is just down the road from me (the sky was full of helicopters all day yesterday with people avoiding the road queues in and out of the race track). So much sporting success to celebrate! Anyway, back to the crafting!! Today I'm sharing a card using the colours over at Color Throwdown and the lovely Linda's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

   

I decided these colours would be perfect for me to try out a new set from the annual catalogue called 'Born to Shine' - take a look:

 

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

I really wanted my ballet dancer to take centre stage on my card today, so Linda's sketch was the perfect fit. I decided to use a simple double score line on my Petal Pink card base to frame my stamped image and stamped my dancer with Memento Black and coloured her with my Ivory and Petal Pink Blends combo. Whilst it's difficult to see on the photo, I covered her dress with a liberal coating of clear Wink of Stella and this adds such a beautiful sparkle - I love it! I gave her blond hair since if Rebecca had continued ballet dancing this is what she would have looked like now. I surrounded her with heat embossed gold stars and added a simple sentiment banner of gold on black to stand out against my largely pastel card. I bought this stamp set for a commission but I can see me having lots of fun with it - these dancers are so elegant and pretty.

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 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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Celebrate Your Day With A Little Elephant Birthday Card

by Joanne James14. July 2019 09:00

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous LeAnne to host this week and she has a colour challenge for you to work with:

       

I really liked LeAnne's colour combo this week and I have a real shortage of male birthday cards in my box at the moment, especially for young boys (a whole bunch of Ben's friends have had birthdays lately with still more to come in the next couple of months), so that's where I decided to focus my efforts this week. I have two cards to share with you today, both featuring the Little Elephant set. They both use this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch; here's the first one:

 

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

I did some simple layering and inset my punched elephant carrying his balloons inside a circle aperture cut with my Layering Circle Dies, then overlayed a stacked diecut sentiment, cut with the Well Written Framelits, that I brushed with clear Wink of Stella for added sparkle. I also made a super clean and simple version that I am going to link up over at Less Is More for their theme of 'Celebrations' this week:

 

I switched the colours around and punched out the elephant's ear to ring the changes and for both cards I decorated the envelopes and the insides too. My Stamparatus made it easy to line up the balloon and the elephant's trunk - love that tool!

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. 

Having made these cards I decided they were maybe a little too youthful for my 'pre-teens' so I used this colour combo to make another masculine, more grown up card that I will share with you on Tuesday, so if you like this colour combo, be sure to pop back then and take a look.

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

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!

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 will be glued to the TV this afternoon enjoying the Wimbledon Men's Final - the culmination of two fantastic weeks of grass court tennis and spending some quality time with my boys since we are still Rebecca-less, as she continues to experience the delights of life with a German family (only 3 more days t go!) 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.

Dream Big With Over The Moon

by Joanne James11. July 2019 20:00

I've had a busy day today with laundry, a visit from Granny and Ben had a friend over and this afternoon. We all went to the cinema to see the movie 'Yesterday' (I can highly recommend it) so no time to craft today but lucky for you I have a card to share with you that I made earlier this week that I'm also linking up with the team over at Paper Craft Crew:

Paper Craft Crew Designer's Choice Challenge PCC343

I couldn't resist another chance to play with my new 'Over The Moon' stamp set and wanted to make a card that was full-on bovine - take a look:

 

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

Dream Big - This is another of the cute cows in this fun set; I can't say I've ever seen a cow daydreaming in the fields like this, but then I haven't see a cow wearing wellies either as per my previous card so I guess there's a first time for everything! I stamped my cow on a horizontal panel and fussy cut his thought bubble and added a clear rhinestone for a little extra detail. 

Create Your Own Cow Hide - I decided to go all-out on my cow card today and create a fun bespoke cow-hide patterned background for the base of my card. I think the finished effect is really fun and was actually so easy to create; can you tell what stamps I used? You may be surprised to know that it was these two background splodges from the 'Love What You Do' stamp set - so perfect for cow hide:

 

Fresh Colour Combo - I used a fresh blue and green scenic colour combo today with just a pop of red to compliment my black and white cow. This is a fun colour combo that would work for lots of other projects too - here it is if you'd 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. 

Enjoy your evening 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.

 

Daisy Lane Fern Starburst Stamparatus Card

by Joanne James10. July 2019 20:00

Today I'm sharing another of the cards I designed for my Daisy Lane class earlier this week that is perfect for the current colour challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments where they have a pretty subtles colour palette for inspiration:

I wanted to remind my ladies of a technique that I demonstrated to them previously using a template to create a wreath or uniform pattern using their Stamparatus and the Daisy Lane set was perfect for this - take a look at my card:

 

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

A Layered Daisy - Today's card features more stamped and punched daisies - this time layered to create a full flower: two large stamped and punched daisies in Petal Pink, with two smaller stamped and punched daisies in Calypso Coral layered on top. Lots of petal curling with a bone folder adds dimension and the appearance of fullness.

A Starburst Fern And A Fun Stamparatus Technique - I wanted to use the fern on this card and it was the perfect size and shape to revise a fun technique using the Stamparatus. We had previously looked at how you can use a template to help you create a symmetrical wreath using leaves and small flowers; this time we used the same template, but instead used it to create an almost flower-shaped starburst of ferns to back our punched daisy. This was perfect for my daisy focal point and a neat way to ring the changes with a square card too.

A Touch of Sparkle - On this card, I finished my daisy with a clear faceted dot for a neutral touch of sparkle. 

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 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 Pair of Punched Daisies To Make You Smile

by Joanne James9. July 2019 16:00

No post yesterday as I had a class and one James Junior to get ready for her German student exchange trip with the other to swim training and I simply ran out of time! So I'm sharing my planned card today which is perfect for the current challenge over at Just Us Girls where the cue word is 'Smile':

My class yesterday featured the new Daisy Lane stamp set and Medium Daisy Punch and this is one of the cards we made - take a look:

 

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

There's A New Daisy In Town - Daisy Lane is a new Stampin' Up! stamp set that features that perennial favourite - the daisy. Definitely more wild flower than weed, today's card features two daisies from the new set, stamped in Smoky Slate with some So Saffron added to the centres with a sponge dauber before punching the larger one out with the existing Daisy Punch and then the smaller one with the Medium Daisy Punch and added to the stems that were stamped directly onto the card base.

Feeling Fuzzy - What makes these daisies stand out though, are the little fuzzy yellow centres. These Perennial Essence Floral Centres are part of the Perennial Essence Suite but they make great daisy centres too. They have little self-adhesive backs so are easy to attach to punched flowers to give them added interest. I can see me using lots more of these!

A Timeless Label - The 'smile' sentiment is also from the Daisy Lane set and to give it a little more emphasis I punched it out with the new Timeless Label Punch which is the perfect size for both the 'smile' and 'friend' sentiments in this set and lots more besides. This is another of those super-useful punch shapes that is a good basic for your crafting arsenal.

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 another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

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

Best Catch Masculine Bendi-Fold Card for PP449

by Joanne James7. July 2019 09:00

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Laurie to host this week and she has a fun theme challenge for you to work with:

 

I held a class featuring the 'Best Catch' stamp set a few months ago when it was in the Spring-Summer catalogue. Since this set carried over into the new annual catalogue, today's challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to share one of the fun folds we made - take a look:

 

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

Best Catch -  If you or someone you know is a fan of fishing, then the 'Best Catch' is perfect for you. When I think of watersports, I tend to think of swimming or scuba diving as they are the watersports that I love, yet angling is one of the most popular past-times globally, fly fishing in particular. There are some great images and sentiments in the set, and there is also a useful set of co-ordinating dies, 'Catch Of The Day', that make cutting out the shapes super quick and easy. My favourite image is the fish and he is definitely the star of this card; so many options to colour him, and when you use the framelits to cut him out you get a fun fin detail too that is great on a fancy fold card. I stamped my fisherman and fish on Shimmery White cardstock as this allowed me to watercolour them with inks and an aquapainter and gives the fish a nice sparkly sheen too - just like fish scales!

A Fancy Fold Bendi Card - A bendi-fold card seemed like a fun way to add extra dimension and interest to my fishing card. Using a standard sized A6 cardbase for my backpiece, I then added a narrow panel to each outside edge; one in brown the same colour as my card base, and the other in Pool Party to the other side. To made the bendi fold mechanism, I simply cut a small slit in the back panel approx. one third from the opposite edge and slid the edge of the brown panel into it, creating a bend, then repeated this on the other side with the blue panel, tucking it into the first brown fold (just under the bulrushes).

Making Waves - Aside from my fun fancy fold, I added some texture and interest to my 'river' by running my Pool Party section through my Big Shot with my (now retired) Seaside Embossing Folder. If you don't have this, the new High Seas 3D embossing folder could be used to create a similar effect. Along with some die cut bulrushes and a little stamping, this finished my scene.

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. 

So what do you think? Have you ever tried to make a bendi-card? What is your favourite type of fancy fold? Do let me know in the comments below - I love to read your thoughts.

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

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!

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; we will be hoping the weather is slightly warmer than yesterday so that we can spend some time outside. I am also going to be busy getting the oldest of the James Juniors ready for her school exchange trip to Germany this week.  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.

Announcing 2019-21 Stampin' Up! UK In Colour Club - Spaces Available

by Joanne James4. July 2019 08:00

With a new Stampin' Up! catalogue, new in-colours always feature on a new wish list - why wouldn't they? The new 2019-21 In Colors will be with us for the next 2 years and this year's in-colours are very on-trend and co-ordinate beautifully with each other and the other colours in the Stampin' Up! colour families:

To help you spread the cost and gradually grow your new in-colour collection, for the first time I am offering an in-colour club (UK customers only). It begins this month and runs for the next 5 months, up to and including November. Each month, you will receive a collection of  products for one of the colours, with each month featuring a different colour.

Each month, you will receive: 

  • 1/2 pack of A4 cardstock (12 sheets)
  • 1/2 roll of Scalloped Linen Ribbon
  • 1 ink pad
  • 1 ink refill
  • 1 Stampin' Write Marker
  • 18 Faceted Dots
  • Eight 6”X6” In-Color DSP sheets
  • A hand stamped card featuring your in-colour of the month

Since all of the colours except Terracotta Tile are also available as Stampin' Blends, there is the option to add on a Stampin' Up! Blends Marker Combo Pack each month for an additional £8.50. 

For the month you receive the Terracotta Tile colour kit, you will receive 1/4 pack of Woven Threads DSP and Woven Threads Sequins in place of the Blends. Both of these products also feature all five in-colours.  

 

Details:

Basic Pack Cost: £25 plus postage and packaging (Royal Mail 2nd Class Signed For) every month July through November. If you are local, you can avoid the cost of shipping and arrange to collect. 

Enhanced Pack Cost: £33.50 plus postage and packaging (Royal Mail 2nd Class Signed For) every month July through November. If you are local, you can avoid the cost of shipping and arrange to collect. 

Payment can be made by bank transfer (or cash/cheque for local customers).

If you would like to join my new colour club this month, then you can email me to sign up here.

Rooted in Nature Sympathy Cards Part 2 - For The Avid Crafter

by Joanne James3. July 2019 08:00

 

Today it's lesson time! I'm sharing a couple of cards that I promised you a while ago that are stepped up versions of an earlier clean and simple sympathy card that I made and since this week's challenge over at TGIF Challenges is to make a sympathy card, this seemed an appropriate time to share with you:

 

It's never nice to have to create sympathy cards especially on the spur of the moment, so it's always handy to have one or two on hand for when they are needed. There are lots of great sets in the Stampin' Up! catalogue with just the right words for these sometimes difficult cards and Rooted In Nature is definitely on my 'go to' list. Here's my original card that I featured in this blog post here:

 

This is a great card for a beginner stamper - stamps, ink and white cardstock are all you need to create this card.

I decided that this was a good card to show how easily a card can be 'stepped up' with a few extra supplies. Here's my intermediate version - instead of a one layer white base, I used a coloured card base (retired Lemon Lime Twist, but you could use Granny Apple Green for a similar colour combo), a piece of designer series paper (retired 'Under The Mistletoe' pattern) along with a strip of Night of Navy cardstock, then popped my leaf stamped panel up on dimensionals and heat embossed my sentiment in silver on a strip of vellum and wrapped it around this layer:

 

A few additional cardstock and paper supplies and the addition of the heat embossing as another technique creates a slightly more stepped up card for the more casual crafter who wants something a little more. Finally I created a card for the avid crafter that features an even wider variety of products and techniques:

 

For this version, I retained the layout of my stepped up card, but this time stamped the leaves tone-on-tone onto the same coloured cardstock and cut them out using the co-ordinating Nature's Roots framelits, overlapping slightly on my white panel. I then added a double length of navy baker's twine across the middle before overlaying my heat-embossed vellum sentiment. I finished my card with one of the silver metallic leaf trinket embellishments tied with a navy twine bow. 

So what do you think? Which of these do you prefer? I think on balance I am somewhere between the first two cards - I love the simplicity of the outlined leaves on the white, but maybe with the addition of the heat embossed sentiment on the vellum. Decisions, decisions - the joy and freedom of creativity!

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; the sun is still shining here in the UK and I am off to sports day this afternoon, so looking forward to a fun afternoon. 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.

2019-21 In-Color Artfully Aware Masculine Card

by Joanne James2. July 2019 20:00

A later post from me today as I've had a busy one that culminated in a wonderful Summer Serenade concert to listen to the youngest of my James Juniors sing - always a joy! Today I'm sharing a card for the current Fab Friday and Inspire.Create challenges which coincidentally both have exactly the same colour palettes this week - the new 2019-21 Stampin' Up! in colors:

   No photo description available.

Whilst I love all of these colours individually, I found it a challenge using all of them on one card - that's the idea though, right? So I resisted making a collection of monochromatic cards featuring each of the colours individually and pushed myself to get all 5 on one card. After much deliberation, this is what I came up with:

 

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

Artfully Aware - I decided that the stamp that features five people intertwined in the 'Artfully Aware' stamp set would be a great way to incorporate all 5 in-colours on my card by giving each person a different colour sweater. I love the sketchy style of these stamps and this set has some great words of encouragement and support. I used one of the sentiments in the set too, but split it and included the first part 'together...' on the tab on the front of my card, then continued it inside with '...we make a difference'. 

A Mix of Mediums -  I did something I don't normally do and used a mix of Blends and inks and a blender pen to colour, as I still have inks in all colours bar Purple Posy, whereas this is the only in-colour I have in Blends. The colours are much softer with ink and a blender pen and I like the more watercoloured look. I decided that this would make a nice masculine encouragement card, so used the darker colours of Pretty Peacock and Terracotta Tile for my base and in-colour DSP layer, along with my tabbed piece.

A Blue Ribbon - The Artfully Aware stamp set co-ordinates with the Support Ribbon Framelits and I decided to use the small support ribbon framelit to cut a pale blue ribbon out of Seaside Spray as a small embellishment to anchor my sentiment.

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 really love this year's set of new in-colors and I know lots of you do too. For this first time this year I am running an In-Color Club for my customers and still have a few spaces in my latest round that are available; please contact me if you would like to take part - you can read all about it here.

Enjoy your evening 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.

Over The Moon In My Favourite Purple Wellies

by Joanne James1. July 2019 10:00

This is already my second post of the day today as it's 1st July and there is lots going on, including the return of bonus days and a fabulous joining offer - you can read about both of these in my earlier post here. For today's creative post I'm sharing my card for this week's challenges over at As You See It and Just Add Ink that also fits the current challenge over at Time Out, which is a new-to-me challenge that I thought I would play along with too (I don't think it's a CAS challenge although a lot of the DT samples and gallery cards are and for once my card is a little less CAS than usual so I hope it fits the bill!):

     

So I'm not fully finished with my run on Bird Ballad projects, but I did get out another new stamp set that I just couldn't resist called 'Over The Moon' when I grabbed a little crafty time and couldn't resist making some fun cards with it - these comical cows are just adorable - take a look:

 

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

How Now Brown Cow - So I think I am in love with these fun animals! I mean, three comical cows and a bunch of punny sentiments in the 'Over The Moon' stamp set - what's not to love?! I decided to colour mine today with Stampin' Blends, but stamped my outline in stamped-off Sahara Sand so it has an almost no-line look, which I think works nicely with my sweet brown cow. I repeated the same image on my envelope and inside my card too. My choice of browns to compliment the purple was brought about by my desire to use some of that fabby linen-look in-colour scallop edged ribbon and I like the finished look.

Daisy Delights - I continued my browns with a piece of tone-on-tone stamped Crumb Cake for my background, that I stamped randomly with one of the daisy stamps from the Daisy Lane stamp set, which I thought tied in with the flower my cow - let's call her Daisy! - is holding. I like the added detail without detracting from the main image. 

The Colour Purple - This whole card started with the colour purple; apart from navy, it is definitely the colour that features most highly in my wardrobe and is without doubt my most favourite colour to wear. I chose to use the new in-colour Purple Posy as the purple on my card today as it gave me the opportunity to break out new Blends, cardstock, in-colour DSP (love that gingham!) and co-ordinating ribbon and sequins too. My choice of the welly-wearing cow was also no accident, as I am even the proud owner of some beautiful purple wellington boots that the James Juniors gifted me for Christmas a few years ago. I couldn't find a photo of me wearing them, so took this quick snap of them next to a couple of my patio pots - check these out:

Aren't they just the best?! They are more Highland Heather than Purple Posy, however I didn't have as many embellishment options for that colour! There is something about gardening or trudging through the snow in purple wellies that is ever so cheery.

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 another project - I am organised this week as it's going to be a busy one! 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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This is my personal blog and is not endorsed by Stampin’ Up! I hope you find it a plentiful source of ideas and personal inspiration but please don't copy my designs for contest submission or use for classes, publication or sale without express permission.