Clearance Rack Refresh and New Kits!

by Joanne James5. December 2023 09:00

What a great start to a Tuesday - I logged on this morning to find a surprise update to the Clearance Rack. There are now lots of new items available, some with as much as 60% off. As is always the case, popular items will sell out quickly, so don't spend too long deliberating - get in there quick! There are some great paper bargains, including many designer series papers, accessories, kits and punches. 

Click here to go the clearance rack in my online store and grab a bargain whilst stocks last! Don't forget to include the current hostess code C3HYZSV4 make sure that 'allow your demonstrator to contact you' is ticked in order that you receive your special 'thank you' in the post from me next month. 

In addition, another kit has been added to the online store!

 

 Make friendships blossom with floral handmade cards full of kind words. It’s time to spread love and kindness this season! This kit includes: 

  • Enough supplies to create 9 cards—3 each of 3 designs• 9 coordinating envelopes
  • Printed card bases, printed die cuts, adhesive, sequins, and gold cord
  • Finished card size: 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" (10.8 x 14 cm)
  • Coordinating colours: Garden Green, Lemon Lime Twist, Moody Mauve, Petal Pink, Pretty Peacock, Wild Wheat

A reminder that the 'Best Destination' kit was also recently released - you can see more details by clicking on the link below.

 

Happy shopping!

Links to the online store:

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

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Joy of Noel Shadow Box Christmas Card PP669

by Joanne James3. December 2023 08:00

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

 

It's beginning to look a lot like ... Christmas! It is indeed, so Jaydee has chosen the perfect theme this week! At the start of December I like to make those 'special' cards for friends and family - those over-the-top, fancy ones that you hand deliver. I set aside my usual clean-and-layered self and throw caution to the wind, so I thought I'd share one of those cards with you today - take a look:

 

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

A Fancy Shadow Box - Today's card is part card, part home decor. Measuring 5 3/4" square by 1/2" deep, the front of the card comprises a shadow box frame, with the main design in the centre. I've made non-festive versions of this card in a 6"x6" size that I've shared on my blog previously, but I've never made a Christmas one. This kind of card does take a little longer to make, but I think it's so worth it for a special occasion, don't you? It's also great for those who like to keep their cards and bring out year after year, as it is as much a decoration as it is a card.

Shining Brightly - I used one of the gold and vanilla patterns from the Shining Brightly specialty designer series paper to decorate the frame of my card. Now, I know this paper is now sold out in Europe, but it's been in and out of stock all season due to its popularity, so I'm hoping that for those of you who stocked up, you appreciate a project that shows it in all its glory. Given that my shadow box card has depth, I need to create a box 'envelope' to send it in and I used more of this paper for the lid. You can see my box in the photo below:

Joy of Noel - The real star of the show is the 'Joy of Noel' bundle that features in the centre of my frame. By far and away my favourite bundle from this year's mini catalogue, it really is fabulous. This bundle is still available and if you purchase it from me, you will receive a free copy of the 'Join in With Joanne & Jan' Joy of Noel tutorial that I created with my talented friend Jan Clothier. I combined gold embossed foliage and gold glitter pine needles with a gold embossed NOEL for the centrepiece - the foiling and glimmer paper add so much beautiful festive sparkle, don't you think?

A gold embossed sentiment inside completes my fancy card. What do you think? Do you like to make fancy cards for the special people in your life? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear what you think.  

I'm also playing along with a few challenges: My card follows the sketch at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown (I hope they'll forgive me the sentiment placement), it's a glitter entry over at Inkspirational and finally I've been saving this one for my entry over at SUO Challenges - my favourite holiday catalogue product, actually products with the bundle and paper!!

      

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:

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!

Enjoy your day; I will be spending mine with more Christmas preparations and getting ready for an upcoming vacation - more about that in a future post! 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.

Shining Brightly Star Trio AYSI 313

by Joanne James1. December 2023 12:00

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a speed stamping challenge chosen by Deborah:

    

The Shining Brightly specialty designer series paper is the only current 'starry' product that I have in my stash, so that was my starting point for today's card. As I rummaged through my stamp sets and other supplies to find things that would co-ordinate, I came across some wooden stars from last year's Christmas Memories & More packs that I had previously coloured gold for another project but not used. The stars were the same design as those on the paper and so my design was born! I remembered the sketch from Sketch Saturday and grabbed a Night of Navy card base and offcut, a circle die, some gold twine, gold foil, Versamark and gold embossing powder and the 'Joy of Noel' stamp set and set my timer for just under 10 minutes. This is my finished card: 

 

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

I added my DSP to my cardfront, then diecut three circles from the Navy panel, tied it with gold trim and added it to my card with dimensionals and added a wooden star to the centre of each aperture. I then heat-embossed my sentiment and fussy cut it, then added some gold foil behind it and fussy cut that too before adding to my card:

 

So how long did my card take? I used the full 10 minutes, although most of that time was spent heat embossing and fussy cutting my sentiment and foil shadow. I set my timer for just under 10 minutes so that it would give me a warning time to stop fussy cutting and allow me the last bit to add dimensionals and stick it to my card. I could have added it as a straight label which would have taken much less time, but I really wanted to fussy cut it to make it narrower. So what do you think? What starry creation will you create in 10 minutes or less?

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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

  • Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
  • Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
  • If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.
  • In a speed stamping challenge, please time yourself and say in your post how long your card took to complete. 
We look forward to seeing your creations in the AYSI gallery.

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.

Winter Meadow Christmas Deer PP668

by Joanne James26. November 2023 08:00

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge for us to work with:

    

I had the idea that the central panel would be a great way to showcase one of the Winter Meadow designer series paper designs - take a look:

 

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

One of the designs in the Winter Meadow designer series paper pack has a deer pattern that can be split into 6 and used as card fronts. I took the one that had the deer on the right hand side of the panel and cut it down to fit my central rectangle. I added a background panel of Moody Mauve and scored in the diagonal lines (these are quite difficult to see in the photos I'm afraid, but add a lovely subtle detail in real life) and fussy cut a couple of berry stems from another of the sheets in the paper pack to decorate my sentiment, which is from the 'Brightest Glow' stamp set and cut with one of the Labels Aglow dies:

I really liked this card, although I did think that I lost a lot of the impact of the deer panel once I'd cut it down. Whilst I had the papers out on my desk, I decided to make a second card using another panel of the deer paper, this time using Kim's open layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week:

I cut the single panel into three and built up the central section with a couple of layers of black and white cardstock, adding my sentiment from the 'Christmas Classics' stamp set onto a stitched label:

 

I let the paper do all the work as far as this card is concerned and added only a trio of three pale silver sequins to complete my card:

 

So two cards for you today - hope you like them! I'm also linking my first card up over at Time Out Challenges where the current challenge is Winter/Holiday.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects 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:

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!

Enjoy your day; I'll be back later in the week 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.

 

More Wishes Festive Fun Framed Card FF0148

by Joanne James24. November 2023 09:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge

    

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'International Animal Rights Day' which is on 10th December. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used alcohol markers, animals/critters/birds and stripes and I combined both the 'make a statement' and sketch inspiration over at Try Stamping On Tuesday for my card and this is what I came up with:

 

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

More Wishes - Ordinarily if I was going to use a large sentiment, I would make this the central focal point of my card, but the layout over at Try Stamping on Tuesday had me intrigued and I wondered if I could instead use my bold sentiment to frame my illustration. The 'More Wishes' stamp set is perfect for this approach: it's just wide enough to create a frame whilst still leaving a central aperture. I did need to get creative with my choice of sentiment and how I laid it out across the four frame elements; as you can see, my repeated sentiment actually starts and ends on the long side. I added a cute robin from 'Festive & Fun' to delineate - I think it works but I'd love to know what you think!

Festive & Fun - I chose one of the images from 'Festive & Fun' to fill the centre of my frame, stamping it in Memento Black and colouring with my Stampin' Blends to co-ordinate with my frame:

Bold Colour - My colour scheme was inspired by the palette over at Global Design Project #GDP421 this week. I stamped the words on my frame using my Stamparatus and stamped them several times each to get a good, solid ink coverage. This does make the colours slightly darker and more intense; I actually really like this colour combination for a modern, festive Christmas 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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

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.

Bee Mine Sneak Peek TTT236

by Joanne James23. November 2023 18:00

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and the lovely Elizabeth is our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

    

I have a break from Christmas cards for you today! I decided to go from the top left corner on the diagonal with critters/free/patterned paper and using the layout over at Sunday Stamps I have a sneak peek of some product from the new Stampin' Up! mini catalogue that launches 4th January  - take a look:

 

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

I don't usually share sneak peeks this early, but the new Bee Mine Suite is just SO cute! Whilst the stamp set is called 'Bee My Valentine' and does have some Valentine sentiments, it also has generic ones too and this is the perfect set to tell someone how much they mean to you. The stamp set has a coordinating bee punch that stamps out the body and wings and also includes a tiny heart. Today's card includes both a sentiment and stamped and punched bee, along with two of the Bee Mine designer series papers layered for my background:

It's difficult to see but I added some clear Wink of Stella to my bee wings for a little extra sparkle - adorable, even if I say so myself! Unless you're a demonstrator you have to wait until 4th January to order this fun suite; if you're not on my mailing list and would like to receive a copy of the new mini catalogue, do get in touch and I can make sure you receive a copy.

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. 

A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge. 

Enjoy your day; I'll be back tomorrow with another project for our new challenge over at Festive Friday and fear not - it will be 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.

Clean and Simple Candy Cane Wishes

by Joanne James22. November 2023 09:00

Today I'm sharing a card using the current layout over at CAS on Sunday that was inspired by the candy-can colours and festive mood board over at Just Us Girls:

   

I couldn't resist that colour palette over at Just Us Girls and so much festive inspiration! I had a couple of candy canes cut from retired Sweetest Christmas designer paper in my stash, so decided to use them as the basis for a clean and simple card - take a look:

 

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

I added my candy canes to some solid colour banners and a circle that picked up the challenge colours and added a sprig of stamped mistletoe with a trio of pearls and twine bow, along with a sentiment from the retired 'Sweet Candy Canes' stamp set:

 

A trio of in-colour enamel dots complete my card. Quite a simple card and would be quick to run off in multiples too - I love 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 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.

Joy To You And Yours CCS 526

by Joanne James21. November 2023 13:00

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & SketchesThis week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Nancy has asked that we include three elements overlaid with a sentiment. Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

       

For my card today I decided to embrace the interesting colour palette over at Hand Stamped Sentiments and create a simple Christmas card using my Alphabet A' La Mode Dies - take a look:

 

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

For today's card I used a dark Pebbled Path background, and having added some tone-on-tone ink around the edge of the base to add depth, I flicked the surface with some watered-down white ink for some snow splatters. I added a trio of letters to spell the word JOY for my 3 elements and cut these from white cardstock, then overlaid these with a sentiment stamped in Berry Burst from the retired 'Peace and Joy' stamp set (there is an equivalent one in the current 'Merry & Bright' stamp set).  so that they would stand out against my Pebbled Path background:

 Some diecut holly leaves and berries and a sprinkling of rhinestones complete my clean and simple card design. I wasn't sure about this colour palette when I saw it, but I ended up liking my card so much that I made two! Here;s another photo with my inside sentiment too:

 

I'm also linking this card up for a second entry over at Less Is More where the theme is 'Anything CAS Goes'. 

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.

Last Chance 2023 July-December Mini Catalogue Retiring Products Announced

by Joanne James20. November 2023 20:00

Heads up everyone: the list of products that will be retiring from this year's July-December mini catalogue has been announced and will be live from 11pm tonight! With 5 weeks still to go until the big day, this is a great time to snap up a bargain for some Christmas crafting.

You can see and download the full list of items retiring from the current July-December mini catalogue, and their discounts, by CLICKING HERE.

Retiring products are only available WHILE STOCKS LAST, so if you've still items on your wish list from this year's July-December mini catalogue, you need to check the retiring lists and if they're on it put an order in pronto! Don't forget to add this month's online hostess code: C3HYZSV4

Hop online to get the latest on stock availability and place your orders. Some retiring items are discounted by up to a massive 60% so these may well be snapped up quickly. 

Inked and Tiled Clean and Simple Notecard FMS612

by Joanne James20. November 2023 14:53

Today I'm squeaking in a quick post before I head out on the school run to share a super quick card I made using Linda's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week:

I spent absolutely ages considering what I was going to do with those two long, thin columns and none of my layered ideas were working out, so in the end I went super simple and decided to make a very clean and simple notecard using the 'Inked & Tiled stamp set - take a look:

 

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

I used the stamps to represent the layers and inked them using my Stampin' Write markers, which enabled me to easily stamp the flower petals and stem in one go, and achieve a slight variegated look to the petals my adding in a little Berry Burst to my Melon Mambo:

 

An unconventional colour scheme, especially when you add in the navy stem and leaves, but I rather like it. I added a few white opaque sequins and picked up the Bubble Bath colour of my background 'squiggle' for my label, although in hindsight I think I might have made this white too. Do you ever use your Stampin' Write markers to ink your rubber stamps in this way? It really is so easy and is great if you are short on ink pads too - The 'Inked & Tiled' stamp set is perfect for #SimpleStamping. And so quick - I even had time to repeat the flower on the front of my envelope 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'm off on the school run; I'll be back with another post later as I've news of this year's Last Chance Discount Lists to share. 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.