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 challenge chosen by Deborah:

Shades of green - perfect for the festive season and more besides! I am ramping up my Christmas card making and whilst I considered some simple speed stamping, I thought the Sunday Stamps layout would be perfect for showcasing some busy designer series paper - always a good time-saver when you need to make a quick card! So I searched through my Christmas DSP collection and this is what I came up with:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

This watercoloured foliage pattern is one of my favourites in the retired Joy of Christmas paper pack: it showcases several shades of green and a pop of festive red from those berries too. I covered the whole of the base of my card, grabbed a few leftover scraps of foil and foiled vellum to cut my banners and some additional scraps to diecut some foliage to create a topper for my banners, all tied with some retired silver twine. The final touch was a sentiment from the Magical Christmas Foil Dies that I had already foiled in Silver Opal and diecut - all I needed to do was fish through my box of finished sentiments to find something suitable:

A few clear epoxy droplets and some hasty dots on my berries with a white gel pen complete my card.

So how long did this take me? 

A total of 9 minutes and 29 seconds - longer than I thought it would. It's surprising how much time you can spend poking out diecuts and tying bows!! It's a good job that I had my sentiment already foiled for sure, otherwise it would have been a straightforward 'ink and stick'! Having made this card, I decided to make a few more in a similar design using up some other paper, including this photographic design from the retired All Is Bright papers:

This time I went with gold accents and a reverse-foiled sentiment on Garden Green, and added a couple of tiny jingle bells to my twine bow:

It's quite tricky to see the detail of the foiling on the sentiment - any and all tips as to the best way to photograph foiling, especially on a dark background, are welcome! I can assure you it does look lovely in real life. I often find these kinds of photographic papers quite difficult to work with, but I'm quite pleased with this finished card.

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Speed Stamping Challenge you must tell us the time it took to make your project and it must be finished in under 10 min.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

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

Feathers! I thought I was going to struggle with this one as I couldn't remember any set I still had with feathers in other than bird sets, but I had a good long trawl through my shelves and managed to find not one but two feathered elements, and not a bird in sight! I grabbed the layout over at Try A Sketch on Tuesday and set to work; take a look at what I came up with:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

There was a pattern in the retired Bird Ballard designer series paper pack that features feathers and no birds, so I used that for my card base. In addition, the retired stamp set 'Beautiful World', which I actually kept for the globes, contains a feathered quill and inkwell that made the perfect focal accent. I took a slight liberty with the sketch, tilting the central panel as I wanted it to look like notepaper - I stamped it with a lined pattern from the retired 'Tap, Tap, Tap' set to add to the effect:

A sentiment from the retired 'Textured Floral' set was all I needed to complete my feathered notecard. I feel like I was quite resourceful this week - it's amazing what you can achieve when you have to really look at your supplies! 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Recipe Challenge use all elements of the recipe - the possibilities within those parameters are endless.
• For a Colour Challenge use all of the given colours and only those colours with these exceptions:
• White and Very Vanilla are free colours.
• In addition, you may use of ONE of these neutrals: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige.
• For a Speed Stamping Challenge you must tell us the time it took to make your project and it must be finished in under 10 min.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a seasonal recipe challenge from the lovely LeAnne:

I went rooting through my stash for pumpkin-related bits and pieces and grabbed the layout over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

I initially dismissed that Atlantic Hearts sketch, as I wasn't sure whether the diagonal lines needed to be diagonals or would work as something with a repeat pattern and I'm not a big fan of diagonals. However, when I came across this piece of retired Country Lane designer paper that had a diagonal (of sorts!) pattern, and pumpkins, I thought I'd give it a go! I used a banner to both incorporate my gingham/check, which also served to help my diecut pumpkin to stand out from the background (those retired Pick A Pumpkin Dies will forever be in my crafting collection!) - I added a simple Old Olive twine bow to decorate it and tick another item off my recipe list - and finished by overlaying a simple diecut sentiment (another recent My Favourite Things purchase) and a trio of sequins to tick off my final ingredient:

It was good to use up more of the retired stash and whilst my pumpkin and papers might not be new, I still love them both so was happy to still create with them. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Recipe Challenge use all elements of the recipe - the possibilities within those parameters are endless.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a fun 'fill in the blank' challenge chosen by me:

We are at the end of September and with three months to go, thoughts naturally turn towards Christmas and the festive season. As crafters, we often tell ourselves at the start of the year we will build our stash of Christmas cards throughout the year, but how many do we actually make? I thought today's challenge would be a great time to find out, so whether this is your first Christmas card of the year or your fiftieth, do play along this week and let me know! I had a card made for today's challenge, but when I saw Donna's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week I had not one but three ideas with it, so I saved my original card for another day and had to get one of those ideas out of my head and into paper! Take a look at what I came up with and read on to see how I filled in our blank:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

So this is the 23rd Christmas card I've made this year so far! It's the 18th one I've shared here on my blog (the other five are for upcoming design team challenges that I will share in due course). I was actually surprised that I hadn't made more - so expect me to be doing more Christmas creating in the coming months. Donna's layout includes a Christmas tree-shaped triangle, although she points out that the shape can be anything - it doesn't have to be a tree. For today's card I went for something of a halfway house: I chose to use a tag from the Happiest Season Mix & Match Tag Pack for the main shape, but one that featured a diecut Christmas tree that I popped out to use the negative. I added a snippet of paper from the co-ordinating Creative Celebrations DSP Pack that I've been creating with lots lately that featured the same soft blue with a delicate snowflake pattern and added some silver twine and a trio of rhinestones, along with one of the new white felted stars, before finishing with a simple silver heat-embossed sentiment (from the retired 'Merriest Wishes'):

The tag and paper is a very pale shade of Hydrangea Hue, but the cardstock is much darker than this and was too bold for my mat. A rummage in the retired cardstock box resulted in a mat of Seaside Spray, which proved a better fit. This is such a simple card, yet it has an elegance to it I think. It's one of those cards where I feel like I've managed to channel my 'inner Celine', an homage to the fabulous designer over at Freshly Made Sketches, Cecile Ribon, who makes such fabulous clean and elegant cards - check out her fabulous feline this week here. I'm also linking today's card up over at Inspire.Create Challenge where their current challenge is 'clean and simple'. I really like this card and you could use the layout with any of the tag shapes in the Creative Celebrations pack.

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 or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Fill In The Blank challenge, please tell us in your post how you completed the sentence.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day; I'm hoping to escape to my craft room this afternoon and try out another of my ideas using Donna's fabulous layout. If I get there I'll be back tomorrow with another project - fingers crossed. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

HAPPIEST SEASON TAGS MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (£6.75)

CREATIVE CELEBRATIONS MIX & MATCH 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£13.00)

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)

METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)

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

I think this may be a tricky colour combo for some, although I did have a couple of ideas. I decided to go with another collection of kitties from 'Cutest Crew' - take a look:

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

I used a piece of retired watercolour-effect DSP for my background, then layered the two shades of grey to create a diecut pawprint border and added a sentiment before stamping my kittens onto Basic White cardstock and colouring with my Stampin' Up' Blends in the challenge colours, using my light Basic Black Blend for some dark grey detailing. I added my row of kitties, along with a white twine bow, to my card, then added a sprinkling of diecut white butterflies around them, accenting each with a rhinestone that I coloured with m Azure Afternoon Blends marker:

Super cute! I seem to have made lots of cards featuring these kitties, which is ironic given that I am much more a dog person. I need to put this right and feature a few more of those puppies on future cards for sure.

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 or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Colour Challenge use all of the given colours and only those colours with these exceptions:
• White and Very Vanilla are free colours.
• In addition, you may use of ONE of these neutrals: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CUTEST CREW BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£42.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£6.75)	BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (£11.25)	SMOKY SLATE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BASIC GRAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£11.90)
SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)	AZURE AFTERNOON STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)	BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)

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

This panelled sketch is a great one to showcase some beautiful patterned paper that you've been hoarding or maybe a pretty embossing folder. I decided that it was a great opportunity to use some designer paper and when I saw the inspiration photo over at Hand Stamped Sentiments I knew I had just the thing - take a look:

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

The larger than life cherry stem on a subtle patterned background caught my eye immediately when I saw the HSS inspiration photo and I knew I had some cherry-patterned DSP in my stash that would work. The Sunny Days DSP design has a faint Smoky Slate diagonal line background pattern to it, so I used a grey mat layer then added my DSP panels. I wanted a large swirly sentiment that would pick up on the over-the-top green bow that the cherry is tied with in the inspo photo and initially diecut the word 'sending' from the retired Sending Dies, but then decided that the word 'sweet' from the retired 'Sweetest Cherries' stamp set would also work, so I stamped it in Shaded Spruce and fussy cut that instead, along with a cherry stem as an accent:

I completed the sentiment inside my card with 'with you in it', the perfect card to accompany a gift that I need to send out to a dear friend 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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

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 challenge with the theme chosen by Heather C:

Crafting - that's a theme close to all our hearts, right? And quick crafting at that - you have to make your cards in 10 minutes or less. I don't have any current product with a crafting theme, so dug out a whole bunch of retired bits and pieces and ended up making not one but three cards with a crafting theme - and 2 of them took less than 10 minutes to complete! I'm also playing along with a few challenges. So my first card uses the layout over at The Paper Craft Crew:

The sketch has lots of layers, however this doesn't have to mean time-consuming; take a look at what I came up with:

I embossed my card base with the Button Button Embossing Folder, then added a panel of Follow Your Art designer paper. A stamped sentiment from 'Crafting With You' cut with a scalloped stitched die is the next layer, followed by some co-ordinating twine and buttons to finish:

how long did it take? Just 4 minutes and 29 seconds!

This card was mostly cutting and gluing so didn't take long at all to construct. Since I still had all of my crafting paraphenalia out on my desk, I thought I'd make a second card - take a look:

This time much more clean and simple and using nothing more than a little stamping and colouring with my Stampin' Blends in the colours of the current challenge over at Color Dare:

I used a sentiment from 'It Starts With Art' and coloured the ribbons with my Stampin' Blends, before diecutting them and popping on dimensionals. I added a trio of coordinating enamel dots to finish:

At 8 minutes 12 seconds, his one still came in under the 10 minute mark:

Whilst there isn't much colouring, this does take more time - something to bear in mind when you are making a 'quick' card. My final card uses the sketch over at Sunday Stamps:

This layout was perfect to showcase this cute little hedgehog artist which I fussy cut from the Zoo Crew designer series paper:

There was the slightest hint of colour on the image, so I picked up the pale pink and heart motif and added some tone-on-tone stencilling to my card base using one of my Kristina Werner Jumble of Hearts stencils. along with a simple horizontal banner using Stacked with Love DSP and a sentiment from 'It Starts With Art':

This card did not come in under 10 minutes though:

I think the fussy cutting is just a little too challenging for a speed challenge! Good job Sunday Stamps are not counting lol!

If you would like to embrace creating at speed for our challenge over at As You See It this week, here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Speed Stamping Challenge you must tell us the time it took to make your project and it must be finished in under 10 min.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

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

Summer days - for me that means sunshine, vacations, pools and the beach! I took my inspiration from Kim's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and used it to bring together the perfect collection of items for fun in the sun - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

I used my (retired) Soft Waves 3D embossing folder on Balmy Blue cardstock for my background, then added a collection of items - a rubber ring, flip flops, a drinks beaker, sun visor and sunglasses - from the Splash & Relax bundle to represent the circles. Since I didn't choose an identical object/image to represent the circles, I decided to colour them all in yellow and white to still give the collection of items a homogenous feel. I added a stamped sentiment from the set, then decided to snip it into two pieces and eventually I replace the 'hello' with this swirly diecut using hte retired Hello You Thinlits as I wanted something larger:

 Once again I customised my flip flops with some cute flowers - and that completes my card for today! So what do summer days mean to you? Link your card up to the gallery and share your inspiration.

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 or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SPLASH & RELAX BUNDLE (£42.25)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

BALMY BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

DAFFODIL DELIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)

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

I made a recipe including some of my favourite things, with no particular outcome in mind when I chose them ages ago. When it came to making my card though, I took my inspiration from one of the cards entered into our embossing folder challenge last week! Here's my card - take a look and I'll explain more below:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

The first entrant into our gallery for our last challenge, Hilary, had made a number of cards using her favourite embossing folders and a technique that involved embossing cardstock with a vellum overlay. You can see Hilary's cards on her blog 'Fiddling About' here if you missed them, but I was so intrigued by the technique, I decided I would take the opportunity to give it a go. And since yellow and flowers were 2 of my recipe ingredients, I decided to use my Sunflowers 3D embossing folder and see what happened. I tried it a few different ways as I wasn't sure how Hilary had attached her vellum and cardstock and found the most effective result to be when I attached a sheet of vellum to my cardstock using an adhesive sheet that covered the whole surface, before putting the combined layers into the embossing folder and running through my Big Shot. By using an adhesive sheet, you get the white detail of the embossed vellum, but you can still see a vibrant yellow beneath; without the whole adhesive sheet, the yellow was more muted and the relief was much whiter because of the vellum. The close up below gives a more detailed view of the finished embossed pattern:

I paired by yellow sunflowers with a bright yellow diecut sentiment, get well soon, from Kristina Werner's Big Type 2 Greetings Dies. I cut 3 of them and stacked them together for added depth and used a retired circle framelit to cut away the corner of the embossed layer and added my greeting to the Night of Navy mat layer below in the negative space created. That accounted for both a diecut and a large, bold sentiment. All that was left still to use from my recipe were some enamel dot embellishments, so I added two glossy yellow ones from my stash 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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Recipe Challenge use all elements of the recipe - the possibilities within those parameters are endless.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day; mine's a busy one with gym, laundry and lunch out and a music concert at a local stately home this evening. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SUNFLOWER 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£11.25)

DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

VELLUM 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PAPER (£9.50)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a fun 'fill in the blank' challenge chosen by LeAnne:

My favourite embossing folder - hmm! I have a large collection of embossing folders, but don't tend to use them all that much. I do have a few firm favourites though and one of my favourite Christmas ones is this retired one from the pair called 'Charming Landscapes - which I'm also sharing with 52 Christmas Card Throwdown for their embossing folder challenge this week. Here's my card:

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

I love this cute row of quirky houses nestled amongst the snowy landscape and whilst it looks great in white, I also like to mask off the foreground, buildings and trees and add colour to the sky using ink and blending brushes. For today's card I used two of the new In Colours, Hydrangea Hue and Barely Blush, with a little retired Purple Posy in between: 

I painted in the embossed stars and snowflakes with a white gel pen and some clear Wink of Stella and added a few rhinestones, then grabbed a simple Merry Christmas sentiment from one of the sets on my shelf to complete my card. I use this embossing folder every year to add Christmas cards to my stash!

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Fill In The Blank Challenge complete the sentence - and use a project that demonstrates this.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

2026–2028 IN COLOR™ CLASSIC STAMPIN' PADS (£63.00)

2026–2028 IN COLOR™ A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)