I've been busy working with my 'Indescribable Gift' stamp set as it is the stamp set that I'll be using in my technique class this month so I decided to use it to create a card for this week's Mojo Monday challenge:

I thought the circle would make a great space for the apple blossom to peek through - take a look:

I used a base of Pink Pirouette and matted it with a piece of the 'Irresistibly Yours' embossed paper - free with an order of £45 or more before the end of March - that I had sponged with Pink Pirouette ink, to add a little interest but not detract from my flower branch. I used Wild Wasabi for the panel and having stamped the blossom onto Whisper White, I coloured it with my Pink Pirouette, Wild Wasabi and Crumb Cake Blendabilities and fussy cut it out. I then positioned it through the aperture and and finally added my sentiment panel across the bottom.

This card was not quick to create - the fussy cutting took a while! - but it was well worth it. I love the finished effect.

Back tomorrow with my card for this week's new Paper Player's challenge. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Indescribable Gift Clear Stamp Set	Irresistibly Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper	Pink Pirouette A4 Card Stock	Wild Wasabi A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Project Life Corner Punch	Pink Pirouette Classic Stampin' Pad

Today is the first day of the half-term holiday, so that makes for a late blog post today! Just time to squeeze in a card for this week's challenge over at The Color Throwdown where there have a lovely bright colour palette to work with this week:

I had another of the birds from the 'Time to Celebrate' stamped and laying on my desk, so decided to colour him up using my Bermuda Bay, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler and Wisteria Wonder Blendabilities - here's my card:

A different layout to yesterday's card and again using some 'Sweet Taffy' DSP but both combined to give quite a different look and feel to yesterday's card. I have taken a real shine to this bird stamp - there's something so whimsical about it and the other stamps in this set. The 'Time To Celebrate' stamp set is a hostess set that can be earned exclusively by hosting a party (or placing an individual order of £150 or more). If you would like to host a party, please do get in touch. 

That's all from me today - short and sweet! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Time To Celebrate Clear Stamp Set	Sweet Taffy Designer Series Paper	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Real Red A4 Card Stock
Old Olive A4 Card Stock	Perfect Plum A4 Card Stock	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Wisteria Wonder Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Old Olive Assortment
Bermuda Bay Assortment Stampin' Blendabilities Markers

It's Wednesday so that means a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals! This week's deals are included below - they will be available for one week only, before a new collection of deals is announced.

As always, if you want to take advantage of any of the deals on offer, you can support my business by placing your order online by clicking here or using the link to my store on the right hand side of my blog page where it says 'Shop Online' or with me in person. Don't forget to add the Hostess Code for January/February (you can find this under the 'Shop Online' section on the right) and be sure to make sure that you don't check the 'no contact' box if you'd like to be kept updated with the progress of you order and receive a little thank you in the post from me. 

Here's a summary of this week's one-week only Wednesday deals - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

Fine Print Coupons Swatchbook - Digital Download	Fun Frames Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Gold 1/8" Ribbon	Silver Foil Sheets
Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Wisteria Wonder Assortment	Striped Scallop Thinlits Die	Tag A Bag Accessory Kit	Tangelo Twist A4 Cardstock

Another mixed bag this week, but some definite favourites in there: the striped scallop thinlits die is great for backgrounds and roofs on houses, some gold ribbon and silver foil (I'll definitely be stocking up!), fun frames and another pack of Blendabilities on offer, this time Wisteria Wonder - great if you are trying to build your collection, now you can do it even more cheaply!

Back shortly with today's creative post - until then, happy shopping!

It's Wednesday so that means a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals! This week's deals are included below - they will be available for one week only, before a new collection of deals is announced.

As always, if you want to take advantage of any of the deals on offer, you can support my business by placing your order online by clicking here or using the link to my store on the right hand side of my blog page where it says 'Shop Online' or with me in person. Don't forget to add the Hostess Code for January (you can find this under the 'Shop Online' section on the right) and be sure to make sure that you don't check the 'no contact' box if you'd like to be kept updated with the progress of you order and receive a little thank you in the post from me. 

Here's a summary of this week's one-week only Wednesday deals - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

2013-2015 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	Basic Black Baker's Twine	Beach House Designer Washi Tape	Box Of Chocolates Kit - Digital Download
Chalk Talk Framelits Dies	Gold Basic Metal Buttons	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Skin Tone Assortment	Tangerine Tango Baker's Twine

Welcome to my Sunday posting for The Paper Players where today Anne-Marie has a fun challenge to kick start us into the new year:

I also used Narelle's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches for the layout of today's card. So "Everything Old is New Again" - use a recycled or re-purposed item on your project. So many possibilities! Here is my card for this week's challenge - can you see what my re-purposed item is?

I used the lovely bird stamp from one of the exclusive 2015 Sale-A-Bration stamp sets called 'A Happy Thing' which is perfect for colouring with Stampin' Up! Blendabilities. I'm not sure what bird this is supposed to be, but to me it looks like a kingfisher, hence my colouring with Pumpkin Pie and Bermuda Bay (yes, I know - a new colour coming in the Spring-Summer catalogue) Blendabilities. I cut my coloured image out with one of my circle framelits and mounted it on a window frame in Island Indigo. Did you identify my re-purposed item yet? It's my 'designer series paper' - the patterned paper is actually the inside cover of the Sale-A-Bration promotional wrapper that is attached to the outside of the new 2015 Stampin' Up! Spring-Summer catalogue! Take a look at the photo below and you'll see what I mean:

The moment I saw this paper I thought it would make a useful 'DSP' and it was perfect for the large expanse of background for today's card as the subtle pattern wouldn't detract from my stamped image and the blue-green colourway was perfect to suggest a watery scene for my bird. So not only does the new Spring-Summer catalogue have a ton of great new products for you, it comes with some free 'DSP' too! I have started distributing catalogues to my customers in readiness for this week's launch; if you are reading this and you don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like to be added to my customer mailing list, then please do get in touch.

I'm off to start de-Christmas-ing the house; before you go off in search of items that you can recycle on your projects this week, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your projects featuring recycled and repurposed items in the gallery this week. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

* 'A Happy Thing' stamp set - available 6th January - 31st March during Sale-A-Bration. Bermuda Bay Blendabilties - available 6th January.

Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Window Frames Collection Framelits Dies	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Pumpkin Pie Assortment
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Alcohol Marker Color Lifter	Island Indigo A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock
Island Indigo Classic Stampin' Pad	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment

Today it's a special day: the Colour Me...! challenge is celebrating its first birthday and so the co-creators, the lovely Hayley and Tara, are hosting a party to celebrate! As one of the outgoing designers, I was invited to choose any previous challenge colour combination and create a card for this week's showcase. I decided to go with the creative choice from week 5, which enabled me to use some of the gorgeous new 'Best Year Ever' DSP from the 2015 Sale-A-Bration offering; I also used this week's sketch layout over at Create With Connie and Mary, as this layout was perfect for what I had in mind: 

As much as I've enjoyed making Christmas cards these past few months, I am so ready for a change! The colours of the promotional designer series paper and co-ordinating embellishment packs are like a breath of spring air - take a look:

I based the colour scheme for my card on the feature colours of the Best Day Ever papers - Calypso Coral, Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry, Soft Suede and Sahara Sand, with white as my neutral - isn't it a gorgeous colour combination for Spring? I used two pieces of the same paper for my card, paired with a couple of blocks of solid colour, as the background for my card, then used another Sale-A-Bration promotional item, the 'Big Day' stamp set to create my focal point. What better than a birthday cake with a single candle for a first birthday?! The sentiment is from the same set. I stamped them both in Soft Suede, before colouring with my Calypso Coral and Coastal Cabana Blendabilities. Did you know that Stampin' Up! Blendabilities work with many of the standard Stampin' Up! coloured ink pads, in addition to Memento Black? Sometimes an alternative colour outline works really well and can give a different effect. I decided to create a little 'badge' to anchor my sentiment, using a punched circle, a number 1 cut with my retired Typeset alphabet Bigz Die (you could use the Perfect Print Bigz Number Die as an alternative) and a punched gold glimmer star. I coloured the envelope to match and I even created a fancy sentiment inside my card:

Both the Best Day Ever DSP and the Big Day stamp set are items that could be yours free with a purchase of £45 or more during Sale-A-Bration; Slae-A-Bration starts early this year on 6th January, so not long to wait now! I made this card to congratulate Hayley and Tara on their first Colour Me...! anniversary, however it would work just as well for a child's first birthday I think in this colour scheme.

That's all from me today; do pop by the Colour Me...! challenge blog and see what other birthday delights are in store. I hope you have a fun New Year's Eve planned - mine will be a quiet one - and I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

* Best Day Ever Designer Series Paper and Big Day stamp set available 6th January.

Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Calypso Coral Assortment	Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Coastal Cabana Assortment	Card Stock A4 Crushed Curry
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch
1-1/4 Inch Circle Punch	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack	Gold Glimmer Paper	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig

A quick card from me today for this week's challenge over at Merry Monday, where Deanne would like us to use a bird on our card:

I am sharing a card I made at one of my first Christmas card classes, which featured the lovely Partridge & Pears stamp. Here is my card:

This is one of the simpler cards that we made and I left it sentiment-free on the front, as I didn't want to interfere with the embossing folder detail. The main tree image was stamped in Memento Black ink and coloured with a selection of Stampin' Up! Blendabilities and then fussy cut and popped up on dimensionals so that it would really stand out. I love this image for a traditional Christmas card and whilst I don't use embossing folders as much as the other products in my craft room, I love the effect of this frame around the focal image.

That's all from me today - I'm off to my first Christmas party of the season this evening. Back tomorrow with my very last Design Team post for The Paper Players. My 6 month tenure has finally come to an end and whilst I will be sad to leave that amazing team, you will not want to miss tomorrow's post as we have some very special projects lined up for you! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Partridge & Pears Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Filigree Frame Textured Impressions Embossing Folders	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock
Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Old Olive Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Skin Tone Assortment

A nice early post from me today as I have a busy day ahead. I'm just in time to squeeze in a link up with the lovely designers over at SUO Challenges, where the latest challenge is to make a project using any kind of Stampin' Up! markers. I use my Stampin' Write markers frequently, but wanted to showcase a card using one of my most favourite new(ish) Stampin' Up! products - Blendabilities. I made a version of this card in my September card class, but didn't blog it so wanted to share today as it not only uses Blendabilities but a really fun technique too. Here is my card:

My card features the 'Partridges & Pears' stamp set. I stamped the main image in Versamark on Basic Black cardstock and heat embossed in white embossing powder, then used my Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Skin tone, Smoky Slate, Daffodil Delight and Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities to colour the heat-enbossed image. I kept the layout of my card quite simple, matting the central panel on a piece of Cherry Cobbler cardstock before adhering to my black card base and finishing with a wide flagged piece of Daffodil Delight cardstock, with the sentiment stamped across it in Memento Black ink. This card was difficult to photograph and does look more vibrant in real life - the image really stands out against the black. This is another great way to use your Blendabilities markers, in addition to straightforward blended colouring. 

That's all from me today; we have homework to do, a spot of housework, school Christmas Fayre, swimming lessons and dinner with friends to fit in today - wish me luck! Back tomorrow with this week's design team card for The Paper Players; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Crushed Curry	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Old Olive Assortment
Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Pumpkin Pie Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment

It's Wednesday and time for this week's challenge over at Colour Me...! where we have a striking palette for you to work with this week:

This week's colours put me in something of a quandry: I am completely into Christmas makes at the moment, but these colours really weren't shouting Christmas at me, not even in an unconventional sense! I also considered a fall/autumn themed card, but in the end decided to make a card to add to my 'ready to go'stash that could be used for a number of different purposes.  So here's today's card:

I used this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch for my layout and the hostess set 'Hello Love' which has the cute little birds in it and decided to make a clean 'collage style' card using the various images in the set and creating some subtle layering of the various elements. I used my Night of Navy Stampin' Up! Blendabilities pens to colour in the bird and also to colour in the words 'hello love' which would otherwise be on the cloud, as I wanted my sentiment to be contained within the word bubble. This is such a fun set as it comes with a number of possible second sentiments, so that you could make the card into a number of different types of congratulations card. I haven't actually stamped the inside, although I think I might add the birthday sentiment as this card would make a fun card for my nephew's birthday next week (according to my daughter!)

So what do you think? Feel free to leave a comment on today's card, before hopping over to check out the amazing cards by the rest of the Colour Me...! team:

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hello Love Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Regals Designer Series Paper Stack	Tangelo Twist Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangelo Twist A4 Cardstock	2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers
Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Night Of Navy Assortment	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Hearts Border Punch

Today has been a busy day full of highs and lows: a poorly boy at home and a central heating boiler that has packed up and won't be fixed until early next week, but also a pleasant Ladies Afternoon at a local salon and a fun-filled evening at our annual Bonfire and Fireworks Display at school. All in all a busy one and a late blog, so I'd best get on with today's card! Today's creation uses this week's sketch over at Mojo Monday combined with the colour challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary:

I really liked this sketch and thought the colour combination was an interesting one, as I wouldn't normally choose to combine blue with red on a Christmas card, so I wanted to have a play and see if I could make it work. Here is my card:

I used Cherry Cobbler for my base and added a strip of Lost Lagoon followed by a piece of Whisper White trimmed on one side with the Scallop Border Punch and overlaid with a piece of white and Cherry Cobbler patterned paper from the Trim the Tree DSP paper stack. To create the pennant banner, I stamped the 'Holiday Happy' stamp from the Mingle All The Way stamp set and coloured it with my Lost Lagoon marker and Cherry Cobbler and Smoky Slate Blendabilities. I added a strip of All is Calm washi tape the the top of the pennant and added a few rhinestones coloured with my Stampin' Up! Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities markers and stamped the 'Happy' banner a second time on a scrap of Whisper white cardstock, which I then cut out with my paper snips and popped on a couple of dimensionals for a little extra interest. To finish, I added a piece of Lost Lagoon Silky Taffeta Ribbon tied in a bow.

I rather like the finished look of today's card and this colour combo is certainly one I would consider using again.

Back tomorrow with my design card for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players.

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Mingle All The Way Clear-Mount Stamp Set	All Is Calm Designer Washi Tape	Trim The Tree Designer Series Paper Stack	Lost Lagoon 3/8" Silky Taffeta Ribbon	Lost Lagoon A4 Cardstock
2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Scallop Edge Border Punch	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad
Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents