It's Wednesday already? The week is zipping by! I'm sure that time moves quicker the nearer to Christmas we get! I have a great festive monochromatic Christmas card for you today: big on layers, easy to recreate - just what we like at this time of year! I made today's card with a couple of challenges in mind:

The sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch this week is a classic and I just love the inspiration photo at CanYouCaseIt - so much shine! I took my inspiration from the red and white elements and the shiny foil which I incorporated into the border frame for my card:

Isn't that striped Holiday vellum just gorgeous? I matted it on a piece of Whisper White cardstock before adhering to my Real Red base so that the red foil stripes would really stand out. For the focal point of my card, I used the sentiment from the 'Cheer All Year' stamp set - so versatile - and my little hot cocoa mugs are from the 'Project Life Hello December 2015' stamp set - another one of those sets that is useful for so much more than its designed purpose.

Are any of you out there joining in with the #decemberdaily project? I love to create a Project Life mini-album each December documenting the goings on in the James household during the festive season, so the above stamp set was a must for me to decorate this year's journalling, along with the Hello December 2015 Project Life Card Collection and Accessory Kit:

I'm mindful that I don't often share my Project Life documenting here on my blog - I just tend to get on with it! - but I'm trying to consciously change that, so throughout December I will be sharing some of the inspiration for my daily journalling and occasionally some of my completed pages in the hope that they will inspire you to get involved in active memory keeping too. Yesterday's page will feature the arrival of our Christmas Elf Charlie, who often gets up to mischief in the run up to Christmas and yesterday appeared with a fun piece of home decor I made to remind the James Juniors that good behaviour is important more now than ever since the elf will be reporting back to Santa on everything he sees and hears:

Isn't that fun? Surprisingly easy to create with the help of my e-cutter and some Stampin' Up! cardstock. Here's a picture of Charlie as he made his first appearance of the year:

This morning Ben was out of bed, up and dressed in record time and off on the hunt for Charlie to see what mischief he had got up to overnight; he eventually found him hiding in the basil pot amongst the herbs on the kitchen windowsill. Here's to more mayhem as the month progresses!

If you would like to join me in documenting your December, it's not too late to order the supplies to create your own album; just click on the links below to go to the online store or give me a call and I would be happy to place an order for you. More tips and Project Life #decemberdaily inspiration to come! Equally, if you would like to share your own #decemberdaily memories, feel free to upload them to my Facebook page here - I would love to feature them.

That's all from me today; I'll be back tomorrow with a festive card for this week's new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary. until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Project Life Hello December 2015 Photopolymer Stamp Set	Cheer All Year Photopolymer Stamp Set	Holidays Fancy Foil Designer Vellum	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red A4 Cardstock
Whisper White A4 Cardstock

Project Life #dailydecember Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Project Life Hello December 2015 Photopolymer Stamp Set

Hello December 2015 Project Life Card Collection

Hello December 2015 Project Life Accessory Pack

Kraft 6" X 8" Project Life Album

Variety Pack 6" X 8" Project Life Photo Pocket Pages

Project Life Journaling Pens

Just time today to squeeze in a blog post using this week's sketch over at Mojo Monday; the talented Julee Tilman comes up with some of the best sketches and I love to play along here whenever I can. Here is this week's sketch:

The minute I saw this week's sketch I knew what I wanted to do with it and fortunately I managed to find some time this afternoon to bring my design to fruition. Here's my card:

I just knew I wanted to use one of my spider web doilies for the circular element, so my Halloween theme and everything else just came from there. A Tangelo Twist base and a piece of the large gingham-print Happy Hauntings DSP served as the background, with a panel of the fun ghostly pattern from the same set as my feature piece. I overlayed this with the spider web doily and a 'Boo' from the Cheer All Year set stamped in Tangelo Twist on Very Vanilla for my centre. I stamped my main sentiment in black on a piece of Tangelo Twist - also from Cheer All Year, although I masked it and stamped the 'happy' above the 'haunting' rather than alongside it. I was looking at my finished card and felt like it was missing a little something, so I fussy cut a spider from black glimmer paper and placed him on the spider's web (I did cut him freehand, so don't look too closely at his less-than-straight legs!). I'm also playing along with the team over at Fusion this week since my chosen theme fits with their photo inspiration a treat (right down to the lone spider!) 

I hope you like today's card; back tomorrow with this week's card for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Spider Web Doilies	Happy Haunting Designer Series Paper	Black Glimmer Paper	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Basic Black A4 Cardstock
Tangelo Twist Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangelo Twist A4 Cardstock	Punch Corner Project Life	Cheer All Year Photopolymer Stamp Set	1" Circle Punch

It's all about leaves today! I've had a busy yet fun day today with a lovely bunch of ladies today making autumn wreaths. It's always fun to get together and do something a little different and it's nice to teach people to make things other than cards once in a while. I will share our project later this week; today I'm sneaking in a card to a couple of challenges I've had my eye on:

I just love this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch (patterns in threes are always good!) and the theme and colours along with the wonderful autumnal inspiration at The Challenge inspired me to create my card today:

A base of kraft cardstock with a mat of Cheery Cobbler provide the perfect backdrop for my Very Vanilla panel, which I stamped with the Hello Autumn sentiment from the 'Cheer All Year' set (such a versatile set, this one!) in Soft Suede and the leaf image from the Project Life Seasonal Snapshot 2015 set, which I stamped alternately in Delightful Dijon, Cajun Craze and Cherry Cobbler. I added a linen thread bow to one of my leaves to finish and that's my clean and simple card for today! I love stamp sets that can be used for lots of different things and today's cards uses two such sets. 

That's all from me today; back early tomorrow with this week's post for the new challenge this week over at Create With Connie and Mary. until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Cheer All Year Photopolymer Stamp Set	Project Life Seasonal Snapshot 2015 Photopolymer Stamp Set	Delightful Dijion Classic Stampin' Pad	Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad
Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad	Cherry Cobbler A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Kraft 12" X 12" Cardstock	Linen Thread

I'm back with today's creative post; I managed to find the time to whip up a card for two challenges using the very versatile 'Cheer All Year' stamp set. My card uses the rather autumnal colour palette over at Fab Friday and this week's CAS(E) This Sketch layout:

I thought the Fab Friday colours would be perfect for some autumnal acorns; since I'm still waiting for my Acorny hello set to arrive though, I decided to use the acorn in the 'Cheer All Year' set. Take a look:

I used an Old Olive card base and covered the whole of the front with a piece of gingham Farmers Market designer series paper in Old Olive and Very Vanilla. I cut my Very Vanilla top panel slightly smaller and offset it to show a border of dsp on two sides, then stamped by sentiment in Rich Razzleberry before adding my row of acorns in Old Olive. I stamped them again in Soft Suede on some scrap paper and cut out the tops and adhered them separately allowing the top of the uppermost one to overhang. I made a feature of one of the acorns, stamping the base of this one in Rich Razzleberry and punching out with the new Acorn builder Punch, before adding a gold button double tied with linen thread and popping it up on a couple of dimensionals. 

A quick clean and simple card - I just love those graphic acorns! 'Cheer All Year' is such a versatile set - it has something for all seasons as it is designed to accompany the 'Season To Season' Wreath Project Kit, yet can be used for so much more besides.

Back tomorrow with this week's card for our new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary; until then, happy stmapin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Acorn Builder Punch	Cheer All Year Photopolymer Stamp Set	Farmers Market Designer Series Paper	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad	Rich Razzlebberry Classic Stampin' Pad
Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Old Olive A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Gold Basic Metal Buttons	Linen Thread

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a great sketch challenge for you:

I'm linking up with the talented peeps over at Stamps Ink Paper (I'm hoping they are going to allow Vanilla as my white!) and I decided to go with a Halloween theme today and as today's blog title suggests, if your arachnophobic you should look away now - there are lots of spiders! Here's my card:

This card is a total showcase of this fabby spiderweb patterned paper from the Happy Haunting designer series paper pack - like I said, not one for those that are not a fan of the creepy crawlies, but at least they are on paper and not in the bathtub!

I stamped s bunch of extra spiders from the Cheer All Year set and fussy cut them, before adhering beneath my sentiment banner. I like how they are mostly obscured, but look like they are crawling out from underneath! They took a while to cut out, but so worth it as they are quite realistic-looking I think. To add just a splash of colour to my rather monochromatic card, I stamped my sentiment in Rich Razzleberry onto a banner, having flagged the end with my hexagon punch. I added a fussy-cut bat also from the Cheer All Year set which I allowed to overhang my card and finished him with one of the lovely new Iced Rhinestone embellishments, the centre of which I coloured with a purple Sharpie to add another spot of colour.

I hope you like today's card. Do visit the other Design Team members to see how they used this week's challenge sketch; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

Enjoy your day; my Juniors are at Granny's house today, so you can be sure my day will be a jam-packed one, full of chores and errands. You know what they say - no rest for the wicked! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Today I'm breaking from my run of Christmas cards, however never fear, I have another 'sneak peek' for you, this time of some of the new Halloween products that are on the way. I used this week's Retrosketches challenge for my layout:

I used the main stamp in the set 'Witches Night' set; this is the set that accompanies the Witching Decor Project Kit (more on that another time!) but the stamps in the set can be used on lots more projects besides. Here's my card: 

I used Tangelo Twist for my base, with a piece of Basic Black Color Me Irresistible Specialty Designer Series Paper on top raised on dimensionals. I tucked a spider web doily behind so that it peeked out across the orange, then stamped my main sentiment greeting on Memento Black onto Very Vanilla cardstock, and cut out with one of the Lots of Labels framelit dies. To finish, I stamped a spider from the new 'Cheer All year' set in Versamark onto Tangelo Twist and heat embossed in black to give it a lovely shine. I punched this out with a 1" circle punch and attached to the black panel with some of the retired SAB Tangelo Twist thick baker's twine. 

This card came together quite quickly - the large decorative sentiment certainly makes a statement!

That's all from me today; I'll be back tomorrow another 'sneak peek', this time showcasing some of the lovely new Autumnal range. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

* Witches Night - available September 1st

*Cheer All Year - available September 1st

*Spider Web Doilies - available September 1st

Color Me Irresistible Specialty Designer Series Paper	Lots Of Labels Framelits Dies	Big Shot	Magnetic Platform	Embossing Buddy
Versamark Pad	Heat Tool (Uk)	Black Stampin' Emboss Powder	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	1" Circle Punch
Tangelo Twist A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock