It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Jeanne has asked that we use a curve and non-geometrical shape in our designs.

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. i did just that today and rotated the sketch through 90 degrees to create a landscape card. If you are a card maker you will undoubtedly have seen the flood of blue and yellow cards in support of #cardsforukraine. The lovely peeps over at Color Hues are having a double challenge in honour of this and are also featuring the colours of the Ukranian national flag in a bonus colour combo for this challenge, so I decided it was time for me to show my support and play along. The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine and whilst I have one of those cards in the pipeline to share with you in another post, for today's challenge I decided to use the row of tulips in the Tulips Dies set for that wiggly line - take a look:

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

This card really is super simple to execute - the effort here was in the planning! A Pacific Point card base, then overlaid a panel of Daffodil Delight for the diecut tulips. I chose to feature a stamped windmill as my non-geometrical shape and stamped it in Pacific Point onto Daffodil Delight, stamping the sentiment from the Flowering Tulips set below it - the words seemed appropriate in the circumstances as the people of Ukraine are most definitely in our thoughts. 

This card is all about the bold blocks of just two colours; it is unusual for there to be no white at all on this card, but having tried a few different things the blue-on-yellow windmill was definitely the way to go - the windmill is much more a part of the landscape and it emulates the horizontal lines of the Ukrainian flag. The only white was for my stamped panel on the inside of my card:

Do you ever use blocks of colour in this way in your crafting? Bold blocks of colour can have a big impact and by avoiding clutter that clean-and-simple feel and 'white space' is preserved. 

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. 

As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! color names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

TULIPS DIES (£33.00)

TULIP FIELDS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£17.00)

FLOWERING TULIPS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£22.00)

DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

PACIFIC POINT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

PACIFIC POINT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

Happy Monday everyone! The kiddos are back to school so I'm hoping for a productive crafting week! Today I'm sharing the other card that I made using this week's Paper Players sketch (you can see my design team post from yesterday here if you missed it) that was inspired by the spring colours over at CAS Colours and Sketches this week:

I bought my first bunches of daffodils last week and have been busy working with Spring flowers in my craft room for the last few days in readiness for my upcoming Spring Weekend Craft Retreat; it's pouring down with rain here in the UK again and I am so keen to see an end to Winter now! I'm ready to welcome Spring and these colours were perfect to bring a little more seasonal colour my way - take a look:

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

I stamped this stem of daffodils from the retired set 'You're Inspired' stamp set and coloured them with my Stampin' Blends and then created another colour blocked background using the three challenge colours and my stitched rectangle dies to sit behind it. These kinds of backgrounds are easy to create - my top tip would be to cut your three strips of coloured cardstock and adhere them to a piece of Whisper White cardstock before running through the diecutting machine; this keeps them perfectly aligned and in one piece. I added a heat embossed sentiment and some twine to my stamped layer to complete my card.

Daffodils are one of my favourite flowers; I love their sunny colour combinations and they are so cheery when the weather outside is anything but!

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; I'll be spending mine escaping from the weather and instead being brightened up with the colours of my craft supplies! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Grapefruit Grove A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Pear Pizzazz A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)
Old Olive Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Whisper White Solid Baker's Twine (£3.25)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)	White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)

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 my favourite, a sketch challenge for you to work with:

I struggled a little with this week's sketch - I think it was because there were so many things I wanted to do with that central panel! In the end I decided to make a couple of cards. Here's the first one - using blue, green and a friendship sentiment from the current Festive Friday inspo list - featuring one of my favourite sets from the current Spring catalogue - take a look:

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

Beautiful Moments is one of my favourite new stamp sets! I am so pleased to be able to add this one to my collection that feature other images drawn by the same artist; this set was inspired by $1million Sales Achiever Jacque Williams and contains three separate images of girls of varying ages. I think they are so beautiful. I kept things simple by stamping my image onto Shimmery White paper and colouring with my aquapainter and then created a colour-block background using the three main colours of my main image. I actually made this card to send to a friend of mine who's been having a tough time of it recently - I added one of the other sentiments from the inside as a perfect reminder that she is cherished:

I can't wait to make more cards using the other images in this set, so watch this space! I'll update my post later with the second card that I made with this week's sketch. 

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:

Enjoy your day; we have a busy day today with one of the James Juniors playing hockey this afternoon and the other spending all day on the indoor ski slopes  learning to ski in advance of a school trip to Italy in a couple of months time. So I'm expecting two tired children for dinner this evening! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Beautiful Moments Cling Stamp Set (£21.00)	Stitched Rectangle Dies (£33.00)	Shimmery White A4 Cardstock (£9.25)	Seaside Spray A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Seaside Spray Classic Stampin’ Pad (£7.00)	Pretty Peacock A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Pretty Peacock Classic Stampin’ Pad (£7.00)	Old Olive A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Jet Black Stāzon Ink Pad (£9.25)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)

Today I have something a little different for you! Do you remember this card from a couple of week's ago? Well, it won me the honour of being Featured Stamper for Challenge #459 over at The Color Throwdown and resulted in me being invited to be their Guest Star Stamper this week - woo hoo!

Here is the colour palette that has been chosen for this week's challenge:

I love these colours but wasn't sure I could make them work with anything other than a Halloween card and I haven't bought any new Halloween stamp sets this year (shock horror!); it's more about treat packaging and home decor here in the UK rather than cards, however I loved that gorgeous inspiration photo with its colourful autumn leaves and decided to use that as my starting point instead. This is what I came up with:

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

Colour Blocked Leaves - I decided to meet these colours head-on and go with bold blocks of colour to really make a statement. Using my Seasonal Layers thinlits I cut a whole bunch of brightly coloured leaves to create my repeat pattern and glued them to my purple card base. It's almost like faux-embossing, only with each of the leaves a different colour.

Touches of Copper - I knew I wanted a sentiment for this card, so decided to use one of my current favourites from the 'Painted Harvest' stamp set; so perfect for fall/autumn and the season of Thanksgiving. I heat embossed it in copper and backed my sentiment panel with gold foil too, so that along with my single detailed leaf outline it would add a little definition to my card and stand out against the bright colours.

A Watercolour Accent - I needed something else to accompany my sentiment that would work with my bold colours and patterns, so decided to create a layered leaf accent using the larger leaf dies from the Seasonal Layers Thinlits set. I used my green, yellow and orange re-inkers to watercolour a piece of watercolour paper using my aquapainter, then layered it with the skeleton leaf diecut out of copper foil. I love the contrast with the background blocks of colour and the interest and dimension this adds to my card.  

I'm also linking today's card up with the gals over at SUO Challenges where the theme is Autumn colours - my second one this week, it must be the season! 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. 

Thank you to all the ladies at The Color Throwdown for inviting me to guest with them this week - do check out their blogs to see how they interpreted this colour combination, there is lots of great inspiration there!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Painted Harvest Photopolymer Stamp Set	Seasonal Layers Thinlits Dies	Copper Foil Sheets	Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder	Elegant Eggplant A4 Cardstock
Garden Green A4 Cardstock	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Tangerine Tango A4 Cardstock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
Aqua Painters	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Watercolor Paper

I've had a full day today with a group of lovely ladies at my extended technique class. I'll be sharing more of those cards in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, today I'm sharing a card for this week's challenge over at CAS(E) This Sketch that also uses the current colour palette over at Fab Friday:

I was intrigued by the lovely Hannelie's sketch this week and whilst my instinct was to run a mile at the five bright colours over at Fab Friday, I suddenly had an idea that worked perfectly for me when I combined both challenges - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Summer Seasonal Layers - I decided to use a bright, white adirondack chair diecut cut with my Seasonal Layers Thinlits for the silhouette motif - complete with cooling lemonade drink on the side for the focal point of my card. It's the perfect fit with that summery colour palette too.

Block That Colour - The five summer colours of the Fab Friday colour palette could be a challenge to use on a single card without them becoming overwhelming. The sketch though allows them to be used for big, bold blocks of colour that have impact whilst balanced by the large expanse of white space that surround them.  Perfect!

Holiday Wishes - What sentiment to use on my summery card? I am soon off on my summer vacation and seriously looking forward to whiling away the hours in a chair just like this, with a drink by my side, enjoying the warmth and generally relaxing into my holiday idyll. I created a customised sentiment using the Thoughtful Banners stamp set  - what better way to send someone on their summer travels?

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'll be back tomorrow with another project. I'm hoping for the return of warmer weather here tomorrow as otherwise I will have a couple of boisterous, stir-crazy boys on my hands as we have a friend coming over to play. Wish me luck!   Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Seasonal Layers Thinlits Dies	Colorful Seasons Photopolymer Stamp Set	Thoughtful Banners Photopolymer Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock
Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad	Berry Burst A4 Cardstock	Berry Burst Classic Stampin' Pad	Lemon Lime Twist A4 Cardstock	Lemon Lime Twist Classic Stampin' Pad
Bermuda Bay A4 Cardstock	Tangerine Tango A4 Cardstock

We've had a Bank Holiday here in the UK today - not only a long weekend, but the sun has shone all day too! I spent my morning sewing name labels in new school uniform for the James juniors (I have the needle pricks to prove it - ouch!) then a pleasant afternoon outside and a little crafting time too. Today I have a card I made for the current challenge over at Fab Friday, where the challenge is to make a card that uses each of this year's new in-colours:

I decided to have a go at an in-colour Christmas card that used all five colours. Take a look at what I came up with: 

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

Perfect Pines Christmas Tree - I cropped my Christmas tree with the Perfect Pines framelits. This set featured in last year's holiday catalogue and I was thrilled to see it carried forward into the annual catalogue. I love all of this year's in colours, however they aren't designed to be used as a set. So a word of caution - to prevent visual overload, it makes sense to choose one or two colours to focus on and allow the others to have a supporting role. Preserve white space too! I decided that Emerald Envy would be the main colour on my card, with Dapper Denim also providing some border colour and then the three lighter colours used sparingly elsewhere on my card.

Colour Blocked Fairy Lights - The simple appearance of this card belies how tricky it actually was to create. Why, you ask? Well, I had this idea that I would use the framelit to cut out strings of lights on my Christmas tree and place strips of cardstock behind. I wanted to ensure that each light was a single colour and that you couldn't see the joins between the coloured strips through the gaps. After much fussing and fiddling with my layout, I eventually worked out how to achieve the look I was after: I increased the height of each coloured strip by 1mm as I progressed down the tree, starting at 5mm and finishing at 10mm. I also cut away the top two strips so that only one of each of the colours could be seen extending beyond the tree across the card front. So easy when you know how - and yes, you are welcome!

Enamel Star - the only other things I added to my card were my greeting from the new Merriest Wishes stamp set and a Sweet Sugarplum enamel star that I added to the top of my tree. Love these enamel shapes in every colour!

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. 

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Perfect Pines Framelits Dies

Merriest Wishes Clear-Mount Stamp Set

2016-2018 In Color A4 Cardstock

2016-2018 In Color Enamel Shapes

Emerald Envy Classic Stampin' Pad

Whisper White A4 Cardstock

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my dear friend Claire's turn to host this week and she has a great palette of primary colours for you to work with:

These colours are perfect for a back to school project. I actually used these colours for a quick card that I made for this week's sketch challenge over at the As You See It Challenge earlier this week but couldn't link it up as their site is down, so I thought I would instead share it today (edited to add: subsequently back on line now so I've linked):

There is so much you could do with the AYSI sketch, but I found myself constantly returning to the idea that it had all the makings of a Mondrian painting - so I decided to create a clean and simple card in that style. Here's the low-down on today's card:

Mondrian Blocks of Colour - Piet Mondrian is a Dutch painter famous for his modern art using bold blocks of primary colours and white, delineated with black lines. My card is a super-simple card in this style; my fellow PP designer, Hannelie Bester, has also made a card with a Mondrian influence this week that is much more intricate and detailed and if you're a fan of this style of art you should definitely check it out.

Suite Words of Success - This message of success comes from the 'Suite Sayings' sentiment set. I've not used this set in a while, but I've used it many times earlier this year and it's one I was so pleased to see carried over from the Spring-Summer seasonal catalogue into the annual. This modern font was the perfect fit for my card today.

Perpetual Stars - Rather than leave my sentiment just black on white, I did break with my colour blocking slightly to add a burst of bright yellow stars to add to the celebratory feel. I used the star stamp from the Perpetual Calendar stamp set for this - such a useful set with lots of small stamps that are perfect for small details. 

I know lots of students expecting GCSE exam results this year, so I thought this would make a great exam success card. Maybe one that would work for a boy too - not too '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. 

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

I look forward to seeing what you create with our colours this week.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Suite Sayings Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Perpetual Birthday Calendar Photopolymer Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad
Pacific Point A4 Cardstock	Real Red A4 Cardstock	Basic Black A4 Cardstock	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad

A quick post from me today with a great clean and simple card for the man in your life! My card today was inspired by the inspiration photo over at Fusion and the sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches:

I love the nautical-themed inspiration photo and knew just the thing to make it work with the sketch - take a look:

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

Blocks of Primary Colour - To keep a 'clean and simple' feel to my card, I restricted myself to a red, white and blue colour palette. These three colours also reinforce the nautical feel of my card. I popped these coloured pieces up on dimensionals to emphasise the diagonal channel. Here's my colour palette if you'd like to save it:

A Diagonal Slant - The diagonals on the sketch were perfect to showcase two rows of nautical flags from the 'Sea Street' stamp set that I still had out n my desk after making yesterday's project.

A Big, Bold Happy Birthday - I finished my card with a big 'Happy Birthday' from the retiring hostess set 'Happy Birthday Everyone'. Such a great sentiment set - I'll be sorry to see this one go!

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. 

That's all from me today; I have another busy day planned with a team meeting and networking event on the cards. back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Sea Street Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red A4 Cardstock
Happy Birthday, Everyone Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Stampin' Dimensionals	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock

It's Tuesday and whatever the weather outside, today I have a colourful card for you! As promised yesterday, it's another one using this week's inspiration photo over at Just Add Ink, paired this time with the sketch challenge over at CAS Colours and Sketches:

Having fathomed out my punch art umbrella for yesterday's card (if you missed it you can see that card here) I had originally contemplated a quintet of umbrellas for today's card. Needless to say, it ended up looking a rather jumbled mess, not at all the vision of CAS beauty I had in mind, so I went back to basics and instead created this altogether simpler card:

A white birthday card that really allows those umbrella colours to pop - read on for the low-down on today's card:

Whiter than white - Whilst I did promise colour today, it's the large expanses of white that preserve the clean lines of today's card. Stampin' Up!'s extra thick white cardstock is perfect for card bases and the white-on-white layering here creates a modern, almost graphic feel. Splitting the top layer and popping it up on dimensionals creates a great recess to highlight the feature colours too.

Blocks of colour - I used the colours of the inspiration photo to create bold blocks of colour and interpreted the sketch quite literally to support my clean design. I simply cut 5 pieces of cardstock of equal height and positioned them next to each other down the front of my card, cutting them slightly wider than my recess so that their edges were concealed. 

Multi-coloured sentiment - When choosing my sentiment, I remembered this stamp from the 'Amazing Birthday' stamp set. I coloured the horizontal lines of the sentiment with my Stampin' Write Markers to echo the pattern of my recessed blocks of colour then 'huffed' on my stamp to moisten it before stamping. The slightly wonky 'happy's' of the sentiment add a fun touch of whimsy to my otherwise perfectly aligned, sharp design.

Here is the visual summary of the key supplies used on today's card for you to pin for easy future reference:

I hope you like today's clean and simple unisex birthday card - it really is so easy to re-create, would work in lots of colourways and requires next to no supplies! A great way to use up lots of scraps of cardstock left over from other projects too.

I am doubly happy that I managed to make it to link up with the lovely ladies over at CAS Colours and Sketches this week; these ladies are a lovely bunch with great talent and for this last month they have also been featuring one of my Stampin' Up! team, the lovely Gail Townsend from Gail's Place as their Guest Designer. You can see Gail's card here and those of the rest of the Design Team on the main CAS Colours and Sketches challenge page. Do pop by and give them a visit - I'm sure they would love to hear from you as we all like a little blog lovin' from time to time :-).

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Amazing Birthday Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Stampin' Dimensionals	Real Red A4 Cardstock	Cucumber Crush A4 Cardstock
Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Many Marvelous Markers

Aren't you all lucky - this is my second post of the day! I have another card to share with you that I would like to link up with this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge and The Color Throwdown:

I love that block-striped welly boot and I thought these colours would be perfect for a masculine birthday card that would totally work with the sketch and my 'Hello You' thinlit dies. Here's my card:

I used Crumb Cake for my base and the 'happy' thinlit, and inset the thinlit into a panel of Real Red and Night of Navy, with Tempting Turquoise centres. I then stamped the 'Birthday To You' on the red panel in Night of Navy. A couple of epoxy stars - love these! - one backed with turquoise, one backed with gold foil, and a Navy candy dot finished off my card. I love this card - I think I'm going to have to make a few more of these!

Back tomorrow with another project; until then happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Crazy About You Photopolymer Bundle	Itty Bitty Accents Epoxy Stickers	Gold Foil Sheets	Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad
Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Tempting Turquoise A4 Card Stock	Regals Candy Dots