Well hello! Have you missed me? I hope you've all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and best wishes for a very happy new year! I had a very busy Christmas season and had to take an extended blogging break; sometimes some things just have to give and for me my blog was one of them this past few weeks. Anyway, now I'm back and here with a card to welcome in the new year. I'm also entering a couple of challenges: the Paper Craft Crew are looking for a black-tie gala inspired card and the peeps over at CAS-ual Fridays are working with the theme of 'Celebrations':

I decided that today the owl should return in more ways than one - take a look at my card to see what I mean:

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

A Dapper Owl - The star of today's card is the super-sparkly, rather dapper Fred Astaire-esque owl that is tripping the light fantastic as he welcomes in the new year! The Owl Builder Punch was one of my first Stampin' Up! purchases and I love how versatile it is. I used the owl punch to make the very first new year card that I blogged way back in 2013 when I first began blogging (you can see that card here) so it seemed fitting that I should use an altogether more elegant owl to kick start 2017. This card also heralds the start of a new weekly feature of mine: each week I will be creating a card that features a different owl or character made with the Owl Builder Punch. This is a fun way to demonstrate the versatility of this popular Stampin' Up! punch, so be sure to tune in each week for your owl inspiration. Today's owl sports a gold glimmer waistcoat and a top hat and bow tie courtesy of the Snow Friends Framelits. The walking cane is a simple strip of glimmer paper and a circle punched with the owl builder punch. Along with my Large Number Framelit numbers, today's owl is seriously sparkly!

It's A Celebration - My starry background is courtesy of the fireworks in the 'It's a Celebration' stamp set in the current seasonal catalogue; I stamped them in Versamark and heat embossed in silver and gold for a dramatic background reminiscent of the night sky.

Yes, Let's Celebrate 2017! - I finished my card with a sentiment from the 'Confetti Celebration' stamp set - ot just for birthdays, this set works for lots of other kinds of celebration 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 Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

That's all from me; I'm off to spend the day with the extended James family to welcome in the new year. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Owl Builder Punch	Snow Friends Framelits Dies	It's A Celebration Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Confetti Celebration Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Embossing Buddy
Versamark Pad	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder	Gold Glimmer Paper	Gold Foil Sheets
Basic Black A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Cardstock

Happy Monday everyone! I've spent a busy day doing housework today, with the result that 'Chez James' now looks as neat as a pin and the ironing basket is completely empty, so I am writing my blog post before collecting Rebecca from school. I am collecting her from her rounders practice a little earlier than usual today as her singing lesson this week has been rescheduled; she is off on a school trip to Harry Potter world at Elstree Studios on Wednesday - lucky girl! 

So today's card uses yesterday's Paper Players sketch again, but this time to make a shaker card for this week's challenge over at Pals Paper Arts:

I loved this bright and cheery colour combo and there are some lovely Design Team cards this week. My fellow Paper Players designer Linda Callahan also used them on her Paper Players card yesterday (you can see Linda's card here) with some gorgeous florals. I decided to go with a shaker card for my entry - take a look:

For today's card the colours may well be familiar to you, but there are some fabulous 'sneak peeks' of new catalogue product:

Time to Party With Confetti Celebration - Confetti Celebration is a fun new stamp set with all the making of a good party: decorations (check out the string of lights that I used on the front of my card), stars, balloons and some great sentiments. Both of the sentiments on my card are in this new set and I love that the 'Hooray' is framed perfectly in the shaker window.

Lots of Sprinkles - The sprinkles for today's shaker were created with a new punch of the same name. The Sprinkles Punch will be perfect for creating table confetti or the insides for shakers in a range of colours and glimmer papers. I colour-co-ordinated mine with the challenge colours and added a few gold star sequins too for good measure.

A Hidden Shaker 'Gem' - The best thing about today's shaker card is the one thing you can't see! A strange thing to say I know, but the new catalogue has a new supply item that will revolutionise shaker card construction: foam adhesive strips! Just like the ones in the Christmas shaker card kits in the last Autumn-Winter seasonal catalogue, they are a little deeper than Dimensionals and give just the right height for a good shaker card. I am going to get so much use out of these!

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'!

It's Wednesday and time for a new challenge over at the Colour Me...! Card Challenge. This week we have a playful colour palette for you to work with - I also chose to use this week's Retrosketches layout for my card:

I love the bright colours of this week's colour palette, so decided to create a nice cheery card to really make the most of them - here's my card:

I used Bermuda Bay as the base colour for my card and decided to make a 4" square card for a change. I layered a sheet of Real Red polka dot paper from the Brights paper stack and a piece of Confetti Celebration DSP that features a fun Bermuda Bay design. I stamped the flower vase from Pictogram Punches, having inked it with my Stampin' Write markers to enable me to add the chevron detail on the vase and the flower stems in a different colour to the vase itself, then stamped and punched three flowers, finishing each with a rhinestone in the centre that had been coloured with my Blendabilities marker and adhered the flowers separately using glue dots. After stamping my sentiment from Petite Pairs, this left-handed section was adhered to the front of the card using dimensionals, to allow space for my selection of co-ordinating buttons to sit above and below it as per the sketch design.

I even remembered to take a  photo of the stamping on the inside of my card today:

That's my Colour Me...! card for this week - why not visit the other Colour Me...! designers and check out their takes on this week's colour combination:

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Pictogram Punches Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Petite Pairs - Clear-Mount Stamp	Confetti Celebration Designer Series Paper	Brights Designer Series Paper Stack	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad
Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad	Brights Designer Buttons
Brights Stampin' Write Markers	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Pumpkin Pie Assortment