Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge. 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'International Beer Day' which is on August 4th. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. I don't have any current product that fits with this theme, so I delved into my box of retired dies as I knew I had a combination that work perfectly. I used gold, acetate, cheers sentiment and bubbles and this is what I came up with:

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

I went with a simple congratulations card that would be perfect for lots of celebrations and using my retired Sip and Celebrate Dies to diecut a couple of champagne glasses from a panel of basic white thick cardstock. I backed them with acetate, then fussy cut two pieces of distressed gold paper to look like champagne and diecut some bubbles out of them before glueing to my acetate glasses. I then added this panel to my white cardbase, before adding my diecut Cheers! sentiment cut form gold foil over the top:

Simple yet elegant, I think you'll agree - I think I'll add this to my engagement card pile!

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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.50)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)

DISTRESSED GOLD 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PAPER (4.75)

WINDOW SHEETS (4.75)

Today I have been in full on craft mode but I'm taking a break from making to share a card that I made for a few challenges using Cecile's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week:

Now my regular readers will know how much I admire the lovely Cecile's work and it's always fun to have a go at creating with one of her sketches. I have to say, I've been working on this one on and off for the last week and having binned a few attempts I almost gave up. I so wanted to go with a sailboat, but that did seem too obvious, but using those shapes in a different had me stumped. In the end I decided not to take those triangles literally and focus on creating something clean and simple and this is what I came up with:

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

I thought it was high time I played with a new stamp set that I've had for a little while that had yet to see ink called 'Hey Chuck'. I couldn't resist this stamp set; it co-ordinates with the chicken sets we've had previously, is in a bundle with co-ordinating dies and those chickens are just so comical - so perfect for the current challenge over at Time Out too. Firstly I made a stencil using the sun die, doubling it to make a whole sun and I used this to sponge a Daffodil Delight sun directly onto my card base. I then stamped both my skateboard - the perfect outdoor activity for the challenge over at AAA Cards - and my punny congratulations sentiment (yet another exam congratulations card in the bag and perfect for the current celebrations over at Addicted to CAS) directly onto my cardbase, before stamping my chicken separately and colouring him with various Stampin' Blends markers. I then diecut him and popped him up on dimensionals to complete my card:

What could be funnier than a skateboarding chicken, right?! When we had our first set of chickens, the James Juniors built them their own swing that they suspended from the apple tree in our garden and spent ages trying to get the chickens to use it, but our feathered guests were having none of it! Maybe they should have tried a skateboard ... So not a literal take on Cecile's sketch today, but very much in tune with her clean and simple cardmaking style.

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 for our new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches - incidentally with my teamie, Cecile! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

HEY CHUCK BUNDLE (48.50)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (6.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.50)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (13.00)	REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)
POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)	PUMPKIN PIE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)	COPPER CLAY STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)	CAJUN CRAZE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)	CALYPSO CORAL STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)	PRETTY PEACOCK STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)
SHADED SPRUCE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)	BLUEBERRY BUSHEL STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)	SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge. 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'International Fairy Day' which is on June 24th. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used pink, sparkle, vellum and stars and the current layout over at Sunday Stamps and this is what I came up with:

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

No fairies or toadstools here today; instead a riot of colour for a starry congratulations card. I might be getting a little ahead of myself, but with both of the James Juniors and their friends taking major exams this year, I am hoping that lots of this kind of card will be in order, so I'm starting early! The Bright and Beautiful designer paper pack has some fabulous colours and patterns, but this all-over starry design screams celebration! I used a Bubble Bath pink card base and added mats in Basic White and Berry Burst, splitting my designer paper into three as per the sketch layout. I added a simple sentiment from the 'Charming Sentiments' stamp set in a Stylish Shapes stitched circle, and decorated this with punched stars, picking out the colours of the stars in the patterned paper. I also used some (retired) Fresh Freesia shimmer vellum for some added sparkle - hopefully you can see it on the close up below: 

I used a couple of retired star punches for my stars, but if you need a current equivalent, the Beautiful Balloons Dies have two star dies that are the same size and shape - I've included the link in the supplies list below.

The Bright and Beautiful Designer Series Paper is another of those that are available at 15% discount in this month's designer series paper sale - I would definitely recommend you stock up! 

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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BRIGHT & BEAUTIFUL 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.98)	CHARMING SENTIMENTS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (22.00)	BEAUTIFUL BALLOONS DIES (32.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)	BUBBLE BATH A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	BERRY BURST A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.00)	LEMON LIME TWIST A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	AZURE AFTERNOON A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	LEMON LOLLY A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Anne Marie to host this week and she has a clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

With GCSE exam results announced here in the UK last week, I have had the need for lots of exam congratulations cards, including some for boys, so today's clean and simple masculine challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to come up with another quick and easy-to-replicate design - take a look:

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

I used Jen Timko's fabulous sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week for my layout and kept things simple by creating only in 'shades of blue', in keeping with the colour challenge over at Less Is More. I used a piece of retired Whale Of A Time designer series paper featuring ombre blue waves inside my oval aperture, and added a Night of Navy stamped whale and sentiment from the 'Whale Done' stamp set. I kept my card base white and didn't add any additional embellishments in order to preserve that all-important 'white space' and masculine feel:

Super simple and not at all girly - this whale has been getting lots of use lately! Perfect to send congratulatory wishes. This week was a big one for the James family: my nephew received A Level results and Rebecca received her GCSE results. Both of them had worked very hard and did very well, with a full set of A*s and As between them, so we had lots to celebrate. More importantly, they both achieved everything they need to move on to the next stage of their education, which is the most important thing. This year has been tough for all those in examination years and I think all GCSE and A Level students should be mighty pleased with their achievements at all levels. 

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:

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; no big plans here, so hoping I'm lucky enough to squeeze in some crafting!  I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

WHALE PUNCH (£17.00)

WHALE DONE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)

NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Holly is hosting this month and our final challenge this month is a sketch challenge featuring stripes: 

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

For my card today I was also inspired by the photo inspiration over at Just Us Girls and the similar nautical theme over at Festive Friday (I chose blue, red and twine) to create another clean and simple congratulations card using my whale builder punch - take a look:

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

I flipped the colours in the bottom-right JUGS inspiration photo and added a simple navy blue punched whale to a set of red and white cardstock stripes. with a sentiment from the 'Whale Done' stamp set and this time adding a cute mortar board to my whale since once again exam congratulations are in order. To create my mortar board, I handcut a diamond shape from black cardstock and added it to a small rectangle then threaded some basic black twine through it and secured at the back before unravelling it to create my tassel

The tassel was the fussiest part of today's card, which otherwise is super clean and simple. Great for a masculine congratulations card I'm thinking - nothing too fussy!

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; I'll be dodging the thunderstorms! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WHALE PUNCH (£17.00)	WHALE DONE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (£10.25)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As You See It where we have a rather interesting colour challenge:

These were definitely not colours for Christmas but were perfect for a congratulations card that I needed to make for a dear friend of mine - take a look:

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

Bloom And Grow - I adore the 'Bloom & Grow' stamp set - it's right up there as one of my favourite floral sets and is a cinch to cut out with the co-ordinating budding Blooms Dies. This particular floral bough that I've used today is a great one when you have only three colours to play with too. I used a piece of in-colour designer series paper (last year's design) to tone down the brightness of the Pineapple Punch card base and for the first time used the scalloped pieces in the dies set to create a channel either side of my stamped sentiment and tucked the florals in, similar to one of the samples on page 131 of the Stampin' Up! annual catalogue. 

Let's Celebrate Today - I love that larger than life ' you are simply wonderful' sentiment in this stamp set and combined it with another of the word stamps in this set 'let's celebrate you' on the inside of my card. This card is headed overseas to none other than my fabulous AYSI teamie Jan Clothier of Thinking Stamping fame; this week she was crowned as one of the Stampin' Up! Artisan designers for 2020 and I couldn't be more pleased for her - a definite cause for celebration! There's also reason for you, the reader, to celebrate today - if you don't already own the 'Bloom and Grow' bundle you might be please to know that it is available at a 15% discount as part of the current Online Extravaganza that ends tonight; so don't delay, pop your set into your shopping basket right away by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post! 

Just Choose Two - In addition to playing along at Time Out (I did not go for the optional extra of one layer on this occasion but may come back to this another time!) I am also playing along with the lovely peeps over at Just Add Ink where they have a great 'Just Take Two' challenge this week. My two were spots (on my DSP) and sparkle - this is unfortunately not as obvious in the photograph to see, but each of those yellow flowers is brushed liberally with clear Wink of Stella and the blue berries each have a coating of Shimmery Crystal Effects - trust me, in real life this card is so sparkly!!

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'm off to the hospital for a second procedure to try and sort out my constantly aching and rather immobile frozen shoulder - wish me luck! Depending on my mobility I may or may not be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Bloom & Grow Bundle (£47.03)	Pineapple Punch A4 Cardstock (£7.01)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	2018-2020 In Color 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.75)
Pineapple Punch Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	In Color 2018–2020 Stampin' Write Markers (£13.75)	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.50)	Shimmery Crystal Effects (£4.75)

Today I'm sharing a card using this week's CAS(E) This Sketch layout that is also perfect for the theme over at Global Design Project #GDP203 this week:

Today is the day when for lots of students in the UK the wait is finally over as GCSE results are announced. My nephew is one of those students for whom today represents the culmination of months of study and hard work and whilst I don't know his results at the time of writing this, I am confident that a card to congratulate him on his exam success will be in order. Since my card is for a boy I didn't want anything too fussy, so the above sketch layout was perfect. I took the opportunity to play with some new product from my Autumn-Winter catalogue pre-order to create a cool and colourful card - take a look:

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

Not Just For Christmas - Stitched Stars are one of the few stitched shapes now missing from the Stampin' Up! collection - but not any more! The Autumn-Winter catalogue has a great bundle called 'So Many Stars' featuring both stitched and decorative stars and that great rolling, starry die that I've used on my card today. I inset the die into my top layer of Granny Apple Green and used a base of Mango Melody so that the base colour shows through the star shapes (I paper-pieced the non-star elements back in) before finishing with my sentiment in a larger stitched star. Great for Christmas, but perfect for a congratulations card too! 

A Punny Sentiment - My sentiment comes from the Darling Label Punch Box stamp set - one of my favourites for a cool congratulations card for a discerning teenager. I masked off the stripes that surround it so that I had just the words, which fit inside my stitched star perfectly. I finished the inside of my card with a sentiment from the now retired 'Amazing Congratulations' stamp set and some stars from the new So Many Stars stamp set:

Two Cards, Four Colours - I chose a bright and colourful palette for my card today and couldn't initially decide whether to add Granny Apple Green or Poppy Parade to my pairing of Mango Melody and Blueberry Bushel. So I created two cards featuring each of the colours. Here's the second one:

And here's a photo of the cards together - which one do you prefer? Leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Either way, here's the colour palette I used in case you would like to save it to inspire your future crafting projects:

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'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Stitched Stars Dies (£35.00)	So Many Stars Photopolymer Stamp Set (En) (£24.00)	So Many Stars Bundle (En) (£53.00)	Darling Label Punch Box (£42.00)	Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Blueberry Bushel A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Mango Melody A4 Cardstock (£8.25)

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had enjoyable weekends; my Sunday saw the completion of Ben's history project with a very fetching Tudor-clothed peg doll, along with an Ann Boleyn and Ann of Cleeves for good measure, so I for one am happier although Ben seems rather relaxed about the whole thing - perhaps that's what happens when you're an 8 year old boy with a crafty Mummy!

Today I have a card for this week's sketch over at Pals Paper Arts:

This is a great sketch and as soon as I saw it I had a card in mind - I so love it when that happens! I need a few congratulations cards at the moment for different friends, colleagues and members of my team who have been achieving goals at the moment so that's what I decided to make using the vertical stamp in the 'Bravo' stamp set:

I took my colour combination from the 'It's My Party' Designer Series Paper - with 12 double-sided designs, this really is the stack that keeps on giving! I used the star-sprinkle pattern for my card today and I love the subtle layering of the diagonals where the patterned paper is cut away and the stripe of Mint Macaron runs across the top. My sentiment is stamped front and centre; I was originally intending to stamp this in Melon Mambo but switched to black to add more emphasis. I coloured in the stripes on some of the letters with my Stampin' Write markers and added a punched Crushed Curry star with a pink enamel dot to finish. This flat card was a relatively quick make for me so I made a few at the same time - bonus!

I have a morning of errands today and a few household chores in store, however I am hoping to get into my craft room this afternoon - wish me luck!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Bravo Photopolymer Stamp Set	It's My Party Designer Series Paper Stack	It's My Party Cardstock Pack	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad
2015-2017 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	Many Marvelous Markers	It's My Party Enamel Dots	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack

Good morning everyone! Today's blog post could have been titled so many things: 'Yay it's Valentine's Day!', 'Yay it's Friday!', 'Yay it's stopped raining!' - I could go on, but instead I went with 'Yay for Retro Fresh!' as the Retro Fresh DSP is definitely the star of this card. I have used the sketch layout over at Create with Connie and Mary for week 3 of the Spring 2014 Challenge for my card (I love a good sketch challenge!).

I decided to go with a congratulations card, as I seem to be using a lot of these for different things lately and inspired by the DT samples this week I went against my natural instinct and challenged myself to see just how many different designs of Retro Fresh DSP I could use on one card without overwhelming the focal point. Here's my card - can you spot them all? 

I used four in total, which might not sound like much, but for me that's unusual. Funny thing is, like all of Stampin' Up!'s designer series papers, the Retro Fresh patterns all work really well together, so it works. I decided to keep my focal point sentiment bold and clean, then used striped paper for my banners, broken up with a flag of 'homemade' DSP using Tangerine Tango cardstock randomly stamped with the star from the Banner Blast stamp set. I cut the banners using the new Banners Framelits dies - these are great for perfect banners in a jiffy. I used a thin strip of the arrow paper to draw the eye to the focal sentiment and edged this with some stretch ruffle trim to echo the scalloped circle, then lastly used a light pattern for my base layer. I considered leaving it plain, either just above the horizontal strip or both above and below it, but it was just too bland, so I added yet another pattern to the mix.

So there you have it - yay for Retro Fresh! Sometimes it pays to be a bit more adventurous with your patterned papers and not be afraid of using more than one at a time. Don't forget to hop on over to Create with Connie and Mary to see what everyone else has done with this sketch.

As it is Valentine's Day today, I shouldn't let it pass without a mention; I received the cutest card this morning from the number one man in my life - I'm sharing a picture on my Facebook page, so pop over if you'd like to see and share some love today!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Coastal Cabana 3/8" Ruffle Stretch Trim	Circle card Thinlits Die	Banners Framelits Dies	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform
Retro Fresh Designer Series Paper	Card Stock A4 Baked Brown Sugar	Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock