Happy hump day everyone! Yes it's midweek and freezing cold here in the UK, so I'm hiding away on the warmth of my craft room and have another Christmas make for you! I couldn't resist those deep, jewelled tones over at Colour Inkspiration which totally got me thinking about Christmas baubles! So I went hunting through my extensive stash of retired tree decorations and happened to find one that allowed me to play along with the team over at Just Us Girls where the code word is JOY:

I decided to use the sketch over at Sunday Stamps for a second go (this is such a great layout!) and set to work - take a look at where I ended up:

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

I was so tempted to use my favourite JOY stamp from 'Joyful Nativity' for the Just US Girls Challenge, but when I rediscovered this bauble in the Delicate Baubles Dies set, I decided to use this instead. I added a strip of metallic gold vellum and a subtle splatter of gold Wink of Stella to my Pretty Peacock card base, then added my gold and blue ornament, picking out the berries with some Melon Mambo enamel dots - be warned, you need a lot!

I finished the sentiment by heat embossing some words from another retired stamp set, 'Peaceful Wreath', onto the card base and added a few gold gems to complete my card. Actually quite a straightforward card - I love these rich colours 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 '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:

PRETTY PEACOCK A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

BLUEBERRY BUSHEL A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)

I have a late post today, having spent the day catching up with an old friend who I haven't seen in too long - we had such a lovely day! Today I'm sharing a card that uses both the sketch and photo inspiration over at Fusion:

I love the red/white/grey colour palette in the inspiration photo and decided that I would use the sketch to create a card that highlights one of the Delicate Baubles Dies that I've yet to share with you here on my blog - take a look at what I created:

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

I added a piece of Peaceful Place designer paper with a subtle pattern to the edge of my card, then added a trio of offset baubles, with my 'joy' layered bauble cut with the Delicate Baubles Dies as my centrepiece. The two red diecut baubles were using retired baubles dies as I wanted them to be smaller in size. I added a silver twine bow and some red rhinestone berries to the holly on my 'joy' bauble and finished my sentiment with a sentiment from the retired set 'Peace and Joy':

Once I'd figured out how to size and balance the baubles in a way that I was happy with, the card came together pretty quickly. I do seem to be on a bit of a grey/white/black/red thing lately - this is my second card with this colour combo in two days!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

DELICATE BAUBLES DIES (£33.00)	PEACEFUL PLACE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	BASIC GRAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (£7.00)
RED RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£6.50)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)

Today I'm sharing a card that uses the current sketch over at Try Stamping on Tuesday that I designed with Nancy's word prompt at Just Us Girls in mind:

I had the perfect focal point to encompass Nancy's 'merry' theme - take a look:

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

Delicate Baubles Dies - You know how much I love the Christmas tree die in this set; I thought it was time to show you one of the two dies that featured a sentiment (the other is 'Joy' - I'll share that another time). I cut out the 'Merry and Bright' detailed layer in gold foil and backed it with a piece of Evening Evergreen shimmer vellum for some subtle festive shimmer and sparkle.

Ever Eden - I added a panel of foiled green Ever Eden specialty designer series paper to my card base and bordered it with some gold foil stitched scalloped edging cut with one of the Hand Penned Dies. And since 'P is for Patterned Paper' I'm also linking today's card up with the team over at The Alphabet Challenge.

Finishing Touches - Some gold gilded gems and an in-colour gem was all that was needed to complete today's card. 

I love the soothing greens of the Eden's Garden Suite; I love how the foil and the addition of some shimmer makes them perfectively festive 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

I've had a full-on day today, culminating in Parents' Evening for one of the James Juniors. It's amazing how focused teachers can be when each appointment lasts only 5 minutes! Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

DELICATE BAUBLES DIES (£33.00)	PENNED FLOWERS DIES (£28.00)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)	EVER EDEN 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)	2021–2023 IN COLOR SHIMMER VELLUM (£11.25)
EVENING EVERGREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GILDED GEMS (£6.50)	2021–2023 IN COLOR JEWELS (£6.50)

Today I'm sharing a clean and simple Christmas card for the current challenge over at CAS Christmas:

I knew I had some red and grey plaid in my retired paper collection so thought I would use this as the basis of my card featuring another of those Delicate Baubles dies - this time the snowflake:

The paper features more muted tones of red and grey (Cherry Cobbler and Grey Granite) than I remembered, but I actually quite like the effect. A simple 'Noel' greeting that I fussy cut from the 'Tidings and Trimmings' stamp set and a single rhinestone complete my card:

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:

DELICATE BAUBLES DIES (£33.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GRAY GRANITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£4.75)	TIDINGS & TRIMMINGS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£17.00)

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and the lovely LeAnne is our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

I decided to give my Delicate Baubles Dies another outing - the Christmas tree was calling my name! - so I too the first column on the Tic Tac Toe board with Christmas Tree/Bow/Green and in a fun twist decided to pair with the colour palette over at Just Us Girls this week for a rather unconventional Christmas card colour scheme - take a look:

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

This And That - The key to making today's card work is the piece of retired This and That Epic Day design series paper that I used for the frame on my card. It does such a good job of bringing all three colours together and makes the bright bauble tone in rather stand out in a way that jars, I think.

Delicate Baubles - Another bauble paper-pieced in block of the JUGS challenge colours, with some sparkly enamel dots to highlight the starbursts and a gold enamel star to top the tree. I trimmed the base of the bauble on this one so that it didn't have a double border edge.

Add A Bow - I could have added a diecut bow using the die in the Delicate Baubles die set that I used on my previous bauble cards, but decided that something more showy was needed so added a triple bow in Pool Party sheer ribbon - so pretty!

A simple 'Noel' sentiment from the 'Trimmings & Tidings' stamp set completes my card. So what do you think - is this colour scheme too unconventional for a Christmas card? Do leave me a comment below - as always, I'd love to know your thoughts.

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. 

A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge. 

Enjoy your day; as of this afternoon, both of the James Juniors will be officially enjoying their half term break, so I am looking forward to spending more quality time with them next week. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

DELICATE BAUBLES DIES (£33.00)	TIDINGS & TRIMMINGS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£17.00)	POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	POOL PARTY 3/8" (1 CM) SHEER RIBBON (£5.50)	WONDERFUL GEMS (£7.50)

This is my second post of today - you can see my earlier Festive Friday post here in case you missed it. This is my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a colour challenge:

I really love this combination of deep Blackberry Bliss, bright Granny Apple Green and white with a dash of metallic silver. I made another Christmas card, this time using my new Delicate Baubles Dies - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

This card was actually really easy to create: I added a strip of Regals DSP to my card base, then added some adhesive sheet to my bauble background and paper-pieced the details into the top layer of my bauble in the challenge colours, adding a trio of rhinestones for extra sparkle:

A silver heat-embossed sentiment from 'Tidings and Trimmings' completes my festive card.

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'm a sucker for an interesting die and I love the detail on the baubles in this set - you will definitely be seeing more of them this festive season!

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.
• In a colour challenge, black or other neutral can be used in outlines and sentiments but no other colours should be included. Stampin’ Up colours are used for reference but colours that are a close match are welcome.

Today marks the end of a three-day expedition by the eldest of the James Juniors for her silver Duke of Edinburgh award so I am expecting tired feet this evening! At the same time, the youngest of the Juniors is embarking on an army cadet weekend and will be sleeping out in the forest somewhere in the wilds of Cambridgeshire this evening under an improvised shelter. He has an Arctic sleeping bag, but I am really hoping the rain holds off! Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

DELICATE BAUBLES DIES (£33.00)	REGALS 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	BLACKBERRY BLISS A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)
SILVER FOIL 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PACK (£9.25)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)	RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£4.75)	TIDINGS & TRIMMINGS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£17.00)