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 a fun clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

Make a tag or feature a tag on your project - just remember to keep it clean and simple! I had another vellum idea I wanted to try out and LeAnne's challenge today gave me the perfect opportunity - take a look:

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

First things first: I used a piece of retired Expressions In Ink Specialty Designer Series Paper for my card base for ease, but you could easily recreate this alcohol ink effect using some Stampin' Blends and drops of rubbing alcohol. I then cut my tag shape out of the centre of my designer paper panel, before gluing it to my white cardbase (minus the tag). I cut 5 extra tags out of white carstock and added these behind the DSP one, so that when they were glued back into the space the stacked tag would have added depth. I cut another tag out of vellum (I used a scrap of Shaded Spruce for the reinforcer) and stamped the large foliage stamp from the 'Joy of Noel' stamp set in Versamark off the edge and heat embossed it in gold. When it is added (tied not glued) to the tag stack I created earlier, the design is clear and the vellum softens the alcohol ink effect on the tag below:

A gold heat embossed sentiment from the 'Christmas Classics' stamp set, along with some gold elegant trim and a trio of festive pearls, complete my card. 

I really like the finished effect - minimal layers and embellishments, lots of white space and enough gold to add a little festive flair. The foliage stamp in the 'Joy of Noel' stamp set is so versatile - although it's a line stamp, it doesn't have to be coloured - there are so many different ways to use it. If you would like even more inspiration using the 'Joy of Noel' stamp set, you can search my blog for lots more examples or better still, this is the bundle that features in this month's 'Join In With Joanne and Jan' tutorial that I have created with my NZ friend, the lovely Jan Clothier - if you purchase this bundle from me this month you will receive our  tutorial for FREE with full instructions for 4 additional projects using this fabulous set.

Back to today's project! 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. I'm also linking today's project up over at Less Is More where the theme is 'anything CAS goes'. 

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

Enjoy your day; it's a rather wet and miserable weekend here so I will be staying indoors today I think - maybe some festive baking will be on the cards! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

JOY OF NOEL PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (23.00)	TAILOR MADE TAGS DIES (21.00)	METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (17.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	VELLUM A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.50)
SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (7.00)	FESTIVE PEARLS (6.75)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have a timely theme challenge for you to work with:

Whilst lots of us are already starting to work on Christmas projects, it is still very much summer time and I chose this week's theme with that in mind. As the rhyme goes, 'Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the sea' - sand between your toes, fish and chips, buckets and spades and more - the seaside is one of my favourite places to be. I decided to break from my usual card and make a scrapbook page to share with you for a change this week.

I live in Northampton which is very close to the very centre of England, so is about as far from the coast as you can get. I recently took the James Juniors to visit their grandparents, my parents, in Wales for the first time since the start of the Covid pandemic and the first place they always ask to visit is the beach. This left me with lots of great photos ready to scrapbook. I am mostly a Memories and More pocket scrapbooker, but occasionally I do make full 12" x 12" layouts and with the gorgeous 'Friends are Like Seashells' bundle in the annual catalogue I couldn't resist. Take a look at today's layout:

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

I captured a great photo of Rebecca jumping the waves as I followed her down to the shoreline, so thought it would be perfect for my layout. Here's a close-up of my photo and the surrounding decoration in more detail: 

 I backed my photo with a piece of 'Expressions In Ink' designer paper and added a strip of the gorgeous Night of Navy ombre glimmer paper down the left side, to pick up on the bright blues of the sky in the photo. I embossed and diecut the seaside shells from pearlescent paper, then used the corner to decorate my photo whilst snipping the the other shells and seaweed apart to add as decoration elsewhere. I did a little background stamping beneath my layering and my main sentiment is fussy cut from one of the 'What A Year' Memories and More cards; you can see that more closely below:

I love that sentiment and it totally sums up the mood of the day and Rebecca in particular in that moment. Both of the James Juniors were so thrilled to be at the beach that day, jumping the waves, fishing in rock pools and generally enjoying the sea air.

In addition to a sprinkling of sequins and gems, I also added a sentiment tag to the corner of my page, decorated with a fussy ribbon bow:

My layout is actually quite simple, and very much like my card making style - although if you could see the pile of patterned papers that covered my desk as I made this page you would think that it must have been anything but and I did procrastinate for quite some time before deciding on my final papers and design!

So what do you think? Did you enjoy my scrapbook layout today for a change? Should I share more of this kind of thing on my blog? Feel free to leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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

I can't wait to see how my theme inspires you this week!

Since I did something other than a card today, I am going to link up over at Just Us Girls where that happens to be their theme this week.

Enjoy your day; I have a family day at home today, with nothing special planned. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FRIENDS ARE LIKE SEASHELLS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£50.25)	SEASHELLS 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£8.25)	PEARLESCENT SPECIALTY PAPER (£3.75)	OMBRE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PAPER (£9.25)	EXPRESSIONS IN INK 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)
WHAT A YEAR MEMORIES & MORE CARD PACK (£9.25)	BASIC WHITE 12X12 (30.5 X 30.5 CM) CARDSTOCK (£7.25)	PALE PAPAYA 3/8" (1 CM) OPEN WEAVE RIBBON (£6.50)	SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (£7.00)	2021–2023 IN COLOR JEWELS (£6.50)
ARTISTRY BLOOMS ADHESIVE-BACKED SEQUINS (£6.50)	PALE PAPAYA A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	TASTEFUL LABELS DIES (£29.00)

 

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a recipe challenge:

I'm afraid I couldn't resist dipping into my Expressions in Ink Suite again for the third time this week to find my ingredients to meet the recipe criteria for this challenge - take a look:

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

Expressions In Ink - Today's card uses another of the beautiful alcohol-ink inspired backgrounds that feature in the Expressions in Ink designer series paper. This one features a loose floral pattern that I deliberately chose for today's card because it is a great match for the large floral die. 

All About The Die - Today's card really is all about showcasing the gorgeous large floral die. I cut it out of (retired) gold glimmer paper as I wanted it to make a real focal point on my card; can you see how the pattern of the florals behind align with the florals on the diecut? I'm not sure if this is by design, but I was rather pleased when I discovered it:

The Remaining Ingredients - So that is DSP and diecut sorted; I heat embossed my birthday sentiment in gold onto a Tasteful Label banner and added a simple gold twine bow so as not to detract from the diecut to complete the other elements of our recipe this week.

I am truly in love with this suite - so very pretty and easy to use. I can promise you haven't seen the last of this yet!

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. 

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.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

EXPRESSIONS IN INK 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)	ARTISTIC DIES (£33.00)	PEACEFUL MOMENTS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)	TASTEFUL LABELS DIES (£29.00)	SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (£7.00)
MAGENTA MADNESS A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	SHADED SPRUCE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	GOLD & ROSE GOLD 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) METALLIC SPECIALTY PAPER (£4.75)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Jaydee to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge for you to work with:

I decided that Jaydee's sketch was the perfect opportunity to get to work with my Expressions in Ink suite. As is often the way, the first card that I make when I open a new suite for the first time ends up including a bit of everything, and today's card is no exception - take a look:

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

Expressions In Ink - The starting point for today's card was the beautiful 'Expressions In Ink' specialty designer series paper that is the cornerstone of the suite of the same name and that features on the front cover of the new annual catalogue. Full of patterns made from alcohol inked backgrounds with gold embossed detail, these papers are stunning! I chose a heavily patterned floral design with gold embossed detail and added it to the top portion of my card.

Artistically Inked - I used the 'Artistically Inked' stamp set to stamp a Magenta Madness flower and two pairs of leaves, along with a heat-embossed sentiment on the front of my card. These are distinktive stamps that also have that watercoloured or alcohol-inked effect. I die cut these elements with the co-ordinating Artistic Dies. I also added a sentiment and another stamped flower to the inside of my card:

Touches of Gold - I added lots of additional touches to my floral focal point to make this a rather special card - gold foil diecut leaves, Pale Papaya ribbon (cut in half lengthways), gold twine and gilded gems for an added touch of luxury:

I just adore this suite - I think it is my favourite of all of the new suites in the catalogue. If it's a favourite of yours too, you are going to want to come back again this week as I have made lots more cards that I will be sharing with you. So much so, I am already running out of this paper - I will be needing to order more of that this week!!

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; mine is a going to be a busy one as Sundays go. There is swim squad training for both James Juniors and then Master James has a football-themed birthday party to attend in the afternoon too. I'm just hoping it stays dry - cricket was cancelled again yesterday - and for once not because it was raining, but this time because we have had so much rain so far this last week and in May as a whole that the cricket pitches were saturated. The poor boy has yet to wear his new cricket kit this year - at this rate he will have grown out of it before he gets the chance!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

ARTISTICALLY INKED BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£49.50)	EXPRESSIONS IN INK 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)	SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (£7.00)	GILDED GEMS (£6.50)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)
MAGENTA MADNESS A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MAGENTA MADNESS CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	SHADED SPRUCE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	PALE PAPAYA 3/8" (1 CM) OPEN WEAVE RIBBON (£6.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)