I've been enjoying a well-earned rest this week and some quality family time since the James Juniors are on their half-term break. Some time spent creating though so lots to share with you this next coming week - regular blogging may be about to make a comeback! Today I'm sharing a card using the current colours over at Global Design Project and the sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches:

I'm also linking up with the Paper Craft Crew where the inspiration is trees and leaves. My card was a quick and easy card, using an old favourite - take a look:

I haven't used my Sheltering Tree stamp set in ages, but it is perfect for creating seasonal trees and great for clean and simple cards. I stamped the leaves twice, once in Pumpkin Pie and again, offsetting the image slightly, in Crushed Curry, to create my autumn leaves. I added a sprinkling of falling leaves and some leaves strewn across my swathe of Old Olive grass. I wanted the orange and yellow to be the dominant colours of my card today, so the only other place I've used green is to frame my central image, which I cropped quite tightly to accentuate those leaves and autumnal colours. 

Clean and simple autumn with just stamps, ink and paper - done!

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 a card (or two!) for the new challenge over at the Paper Players which begins tomorrow. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Sheltering Tree Photopolymer Stamp Set (£23.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Crushed Curry A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Old Olive A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of my good friend, the awesome LeAnne, to host this week and she has a timely clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

I'm also playing along with the team over at Stamp Ink Paper today as I'm just in time to link up with their CAS Fall challenge and the lovely ladies over at SUO Challenges where the theme is Autumn colours.

When I think about harvest, I think about harvest loaves, vegetables from the garden ... and pumpkins! I love the photo inspiration that Nance found for this week's challenge and I decided I just had to have pumpkins on my card. I decided to go with something a little different - take a look:

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

Pumpkins Are For Harvest, Not Just For Halloween - Most of the pumpkin stamps I have in my set are ones with carved faces, all ready for Halloween. This stamp from the new seasonal catalogue is one of the few that I own that isn't - do you recognise which set it comes from? It's actually from the 'Seasonal Chums' set on page 47, but it's not the front of the face on the Halloween tag - it's the back piece of the same tag. I've circled it below so that you can see which one I mean:

This part of the stamp makes for a perfect pre-carved pumpkin - all I needed to do was mask off the front portion of the stamp and stamp just the back image. I also created a mask out of a post-it note to enable me to stamp my trio of pumpkins overlapping each other, to create depth and dimension.

No Line Watercolouring -  I decided to use a little no-line watercolouring to give my pumpkins a natural look. I love this effect and it's so easy to achieve: simply stamp your chosen image in a pale colour such as Sahara Sand onto watercolour paper, then use your chosen inks and an aquapainter to colour your stamped images normally, making the lines 'disappear'. 

Colours of Fall - Warm yellows, oranges, reds, browns and olive greens are the colours I associate with autumn and I chose to focus on orange and brown on my card today. Here's my colour palette should you wish to save it as inspiration for your fall projects:

To finish my card I added a little lace and ribbon embellishment (retired bits and pieces); not something I usually do with a CAS card, but I felt my card needed a little something just to balance it visually. I love this 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 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:

I look forward to seeing your clean and simple creations in the gallery this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly; mine is sports-filled, with hockey, swimming and ice hockey yesterday and basketball and more hockey today! I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Seasonal Chums Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Painted Harvest Photopolymer Stamp Set	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad	Early Espresso A4 Cardstock
Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Aqua Painters	Watercolor Paper

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Laurie to host this week and she has a great clean and simple theme for you to work with:

I toyed with some time about my card this week: pumpkins, apples, acorns - what to choose? I browsed through my new goodies and when I happened across this pumpkin patterned DSP hidden away in the Halloween Night Specialty pack, I knew what I wanted to do. I also used this week's sketch over at Pals Paper Arts for my layout today. Here's what I came up with:

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

Not Just for Halloween - Whilst many of the papers in the Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper Pack are overtly Halloween-inspired, this pattern of watercoloured pumpkins can also be used on more general Fall projects, as can the spotted paper I used for my banner and the stripes and checked patterns in the pack. This paper became the starting point for my card.

Spooky Pumpkin Fun - My layered square was the perfect place for my sentiment from the 'Spooky Fun' stamp set, along with a popped up trio of pumpkins, coloured with my Pumpkin Pie ink and a blender pen and cut out with the co-ordinating Halloween Scenes Edgelits Dies.

Festive Fall Colours - The colour scheme for today's card comes straight from the Halloween Night DSP: the warm orange tones of Pumpkin Pie, contrasted with Basic Black, Whisper White and Smoky Slate. More Halloween than Fall granted, but by emphasising the warmth of the orange, I think it works. Feel free to save this colour combination if it's one you'd like to try:

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 this week's CAS challenge. We have a day of sport and birthday parties today - we are most certainly back into the swing of things as far as the new school term is concerned!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Halloween Night Specialty Designer Series Paper	Spooky Fun Photopolymer Bundle	Halloween Night Enamel Dots	Layering Squares Framelits Dies	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock
Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad	Basic Black A4 Cardstock	Blender Pens	Banner Triple Punch	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

Today's card is for another couple of challenges: I'm having a second entry over at The Challenge, this time using the sketch, and also this week's colour challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary, where this palette of rich autumnal colours was just too good to pass up:

This weekend my American friends will be celebrating Thanksgiving; whilst it's not something we celebrate in the UK, we all have something to be thankful for and today's sketch and colours gave me the perfect opportunity to have a little go at something I've been wanting to do for a while and since I know I have lots of American and overseas blog readers, this one is for you! Here is today's card:

A punch art turkey - how cute is he?! I've seen lots of different punch art turkeys on Pinterest and wanted to have a go at creating one using the Four Feathers stamp set and co-ordinating framelits for the tail. The sketch layout is perfect for my card, as with such a detailed turkey there really isn't room for a lot else! I used Tangelo Twist for my card base with a mat of Blackberry Bliss, then followed this with a layer of Sahara Sand as my neutral, to really allow my turkey centre stage. I stamped a number of the small feathers in each of the challenge colours onto the same colour cardstock for a tone-on-tone look, and fanned them out in two layers for the turkey's tail. The turkey's body is the body of the owl punch, in Early Espresso with the ears and feet removed, and his jowls are a punched heart, cut in half and overlaid on top of each other. I placed a piece of burlap behind my turkey to add a little rustic texture then stamped my sentiment directly onto the card base. I'm hoping Lesley will forgive me the centralised sentiment; I spent so long fussing over my turkey, i didn't revisit the sketch before I stamped and centralised my sentiment rather than set it off to the side, as suggested. Note to self - make a final check before you stamp!

I hope you like today's card - please do visit both challenge sites for more design inspiration from some very talented designers.

Back tomorrow with a triple bill: two creative posts and a new set of Wednesday Weekly Deals! 

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Four Feathers Clear-Mount Bundle	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Owl Punch	1-1/4" Burlap Ribbon	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad
Hello Honey Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangelo Twist Classic Stampin' Pad	Blackberry Bliss A4 Cardstock	Hello Honey A4 Cardstock	Tangelo Twist A4 Cardstock
Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock	Early Espresso A4 Card Stock	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack

I'm very late posting today - eek! - having had a fun day with the James juniors, amongst other things shopping for the contents for our annual Samaritan's Purse Shoeboxes. This is something we really enjoy and is a great way to encourage the children to think of others less fortunate than themselves as we are about to embark on one of the most commercial seasons of the year and to be grateful for all they have.

With gratefulness in mind, I thought I would share a little pumpkin that I made using the Curvy Keepsake Thinlit Die - this would make a perfect Thanksgiving table favour for my American readers and equally with an alternative tag would be suitable for Halloween too. There are tons of variations on pumpkins made with the thinlit die out there in blogland, but this is my version:

So simple to make: just cut two pieces of Pumpkin Pie cardstock with the thinlit, stamp the inner sections of the box with one of the stamps from the Work of Art set, then finish with some Old Olive leaves cut using the Fun Fall Framelits, some twisted tendrils, a couple of my favourite Autumn Wooden Embellishments and a tag from the Merry Everything set, all tied on with linen thread. I love this die and have made so many gorgeous boxes with it; I am hoping to be able to share some of them with you later this week.

Meanwhile, today I'm going to leave you with a fun photo that is destined for this year's Halloween Project Life page for sure - whilst out shopping today, we treated ourselves to some Halloween 'trick or treat' donuts at Krispy Kreme; sure enough, we had one of each filling:

The oozing green filling was actually quite nice, but the appearance was definitely a surprise!

Back tomorrow with this week's Wednesday Deals and my Design Team post for Colour Me...! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Curvy Keepsake Box Thinlits Dies	Merry Everything Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Note Tag Punch	Fun Fall Framelits Dies
Autumn Wooden Elements	Work Of Art Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad	Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock
Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Old Olive A4 Card Stock	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Linen Thread
Fuse Fast Adhesive

It's Friday - the end of the week already! Today's card uses the offcuts from the card I made earlier in the week for my Colour Me...! design card (you can see that card here). Having cut out the leaf with my Sihouette Cameo, I was left with a perfect outline to make a stencil and since that's the theme over at Addicted to CAS this week, I thought I'd have a go.

Here's my clean and simple card with a real Autumn feel: 

I used a combination of Hello Honey, Crushed Curry, Cherry Cobbler, Cajun Craze, Tangelo Twist and Pumpkin Pie and sponged the colours into the stencil to create my autumn leaf. I stamped on to Naturals Ivory cardstock - this card has some lovely flecks in it and a real natural feel that suited my card. I finished my card simply with a sentiment from Good Greetings stamped in Cajun Craze and some Autumn Wooden Elements that I sponged in Chocolate Chip and tied with some linen thread.

Another clean and simple card - I'm also linking up to this week's challenge over at Less Is More where the theme is the colours of 'Autumn's Bounty'; I think my sponged leaf and acorn embellishment have a definite fall feel.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Naturals Ivory A4 Card Stock	Hello Honey Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangelo Twist Classic Stampin' Pad	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad
Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad	Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad	Good Greetings Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Autumn Wooden Elements	Linen Thread
Sponge Daubers	Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad

Here's today's creative post - my Design Team card for this week's challenge over at Colour Me...! where we have the striking colour combination of Cherry Cobbler and Hello Honey to work with this week:

These are great autumnal colours and I like Claire was inspired by this week's photo and those lovely leaves surrounding the bowl. I also used this week's Deconstructed Sketch layout as the basis for my design. So you want to see my card? Here it is:

Another 6" square card - my second this week - and lots of layers, so pay attention!

I decided today's card would be a perfect opportunity to try out a technique that I've seen a lot in blogland recently - the alcohol marker marbling technique, where you colour a piece of plastic with your Stampin' Up! Blendabilities, spritz with alcohol and then lay your glossy cardstock on top. I watched this tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers to get an idea of how to get the effect, although I decided to use gold foil in place of glossy white cardstock as I wanted to really emphasise the richness of the autumnal colours. I cut out my leaf using my Silhouette Cameo, but you could use the Autumn Accents Bigz Die if you have it. In keeping with the challenge, I used the darkest of the Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities and the darkest of my Daffodil Delight Blendabilities (much more like Hello Honey) to create my marbled leaf. Depending on how much alcohol you add, depends on the effect you achieve. I used very little for the leaf that I used on my card as I wanted to colours to remain quite vibrant, but I also made some that were much more subtle. When you are using this technique on gold foil cardstock, you need to be careful that you don't rub the card too much or otherwise some silver from the layer beneath will show through. You can see this in places on my leaf, but I like it that way - I think it just adds more to the finish of the leaf. Here's a 'work in progress' picture that shows the difference in the subtle effect you can achieve:

I tied my leaf with some linen thread then mounted it on a piece of Cherry Cobbler cut out with a Window Frame framelit, and backed this with a square of kraft cardstock. I crossed some Hello Honey cardstock and some textured Cherry Cobbler cardsock (retired) beneath this, along with a little label of Hello Honey that is stamped with my 'give thanks' sentiment in Cherry Cobbler, on top of a mat of kraft cardstock, stamped with the En Francais (retired) background stamp in Baked Brown Sugar ink. Another mat of textured Cherry Cobbler cardstock to finish before the kraft cardstock base.

So what do you think? Feel free to leave a comment on today's card, before hopping over to check out the amazing cards by the rest of the Colour Me...! team:

Kraft 12" X 12" Card Stock	Gold Foil Sheets	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment	Hello Honey A4 Cardstock
Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Window Frames Collection Framelits Dies
Linen Thread	Good Greetings Wood-Mount Stamp Set

It's Sunday and time for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players, where Jaydee has a fun Halloween theme challenge for us this week:

I used the layout over at Freshly Made Sketches again this week for my card (although I'm not sure my card is as 'clean' as is required; the layout was too good to pass up) as I thought it would be perfect to highlight my first Halloween pumpkin - here's my card:

I used a piece of Motley Monsters DSP on a base of Tangerine Tango for the front of my card; I love this paper and the little eyes that peek through between the trees, although I must confess this looks so much better on a sheet of 12 x 12" and it was difficult to take my scissors to it! I used the Halloween sentiment from 'Mingle All The Way', colouring the letters with a Tangerine Tango Stampin' Write marker and mounted this on a circle of Basic Black. This circle was mounted on top of a piece of chevron-embossed Crushed Curry and black chevron ribbon and the card finished with a cute little pumpkin from the Fall Fest stamp set and cut out with the matching framelit. It's tricky to see from the photo, but the pumpkin was then covered in Crystal Effects and allowed to dry, so it has a lovely dimension and shine.

That's my simple Halloween card for today; why not pop over to The Paper Players challenge blog and check out this week's inspiration from the other designers? As always, there are some great cards on show.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Fall Fest Photopolymer Bundle	Motlley Monsters Designer Series Paper	Mingle All The Way Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock	Basic Black A4 Card Stock
Card Stock A4 Crushed Curry	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	2" Circle Punch
Crystal Effects	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Basic Black 3/4" Chevron Ribbon	Chevron Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm sharing another autumn-inspired card using this week's sketch over at Pals Paper Arts and this week's colours at Colour Q as my inspiration:

I love this colour palette and resisted the urge to recreate that check shirt, which is adorable! Instead I decided to use my Fall Fest framelits to recereate the layout of the sketch and make a bright Autumnal card - here it is:

I used Kraft cardstock for the body of my card, which has a lovely texture and thickness to it. I matted a square panel of Night of Navy onto the base, then stamped some leaves in orange and yellow onto Whisper White cardstock and overlaid this with another piece of kraft attached with dimensionals with the same leaf shapes cut out so that you can see the stamped leaves beneath. The leaves are edged in white, which just helps add to their definition. In space of the fourth square, I didn't cut out - instead I tied an acorn and leaf wooden embellishment together with a piece of Daffodil Delight seam binding ribbon and some linen thread and attached them to my card. A little bulky for mailing, but a nice statement for a hand delivered card.

I added the sentiment to a banner on the bottom, using another of the stamps from the Good Greetings set (available as a hostess exclusive until the end of October) and mounted this on a piece of Night of navy wrapped with linen thread.

That's all for today; I have a Christmas card class to look forward to later using Festival of Trees, which should be fun! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Good Greetings Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Fall Fest Photopolymer Bundle	Autumn Wooden Elements	Kraft 12" X 12" Card Stock	Linen Thread
Daffodil Delight 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad
Whisper White A4 Card Stock

It's Sunday which means one thing - it's time for our weekly challenge over at The Paper Players! This week Sandy has a great sketch for us:

Sketches are my absolute favourite challenges - so many possibilities, and this sketch is no exception! So much so, I actually made two cards using this sketch already which I thought I would share with you today. If you've come from The Paper Players blog, this is the card that you will have seen there:

My first take on the sketch was this fall-inspired card, where I layered a combination of 1" punched circles and little leaves cut out using the Big Shot and the Fall Fest framelits, in Hello Honey, Mossy Meadow and Tangelo Twist on a base of Baked Brown Sugar, and finished with a simple knotted bow of Hello Honey satin ribbon and a sentiment from the 'Good Greetings' hostess set. I haven't used this colour combination before but thought it would make a nice fall colour scheme; I prefer these colours in cardstock rather than stamped on Whisper White, as I find the inks too intense somehow. I am linking this card up with the challenge over at SUO Challenges this week as they are looking for cards using autumnal colours, so this totally fits the bill.

I liked this sketch so much, I couldn't stop at one card though; the card below is the very first thing that came to me when I looked at the sketch and it was so simple I just had to make it and share it with you:

I stamped the 3 pairs of eyes from 'Freaky Friends' twice each in Versamark onto Basic Black cardstock and heat embossed in Crushed Curry, then did the same with the sentiment and heat embossed that in white. I then matted this panel onto a panel of Crushed Curry and a Basic Black card base. Simple, but so effective in real life - the eyes have a real shine as if they are looking out of the card at you!

I had to stop there for today, but I know I will use this sketch again - it is a keeper! Do pop by The Paper Players site and check out the blogs of the rest of the design team - there are some awesome cards this week, as always!

Right, we have a morning of sport in the James household today - Rebecca and I are going to explore a new hockey club and the boys are off to check out a rugby club, before reconvening for lunch and hopefully a restful afternoon.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Fun Fall Framelits Dies	Good Greetings Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Hello Honey 3/8" Satin Stitched Ribbon	Baked Brown Sugar Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Baked Brown Sugar
Hello Honey A4 Cardstock	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock	Tangelo Twist A4 Cardstock	1 Inch Circle Punch	Freaky Friends Clear-Mount Stamp Set
Ghoulish Greetings Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	White Stampin' Emboss Powder
Crushed Curry Stampin' Emboss Powder	Card Stock A4 Crushed Curry	Basic Black A4 Card Stock