Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday. 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'Halloween' which is on October 31st. 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 bowed to the theme and used pumpkin, orange, stars, black and ghost and using the sketch layout over at Try Stamping on Tuesday this is what I came up with:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

My card started out with the starry and pumpkin/ghost patterned paper from the 'Celebrate Everything' hostess designer series paper pack - these papers really are the pack that keeps on giving with a pattern for every occasion! Normally I wouldn't mix two such bold papers, but the yellow stars on the pumpkin/ghost sheet mean the two work together perfectly. I used my Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Blends markers to colour the pumpkins on the designer paper instead of leaving the whole design white - I love that you can do this! - and I added these papers to my cardbase, then used a strip of black glimmer paper and a collection of diecuts (all retired - Boo to You, Harvest Hellos, Apple Punch and Stitched Stars Dies) to create a focal point that picked out the detail of the papers:

Cute, right?! I really wanted to stamp 'trick or treat' on the orange banner, but could I find a retired stamp anywhere in my collection with those words? Nope. I'm sure there's one here somewhere ... I just have to find it!

I am also linking this card up with the lovely ladies over at SUO Challenges where their theme is 'Halloween' currently 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. 

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 Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert - off this week
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CELEBRATE EVERYTHING 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£16.50)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.75)	PUMPKIN PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	CRUSHED CURRY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	PUMPKIN PIE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.75)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	CLASSIC MATTE DOTS (£6.75)

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

Having cast my eye over my supplies, the only current pumpkin products I had was the 'Celebrate Everything' designer series paper which features this cute pumpkin/ghost patterned paper. So I had a good root through my retired box, grabbed a couple of retired stamp sets and my retired apple punch and decided to CASE a card I saw on social media yesterday by Yvonne Spikmans, one of the current Stampin' Up! artisan designers using my collection of bits and pieces. I started my stopwatch and set to work - this is what I came up with:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

I added my DSP to a blank card base and then created a 'torn reveal' to a piece of white cardstock. I stamped a pumpkin onto some orange cardstock (Tangerine Tango - retired) using the retired 'Harvest Hellos' stamp set and punched it out with my retired apple builder punch, then added it across my torn section. The sentiment comes from the retired 'Banner Year' stamp set and I stamped the 'Boo' onto a banner that I retrieved from my box of scraps. A bundle of twine and sprinkle of enamel dots and stars complete this fun card:

This card was actually surprisingly quick to make - I remembered to photograph my finished time:

9 minutes and 27 seconds - not too shabby and nicely under the 10 minute mark - result! The key to a quick card is most definitely to be prepared: planning your card and gathering your supplies ahead of time is allowed and will definitely make things easier. 

This card will be a good surprise note for one of the James Juniors as Halloween draws nearer.

No visual summary of the key products used on today's project or supplies list as most items I've used are retired; the design could be used in lots of different ways though - what sets would you use? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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 speed stamping challenge, please time yourself and say in your post how long your card took to complete. 

Enjoy your day and I'll be back on Sunday with another project for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today I'm sharing a quick card that uses the sketch layout at Paper Craft Crew (I substituted the square with a circle) and this week's colours over at Colour Throwdown:

I love those bright primary colours and I couldn't resist the adorable inspiration photo! I decided to use some retired product and dug out my Harvest Hellos stamp set and Apple Builder Punch to create a teacher card for my stash - take a look:

A super simple design, I created a base of floating lines in blue and green and added my apple behind my heat-embossed sentiment:

No supplies list as the key items featured are retired, but if you have any specific queries, then pop a comment below and I will happily answer them.

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

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

I don't have any turkeys in my current stamp collection so decided to go with pumpkins and the overall 'thankful' theme, along with the layout of the inspiration photo over at Inspire.Create, to create my card this week - take a look:

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

Harvest Hellos - I used the 'Harvest Hellos' stamp set for my feature pumpkin on today's card, and highlighted the detail with Pumpkin Pie and Calypso Coral Stampin' Blends, before punching out with the Apple Builder Punch. 

Texture, Texture - There's lots of texture on today's card: a woodgrain background courtesy of the In Good Taste designer paper, wooden leaf embellishments, twine, linen braid and the lacy diecut panel from the Stitched Lace Die. Not very post-friendly granted, but the texture and dimension add so much interest and detail:

Word Wishes - For my sentiment, I snipped the word 'thanks' from the 'thanksgiving' die in the Word Wishes set and stacked it on the front of my card, and paired it with the word 'giving' that was masked from the full sentiment that I used inside my card:

I was really pleased with the way this card turned out. I'm also linking up with the team over at SUO Challenges with another entry for their Autumn/Fall challenge.

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; we will more than likely be spending the day indoors to once again escape the howling winds and rain - the weather has been dreadful here this week! With continued social distancing a focus during this half term, we resorted to an online escape room game on Friday afternoon; whilst not the same as doing one in person, it was surprisingly good fun. We bought a 3 game package so I think the James' may well be spending the afternoon breaking more codes and solving puzzles against the clock!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

HARVEST HELLOS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)	STITCHED LACE DIES (£33.00)	APPLE BUILDER PUNCH (£17.00)	IN GOOD TASTE DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£17.00)	WORD WISHES DIES (EN) (£33.00)
A WISH FOR EVERYTHING CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£36.00)	EARLY ESPRESSO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	PUMPKIN PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	STAMPIN' BLENDS PUMPKIN PIE COMBO PACK (£8.50)
STAMPIN' BLENDS CALYPSO CORAL COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CAJUN CRAZE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	3/16" (4.8 MM) BRAIDED LINEN TRIM (£6.50)	LINEN THREAD (£4.75)	IN GOOD TASTE ELEMENTS (£6.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the amazing Claire to host this week and she has a timely Clean and Simple challenge for you to work with:

Back to school is still a few weeks away here in the UK, but I'm all for getting organised! Hopefully the Juniors will be returning to school properly; this is a big year for us, with one about to embark on GCSEs and the other moving schools for the start of year 9. So I have a couple of cards to share with you today, each made with them in mind. Here's the first one, that was inspired by the current sketch, colours and photo over at Sugar Pea Designs:

I used the sweet image of a young lady reading a book whilst sheltered under a tree from the annual catalogue hostess set, 'Summer Days', and coloured with my Blends in the likeness of Miss Rebecca, before cropping with my (retired) Circle Framelits and mounting on a Night Of Navy card base, with a Cherry Cobbler banner piece tied with some twine from my stash. The sentiment on the front of my card is from the 'Rooted In Nature' stamp set and I used another stamp from this set to complete the inside of my card:

My second card uses this week's Freshly Made Sketches layout from Jen B where I challenged myself to embrace the diagonal and got creative with my diecut sentiment - take a look:

I added a 'd' from the 'adventure' die and added it to the 'inspire' die in the Sweet Silhouettes set and combined with a 'be' from the Rooted In Nature set to create my sentiment and backed it with a black strip for a chalkboard effect, then anchored it with a stamped and punched red apple that I added a couple of clear epoxy dots too for a little shine:

And I finished off the inside with an inspirational quote from the 'Silhouette Scenes' stamp set: 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects 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; we have no special plans today and the weather is looking pretty poor, so I think it will be baking and board games for us! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SUMMER DAYS HOST CLING STAMP SET (£12.00)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	STAMPIN' BLENDS NIGHT OF NAVY COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS CHERRY COBBLER COMBO PACK (£8.50)
SOFT SUEDE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS BALMY BLUE COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS GRANNY APPLE GREEN COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BRONZE & IVORY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN BLENDS SMOKY SLATE COMBO PACK (£8.50)

SWEET SILHOUETTES DIES (EN) (£33.00)	ROOTED IN NATURE CLING STAMP SET (EN) (£39.00)	APPLE BUILDER PUNCH (£17.00)	HARVEST HELLOS CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)	WHISPER WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)
TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	SOFT SUEDE CARDSTOCK A4 (£8.25)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Laurie to host this week and she has an interesting colour challenge for you to work with:

First up, I have a confession to make: I couldn't find my Tranquil Tide ink pad so substituted with Garden Green. I have a few projects for you today; armed with Narelle's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches I decided to use some retired designer series papers in the challenge colours and my 'Harvest Hellos' stamp set to make a couple of teacher thank you cards and some cute gift packaging.  Here's the first of my cards:

Some simple layering of my DSP and a stamped and punched apple, along with a 'thanks' diecut courtesy of the Well Written Dies, completed my card. I actually made two - on the second one, I reversed the layering of the papers and had the letter paper in front as opposed to the numbers:

 I added some simple stamping to the inside of my card from the same set:

 Here are the two cards together - which one do you prefer?

I had picked up a couple of cute apple notepads that I thought would be perfect for some extra small teacher gifts so took the opportunity to create some co-ordinating boxes for my cards, complete with tags:

And here's another view:

And that cute apple notepad that is in the box? Here it is:

The apple folds flat but when clipped open it forms an apple shape, so I just had to create a lidded box that could present it whole for full effect - here are both projects together:

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; the weather was glorious here in the UK yesterday so I'm hoping that will continue today and I can spend some time in the garden. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

HARVEST HELLOS CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)	APPLE BUILDER PUNCH (£17.00)	WELL WRITTEN DIES (EN) (£37.00)	WHISPER WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

Another Monday, the start of a new week! I had an online demonstration this morning and something of an admin afternoon, so I've just time for a quick post to share another card for the current Fusion challenge, this time using both the sketch and inspiration layout:

The sketch and inspo photo combined to make the perfect teacher thank you card - take a look:

My bright red apple is courtesy of the 'Harvest Hellos' stamp set and the Apple Builder punch, two of my favourite items for creating teacher thank you cards and on carryover to the new catalogue too - yay! I paired my apple with a retired stamped notepaper background on a Crumb Cake base and swirly thanks diecut, again courtesy of a retired die; the notepaper and die were perfect to replicate the biscuit in the photo though, so it had to be! I also finished the inside with some added decoration courtesy of 'Harvest Hellos': 

I made a few of these cards at the same time to add to my end of year stash; the youngest of my James Juniors is in a transition year at school so I will need a lot of teacher thank you cards come July, so I'm starting now!

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:

Harvest Hellos Cling Stamp Set	Apple Builder Punch	Real Red A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Crumb Cake A4 Cardstock
Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Basic Black A4 Cardstock

Another Monday, the start of a new week! I had an online demonstration this morning and something of an admin afternoon, so I've just time for a quick post to share another card for the current Fusion challenge, this time using both the sketch and inspiration layout:

The sketch and inspo photo combined to make the perfect teacher thank you card - take a look:

My bright red apple is courtesy of the 'Harvest Hellos' stamp set and the Apple Builder punch, two of my favourite items for creating teacher thank you cards and on carryover to the new catalogue too - yay! I paired my apple with a retired stamped notepaper background on a Crumb Cake base and swirly thanks diecut, again courtesy of a retired die; the notepaper and die were perfect to replicate the biscuit in the photo though, so it had to be! I also finished the inside with some added decoration courtesy of 'Harvest Hellos': 

I made a few of these cards at the same time to add to my end of year stash; the youngest of my James Juniors is in a transition year at school so I will need a lot of teacher thank you cards come July, so I'm starting now!

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:

Harvest Hellos Cling Stamp Set	Apple Builder Punch	Real Red A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Crumb Cake A4 Cardstock
Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Basic Black A4 Cardstock

A quick post today and I'm sharing a card using the current sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch:

I didn't manage to play along last week (I managed a so-so card, but wasn't thrilled with it and decided not to share!). All change this week though - as soon as I saw the sketch I knew what I was going to do with it. Here's my clean and simple creation:

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

I decided to go with a teacher thank you card. I know that schools here and all around the world are closed as we try and protect each other from this dreadful virus, however whether the Juniors go back to school or not next term, I figure there will still be the need for teacher thank you cards, so I'm getting organised!

I decided to add a trio of yellow pencils (this is from a retired Project Life stamp set) in the corner and over-stamped the bottom one with my thank you sentiment. I have a confession to make - as I came to write up my post I realise there were 4 stripes of ombre on the sketch, and I've only included 3 - oops! I genuinely hadn't noticed. I like to have odd numbers though, so I think my subconscious was probably responsible for the decision. I overlaid my pencils with a red apple from the 'Harvest Hellos' stamp set, coloured with Blends and punched out using my Apple Builder Punch and with a little tag and linen thread bow to finish.

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. 

The warm weather has returned today so I made the most of it, getting some washing done and the children and I went on a nice bike ride this evening after dinner. I did sneak in a little crafting time too so have lots to share with you in coming days! Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Apple Builder Punch	Harvest Hellos Cling Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Linen Thread
Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack	Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack	Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack