I hope you are enjoying the weekend! I managed to squeeze in a little crafting time this afternoon and made a card for this week's challenge over at Mojo Monday:

I had been sorting through some Project Life and was struck by the lovely natural florals and phrases in my Hello Lovely card box so decided to use one of them as the focal point for my card today. Take a look:

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

Hello Lovely Project Life - The Hello Lovely Project Life set has some great sentiments to illustrate your Project Life pages and record those special times with loved ones. They can also work as the focal point for a card too: I've used one of the 3" x 4" cards that I cropped to focus on the sentiment. 

Mix It Up - I am always torn when it comes to using PL cards for something other than memory-keeping; I love to use them in my recording too much! I wanted to use the leaf pattern and black and white watercolour striped cards for the circle and background elements of my card, but they both had designs on the reverse that I wanted to use for memory-keeping. How did I solve my dilemma? I found some very similar patterned papers in the retired English Garden and Go Wild designer series papers that I could use instead - crisis averted!

Pool Party Blue - Black and white are the dominant colours on my card, but the hint of green and the blue Pool Party base picked out from flowers on the PL card, belly band, twine and sequin embellishment play a key role in lightening and brightening this otherwise monochromatic colour scheme. 

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 this week's card for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hello Lovely Project Life Card Collection

Hello Lovely Project Life Accessory Pack

Pool Party A4 Cardstock

Good morning everyone on this typically wet Bank Holiday Monday! Today I'm sharing my card for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players, where the have the following sketch challenge to play along with:

When I saw this sketch, I initially wanted to create a Father's Day card with my 'Look up to Father' stamp, but having seen the great examples from Ginger and Diane, I decided to change tack totally and instead of trees, take the opportunity to use some of my High Tide DSP. Here's my card:

Whilst I loved the swirly pattern on this DSP, I've struggled to use it as it's so busy. I thought it would make a great base for this fishy-themed card though, with the cute fish bowl from Fishin' Around. The DSP gave me the colour scheme for my card, and I stamped the image twice in Pacific Point: once onto Soft Sky, which I fussy cut for my fish bowl, then a second time on Calypso Coral and fussy cut the fish and adhered them to my fish bowl. I added a little colour to the water, treasure chest and sand with my marker pens, then adhered some gold sequins to act as 'treasure' on the sand. To complete the look of my fishbowl, I cut a circle out of acetate window sheet using my Big Shot and Circles Framelits and adhered this to the bowl to look like glass. I mounted my completed fish bowl to a circle of Pacific Point and mounted this last, having first adhered the three strips of plain cardstock in Calypso Coral, Summer Starfruiit and Smoky Slate. I stamped my sentiment onto the Smoky Slate rectangle in Pacific Point ink and chose the 'You Make Me Happy' stamp from the 'Hello, Lovely' stamp set.

I bought the fishbowl set thinking it would make great children's cards, but as I put this card together it occurred to me it would make a fun anniversary/valentine card too when paired with this sentiment. Given the weather outside today, this card does seem somewhat appropriate! Back tomorrow with another card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Fishin' Around	High Tide Designer Series Paper	Hello Lovely	Medium Window Sheets	Circles Collection Framelits Dies
Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Pacific Point A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate
Smoky Slate Stampin' Write Marker	Summer Starfruit A4 Card Stock	2012-2014 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Gold Sequin Trim

Good evening lovely blog readers! I've had a busy day today with lots of household chores and last minute preparations for an all day class that I'm running tomorrow with some of my favourite crafting ladies. Today I thought I would share with you one of the projects that we are making at our class tomorrow - a cute little tote made using the Envelope Punch Board:

This project was designed by Monica Gale and is one that I made at our last team quarterly training day. It's made using the papers from the Fresh Prints DSP stack and decorated with a tag stamped from the 'Hello Lovely' stamp set. I just love the colours and patterns in this paper stack and as a card maker these papers offer such great value for money at just £6.25 for 48 sheets. We are also making a set of thank you notelets to go inside - this would make such a nice little gift for someone. I'm looking forward to making this and lots of other projects with my ladies tomorrow; if you live in or around Northampton and would be interested in attending any of my cardmaking or project classes, you can find my current class schedule here or just contact me for more information.

That's all from me; back tomorrow with another project. until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Envelope Punch Board	Hardwood	Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack	Hello Lovely
Lots Of Thanks	1-3/4 Inch Scallop Circle Punch	Pansy Punch	1-1/4" Scallop Circle Punch	Decorative Label Punch
Real Red 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon	Basics Glimmer Brads	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Word Window Punch
Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad

Good evening blog readers! I hope you are enjoying weather as glorious as we have had here in the UK the last few days - it feels long overdue and long may it continue. We went out on another bike ride today, just for fun - our bike ride earlier in the week involved our first attempt at geocaching, but since we didn't manage to find a single box the novelty of this wore off rather quickly! It's just so nice to be outdoors. Today's card is one of two entries that I have for this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge - I love this week's layout, so many possibilities:

For my first card, I decided to stay with the layout of squares, and created a pattern with an ombre effect:

I used one of the square stamps from the 'You're Lovely' stamp set which is great for a repeat pattern, and stamped each row in a slightly darker shade of aqua blue-green, to give the graduated ombre effect. I used a piece of Core-d'inations card in Coastal Cabana for my base, as this card has a lovely textured finish when unsanded. Because of this texture, it is quite difficult to get an evenly inked stamp on it, so I stamped my sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder to provide a more even and vibrant finish.

Come back tomorrow to see my alternative and altogether more humorous take on this sketch; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hello Lovely	2013-2015 In Color Core'dinations	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Versamark Pad	Embossing Buddy
Heat Tool - Uk Plug