Good morning lovely readers! An apology is in order for the lack of blog posts this week. I have been fairly tired following another successful Creative Escapes Weekend Craft Retreat last weekend and whilst I've spent my days catching up on household chores and preparing for next week's card classes, when it comes to the evenings I've been good for nothing; I've fallen asleep in the chair for three nights in a row way before bedtime, much to the amusement of the James Juniors! So today I thought I would make time to blog early so that you didn't miss out!

I'm sharing a card for a couple of challenges this week: The team over at Global Design Project are all about the candy and the folks at Stamps Ink Paper are asking for cards featuring gingham, plaid or stripes:

Not only does my card feature lots of sweet treats and some fetching candy pink stripes, it's a shaker too - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

How Sweet It Is -  If you have a sweet tooth, the 'How Sweet It Is' Suite is for you! Bright and fun, with bold patterns of sweets and traditional sweet jars, it's great for cards and packaging alike. The papers, which feature bold stripes and spots in addition to candy-inspired patterns, really are good enough to eat. I used a pink stripe for the front of my shaker and a sweetie print for the inside at the back of my window, I also used the Jar of Sweets Framelits to cut out one of the sweet jars directly from the designer series paper to decorate the front of my card - I love it when dies and paper co-ordinate like this!

Jar Of Sweets - I used another of the Jar of Sweets Framelits to cut out the aperture for the window of my shaker, stamping the same image onto Whisper White and fussy cutting the jar lid to adhere to the top of my window section. I filled my shaker with a selection of sequins and some diecut sweets in bright, co-ordinating colours; you can see from the extras that I added to the front of my card these dies emboss a pattern onto the diecut sweet shape too which adds an interesting textural detail. There's very little stamping on today's card, save the sentiment and jar lid. A little extra stamping on the inside of my card courtesy of the 'Sweetest Thing' stamp set too:

Sweeter Than Candy - The 'How Suite It Is' Suite also includes some fun treat cups, that are perfect for dressing up to contain some sweet treats for your loved ones. I managed to snag these shots with my phone of some of the decorated sweet cups that filled with a selection of jelly beans and gummy bear for the lucky ladies on my retreat as one of their little gifts - I do love to spoil the whilst they are with me! 

I covered the cups with designer series paper and stamped a simple label for each of them decorated with a sweet jar cut from the DSP, and tied the tags to the cups with some of the very yummy Coastal Cabana/Granny Apple Green 3/8" reversible ribbon:

So cute and easy to decorate and I know from the feedback that my ladies loved them!

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:

How Sweet It Is 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.25)	Sweetest Thing Photopolymer Bundle (£43.00)	Jar Of Sweets Framelits Dies (£28.00)	How Sweet It Is A4 Cardstock Pack (£8.00)	Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies (£33.00)
Foam Adhesive Strips (£7.25)	Window Sheets (£4.75)	Sweet Cups (£8.00)	Coastal Cabana/Granny Apple Green 3/8" (1 Cm) Reversible Ribbon (£6.50)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)
Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)

Happy Monday everyone! First things first - an apology for the lack of posts last week; for those of you who have tried to access my blog or my website to access the BoxBuster and Envelope Expert tools between Tuesday and Thursday, I had a website outage that impacted both my blog and website and my email, and didn't manage to get it back online until late Thursday afternoon. I know many of you enjoy free access to my tools, and interruptions to service are far from ideal. I have been experiencing issues of one kind or another since I was hacked last October and it is proving incredibly difficult to maintain a consistent online presence. We are working on it and I would ask for your patience and understanding until these issues are fully resolved. If you are reading this and not already following me on Facebook, I urge you to do so here since this is where I will post updates of outages and such like, so you will at least be the first to know when I am back online. Here's hoping for a better week on the IT front!

Back to today's business; a slight change to my blog schedule and I'm sharing a card for a few challenges but that is born out an important business announcement - take a look:

There is a great sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches that is also perfect to showcase some designer paper for the peeps over at TGIF Challenges. I decided to make a bright and colourful birthday card that also fits with the birthday theme over at SUO Challenges:

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

A Piece of Cake - Today's fun cake comes from the 'Piece of Cake' stamp set in the Spring-Summer catalogue; great for birthday cakes and wedding cakes, you can use this set to create a cake for any season or occasion. after all there's always a reason to celebrate! The set also comes with lots of fun sentiment pairs - the reply to the 'cake is the answer ...' that I used on the front of my card is featured on the inside along with my birthday greeting:

How fun is that?! Sure to raise a smile, whatever the celebration.

How Sweet It Is - I coloured my cake with my Stampin' Blends, inspired by the spots and stripes patterns that I chose to highlight in my DSP squares. These patterns are two of my favourites in the bright and fun 'How Sweet It Is' Product Suite, that feature lots of sweets and candy, perfect to indulge your sweet tooth. they also co-ordinate with another of my favourite accessories, the glitter enamel dots from the main catalogue.

Get It While You Can - The Cake Builder Punch (item 148525) and the Butterfly Duet Punch (item 148523) have proved extremely popular since catalogue launch and sales have exceeded forecasts. Although not currently on backorder, stocks of these products are expected to run out within the next two weeks, after which they will no longer be orderable until back in stock. Whilst both punches are carrying over to the next annual catalogue in June, you are advised to get your orders in for these sooner rather than later. I am placing an order this week if you are local to me and would like to save on postage, jut get in touch. Alternatively, place your order directly online.

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 like this card so much I made a few using the same design, just switching out the background colours - they are so cheery, i'm definitely a predominantly 'brights' girl at heart!

I have a busy work week this week, so need to get cracking. Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'! 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Piece Of Cake Photopolymer Bundle (£29.50)	Piece Of Cake Photopolymer Stamp Set (£16.00)	Cake Builder Punch (£17.00)	Silver Metallic Thread (£3.25)	Glitter Enamel Dots (£6.50)
Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies (£28.00)	How Sweet It Is 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.25)	Coastal Cabana A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Pineapple Punch A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)
Versamark Pad (£8.25)	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.75)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)