A quick post from me today as I am having the busiest of weeks! Today I'm sharing my entry for this week's challenge over at 'Less is More' where this week the challenge them is 'Let's face the music and dance' and the ladies are looking for cards with a music or dance theme. Now today's card is not overly original, in that I've seen many of them on Pinterest and the internet in general for a long time, but I needed a thank you card for someone who plays piano and as I've never made one of these cards before, I thought I'd create my version which just so happens to fit the bill for this week's LIM challenge. So here's my card:

Quite difficult to photograph, so bear with me! This the front, in Basic Black, with the edge cut shaped like the lid of a grand piano, and then piano keys punched from a Word Window punch in Very Vanilla and Basic Black. Behind the cutaway section you can see the sheet music that is adhered to the inside of the card, which you can see more clearly below:

The sheet music is a piece of retired 'Modern Medley' DSP (I must confess to having hoarded the sheet music pages, I love them!), with space below for the sentiment and your message.

So a fun and simple piano card, where the 'white space' today is entirely black! Check out the other LIM entries this week for plenty of music and dance inspiration - I personally am loving the ballerinas on display!

One other thing - the Stampin' Up! UK Clearance rack updated last night - lots of new bargains at up to 80%, including 12 x 12" papers, washi tape and last season's Halloween papers and kits. You can check out all the bargains at my online store by clicking here - go and grab yourself a bargain!

Lastly, on the subject of THE Piano Man, Mr Billy Joel himself, if you're a fan and have never seen him play live, I can highly recommend it; I saw him in concert for the first time last year and can honestly say it was the best concert performance I have ever attended.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Lots Of Thanks	Word Window Punch	Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad
Modern Medley Overlays Kit - Digital Download

A quick post from me this evening as I sit with my feet up relaxing following today's all day workshop. We had a lovely time and everyone left with lots of completed projects and plenty of leftover bits and pieces to make lots more things at home. The following card, designed by Monica Gale, was one of my favourite projects:

The feature of the card is a Stippled Blossoms rose that is stamped partially off the tag; this is backed with a couple of strips of Fresh Prints DSP and then finished with a red grosgrain ribbon bow and a sentiment cut with the word window punch. A simple enough card but a great way to use the Stippled Blossoms stamps and great practice for getting to grips with your stamp-a-ma-jig. I'm on a mission to make sure all my ladies can use theirs and truly reap the benefits (much to their dismay at times, I'm sure!) of this amazing little plastic sheet and its accompanying t-piece. Thanks ladies for your patience!

My next monthly card class is on Monday 2nd June and will be featuring the 'Springtime Hello' stamp set. If you live in or around Northampton and would like to come along, please do get in touch for more details - experienced and non-experienced crafters welcome.

Back tomorrow hopefully with a special blog post for you; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Stippled Blossoms Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Scalloped Tag Topper Punch	Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack	Lots Of Thanks	Real Red 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon
Word Window Punch	Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad
Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock

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

Firstly, I would like to say thank you to everyone who left comments on my blog and Facebook pages in the last couple of days about my new Box Buster from The Crafty Owl tool - I'm so glad that you are all finding this tool useful. Please feel free to share with anyone and everyone you know who likes box making and has an Envelope Punch Board; it takes all the guesswork out of box making! I have another Box Buster video tutorial for you tomorrow, but meanwhile I want to share my card for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players, where Ann's theme challenge this week is to make a 'Thankful for Spring' thank you card. I decided to combine the challenge with the one over at the Fusion Card Challenge, where I used the colours in the photo and the unusual sketch layout as the inspiration for my card:

I've invested in a few new sets of flower stamps lately, so was a little spoilt for choice, but decided that the lovely Sale-A-Bration Petal Parade stamp set would work perfectly with the sketch layout. Lots of my customers have chosen this item as their free Sale-A-Bration gift so I'm keen to share ideas with them on how to use it. Here's my card:

I chose a base od Summer Starfruit, then added a Whisper White layer that I had stamped with the Petal Parade flowers. I then added a top layer in Pool Party with a circle cut using my Circle Framelits to reveal the flowers beneath. I added my simple 'thanks' sentiment to the white layer beneath the curved edge of the top layer and added the Petal Parade border stamp for definition. To finish, I added some of the Summer Starfruit Sale-A-Bration baker's twine, first punching some little notches out of the Pool Party layer with the point of my mosaic punch to ensure the twine sits flat and evenly across the front of my card.

I hope you like my card; check out the links above to see what the respective design teams have created for these challenges for some great inspiration and ideas. Back tomorrow with another Box Buster video tutorial; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Petal Parade Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Sweet Sorbet Accessory Pack	Lots Of Thanks	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Summer Starfruit Classic Stampin' Pad
Summer Starfruit A4 Card Stock	Pistachio Pudding Classic Stampin' Pad	Basic Black Classic Stampin' Pad	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad	Pool Party A4 Card Stock
Mosaic Punch	Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Circles Collection Framelits Dies

Well, it had to happen - I successfully shared my cold with my daughter, who as a result is off school today feeling considerably down in the dumps! Even a bonus dose of 'Animal Rescue' on TV can't make up for missing two of her favourite lessons of the week - Art and PE. I'm sure a couple of days in the warm to catch up on some sleep and get things under control will help no end. As for me - my day is not quite turning out as planned, although this does mean one thing - an early blog post for a change!

The title of my post today is 'Two For One - Time Two' for two reasons: I am entering today's card into two challenges, and I also used two different flower sets to create my pattern. So, here is my card:

My card layout was inspired by this week's sketch challenge at Create with Connie and Mary CCMC285 - here is the sketch:

My colour combination was inspired by the current colour combination over at Dynamic Duos DD#85 - Summer Starfruit and Garden Green:

So here's a confession for you: I've had a Garden Green inkpad for 12 months and the first time I broke the seal on it was yesterday to make this card!! Whilst I use Garden Green card occasionally, I don't use Regals collection ink pads very often at all (Cherry Cobbler being the notable exception, of course). I have one other ink pad in this collection still in it's cellophane too; any guesses as to which one?! For a first time use, I quite like this colour combination. And for my other combination - did you spot which flower stamp sets my pattern came from? The yellow flower is from the 'Petal Parade' set that will be available during Sale-A-Bration at the end of the month and the green one is from 'Mixed Bunch'. I toyed with embellishing my flower centres, but decided against it, instead using three candy dots to 'anchor' my banner in place.

I'm off to replenish the tissue box and hopefully make a start on swaps for team training this weekend.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Lots Of Thanks	Mixed Bunch - Clear-Mount Stamp	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad	Garden Green A4 Card Stock
Summer Starfruit Classic Stampin' Pad	Summer Starfruit A4 Card Stock	Regals Candy Dots