A Quick Natural Botanicals Thank You AYSI 355

by Joanne James22. August 2025 13:00

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for our regular speed challenge, with a theme chosen by Jan:

    

Leaves - we've all got those in our stamp collection, right? I decided to go with a really simple two-colour card inspired by the combo over at Color Dare and featuring two leaves from one of my favourite current leafy stamp sets, Natural Botanicals - take a look:

 

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

Natural Botanicals - The leaves in the 'Natural Botanicals' stamp set can be used in so many ways! Today I used one of the larger leaves to stamp the bottom half of my white panel with Pretty Peacock coloured leaves to create my own patterned paper (I masked off a border first with masking paper, but you could forgo this and save a little extra time) then using the same colour, added ink with a blending brush to create a solid block of colour. I added this panel to my white card base, then a leftover strip of Flirty Flamingo cardstock, before stamping another of the leaves in the set in Flirty Flamingo onto white cardstock, and diecut this with one of my trusty Stylish Shapes Dies. 

Thankful Garden - Since Natural Botanicals is a sentiment-free set, I chose a thankful sentiment from another stamp set, 'Thankful Garden', and stamped this in Pretty Peacock directly onto my stamped pink leaf. The bold turquoise colour and large font is enough to stand out against the leaf beneath:

 

I added this to my card using dimensionals for a little lift, then added a trio of Pretty Peacock faceted enamel dots from my stash (having previously gone through my collection looking at all possible options before I started my timer, of course!) to complete my card.

Speed Stamping Addition - As always, the key to a speed stamping card is preparation: I had browsed my saved sketches to choose a layout before I started and gathered all possible supplies, opened my ink pads, mounted my stamps before starting the timer. So how long did my simple leaf card take? 

 

Just 6 minutes and 48 seconds - plenty of time leftover, so I stamped the flap of my envelope to coordinate and still finished inside of the 10 minute allowance. OK, so my pink leaf isn't perfect (next time I'd use my stamp platform) but otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with how this card turned out - thanks Jan for a fun 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

  • Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
  • For a Recipe Challenge use all elements of the recipe - the possibilities within those parameters are endless.
  • For a Colour Challenge use all of the given colours and only those colours with these exceptions:
    • White and Very Vanilla are free colours.
    • In addition, you may use of ONE of these neutrals: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige.
  • For a Speed Stamping Challenge you must tell us the time it took to make your project and it must be finished in under 10 min.
  • Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
  • Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
  • Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
  • You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
  • We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.
We look forward to seeing your creations in the AYSI gallery.

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Natural Botanicals One Layer CCS564

by Joanne James8. July 2025 12:00

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. I am hosting this month and our first challenge is a sketch challenge featuring a sentiment and a single stem of some kind: 

     

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. 

For my card today I chose a single stem from the 'Natural Botanicals' stamp set - perfect for the 'botanical' challenge over at CAS on Friday too - and set to work to create a simple one layer card:

 

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

I stamped my leaf and sentiment (from 'Sweet Blooms') in Tuxedo Black onto thick white cardstock and added some colour to the leaf sections using three of the 2025-27 In Color Stampin' Write markers:

 

Stampin' Write markers are great for one layer cards as they don't bleed through and since the sections are so small, it's easy to get an even colour without the need for a Blend. A trio of Cloud Cover flat pearls complete my card. Unorthodox colours for a leaf, for sure, but that's the creator's prerogative, right?

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:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Natural Botanicals Three Ways For PP724

by Joanne James9. February 2025 08:00

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous LeAnne to host this week and she has a fresh colour challenge for us to work with:

    

I decided to break out a new set that I haven't yet used and armed with the layout over at Try A Sketch On Tuesday, set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

 

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

Natural Botanicals Three Ways - I decided the large botanical images in the 'Natural Botanicals' stamp set would be a great way to showcase LeAnne's bright colour palette this week and I used the stamps in three different ways: as layered images on my diecut circle (the yellow flower is the reverse of the daisy), heat embossed in white onto Flirty Flamingo cardstock for my fussy cut daisy and finally stamped the smaller images tone-on-tone onto cardstock strips in the challenge colours to create my background panel. I overlaid my stripes with a piece of vellum to tone the colours down slightly, but you can still see the detail of the stamping beneath:

 

Greetings For All - My simple 'hello' greeting is from the Greetings For All Mix & Match Ephemera pack in the mini catalogue. With 6 sheets of black and white pre-diecut greetings, you'll never be lost for a suitable sentiment to finish your card - and no stamping required.

Want Natural Botanicals For FREE? - I purchased 'Natural Botanicals' from the mini catalogue and it is still available to buy, however it can also be yours FREE with a £55 product purchase as part of the second month of our current Sale-A-Bration promotion - how good is that?! You can read about the other new products that have been added in my Sale-A-Bration post earlier this week - here's the link if you missed it. 

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:

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:
 
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission.
3.  Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL.
4.  Have FUN!

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

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Hi I'm Joanne and live in Northampton and when I'm not looking after my husband and two beautiful children, am an avid crafter with a passion for all things Stampin' Up!

I must confess that I have never been a big rubber stamper - until I discovered Stampin' Up! that is. I love the fact that I can get such great results with co-ordinating stamps, inks, papers and punches - the possibilities are endless! Join me on my stamping journey as I share the things I love and be inspired to create amazing things yourself!

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