Today I wanted to share with you a fun punch art card that I made for a special little girl for Christmas featuring the adorable snowman Olaf from the Disney movie 'Frozen'. I've made a few of these but never blogged one - so here's the most recent one that I made:

I most certainly can't take the credit for the Olaf punch art itself; to create mine, I always follow the excellent instructions by Michelle Suit - you can watch her video tutorial on how to create your own Olaf here. He is actually rather straight forward - the real key is using the Gift Bow Bigz die to get the right shape for his head. If you are a fan of Disney and like to create punch art every once in a while, I recommend you check out Michelle's blog Suitably Stamped - she really is a whizz!

On this occasion, I kept the design of my card really simple and used a piece of Nordic Noel DSP for the snowflake background and just added a pile of snowballs and a retired sentiment, which I stamped in Island Indigo directly onto the DSP. I have more of these to make this month, as I am the official party planner for a special birthday girl later this month who is having a Frozen-themed celebration; there is clearly no sign of the Frozen phenomena dying down any time soon! 

And now to my special announcement! As my regular readers will know, I was asked to join the lovely ladies over at The Paper Players challenge blog back last July for a 3 month guest designer stint. This was then extended to a 6 month stay, which I completed with the last challenge of the year earlier this month. This has always been one of my favourite challenges to play along with and I was delighted to be asked to guest with this talented and creative bunch and equally sad to leave them. So imagine my delight when I got a call asking if I would like to return - as a permanent member of their design team!! Woohoo! I am thrilled that these ladies think so much of me that they would want me to join them on a permanent basis and I am so looking forward to creating with them through 2015 and beyond. Our first post of 2015 will be next Sunday, so do pop back then to join us for some fresh design inspiration!

As for me, I am hoping to be back with you tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Gift Bow Bigz L Die	Nordic Noel Designer Series Paper	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	1-3/4 Inch Circle Punch
2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch	Small Oval Punch	Large Oval Punch	Owl Punch	Uni-Ball Signo Gel Pen
Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock	Soft Suede A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had lovely weekends; mine was busy as always, with a Stampin' Up! party on Friday night, followed by the usual weekend of sport and a morning stood out in the driving rain watching my first rugby match yesterday (hockey is definitely a cleaner game!) Other highlights of my weekend included reaching the bottom of my ironing basket (to be celebrated!) and the addition of a new pet to the James household - Olivia the goldfish has joined Goldie, who was feeling lonely following the recent departure of Fishy.

So, onto today's card! Today I have a clean and simple card for this week's challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches, where Cindy has another great sketch for us:

I took inspiration from another of the designs in the Nordic Noel DSP pack and paired it with the sentiment stamp from Cheerful Christmas for my card today:

I used Soft Sky as my base and a piece of the Nordic Noel DSP featuring the acorns and pine sprigs for the left panel of my card. I stamped my feature sentiment in Garden Green on Whisper White and matted this onto a piece of Garden Green cardstock, rounding the corners on the right-hand side of both pieces. I used some Soft Sky and Calypso Coral Candy Dots to add a little colour to the main panel. Lastly, I added a strip of Garden Green and finished with a double loop of Baked Brown Sugar baker's twine. I love this thick twine - it's great for packaging but also works as a substitute for ribbon and ties a lovely bow. 

I love the fresh look of this card; the Garden Green is definitely a festive colour, but pairing it with Soft Sky, Baked Brown Sugar and Calypso Coral and Whisper White adds a real crispness to it I think. That's all from me - I'm off to get ready for today's class featuring the Many Merry Stars kit; click here to order yours if you haven't already, before they're all gone. 

Back tomorrow with another project and news of a fantastic one-week only demonstrator sign up offer - come back and check it out, you are not going to want to miss it! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Cheerful Christmas Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Nordic Noel Designer Series Paper	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad	Garden Green A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Project Life Corner Punch	Subtles Candy Dots	Baked Brown Sugar Thick Baker's Twine

It's Sunday and time for another challenge over at The Paper Players where this week LeAnne has a great sketch for us: 

Sketch challenges are my absolute favourite and I had tons of ideas for this one; you may see some of the others later this week, but for today I'm sharing this Christmas card featuring some of my favourite Nordic Noel designer series paper:

I kept my layout really simple as the paper is quite busy, but used lots of layers to incorprate the colours in the DSP. I added a piece of white seam binding ribbon tied with some baker's twine and a Nordic Noel button and to the bottom opposing corner a co-ordinating ornament in Garden Green that I stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in white, with a trio of pearls coloured with my Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities for effect. A sentiment from 'Good Greetings' finishes off my card.

I'm off to hockey and then have a date with an overflowing basket of ironing this afternoon. If you have something altogether more fun lined up and have time for a spot of crafting, then check out the cards by the other Paper Players designers this week for some great inspiration and then see what you can come up with? We would love to see you in the gallery this week.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Cheerful Christmas Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Nordic Noel Designer Series Paper	Nordic Designer Buttons	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad	Garden Green A4 Card Stock
Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	White Stampin' Emboss Powder
Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	White Baker's Twine	Whisper White 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon	Scallop Edge Border Punch
Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players and this week Sandy has a fantastic colour challenge for us:

Aren't these colours so reminiscent of winter? I also used this week's sketch over at The Paper Craft Crew for the layout for today's card:

I used Cherry Cobbler for my card base and matted this with a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock. I created my own DSP for my background panel by stamping Mossy Meadow ink on Mossy Meadow cardstock and stamping a selection of the baubles from the Nordic Noel set. The focal image of my card is the main stamp in this set, which I coloured with my Mossy Meadow and Cherry Cobbler markers to achieve the two-colour pattern. A Stylish Stripes embossed panel added a little background texture and I finished with the gorgeous in-colour Mossy Meadow satin ribbon and an antique brad, along with a sentiment from Good Greetings. Lastly, there is a 'cheat' element to my card today - did you spot it? For all of you wondering where I managed to get my Mossy Meadow candy dots from, since they aren't in the catalogue, I'll let you into a secret - they're actually Always Artichoke! I'm hoping Sandy will forgive me, but as they aren't next to anything that is Mossy Meadow you cant see the subtle difference in colour so they do the job as far as my card is concerned. I won't tell if you don't ;-).

I hope you like today's card; do pop by The Paper Players gallery to see what the rest of the team have come up with - there are some great cards as always. There's even one by LeAnne that uses the exact same sketch layout as me, yet it looks completely different, so check it out for double inspiration!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock	Cheerful Christmas Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Regals Stampin' Write Markers	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad
2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Stylish Stripes Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch	Mossy Meadow 3/8" Satin Stitched Ribbon	Antique Brads

Good morning everyone! I'm back with another Christmas card today - well, it truly is the season for it now! Today's card uses the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch which was the perfect layout for me to showcase some lovely Nordic Noel DSP and incorporate a layered die cut. Here's this week's sketch:

And this is my card: 

A simple layering of Garden Green on Soft Sky, followed by the Nordic Noel DSP. This paper has such a busy pattern I find it only really works on cards like this where there isn't anything to clutter it; I cut my 'Joy' die cut in Real Red, then stacked it on a couple of identical die cuts in Garden Green to give it real dimension (I used adhesive transfer sheets to hold the layers together, which made for very easy layering). I decided to mount it onto a rectangular piece of Garden Green cardstock, because the die cut didn't stand out enough against the patterned paper without, then I added the 'to you' from the Endless Wishes stamp set in Garden Green on Calypso Coral beneath it - the only stamping on today's card! Lastly, I added a sprinkling of candy dots in something of a nod to the sketch, albeit that I restricted use of them to the solid colour panels.

Hope you like today's card - if you like this layout you should check out the other cards on the CAS(E) This Sketch page - there are some great examples there.

Right, I'm off to get some work done - back tomorrow with another Christmas card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Nordic Noel Designer Series Paper	Wonderful Wreath Framelits Dies	Endless Wishes Photopolymer Stamp Set	Transfer Adhesive Sheets	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky
Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Subtles Candy Dots	Garden Green A4 Card Stock	Regals Candy Dots	Real Red A4 Card Stock
Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad

Back to my blog today after a couple of days absence; I've had a lot on these past few days and it's taken me until today to get back with it! At least now it's the weekend and today has seemed altogether more peaceful. I managed to make a card today with this week's challenge over at Merry Monday in mind; I also used the sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches for my layout:

 I was so inspired by the gallery cards over at Merry Monday this week - love all those cars and trucks transporting Christmas trees - that I wanted to have a go. Only problem is - I don't have a single car stamp. So I decided to think laterally and decided to use the santa sleigh and reindeer stamp from the 'Holiday Home' set - here is my card:

I actually turned the sketch upside down, so that I could use the reindeer and sleigh as the arched element of the design - the 'Holiday Home' stamp set is photopolymer so it's really easy to curve the stamp to look as if it was flying across the roof of the last house. I stamped the sleigh and sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed in Whisper White so that it would really stand out against the Soft Sky central panel. I edged the top of this with two thin stripes of Real Red and Whisper White respectively to add definition then used a piece of the snow pattern from the All is Calm DSP for the top section. For the bottom section, I fussy cut a row of houses from the Nordic Noel DSP - I love the bright colours in this paper and the little houses have such pretty designs.

I hope you like today's card; back tomorrow with my Design Team card for The Paper Players.

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Nordic Noel Designer Series Paper	All Is Calm Specialty Designer Series Paper	Holiday Home Photopolymer Stamp Set	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky

No blog post yesterday I'm afraid, as I was busy with family activities and just couldn't find the time. Today though it's Sunday and time for my Design Team card for The Paper Players, where this week Nance has a fun tic-tac-toe challenge for us:

I had such fun trying to decide which boxes of the grid to use - in the end I went for the diagonal of 'patterned paper, embossing, buttons' and made my first Christmas card using the 'Cheerful Christmas' stamp set - I took the inspiration for my layout from this week's sketch over at Fab Friday: 

This stamp set appealed to me the moment I saw it - I love the Scandanavian-inspired patterns that look so great in traditional Christmas reds and greens, along with white and kraft. For this card, I matted my Real Red base with Garden Green, then adhered a piece of Nordic Noel Designer Series Paper to the top of the card; this DSP carries on the Nordic theme and lots of the papers in this set co-ordinate with these stamps - I love it! I stamped the main flower stamp in the set in Versamark on Real Red and heat embossed in white, then adhered this to my card using dimensionals. Lastly, I added a flag of Calypso Coral and stamped my sentiment, from the new hostess set 'Good Greetings' in Garden Green, onto a flag of Whisper White and tucked it beneath my flower square. Lastly, I finished by wrapping around some white baker's twine and adhering one of the red and white Nordic Designer Buttons to finish.

I even took the time to decorate the inside of my card and the envelope - I thought I'd make the most of it now, as by the time I get to the last minute rush these little acts of prettiness will be all but out the window! Pop over to the rest of the team to see what they did with this week's challenge - there's a huge variety in there this week and as always some great designs.

In the James household, swimming lessons resume today before the new term starts and then I will be doing the final preparations for my first monthly card class featuring Christmas cards tomorrow - yippee! Hope you enjoy your Sunday, however you are spending it.

Lastly, in case you needed a reminder - today is the last day of the Big Shot offer - see here for details.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Cheerful Christmas Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Nordic Noel Designer Series Paper	Nordic Designer Buttons	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
Heat Tool - Uk Plug	White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Garden Green A4 Card Stock
Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad	White Baker's Twine