Today I have another Christmas card to share with you but firstly I need to remind you that the seasonal sale that I told you about yesterday is now LIVE:

• 20% OFF ALL STAMP BUNDLES AND DESIGNER SERIES PAPERS
• 10% OFF SELECT INKS AND CARDSTOCK (including Blends and ink refills)

I'll do a post tomorrow with some cards I've shared previously that highlight some of the great bargains to be had. Meanwhile, today I'm sharing a card that I made for a few challenges that caught my eye:

Color Hues are featuring red and black as their current colour combo, so I grabbed the sketch over at TGIF Challenges (which is a keeper - super versatile!) and added in some twine so that I could play along over at Festive Friday too and got nostalgic with an old favourite - take a look:

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

I decided that a red and black colour combo was made for Santa Claus - so I went into my retired box to find this cutie from the 'Signs of Santa' stamp set, coloured him with my Stampin' Blends and added a piece of  textured striped Santa's Workshop paper for him to sit on. I tied this with some white baker's twine and added a trio of white loose snowflakes from the current mini - love these!

Whilst I had the set out on my desk, I also made a second card, this time featuring Mrs Claus:

This card was more faithful to the sketch as I omitted the twine and added two separate DSP strips, along with a little extra colour for the holly in her hair. Here's both cards together - Santa is still my favourite of the pair -how about you?

It was fun to delve into the retired box for this pair of fun cards and pair them with something new to give a fresh look. Do you have a favourite retired Christmas set that you can't resist pulling out year after year? Do let me know in the comments below. 

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:

WHITE LOOSE SNOWFLAKES (7.50)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (7.50)
BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (10.25)

Back today with a card that is inspired by the wintery woodland photo inspiration over at Just Add Ink and this week's CAS(E) This Sketch:

I went with a clean and modern graphic interpretation of the JAI theme - take a look:

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

Wintery Woodland Inspiration - Inspiration comes in many ways and forms; I didn't have a suitable Christmas tree stamp to hand, so decided to take a different route and feature these snowy trees from the Santa's workshop Designer Series Paper that I still had out on my desk from making yesterday's card. I love the subtle green diagonal stripe pattern of this paper too, which looks almost textured in appearance. More of a graphical design, yet still inspired by the photo.

Christmas Traditions - Today's sentiment is another from the Christmas Traditions Punch Box that I used yesterday and is featured on pages 2-3 of the Autumn/Winter catalogue: 

This festive-themed tin is choc-full of crafting goodies for creating through the festive season: with a block, two ink spots, set of 6 stamps and a Christmas Traditions Punch, all you need is to add some cardstock and adhesives and you are all set for some festive fun! Perfect for tags, cards and embellishments for your home-baked goodies, this set would make a lovely seasonal gift for a crafter or someone who likes to add a personal touch to their packages during the festive season. I stamped the sentiment with the line of trees to echo my DSP pattern in Versamark and heat-embossed in white embossing powder.

Winter Colour Duo - My card features only two colours today: Garden Green and Whisper White. Garden Green is the major contributor however the white has more than a passing role to play: In addition to the trees,which are echoed in the heat embossed sentiment, its use to mat the DSP and the short banner behind the punched sentiment shape gives definition to those elements, which might otherwise be lost without it. I also added a strip of retired sparkly white ribbon for the vertical element in the sketch - for a little sparkle and texture. 

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 hope you like today's card; I have another one featuring another of the stamps in the Christmas Traditions Punch Box in the coming week or so, so be sure to come back and check it out. I have a few more errands before I get back into my painting and decorating - it's a long job! Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Christmas Traditions Punch Box (£42.00)	Merry Christmas To All Photopolymer Stamp Set (£25.00)	Santa's Workshop 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	Garden Green A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Versamark Pad (£8.25)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.75)

Another Monday, another week! Hope you all had lovely weekends -  did you spend them shopping for Black Friday deals? I did start my Christmas shopping at last - I'm suddenly feeling under pressure to start ticking things off that particular list. i can't quite believe that one month today will be Boxing Day!! Anyway, let's not dwell on that - today I'm sharing a card using this week's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

The lovely Kim has a great sketch this week, with lots of creative possibilities. I decided my card was going to be all about the holly - take a look:

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

A Jolly Holly Christmas - I decided that holly was going to be the theme for my card today and used the square shape to feature a piece of the holly patterned paper from the Santa's Workshop designer series paper and tied my sentiment and holly embellishment (one of the self-adhesive pieces from the Santa's Workshop Memories & More card pack) into my theme. I even carried it over to the inside of my card and added a stamped sprig of holly alongside my sentiment from the super-useful Merry Christmas To All stamp set:

Christmas Traditions - I found the perfect holly-related sentiment for my card in the Christmas Traditions Punch Box that is featured on pages 2-3 of the Autumn/Winter catalogue: 

Just like the Darling Label Punch Box in the annual catalogue (which incidentally has 10% off in the current stamp and kit sale as part of today's Online Extravaganza - order yours here), this festive-themed tin is choc-full of crafting goodies for creating through the festive season: with a block, two ink spots, set of 6 stamps and a Christmas Traditions Punch, all you need is to add some cardstock and adhesives and you are all set for some festive fun! Perfect for tags, cards and embellishments for your home-baked goodies, this set would make a lovely seasonal gift for a crafter or someone who likes to add a personal touch to their packages during the festive season. 

Lots of Layers - I added some texture to my card base with the Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, but otherwise all of the detail and interest on today's card is focused around the square element. In order to really draw the eye to it, I stacked the base behind the holly DSP with 3 layers, made easy with the Layering Square Framelits, using the base colours of the paper and adding a piece of Poppy Parade ribbon for a pop of red - so festive!

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 hope you like today's card - tomorrow's card also features the Christmas traditions Punch Box, so be sure to come back and check it out. I have a few more errands before I get back into my painting and decorating - it's a long job! Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Christmas Traditions Punch Box (£42.00)	Merry Christmas To All Photopolymer Stamp Set (£25.00)	Santa's Workshop 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	Poppy Parade 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Textured Weave Ribbon (£7.00)	Layering Squares Framelits Dies (£33.00)
Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (£9.25)	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Garden Green A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Whisper White Solid Baker's Twine (£2.75)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players - yay! It's the turn of my awesome friend LeAnne to host this week and she has a clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

Remember in addition to the theme of "sweet treats", this week is a Clean-and-Simple (CAS) challenge!  What do we mean by CAS?

• Minimal layers and embellishments
• Plenty of open space, aka "white" space
• Simple and uncluttered

I was totally inspired by the red and white stripes and the candy cane in our wonderful inspiration photo for my card this week - take a look:

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

Sweet Candy Canes - My card is all about candy canes - when it comes to sweet treats at this time of year, is there really anything sweeter? I reached for my favourite Santa's Workshop designer series papers again and paired them with a glittery candy cane embellishment from my Memories and More pack for a striped candy feast. 

Keep It Simple - My card really is super simple: a couple of well-chosen papers used sparingly, with a simple stitched circle and heat-embossed Christmas sentiment complete my card. Even the inside has a well-chosen but super simple sentiment detail:

A Delight in Red and White - Using just one colour with my white card base adds to the clean and simple feel of today's card. If you like this card, you might also want to check out this card that I posted earlier this week that used the same colour combination and products - and can also be made in under 10 minutes. Both of these cards are simple to create and would be great for mass production. Gotta love #SimpleStamping

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:

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. We had a busy day yesterday with a scrapbooking class and a swimming gala so today is officially homework day in the James household with hopefully a movie afternoon thrown in. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Santa's Workshop 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies (£28.00)	Santa's Workshop Memories & More Card Pack (£9.25)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)
Versamark Pad (£8.25)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.75)

Today I'm sharing a card for the current challenge over at As you See It where they have something fun going on:

Speed stamping in shades of red! Now making a card in under 10 minutes is a challenge, however luckily all of your thinking time and preparation is outside of that window so I thought it worth a shot. Following the advice of the design team I decided to 'Keep It Simple' and this is what I came up with:

At first glance my card might appear to have a lot going on, but following one practice run (even with thinking time I still changed things on my first attempt and went over the time - oops!) I managed to turn this beauty out in under 10 minutes by following a few simple rules. Here's the low-down on today's card:

It's All About The Candy - My card today has a clear theme: candy canes (in case you were still in any doubt!) The designer series paper pattern from the Santa's Workshop papers takes centre stage and does most of the work, with everything else tying in to this. This made it easy to narrow down supplies and the things I could use on my card. 

Shades of Red - I went with one shade of red on my card: Poppy Parade. This warm red is full of festive brightness and again made co-ordination really straightforward.

Keeping It Simple - For me to create a card in under 10 minutes, it either needs no layers and some simple stamping, or very little stamping at all, which is the route I chose for this card. My card base is a standard A5 blank, and the mat layers are sizes I use all of the time (my whisper White layer measures 9.5cm x 13.9cm and my DSP measures 9.1cm x 13.5cm) so were quick to cut and position. I decided to add a sparkly candy cane from the Santa's Workshop Memories and More pack to draw the eye to my sentiment - so easy, just peel and stick - no stamping or cutting required and chose my sentiment from the Christmas Pines set to reflect this. I embellished with a few enamel shapes and a piece of co-ordinating ribbon and even had time left to add a scalloped border to my white mat layer courtesy of my Decorative Ribbon Border Punch. I also did a little stamping on the inside, using my retired Candy Cane Christmas set: 

And how long did this take me to complete? Well, my stopwatch finished at 8 minutes and 24 seconds - not bad at all for someone who can often spend hours procrastinating over a card!!! Thank you ladies for a fun challenge this week.

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:

Santa's Workshop 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	Poppy Parade 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Textured Weave Ribbon (£7.00)	Santa's Workshop Enamel Shapes (£6.50)	Poppy Parade Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock (£8.00)
Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Decorative Ribbon Border Punch (£15.00)	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies (£28.00)	Santa's Workshop Memories & More Card Pack (£9.25)

I'm just popping by with a quick post following an update by Stampin' Up! with regard to stock levels on certain products. Sales for a number of products have exceeded forecast and are continuing strong and due to their popularity might not be available for the entire catalogue sales period. The products in question are:

147816: Joyous Noel Specialty Designer Series Paper 
147890: Festive Farmhouse Elements 
147811: Santa’s Workshop Enamel Elements

I am definitely responsible in part for the first two items above; I used both at my recent Creative Escapes Craft Retreat and the ladies present got to both create with them and take some of each home in their goody bags. I just adore this paper - it is so beautiful!

In order to provide another holiday-themed option,the lovely people at Stampin' Up! have decided to make the recent promotional Dashing Along Designer Series Paper (item 149903) available for sale for £10.25 a pack. This beautiful, 12" x 12" (30.5 x 30.5 cm) traditional Christmas paper has a festive, eclectic feel and is perfect for layering. Coordinating colours are Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, and Whisper White.

Here is a card I made at my recent Dashing Deer Technique Class that features one of the papers as a border of the central panel:

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. 

You can see other samples showcasing these gorgeous papers here.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Dashing Along Designer Series Paper (£10.25)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Garden Green A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Cherry Cobbler A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Tailored Tag Punch (£17.00)	Festive Farmhouse Cotton Twine (£7.50)	Dashing Deer Clear-Mount Bundle (£46.75)

I so enjoyed making my cards for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players that I shared with you yesterday, that I just had to make more with those fabulous little elves. As such today I'm sharing another card that I made using products from the Santa's Workshop Suite, along with a gift voucher holder made using the Envelope Punch Board. Both of these use the current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches as the basis for my layout:

First up is my card - full of busy elves! Take a look:

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

More Santa's Workshop - I'm loving this elf patterned paper and whilst it's busy, it seemed the perfect background to accompany my sweet elf and his accompanying pile of Christmas presents. I love how the sentiment is in two halves and carries over neatly to the inside of my card:

Stitched Shapes and Layered Ovals - With all those elves, I wanted to keep the rest of my card fairly simple, so used a large stitched oval to create some additional white space around my sentiment, layered on a scallop-edged oval in Poppy Parade for definition. Whilst I don't often use ovals, preferring circles or squares generally, sometimes an oval is the shape that works best for balance. One thing I do use lots though are my Stitched Shapes Framelits - these are on my Top 5 Framelits Of All Time list (I must publish that list one of these days!) - a must have for adding subtle detail to your frames.

Envelope Punch Board Gift Card Holder - having made my card, I still had a couple of elves with flocked hats left that I had diecut from the Santa's Workshop DSP and decided that I would use the same basic layout but in a landscape orientation to get a headstart on my Christmas Gift Voucher holders. I created a simple wallet using my trusty Envelope Punch Board to create the closure; this is similar to ones I've created previously, only I decided to 'go large' this time and create a wallet large enough to hold £10 notes - I have growing nieces and nephews and these days, only cash will do so I am finding I need to come up with ever more creative ways to gift it! This wallet measures 6" x 6" square and again uses the sketch for the front layout (the stamp I used is from last year's retired Merry Little Labels set):

The wallet opens to reveal a sliding pocket insert, where the money sits in the pocket flap which opens to reveal Christmas wishes and with enough space above to include a personalised message: 

I love this style of wallet and make them often. If you would like the dimensions, then just leave a comment below - I'm thinking this might be worth another blog post in itself! 

This wallet would also be great to fill with Stampin' Up! gift vouchers for a crafty friend or even to treat yourself - if you would like to order Stampin' Up! gift vouchers for Christmas and receive them beautifully packaged in a wallet like this, then do get in touch and place your order.

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:

Santa's Workshop 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	Santa's Signpost Framelits Dies (£30.00)	Signs Of Santa Photopolymer Stamp Set (£20.00)	Signs Of Santa Photopolymer Bundle (£45.00)	Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock (£8.00)
Garden Green A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies (£28.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)
Many Marvelous Markers (£112.75)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Anne Marie to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge, for you to work with:

I decided that the sketch layers were perfect to showcase some designer series paper and since I am back creating for Christmas I knew exactly where to start - with a personal favourite this season. I ended up making not one, but two cards. Here's the first one: 

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

Santa's Workshop - The Santa's Workshop Suite is my favourite in this year's seasonal  Stampin' Up! catalogue: with Santa, elves and Mrs Claus - what's not to love? The Santa's Workshop Specialty Designer Series Paper is the star of the suite - not only choc-full of cute designs, but four of the twelve sheets have a fabulous white flocking detail which adds great texture - it reminds me of the Fuzzy Felt of my childhood! I used three different sheets on my card: two for the panels (one with the diagonal flocked stripes, the other with Santa's elves diligently delivering everything on Santa's list) and a third for my Santa himself, complete with list.

Fun With Framelits - With the exception of the sentiment, there is no other stamping on the front of my card. Even the jolly Santa is cut from the designer paper; yes, this pack is another that has designs that can be cut with the Santa's Signpost Framelits that co-ordinate with the Signs of Santa stamp set. I could have stamped the Santa and coloured him, but then I wouldn't have had the flocking adorning his bobble hat and I just couldn't pass that up! 

A Little Colouring Too - I did a little stamping and colouring both inside my card and on the front of my envelope to complete my project; you can see the envelope on the main photos above and below; here's a peek at the inside:

How sweet is Mrs. Claus?! I actually liked this card I decided to create another one with the same design - this time, making more of the diagonal striped paper to really show off the flocking:

So which of these do you prefer? I think I actually like the second one better, but I suspect that is because it's a little less busy in terms of pattern and I just love the red and white with the felt flocked detail. Do leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

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:

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: 

Santa's Workshop 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	Santa's Signpost Framelits Dies (£30.00)	Signs Of Santa Photopolymer Stamp Set (£20.00)	Signs Of Santa Photopolymer Bundle (£45.00)	Poppy Parade 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Textured Weave Ribbon (£7.00)
Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Many Marvelous Markers (£112.75)