Today I'm sharing a quick card I made a couple of nights ago for the current challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown where the theme this week is 'Nutcracker':

I still have my long retired 'Santa Stache' stamp set so paired him with a layout that gave me the opportunity to use up some retired nutcracker-patterned paper I had in my stash too - take a look:

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

A quick stamp of my Nutcracker and coloured with my Blends. I diecut his moustache and popped it up on dimensionals for a little extra lift because, well, why not?

I used an offcut of patterned paper to decorate both the inside of my card and the edge of my envelope - and done.

No visual summary today - this card was simply for fun and to show some love to old Nutcrackers! 

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

Yay it's Friday - always a good day! Today I'm sharing my card for this week's Less is More challenge, where the theme is non-traditional colours on a Christmas card (specifically no red or green). I decided to go with another Nutcracker card - he is so perfect for non-traditional colour schemes, and this time with a very simple layout; here's my card:

I used a base of Soft Sky and layered a couple of mats of Rich Razzleberry and Soft Sky, then stamped my Nutcracker image directly onto the Soft Sky layer and did some basic paper piecing on the jacket and hat to add the Rich Razzleberry elements and the Soft Sky crown. His face was stamped on Blushing Bride and again paper pieced together. I coloured the eyebrows and hair using my Smoky Slate Stampin' Up! Blendabilities markers, and stamped the moustache in Memento Black onto Smoky Slate cardstock and popped it up on dimensionals. Some Rich Razzleberry candy dots on his crown and Soft Sky ones on his jacket complete the look.

There you have it - another non-traditional nutcracker card. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Subtles Candy Dots	Santa Stache Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform
Mustache Framelits Die	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment	Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Rich Razzleberry A4 Card Stock
Brights Candy Dots	Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride

Happy Saturday everyone! I am back into the challenge swing of things and today I have a card for this week's Merry Monday challenge where the aim is to create a card using non-traditional colours and I also took a little inspiration from the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I decided to make a card using the Nutcracker stamp as it really lends itself to cards using non-traditional colours and I've been wanting to make a purple card with him for some time; here's my card: 

I used Blackberry Bliss for my base and Hello Honey for the mat and the striped DSP which is from the Midnight DSP stack. I coloured my nutcracker using a combination of Stampin' Write markers and the skin tone, Smoky Slate and Daffodil Delight Blendabilities (I sued the middle and darkest one only as these are closer to Hello Honey) and added a popped-up moustache cut out using my Big Shot and the moustache framelit. To finish, I stamped my sentiment directly onto the DSP layer. I love the Nutcracker in these colours - I think he looks very regal!

That's me done for today; I have some class prep later for next week's class and then we are meeting up with some friends later for dinner, which should be fun.

Back tomorrow with my Design Team card over at The Paper Players, where Nance has a fabulous sketch for us and there is lots more festive fun to be had!

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Santa Stache Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Mustache Framelits Die	Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Blackberry Bliss A4 Cardstock
Hello Honey A4 Cardstock	2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Skin Tone Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment
Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment

Good evening lovely blog readers! Now I know it's Sunday and for me that's normally an early post with my Design Team card for The Paper Players, right? Well, those lovely ladies have given me a week off as I'm heading to Brussels for Stampin' Up!'s European Convention later this week and so won't be around to comment on all the lovely cards in the challenge gallery or choose my favourite. This week Ann has a colour challenge for you so why not pop over to The Paper Players challenge blog for some great design team inspiration and to link up your card? If you need a little inspiration from me, check out my card for Sandy's sketch challenge a couple of weeks ago - you can find it here - as by complete coincidence I used this week's challenge colour palette on my card. I'll be back 'with the programme' next Sunday and my blog post will be scheduled to go live before I return home from Brussels, so normal service will resume then.

For those of you that don't already know, Stampin' Up!'s European Convention is an annual event that is exclusive to demonstrators and is a great opportunity to meet other demonstrators, craft, gain business insight and knowledge and be rewarded for achievements in sales and recruitment throughout the year. I will be bringing you more information about the event here on my blog later this week and will be sharing news and excitement via my Facebook Page whilst I'm away too, so if you haven't already 'liked' my page, hop on over and do it today so that you don't miss out on all the latest news, excitement and maybe even a few 'sneak peeks'.

Anyway, onto the crafty stuff! I managed to squeeze in some crafting today so made a card for this week's challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches, which had the following sketch for inspiration:

This is what I decided to do with it:

I decided to use my Santa Stache Santa stamp - gotta love that mustache! - which I coloured with my Blendabilities markers, and combined it with some of the bold striped paper from the Trim The Tree DSP paper stack for the patterned panel.

That's all from me for today; back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Santa Stache Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Mustache Framelits Die	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Skin Tone Assortment	Garden Green A4 Card Stock
Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad	Trim The Tree Designer Series Paper Stack	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

It's Wednesday so time for the challenge over at Colour Me...! where this week we have a playful palette to work with:

What do you see when you look at these colours? They are quite clashing - pink, vanilla, orange and blue - from different areas of the colour wheel, yet they can work together. I decided to go with an unconventionally coloured Christmas card, using the new nutcracker stamp from the Santa Stache stamp set. Here is my card:

I used Marina Mist for my card base, then layered a strip of spotty Tangerine Tango DSP from the Flowerpot stamp set before creating a paper pieced layered image of the nutcracker. To do this, I stamped the nutcracker 5 times, once each on a piece of Very Vanilla, Marina Mist, Tangerine Tango, Pink Pirouette and Smoky Slate. Using the Very Vanilla piece as my base mat, I then fussy cut the pieces from the remaining images and paper-pieced them together, layering the edges on the hat and jacket for added dimension. I used some now-retired Pink Pirouette mini brads to accent the buttons on the nutcrackers jacket, hat and the edge of my card front for balance - these were lurking in the back of my drawer and were just the right size and shape for the domed effect I was after, but you could use candy dots or maybe small enamel dots in lace of these for a similar effect. Lastly, I cut out the Smoky Slate moustache using the moustache framelit and adhered to my paper pieced image with dimensionals. This vanilla base was matted onto both Marina Mist and Tangerine Tango before adhering to my card base and a little flag with the fun sentiment 'nutty or nice?' added just underneath.

I hope you like my unconventional card this week - only one more day to go until you can order this fun set for yourself. meanwhile, why not visit the other Colour Me...! designers and check out their takes on this week's colour combination:

Mustache Framelits Die	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Flower Pot Designer Series Paper	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Marina Mist Classic Stampin' Pad
Marina Mist A4 Card Stock	Pink Pirouette A4 Card Stock	Tangelo Twist A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate