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 seasonal theme challenge for us to work with:

With Thanksgiving just around the corner for our friends in the US, LeAnne's challenge is a timely one. It's always nice to send thank you cards to show our appreciation - I probably send more of this kind of card than any other. I decided that I wanted my card today to be in the spirit of Thanksgiving - take a look at what I came up with:

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

Not Pumpkin Pie - I still had 'pie' on my mind following my musings in relation to the 'harvest' prompt of Friday's card, so decided since pie is a big feature of the Thanksgiving feast (or so I am led to believe as a non native American) I dug out an old retired set called 'Sweets & Treats' for this sweet little pie image. Except I don't think this could be considered a pumpkin pie, as it has a pastry lid - and my research suggests that pumpkin pie is open-topped, more like a UK 'tart' - feel free to weigh in, American readers! So instead I decided that I would make my pie a cherry pie, cooked in my faithful Cornishware blue pie dish, with a cherry-coloured rosy hue behind:

Cherry pies have long been a feature in the James household at this time of year thanks to a dear long-time customer friend of mine who has generously shared her bounty over the years. She has now moved away to the coast, so I shall be sending this card to her as a thank you for the harvests of times gone by (thank you Gill!)

Follow The Leader - My super simple card today is inspired by Karen's card over at AAA Cards, where we are playing 'follow the leader' and invited to CASE Karen's card. I retained the CAS layout, with a single base layer and focal stamped image popped up on dimensionals, with a blend of colour behind, coupled with a punny sentiment. I'm also linking this card up over at Time Out Challenges where they are celebrating autumn festivities around the world - Thanksgiving is mine.

A Festive 'Take Two' - I liked this simple card so much, I decided to make another one to add to my Christmas stash and celebrate another festivity with another of the stamps in the 'Sweet & Treats' set: a Christmas pudding. Here's my second card:

I stuck to exactly the same design principles, but switched out the image and sentiment to feature this most delicious of Christmas treats. This stamp has a little more detail so allows for a little more colour to be incorporated - check out the jewelled candied peel and glace cherries in the mix:

I LOVE Christmas pudding (without white sauce though) and for me is a highlight of the festive season, but I think it is a peculiarly British tradition that is perhaps not shared with our overseas friends. I once visited some American friends shortly before Christmas and took one with me as a gift for them to try. Let's just say they much preferred the Terry's Chocolate Oranges I'd taken too!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference (the Blends colours are in the table below):

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:

Enjoy your day; thank you for listening to my musings over all things pudding and pie! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	CHERRY COBBLER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	AZURE AFTERNOON STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM DEEP COMBO (£10.25)
POPPY PARADE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS DEEP COMBO PACK (£10.25)	SHADED SPRUCE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	TIMID TIGER STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	LEMON LOLLY STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)
LEMON LIME TWIST STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a seasonal theme challenge:

This week's theme of 'harvest' left me musing when it came to making my card, as I seem to have an abundance of floral stamp sets at the moment but not much else - so it was time to get creative! Today's card was where I ended up - take a look:

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

When I think about harvest at this time of year, to me that generally means bucketfuls of fruit picked from the trees in my garden, or gathering fruit from the hedgerows, or pumpkins as in our inspiration photo. But when browsing through my supplies, I saw the bee keeper on the Turtle-y Cute designer paper - and I started thinking about bees harvesting nectar, and in turn the bee keeper harvesting honey from his hives. Grabbing Linda's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week for my layout (I had been wondering how to use this sketch then suddenly it occurred to me that it could form the basis for a landscape, and that trio of circles could be my hives!), I created my little scene by cutting my background piece into layers, then adding my fussy cut hives and bee keeper with dimensionals to add depth. I even fussy cut some teeny tiny bees and added them to my scene: 

I added a sentiment from 'Bee My Valentine' to complete my card. This card will be perfect for my nephew's birthday next month; beekeeping is one of his hobbies and he has recently expanded the number of hives in his garden. This has been a bumper year for his honey harvest too - so this card is completely on point.

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.
• 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.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

TURTLE-Y CUTE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)

POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)

Happy hump day everyone! Today I'm sharing a card for this week's challenge over at Just Us Girls where it's anything goes Stencil Week:

I was lucky enough recently to be gifted this fabulous Christmas stencil by my dear crafty friend Elizabeth, who is herself the absolute queen of stencils, so how could I not use it for a card for this week's JUGS challenge - take a look at my card:

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

The stencil is called Christmas Bauhaus by Uniko (they also do a similar non-festive design which is already in my shopping basket) and consists of three layers that piece together to create this fun design. I stayed with traditional red and green for my colour scheme today, and cut a base in mat in the same colours before adding my stencilled panel and a heat-embossed retired sentiment from the 'Greetings from Santa' stamp set. The only other thing I needed to do was add a bright red shiny enamel dot to Santa's nose:

Isn't that just so fun?! I'm also linking today's card up over at Inspire.Create where the theme is Christmas. 

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:

REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	PETAL PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	DELIGHTFUL DECORATIVE DOTS (£8.50)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)

I'm a little late with today's post (I'm blaming the clocks going back!) Anyway, it's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Suzanne has asked that we add a large banner and a focal point - remember to add a sentiment too! Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

For my card today I went super clean and simple with a fun Christmas card that took only minutes to make, perfect for a second entry over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this week too where they are all about quick cards.  take a look:

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

For my banner, I used a piece of the retired Night Before Christmas designer papers from my stash as I thought they would pair well with one of my new dies - ho ho ho from the Christmas Greetings Dies by Concorde & 9th. These are layering dies; I cut both pieces to coordinate with the colours of the santa hats on the banner, and popped the sentiment up on dimensionals and actually used the sentiment itself as my focal point:

I added a simple sentiment to the inside using another retired set to complete my card:

This was so quick to make, I used the leftover piece of DSP to create a second card too! I love the use of bold Pretty Peacock as the base for this card - sometimes it's fun to ring the changes with colourful 'white space'. 

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; I will be spending mine ticking things off my 'to do' list with a vengeance! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

PRETTY PEACOCK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have my favourite, a sketch challenge for us to work with:

This is a great sketch for easy cards, with the opportunity to use up scraps for those banners and choose a single focal point. It's also great for quick cards - and since both of today's cards can be made in less than 30 minutes, perfect for the challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this week! I used a circle in the sketch, but your focal point can be any shape you like. I was playing with my Christmas Tags and More papers and found the perfect focal point - take a look:

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

Christmas Tags & More - The Christmas Tags and More papers are full of pretty festive patterns, including a number of sheets featuring a variety of diecuts. I chose one featuring a wreath as my focal point; I added some peppermint embellishments and a gold twine bow for a little added festive detail:

I paired my wreath with a couple of banners in Garden Green and a banner from the paper pack, a trio of gold metallic gems and a pre-diecut sentiment from the Greetings For You. Easy!

Take Two - With all of the bits and pieces out on the desk, I made a second card using the same layout and other elements in the pack:

This one features a couple of trees, one a diecut and the other fussy cut from the DSP, to which I added a couple of silver foil punched stars, along with some clear rhinestones and a retired sentiment.

I much prefer the red wreath card, but the bits and pieces in this paper pack make for endless combinations using this simple sketch layout. I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone else interprets my sketch in the gallery 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 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:

Enjoy your day; I'll be making the most of our extra hour in bed today as the clocks go back and enjoying an early Sunday lunch before returning Junior James back to university after a weekend at home, complete with clean laundry and extra food supplies - what a life! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

CHRISTMAS TAGS & MORE 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) MIX & MATCH SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)	GREETINGS FOR YOU MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (ENGLISH) (£8.00)	ADHESIVE-BACKED METALLIC GEMS (£8.50)	REAL RED & WHITE ADHESIVE-BACKED PEPPERMINTS (£8.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
SOFT SEA FOAM A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	SILVER 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)

Today I'm sharing a card for the current challenge over at Color Hues, that also uses the sketch layout over at Try A Sketch on Tuesday:

I was thrilled to be the winner of the last challenge over at Color Hues with my card featuring Autumn Beauty sunflowers (you can see that card here if you missed it) and in anticipation of guesting with the team on a future challenge, I thought I'd better try my hand again this week. These colours immediately gave me Halloween vibes, but I went in a completely different direction - take a look:

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

I used some retired Stargazing designer series paper for a background night sky and another sheet to cut out a collection of orange and purple coloured planets and layered them, with the largest one with rings popped up at the front:

I added a sentiment from the retired 'Stepping Stones' stamp set and a few rhinestone 'stars' to complete my card. There is some poetic licence with my layout for sure, since it is more akin to the sketch rather than our solar system, but that's the joy of creativity, right? I'm also linking this card up over at The Alphabet Challenge where the challenge is 'N is for Night'.

As promised yesterday, I have another monochrome CAS card for the current challenge over at AAA Cards:

I remembered this sketch image in the Beautiful Gallery paper pack that stands alone as a monochromatic image:

I added a simple black border but no sentiment as there didn't seem a good place to put it and I think it works for an 'any occasion' note card, so I left it blank. There's lots of detail in the scene - I'm not sure if it's meant to be somewhere famous, but I don't recognise it - leave me a comment and let me know if you do!

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. 

Finally a reminder that we are on day 2 of the current 3 day free shipping promotion - you can get a recap on the full details here in case you missed it.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BEAUTIFUL GALLERY 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)

BASIC BEIGE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

I am needing to add to my Christmas card stash so today I'm sharing a selection of Christmas cards I made for a few different challenges using mostly retired products. My first card is for the 'gnome' theme challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and for the 'seasonal' challenge over at Inkspirational where my season is of course the festive season and Christmas:

I have lots of the retired Storybook Gnomes DSP hoarded, so this theme gave me the perfect opportunity to use up a little more of it:

I layered a panel of snowflake patterned paper for the background, then added a panel in retired Bermuda Bay and a diecut gnome into the aperture:

I love the way the diecut circle aperture picks up the subtle stitch detail on the gnome. A sentiment from the 'Kindest Gnomes' stamp set completes my card.

My second card uses the sketch layout over at Sunday Stamps - who can resist things in threes?

! I chose to feature a trio of penguins as the focal point of my card:

These were fussy cut from some DSP and layered onto a backdrop of pre-embossed paper from my stash for some subtle added detail and texture:

A trio of green gems for a little festive sparkle complete my card.

My final card is for the challenge over at AAA Cards:

They are looking for CAS cards with the option of creating something in grey monochrome. Not usually my first choice of colour, and in fact the first card I made for this challenge is one I'm going to share tomorrow, then I remembered I still had some of this Winter Meadow paper featuring the lone deer which makes for a beautiful CAS Christmas card in soft greys:

I added a silver foil diecut and embossed sentiment from the current Words of The Season bundle and a couple of white sequins to complete my card:

 So pretty! No visual summaries today as these cards mostly use product that's no longer available, but if it's items you still have in your stash too, I hope they provide you with some creative inspiration too!

Enjoy your evening - I'm off to watch the first instalment of this week's The Traitors - and I'll be back tomorrow with another couple of projects. Until then, happy stampin'!

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

Clean and simple foliage - perfect for this time of year. Today I have a sneak peek for you of a new set that will be released with the November drop of Online Exclusives products - take a look:

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

Those pretty little foliage dies are part of a larger set called Friendly Foliage that consists of both a stamp set and dies. I had intended to use the main stamp and die in this set, which is perfect for a clean and simple card, however when I saw the inspiration photo over at Inspired By this week, I thought I'd have a go at creating some little panels inspired by those in the photo - can you tell which ones I chose? I followed the sketch too, using 5 diecut swirly rectangles in Basic Beige as my base (cut with the retired Beautiful Shapes Dies), masking each one and adding ink with a blending brush where required. I then added my diecut foliage, having paper-pieced in the sections in a variety of different colours:

I'm not going to lie, for a clean and simple card this did take quite a while to create due to all of the diecutting and piecing involved, but I'm very pleased with the result! A thankful sentiment (from the retired 'Good Greetings' stamp set) in Night of Navy completes my card - and also means I am linking up with the team over at Addicted To CAS where their new codeword is 'thankful'. The Friendly Foliage stamp set and dies make for beautiful and simple designs and you can be sure you will be seeing more if them in the coming weeks.

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. 

This card is headed to one of the lovely ladies that took advantage of this month's great joining offer to welcome her as a member of my Stampin' Up! team - I am thankful for her and all the other lovely ladies that have chosen to share their Stampin' up! journeys with me. A reminder that you still have a couple more weeks to take advantage of this offer - click here for a reminder of the offer details here or here if you're ready to enjoy all of the benefits that joining Stampin' Up! has to offer.

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

Enjoy your day; I spent much of my day yesterday in the garden, preparing it for winter, so I'm hoping today once I've finished my ironing that I can squeeze in a little crafty time too! I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	BASIC BEIGE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CAJUN CRAZE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	PETAL PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
BASIC GRAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SMOKY SLATE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SMOKY SLATE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	PETAL PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

Yay it's Friday - the end of the week is nigh! Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a recipe challenge, with the ingredients chosen by Deborah:

 Orange isn't a colour I use often when crafting, so I decided to focus on the 'shades of orange' ingredient of the recipe and my card grew from there - take a look:

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

Floral Charm - The watercolour-effect floral pattern featuring orange florals is the reverse side of one of the sheets in the Online Exclusives Floral Charm DSP pack. It has a lovely soft pattern in shades of Timid Tiger, so I thought I'd use a whole piece of it to show it off to full effect. I like that it's bright but without being too 'in your face'. This is such a lovely paper pack - the detailed florals are lovely, but the softer patterns on the reverse should certainly not be overlooked. I picked up the florals by adding a white diecut of co-ordinating flowers from the Charming Day Dies.

Branching Out - I used a floating frame in white to bring the other elements of my design together, cut with the Branching Out Dies. I wasn't sure if I 'needed' these dies, but they have a lovely corner element and stitched detail and my lovely teamie Jan made one too many fabulous cards using the Branching Out bundle, so I caved and added it to my shopping basket - and so far it does not disappoint! 

Thoughtful Moments - The final ingredient in the recipe to tick off was a 'happy sentiment'; having perused my collection, I decided to use the embossed diecut from the Thoughtful Moments bundle. Having used my Stampin' Write marker to highlight the embossed edge prior to embossing, I then added an ombre of orange using three shades of orange Stampin' Blends to colour the word 'happy':

A trio of bright orange enamel dots complete my card. Whilst I'm not generally a big fan of orange, I do think that it can be quite striking and when balanced with lots of white it looks ok - and not at all 'Halloweeny' either!

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.
• 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.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

FLORAL CHARM 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)	CHARMING DAY DIES (£33.00)	BRANCHING OUT DIES (£27.00)	THOUGHTFUL MOMENTS HYBRID EMBOSSING FOLDER (ENGLISH) (£36.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	PUMPKIN PIE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)
TIMID TIGER STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	PEACH PIE STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)