Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm starting the week with a card using Judy's current layout over at Freshly Made Sketches:

This is one of those classic layouts that is super-versatile and as soon as I saw it I knew what I wanted to do with it. Yes, I was itching to chop up more of those Lovely Blossoms papers - take a look at what I came up with:

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

There are two interesting things about today's card that I wanted to share with you: the first concerns my floral focal image. This is one of the printed panels that is perfect for a standalone cardfront, but the shape of the blue on the white also meant it would be a good focal point for Judy's sketch. I set to work with my paper snips, but I felt that the image was a little flat and really needed a frame. I don't have any dies that are that exact shape and size, so I had to get creative! I actually managed to create a thin frame using the Everyday Arches dies, partially diecutting and inverting to create this rounded shape. I made it slightly smaller than the printed shape, so that I could fussy cut into the leaves and allow them to overhang the frame and I'm really pleased with the effect:

The second thing concerns the background: did you notice that my background panel and my horizontal panel, whilst different colours, share the same pattern? Both patterns feature in the Lovely Blossoms pack and in aligning the patterns it allows the band to stand out yet also homogenise with the background - a fortunate serendipity! 

A fussy cut overlaid sentiment and trio of white enamel dots complete my card.

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:

LOVELY BLOSSOMS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)

LOVELY ARRANGEMENTS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£45.75)

MOODY PALETTE GLOSSY DOTS (£7.50)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

SECRET SEA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

EVERYDAY ARCHES DIES (£27.00)

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 a timely theme for this week's clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

Signs of winter! For those of us in the northern hemisphere, we are currently in the depths of winter with freezing temperatures, changeable weather (we've had torrential rain, dark cloudy days, bright sunshine and even a few days of snow during January) and more besides. So this week's challenge is all about those things that let you know the season of winter is here: I'm thinking snow, scarves, hats and mittens, warming hot chocolate after a winter walk, outdoor activities typical of the season - but specifically not Christmas!  And remember, it's clean and simple week so keep your creations simple, with lots of white space and minimal layers and embellishments. I'm looking forward to seeing what you create!

I have mixed views about snow, but must confess to loving a good downfall that leaves everything crisp and white and allows for us to get outside and enjoy things that aren't possible without it. One of my favourite things to do when I myself was much younger, and when the James Juniors were little, was to go tobogganing. So I dug out an old favourite retired stamp set, Freezin' Fun, and paired it with the retired embossing folder, Softly Falling, for a trip down memory lane  - take a look:

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

My little racoon is sledging his heart out down a slope of snowy white velvet paper, against a snowy embossed sky and clearly having the time of his life! I coloured him with Blends and diecut him with co-ordinating framelits for a little extra lift:

I paired him with another of his pals on the inside of the card:

A simple notecard to send winter wishes and a reminder that winter doesn't have to be about hibernating indoors during the winter season - if the sun is shining, wrap up warm and go out and have fun! I'm also linking today's card up over at Just Add Ink where they are asking us to 'Just Add Something Seasonal' and if snow isn't your thing, these lovely ladies are all based in the southern hemisphere so their blogs are much warmer and showcasing everything that is good about summer, so do check them out if you'd like to warm up! I'm also linking up over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown where their theme this week is 'winter sports' - and sledging is as close to winter sports as I get!

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 yesterday at Bletchley Park, learning all about the World War II codebreakers, which was fascinating and attending an exhibition about the future of AI. Bletchley Park isn't that far from where I live but I'd never visited; so interesting, I love discovering treasures in my own backyard. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

ALL SEASON VELVET 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PAPER (£11.25)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)

Today I'm sharing a card that uses all of the colours on Color Dare's spring palette - they were so pretty together I couldn't stop at 3! -  and is perfect for Festive Friday's current challenge celebrating National Tulip Day (I chose yellow, orange and tulips from the board):

Today's card is full of the joys of spring in more ways than one - take a look:

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

Sunshine and Tulips Coverplate - Today's card features one of my favourite things in the new spring Stampin' Up! mini catalogue: the Sunshine & Tulips Dies and specifically the coverplate die. I love it when a die can be used as the basis for a cardfront and this one is actually quite versatile. |There are lots of ways to layer the flowers and the leaves stand up for a little extra dimension too. For today's card I cut the coverplate in Blamy Blue, then diecut the flower leaves in Shy Shamrock and clued them to the diecut base. I backed each of the flower heads in one of the three other challenge colours to create my tulips, but you could equally stamp them or inlay a solid die piece  - how you layer is really up to you. Once I'd glued the solid pieces of cardstock behind, I added the detail diecut into the aperture to give each flower more petal definition and detail. 

Two-Tone Colour - I used one of my favourite tricks to achieve the darker toned colour for each of my tulip detail outlines: I coloured my cardstock with the dark Blend marker of the same colour to give a tone-on-tone effect. You could equally use both sides of two-tone cardstock if you prefer.  

Sweet Sentiment - My card features a great label, also included in the die set, and a sweet sentiment from the co-ordinating stamp set:

I also added some ribbon tied with twine that picked up on the fresh colours of the flowers. I did look for some gingham ribbon, but alas I didn't have one in the right colours. Still pretty though, 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 later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SUNSHINE & TULIPS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	BALMY BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	SHY SHAMROCK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	PRETTY IN PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
PRETTY IN PINK STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	PEACH PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	PEACH PIE STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	LEMON LOLLY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	LEMON LOLLY STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)

Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm sharing a quick card using Amy's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

Amy's sketch is actually perfect for one of my forthcoming Design Team commitments, which I will share with you in due course, but obviously not in time to play along over at Freshly Made Sketches. It's also great to showcase/use up some designer paper, so I decided I would create another card pairing a little 'old and new' for a quick card so that I could play along, so along with some retired From The Heart designer paper that features 3 of the colours on the Color Dare palette I set to work - take a look:

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

I wanted to play with the new-to-me online exclusive sentiment bundle, Words of Beauty, and take a look at how the diecut sentiments layer. There are three dies for both the words 'just' and 'because' and I thought one might fit the stamped word (which it does) and the other two create a layered diecut; in actual fact you can use all three to layer for a bold sentiment as you can see more closely below:

I heat-embossed the remainder of the sentiment onto my Real Red card base, added a trio of sparkly gems and voila - I sweet card to send to someone I love!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WORDS OF BEAUTY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)

REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)

BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for our first challenge of the new year over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous LeAnne to host this week. We are starting back with a colour challenge and she has a wintry colour combination for us to work with:

I toyed with using these colours with some florals, but the snowflakes falling outside of my craft room window this week pulled me in a completely different direction. I grabbed the sketch over at Hand Stamped Sentiments and decided to embrace the glittery theme over at Time Out (where I'm happy to announce that my PP teamie, Jaydee, has just joined the design team - hurrah!) and play with some much-loved retired dies for a snowflake-filled card - take a look:

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

Giving Gifts Snowflakes - I started my card by cutting a snowflake-patterned aperture into my cardfront and blending Night of Navy and Misty Moonlight inks onto my card base behind. I overlaid this with a strip of dark blue ombre glimmer paper.

Snowfall Thinlits - The star of today's card is the vertical swirl of glittery snowflakes cut using the retired Snowfall Framelits, which I popped up on dimensionals - I love the shape of this diecut and the silver glimmer paper adds so much sparkle! I also added a few smaller snowflakes and some clear rhinestones for a little extra shimmer and shine.

Let It Snow - To finish, I added my sentiment from the retired 'Sophisticated Sled' stamp set, fussy cutting the word snow and heat-embossing in silver to tie in with the overall design: 

A simple design with lots of sparkle. We've had two snowfalls in my part of the world this week, much less than in some parts of the UK and both of which have washed away now. We quite possibly haven't seen the last of the snow yet though - I will keep you posted!

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 back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	MISTY MOONLIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)	METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)
RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£5.75)

Happy weekend everyone! I've had a few blog problems since Tuesday's updates, but fingers crossed they've now been resolved. On the upside, I have a few makes ready to share. Today I have a card for the current challenge over at Color Hues:

I decided the red and grey colour palette would make for a festive Christmas card and took the opportunity to have another go at colouring my sweet Bundle Girl from Stamping Bella, sending another Letter To Santa  - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

The red and grey colours were perfect for my postbox, with a cardinal looking on as my little bundle girl reached up to post her letter. Once coloured, I fussy cut my image then popped it up onto an embossed snowy background:

A touch of Wink of Stella on my embossed snowflakes and a pop of red from my sentiment banner complete my card. There is something so theraputic about colouring a single image, where you can really concentrate on blending your colours and achieving a realistic looking finish. I love 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your day; it's certainly still cold enough for snow here, although there's none forecast today. Perfect soup making weather though - I am making spiced squash soup this afternoon. I'll be back tomorrow with my project for our first challenge of the year with The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (£9.50)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)	CHERRY COBBLER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)
SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	GRAY GRANITE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	CRUMB CAKE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM LIGHT COMBO PACK (£10.25)

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 fun theme challenge for us to end the year with:

Gifting - well, 'tis the season and all that! I decided I would take Jaydee's theme quite literally and make some cute tags to decorate my Christmas gifts - take a look:

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

Isn't that nutcracker jolly? He looks rather polished, but honestly took no time at all to make - he's from the Nutcracker Tags kit. Stampin' Up!'s kits are great - the contain everything you need to compllete your project with ease. Here's a look at the contents of the Nutcracker Tags Kit:

 The kit comes with full instructions and everything you need to make 12 layered tags, 3 each of 4 designs. Here's all 4 tags made up:

 The layered pieces and large sentiment add lots of dimension and they have just the right amount of festive sparkle:

I love the fact that the tag has two pieces too, so you can write on the tag itself and then keep the nutcracker and use it as a bookmark for example; there are books inside this parcel and I know that the book-loving recipient will do just that! I am often guilty of leaving my wrapping to the last minute and skimping on the details like tags, so this kit has made sure I am much more organised this festive season!  

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

Enjoy your day; the festive season does seem to be gathering pace suddenly this weekend; I spent yesterday writing more Christmas cards to send whilst the Hubby was out with his paddleboarding club for a Santa paddle (dressed as an elf!) and then went out to my second Christmas party of the season yesterday evening. Today I am baking a Christmas cake and two Christmas puddings this morning, then I'm going to a cake decorating class to put the finishing touches to another cake this afternoon. If I'm not too tired we might even put up our Christmas tree this evening - it finally feels like we should start decorating for the season! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend, however you choose to spend it. I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

NUTCRACKER TAGS KIT (£14.00)

It's the end of the week - happy Frida everyone! Today I'm sharing a card for the current Christmas themed challenge over at CAS On Friday and the stash theme at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown to use stamps:

 I recently picked up this cute Bundle Girl stamp from Stamping Bella called 'Sending a Letter To Santa' that I've been itching to ink up, so these challenges gave me the perfect opportunity - take a look:

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

My dear team mate Stef at The Paper Players has some beautiful bundle Girl stamps and is an expert when it comes to colouring  - check out her blog at Perry's Papercrafts and take a look. I am so inspired by her coloured creations, so I'm trying to get in some practice. Firstly, I masked my stamped image and added a hint of pale blue ink with my blending brush for a sky background. Then I removed my mask and coloured the image with a selection of my Stamping Blends in shades of pink. I added a touch of clear Wink of Stella to the snow on the ground beneath the post box and a few irridescent snowflake sequins complete my card: 

A sentiment from the retired Stampin' Up! set 'Tin Of Cards' completes my card. I'm quite pleased at my first attempt at colouring this sweet girl - can't wait to have another go at it in an alternative colourway.

Isn't she just so sweet? I can't wait to have another go at colouring her and maybe placing her in a scene too.

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 evening; hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BERRY BURST STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)
MELON MAMBO STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	PRETTY IN PINK STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	BUBBLE BATH STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	GRAY GRANITE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	BRONZE & IVORY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)
REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM COMBO (£10.25)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM LIGHT COMBO PACK (£10.25)

Today I'm sharing a card for the current challenge over at Colour Inkspiration where they are celebrating their 200th challenge - congratulations!

This card ended up becoming a set of 6 so I'm also entering the card set challenge over at TGIF Challenges - more on that shortly. First up, this was my initial card:

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

Real Red Forever - As my dear friend Jan said when she made her DT card for this challenge, being asked to choose your favourite SU colour is a little like being asked to choose your favourite child - impossible, right? I decided to answer this question, I would take a look at which colour of cardstock I had the most of - because this is a sure sign that this is a colour I use a lot! The answer was hands down, Real Red - which also happens to be one of the first three ink pad colours I ever purchased at the start of my SU journey (the others were Pacific Point - now retired although replaced in my affections with blueberry Bushel - and Old Olive - still current but usurped by Shaded Spruce, my favourite green ever!) I use the other reds too, but Real Red will always be my favourite - a true scarlet red that works for so many occasions. 

Having chosen my colour, this also gave me the opportunity to use my favourite sheet of red and gold poinsettias in the Traditions of Christmas specialty DSP pack that I had yet to cut into. I decided to use the paper as a base, then add a simple diecut label using the Branching Out Dies, and finish with a simple layered sentiment using my Concorde & 9th Holiday Sayings Dies:

Di you know that the poinsettia is a flower that is believed to symbolise peace? This simple greeting seemed therefore appropriate, layered in gold foil and the DSP behind. A simple sentiment completes the inside of my card - this is the only stamping on today's card:

Make The Most Of Your DSP - Having cut the pieces for my initial card, I was struck by how much of the pattern I was ultimately going to cover with my label; so before I stuck the pieces down, I cut another smaller label from the patterned paper and backed this with one in gold foil, to create a second card design that was the reverse of the first one:

This time, I added my sentiment in Real Red, backed with gold foil:

This is a great way to get two cards out of one piece of DSP. Here's a photo of both cards together:

A Card Set - I had cut a single length of paper from my initial 12x12 DSP sheet, which enabled me to make three cards. Using the above 2-for-1 principle, I managed to make a set of 6 cards, 3 of each of the 2 designs:

I really wanted the designer paper and the colour to take centre stage, so didn't add any thing else in the way of embellishments to my card. A great way to produce a set of cards that would make a lovely gift. Which card design do you prefer? I think I ended up liking the second card design even more than the first!

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'm off to my pilates class this morning and am going out for my first Christmas night out this evening with one of my closest friends, so looking forward to that. In between time, I need to stop making Christmas cards and start writing some! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

TRADITIONS OF CHRISTMAS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.40)

BRANCHING OUT DIES (£27.00)

REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)

WORDS FOR THE SEASON CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£13.20)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

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

I said on Sunday I had another idea that I wanted to try involving one of my Christmas stencils and since I managed to grab some crafty time today I thought I'd share it - take a look:

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

I used this stencil, called Christmas Bauhaus by Uniko, for a previous JUGS stencil challenge (you can see that card here if you missed it). Today I chose a blue and aqua colour scheme inspired by the palette over at Color Dare as I wanted to turn Santa into a snowman. During the Craft Room Clear Out (this is now worthy of capital letters, it is turning into an event of epic proportions!) I discovered part of a long retired accessory kit containing some fun snowman-themed enamel pieces, so I used these to overlay the stencilled face. I cut a base and mat in the same colours before adding my stencilled panel and a heat-embossed retired sentiment from the 'Christmas Messages' stamp set. I added a few other co-ordinating sparkly gems to complete my card: 

Isn't that just so fun?! I was unsure whether the orange carrot nose might disqualify me over at Color Dare, as those ladies run a tight challenge ship, but I notice that one of their DTs, Rebecca, has a few touches of orange on her delightful penguin, so I'm going to link up and take my chances ;-)

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BALMY BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	COASTAL CABANA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	COASTAL CABANA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	POOL PARTY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)
BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)