It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. We are a (calendar not challenge) day early to keep you on your toes as Deborah is hosting for the month of April and our first challenge is a colour challenge: 

I love this trio of bright colours that Deborah chose and Melon Mambo is one of my all-time favourite pinks - however I did struggle to know what to create today! So it seemed appropriate to make a card ... just because! Here's my card:

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

Do you ever make cards 'just because'? I never under-estimate the joy that an unexpected piece of 'happy mail' can bring and today's card is one of those that is perfect for such an occasion. Using a blending brush, I created a mix of the two greens on a piece of white cardstock then I took that beautiful textured leaf die from Nature's Symphony and cut out a variegated stem. This is such a fun technique as no two diecuts ever look the same. To that I added a simple bold Melon Mambo sentiment using my favourite Words of Beauty bundle:

I couldn't resist adding a trio of pink glossy dots from my stash to 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. 

As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! colour names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

Enjoy your day; it's supposed to be getting warmer here today with temperatures peaking at 17 degrees, which seems balmy compared to the chilly temperatures of late, however I can honestly say it's not looking that promising so far - I'll believe it when I feel it! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WORDS OF BEAUTY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)	NATURE'S SYMPHONY DIES (£31.00)	MELON MAMBO A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	MELON MAMBO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	SUMMER SPLASH CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	SHY SHAMROCK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

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

I had so many options this week, but wanted to use my new Flowers Fair background stamp again - it's perfect for clean and simple cards. Take a look at today's card:

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

Flowers Fair - The Flowers Fair background stamp really is versatile - you can use the whole or just part of the stamp and it lends itself to lots of colourways and techniques. Today I went for a simple, monochromatic look with no colouring required - great for a clean and simple look. I left some white space at the top of the panel - it is CAS week! - and I kept the body of my card to a single layer, the only additional layering being that of my sentiment.

Words of Beauty - I paired my background florals with a Words Of Beauty sentiment - this layers beautifully and I don't think I'll ever tire of it!

In addition to my sentiment, a sprinkle of sequins is the only other addition to my card.

Last Chance for 2024 In Colours - Today's card is stamped in Petunia Pop, one of the 2024-26 In Colours that will be retiring next month. This is your friendly reminder that if you need reinkers, cardstock or embellishments in any of these outgoing colours, you should get them ordered before stocks run out \9which may well be before the  catalogue end date). I will miss Pretty In Pink and Emerald Envy from this set - I have used both lots!

Since we're talking in-colours, would you like a sneak-peek of the new 2026-28 In Colours? Well, here you go:

We are going to be all about the pastels! Do you have an early favourite? I think mine might be the soft blue, Hydrangea Hue. The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot that the ink pad design is changing too; the new design will be phased in gradually over the next 12 months or so, starting with this year's In Colour collection.

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; since it's Mother's Day here in the UK I will be both entertaining my Mother-In-Law whilst also enjoying a leisurely day myself. The James Juniors are not going to be home - the youngest is back next weekend, but since I've already got cards and gifts waiting for me, I know that I haven't been forgotten! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FLOWERS FAIR PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£22.00)

WORDS OF BEAUTY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

PETUNIA POP CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

PETUNIA POP A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

Today I'm fortunate to be the guest designer with the lovely team over at Colour Inkspiration for Challenge 205 which starts today, following my win of Challenge 203 with this card. They have a great trio of colours - so much so, that I ended up making two cards using it! For someone who doesn't often use colour as her starting point, that is an achievement!

Both of my cards use new stamps that are available as part of this month's new Online Exclusives drop. The first one features a background stamp called 'Flower Fair':

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Flower Fair is a lovely floral background stamp that can be used in lots of ways. I liked the idea of using Basic Grey for the background of my card, so I heat embossed the top portion of the stamp onto the bottom edge of my card and then used my aquapainter to firstly paint the flowers in white kraft ink. Once dry, I over-painted the flowers in Berry Burst and their centres and leaves in Granny Apple Green. I added some splatters of white ink then added my favourite Words of Beauty diecut sentiments and some sparkly enamel dots to finish:

I was really pleased with how this card turned out. My second card features another new Online Exclusive, the Cutest Crew stamp set, and the row of cute kittens:

I repeatedly stamped the row of kittens in Basic Grey tone-on-tone across the cardfront, then added some diecut pieces and sparkly bits and pieces, including some inlaid butterflies that I'd brushed with Wink of Stella for a little extra shimmer, before adding a row of kittens that I'd stamped on basic white and coloured with my Stampin' Blends. To achieve the effect of Basic Grey, I used my dark Smoky Slate and Light Basic Black markers, blending with my Colour Lifter, using a stippled effect to try and emulate fur:

I also stamped a row of kittens on the inside and the back of the envelope for a fun little extra detail. I actually really liked the finished effect so I thought I'd share this card too!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects 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. 

Thank you to all the ladies at Colour Inkspiration for having me as their guest this week; be sure to check out their Design Team gallery and why not play along too? Enjoy 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)	FLOWERS FAIR PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£22.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)	WHITE CRAFT STAMPIN' INK REFILL (£6.75)	PURPLE FINE SHIMMER GEMS (£7.50)
BASIC GRAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BERRY BURST CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BASIC GRAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BERRY BURST A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CUTEST CREW BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£42.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	BERRY BURST STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)
WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (£9.50)

Valentine's Day might have been and gone, but there are still a few themed challenges around and it's always good to be ready for next year, right? Today I'm sharing a card that was inspired by a few of those challenges:

The lovely ladies over at Just Us Girls have 'Valentine' as the Word of the Week (and I missed last week's heart die challenge, so I had to include a trio of those too!), at Addicted to CAS they are all about 'Pink' and my card also means I can play along over at TicTacToe Challenge (I went across the top with Hearts/Diecutting/Pink). Now I could have gone full-on hearts and flowers, but decided to create a very clean and simple card that very much reflects my personal style  - take a look:

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

I started out with three shades of pink, then diecut a trio of circles, further diecutting a heart out of the centre of each and then mixing them up and re-insetting them. I stamped my sentiment in the two darkest shades of pink - another from 'Words of Beauty' that is never off my desk these days - and added the trio of heart-filled circles to my panel, adding a trio of pink stripes to my base before adhering my upper panel for an additional hint of pink:

Clean and simple for sure, but I think it says everything it needs to :-) It would make a Valentine or a love-you-anytime card I 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Whilst I had my supplies out on my desk, I made another card using a bunch of retired supplies and the offcuts of pink from the above cards. I love the Inkspirational inspiration photo this week - look at all the fab details:

I found a pack of these mini notelet cards when I was clearing out and I used one to make the quickest ever lunch box love note using my retired Word Bubble dies:

Can you see where I took my inspiration from on the photo? Yes, the pink speech bubble in the top-left of the visual. I kept things super simple, popping up my pale pink heart and adding nothing more than a sentiment to my card front - lunch box love notes don't need to be fussy or complicated, they just need to create a sweet spot in someone's working day - which hopefully this one will ;-) Stay tuned as I may well have another play along with this challenge and create a more detailed card - there are so many jumping-off points in that graphic.

For now though I'll leave you with the news that there is free shipping on all orders over £60 placed during the next 3 days - so if you haven't yet spent bonus coupons earned last month, this is a great time to do so!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WORDS OF BEAUTY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£19.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	BUBBLE BATH A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	STRAWBERRY SLUSH A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
STRAWBERRY SLUSH CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

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

I was considering how to tackle Stef's challenge this week and had been perusing my shelves for balloon-themed supplies, then I saw Verena's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I knew exactly where I was headed - I love it when that happens! Another combination of old and new for you today with a simple balloon-filled birthday card - take a look:

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

I turned Verena's layout through 90 degrees and went for a large card (it measures 21cm x 14.9cm) to accommodate my diecut bunch of balloons that I found in my Wildflower Birthday designer series paper stash that works perfectly for the ellipse in the sketch. I added a panel of pink gingham check and another sentiment combination from Words of Beauty - this bundle is never off my desk at the moment! 

A thin strip of gold foil to join the panels and a trio of gold enamel dots to tie in with the gold detailing complete my card - with lots of white space to preserve the clean and simple feel. 

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'm out walking today, weather permitting, with an organised group - and I'm bringing along my vegan brownie that I was experimenting with last week - it was a great success!

Leave me a comment below if you'd like me to email you the recipe - anything with chocolate is a winner in my book but this one really did surprise me! Who knew baking without dairy could taste so good?! I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

WORDS OF BEAUTY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)

PRETTY IN PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

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

I had to dig into the retired box for this one because whilst I had plenty of sentiment options, I didn't have any current product featuring candy. So a little mix of something old paired with something current this week - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

 I knew that I could make an appropriate sentiment for a candy-themed play on words with my Words of Beauty bundle, so I just needed to pair it with some suitably themed designer series paper. I actually had a couple of options and settled on this bright and cheery pattern that was one of my favourites in the retired How Sweet It Is designer series paper pack. I fussy cut one of the lollipops from the paper and added this for a little extra decoration, tied with a Gorgeous Grape twine bow:

A trio of purple enamel dots complete my card. A fun design that is perfect for a young sweetie fan or one who is young at heart! I'm more of a chocolate person rather than sweets, but am partial to the odd gummi bear :-) How about you? Do leave me a comment and let me know if you have a sweet tooth! I'm also linking today's card over at Time Out Challenges where I chose pink and twine from their list for the current 'choose 2' challenge.

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; I am finally getting some time in my craft room today for the first time all week, so look forward to creating some projects to share with you in the next few days Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WORDS OF BEAUTY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

MELON MAMBO A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GORGEOUS GRAPE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

COASTAL CABANA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GORGEOUS GRAPE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

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

I decided Ann's colours were perfect for a first-time outing for a stencil I bought a while ago but hadn't yet had the opportunity to use and decided to have another go with Kim's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week, this time paying a little more attention and being more faithful to it - take a look:

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

The stencil is called Cheerful Flowers by Kristina Werner and Concord and 9th and made short work of incorporating Ann's chosen colour palette. I stencilled a whole panel then trimmed it down to fit my cardfront, adding some solid colour banners and a layered diecut sentiment along with some Lost Lagoon enamel dots to finish:

I liked this card so much, I wanted to use some of my stencilled offcuts too so made a second card using the layout over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge which was just perfect to highlight a stencilled panel:

And here's my card:

For this card I added my panel to a Lost Lagoon card base, added a banner of Calypso Coral and finished with one of my favourite Stampin' Up! Words of Beauty Dies, this time using all three layers: 

 I finished with an uplifting sentiment - perfect for the challenge over at Alphabet Challenge Blog where the current theme is 'U is for Uplifting' this week. So here's a photo of both cards together - which one do you prefer? Do let me know in the comments below - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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 am experimenting today with vegan baking; not something I do often, but I need to take a vegan bake to an event in a few weeks time, so thought I'd best have a dry run first - wish me luck! I've found a brownie recipe that uses sweet potatoes and almond butter, so I'm going to give it a go! I'll be back later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	LOST LAGOON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	CALYPSO CORAL CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	PETAL PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	MOSSY MEADOW CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
PETAL PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CALYPSO CORAL A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	MOSSY MEADOW A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	LOST LAGOON A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	WORDS OF BEAUTY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)

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 an interesting sketch challenge for us to work with:

A slimline card design with four shapes and a sentiment. As you know, I love a good sketch and I must say this one took on a life of its own! I have been really enjoying using my Lovely Arrangements suite of products and new that the flowers in the set would be perfect for those four focal points. I set to work and a considerable time later, I came up with this:

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

Lovely Arrangements - I  wanted the florals to be the centrepiece of each focal point, so echoing the colours in the panel of Lovely blossoms DSP I used for the background, I inked them in Cloud Cover then added some Secret Sea to the stamens with a sponge dauber before stamping. I backed each flower with a couple of diecut layered circles, having first run the top one through the dicutting machine with the background die to allow some of the colour behind to show through. I then added in some diecut leaves from the set, along with some additional ones cut using the Friendly Foliage Dies to add interest to the clusters:

There's a lot going on in each of these clusters, but I really like the full effect.

A Border To Die For? - Continuing in my exploration of different ways in which to use the rectangle-of-circles die in the Lovely Arrangements set, I cut several and used them to create an additional layered panel behind my DSP - did you spot it? It looks like a large scallop border - another great way to use this super-versatile die.

Words Of Beauty -  There's so much going on with this card, I thought it needed a big, bold sentiment - cue those Words of Beauty Dies, i just love them! This was the perfect sentiment for a special card to send to a friend who has been struggling recently and because of health issues, has needed to spend a lot of time isolating. I hope this will go some way to brightening her day.

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 have been enjoying the company of the youngest of the James Juniors this weekend, as he has been at home since he has a module break at university this week so decided to come home. We are not allowing ourselves to be consumed by the inevitable January blues though, and have booked a last-minute mini-break in search of some winter sunshine - so tomorrow we are off to Morocco! We feel a little guilty at leaving the hubby holding the fort since he can't join us due to work commitments (but not so guilty that we aren't going to go!!) I'll be back here on Friday with another project for our new challenge over at As You See It. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

LOVELY ARRANGEMENTS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£45.75)	LOVELY BLOSSOMS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)	WORDS OF BEAUTY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)	FRIENDLY FOLIAGE DIES (£23.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	SPOTLIGHT ON NATURE DIES (£33.00)
BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	OLD OLIVE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CLOUD COVER A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SECRET SEA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SECRET SEA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	IRIDESCENT PEARL BASIC JEWELS (£7.00)

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)