Festive Foliage Red and White Split Panel Christmas Card Times Two

by Joanne James28. July 2021 17:00

Today I have a couple of festive Christmas cards that I made using my favourite 'Festive Foliage' background stamp from the annual catalogue - here's the first one:

 

I stamped one background stamp in Real Red on Basic White and another in Versamark onto Real Red cardstock and heat embossed it in white, then split the panels and swapped them so that there is one of each on each card for contrast. Here's the second one:

 

I added a sentiment from 'Poinsettia Petals' on a label cut with my Tasteful Labels Dies and backed each with some white glittered organdy ribbon from the upcoming mini catalogue:  

 

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've been looking at creative ways to use background stamps for my upcoming online class in September that features both the 'Festive Foliage' and 'Daisy Garden' background stamps and will look at ways to use them for all-year round cards. A split panel card is a great way to create two cards quickly using the same background stamp, so today's post is a nice taster for my class ladies who are already signed up for this class. If you would like to join them, you can find full details for this and all my online classes on my Facebook Page here or just message me for more information.

I used the sketch over at Inspire.Create and the monochromatic red colour scheme from over at The Rainbow Challenge as further inspiration for my cards today and since I'm still doing Christmas I'm also linking up with Christmas Craft Creations and their 'anything goes' theme.

      

The weather here has alternated today between brilliant sunshine and torrential downpours and apart from giving up on using the washing line completely, I have successfully managed to get a whole bunch of errands run whilst dodging the rain (mostly!) Since we are on the summer holidays, the children are taking turns to help out with cooking the evening meal. One is more enthusiastic than the other (I wonder if you can guess which one!) Needless to say, if I survive the flour tornado that is currently my kitchen, I will be eating Turkish-style flatbread pizzas for dinner this evening! Enjoy the rest of your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Feels Like Home And Gingerbread And Peppermint Sneak Peeks

by Joanne James26. July 2021 08:00

Happy Monday everyone! I had a little extra crafting time at the weekend so to start the week I have not one, but two cards that were inspired by some current challenges. My first card is using Amy's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I'm also linking up over at Time Out where the code word is 'hungry' and at Christmas Craft Creations where their theme is 'anything goes':

      

I didn't let myself be put off by Amy's diagonal lines and decided that some festive gingerbread was in order - take a look:

 

My card features two of the designs in the Gingerbread & Peppermint designer series paper set from the upcoming mini catalogue - the gingerbread cookies are cut out of one of the papers (the sentiment is from a retired set):

 

This suite makes me hungry just looking at it - I mean, is it too early to start baking gingerbread in July?!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on this 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. 

My second card uses the colours over at Color Throwdown and I went across the top row of Paper Craft Crew's tic-tac-toe board with trees/diecut/watercolour:

 

Following my AYSI team mate Amy's fabulous watercolour using this stamp set, I was itching to have a go at creating with a stamp called 'feels Like Home' that will be free with a £45 purchase in the upcoming Sale-A-Bration promotion. I though the Color Throwdown colours had a lovely Mediterranean feel to them, so I had visions of holiday isles as I watercoloured my simple scene. I added a sentiment cut with one of the label dies in another new set, Harvest Dies:

 

This set so reminds me of summer holidays abroad; such a distant memory, but whilst my own garden doesn't look anywhere near as Mediterranean, it is my happy place so will be just fine until we are able to truly travel far and wide again.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on this 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 are enjoying my sneak-peek shares - I can't believe I'm feeling so in the festive zone when it's so warm and sunny outside, but the temptation of a box of new goodies is too much to resist!

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

 

Thinking Thanks And Peace CAS Christmas in July Sneak Peek

by Joanne James22. July 2021 20:45

We might be in the middle of a summer heatwave here in the UK, but there's a pre-order in the house and lots of Christmas in July challenges out there currently, so I finally managed a clean and simple card for a couple of them:

   

Both Less Is More and SUO Challenges have a Christmas In July theme, so I decided to play with a new set from my mini catalogue pre-order called Thinking Thanks and Peace  - take a look:

 

This set features a selection of large sentiments for a variety of occasions. I heat embossed the Christmas one in gold onto Night of Navy, then cut out a panel with a rectangle stitched die, added a gold border and adhered to a navy card base. I paper-pieced a gold-on-white embossed dove, having first coloured with a white pencil but I couldn't get the bright white effect that I was after and I like this much better:

 

In fact, I love this card so much, I actually made two! This sentiment set is great for quick, clean and simple cards - I think I'll be using it a lot in the run up to the festive season.

 

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Tidings And Trimmings Tidings of Christmas Card Duo

by Joanne James20. July 2021 13:00

This is my second post today! Technically it is in lieu of yesterday's post, but having held this month's online class yesterday morning and spent some time with the James Juniors in the afternoon now that they are on summer vacation, I haven't got around to typing up until today. I am here now though and I'm sharing a couple of cards using the current sketch over at Just Add Ink:

I haven't found the time to play along with these ladies for a while (waves enthusiastically at the JAI team!) and this week's sketch was too good to pass up! It is a perfect sketch to showcase designer series paper so I grabbed one of the packs that are currently 15% off in the DSP Sale this month and with thoughts of Christmas in mind I made a couple of cards. Here's the first one:

 

Both of today's cards feature the Tidings of Christmas papers, and two different sentiments from the co-ordinating tidings and Trimmings stamp set. This is a great sketch that would work for simple, flat cards, but I decided to step mine up a little by adding in some of the gorgeous co-ordinating Evening Evergreen 3/8" Chevron Weave Ribbon and creating some statement bows. On my first card I went for an over-the-top triple looped bow:

 

Whilst I do think is rather fabulous, it isn't ever so post-friendly. As such, I went a little more conservative on my second card with a flat bow. Here's my card, showcasing the gorgeous deep green patterned paper:

 

And here's a close-up of that flatter bow, which is a little more mail friendly:

 

Excuse the light lines on the photograph - it has been so hot and sunny here this past week that it is playing havoc with photo-taking in my south-facing office. I'm not complaining about the weather, but am definitely having to be a little more organised about when I photograph to avoid these harsh lines! Here's a picture of both cards together:

 

Which one do you prefer? I love the patterns in these papers so much - I will definitely be snagging another pack whilst they are discounted before the end of this month. 

The Tidings of Christmas Suite features in the annual catalogue, so if you want to get started in earnest on your Christmas crafting, these products are available now - no need to wait for the launch of the new autumn-winter catalogue on 3rd August! Furthermore, I will be featuring the Tidings and Trimmings Bundle and the Tidings of Christmas DSP in my August Online Card Class, scheduled for Monday 16th August. If you would like more information or to join me for this class, please do get in touch - I would love you to join me! 

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:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Penguin Playmates Trio Sneak Peek FMS493

by Joanne James12. July 2021 18:40

Hi everyone - happy Monday! A super quick post from me this evening as I'm squeezing in an entry over at Freshly Made Sketches (no really squeezing!) this week where Karren has a great sketch:

I didn't think I'd get a chance to play along, but I spent a few minutes this afternoon fussy cutting some of my new Sale-A-Bration Penguin Playmates designer series paper so thought I'd share a sneak peek with you! Check out this sweet trio:

 

These papers co-ordinate with a stamp set in the new seasonal catalogue called 'Penguin Place' and there is also a co-ordinating penguin punch that also cuts penguins out of the DSP - win, win! I added some retired adhesive-backed snowflakes for a little added sparkle:

 

How cute! Hope you like it. The new seasonal catalogue and Sale-A-Bration brochure launch on 3rd August, so not long to wait. I am starting to send out catalogues to my customers this week - if you'd like a copy, email me with your contact details and I can send you one too!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

 To follow

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

 

 

Christmas Tidings & Trimmings Copper Star Trio PP548

by Joanne James4. July 2021 09:00

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

    

With today being the fourth of July and American Independence Day, Anne Marie's patriotic stars and/or stripes theme is very topical indeed. I wish all of my fellow teamies and readers on the other side of the pond a very happy Independence Day, yet I actually decided to jump forward to another holiday with my stars this week - yes, the (dreaded) 'C' word: Christmas! I took Amy's fabulous Sunday Stamps sketch and a little something old paired with something new for today's card - take a look:

 

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

Something Old - Whilst the stars in my 'something new' were the starting point for my card today, I couldn't resist digging out some of my retired Brightly Gleaming designer paper from last season to use as the basis for my colour scheme on today's card. I just love this paper and the copper/gold combination is such a winner in my book. I went with the graphic star pattern for my main panel to further compliment the 'stars and/or stripes' theme.

Something New - The starting point for today's card was most definitely some new goodies I received this week with the Tidings & Trimmings bundle from the annual catalogue. The layered star dies in this set were the first things to catch my eye, but the stamp set also includes some lovely sentiments too. In addition to the one stamped onto my label on the front of my card, I stamped this one inside:

 

 The real scene-stealers on today's card though are the diecut stars on the front of the card, with the centre one a combination of layered (retired) copper glimmer paper and copper foil:

 

Aren't those stars just fabulous?! This is such a sparkly Christmas card in real life and I love how my trio of stars has given new life to my stash of hoarded DSP too.

Holiday Bling - Last but not least, I added a Night of Navy rhinestone from the Holiday Rhinestones pack to the centre of each of my stars to compliment the navy and really draw your eye to the diecut detail.

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. 

I can't wait to play more with the Tidings and Trimmings stamp set and those Christmas Trimmings Dies - I think they are going to become a staple in my Christmas craft room and you will definitely be seeing more of them in the coming months.

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

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:
 
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission.
3.  Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL.
4.  Have FUN!

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 have no special plans today but am hoping to find a little crafting time and with any luck will be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Festive Foliage Shaded Spruce Monochrome Christmas Card AYSI 253

by Joanne James25. June 2021 12:00

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

 

I usually have to spend a long time planning for a speed challenge, however my idea this week came together in a jiffy - take a look:

 

I went all-out for Christmas with my card today! Here's the low-down:

Festive Foliage - My favourite new background stamp in the new annual catalogue is the Festive Foliage stamp I've used on my card today - so perfect for festive Christmas backgrounds and featuring holly, pine, mistletoe and more. Using my Stamparatus, I stamped it tone-on-tone in Shaded Spruce on the same colour cardstock - this is one of my favourite Christmas greens. 

Playful Alphabet - I added the word 'NOEL' in gold foil and cut with my Playful Alphabet dies, raised on foam adhesive sheets, across my card front for a simple sentiment. I added a liberal sprinkling of (retired) gold glitter enamel dots in place of some of the dots in the stamped design.

Keep It Simple - The key to a speed challenge is always to 'keep it simple' and this card definitely does: the stamping took no time at all using my Stamparatus and I stamped it on a panel to make it easy to cut to an even size afterwards, a simple gold foil diecut sentiment and a liberal sprinkling of glittery enamel dots. My card was completed in 9 minutes 8 seconds - and most of that time was taken peeling and placing my enamel dots! They add a nice touch of sparkle amongst the green though, don't you think?

 

After I'd completed today's card, I went back to my Stamparatus and stamped another bunch of these green panels to make a few more stepped-up cards; I'll share those with you another 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 '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 project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
  • Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
  • If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.
  • In a speed stamping challenge, please time yourself and say in your post how long your card took to complete. 
We look forward to seeing your creations in the AYSI gallery.
 
It just so happens that today is the 25th of the month so the perfect time to link up with this month's Rudolf Days Challenge where their latest Christmas card challenge goes live today. There is something quite satisfying not only about creating a card in under 10 minutes, but a Christmas card for my stash to boot! 

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Trimming The Town Christmas Notelets TTT 94

by Joanne James17. December 2020 17:00

 

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and I am our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

    

I went across the middle row with house-snow-tree and created a trio of festive notecards for you today - take a look:

 

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

I made a set of notelets similar to these in a case as one of the projects at my Creative Escapes Craft Retreat back in October, and I still had some papers left so I thought I would make a few more. I used a combination of Trimming The Town designer paper, white cardstock, Stitched Shapes Dies and Home Together Dies to create my cards, each one with a snowy tree background, a white snowscape piece and trees and houses in various combinations diecut from the paper to create my little scenes, with each one finished with a sentiment cut from the paper too. Here's each of the cards individually:

 

A red and green chalet style house:

 

And lastly a palatial home on a landscape card, complete with porch entrance:

 

This last card shows lots of detail and layering - check it out:

 

I just love these cards - and not a stamp in sight! No supplies link today, as these items are no longer available, but I still wanted to share as I had paper to use up and for those of you in a similar position, I hope they give you some creative inspiration! I'm also linking up with the current challenge #GDP271 over at Global Design Project, where their theme is Winter/Holiday.

A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge. 

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

 

Circle Punch Snowman for CASology 380 Guest Designer

by Joanne James15. December 2020 14:00

Today I'm sharing a card for the new challenge over at CASology where I have been invited by the lovely Melissa to be the guest designer, following my 'stag' card being chosen as a winner for challenge 378 - if you missed it, you can see that card here

Today's cue card is a festive one and perfect for some last-minute card making for the Christmas season:

 

 I decided to create a cute snowman using negative space for my card today - take a look:

 

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Do You Wanna Build A Snowman - Apologies if you now have THAT song stuck in your head, but that was exactly what I decided to do today, on my card at least! Whilst I used my Snowman Builder Punch for the hat and arms, it wouldn't work for the body but this was easily remedied by using some (retired) circle punches (3/4", 1" and 1 1/4"). I added a felt scarf left over from one of last year's accessory kits for a little added texture, a simple sentiment from the 'Snowman Season' stamp set and my falling snow was courtesy of my much-loved retired Softly Falling embossing folder - it's still a favourite of mine:

 

This was the stamping on the inside of my card:

 

Design Defined - One of the things I love about the CASology challenge is that they encourage us to consider what makes our card 'clean and simple'. In addition to the basic guidelines, the design team offer some great tips in terms of their cards. Often when I play along I do the same, and if you check out my previous CASology-related blog posts, you will see lots of similar tips in relation to the cards that I created. For today's card, I defined my card design as 'Use negative space to create a focal point' which is a great way to add interest to a CAS design. 

An Unconventional Take - I actually made a second card using the same design, that was as a result of seeing this week's Inspired By inspiration photo:

I loved the holly against the bright pink for an unconventional take on Christmas colour, so decided I would use this idea to create a second version of the above card. My holly is small and I swapped out my scarf colour for more green, but this card is very much about the pink:

 

So what do you think? I actually still prefer the original one myself, however it was fun to change out the colour for an alternative effect. Here are both cards together for comparison:

 

Which one do you prefer? Do leave me a comment below - I would 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. Thank you to the team at CASology for having me as their Guest Designer this week - do check out the team designs and I'm sure they would love you to play along with this challenge too.

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Christmas Means More Tag Card FMS465

by Joanne James14. December 2020 18:00

Today I'm sharing a card using the current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches that is also perfect for the challenge over at Time Out and the current Festive Friday challenge:

      

It's not often I make a tag card but Jacquie's FMS sketch this week had one front and centre so I thought I'd have a go and use it to showcase a sentiment for a quick and easy Christmas card - take a look:

 

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

Christmas Means More - I just love this sentiment and have had a few ideas on how to feature it on a card but not gotten around to it yet, so today was the day to remedy that and get at least one of those ideas onto paper! The bell patterned paper from the 'Tis The Season stack was crying out to be paired up with it, with all those little silver bells, so I went with a full patterned background and created a simple layered tag to bring in a little more red and stamped my front tag with that famous movie quote from 'It's A Wonderful Life', just colouring the bells with some Smoky Slate Blends for a little added colour.

Sounds Of The Season - I used the Sounds Of The Season dies to diecut two tiny silver bells and some holly out of foil to embellish my tag and paired it with some (retired) twine from last year to finish my card:

 

Festive Friday Checklist - Having made my card, I realised I'd ticked off 5 of the items on the Festive Friday checklist: holly, tags, bells, red and green. That's all there is to it - a great card for some last-minute crafting!

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've had a fun day today; I managed to get a run in first thing after a week-long hiatus and spent a pleasant couple of hours with some lovely ladies on a Zoom call unboxing my Spring-Summer pre-order; I can tell you there were 'oos and ahs' a plenty! I'm now off to the postbox and then back in time for a Zoom quiz!! Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project and a guest appearance over at CASology, so don't miss it. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

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Hi I'm Joanne and live in Northampton and when I'm not looking after my husband and two beautiful children, am an avid crafter with a passion for all things Stampin' Up!

I must confess that I have never been a big rubber stamper - until I discovered Stampin' Up! that is. I love the fact that I can get such great results with co-ordinating stamps, inks, papers and punches - the possibilities are endless! Join me on my stamping journey as I share the things I love and be inspired to create amazing things yourself!

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