Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm earlier with my blog post as I was determined to be in time to share my card using Jacquie's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week:

Such a great sketch; so simple yet so many ways you could interpret it! I have actually used this sketch twice this week - you will see it again on Thursday in my TicTacToe Design Team challenge card - but for today's card I couldn't resist creating layers and having some fun with one of my favourite Christmas Designer Series Papers - take a look:

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

It's All About Trimming The Town - Today's card is very much all about the designer series paper. And as papers go, the Trimming The Town Designer Series Paper really has it all: cosy villages and winter scenes, whimsical homes and co-ordinating images, many of which can be cut out using the Home Together Dies, and two sheets of festive sentiments in a range of European languages. I used the paper for my snowy background, then used my Home Together Dies to cut out two houses, a wreath and a tree to decorate my card. I even fussy cut a sentiment and added this to my snowdrift. 

Layered Landscape - I decided to focus on creating my scene across the horizontal strip that features on Jacquie's FMS sketch, using two separate Whisper White 'snowdrifts' to add structure and form to my landscape, also cut using the Home Together Dies, then tucked my house in between and added my tree and sentiment to the front. This creates lots of interest and dimension, but in a small horizontal space, which keeps the clean feel of my card. You can see the layers better below:

What No Stamping? - Today's card is essentially a 'no stamping' card; I did stamp a sentiment on the inside and wanted to share it with you since the Coming Home stamp set is an image-only set. I have been trawling my other stamp sets for sentiments for house- and home-related greetings, especially because I am using the Trimming The Town Suite for my Creative Escapes Craft Retreat this weekend and I want to be able to share my suggestions with the ladies attending. The greeting I used inside today's card comes from the Poinsettia Place stamp set:

I'll share others as I use them on my cards in the coming weeks. So what do you think of this paper-based card? Does it tick your box? 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your day: I'm doing one of my favourite things, making treats to go out in the boxes with my virtual retreat boxes this weekend. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

TRIMMING THE TOWN DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	HOME TOGETHER DIES (£32.00)	RECTANGLE STITCHED DIES (£33.00)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	POINSETTIA PETALS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£25.00)
MISTY MOONLIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

Tuesday already! This is my first post for today; you will definitely want to check out my next post too about tomorrow's 24 hour flash stamp sale and details of my upcoming classes - you can see that here.

For today's creative post I'm sharing a card for a couple of challenges:

The team at Just Add Ink are asking us to 'Just Add A' to our cards and from the inspo list over at Festive Friday I chose stars, metallics and blue - with a little added glitter thrown in! The team at Festive Friday are celebrating World Space Week and whilst there are no planets on my card, I did feature a celestial being of another kind - take a look:

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

A Is For ... - ... Angel! I adore this whimsical line-drawn angel in the 'Flight of Fancy' stamp set - she looks just like she stepped off the set of a primary school nativity play! I decided to give mine ginger red hair, a coat of clear Wink of Stella and super-sparkly Dazzling Diamonds wings for an overdose of cuteness. 

B Is For ... - ... Brightly Gleaming Specialty Designer Series Paper! This fabulous copper-foiled paper is a returning favourite from last year and mine was still on the shelf; my Paper Player teamie Ann, who also designs with the Festive Friday team, used the same paper on her card this week and it reminded me how fabulous it is. It inspired the whole colour scheme for my card - so pretty!

C Is For ... - ... Copper Brushed Metallic Cardstock! I used this cardstock for my mat and to diecut a swirly star die cut to tuck behind my main image for some added detail. I wanted to see how it paired with the starry paper and whilst it isn't as super shiny as copper foil, it does add a beautiful sheen to compliment it.

This little angel totally reminds me of a play that the James Juniors did at Christmas once when they were at primary school called 'Whoops-A-Daisy Angel' (hence the title of today's blog post) - is there anything more adorable than little children, with wings and halos all askew, singing along at the tops of their voices to Christmas carols? Priceless!

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:

FLIGHT OF FANCY CLING STAMP SET (£19.00)	BRIGHTLY GLEAMING SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)	BRUSHED METALLIC CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	WONDERFUL GEMS (£7.50)	STITCHED STARS DIES (£35.00)
STITCHED SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	ITTY BITTY CHRISTMAS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	STAMPIN' BLENDS NIGHT OF NAVY COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CINNAMON CIDER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
STAMPIN’ BLENDS SEASIDE SPRAY COMBO PACK (£8.50)	WINK OF STELLA CLEAR GLITTER BRUSH (£7.50)

As promised here's my second card today that was inspired by the super simple sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches this week:

I was immediately drawn to that straight horizontal line; but instead of choosing a panel of designer series paper, which you may be forgiven for thinking would have been my 'go to' for a sketch like this, I actually went with one of the Sweetest Borders Dies - take a look:

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

The holly border die in this set sits on a straight horizontal line, so seemed the perfect choice. I cut if out of Garden Green cardstock and adhered to a thick Whisper White cardbase, and then used the red and green foils to paper-piece the holly and berry detail into the negative space. Easy to do and so pretty in real life - the foil shine adds a real touch of luxury to my otherwise clean and simple card:

A heat embossed greeting on the front and a little stamping on the envelope and inside of my card complete today's project:

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:

SWEETEST TIME BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)	RED & GREEN FOIL SHEETS (£9.25)	WHISPER WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)
GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

Happy Monday everyone! A busy day for me today with a busy online class featuring the Poinsettia Petals bundle (cards to be shared another day!) which was lovely to see my ladies, virtually at least! I did make a couple of CAS cards to share with you today - here's the first one using Amy's great layout over at Freshly Made Sketches:

So many ways to go with this classic layout; I decided to try out the new Celebration Tidings bundle - take a look:

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

Inspired By ... - In addition to the sketch, the starting point for my card today was the lovely Old Olive/Pretty Peacock reversible ribbon in the annual catalogue. Not two colours I would ordinarily put together, I love the sheen of this ribbon and so decided to use this colour pairing with Whisper White for the basis of my card.

Celebration Tidings - The 'Celebration Tidings' stamp set has decorative elements for lots of seasonal occasions that span the autumn/winter months. I used the sprig of festive foliage in each corner of my card, stamped in Pretty Peacock and coloured with Old Olive Blends with a touch of clear Wink of Stella, along with a sprinkling of pearls for the berries.  

Celebration Labels - The Celebration Labels Dies are great for home decor frames, bag toppers and more, but on today's card I used them to create a layered centre with my greeting heat embossed in white and accented with a mistletoe sprig. I love the stitched detailing - it really adds a lovely detail. I like anything with stitching!!

And done!

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; I'll be back shortly with my second card. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CELEBRATION TIDINGS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£44.00)	OLD OLIVE/PRETTY PEACOCK 3/8" (1 CM) REVERSIBLE RIBBON (£7.00)	PRETTY PEACOCK CLASSIC STAMPIN’ PAD (£7.00)	WHISPER WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	PRETTY PEACOCK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
OLD OLIVE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	OLD OLIVE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	PEARL BASIC JEWELS (£4.75)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)

Yay - a second post! Just popping by with a quick post to share the second card I made with Narelle's great sketch this week over at Freshly Made Sketches:

Whilst I tried to channel my 'inner Narelle' with my first card (she truly is the queen of beautiful florals), this card was an attempt to add to my Christmas card stash and use up some of my leftover retired products: 

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

I had some of these retired Joyous Noel papers leftover from one of my weekend craft retreats the year before last, along with the copper glimmer paper and the Festive Farmhouse wooden sentiments and thought the layout was perfect. I'm actually going to colour a few more of the wooden sentiments and make up a few more of these in other colourways with other papers in the pack. Super simple and packed with sparkle; such a great sketch from Narelle this week!

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

Another Monday, another week! Lots happening this week so I need to be even more organised that usual! Today I'm sharing a card (or 3!) using this week's sketch over at The Paper Craft Crew:

Remember when I cut up that 12" x 12" sheet of scene DSP from the Trimming The Town pack I cut up to make 4 slimline cards here? I showed you the other 3 smaller pieces of DSP I had leftover and this week's sketch was perfect for me to use these to complete my set of cards. Here is each of my cards in turn:

Card 2:

Card 3 - I flipped the sketch on the vertical for this one as the sentiment worked better on the left side of my framed scene:

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

Each of my cards uses a Misty Moonlight card base, with a panel of snowflake paper followed by a piece of the scene, which is framed in a Poppy Parade border cut with the scallop-edged Layered Squares dies. The sentiments have also been cut from the Trimming The Town DSP and popped up on dimensionals, along with a fussy cut tree and also a small ribbon bow on one of my cards:

I did a little stamping on the inside of my card, but the outside was all about snipping with my scissors and some diecut frames - nice and straightforward and I've used my whole sheet of DSP.

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:

TRIMMING THE TOWN DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)

ALL THE TRIMMINGS RIBBON COMBO PACK (£7.50)

MISTY MOONLIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

LAYERING SQUARES DIES (£33.00)

Today I'm sharing a card - or 4! for this week's fun challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches: 

Yes the talented Linda Callaghan has left this week's sketch very much open to interpretation - as long as our cards are slimline; how fun! Slimline cards are very much on trend right now and whilst I've created a few horizontal ones recently, I haven't created any vertical ones. So I decided that's where I would start today and in fact, ended up creating 4 - take a look:

I decided to be brave and cut into this fabulous single sheet image from the new 'Trimming The Town' DSP pack that launches in the Autumn-Winter catalogue that launches tomorrow - here's the sheet I'm talking about:

And this is how I cut it:

This gave me 4 vertical slimline pieces and 3 additional pieces from the bottom section, that I will make up and share with you another day. I mounted each of my paper pieces on either Poppy Parade with a Misty Moonlight base, or Misty Moonlight with a Pool Party base. Here is each of the finished cards:

Card one:

Card two:

Card three: 

Card four:

These cards are completely 'no stamping' (on the front at least) - I snipped the sentiments from another of the sheets in this DSP pack, and mounted them on dimensionals as you can see on the photo below:

And that, as they say, is that! The hardest thing was committing to cutting into the sheet of patterned paper! Four cards for my Christmas card stash - how excited are you that the new Autumn-Winter catalogue is launching tomorrow? Only one more sleep to go!

I've had a super busy day so am just squeezing today's post in between last-minute Stampin' up! orders to earn Bonus Days coupons - today is your last day! - and cooking dinner and fixing a bicycle tyre puncture - oh the life I lead! Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today I'm sharing a card that I made at the weekend still with a 'Christmas In July' theme going on (desperately trying to get into Christmas crafting!) that is for a few current challenges:

The lovely team at Less Is More are doing a one layer card Christmas in July theme and I chose one of my retired stamps, 'Dove Of Peace', which I thought would make a lovely image for Time Out's challenge to be 'Peaceful'. It also gave me an opportunity to get out my Stampin' Blends for a spot of colouring which is what the ladies over at SUO Challenges are all about this week:

I coloured the detail on my dove with a combination of Bermuda Bay, (retired) Coastal Cabana and Pool Party Blends. I then took a dry aquapainter (the new fine one is perfect for this) and painted the remainder of the body of the dove in white shimmer paint. This was quite time consuming, but so worth it; the photo really doesn't do it justice - it has such a soft shimmer in real life. I think I'll make a few more of these in alternative colourways - they will be great for sending to my overseas friends. 

This is one of my favourite retired Christmas stamps and great for one layer cards; do you have a favourite stamp for one layer creations? Do leave me a comment and let me know - I'd love to hear about your favourite Christmas sets, old or new.

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'!

There are lots of Christmas In July challenges about at the moment so I thought I would combine a couple and squeeze in an extra post today and share a couple of sneak peeks from the upcoming Autumn-Winter Catalogue with you in the process:

The team over at The Spot are looking for any kind of Christmas card creation and The Card Concept has a great inspiration photo that lead me to take my inspiration from one of the presents under the tree (front row, second from the right) to create a card and a matching gift card holder using some fun new products - take a look:

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

Trimming The Town - The designer series paper that covers the front of my card is from a new pack called 'Trimming The Town' - a pack full of contemporary designs featuring cosy villages and winter scenes. Some are really large and some really small and detailed, like the fun design I used to mimic wrapping paper on my gift parcel card.

Gift Wrapped Bow (And A Trick) - My bow comes from a new stamp set called 'Gift Wrapped' and is stamped in Real Red on Whisper White cardstock and punched out with the new co-ordinating Gift Bow Builder Punch. I added a handcut tag and some 'ribbon' too - and therein lies the trick! I actually used a current DSP for the ribbon strips that co-ordinate with my bow; can you tell which one? It's actually the reverse of one of the patterns in the Playful Pets DSP pack - isn't that a great shortcut? I added a little more stamping on the inside of my card too:

Gift Card Holder - I thought my gift-inspired card would be great to go with a co-ordinating gift-card holder too - I always need a few of these at Christmas time:

I can't take the credit for the design; it's based on one designed by the talented Erica Cerwin of Pink Buckaroo Designs (you can see the measurements for her original project on her blog here). It's a great little make, where the lid pulls out of a sleeve and you can add a message and your chosen gift card:

I think these make a cute pair of projects and are a great start to my Christmas crafting. I'm slowly but surely increasing my Christmas crafting - it always seems harder to do when the sun is shining outside though!

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:

To be updated 4th August.

A late post from me today as we've been busy cycling and enjoying a dinner of homemade pizzas in our new pizza oven! I'm sharing a card using this gorgeous colour palette over at Colour Inkspiration and the current Paper Craft Crew sketch:

Whilst that lovely colour palette would work really well for an autumnal card, following my Autumn-Winter pre-order unboxing live session online this week, I couldn't resist making my first Christmas card with my new supplies - take a look:

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

Have A Hoot - The cute little owls on today's card are courtesy of a new stamp set called 'Have A Hoot' - aren't they just the cutest?! I heat embossed them in white onto Crumb Cake to highlight the little snowflakes and coloured the owls with my Blends. Check out the punny sentiment too!

So Many Snowflakes - I stamped some background snowflakes tone-on-tone onto my Real Red card base and added a diecut snowflake in (retired) white glimmer paper and cut with my new So Many Snowflakes dies as an accent. I also added a sprinkle of snowflake sequins for a little sparkle.

Stitched So Sweetly - My stitched scalloped panel is courtesy of the Stitched So Sweetly dies; I added a couple of strips of Cinnamon Cider cardstock and DSP behind just to highlight the colour and anchor the panel - here's a close up: 

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:

VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	STITCHED SO SWEETLY DIES (£30.00)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
CINNAMON CIDER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	2020–2022 IN COLOR 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	WHITE STAMPIN' CHALK MARKER (£3.25)