Today I have a quick card for the current challenges over at Color Throwdown and CASology:

It's a Christmas card and uses a now retired stamp set, but these colours and the Color Throwdown badge inspired me to experiment with a clean and simple one layer technique that I've been wanting to try for some time - take a look:

I masked a corner frame then sponged Cherry Cobbler ink to create a graduated effect, then used the single branch from Frosted Foliage to over-stamp the edge. I stamped the branch in Early Espresso, then coloured the berries with my Cherry Cobbler Blends. I added some highlights with my chalk marker, but you can't really see these since I decided to add a liberal dose of Dazzling Diamonds to look like frost. I balanced my rectangle with my sentiment 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. 

So what do you think? Does the same-colour sponging work to add interest to my one layer card? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Frosted Foliage Cling Stamp Set (En) (£19.00)	Itty Bitty Christmas Cling Stamp Set (En) (£20.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter (£5.50)	Fine-Tip Glue Pen (£6.50)	Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£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 Jaydee to host this week and she has a great seasonal Clean and Simple challenge for you to work with:

Since this challenge theme was the North Pole, I had to go with a Santa and his festive friends - take a look:

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

I used this week's CAS(E) This Sketch for my layout and heat embossed my sentiment in white onto my Real Red card base before stamping my single stamp image from 'Christmas Crowd' in Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto my top layer of Whisper White and colouring with my Stampin' Blends. I added some clear Wink of Stella to the fur on Santa's suit and a sprinkling of snowflake sequins, before popping my panel up on dimensionals and attaching to the front of my card base. I also stamped the outline image on the inside of my card behind my sentiment:

Now I know not all of Santa's Christmas crowd can be normally found in the North Pole (cue the penguin!!) however I think for such a cute bunch we can make an exception and grant a little creative licence!

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:

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; we had a day packed with sport yesterday so today will be about homework and baking for tomorrow's school charity bake sale. I have a busy week ahead but I have managed to make and photograph some other projects, so I'll be back tomorrow with more Christmas goodness to share. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Christmas Crowd Cling Stamp Set (£19.00)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)	White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)	Real Red A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Real Red Combo Pack Stampin' Blends (£8.50)	Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)
So Saffron Light Stampin’ Blends Marker (£4.25)	Call Me Clover Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Pool Party Light Stampin' Blends Marker (£4.25)	Balmy Blue Stampin' Blends Combo Pack (£8.50)	Night Of Navy Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)
Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Soft Suede Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Smoky Slate Light Stampin' Blends Marker (£4.25)	Basic Black Combo Pack Stampin' Blends (£8.50)
Bronze Stampin' Blends Marker (£4.25)	Ivory Stampin' Blends Marker (£4.25)	Stampin' Blends Color Lifter (£4.25)	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.50)	Snowflake Sequins (£5.50)

This is my second post for today - you can see my earlier As You See It challenge post here. I had a little extra time yesterday and managed to make another card, this time for the current challenge over at Addicted to CAS where the challenge is to use plaid on your card:

I had some piece of leftover paper having wrapped some gift boxes for the lovely ladies on my retreat last weekend so decided to use one of them for a quick clean and simple Christmas card - take a look:

 Whilst this card looks like it has a few steps, it really did take me next to no time to make: I always have some white cardbases cut, the plaid and thin strip of red cardstock were leftovers from other projects, as was the gold foil 'Christmas' - I had a few of these in the die case that I had cut previously, complete with self-adhesive backing. So all that was left to do was cut the paper to size, glue the pieces together and stamp the 'merry' and the holly and add a trio of red rhinestone berries. I even had time to use one of my favourite sentiments from the same 'Merry Christmas To All' stamp set on the inside of my card: 

So simple and a great way to use up some of those leftover bits and pieces 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 day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Wrapped In Plaid 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	Merry Christmas Dies (£26.00)	Merry Christmas To All Photopolymer Stamp Set (£25.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Real Red A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Gold Foil Sheets (£4.75)	Red Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£6.50)

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

 For a card in under 10 minutes I had to keep things fairly clean and simple so armed with the sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches this is what I came up with:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Shades of Blue - I chose Balmy Blue, Blueberry Bushel and Night of Navy as the trio of blues I wanted to feature on my card. I stamped each house in all three colours and added some balmy blue snowflakes to suggest the oval shape of the sketch. 

From Our House To Yours - I love these little houses in the 'From Our House To Yours' set and because they come in separate pieces they are easy to stamp in different colours. They're photopolymer too so they are super easy to line up. 

Speedy Stamping - The stamping on my card took just minutes - it was super quick and easy! I did spend a little extra time creating my diecut edge and adding my teeny tiny snowflake sequins; even with my Take Your Pick tool these were more fiddly than everything else put together! My card ended up taking 9 minutes 24 seconds total - which is still super quick for 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. 

Do check out the As you See It gallery to see what the rest of the team have created in shades of blue - and see who was the fastest this week.

Enjoy your day; I'm off to the hospital today, hopefully to sort out my pesky frozen shoulder that's been troubling me the last few months. All being well I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

From Our House To Yours Photopolymer Stamp Set (£20.00)	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Balmy Blue A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Balmy Blue Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)
Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Magnolia Memory Dies (£33.00)	Snowflake Sequins (£5.50)

I am a bad blogger! I've had such a busy week that I have managed very little to either create or blog. So a quick share from me with another all-out copper clean and simple metallic, inspired by last week's Paper Players challenge that uses this week's CAS(E) This Sketch layout:

I created another super clean and simple Christmas card, this time featuring a couple of Brightly Gleaming Foil Elements baubles and a heat embossed sentiment from the 'Perfectly Plaid' stamp set - take a look:

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 Product and '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 tomorrow with this week's card for The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Brightly Gleaming Foil Elements (£6.50)	Copper Foil Sheets (£4.75)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)	Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)
Perfectly Plaid Photopolymer Stamp Set (En) (£16.00)	Stitched Rectangle Dies (£33.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)

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 fun clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

I couldn't resist going all-out copper for my metallic and created a super clean and simple Christmas card featuring a heat embossed tree from the 'Perfectly Plaid' stamp set - take a look:

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 loved this CAS challenge; I created another card for this theme too which I will hopefully share with you later in the week!

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

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; we are hoping to make the most of what is turning out to be a pleasantly warm weekend with possibly the last BBQ of the year, along with homework and more cooking of our gluts of home-grown produce. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Perfectly Plaid Photopolymer Stamp Set (En) (£16.00)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)
Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)	Copper Foil Sheets (£4.75)	Star Designer Elements (£8.25)

Today I'm sharing a card for the current challenge over at Fusion where both the sketch and inspiration photo got my creative juices flowing this week, so much so that I made two cards! Today I'm sharing a clean and simple one layer card inspired by the photo that is also perfect for the current challenge over at Addicted to CAS and I will be back with a stepped up card that uses the sketch too tomorrow.

My card also fits the bill over at SUO Challenges and this month's Stampin' Up! #SimpleStamping challenge since it is a simple combination of stamps, ink and paper to make a birthday card - take a look:

This card really was super simple to make: I positioned my sentiment and stamped it in Memento Black ink onto extra thick whisper white cardstock, then took one of the boughs of flowers from the 'Bloom and Grow' stamp set and stamped it both above and below if along the fold of the card, stamping off the edge to add interest. I coloured them with my Stampin' Blends and added a graduated aqua border to make the flowers stand out and mimic the colour of the inspiration photo.

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:

Bloom & Grow Photopolymer Stamp Set (£24.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Flirty Flamingo Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Calypso Coral Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Shaded Spruce Combo Pack Stampin' Blends (£8.50)
Pool Party Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Bermuda Bay Light Stampin' Blends Marker (£4.25)	Stampin' Blends Color Lifter (£4.25)

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

Remember: this is clean and simple week. What do we mean by 'clean and simple' ? Create a card that has:

• Minimal layers and embellishments
• Plenty of open space, also known as 'white space'
• Is simple and uncluttered

There were lots of great options to choose from this week and in the end I decided to use this week's CAS(E) This Sketch layout and the fun golfer in the new 'On To Adventure' set - take a look:

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

On To Adventure - As soon as I saw this set in the catalogue, I knew I would have to have it! My Dad is a keen golfer and so I knew this image would give me a lot of mileage. Many of the sentiments in this set are along the theme of retirement (which is also good for me, as I didn't have any retirement sets up to this point) but the images can easily be combined with other sentiments to be used in tons of different ways. I stamped my golfer above my hole-in-one sentiment then brayered in some Granny Apple Green grass to ground him before colouring him with my Stampin' Blends.

In Color Argyle - This card would look fine as a one layer card, however the sketch calls for some vertical stripes and since this month's #SimpleStamping challenge from stamping up is to use stamps, ink and paper along with some designer series paper on your card, I decided that this argyle pattern in the new DSP stack would work perfectly with my golfer - my Dad certainly has many golf sweaters with this pattern!

A Ribbon of Birthdays -  It's my Dad's birthday next month so I thought this would make a perfect 'Happy Birthday Grandpa' card from one of the James Juniors. With this in mind, I overlaid a 'ribbon' of happy birthday sentiments, courtesy of the 'Itty Bitty Birthdays' set and stamped repeatedly on a narrow strip of white cardstock, along my DSP border.

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:

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; we are on a belated spring-clean at home so will be spending a little time doing some more sorting out today. We have a movie to watch and hopefully I'll squeeze in a little crafty time too. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

On To Adventure Cling Stamp Set (£19.00)	Itty Bitty Birthdays Cling Stamp Set (£21.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Night Of Navy Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Bermuda Bay Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)
Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Ivory Stampin' Blends Marker (£4.25)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	2019–2021 In Color 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.75)	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Sponge Brayers (£7.50)

Just a quick creative post from me today following on from my earlier share about the 'Everything Is Rosy' limited edition product medley that is coming later in the week (you can read all about that here if you missed it). I'm sharing a quick card that I made at the weekend that was initially inspired by last week's CASology challenge theme of 'Africa' (now closed but you can check out their amazing gallery here) that inspired me to use up some of my epic stash of retired designer series papers with this rather intriguing sketch from the CAS Colours and Sketches team:

So here is my card: 

A selection of 'Go Wild' retired animal print papers, inset beneath a trio of apertures cut using my rectangle stitched framelits dies and a sentiment from the retiring 'A Little Wild' stamp set - that's all there is to it! It definitely felt good to use up some of those retired papers too.

I'm also linking up my clean and simple card with the team over at Addicted To CAS where their current theme is 'contrast' and I think my varied animal skin-inspired prints are definitely that!

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'll be back tomorrow with another project and compared to today's you might need sunglasses for it - bright is the word! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies (£33.00)

Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)

A Little Wild Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£20.00)

I'm not sure how Monday turned into Wednesday, but sometimes that's just how it goes! So a quick share today with my second paper-pieced card that I originally made for our challenge over at The Paper Players this week: clean an simple paper piecing. I am totally 'on the fence' about this card - it didn't look as good as it did in my mind, so I ended up making another one for the challenge, but thought I'd share with you as I'd love to hear what you think. So here is my card:

This card used the retiring Graceful Garden stamp set and features a rose that I more often have coloured rather than paper-pieced, but I wondered what it would look like in some rose-patterned paper. I used one of the beautiful pink rose designs from the Petal Promenade pack for the flower and some Floral Romance paper for the stem. A little background stamped detail, a few artisan pearls and a sentiment finish my card. So what do you think - does it work? I really would welcome your thoughts on this one!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Graceful Garden Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£18.00)	Petal Promenade Designer Series Paper (£10.25)	Floral Romance 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	1-3/8" (3.5 Cm) Scallop Circle Punch (£15.00)	1-1/4" (3.2 Cm) Circle Punch (£15.00)	1" (2.5 Cm) Circle Punch (£12.00)
Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Share What You Love Artisan Pearls (£5.50)