Friendly Gnomes Luck of The Irish FF129

by Joanne James3. March 2023 09:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge

       

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'St Patrick's Day' which is on March 17th. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. I used the sketch layout over at Try Stamping on Tuesday (and their option of stripes) and I used green, gold, clover, gnomes and luck from the inspo board to create my good luck card this week - take a look:

 

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

I used a mix of the sadly now retired Dandy Designs papers for my background and frame - Sale-A-Bration may be over again for another year but I love these papers so don't be surprised to still see me use them from time to time and stamped my girly gnome onto a stitched rectangle and coloured her with my Granny Apple Green and Shaded Spruce Stampin' Blends. I coloured her hair with Pumpkin Pie - I went for a stereotypically Irish look to compliment one of my favourite good luck sentiments, from the retired set 'A Wish For Everything'. An oversized punched four-leaf clover with a gem centre and two gold pearl shoe buckles complete my card:

I just love this cute gnomie and it will be perfect to wish the eldest of the James Juniors good luck when she starts her A Level exams. I am going to have to make another one using a boy gnome in this set since the youngest of the Juniors is also sitting GCSEs at the same time and couldn't possibly be left out, so watch this space!

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'm also linking today's card up with the lovely ladies over at SUO Challenges where they have the theme of shades of green/St Patrick's Day - and my card today has a touch of both!

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

 

Enjoy your day and I'll be back soon 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.

 

Have A Holly Jolly Christmas FF128

by Joanne James17. February 2023 09:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge

    

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'World Music Therapy Day' which is on March 2nd. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used the layout over at Sketch Saturday and notes, lyrics and twine from the inspo list and this is what I came up with:

 

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

I went with a Christmas card for today's theme - I know it's February, but you can never start too early with festive preparations! I used the Merry Melody Embossing Folder for my background and continued my musical theme with the lyrics to a seasonal tune (apologies now if you end up singing along to Michael Buble for the rest of the day!), embellished with some stamped holly:

 

I finished the inside with a little additional co-ordinated stamping:

I think this might be my first Christmas card of 2023 - let's hope I can keep it 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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

 

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.

Love Cats Hanging Out For FF127

by Joanne James3. February 2023 09:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge

       

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'Galentine's Day' which is on 13th February. This celebration, falling the day before Valentine's Day, is all about celebrating female friendships. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I really went to town and used a friendship sentiment, hearts, pink, purple, twine and something shiny and this is what I came up with:

 

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

I wanted to use another of the comical felines in the 'Love Cats' stamp set for today's card and chose the one that paired best with the sentiment I wanted to use. I think 'I love hanging out with you' is the perfect sentiment to share some female love and let your bestie know how much you enjoy their company, don't you? 

I had a whole other layout originally planned for this card, until I saw the Try Stamping on Tuesday sketch layout - I rotated it through 90 degrees and thought the curve would be perfect for my acrobatic cat. In order to tuck the banner underneath the front of the cat to preserve the sense of perspective, I stamped the cat twice and carefully fussy cut the top half of one, so that I could adhere the banner and then add the upper portion of the cat over the top If you look closely you can see how I did this below:

I aligned the banner with the wire and stamped the sentiment in one straight line rather than as it is laid out on the original stamp as I wanted a long slim banner. It does make for a long banner, but I love the effect - and the long twine bow that ties my heart trinket follows the same contours, so I think it works. I found this little shiny heart in my retired embellishment stash and it was the exact same size as the stamped one, so was a perfect fit - serendipity indeed!

My colour scheme was inspired by the Dandy Designs designer paper I used on my car base - one of my favourite Sale-A-Bration free items this year - have you earned yours yet? You still have one more month to take advantage of the current Sale-A-Bration promotion. so don't miss out.

Finally, I'm also linking today's card up for a second entry over at Global Design Project #GDP379 where their theme this week is '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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

 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.

Country Floral Around The Bend Courage Card FF126

by Joanne James20. January 2023 09:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge

 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'National Wear Red Day' which is on February 3rd - who knew?! Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week my card  is definitely 'wearing' red; I used red, ribbon and texture from the inspo list and grabbed another of those Sale-A-Bration freebies that I haven't shared with you yet and this is what I came up with:

 

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

Around The Bend - Today's card features another of those Country Lane designer papers which inspired the overall colour scheme, and was perfect to pick out the red which I highlighted with two layered pieces cut using the Around The Bend Dies. These dies offer lots of decorative and layering options - here I've used both the scalloped curve die and the curved perforated stitched layer on top, which allows more of my red to show through. 

Sending Support - The sentiment is from 'Sending Support' - another of the stamp sets you can receive free with a £45 order. It's full of encouraging and uplifting sentiments - I added a second one with a diecut heart to the corner of the inside too:

 

So Much Texture - The Around The Bend Dies are great for adding detail and texture: the layers, along with the embossed diecut flowers and leaves which are from the same set, along with the woven ribbon all add texture and interest to my card:

 

These dies are great for adding texture and interest to a card with minimum effort - I can't wait to share more samples with you.

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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

 

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.

Celebrate Chinese New Year of the Rabbit with FF125

by Joanne James6. January 2023 10:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge

 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'Chinese New Year' which is on 22nd January. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used red, gold, rabbit, envelopes, heat embossing and new year sentiment and decided I would stick with our theme this week and create a card for Chinese new year - this is what I came up with:

 

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

Year of the Rabbit - Since this Chinese new year is the Year of the Rabbit, my new Easter Rabbit punch came in handy! I used a punched rabbit for the centrepiece of my card; whilst my whole card was in red and gold, I wanted it to stand out a little more without adding in another colour, so I swiped my Poppy Parade cardstock with my ink pad in the same colour for a deeper shade - the photo below shows the difference:

 

Brightest Glow - I used a new year sentiment from the 'Brightest Glow' stamp set and another of the co-ordinating diecuts from the Labels Aglow Dies to reveal the gold foil of my mat layer to 'frame' the rabbit:

 

Red Envelopes - I completed my card with a few envelopes snipped from the 'Full of Love' stamp set that I heat embossed in gold on red. Did you know that red envelopes, often with gold detailing and containing money or gift cards, are traditionally given to children to celebrate Chinese new year and are considered to bring good luck, health and prosperity?

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'm also linking today's card up over at Global Design Project where their theme is 'party'.

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the  Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

 

Enjoy your day; mine will be a busy one, as I'm going into Birmingham for some shopping and a trip to the theatre this evening - exciting! 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.

Lights Aglow Four-In-One Square Christmas Cards FF124

by Joanne James9. December 2022 09:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday - our last challenge of the year! 

 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' which celebrates the nativity of Jesus and begins on 25th December and runs until 5th January. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used square, Christmas, gold and red and this is what I came up with:

 

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

Keeping things Simple - In the run up to Christmas as things start to get busier, I like to have a simple yet elegant card design that can be produced in multiples and today's card definitely fits the bill. A simple sentiment on a diecut shape, a designer paper frame and gold foil mat, all on a Cherry Cobbler square card base:

 

That's all there is to it - with a little extra stamping on the inside:

 

The 'Brightest Glow' stamp set is perfect for sentiments both inside and out.

Lights Aglow Four-In-One - The product hero of today's card is most definitely the Lights Aglow Specialty Designer Series Paper. There a several sheets that feature four of these starry, gold foil embossed 'frames' - so it's easy to take the design and make four cards in only a little more time than one. Here's all four of my cards from one sheet of designer paper:

 

A Green Alternative - In addition to the Cherry Cobbler frame sheets, there is a Soft Succulent one too. I made four more cards using the green version, stepping them up slightly to include a background of DSP for three of the four cards too - take a look:

 

Here are both designs together - which one do you prefer?

 

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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the  Festive Friday Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James

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.

A Card Full Of Love FF123

by Joanne James25. November 2022 09:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday; I've also used the Try Stamping On Tuesday sketch for my layout and played tic-tac-toe colours over at Color My Heart Color Dare (first column plus Seabrook):

       

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'National Letter Writing Day' which is on December 7th. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used hello sentiment, envelope and embossing folder from the inspo list and in a change from this week's run of Christmas cards, this is what I came up with:

 

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

Full of Love - The 'Full of Love' stamp set was the obvious choice for my card today, as it features not one but two envelopes! I used the one surrounded by flowers on the front of my card, tucking an embossed panel in behind (I used the retired Greenery embossing folder) and coloured it with my Stampin' Blends markers. I added my sentiment to a stitched circle, masking it so that the words stamped one above the other rather than side by side.  

It's In The Detail - In addition to the (retired) striped Poppy Parade ribbon and bow, I stamped the image again and fussy cut the envelope and added it with dimensionals for a little extra height and added a few small pearls to the centre of the pink flowers:

 

Finishing Touches - I used another stamp from this set to decorate both the inside of my card and the reverse of my own envelope - for the envelope I used the other flower-filled envelope image in the set:

This is such a pretty card and I can't wait to write it to someone. Are you a big letter writer?  I have always loved writing letters; as a young girl, I would write to one of my aunts who lived the other side of the country on an almost weekly basis and we continued this ritual until she became too ill with Parkinson's Disease in her old age to hold a pen, but we both loved sharing each other's news across the years and it definitely brought us closer together. Today's card is in memory of her but will definitely be sent to someone else to brighten up their mailbox. It's so easy in today's busy world to resort to a text or WhatsApp message, but there really is no substitute for some good old-fashioned letter writing. Why not pick up a pen and send someone a handwritten note today?

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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the  Festive Friday Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James

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.

Charming Sentiments Rainbow Birthday Card FF122

by Joanne James11. November 2022 09:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday. 

    

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'National Cake Day' which is on 26th November. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used birthday sentiment, candle and patterned paper and using the current sketch layout over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge this is what I came up with:

 

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Charming Sentiments - For today's card I used both a sentiment and dies from the Charming Sentiments bundle. This is a great sentiment set with dies that cut out each of the sentiments exactly; but did you also know that the dieset has a number of very useful extras, including stars and candles for example? That's where I got the candles from that feature on my card today - so useful, everything you need in one bundle! 

Celebrate Everything - I took the colour scheme for my card today from the stripes in the paper that I featured on the bottom half of my card front, that comes from the 'Celebrate Everything' DSP pack - you know how much I love these papers, right?! I did take a little liberty with the sketch, as my stripes are diagonal rather than straight - but it's clear where the inspiration has come from:

 

A Surprise Inside - This is a birthday card that's something of a two-in-one - I added a pocket to the inside to hold some money too:

 

A little extra paper to the envelope flap completes this colourful card that is winging its way to my nephew whose birthday it is next week.

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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James

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.

Nothing's Better Than Cookies FF121

by Joanne James28. October 2022 08:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday. 

    

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'National Family PJ Day' which is on November 14th - who knew?! Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used hot chocolate, cookies and circles along with the sketch over at Sunday Stamps for my layout and this is what I came up with:

 

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

To The Rescue - I almost struggled to combine enough of the elements this week - I had most of them in one form or another, but not that could be used together. Then I remembered I had some of this retired 'Night Before Christmas' designer series paper from a few years ago in my stash and bingo - it gave me cookies and hot chocolate in one! All I needed to do was combine with the 'Nothing's Better Than' stamp set for my sentiment and the Love You More Than co-ordinating dies for my diecut circle-shaped cookies and I had a trio!

A Cookie Trio - I stamped and diecut a trio of cookies to compliment my greeting on the front of my card, which I carried over to the inside too:

This set really is so much fun - you can create all kinds of greetings and messages with it! This card will be perfect to go with a home-baked gift in the run up to the festive season and is sure to make someone smile!

A Stacked Sentiment - I diecut the word 'cookies' in my greeting and triple-stacked it to add height, using Poppy Parade to pick up the colour of the mugs on the paper - I used this for my banner topper too. 

 

Whilst this isn't a Christmas card, I think the red gives it a fun, festive feel. I also added some of the Early Espresso suede effect ribbon to the topper - this feels so luxurious and makes nice flat bows 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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James

Like many families, the James' have a long-standing tradition of family pyjamas at Christmas time. My husband jokes that he has more Christmas PJs than ones he can wear all year around! Here's a Christmas selfie of us sporting ours from last Christmas:

 

These were actually quite tasteful considering some of the designs we've sported over the years - I guess that's what happens when you have discerning teenagers in the house! 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.

Halloween Boo To You FF120

by Joanne James14. October 2022 08:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday. 

    

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'Halloween' which is on October 31st. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I bowed to the theme and used pumpkin, orange, stars, black and ghost and using the sketch layout over at Try Stamping on Tuesday this is what I came up with:

 

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

My card started out with the starry and pumpkin/ghost patterned paper from the 'Celebrate Everything' hostess designer series paper pack - these papers really are the pack that keeps on giving with a pattern for every occasion! Normally I wouldn't mix two such bold papers, but the yellow stars on the pumpkin/ghost sheet mean the two work together perfectly. I used my Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Blends markers to colour the pumpkins on the designer paper instead of leaving the whole design white - I love that you can do this! - and I added these papers to my cardbase, then used a strip of black glimmer paper and a collection of diecuts (all retired - Boo to You, Harvest Hellos, Apple Punch and Stitched Stars Dies) to create a focal point that picked out the detail of the papers:

 

Cute, right?! I really wanted to stamp 'trick or treat' on the orange banner, but could I find a retired stamp anywhere in my collection with those words? Nope. I'm sure there's one here somewhere ... I just have to find it!

I am also linking this card up with the lovely ladies over at SUO Challenges where their theme is 'Halloween' currently 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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert - off this week
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James

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.

 

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About Me

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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