Today I'm sharing a card that I made with this week's colour challenge over at TGIF Challenges in mind:

I had a piece of black and white True love Designer Series Paper out on my desk after making this card, so decided instead if tidying it away to use it up and this black and white challenge seemed like a great opportunity. This is what I came up with:

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

I used lots of the same elements as my previous card, including those gorgeous Always Dies. This time I diecut my 'Love' 3 times and stacked it to create a dimension diecut and combined it with a reverse white-on-black 'with'. There are lots of ways you can combine sentiments using these dies and they don't all have to be with weddings/anniversaries/Valentines in mind; the sentiment on my card is sufficiently generic that it could be used for anything. Again I added some of those matt dots, along with some twine to jazz up my scalloped rectangle. I offset this layer slightly to show a wider piece of the DSP behind, as the pattern got a little lost when it was centred and I really like the effect. And that's all there was to it!

If you love working with black and white as a combo, you should definitely check out the TGIF DT cards and the gallery this week - there are some great examples to feast your eyes on!

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:

FOREVER AND ALWAYS BUNDLE (£43.00)	TRUE LOVE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	STITCHED SO SWEETLY DIES (£30.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
MATTE BLACK DOTS (£6.50)	PLAYFUL PETS TRIM COMBO PACK (£7.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)

Apologies everyone - this post was scheduled to go live yesterday but didn't publish (operator error, I'm afraid!) so here it is today!

We may be in a tier 5 national lockdown here in the UK, but that does mean at least lots of time for crafting! So what better time to announce that the first of this year's Sale-A-Bration 2021 promotions is here! Yes, this year times are a-changing and instead of just one 3 month long Sale-A-Bration at the start of the year, there will instead be two, slightly shorter promotions. The second one will be in July to coincide with the launch of the new annual catalogue, but the first one is happening now and runs from 5th January until 28th February. You can click on the catalogue on the right hand side of my blog page or below to access the Sale-A-Bration leaflet to download a copy or click on the icon above or on the right to go directly to my online shopto place an order - we are LIVE!

So how does Sale-A-Bration work? For anyone who hasn't come across it before, it's Stampin' Up!'s annual promotion that is loaded with offers whether you shop, join or host. You can earn a free Sale-A-Bration product for every £45 you spend between 5 January and 28 February. There is also the opportunity to earn even bigger rewards with a £90 purchase. It's the perfect time to purchase those products you've had on your wish list and earn more products for free! 

It’s also one of the best times of the year to join Stampin’ Up! There is a fabulous joining option during this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion: as usual, you can become a demonstrator for just £99 and choose £130 of FREE products for your Starter Kit. In addition to an extra £31 worth of product in your starter kit, exclusive to Sale-A-Bration, you will also receive a free stack of our Regals, Subtles, Neutrals, Brights, and 2020—2022 In Color Designer Series Paper along with your Starter Kit! There couldn’t be a better time to join the Stampin’ Up! family. Plus, the whole kit ships for free! There is plenty of choice and flexibility, whether you want to be a hobby demonstrator and just use your discount to enable you to purchase craft supplies more cheaply, or alternatively would like to build a flourishing direct sales business and sell supplies to others - it's entirely up to you. 

Hosting is also even more rewarding during Sale-A-Bration. When you host a party and reach a certain amount in sales (see the Stampin’ Rewards chart in the Sale-A-Bration brochure for more information), you can earn a free stamp set! Even if you reaches the qualifying amount on your own outside of a party, you can earn the same free stamp set too, both in person and when shopping in my online store. What's more, you can even apply your Stampin' Rewards to a Starter Kit and become a demonstrator yourself - I would love to welcome you to my team!

If you would like to host a virtual party, please do get in touch. Equally if you've ever thought about becoming an SU! demonstrator, now is a great time to do so - I would love to have a no-obligation chat with you about joining my team and the benefits.

As if that wasn't enough, today also sees the launch of the new January-June 2021 mini catalogue - full of gorgeous new products:

Just click on the image above or in the sidebar on the right to browse the catalogue online, or contact me on 07773 421446 if you would like a paper copy posted out to you and you don't already have a demonstrator; paper copies have been sent to my regular customers. If you are as excited as me and just can't wait, here's the link to my online store - everything is available to purchase from today!

If you would like more information on any of the above, please don't hesitate to get in touch! 

Thanks so much for popping by - it's always nice to share good news! Back soon with lots of projects showcasing products from the new catalogue. Until then, happy shopping!

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This is my first proper post as a full-time design team member and am thrilled to be joining these lovely ladies! Jeanne is hosting this month and our first challenge of the new year is a colour challenge: 

 For my card today I decided to break into one of my favourite sets from the new January-June mini catalogue and create a fun card that is also perfect for the current theme word challenge over at Just Us Girls this week - take a look:

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

Snail Mail - I love the collection of cute snails that feature in the Snail Mail Suite and couldn't wait to stamp and colour one with my Blends for my card today - cute, right?! And with a friendly 'hello' speech bubble, the perfect way to send someone a little 'happy mail' and let them know you are thinking of them.

All Hearts  - I created a two-tone base for my card front and used the tiny hearts border die from the Floral Hearts Dies set to create a border edge in my Pool Party layer that reveals the Cherry Cobbler hearts from the main card base, to pick up on the heart that features on the snail's happy mail envelope. I love to find co-ordination details like this across the products in my collection.

It's In The Detail - I used the same die to add a top and bottom border to my insert and another of the stamp sets to decorate the back of my envelope to complete my card:

I left the remainder of my card insert blank as I want to use this card to send a long-overdue note to a friend of mine who now lives in the USA, so need plenty of space to write. Whilst we do share photos and such like via social media, we make an effort to keep in touch with each other the old fashioned pen-and-paper way, so I know she will appreciate the sentiment of this little snail and the preview decoration on the back of the envelope 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. 

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

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SNAILED IT BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£41.25)	FLORAL HEART DIES (£35.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	BERMUDA BAY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)
CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BERMUDA BAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	CHERRY COBBLER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CRUMB CAKE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

Happy new year lovely readers! I hope you have all enjoyed a restful Christmas and peaceful new year with your nearest and dearest. I have enjoyed a craft-free break over the festive period, instead spending some quality time with my family and indulging in some of my other passions, such as Lego building, board games and book reading. I am slowly getting back to crafting; I have lots of new goodies to play with so am looking forward to sharing some of those with you.Today I'm sharing a card I made for the current challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I love this sketch by Jennifer T and decided to create a layered sentiment and start cutting in to my new pack of True Love black and white designer series paper for my card - take a look:

I diecut the larger of my 'always' outlines out of the patterned paper and after adding some colour to the blooms on the paper with my Flirty Flamingo Blends, I popped this panel up on dimensionals. I cut the narrower 'always' out of Basic Black that I first adhered to a foam sheet and then inset this into the aperture onto the background layer and added a stamped 'forever &' to complete my sentiment, with a trio of black mat dots to finish. I also added some coloured DSP to the flap of my envelope too for a co-ordinated finishing touch.

You can see the dimension of the sentiment and the colour detail better here:

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. No online store links as these products are not available to purchase until 5th January.

Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with my first challenge post for The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

FOREVER AND ALWAYS BUNDLE (£43.00)	TRUE LOVE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	FLIRTY FLAMNGO STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

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'!

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:

SNOWMAN BUILDER PUNCH (£17.00)

WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)

SNOWMAN SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£17.00)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

MELON MAMBO CARDSTOCK A4 (£8.25)

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:

CHRISTMAS MEANS MORE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£13.50)

WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)

GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)

SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

Today I have a quick post to share with you showing the outputs from the Paper Pumpkin 'Joy To The World' craft along session I held a couple of weeks ago. If you need a reminder about this fun global kit, you can read all about it in my post here. We made the cards in the kit as per the instructions, then also make some alternative designs, using items from the kit and some additional ink and cardstock. First up - the card designs that come with the kit:

The kit contains supplies to make 8 cards using the above designs, with materials left over. We made the first four cards, then decided to make some alternatives. I added some extra thick white cardstock and Just Jade cardstock, along with some Cherry Cobbler cardstock, 'Tis The Season designer series paper and a Cherry Cobbler ink pad. First up, a trio of Christmas cards:

 Each of these cards uses the stamp set from the kit, along with various bits and pieces, which when added to allow a completely different card. After the craft along session, when making a few more cards to use up the remainder of the kit supplies, I also challenged myself to make some non-Christmas cards using the same element. With a little creative stamping for the sentiments, I came up with another pair of cards:

 This was the first one, using one of the French diecuts, but I figured everyone is familiar with the word 'amour' for love, so would now what it meant! The second card was designed as a birthday card:

 I used the sentiment from 'Beautiful Friendship' on the inside of my card, which has a very similar font so works well:

I think this card would be lover for someone celebrating a winter birthday - I know just the person, so my card will be winging its way to her! 

If you would like to get your hands on a 'Joy To The World' Paper Pumpkin kit, I've included a link the store below. They are available whilst supplies last but at the time of writing are still in stock, so you can still grab one! Great for easy crafting with 8 lovely cards and matching envelopes at the end of it if you follow the instructions, or a few more if you add some extra supplies and get a little bit more creative!

I'll be back shortly with another post with news of the Year End Closeout Sale and Carryover Products list, which go live tomorrow. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

JOY TO THE WORLD PAPER PUMPKIN KIT (ENGLISH) (£20.00)

WHISPER WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

JUST JADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

CHERRY COBBLER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

'TIS THE SEASON 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)

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

I struggled a little with the recipe this week; not because there was anything wrong with the ingredients, I think I’ve just been so busy that my creative mojo had upped and left the building! I decided to have another play with my Freezin’ Friends stamp set and this is what I came up with:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Snowflake Splendor - What can I say that I haven’t  already said about this fabulous paper (maybe I’d like the spelling to read ‘splendour’ as a nod to the Queen’s English, but I digress!) Anyway, once again it provided the perfect background and enabled me to tick off ’patterned paper’ and ‘snowflake’ from the recipe, so all good!

Freezin’ Friends - All diecuts are courtesy of this set and I even managed to tick off ‘green’ with my snowy trees. I also added some shimmer white embossing paste to the snowy parts for some textural interest and sparkle:

A Neat Trick - I was wondering how to add ribbon/twine to my design and having decided to feature the tobogganing raccoon it suddenly came to me! When I was little, I spent many hours tobogganing in the snow with my bestie, on a big slope near where we lived (in mountainous Wales where I’m from, snow was a sure thing at some point each winter) and whilst we often made do with a tin tea tray, one year for Christmas my friend received the most beautiful sled, hand built by her father, with wooden slats and a bright red rope handle. It was a thing of beauty - so I thought I’d create one on paper for my raccoon too! I cut some red baker’s twine and secured it behind my image, then threaded it through and glued it to the stamped lines, finishing at the hands. A small amount of twine, but integral to my design:

So what do you think? Does this added detail work? I really like it - thanks for indulging my trip down memory lane today! I'm also linking up with the team over at Festive Friday since today's card ticks off blue - snowflakes - trees on their inspo list this 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. 

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.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

FREEZIN' FUN BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)	SNOWFLAKE SPLENDOR DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	WHISPER WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	SHIMMERY WHITE EMBOSSING PASTE (£8.25)
SHADED SPRUCE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	HIGHLAND HEATHER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CRUMB CAKE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

Today I'm sharing a card that uses Amy's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches as its starting point:

I absolutely loved Amy's sketch this week (it's a keeper - thanks Amy!) and could have made a ton of cards with it! Alas time was my enemy so I chose my favourite idea and ran with it! It uses one of my favourite festive combinations inspired by the patterns of the Brightly Gleaming designer paper I used for my rectangle background - take a look:

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

I made the paper the star of the show and paired it with a stamped and diecut sentiment from the 'Peace and Joy' bundle, using vellum for the base layer to soften the panel but allow the pattern to shine through. I used a bunch of retired diecuts for the trio of background 'sticks' (they are actually cut using the candle die from the 'Doily Wishes' set!) and added a copper star in place of the dot on the 'i' in 'bright' for a little something extra - check it out below:

I added a copper bow from some leftover twine from a retired card kit 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. 

I made another card using the 'Peace and Joy' dies for another card over the weekend which I will hopefully be back to share with you later; right now I'm against the clock so have to dash!! Enjoy the rest of your day and I'll hopefully be back later with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

PEACE & JOY BUNDLE (£42.25)	BRIGHTLY GLEAMING SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)	RECTANGLE STITCHED DIES (£33.00)	STAR DESIGNER ELEMENTS (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	COPPER FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)	VELLUM A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.25)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)