Because you're FaBOOlous FF0145

by Joanne James13. October 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 '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 used black, silver, spooky sentiment and ghosts and this is what I came up with:

 

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

I have no current Halloween product, so delved into my retired box of favourites for this one! I decided to create a card that has a distinctly Halloween feel, so used some retired silver-foiled black paper and added that to my card base, then added a black strip, onto which I heat-embossed my 'faBOOlous' sentiment in silver from the retired 'Six Sayings' stamp set, bordering this with some silver glimmer paper. To add the fun, spooky feel, I heat embossed a trio of ghosts in white (from the retired 'Holiday Home stamp set) onto vellum, fussy get these and added them to my card 'floating' out of the OO:

 

How fun! My sentiment was inspired by the famous advertising strapline that the L'Oreal cosmetic brand uses: because you're worth it (cue Jennifer Anniston hair flick!) I will be sending this to my daughter with a few Halloween treats at university - because she is afterall, faBOOlous!

I am also sharing this card over at Inspire.Create Challenges where their current theme challenge is Autumn/Halloween.

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; if you're superstitious about Friday 13th, wishing you a lucky one; I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (current product only):

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

Abundant Beauty Autumn Changing Leaves TTT230

by Joanne James12. October 2023 16:00

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

          

So many lovely seasonal elements on Vicky's board this week! I went down the first column with leaves, autumn colours and twine and used the beautiful autumnal colour palette over at TGIF Challenges to create a clean and simple card with a little 'something old, something new' this week - take a look:

 

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

Blended Autumn Colour - The TGIF colour palette so reminded me of autumn leaves and I thought this trio of colours would be perfect to create a simple blended ink background using the leafy stencil in the Abundant Beauty Decorative Masks - so I'm also sharing my card with AAA Cards this week. I applied each of the colours across my stencil randomly, being careful to blend them to avoid any harsh lines. I love the finished effect! These stencils are such great value for money - with 4 different creative options in each pack, they really can be used in so many different ways.

Envelope Detail - I am no stranger to a decorated envelope; my regular readers will be familiar with lots of different ways that I've shared to easily spruce-up the outside of your envelopes so I just had to play along with the current Inkspirational challenge to decorate your envelope to co-ordinate with your card. For today's envelope, I simply repeated the background stencilled pattern across the outer flap of my envelope - you can see it beneath my card in the photo above. So simple and a lovely hint of the detail inside too.

A Seasonal Saying - I chose to make the centrepiece of my card this beautiful quote from the retired 'Beauty of Tomorrow' stamp set - my 'something old' for today. This quote seemed to fit with the ombre blended background perfectly. I stamped it onto a label diecut with the largest of the rounded rectangles in the Nested Essential Dies set and added a twine bow and retired wooden leaf embellishment as a final decoration:

This card doesn't have as much 'white space' as I would like for a super-CAS card, but using a stencil is a great way to add a quick pop of colour to a card base. A larger sentiment panel might have allowed for a little extra white space, albeit resulting in me covering up some of that lovely ombre colour - you see my dilemma, right?!

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. 

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; the unexpected warmth at the start of the week has reverted now to temperatures more typical of this time of year, along with lots of rain in recent days and I am definitely starting to see more autumnal colour on the foliage as I'm driving around and about. 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.

Last Day of Free Shipping!

by Joanne James11. October 2023 08:00

Just a quick reminder that today is the final day to receive free shipping on orders of £60 or more - this offer is available online until 10.59pm tonight. You can place your order in the online store here. Happy shopping!

Birthday Textured Florals For PP661

by Joanne James8. October 2023 08:00

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

          

These colours immediately made me think 'Halloween', but I really didn't want to make a Halloween card - so I challenged myself to make something floral! I'm using this week's Global Design Project #GDP414 sketch for my layout and this is also my entry for this month's Flower Challenge of 'anything goes' - and since they are celebrating their 7th birthday, I went with a birthday theme too. This is what I came up with:

 

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

I decided to use the Textured Floral bundle on my card. I stamped a selection of blooms in Highland Heather and Pumpkin Pie, stamping off the larger flowers once, and leaves in Old Olive, diecut them and used them to frame my aperture that I'd cut out using the largest circle in my Stylish Shapes Dies. I added a piece of black and white Zoo Crew designer paper inside my aperture, along with some additional black diecut foliage, a heat-embossed black and white sentiment and a large black and white gingham bow to finish:

I think the black and white elements balance the colours and whilst adding a touch of drama make my card look less Halloween-y. What do you think? Do leave me a comment 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 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:

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

Enjoy your day; I'm hoping to get out into the garden today and get some jobs done and make the most of the unusually warm weather we are having for the last couple of days. 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.

Taco Fiesta Pinata Birthday Card

by Joanne James7. October 2023 09:00

Happy World Card making Day everyone! Today I've a quick post to share a birthday card that I made for a couple of challenges - I used the layout over at Try Stampin On Tuesday (including the option to feature patterned paper - no surprise there!) and this week's colour palette over at The Color Throwdown:

   

Each of the CTD challenge colours appear in a piece of designer paper from the Les Shoppes pack that I had yet to use so that was the starting point for today's card. I thought it had a vaguely Mexican feel too, so I paired it with the pinata image in the 'Taco Fiesta' stamp set for a fun birthday card - take a look:

 

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

This card was actually really simple: a little Blends colouring and blocks of solid colour to highlight the elements and really allow that fabulous patterned paper to shine!

 

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; the boys are out at hockey today and I shall be taking advantage of the fact that it's World Card Making Day and indulging in my hobby! Remember Stampin' Up! is running a virtual event today that you are all welcome to attend, even if you haven't registered - read all about it here.

I'll be back tomorrow with my card for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

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

Playing In The Rain AYSI 309

by Joanne James6. October 2023 12:00

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

    

I say 'interesting' because I really like this week's colour combination - but I really struggled to make it work! I played around with a few different ideas and eventually decided to go with something clean and simple using a set that hasn't seen ink in a while, using Narelle's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week as the basis for my design. This is what I came up with: 

 

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

Colour Conundrum - Having discounted florals for today's card (sorry Narelle - I know you love them!) I decided that Copper Clay would be the perfect colour for some fox fur, so I grabbed my 'Playing in the Rain' stamp set and started to play. I then discovered that Copper Clay Blends were the only ones I didn't have in my collection (in short - a different colour ordered by mistake!) so I coloured the fox fur with my Stampin' Write marker and the Misty Moonlight clothes and umbrella with my Blends as usual. It gives less definition, but I figured it would be a good way to show that a) nobody's perfect and b) enable you to see the difference in both marker types on one project (well that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!) 

A Circle Trio - I knew my card would end up being clean and simple, because I didn't have many colours to play with. I decided that the three circular elements of the FMS sketch would work really well, enabling me to have my fox represent one element, then use the additional two circles to highlight both some stamped raindrops (I chose Smoky Slate as my neutral of choice) and some stamped puddles on the lower Misty Moonlight one. I layered my circles slightly different to the sketch in order to fit in my sentiment banner and to give balance. All I needed to complete my card was a trio of Misty Moonlight tinsel gems for a touch of raindrop-like sparkle.

 

An Inside Tip - I wanted to share with you a little tip for decorating the inside of your cards when you are colouring onto a white cardbase. As you know, if you colour with Stampin' Blends they do give the best finish but have the disadvantage of bleeding through and being seen on the reverse of your card. To combat this, I stamped another of the images in the set directly onto my cardbase and coloured the puddle with my Stampin' Write marker only. I then stamped the same image onto an additional piece of cardstock, coloured it with my Stampin' Blends, diecut it with my Playing In The Rain Dies, then pieced it into place onto the cardbase - problem solved! 

And yes, I know there's a hint of pink and a Calypso Coral jacket on my bunny, but since it's on the inside of my card I'm not breaking the rules ;-).

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

 

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

  • Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
  • Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
  • If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.
  • In a colour challenge, black or other neutral can be used in outlines and sentiments but no other colours should be included. Stampin’ Up colours are used for reference but colours that are a close match are welcome.
We look forward to seeing your creations in the AYSI gallery.

Enjoy your day. I am meeting one of my oldest friends for lunch and it looks like it's turning into an unusually warm and sunny day, so that should be nice. 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 Silly Goose Clean And Simple Birthday Card CCS522

by Joanne James3. October 2023 12:00

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Lucy is hosting this month and our first challenge is a colour challenge: 

     

What a pretty trio of colours! For my card today I grabbed an old favourite, the 'Silly Goose' stamp set, along with the Just Add Ink sketch (which I love!) and set to work. This is what I came up with:

 

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

I used pops of these colours to highlight the details of my birthday goose with my Stampin' Blends and picked out the Fresh Freesia with a strip of (retired) Dandy Designs designer paper for some extra detail to the other side of my twine bow:

I cut out my panel using the largest square in the Stylish Shapes Dies, making it a rectangle by extending it and running it through my die cutting machine a second time.

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! colour 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:

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

Stargazing Meets Stepping Stones PP660

by Joanne James1. October 2023 08:00

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

    

This was something of a challenge for me this week as I don't have any stamp sets that feature space images. I do have the fabulous space-inspired Stargazing designer series paper though so this is where I started for my card. I grabbed Karren's Freshly Made Sketches layout and set to work - take a look:

 

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

I fussy cut one of the large ringed planets from one of the planet-covered designs (if you have the Reach For The Stars Dies they actually fit the paper but it was easy enough to do by hand) and popped this up on dimensionals on a base that featured one of the other space designs. I added a sentiment from the retired stamp set 'Stepping Stones' that I heat embossed in silver:

A sprinkling of rhinestone jewels to highlight some of the stars complete my card. This turned out to be rather simple in the end - the Stargazing paper really did do the heavy lifting. 

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:

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

Enjoy your day; I am off to visit Rebecca at university today with a few home-cooked treats in hand and the promise of lunch out. She is perfectly able to look after herself but I think some home comforts will be appreciated! 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.

Winter Meadow Christmas Classics For FF0144

by Joanne James29. September 2023 09:00

Yay it's Friday - almost the weekend!! 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 Mental Health Day' which is on October 10th. 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 blue, green, sparkle and metallic embellishment and this is what I came up with:

 

I used the sketch layout over at Sketch Saturday and decided to create a Christmas card for my stash! Here's the low-down on today's card:

Winter Meadow - The papers featured on today's card were the starting point for my creation. They are from the Winter meadow designer series paper collection and both the patterns featured are opposite sides of the same sheet. I decided to edge my card with the berry paper to allow that lovely bright blue wash to take centre stage. These papers have pretty water-coloured designs featuring festive winter foliage and are so pretty. 

Timeless Arrangements - I used a sentiment from the 'Christmas Classics' stamp set and paired it with one of the labels and foliage from the Timeless Arrangement Dies - don't be afraid to mix and match your products and sets to give them a whole new look and feel. 

Silver Sparkles - My metallics and sparkle come from the silver-edged ribbon I used to join my papers, the thin strips of silver glimmer paper and those blue rhinestone berries that I added to my diecut foliage to tie in with the border pattern. Check out the sparkle:

 

 I heat embossed my sentiment in silver and added a trio of matt silver sequins 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. 

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.

All About Autumn Pumpkin Thanks TT228

by Joanne James28. September 2023 15:00

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

       

Our board has a distinctly Halloween feel this week, but since I don't have any current Halloween product and I wanted to use more of the lovely All About Autumn papers that I featured on yesterday's card (you can see that card here if you missed it), I went on the diagonal from top left with free/orange/embossing for a card that is still in keeping with the season - take a look:

 

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

Pumpkins! I thought this fabulous pumpkin-filled patterned paper would be perfect to play along with the 'pumpkin patch' theme over at TGIF Challenges this week. I'm not usually a big fan of photographic designs, but many of those in the All About Autumn pack are amazing! So much colour and texture - these papers are too good to cover up for sure. I decided to use the Try Stampin On Tuesday layout above so that much of my patterned paper remained visible, adding a contrasting horizontal piece and a pop of bright colour with the Pumpkin Pie banner and a simple copper-embossed thank you sentiment from the 'Something Fancy' stamp set to pick up on the copper tones in the paper:

A couple of brushed copper metallic dots complete my card. My own pumpkin patch doesn't have such a variety of pumpkins, but I can report that we managed to grow 5 bright orange pumpkins this year, 3 of which were rather decent in size too. They are already in storage in the garage, ready for carving. I have new young neighbours that were fascinated by my ever-expanding pumpkin patch this year, having never seen it before, and took great delight in checking on progress on a regular basis. They have challenged me to turn at least one of the pumpkins into Cinderella's coach for Halloween, so watch this space - I will share the results at the end of October!

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. 

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 for our new challenge over at Festive Friday. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

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

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

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

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