Well the Bank Holiday didn't bring the sunshine I was hoping for, but it did stay nice and dry and we managed a bracing long bike ride this afternoon, so it's all good! Today I have not one but two cards for you! The first one is my card for the current Fab Friday Challenge where they have a sketch challenge this week:

Before I share my card, a big thank you to the team over at Fab Friday for choosing my In-Colour thank you card as their Fab Fave - I'm honoured! You can see that card here. Now onto today's card:

I'm still on my quest to use up more of my Designer Series Paper (I am such a DSP hoarder!) and this sketch was the perfect opportunity to showcase some. So no 'sneak peeks' today; instead a Daffodil Delight base with some mats in Soft Suede, and two of the patterns in the Park Lane pack. I used one of my favourite retiring thank you stamps, 'One in a Million', for my sentiment, stamped in Soft Suede onto Very Vanilla, and I chose to fussy cut one of the flowers for my accent. I liked the clean lines of this card so much, I made two identical ones - if you are one of my contactable online customers, you may find one winging its way to you to you this month!

My next card is for this week's TGIF challenge:

I saw the inspiration photo and I had my Painted Petals set out on my desk preparing for my technique class next month (this is the set we are going to be using) and I just knew the two would work together. Here's my card:

I used So Saffron for my card base and matted a strip of the already retired Gingham Garden DSP (I told you I was a DSP hoarder!) onto a strip of Pear Pizzazz and adhered this to the front of my card. I stamped the flowers on a large circle of Whisper White cut out using my Big Shot and Circles framelits, inking them with one of the new in-colours, Watermelon Wonder, and adding some Blackberry Bliss using my Stampin' Write marker to the flower centres before stamping. I stamped the sentiment in Blackberry Bliss too and to finish added a few So Saffron flowers, punched using one of the Itty Bitty Accent punches and centred with pearls. I popped this circle up on dimensionals to stand away from the card. 

Please do check out the design team inspiration for both of the above challenges; they are some amazing cards on both blogs this week. I'll be back tomorrow with another card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (Card 1):

Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock

Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad

Soft Suede A4 Card Stock

Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock

Million & One

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (Card 2):

Painted Petals Clear Stamp Set	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad	2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Pear Pizzazz
So Saffron A4 Card Stock	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents

I've had a lovely crafty morning earlier but am later with my blog post as I've been at a basket ball tournament this afternoon with the youngest James Junior (his school club team were tournament winners - woohoo!) and then since we have a rare swim-free Saturday, the children are sleeping over at Grannies and the DH and I treated ourselves to dinner and a movie - Pitch Perfect 2 (aka-awesome - every bit as good as the first one!) All in all a great day, but since what you're really here for is my card let's get to it! Today I used this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch as my inspiration:

I needed a birthday card for a 10 year old girlfriend of Rebecca's and decided that this sketch would be perfect for what I had in mind - here's my card:

I started out with my Simply Created Hooray It's Your Day Card Kit and co-ordinating stamp set, and whilst I used the stamp set and embellishment and took my ideas from the kit, I really wanted something altogether more pink so chose a combination of Strawberry Slush and Pink Pirouette for my card and sponged onto a piece of Sale-A-Bration Irresistibly Yours Designer Series Paper for my background. I did interpret the sketch somewhat loosely, but you can see the main elements: the glimmer strip in the background, the speech bubbles (I am so going to miss these retiring framelits!) for the panel and the wooden 'hello' embellishment as my main focal point, although I did also add an Itty Bitty Accents punched flower and a glimmer butterfly to balance it out and add to the girly feel. I also added a Tip Top Taupe speech bubble to break up the pink a little - this colour goes so well with Pink Pirouette!

I hope you like today's birthday card; come back tomorrow to see what fun we have in store for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players - there will be more sneak peeks, so you won't want to miss it! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hooray It's Your Day Card Kit	Pink Pirouette Classic Stampin' Pad	Pink Pirouette A4 Card Stock	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack
Silver Glimmer Paper

Yay it's Friday! I really don't know where this week has gone! I started the week on such good form, yet seem to have achieved steadily less and less as the week has flown by! No matter - we have a Bank Holiday weekend to look forward to here in the UK so I'm hoping it will stay nice enough to enable me to get outside and potter in my garden and fit in a little crafty time too!

As promised, I'm back with more sneak peeks for you today and not one, but two cards. Here's the first one using this week's sketch over at Retrosketches:

I decided to get out one of my pre-order stamp sets, 'Sprinkles of Life', this year's charity stamp set benefiting the Ronald McDonald House Charity, for my card:

This card is an absolute cornucopia of new product: new in-colour inks Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, Mint Macaron and Tip Top Taupe, new in-colour cardstock in Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush and Mint Macaron, Cherry on Top DSP stack, some Watermelon Wonder dotted lace trim and of course the Sprinkles of Life stamp set and the co-ordinating Tree Builder punch. I interpreted the stacking cups in the sketch as a very over-the-top ice cream cone with 3 scoops and finished it with a cherry punched from my Build A Cupcake punch that I paper-pieced and covered in Crystal Effects to give a lovely shiny finish. I just love these new bright in colours! 

This stamp is oh-so-versatile with so many possibilities - my second card today uses the same stamp set for a totally different look, and is combined with some sponged sunshine using the mask from my 'Simply Created Hooray It's Your Day' card kit:

This time my ice cream is a cloud, complete with heat-embossed silver lining, and the perfect co-ordinating sentiment. How clever is that? This stamp set really is so versatile.

I'm linking this CAS card up with the lovely ladies over at Less Is More where the theme for this week's challenge is 'Hello Sunshine' - I missed linking up my water-themed card last week so am glad I've made it in with the sunshine today. 

Here's looking forward to an equally warm and sunny weekend. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

As detailed above

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a colour challenge for you:

I also have a sneak peek for you today as I made my card with a new set from the 2015-16 Annual Catalogue called 'You've Got This' - take a look:

This gorgeous stamp comes in two parts with a very useful hatched pattern background stamp that I stamped in Soft Sky on my Soft Sky panel, a few sentiments and beautiful large flower bloom. I stamped my flower in Versamark on vellum and heat embossed it in silver then I coloured the stem with Smoky Slate and the petals with Blackberry Bliss ink and used a blender pen to achieve the detail. I then fussy cut my flower and adhered it to my card front using glue dots, allowing the edges to lift away from the card. The sentiment was also heat embossed in silver directly to the card front and I finished my card with a piece of Soft Sky seam binding ribbon tied in a bow. 

I just love this flower stamp and know that this is one I will be getting lots of use out of, so you can definitely expect to see more of it. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this colour combination this week - do check out how the other designers have used this colour combination too, as there are some great and varied cards to inspire you. 

I'm also linking today's card up with this week's challenge over at Can You Case It? where their theme is 'May Flowers' - I think my card certainly qualifies as one of those!

I'll be back tomorrow with another sneak peek project, so stay tuned for that. Unitl then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

It's Wednesday and you know what that means: a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals! This week's deals are included below - they will be available for one week only, before a new collection of deals is announced. 

As always, if you want to take advantage of any of the deals on offer, you can support my business by placing your order online by clicking here or using the link to my store on the right hand side of my blog page where it says 'Shop Online' or with me in person. Don't forget to add the Hostess Code for May FZZMG3JY and be sure to make sure that you don't check the 'no contact' box if you'd like to be kept updated with the progress of you order and receive a little thank you in the post from me. 

Here's a summary of this week's one-week only Wednesday deals - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

Basic Metal Buttons	Bright & Beautiful Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Daffodil Delight 1/4" Cotton Ribbon	Early Espresso 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon
Hamburger Box Bigz Xl Die	Striped Scallop Thinlits Die	Subtles Designer Buttons	Tiny Triangles Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Lots of great offers again this week - dies, accessories and embellishments - take your pick!

Back shortly with today's creative post; until then, happy shopping! 

I am starting this week with a quick post to share a card that I made with my ladies at one of my recent Stamp-A-Stack classes which was all about punch art and fits perfectly not only for the colours but also the inspiration photo over at The Color Throwdown this week:

I had been wanting to make an 'Up!' style card for a while and had seen lots of versions on Pinterest - here's my take with the card I made with my ladies:

Quite simple, but it needed to be as everyone was making a few each - Stamp-A-Stack is all about creating lots of cards in a - relatively! - short time.

The base is a piece of Soft Sky, onto which I adhered a few Whisper White clouds and stamped a few straight lines using the balloon string from the 'Celebrate Today' stamp set. We then stamped the house from the now retired Sale-A-Bration set in Memento Black onto Crumb Cake and punched it out with the retiring 'What's Up?' arrow punch and popped it on a dimensional at the base of the strings. The cluster of balloons is a carefully layered group of balloons made with the small oval punch and a foot from the Owl Builder punch. The sentiment is taken from the also retired winter seasonal set 'Holiday Home'. These bright primary colours are perfect for this card and so remind me of the scene where the house takes off in the Disney movie 'Up!'; I'm a big Disney fan and this movie holds special memories as it was the movie I watched with my daughter the first time we visited the cinema.

That's not quite all from me today - I have a second post which is my-fill in post from Saturday when I was at the Stampin' Up! UK Regional training event in Telford, so scroll back to read that one if you want to hear about the fun I had! 

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Owl Punch	What's Up Punch	Cupcake Punch	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Pacific Point A4 Card Stock
Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Celebrate Today Photopolymer Stamp Set

It's Sunday and time for another challenge over at The Paper Players! There was some great inspiration using LeAnne's colour palette last week and this week it is the turn of the lovely Jaydee, who has a great CAS-themed challenge to get us creating this week:

Girly thanks - I immediately thought 'flowers' for this one and wanted to use some of the lovely 'Gold Soiree' specialty DSP. It's rather busy for a clean-and-simple card though, so I toned it down with a vellum overlay - take a look:

I matted a piece of DSP on some Garden Green with a base of Pistachio Pudding, then on a piece of vellum stamped my thank you sentiment from the 'Big on You' stamp set in Calypso Coral and Garden Green inks and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder to give it a lovely textured shine (although this is difficult to see in the photograph). I wrapped the vellum with a piece of Pistachio Pudding thick baker's twine and finished with single Calypso Coral flower stamped in the same colour using the 'Flower Shoppe' stamp set and punched out with the co-ordinating Pansy punch (the Garden Green leaves were a couple of wings punched with the Bird Punch) and a cluster of pearls. Here's a close-up of the flower, which echoes the pattern on the paper beneath the vellum overlay:

I then adhered the vellum overlay to the base using dimensionals, attached behind the flower and the stamped sentiment, so that they aren't visible on the top layer. I love these big, bold sentiment stamps and the floral DSP - both of which will be retiring at the end of the month, so if they're on your wishlist you should snap them up now before it's too late!

So that's my clean and simple floral thanks today - I'm also linking my card up over at SUO Challenges, where the current theme is 'fun flowers'. Before you reach for your inks and thank you stamps, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

I look forward to seeing your CAS creations this week. I'm looking forward to a quiet family day today as I recover from the yesterday's Stampin' Up! UK Regional Event.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Big On You Photopolymer Stamp Set	Embossing Buddy	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder	Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper
Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad	Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Garden Green A4 Card Stock	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad	Bird Punch
Pansy Punch	White Vellum A4 Card Stock	Flower Shop	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie And Mary and this week we have a sketch challenge for you - my favourite!

This is a great card for using up scraps of DSP so I set to work with my Birthday Bash Speciality DSP and Birthday Bash Stamp set to create today's card:

I let the DSP drive the colour scheme for my card so used a Crushed Curry base with a panel of Night Of Navy down the left hand side, which I then overlaid with four co-ordinating rectangles of patterned paper. I then added a piece of Night of Navy seam binding ribbon to cover the join and for my focal point stamped the candles from the 'light 'em up' stamp in the Birthday Bash set in navy on Whisper White, having masked off the words first. I coloured this with my Calypso Coral, Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry Stampin' Write markers and layered this circle onto another of Night of Navy and two scalloped circles, one each in Bermuda Bay and Calypso Coral. I also punched the candle flames out of Tangerine Tango using my owl builder punch - a small touch, but looks so much better than navy ones! To finish, I stamped the sentiment, this time masking off the candles, in navy in the right hand corner.

I made this card with the ladies in my Stamp-A-Stack class last week and they loved it, so I hope you like it too. Don't forget if 'Birthday Bash' is on your wishlist, it will be retiring on 2nd June so don't leave it too late to place your order. 

That's all from me today - I look forward to seeing your takes on this week's sketch in the gallery. 

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

I have a super quick post for you today to share a super-quick card that I've been trying to find the opportunity to blog for a while now that fits in perfectly with the current challenge over at Fab Friday, where the designers want us to use any or all of the retiring 2013-15 in-colours:

I like to make a little thank you card and co-ordinating bag tag for my local customers to hand out with their orders and in March I decided to feature the in-colours to remind them of their forthcoming retirement and to stock up on re-inkers, cardstock and so on before the retiring list launched. Here is my card:

Quite self-explanatory - I used a bunch of the Stampin' Up! notelets and envelopes and used one of the 2015 Sale-A-Bration promotional stamps 'For Being You' across the centre of my card stamped in Momento Black, then went across the letters and highlighted each one with a fun splodge of Gorgeous Grunge in each of the in-colours and starting and finishing with the same one on each card. I then added a piece of co-ordinating thick baker's twine and tied in a bow - job done! A little extra stamping on the envelopes, and then a bag tag to match, this time stamped with the heart stamp from the thank you set 'For Being You' as the background:

A super - quick and easy card and tag to reproduce, just what you need for mass stamping and a perfect reminder to my customers to order their retiring in-colour supplies before it was too late.  It also illustrates another way to combine stamps to great effect; one of my customers in particular loved the 'For Being You' stamp set, yet she isn't into colouring with marker pens at all and so had been asking me for other suggestions as to how she could use her stamp. Along with paper-piecing, watercolouring or embossing, combining stamps is another great way to introduce colour without resorting to colouring in with pens.

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with this week's card for the new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary. Until then, happy stampin'! 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

All now retired, except for the notelets and envelopes!

It's Wednesday and you know what that means: a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals! This week's deals are included below - they will be available for one week only, before a new collection of deals is announced. 

As always, if you want to take advantage of any of the deals on offer, you can support my business by placing your order online by clicking here or using the link to my store on the right hand side of my blog page where it says 'Shop Online' or with me in person. Don't forget to add the Hostess Code for May FZZMG3JY and be sure to make sure that you don't check the 'no contact' box if you'd like to be kept updated with the progress of you order and receive a little thank you in the post from me. 

Here's a summary of this week's one-week only Wednesday deals - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

1" Square Punch	2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch	Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
Cards & Labels Project Life Framelits Dies	Fun Frames Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Gold Basic Metal Buttons	Vanilla Coaster Board

Lots of great bargains again this week: the 2 1/2" circle punch is one of my most used punches, along with some buttons and embossing folders and even something for the Project Life fans amongst us with the Cards and Labels Framelits - very useful.

Back shortly with today's creative post; until then, happy shopping!