Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the wonderful Anne Marie to host this week and she has a sparkly clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

I decided to go back to one of my annual catalogue favourites, Modern Heart, for today's card - take a look:

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

A Touch of Sparkle - So with the emphasis on sparkle for today's card, I started with a base of Shimmery white. Difficult to see in the photos, the whole of the cardfront has a subtle sparkle which is so pretty in real life. I paired this with my modern heart, heat embossed in gold, that I decorated with a trio of gilded gems and a tiny geometrical heart fussy cut from gold glimmer paper. 

Clean and Simple - Whilst this week is all about sparkle, it's also 'clean and simple' week. So does today's card meet the guidelines? Minimal layers and embellishments - check. Plenty of open space, aka "white" space - check. Simple and uncluttered - check. Remember to follow this check list if you are going to play along this week!

Hearts of Blue - I decided to use blues for my card colour today; every other time I've used this set it has been with female cards in mind, so I thought it would be nice to create something with a more masculine feel. The unfussy nature of this card suits a more masculine card too - check out the detail on the heart itself:

I added a little fussy cut detail to the sentiment too for an additional pop of navy blue. I'm linking today's card up over at SUO Challenges where they are featuring embossing - this time I'm going with heat embossing.

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

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

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

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

Enjoy your day; yesterday was wet and miserable here, so perfect for crafting; I'm hoping today will be brighter and therefore offer more chance to get outside, but either way I'm sure there will be fun to be had in one form or another! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Modern Heart Cling Stamp Set	Bermuda Bay A4 Cardstock	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock
Gilded Gems	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder

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 Shannon is our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

I went with the first vertical column, Tilted-Stitched-Blue, and I'm also linking up with the current challenge over at Addicted to CAS where the code word is 'animal' as today's card features a furry friend - take a look:

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

Fable Friends - For some the squirrel is considered more foe than friend and certainly my chickens think that of the grey squirrels that frequent my garden, but today I decided to go with a cheery red squirrel from 'Fable Friends' for my card. This isn't a stamp I use often so thought I would dust it off and give it some love and stamped him in Memento black onto a stitched rectangle of Whisper White and coloured him with my Blends markers, using another colour I don't often use outside of autumn, Cajun Craze, for my red colour. I do think he looks quite sweet in his sailor's outfit, even if I say so myself! 

On The Tilt - I considered trying to get away with the fact that the squirrel was wearing his hat at a jaunty angle for the 'tilted' element of today's board, but instead decided to 'embrace the wonky' and used an old sketch I had as the basis for my overlaid tilted panels and tilted strip of punched flowers, just like the daisy the squirrel is holding. I'm not generally one for tilted panels, as I like things to be 'just so', but I think they work ok here - I'm not sure I'll make a habit of it though!

Sideways Sentiment - The sketch layout I used had two sentiments, one vertical and another horizontal beneath the stitched panel. I used the former and considered adding 'Hello Spring' from the same stamp set beneath the panel too, but decided against it as I have lots of friends with birthdays in the next couple of months so wanted to leave this card open with the option of adding a birthday sentiment to the inside. On reflection, I think the second sentiment might have been a nice touch, but since I embossed the cardbase with my Subtles embossing folder after stamping the first one, unless I make another identical card and add it first we will never know!

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 sun is shining so I'm hoping to get my chores out of the way this morning and then head outside to get some gardening for done this afternoon. That's one thing with that can be said for the current lockdown - our garden has never looked so good! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Fable Friends Cling Stamp Set	Subtle 3D Embossing Folder	Stitched Rectangle Dies	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad
Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Balmy Blue A4 Cardstock	Cajun Craze Combo Pack Stampin' Blends
Night Of Navy Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack	Balmy Blue Light Stampin' Blends Marker	Daffodil Delight Light Stampin' Blends Marker	Granny Apple Green Light Stampin' Blends Marker	Happiness Blooms Enamel Dots

What a great start to a Tuesday - the Clearance Rack has been updated overnight and there are now lots of new items available, some with as much as 60% off. As is always the case, popular items will sell out quickly, so don't spend too long deliberating - get in there quick! There are some great bargains, including the lovely Toile Tidings wrapping paper (I'll definitely be stocking up on that for next Christmas!) as well as ribbon, dies and Memories and More cards. I could go on, but the best thing you can do is hop on over and take a look.

Click here to go the clearance rack in my online store and grab a bargain whilst stocks last! Don't forget to include the current hostess code RDJNFTTJ make sure that 'allow your demonstrator to contact you' is ticked in order that you receive your special 'thank you' in the post from me. 

Race you to the shop - first one there gets the bargains! Happy shopping! 

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

As promised, I've another rainbow card for you today! I decided that 'Varied Vases' would be the perfect way to incorporate my rainbow colours - take a look:

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

I'm a big fan of the Varied Vases stamp set - I love the simple outline detailing and it has some lovely birthday sentiments too. My card is larger than usual (21cm x 11cm) which was necessary to accommodate all of my vases. I stamped a row of 14 overlapping vases in varying sizes, then added flowers to 7 of them and stamped the infills, before then stamping 7 vases in the same colours and punching them out with my Vases Builder Punch and popping them over some of the outlines on dimensionals for a little extra lift. I stamped water into the vase holding my violet flower stem and added a few pearls to finish. I stamped my shelf and sentiment and then finished this on the inside of my card with another flower vase: 

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. 

Before you put your creative thinking caps on, why not check out the blogs of the other As You See It team members:

Amy Jasper

Heather Cooper

Jan Clothier

Jane Knudsen

LeAnne Pugliese

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.

We look forward to seeing your creations in the AYSI gallery.

What are your plans for this Good Friday? I will be spending some time in the garden enjoying the warm weather and planting some new raspberry canes whilst reluctantly also continuing to plough through my ironing pile. The National Theatre is one of the many companies that are streaming live performances for free whilst we are all under lockdown and this week it's the turn of 'Jane Eyre', one of my most favourite books of all time, so I might watch this at the same time for some welcome distraction! There may well be some baking too - Easter cupcakes, perhaps?!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Varied Vases Photopolymer Stamp Set (£31.00)	Vases Builder Punch (£22.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£10.00)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Poppy Parade Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)
Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Gorgeous Grape Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)
Pearl Basic Jewels (£6.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£7.50)

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

I went with the vertical column layers/friend/heat embossing this week! I had some of the panels of Pressed Petals designer series paper out on my desk leftover from the cards I shared with you last week and wanted to use them up and thought I would combine it with this week's challenge over at TGIF Challenges (thanks for the pick last week ladies!) where they are looking for projects that are gold-dipped, something I've been wanting to try with my Heirloom Frames 3D embossing folders for a while. So I pulled out my Positive Thoughts stamp set for my sentiment and some background detail on my first card and this is what I came up with:

On this card I used a Night of Navy embossed frame. To achieve the antique-dipped effect, you simply rub the embossed frame with your Versamark pad then sprinkle with gold embossing powder and heat - in some places it sticks and in others the base colour is exposed. For my second card, I used a few more layers on my base instead of background stamping, and used an oval frame heat embossing gold onto Mossy Meadow:

I used the same sentiment and anchored with a Designer Element accent on each. And here's one last photo of both my cards together:

So what do you think? This style of card is quite different for me so whilst I like them, I'm not sure I love them - but it's always good to try something different once in a while! I would love your comments and if vintage is your thing and you think these cards can be improved in any way, I'd love to hear!

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; on Tuesday I finally took delivery of a new washing machine, having had mine break down completely 10 days ago - what great timing! I knew it was on its way out so I ordered a new one before it went completely, however with the whole country going into lockdown I was afraid that my new machine wouldn't arrive at all. Fortunately the lovely people at John Lewis made it happen and I have spent the last 2 days washing non-stop! I have another 4 loads to do today and then I should be caught up - just the ironing to get stuck into then! At least the weather has been fine enough for me to line dry and no school has meant that the Juniors could wear anything as we had run out of school uniform! It's probably a good job that none of us have had to leave the house though - our outfits were starting to look a little eclectic! I am hoping to get some crafting in today before tackling my ironing mountain (hubby has suggested since no-one can see us we should just go with the crumpled look, but I'm not sure if my standards will allow it!). 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

 To be updated.

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and as it's the fifth Sunday of the month we have a tic-tac-toe challenge for you to work with:

I'm getting used to the idea of a tic-tac-toe board; my starting point tends to be as many options as possible, so I ended up with 3 lines complete: central row - diecut, spring, birthday, and far right column - DSP, birthday, flowers and lastly the diagonal pink, spring, DSP - talk about over-achiever! I used Amy's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches for my layout (great layout, Amy!) and decided to use one of my favourite new florals for a new purpose - take a look:

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

Crocuses Are Not Just For Easter - I love the 'Easter Promise' stamp set and the crocus stamps. They are perfect for spring and I decided that they would make a pretty birthday card too. I chose my favourite pink, Melon Mambo, for today's card - did you know that you can actually get pink crocuses? I didn't, but Google showed me some so as my kids so often say, well it must therefore be true! I coloured and fussy cut a couple of the bunches for the front of my card, then added the row to the inside for a little extra detail:

Label Me Bold - I used the Happy Birthday from 'Label Me Bold' on today's card; plain block sentiments are perfect for something simple where the florals are the main focus. 

Pretty In Pink Watercolour - I decided to use a rough watercolour to colour my crocuses. I stamped them in Stazon on watercolour paper and then added loose colour in layers, deliberately not keeping inside the lines (which was hard for the perfectionist in me!) and I just love the finished effect:

I added a twine bow and some champagne rhinestones to complete my card. I just LOVE this card - do you ever make a card that totally ticks all of your boxes? This is one of mine!

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

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

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

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

Enjoy your day; the clocks went forward overnight so we have an hour less today, although in the grand scheme of things at the moment I'm not sure it will matter that much! We spent some time together yesterday completing a fiendishly tricky quiz that Ben has been set by school, so I think this afternoon it might be time to involve the grandparents in our endeavours! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Easter Promise Cling Stamp Set (English) (£18.00)	Label Me Bold Cling Stamp Set (English) (£16.00)	Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£5.50)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Subtle 3D Embossing Folder (£9.25)
Brights 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.75)	Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper (£8.25)	Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Mango Melody Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Jet Black Stāzon Ink Pad (£9.25)	Whisper White Solid Baker's Twine (£3.25)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)

Just popping by with a quick update post for you all; you all know that this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion will end on 31st March and in addition to hosting and joining benefits (you can read about those here) you also earn a free product for every £45/90 spend - you can see the existing items here and here. Please note the Kerchief Card Kit and the Golden Honey Specialty Designer Series Paper are both sold out and no longer available. 

Plenty of good news though: from now until the 31st March, you will also be able to choose from a number of other catalogue items (you must use the special code as detailed as opposed to the usual item code to get one of these items free with a £45/90 spend):

As you can see, this new selection includes some gorgeous Designer Series Paper packs, embellishments, Blends and more that can be yours free with a spend of £45/£90 or more. 

To make things easier for you, I've created a table linking each of the products directly to the promotional item in my online store - just click on the links below:

Red Rhinestone Basic Jewels (X2) (£0.00)	Mini Shipping Boxes (X2) (£0.00)	Follow Your Art Designer Series Paper (£0.00)	Dinoroar Designer Series Paper (£0.00)	Woven Threads Designer Series Paper (£0.00)
Shimmer Detailed Laser-Cut Specialty Paper (£0.00)	Rococo Rose Stampin' Blends Combo Pack (£0.00)	Butterfly Duet Punch (£0.00)	Wild Rose Dies (£0.00)

If you would like more information or to place an order, either go here to purchase from my online store (don't forget to add this month's hostess code RDJNFTTJ) or you can email or telephone me if you would prefer. Please note there will be no local pickups or deliveries at the present time, due to the countrywide lockdown restrictions, but product is shipping as normal and can be posted as usual.

Back tomorrow with a new creative project; until then, happy shopping!

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where for this fortnight we have a fun recipe challenge for you:

I often struggle with this kind of recipe challenge, but must confess that along with Julee's Mojo Monday sketch for my layout (sketch 3) today's card came together quite easily - take a look:

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

Flowering Foils - I decided to use the Flowering Foils Specialty Designer Series Paper as the basis for today's card. This is one of the second-release items that can be yours FREE with a purchase of £45 or more during the current Sale-A-Bration promotion and has been super popular with my customers, so I was keen to show them how they could use it. I used a rose-gold hatch patterned piece along with a piece of silver foil cut using my Stitched Rectangle Framelits for two of my layers, then fussy cut one of the flowers from another sheet to form the centrepiece of my card. I backed my flower with a stitched vellum circle to preserve the shape of the sketch but not detract from the detail of the bloom itself. These papers are so, so pretty and the photographs in today's post really don't do them justice - it is so difficult to photograph foil!  

Sparkle, Sparkle - To compliment the foiled papers, I decided to add lots of sparkle and shine. I used some white ribbon with a silver metallic edge for my bow, along with some silver twine behind my flower and a sprinkling of champagne rhinestone jewels and clear epoxy droplets for extra sparkle. I even added a silver (retired) tassle - then had to stop myself before I went really overboard!! 

Label Me Bold - Whilst this card would make a lovely wedding card, I have no need for one so decided instead that it would work equally well as a special birthday card. I inked up my 'Label Me Bold' stamp set for the first time to add a simple silver heat-embossed sentiment to my card. You can see that better on the photo below:

This sentiment stamp set was one of the first I bought from the new seasonal catalogue as I've been wanting a set like this for ages, but this is the first time I've inked it up. I love the clean, block font which is perfect to cut through the detail on a card like this.

So what do you think? Do you love these Flowering Foils as much as me?

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

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

Before you put your creative thinking caps on, why not check out the blogs of the other As You See It team members:

Amy Jasper

Heather Cooper

Jan Clothier

Jane Knudsen

LeAnne Pugliese

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.

We look forward to seeing your creations in the AYSI gallery.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Flowering Foils Specialty Designer Series Paper (£0.00)	Stitched Rectangle Dies (£33.00)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Silver Foil Sheets (£4.75)	Silver Metallic Thread (£3.25)
Silver 3/8" Metallic-Edge Ribbon (£6.50)	Frosted & Clear Epoxy Droplets (£8.25)	Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£5.50)	Label Me Bold Cling Stamp Set (English) (£16.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)
Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)

As promised I have another quick make to share with the lovely team over at TGIF Challenges as they are featuring the Best Dressed Suite this week:

This time a fun gift bag using the papers from the Best Dressed suite along with some Purple Posy cardstock and a fun keyring made from shrinky plastic - take a look:

The sweet little bag was easy to create using the All Dressed Up Dies - just diecut everything and put together. I used some scraps of gold foil for the button and buckle clasps - I just love that added detail! - and added a tag stamped and punched with the new Label Me Fancy Punch and just tucked it into the pocket. My little bag houses this cute keyring that I also stamped using the 'Dressed To Impress' stamp set then coloured with Blends and punched out using the other new label punch, the Label Me Lovely punch, before putting into the oven to shrink and adding to my keychain with a co-ordinating ribbon - here's a closeup of my keyring:

In hindsight I should have taken a 'before' they went into the oven photo too so you can see how much smaller they are - I will try and remember to take one next time! I love that sentiment - I thought it would be perfect for a little keyring embellishment. It has become customary for the ladies attending my Creative Escapes Weekend Craft Retreats to receive a keychain like this at the end of the weekend - the regular attendees have quite the collection now! Here's a photo of all of them jumbled before packing:

 - to be updated -

And one last one of both the bag and keychain together:

So what do you think - have you ever used shrink plastic in any of your projects? Better still, would you like to receive a keyring just like this one, or to be more precise the one that I will be designing for my next residential weekend craft retreat? If you need something to look forward to (and right now, I'm thinking we could all do with a little of that!) my October retreat, to be held 3-4th October 2020, is now open for booking and I'd love you to join me! You can see full details on my website here or just get in touch with any questions.

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. 

Back tomorrow with another project for our new challenge over at As You See It; Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Best Dressed 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.75)	Dressed To Impress Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) (£17.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	All Dressed Up Dies (£33.00)	Purple Posy A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Gorgeous Grape 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Mini Striped Ribbon (£7.50)