Happy Birthday Grandpa #SimpleStamping With On To Adventure PP451

by Joanne James21. July 2019 09:00

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 CAS challenge for you to work with:

    

Remember: this is clean and simple week. What do we mean by 'clean and simple' ? Create a card that has:

  • Minimal layers and embellishments
  • Plenty of open space, also known as 'white space'
  • Is simple and uncluttered

There were lots of great options to choose from this week and in the end I decided to use this week's CAS(E) This Sketch layout and the fun golfer in the new 'On To Adventure' set - take a look:

 

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

On To Adventure - As soon as I saw this set in the catalogue, I knew I would have to have it! My Dad is a keen golfer and so I knew this image would give me a lot of mileage. Many of the sentiments in this set are along the theme of retirement (which is also good for me, as I didn't have any retirement sets up to this point) but the images can easily be combined with other sentiments to be used in tons of different ways. I stamped my golfer above my hole-in-one sentiment then brayered in some Granny Apple Green grass to ground him before colouring him with my Stampin' Blends.

In Color Argyle - This card would look fine as a one layer card, however the sketch calls for some vertical stripes and since this month's #SimpleStamping challenge from stamping up is to use stamps, ink and paper along with some designer series paper on your card, I decided that this argyle pattern in the new DSP stack would work perfectly with my golfer - my Dad certainly has many golf sweaters with this pattern!

A Ribbon of Birthdays -  It's my Dad's birthday next month so I thought this would make a perfect 'Happy Birthday Grandpa' card from one of the James Juniors. With this in mind, I overlaid a 'ribbon' of happy birthday sentiments, courtesy of the 'Itty Bitty Birthdays' set and stamped repeatedly on a narrow strip of white cardstock, along my DSP border.

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!

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; we are on a belated spring-clean at home so will be spending a little time doing some more sorting out today. We have a movie to watch and hopefully I'll squeeze in a little crafty time too. 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.

Baby We've Grown New Parent Congratulations Card

by Joanne James20. July 2019 22:00

Today I'm sharing a card that I made because it is perfect for the current challenge over at Festive Friday and uses the current Color Throwdown colours:

#festivefridaychallenge, #FF0038, Parent's Day, Watercolor cards   

Using both watercolouring and with Parent's Day in mind (or at least two new parents in particular) and this soft and sweet colour palette, I created this card for some new parents:

Not much to say about my card today! I stamped my image on watercolour paper and then heat embossed it in silver, watercoloured it and added a stitched frame to finish. No product table for this card because it uses a whole bunch of retired bits and pieces: one of my favourite baby-themed retired stamp sets, Baby We've Grown, a retired colour in Pink Pirouette (a perfect baby pink) and some retired co-ordinating ribbon and foil doily. All of these were chosen deliberately though, as they are just perfect for the recipients: a Stampin' Up! demonstrator friend of mine and her husband have finally this week received their much longed-for adopted child, a baby girl, so their family of two has (almost overnight) grown to become three. This stamped image of three owls seemed just so appropriate to celebrate the arrival of Little Miss Wilson as she is affectionately known, and the oh-so girly pink complimented with the pale grey seemed like the perfect palette.

Enjoy your evening; I am typing this having spent the evening at the swimming pool watching the youngest of the James Juniors race with some great race times and a couple of wins, so it's nice to be sat in the cool again. I'll be back tomorrow with another project and this week's post over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

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Make A Wish CAS Masculine Birthday Card

by Joanne James17. July 2019 08:00

Today I'm sharing another card using our colours over at The Paper Players this week for the current challenge over at TGIF Challenges where they have a great sketch for inspiration:

   

 I needed more masculine birthday cards, this time for slightly older/teenage children, so I pulled out my Broadway Birthday set and set to work - take a look:

 

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

Take One Sketch - Often I am very literal with my interpretation of a sketch layout, but not so today! Whilst I didn't use the background florals suggested by the sketch or the banner sentiment, I did use my Balmy Blue ink to create a soft sponged background with a little tone-on-tone stamping then overlaid with my balloons, and used my large 'Wish' diecut as my large focal sentiment on the top layer. Sketches are my favourite starting point when designing a card but they are only a starting point; if you look at the TGIF design team cards or the others in the gallery, you will see that everyone interprets them in a slightly different way - great for inspiration!

Broadway Birthday - If you are only going to buy one birthday stamp set, then Broadway Birthday has to be it for universal appeal. It works in any colour, for male or female, young or old and with its fun balloons, candles and party hats will definitely go the creative distance.

Make A Wish - Better still, if you pair Broadway Birthday with the co-ordinating Broadway Lights Dies, you have even more creative possibilities. You can use the big words to make a feature of your card; I love the swirly fonts and the fact that the diecut pieces are nice and big; not too fiddly and so I don't loose them on my desk before I've stuck them down! This card was so easy to make I stamped and diecut a few at the same time so that I had a few made ready for my next few birthdays.  

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. 

Rebecca is home from Germany today and we are all feeling tired given her arrival in the early hours of the morning, so we will be taking it easy in between the laundry. 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.

Christmas Word Wishes Seasonal Wreath Square Card

by Joanne James16. July 2019 09:00

Firstly an apology if you are here to see the masculine birthday card I promised - I mixed up my days, that one is coming tomorrow! Today I'm sharing a Christmas card for the current challenges over at As You See It and Just Add Ink:

   

That AYSI recipe took me a little while to work through but I got there in the end and since the JAI girls are looking for seasonal cards of any kind, it works for them too. I pulled out one of my favourite festive items in the annual catalogue that I think is rather overlooked to make today's card - the seasonal wreath embossing folder. Here's my finished card:

 

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

A Seasonal Wreath - This Seasonal Wreath embossing folder really is in my opinion one of the unsung heroes of the Stampin' Up! catalogue; in one run through the Big Shot, you have the basis for a card. I must confess that I have only ever used it on a Christmas card, although the seasonal challenge over at Just Add Ink did get me thinking I should create another three so that I have a wreath for all seasons - so watch this space! I think the detail of the texture is difficult to capture in a photo, but in real life it's beautiful.  

A New Merry Christmas - I've used this wreath before with the Merry Christmas dies from last year's seasonal catalogue (and still available in the current annual) but thought I would use the Merry Christmas words from the new Word Wishes die set, which are smaller in size and sit rather neatly across the middle of the wreath. I heat embossed the lower part of the diecuts with silver embossing powder for a little added interest and to tie in with my decoration, but you could just as easily leave it plain - you can't go wrong with red and green for a perfectly festive colour combo.

Stars and Stripes - I decided to decorate my wreath with some silver retired metallic stars that I found in my box (I have almost run out and wish I had stockpiled a few more of these!), along with some red berries (I punched out the eye on the Elephant Builder Punch) and added a piece of (also retired) Poppy Parade mini striped ribbon tied with some silver metallic thread to finish. There was very little stamping on this card - only the inserts with one of my favourite stamps for inside a Christmas card from Merry Christmas To All:

 

I went with a square design because I had a 12" x 12" pack of Garden Green and Poppy Parade cardstock left over from the last seasonal catalogue and liked this card so much I decided to cut up the whole pack and mass-produce an entire set of these to make a real dent in my Christmas stash! My husband did think I'd lost to plot when he saw me cutting and embossing not one but more than 20 Christmas cards whilst watching the Wimbledon tennis finals on Sunday, but actually this was a super-easy card to make en-mass from a pack of 12" x 12" (if you would like the measurements, the card base is 6" x 6", the red matt measures 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" (the offcuts were used for the word dies) and the central green square is 4" x 4"), especially as the only stamping was on the inside. I will need to get creative with my stars for the remaining cards - I will probably punch some out of silver glimmer paper, but I am thoroughly chuffed with my efforts!

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:

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

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Back On Your Feet Get Well Wishes

by Joanne James15. July 2019 18:30

I'm back with a second quick card to share with you today! I needed a quick card and used this week's sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches and am just squeezing in before the deadline:

An old university friend of mine landed awkwardly when running at the weekend and broke his ankle, so I wanted to make a quick card to send him some get well wishes and the new 'Back On your Feet' stamp set had just the right stamp  - take a look:

 

Isn't that sloth with his bandaged paw just the cutest?! I stamped him on a stitched oval and coloured him with my Stampin' Blends and added a simple 'ouch!' to the front of my card, completing the message inside with 'Hope you're back on your feet again soon' which in the circumstances seemed more than appropriate! I picked up the colour from the branch on my stamped image and used the leaf ribbon for the three vertical stripes of the sketch. I haven't used this before but it goes perfectly with this image.

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

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

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Born To Shine

by Joanne James15. July 2019 11:00

Happy Monday everyone! Hands up who watched the Wimbledon men's final yesterday? Wasn't it just nail-biting?! To be fair, it was a great day of sport all-round: success for England at the cricket  and Lewis Hamilton won the GrandPrix at Silverstone, which is just down the road from me (the sky was full of helicopters all day yesterday with people avoiding the road queues in and out of the race track). So much sporting success to celebrate! Anyway, back to the crafting!! Today I'm sharing a card using the colours over at Color Throwdown and the lovely Linda's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

   

I decided these colours would be perfect for me to try out a new set from the annual catalogue called 'Born to Shine' - take a look:

 

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

I really wanted my ballet dancer to take centre stage on my card today, so Linda's sketch was the perfect fit. I decided to use a simple double score line on my Petal Pink card base to frame my stamped image and stamped my dancer with Memento Black and coloured her with my Ivory and Petal Pink Blends combo. Whilst it's difficult to see on the photo, I covered her dress with a liberal coating of clear Wink of Stella and this adds such a beautiful sparkle - I love it! I gave her blond hair since if Rebecca had continued ballet dancing this is what she would have looked like now. I surrounded her with heat embossed gold stars and added a simple sentiment banner of gold on black to stand out against my largely pastel card. I bought this stamp set for a commission but I can see me having lots of fun with it - these dancers are so elegant and pretty.

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:

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

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Celebrate Your Day With A Little Elephant Birthday Card

by Joanne James14. July 2019 09:00

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 you to work with:

       

I really liked LeAnne's colour combo this week and I have a real shortage of male birthday cards in my box at the moment, especially for young boys (a whole bunch of Ben's friends have had birthdays lately with still more to come in the next couple of months), so that's where I decided to focus my efforts this week. I have two cards to share with you today, both featuring the Little Elephant set. They both use this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch; here's the first one:

 

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

I did some simple layering and inset my punched elephant carrying his balloons inside a circle aperture cut with my Layering Circle Dies, then overlayed a stacked diecut sentiment, cut with the Well Written Framelits, that I brushed with clear Wink of Stella for added sparkle. I also made a super clean and simple version that I am going to link up over at Less Is More for their theme of 'Celebrations' this week:

 

I switched the colours around and punched out the elephant's ear to ring the changes and for both cards I decorated the envelopes and the insides too. My Stamparatus made it easy to line up the balloon and the elephant's trunk - love that tool!

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. 

Having made these cards I decided they were maybe a little too youthful for my 'pre-teens' so I used this colour combo to make another masculine, more grown up card that I will share with you on Tuesday, so if you like this colour combo, be sure to pop back then and take a look.

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!

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; I will be glued to the TV this afternoon enjoying the Wimbledon Men's Final - the culmination of two fantastic weeks of grass court tennis and spending some quality time with my boys since we are still Rebecca-less, as she continues to experience the delights of life with a German family (only 3 more days t go!) 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.

Dream Big With Over The Moon

by Joanne James11. July 2019 20:00

I've had a busy day today with laundry, a visit from Granny and Ben had a friend over and this afternoon. We all went to the cinema to see the movie 'Yesterday' (I can highly recommend it) so no time to craft today but lucky for you I have a card to share with you that I made earlier this week that I'm also linking up with the team over at Paper Craft Crew:

Paper Craft Crew Designer's Choice Challenge PCC343

I couldn't resist another chance to play with my new 'Over The Moon' stamp set and wanted to make a card that was full-on bovine - take a look:

 

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

Dream Big - This is another of the cute cows in this fun set; I can't say I've ever seen a cow daydreaming in the fields like this, but then I haven't see a cow wearing wellies either as per my previous card so I guess there's a first time for everything! I stamped my cow on a horizontal panel and fussy cut his thought bubble and added a clear rhinestone for a little extra detail. 

Create Your Own Cow Hide - I decided to go all-out on my cow card today and create a fun bespoke cow-hide patterned background for the base of my card. I think the finished effect is really fun and was actually so easy to create; can you tell what stamps I used? You may be surprised to know that it was these two background splodges from the 'Love What You Do' stamp set - so perfect for cow hide:

 

Fresh Colour Combo - I used a fresh blue and green scenic colour combo today with just a pop of red to compliment my black and white cow. This is a fun colour combo that would work for lots of other projects too - here it is if you'd like to save it for future use:

 

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 evening 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.

 

Daisy Lane Fern Starburst Stamparatus Card

by Joanne James10. July 2019 20:00

Today I'm sharing another of the cards I designed for my Daisy Lane class earlier this week that is perfect for the current colour challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments where they have a pretty subtles colour palette for inspiration:

I wanted to remind my ladies of a technique that I demonstrated to them previously using a template to create a wreath or uniform pattern using their Stamparatus and the Daisy Lane set was perfect for this - take a look at my card:

 

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

A Layered Daisy - Today's card features more stamped and punched daisies - this time layered to create a full flower: two large stamped and punched daisies in Petal Pink, with two smaller stamped and punched daisies in Calypso Coral layered on top. Lots of petal curling with a bone folder adds dimension and the appearance of fullness.

A Starburst Fern And A Fun Stamparatus Technique - I wanted to use the fern on this card and it was the perfect size and shape to revise a fun technique using the Stamparatus. We had previously looked at how you can use a template to help you create a symmetrical wreath using leaves and small flowers; this time we used the same template, but instead used it to create an almost flower-shaped starburst of ferns to back our punched daisy. This was perfect for my daisy focal point and a neat way to ring the changes with a square card too.

A Touch of Sparkle - On this card, I finished my daisy with a clear faceted dot for a neutral touch of sparkle. 

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

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

A Pair of Punched Daisies To Make You Smile

by Joanne James9. July 2019 16:00

No post yesterday as I had a class and one James Junior to get ready for her German student exchange trip with the other to swim training and I simply ran out of time! So I'm sharing my planned card today which is perfect for the current challenge over at Just Us Girls where the cue word is 'Smile':

My class yesterday featured the new Daisy Lane stamp set and Medium Daisy Punch and this is one of the cards we made - take a look:

 

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

There's A New Daisy In Town - Daisy Lane is a new Stampin' Up! stamp set that features that perennial favourite - the daisy. Definitely more wild flower than weed, today's card features two daisies from the new set, stamped in Smoky Slate with some So Saffron added to the centres with a sponge dauber before punching the larger one out with the existing Daisy Punch and then the smaller one with the Medium Daisy Punch and added to the stems that were stamped directly onto the card base.

Feeling Fuzzy - What makes these daisies stand out though, are the little fuzzy yellow centres. These Perennial Essence Floral Centres are part of the Perennial Essence Suite but they make great daisy centres too. They have little self-adhesive backs so are easy to attach to punched flowers to give them added interest. I can see me using lots more of these!

A Timeless Label - The 'smile' sentiment is also from the Daisy Lane set and to give it a little more emphasis I punched it out with the new Timeless Label Punch which is the perfect size for both the 'smile' and 'friend' sentiments in this set and lots more besides. This is another of those super-useful punch shapes that is a good basic for your crafting arsenal.

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:

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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