Serene Garden PP401 & GDP146

by Joanne James15. July 2018 09:00

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! Firstly, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who joined in with our 400th anniversary celebration theme challenge these past two weeks - what an amazing gallery! You made it very difficult for us to choose our 'cut aboves' and the headliner this week for sure. We will be announcing the results of our random.org draw and the winners of all those amazing prizes donated by our generous sponsors on Wednesday; meanwhile, it's my turn to host this week and I have a bold and vibrant colour challenge for you to work with:

    

I've had the Serene Garden stamp set and Garden Scene Framelits out on my desk preparing for my next technique class, so decided to use them for my card today, which also uses this week's Global Design Project sketch for my layout:

 

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

A Peek of Granny Apple Green - I've been getting to grips with the new inks in my collection following the recent colour revamp by Stampin' Up! and I chose three of my new favourite bold and bright colours for my challenge this week. That said, my card today features a lot of white in order to balance these colours and keep my card feeling light and bright and not too garish. I've stamped each of the elements of my design - leaves, flowers and butterfly - in one of the challenge colours. The colour that features most is the fresh Granny Apple Green, since I stamped the leafy corner on a mat in the same shade and then used the Garden Scene Framelits to cut out the leaf sections, to reveal the tone-on-tone image below. I toyed with stamping the flowers and butterfly tone-on-tone too, but when I put it together I decided I preferred the colours on white with a little more added with a blender pen - an altogether more subtle affair.

Words of Courage - The Serene Garden stamp set is sentiment-free, so I rooted through my stamp collection and decided these words from the Ribbon of Courage stamp set fit perfectly with my layout and immediately gave me an intended recipient too, which is always nice. The swirly font fits nicely with this stamp set, although I'm sure there will be many others that work well with it too.

Polka Dots and an Embellishment Cheat - When it came to embellishing my card, I added a strip of Lovely Lipstick cardstock with a couple of notches punched out with my 1/2" circle punch to hold my pretty white polka dot tuille. I also added a trio of one of my favourite new embellishments, the glitter enamel dots, around my sentiment and yes, here's the cheat: they are actually Gorgeous Grape and Melon Mambo in colour. They tone in beautifully with the colour scheme though,so I went with it (I know my secret is safe with you!)

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. 

I love this colour combo and know it's one I will use again; the tuille bow is a little fussy for my generally clean style, but I do love how easy it is to work with and adds a real touch of pretty to the finished card.

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!

I can't wait to see what you create with this week's colours and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly. Today I will be waving off the eldest of my James Juniors for a 2 week sports tour of South Africa to play hockey and netball and experience all of the tourist delights this fascinating country has to offer. As for me, I will be at home braving week 2 of the summer vacation with the youngest of the James Juniors and continuing to monitor progress on the kitchen renovation project - I know where I would rather be, for sure! I have at least managed to get a little making done over the last few days so 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 Little Elephant As We Continue to Celebrate PP400

by Joanne James8. July 2018 10:00

It's Sunday and time for a reminder that we are still celebrating over at The Paper Players! It's our 400th birthday and our theme challenge is running for two weeks in total, to give you all plenty of time to play along. Some of us are back with some additional mid-theme inspiration for you, where we continue to be all about celebration:

   

Before I get to my card, a reminder of all of the fabulous prizes you can win - so many prizes!! 40 in fact, from our many generous sponsors across the crafting community - check out our post for more details but here is the full list to whet your appetite:

Listed in alphabetical order:

  1. Altenew - $30 gift card
  2. Atenew Academy - $20 gift card  - compliments of Jaydee
  3. Avery Elle - $20 store credit
  4. Butterfly Reflections - Breathe Rainbows Stamp Set (US only)
  5. CAS-ual Fridays - $25 store credit
  6. Cheery Lynn - $20 gift card  
  7. Cheery Lynn - $20 gift card - compliments of Laurie
  8. Concord & 9th - $25 gift card
  9. Craftin Desert Diva's - $10 store cedit
  10. Dies R Us - $15 gift card
  11. Ellen Hutson -  20 gift cards - compliments of Annie 
  12. Ellen Hutson $20 gift card - compliments of Eliz
  13. Happy Little Stampers - $20 store credit
  14. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Sets (exclusive - not available for purchase)
  15. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
  16. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
  17. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
  18. Lawn Fawn - $25 gift card
  19. My Favorite Things - $25 store credit
  20. Neat & Tangled - $15 store credit 
  21. Newton's Nook - $20 store credit
  22. Pink & Main - $20 store credit
  23. Power Poppy - $10 store credit
  24. Stampendous - $20 rewards cards (US only)
  25. Stampendous - $20 reward card (US only)
  26. Stampendous - $20 reward card (US only)
  27. Stamplorations - $20 gift certificate
  28. Stampin' Up - $20 gift certificates compliments of Nance (US only)
  29. Stampin' Up! $20 gift certificate - compliments of LeAnne (US only)
  30. Stampin' Up! £20 gift certificate - compliments of Joanne (UK only)
  31. Stampin' Up! $20 gift certificate - compliments of Claire (US only)
  32. Stampin' Up $20 gift certificate - compliments of Jan (NZ only)
  33. Technique Tuesday - $20 gift card
  34. The Foiled Fox - $25 store credit
  35. Trinity Stamps - Let it Grow and Lady Liberty Stamp Sets
  36. Tutti Designs - $15 gift card
  37. Uniko - any in-stock stamp set of winner's choice
  38. Verve Stamps - stamp & accessory bundle - compliments of Sandy (US only)
  39. Verve Stamps - stamp & accessory bundle - compliments of Sandy (US only)
  40. Waffle Flower - $15 gift card

Isn't that fantastic?! All prizes will be awarded randomly between challenge participants - so if you enter, you are in with a chance of winning!

I was fairly short on time this week, having had a class, a bunch of end of term activities for one James Junior and a wedding to attend this weekend, so clean and simple was most definitely the order of the day. Unintentionally I ended up with another card with balloons too - take a look:

 

How cute is that little elephant?! 

I reached for my new Little Elephant stamp set and along with my co-ordinating Elephant Builder punch and a few favourite colours, I set to work. I punched out the elephant and his ear for added dimension and added some balloons punched with my now retired tiny balloon punch, added some clear Wink of Stella and then done! This is one of those great quick cards that is a simple combination of stamps, ink and paper and can be put together in a jiffy - great when you are short on 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 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 specifically for this challenge.
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.  Please be considerate of our requests; entries that do not follow any of these rules will be deleted without notification and will not be eligible for our prizes.
5.  Have FUN!
 
We also have an additional rule for this challenge only: please do not submit more than TWO cards for this challenge. This is simply so that everyone can have an equal opportunity to win a prize.
 
Remember: PP400 is running for two weeks (the challenge closes on Friday 13th July). All challenge winners will be announced on Saturday, June 14th. All prizes awarded to participants will be drawn from random.org from ALL participants and announced with our reminder post for challenge PP401 on Wednesday 18th July.

There are already some fabulous cards in the gallery but there's still more time for you to enter. Whatever you're celebrating, share it with us! Enjoy the rest of your weekend - I'll be returning from the wedding and spending the day painting before the kitchen fitting begins this week. I'll be back soon 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.

It's All Happening In July: Awesome Recruitment Offer and Buy 3 Get 1 Free Designer Paper Offer

by Joanne James2. July 2018 11:30

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had wonderful weekends and if you're in the UK are enjoying the glorious weather we are experiencing right now. I have a big news post for you today as it's all happening here at Stampin' Up! during the month of July. First things first - a fabulous recruitment offer, the best we've had for a while:

Yes - in addition to your standard £130 of products of your choice you can receive a whole family of ink pads, absolutely FREE! You can choose from any of the collections below (please note the 2017-20 in-colour collection will only be available as a bundle as part of this promotion):

If you are a customer who has a long wish list, or are building your collection of Stampin' Up! inks, this is a great opportunity to add to your collection whilst benefiting from an overall saving of £94 (£31 free product of your choice and £63 ink pad collection) - and free shipping - along with an ongoing discount on the Stampin' Up! products that you love. Equally if you are thinking of starting your own Stampin' Up! business, this offer would enable you to get a fantastic bundle of products to get you off to a flying start. 

There has never been a better time to join Stampin' Up!: we are at the beginning of a new quarter, so you will have a full 6 months before you need to meet your first quarterly minimum. Every sale from the time you join until the end of December counts towards it, so the sooner you join the sooner you will be earning. The run up to Christmas is a great time to build a business if you're looking to earn or boost your income doing something that you love. I am always keen to hear from people thinking about joining my team - why not give me a call to discuss what it could mean for you? Alternatively if you've made up your mind already and want to start choosing your kit, click here to complete the online formThere is also the prospect of joining my team and I for Stampin' Up!'s Onstage event in Birmingham in November, which promises to be an even more fantastic event than usual since we will be celebrating our Stampin' Up! 30th anniversary - this is a demonstrator-only event that you are not going to want to miss! 

As if the recruitment offer along wasn't enough, there is also a fabulous customer offer on during July where for every 3 packs of designer series paper you buy from the following selection, you can choose another one absolutely FREE! The papers included in the promotion are listed below:

Whilst there really is no substitute for seeing the papers up close in order to truly appreciate how beautiful they are, rather than show you a collection of stills, it's worth watching this short video from the lovely people at the Stampin' Up! home office who go through each of the papers above and show a full sheet of each pattern:

This offer is a great opportunity to stock up on some of the new papers and decide which ones you love - if you stock up early, it might even give you the opportunity to pick up another few packs of your favourites before the month is out - just sayin'!

I will be back later with news of a designer series paper share that will include a full range of papers from the current catalogue; with so many papers on offer this month, it's the perfect time for a share; not only do you get a little of everything, but the overall price will be cheaper too! For now though, I have a date with the youngest of the james Juniors for my second and final sports day of the year - and I need to go put on some suncream! Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Hand Delivered Balloons Pop-Up Slider Card To Celebrate The Paper Players 400th Birthday!

by Joanne James1. July 2018 09:00

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of  the lovely Jaydee to host this week and we have something very special in store for you as The Paper Players is celebrating our 400th birthday - how awesome is that?! It is only right therefore that our theme challenge FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS - yes, we are running our challenge for two weeks in total, is all about celebration:

   

First and foremost, we are celebrating all of the lovely people who play along with The Paper Players challenge each week for 50 weeks of the year - it is for you and because of you that we are still going strong! It is without doubt the best team I have ever worked with - these gals are simply THE BEST! For our special celebration challenge this week, we are also joined by two of the original members of the Paper Players team: Ann Schach and Anne Marie Hile. And there are PRIZES this week - so many prizes!! 40 in fact, from our many generous sponsors across the crafting community - check out our post for more details but here is the full list to whet your appetite:

Listed in alphabetical order:

  1. Altenew - $30 gift card
  2. Atenew Academy - $20 gift card  - compliments of Jaydee
  3. Avery Elle - $20 store credit
  4. Butterfly Reflections - Breathe Rainbows Stamp Set (US only)
  5. CAS-ual Fridays - $25 store credit
  6. Cheery Lynn - $20 gift card  
  7. Cheery Lynn - $20 gift card - compliments of Laurie
  8. Concord & 9th - $25 gift card
  9. Craftin Desert Diva's - $10 store cedit
  10. Dies R Us - $15 gift card
  11. Ellen Hutson -  20 gift cards - compliments of Annie 
  12. Ellen Hutson $20 gift card - compliments of Eliz
  13. Happy Little Stampers - $20 store credit
  14. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Sets (exclusive - not available for purchase)
  15. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
  16. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
  17. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
  18. Lawn Fawn - $25 gift card
  19. My Favorite Things - $25 store credit
  20. Neat & Tangled - $15 store credit 
  21. Newton's Nook - $20 store credit
  22. Pink & Main - $20 store credit
  23. Power Poppy - $10 store credit
  24. Stampendous - $20 rewards cards (US only)
  25. Stampendous - $20 reward card (US only)
  26. Stampendous - $20 reward card (US only)
  27. Stamplorations - $20 gift certificate
  28. Stampin' Up - $20 gift certificates compliments of Nance (US only)
  29. Stampin' Up! $20 gift certificate - compliments of LeAnne (US only)
  30. Stampin' Up! £20 gift certificate - compliments of Joanne (UK only)
  31. Stampin' Up! $20 gift certificate - compliments of Claire (US only)
  32. Stampin' Up $20 gift certificate - compliments of Jan (NZ only)
  33. Technique Tuesday - $20 gift card
  34. The Foiled Fox - $25 store credit
  35. Trinity Stamps - Let it Grow and Lady Liberty Stamp Sets
  36. Tutti Designs - $15 gift card
  37. Uniko - any in-stock stamp set of winner's choice
  38. Verve Stamps - stamp & accessory bundle - compliments of Sandy (US only)
  39. Verve Stamps - stamp & accessory bundle - compliments of Sandy (US only)
  40. Waffle Flower - $15 gift card

Isn't that fantastic?! All prizes will be awarded randomly between challenge participants - so if you enter, you are in with a chance of winning!

Whilst balloons are not mandatory for this challenge, I couldn't help but be inspired by the wonderful badge Nance created for us this week, so I pulled out my Hand Delivered hostess set and set to work on a fun fold for you - take a look:

 

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

Hand Delivered - I used my favourite of the new hostess sets, Hand Delivered, for my card today. I love the way the pieces of this set mix and match; I've used the balloons again on today's card, but unlike my previous versions, this birthday girl is wearing the flowered skirt - so pretty! This is a great set with lots of variety - I used the birthday sentiments from this set on my card too, as you can see in the picture below. It's worth hosting a Stampin' Up! party just to get your hands on this set, so if you would like to talk to me about hosting one so that you can get your hands on exclusive hostess sets like this one, then do get in touch.

Pop-Up Slider Fancy Fold Card - I decided I would mimic the 'hidden' nature of the young lady behind her balloon with a pop-up slider card. I haven't made one of these cards in ages, but I loved the idea of a hidden message too. When the card is 'closed' it lies flat as in the picture above; when you pull the ribbons upwards, the girl moves into a vertical position and the hidden messages are revealed:

Isn't that fun?! And space still available to write a personalised message too.

New In Colours - I really love the palette of 2018-20 in colours; so much so, since I still can't decide which ones I like best I used them all! They work really well together and the bright colours definitely appeal to me. I used Lovely Lipstick for my cardbase, then used a combination of all 5 colours to colour the lady with my aquapainter. I also used ribbon in all 5 colours to create my pull tassel. Lastly, a liberal coat of Wink of Stella finished my balloons. I'm also linking up my card with the team over at Fab Friday, since they are featuring the new in colours too:

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

 

You can see all of my 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 specifically for this challenge.
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.  Please be considerate of our requests; entries that do not follow any of these rules will be deleted without notification and will not be eligible for our prizes.
5.  Have FUN!
 
We also have an additional rule for this challenge only: please do not submit more than TWO cards for this challenge. This is simply so that everyone can have an equal opportunity to win a prize.
 
Remember: PP400 will run for two weeks (the challenge closes on Friday 13th July)- the Design Team will be posting a second card for our theme next Sunday, to give you even more inspiration and encouragement to participate All challenge winners will be announced on Saturday, June 14th. All prizes awarded to participants will be drawn from random.org from ALL participants and announced with our reminder post for challenge PP401 on Wednesday 18th July.

I can't wait to see how you interpret this week's theme and look forward to visiting your blogs this week and next! Enjoy the rest of your weekend - I'll be hoping to have a slightly more restful one than of late, catching up on a few chores and hopefully enjoying some of the lovely sunshine we've been having here in the UK these past few weeks. I'll be back soon 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.

Nerf Party Ideas For The Stampin' Creative Blog Hop

by Joanne James30. June 2018 06:00

It's Saturday and today I have a special post for you since I, along with the talented Kayla Macaulay, am a guest with the lovely ladies over on the Stampin' Creative Design Team Blog Hop:

You may have just arrived from the colourful Pip Todman over at Queen Pip Cards or alternatively this may be your first stop. Either way, welcome and be sure to continue to the next stop along the hop by clicking on the next name in the list below for more creative ideas. This month the theme is 'party central' and there are lots of ideas and inspiration for parties for many different occasions throughout the hop. 

When I started thinking about what I was going to create today, I immediately jumped to my collection of new catalogue products wondering which new set to use. But in actual fact, I ended up using one of the most long-standing staple items in my crafting arsenal for the majority of my makes today: my Layering Circles Framelits. The next party that I need to plan will be that of the youngest of the James Juniors and whilst we've had lots of debate about what form it will take, one thing is for sure - no party that centres around 11 year old boys is complete without some form of Nerf battle these days, so I decided to get ahead and take the opportunity to start making with this in mind. 

First up is a birthday card that I actually made for a friend of his who is celebrating his birthday today: I used the currently popular 'impossible card' fancy fold and along with some partial diecutting to create a Nerf target for the popped-up section. These cards are really not at all tricky to make, despite their name! You simply score across the horizontal and then make a single cut at the centre of one panel at right angles to this (I made mine at 3"), followed by two cuts wherever you like on the facing panel (mine are at (1 5/8" in from each edge) and then fold each half in opposite directions, leaving a gap front and back and creating the central pop-up. I kept the colour scheme really simple, using the new in-colours Blueberry Bushel and Grapefruit Grove, both of which are a perfect match for Nerf guns and foam bullets, and having layered my diecut target circles added a sight and a bullet popped up on dimensionals for a fun touch. Some in-colour Blueberry Bushel patterned paper and a sentiment courtesy of the Perennial Birthday stamp set finish my card.

This 'impossible card' fold is a fun way to add dimension and interest to a card whilst still enabling it to be folded flat for mailing. My card is an irregular size, since the size of the base was determined by the diameter of the outer target circle. The card measures 5 1/4" x 6" when flat, so requires a bespoke envelope which I created using my trusty Envelope Punch Board with the help of my Envelope Expert tool. 

 

 The other targets you can see in the forefront of my card are some cake toppers I made. I am currently in the middle of a kitchen renovation and have only a microwave and the BBQ for cooking, so there was no opportunity to bake any cakes to put them in but I'm sure you get the idea!

I also created a fun party favour using Stampin' Up!'s Mini Pizza Boxes. I'm so glad these made it into the annual catalogue, they really are so useful for dressing up for all kinds of things. I brayed my box with Bluberry Bushel ink then created a belly band with another target on top and a thank you tag. Can you guess what is inside?

 

Yes, more foam Nerf bullets! The Mini Pizza Boxes are the perfect size to house 14 bullets and since the children seem to use hundreds of these when they are playing in their Nerf battles, I figured a few more each wouldn't go amiss!

 

 Lastly for today I also created a set of freestanding spinning Nerf targets, based on this one I saw over at Frugal Fun 4 Boys. If you click on the link you can follow the instructions to make your own - I simply used a collection of layered circles, adding in some Whisper White and Granny Apple Green for more colour variety. This is great for indoor or outdoor use, so I'm sure will be added to the toybox supplies. This is my tester in action, declaring it to be too easy - I think he needs to move further away so that it's more of a challenge!

 

I hope you liked my collection of fun party ideas, that in fact require very little in the way of supplies to make. I have another Nerf-themed birthday card to share, which is the one I have made for Ben's birthday, but will save that for another 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 Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

For now, why not continue the blog hop for more creative party ideas? Do check out them rest of the Stampin’ Creative team to see what celebrations they have been preparing for. To carry on with the hop click on the names in the list below:

 

Enjoy the rest of your day. Mine will be a busy one, with a Family Fun Day, birthday party and sleepover (thankfully not at my house!) and the final performance of The Sound of Music for my eldest singing superstar - can't wait. I'll be back tomorrow with this week's post over at The Paper Players where the celebrations continue as we are celebrating our 400th birthday! We have a very special challenge for you as a result with lots of prizes to give away too so do pop back then - you are not going to want to miss it. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

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

Wild About You Animal Expedition PP399

by Joanne James24. June 2018 09:00

Another busy week in the James household with little time for crafting - boohoo! I did have a great technique class earlier this week where we made cards using the 'Share What You Love' Suite and have had the opportunity to chat with lots of my lovely customers this week as they have been collecting their new catalogue orders, so it's not all bad. And today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players - yay! It's the turn of our very own queen of diecuts, the lovely Laurie, to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge, for you to work with:

 

I decided that the sketch layers lent themselves to featuring some new designer series paper and having just taken delivery of the Animal Expedition papers I had to start cutting them up for my card this week - take a look:

 

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

Animal Antics - My card today contains very little stamping - it really is all about the paper. Oh and how I love designer series paper! I used two different designs from the Animal Expedition DSP on my card: a background panel featuring a selection of cute animals, including the animals to be found in the co-ordinating 'Animal Outing' stamp set along with a few extras too, including crocodiles and a sloth. For my circle element, I used one of the other paper designs featuring larger versions of the same animals and cut out a sloth with a circle framelit, allowing the fussy cut edges to overhang the border of my mount - isn't he just the cutest?

Wild About ... My Everyday Label - The only stamped element on my card is the sentiment. I punched this out using my Everyday label punch by feeding the cardstock into the punch from the back in order to create the longer rectangle, then snipped off the circular elements top and bottom in order to create a uniform shape that was easier to mount. 

A Bright Colour Combo - I chose to use Lemon Lime Twist for my card base and label, to provide a bright contrast to my busy patterned paper. I mounted all of my panels on Rich Razzleberry, pulling the colour from the little purple bird that is chatting to the sloth. I also added a thin border of Old Olive to frame my sloth. Feel free to save this colour combination for your future projects:

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!

I can't wait to see what you create with this week's sketch and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly. We have the last bits of the kitchen to pack away before major building work starts tomorrow on the new one, along with another school project - last week it was Eid cards, this time a map of the Tour de France route - to assist in the completion of. Thank heavens for Stampin' Up! and a ready stash of onhand craft supplies! I'm hoping to get some crafting done this week in between making copious cups of builders tea so will be back soon with more projects sharing some new makes.

Either way, you are definitely going to want to pop by next Sunday for the next Paper Players challenge; we will be celebrating our 400th anniversary and have a ton of fun in store for you! Until next time, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

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

Pick A Pennant and Spot The Birdie for PP398

by Joanne James17. June 2018 09:00

 

Hello everyone! Did you miss me? My extended blogging break wasn't anticipated. I have had a few big things on of late: a girly weekend, a thirteenth birthday to prepare for and celebrate and I was performing in Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat along with the youngest of my James Juniors on Friday evening. Add to that a persistent knee injury from running that finally resulted in me needing an extended course of physiotherapy to put right, along with a spell of single parenting and well, as you can probably tell, family and school life has somewhat got in the way! I still held a couple of wonderful launch parties to welcome the arrival of the new catalogue, my class schedule is uninterrupted and I have been finalising the details for my next 2 retreats (I will blog these another time but meanwhile you can read all about them here) but blogging has had to take something of a back seat.

However, today is Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! I'm a little late but here nevertheless! It's the turn of the marvellous Jaydee to host this week and she has a clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

    

Thank heavens this week was clean and simple - although I must confess I had a couple of aborted attempts in order to achieve today's card - not enough time spent in my craft room, methinks! I eventually settled on a bright and colourful thank you card  - take a look:

 

I decided to go with a thank you card (we always need those, right?!) and some bright and colourful banners courtesy of the 'Pick a Pennant' stamp set and this week's challenge colours over at Just Add Ink featuring amongst others the new vibrant Granny Apple Green - love it! Now I know the challenge is 'clean and simple - birds' and there's only one feathered friend present amongst all those banners, but he's there and so I'm hoping that counts! I stamped my banners directly onto my one layer card, stamping the backgrounds off once to better highlight the patterns, whilst fussy cutting my bird and bows as I'm still waiting for my framelits to arrive.

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. Today's card really is clean and simple - stamps, ink and paper: the 3 things Stampin' Up! do best!

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!

I can't wait to see your clean and simple creations and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly. I'll be back as soon as I can 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.

My First Animal Outing For The Paper Players PP396

by Joanne James3. June 2018 09:00

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 I have a fun theme challenge for you to work with - I used the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and the colour palette at TGIF Challenges as the basis for my card too:

       

I chose my theme for this challenge ages ago but knew as soon as I received the set 'Animal Outing' in my bag at Onstage that it would have to be my set of choice for my card today - take a look:

 

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

Animal Antics - I didn't think it was possible for a rhino to look cute, but the chap on my card today with his birdie friend is definitely a cutie to me! Along with a koala-carrying kangaroo, a giraffe and a frog, this pair make up the collection of animals in the 'Animal Outing' stamp set, which forms part of the Animal Expedition suite - a bundle of animal themed stamps and framelits with a range of sentiments that make this set work for a variety of of occasions: thank you, new baby, friend, birthday, anniversary and more. There are also co-ordinating papers, leaf ribbon and wooden frames elements - this is a set that I'm sure I'm going to get lots more use out of in the coming months so watch this space for more projects! I stamped my cute pair onto a stitched circle and coloured them with my Stampin' Blends.

Layered Leaves - I layered my stitched circle onto a rectangle of Old Olive cardstock, embossed with the Lovely Leaves embossing folder - this is a firm favourite of mine, it adds great detail and texture and I really like the way the random leaf pattern. There is just enough detail to add interest behind the image whilst still retaining an overall CAS feel to my card.

A New Trio - My embellishments are minimal, in fact just some Night of Navy baker's twine, but I did want to point out something that you might have missed both on my card and in the new catalogue: I rounded the corners on my embossed panel, as per the sketch, using the new Detailed Trio Punch. Found on page 211 of the new catalogue, this punch rounds corners, creates an oval-shaped eyelet and a pretty trio of petals that will add a subtle detail to your layers. Very useful!

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!

I can't wait to see how you interpret this week's theme and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly. 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.

Stampin' Up! Colour Collection Lined Alphabet Framed Home Decor Sampler

by Joanne James31. May 2018 11:00

Today is the last day for lots of things - you can read all about those in my earlier post here - but for today's creative post I'm sharing a piece of framed home decor that I made recently for a recent event and my upcoming new catalogue launch to illustrate to my customers the new Stampin' Up! colour collections following the colour revamp, whilst also highlighting both current sets of in-colours. 

I wanted something that would serve as a conversation-starter for questions and enable comparison of the new colour families so decided to take the opportunity to highlight one of my favourite bundles from the new catalogue, the Lined Alphabet bundle, to create a colour-themed piece of home decor - take a look:

 

This is a rather large framed piece, measuring a whopping 17 1/2" x 17 1/2" square (or 45cm x 45cm), so I've photographed it quite tightly so that you can see the detail. You might recognise the quotation - it is attributed to the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky, famed for painting the first works of modern abstract art in the 20th century. In defining life, painting and the psychological impact of colour, he is quoted as saying:

"Colour is a power which directly influences the soul. Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammer, the soul is the strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul" (V. The psychological working of Colour: Quoted in: Hajo Düchting (2000) Wassily Kandinsky, 1866-1944: A Revolution in Painting. p. 17). 

This seemed perfectly suitable for my interpretation of the Stampin' Up! colours. All 53 colours feature: the new 2018-20 In-colours feature first (I repeated the Lovely Lipstick and Grapefruit Grove colours as I needed 6 colours for this word and a seventh panel to give me the symmetry for my overall design, but otherwise all colours feature just once). You can see each of the families in sequence, highlighted below - a little messy to label to be fair, as two of the colour families span more than one horizontal line, but hopefully you can make them all out:

 

This is then complimented by the three basics of Whisper White, Very Vanilla and Basic Black to make up the background.

What do you think of the new Lined Alphabet and the co-ordinating Layering Alphabet Edgelit Dies? I love them! Rest assured, these are an investment item and I will be getting my money's worth out of them so you will see lots more projects using them in the coming months for sure. They are really easy to use - I actually cut the letters first then stamped afterwards, but you could do the other way around which is the more conventional approach I guess. I like the subtle line detail that stamping the diecut letter adds for just that little bit of extra definition and the marker lines on the dies make it easy to get the words lined up. This is just one of the ways that I will be sharing the new colours with my customers - along with colour swatches, guides and the new in-color bookmarks that I sent out with my catalogues too.

I will be having a couple of new catalogue drop-in sessions next week for anyone who is local to me and would like to have a look at my new product displays including this frame in more detail, pick up their new catalogue, shop my 'buy one, get one free' stash of retired stock and more. These drop-ins will be on Wednesday 6th June 10am-12 noon and then again on Thursday evening 7th June from 6-8pm - please get in touch and let me know if you would like to attend either via email or my Facebook page.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with news of the new catalogue. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

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

Time For Last Orders!

by Joanne James31. May 2018 09:50

Public service announcements first today - bear with me, there will be a creative post to follow for those that are here for the pretty stuff! It's sharing lots of new product too, so you're going to want to stay tuned!

Counting down now - only 1 day to go until the new 2018-19 Annual Stampin' Up! catalogue launches!

 

I have already sent out copies to everyone on my catalogue mailing list who has purchased from me in the last 6 months - if you haven't received one, then do give me a call on 07773 421446 or drop me an email and I will pop one in the post to you today.

This also means the following: 

Today is the last day that you can order from the 2017-18 Stampin' Up! catalogue - this includes any of the 'Bundle and Save 10%' bundles. Even though many of the products they contain are being carried over to the new annual catalogue, they will not be available as a discounted bundle.

It is also the last day that you can order from the 2018 Spring-Summer Seasonal Stampin' Up! catalogue - a number of the products in this brochure are being carried over to the new annual catalogue, however we will be saying goodbye to many items. There are still a few items available at a discount on the Retiring List here - today is your last chance to grab a bargain! 

Today is also the final day to purchase any of the special Share What You Love Suite bundles. You can read more about these fabulous bundles in my blog post here which also contains the link to the store should you wish to purchase any of the bundles. Whilst all of the items contained in each bundle will be available to purchase individually once the new annual catalogue launches, the bundles along with the free gifts won't. So if you what to start Sharing What You Love, get yours today!

If you are placing an order online today, don't forget to use this month's online hostess code T3H6GHNT to receive a little thank you from me. 

I will be back shortly with today's creative post - it's so good, it deserves a post all of its very own, so be sure to check it out!

 

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About Me

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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This is my personal blog and is not endorsed by Stampin’ Up! I hope you find it a plentiful source of ideas and personal inspiration but please don't copy my designs for contest submission or use for classes, publication or sale without express permission.