Today I've a quick post to share a card that I made for a friend of mine who is celebrating the arrival of her first grandchild - what a wonderful occasion! I used the sketch over at Try A Sketch on Tuesday for my layout and am also linking up over at Time Out where their theme is 'new beginnings':

My friend Deborah is welcoming the birth of a grandson, Xander, so there was only one set to use - the retired 'Treasures of Life stamp set. Take a look at my simple card:

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

The sentiments in this set are just perfect for a card to send to grandparents to celebrate a new grandchild, so I couldn't resist using two either side of the main image on my card. This did mean I had to square-off those shapes on the sketch in order to fit everything in, but I think it works. I did all my stamping in Basic Grey as it gives a softer edge - perfect for a new baby card. I also used a neutral grey base, so that I could highlight my Balmy Blue ribbon bow and my main image, which I coloured with my watercolour pencils. I was tempted to use my go-to Stampin' Blends markers, but decided that pencils would add to the softness and enable me to colour the woman's hair better. I don't have a photo to prove it, so you'll just have to take my word for it, but the slightly spooky thing about this image, is that it actually looks uncannily like my friend from behind - so I decided to colour it in her likeness.

My friend Deborah is a fellow crafter and a lover of all things clean and simple, so I hope she likes today's card.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WATERCOLOR PENCILS ASSORTMENT 2 (14.00)	BLENDER PENS (14.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)	SMOKY SLATE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	BALMY BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)
BASIC GRAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Elizabeth to host this week and she has a bright colour challenge to welcome in the new year:

I love this trio of bright colours - the perfect antidote to a grey winter's day! These colours also appear in some of my new designer paper, so I decided to grab it and along with Karren's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

I used my 'Terrific Toadstools' stamp set again to stamp a trio of toadstools in Melon Mambo pink and Pumpkin Pie orange, this time masking the stems before I stamped the caps so that I could cut them out seamlessly as one piece - you can see the ink effects below:

I added some greenery and iridescent dots, along with a sentiment, and adhered them to a diecut circle. For the background strips, I added a co-ordinating diecut strip, a thin piece of Pumpkin Pie and the main panel which is piece of striped Toadstool Gardens designer paper - one of the products that can be yours FREE with a £55 purchase during Sale-A-Bration. There are so many fun patterns in this paper pack and they co-ordinate beautifully with the Terrific Toadstools bundle. I added a co-ordinating flap to my envelope too because, well, you can never have too much designer series paper right, especially if it's FREE! So what do you think - does the Toadstool Gardens paper make it on to your Sale-A-Bration wishlist?

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:

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

TERRIFIC TOADSTOOLS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (18.00)	SUNNY DAY IRIDESCENT DOTS (7.50)	MELON MAMBO A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	MELON MAMBO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	PUMPKIN PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	PUMPKIN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our first challenge of the year over at As you See It where we are kicking things off with a colour challenge chosen by Heather C:

I used the current sketch layout over at SUO Challenges and grabbed a new stamp set and die bundle and set to work - take a look:

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

Mixed Petals is a new Online Exclusives stamp set that I thought would work well with the challenge colours. I used some retired Berry Burst gingham paper for my background panel, then added a diecut in Peach Pie glimmer paper and a second one of the large stamped image in the set, that I coloured with my Stampin' Blends. I liked the idea of created some variegated colour tulips - I love that tulips come in such vibrant colours in real life:

I used the greys for my stems and leaves; a little poetic license for sure, however I do love the finished effect as it really allows the petals to stand out. I added a thank you sentiment from 'Thoughtful Wishes' and few coloured pearls and enamel dots to complete my card.

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

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

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Colour Challenge use all of the given colours and only those colours with these exceptions:
• White and Very Vanilla are free colours.
• In addition, you may use of ONE of these neutrals: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

MIXED FLORALS BUNDLE (54.00)	THOUGHTFUL WISHES CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)	2024–2026 IN COLOR™ GLIMMER 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PAPER (10.25)	BERRY BURST A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	BERRY BURST STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)
PEACH PIE STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (7.50)	2024–2026 IN COLOR™ SHIMMER GEMS (8.00)	ADHESIVE-BACKED PEARL TRIO (7.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new year of challenges over at CAS Colours & Sketches. We have made few changes to our challenge this year - you can read about them in today's challenge post - and I'm sure you will agree they will set us up nicely for the year ahead. The lovely Rachel has taken over our blog admin and is also hosting this month. For our first challenge of the year we have a colour challenge: 

For my card today I had to break open some new product to play with and given the rather autumnal hues of this week's colour combo, I decided to get back to nature and feature the new Terrific Toadstools stamp set - take a look:

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

Terrific Toadstools - The 'Terrific Toadstools' stamp set is great for simple stamping. Fun sentiments and a selection of different toadstool images to mix and match, along with a cute ladybird too, this is a great set where you need little more than stamps, ink and paper to create a card. It's photopolymer too, so really easy to line up as you can see where you are stamping easily. 

Borderless Punch - Terrific Toadstools is actually a punch bundle - so if you're not a fussy cutting fan, you can achieve popped-up toadstools with ease. The punch is a borderless punch, that means that unlike some Stampin' Up! punches, where the image punches with a white border around the stamped image, the Terrific Toadstools punch punches the shape without a border. The punch was unfortunately not available on pre-order here in the UK, so I will be adding this to my collection at a later stage. For today's card I grabbed my paper snips and trimmed my mushroom pieces by hand - and because I like a white border, I left one in place as I trimmed :-)

Today's Top Tip - Whilst today's card is pretty much stamp, inks and paper, I do still have a top tip for you: I used a sponge dauber to add some Early Espresso to the gills of my mushrooms and to the edges of my mushroom stalks and I think this adds great depth and dimension to the simple mushroom shape:

What do you think? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts. How do these colours inspire you? Why not get out your supplies and link up your projects over at CAS Colours & Sketches - we'd love to see your creations.

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

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

As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! colour names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

TERRIFIC TOADSTOOLS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (18.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)	PUMPKIN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	OLD OLIVE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CRUMB CAKE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
SPONGE DAUBERS (7.00)

Happy New Year everyone! I took an extended blog break over Christmas to spend time with family and loved every minute of it. That said, it's the 7th January and time for a new mini-catalogue and our 2025 Sale-A-Bration promotion so today I'm back to tell you all about it! Once again this year there will be only one Sale-A-Bration promotion: it runs from today until 28th February. You can click on the catalogue on the right hand side of my blog page or below to access the Sale-A-Bration leaflet or go directly to my online shopto place an order - we are LIVE!

So how does Sale-A-Bration work? For anyone who hasn't come across it before, it's Stampin' Up!'s annual promotion that is loaded with offers whether you shop, join or host.

You can earn a free Sale-A-Bration product for every £55 you spend between 7 January and 28 February. There is also the opportunity to earn even bigger rewards with a £110 purchase. It's the perfect time to purchase those products you've had on your wish list and earn more products for FREE! 

If you host a party or place an individual order with purchases of £275 or more, you can choose an additional £27.50 of products in addition to your standard rewards for FREE!

It’s also one of the best times of the year to join Stampin’ Up! There are two fabulous joining options during this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion:  

• OPTION 1: Spend £99 and receive £130 of product of your choice and your choice of TWO marker sets from our Stampin' Write Marker Assortments (Brights, Neutrals, Regals, Subtles) PLUS a beautiful stamp set exclusively designed to work with them:

Or might prefer the following alternative:

• OPTION 2: Spend £99 and receive £160 of product of your choice - that's an extra £30!

There is plenty of choice and flexibility, whether you want to be a hobby demonstrator and just use your discount to enable you to purchase craft supplies more cheaply, or alternatively would like to build a flourishing direct sales business and sell supplies to others - it's entirely up to you. Above all else, it's a great opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals united through a common love of crafting.

If you would like to host a virtual or in-person party, please do get in touch. Equally if you've ever thought about becoming an SU! demonstrator, now is a great time to do so - I would love to have a no-obligation chat with you about joining my team and the benefits.

As if that wasn't enough, today also sees the launch of the new January-April 2025 mini catalogue - full of gorgeous new products:

Just click on the image above or in the sidebar on the right to browse the catalogue online, or contact me on 07773 421446 if you would like a paper copy posted out to you and you don't already have a demonstrator; paper copies have been sent to my regular customers. If you are as excited as me and just can't wait, here's the link to my online store - everything is available to purchase from today!

There's also a new digital scrapbooking brochure out today:

Just click on the image above or in the sidebar on the right to browse the catalogue online and to purchase any of the items, click to go to my online store - everything is available to purchase from today!

There are new Online exclusives available in the online store today too! The following images show just some of the items available - a number of which co-ordinate with items in the above catalogues:

 Finally, three new kits have also been added to the online store today:

You can get the details on each of the new kits in the online store - click here to go directly to the If you would like more information on any of the above, please don't hesitate to get in touch! 

Thanks so much for popping by - it's always nice to share good news! Back later with a creative post that uses some exciting new product! That post will go live at noon. Until then, happy shopping!

From 9-11 December, there will be free shipping on all orders of £60 or more! Details as follows:

• All order types qualify for this promotion.
• Free shipping is for three days only. Orders must be opened and closed during 9–11 December.
• Free shipping automatically applies to your basket after the qualifying amount has been met, which is 75 € | £60 (before shipping and handling).
• Coupon codes and product credits are non-commissionable and will lower your order’s retail amount. Orders must meet the qualifying amount to be eligible for free shipping.
• The additional cost for expedited shipping is not covered by this promotion.
• Due to the high volume of orders and the Christmas season, the distribution centre may fall behind our typical shipping timeframes. We will do all we can to return to our regular service levels as quickly as possible. Any orders placed during this promotion are not guaranteed to arrive before or by 24 December. If you need an order by Christmas, consider expedited shipping.

Due to the time difference, this promotion will start on 8 December at 11:00 p.m., for Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Click here to go straight to the online store - happy shopping!

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's our last Paper Players challenge of the year before we take a break for Christmas! It's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host this week and she has a rich colour challenge for us to work with:

I knew that my starting point for this card would be the Season of Elegance Specialty designer series paper as it features all of Ann's chosen colours this week. I decided to pair it with the Sophisticated Sled bundle for a rich Christmas card and using the above layout from Sketch Saturday where they are asking us to choose a previous sketch (I took the optional twist and went with sketch #341 from 2014) and set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

I used the reverse of the Pretty Peacock Seasons of Elegance foiled paper for the base of my card, then added a panel of the foiled side, matted with gold foil, for the centre. I added my diecut skates and foliage from the Sophisticated Sled bundle, then picked out the Cherry Cobbler in my sentiment banner, skate laces and a rather over-the-top ribbon bow:

A few textured gold enamel dots and some gold twine complete my card. Talking a leaf out of my PP teamie Elizabeth's book, I made two cards at the same, adding a smaller, more post-friendly bow to the second card; you can see them both together below:

As you know I don't often use a lot of ribbon on my cards, but I really love the showy ribbon bow on today's card; totally impractical for posting, but beautiful! Worth the hand-delivery, I'm sure you will agree. The Seasons of Elegance papers are so beautiful too and the foiling really adds a touch of luxury to these cards.

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:

Enjoy your day; we are battling storm winds and rain here in the UK, so I will definitely be staying inside keeping warm. I am making Christmas crumble for dessert today - if I remember I'll take a picture to share in a future post. I am pretty much done with making Christmas cards now (although I still have a few more to share with you this week!) I am now in the throws of writing them, so that will be this afternoon's task. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SOPHISTICATED SLED BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (50.25)	SEASON OF ELEGANCE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (16.00)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)	GOLD TEXTURED ADHESIVE-BACKED DOTS (7.50)	CHERRY COBBLER & GOLD 1/4" (6.4 MM) SATIN RIBBON (7.50)	PRETTY PEACOCK A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)	CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)

It's the weekend - yay! Today I'm here bright and early with you as further to my recent win over at AAA Cards (you can see that card here if you missed it), the lovely Maaike invited me to join them for their new challenge as a guest designer. Not only that, but it's my favourite - a sketch challenge! Here's the sketch that we are following:

I tried a few different things with this sketch, resisting the temptation to use snowflakes as per the sketch. In the end, my favourite one was using a retired favourite and a beautifully clean and simple abstract take on the sketch and a trio of blues from the Color Dare palette - take a look:

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

I started by stamping my treeline in Versamark and heat embossing them in white, then masking a rectangle in readiness for my ink blending, leaving the treeline overhanging the rectangle slightly on the right hand side, although this is difficult to see in the picture. I punched out a circle and masked the moon, before stamping my snowdrift in Balmy Blue, along with my deer and their shadows. Using my blending brush, I then added a touch of Balmy Blue ink to the edges of the bottom snow-covered portion of my scene, before blending my sky, starting with Balmy Blue then adding Azure Afternoon and (retired) Orchid Oasis working outwards from the moon to create my night sky. 

Having removed the mask, I added a touch of clear Wink of Stella to the bottom inside edge of the moon and to the heat-embossed trees, finishing with a fine splatter of white ink to give the look of snow in the air:

The serenity of this winter scene led me to search for the perfect sentiment which I found in another retired stamp set, 'All Is Calm'; I stamped it in Orchid Oasis and popped it up on dimensionals, overlaying my inked panel. That completes my card, which turned out just as planned - I love it when that happens! This is one of those sets I don't feel I used enough when it was current and it is so great for CAS cards. Do check out the Design Team cards over at AAA Cards - I'm sure they have some amazing interpretations of this layout 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 '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:

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (14.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	AZURE AFTERNOON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (8.50)
VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's our final challenge of the year and it's a sketch challenge, designed by Jane:

I don't know whether it's pre-Christmas overwhelm, but I struggled with Jane's sketch this week. I decided to make a Christmas card and feature some of the cute reindeer on the Reindeer Days designer series paper - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

I started with the image of the cute baby reindeer building a snowman and used my Stylish Shaped Dies to cut it out to give a little detail to the border edges. I backed this with a panel of snowflake-embossed white cardstock and added this to my Pool Party cardbase before adding a couple of additional strips of designer paper:

I took a slight liberty with the sentiment in terms of positioning; I used a pre-printed tag from last year's retired Memories & More Kit, tied with a little silver twine. Quite a quick and easy card, even with all the layers. This was actually the second card I made - here's the first one:

On this card I used one of the horizontal elements for the sentiment, again using a retired Memories & More banner sticker. I prefer my second card though - I think that little reindeer building his snowman is super cute! Here's a photo of both cards together - which one is your favourite? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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

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

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow bright and early with another Christmas card as I am guesting over at AAA Cards. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

REINDEER DAYS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (11.75)

SNOWFLAKE SKY 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (10.25)

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)

POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)