I'm here today with a quick post to let you know about a new co-ordination product release that launches today and runs until the 31st March whilst stocks last. There is a collection of exclusive products that co-ordinate with Sale-A-Bration and the January-June mini catalogue items. Check them out:

One other thing to note is that Stampin' Up! has confirmed that the Nature's Thoughts Dies that co-ordinate with the Positive Thoughts stamp set and the Special Day Dies that co-ordinate with the Special Someone stamp set will both be carrying over into the new annual catalogue so will be available again to purchase from 4th June. 

There is no limit on how many items you can order, however they are only available for a limited time and whilst supplies last. Last year's co-ordination products sold out really quickly with some popular dies selling out within days, so don't leave it too long to get your hands on yours!

 My personal favourites are the Ladybugs Dies and the Happy Birrthday Dies, along with the Pleased as Punch paper - I can't resist a nice paper, especially one where you can punch out all the patterns!

You can find links to these items and the products they co-ordinate with in the online store are below - any questions, do get in touch. Happy shopping!

Nature's Thoughts Dies (£27.00)	Positive Thoughts Cling Stamp Set (£20.00)
Special Day Dies (£27.00)	Special Someone Photopolymer Stamp Set (£16.00)
Ladybugs Dies (£27.00)	Little Ladybug Host Cling Stamp Set (English) (£0.00)
Sending Flowers Dies (£25.00)	Sending You Thoughts Cling Stamp Set (English) (£0.00)
Birthday Dies (£25.00)	Happy Birthday To You Cling Stamp Set (English) (£0.00)

Pleased As Punch Designer Series Paper (£10.75)

Small Bloom Punch (£0.00)

Heart Punch Pack (£32.00)

Umbrella Builder Punch (£17.00)

Tulip Builder Punch (£17.00)

I'm here with my second card of the day - and on a class day too, go me! And it's only Monday - let's hope that this is a sign of a productive week! This card is one of the ones that we made in my technique class this morning featuring the Painted Poppies bundle and I used this week's colours over The Color Throwdown as my inspiration:

This is the card I came up with: 

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

Painted Poppies and Peaceful Moments - All of our class cards featured the Peaceful Poppies stamps and co-ordinating Painted Labels Dies. Here the poppies were simply coloured using Real Red ink and the watercolour 'splodge' stamp in the set, with a little detailing added with a marker and then diecut. The leaves were stamped in black and some tiny splodges added in Smoky Slate before fussy cutting by hand. We paired it with a sentiment of our choice from the 'Peaceful Moments' set - I chose this one, but everyone in my class used the 'With Deepest Sympathy as they thought this card wold work well as a sympathy card.  

Sweetly Stitched - I used the largest of the Stitched So Sweetly rectangular dies as the mat on my card; these are on page 20 of the Spring-Summer mini catalogue and worth a look if you've passed over them as they are easy to miss, especially if the co-ordinating stamp set is one that doesn't appeal. You're welcome ;-) 

A Pattern Party - I sponged some darker Basic Grey onto my scalloped rectangle piece using one of the Pattern Party masks, graduating the colour outwards from the corner, to add interest and tie in with my flowers. I added some clear sequins and some black pearls (regular ones coloured with a black marker) to the centre of my flowers to finish.

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. 

This was the middle card from my class today and it's fair to say the ladies loved it. I'll share the others another time; in the meantime, if you live in or around Northampton and would like to attend a class, do get in touch - we would love you to join us! The next one features the 'Peaceful Moments' bundle and will be held on Monday 9th March - the day after my residential weekend craft retreat!

Enjoy your evening; I have to go and start on my ironing pile now - I can't put it off any longer! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Painted Poppies Bundle (£48.50)	Peaceful Moments Cling Stamp Set (English) (£20.00)	Stitched So Sweetly Dies (£30.00)	Pattern Party Decorative Masks (£5.50)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)
Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Real Red Dark Stampin' Blends (£4.25)
Pearl Basic Jewels (£4.75)	Basic Black Dark Stampin' Blends (£4.25)	Peaceful Poppies Sequins (£6.50)

I had a little extra time at the weekend and managed to  squeeze in (or out!) a couple of extra cards that I've had buzzing around my head! The first one uses this week's sketch by Jen T over at Freshly Made Sketches which I adapted by using a heart shape instead of a circle to make a fun shaker card that is also inspired in colours and theme by this week's photo inspiration over at Inspired By and fits with the current Valentine's challenge at TGIF too:

My fellow Paper Player teamies the lovely LeAnne and Claire both design on the Inspired By team with Laurel Seabrook and whilst I follow these lovely ladies and the Inspired by blog, it's the first time I've managed to play along - yay! Here is my clean and graphic modern Valentine's: 

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

I made the shaker window aperture using the largest of the Stitched Be Mine Dies with some retired black and white heart-patterned paper to contrast with my bright Melon Mambo background. The shaker elements are a combination of hearts from another of the dies in the same die set, along with white, black and gold sequins and a few retired Melon Mambo heart-shaped sequins. I finished my card with an 'XOXO' diecut from the retired Circle Thinlit Card Die set in sparkly gold glimmer paper.

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. 

I love Jen's sketch and will definitely use this again as a circle - a super versatile layout!

Enjoy your day and I'll be back shortly with one of the cards from today's class. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Stitched Be Mine Dies (£33.00)	Window Sheets (£4.75)	Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Flirty Flamingo A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)
Gold Glimmer Paper (£4.75)	Foam Adhesive Strips (£7.25)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of my sweet friend Claire to host this week and she has a timely theme challenge for you to work with:

It's the first Sunday in February and the month of Valentine's so love is definitely in the air! I combined our challenge this week with the colour palette over at Global Design Project and Julee's Mojo Monday sketch and am linking up with Just Us Girls where they are looking for bows. All of these elements came together for my love-filled card - take a look:

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

From My Heart - My card today features three of the patterns in the From The Heart specialty designer series paper. With playful patterns featuring red and pink foil accents on some designs, these papers are perfect for Valentine's Day cards and packaging. I used a pink and red random heart design for my largest panel and layered two of the foiled heart designs for the uppermost layer and focal point of my card. Check out the foil effect - so pretty:

Two Hearts Are Better Than One - I loved the layering of Julee's sketch and decided it would be a great way to showcase my favourite foiled heart pattern in the paper pack. I layered it on a pink heart from another of the designs, both of which I punched out using the punches in the Heart Punch pack: one has straight edges and the other scalloped and they nest together beautifully. I love it when you can punch shapes out of paper this easily - it makes card making a breeze! 

Add A Bow - I finished my card with a fancy glossy red satin ribbon bow. The foil detailing and the faceted gems make this card something special and a luxurious bow seemed like the perfect way 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 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 will be crafting and getting ready for my technique class tomorrow and might even sneak in a movie this afternoon. To my fellow PP teamies and anyone else stateside who is watching the Super Bowl and hosting or attending a Super Bowl party - enjoy!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

From My Heart Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	Heartfelt Bundle (English) (£43.00)	Real Red 3/8" (1 Cm) Double-Stitched Satin Ribbon (£7.00)	From My Heart Faceted Gems (£5.50)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)
Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Real Red A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Flirty Flamingo A4 Cardstock (£8.25)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for the often-dreaded speed challenge:

Yes - create a card in under 10 minutes, this time using shades of brown! I would usually say that brown is quite an uninspiring starting point for me, however I actually had a couple of ideas right off the bat for a change! I worked up one of those and am quite pleased with the results - take a look:

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

A Kennel of Dogs - Today's card features a kennel of dogs, brown dogs to be precise, courtesy of some Crumb Cake, Soft Suede and Early Espresso cardstock and my Dog Builder Punch. As an aside, did you know that there are a number of collective nouns for dogs and in addition to the more commonly used 'pack', you can also refer to a group as a 'kennel of dogs'. I much prefer the latter when it concerns domestic pups so decided to go with that as my dogs are certainly not at all wolf-like, which is what always comes to my mind when I think of a pack! I simply punched a whole bunch of dog shapes and then positioned them somewhat randomly on my card to create a pattern, allowing some to overhang the edges before trimming to size.

Puppies and Pawprints - The sentiment and pawprints on the heart come from the 'Happy Tails' stamp set and are perfect if you need one of those tricky cards to send to someone mourning the loss of their four-legged friend. I stamped mine onto Whisper White and used a heart framelit from the retired Sweet and Sassy Framelits set to cut it out and popped it up on dimensionals; the sentiment does just about fit into the straight-edged heart punch from the new heart punch pack in the Spring Mini catalogue, but is a little more snug. Using the punch would save some time too but I knew the sentiment would fit the framelit and I had mine ready to go!

I Feel The Need For Speed - So the key to a speed stamping challenge has to be simplicity, right? My card has very little stamping, so how long did it take to complete? It actually took me 9 minutes and 8 seconds on the first attempt, because the time was taken up arranging my punched dog shapes and glueing them in place with Tombo. Once complete, I liked the card so much I decided to punch a bunch more dog shapes and used the same layout to create another two identical cards, and did both in less total time than it took me to make the first one! If I had used Snail adhesive, I probably could have saved even more time. So I challenge you - if you CASE my card, do let me know how long it takes you to complete - it is an easy one for under 10 minutes once you have the layout! I'm going to make a few more using different colours and using the Cat Punch.

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

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

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

Amy Jasper

Heather Cooper

Jan Clothier

Jane Knudsen

LeAnne Pugliese

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSI218 when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.
• In a colour challenge, black or other neutral can be used in outlines and sentiments but no other colours should be included. Stampin’ Up colours are used for reference but colours that are a close match are welcome.
• Don't forget to tell us how long it took to create your speed-stamped creation!

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

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Dog Builder Punch (£17.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Happy Tails Photopolymer Stamp Set (£16.00)	Heart Punch Pack (£32.00)	Early Espresso A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Soft Suede A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Crumb Cake A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)

The week is running away with me again - I can't believe it's Thursday already and I'm finally managing a blog post! Today I'm sharing a card that I made for a few challenges in an attempt to keep my 2020 Christmas cardmaking on track:

Armed with the codeword of 'Frosty' from the current challenge over at Addicted to CAS, along with the snowflakes, trees and pink sky in the inspiration photo at Hand Stamped Sentiments, I set to work and this is what I came up with:

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

This was another relatively quick and easy card to make: I used a 2 1/4" circle punch to make a mask and then sponged a combination of Melon Mambo and Blueberry Bushel inks on a Whisper White base to create my sky. I stamped a collection of trees from Rooted in Nature in Memento Black onto Whisper White and cut them out with my co-ordinating Nature's Roots Dies and popped them up on dimensionals in front of the sky. I added snow to the branches of my trees with a chalk marker then added a liberal application of glitter to the snowy branches and a few sequins to complete my frosty look:

How pretty is this? Given the crystalline appearance of all that glittery and frosty snow, I am also linking up with CASology for my take on the word 'Crystal'. I then stamped my sentiment (from the retired SU! stamp set 'Wonderland') in black onto vellum and wrapped this around the front of my card to finish. I do find it difficult to think about Christmas amongst all of the hearts and flowers that are prevalent at this time of year, so was grateful to the above challenges for some festive inspiration!

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; I am without electricity today, which since it was planned is no bad thing; I've enough laptop battery to write this post and access to a wifi hotspot, and no means to do any washing, ironing, cooking or vacuuming  - an afternoon of crafting it is then!! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Rooted In Nature Cling-Mount Stamp Set (£39.00)	Nature's Roots Dies (£36.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Vellum A4 Cardstock (£9.25)	Snowflake Sequins (£5.50)	Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter (£5.50)

I've got a super-quick post this evening to share a card I made with Lee Ann's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches that I am hopefully just going to squeeze my entry in for:

The minute I saw the angle in Lee Ann's sketch I knew that it would be perfect for my first use of one of my favourite sets in the Spring mini catalogue - take a look:

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

Music From The Heart is the set inspired by Million Sales Achiever Dawn Olchefske and as someone who has a family of musicians of one form or another this was a set I've wanted for a long time! Today's card is super-simple, stamped in black on Whisper White to look like sheet music with a black card base, then the piano coloured with a black Stampin' Blends combo and just two pops of red from the paper-pieced red foil heart-shaped lid of the piano and a teeny-tiny red foil punched heart to adorn my sentiment. A little bit of overhang from the sentiment label and the stitched circle for interest, and that's that. Quick to create and fortunately quick to blog as time is of the essence today!

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:

Music From The Heart Photopolymer Stamp Set (£16.00)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)
Basic Black Combo Pack Stampin' Blends (£8.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have my favourite, a sketch challenge, for you to work with:

My sketch involves an element of repeating pattern, which can be any shape you like. Whilst I used my stitched circles as a background for my pattern repeat, today's card is all about the shoes - and some rather special shoes at that! Take a look:

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

Words To Live By - I love the sentiments in the 'Dressed to Impress' stamp set but my favourite is without doubt this one - I mean, has there ever been a truer word spoken?! I am one of those people who love shoes; I don't own as many pairs now as I once did and I've never owned a pair of floral high heels, but I would love to - so I would love to receive a birthday card like this! I used the florals in the stamp set to decorate the inside too, with a birthday sentiment from the Peaceful Moments stamp set:

Best Dressed Shoes - This is one of those cards that looks pretty simple, but took a long time to execute! I stamped twelve shoes onto Whisper White cardstock and used my All Dressed Up Dies to cut them out, then added some colour to the Petal Pink and Mint Macaron Stampin' Blends to the inside contours of the shoes for a little contrast. Then I stamped twelve shoes (plus two for the envelope) onto a selection of the Best Dressed Designer Series papers, choosing a selection of the small floral patterns and making sure that the shoes were stamped in a similar orientation so that the designs would co-ordinate and the shoes would look like pairs, then I fussy cut the outsides of the shoes and paper-pieced them onto the white backgrounds. Time consuming yes, but I love the finished effect!

Pick of The Pastels - I decided to mount each of my pairs of shoes on a stitched circle and used a selection of pastels inspired by the Best Dressed DSP (although I used Pool Party Instead of Mint Macaron as the latter was too dark). My sentiment was stamped in Blackberry Bliss on a shortened Stitched Rectangle 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 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:

I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs this week and taking a look at your interpretation of this week's sketch.

Enjoy your day; we did all our sport Friday and yesterday, so today it's a quiet day with homework, ironing and maybe a movie. Enjoy the rest of your weekends and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Dressed To Impress Bundle (English) (£45.00)	Dressed To Impress Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) (£17.00)	Best Dressed 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.75)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Stitched Rectangle Dies (£33.00)
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Purple Posy A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Pool Party A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Petal Pink A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Highland Heather A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)

As promised, here's the second of the cards I made for this week's challenge over at the Global Design Project inspired by Steffi Helmschrott's pretty rainbow card:

This time I used the same basic colours but decided to incorporate my rainbow in a stack of hearts diecuts from the Stitched Be Mine Dies:

This time I used the 'Love You Lots' sentiment from the 'Heartfelt' stampset for my greeting, heat embossing it in white onto Basic Black and fussy cutting it out. I stamped a few small black hearts but didn't like the shape, so covered them up with some black diecut ones (ssh - don't tell ;-)) I took another picture so that you could see the depth created by the stacked hearts:

Isn't that cool?

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. 

I think I prefer this card to my earlier one - if you missed it you can see that card here. I like the fact that the more generic sentiment means this card could be used for a ton of different occasions, not just Valentine's - after all, you can only send so many Valentine's, right?! What do you think? Do you have a favourite? Leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts!  I'll be back tomorrow with my project for the latest challenge over at The Paper Players and this week I'm the hostess. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Stitched Be Mine Dies (£33.00)	Heartfelt Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) (£16.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)	Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£4.75)
Smoky Slate A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Vellum A4 Cardstock (£9.25)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)
Real Red A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Pacific Point A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Highland Heather A4 Cardstock (£8.25)

Hello blog friends! Did you miss me? This has been a great week for crafting, but not so for blogging I'm afraid. I had an unscheduled service outage that meant my Wednesday and Thursday posts didn't happen unfortunately. We are though back online and today I'm sharing one of the cards I made for this week's challenge over at the Global Design Project that is also perfect for the current challenge over at Festive Friday:

I found myself inspired by Steffi's rainbow card this week over at GDP and armed with hearts, arrows and red (and some glitter sparkle from the rhinestones) from the Festive Friday inspo list, I created this rather unconventional Valentine's Day card:

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

I stayed true to the layout and rainbow colours of Steffi's card with my arrows and neutral card base, but decided to feature a bold heart-shaped Valentine sentiment. also from the 'Heartfelt' stampset, that I heat-embossed in black onto Whisper White and punched out using the co-ordinating heart punch. I added a sprinkling of black hearts that I centred with some retired epoxy hearts to echo the rainbow theme. I took another picture so that you could see the lovely shine on the heart:

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 took one look at this card and declared it should be her Valentine - high praise indeed and clearly demonstrating she is past the 'pink and girly' phase!

Enjoy your day; we have a hockey league match this afternoon then are off to the theatre to see JB Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls'. I remember studying this play for GCSE English some 30+ years ago, so imagine my surprise to find it's still on the syllabus - clearly an 'oldie but goodie' from an examination perspective! If I can find the time I might be back later with another GDP entry, otherwise I'll double-up tomorrow; either way and I'll be back tomorrow with another project for the latest challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Heartfelt Bundle (English) (£43.00)	Heartfelt Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) (£16.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)	Black Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)
Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£4.75)	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Highland Heather Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Smoky Slate A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Vellum A4 Cardstock (£9.25)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)
Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.25)