I've had a busy couple of days making costumes for World Book Day which is today and helping with some fundraising project that Rebecca is involved with so no time to blog. Good news is though I'm back today and I'm sharing a card using items from the Cupcakes and Carousels Suite - take a look:

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

All The Fun Of The Fair - Cupcakes and Carousels Suite is described in the Stampin' Up! literature as 'funfair imagery with vintage flair'. This is one of those sets that didn't overly appeal to me at first glance, but having seen so many lovely things made with it by fellow demonstrators my mind was changed. The carousel horse is a definite favourite and I love how the images work together with the unusual retro styling of the fonts.  

An alternative Approach to Layers - Today's card is based on this week's Paper Players sketch. You can see my Design Team card here in Sunday's post; I also created this one still with three images, but as the images were larger I decided to stamp the ferris wheel directly onto the background paper, then added a vanilla doily behind the carousel horse image on the medium sized circle before finishing with the smallest one up front.

A Colourful Combo - The colour scheme for my card was inspired by the starburst-style sheet of designer series paper I chose from the Cupcakes and Carousels Paper Stack. Rich tones of Early Espresso, with the bright red and orange along with a hint of vanilla - feel free to save this combination if it's one that appeals to 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

In addition there is still time to play along with our challenge over at The Paper Players - you can get the full details here.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Carousel Birthday Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Cupcakes & Carousels Designer Series Paper Stack	Lace Doilies	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies	Peekaboo Peach A4 Cardstock
Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad	Early Espresso A4 Cardstock	Watermelon Wonder A4 Cardstock	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you've had a good day. I've had a busy start to the week with preparation for next week's classes followed by a pleasant hour watching Rebecca swim in a school swimming gala (she won all her races and the team won overall, so smiles all round.) Rebecca came second in her competition race yesterday too and had a new personal best time, so all good. Anyway, to today's cards - yes, two! I've made a couple of cards on the same theme using the same colours for a couple of different challenges:

I decided I needed to get cracking (excuse the pun!) with my Easter makes, so today it's all about the Basket Bunch bundle  - take a look:

Paper Craft Crew have a great sketch this week and I really love the CAS Colours & Sketches colour combination - I will be so sad to see Cucumber Crush leave us in June! - and thought it was perfect for a little Easter egg hunt through the grass. I stamped and die cut a selection of eggs and interspersed them between my strip of grass. I layered it onto a piece of basket weave patterned paper from the Sale-A-Bration Carried Away Designer Series Paper and finished with this fun sentiment from the Basket Bunch stamp set, cut out with my Layering Ovals. May all your chocolate be solid - I love it!

Having completed this card, I thought it was probably a little too layered to qualify as truly 'clean and simple' for the lovely ladies over at CAS Colours and Sketches, so I die cut a few more pieces and created something a little more in keeping: 

Clean and simple with an alternative sentiment, yet no less colourful!

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

And for my second card:

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:

Basket Bunch Photopolymer Bundle	Basket Builder Framelits Dies	Basket Bunch Photopolymer Stamp Set	Peekaboo Peach A4 Cardstock	Peekaboo Peach Classic Stampin' Pad
Watermelon Wonder A4 Cardstock	Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad	Cucumber Crush A4 Cardstock	2016-2018 In Color Enamel Shapes	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock
Layering Ovals Framelits Dies	Playful Palette Designer Washi Tape	Cucumber Crush Thick Baker's Twine

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! My good friend LeAnne is the hostess this week and she has a sketch for us to work with:

Now you know me - I love a good sketch and this one is a keeper! I had a couple of ideas for this sketch and made two quite different cards. The one I'm sharing today is very much in keeping with my style (maybe that's why it won the James family vote 2 to 1 when I conducted a quick poll!) I went with my signature 'clean and layered' style and took the opportunity to make another card using my 'Perfect Mix' stamp set - take a look:

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

It's In The Detail - My card today is my usual clean and layered style. I toyed with adding some additional background pattern or even designer series paper, however the size of my circle elements would have made this too busy. Instead I opted to create detail in other ways: I used my circle Stitched Shape Framelits to cut out my stamped images and layered these onto some punched circles to add a thin border of colour. I also used the partial die cutting technique to add interest by allowing part of the image to overhang the circle. The mixer I inked using my Stampin' Write marker so that I could omit the sentiment that goes with it. I also stamped my oven glove onto coloured cardstock and fussy cut it before popping up on a dimensional for added colour and impact.

Rule of Threes - It is a known principle that things that come in threes are somehow more satisfying or more effective than other numbers. LeAnne's sketch uses three circular elements; I also added a trio of enamel shapes to echo my layered circles and continue the harmony of my card.

A Perfectly Purple Colour Combination - I love purple but it's not a colour I use often on a card, so I chose to use a combination of purples and neutrals today for a change - here it is if you'd like to try it too:

This is such a great stamp set! I love the punny sentiments but if you, like me, are a baker then you will find so many uses for these images.

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

 **To be updated - Stampin' Up! Website currently unavailable due to overrunning maintenance work. Online ordering currently offline.**

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 look forward to seeing what you create with our sketch this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly; I'm off to spend the day at the swimming pool as Rebecca is racing in her rescheduled Counties Competition. I don't know which I'd rather - the gale-force icy winds I experienced as I stood outside watching her play in her netball match yesterday morning or the sauna-like temperatures of the swimming pool today! The things us mothers do for love!. I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

To be updated - Stampin' Up! Website currently unavailable due to overrunning maintenance work.

Yay it's Friday! Today I'm sharing a card that I made last week following my half-term visit to the movies with the James Juniors - take a look:

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

Movie Inspiration - We had been to the movies to see the fun computer-animated comedy movie 'Sing' (you can read all about that here if you're interested) and with this week's Paper Players challenge in mind (use a sentiment as the focal point on your card) I decided to create something using the movie title image as my inspiration:

With a daughter who sings and often participates in public performances and examinations, I knew that this would make a great encouragement card for her - I'm sure you can see the similarities.

Love Those Letters - I know I say it every time I use them, but the Large Letters Framelits are so worth the investment - I love them! Buying them during Sale-A-Bration leaves you only £1 away from two free gifts too, what a great time to invest! Here I layered them, cutting one set in red and then tracing the inner line of the framelit with a pencil and fussy-cutting them by hand in order to leave a thin border visible. I also used my Labeler Alphabet for the 'loud' part of my sentiment - a great 'mix and match'. 

Fake Illumination - I used a liberal dose of gold metallic enamel shapes  to create my illuminated letters and heat embossed the starburst from the Kinda Eclectic stamp set to give the illusion of bright lights shining in the background along with a strip of gold glimmer for extra sparkle. The layering and lettering detail made this card less than 'clean and simple', hence the reason why I decided not to use it as my Paper Players card.

I love this card though - just shows that sometimes inspiration can strike in the strangest places. What things inspire you? 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. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Gold Glimmer Paper	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Large Letters Framelits Dies
Labeler Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set	Kinda Eclectic Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Metallic Enamel Shapes	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock
Real Red A4 Cardstock

Today I'm sharing a congratulations card that I made for one of the hard-working members of my team who has been achieving great things during Sale-A-Bration - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

A Sparkly Celebration - I took the 'Celebrate' stamp in the 'Love Sparkles' stamp set and decided to create a multi-coloured embossed background to echo the idea of sparklers and fireworks. I used a selection of (retired) coloured embossing powders - Melon Mambo,Blushing Bride and Crushed Curry - but you could equally ink your stamp with the same colour inks and a sponge dauber, then heat emboss with clear embossing powder. 

Going For Gold - I added a stacked gold glimmer 'you', diecut with my Hello You Thinlits, a couple of strips of gold glimmer top and bottom and a starburst of gold glitter stars to add to the celebratory feel.

Be A Hoot Too - My team of demonstrators, known as The Hoots, range from happy hobbyists to full-time business builders - everyone is welcome and they are all united by a love of crafting and more specifically, a love of crafting with Stampin' Up! products. If you have ever considered joining Stampin' Up!, whether to get a discount on your hobby supplies or because you want to run your own successful direct sales company (or somewhere in between), Sale-A-Bration is one of the best times of the year to do so. During Sale-A-Bration, your starter kit is extra special as not only do you get your choice of £130/175 Euros worth of product for £99/129 Euros, but you get to choose an additional 2 stamp sets FOR FREE - that could be worth as much as an extra £93/126 Euros. There are so many ways in which you can benefit from being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator - please do give me a call on 07773 421446 or email me if you'd like to discuss further.

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. 

Congratulations Helen and I hope you liked your colourful card! 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Love Sparkles Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Hello You Thinlits Dies	Gold Glimmer Paper	Embossing Buddy
Versamark Pad	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat & Stick Powder	Gold Stampin' Glitter

Today I'm sharing a card for this week's challenge over at CAS(E) This Sketch:

I decided to break out one of my new sponge brayers and some Irresistibly Floral embossed paper for my card today - take a look:

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

Easy Embossing - I decided to brayer the circle shape onto a piece of Irresistibly Floral Specialty Designer Series Paper using a sponge brayer. This is the first time I've brayered with one of these and I must confess I'm rather impressed - they make it so easy to get a smooth graduated finish and are great for this kind of ink technique, really bringing out the pattern of the paper. I created a simple circle stencil using a spare piece of cardstock and my Circle Framelits and brayered from bottom left to top right of my circle as I wanted to try and emulate the less-than-perfect circle of the sketch. As for the paper - this patterned clear-embossed white paper is great for colouring and sponging - a great embossed finish without any for of Versamark or heat tool required. Cheating? No! Easy? Most definitely!!

Co-ordinating Florals - I stamped a flower from the Falling Flowers stamp set and diecut it and a couple of leaves from the co-ordinating May Flowers Framelits to ground my simple diecut sentiment (cut from the now retired Greetings Thinlits - still one of my go-to sets!) This bundle which you can see on page 127 of the annual catalogue also co-ordinates with the patterns on the Irresistibly Floral embossed paper - and makes designing easy!

Fresh Colour Combination - I chose a fresh, spring colour combination of pink and green to compliment my contrasting black and white background and sentiment today - here it is if you would like to save it for future inspiration 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:

Falling Flowers Clear-Mount Bundle	Irresistibly Floral Designer Series Specialty Paper	Flirty Flamingo A4 Cardstock	Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi A4 Cardstock
Basic Black A4 Cardstock	White Perfect Accents	Sponge Brayers

Today I'm sharing a card for the current challenge over at As You See It -  so happy to see these fabulous ladies back up and running and thank you for choosing me for the Featured Artist spot last week with this card! 

My second colour challenge this week - a rare thing! I find with colours as my starting point it takes me longer to come up with an idea (so glad that AYSI is on a two week challenge schedule now, it gives my ideas time to percolate!) I had so much fun making my card for Nance's challenge over at The Paper Players a couple of weeks ago (you can see that card here) and received such a lot of interested comments about the technique that I used - hot glue embossing - I thought I would make another card using the same idea but this time inspired by the AYSI challenge photo, I created a moonscape over the water - take a look:

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

A Fun Technique - I used the same layout and technique as for my previous card here, but this time embossed my hot glue in silver with a moon in my pinky-purple twilight sky. I then blended the pink and purple with the Dapper Denim blue for the water and reflection below the horizon using my re-inkers and aquapainter. I added a liberal does of Clear Wink of Stella to the sea to finish - this adds a wonderful sparkle that is difficult to see in the photo, but trust me, it's there!

Love Sparkles - The colours of this card I thought lent themselves to a more romantic card, so I decided to use the sparkly 'Love' sentiment from the Love Sparkles stamp set and turn this into an anniversary card for my husband since it was our 18th wedding anniversary yesterday. I'm not sure my husband was as impressed with my handiwork, but then I think he sees so many of my cards theses days he just takes it all in his stride! 

All Heart - I added a tiny pink enamel heart shape to finish my card in keeping with my theme and also stamped the inside of the card and the envelope to co-ordinate.

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. 

So what do you think - does the card say 'romance' to you? I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts below.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Love Sparkles Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Embossing Buddy	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder	Aqua Painters	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock
Watercolor Paper	Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Sweet Sugarplum Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Silver Foil Sheets

I know how much you've all been enjoying the benefits of the Sale-A-Bration promotion; as if it couldn't get any better this is a quick early post today to let you know that there are some new items being added to the selection of products that can be earned free with a £45 order: there are two new stamp sets and some rather lovely glimmer paper. 

Like the other items in the Sale-A-Bration catalogue, these items will be available free with each £45 spend from now until the end of the Sale-A-Bration period, 31st March. You can see full details for each of the new product on the new Sale-A-Bration flyer here.

Back later with today's creative project; until then, happy shopping!

I know technically it's still Sunday, but this is Monday's post as I want to link up to the Stamp Ink Paper challenge which closes late this evening - so I'm early! Here's their colour palette this week:

I'm also linking up with CAS Colours and Sketches as I used their sketch for my card, SUO Challenges who are looking for projects featuring Sale-A-Bration sets and the ladies over at TGIF Challenges where they have a 'birds of a feather' theme that my chickens are perfect for! I thought it was about time I broke out the most popular of all this year's Sale-A-Bration free gifts this year  - take a look:

This is the outside of my card - read on for more details and a fun reveal inside! Here's the low-down on today's card:

Hey, Chick - What's better than a new stamp set? Well, it has to be a new FREE stamp set, right? The comical chicks in the 'Hey, Chick' stamp set are proving the runaway success of this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion and could be yours free too with a purchase of £45 or more. I cropped the two large, feathered birds top and bottom using my Stitched Shape Framelits looking up and down respectively on the little 'egg on legs' and coloured with my Stampin' Write markers.

Peek A Boo - There is another chicken that features in this set, perhaps my most favourite of all - the crazy-haired Polish Frizzle Bantam White. Where's mine? Well, take a look inside my card where all will be revealed:

 As the card is opened, the shutters pull back to reveal the funky chicken that I like to think hatched out of that egg - isn't that just the most fun? I like this card so much it's made the cut for my next Sale-A-Bration class - you can see details of my class listings here and I would love you to join me!

Playful Palette - Some Playful Palette designer series paper and some Bermuda Bay stitched satin ribbon 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. 

I'll be back on Tuesday with another project. Until then, enjoy the start to your week and happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hey Chick Clear Mount Stamp Set	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies	Banner Triple Punch	Bermuda Bay 1/8" (3.2 Mm) Stitched Ribbon
Bermuda Bay A4 Cardstock	So Saffron A4 Cardstock	Playful Palette Designer Series Paper Stack	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Many Marvelous Markers