It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of our fearless leader Nance turn to host this week and she has a great sketch for you to work with:

When I saw our sketch for this week, I knew that it would be perfect to showcase some designer series paper and I knew exactly which one! I've been saving this sheet for just such an occasion and by pairing it with another new product from the forthcoming seasonal catalogue I knew I had my card. Take a look:

How sparkly is that?! Here's the low-down on today's card:

Affectionately Yours - The Affectionately Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper includes some colourful florals and two sheets that are embossed with copper. One of these is a monchromatic Crumb Cake base that is covered by an all over copper-floral pattern. I really wanted to feature this paper on its own on a card to really give it the opportunity to shine so today's sketch is perfect.

The Perfect Foil Mat - Did you spy the new product on my card? Yes, copper foil is coming in the new seasonal catalogue - woohoo! I am in love with this new copper foil and it was perfect as a mat for my patterned paper and embossed sentiment. The split in the top layer of the sketch allowed just a little bit more of this to shine through too - perfect. I just know I am going to use lots of this over the forthcoming festive season.

And Copper Thread Makes Four - As if copper DSP, copper foil and a copper embossed sentiment wasn't enough, I added a little twist of copper metallic thread to the end of my sentiment banner for a little extra decoration. 

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 liked this card so much, I actually made a couple more and some using a Crumb Cake/night of Navy colourway and the same design:

All I need now is to make a fancy box to put them in - a project for another day!

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 this week's sketch. I am hoping that yesterday's thunderstorms have now passed and I will get to spend some time outside today pottering in my garden and enjoying some later summer sunshine. I hope you all enjoy a lovely weekend too, whatever your plans.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Affectionately Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper	Crumb Cake A4 Cardstock	Copper Foil Sheets	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool (Uk)	Love & Affection Photopolymer Stamp Set	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad
Night Of Navy Solid Baker's Twine

I've been busy today mass-producing cards to be sent out with my Autumn-Winter Stampin' Up! catalogues which are all ready to be sent out to the customers on my mailing list in readiness for the live date of 1st September. I'll share those cards another day - let me know if you would like a copy of the new catalogue and you don't already have a demonstrator and I will add you to my mailing list and send you one.

Meanwhile, today I'm sharing a card that I made at my Foxy Friends class earlier this month that is perfect for this week's challenge over at CASology where the code word is FUN: 

The focus for the class was to use the Foxy Friends stamp set and co-ordinating Fox Builder Punch to create some characters other than the obvious ones. If you look on Pinterest there are lots and lots of examples of things you can make with this versatile set. I thought I'd have a little fun and created this lovable character:

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

A Cheshire Cat - I decided to use the stamp set to make a cat, but not just any feline - rather the Cheshire Cat from the novel Alice in Wonderland. Really easy to do - I just changed the colouring to the pink and purple that makes this cat easily recognisable. I positioned my cat behind the letter 'L', kind of curled around it as cats do.

Smile - It's Those Large Letters Again - Besides colour, the one thing the Cheshire Cat is know for, particularly in the Disney movie animation of the novel, is his toothy smile. I couldn't give him a toothy grin, so instead decided to use my Large Letter Framelits to create the word 'smile' to tie my sentiment to the image. I know these letter framelits are pricey, but for cards like this they are so worth it. Since I have them, I will definitely be making sure they pay for themselves with lots of varied use.

Colour Trio - To preserve the CAS feel of my card,I limited my colour palette predominantly to Flirty Flamingo Pink and Rich Razzleberry, although the white cardstock that I stamped my cat onto plays an important role as the narrow outline really helps to define the animal's shape. Here's my colour combination in case you would like to save it for future use:

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

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

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Large Letters Framelits Dies	Foxy Friends Photopolymer Bundle	Flirty Flamingo A4 Cardstock	Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad	Rich Razzleberry A4 Cardstock
Rich Razzlebberry Classic Stampin' Pad	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a sketch for you:

With a birthday in the house recently and a batch of customer orders due I had a whole bunch of thank you cards to make, so I grabbed a pack of Stampin' Up!'s Whisper White Notelets and Envelopes and decided to use today's sketch as the starting point. I am also linking up with Fab Friday where the challenge is to use one or more of the in-colours. Here's my card:

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

Perfectly Wrapped - I used the 'Perfectly Wrapped' stamp set on my card today - the flowers were perfect for the sketch and to tie in with the floral in-colour designer series paper that I used for my other punched circle. The larger flower works as the background to my sentiment and a trio of smaller flowers became the 'splatters'. By mounting all three smaller flowers together I could stamp them at the same time, and alternate the angle to stamp twice on the front of the card, but also stamp the inside and the envelopes, without needing to clean my stamp or re-mount. A great tip and time-saver when mass producing!

Touches of Silver - I decided to heat emboss both my sentiment and a border in silver to add some shine and texture to my card, along with a strip of silver glimmer paper, which I placed behind my front circle rather than in front as per the sketch so that it didn't interfere with my sentiment. Creative license :-) I finished my card with a sprinkling of rhinestones.

In Colour Collection - I made my set of thank you cards, featuring each of the 2016-18 In Colours. The card above features Emerald Envy; the selection below shows the remaining colours (from left to right) Flirty Flamingo, Emerald Envy, Dapper Denim, Peekaboo Peach, Sweet Sugarplum. I love them all; which one is your favourite?

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 card was all about mass production for me - I made 30 in one go! Stampin' Up!'s Whisper White notelets are perfect for the job too, with no cutting and scoring required. Which colour is your favourite? Do leave me a comment below, I'd love to know.

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's sketch; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Perfectly Wrapped Photopolymer Stamp Set	2016-2018 In Color Designer Series Paper Stack	Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes	2016-2018 In Color Classic Stampin' Pads	Rhinestone Basic Jewels
Silver Glimmer Paper	2" (5.1 Cm) Circle Punch	Layering Circle Framelits Dies

I have another Christmas card to share today, using this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch and some scrummy new product as my inspiration:

Here's my card:

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

Candy Cane Lane - The new Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper was the inspiration for my card today. This pack has some great festive patterns in red, white, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso, with everything from candy canes to gingerbread. I used one of the designs for my main DSP panel and fussy cut a trio of the shapes and popped them on dimensionals for the triangle elements of the sketch.

A Sweet Season - My sentiment comes from the co-ordinating 'Candy Cane Christmas' stamp set, which contains a few sentiments and is great for tags and treat packaging. I stamped it in Versamark and heat embossed it in white onto my Real Red card base.

Candy Cane Twine - To finish, I added some candy cane baker's twine - this twine is white with a red metallic twist - and tied in a sweet bow.

More festive loveliness and a great sketch - the paper does all the hard work on this one!

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. 

The sun is shining here in the UK - we are off to the park for the day with a picnic. Back tomorrow with this week's challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Candy Cane Lane Designer Series Paper	Candy Cane Christmas Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Candy Cane Lane Baker's Twine	Real Red A4 Cardstock	Crumb Cake A4 Cardstock
Versamark Pad	Embossing Buddy	White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool (Uk)

Happy Tuesday everyone! It's Christmas in the house today and I have another festive 'sneak peek' for you from the forthcoming Autumn-Winter catalogue using this week's sketch over at Just Add Ink:

Before I share my card, I'd just like to give the lovely ladies over at Just Add Ink a quick shout out for choosing my light-up firefly card as their top pick a couple of weeks ago (you can see that card here if you missed it) - thank you ladies! This week they have a sketch - and you all know how much I love a good sketch! I took this one fairly literally - take a look:

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

Star of Light - The stamps used on today's card all come from the Star of Light set in the forthcoming autumn-winter catalogue. This is a set full of stars and some beautiful sentiments and sayings and the detail lends itself beautifully to a heat embossed finish. Just check out the intricate pattern on that large die cut star! I chose a simple colour combination of copper and Island Indigo for today's card - the two colours compliment each other beautifully.

Copper Foil - There's another new product on this card: the gorgeous new copper foil that I used to die cut a couple of stars from to compliment my larger stamped one. I used the co-ordinating Starlight Thinlit Dies and my Big Shot to cut out all of the stars on today's card; they are part of a 'bundle and save' offer with the Star of Light stamp set - bonus!

Textured Border - I could have used more of the copper foil for my mat layer, but instead decided I wanted more texture. I simply sponged the edge of my cardstock with Versamark and then heat embossed using copper embossing powder to give a textured finish, and did the same to the piece that backs my sentiment banner.

Isn't it lovely? All copper and sparkly!

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 have a class scheduled featuring this set on 10th October; if you live in or around Northampton and would like to join me, please get in touch to book your place.

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with another Christmas card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Star Of Light Photopolymer Bundle	Island Indigo A4 Cardstock	Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder	Copper Foil Sheets	Embossing Buddy
Versamark Pad	Heat Tool (Uk)

Happy Monday everyone! I've had a long day of school uniform shopping today but just have time to squeeze in another cupcake card, altogether more clean and simple to yesterday's; I had some leftover bits and pieces and wanted to use the colour scheme over at CAS Colours and Sketches which is almost identical:

Here's my card:

I went with a layered border so that I could leave lots of all-important 'white space' on the centre of my card and stamped my cupcake base directly onto the vanilla mat (using a couple of other neutrals for my case), then cut out the frosting top with my framelits and just popped it on a few dimensionals.

A super-simple card, although for me the funniest thing about this card is the sentiment: if there are any Lethal Weapon movie fans out there, every time I read it I think of the scene where Delores is hunting down Sergeant Murtaugh and says "Well you tell him he's the jam in my jelly roll!" You're the icing on my cupcake just doesn't seem to have the same ring to it!

Back with a Christmas card for you tomorrow - a seasonal 'sneak peek' :-) Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Sweet Cupcake Photopolymer Bundle	Playful Palette A4 Cardstock	Chocolate Chip A4 Cardstock	Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad	Sweet Sugarplum Classic Stampin' Pad
Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad	Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the super-talented Sandy's turn to host this week and she has a fun theme for you to work with:

I also used this week's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches for my layout. Ok, so first up - a confession! I was so excited to have some child-free craft time to make my card earlier this week, that I did go a little crazy with my layering and so my card is not maybe as CAS as it should be. That said, I love it too much not to share :-) So - here's my card:

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

A Sweet Cupcake - What's sweeter than a cupcake? This delicious triple-time stamped number is so easy to create with the Sweet Cupcake stamp set. The photopolymer stamps make lining up the images a piece of cake (yes, pun intended!) and having mounted my card on a couple of layered circles I used the 'sweet' from the co-ordinating Cupcake Cutouts Framelits to finish my sentiment, which I brushed with clear Wink of Stella for a little shimmer.

Sugar Frosting - Those of you who attended Onstage in April or follow the Facebook page of the Stampin' Up! CEO, Sara Douglas, will have seen her demonstrate this set and finish with some textured frosting. I decided to get creative with my cupcake and give it a go! It was really easy to make - I've included the recipe on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' image below - an adds an interesting texture and dimension to the third layer of frosting. I went one step further and whilst wet sprinkled my frosting with Dazzling Diamonds to create a really sparkling sugary finish - yum! The photo below shows the dimension of the frosting in more detail:

Almost good enough to eat! Thank you Sara for this fun suggestion to step up our cupcake creations!

Playful Palette-inspired Colour Combo - I used one of the patterns in the Playful Palette designer series paper stack as the starting point for my card today and paired my Sweet Sugarplum, Blushing Bride, Very Vanilla combo with Chocolate Chip - feel free to save this colour combination if it's one that appeals to you:

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project - including the recipe to create your own frosting - 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 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 this week's theme.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Sweet Cupcake Photopolymer Bundle	Playful Palette Designer Series Paper Stack	Layering Circle Framelits Dies	Playful Palette A4 Cardstock	Chocolate Chip A4 Cardstock
Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush	Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter

I hope you are enjoying the weekend! I managed to squeeze in a little crafting time this afternoon and made a card for this week's challenge over at Mojo Monday:

I had been sorting through some Project Life and was struck by the lovely natural florals and phrases in my Hello Lovely card box so decided to use one of them as the focal point for my card today. Take a look:

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

Hello Lovely Project Life - The Hello Lovely Project Life set has some great sentiments to illustrate your Project Life pages and record those special times with loved ones. They can also work as the focal point for a card too: I've used one of the 3" x 4" cards that I cropped to focus on the sentiment. 

Mix It Up - I am always torn when it comes to using PL cards for something other than memory-keeping; I love to use them in my recording too much! I wanted to use the leaf pattern and black and white watercolour striped cards for the circle and background elements of my card, but they both had designs on the reverse that I wanted to use for memory-keeping. How did I solve my dilemma? I found some very similar patterned papers in the retired English Garden and Go Wild designer series papers that I could use instead - crisis averted!

Pool Party Blue - Black and white are the dominant colours on my card, but the hint of green and the blue Pool Party base picked out from flowers on the PL card, belly band, twine and sequin embellishment play a key role in lightening and brightening this otherwise monochromatic colour scheme. 

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 this week's card for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hello Lovely Project Life Card Collection

Hello Lovely Project Life Accessory Pack

Pool Party A4 Cardstock

I've had a few blog-free days this week; we are in thick of the summer holidays and I've been spending time with the James Juniors, meeting up with friends, cooking and cycling and more. Crafting time has been limited and blogging time even less so, but I'm not complaining! We've been having fun and enjoying the sunshine and I'm sure that those of you out there in a similar situation understand completely! That said, today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a colour combination for you:

I also used this week's sketch over at Retrosketches for my layout. I was so tempted to create a Foxy Friends card, given that these colours all appear in the A Little Foxy DSP stack; instead though, I used this paper and broke out one of my preorder Christmas stamps - wahoo! - to make my first card using my new goodies. Here's my card:

How cute is that little chap?! Here's the low-down on today's card:

Cookie Cutter Eskimo - This cute eskimo comes from the Cookie Cutter Christmas stamp set which is part of a bundle with the co-ordinating Cookie Cutter Builder Punch. He comes with a santa, gingerbread man, reindeer and teddy bear too but for today I thought he would look great on my card in his Pool Party outfit with Calypso Coral shoes. It's tricky to see, but I also added a liberal dose of clear Wink of Stella to his fur trim which gives it a lovely shimmer. The sentiment is perfect too: it carries on to the inside of the card with 'warm heartfelt greetings for a very merry Christmas'.

A Little Foxy For The Festive Season - I used two of the papers from the A Little Foxy DSP stack for the layered panels on my card. This is such a versatile pack with lots of great patterns that work all year round, Christmas included!

A Little Sparkle And Shine -  As my card was for Christmas, I took the opportunity to add some touches of silver for a little festive sparkle: a small silver metallic doily behind my eskimo, some silver metallic thread, a liberal sprinkling of rhinestones. Well, if you can't add some sparkle at Christmas when can you add it?!

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. 

You only have to wait until the 1st of September before you can order this little chap and lots of other goodies from the seasonal catalogue - not long now! If you can't wait, talk to me about joining my team - you are able to order items from the new catalogue immediately as part of your starter kit. I am currently preparing my catalogues to be sent out to my customers; if you don't currently have a demonstrator and would like a copy of the new Autumn Winter catalogue, get in touch with me and I can add you to my list.

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's colours; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Cookie Cutter Christmas Photopolymer Stamp Set	Cookie Cutter Builder Punch	Cookie Cutter Christmas Photopolymer Bundle	A Little Foxy Designer Series Paper Stack	Lots Of Labels Framelits Dies
Basic Gray Archival Stampin’ Pad	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Pool Party A4 Cardstock	Many Marvelous Markers	Metallic Foil Doilies
Rhinestone Basic Jewels	Silver Metallic Thread	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my dear friend Claire's turn to host this week and she has a great palette of primary colours for you to work with:

These colours are perfect for a back to school project. I actually used these colours for a quick card that I made for this week's sketch challenge over at the As You See It Challenge earlier this week but couldn't link it up as their site is down, so I thought I would instead share it today (edited to add: subsequently back on line now so I've linked):

There is so much you could do with the AYSI sketch, but I found myself constantly returning to the idea that it had all the makings of a Mondrian painting - so I decided to create a clean and simple card in that style. Here's the low-down on today's card:

Mondrian Blocks of Colour - Piet Mondrian is a Dutch painter famous for his modern art using bold blocks of primary colours and white, delineated with black lines. My card is a super-simple card in this style; my fellow PP designer, Hannelie Bester, has also made a card with a Mondrian influence this week that is much more intricate and detailed and if you're a fan of this style of art you should definitely check it out.

Suite Words of Success - This message of success comes from the 'Suite Sayings' sentiment set. I've not used this set in a while, but I've used it many times earlier this year and it's one I was so pleased to see carried over from the Spring-Summer seasonal catalogue into the annual. This modern font was the perfect fit for my card today.

Perpetual Stars - Rather than leave my sentiment just black on white, I did break with my colour blocking slightly to add a burst of bright yellow stars to add to the celebratory feel. I used the star stamp from the Perpetual Calendar stamp set for this - such a useful set with lots of small stamps that are perfect for small details. 

I know lots of students expecting GCSE exam results this year, so I thought this would make a great exam success card. Maybe one that would work for a boy too - not too 'pretty'!

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

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

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 colours this week.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Suite Sayings Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Perpetual Birthday Calendar Photopolymer Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad
Pacific Point A4 Cardstock	Real Red A4 Cardstock	Basic Black A4 Cardstock	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad