A quick post from me today as I am having the busiest of weeks! Today I'm sharing my entry for this week's challenge over at 'Less is More' where this week the challenge them is 'Let's face the music and dance' and the ladies are looking for cards with a music or dance theme. Now today's card is not overly original, in that I've seen many of them on Pinterest and the internet in general for a long time, but I needed a thank you card for someone who plays piano and as I've never made one of these cards before, I thought I'd create my version which just so happens to fit the bill for this week's LIM challenge. So here's my card:

Quite difficult to photograph, so bear with me! This the front, in Basic Black, with the edge cut shaped like the lid of a grand piano, and then piano keys punched from a Word Window punch in Very Vanilla and Basic Black. Behind the cutaway section you can see the sheet music that is adhered to the inside of the card, which you can see more clearly below:

The sheet music is a piece of retired 'Modern Medley' DSP (I must confess to having hoarded the sheet music pages, I love them!), with space below for the sentiment and your message.

So a fun and simple piano card, where the 'white space' today is entirely black! Check out the other LIM entries this week for plenty of music and dance inspiration - I personally am loving the ballerinas on display!

One other thing - the Stampin' Up! UK Clearance rack updated last night - lots of new bargains at up to 80%, including 12 x 12" papers, washi tape and last season's Halloween papers and kits. You can check out all the bargains at my online store by clicking here - go and grab yourself a bargain!

Lastly, on the subject of THE Piano Man, Mr Billy Joel himself, if you're a fan and have never seen him play live, I can highly recommend it; I saw him in concert for the first time last year and can honestly say it was the best concert performance I have ever attended.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Lots Of Thanks	Word Window Punch	Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad
Modern Medley Overlays Kit - Digital Download

It's Wednesday and time for a new challenge over at the Colour Me...! Card Challenge. This week we have a playful colour palette for you to work with - I also chose to use this week's Retrosketches layout for my card:

I love the bright colours of this week's colour palette, so decided to create a nice cheery card to really make the most of them - here's my card:

I used Bermuda Bay as the base colour for my card and decided to make a 4" square card for a change. I layered a sheet of Real Red polka dot paper from the Brights paper stack and a piece of Confetti Celebration DSP that features a fun Bermuda Bay design. I stamped the flower vase from Pictogram Punches, having inked it with my Stampin' Write markers to enable me to add the chevron detail on the vase and the flower stems in a different colour to the vase itself, then stamped and punched three flowers, finishing each with a rhinestone in the centre that had been coloured with my Blendabilities marker and adhered the flowers separately using glue dots. After stamping my sentiment from Petite Pairs, this left-handed section was adhered to the front of the card using dimensionals, to allow space for my selection of co-ordinating buttons to sit above and below it as per the sketch design.

I even remembered to take a  photo of the stamping on the inside of my card today:

That's my Colour Me...! card for this week - why not visit the other Colour Me...! designers and check out their takes on this week's colour combination:

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Pictogram Punches Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Petite Pairs - Clear-Mount Stamp	Confetti Celebration Designer Series Paper	Brights Designer Series Paper Stack	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad
Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad	Brights Designer Buttons
Brights Stampin' Write Markers	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Pumpkin Pie Assortment

It's Wednesday so that means a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals! This week's deals are included below - they will be available for one week only, before a new collection of deals is announced.

As always, if you want to take advantage of any of the deals on offer, you can support my business by placing your order online by clicking here or using the link to my store on the right hand side of my blog page where it says 'Shop Online' or with me in person. Don't forget to add the Hostess Code for September (you can find this under the 'Shop Online' section on the right). 

Here's a summary of this week's one-week only Wednesday deals - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

Apothecary Accents Framelits Dies	Eclectic Paper-Piercing Pack	Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack	Faces I Love Swatchbook Template - Digital Download
Occasions Paper-Piercing Pack	On Film Framelits Dies	Window Frames Collection Framelits Dies

This week's offers are a feast for framelit-lovers and paper piercers everywhere,  with three popular framelit sets (the Window Frames collection is incredibly useful and versatile and the On Film Framelits are great for scrapbookers and Project-Life lovers!) and a host of paper piercing templates - piercing is a great way to add a little something extra to your cards and is so easy to do.

Back with today's creative post later, but until then, happy shopping!

As promised, here's my second post today as I wanted to share with you the card I made for this week's sketch challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary:

I love a sketch challenge and was intrigued by this unusual layout, which was crying out for the use of some washi tape with those bold stripes, something that is quite under-utilised within my craft stash at times. Anyways this was one of those cards that the minute I saw the sketch I knew what I wanted to do with it, so it took me next to no time to pull this card together. Here's my card:

I used a base of Sahara Sand for my card as this is the colour of the ghost DSP from the Motley Monster set, but as it's quite neutral used lots of splashes of Tangerine Tango to really bring this card together and prevent it from looking washed out. By the way, check out the faces on the ghosts on the paper - how cute are they?! In addition to the mat, I added a strip of Tangerine Tango Retro Fresh washi tape for the vertical band (I love how you can see the ghosts through it - adds to the spooky I think!) and then used a piece of Tangerine Tango cardstock for the horizontal band, onto which I stamped my 'boo to you!' greeting. I bordered this with a piece of thick orange and white two-tone trim (I frayed the ends before adhering to the back of my panel so that it wouldn't have too much bulk). Lastly, I finished with a lovely Dazzling Diamonds sparkly ghost (thank you Mary Brown for the inspiration on a previous card of yours - love it!) I wanted my ghost to look towards the sentiment so cut the paper on the reverse using my framelit so that I could turn him over (hope that makes sense). I used one of the eyelits from the 'Chalk Talk' framelits to create the eyes and punched his mouth using my Crop-a-dile and adhered a piece of Basic Black cardstock to the reverse for definition, before adhering with dimensionsals.

The greeting I used on this card is from the 'Good Greetings' set that is currently available free with qualifying party sales of £200 or more for parties held between now and 31st October. This is such a versatile set - whilst this card has a definite Halloween feel to it, I think the 'boo to you' greeting means it would work as a nice 'Hello' card for this time of year. If you would like to earn this greetings set for free, I do still have a couple of slots available for parties in October so if you'd like one, do get in touch as soon as possible!

If you like this sketch, you should check out the other cards over at Create with Connie and Mary - there are some great interpretations and ideas of how to use it.

Back tomorrow with this week's Design Team sketch for the new challenge over at Colour Me...! and this week's Weekly Wednesday Deals!

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Fun Fall Framelits Dies	Motlley Monsters Designer Series Paper	White & Tangerine Tango Two-Tone Trim	Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper	Good Greetings Wood-Mount Stamp Set
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock	Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock	Retro Fresh This And That Designer Washi Tape
Chalk Talk Framelits Dies

Hello everyone! Today I'm sharing my card for this week's challenge over at The Paper Craft Crew, for which I also used the current colour palette over at The Card Concept:

I thought the sketch layout with the word bubbles and the leafy inspiration photo would combine to create the perfect opportunity to showcase the sentiments in the 'Gratitude For Days' stamp set - a rather unsung hero from the current seasonal catalogue I think, but a set that I have used lots and lots. Here is my card:

I used a combination of Real Red, Crushed Curry and Wild Wasabi for my card and inked the outlines of the Just Sayin' stamped word bubbles using my markers then stamped the insides with various 'gratitude' stamps in contrasting colours. I used some little leaves cut with my Fall Fest framelits as the embellishment for the word bubbles, and gradually layered them over a Gorgeous Grunge background to achieve my finished design. I think this still qualifies as 'clean and layered' as far as The Card Concept is concerned (if you've ever wondered about the definitions of the various cardmaking styles, you should check out their site - it gives some great guidelines), maybe bordering on 'freestyle collage', although probably not random enough to truly be a collage!

Hope you like my card; I'll pop back later with another quick make today for this week's challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary, so stay posted. until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Gratitude For Days Photopolymer Stamp Set	Fun Fall Framelits Dies	Just Sayin'	Word Bubbles Framelits Dies	Crushed Curry Baker's Twine
Gorgeous Grunge	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Crushed Curry	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red A4 Card Stock
Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Many Marvelous Markers

Happy Monday everyone! I enjoyed a restful Sunday yesterday and can honestly say I feel like I am starting the week on the front foot again for the first time in a few weeks! Today I'm sharing a cute clean and simple Halloween card that I made with this week's colours over at Colour Q and the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch:

Despite the adorable wellie boots in the inspiration picture, when I saw this week's Colour Q colours I couldn't help but wonder if I could make them work for a Halloween card. This is what I came up with:

I stamped the Frankenstein stamp from 'Freaky Friends' in Blackberry Bliss onto some retired Summer Starfruit cardstock and fussy cut him out. I used a piece of film strip made using Calypso Coral cardstock and the On Film framelit, modified to make it smaller and placed the film strip behind my layered sentiment banner and then my figure on top. Lastly, I finished with some Blackberry Bliss bats to add to the Halloween theme.

I hope you like today's clean and simple Halloween card. I'm off to move mountains (of the craft and ironing pile variety!) Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Freaky Friends Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Ghoulish Greetings Clear-Mount Stamp Set	On Film Framelits Dies	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock
Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride	Blackberry Bliss A4 Cardstock	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad

It's Sunday so I'm here with my card for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players, where Jaydee has the following clean and simple challenge for us:

I also used the above sketch from Freshly Made Sketches again for my card this week and this week's card is a lot more 'clean' than last weeks - here is my card:

My card is really simple, with a piece of the numbered Typeset paper mounted on Basic Black as the central panel of my card, with a couple of strips of Flashback DSP behind to add some colour and the focal point word bubble 'You're How Old?' stamped in Real Red. I finished my card with the sentiment 'happy birthday Grandpa' (stamped with my vintage 'For My Family' stamp set - a keeper!) and a punched star.

Yesterday was my Dad's 70th birthday and I made this card for him from the children - they think 70 is positively ancient, so the word bubble was entirely appropriate! - however it occurred to me as I typed up my post that not only could you change out the sentiment to just say 'happy birthday' or include the role of any family member (dad, brother, uncle, etc.) this might also work as a fun tongue-in-cheek card with the sentiment as is. So beware any male that feels he's 'over the hill', because one of these cards could be heading your way Grandpa!

Do check out the other design team cards this week; as always, there is some great inspiration and I look forward to seeing your challenge entries in the gallery. Right, I'm off to prepare for Sunday lunch and hopefully enjoy a restful family day before the onset of a new week. Enjoy your weekends everyone!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Word Bubbles Framelits Dies	Just Sayin'	Flashback Designer Series Paper	Typeset Specialty Designer Series Paper	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock
Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Regals Candy Dots	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky
Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack

Here at last with today's post! A busy day today - homework, grocery shopping, we had friends round to make cake pops this afternoon (always fun!) and then a swimming gala this evening - so finally I'm sitting down for long enough to share today's card with you! Today's card is for this week's Merry Monday Christmas Challenge, where the theme from Karren this week is to let your sentiment take centre stage:

I was tempted to go with a few obvious choices for my card using some of the fabulous new sentiments in the current seasonal catalogue, but decided to take the opportunity to try something different that I've had in mind for a while. I made a sentiment all of my very own - take a look:

I decided to make a long, thin card and used the 'What's Your Type?' stamp set to stamp the word 'snow' using the various patterns and shapes in the set. I love this unusual graphic style type and it is great for making the sentiment the feature of your card. I stamped the various letters in a combination of Smoky Slate, Soft Sky and Lost Lagoon and finished the 'O' with one of the new snowflake embellishments and some silver ribbon. I mounted this section with dimensionals on a base of Soft Sky with a couple of strips of silver washi tape running along it. To complete my sentiment, I used my Smoky Slate Stampin' Write Marker to write 'let it' in my own handwriting on a little handcut banner and adhered to the top of the sentiment panel. A rather modern take on 'let it snow', granted, but I think it works and it's very different.

That's all from me; back tomorrow with this week's Design Team card for The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

What's Your Type? Photopolymer Stamp Set	All Is Calm Designer Washi Tape	All Is Calm Snowflake Embellishment	Silver 1/8" Ribbon	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad	Smoky Slate Stampin' Write Marker

Yay - it's Friday! I've had a productive craft day today, even if no housework managed to get done (ah well, there's always tomorrow for that!) and am finally finding time to write today's blog post. I used this week's sketch over at Retrosketches to make today's Christmas card and broke out my Festival of Trees stamp set for the first time. Here's the sketch I based my card on:

A great layered layout - and here's what I did with it:

I based my card around the graphic Christmas tree design paper from the Trim The Tree DSP stack - these are so great for making cards! - and having layered this piece onto my Early Espresso card base and a mat of Whisper White, I embossed a piece of gold foil with the On Point embossing folder, which looks like little Christmas tree shapes, then followed this with a smaller piece of Whisper White mounted on Early Espresso and stamped with the first part of the sentiment that comes with the Festival of Trees stamp set. I then added my Christmas tree, which I stamped in Early Espresso on Whisper White, then stamped the baubles in Versamark and heat embossed them in gold - in real life they are really shiny and contrast beautiful with the dark brown of the tree. Oh and did I mention how easy it was to punch out with my co-ordinating tree punch? No? Well, it's a doddle!

An unconventional colour scheme for a Christmas card maybe, but I like it! Before I forget - I'm also joining up with the lovely Darnell's NBUS challenge - pretty much everything other than ink and solid colour cardstock that I used today was officially 'Never Before Used Stuff!'

Right - I'm off to catch up on some of the jobs that I should have been doing at home today. Back tomorrow with another Christmas card in an altogether more conventional colour scheme -until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Festival Of Trees Photopolymer Bundle	On Point Textured Impressions Embossing Folders	Trim The Tree Designer Series Paper Stack	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Early Espresso A4 Card Stock
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder
Gold Foil Sheets

Well we're on the back end of the week already - yay! Thank you to all the new visitors to my blog yesterday who came to see my guest stamper card for The Color Throwdown and to those of you who left lovely comments on my blog - it's always nice to hear from my readers! I look forward to you becoming regular visitors.

Today's card is for this week's challenge over at 'Less is More' where the theme this week is 'beverages' and it's a one layer challenge. I pulled out one of my favourite Christmas retired sets, Scentsational Season, to make today's card; I thought a winter-warming hot chocolate should be the order of the day for my card, even if not outdoors as we are still enjoying a mild September (and long may it continue!). Here's my card:

I used a Crumb Cake base and stamped my mug in Real Red, colouring the hot chocolate section of the mug separately with my Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write marker. I added my two-tone sentiment from the 'Endless Wishes' set, then using my Chalk Marker, I carefully coloured in the snowflake on the mug and randomly doodled a flurry of snowflakes around the edge of my card. I'm a tea drinker myself (in large quantities, usually about 10 cups a day!) but there's something really appealing about hot chocolate in the Winter time - I think it's the smell of cocoa and sugar which just cuts through cold air like nothing else!

Check out the gallery for more beverage inspiration - there are lots of fun cards there this week, and a whole range of beverages are featured including some altogether more alcoholic tipples too!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Endless Wishes Photopolymer Stamp Set	White Stampin Chalk Marker	Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad	Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad
Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad