Happy Monday lovely blog readers! Lots to do this week, but the sun is shining so all is good with the world! Today I am sharing my first 2014-15 Annual Catalogue 'sneak peek' with you - yay! Whilst there is some sadness as we say goodbye to the old catalogue - and I'm not done with it yet! - there is also the excitement of the new and today's clean and graphic card contains a little of both.

Today's card is this week's entry for the 'Colour Me...!' challenge where we are working with monochromatic Coastal Cabana:

The card I'm sharing features one of the stamps form the new 'Traveler' stamp set that I was asked to demonstrate recently at the Stampin' Up! UK Regional training event in Telford recently. This set is a collection of old fashioned images with a travel theme and I must confess the first time I saw it I did wonder what I was going to do with it as 'vintage' really isn't my style and this isn't a set I would have selected by choice. Turns out I've had great fun with it, mostly creating unusual cards that are much more in keeping with my style; if you look at today's challenge entry you'll see what I mean:

This card uses a Coastal Cabana base, then the focal panel is a piece of white and Coastal Cabana-striped paper from the Fresh Prints DSP stack, onto which I've stamped the old fashioned camera in black stazon, coupled with the 'smile' sentiment from the retiring Happy Day stamp set - I will miss this stamp set so much! I then rounded the corners and matted onto a piece of Whisper White cardstock before adhering to my base. So a super simple design, but I think quite effective. Quite a modern take on such a vintage-looking stamp and it also makes the DSP look quite different when used in this way. The striped paper so reminds me of deckchairs! 

Whilst I was playing with this stamp and colour, I also created a co-ordinating card using a single central block:

Then inspired by the other striped paper in the Fresh Prints DSP stack, I created the same pair of cards in Real Red:

I like these too but the Coastal Cabana is my favourite! Hope you like today's sneak peeks - more to come in coming weeks! Don't forget the retiring lists are still active; if you're after the 'Happy Day' set, click on the link to the shop below as it will only be available until 30 June.

Back tomorrow with another 'blast from the past' card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack	Happy Day	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	Real Red A4 Card Stock
Jet Black Stazon Pad	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	Stazon Cleaner	Envelope Punch Board

This has been the busiest of weekends, with so much going on: we bought Ben a new bike as an early birthday present yesterday - it has become quite apparent as we've been cycling since this year that he had outgrown his previous one and the middle of August was such a long time to wait - and he doesn't seem to have been off it since, along with the usual homework, swimming and a special golden wedding anniversary party today. Not much time for crafting although I did make a quick card using this week's Mojo Monday sketch layout and Pals Paper Arts colours, so a really quick post from me to share it with you:

I haven't played along with Mojo Monday for a while and saw this sketch and had a few ideas of what to do with it and thought that this week's PPA colours would work well for a brighter masculine card. I must confess that things didn't come together quite how I planned though and with limited time I eventually settled on this card:

Some simple layers and patterns in So Saffron and Baked Brown Sugar and a pop of Pacific Point in the stamp from Starburst Sayings, echoed in the mat for the So Saffron panel with 'Dad' in a double-layer of sketched and outline alphabets. I made this card with Father's Day in mind and the thing I like most about the card is the sentiment - there are two James children in this house who absolutely would agree with this statement.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Starburst Sayings Clear-Mount Bundle	Abc-123 Sketch Alphabet & Numbers	Abc-123 Outline Alphabet & Numbers	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform	3/16 Inch Corner Punch	Baked Brown Sugar Classic Stampin' Pad
Card Stock A4 Baked Brown Sugar	2013-2015 In Color Designer Series Paper Stack	2013-2015 In Color Core'dinations	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Pacific Point A4 Card Stock
So Saffron A4 Card Stock

Today I'm sharing the original card I designed for this week's challenge over at The Card Concept, which I also adapted for my Springtime Hello card class this week. Here is this week's challenge colour palette:

This card is quite different to my previous entry (you can see that card here); much more 'Classy and Elegant' this time around I think - here's my card:

I used Daffodil Delight for my card base and layered up from there. I dry embossed a piece of Basic Black cardstock with the Honeycomb embossing folder, then layered my main stamped panel onto this. I repeat-stamped the daisy stamp from the 'Springtime Hello' onto a piece of Watercolour Wonder DSP so that the panel would have a lovely washed background, and also stamped the text stamp from the retired 'French Foliage' set in Smoky Slate behind this, having stamped off twice first to give a very faint image. You could substitute this stamp with one from the 'Background Borders' set, which is currently reduced and still available on the retired list. I then stamped the bee and using my aquapainter, I washed white kraft ink over the bee's wings and the daisy flower petals to give a subtle hint of natural colour, whilst allowing the yellow of the DSP to show through. I finished with a piece of Basic Black 3/4" Chevron ribbon and heat embossed my sentiment fro the Six Sided Sampler set in black embossing powder onto a punched hexagon and popped it onto a dimensional.

I hope you like today's card; back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Springtime Hello	Honeycomb Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Watercolor Wonder Designer Series Paper	Six-Sided Sampler Clear Bundle	Aqua Painter
Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad	Versamark Pad	Embossing Buddy	Black Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug
Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Jet Black Stazon Pad	Basic Black 3/4" Chevron Ribbon	Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad
Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Normandy Landings in World War Two, with the start of the invasion on the 6th June known as D-Day. There are commemorations taking place both at home and abroad today to remember those Allied personnel who lost their lives on this day and to recognise the bravery, commitment and sacrifices of those service personnel who fought during the war to free Europe from Nazi occupation.

So it seemed a fitting day to share with you a recent commission. I was asked to create some cards and gift boxes as thank you gifts for some teachers who had led a school trip to the World War Two battlefields recently. A red poppy, the traditional form of remembrance, is the star of this card:

I chose a simple Real Red background and created a layered border using Modern Medley DSP. I stamped the poppy from the 'Simply Sketched' hostess set in Black stazon onto Very Vanilla, then coloured using Real Red ink and my aquapainter, with a touch of Garden Green for the stem. I added the sentiment directly to the card base, and honestly didn't feel this card needed anything else. I also made a co-ordinating gift box using one of the kraft gift boxes available in the annual catalogue:

I covered in co-ordinating paper and made a tag with the same sentiment and poppy image on Very Vanilla and punched with my Scalloped Tag Topper punch, finishing with a 3/4" Chevron ribbon bow.

A lovely set to show appreciation and appropriate to share it on a day when we should all take time to remember the courage, bravery and sacrifice of our armed forces, of yesterday and today, who give of themselves in order that we may live relatively safe and secure lives. I for one, am thankful for that.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Simply Sketched	Kraft Gift Box (4)	Modern Medley Designer Series Paper	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	Jet Black Stazon Pad
Scalloped Tag Topper Punch	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Aqua Painter
Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad	Basic Black 3/4" Chevron Ribbon	Real Red 1/8 Inch Taffeta Ribbon

Today I'm doing one of those things that is somewhat dangerous if you're a cardmaking blogger and your intended recipients follow your blog - I'm blogging a card before I've sent it! So Barbara (affectionately known as 'Aunty Barbie' to Rebecca!) if you're reading this before Sunday - look away now!!!

Sandie's theme challenge over at The Paper Players this week is to create a card around the theme of love, weddings or anniversaries, and as I made a golden wedding anniversary card this week for a very special couple, I couldn't resist linking it up to share it. Here is my card:

This card is a riot of gold products - 6 to be precise (or 7 if you count the gold Encore stamping inside, but that's mean because you can't see that!) Can you tell what they all are? I used Brushed Gold for my card base, then adhered a piece of Shimmer White cardstock to it, and a piece of gold Fancy Foil Designer Vellum to the top of that. I dry embossed the ampersand out of gold foil sheet and then fussy cut before adhering to my vellum top layer. I then made two flags out of Shimmer white card stock and heat embossed them with 'Always' and 'Forever' in gold embossing powder; these were both partial stamps from the 'This Day Forward' stamp set. I then popped the flags onto dimensionals and mounted them on opposing sides just touching the top and bottom of the ampersand. Lastly, I added a gold baker's twine bow and threaded this with a strand of gold sequins.

I think this card is just lovely - a fitting way to celebrate 50 years of marriage, which is some achievement in my book. Here's to Barbara and Bob and many more happy years together.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Gold Fancy Foil Designer Vellum	Ampersand Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Gold Foil Sheets	Brushed Gold A4 Card Stock	Shimmery White A4 Card Stock
Gold Baker's Twine	Gold Sequin Trim	This Day Forward	Versamark Pad	Embossing Buddy
Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug

Well Sunday's summer sunshine was definitely short-lived; the grey of yesterday has turned into steady and continuous pouring rain so far this morning - yuk! Still, today's card for the CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge will cheer you up I hope; this week it is a double challenge to use both the sketch and colour palette:

Firstly, a quick thank you to the ladies over at CAS for choosing me as one of their winners last week (you can see my winning card here). Someone I asked me recently how I get on with my challenge entries, as I don't often post the outcome here. I sometimes post a win on my Facebook page but the one place I try and keep track of all my wins is my Pinterest board here - so if you're ever interested to see my growing badge collection, pop on over and take a look.

Anyway, onto today's card! I used a piece of paper from the Fresh Prints DSP stack as the inspiration for today's card - these stacks are great and I'm so pleased that there are going to be some new ones appearing in the forthcoming new annual catalogue. Here is my card:

I love this Orla Kiely-inspired pattern - it always reminds me of flower stems, so it seemed appropriate to use a statement flower as my focal point in place of the arrow on the sketch and what better than that old favourite, Mixed Bunch (staying for next year's catalogue - hurrah!) I used Coastal Cabana for my card base and layered my DSP strip on a mat of Real Red cardstock. I then stamped my flower in Real Red ink on Whisper White, punched it out with the co-ordinating Blossom punch (got to love a matching punch!) and backed this with another flower punched from Baked Brown Sugar cardstock, which I offset slightly so that you could see it through the gaps of the petals of the top flower. I finished my flower with an in-colour Boutique Details in Coastal Cabana; it's not often I dip into my pot of these, but it provided the perfect finish to my bold flower here. Lastly, I added my 'Yippee Skippee!' sentiment from the stamp set of the same name in red to the card base.

A clean and simple card that could be used for lots of occasions and brings the challenge colours together nicely. I am also going to link my card up with the challenge over at 'Less is More' this week where the challenge is to use two different stamp sets; pretty good, considering there are only two actual stamped images on the whole card!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	Card Stock A4 Baked Brown Sugar	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	In Color Boutique Details	Mixed Bunch - Clear-Mount Stamp	Blossom Punch	Yippee-Skippee!

It's Wednesday and that can only mean one thing - 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 June (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:

3 Inch Circle Originals Die	Card Base Pop' N Cuts	Circles #2 Originals Die	Holiday Ornaments Framelits Dies	Pink Pirouette 3/8 Inch Taffeta Ribbon
Take A Ticket Stampin' Around Standard Wheel	Twitterpated Kit - Digital Download

This week there are lots of dies on special, so if you're a Big Shot owner this is a great time to make some savings whilst adding to your collection. Also some lovely pink ribbon and the Twitterpated DSP MDS download - this is such a pretty floral paper!

Back shortly with today's creative post; meanwhile, happy shopping!

Today's card started out as my entry for this week's challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary; once I'd decided on my design, I also remembered the inspiration photo over at The Card Concept so used this as my colour scheme:

Here is my finished card:

I decided to use the sunglasses (minus the sentiment) from the Spring catalogue hostess set 'To the Point' as the focal point for my card and stamped them onto a circle of Whisper White as I wanted to be able to create the cut out image on the layer behind. I created a patterned layer using punched 3/4" circles on a black square to echo the spot pattern on the sunglasses, and cut out the starburst shape and mat for the circle using my Starburst Framelits. I stamped the retired single stamp 'Spectacular' and my marker pens to create my own DSP background panel, using my stamp-a-ma-jig to enable easy alignment and pattern repeat, and rounded the corners with my Envelope Punch Board. Lastly, I stamped my sentiment onto a flag of Smoky Slate; the sentiment on the original stamp was too small to work here, so I substituted with 'Awesome' from the Cool kid stamp set in the current Spring catalogue (only available until the end of the month).

I had already made a card for the challenge over at The Card Concept, which is scheduled to post later in the week and couldn't be more different to this one, however having chosen my design I couldn't help but think that sunglasses were the only thing missing from the inspiration photo, so I decided to roll with it! My card definitely fits the 'clean and layered' style; the question is, does it really have specs appeal? I'd love to know what you think - feel free to leave me a comment below! I am also linking this card up over at SUO Challenges, where the theme is to create your own background DSP, as I've done here with my 'Spectacular' stamp.

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with another card and news of this week's Wednesday Weekly Deals; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Making A Point - Clear-Mount Stamp	Cool Kid	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Starburst Framelits Dies
Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform	3/4 Inch Circle Punch	2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch	Daffodil Delight Stampin Write Marker
Neutrals Stampin' Write Markers	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Basic Gray A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate	Basic Black A4 Card Stock

Good evening! A really quick post from me today, as I've been out and about all day today: my regular monthly card class with a super bunch of ladies, piano lessons after school and some admin this evening and now I'm ready for my bed! I just wanted to quickly share one of the cards we made in our class today, featuring the Springtime Hello stamp set:

We watercoloured a background using our aquapainters and blended Soft Sky, Pool Party and Pear Pizzazz inks, then overstamped this with one of the flowers in the set and added Melon Mambo and more Pear Pizzazz to the stamped image. We also added the 'Hello' sentiment from the 'A Dozen Thoughts' stamp set. This panel was then mounted onto two mats of co-ordinating cardstock and adhered to a Naturals Ivory card base. The card was then finished with a knot-tied piece of Pool party seam binding ribbon.

A simple card with a lovely pop of colour with the pink flower.

Right my bed is calling, but I will be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Springtime Hello	Naturals Ivory A4 Card Stock	Aqua Painter	6 X 9 Watercolor Paper	Jet Black Stazon Pad
Stazon Cleaner	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Pear Pizzazz
Pool Party A4 Card Stock	Pool Party 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad

Well, I don't know if I should say it, but as the children are about to return to school tomorrow we have had the most glorious day weather-wise - might summer have finally arrived? Let's hope so! We had a BBQ lunch in the garden, long bike ride and a picnic tea in the country park today - we thought we'd better make the most of the opportunity, just in case it's once again short-lived!

This week is also all about classes: I had the pleasure of running a private party yesterday evening for the lovely Maria and 6 of her friends - you can find out what they got up to on my Facebook page and if you live in or around Northampton and would like to host a similar event, do get in touch - and tomorrow is my regular monthly card class. This month we are featuring the stamp set 'Springtime Hello' and the card that I'm sharing today is a slight variation on one that we will be making in class. It is also my entry for this week's 'Colour Me...!' challenge, where in contrast the colours have a rather autumnal feel:

I wanted my card to have a natural feel, so thought these colours would be perfect for my card. Here it is:

I used Naturals Ivory cardstock for my central panel - I haven't used this cardstock before and it has a great texture for this type of card - then inked up the wild daisy stamp using my Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and Wild Wasabi marker pens and stamped the flower. I created the script background using one of the stamps in the retired 'French Foliage' set - I inked it in Baked Brown Sugar and stamped off twice before stamping onto my panel so that it would have a very faint background effect.  Lastly, I stamped both the bee and the sentiment in Baked Brown Sugar and added a little Crushed Curry to the bee again with my marker pen. I then mounted this panel on a mat of Baked Brown Sugar and centred on a card base of Very Vanilla. I think this card has quite a vintage feel - like a botanical drawing in an old book. This set is in the current Spring-Summer catalogue and along with lots of others is one that will be retiring at the end of the month, so if it's on your wish list, you only have a little while longer to purchase it.

That's all from me - back tomorrow with another card. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Springtime Hello	Naturals Ivory A4 Card Stock	2013-2015 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	Baked Brown Sugar Classic Stampin' Pad	Subtles Stampin' Write Markers
Regals Stampin' Write Markers	Card Stock A4 Baked Brown Sugar	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock