A quick post from me today. Here is the last of my favourite Telford swaps to share: this one was by Maria (you can see her blog here):

I like it because it used a number of products and sets I don't have and showcases some beautiful clear embossing. I love the overall finished effect of this card and the unusual colour combination too.

Back tomorrow with another of my cards; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Postage Due

Cardstock: Primrose Petals, Pool Party, Whisper White, Early Expresso

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Primrose Petals, Pool Party, Versamark

Tools: Big Shot, Delicate Design Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Argyle Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Floral Fusion Sizzlit

Finishing Touches: Clear Embossing Powder, Early Expresso Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Basics Rhinestones

Today I have another of the swaps I received at our training event in Telford a little while ago to share with you. This card was made by Jenny Moors and we laughed as we swapped as I had used the same stamp set but taken a completely different creative approach (you can see my Telford swap card here). Here is Jenny's card:

I love the bright colours of this card and there is tons of detail here, right down to the paper pierced edge. It's also a great example of a very well made slider card - here's the inside of the card extended so that you can see what I mean:

If you would like to re-create this card, Jenny has provided a step-by-step tutorial on her blog here. Back with the last of my favourite three swaps I received at Telford next time; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Petite Pairs

Cardstock: Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry, Wild Wasabi

Tools: Paper Piercing Essentials Pack

Finishing Touches: Whisper White Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Basics Rhinestones

I was recently fortunate to gain another member to my growing team of Crafty Owls, so as is customary I like to make a card and gift to welcome them into the fold. Here is the card I made to welcome Samantha to my team:

This card was inspired by one I saw on Splitcoast Stampers by Pretty Paper Cards. I cheated a little with the background, using my retired spritz tool and the 'grunge' stamp from the retired 'French Foliage' set, as I have yet to invest in the grunge stamps in the new annual catalogue. I took the opportunity to use another of the lovely new in-colours - this time Crisp Cantaloupe. I also made a co-ordinating decorated notebook for those all important notes, dates and business tips that will be heading Samantha's way; when you're new to Stampin' Up!, there can be a lot to remember, even with a helpful upline in place to guide and support you. You can see the book in the picture below:

If you would like to join my team, whatever your motivation, then do get in touch. Stampin' Up! can be a great way to earn an income whilst doing something you really enjoy, whilst also making new friends and providing you with access to some of the best paper crafting products on the market at a substantial discount. I can support you, whether you wish to build a profitable business or simply become a hobby demonstrator and feed your crafting habit! If you are interested in joining my team and would like to benefit from the incentives and training opportunities that Stampin' Up! has to offer, please give me a call or drop me a line for a chat about what's involved ato how to take the next step. 

There is also a Stampin' Up! Creative Tour coming to a town near us soon; if you would like to 'try before you buy' and experience first hand some of the corporate benefits that Stampin' Up! offers its demonstrators, then I would be happy to take you along as my guest - get in touch if you would be interested in taking advantage of this exciting opportunity. 

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

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Happy Day, French Foliage (retired)

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Crisp Cantaloupe, Very Vanilla

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Crumb Cake, Crisp Canteloupe

Tools: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Honeycomb Embossing Folder

Finishing Touches: Basics Pearls, Linen Thread, Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon, Tea Lace Paper Doily

As my regular blog followers will know, my son recently shared a birthday party with one of his school friends. The gift for his friend had a dinosaur theme, so we decided to dust our favourite dinosaur stamp set down from the shelf and make a card and our very own wrapping paper to match. Here it is:

The card is a case of a Julie Kettlewell card I saw on Pinterest, with one or two additions. I decorated the envelope too just to add a nice finishing touch and you can just see the wrapped gift in the background with its co-ordinating paper. I love the bright colours and think it makes such a fun design for a 6 year old. 

The wrapping paper was fun to make too; a great summer holiday activity for the kiddies. I'm actually wondering whether I should get them started on making my Christmas wrapping - now there's a thought...!

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

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Dinoroar (retired)

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Brights Designer Series Paper (retired)

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Old Olive, Night of Navy, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Basic Grey

Tools: 1" Square Punch, 1 1/4" Square Punch

Finishing Touches: Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon (retired)

This year's 'in colours' have been around for a couple of months now and I find myself using them more and more. I prepared some colour comparison cards with my Mosaic Madness stamp set and punch to show how the new colours compare tonally with other SU colours in the same colour ranges some time ago, but I haven't shared them until now as I was waiting on a back order of two of the blue colours, then when they finally arrived I was so busy playing I totally forgot about finishing and blogging the card set! I tidied my desk this week and rediscovered them, so thought I would share them as I still get asked questions about how these colours blend. So one by one, here they are:

The blue collection:

Coastal Cabana is a lovely turquoise blue, darker than Pool Party but not as intense as the returning Bermuda Bay.

The orange collection:

Crisp Cantaloupe is a fresh pink-peach colour, very like the melon that inspired its name. It's the lightest in the orange colour range.

The green collection:

Pistachio Pudding is a pale green, again lighter than its nearest green neighbours.

The brown collection:

Baked Brown Sugar is a lovely rich shade of brown, more intense than Crumb Cake but not as dark as Soft Suede.

The pink collection:

Strawberry Slush is a lovely vibrant pink, brighter than Primrose Petals but again not as intense as Melon Mambo. the other great thing about this year's in-colours is they all co-ordinate beautifully together, as well as complimenting many of the existing colours. Here is the complete card set including each of the card colour sets:

So what do you think: which in-colour is your favourite and what's your favourite in-colour combination? Post me a comment below, or better still, pop over to my Facebook page and share a picture of something you've made in your favourite in-colour combination. Back soon with another project; until then, happy stampin'! 

Another 40th birthday card today, this one showcasing lots of new products. This was the birthday card from my children to their uncle, so I wanted it to fauna fun design; this is what I came up with:

I used the Birthday Basics Designer Series Paper as the inspiration for the colour scheme for this card - that and the fact that I already had Bermuda Bay out on my desk (I love this new colour!) I built the sentiment from my Simply Sketched Alphabet stamps and added a fun element by replacing the 'OO' with a pair of spectacles and googly eyes. I stamped the spectacles by inking up one pair on my 'Spectacular' single stamp - I have been having lots of fun with this stamp (as a specs wearer it really appealed to me!); this, and the other single stamps, are still available to purchase until the end of the month. See the box on the right of my blog page for more details and make sure you contact me before the end of the month if you'd like to order one.

My children thought this card was really funny, although I'm not sure that I would have got away with it as far as my specs-wearing brother-in-law is concerned, were I not a specs wearer myself!

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

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: ABC-123 Sketch Alphabet and Numbers, Spectacular

Cardstock: Summer Starfruit, Bermuda Bay, Raspberry Ripple, Very Vanilla, Birthday Basics Designer Series Paper (SAB - retired)

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Bermuda Bay, Raspberry Ripple

Tools: Simply Scored, Big Shot, Typeset Alphabet Die, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Finishing Touches: Googly eyes (non SU)

Another brother Birthday card today, but this time for my brother-in-law, who celebrated his 40th birthday recently. I took this card by LeeAnn Greff as my inspiration, changing the colours to use up some of my retired papers and incorporating the necessary changes of sentiment to produce the following card:

A great masculine card, with some Tangerine Tango and Bermuda Bay for pops of colour. Back in a couple of days with the card I made from the children for their uncle; I'll be posting every other day for the next couple of weeks, as I'm having a couple of weeks of dedicated family time before the children go back to school. 

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Banner Greetings (hostess)

Cardstock: Basic Grey, Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Twitterpated DSP (retired), Sycamore Street Designer Series Paper (SAB - retired)

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Basic Grey, Tangerine Tango

Tools: Simply Scored, Big Shot, Chevron Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Typeset Alphabet Die, Paper Piercing Essentials Pack

Finishing Touches: Sycamore Street Ribbon (SAB - retired)

As promised, today I'm back with the other of Ben's birthday cards, this time from his big sister. Ben's biggest birthday surprise was his very own basketball hoop. He has been mad keen on ball bouncing for a while and he was thrilled to receive a basketball from one of his little school friends at his party. he wasn't at all expecting a hoop and his little face positively lit up when he opened up the box. So I used the new much loved basketball for the inspiration for his card:

A simple design of a jumble of bright orange basketballs, with a special one popped up on a couple of dimensionals to replace the 'O' in 'Brother'. I must confess this card was somewhat bourn out of being rather short on time too, but once I had the idea it didn't take long to execute at all (which was definitely a good thing!) That said, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

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

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Great Sport

Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black

Tools: Typeset Alphabet Die, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Simply Scored

A busy weekend of birthday celebrations in the James family this weekend: yesterday my brother-in-law celebrated his 40th birthday (I was back too late and had drunk too many cocktails to blog when I arrived home yesterday evening; I will share his cards later in the week!) and today was my 'baby' the not-so-little Benjamin's 6th birthday.

I had something of a quandary when trying to decide what kind of card to make Ben; I needed something special but this birthday featured so many of the things that he loves that choosing was difficult. One of the things that he really wanted for his birthday was a Lego City Coastguard Patrol boat - he loves all kinds of Lego, but his first and enduring love is for the fire brigade - the only reason this wasn't on the wishlist is because I think he must own every mortal piece of the Fire Department and then some! His big sister bought him a Lego City Fire Chief alarm clock for his birthday and this ultimately became the inspiration for my pop-up card. This is the card from the outside:

A Lego brick number 6 (lots of glue dots used to get the pins on the bricks just right!). Then on the inside, this cheery little fellow:

I used my Pop 'n' Cuts base and modified my dress form insert to accommodate my fire chief mini figure in front of his desk. I am very pleased with how he turned out and doubly so when Ben opened it this morning and deemed his card 'totally awesome - the best card you've ever made!' Praise indeed!!

Back tomorrow with another of Ben's birthday cards - from his big sister. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Make a Wish

Cardstock: Real Red, Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Basic Grey, Crumb Cake

Ink: Real Red

Tools: Pop 'n' Cuts Base, Pop 'n' Cuts Dress Form, Big Shot, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Small Oval Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1 3/4" Circle Punch, Itty Bitty Shapes Punch (circle), Corner Punch

Today I'm sharing the last of the projects we made at last weekend's Christmas workshop: a stamped clay ornament and a decorated kraft gift box to put it in. Here's a photograph of the ornament:

These clay ornaments have a natural finish and can be stamped straight onto the surface, without any additional preparation. As we were going all out for Christmas, once we had stamped our design onto the ornament we stamped the pattern again with Versamark, sprinkled with Heat and Stick Powder and heated with the heat gun, then sprinkled with Iridescent Ice glitter and heated once more. This gives the finished item a more muted colour and a lovely sparkle that catches the light.

We also decorated one of the lovely ready-made kraft boxes from the catalogue to go with it - here's the top of mine:

Together they would make a lovely gift for someone, if you could bear to part with them of course! I will be using mine to decorate my tree during the festive season, but I'm sure I can make another one or something else to go in the box! I hope you liked my first Christmas projects of the season - there will be lots more where this came from. If you would like to join any of my classes, do get in touch for more details; my September card classes will be featuring the Mosaic Madness stamp set and then from October we will be doing Christmas cards all the way through until the end of the year.

Back tomorrow with the first of the weekend birthday cards: my brother-in-law is celebrating his 'big 40' with a party tomorrow and then my own 'Baby James' will be 6 on Sunday, so I've a few birthday cards to share. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Sweet Essentials, Four Seasons (hostess - retired)

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Be of Good Cheer Designer Series Paper (retired)

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Real Red

Tools: Simply Scored, Big Shot, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 7/8" and 1 3/4" Scallop Circle Punches, Merry Minis (star)

Finishing Touches: Champagne Glimmer Paper, 3/4" Cherry Cobbler Chevron Ribbon,  Cherry Cobbler 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon (retired)