Another week, another Monday! Today I'm sharing a couple of Christmas cards that I made at the weekend using a mix and match of old and new. First up is a card that was inspired by the lovely Kim S's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week:

Kim wants us to make a focal feature of a large sentiment. I love a large sentiment, whether a diecut or stamp, and there is some great inspiration from both the design team and in the gallery this week, so if you're a fan or need some inspiration on how to use a large sentiment, I urge you to check out this week's challenge. I perused my collection of large sentiments and decided that I had the perfect one in my retired collection that I could give a fresh look to with some new product - take a look:

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

'Peace on Earth' is one of my favourite large sentiments from the retired 'Thinking Thanks and Peace' stamp set. I often use it on its own (if you use the 'search' function you can find lots of clean and simple cards using this stamp elsewhere on my blog) but one of the things I love to do with a large sentiment is frame it in some way. I was excited to see that one of the patterns in the Online Exclusives Iconic Celebrations pack is of a repeating dove, that is similar in style to the one that forms part of the sentiment stamp - perfect!  I used a sheet of DSP to cover the whole of the base of my card, then heat embossed my sentiment in white onto Misty Moonlight card and placed it in the centre. I cropped my sentiment quite tightly to allow the image on the background to be seen. Here's a close up:

Since my card is monochromatic too I'm also linking this card up over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown where I've not played along in ages. I've also just realised that Kim's design team card used both the same colour scheme and sentiment, albeit using completely different supplies - clearly I was channelling her in more ways than one this week!

Since I had the Iconic Celebrations designer paper stack out on my desk and I was on a roll, I made another card - this time using the layout over at Hand Stamped Sentiments and the muted colour scheme at Color Throwdown:

The tree paper pattern had 2 of the 3 muted, woodsy colours in it, so again I used this as my base, before diecutting a stitched rectangle and adding a trio of stamped Christmas trees using the coordinating Iconic Imagery bundle:

The stamps in this set are two-step, super easy to line up and give a lovely dimensional effect to the completed image. I used Cherry Cobbler for a subtle pop of red on the sentiment and carried the colour over the sentiment on the inside of my card:

I love the fonts of the sentiments in this set - they were what prompted me to add it to my collection. I was trying to resist the paper, but well it coordinates so beautifully and makes for a relatively quick card too. 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects 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; time for me to crack on with some household tasks before I can hopefully squeak in a little extra crafting time later. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

ICONIC CELEBRATIONS 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (11.75)	ICONIC IMAGERY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (36.75)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)	MISTY MOONLIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)	BASIC BEIGE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)
MOSSY MEADOW CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	PECAN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CHERRY COBBLER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host this week and she has a fun clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

The woodland animals on our badge this week are so sweet, but I have new goodies and am trying to rapidly increase my stock of Christmas cards, so I grabbed the sketch over at Try A Sketch on Tuesday and set to work - take a look:

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

Reindeer Days - The starting point for today's card was my festive reindeer, that I fussy cut from a piece of Reindeer Days designer series paper. There are some great reindeer patterns in this pack; some of them fit the co-ordinating Reindeer Fun Dies too. You can see my reindeer more closely in the photo below:

All Around Wreath - Taking my cue from the wreath around my reindeer's neck, I added a layered wreath, diecut using my All Around Wreath Dies and decorated with red rhinestones, in place of the oval on the sketch. My strip on red was inspired by the wreath's bow.

Greetings Of The Season - A simple sentiment from the 'Greetings of the Season' stamp set and some sparkly green enamel dots complete my clean and simple 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 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:

Enjoy your day; we are spending the day with family to celebrate my Mother-in-law's 80th birthday; birthday cake two weeks running - gotta love September birthdays! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

GREETINGS OF THE SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)	REINDEER DAYS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (11.75)	SHADED SPRUCE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a sketch challenge, designed by me:

I had a card designed in my head for this sketch, but as is often the way my time has not been my own this week and I did not have the luxury of a peaceful few hours to pull it together. So - time to pivot and instead I grabbed my new 'A Little Bit Festive' designer series paper pack and a few other new items and rustled up a quick Christmas card - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

A Little Bit Festive - Those of you who are regular visitors know what a fan I am of the 'Frames & Flowers' paper pack ion the annual catalogue; well think of 'A Little Bit Festive' as its Christmas equivalent! Full patterned paper sheets, combined with diecuts and fabulous frames, the pack is great for all kinds of festive projects and is definitely one of my favourite things in the new mini catalogue. On today's card I used a strip of striped paper and a cute red truck, complete with Christmas tree in the back - you can see the diecut detail more closely below:

Just One Stamp - With the diecut elements bringing most of the detail to my clean and simple card, I only needed to add a stamped greeting to my card - no other stamping required. I used a sentiment from the new 'Greetings of the Season' stamp set and am linking up with the lovely ladies over at SUO Challenges where this is actually their theme this week. 

Tag or Label - I added my sentiment to a label - or is it a tag? - from the coordinating 'Greetings of the Season' Dies. These dies look like labels but actually have a hole that makes them into a tag; perfect on today's card to tie a twine bow to finish off the red twine that I'd wrapped around my card base. A trio of Garden Green enamel dots complete my clean and simple Christmas card. I can't wait to make a few more using these papers - I think they will help me to build my Christmas card stocks nicely!

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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

GREETINGS OF THE SEASON BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (48.50)

A LITTLE BIT FESTIVE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) MIX & MATCH SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.50)

REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Elizabeth to host this week and she has a colour challenge for us to work with:

Elizabeth's trio of primary colours are perfect for a back-to-school or teacher appreciation card, but since I didn't need either of these I decided I would challenge myself to use these colours in another way. I had some great options with retired sets, but I wanted to use something current. So armed with the Tuesday Morning Sketches layout, this is what I came up with - take a look:

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

Bee Builder - I settled on a bee as the focal point for my card, since it ticked the box for one of my three colours. I heat embossed my bee's face and stripes in black for a little extra shine before punching him out and added a pair of heat-embossed vellum wings. I also added a couple of punched red hearts - so cute!

Bee My Valentine - Don't be fooled by the name, as the 'Bee My Valentine' stamp set stretches well beyond the 14th February and is perfect to let a loved one know how special they are. In addition to my bee and sentiment, I decided to use two of the other stamps in the set to add some decoration to my layers: some tone-on-tone honeycomb to the yellow layer, and some bold flowers to the red panel. This is a great way to stretch your stamps and add interest as an alternative to embossing or designer paper; it's always worth considering if stamps in a set can be used in this way.

Spotlight on Beauty Threads - I added my bee to a circle diecut using one of the circle dies in the Spotlight on Beauty Dies set. These circular dies have such pretty decorative edges; the one I used on today's card also lends itself to threading with some linen thread or baker's twine, so I threaded mine with some (retired) black and white twine and finished with a double bow detail:

Voila - my card is complete! The primary colour palette makes for a bold and bright card - I quite like the finished result. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else does with them this week.

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 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:

Enjoy your day; I don't have much planned, just family lunch and maybe a spot of gardening and of course looking forward to polishing off the remainder of my birthday cake. I'll be back soon though with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BEE MY VALENTINE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (20.00)	BEE BUILDER PUNCH (23.00)	SPOTLIGHT ON NATURE DIES (33.00)	BLUEBERRY BUSHEL A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)

It's time to get festive - the new Stampin' Up! mini catalogue is here! Paper copies of the catalogue are on their way to those customers who have shopped with me in the last 6 months (slightly later than usual due to my vacation). If you don't have one, never fear - the catalogue is available right now for you to download by clicking here or on the image below:

It will be available until it ends on 6 January 2025 by clicking on the image on the right hand sand of my blog page. So many great stamp sets, papers and more for your Halloween, Autumn and Christmas projects.

Also launching today is the new Digital Scrapbooking Catalogue. Further to the purchase of Close To My Heart, Stampin' Up! is expanding it's 12x12" scrapbooking line. There are new packs of 12x12" coloured cardstock, new two-tone cardstock and some fabulous scrapbooking kits too. The scrapbooking catalogue is only available in digital format and the full product line will be available online and through me as your Stampin' up! demonstrator whilst supplies last. New products will be added to this line on an ongoing basis.  The catalogue is available right now for you to download by clicking here or on the image below:

Here are some useful links that show some of the new scrapbooking product in more detail - the first shows the new two-tone cardstock (this is an addition to our current solid core cardstock, not a replacement):

The second gives a closer look at the new scrapbooking kits in more detail:

I also want to bring to your attention two new kits that will be available later this month. The release date has not yet been confirmed, but as with other recent kits they are likely to be popular (the Haunted House Kit sold out in days!) so if either of these kits appeals to you, please let me know and send through your order now so that I can order for you as soon as they release to avoid any disappointment. The first of the kits is a Card Keeper Kit:

Both kits will retail at £24 each and make great gifts too. The ornaments would also be great to make with children  -a half-term project perhaps?

I'll let you know when they are available to purchase, but if you're interested you should get in touch now so that your order is ready to go. Back soon with a new project and some samples from new mini catalogue makes.

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Nancy is hosting this month and our first challenge is a colour challenge: 

Nancy's colours are all from the Neutrals family and whilst I like each of them, I'll confess I struggled to know how to use them effectively together. So I decided the best thing to do was keep it simple - take a look:

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

I still had the Friends For Life bundle out on my desk having made Sunday's card, so decided to choose 3 elements - a sentiment and two diecuts - and created a simple layout making a feature of the structured leaf stem and added a trio of Blackberry Bliss enamel dots to complete my card:

Turns out I actually rather like the finished result - sometimes less really is more, right?

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. 

As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! colour names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with news of the new mini catalogue. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

FRIENDS FOR LIFE BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (50.25)

TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (7.50)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)

MOSSY MEADOW A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

MISTY MOONLIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

TRANSPARENT ADHESIVE-BACKED DOTS (7.50)

I took the week off from my last challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches as I was on vacation. So I decided to use the sketch and create a clean and simple card with t using the current colour challenge over at Color Dare, to use white, brown and one other colour. Deborah's sketch shows a trio of images in a column:

For my card I went super clean and simple: one layer, one stamp set and just two ink colours - I chose one of my favourite pinks, Melon Mambo, as my choice colour. This is what I came up with:

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

I stamped a trio of Latte Love coffee cups in Melon Mambo and added my sentiment and coffee swirls in Pecan Pie, changing out the coffee art on the central cup and nestling the sentiment in between:

 Done - #simplestamping, that's all there is to it! A quick and easy card to invite a friend on a long overdue coffee date because everyone loves a good catch up, right? If you want to play along with this sketch, you have one more day to get your entry in.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project for our new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

LATTE LOVE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (19.00)

MELON MAMBO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)

PECAN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have a fun theme for us to work with:

Spots or stripes - you choose! Or if you can't make up your mind, use both! I decided to go with spots to create a card for a special friend of mine. I used Jen T's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches for my card (with a liberal interpretation of that oval shape) - take a look:

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

Thank You For Being A Friend - First up - apologies if the sentiment on today's card has you singing the theme tune from the TV classic 'The Golden Girls' all day - it is just what I needed for today's card for one of my special and most caring friends. The 'Friends For Life' stamp set allows you to make a variety of sentiments by combining the stamps and diecuts it contains, all of them perfect for sharing with a friend. I snipped my stamped sentiment to fit above my layered diecut and popped it up on dimensionals so that it would stand out:

Full of Life Zentangles - For the main panel on my card, I decised to use a piece of brightly coloured spotty paper from the Full of Life designer series paper pack. Since I decided to go with a black and white sentiment, I added some zentangle doodles using a black fine liner to each of the spots (something I picked up from the lovely Melody Hyde of HammondAndPenny on Instagram) to give them a little extra definition; I really like the way it changes the pattern. I also added a bold black border for added definition along the edge of the panel.

A Hidden Mickey - Finally, I added some black enamel dots to randomly accent a number of the spots - except in one area where I created a 'hidden Mickey' - did you spot it? The recipient of this card is a huge fan of the famous mouse and since this card is to accompany a suitably themed gift that I bought her whilst visiting the most famous mouse of them all, I had to include one. In case you didn't spot it, here's a close-up:

Cute, right?! I know my friend loves those little details as much as I do and will totally appreciate 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 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:

Enjoy your day; I returned from my vacation which was wonderful but unfortunately brought the dreaded Covid with me so have been struggling for a few days. I feel like I'm just about turning the corner now though, although my tissue box is never far away! The joys of being back to reality. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FRIENDS FOR LIFE BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (50.25)

FULL OF LIFE 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)

TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (7.50)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

Hello everyone - I'm back! It's never good when a vacation and blog migration issues combine, but I'm back, crossing my fingers and hoping that finally everything has been resolved and I have some quick and easy cards to share with you! Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a fun speed challenge chosen by Jane:

I don't have any current fruit in my stash, but thought this challenge would be a perfect opportunity to use up a glut of retired Tutti Frutti designer series paper. I grabbed a couple of retired fruit theme stamp sets too and started out with a bright, zesty card - take a look:

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

Speedy Tips - I decided on a super simple layout that would allow my DSP to do the heavy lifting and decided I would score a couple of lines directly onto the reverse of my card front to create 3 rectangles, then fill two of them with DSP and stamp a vertical sentiment onto the third. If you look closely you can see the scored detail on the image below:

A sentiment from 'Sweet Citrus' completes my simple yet fruity card.

Quick In Half The Time - Well, almost - my card took me just 5 minutes and 32 seconds to complete:

A Fruity Collection - since my challenge card really was so quick to make, I decided to use up a bunch of other papers in the pack and with a variety of other sentiments, created a whole bunch of cards with a fruity theme:

They really were so easy! Each patterned panel across the bottom is the reverse of the fruity panel, so with a few quick scorelines and slices of my trimmer, I'd manage to create a bunch of fun cards. Here they are in more detail:

And I used up a bunch of paper too - bonus!

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Recipe Challenge use all elements of the recipe - the possibilities within those parameters are endless.
• For a Colour Challenge use all of the given colours and only those colours with these exceptions:
• White and Very Vanilla are free colours.
• In addition, you may use of ONE of these neutrals: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige.
• For a Speed Stamping Challenge you must tell us the time it took to make your project and it must be finished in under 10 min.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

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

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Claire to host this week and she has a fun clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

Before we go any further - If you are a regular reader, you will know that I’ve been having my fair share of blog and website problems this week. They still aren’t fixed completely, hence today’s late (re typed!) short post although I am at least back online for the time being. It could be a couple of weeks before things are properly back to normal, so please bear with me for the next little while.

Onto today’s card! I took Claire’s fruit theme and thought it was perfect to feature this little cutie in her apple dress-up from the retired Just Kiddin’ designer series papers. I used the current Try a Sketch on Tuesday sketch for my layout - take a look at what I came up with:

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

I fussy cut my focal image and added her to a die cut rectangle, with a trio of die cut stripes from the Friends For Life Dies in coordinating colours behind. I think this would make a fun card for a young child or equally suit a thank you card for a teacher - after all, an apple for the teacher is the perfect image, right?!

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

Enjoy your day; all being well I'll be back on Tuesday with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!