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'!

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

I thought these colours would be perfect for some clean and fresh florals, so I grabbed this week's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches and a stamp set I haven't used in a while, and set to work - take a look:

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

I used my Cheerful Daisies Dies to create a trio of diecut layered daisies, and mounted each onto a stitched square of Lemon Lolly. I added Flirty Flamingo to the top petal layer with a sponge dauber, to soften the intensity of the colour. I added some additional detail to my centre flower, with a trio of pale lemon pearls in the centre and a simple white twine bow and added a heat-embossed sentiment beneath it:

I almost left the card base plain, but as a nod to our hostess this week, my lovely friend Jan, who does love an embossed card front, I instead embossed it using my Eyelet 3D embossing folder. I must say I really do love the result.

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 celebrating the youngest of the James Juniors reaching the ripe old age of 17 today - finally able to begin driving lessons in earnest, hurrah! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

CHEERFUL DAISIES PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)	CHEERFUL DAISIES DIES (32.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)	EYELET 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (9.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)	BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (10.25)
LEMON LOLLY A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	LEMON LOLLY STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	SOFT SEA FOAM A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)
VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)

It's August and there are some important promotions to bring to your attention! Firstly, we all love gorgeous Designer Series Paper, me especially, and during the month of August you can enjoy a 15% discount on select papers from the current annual catalogue. Now is a great time to stock up and save on some of our most popular paper designs! The papers included in the promotion are detailed below:

A reminder too that August is the month to redeem the Bonus Days coupons you earned in July:

The designer series paper sale is perfectly timed for redeeming those Bonus Days coupons earned; remember the must be redeemed before August 31st, so the sooner the better.

Also this month - we have two new great kit collections that have been released. The first of these is the Haunted Home Kit:

Get your Halloween crafting on with the Haunted Home Kit! This kit costs £17 and comes with all the paper pieces you need to assemble your very own haunted paper house. You’ll start with cardboard walls, pre-cut vellum, and other paper pieces for accessorising. Assemble the house following the instructions then add your own ghostly touch to it. It’s the perfect paper crafting activity for any gathering with fellow crafters, friends, and family during the spooky season!

The second kit is the Christmas Wishes Christmas card kit:

Keep your Christmas card crafting easy AND elegant with the Christmas Wishes Kit! This kit comes with 8 bright red card bases detailed with gold foil and coordinating gold, shimmer envelopes. Create your own Christmas cards using the pre-cut paper pieces, the stamp set, and Stampin’ Spot. Use the included address labels to send your cards to your recipients! This kit costs £22.

All of the above items can be found in my online store by clicking the links below. Happy shopping!

BRIGHT & BEAUTIFUL 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	COUNTRYSIDE INN 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	COUNTRY LACE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	COUNTRY WOODS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	FULL OF LIFE 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	LILY POND LANE 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)
MEDITERRANEAN BLOOMS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	PERENNIAL LAVENDER 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	TAKE TO THE SKY 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	THOUGHTFUL JOURNEY 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	TO MARKET 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	UNBOUNDED BEAUTY 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)
WILDLY FLOWERING 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	WINTER MEADOW 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.99)	HAUNTED HOME KIT (17.00)	CHRISTMAS WISHES KIT (ENGLISH) (22.00)

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

For my card today I decided to make a card to send to my Paper Players teamie, the lovely Anne Marie Hile, who is currently recovering from some serious health issues. It's a while since I sent her some happy mail and whilst her regular Facebook updates are keeping us informed of her great progress, I thought these colours would be perfect for a cute hot air balloon to carry my best wishes across the miles to let her know I am thinking of her:

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

My card really is super simple! I diecut some clouds out of masking paper, then added a sky using Boho Blue ink and a blending brush to my card base, before removing the masked clouds. I stamped a balloon in Melon Mambo and added a decorative panel from Calypso Coral cardstock, before adding to my card using dimensionals:

I almost left it there, but decided to add a trio of Melon Mambo glossy dots for a little understated sparkle - a nod to the lovely Anne Marie herself! I initially struggled with this colour combo, even though it includes my favourite Melon Mambo, but when it came down to it they suited my card perfectly. I can't wait to see how you use these colours!

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 another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

HOT AIR BALLOON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (19.00)	HOT AIR BALLOON DIES (28.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (14.00)	MELON MAMBO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CALYPSO CORAL A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)
CALYPSO CORAL CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	BOHO BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	GLOSSY DOTS ASSORTMENT (7.50)

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

Beach time! Well, I was tempted to go with another sunset like the one in the inspo photo, but I've made one using htese colours before so instead went with a daytime beach scene as I wanted to use the lifeguard hut image from the 'Beach Day' stamp set and dies that I haven't yet used on any of my beach-themed projects. I decided to use the layered sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches for my layout and the colours from the bright palette over at Color Dare (I went down the right hand column with Daffodil Delight, Coastal Cabana and (retired) Starry Sky as my equivalent colours, and a little Lemon Lime Twist from the top row too). I was faithful to the square shape of the sketch and had a lot of fun stamping and diecutting - take a look:

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

Perennial Postage - I decided to use my Perennial Postage Dies to cut out my layer shapes; for the larger square that I used for my beach scene, I simply used one of the larger rectangles and then ran through the die cutting machine a second time to cut the end off to make it square - easy peasy! The dies almost make this look like a postage stamp, don't you think?

Beach Day Layers - I worked on my beach scene first, layering all of the elements to create my scene. I masked off the edges and added an inked sky using a blending brush, then cut my sea, complete with foam, and my sand, onto which I stamped some shells for added interest. I used the diecuts only for my lifeguard hut as I wanted it to be completely white, and added a couple of stamped gulls to complete the scene. I added a sun for another of the sketch elements (diecut using the retired Hey Chuck Dies) and a trio of shells to another of the panels.

So Swirly - I decided to use (retired) Starry Sky cardstock for my cardbase as it really compliments the other elements and embossed my mat layer with the new So Swirly embossing folder. Oh my - I love this! I bought it to compliment my Latte Love bundle, but I thought it worked well to add a sense of watery movement to this card too. I think I'm going to get so much use from this EF - it comes in the new larger 6x8.5" size too, which is so useful. You can see the embossing and layering in more detail below:

I actually make this card with a birthday sentiment on the inside, but in hindsight I should perhaps have made it as a congratulations card for the youngest of the James Juniors who has spent the last week training to be a lifeguard (pool not beach as we live about the furthest from the sea that you can possibly get in the UK!) and passed his final tests and gained his qualification yesterday. Luckily I already had a card ready! I really love the Beach Day stamp set and dies and am so glad they carried over as I otherwise might not have added them to my collection and I'm getting so much use from them. I'm also linking today's card up over at Time Out Challenges where the quote to be inspired by is "It's always summer somewhere"; for me a visit to the beach is synonymous with summer - I would so love to leave near the beach all year round too, preferably a Caribbean 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 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'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BEACH DAY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (19.00)	BEACH DAY DIES (32.00)	PERENNIAL POSTAGE DIES (31.00)	SO SWIRLY EMBOSSING FOLDER (10.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (7.50)
BLENDING BRUSHES (14.00)	POOL PARTY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	COASTAL CABANA A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	LEMON LIME TWIST A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)