Hurrah - my new laptop has arrived - normal blogging can now resume! Today I'm sharing a quick card that uses Jen B's fabulous sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week:

I'm also linking up over at Inkspirational and the Alphabet Challenge who are all about leaves, and autumn leaves in particular. I took Jen's layout and used that panel to feature one whole large sentiment, from the 'Beauty of Tomorrow' stamp set - take a look:

I covered my card front with some retired Nature's Poem designer series paper - I love those almost skeletal leaves in colours that change from green to rust. I added a piece of folded gingham ribbon tied with twine below my sentiment, along with a sponged embossed leaf trio as an accent:

I love the clean and fresh feel of this card, even though the colours are definitely reminiscent of cooler days and changing seasons.

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. 

Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with my project for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BEAUTY OF TOMORROW CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)	CAJUN CRAZE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	CAJUN CRAZE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	PALE PAPAYA A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)
FLOWERS FOR EVERY SEASON RIBBON COMBO PACK (£9.25)	BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (£10.25)

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and the lovely Vicky is our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

I went across the centre of the board this week with Diecuts/Leaves/CAS and paired with the gorgeous autumnal colours over at TGIF Challenges for a simple leafy thank you  - take a look:

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

I used my Stitched Greenery Die to add interest to my background, then added a trio of autumnal leaves in the TGIF Challenge colours cut using my Stitched Leaves Dies - a worthy annual catalogue carryover from last year’s seasonal catalogue and I was delighted to get these back out again for this card. I tied them with a linen thread bow and added a simple ’thank you’ sentiment that is actually from the ’Sweet Ice Cream’ stamp set, but is great for a fussy cut greeting - just the right size:

As you can see, today’s card is definitely all about the stitching - and not a needle and thread in sight!

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. 

A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge. 

Enjoy your day; so my laptop has officially died and is beyond recovery, hence no blog post yesterday and there probably won’t be one tomorrow either. Whilst I’ve still got an iPad and phone at my disposal, I really need the keyboard and software on my laptop to work efficiently, as well as screen real estate - my eyesight cannot cope with these teeny, tiny screens for any length of time! A new laptop is on its way though so I’m hoping to be back by the weekend with another project. Less tech time does mean more craft time though - the ladies that are signed up for my Background Stamps Class next week will have their work cut out when they see my samples! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

STITCHED LEAVES DIES (£33.00)	STITCHED GREENERY DIE (£30.00)	SWEET ICE CREAM PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MOSSY MEADOW A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	CINNAMON CIDER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	CHERRY COBBLER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	LINEN THREAD (£4.75)

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

For my card today I decided to pair a couple of cute turtle friends for a sweet clean and simple card - take a look:

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

I thought the two greens would make great turtle colours and the pink a bright accent, so I stamped a little turtle onto my panel, having first run the bottom edge of the panel through my dots embossing folder, added some grass and hearts and a little bird directly to the base before adding a larger turtle which I coloured and punched out and popped on some dimensionals for added lift:

A super simple little scene with a sweet sentiment that makes this a fun school snack box love note for one of the James Juniors as they are headed back to school this week (obviously with the pink toenails this one is headed to Rebecca - definitely wouldn’t suit Ben’s cool kid status to have pink varnished toenails!!)

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! color 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. Today it’s my birthday so I will be taking it easy (ish!) And definitely partaking in a Colin the Caterpillar birthday cake at tea time - it’s tradition! I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with another project but my laptop is currently with the IT doctor so it might be Thursday until service is temporarily restored (that post is already written and schedule). Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

TURTLE FRIENDS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£28.75)	CHECKS & DOTS EMBOSSING FOLDERS (£7.50)	POLISHED PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
POLISHED PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	EVENING EVERGREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	POLISHED PINK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	EVENING EVERGREEN STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SOFT SUCCULENT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm sharing a super clean and simple card for the following challenges:

The sketch over at InspireCreate was perfect for a clean and simple (CAS) card so I decided to grab a quick 10 minutes to create a card also inspired by the Addicted to CAS challenge of 'Nature' inspired by autumn colour and foliage - take a look:

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

Now I know here in the UK we are enjoying the second day of what looks to be a 4 day mini heatwave, but I couldn't resist the rich blackberry tones of the Blackberry Beauty designer paper on my card today. I just love the jewelled tones of this paper and I paired it with one of my current favourite generic sentiments from the 'Beauty of Tomorrow' stamp set, which finishes on the inside of my card:

Isn't that just the nicest sentiment? I debated whether to reverse the paper and 'white space' on my card, but decided that the strip on the sketch was perfect for really highlighting the beauty of the paper and its gold foil detail - just look at those pretty acorns and oak leaves: 

This is a great standby design if your pressed for time and a good way to use up those leftover strips of paper we all have in our craft room too.

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. 

Enjoy your day; mine's been a busy one, with pre-season football training this morning and a trip to buy new hiking boots in readiness for the next Duke of Edinburgh expedition amongst other things! At the rate at which teenage boys grow (or is it just mine?!) these have to be left until a few weeks before the hike; enough time to break them in, but not enough time to grow out of them!! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BLACKBERRY BEAUTY 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)

BEAUTY OF TOMORROW CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)

VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)

METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)

BLACKBERRY BLISS A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

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

LeAnne's theme was a timely one for me this week since my 'better half' celebrates a milestone birthday early next month so this gave me the perfect opportunity to make his birthday card. I thought the colours over at Just Add Ink were perfect for a fresh, masculine card and I absolutely love Kim's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches so I used this for my layout (albeit I created my card in a landscape orientation in order to fit all the words in! So first up - take a look at my card:

Whilst browsing the internet for birthday inspiration, I saw a pin badge that had the above phrase on it and I thought it would be perfect for a milestone birthday card and I know Jason will appreciate this kind of sideways humour. I stamped the phrase in Night of Navy using my retired 'Sophisticated Serif' stamp set with the 'F' highlighted in Coastal Cabana, which I carried through to my '50', diecut using my retired Large Number Framelits, and used for contrast on my background panels in some retired Brights DSP in a masculine argyle pattern.

Kim's sketch also features a vertical sentiment banner, which was the perfect place to add a happy birthday greeting (stamped using my retired 'Milestone Moments' stamp set) which I heat-embossed in silver on vellum so that it wouldn't obscure the message on my central panel. This was also the perfect place to add an embellishment of a trio of retired co-ordinating ribbons tied with silver twine:

My card is otherwise very clean and uncluttered, but I figured it might be a masculine card but a milestone birthday needs a little pizzazz, right?!

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

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; the forecast here is for a warmer day so we are hoping for one last BBQ before the James Juniors return to school and the summer well and truly leaves us for good. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

This card uses mostly retired products apart from the current colours so there is no supplies list today.

I've had a few days break from the blog as I make the most of the last few days of the long summer holiday before the James Juniors head back to school next week. I'm back today though and I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a theme challenge:

I used the great sketch over at Sunday Stamps for my layout this week. So many options for that central panel but with our theme this week of 'up in the air' I decided to feature a festive feathered friend on mine - take a look:

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

Happy Holly Days - First up, I have a little story for you! I can't tell you how many UK Leadership training events I've attended over the years where I've been in meetings where we've brainstormed ideas for future catalogues, and if I had a penny for every time the request for a traditional Christmas robin has been made I would be rich by now! The cardinal gets featured frequently in the Stampin' Up! catalogue and whilst he is a common visitor for many in Stampin' Up!'s global markets, the robin is a particularly European bird and doesn't travel as far south as the USA. As such, our requests have often fallen on deaf ears - until now! This year's mini catalogue has a beautiful robin just waiting to be coloured, so I had to scoop him up and I'm so glad to give him his first outing on my card today.

I've seen some interesting colours applied to this bird as I've browsed the internet, but my robin is true to type! His tummy is maybe a little more red than a real-life bird, since they are actually more of an orange-red colour, but I wanted to emphasise the red so went with Poppy Parade Blends and made mine a full-on 'robin red breast'. As for this set, not only does it have this lovely robin and some holly to colour (more on that in a moment) but it has some lovely sentiments for both the outside and inside of your cards. I used a large 'Noel' on the front of my card, then continued on the inside with this one:

Shimmer With The Holly Border - In addition to the holly in the stamp set, which I coloured and fussy cut and adhered around the feet of my robin, the stamp set is bundled with a holly border punch. I didn't use the border pattern in my design today, instead I punched it out of some Evening Evergreen vellum and then adhered the leaves in between my stamped ones for some extra sparkly detail:

 I did wonder if I was a little over-enthusiastic about this, but I do like the little added shimmer it adds to the card. Once complete I also wished I'd splattered my white rectangular panel as I felt it was a little too 'clean' (if there can ever be such a thing!) but I didn't want to remake or deconstruct, so added a trio in in-colour gems to break up the space and add a little more sparkle instead. 

Painted Christmas - For my split background panel, I chose two patterns from the Painted Christmas DSP pack. There are some lovely foliage patterns in this pack and I had a hard time choosing just two. I covered the join with some lovely dark green chevron weaved ribbon to complete my 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

 So what do you think? I really love this robin and am on a mission to feature him on lots of cards this season, especially since he has been so longed-for in terms of stamp sets! In the meantime, what will you choose to feature for our 'up in the air' theme this week?

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.

Enjoy your day; the James Juniors are off to get pre-school haircuts today and Ben for one needs it - the yeti currently has nothing on him!! Rebecca is actually going in for Sixth Form Induction day this afternoon and she is so excited! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

HAPPY HOLLY-DAYS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£36.75)	PAINTED CHRISTMAS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	STITCHED RECTANGLE DIES (£33.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
EVENING EVERGREEN (3/8" 1 CM) CHEVRON WEAVE RIBBON (£5.50)	2021–2023 IN COLOR SHIMMER VELLUM (£11.25)	2021–2023 IN COLOR JEWELS (£6.50)	POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SOFT SUEDE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BRONZE & IVORY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SHADED SPRUCE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SOFT SUCCULENT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

It's time for this week's new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches and since it's the 5th Tuesday of the month it's time for the double: a combination of an old sketch and colour palette, combined. Bhavya has chosen the following combination:

I struggled a little with this week's challenge! I don't have any of those retired colours, so went with my closest current match and after going through a ton of stamp sets and dies, I finally decided to go with an unconventionally coloured Christmas card featuring a trio of skinny trees for my shapes:

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

These tree dies are from the Christmas Trees Dies set in the Whimsy and Wonder suite and are the trees that caused me to invest in this set - I love the textured, skinny design. I layered them into the corner of my panel and used a greeting from the Whimsical Trees stamp set in the same bundle, having coloured it with my Stampin' Write Markers so that I could highlight the scripted words in Magenta Madness pink:

Super simple with only four products needed. I quite like the unconventional colour scheme for Christmas, but if you're more of a traditionalist it would work in reds and greens too!

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! color 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; we are going swimming and are making meatballs today amongst other things! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WHIMSICAL TREES BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£47.50)

2020-2022 IN COLOR A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

2020–2022 IN COLOR STAMPIN' WRITE MARKERS (£13.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

Happy Bank Holiday Monday to all my UK readers! It's the last holiday before Christmas so I hope you're going to make the most of it - maybe even squeeze in a little extra crafty time! Today I'm sharing another card featuring the Floral Squares Dies that I used on yesterday's card; this time using the sketch over at Fusion and colour inspiration from the fabulous photo over at Just Us Girls:

I love the Fusion sketch, which is a great layout for a wide variety of styles. I rotated the sketch through 90 degrees for my card and decided that I would focus on simple lines of block colour to draw the eye to just one of those gorgeous Floral Dies - take a look:

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

I added interest by tilting my diecut square and weaving my central stripe through the die and heat-embossed my sentiment from the 'Art Gallery' stamp set in white:

Super simple and another great way to feature those floral square dies!

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. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

FLORAL SQUARES DIES (£25.00)	ART GALLERY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£20.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	SO SAFFRON A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
SMOKY SLATE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	BASICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Jaydee to host this week and since it is the fifth Sunday of the month we have a tic-tac-toe challenge for you to work with:

I was spoilt for choice this week! In the end I decided to follow the diagonal and go with florals/diecut/square card and use four of the colours on the Color Dare palette to create a card to showcase my favourite Floral Squares Dies from the annual catalogue - take a look:

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

Three of the colours in the Color Dare palette feature in one of my favourite plaid designs in the now retired Plaid Tidings DSP from this time last year, but I still have some left so decided it would make a great frame to surround a central square showcasing each of the Floral Squares Dies. I backed each of my squares in the corresponding solid colour and stamped a two-part sentiment in Cajun Craze that finishes inside my card:

My card also features the retired in-colour Pretty Peacock, but it looks so good with those autumnal browns and yellows I just couldn't resist:

This card could be easily recreated with other papers or colours though, so if you don't have these ones in your stash, get creative with what you have!

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:

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; we have a long weekend here in the UK so will be making the most of the last public holiday before Christmas. The forecast is good - it might even be BBQ weather! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

ALL SQUARED AWAY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£41.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	CAJUN CRAZE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	CAJUN CRAZE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	CINNAMON CIDER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BUMBLEBEE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

Today I'm sharing a quick card that uses the sketch layout at Paper Craft Crew (I substituted the square with a circle) and this week's colours over at Colour Throwdown:

I love those bright primary colours and I couldn't resist the adorable inspiration photo! I decided to use some retired product and dug out my Harvest Hellos stamp set and Apple Builder Punch to create a teacher card for my stash - take a look:

A super simple design, I created a base of floating lines in blue and green and added my apple behind my heat-embossed sentiment:

No supplies list as the key items featured are retired, but if you have any specific queries, then pop a comment below and I will happily answer them.

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