Sea Turtle Miss You Mini Slimline CCS556

by Joanne James18. March 2025 12:00

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & SketchesThis week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Nancy has asked that we create a mini slimline card with any shape as the focal point:

  

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. For my card today I chose a sea turtle from the stamp set of the same name as the focal point for my mini slimline card - take a look:

 

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

I stamped my sea water bubbles in Azure Afternoon, overstamped with a couple of shoals of Calypso Coral fish and added a turtle that I fussy cut and popped on dimensionals:

 

A simple 'miss you' sentiment from the Friends For Life' stamp set completes my card. A simple stamps, ink and paper make for today - a quick and easy 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. 

Enjoy your day; I'm meeting a friend for a long-overdue catch up, which will be nice. I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Pretty Petals Thoughtful Moments CAS Thank You Card CCS555

by Joanne James4. March 2025 12:00

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: 

     

What a great set of fresh and zingy colours! For my card today I'm also playing along with the 'anything CAS' challenge over at AAA Cards with the optional twist of spring/spring colours with a simple thank you card packed with spring floral details - take a look:

 

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

Thoughtful Moments - I decided to use the Thoughtful Moments Hybrid Embossing Folder and Dies for the sentiment on my card today as I haven't used them for ages! I inked my embossing folder with Berry Burst ink to get the word outline before embossing and diecutting, then used my Berry Burst Blends to create a dip-dyed ombre look, before adding to my card base. It's difficult to see in the photos, but the embossing adds a really nice detail to a clean and simple card.  

Pretty Petals - I decorated my sentiment with clusters of flowers, stamped using the Pretty Petals stamp set. I stamped the stems directly onto the card base, in a mix of the greens, then stamped the petals in Berry Burst and diecut them before adding with dimensionals for a little extra depth:

 

The Pretty Petals stamps have an almost watercoloured effect, giving them a soft, airy feel - perfect for spring. In addition to individual blooms, you can stamp and diecut larger elements too - check out the set in more detail by clicking on the link to the Online Exclusives section of the store in the product table below. What's more, both the stamps and dies are currently reduced - so you could pick up a bargain too!

Finishing Touches - A white baker's twine bow and trio of white faceted gems complete today's 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. 

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 and I'll be back later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Birthday Celebration Make A Wish Cupcake CCS 554

by Joanne James18. February 2025 12:00

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & SketchesThis week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Suzy has asked that we layer a couple of shapes with the sentiment behind:

 

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

For my card today I decided to create a simple birthday card using the Birthday Celebration stamp set and Wildflower Celebration papers - take a look:

 

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

This card was so simple to make: I stamped my sentiment onto a stitched circle and for my accent added a cupcake, complete with candle, that I fussy cut from one of the mixed sheets in the Wildflower Celebration paper pack:

 

A few party dots complete the front of my card. I used a combination of the other sentiments in the Birthday Celebration stamp set to create this oversize greeting inside my card too:

Easy as that - the Birthday Celebration Suite is perfect for quick and easy birthday cards.

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:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

One Year Older CCS 553

by Joanne James4. February 2025 12:00

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

        

Whilst I love this week's trio of colours, I struggled to make them work together. I tried big and bold but ultimately settled on using each sparingly for a pop of CAS colour - take a look:

 

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

One More Year - I do love a funny card, so as soon as I saw the 'One More Year' stamp set I knew I'd have to add it to my collection. Fun images and quirky sentiments, what's not to love? I used the pug on my birthday card today and used the challenge colours for the pup's tongue and party hat with a touch of neutrals for the dog himself:

 

Centre Focus - The team over at Addicted To CAS currently have 'centre focus' as their theme and my birthday pug was just perfect for a single image to create a central focal point. There's something about his comical expression that just draws you in I think. I'm also linking up over at Inspire Create Challenges where the theme is clean and simple - right in my wheelhouse.

Birthday Fun - The 'One More Year' stamp set is full of fun, quirky sentiments - the one on the front of today's card pairs with this one on the inside:

 

I used Stampin' Blends to colour my pup, but Stampin' Write markers to colour my sentiment in a combination of Summer Splash and Basic Black; selective inking and a quick huff on the stamp to moisten it before you stamp, this is an easy effect to create. Use a stamping platform too to make alignment easy. Now to decide who to send my quirky pup to!

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:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

A Friendly Seagull At The Corner Shore CCS552

by Joanne James21. January 2025 12:00

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & SketchesThis week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Rachel has asked that we feature a torn corner on our cards:

 

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. 

I couldn't wait to use today's sketch to feature a shoreline and one of the fun seagulls from the new 'Terrific Seagulls' stamp set - take a look: 

 

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

So Swirly Sea - I used my So Swirly embossing folder to add some texture to my sea; the new Soft Waves 3D embossing folder would work perfectly too (but I don't have that in my collection - yet!) I then tore a piece of basic white for my sea 'foam' and painted it liberally with my clear Wink of Stella for some added sparkle and shine:

 

Friendly Seagulls - This is my first card that I've made with the 'Friendly Seagulls' set, but I have loads more to share with you - I just love this set! Great for cards and scrapbooking alike, quirky seagulls, shells, fish and chips and cute sentiments, I have so many great ideas for this set! I stamped some tone-on-tone pebbles onto my Basic Beige card base, then coloured and fussy cut one of the gulls to paddle at the shoreline. I added another of the seagulls in the set to the inside of my card too:

Another fabulous FREE gift that can be yours with a £55 purchase during Sale-A-Bration - does this set make it into your shopping basket? 

Finally A Confession - Finally, one last confession - it was only when I typed up my post that I realised that I put my sentiment in a different place to Rachel's sketch - hopefully she will forgive me!

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Simple Stamping with Terrific Toadstools for CCS

by Joanne James7. January 2025 12:00

It's Tuesday and time for a new year of challenges over at CAS Colours & Sketches. We have made few changes to our challenge this year - you can read about them in today's challenge post - and I'm sure you will agree they will set us up nicely for the year ahead. The lovely Rachel has taken over our blog admin and is also hosting this month. For our first challenge of the year we have a colour challenge: 

 

For my card today I had to break open some new product to play with and given the rather autumnal hues of this week's colour combo, I decided to get back to nature and feature the new Terrific Toadstools stamp set - take a look:

 

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

Terrific Toadstools - The 'Terrific Toadstools' stamp set is great for simple stamping. Fun sentiments and a selection of different toadstool images to mix and match, along with a cute ladybird too, this is a great set where you need little more than stamps, ink and paper to create a card. It's photopolymer too, so really easy to line up as you can see where you are stamping easily. 

Borderless Punch - Terrific Toadstools is actually a punch bundle - so if you're not a fussy cutting fan, you can achieve popped-up toadstools with ease. The punch is a borderless punch, that means that unlike some Stampin' Up! punches, where the image punches with a white border around the stamped image, the Terrific Toadstools punch punches the shape without a border. The punch was unfortunately not available on pre-order here in the UK, so I will be adding this to my collection at a later stage. For today's card I grabbed my paper snips and trimmed my mushroom pieces by hand - and because I like a white border, I left one in place as I trimmed :-)

Today's Top Tip - Whilst today's card is pretty much stamp, inks and paper, I do still have a top tip for you: I used a sponge dauber to add some Early Espresso to the gills of my mushrooms and to the edges of my mushroom stalks and I think this adds great depth and dimension to the simple mushroom shape:

 

What do you think? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts. How do these colours inspire you? Why not get out your supplies and link up your projects over at CAS Colours & Sketches - we'd love to see your creations.

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 later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Iconic Imagery Monochromatic Snowflakes for CCS550

by Joanne James3. December 2024 12:00

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & SketchesThis week's we have reached a milestone - it's our 550th challenge! As is traditional, for the final challenge of the year you can choose any of the challenges in 2024 - colour or sketch - and make it seasonal. I decided to choose my sketch from way back in March - here's a reminder of that sketch:

   

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. You can see the original card I made using this sketch hereFor my card today I decided to the Iconic Imagery stamp set - the images are the perfect size for this kind of layout - to create my seasonal card. Check it out:

 

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

I stamped six snowflakes in Azure Afternoon and added rhinestones at the centre for a little sparkle. I added my heat embossed sentiment to a little tag - I used the retired Tailored Tags Dies but you could use the label in the Iconic Imagery bundle or any other one of your choice and finished it with some silver twine:

 

My sentiment is from the retired 'Sparkly Seasons' stamp set as I made this card before I had purchased the current 'Sophisticated Sled' stamp set, which has another stamp with the same wording which would be a better current alternative. Another quick clean and simple Christmas card that is already in the post! I'm linking today's card up over at AAA Cards where the theme is 'anything CAS goes - with the optional theme of Christmas/winter', which I chose.

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:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Season of Green and Gold Noel for CCS549

by Joanne James19. November 2024 13:00

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & SketchesThis week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Patricia has asked that we add a horizontal sentiment with a couple of areas of detail top and bottom:

    

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. For my card today I decided to create another Christmas card using my Golden Greenery bundle and coordinating products - take a look:

 

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

NOEL - The Noel sentiment that I've used on today's card is a diecut straight from the Joyful Sayings Mix & Match Ephemera pack. I added it to a piece of gold foil and cut around the diecut to add a shadow layer, to help my sentiment stand out from the strip of designer series paper. The Joyful Sayings diecuts are so useful for adding quick sentiments to cards - a great standby during the festive season.

Season of Green & Gold - I used a piece of Old Olive and Very Vanilla gingham from the Season of Green & Gold designer paper as the base to highlight my sentiment and bordered it with a thin gold foil border to tie in with my overall design. I love gingham; it works on all types of card.

Golden Greenery - For the other elements of the sketch, I added some greenery and foliage from the 'Golden Greenery' stamp set, just adding the tips of the foliage so that it appears to be 'peeking out' from beneath the sentiment strip:

A few gold faceted gems complete my card. I'm also linking today's card up over at Inspire.Create where the theme is 'Christmas'.

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Christmas Classics for CCS548

by Joanne James5. November 2024 13:00

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

      

I'm also playing along with the 'anything goes' CAS challenge over at AAA Cards but since I thought these colours would be perfect for a Christmas card, I'm not going with the optional twist of Halloween. I decided to use an old favourite for my card today that would allow me to indulge in some inlaid diecutting - take a look:

 

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

Shy Shamrock is one of this year's new in-colours but I haven't used it much to date. The retired Christmas Classics bundle is a seasonal favourite of mine and the dies were perfect to showcase both shades of green:

I think Shy Shamrock adds a real freshness to this card - I love the colour combo this week and can't wait to see what our challenge entrants make of them 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! 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:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Celebrate The Season Of Green and Gold CCS547

by Joanne James15. October 2024 13:00

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & SketchesThis week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Laura has asked that we add a diagonal corner detail to our clean and simple cards:

 

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. For my card today I decided to make a feature of that corner with an offcut of Season of Green & Gold Specialty Designer Series Paper (another of my Online Exclusives favourites) that was the perfect fit:

 

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

Isn't that paper beautiful? I added a simple strip of gold foil and 'went large' with my sentiment, choosing one from another Online Exclusive, the 'Iconic Imagery' stamp set, and followed the line of my Old Olive cardstock base; I just love the large 'celebrate' stamp:

 

That's all there is to it - super simple and another Christmas card for the pile! This is such a great card design - perfect for using up scraps or strips of patterned paper and you could pair with any kind of sentiment 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 and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

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Hi I'm Joanne and live in Northampton and when I'm not looking after my husband and two beautiful children, am an avid crafter with a passion for all things Stampin' Up!

I must confess that I have never been a big rubber stamper - until I discovered Stampin' Up! that is. I love the fact that I can get such great results with co-ordinating stamps, inks, papers and punches - the possibilities are endless! Join me on my stamping journey as I share the things I love and be inspired to create amazing things yourself!

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