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 sketch challenge:

I decided to have a play with some designer papers from the new mini catalogue for today's card and add another Christmas card to my stash - take a look:

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

Christmas Tags and More - The diecut strips of patterned paper on today's card are from the new Christmas Tags and More designer series paper pack. This is a 6"x6" pack that is exactly that: some great festive designs, with everything from the mistletoe pattern I used on today's card to plaid, some of which can be easily cut into tags, along with a few sheets of pre-diecut co-ordinating shapes. This is your go-to pack for speedy Christmas cards and packaging - I can see me using a lot of it!

Serene Greens - I used a Soft Sea Foam card base for today's card. This colour doesn't feature directly in the DSP, but it compliments the boldness of the Garden Green mistletoe perfectly.  I chose to feature three punched sprigs of mistletoe as the 'anchors' to my DSP panels. You can see them with their pearl berries better here:

In hindsight I might have added a little extra detail to those punched leaves with a gel pen, to help them stand out a little better. Regardless, I think they work!

A  Mix of Old and New - I paired my new papers with some existing - retired - items from my stash: the sprig punch I used for my mistletoe and the Tidings and Trimmings set for the 'Noel' and greeting on the inside of my card:

Now that I'm no longer running regular classes, this is something you should expect to see me do here on my blog more often. Whilst I am in the process of having a good clear out (expect to see a preloved sale here sometime in the near future!), and I will continue to showcase my favourite new products, there are lots of retired items that are firm favourites that co-ordinate too well with new things to not put them to good use! 

I'm linking today's card up over at Inspire.Create Challenges where their challenge is 'It's never too early for Christmas' - so true!

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.

Finally, my trusty laptop unexpectedly 'died' with no warning earlier this week, so there may be some gaps with product details and links to the online store in this and my next few posts that will be added at a later date, since I am posting on the fly at the moment! My laptop is with the PC doctor so fingers crossed he works out whether resuscitation or replacement is the order of the day in short order, as I currently feel as if I've lost a limb lol! Enjoy your day and I'll be back on Sunday with my Paper Players project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SOFT SEA FOAM A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

IRIDESCENT PEARL BASIC JEWELS (£7.00)

CHRISTMAS TAGS & MORE 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) MIX & MATCH SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)

I have a super quick post to share a couple of cards I made today using the current layout over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge:

I was searching through my stash looking for something for another project, when I found some paper that I thought would be perfect for the sketch - take a look:

The rows of trees on this Storybook Gnomes paper reminded me of the sketch layout. I paired it with a simple sentiment and used some glimmer paper for a little extra festive sparkle:

I liked this card so much I made another one - here are both together:

Pretty much everything I used on these cards is retired - so I won't list the details here - these were just for fun. Back tomorrow with my Paper Players projects!

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a recipe challenge with the ingredients chosen by the lovely Heather Cooper:

Lots of ingredients in this week's recipe! The black/white/gold colour combination was my starting point and I had a look through my retired paper stash as I knew I had some options featuring those colours. I happened a pack of Merry Little Christmas paper and immediately everything fell into place and yes, by complete coincidence, I have another Christmas card for this week's AYSI card - take a look:

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

A Retired Celebration - I happened upon this black and white starry night paper and thought it would make the perfect night sky for a layered scene created using my retired Bethlehem Edgelits dies (I added some gold borders using some other retired paper from my stash). I cut both pieces in white and added a gold glimmer star, along with some clear rhinestones to the centres of the stars on the paper - you can just about make them out if you look closely:

Night In Bethlehem - My heat-embossed sentiment is from the co-ordinating (retired) stamp set called 'Night In Bethlehem'. I used another of the sentiments and an image from the same set to add a verse and decoration to the inside of my card:

All in all, not too tricky to make up that recipe when I got going - and another Christmas card for my pile using one of my favourite religious Christmas sets to boot.

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.
• For a Recipe Challenge use all elements of the recipe - the possibilities within those parameters are endless.
• 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'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)

METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)

RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£5.75)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

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

OK - hands up: how many of you save little bits and pieces thinking 'I'm sure they will come in handy'? Well, this week Jan's recycling challenge is the perfect opportunity for you to get them out and turn them into something! I received a gift last Christmas that had the little wooden tag on that I used on today's card attached - and it has been sat in my embellishments box ever since. So today was the perfect opportunity to turn it into a new project - take a look at what I came up with:

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

In the spirit of the challenge, not only did I recycle this wooden tag, but the paper and diecuts on my card were also leftovers from other projects that I found in my scrapbox. The paper is from the Winter Meadow DSP pack which is still available (link at the bottom of this post). I had one small piece, so cut a horizontal patterned piece then cut another using the blue pattern on the reverse to sit behind it. The diecuts were also leftovers from my box: the Lost Lagoon pieces I snipped from a larger pinecone diecut and the Shaded Spruce pine sprigs were also a good match for the paper, so I used those too! I tied the wooden sentiment tag with some (retired) silver twine and added a sprinkle of rhinestones for some added wintry sparkle:

Since the sentiment was etched onto the wooden tag, this became a no-stamping card - other than for a sentiment on the inside. So quick, easy and used up lots of bits and pieces - and another Christmas card for my stash!

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: 

WINTER MEADOW 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£5.75)

I've had a quiet blogging week this week, but have got some makes ready to share over the next few days. I'm behind with my Christmas cards, so when I saw this week's challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, I couldn't resist digging out my favourite retired nativity set, Joyful Nativity, with a bunch of other retired bits and pieces to make a quick card to play along:

Here's my card:

I heat embossed my image in gold onto Very Vanilla cardstock, and paired it with a scrap of starry retired Christmas paper, and added a single gold gem to my star to finish:

No visual summary of the key products used on today's project or supply list, as all of the key elements are retired; this was simply for fun and to build up that Christmas card stash!

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

Today I'm sharing a couple of cards that I Made for this week's challenge over at TGIF Challenges where they have a product challenge focusing on alphabet dies this week:

I have been lax in keeping up with my Christmas card making, so inspired by a couple of my blog friends who made Christmas cards in the past week, I though I should remedy the situation. It's a great opportunity to play along over at Inkspirational too, where the theme is seasonal - I suspect there will be more sunshine than snow in their gallery, but I'm not going to let that stop me! What's more, using my Mini Alphabet Die gave me the opportunity to make two at the same time with hardly any extra effort - take a look at the first one:

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

Mini Alphabet - As with this card here, I used my Mini Alphabet Dies to create my custom sentiment, cutting the alphabet several times in black and adhering to some white cardstock, cutting around this allowing for a border, to for the base:

If you're someone that has a habit of losing or misplacing letters in your alphabet die sets, the Mini Alphabet Dies might be a great solution for you! All of the letters are attached and you can diecut the whole alphabet (including duplicates of commonly used letters) in one go. Any letters you don't need you can set aside for future projects. 

Two For One - Having completed my card, I used my leftover negative alphabet diecuts to make a second card:

I simply cut each letter into a rectangle using my paper snips, and again adhered to a piece of white cardstock, this time with the white cardstock forming the letters courtesy of the negative diecuts:

This is a great way to make two cards in one, with very little extra effort. You might want to keep the little pieces that create the letter infills (such as the A and O on my card). I chose not to use them on this occasion and I think it looks fine without - but it's entirely up to you. 

I added a simple background using some retired festive DSP from my stash and added some diecut holly as an embellishment to complete my cards.

Here's a photo of both cards together:

You can use the same principle with other alphabets too. Is this a technique that you ever use? Do let me know in the comments below!

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; yes, I must be crazy sharing Christmas cards on what is predicted to be the hottest day of the year here in the UK, but I can assure you I am loving the sunshine! I'll be back tomorrow with another project for our new challenge over at As You See It. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

MINI ALPHABET DIES (£29.00)

POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)

OLD OLIVE A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)

REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's our last Paper Players challenge of the year before we take a break for Christmas! It's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host this week and she has a rich colour challenge for us to work with:

I knew that my starting point for this card would be the Season of Elegance Specialty designer series paper as it features all of Ann's chosen colours this week. I decided to pair it with the Sophisticated Sled bundle for a rich Christmas card and using the above layout from Sketch Saturday where they are asking us to choose a previous sketch (I took the optional twist and went with sketch #341 from 2014) and set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

I used the reverse of the Pretty Peacock Seasons of Elegance foiled paper for the base of my card, then added a panel of the foiled side, matted with gold foil, for the centre. I added my diecut skates and foliage from the Sophisticated Sled bundle, then picked out the Cherry Cobbler in my sentiment banner, skate laces and a rather over-the-top ribbon bow:

A few textured gold enamel dots and some gold twine complete my card. Talking a leaf out of my PP teamie Elizabeth's book, I made two cards at the same, adding a smaller, more post-friendly bow to the second card; you can see them both together below:

As you know I don't often use a lot of ribbon on my cards, but I really love the showy ribbon bow on today's card; totally impractical for posting, but beautiful! Worth the hand-delivery, I'm sure you will agree. The Seasons of Elegance papers are so beautiful too and the foiling really adds a touch of luxury to these 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 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 battling storm winds and rain here in the UK, so I will definitely be staying inside keeping warm. I am making Christmas crumble for dessert today - if I remember I'll take a picture to share in a future post. I am pretty much done with making Christmas cards now (although I still have a few more to share with you this week!) I am now in the throws of writing them, so that will be this afternoon's task. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SOPHISTICATED SLED BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (50.25)	SEASON OF ELEGANCE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (16.00)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)	GOLD TEXTURED ADHESIVE-BACKED DOTS (7.50)	CHERRY COBBLER & GOLD 1/4" (6.4 MM) SATIN RIBBON (7.50)	PRETTY PEACOCK A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)	CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)

It's the weekend - yay! Today I'm here bright and early with you as further to my recent win over at AAA Cards (you can see that card here if you missed it), the lovely Maaike invited me to join them for their new challenge as a guest designer. Not only that, but it's my favourite - a sketch challenge! Here's the sketch that we are following:

I tried a few different things with this sketch, resisting the temptation to use snowflakes as per the sketch. In the end, my favourite one was using a retired favourite and a beautifully clean and simple abstract take on the sketch and a trio of blues from the Color Dare palette - take a look:

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

I started by stamping my treeline in Versamark and heat embossing them in white, then masking a rectangle in readiness for my ink blending, leaving the treeline overhanging the rectangle slightly on the right hand side, although this is difficult to see in the picture. I punched out a circle and masked the moon, before stamping my snowdrift in Balmy Blue, along with my deer and their shadows. Using my blending brush, I then added a touch of Balmy Blue ink to the edges of the bottom snow-covered portion of my scene, before blending my sky, starting with Balmy Blue then adding Azure Afternoon and (retired) Orchid Oasis working outwards from the moon to create my night sky. 

Having removed the mask, I added a touch of clear Wink of Stella to the bottom inside edge of the moon and to the heat-embossed trees, finishing with a fine splatter of white ink to give the look of snow in the air:

The serenity of this winter scene led me to search for the perfect sentiment which I found in another retired stamp set, 'All Is Calm'; I stamped it in Orchid Oasis and popped it up on dimensionals, overlaying my inked panel. That completes my card, which turned out just as planned - I love it when that happens! This is one of those sets I don't feel I used enough when it was current and it is so great for CAS cards. Do check out the Design Team cards over at AAA Cards - I'm sure they have some amazing interpretations of this layout 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:

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (14.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	AZURE AFTERNOON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (8.50)
VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's our final challenge of the year and it's a sketch challenge, designed by Jane:

I don't know whether it's pre-Christmas overwhelm, but I struggled with Jane's sketch this week. I decided to make a Christmas card and feature some of the cute reindeer on the Reindeer Days designer series paper - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

I started with the image of the cute baby reindeer building a snowman and used my Stylish Shaped Dies to cut it out to give a little detail to the border edges. I backed this with a panel of snowflake-embossed white cardstock and added this to my Pool Party cardbase before adding a couple of additional strips of designer paper:

I took a slight liberty with the sentiment in terms of positioning; I used a pre-printed tag from last year's retired Memories & More Kit, tied with a little silver twine. Quite a quick and easy card, even with all the layers. This was actually the second card I made - here's the first one:

On this card I used one of the horizontal elements for the sentiment, again using a retired Memories & More banner sticker. I prefer my second card though - I think that little reindeer building his snowman is super cute! Here's a photo of both cards together - which one is your favourite? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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 tomorrow bright and early with another Christmas card as I am guesting over at AAA Cards. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

REINDEER DAYS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (11.75)

SNOWFLAKE SKY 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (10.25)

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)

POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This 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 here. For 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:

ICONIC IMAGERY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (36.75)

RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (5.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)

AZURE AFTERNOON A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

AZURE AFTERNOON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)