Today I'm sharing a super quick card that uses Jen M's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week:

I struggled to get away from Karren's Santa suit when I saw this layout, but in the end decided to fill that centre square with a festive sentiment and surround it with some greenery - take a look:

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

I had my A Little bit Festive paper pack out on my desk and realised that there was another of the foliage squares that I hadn't used, so I made my custom sentiment using 'Greetings of the Season', framed it in Real Red and backed it with my foliage square. Inspired by DT Kim's card, I went with a pine-embossed white background, but added a band of festive red across the centre for a pop of festive colour:

A trio of peppermint swirl dots complete my card, which incidentally did start off square as per Jen's layout, but my central square detail seemed too small for a 6" square card so I trimmed it down - it looks much better as a standard A6 size. Another simple festive card to add to my stash - I'm almost ready to stop making and start writing!

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. 

I have a longer-than-usual day today as the youngest of the James Juniors has a late stay at school as opposed to the usual extra early finish, so I am hoping to get lots done. The day didn't start too well with a water leak in the kitchen cupboard, but many soggy towels later that has now been dealt with so onwards and upwards! Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

GREETINGS OF THE SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)

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

REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)

REAL RED & WHITE ADHESIVE-BACKED PEPPERMINTS (8.00)

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

The open space of Steph's sketch allows for so many options. I thought I was going to go in a completely different direction, but I've been wanting to use this Reindeer Days paper and when I saw the inspiration of those two fluffy reindeer slipper in the bottom right corner of the Just Us Girls mood board I took it as a sign that today was the day - take a look:

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

I love the pattern on this Reindeer Days paper sheet, but as it's quite busy it doesn't work with all kinds of layout. That open space is just perfect though.  I made sure the design of the paper was centred, as this makes for a more harmonious design. I picked out the red for my festive diagonal stripe and part of my sentiment from 'Iconic Imagery' which I paired with a retired wooden diecut 'celebrate':

I added a few snowflake sprinkles for added decoration, but otherwise let the paper do all the work. Having made this card, I decided to make a second one using a smaller, cropped panel:

I paired this one with a heat-embossed 'celebrate' from Iconic Imagery and kept all other details the same. Whilst I like the smaller panel for bringing the reindeer more into focus, I prefer the sentiment placement on the first one. Here's a photo of both cards together - which one do you prefer?

I love this paper - and a great sketch too - thank you Steph!

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: 

REINDEER DAYS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (11.75)	ICONIC IMAGERY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (19.00)	WHITE LOOSE SNOWFLAKES (7.50)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)
VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)

I have a super early post for you today - welcome to the weekend! I was honoured to win the recent sketch challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown with this card and was delighted to be asked by Andreja to guest with them for their stash challenge this week:

Ribbon - well that's something I have lots of, but I don't often use on my cards. Lots of twine, yes, but ribbon - not so much! It's great for special occasion cards, but can add bulk which isn't great for posting. If you, like me, have lots of ribbon though and would like to use it on a Christmas card with no bulk - I have the perfect card design for you! Take a look:

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

A ribbon Christmas tree! I used a retired Stitched Triangle Die to cut out my tree shape, but you could cut a simple shape using your trimmer or use any punch or tree-shaped die you have. All you have to do is add some double-sided tape on the reverse around the outside and stick your ribbon strips in a hapharzard design pattern across the back until the whole aperture has been covered. Stamp a greeting, adhere to your card base, add a star to the top of your tree and you're done! It looks more festive if you have ribbon with a little sparkle or metallic edging as I've done here:

This works with ribbon in lots of colours and is a great way to use up ribbon ends and scraps too. You could even use it with thin strips of cardstock and trimmings if you don't have any ribbon to hand. 

It's great to find a way to use ribbon on a card that is still clean and simple in its style - I'm sure the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown gallery will be full of fabulous inspiration, so be sure to check it out.

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

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a speed challenge chosen by Jan:

Trees offer us so many options and feature on so many different types of cards. I am still making Christmas cards and found the perfect answer to a quick card - take a look:

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

A Little Bit Festive - It will no surprise to my regular readers that the time-saving hack for today's card was found in the A Little Bit Festive paper pack. The Christmas tree that is the focal point for today's card is a pre-printed panel that was ready to go - I just pushed it out of the paper sheet and done! I couldn't leave it there though! I picked out the red and green colours in the design and added a couple of panels behind to add a little more interest and robustness to my card.

Joyful Sayings - My Christmas tree has a gold foiled star and that led me to one of the pre-diecut sentiments in the Joyful Sayings Ephemera pack for an impactful overlaid sentiment. I added it to my card with some snippets of dimensionals for a little lift and completed my sentiment with the only stamping (apart from the inside) to feature on today's card with the word 'happy' from the 'Greetings of the Season' stamp set:

I considered adding some gems to my finished card, but decided it against it, not on the grounds of time but more that I didn't want to clutter my clean design.

Christmas on Speed - The festive season is always a great time to have some quick and easy card making ideas to hand - so this week's challenge is definitely a timely one. How long did my card take today?

Six minutes exactly - woohoo! There are lots of other panels in the A Little Bit Festive paper pack that can be used for similar quick and easy 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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• 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 tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

A LITTLE BIT FESTIVE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) MIX & MATCH SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.50)	JOYFUL SAYINGS MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (ENGLISH) (9.00)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)
GREETINGS OF THE SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)

Today I'm sharing a super-quick card that I made for the current sketch challenge over at AAA Cards:

This card is a real 'scraps off the desk' card; I had lots of animals cut from retired Penguin Playmates designer paper in my scraps box and I thought they would make a fun trio peeking out of those diecut aperture windows:

I added a sentiment from the retired 'Penguin Place' stamp set that is also in triplicate and - job done!

This card is going into my box of cards ready to send to Ben when he hopefully heads off to uni next year - I think it makes for a fun, seasonal 'hello' card.

Enjoy your day; I'm catching up with a friend and I'll be back here tomorrow with another project for our new challenge over at As You See It. Until then, happy stampin'!

Happy hump day everyone! Yes it's midweek and freezing cold here in the UK, so I'm hiding away on the warmth of my craft room and have another Christmas make for you! I couldn't resist those deep, jewelled tones over at Colour Inkspiration which totally got me thinking about Christmas baubles! So I went hunting through my extensive stash of retired tree decorations and happened to find one that allowed me to play along with the team over at Just Us Girls where the code word is JOY:

I decided to use the sketch over at Sunday Stamps for a second go (this is such a great layout!) and set to work - take a look at where I ended up:

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

I was so tempted to use my favourite JOY stamp from 'Joyful Nativity' for the Just US Girls Challenge, but when I rediscovered this bauble in the Delicate Baubles Dies set, I decided to use this instead. I added a strip of metallic gold vellum and a subtle splatter of gold Wink of Stella to my Pretty Peacock card base, then added my gold and blue ornament, picking out the berries with some Melon Mambo enamel dots - be warned, you need a lot!

I finished the sentiment by heat embossing some words from another retired stamp set, 'Peaceful Wreath', onto the card base and added a few gold gems to complete my card. Actually quite a straightforward card - I love these rich colours 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:

PRETTY PEACOCK A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

BLUEBERRY BUSHEL A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)

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

SEASON OF GREEN & GOLD 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (16.00)	GOLDEN GREENERY BUNDLE (54.00)	JOYFUL SAYINGS MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (ENGLISH) (9.00)	ADHESIVE-BACKED METALLIC GEMS (8.50)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
OLD OLIVE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)

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

With only 37 days to go until the big day, it certainly should be feeling a lot like Christmas about now! I used the sketch over at Sunday Stamps for the layout of my card this week and grabbed my A Little Bit Festive paper pack and set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

I added a Night of Navy panel to my white cardbase, then added a strip of navy and white gingham and a co-ordinating diecut wreath. A diecut sentiment from the Joyful Sayings pack and a few gold enamel dots and a gold twine bow to pick up on the gold splatters on the wreath complete my card:

Adding a colourful wreath to my front door is one of the first things I do at the start of the festive season and I think this card captures the spirit of the season perfectly. No stamping on today's card either, apart from the sentiment inside my card. Clean and simple, quick and easy - so I'm linking up over at The Alphabet Challenge Blog where they are on 'Q for Quick and Easy' 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 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: 

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

JOYFUL SAYINGS MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (ENGLISH) (9.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)

NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

ADHESIVE-BACKED METALLIC GEMS (8.50)

I have a quick post to share I card I made to day to play along with a few challenges using a stamp set that I have yet to break the seal on. I used Jen T's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches the colours at Hand Stamped Sentiments. I'm also playing along over at Addicted To CAS where the codeword is SNOW:

I've had the Yuletide Village stamp a little while but not had the opportunity to use it until now. I thought it would be perfect for this challenge - take a look:

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

I stamped the tree at the front, then masked it and stamped my brick wall, before then masking both and stamping my church. I then masked the church too and added a hint of Balmy Blue sky using ink and a blending brush, before adding just a hint of colour elsewhere with my Stampin' Blends. I added a few snowflakes to the sky with a white gel pen and covered the snowy areas with a liberal dose of clear Wink of Stella:

This is quite difficult to see in the photos, but is SO sparkly in real life! I added a thin Cherry Cobbler border and a two-tone sentiment from 'Sophisticated Sled' to complete my card. I had so much fun creating this card and can't wait to make a whole village next time! 

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; I'll be back tomorrow with another project for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

YULETIDE VILLAGE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (18.00)	SOPHISTICATED SLED PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (23.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)	WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (8.50)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	BALMY BLUE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)
CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	CHERRY COBBLER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	GRAY GRANITE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	GRAY GRANITE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (7.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (14.00)

Today I have another Christmas card to share with you but firstly I need to remind you that the seasonal sale that I told you about yesterday is now LIVE:

• 20% OFF ALL STAMP BUNDLES AND DESIGNER SERIES PAPERS
• 10% OFF SELECT INKS AND CARDSTOCK (including Blends and ink refills)

I'll do a post tomorrow with some cards I've shared previously that highlight some of the great bargains to be had. Meanwhile, today I'm sharing a card that I made for a few challenges that caught my eye:

Color Hues are featuring red and black as their current colour combo, so I grabbed the sketch over at TGIF Challenges (which is a keeper - super versatile!) and added in some twine so that I could play along over at Festive Friday too and got nostalgic with an old favourite - take a look:

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

I decided that a red and black colour combo was made for Santa Claus - so I went into my retired box to find this cutie from the 'Signs of Santa' stamp set, coloured him with my Stampin' Blends and added a piece of  textured striped Santa's Workshop paper for him to sit on. I tied this with some white baker's twine and added a trio of white loose snowflakes from the current mini - love these!

Whilst I had the set out on my desk, I also made a second card, this time featuring Mrs Claus:

This card was more faithful to the sketch as I omitted the twine and added two separate DSP strips, along with a little extra colour for the holly in her hair. Here's both cards together - Santa is still my favourite of the pair -how about you?

It was fun to delve into the retired box for this pair of fun cards and pair them with something new to give a fresh look. Do you have a favourite retired Christmas set that you can't resist pulling out year after year? 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 and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WHITE LOOSE SNOWFLAKES (7.50)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (7.50)
BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (10.25)