Happy Friday 13th - hope it's a lucky one! I'm progressing at pace with my Christmas cards and today I'm sharing a card that I made using Karren's sketch of squares over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I also chose pastel colours, something glittery and detailed diecuts from the inspo list over at Festive Friday and used all four of the Color Dare challenge colours to make a Christmas card in non-traditional colours - take a look:

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

I have been itching to use this new coverplate from A Pocketful of Happiness called Christmas Mosaic Backgrounds and Karren's sketch gave me the perfect opportunity. I didn't stick to the 6 squares, as I wanted to include as many of the squares as possible, so instead I went with a 3 x 4 design. Karren did say that the 6 squares serve as inspiration rather than needing to be taken literally, so that's what I went with. I cut the coverplate in each of the four colours - Balmy Blue, Lemon Lolly, Bubble Bath, Fresh Freesia and one in white - then used a white card base and a mat in Bubble Bath, to create my mix-and-match design. I switched out the bear and the snowflakes for white glimmer paper for some festive glitter and sparkle:

With so many spare bits and pieces, this was the perfect opportunity to make three more cards by switching out the elements - here's all four together: 

I used standard white cardstock for the remaining three as it gives better definition to the bear's face, but I do love the sparkle of my first one. This plate is much quicker to piece than the holly one I used yesterday as the pieces are larger - and a great way to get multiples in less time. I played about with both stamped and diecut sentiments, but in the end decided to leave the front blank - I couldn't bear to cover up any of those cute squares! I love the rather non-traditional colour palette too - it makes a nice change from my usual red and green.

Right - my gym session is done and I've a busy day today with a trip to the hairdressers, grocery shopping and laundry to contend with and I'm out with friends for dinner this evening, so I need to crack on!

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

Today I'm sharing a card for the current colour challenge over at Color Hues:

Red and green is my all-time favourite festive colour combination so I just had to play along. I have a new die that I thought would be perfect to showcase these colours - take a look:

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

I recently purchased the Holly Background Die from A Pocketful of Happiness and I thought it would make the perfect base for my card. I first cut the die in white and glued this to my white card base, then again in Real Red and Shaded Spruce and paper-pieced in the holly leaves and trio of berries - the photo below shows better the criss-cross pattern that links the tiny foliage clusters:

I finished with a sentiment from Concord & 9th's Holiday Sayings Dies that reminded me of the traditional carol to complete my card. Now, as simple as this card looks, the paper-piecing did take me quite a while. That said, I love the finished effect and it's a great way to showcase the challenge colours I think.

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

Today I've a super quick post to share a card I made earlier for a couple of challenges:

I thought I could combine that sketch from 52 Christmas Card Throwdown with the 'background embossing' challenge at CAS on Friday; take a look at what I came up with:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

I thought that the embossed wreath would work nicely for the sketch - although I'm note sure whether the team will approve of the placement of my clear berry clusters for those 4 outer elements - I just couldn't bring myself to have them floating in thin air!

A simple Merry Scripted sentiment completes my card. Right - off to catch the CAS on Friday gallery!!

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

Today I'm sharing a card that was inspired by Cecile's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches and Lisa's 'acorn' die theme over at Just Us Girls:

I almost didn't play along with either challenge; I couldn't get past those snowflakes on Cecile's layout and I didn't think I had any acorn dies. Then I was musing at my desk as my pilates class this morning was cancelled and I remembered the acorns in my Winnie The Pooh Sweet Words and Labels set and it unlocked both challenges in one fell swoop! Take a look at what I came up with:

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

Today it's Piglet that's in a spot of bother as he struggles to reach the door knocker of his friend's house - my image is taken from the Silly Old Bear designer series paper and I framed it using one of the dies in the Sweet Words and Labels bundle, and accented my woodland scene with what else but some diecut acorns from the same bundle: 

The sentiment is one I associate with Pooh hear himself, but it seemed perfect for my balancing Piglet today. Right - I'm hurrying off to the FMS gallery before I'm too late to join in the fun!

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow 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 my turn to host this week and I have a festive colour challenge for us to work with:

It's not essential to make a Christmas card with these colours, but that's exactly where I was headed - perfect for the word prompt over at Inkspirational too! I decided to have another go with my Altenew Winterberry embossing folder and coordinating stencils and this time use them to make a Christmas card - take a look:

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

I flipped the embossing folder and stencils around so that they created something of an arch across the top of my card, with the white space towards the bottom. After embossing my panel, I stencilled the poinsettias in Poppy Parade, the smaller berries in Real Red and the leaves and stems in Shaded Spruce with the larger berries in gold, before adding a fine splatter of gold paint:

 A gold foil diecut sentiment from Memory Box and a few clear gold sparkly gems complete my card. I have to say I think this card looks so beautiful in real life, but I'm not sure that my photographs capture it. The weather here has been so grey this week lighting has definitely been on my side and I wonder if the photos make my stencilling look a little patchy? Which is a shame, as I was very careful and laboured in my execution! Ah well, you will just have to take my word for it!

I'm so looking forward to seeing what you make with this week's colours! Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

Enjoy your day; the hubby is out paddleboarding this morning (rather him than me!) so I am going to do a little ironing and squeeze in some crafting, before a lazy late lunch this afternoon. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today I'm sharing a card that uses the layout over at Try A Sketch on Tuesday: 

I'll be the first to admit that the inclusion of 'snickerdoodles' nearly had me running to the hills, but I needed to make a birthday card for my bee-keeping nephew and thought I would try and combine to the two - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

I kept my card super clean and simple with the focal point of a gnome dressed as a bee, from the set 'Buzzing With Happiness' from My Favourite Things, but before adding him to my card base I stamped my punny sentiment and doodled a bee trail with a black Stampin' Write marker, having used a curved die to draw in a pencil line as a guide:

It's not perfect, but that's the point of a doodle, right? And that's all there is to it - a super simple Saturday card! It isn't my nephew's birthday for a couple of weeks, but he won't be reading my blog so I'm safe to share :-)

Enjoy your day; I have been busy writing up blog posts this morning, but since it was Guy Fawkes Night on Thursday this is the weekend for bonfires and fireworks displays and the hubby and I will be wrapping up warmly to head out to attend one later on with friends. We haven't done fireworks here since the James Junior was at school, as his senior school hosted a huge event each year. If I'm honest, I have mixed feelings - they can be good but when you're a Disney fan like me and you've seen the displays at Disney World, there really isn't much to compare! I'll be back tomorrow 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 theme challenge for us to work with:

I grabbed Jen B's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches for my layout today and some of my favourite retired plaid patterned paper for another Christmas card (or two!) - take a look:

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

Whilst I'm not always a fan of diagonal lines, Jen's FMS layout was perfect to highlight some festive plaid. I chose a strip of the retired Plaid Tidings DSP and since it had a gold foil in the pattern, I bordered my navy panels and the outlines of my paper-pieced poinsettia and berries in gold to tie in:

I added a simple foiled sentiment to complete m card and didn't even add any enamel dots as I really didn't want to distract from the floral and plaid. I really love this card in Night of Navy, which I chose for my base as it coordinated with one of my favourite plaids, but since I used the same Kristina Werner Poinsettia Inlay Dies for a previous FMS entry on a navy base, I decided to do a second version of this card, using a white base and another of the festive plaid patterns from the same pack, still with the gold detailing for my entry this week - so here's my 'take two':

 I love the clean lines of this card with the festive red, green and gold against the white and the poinsettia adds a fabulous pop of colour I think:

Here's both cards together; do you prefer one colourway over the other? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

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 am spending the morning in the kitchen and catching up on a few household chores, having had a super lazy day yesterday reading, sewing and generally relaxing, whilst the hubby is out on his paddleboard - it's too cold for me! Got to love a weekend! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

MAGICAL CHRISTMAS HOT FOIL DIES (ENGLISH) (£37.00)	GOLD STAMPIN' HOT FOIL ROLLS (£11.25)	UK/IE STAMPIN' HOT FOIL SYSTEM & CRAFT CLASS (£149.00)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)
REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SHADED SPRUCE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

Today I'm sharing a card for this week's 'anything goes' stencil challenge over at Just Us Girls:

I bought a new festive stencil a little while ago but had yet to ink it up, so this week's challenge over at Just Us Girls gave me the perfect opportunity - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

My stencil is from Uniko and is called 'Modern Layering Poinsettias': it's a set of 5 layers that allow for easy build up of the floral images. The stencil also features some smaller single-layer poinsettias in between the big ones, but I masked these out as I wanted m design to focus on the larger blooms. I kept things rather simple on today's card: a simple stencilled central panel, with a thin red mat and a sparkly red glimmer sentiment (this is a new Memory Box die - thank you Elizabeth!) that fits perfectly between the flowers:

I initially used a gold foil sentiment, but the red glimmer looked much more festive! I went with very traditional festive colours for my card today, but I think it would also look nice in other colour combinations too, which would stretch this stencil beyond the festive season. I'm also linking my card today up with a new monthly challenge called AAA Christmas Card Challenges (a sister to the popular clean and simple AAA Cards Challenge) which has been set up b the lovely Maaike where their theme is 'Traditional Christmas'; for me a bright red poinsettia is as traditional as a nativity or a Christmas tree in my home during the festive season - although I never seem to manage to keep them alive beyond the season unfortunately!

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

Happy Monday everyone! It's another wet one here in the UK but I have done all of my outside errands for the day so it's time to share today's card using Verena's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches:

This is one of my all-time favourite layouts and it gave me the perfect opportunity to play with some new dies - take a look:

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

These are the new Poinsettia Inlay Dies from Kristina Werner and Concord & 9th; I love the modern design and the pieces are all large enough that you and piece them together without too much difficulty. I cut the base and outlines in white and infilled with sold colour cardstocks - if you look closely you can see that the petals and leaves have lightly embossed veins too:

I added my poinsettia and winter foliage to a Night of Navy base, bordering my central panel with a thin edging of white to echo the paper-pieced die cut shapes. A simple festive sentiment using the Merry Script Dies and stamps complete my card.

I really like the simple framed layout and solid colour, which gives the floral quite a clean, modern feel I think. I'm looking forward to using the dies again so stay tuned to see more festive cards featuring them.

Enjoy the rest of your day; I'm heading over to the MFS gallery to link up then my ironing pile is calling! I'll be back tomorrow 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 Christy to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge for us to work with:

I decided to get out my Creative Celebrations paper and co-ordinating mix & match ephemera packs for today's card as they contain lots of options for that focal point  - take a look at which one I chose:

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

I used a Hydrangea Hue card base and a co-ordinating DSP that reminds me of a snowy sky, and embossed the edge of the white mat layer with the (retired) Snowflake Sky so that it was visible against the torn edge. I chose a diecut piece of a car stacked with gifts as my focal point. The strip of presents is also from the Creative Celebrations paper pack and was left over from a previous project and was perfect for the horizontal element:

A trio of of sparkly snowflakes and a silver opal foiled sentiment 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 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 am staying indoors and avoiding the wind and rain that has been battering the UK all weekend. I am cooking pie for dinner and hoping to get more of my cross stitch project completed this afternoon. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

HAPPIEST SEASON TAGS MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (£6.75)

CREATIVE CELEBRATIONS MIX & MATCH 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£13.00)

SILVER OPAL STAMPIN' HOT FOIL ROLLS (£11.25)

MAGICAL CHRISTMAS HOT FOIL DIES (ENGLISH) (£37.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

2026–2028 IN COLOR™ A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)