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 my favourite, a sketch challenge, for us to work with:

I really like this sketch - the eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed I used this layout for the speed stamping card I made on Friday (you can see that card here if you missed it)  and I have another card later this week that uses it too. On each of these cards, I've tried to use the panels in different ways. For today's card, I'm using some cute retired Cute As A Bug designer paper and one of my favourite dies for that rectangular panel - take a look:

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

I decided to add a piece of DSP featuring tiny flowers to the front of my card (this is one of the Cute As A Bug patterns); this allowed me to make a feature of the rectangular panel with the circles panel diecut from the Lovely Arrangements bundle. I added a stitched circle as the base for my fussy-cut insect carrying her flower and paired her with a sentiment from the Lovel Arrangements bundle too:

A heart and a couple of enamel flowers from my stash were the finishing touches for this otherwise quite simple card. I was enjoying fussy cutting whilst I had this pack of paper out on my desk, so took the opportunity to make a second card using it too - I'll share that one with you tomorrow. This really is a great sketch - I can't wait to see what you all make with is this week!

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; it's a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK and for once the sun is shining and it's glorious! I will be spending my day in the garden, reading and soaking up the beautiful weather whilst it lasts! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

LOVELY ARRANGEMENTS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£45.75)

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

MOSSY MEADOW A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

MOSSY MEADOW CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)

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

I decided I would go with tulips as my flower bulb of choice and focus on using the stamps rather than the dies in the Sunshine & Tulips bundle for a change. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

Simple Stamping For Speed - Given that this week is our speed stamping challenge week, where you have to make your card in under 10 minutes, I had to bear this in mind when I thought about the design for my card. I decided to keep the shapes simple and with the exception of the diecut circle, everything else was simply cut to size with a trimmer. I used the row of tulips stamp to create a panel of repeated tone-on-tone stamping which I stamped freehand for speed and then trimmed to size when I was happy with the length. I stamped the larger tulip onto my diecut circle, then finally overlaid this with a strip featuring my sentiment. Simple! 

A Trio of 2026-28 In Colo(u)rs - I thought I'd ring the changes with this set by featuring three of the new 2026-28 In Colours: Peaceful Pine, Crisp Cantaloupe and Barely Blush. I must say I wasn't a fan of Crisp Cantaloupe first time around some years ago, but I am liking it more this time around - it compliments the other In Colours nicely. 

If you like the new set of In Colors, remember you can receive them for FREE in addition to the usual free product you receive when you sign up to be a Stampin' Up! demonstrator during the month of May - why not give it a go? If you'd like to know more, please do get in touch as I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

A Timely Finish - So how long did my card take me to make? 8 minutes and 37 seconds:

Honestly, that's quite a long time for such a simple card, but the reason for this is that I had to stamp that focal point tulip a couple of times before I was happy (enough) with the result. I was struggling to get a sharp image - I clearly need more practice with the combination of photopolymer stamps and the new ink pads. As you can see above, the image still wasn't perfect but given the need for speed I think it can pass on this occasion.

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; it's predicted to be a scorcher this Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, so mine is starting with a session at the gym, followed by grocery shopping and a couple of appointments before heading out to the river to get on my paddleboard for the first time this year. Wish me luck! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)

SUNSHINE & TULIPS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)

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

2026–2028 IN COLOR™ CLASSIC STAMPIN' PADS (£63.00)

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 the turn of the fabulous Ann to host this week and she has a fun clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

Food, glorious food! I don't have anything current that fits the bill for this one, so I reached for an old favourite, Taco Fiesta, for my card today. I grabbed Verena's fab sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week (it's a keeper!) for my layout and set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

The retired Festive Birthday designer series paper gave me the colour scheme for today's card. I don't think I've ever paired it with Taco Fiesta, yet the bright Mexican patterns make it a great fit. I chose one of the busier patterns, covered in maracas, pinatas, guitars, sombreros and tiny chillies for my main piece and a strip with coordinating stripes to border it. I stamped my sentiment in the central circle and framed it above and below with a collection of guacamole-related images from the stamp set that I stamped and coloured with my Stampin' Blends:

With a nod to our challenge badge this week, I gave my avocado and cactus cute faces - there's something about food with faces that makes me smile! I added a little extra decoration, including a smiling taco, to the inside of my card too: 

I really love the bright colours and fun feel of this birthday card, although I'm probably pushing my own boundaries in terms of clean and simple - but the paper was so fun and I couldn't resist creating the little foodie clusters! So take this as your reminder - if you're playing along this week, we are looking for clean and simple cards featuring food: minimal layers, uncluttered with minimal embellishments too and lots of 'white' space. We are looking forward to your food-themed 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 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; a quiet day here in the James household today I think - nothing much planned. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Happy Monday everyone - a new card for a new week! Today I'm sharing a card that uses Jen T's fabulous layout over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I do love a good sketch and as soon as I saw this one I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it! Take a look at what I came up with:

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

My eye was immediately drawn to the vertical rectangle in Jen's sketch and I thought it would be perfect for the main image in the Friendly Foliage bundle. Once that decision had been made, everything else flowed from there! I chose some light and summery retired Floral Delightpapers for the background (perfect for the uplifting sentiment) and picked out the colours for both my stamping and layers that make up the rest of my card. I did tweak the sketch slightly (I hope Jen doesn't mind) as I wanted the circle to be my sentiment, so in order to keep things balanced I stamped a decorative line where the sketch sentiment banner would have been - you can see it more closely below:

I also added a little additional stamped detail to the inside of my card to finish:

This is a great layout that can be used in lots of ways - a keeper for sure that I will undoubtedly use again.

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 am off to my Pilates class and then home to tackle today's to-do list! I'll be back tomorrow with another project for this week's new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

FRIENDLY FOLIAGE BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£36.75)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	LEMON LOLLY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	OLD OLIVE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
LEMON LOLLY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	RAINBOW ADHESIVE-BACKED DOTS (£5.10)

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 a fun clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

Baby animals! I knew exactly where I was going with this one, so I grabbed the sketch over at Inkspirational and the colour palette at Just Add Ink and set to work - take a look at today's card:

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

Cutest Crew - I'm sure my regular readers would have guessed that the 'Cutest Crew' stamp set might make an appearance today - after all, those kitties and puppies are just too cute! I actually bought this set originally because of the dogs, but until now I've only used the birds and the cats - go figure. Today's card was the perfect opportunity to remedy that though, so puppies for the win! Instead of stamping the row intact, I stamped each puppy individually, masking off the others each time, so that I could then diecut 4 squares as per the sketch. I coloured them with my Stampin' Blends - you can see the detail more closely below:

Hydrangea Hue Blue - I made a card earlier in the week that used the Just Add Ink inspiration and I love their colour combo so much that I wanted to play again, this time featuring the browns too. I used the upcoming new in-colour, Hydrangea Hue, for my card base - I think this might be my new favourite blue! Think the retired Boho Blue, but with a slight purple hue - lovely!

Finishing Touches - As it's clean and simple week, I wanted to keep layers to a minimum, keep plenty of clean 'white' (or in my case blue) space with a few well-chosen embellishments. I used a small sentiment from the Lovely Arrangements stamp set, added some In Colour pearls and left the only other decoration to a simple stamped border inside my card: 

There you go - clean and simple and a cute crew indeed! This card is going into the pile that I keep to send to Ben when ever I'm sending care packages to him at uni. I like to send him little surprises in the post - although sometimes it's things he's forgotten too, such as cricket whites earlier this week! He certainly keeps me on my toes.

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. 

Which baby animals are you going to feature on your cards this week? Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you:

Enjoy your day; my niece and her partner recently bought their first home so Jason and I are going to visit for the grand tour today, then I am going to my sister-in-law's for afternoon tea, so I have a fun day planned! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Happy Easter everyone! 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 and seasonal theme challenge for us to work with:

Spring showers - well April is certainly the month for those! I had to dig in to the retired box for supplies for today's card, but I knew I had just the thing. I used the layout over at Try A Sketch on Tuesday and set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

I focused on patterns including umbrellas from the Rain or Shine specialty designer series paper pack for my card today. I used two vertical panels of embossed umbrellas, then from a separate sheet fussy cut a dog with an umbrella and added him to a Stylish Squares diecut square, to which I added some blue ink and stamped raindrops and a couple of fussy cut rainclouds:

A simple sentiment from the retired 'Playing in The Rain' stamp set completes 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 hope you take the time to indulge in an Easter egg or two (well, it would be rude not to, right?!) I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

BALMY BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host this week and as it's the 5th Sunday of the month she has a fun tictactoe challenge for us to work with:

I  went across the top row and also down the middle column with diecut/twine/sentiment and twine/flowers/patterned paper and cut into more of my Lovely Blossoms papers for today's card - take a look:

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

I made this card at the same time as I made this one a couple of weeks ago, but for this one went with the pale pink/peach, blue and white colour scheme. I used a white cardbase and a mat of two white dicut circle panels, then created a montage of papers in two different sized squares, cut with the Stylish Shape Dies. I then added a stamped flower and some leaves, and a simple skinny block sentiment, all from the Lovely Arrangements bundle:

A twine bow and some enamel dots complete my card. This one feels cleaner than the last card I made with this set, but still showcases the pretty colours and patterns of those papers. I'm so glad I bought this suite!

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'!

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the first of a new month - Happy St David's Day to my fellow patriots! - and the turn of the fabulous Christy to host this week. She has a fun theme challenge for us to work with:

Mythical creatures - mermaids, dragons, unicorns and more! I had to dig into my retired stash for this one and had a lot of fun!! I'm also playing along with the CASE The Designer Challenge over at SUO Challenges with my card this week - take a look and I will explain all:

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

Myths and Magic - So I had a stash of retired Myths & Magic designer series paper that I had preserved and decided this was a good time to cut into some! I spent a good few evenings fussy cutting mermaids and the teeny-tiny seahorses you can see on today's card, but also unicorns, knights and dragons from the other sheets too. I paired my mermaid with a sentiment from the Magical Mermaids stamp set that is also retired:

 I also used the stamps in this set to add a little additional decoration to the inside of my card:

CASE The Designer - I had a lot of fun CASEing Tammy's card over at SUO Challenges this week! I chose a teal mythical underwater theme as opposed to a pink love hearts theme for my card, switched out the sentiment banner for a circle and used the tiny seahorses instead of the dimensional hearts on Tammy's card, but I retained the layout, the embossed-DSP-embossed background panel combination, albeit featuring the beautiful Soft Waves 3D embossing folder for an under the sea look and feel, combined with the sparkly column of bubbles. My card looks distinctly different to Tammy's, but it's clear to see where and how I CASEd her card as my inspiration.

You Slay Bonus Card - Given that today is St David's Day I had to take the opportunity to make a card with a dragon (or two!) as well, so I went a little 'left field' for my next creation. The slang term 'slay' is quite popular with young people; Wikipedia states that it is used to express admiration or success, so with this in mind, I thought that I would pair a custom sentiment using the Mini Alphabet Dies with some of the knights and dragons from the Myths & Magic paper for a tongue-in-cheek congratulations card, using the sketch layout over at Hand Stamped Sentiments. Here's their layout:

And here's the bonus card that I made for today's challenge:

I absolutely love the sparkly detail on this paper!

Possibly not a card for everyone, but I know Ben will love it!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's main 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; nothing remarkable happening chez James today. Enjoy the remainder of your weekend and I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)

SOFT WAVES 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£10.25)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

COASTAL CABANA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

PRETTY PEACOCK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

Valentine's Day might have been and gone, but there are still a few themed challenges around and it's always good to be ready for next year, right? Today I'm sharing a card that was inspired by a few of those challenges:

The lovely ladies over at Just Us Girls have 'Valentine' as the Word of the Week (and I missed last week's heart die challenge, so I had to include a trio of those too!), at Addicted to CAS they are all about 'Pink' and my card also means I can play along over at TicTacToe Challenge (I went across the top with Hearts/Diecutting/Pink). Now I could have gone full-on hearts and flowers, but decided to create a very clean and simple card that very much reflects my personal style  - take a look:

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

I started out with three shades of pink, then diecut a trio of circles, further diecutting a heart out of the centre of each and then mixing them up and re-insetting them. I stamped my sentiment in the two darkest shades of pink - another from 'Words of Beauty' that is never off my desk these days - and added the trio of heart-filled circles to my panel, adding a trio of pink stripes to my base before adhering my upper panel for an additional hint of pink:

Clean and simple for sure, but I think it says everything it needs to :-) It would make a Valentine or a love-you-anytime card I think.

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. 

Whilst I had my supplies out on my desk, I made another card using a bunch of retired supplies and the offcuts of pink from the above cards. I love the Inkspirational inspiration photo this week - look at all the fab details:

I found a pack of these mini notelet cards when I was clearing out and I used one to make the quickest ever lunch box love note using my retired Word Bubble dies:

Can you see where I took my inspiration from on the photo? Yes, the pink speech bubble in the top-left of the visual. I kept things super simple, popping up my pale pink heart and adding nothing more than a sentiment to my card front - lunch box love notes don't need to be fussy or complicated, they just need to create a sweet spot in someone's working day - which hopefully this one will ;-) Stay tuned as I may well have another play along with this challenge and create a more detailed card - there are so many jumping-off points in that graphic.

For now though I'll leave you with the news that there is free shipping on all orders over £60 placed during the next 3 days - so if you haven't yet spent bonus coupons earned last month, this is a great time to do so!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WORDS OF BEAUTY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£19.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	BUBBLE BATH A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	STRAWBERRY SLUSH A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
STRAWBERRY SLUSH CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	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 Jaydee to host this week and she has an interesting sketch challenge for us to work with:

A slimline card design with four shapes and a sentiment. As you know, I love a good sketch and I must say this one took on a life of its own! I have been really enjoying using my Lovely Arrangements suite of products and new that the flowers in the set would be perfect for those four focal points. I set to work and a considerable time later, I came up with this:

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

Lovely Arrangements - I  wanted the florals to be the centrepiece of each focal point, so echoing the colours in the panel of Lovely blossoms DSP I used for the background, I inked them in Cloud Cover then added some Secret Sea to the stamens with a sponge dauber before stamping. I backed each flower with a couple of diecut layered circles, having first run the top one through the dicutting machine with the background die to allow some of the colour behind to show through. I then added in some diecut leaves from the set, along with some additional ones cut using the Friendly Foliage Dies to add interest to the clusters:

There's a lot going on in each of these clusters, but I really like the full effect.

A Border To Die For? - Continuing in my exploration of different ways in which to use the rectangle-of-circles die in the Lovely Arrangements set, I cut several and used them to create an additional layered panel behind my DSP - did you spot it? It looks like a large scallop border - another great way to use this super-versatile die.

Words Of Beauty -  There's so much going on with this card, I thought it needed a big, bold sentiment - cue those Words of Beauty Dies, i just love them! This was the perfect sentiment for a special card to send to a friend who has been struggling recently and because of health issues, has needed to spend a lot of time isolating. I hope this will go some way to brightening her day.

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 have been enjoying the company of the youngest of the James Juniors this weekend, as he has been at home since he has a module break at university this week so decided to come home. We are not allowing ourselves to be consumed by the inevitable January blues though, and have booked a last-minute mini-break in search of some winter sunshine - so tomorrow we are off to Morocco! We feel a little guilty at leaving the hubby holding the fort since he can't join us due to work commitments (but not so guilty that we aren't going to go!!) I'll be back here on Friday with another project for our new challenge over at As You See It. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

LOVELY ARRANGEMENTS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£45.75)	LOVELY BLOSSOMS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)	WORDS OF BEAUTY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)	FRIENDLY FOLIAGE DIES (£23.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	SPOTLIGHT ON NATURE DIES (£33.00)
BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	OLD OLIVE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CLOUD COVER A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SECRET SEA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SECRET SEA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	IRIDESCENT PEARL BASIC JEWELS (£7.00)