Today I'm sharing a card that I made at the weekend still with a 'Christmas In July' theme going on (desperately trying to get into Christmas crafting!) that is for a few current challenges:

The lovely team at Less Is More are doing a one layer card Christmas in July theme and I chose one of my retired stamps, 'Dove Of Peace', which I thought would make a lovely image for Time Out's challenge to be 'Peaceful'. It also gave me an opportunity to get out my Stampin' Blends for a spot of colouring which is what the ladies over at SUO Challenges are all about this week:

I coloured the detail on my dove with a combination of Bermuda Bay, (retired) Coastal Cabana and Pool Party Blends. I then took a dry aquapainter (the new fine one is perfect for this) and painted the remainder of the body of the dove in white shimmer paint. This was quite time consuming, but so worth it; the photo really doesn't do it justice - it has such a soft shimmer in real life. I think I'll make a few more of these in alternative colourways - they will be great for sending to my overseas friends. 

This is one of my favourite retired Christmas stamps and great for one layer cards; do you have a favourite stamp for one layer creations? Do leave me a comment and let me know - I'd love to hear about your favourite Christmas sets, old or new.

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

There are lots of Christmas In July challenges about at the moment so I thought I would combine a couple and squeeze in an extra post today and share a couple of sneak peeks from the upcoming Autumn-Winter Catalogue with you in the process:

The team over at The Spot are looking for any kind of Christmas card creation and The Card Concept has a great inspiration photo that lead me to take my inspiration from one of the presents under the tree (front row, second from the right) to create a card and a matching gift card holder using some fun new products - take a look:

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

Trimming The Town - The designer series paper that covers the front of my card is from a new pack called 'Trimming The Town' - a pack full of contemporary designs featuring cosy villages and winter scenes. Some are really large and some really small and detailed, like the fun design I used to mimic wrapping paper on my gift parcel card.

Gift Wrapped Bow (And A Trick) - My bow comes from a new stamp set called 'Gift Wrapped' and is stamped in Real Red on Whisper White cardstock and punched out with the new co-ordinating Gift Bow Builder Punch. I added a handcut tag and some 'ribbon' too - and therein lies the trick! I actually used a current DSP for the ribbon strips that co-ordinate with my bow; can you tell which one? It's actually the reverse of one of the patterns in the Playful Pets DSP pack - isn't that a great shortcut? I added a little more stamping on the inside of my card too:

Gift Card Holder - I thought my gift-inspired card would be great to go with a co-ordinating gift-card holder too - I always need a few of these at Christmas time:

I can't take the credit for the design; it's based on one designed by the talented Erica Cerwin of Pink Buckaroo Designs (you can see the measurements for her original project on her blog here). It's a great little make, where the lid pulls out of a sleeve and you can add a message and your chosen gift card:

I think these make a cute pair of projects and are a great start to my Christmas crafting. I'm slowly but surely increasing my Christmas crafting - it always seems harder to do when the sun is shining outside though!

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:

To be updated 4th August.

A late post from me today as we've been busy cycling and enjoying a dinner of homemade pizzas in our new pizza oven! I'm sharing a card using this gorgeous colour palette over at Colour Inkspiration and the current Paper Craft Crew sketch:

Whilst that lovely colour palette would work really well for an autumnal card, following my Autumn-Winter pre-order unboxing live session online this week, I couldn't resist making my first Christmas card with my new supplies - take a look:

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

Have A Hoot - The cute little owls on today's card are courtesy of a new stamp set called 'Have A Hoot' - aren't they just the cutest?! I heat embossed them in white onto Crumb Cake to highlight the little snowflakes and coloured the owls with my Blends. Check out the punny sentiment too!

So Many Snowflakes - I stamped some background snowflakes tone-on-tone onto my Real Red card base and added a diecut snowflake in (retired) white glimmer paper and cut with my new So Many Snowflakes dies as an accent. I also added a sprinkle of snowflake sequins for a little sparkle.

Stitched So Sweetly - My stitched scalloped panel is courtesy of the Stitched So Sweetly dies; I added a couple of strips of Cinnamon Cider cardstock and DSP behind just to highlight the colour and anchor the panel - here's a close up: 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	STITCHED SO SWEETLY DIES (£30.00)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
CINNAMON CIDER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	2020–2022 IN COLOR 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	WHITE STAMPIN' CHALK MARKER (£3.25)

The team over at Just Add Ink are celebrating their 500th challenge this week - way to go ladies! - so I had to sneak in with a quick card to celebrate! The challenge is to use a die cut word:

I was having a clear out of my craft room last week and found some old non-SU Christmas papers that I had kept because I loved the vintage santa. I decided he would be the perfect background for one of my favourite Christmas word die sets, Merry Christmas - take a look:

I went for a longer, narrower card and added a gold foil 'Christmas' diecut and stamped the rest of my sentiment around it and that was it - super quick and easy and another one for the pile!

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. 

Congratulations to the Just Add Ink team; I love to play along with your challenges and very much hope you last for another 500!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Merry Christmas Dies	Merry Christmas To All Photopolymer Stamp Set	Gold Foil Sheets	Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin' Pad	Shaded Spruce A4 Cardstock
Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock

Today I'm sharing a couple of cards that I made for my 2020 Christmas card stash; I always try and make some Christmas cards throughout the year, although I must confess I often get sidetracked as the year goes on! I was encouraged by a few challenges that are currently running:

The theme over at Christmas Kickstart Challenge is 'penguin parade' so I decided to use one of my (now retired) penguin stamps from the 'Making Everyday Bright' stamp set, along with the CASology cue word 'repeat' to create this little festive gang - take a look:

I used my Stamparatus to get all of my penguins in an even row across the centre of my Whisper White card base, and taking my cue from the current challenge over at Less Is More, used my Calypso Coral and Blueberry Bushel Stampin' Write markers to add colour to their hats. I punched out the central one and gave him a coral retired enamel heart to hold. I stamped my sentiment, from the (retired) 'Christmas Crowd' set in Blueberry Bushel and popped it up on dimensionals, using it to ground my row of penguins, and finished the inside with another sentiment from this set:

I had a few aborted attempts at getting my penguins in a neat line, but I liked the above card when I was done so I used my Christmas Bulb Builder Punch to punch out some of my leftovers and this time stuck them in a neat line (in hindsight I should have done this the first time, it would have been much quicker!) and coloured them in with a festive Real Red and Call Me Clover colour combo:

Here are both of my cards together:

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. 

The 'Making Spirits Bright' stamp set is one of the (many!) retired stamp sets I own that didn't see much love first time around, so it was fun to revisit it for today's cards. 

I have the first of my monthly card classes today using the Beautifully Braided Bundle so will be sharing some of those creations with you later this week. In the meantime, enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

No product table today as the stamp sets used on today's cards are retired; current colours are listed above.

Today I have a quick card for the current challenges over at Color Throwdown and CASology:

It's a Christmas card and uses a now retired stamp set, but these colours and the Color Throwdown badge inspired me to experiment with a clean and simple one layer technique that I've been wanting to try for some time - take a look:

I masked a corner frame then sponged Cherry Cobbler ink to create a graduated effect, then used the single branch from Frosted Foliage to over-stamp the edge. I stamped the branch in Early Espresso, then coloured the berries with my Cherry Cobbler Blends. I added some highlights with my chalk marker, but you can't really see these since I decided to add a liberal dose of Dazzling Diamonds to look like frost. I balanced my rectangle with my sentiment to 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

So what do you think? Does the same-colour sponging work to add interest to my one layer card? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Frosted Foliage Cling Stamp Set (En) (£19.00)	Itty Bitty Christmas Cling Stamp Set (En) (£20.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter (£5.50)	Fine-Tip Glue Pen (£6.50)	Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)

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 for our last challenge of the year she has a colour challenge for you to work with:

I used Karren's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches (turned through 90 degrees) for my layout this week and decided to use this fun stamp 'Christmas Crowd' again but in a somewhat less traditional way - take a look:

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

I stamped the image in Versamark then heat embossed it in silver and coloured with my Stampin' Blends, adding either clear Wink of Stella or Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the white areas for added sparkle. I heat embossed my silver sentiment onto vellum so that it wouldn't overwhelm the main image too much and added both a strip of Mercury Glass acetate over the Seaside Spray border edge of my card, with a strip of Seaside Spray scalloped edge linen ribbon to border my piece of Whisper White. A sprinkle of snowflake sequins completes my card.

Normally I wouldn't dream of colouring this image in anything but traditionally festive colours such as red and green (I mean, a blue Santa?!) yet I thought it would be a good opportunity to show how even a large image can be successfully coloured with only a few colours and supplies and whilst a break from the norm, I quite like the finished result. What do you think? Do you ever dress Santa in anything other than red or is that an absolute no-go?

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:

We understand that you are super busy in the run up to Christmas however we hope you can find a few minutes to craft along with us this week! Since it's our last challenge of 2019 before we take a break for Christmas, it's also time for us to say goodbye to our wonderful trio of 2019 guest designers: Su Mohr, Wanda Cullen and Windy Ellard. All three of them have proved worthy guest designers and share some fabulous creations with us this year. We will be sad to see them leave us and would like to thank each of them for their efforts. We look forward to welcoming in a new team of guest designers in the new year - more about that in a later PP post!

Enjoy your day; I have a busy day with a quick Christmas shopping trip, followed by the Christmas swim squad outing to the Snow Dome for some winter sledging and then an evening of tree decorating and Christmas card writing. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Christmas Crowd Cling Stamp Set (£19.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)
Seaside Spray Stampin' Blends Combo Pack (£8.50)	Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Ivory Stampin' Blends Marker (£4.25)	Seaside Spray 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Scalloped Linen Ribbon (£7.50)	Seaside Spray A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Mercury Glass Designer Acetate (£10.75)	Snowflake Sequins (£5.50)	Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter (£5.50)	Vellum A4 Cardstock (£9.25)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a festive 'fill in the blank' challenge:

There is so much that fills me with joy during the festive season but there can only be one way for me to complete this sentence - take a look:

Yes it's Santa and the magic of Christmas that brings me joy at this time of year. Here's the low-down on today's card:

Jolly Season Dies - I love the dies in particular that feature in the Night Before Christmas Suite; in addition to the die to cut out that large jolly Santa stamp, there are two fabulous sentiment diecuts and this delightful silhouette of Santa in his sleigh being pulled by his reindeer. This is one of those dies that make a great feature on a card and if you don't have it, you might like to know that it is discounted by 20% as part of the current year end closeouts, whilst supplies last.  

A Brayered Night Sky - I made this card with my stamp class earlier this week, which featured brayering using the sponge brayers. This was a refresher for some and a first time experience for others and the night sky gave the perfect opportunity to experiment. Having masked off the slope across the bottom using a post-it note, I then brayered from the top down in Pretty Peacock then added some Night of Navy on the upper outer edges. The sponge brayers are really easy to use and a little patience is all it takes to build up a night sky full of colour. A sprinkling of silver stars to back the flying sleigh is all that is needed to provide the perfect backdrop. 

In A Word - The word 'Believe' from the 'Holly Jolly Christmas' stamp set seemed a fitting sentiment to complete my card - after all, for those of us who believe in Santa and the magic of Christmas there is the opportunity for true holiday joy. 

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. 

So I really love this card, however as I was writing up my post it occurred to me that maybe the first reindeer, aka Rudolf, should perhaps have been given a shiny red nose to light the way. What do you think - would this make a fun addition? Do leave me a comment below, I'd love to know your thoughts.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Jolly Season Dies (En) (£24.80)	Holly Jolly Christmas Cling Stamp Set (En) (£20.00)	So Many Stars Photopolymer Stamp Set (En) (£24.00)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)
Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Pretty Peacock A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Pretty Peacock Classic Stampin’ Pad (£7.00)	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)
Versamark Pad (£8.75)	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)

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

I have a fancy card to share with you today that is perfect to give someone special for the festive season - take a look:

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

A Card In A Box - Is it a gift? Is it a card? I guess it's a little of both! When closed it looks like a gift box, but undo the ribbon and the top and bottom of the box separate to reveal an accordion-style expanding card:

I made a holly-themed 'card in a box' project at my October Creative Escapes Craft Retreat using the Christmas Gleaming Stamp Set and made a few other versions to show the attendees how they could use the same concept using other papers and stamp sets - this is one of them. They are quite straightforward to make and rather addictive; I've had lots of photos from my retreat weekend attendees after the event showing me more examples of ones they've created too, so it must be catching! One of my top tips when making this type of card is to use temporary adhesive or a couple of glue dots to hold the last panel in place so that you can remove it to write your message to the recipient before gluing it in place; this is much easier than trying to write it when it's already in the box.

Let It Snow - I used the 'Let It Snow' papers for the accordion-fold of my card and the letters that spell out 'snow', which I diecut using the Hand-Lettered Prose dies and I used the adorable Let It Snow Embellishment Kit to dress up the snowman on the front of my box - how cute are those little felt accessories?!

Snowman Season - The sentiment on the front and inside my card are from the 'Snowman Season' stamp set. The 'Let It Snow' stamp was perfect for a partial stamp to then finish the sentiment with the diecut letter panels. I also used the snowflakes in the stamp set with some Stampin' Glitter to add some sparkle to each of the Coastal Cabana panels and a snowman on the first panel that I coloured with co-ordinating Stampin' Blends markers:

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. 

I'm also linking today's project up with the current fancy fold challenge over at Inspire Create.

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

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; as it's the first of December we are going to begin decorating the house for Christmas today, much to the children's delight! Especially as we have a couple of extra Christmas trees and some new rainbow baubles too. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Let It Snow Embellishment Kit (£10.25)	Snowman Season Photopolymer Stamp Set (En) (£17.00)	Snowman Builder Punch (£17.00)	Hand-Lettered Prose Dies (£35.00)	Let It Snow Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)
Stitched Rectangle Dies (£33.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter (£5.50)	Coastal Cabana A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Real Red A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Shaded Spruce A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Real Red 3/8" (1 Cm) Cotton Ribbon (£6.50)

I've had a busy day today and a fun evening spent Christmas crafting with a group of local Brownie Guides and Rainbows so I'm back late with a quick post to share another card that uses my sketch over at The Paper Players that I used for yesterday's card (you can see that card here if you missed it), this time for the challenges over at Festive Friday (my card has a woodland creature, glitter, gold and twine from the Inspo List) and Inkspire Me where metallics are the order of the day:

I decided to go all-out with the sparkle for today's card and combined a leaping gold glimmer deer cut with the Detailed Deer Thinlits combined with some festive Wrapped in Plaid designer series paper - take a look:

I used the same sentiment from 'Itty Bitty Christmas' stamp set that I used on yesterday's card, this time heat embossed in gold onto Cherry Cobbler cardstock. I even customised one of the Gold Mini Pizza Boxes to make a matching gift box:

I think they look really great together - I especially like the addition of the jingle bells to the deer on the gift box for an extra festive touch.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Detailed Deer Dies (£32.00)	Itty Bitty Christmas Cling Stamp Set (En) (£20.00)	Gold Glimmer Paper (£4.75)	Wrapped In Plaid 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	Cherry Cobbler A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Shaded Spruce A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Jingle Bells (£4.75)	Gold Mini Pizza Boxes (£6.50)	Shaded Spruce/Gold 3/8" (1 Cm) Striped Ribbon (£6.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)
Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)	Gold Glitter Enamel Dots (£7.50)