Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge. 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'World Photography Day' which is on 19th August. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. We have a number of keen photographers in our house, but I chose to go in a totally different direction today. I used black, white, rhinestones and landscape/cityscape from the inspo list and this is what I came up with:

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

I used some retired Peaceful Place starry night sky paper and my retired Bethlehem Edgelits to create a monochrome Christmas card that is something of a CASE of a previous card I made using this set (you can see that card here), adding my cityscape diecuts with dimensionals for a little extra lift. I heat embossed my 'O Holy Night' sentiment from the retired stamp set 'Illuminated Christmas' in white on black, and highlighted the embossed stars on the designer paper with a single rhinestone - the star of Bethlehem, perhaps?

I am linking today's card up with the team over at Time Out who are asking us to create monochrome cards for their current challenge; there is something so elegant about a single colour scheme, for sure.

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 did place a pre-order for Christmas goodies from the new mini catalogue yesterday, so will have some lovely new things to share with you in the coming weeks, but it has been fun to give some love to favourite sets of old this week and of course it's always good to use up retired designer series paper!

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

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

Summer has finally arrived here in the UK and yes, you've guessed it - I'm sharing a Christmas card! I was intrigued by the layout that the lovely Linda Callaghan came up with for her Freshly Made Sketches design this week - check it out:

I managed to grab a little crafty time over the weekend so decided to have a go at creating something that made the most of her unique layering and this is what I came up with:

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

I almost went with a wreath for the circular element, but couldn't work out how to incorporate that vertical column effectively. I finally settled on using the fabulous circular die in the Labels Aglow set for the circular element and layering it with some (retired) Lights Aglow designer paper in festive Cherry Cobbler with a pattern of dots in vanilla and gold that tied nicely in with the gold dots of the circular element. I also lined my envelope with the same paper. I did take a liberty with the sentiment, in as much as whilst I retained the position I didn't have a skinny one that I liked. I thought I would try the 'Celebrate' diecut from the 'Wanted To Say' die set which never seems to leave my desk at the moment and I really liked the effect:

Whilst my card is designed for Christmas - I used a festive sentiment from the 'Brightest Glow' stamp set on the inside of my card - it occurs to me you wouldn't know from the outside that this card was designed with Christmas in mind. Hopefully the peeps over at Happy Little Stampers will appreciate my understated take on Christmas - which is perfect for their die challenge too (the only stamping is on the inside of today's card). For a card with 7 layers, the design is still clean and uncluttered - just how I like it! This isn't a layout that I would usually be drawn to, but I really love the finished effect - thanks Linda for a thought-provoking sketch!

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:

LABELS AGLOW DIES (31.00)

WANTED TO SAY DIES (37.00)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)

VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.50)

CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge. 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'World Music Therapy Day' which is on March 2nd. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used the layout over at Sketch Saturday and notes, lyrics and twine from the inspo list and this is what I came up with:

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

I went with a Christmas card for today's theme - I know it's February, but you can never start too early with festive preparations! I used the Merry Melody Embossing Folder for my background and continued my musical theme with the lyrics to a seasonal tune (apologies now if you end up singing along to Michael Buble for the rest of the day!), embellished with some stamped holly:

I finished the inside with a little additional co-ordinated stamping:

I think this might be my first Christmas card of 2023 - let's hope I can keep it 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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (22.00)	CHRISTMAS SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (21.00)	SEASONAL LABELS DIES (36.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)	MERRY MELODY 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (9.50)	SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (7.00)
CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)	SOFT SUCCULENT A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)	EVENING EVERGREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)	SHADED SPRUCE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)	VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)
METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (17.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (9.75)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. It's not only our final challenge of the year before we all take a break for Chrstiams but we are also celebrating a milestone - our 500th challenge! There are prizes to be one for those participating this week, so we would love you to join us. We are ending the year on a high - for our final challenge, Patricia would like you to take and one of our 2022 challenges, sketch, colour or double, and make a seasonal card with it:  

No surprises that I went with the sketch option! I chose sketch number 478 from back in July. You can see the original card I made with it here; for today's card, I went with an altogether more sparkly affair with the Lights Aglow Suite - take a look:

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

I used a piece of sparkly gold Very Vanilla Lights Aglow designer paper on my base, and overlaid this with a piece of Very Vanilla which I cut using my Basic Borders Dies to which I'd added a (retired) gold heat-embossed sentiment. For my focal point, I added a diecut snowflake, again with detail heat embossed in gold - I just love the delicate detail of the snowflake image:

So simple yet so sparkly!!

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.

I'm also linking today's card up with the team over at CAS on Friday where their challenge is embossing (I've used heat embossing on my card), at Alphabet Challenge where the current letter is 'R for reduce' (CAS) and at Inkspirational where the challenge theme prompt is 'GOLD'.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BASIC BORDERS DIES (27.00)

VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)

METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (17.00)

VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.25)

Today I've a quick post to share a card for the current challenges over at Time Out where the theme is 'Winter/Holiday Season' and at SUO Challenges where the theme is Christmas:

I love to make an all-white card and I hadn't made any this year, so I decided that the theme of 'Winter' along with the sub-zero temperatures here in the UK  - and waking to snow on the ground this morning were the perfect inspiration - take a look:

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

I used some retiring favourites for today's card: Snowy White velvet sheets and the Merriest Moments stamp set and hybrid embossing folder. I went with some simple layers: First I ran a piece of velvet paper through with the embossing folder, then added this to my card front. Then I used the embossing folder with the embossing die to cut the large base foliage design out of white glimmer paper and adhered it to my cardbase. I then added another diecut and embossed foliage layer, this time using the smaller detailed foliage die and Snowy White velvet paper. I cut a rectangle of white glimmer paper and used this to back a diecut stitched rectangle of white cardstock, onto which I heat-embossed my sentiment in silver: 

I added a trio of opal rounds to complete my design. This is a card of many layers and wonderful texture, but was actually quick and easy to execute. I will miss Merriest Moments for sure!

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'!

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 festive colour challenge for you to work with:

I still had my Lights Aglow designer paper out on my desk having made yesterday's cards, so I grabbed another of the patterns in the set and this week's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches and set to work. This is what I came up with:

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

I used a Cherry Cobbler card base, then adhered a sheet of Lights Aglow designer paper patterned with Very Vanilla stars to my card base. I then added a central panel of gold glimmer paper, and allowing for a thin vertical border, adhered another piece of paper from the pack, strewn with festive garlands, to which I'd added some diecut banners using one of the Twinkling Lights dies so that the gold glimmer paper showed through from below:

I did cut the piece of DSP that I used for the central section from the centre of the sheet, as I wanted the curves of the garlands to be centred, which is a little frivolous, but I know I will use the remnants on other projects as there is a beautiful gold embossed snowflake design on the reverse too.

I added a final panel of Cherry Cobbler with a sentiment heat embossed in gold to the bottom of the panel to complete the front of my card. To finish I added an extra sentiment from the 'Brightest Glow' stamp set to the inside of my card:

This is a great card that didn't take too long to create, which was especially good as I have been rather pushed for creative time 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; today is the day that we will be decorating the James household inside and out for Christmas, so we are all looking forward to that. I am also going to be doing some crafting of a different kind, as I have a festive-themed fancy dress outfit to make for Rebecca to wear this week - a Sixth Form festive tradition, more on that later in the week! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BRIGHTEST GLOW CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)

VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)

METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (17.00)

CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)

CHERRY COBBLER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)

VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (9.75)

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday - our last challenge of the year! 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' which celebrates the nativity of Jesus and begins on 25th December and runs until 5th January. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used square, Christmas, gold and red and this is what I came up with:

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

Keeping things Simple - In the run up to Christmas as things start to get busier, I like to have a simple yet elegant card design that can be produced in multiples and today's card definitely fits the bill. A simple sentiment on a diecut shape, a designer paper frame and gold foil mat, all on a Cherry Cobbler square card base:

That's all there is to it - with a little extra stamping on the inside:

The 'Brightest Glow' stamp set is perfect for sentiments both inside and out.

Lights Aglow Four-In-One - The product hero of today's card is most definitely the Lights Aglow Specialty Designer Series Paper. There a several sheets that feature four of these starry, gold foil embossed 'frames' - so it's easy to take the design and make four cards in only a little more time than one. Here's all four of my cards from one sheet of designer paper:

A Green Alternative - In addition to the Cherry Cobbler frame sheets, there is a Soft Succulent one too. I made four more cards using the green version, stepping them up slightly to include a background of DSP for three of the four cards too - take a look:

Here are both designs together - which one do you prefer?

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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the  Festive Friday Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BRIGHTEST GLOW CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)	REGALS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) CARDSTOCK (13.00)	2021–2023 IN COLOR 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) CARDSTOCK (13.00)	CHERRY COBBLER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)	EVENING EVERGREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)
STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (9.75)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (9.75)

Today I'm sharing a card for the current challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments where they have an inspiration challenge:

It's pretty obvious to see where my inspiration came from! I loved that nativity silhouette in blues in the bottom left corner and I wanted to recreate it using one of my favourite retired sets, Joyful Nativity, and ring the changes with some new blue colours. This is what I came up with:

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

I took a stitched circle in Orchid Oasis, then using a mask of torn paper, added ink in both Orchid Oasis and Starry Sky to create a faux-layered background. I added white splatters before stamping my holy family and stable in Orchid Oasis, using my Stamparatus to get a good, densely inked image:

I added a couple of wooden stars and a 'peace' sentiment, courtesy of the Santa Express Memories and More pack and left them bare as I like the resulting contrast against the blues. A little extra stamping on the inside completes my card:

So what do you think? I like to have a few religious cards to send out at Christmas time so I was glad to have the opportunity to bring out this set 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 evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

STARRY SKY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)

ORCHID OASIS CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)

STARRY SKY A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)

ORCHID OASIS A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)

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

I knew exactly where I was headed for today's card - yes the Santa Express Suite and the Memories and More card pack - you know how I love these cards! I went with a quick and simple card that is super easy for you to recreate - take a look:

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

I took a Petal Pink card base and used a retired snowflake stamp for a little tone-on-tone stamping for the background. I added a strip of red glimmer paper and an offcut of Santa Express designer paper, then used one of the wooden sentiments from the Memories & More pack along with a santa, fussy cut from one of the cards in the pack, for a jolly focal point:

I also used a couple of the wooden elements from the pack and a diecut snowflake for added detail. The stamped sentiment on the front of the card comes from the 'Jingle Jingle Jingle' stamp set, which I also used for the inside of my card:

Super easy using up lots of bits and pieces and really easy to recreate - just what we need now that we are into December! What's more, the Santa Express Memories and More card pack is reduced as part of the Last Chance promotion - I already treated myself to a couple of extra packs, and I would recommend you do 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; we are enjoying a family lunch and an extra session of hockey this evening; fortunately, this is practice for an indoor tournament so we will be out of the cold for once! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SANTA EXPRESS MEMORIES & MORE CARD PACK (11.25)	JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (21.00)	REAL RED & WHITE 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) GLIMMER PAPER (4.75)	WONDERFUL SNOWFLAKES (5.75)	PETAL PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)	PETAL PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)
REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)

Today I'm sharing a card using the sketch layout over at Sunday Stamps and the Hand Stamped Sentiments colour palette:

This is one of those cards that ended up looking nothing like it started out! I had a trio of stamped and diecut wreaths leftover from another project, so thought they would work nicely with the Sunday Stamps sketch. They were too large on a standard cardfront and I couldn't find a background I liked to accompany them, so in the end changed my colour scheme and went slimline and eventually came up with something I rather like - take a look:

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

Country Wreaths - I initially restamped my wreaths green-on-green instead of green-on-white, but the stamped detail just got lost so instead I went for a layered wreath using the dicuts only and I like this much more. I added some Cherry Cobbler Festive Pearls and a gold glimmer bow to each, to tie in with my ribbon banner and central sentiment element. I did add some stamped detail to the envelope and inside of my card though:

Framed & Festive - Instead of three wreaths, I opted to add a circle with my main sentiment to the centre. My sentiment comes from the limited-time stamp set 'Framed & Festive' that co-ordinates with the Framed Florets bundle currently on early release from the new mini catalogue - I love the big, bold font. I heat embossed it in gold onto Cherry Cobbler cardstock and added a sprig of greenery and some gold pearls to decorate: 

I almost ignored the banner detail on the original sketch, but there was the perfect stamp in the set to add a second sentiment part, so I added 'from all of us' heat embossed in gold directly onto the cardbase - you can just see it on the corner of the photo above.

A Neat Lights Aglow Trick - The eagle-eyed amongst you may have recognised that the background pattern I used comes from the Lights Aglow designer series paper pack. This is a 6"x6" paper pack - which is not wide enough for a slimline cardfront. The solution? I actually made my cardfront from two pieces of DSP, with the join running down the centre behind my red sentiment circle. I was careful to cut and line up the pattern perfectly and the presence of the circle means it is super difficult to see the join - if I hadn't just told you it was there, you wouldn't notice ;-). 

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; the bitter cold winds of winter seem to have arrived in force this week so I am hibernating! I hope you are warm and cosy wherever you are - and to all my American friends and readers, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration today. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

COUNTRY WREATHS DIES (37.00)	FRAMED & FESTIVE CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (22.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)	LIGHTS AGLOW 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (14.00)	EVENING EVERGREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)	SOFT SUCCULENT A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)
GLIMMER 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PAPER (9.50)	VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (17.00)	FESTIVE PEARLS (6.75)	SLIMLINE ENVELOPES (9.50)