Happy Monday everyone! An early and super-quick post from me today as I take a trip down memory lane with a clean and simple card inspired by a few challenges that caught my eye this week:

I couldn't resist that pink typewriter in the Fusion photo and delved into the retired stamp box to find my 'TapTapTap' stamp set that had the perfect image - take a look:

Do you remember this stamp set? The typewriter meant it was always going to be a keeper for me; for today's card I stamped it in Memento Black and coloured it with my Polished Pink Blends markers. Whilst I love the Fusion sketch too, I decided instead to use the sketch over at AAA Cards and stamped my alphabet of typed letters behind for the horizontal element. I'm also linking up over at CASology where the cue word is 'type' so today's card is right on point.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that I used a typed 'thank you' sentiment on the paper in my typewriter and if you own(ed) this stamp set, will also know that this isn't a sentiment that it includes. Some clever masking and use of my Stamparatus made it easy to create this custom sentiment using other elements of the set - for a more complete explanation, check out this older post.

No visual summary or supplies list today - today's card is simply for your viewing pleasure. I would so love to own a pink retro typewriter just like this one! Enjoy your day; I will be getting together with a bunch of lovely ladies for a class this morning, where we will be making Christmas packaging - fun! Then more class planning and blog posts to follow before I head out on my afternoon school run  - the life of a busy Mum and part-time Stampin' Up! demonstrator is always a full one!

I'll be back tomorrow with another project - my second week hosting our challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today I'm sharing a clean and simple Christmas card for the current challenge over at CAS Christmas:

I knew I had some red and grey plaid in my retired paper collection so thought I would use this as the basis of my card featuring another of those Delicate Baubles dies - this time the snowflake:

The paper features more muted tones of red and grey (Cherry Cobbler and Grey Granite) than I remembered, but I actually quite like the effect. A simple 'Noel' greeting that I fussy cut from the 'Tidings and Trimmings' stamp set and a single rhinestone 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. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

DELICATE BAUBLES DIES (£33.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GRAY GRANITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£4.75)	TIDINGS & TRIMMINGS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£17.00)

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and I am the featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

I decided to go across the middle of the grid with leaves/thanks/shades of brown for a clean and simple card. I used the layout and layering idea from the CASE The Designer challenge over at Global Design Project and the colours over at Color Throwdown that are perfect for Autumn. I will also be linking up over at Addicted to CAS, having finally managed to create something suitably clean and simple befitting their Autumn codeword - take a look:

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

Beauty Of Tomorrow - I love the large sentiment in the 'Beauty of Tomorrow' stamp set which sums up the changing seasons and advent of autumn beautifully I think so I had to feature this on the front of my card. Since this doesn't directly have anything to do with my middle square of 'thanks', I added one of my favourite stamps from the 'Well Defined' set to the inside of my card:

I love the idea of sending a card to someone thanking them for being part of my world, rather than as a show of gratitude for something someone did and this sentiment is so perfect for that.

Giving Gifts Autumn Leaves - I created a cascade of falling autumn leaves that I diecut from a piece of cardstock onto which I blended a selection of oranges and browns (see below) using the leaf die in the Giving Gifts Dies set. One of my blogging friends, the lovely Kim Singdahlsen of Joyful Creations with Kim, has made some fabulous cards with the dies in this set and was a total enabler when it cam to me puchasing these dies - I could resist no longer!  I particularly love the diecut detail on each leaf; I glued each of them on one half only, so that they could be gently folded upwards to add to the sensation of falling leaves - slightly easier to see on the angled photo below:

A Surprise Find - Finally, to add a little extra autumn-inspired detail to my card, I added some Grey Granite ink using a blending brush and an old stencil I found in my stash with a large knit pattern and faded it out from opposing corners. I am seeing some wonderful stencilling in the blogosphere lately, none more so than from my fellow Paper Player designer and CAS supremo the lovely Jaydee of Stampin! With Jaydee. She has a beautiful fine-knit stencil from The Greetery that she has been using lots lately and when I found this in my stash I thought it would be a good stencil to create a similar look and feel. This was also a good way to incorporate the soft, warm grey tones of the Color Throwdown palette. 

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. 

This is one of those cards that for all its simplicity seemed to take forever; it took a truck load of inspiration to get me there, but I must say I love the result and ended up making a few of these to send out to friends.

A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge. 

Enjoy your day; I do not know where this week has disappeared! I am still busy harvesting produce and I made another batch of raspberry jam yesterday. Today is oddly warm for this time of year, but still rather grey and it certainly doesn't feel like the return of summer that the weather forecasters promised! I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BEAUTY OF TOMORROW CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)	GIVING GIFTS DIES (£29.00)	WELL DEFINED CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)	VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)
EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	CAJUN CRAZE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	PUMPKIN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	CINNAMON CIDER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	GRAY GRANITE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

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

I love our challenge badge this week and decided to embrace the fun of our challenge photo and go with a card that is all about playing with leaves - take a look:

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

I stamped this super-cute image of this little chap playing in a big pile of leaves with his kitty from the 'Seasons of Fun' current seasonal hostess set onto a panel cut with the Whimsy Dies (the swirly border reminded me of a breeze!) and coloured with my Stampin' Blends markers: 

That's all there is to it - super clean and really simple to achieve!

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 linking today's card up for another entry over at The Alphabet Challenge where they are on 'L is for Leaves' and over at SUO Challenges where the current theme is 'people'. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SEASONS OF FUN HOST CLING STAMP SET (£11.00)	STITCHED WITH WHIMSY DIES (£27.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CHERRY COBBLER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CAJUN CRAZE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	OLD OLIVE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BRONZE & IVORY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS COLOR LIFTER (£4.25)	CINNAMON CIDER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm sharing a super clean and simple card for the following challenges:

The sketch over at InspireCreate was perfect for a clean and simple (CAS) card so I decided to grab a quick 10 minutes to create a card also inspired by the Addicted to CAS challenge of 'Nature' inspired by autumn colour and foliage - take a look:

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

Now I know here in the UK we are enjoying the second day of what looks to be a 4 day mini heatwave, but I couldn't resist the rich blackberry tones of the Blackberry Beauty designer paper on my card today. I just love the jewelled tones of this paper and I paired it with one of my current favourite generic sentiments from the 'Beauty of Tomorrow' stamp set, which finishes on the inside of my card:

Isn't that just the nicest sentiment? I debated whether to reverse the paper and 'white space' on my card, but decided that the strip on the sketch was perfect for really highlighting the beauty of the paper and its gold foil detail - just look at those pretty acorns and oak leaves: 

This is a great standby design if your pressed for time and a good way to use up those leftover strips of paper we all have in our craft room 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; mine's been a busy one, with pre-season football training this morning and a trip to buy new hiking boots in readiness for the next Duke of Edinburgh expedition amongst other things! At the rate at which teenage boys grow (or is it just mine?!) these have to be left until a few weeks before the hike; enough time to break them in, but not enough time to grow out of them!! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BLACKBERRY BEAUTY 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)

BEAUTY OF TOMORROW CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)

VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)

METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)

BLACKBERRY BLISS A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Holly is hosting this month and our final challenge this month is a sketch challenge featuring stripes: 

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

For my card today I was also inspired by the photo inspiration over at Just Us Girls and the similar nautical theme over at Festive Friday (I chose blue, red and twine) to create another clean and simple congratulations card using my whale builder punch - take a look:

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

I flipped the colours in the bottom-right JUGS inspiration photo and added a simple navy blue punched whale to a set of red and white cardstock stripes. with a sentiment from the 'Whale Done' stamp set and this time adding a cute mortar board to my whale since once again exam congratulations are in order. To create my mortar board, I handcut a diamond shape from black cardstock and added it to a small rectangle then threaded some basic black twine through it and secured at the back before unravelling it to create my tassel

The tassel was the fussiest part of today's card, which otherwise is super clean and simple. Great for a masculine congratulations card I'm thinking - nothing too fussy!

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; I'll be dodging the thunderstorms! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WHALE PUNCH (£17.00)	WHALE DONE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (£10.25)

Yay, it's the weekend! So a quick post from me with a card I put together this afternoon for the following challenges:

I love the Global Design Project colour palette this week and wanted to finally make a card with my All Squared Away bundle which I've had for far too long without inking up, so the challenge over at AAA Cards gave me the perfect excuse since they are featuring 'twinchies' - take a look:

I didn't go with the optional twist of Christmas In July, instead stamping a background for my 'twinchie' in Coastal cabana, then adding the diecuts in the other two colours and finishing with a single pearl and a simple 'miss you' sentiment from the Art Gallery stamp set. 

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 simple but I just love it, unconventional florals and all!

Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project for this week's new challenge over at the Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

ALL SQUARED AWAY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£41.25)	COASTAL CABANA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	POLISHED PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	ART GALLERY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£20.00)

We might be in the middle of a summer heatwave here in the UK, but there's a pre-order in the house and lots of Christmas in July challenges out there currently, so I finally managed a clean and simple card for a couple of them:

Both Less Is More and SUO Challenges have a Christmas In July theme, so I decided to play with a new set from my mini catalogue pre-order called Thinking Thanks and Peace  - take a look:

This set features a selection of large sentiments for a variety of occasions. I heat embossed the Christmas one in gold onto Night of Navy, then cut out a panel with a rectangle stitched die, added a gold border and adhered to a navy card base. I paper-pieced a gold-on-white embossed dove, having first coloured with a white pencil but I couldn't get the bright white effect that I was after and I like this much better:

In fact, I love this card so much, I actually made two! This sentiment set is great for quick, clean and simple cards - I think I'll be using it a lot in the run up to the festive season.

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:

STITCHED RECTANGLE DIES (£33.00)

METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)

NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)

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 clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

Fruit and berries - you can use either, or both, on your card this week but remember to keep it clean and simple! I decided to go with strawberries for my fruit today and paired them with this week's Color Throwdown colours and the CAS(E) The Designer challenge over at Global Design Project #GDP296 this week - take a look:

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

I was intrigued by the idea of CASEing the lovely Emma Goddard's card and decided to use the strawberry blossom stamp and single strawberry from the 'Sweet Strawberry' stamp set in stamped-off Gray Granite to create the soft stamped panel that forms the basis of my card front. I added a panel of block stripes using the CTD colours which are perfect for strawberries along the left-hand side. I added a white-on-black heat-embossed sentiment onto a stitched label from the Tasteful Labels Dies and mounted it on some (retired) Poppy Parade ribbon. A trio of clear sequins complete my clean and simple card:

I haven't made a card like this before but I really like the effect. I think it could be quite addictive - I can think of lots of sets that would work in this way. 

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:

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 Father's Day that will be the focus here today. I'm not sure that it will be dry enough for a BBQ - the last few days have been quite a bit cooler, but either I'm sure there will be fun in store! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SWEET STRAWBERRY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£17.00)	TASTEFUL LABELS DIES (£29.00)	GRAY GRANITE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Wei has asked that we get creative with diagonals this week:

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card - which I did this week! I looked at those diagonals and thought that if I rotated the base through 180 degrees, they would make a rainbow! Take a look to see what I mean:

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

I used a selection of 5mm wide offcuts from my scrapbox in a selection of rainbow colours (see below) and glue them across the diagonal of my Balmy Blue card base. I extended the Highland Heather piece across the card front, then took a piece of Basic White and cut an angled border with my clouds die from the retiring Happy Dies set for my top panel:

A simple sentiment from the also retiring 'Under My Umbrella' stamp set in Pacific Point finished my card - and not an umbrella in sight!

Our lovely DT member Vicky is also the hostess over at Addicted to CAS this week where she has chosen the code word 'sky' so I'm linking up there too - with sky, rainbow and clouds, my card today doesn't have anything else!!

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:

BALMY BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	PUMPKIN PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
PACIFIC POINT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GORGEOUS GRAPE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	HIGHLAND HEATHER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	PACIFIC POINT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
UNDER MY UMBRELLA PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£15.00)