Peace on Earth Detailed Dove Diecut Christmas Card

by Joanne James21. December 2020 21:32

Good evening everyone! I have had a busy few days with last-minute Christmas preparations so blogging has had to wait awhile, but I've managed to squeeze in some time this evening to share a card I made a few weeks ago following my 'Dove of Hope' online class that features a fun technique. The sentiment and non-traditional colour scheme also make it perfect for the current Christmas Kickstart Challenge and the challenge over at Colour Dare too:

   

I used the Detailed Dove Dies to create my fabulous dove and teamed it with a sentiment from the Peace and Joy bundle, along with an inked background I created using the salt technique - take a look:

 

Have you ever created a background using the salt technique? It's really easy: all you need to do is take a piece of watercolour paper and give it a wash in your chosen colour(s), then whilst still wet, sprinkle with salt crystals in varying sizes, some coarse and some fine, then ideally leave your background to dry naturally. When it's dry you can brush off any excess salt and you will be left with a background where the salt has created an interesting textural pattern. I added a fine spray of Frosted White Shimmer Paint too for a little added extra sparkle, before adding my layered sentiment and diecut dove.

I adore this dove die and have a few more cards with it that I've yet to share, so I'll try and add a couple more later this week if time permits. 

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'!

 

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All Is Calm All Is Bright Candles And A Special Announcement

by Joanne James8. December 2020 13:00

Before I get into the body of my post today, a reminder that today is the start of Stampin' Up!'s Year End Closeout sale of retiring favourites! You can read all about it in yesterday's post here - if you have any questions or would like to add to my local order to save P&P, do get in touch!

Today I'm sharing a card for the new challenge over at CAS Colours and Sketches, but this time not as a participant - as one of their new design team members for 2021! It is the final CC&S challenge of the year and they have reached a milestone 400th challenge - what an achievement! I have been invited, along with the other new design team members, Vicky, Bhavya and Jenny - to create a card for this week's challenge. This week's theme is to create a seasonal card with any of the challenge sketches or colour combinations that have featured in their challenges this year:

 

I actually didn't go that far back to find the challenge I wanted to work with; I missed participating in Challenge 398 only a couple of weeks ago but I loved this sketch and had so many creative ideas, I had to try one of them out for today's card. Here's the sketch that featured in that challenge:

   

What to do with those vertical lines? I considered a row of festive stockings, but also wanted to try something with another of my favourite Christmas sets this year, 'Sweetest Time'. Take a look at what I came up with:

 

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

All Is Calm Candles - If you know this stamp set (and if you don't check out the image in the shop link at the bottom of the post), it has a stamp that is a trio of candles. I decided to get creative with my masking and with the aid of my trusty Stamparatus, I stamped the central three candles, then masked them with a post-it note before stamping an additional candle either side. I did stamp the outer candles in two parts, as I wanted to shorten them too to reflect the chaging size of the lines, but this wasn't too tricky; the Stamparatus made it easy to line up the stripes so you'd really never know.

All is Bright - I decided to omit the last word of my stamped sentiment from the set and replace it with a feature 'Bright' diecut across the front of my candles, cut with my 'Joy' dies for the perfect statement centrepiece. 

Unconventional Colour Combo - I've a couple of confessions as far as this card goes: I originally made it as a single white base layer, however when complete it looked less 'clean and simple' and more 'bland'. To be fair I think this might have a lot to do with my unconventional festive colour combo of Night of Navy, Petal Pink and Cherry Cobbler that feature in Color Dare's TicTacToe challenge 422 (bottom row). I liked these colours together and thought the bold sentiment would work well with the pale candles, but when finished it was, well, bland. So I cut it up and added some outline borders and a pastel card base, along with some clear Wink of Stella to the candle flames and the Navy 'Bright' diecut - and instantly liked it a whole lot better!

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 think my card is still (relatively) clean and simple, although does now have a few more layers than I suspect my new team members would like. I am looking forward to honing my CAS skills as I work with this lovely group each week - I think that might be my 2021 New Year Crafting Resolution #1 ...

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

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Heartwarming Hugs With Peace and Joy For Christmas

by Joanne James5. December 2020 22:16

Today I have a quick post with the a card for the current colour challenge over at Just Add Ink:

These colours have featured in a few of my projects as they are all in the Heartwarming Hugs designer series paper (and you all know how much I love designer series paper!) this card is one I designed for a class featuring the Peace and Joy bundle - take a look:

 

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

I layered a trio of banners of DSP onto a stitched rectangle, then added some Real Red sheer ribbon and sprig punch greenery behind my focal point sentiment, with a little stamping on the inside to finish:

 

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 (or two!) and a video for my weekly Paper Players post. Make sure to pop by - you won't want to miss it! Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Peace on Earth Coastal Cabana Christmas Card

by Joanne James5. November 2020 11:40

This week is getting busier by the minute so I'm just popping in with a quick card that I'm going to hopefully squeeze in to the current CAS(E) This Sketch challenge, where they have a fabulous sketch this week:

      

I still had the Joy Dies out on my desk from my last class and knew immediately what I wanted to do with this sketch, which is also perfect for the current Just Us Girls challenge where the focus is on word diecuts. To complete today's challenge trio I used this week's colours over at Global Design Project #GDP265 and used Bermuda Bay as my free choice. So here's my card  - take a look:

 

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

Peace and Joy - I love this stamp and die bundle and I knew that I had to use all 3 layers of my Peace die to full effect on the front of today's card. I played around with the colours for each layer until I was happy with the effect. I really like the endless sentiment combinations you can create; here's how I finished the sentiment on the inside of today's card:

 

Beautiful World - There are times when stamp sets and bundles have great cross co-ordination, and I think the Beautiful World bundle in the annual catalogue is given a whole new lease of life when paired with either the Peace and Joy bundle or the Dove of Hope bundle from the current Autumn-Winter catalogue. The image of the globe seemed like a fitting stamp to create my repeating background to tie-in with my sentiment, without detracting from it. Not overly Christmassy perhaps, but I think it would make a great masculine Christmas card.

Monochromatic Peace - Having considered a bold contrast for my free choice colour, in the end plumped for Bermuda Bay as I felt the cool palette of aqua and grey against the white fitted with the peaceful theme of my card. What do you think? Would you have gone with something more contrasting - shocking pink, perhaps? Do leave me a comment below, I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

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, this time for our new challenge over at As You See It which is all about colour. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Peace and Snowflakes Times Two

by Joanne James20. August 2020 13:00

Today's second and third cards came about following my online card class earlier this week where we were making cards using the Snowflake Wishes Suite and I had the urge to make another card featuring the gorgeous papers. I had already made a card for this week's Global Design Project #GDP254 that I will be sharing later this week, but I could resist another go with that sketch:

 

I decided to go full-on snowflakes and used a trio of retired snowflake trinkets to embellish my sentiment:

 

I also added some In-Color Misty Moonlight ribbon beneath my label for an added splash of blue.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

 

Having deliberated over which paper pattern to showcase on my card, I realised that the reverse of my chosen design had a fabulous watercolour effect; so I decided to create another card using this that was inspired by the sketch challenge over at TGIF Challenges this week:

I had been musing for a few days over whether or not to brave a watercolour background, but decided this paper would be the perfect cheat. So I paired it  with the fabulous Peace and Joy bundle to create another Christmas card - take a look: 

 

A fabulous stacked diecut on a vellum wrap and a trio of heat embossed and epoxy 'stars' complete this rather pretty card, even if I say so myself!

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 later with my post for this week's new TicTacToe challenge. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Card 1 - Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.
 
Card 2 - Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:
Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

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Hi I'm Joanne and live in Northampton and when I'm not looking after my husband and two beautiful children, am an avid crafter with a passion for all things Stampin' Up!

I must confess that I have never been a big rubber stamper - until I discovered Stampin' Up! that is. I love the fact that I can get such great results with co-ordinating stamps, inks, papers and punches - the possibilities are endless! Join me on my stamping journey as I share the things I love and be inspired to create amazing things yourself!

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