As I'm writing my post today there is finally a break in the rain - hurrah! I hope that everyone here in the UK had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, despite the dreadful weather across most of the country yesterday. I am now home, having spent a long weekend away in Somerset with my extended family, celebrating my Mother-in-law's forthcoming 70th birthday. We were fortunate to have had wonderful weather and spent a great weekend on the beach, fossil hunting, playing rounders and generally having a relaxing time.

Today I'm sharing a card I made a while ago as one of the samples for the UK Regional Training Day where I was asked to do a 'wow' technique presentation using the Traveler stamp set. This card is one of the ones that was actually inspired by the set, rather than featuring it directly, although the old fashioned brownie camera that inspired my card does feature on the inside. I decided to try my hand at a shaker card and created it to look like an old fashioned camera - here's the front of my card:

I used Soft Suede, Baked Brown Sugar and Brushed Gold cardstock and a variety of circle punches and both circle and deco label framelits to construct my shaker, and filled the window with gold sequins and some confetti squares cut using my fringe scissors from baked Brown Sugar cardstock and Champagne glimmer paper. I used the Petite Pairs sentiment set and heat embossed the first half of my sentiment in gold on the inside of my shaker frame. This was then continued on the inside of the card:

I also finished with the camera stamp. So what do you think - does my punch art camera shaker card bear any resemblance to the real thing? I thought this would make a fun masculine shaker card - proving even grown ups can be fun!

Back tomorrow with my Design Team card for this week's Colour Me...! challenge - and I have a fun 'sneak peek' Christmas card to share with you!

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Traveler Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Petite Pairs - Clear-Mount Stamp	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Embossing Buddy
Versamark Pad	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Deco Labels Collection Framelits Dies	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad
Soft Suede A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Baked Brown Sugar	Neutrals Candy Dots	Candy Dots Brad Bases	Gold Sequin Trim
Champagne Glimmer Paper	Shaker Frames	Medium Window Sheets	Brushed Gold A4 Card Stock	1/2 Inch Circle Punch
1-3/4 Inch Circle Punch	Project Life Corner Punch

No blog post yesterday as I took the James juniors to the zoo for the day and had a team get-together in the evening and didn't manage to squeeze one in! We had a great day at the zoo and managed to dodge the worst of the rain showers, so all good. Today I'm sharing a quick shaker card designed by Monica Gale that we made at our last quarterly team training day:

Not the best of photos I'm afraid as I struggled to beat the refection and glare on the window sheet, but hopefully good enough to get the idea. Shaker cards are all the rage at the moment and whilst you can build a window with depth for a card with real 'shake-ability (I'm sure it's a word!), you can also get the effect simply and easily by creating a pocket behind a punched opening and adding just a few elements - I added some glitter stars and square confetti created with my fringe scissors. The front of the card is simply decorated with a few strips of All Abloom DSP, some stars punched from the new Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer paper and a tied bow made with 1/4" Real Red cotton ribbon.

Short and sweet today! Back tomorrow with another project. until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

All Abloom Designer Series Paper Stack	Pictogram Punches Clear-Mount Stamp Set	2" Circle Punch	Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper	Medium Window Sheets
Fringe Scissors	Real Red 1/4" Cotton Ribbon	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock

It's Monday and today I have a special card for a special day - today my youngest James Junior turns 7! I can't quite believe it - some days I'm not sure where the last 7 years have gone. So today I'm sharing a birthday card I made for Ben to celebrate his special day. I used this week's sketch over at the Paper Craft Crew as my inspiration: 

My card is slightly larger than usual - A5, 21cm x 14.9cm - and features a fun shaker element along with my favourite Sea Street stamp set:

The shaker is made using the surround from the On Film framelit set and filled with fussy cut starfish, crabs, lobsters, gold sequins and some fish and anchors cut with my now retired Oh Whale! clearlit. I stamped the 'Hip Hip Hooray' onto the background before putting the shaker together and carried the sentiment on to the inside of the card:

We have a fun day planned today, including a visit to the cinema and maybe even a cycle ride on his new bicycle if the weather holds! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Sea Street Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Bravo Photopolymer Stamp Set	Fabulous Four Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Starburst Sayings	On Film Framelits Dies
Starburst Framelits Dies	3/4 Inch Circle Punch	Small Oval Punch	Banner Punch	Medium Window Sheets
Gold Sequin Trim	Gold Baker's Twine	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad	Tempting Turquoise Classic Stampin' Pad	Pacific Point A4 Card Stock	Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform