STOP PRESS for an important announcement: For 24 hours only, starting at 11pm UK time this evening, Stampin' Up! are offering FREE shipping on orders of £35 or more.

The key information is as follows:

• Free shipping applies after the qualifying order amount has been met.
• The minimum qualifying amount to receive free shipping is £35 or more.
• Free shipping only applies during the 24-hour period the promotion is live in each market; this means that the order must be opened and closed between 23 June 2021, at 11p.m. and 24 June 2021, at 11:00 p.m (UK).

This is a great time to stock up on last-chance items, to pick up one of the new all-inclusive papercrafting kits or to treat yourself to something from your wishlist for the the new annual catalogue. So start making those lists and head off to the online Stampin' Up! store or message me with your order - I will be placing an order tomorrow evening if you are local to me and would like to add anything to it.

Happy shopping!

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Shannon has asked that we add three similar shapes to a panel across the centre of our card. Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

For my card today I decided to go pastel with pale blue and yellow which is the current colour challenge over at Less Is More and I created a pretty row of punched flowers backed with gingham - take a look:

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

The flowers on today's card are courtesy of the new 'Flowers of Friendship' stamp set. I stamped them in Basic Grey onto So Saffron cardstock and added a little extra tone-on-tone shading with my So Saffron Blends. I punched the two different-sized flowers with the co-ordinating Flowers & Leaves Punch and layered a row of three against a simple stitched rectangle of Balmy Blue gingham, finishing the centre of each with pale blue pearls. I added a sentiment from the same set 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. 

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:

FLOWERS OF FRIENDSHIP BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£33.25)	SO SAFFRON A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	SO SAFFRON STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BASIC GRAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)
STITCHED RECTANGLE DIES (£33.00)	PASTEL PEARLS (£6.00)

Today I'm sharing a card using the sketch layout over at Paper Craft Crew and the colours from the latest Color Dare Challenge: 

Purple is one of my favourite colours and I thought the sketch would be perfect to showcase a Memories and More card so my card came together pretty quickly - take a look:

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

I took one of the floral Memories and More cards that features purple and yellow flowers (yellow and green are my additional colours to accompany my Highland Heather purple) and I trimmed down the card, adding the floral section to a stitched scalloped mat. I added a second panel of a co-ordinating Highland Heather pattern from the Hand Penned patterned paper pack. A tied bow of crinkle white ribbon and a trio of clear sequins along with the printed sentiment that was fussy-cut from the remainder of the Memories and More card finish 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 later with this week's project for our new CAS Colours & Sketches challenge. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

HAND-PENNED MEMORIES & MORE CARD PACK (£9.25)	HAND-PENNED 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	STITCHED SO SWEETLY DIES (£30.00)
WHITE 1/4" (6.4 MM) CRINKLED SEAM BINDING RIBBON (£7.00)

I've had a busy day today, having spent the morning with a group of lovely ladies hosting my latest online class. That was all about pansies; the card I'm sharing here today though is all about seashells for the current Fusion challenge:

I used both the sketch and the jar of seashells as my inspiration and this is what I came up with:

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

This card really did evolve as I made it. The starting point for my card was the sand dollar-patterned DSP I used on my card base and I decided to use the same colours for my trio of shells. Rather than stamp them though, I fussy cut them from another of the sheets of Sand and Sea DSP as I wanted to use these shell designs but not ones that were as large as the stamped versions. I fussy cut my shells, embossed them with the Seashells 3D embossing folder, added some frosted white shimmer paint then added clear Crystal Effects to give them a glossy shine:

Having heat-embossed my sentiment in white, I added a shadow by stamping again in Early Espresso to make the words stand out a little better against the sandy background. A few opal rounds complete my card.

I really love the effect of those glossy shells - with the frosted shimmer inside and the embossed detail beneath the glossy exterior, they really are quite eye-catching in real life.

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: 

SAND & SEA 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	OPAL ROUNDS (£7.00)	FRIENDS ARE LIKE SEASHELLS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£24.00)	SEASHELLS 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£8.25)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
BASICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)

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)

Happy Saturday - it's the weekend! Today I'm sharing a card inspired by Jen B's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I had the Sweet Strawberry bundle out on my desk, so thought I'd combine a little something old with something new for today's card - take a look:

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

Sweet Strawberries - I used the Sweet Strawberry stamp set and Strawberry Builder Punch as the focus for my card today, retaining Jen's circle and using it as a base for a couple of punched strawberries and leaves.  I also added a little additional decoration inside my card:

Something Old - My 'something old' is the Berry Blessings DSP that I used, that was one of the free gifts with Sale-A-Bration earlier this year. I used if for my card base and stitched rectangle, and also punched my strawberries from the paper. Don't you just love this bold red and green combo?

Something New - My 'something new' is the checked embossing folder I used on my white panel. This check reminds me of picnic baskets so I thought would work well with the summery strawberries! Not that there's much chance of a picnic here at the moment - our beautiful sunny weather has been replaced with torrential rain all day yesterday!

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:

SWEET STRAWBERRY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£30.50)	STITCHED RECTANGLE DIES (£33.00)	LAYERING CIRCLES DIES (£33.00)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)
CHECKS & DOTS EMBOSSING FOLDERS (£7.50)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

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

I went with the first column with Friendship/Any Colour/Sentiment and decided to make a set of cards for my in-colour club using one of my favourite new bundles - take a look:

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

Sending Hugs - This is the second time I've used the Sending Hugs bundle - you can see my previous card here. Today's card is similar in layout, but today I went full-on monochrome, stamping the large floral cluster tone-on-tone before adding my diecut sentiment. This is a great way to use this stamp set if you don't want to do a lot of colouring of the individual elements. 

Layering Hugs Dies - The Layering Hugs Dies are so beautiful and really do all the work on this card to turn it into something special. I paired my 'HUGS' with a stamped 'sending you', this time cut with a little label die that also comes in the set - so useful! How pretty is the layering on this card?

In-Colour Club - Whilst Fresh Freesia is my personal favourite of the new 2021-23 In-Colours, I made this card in each of the new in-colours to include in last month's In-Colour Club packs. Here are some of the other colourways (minus Soft Succulent):

Do you have a favourite new in-colour? 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 Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SENDING HUGS BUNDLE (£41.25)

2021–2023 IN COLOR A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

2021–2023 IN COLOR CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£31.50)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Shannon is hosting this month and this week we have another colour challenge: 

For my card today I decided to highlight a stamp set that will soon be leaving us, but you might not have even noticed in the January-June mini catalogue. Do you recognise this flower?

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

Suite Sampler - The flower stem on today's card looks like the flowers in the Art Gallery stamp set that is part of the Fine Art Florals Suite, and don't worry - those stamps have been carried over to the annual catalogue so they're not leaving anytime soon! - but it actually comes from the exclusive host set, Suite Sampler. This stamp set has a selection of images, each of which co-ordinates with one or other of the suites that feature in the mini catalogue. I really like this double-blossomed stem; not only does it give more mileage to my Art Gallery set, but it is also great for clean and simple cards. This set will retire at the end of the month, so if you like it you still have time to put in a big order or gather some orders between friends and earn the hostess rewards needed to be able to add it to your shopping basket. 

Ink Blending - I loved Shannon's colour choices this week and I thought the Mango Melody and Polished pink would make a lovely two-tone flower, so I used a combination of ink, Stampin' Write markers direct to stamp and a sponge dauber to gently apply the ink and blend the colour. I loved the effect so much, I cleaned my stamp and repeated the stamping, both on my envelope and the inside of my card:

Just To Say - I paired my flower with a negative 'just to say' cut using the large single die in the Floral Gallery Dies set. I will pair it with a stamped sentiment on the inside of my card from the Art Gallery set but for the time being I have left it blank so that I can stamp it to suit when my card is needed. Don't you just love that Polished Pink peeking through?

I really like the simplicity of this card - if I can find the time I'm going to make a few more in alternative colours. It's a great one to have on standby so that the greeting can be adapted as needed.

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:

SUITE SAMPLER CLING STAMP SET (£12.00)	FLORAL GALLERY DIES (£32.00)	POLISHED PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	POLISHED PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
MANGO MELODY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	OLD OLIVE 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 colour challenge for us to work with:

I am a big lover of 'Brights' so Claire's colour choices this week were right up my street! I decided to pair them with this week's TGIF Challenges sketch to create a (slightly larger) birthday card for someone rather special who will be sweet sixteen this week - take a look:

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

I decided to get another use out of my Perennial Petals Dies before they retire at the end of the month and used them to cut a large layered flower and leaf stem to flank a Bermuda Bay label cut with the Tasteful Labels Dies that is the basis for my sparkly diecut 16 numbers (retired Large Numbers Framelits - still so, so useful!). I overlaid my three elements with a heat-embossed sentiment from the 'In Bloom' stamp set that I cut in half horizontally, adding the upper portion to the outside and the lower portion to the inside of my card:

I love the TGIF sketch this week; I did take a more liberal interpretation on this one, although I think you can clearly see how it influenced the layout of my card this week. I'd like to give a shout out to the TGIF team who selected this card as their winner for Bree Renwick's Stampin' Blends challenge a couple of week's ago - thanks ladies!

This card is for the oldest of the James Juniors who turns 16 on Tuesday - where did that time go?! I'm safe to blog today as she doesn't read my blog, but I won't be sharing it to my social media channels until the big day; she has been helping me get to grips with Instagram and so checks that feed every day, so no spoiling the surprise!!

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; we spent the day at hockey and cricket respectively yesterday, so are looking forward to a day at home today, catching up on garden jobs and enjoying more of this glorious weather we are having before it breaks later this week. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

PERENNIAL PETALS DIES (£15.00)	TASTEFUL LABELS DIES (£29.00)	IN BLOOM PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£16.00)	MATTE BLACK DOTS (£6.50)	SILVER & CLEAR EPOXY ESSENTIALS (£8.75)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MELON MAMBO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BERMUDA BAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

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

With Father's Day around the corner our masculine theme this week gave me the perfect opportunity to get organised and make my cards. It also allowed me to take some time out of my super-busy week to spend some time relaxing with my Stampin' Blends and indulge in a little colouring. I actually have two cards for you today, featuring each of the main images in the 'A Cut Above' stamp set. Take a look at the first one:

This is the card I made for my Dad and I coloured the hair, etc. accordingly - I love how you cam customise when you stamp your own card! And here's the second card I created:

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

A Cut Above - Both of my cards today feature images and sentiments from the 'A Cut Above' stamp set, a stand-alone stamp set that features in the January-June mini catalogue and will be retiring at the end of the month. Whilst I'll be sad to see this set go, as I think these images work for lots of recipients, so if this set is on your wish list, snap it up now before it's too late! These images are great to colour - I've listed all of the blends I used in my product table below. I don't profess to be an expert colourist, however I do find it wonderfully relaxing.

A Growing Garden - The layout for my card today was inspired by a TGIF Challenges sketch from a few weeks ago that I didn't play along with, but kept because I thought it would work well with my image panel. I added a strip of sky at the top of my panel, then below my image I added a number of strips of Granny Apple Green grass (cut with a retired Picnic Builders Die - you could also create something similar with fringe scissors or your paper snips if you don't have a grass die) that I had lightly sponged on the tips. Given that both of the images feature grass, I thought this was a fun way to add extra detail. I'm also linking up over at Global Design Project #GDP295 this week where their theme is 'Growing Garden' - I don't know about you, but of all the things in our garden, the grass is definitely the thing that grows the quickest, closely followed by the weeds! During the early summer months, our grass definitely resembles my card:

I know my husband will definitely see the funny side of this card - he spends many hours mowing the lawn!

A Die Comparison - The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed I used two different stitched scalloped rectangles on my cards. The card above uses one of the stitched rectangles in the Stitched So Sweetly Dies set; the card below uses one of the new stitched rectangles from the Scalloped Contours Dies. You will notice that the scallop detail is much larger on the card below; in addition to this detail, some of the other dies in this new set have cut outs or alternative stitched patterning, in addition to the overall sizes being larger. I wanted to show you the difference on two similar cards so that you can see how the new dies differ:

Here's both cards together - which one do you prefer? I like them both but would love to hear your thoughts, so do leave me a comment below.

The lovely team over at SUO Challenges are asking us to create projects created using markers, so I'll also be linking up over there too.

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

 And my second card:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.

Enjoy your day; mine is set to be filled with housework, laundry and all that to the background of my piano being tuned - wish me luck! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

A CUT ABOVE CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)	SCALLOPED CONTOURS DIES (£33.00)	STITCHED SO SWEETLY DIES (£30.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BALMY BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
NIGHT OF NAVY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BRONZE & IVORY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SOFT SUEDE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	PUMPKIN PIE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
BERMUDA BAY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BALMY BLUE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SMOKEY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)