Today I'm sharing my design team card for our first challenge of the year over at As you See It where we are kicking things off with a colour challenge chosen by Heather C:

I used the current sketch layout over at SUO Challenges and grabbed a new stamp set and die bundle and set to work - take a look:

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

Mixed Petals is a new Online Exclusives stamp set that I thought would work well with the challenge colours. I used some retired Berry Burst gingham paper for my background panel, then added a diecut in Peach Pie glimmer paper and a second one of the large stamped image in the set, that I coloured with my Stampin' Blends. I liked the idea of created some variegated colour tulips - I love that tulips come in such vibrant colours in real life:

I used the greys for my stems and leaves; a little poetic license for sure, however I do love the finished effect as it really allows the petals to stand out. I added a thank you sentiment from 'Thoughtful Wishes' and few coloured pearls and enamel dots 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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Colour Challenge use all of the given colours and only those colours with these exceptions:
• White and Very Vanilla are free colours.
• In addition, you may use of ONE of these neutrals: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

MIXED FLORALS BUNDLE (54.00)	THOUGHTFUL WISHES CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)	2024–2026 IN COLOR™ GLIMMER 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PAPER (10.25)	BERRY BURST A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	BERRY BURST STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)
PEACH PIE STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (10.25)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (7.50)	2024–2026 IN COLOR™ SHIMMER GEMS (8.00)	ADHESIVE-BACKED PEARL TRIO (7.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new year of challenges over at CAS Colours & Sketches. We have made few changes to our challenge this year - you can read about them in today's challenge post - and I'm sure you will agree they will set us up nicely for the year ahead. The lovely Rachel has taken over our blog admin and is also hosting this month. For our first challenge of the year we have a colour challenge: 

For my card today I had to break open some new product to play with and given the rather autumnal hues of this week's colour combo, I decided to get back to nature and feature the new Terrific Toadstools stamp set - take a look:

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

Terrific Toadstools - The 'Terrific Toadstools' stamp set is great for simple stamping. Fun sentiments and a selection of different toadstool images to mix and match, along with a cute ladybird too, this is a great set where you need little more than stamps, ink and paper to create a card. It's photopolymer too, so really easy to line up as you can see where you are stamping easily. 

Borderless Punch - Terrific Toadstools is actually a punch bundle - so if you're not a fussy cutting fan, you can achieve popped-up toadstools with ease. The punch is a borderless punch, that means that unlike some Stampin' Up! punches, where the image punches with a white border around the stamped image, the Terrific Toadstools punch punches the shape without a border. The punch was unfortunately not available on pre-order here in the UK, so I will be adding this to my collection at a later stage. For today's card I grabbed my paper snips and trimmed my mushroom pieces by hand - and because I like a white border, I left one in place as I trimmed :-)

Today's Top Tip - Whilst today's card is pretty much stamp, inks and paper, I do still have a top tip for you: I used a sponge dauber to add some Early Espresso to the gills of my mushrooms and to the edges of my mushroom stalks and I think this adds great depth and dimension to the simple mushroom shape:

What do you think? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts. How do these colours inspire you? Why not get out your supplies and link up your projects over at CAS Colours & Sketches - we'd love to see your creations.

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! colour 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 later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

TERRIFIC TOADSTOOLS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (18.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)	PUMPKIN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	OLD OLIVE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CRUMB CAKE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
SPONGE DAUBERS (7.00)

Happy New Year everyone! I took an extended blog break over Christmas to spend time with family and loved every minute of it. That said, it's the 7th January and time for a new mini-catalogue and our 2025 Sale-A-Bration promotion so today I'm back to tell you all about it! Once again this year there will be only one Sale-A-Bration promotion: it runs from today until 28th February. You can click on the catalogue on the right hand side of my blog page or below to access the Sale-A-Bration leaflet or go directly to my online shopto place an order - we are LIVE!

So how does Sale-A-Bration work? For anyone who hasn't come across it before, it's Stampin' Up!'s annual promotion that is loaded with offers whether you shop, join or host.

You can earn a free Sale-A-Bration product for every £55 you spend between 7 January and 28 February. There is also the opportunity to earn even bigger rewards with a £110 purchase. It's the perfect time to purchase those products you've had on your wish list and earn more products for FREE! 

If you host a party or place an individual order with purchases of £275 or more, you can choose an additional £27.50 of products in addition to your standard rewards for FREE!

It’s also one of the best times of the year to join Stampin’ Up! There are two fabulous joining options during this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion:  

• OPTION 1: Spend £99 and receive £130 of product of your choice and your choice of TWO marker sets from our Stampin' Write Marker Assortments (Brights, Neutrals, Regals, Subtles) PLUS a beautiful stamp set exclusively designed to work with them:

Or might prefer the following alternative:

• OPTION 2: Spend £99 and receive £160 of product of your choice - that's an extra £30!

There is plenty of choice and flexibility, whether you want to be a hobby demonstrator and just use your discount to enable you to purchase craft supplies more cheaply, or alternatively would like to build a flourishing direct sales business and sell supplies to others - it's entirely up to you. Above all else, it's a great opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals united through a common love of crafting.

If you would like to host a virtual or in-person party, please do get in touch. Equally if you've ever thought about becoming an SU! demonstrator, now is a great time to do so - I would love to have a no-obligation chat with you about joining my team and the benefits.

As if that wasn't enough, today also sees the launch of the new January-April 2025 mini catalogue - full of gorgeous new products:

Just click on the image above or in the sidebar on the right to browse the catalogue online, or contact me on 07773 421446 if you would like a paper copy posted out to you and you don't already have a demonstrator; paper copies have been sent to my regular customers. If you are as excited as me and just can't wait, here's the link to my online store - everything is available to purchase from today!

There's also a new digital scrapbooking brochure out today:

Just click on the image above or in the sidebar on the right to browse the catalogue online and to purchase any of the items, click to go to my online store - everything is available to purchase from today!

There are new Online exclusives available in the online store today too! The following images show just some of the items available - a number of which co-ordinate with items in the above catalogues:

 Finally, three new kits have also been added to the online store today:

You can get the details on each of the new kits in the online store - click here to go directly to the If you would like more information on any of the above, please don't hesitate to get in touch! 

Thanks so much for popping by - it's always nice to share good news! Back later with a creative post that uses some exciting new product! That post will go live at noon. Until then, happy shopping!

From 9-11 December, there will be free shipping on all orders of £60 or more! Details as follows:

• All order types qualify for this promotion.
• Free shipping is for three days only. Orders must be opened and closed during 9–11 December.
• Free shipping automatically applies to your basket after the qualifying amount has been met, which is 75 € | £60 (before shipping and handling).
• Coupon codes and product credits are non-commissionable and will lower your order’s retail amount. Orders must meet the qualifying amount to be eligible for free shipping.
• The additional cost for expedited shipping is not covered by this promotion.
• Due to the high volume of orders and the Christmas season, the distribution centre may fall behind our typical shipping timeframes. We will do all we can to return to our regular service levels as quickly as possible. Any orders placed during this promotion are not guaranteed to arrive before or by 24 December. If you need an order by Christmas, consider expedited shipping.

Due to the time difference, this promotion will start on 8 December at 11:00 p.m., for Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Click here to go straight to the online store - happy shopping!

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's our final challenge of the year and it's a sketch challenge, designed by Jane:

I don't know whether it's pre-Christmas overwhelm, but I struggled with Jane's sketch this week. I decided to make a Christmas card and feature some of the cute reindeer on the Reindeer Days designer series paper - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

I started with the image of the cute baby reindeer building a snowman and used my Stylish Shaped Dies to cut it out to give a little detail to the border edges. I backed this with a panel of snowflake-embossed white cardstock and added this to my Pool Party cardbase before adding a couple of additional strips of designer paper:

I took a slight liberty with the sentiment in terms of positioning; I used a pre-printed tag from last year's retired Memories & More Kit, tied with a little silver twine. Quite a quick and easy card, even with all the layers. This was actually the second card I made - here's the first one:

On this card I used one of the horizontal elements for the sentiment, again using a retired Memories & More banner sticker. I prefer my second card though - I think that little reindeer building his snowman is super cute! Here's a photo of both cards together - which one is your favourite? 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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow bright and early with another Christmas card as I am guesting over at AAA Cards. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

REINDEER DAYS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (11.75)

SNOWFLAKE SKY 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (10.25)

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)

POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's we have reached a milestone - it's our 550th challenge! As is traditional, for the final challenge of the year you can choose any of the challenges in 2024 - colour or sketch - and make it seasonal. I decided to choose my sketch from way back in March - here's a reminder of that sketch:

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. You can see the original card I made using this sketch here. For my card today I decided to the Iconic Imagery stamp set - the images are the perfect size for this kind of layout - to create my seasonal card. Check it out:

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

I stamped six snowflakes in Azure Afternoon and added rhinestones at the centre for a little sparkle. I added my heat embossed sentiment to a little tag - I used the retired Tailored Tags Dies but you could use the label in the Iconic Imagery bundle or any other one of your choice and finished it with some silver twine:

My sentiment is from the retired 'Sparkly Seasons' stamp set as I made this card before I had purchased the current 'Sophisticated Sled' stamp set, which has another stamp with the same wording which would be a better current alternative. Another quick clean and simple Christmas card that is already in the post! I'm linking today's card up over at AAA Cards where the theme is 'anything CAS goes - with the optional theme of Christmas/winter', which I chose.

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:

ICONIC IMAGERY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (36.75)

RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (5.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)

AZURE AFTERNOON A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

AZURE AFTERNOON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)

Happy Monday! Today I've a nice quick clean and simple Christmas card to start the week that I made for a couple of challenges:

Addicted To CAS are looking for cards featuring ornaments and I used red, green, gold and baubles/ornaments from the Festive Friday inspo list for today's card - take a look:

Today's card couldn't be simpler: a strip of Night of Navy added to my Very Vanilla cardbase, picking up the colour from my trio of hanging ornaments that came straight from the A Little Bit Festive designer series paper pack. A diecut sentiment from the Joyful Sayings pack and a sprinkle of gold enamel gems complete my card:

And not a stamp in sight! These papers sure do make for great quick CAS cards.

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:

A LITTLE BIT FESTIVE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) MIX & MATCH SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.50)

JOYFUL SAYINGS MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (ENGLISH) (9.00)

VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)

NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)

ADHESIVE-BACKED METALLIC GEMS (8.50)

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

Trees offer us so many options and feature on so many different types of cards. I am still making Christmas cards and found the perfect answer to a quick card - take a look:

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

A Little Bit Festive - It will no surprise to my regular readers that the time-saving hack for today's card was found in the A Little Bit Festive paper pack. The Christmas tree that is the focal point for today's card is a pre-printed panel that was ready to go - I just pushed it out of the paper sheet and done! I couldn't leave it there though! I picked out the red and green colours in the design and added a couple of panels behind to add a little more interest and robustness to my card.

Joyful Sayings - My Christmas tree has a gold foiled star and that led me to one of the pre-diecut sentiments in the Joyful Sayings Ephemera pack for an impactful overlaid sentiment. I added it to my card with some snippets of dimensionals for a little lift and completed my sentiment with the only stamping (apart from the inside) to feature on today's card with the word 'happy' from the 'Greetings of the Season' stamp set:

I considered adding some gems to my finished card, but decided it against it, not on the grounds of time but more that I didn't want to clutter my clean design.

Christmas on Speed - The festive season is always a great time to have some quick and easy card making ideas to hand - so this week's challenge is definitely a timely one. How long did my card take today?

Six minutes exactly - woohoo! There are lots of other panels in the A Little Bit Festive paper pack that can be used for similar quick and easy cards.

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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Speed Stamping Challenge you must tell us the time it took to make your project and it must be finished in under 10 min.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

A LITTLE BIT FESTIVE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) MIX & MATCH SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.50)	JOYFUL SAYINGS MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (ENGLISH) (9.00)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)
GREETINGS OF THE SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Patricia has asked that we add a horizontal sentiment with a couple of areas of detail top and bottom:

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. For my card today I decided to create another Christmas card using my Golden Greenery bundle and coordinating products - take a look:

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

NOEL - The Noel sentiment that I've used on today's card is a diecut straight from the Joyful Sayings Mix & Match Ephemera pack. I added it to a piece of gold foil and cut around the diecut to add a shadow layer, to help my sentiment stand out from the strip of designer series paper. The Joyful Sayings diecuts are so useful for adding quick sentiments to cards - a great standby during the festive season.

Season of Green & Gold - I used a piece of Old Olive and Very Vanilla gingham from the Season of Green & Gold designer paper as the base to highlight my sentiment and bordered it with a thin gold foil border to tie in with my overall design. I love gingham; it works on all types of card.

Golden Greenery - For the other elements of the sketch, I added some greenery and foliage from the 'Golden Greenery' stamp set, just adding the tips of the foliage so that it appears to be 'peeking out' from beneath the sentiment strip:

A few gold faceted gems complete my card. I'm also linking today's card up over at Inspire.Create where the theme is 'Christmas'.

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:

SEASON OF GREEN & GOLD 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (16.00)	GOLDEN GREENERY BUNDLE (54.00)	JOYFUL SAYINGS MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (ENGLISH) (9.00)	ADHESIVE-BACKED METALLIC GEMS (8.50)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
OLD OLIVE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)