Park Lane Thank You and Another Painted Petals Card

by Joanne James25. May 2015 19:20

Well the Bank Holiday didn't bring the sunshine I was hoping for, but it did stay nice and dry and we managed a bracing long bike ride this afternoon, so it's all good! Today I have not one but two cards for you! The first one is my card for the current Fab Friday Challenge where they have a sketch challenge this week:

Before I share my card, a big thank you to the team over at Fab Friday for choosing my In-Colour thank you card as their Fab Fave - I'm honoured! You can see that card here. Now onto today's card:

 

I'm still on my quest to use up more of my Designer Series Paper (I am such a DSP hoarder!) and this sketch was the perfect opportunity to showcase some. So no 'sneak peeks' today; instead a Daffodil Delight base with some mats in Soft Suede, and two of the patterns in the Park Lane pack. I used one of my favourite retiring thank you stamps, 'One in a Million', for my sentiment, stamped in Soft Suede onto Very Vanilla, and I chose to fussy cut one of the flowers for my accent. I liked the clean lines of this card so much, I made two identical ones - if you are one of my contactable online customers, you may find one winging its way to you to you this month!

My next card is for this week's TGIF challenge:

I saw the inspiration photo and I had my Painted Petals set out on my desk preparing for my technique class next month (this is the set we are going to be using) and I just knew the two would work together. Here's my card:

 

I used So Saffron for my card base and matted a strip of the already retired Gingham Garden DSP (I told you I was a DSP hoarder!) onto a strip of Pear Pizzazz and adhered this to the front of my card. I stamped the flowers on a large circle of Whisper White cut out using my Big Shot and Circles framelits, inking them with one of the new in-colours, Watermelon Wonder, and adding some Blackberry Bliss using my Stampin' Write marker to the flower centres before stamping. I stamped the sentiment in Blackberry Bliss too and to finish added a few So Saffron flowers, punched using one of the Itty Bitty Accent punches and centred with pearls. I popped this circle up on dimensionals to stand away from the card. 

Please do check out the design team inspiration for both of the above challenges; they are some amazing cards on both blogs this week. I'll be back tomorrow with another card; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (Card 1):

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

 

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (Card 2):

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

 

Sprinkles of Life With A Cherry On Top!

by Joanne James24. May 2015 10:00

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! There were some beautiful girly thank you cards in our gallery last week - this week it is the turn of the lovely Anne-Marie to host and she has a great sketch challenge for us to play with:

I love a good sketch and couldn't resist using this one to showcase some more 'sneak peek' products using the new in-colours, the RMHC stamp set 'Sprinkles of Life' and the co-ordinating Tree Builder Punch, the Cheery on Top DSP stack and another new product that I'm using for the first time - check out my card:

 

I used two of the 'Cherry on Top' patterned papers for the background and the strip across the middle, matting each onto Watermelon Wonder and then Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry respectively and for my focal point, I kept the square shape and used it to feature yet another combination from the 'Sprinkles of Life' stamp set - a cute basket filled with flowers. I stamped the basket in Crushed Curry onto the same colour cardstock and stamped the top in Cucumber Crush on Cucumber Crush cardstock, then using the same tone on tone stamping, stamped and either punched out or fussy cut the flowers and paper pieced them, finishing the centres of the larger flowers with candy dots. I adhered this to a piece of Pool Party cardstock, and I also used this colour for my sentiment flag. The final 'sneak peek' product is the trio of In-Colour Blossom Accents that I used for the circles on the sketch - how gorgeous are they?! They add great dimension to a card and just one would be enough to make a big impact - I can see me getting through lots of these!

Before you reach for your inks and stamps, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

The Paper Players Design Team
 
Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:
 
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission.
3.  Please link your card to no more than three challenges, TOTAL.
4.  Have FUN! 

I look forward to seeing how you interpret our sketch this week. I'm off to the tip to dispose of a couple of trailer-loads of garden rubbish and then for Sunday lunch cooked by my mother-in-law - what an exciting life I lead! 

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

All sneak peek product today - purchase details to be updated when available. 

Hello Birthday Girl!

by Joanne James23. May 2015 17:47

I've had a lovely crafty morning earlier but am later with my blog post as I've been at a basket ball tournament this afternoon with the youngest James Junior (his school club team were tournament winners - woohoo!) and then since we have a rare swim-free Saturday, the children are sleeping over at Grannies and the DH and I treated ourselves to dinner and a movie - Pitch Perfect 2 (aka-awesome - every bit as good as the first one!) All in all a great day, but since what you're really here for is my card let's get to it! Today I used this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch as my inspiration:

I needed a birthday card for a 10 year old girlfriend of Rebecca's and decided that this sketch would be perfect for what I had in mind - here's my card:

 

I started out with my Simply Created Hooray It's Your Day Card Kit and co-ordinating stamp set, and whilst I used the stamp set and embellishment and took my ideas from the kit, I really wanted something altogether more pink so chose a combination of Strawberry Slush and Pink Pirouette for my card and sponged onto a piece of Sale-A-Bration Irresistibly Yours Designer Series Paper for my background. I did interpret the sketch somewhat loosely, but you can see the main elements: the glimmer strip in the background, the speech bubbles (I am so going to miss these retiring framelits!) for the panel and the wooden 'hello' embellishment as my main focal point, although I did also add an Itty Bitty Accents punched flower and a glimmer butterfly to balance it out and add to the girly feel. I also added a Tip Top Taupe speech bubble to break up the pink a little - this colour goes so well with Pink Pirouette!

I hope you like today's birthday card; come back tomorrow to see what fun we have in store for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players - there will be more sneak peeks, so 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.

 

Double Sneak Peeks Today!

by Joanne James22. May 2015 13:47

Yay it's Friday! I really don't know where this week has gone! I started the week on such good form, yet seem to have achieved steadily less and less as the week has flown by! No matter - we have a Bank Holiday weekend to look forward to here in the UK so I'm hoping it will stay nice enough to enable me to get outside and potter in my garden and fit in a little crafty time too!

As promised, I'm back with more sneak peeks for you today and not one, but two cards. Here's the first one using this week's sketch over at Retrosketches:

I decided to get out one of my pre-order stamp sets, 'Sprinkles of Life', this year's charity stamp set benefiting the Ronald McDonald House Charity, for my card:

This card is an absolute cornucopia of new product: new in-colour inks Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, Mint Macaron and Tip Top Taupe, new in-colour cardstock in Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush and Mint Macaron, Cherry on Top DSP stack, some Watermelon Wonder dotted lace trim and of course the Sprinkles of Life stamp set and the co-ordinating Tree Builder punch. I interpreted the stacking cups in the sketch as a very over-the-top ice cream cone with 3 scoops and finished it with a cherry punched from my Build A Cupcake punch that I paper-pieced and covered in Crystal Effects to give a lovely shiny finish. I just love these new bright in colours! 

This stamp is oh-so-versatile with so many possibilities - my second card today uses the same stamp set for a totally different look, and is combined with some sponged sunshine using the mask from my 'Simply Created Hooray It's Your Day' card kit:

This time my ice cream is a cloud, complete with heat-embossed silver lining, and the perfect co-ordinating sentiment. How clever is that? This stamp set really is so versatile.

I'm linking this CAS card up with the lovely ladies over at Less Is More where the theme for this week's challenge is 'Hello Sunshine' - I missed linking up my water-themed card last week so am glad I've made it in with the sunshine today. 

Here's looking forward to an equally warm and sunny weekend. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

As detailed above

You've Got This Sneak Peek

by Joanne James21. May 2015 08:00

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a colour challenge for you:

 

I also have a sneak peek for you today as I made my card with a new set from the 2015-16 Annual Catalogue called 'You've Got This' - take a look:

This gorgeous stamp comes in two parts with a very useful hatched pattern background stamp that I stamped in Soft Sky on my Soft Sky panel, a few sentiments and beautiful large flower bloom. I stamped my flower in Versamark on vellum and heat embossed it in silver then I coloured the stem with Smoky Slate and the petals with Blackberry Bliss ink and used a blender pen to achieve the detail. I then fussy cut my flower and adhered it to my card front using glue dots, allowing the edges to lift away from the card. The sentiment was also heat embossed in silver directly to the card front and I finished my card with a piece of Soft Sky seam binding ribbon tied in a bow. 

I just love this flower stamp and know that this is one I will be getting lots of use out of, so you can definitely expect to see more of it. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this colour combination this week - do check out how the other designers have used this colour combination too, as there are some great and varied cards to inspire you. 

I'm also linking today's card up with this week's challenge over at Can You Case It? where their theme is 'May Flowers' - I think my card certainly qualifies as one of those!

 

I'll be back tomorrow with another sneak peek project, so stay tuned for that. Unitl then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

  • Embossing Buddy
  • Versamark Pad
  • Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder
  • Heat Tool - Uk Plug
  • Soft Sky 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon
  • Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad
  • Card Stock A4 Soft Sky
  • Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad
  • Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad
  • Blender Pens
  • White Vellum A4 Card Stock

 

This Week's Wednesday Weekly Deals!

by Joanne James20. May 2015 09:53

It's Wednesday and you know what that means: a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals! This week's deals are included below - they will be available for one week only, before a new collection of deals is announced. 

As always, if you want to take advantage of any of the deals on offer, you can support my business by placing your order online by clicking here or using the link to my store on the right hand side of my blog page where it says 'Shop Online' or with me in person. Don't forget to add the Hostess Code for May FZZMG3JY and be sure to make sure that you don't check the 'no contact' box if you'd like to be kept updated with the progress of you order and receive a little thank you in the post from me. 

Here's a summary of this week's one-week only Wednesday deals - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

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

Lots of great offers again this week - dies, accessories and embellishments - take your pick!

Back shortly with today's creative post; until then, happy shopping! 

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Promotions | Shop Online

Up, Up and Away New Home Card

by Joanne James18. May 2015 11:03

I am starting this week with a quick post to share a card that I made with my ladies at one of my recent Stamp-A-Stack classes which was all about punch art and fits perfectly not only for the colours but also the inspiration photo over at The Color Throwdown this week:

I had been wanting to make an 'Up!' style card for a while and had seen lots of versions on Pinterest - here's my take with the card I made with my ladies:

Quite simple, but it needed to be as everyone was making a few each - Stamp-A-Stack is all about creating lots of cards in a - relatively! - short time.

The base is a piece of Soft Sky, onto which I adhered a few Whisper White clouds and stamped a few straight lines using the balloon string from the 'Celebrate Today' stamp set. We then stamped the house from the now retired Sale-A-Bration set in Memento Black onto Crumb Cake and punched it out with the retiring 'What's Up?' arrow punch and popped it on a dimensional at the base of the strings. The cluster of balloons is a carefully layered group of balloons made with the small oval punch and a foot from the Owl Builder punch. The sentiment is taken from the also retired winter seasonal set 'Holiday Home'. These bright primary colours are perfect for this card and so remind me of the scene where the house takes off in the Disney movie 'Up!'; I'm a big Disney fan and this movie holds special memories as it was the movie I watched with my daughter the first time we visited the cinema.

That's not quite all from me today - I have a second post which is my-fill in post from Saturday when I was at the Stampin' Up! UK Regional training event in Telford, so scroll back to read that one if you want to hear about the fun I had! 

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.

 

So Very Kind of You Girly Thank You Card

by Joanne James17. May 2015 10:00

It's Sunday and time for another challenge over at The Paper Players! There was some great inspiration using LeAnne's colour palette last week and this week it is the turn of the lovely Jaydee, who has a great CAS-themed challenge to get us creating this week:

 

Girly thanks - I immediately thought 'flowers' for this one and wanted to use some of the lovely 'Gold Soiree' specialty DSP. It's rather busy for a clean-and-simple card though, so I toned it down with a vellum overlay - take a look:

 

I matted a piece of DSP on some Garden Green with a base of Pistachio Pudding, then on a piece of vellum stamped my thank you sentiment from the 'Big on You' stamp set in Calypso Coral and Garden Green inks and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder to give it a lovely textured shine (although this is difficult to see in the photograph). I wrapped the vellum with a piece of Pistachio Pudding thick baker's twine and finished with single Calypso Coral flower stamped in the same colour using the 'Flower Shoppe' stamp set and punched out with the co-ordinating Pansy punch (the Garden Green leaves were a couple of wings punched with the Bird Punch) and a cluster of pearls. Here's a close-up of the flower, which echoes the pattern on the paper beneath the vellum overlay:

I then adhered the vellum overlay to the base using dimensionals, attached behind the flower and the stamped sentiment, so that they aren't visible on the top layer. I love these big, bold sentiment stamps and the floral DSP - both of which will be retiring at the end of the month, so if they're on your wishlist you should snap them up now before it's too late!

So that's my clean and simple floral thanks today - I'm also linking my card up over at SUO Challenges, where the current theme is 'fun flowers'. Before you reach for your inks and thank you stamps, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

The Paper Players Design Team
 
Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:
 
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission.
3.  Please link your card to no more than three challenges, TOTAL.
4.  Have FUN! 

I look forward to seeing your CAS creations this week. I'm looking forward to a quiet family day today as I recover from the yesterday's Stampin' Up! UK Regional Event.

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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Cards | Stamping

2015 Stampin' Up! Catalogue Sneak Peak - Endless Birthday Wishes

by Joanne James16. May 2015 18:00

Today I've been at a Stampin' Up! UK regional training event in Telford. These events are both exhilarating and exhausting at the same time! It's a great opportunity to get together with team members, other SU! demos and the Stampin' Up! UK and European Home Office teams, to see lots of new and exciting product and swap work with others as a means of creative inspiration. I love creating swaps for this type of event although they can be time-consuming and always seem to create something rather too elaborate for mass production, hence no post yesterday and a late one today. I made a card for this week's challenges over at The Paper Craft Crew and Colour Me! and then based my swap on this as it features a stamp that is new to us here in the UK so is an annual catalogue 'sneak peek', although if you are a USA reader this set will be familiar to you as it has been available as a photopolymer set for some time: Endless Birthday Wishes.

   

So here is my original challenge card:  

I stamped the sprinkles stamp on my base of Melon Mambo and used the challenge colours to create my own custom happy birthday DSP which I used for the right hand panel - thank heavens for photopolymer stamps, they made lining up a doddle! I then stamped the cake in Memento Black on Whisper White and coloured with my retired Blendabilities, before mounting on a starburst cut with the retiring Starburst framelits - still available and a bargain at only £11.48 for the set! I added a few sequins for sparkle and to tie in my gold button, and then added a strip with a few DSP banners and the second part of my sentiment (the stamp has these words side by side, so I stamped it in two separate goes, so that the words sat on top of each other and fitted my banner better). 

I liked this card so much I created a (only slightly!) simpler version as my swap for the Stampin' Up! regional event. Here it is in the same colours:

The background and DSP panel was the same, however to save on colouring I stamped the cake in a single colour and mounted on a combination of a 2" circle, 2 3/8" scallped circle and 2 1/2" circle instead and I left off the button and twine. I also created it in three other colour combinations, but totally forgot to take photos of the whole pile when finished! I do however have this 'work in progress' shot of the chaos on my office desk last week:

Well, organised chaos! Here are the other colour combinations: Tangerine Tango and Tempting Turquoise (top left), Calypso Coral and Bermuda Bay (bottom left) and Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant (bottom right).

Thanks to everyone who swapped with me - I have some lovely samples that I'm looking forward to sharing with my customers. Also, before I go here's another quick photo of some of my downline and team members who I was lucky enough to spend the day with:

Even the camera-shy Samantha doesn't look to cross to have been snapped in this one :-) Love you ladies!

I'm looking forward to sharing lots more of the new and fun things that we got to see and create with at our training in the coming weeks; only a couple more weeks until the new 2015 Stampin' Up! annual catalogue launches!

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (challenge card):

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (swap card):

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

 

Light 'Em Up Birthday Bash Birthday Card

by Joanne James14. May 2015 08:05

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie And Mary and this week we have a sketch challenge for you - my favourite!

 

This is a great card for using up scraps of DSP so I set to work with my Birthday Bash Speciality DSP and Birthday Bash Stamp set to create today's card:

I let the DSP drive the colour scheme for my card so used a Crushed Curry base with a panel of Night Of Navy down the left hand side, which I then overlaid with four co-ordinating rectangles of patterned paper. I then added a piece of Night of Navy seam binding ribbon to cover the join and for my focal point stamped the candles from the 'light 'em up' stamp in the Birthday Bash set in navy on Whisper White, having masked off the words first. I coloured this with my Calypso Coral, Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry Stampin' Write markers and layered this circle onto another of Night of Navy and two scalloped circles, one each in Bermuda Bay and Calypso Coral. I also punched the candle flames out of Tangerine Tango using my owl builder punch - a small touch, but looks so much better than navy ones! To finish, I stamped the sentiment, this time masking off the candles, in navy in the right hand corner.

I made this card with the ladies in my Stamp-A-Stack class last week and they loved it, so I hope you like it too. Don't forget if 'Birthday Bash' is on your wishlist, it will be retiring on 2nd June so don't leave it too late to place your order. 

That's all from me today - I look forward to seeing your takes on this week's sketch in the gallery. 

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

  • Birthday Bash Specialty Designer Series Paper
  • Balloon Bash Photopolymer Stamp Set
  • Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad
  • Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock
  • Card Stock A4 Crushed Curry
  • Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock
  • Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay
  • Card Stock A4 Tangerine Tango
  • Night Of Navy 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon
  • Whisper White A4 Card Stock
  • 2-3/8 Inch Scallop Circle Punch
  • 2" Circle Punch
  • Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
  • Circles Collection Framelits Dies
  • Big Shot Magnetic Platform
  • Owl Builder Punch

 

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About Me

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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