Good morning everyone! Thank you to everyone who joined in my Halloween theme challenge over at The Paper Players last week - the gallery entries were fantastic! This week it is the turn of my fellow Brit turned American, the lovely Jaydee, to host, and she has a great colour challenge for you to play along with:

Once I'd got past wanting to make a set of traffic lights with these colours, I settled on another card using the Christmas Cuties stamp set, this time featuring the happy little elf:

I used Cucumber Crush for my card base - this is such a great bright green colour for Christmas! - and created a panel of red detail below my image, where I embossed a piece of Real Red cardstock with the Stylish Stripes embossing folder and edged it with a band of the red striped pattern from the Holiday Homes Fancy Foil Designer Vellum. Lastly, I tied my panel with a piece of Real Red striped ribbon, tied with a little jingle bell from my 'bits and bobs' drawer, just like the ones on the elf's outfit. To finish, I added a Very Vanilla circle stamped with the elf image in Archival Black and then coloured in using my aqua painter and Real Red and Cucumber Crush inks, with a little Crushed Curry for his hair and jingle bells and a touch of Pink Pirouette for his face and hands.  

I love the cute little images in this set - such fun! I made another card using the same colours and a Whisper White base panel for my alternate design, which I'll share later in the week.

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

I look forward to seeing how you interpret our colour palette this week. I'm off for a morning of basketball and we still have some homework to do; we spent a chunk of yesterday visiting senior schools - can't believe in 12 months time the eldest of my James juniors will be heading off to senior school - eek! Hoping to then get some time to craft this afternoon; that would be nice!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Christmas Cuties Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad	Pink Pirouette Classic Stampin' Pad	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Magnetic Platform
Big Shot	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Holidays Fancy Foil Designer Vellum	Real Red & Garden Green 1/8" (3.2 Mm) Striped Ribbon	Stylish Stripes Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red A4 Cardstock	Cucumber Crush Classic Stampin' Pad	Cucumber Crush A4 Cardstock	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad
Aqua Painters

I have a couple of fun punch art cards to share with you today (to make up for no post yesterday)! I was all ready to link up with the ladies at SUO Challenges but it would appear that our clocks are not coinciding this week - never mind! Check them out if you're a punch art fan as that's their theme this week. Both of these were made for my lovely husband, who celebrated his birthday this week. You will notice there is something of a common theme to my cards - here's the first one:

My husband has recently taken up learning to play the guitar; I think living in a household with three pianists and a singer, he was feeling somewhat left out! So I decided for my card to go with a simple black and white combo, using my circle framelits for the holes and my word window punch and decorative label punches for the fretboard and strings. The strings themselves are made using the new silver corded trim - perfect for my six-string - and I added an actual re guitar pick 'borrowed' from my husband's collection to add a pop of red to my card.

My second card was made from my children and includes both a punched star and a rather clever guitar made with ... the owl punch! Take a look:

I used some retired music print paper for my background and the same 'Rock Star' greeting from the 'Be The Star' stamp set, this time stamped in Pacific Point on Very Vanilla then punched out with my star punch. I also added the word 'DAD' cut with my little Letter Thinlits for further personalisation. A silver glimmer star then formed the background to highlight my punch art guitar: an owl punch body (minus the feet!) in Pacific Point, a small punched circle and a piece of Smoky Slate wound in thin silver thread for the strings with a couple of the owl hearts attached to the end for the keys that tighten the strings. Not a bad replica of the blue electric guitar he is practising on - thank heavens for headphones that plug in to his amplifier, so we are not all having to witness his Eric Clapton impressions until he is more polished!!

Back later with some exciting news for you, so watch this space; meanwhile, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

to follow.

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

Now I must confess that if your're thinking this card looks familiar, it's because I cased the layout from the current seasonal catalogue. Here's my Christmas Cutie angel card: 

I used Lost Lagoon for my base, which I stamped the dots in Versamark and heat embossed in silver. I coloured a piece of the Color Me Irresistible Speciality Designer Series Paper in Lost Lagoon and layered this on a piece of silver foil, then built up my layered banners in Silver Glimmer, Perfect Plum and a silver metallic foil doily before adding my final banner of watercolour paper, onto which I stamped my angel and coloured using inks and my aquapainter. A few rhinestones, some silver glitter for my halo and silver corded trim finish my card.

There is something quite theraputic about colouring with an aquapainter; this card inspired me to colour in a few more cards too which I'll share with you in due course. 

Do visit the other Design Team members to see how they used this week's challenge colours; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

It's Wednesday and you know what that means: a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals! These offers are valid for one week only. As always, a new collection of deals will be announced next Wednesday.

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 new Hostess Code for October 9JGQEYWJ if your order is under £150 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:

Classy Designer Buttons	Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Fun Flower Punch
Hamburger Box Bigz Xl Die	Metal Rimmed Pearls	Pretty Petals Designer Series Paper Stack

Loving the metal rimmed pearls this week - a bargain at £3.38 and they add such a touch of class to a project. A great deal on the Hamburger Box Bigz XL Die this week too - check out this cute little character that I made with mine a little while ago:

A great week to 'snap' up a bargain!! Back later with today's creative project; until then, happy shopping!

Today I have another kit based project to share with you: the 'To You And Yours Shaker Cards' project kit featured on page 4 of the current seasonal catalogue. Whilst I love creating my own cards from scratch, I am also a huge fan of Stampin' Up!'s card kits. Like the rest of the Stampin' Up! product range they are always of a very high quality and represent great value for money and for me are a great way to relax as I craft, as all I have to do is follow the instructions and put them together!

I don't always blog my kit projects because often they are completed then straight out the door (they make great last minute cards for busy crafters too!) however I often get the feedback when people see them made up at classes, parties or open house events that they look so much better in real life than the catalogue images. So, with that in mind I have been making a concerted effort, along with one of my downlines and fellow 'kit fan' Barbara, to get my kits put together ahead of time and share them with you. So here goes! 

The 'To You And Yours Shaker Cards' Project Kit contains everything you need to make 18 cards, 6 each of three designs. You can make them with or without the additional stamping - for this you will need the 'To You And Yours Too' co-ordinating stamp set and a few ink pads (see product table below). The first card features a star shaker, complete with star-shaped sequins:

The second card features a Christmas tree, with sequin baubles and glitter glass shaker:

The last card features a bauble, in gorgeous green and red (in case you're wondering, I swapped the sentiments on the front of each of the star and bauble cards because I preferred them this way) - I think this one is actually my favourite: 

Aren't they just gorgeous?! And not tricky to put together at all! So much so that I am running a couple of children's classes to make these cards during the forthcoming half-term holiday; you can check out the details by clicking on the 'events' tab on my Facebook page here or alternatively send me an email or give me a call - spaces are limited and they are filling up fast! Likewise, if you would like to get together with a group of grown up friends to make this kit then let me know - I'll bring along the inks and stamp sets, you just need to purchase the kits!

If you are purchasing this kit to craft at home, (or need more convincing!) the lovely people at Stampin' Up! have even made a video showing you step by step how to put the kit together:

I hope you enjoyed the review of this fantastic little kit; I'll be back with details of the other kits we offer in due course. That's all from me today - back tomorrow with details of this week's new Wednesday Weekly Deals and a creative punch art project. until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

To You & Yours Shaker Cards Project Kit	To You & Yours Too Photopolymer Stamp Set	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Multipurpose Liquid Glue	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad
Cucumber Crush Classic Stampin' Pad

So today I thought we would have a change from cards and I would share with you the 3D project that I made on World Card Making Day. I know, topsy turvy, but since crafting with friends is in itself something to be celebrated, it seemed a great way to spend the day. So the project in question is the Witching Decor Project Kit in the seasonal catalogue. Normally this isn't the kind of project I would make, however the female James junior of the house, Rebecca, absolutely loved it and wore me down until I promised to buy it for her to create! 

So she invited her friend and fellow crafting enthusiast Nicholas over for the afternoon and we spent a pleasant few hours putting our respective hats together. Here is Rebecca's finished hat in all its glory:

Now if you've seen the photo in the catalogue, you will see a few differences between this one and that one. the first is the shape: the one in the catalogue looks crumpled and 'worn in' (a little like the sorting hat in the Harry Potter stories!). The trouble was, once put together Rebecca decided she wanted hers to have a perfect point, so since she still managed to tie on her bell and have it tinkle, she couldn't bring herself to crumple the end! It must be a girl thing - Nicholas had no such issues and his had a wonderfully worn in appearance! 

You might also notice the rather enthusiastically sponged edging to the 'Happy Halloween' label; the kit recommends using Soft Suede for a 'worn' look, yet having made one like this the children universally agreed that this didn't work for them at all and orange was most definitely needed! So we made another label - there are enough labels for 3 each of the stamp designs, in fact the whole kit is very generous in its contents; we made interchangeable labels and still had labels, flags, rhinestones and lots of leaves left over. All for just £20 and the co-ordinating 'Witches' Night' stamp set. I have a class scheduled to make this kit on 13th October - it would also make a great project for a girls' night in. I have a few calendar slots left in October so if this is something that interests you, please get in touch.

The leaves that are threaded around the edge of the hat are all pre-punched and can be used just as they are, as the children did on their hats (they just wanted to get them threaded and had no time for extra sponging!). They could also be sponged and distressed to add more texture and colour, or even stamped with the Vintage Leaves set to add more detail. 

We were so absorbed in our task, I didn't even take a photograph of us at work to share with you. Suffice to say, the children had a great time and I am loving the addition of the hat to our Halloween home decor. 

This is a great kit and very easy to construct - you might say child's play! It would be a great kit to make with children as part of the build up to your 'trick or treat' festivities. 

That's all from me today - back tomorrow with another project and some exciting children's news too! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies used:

Witching Décor Project Kit	Witches' Night Photopolymer Stamp Set	Tangelo Twist Classic Stampin' Pad	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Tear & Tape Adhesive
Multipurpose Liquid Glue

Did you have fun celebrating World Card Day yesterday? I sent the afternoon crafting, but making home decor rather than cards as Rebecca had a friend round and we spent a couple of hours putting together our Witching Decor Project kits. It did rather put me in the mood for today's new challenge over at The Paper Players! This week it's my turn to host again and since it's the first Sunday in October I have a fun theme challenge for you:

Yes that's right - it's Halloween! I took the opportunity to have some fun with my Howl-o-ween Treat Stamp set and the co-ordinating Boo To You framelits and created something that's been on my general 'to do' list for ages - a matchbox style pop up card. Lots of photos today - here's my card from the outside:

My outer box sleeve is made from Tangelo Twist cardstock decorated with the fun ghost patterned paper from the Happy haunting DSP set - I've been wanting to use this pattern for ages! - and a tag punched with the Ornate Tag Topper punch attached with some Tangelo Twist satin ribbon available on the Clearance Rack currently while stocks last!) My tag is decorated with some bats courtesy of the Project Life Seasonal Snapshot 2015 set and the Trick or Treat sentiment from the Howl-o-Ween treat set. The question is though, which will it be - trick or treat? Let's take a look inside the box:

 I made the drawer tray using Basic Black cardstock and my trusty Envelope Punch Board, and lined it with more Happy Haunting DSP. I used my framelits to cut a 'Boo!' out of black glimmer paper - so perfect for Halloween projects - and stamped a bright green owl, complete with pumpkin basket and spider hanging down from a piece of black baker's twine. Here's another view - oh and I backed my owl with a partial spider web doily too: 

I made my box quite large so that I could accommodate both my pop up owl and greeting and a little something behind. If you look closely in the photo above you can just catch a glimpse of what it is - it also determined the colour of my owl. Can you see what it is? How about a brightly coloured spider to scare your nearest and dearest:

This time more trick than treat (although I've a feeling there are plenty of little ones out there who may think otherwise, given the potential for the odd practical joke or two!), however you could always include a bar of chocolate instead. I hope you like my fun Halloween card - I think the bright orange spider is my favourite!

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

I look forward to seeing your Halloween-themed cards this week. I'm off for a morning of basketball and then home for birthday lunch - today it's my husband who's celebrating; I'll share his birthday cards with you later this week.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Howl-O-Ween Treat Clear-Mount Bundle	Happy Haunting Designer Series Paper	Spider Web Doilies	Black Glimmer Paper	Envelope Punch Board
Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Cucumber Crush Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangelo Twist Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangelo Twist A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad
Basic Black Baker's Twine	Ornate Tag Topper Punch	Project Life Seasonal Snapshot 2015 Photopolymer Stamp Set	Tangelo Twist 3/8" Satin Stitched Ribbon

Happy Friday everyone - there is always something psychologically good about the end of the working week! Today I have a fun Christmas card for you using this week's Retroketches inspiration for my layout:

The minute I saw this sketch I knew it offered the perfect opportunity to use more of the lovely reindeer paper clips on my card - take a look:

I used a 6" square base of Mossy Meadow card stock with mats in Real Red and used a piece of the festive gingham paper from the Merry Moments DSP stack for the feature DSP layer. I adhered three reindeer paper clips to my cardfront as per the sketch and for the sentiment used one from the 'A Little Something' set; this set co-ordinates with and is available as a bundle with the Square Pillow Box Thinlits Dies - the three-part sentiment was the perfect fit. A sliver of retired Old Olive pleated ribbon completes my card. I just love these reindeer paper clips - so versatile and such a fun festive accessory!

That's all from me today; we have a busy weekend with a school open day and a birthday in the house, in addition to the usual weekend chaos of homework and sport. Wish me luck! 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

A Little Something Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Reindeer Paper Clips Embellishments	Merry Moments Designer Series Paper Stack	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Real Red A4 Cardstock
Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock	Many Marvelous Markers

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a great sketch challenge for you:

The minute I saw this sketch I knew exactly what I was going to do with it - snowflakes were definitely the order of the day! Here's my card:

To create my card, I used a base of Pool Party with a central vertical panel of silver foil. For my central panel I used a sheet of shimmery white cardstock. This cardstock is just beautiful and you can't really see it in the photograph, but this card has such a beautiful shimmer and shine to it. On it I stamped one of the splatters from Gorgeous Grunge,then I stamped both my sentiment from the 'Flurry of Wishes' stamp set and the tiny snowflakes from 'Wonderland' in Versamark and heat embossed them in silver. I wrapped my card with silver cording trim then added a few sequins along with a trio of snowflakes from the Flurry of Wishes set, also heat embossed in silver on Shimmery White cardstock and watercoloured in Pool Party with my Aquapainter and punched out with my Snow Flurry punch - one of the great seasonal bundles available in the catalogue at a saving of 15% when compared to the individual item prices. My card has quite a 'Frozen' feel to it I think - I love the icy blue, shimmery white and silver colour combination.

Do visit the other Design Team members to see how they used this week's challenge sketch; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too! The lovely Chris Slogar also has inspiration using this very set; I made my card and when I went to upload it to our challenge site, I could see Chris had uploaded hers too using the same set. A lack of time to make another card and the fact that Chris's card is different to mine led me to leave mine as it was - so you get double the snowflake inspiration this week! What can I say - great minds clearly think alike!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

I'm back with today's creative post; I managed to find the time to whip up a card for two challenges using the very versatile 'Cheer All Year' stamp set. My card uses the rather autumnal colour palette over at Fab Friday and this week's CAS(E) This Sketch layout:

I thought the Fab Friday colours would be perfect for some autumnal acorns; since I'm still waiting for my Acorny hello set to arrive though, I decided to use the acorn in the 'Cheer All Year' set. Take a look:

I used an Old Olive card base and covered the whole of the front with a piece of gingham Farmers Market designer series paper in Old Olive and Very Vanilla. I cut my Very Vanilla top panel slightly smaller and offset it to show a border of dsp on two sides, then stamped by sentiment in Rich Razzleberry before adding my row of acorns in Old Olive. I stamped them again in Soft Suede on some scrap paper and cut out the tops and adhered them separately allowing the top of the uppermost one to overhang. I made a feature of one of the acorns, stamping the base of this one in Rich Razzleberry and punching out with the new Acorn builder Punch, before adding a gold button double tied with linen thread and popping it up on a couple of dimensionals. 

A quick clean and simple card - I just love those graphic acorns! 'Cheer All Year' is such a versatile set - it has something for all seasons as it is designed to accompany the 'Season To Season' Wreath Project Kit, yet can be used for so much more besides.

Back tomorrow with this week's card for our new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary; until then, happy stmapin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Acorn Builder Punch	Cheer All Year Photopolymer Stamp Set	Farmers Market Designer Series Paper	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad	Rich Razzlebberry Classic Stampin' Pad
Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Old Olive A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Gold Basic Metal Buttons	Linen Thread