by Joanne James26. February 2020 09:00
Today I'm sharing a couple of different notecards using the fun Witty-cisms stamp set. The first one was inspired by Laurel's fun cactus photo over at Inspired by this week:

The Witty-cisms stamp set appeals both to my sense of humour (who can resist a good pun?!) and my love for colouring, so I paired the fun cactus stamp with some retired DSP and a Crumb Cake note card to incorporate those graphic patterns and neutrals to come up with this quick and easy notecard:

I used my old faithful Stitched Shapes dies to cut out the square and my new Stitched So Sweetly dies for the stitched scallop background, but otherwise this was super quick and easy to create - just a quick stamp and colour with my Stampin' Blends. I like that it isn't too fussy - I will be using this one to tuck into Master James' school bag next week to wish him luck for his Common Entrance mock examinations next week - I think it is suitably masculine for a now discerning almost-teenager to wish him luck without causing embarrassment!
I decided to use another stamp in this set and the same layout to create some thank you notelets to pop into my customers' order bags this month - here's that card too:

This layout would work with pretty much any of the stamps in this set and is perfectly sized for our ready-made notelet packs. I made a whole bunch of these in one sitting:

This is such a useful stamp set for this quick style of card - you could even use it directly onto a notelet for a super simple one-layer card, #SimpleStamping at it's best!
Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects 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; did you enjoy your pancakes yesterday? Today young Master James and I will be starting the day at school's Ash Wednesday service and this afternoon Ben will be playing in a hockey match - well, someone needs to work off all that sugar, right?! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:
by Joanne James20. February 2020 12:00 
It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host and the lovely Amy Ottmers is our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with:

I used the current sketch over at Fab Friday and went with the top line of the board - Diecut, CAS, Purple - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:
Best Dressed - This Purple Posy floral paper from the Best Dressed DSP pack was the starting point that inspired my whole card today. So soft and pretty, with a delicate ombre effect I couldn't resist using a whole panel on my card.
So Sentimental - I used a simple thank you sentiment from the So Sentimental stamp set, masked off and inked in a combination of Highland Heather and Basic Grey and cut out using the co-ordinating Stitched So Sweetly Dies. This label is one of 4 in the set, along with the stitched scalloped rectangles that I showcased previously on this card.
A Pop of Colour - I fussy cut a flower from one of the other patterns of paper in the Best Dressed pack to embellish my sentiment with and picked out the colours of the flower centre and leaves to use for the banners behind my sentiment for a little added pop of colour.
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.
I love this sketch and think I'll be using it again! What about the board though? 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 day; the weather here is still wet and grey, so following indoor climbing yesterday the Juniors are breaking up their mock exam revision with indoor roller skating this afternoon - I will be watching safely from the sidelines! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:
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Tags: Best Dressed, So Sentimental, Stitched So Sweetly Dies, Stampin' Up, Stampin' Up Card, Stampin' Up Card ideas, Stampin' Up Supplies, Shop online, Shop Stampin' Up online, Shop Stampin' Up! Online, TicTacToe Challenge
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by Joanne James3. February 2020 19:00
I'm here with my second card of the day - and on a class day too, go me! And it's only Monday - let's hope that this is a sign of a productive week! This card is one of the ones that we made in my technique class this morning featuring the Painted Poppies bundle and I used this week's colours over The Color Throwdown as my inspiration:

This is the card I came up with:

Here's the low-down on today's card:
Painted Poppies and Peaceful Moments - All of our class cards featured the Peaceful Poppies stamps and co-ordinating Painted Labels Dies. Here the poppies were simply coloured using Real Red ink and the watercolour 'splodge' stamp in the set, with a little detailing added with a marker and then diecut. The leaves were stamped in black and some tiny splodges added in Smoky Slate before fussy cutting by hand. We paired it with a sentiment of our choice from the 'Peaceful Moments' set - I chose this one, but everyone in my class used the 'With Deepest Sympathy as they thought this card wold work well as a sympathy card.
Sweetly Stitched - I used the largest of the Stitched So Sweetly rectangular dies as the mat on my card; these are on page 20 of the Spring-Summer mini catalogue and worth a look if you've passed over them as they are easy to miss, especially if the co-ordinating stamp set is one that doesn't appeal. You're welcome ;-)
A Pattern Party - I sponged some darker Basic Grey onto my scalloped rectangle piece using one of the Pattern Party masks, graduating the colour outwards from the corner, to add interest and tie in with my flowers. I added some clear sequins and some black pearls (regular ones coloured with a black marker) to the centre of my flowers to finish.
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.
This was the middle card from my class today and it's fair to say the ladies loved it. I'll share the others another time; in the meantime, if you live in or around Northampton and would like to attend a class, do get in touch - we would love you to join us! The next one features the 'Peaceful Moments' bundle and will be held on Monday 9th March - the day after my residential weekend craft retreat!
Enjoy your evening; I have to go and start on my ironing pile now - I can't put it off any longer! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:
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Tags: Classes, Craft With Friends, Painted Poppies, Painted Labels Dies, Peaceful Moments, Stitched So Sweetly Dies, Pattern Party Decorative Masks, Shop Stampin' Up online, Shop online, Stencilling, Stampin' Up, Stampin' Up Card, Stampin' Up Card ideas, Stampin' Up Supplies
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