New Wednesday Weekly Deals Are Here!

by Joanne James21. October 2015 09:00

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 - only three this week again, 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.

An eclectic but useful trio this week - I think the Chalk Talk Framelits are the best bargain - down to £16.50 and perfect for creating all kinds of layered tags for your Christmas gifts! 

Back later with today's creative project; until then, happy shopping!

Build A Cake 3D Washi Birthday Card

by Joanne James16. June 2015 15:28

As promised, I'm back today to share with you the birthday card I made for Rebecca to celebrate her tenth birthday yesterday. I used this week's sketch layout at TGIF Challenges as my inspiration:

Whilst most of her birthday cards had a distinctly 'pink' theme, Rebecca loves bright colours and patterns and I wanted to create something based around the colours of the new Cherry On Top DSP stack and the co-ordinating washi tape - here's what I came up with: 

Bright, right?! I used Watermelon Wonder as my base and Bermuda Bay for my mat layers, then created a panel of stripes using each of the Cherry On Top washi tapes. On my central panel, I stamped the sentiment and cake stand directly onto the base, then created a 3D cake by stamping each of the 'Build A Birthday' cake layers onto a separate piece of Whisper White and curving with my bone folder before adhering to my card. I topped my cake with a trio of washi tape flags and added a Cucumber Crush blossom accent, complete with rhinestone, to finish. Check out my cute little flags below - so easy to make by wrapping a piece of washi tape around the end of a cocktail stick and snipping to create flag shapes: 

I used the positioning of the stars on the sketch to hold a handcrafted birthday badge that could be removed - when your birthday is on a school day, a badge is most definitely a part of birthday uniform! I simply stamped a 1 3/4" circle with age, sentiment and a birthday balloon and popped it into a badge kit - here's a close up: 

The verdict? Rebecca loved it, so mission accomplished! She had a lovely day at school and the we all went out for dinner with grandparents before coming home to open yet more presents. Oh to be ten again!

Back tomorrow with this week's Wednesday Deals and another card for the TGIF Challenge, only this time the Monthly Throwdown. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

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

 

 

Hip Hip Hooray For The Paper Players

by Joanne James31. May 2015 10:00

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players. You totally rocked Anne-Marie's sketch last week; this week it's the turn of the lovely Laurie, who has a tic-tac-toe challenge to stretch our creative brains:

   

I normally struggle with these, yet I seem to be on a real creative roll this week as I had a ton of different ideas and combinations for today's grid. I settled on combining my card with this week's sketch over at Pals Paper Arts and challenging myself to use something that I have lots of but sometimes use for little more than decorating an envelope: washi tape. I decided the sketch was perfect for showcasing some of the new Bohemian washi tape that I received with my pre-order goodies - here's my card:

I used a base of Delightful Dijon and a mat of Island Indigo, then cut a piece of Very Vanilla to the shape of the zig zag on the sketch. Starting at the zig zag end, I then covered my whole piece in strips of washi tape, creating an open herringbone effect and alternating between each of the three designs. Once I had covered the entire piece of cardstock, I adhered it to the card base using dimensionals. For my sentiment panel, I cut a rectangle of Very Vanilla and rounded the corners using my Project Life corner rounder and stamped it with the 'Hip Hip Hooray' greeting from the 'Bravo' stamp set in Island Indigo. I added a scattering of Bermuda Bay sequins to finish before popping this up on dimensionals too. I'm sure you've worked it out, but just in case I was following the top line of the tic tac toe board: washi tape, any shade of blue and sequins. I really quite like this card - it seemed almost a shame to cover my lovely pattern with the sentiment panel!

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 many different combinations of the grid we see in the gallery this week. I'm off to prepare lunch as we have some friends visiting today and then I have to get two of the other three members of the James household ready for trips away this week - a busy, yet fun day ahead!

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

A4 Delightful Dijon -available 2nd June

Bohemian washi tape - available 2nd June

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

 

Giggle Greetings Congratulations Card

by Joanne James29. April 2015 08:40

Today's card is a congratulations card that I made for someone I know who recently achieved a long-awaited promotion and I wanted to make her a quick card to celebrate her success. This week's sketch layout over at Fab Friday was perfect for what I had in mind:

I decided to use one of the fun images in the Giggle Greetings set and do a little colouring with my now-discontinued Blendabilities on the main image - here is my card:

I used the colours of the Retro Fresh washi tape for my card colour scheme, with a base of So Saffron and mats in Tangerine Tango and Baked Brown Sugar. I stamped my fun dog image on Very Vanilla in Memento Black and coloured him with my skin-tone Blendabilties (although in retrospect I think he might have looked better watercoloured in Baked Brown Sugar, but there we are!) I added a piece of washi tape on Very Vanilla with a gold button and linen thread as my embellishment and a banner flag from the retired Retro Fresh paper too.

A fun card to wish someone well with their new career path - I love the images in these sets and are so pleased that they aren't leaving the catalogue this year. I'll be back later with this week's Wednesday Weekly Deals - there appear to be some problems at the store currently and they haven't been updated. 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

New Wednesday Weekly Deals Are Here!

by Joanne James4. March 2015 08:57

It's Wednesday so 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 March (you can find this under the 'Shop Online' section on the right) 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.

This week we have a gift box kit - perfect for packaging small gifts in a hurry - and the Label Love stamp set and co-ordinating punch, a great opportunity to pick up this bundle for a bargain price. In addition, gold vellum, baker's twine and Epic Day washi tape, fringe scissors - perfect for grass on all those spring projects! - and the 'Lucky You' MDS download, which will make light work of decorations for any St Patrick's Day celebrations you might be planning.

Lots to choose from this week; I'll be back later with today's creative project, but until then happy shopping!

New Wednesday Weekly Deals!

by Joanne James21. January 2015 07:00

It's Wednesday so 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 January (you can find this under the 'Shop Online' section on the right) 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.
 
There are some great items on offer this week - the Chalk Talk Framelits Dies and the Skin Tone Blendabilities are both reduced to £15.71 each are a couple of my favourites (and will be appearing on the card that I am going to blog tomorrow, so watch this space!) and there are some great opportunities to pick up baker's twine, washi tape and buttons even more cheaply than usual.
 
Back shortly with today's creative post; until then, happy shopping!
 
 

CAS Washi Tape Butterfly

by Joanne James25. April 2014 09:45

Well, I don't know where yesterday went! I was so busy I didn't even manage a blog post; I had my card all ready and just didn't get it photographed. So in the interests of all things quick, here is the card that I had intended to blog yesterday - my second attempt at a CAS washi tape card for Nance's challenge over at The Paper Players this week:

I have now replaced the earlier photograph with one of a better quality! this kind of card is so quick to create: my card is a simple white background with a Night of Navy mat for my image. I then took a rectangle of Whisper White and covered it in diagonal strips of co-ordinating Gingham Garden washi tape. As with my washi tape card earlier this week, you can use the washi tape directly onto coloured card for a diferent effect, but I wanted the colours to remain true here, so needed a white background. I then adhered this to the mat and lastly popped a Melon Mambo rectangle on with dimensionals, having first cut out a butterfly shape using my butterfly die. You could just leave it there, however I decided to add a little 'hello' greeting and a candy dot flower cut from one of my pieces of card scrap just to complete my card.

A quick card for a quick post! Everything is about speed today; I'm off to the hairdressers shortly and have a hundred and one jobs to do before I collect the James Juniors from school today for the weekend. I've already ticked a few off my list though this morning, so am making good progress!

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.

 

Happy Easter Everyone!

by Joanne James20. April 2014 20:58

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you've all had a lovely day and that the Easter bunny left you lots of yummy chocolate eggs. We've had a lovely day, with our traditional Easter egg hunt around the garden and then a family roast for lunch. Not even the rain this afternoon could dampen our spirits.  I made this really quick card this morning as an absolute last-minute Easter card - I needed one more opportunity to use an Easter stamp! I wasn't intending to share it on my blog, then this afternoon I saw that the Paper Players challenge this week is to create a CAS card with washi tape, so thought I would link up;

Here is my super-quick card:

I must confess that I am something of a hoarder of washi tape - I love to buy it, then struggle to use it! One thing it's great for though is adding detail to really quick cards, like this one: I simply took a plain piece of Melon mambo for my card base, added two strips of Gingham Garden washi tape and then stamped the 'Eggstra Spectacular' stamp in pink, coloured with marker pens then popped up on a couple of dimensionals. As easy as that! I cut my washi tape with scissors as I wanted a straight edge, but it tears really easily and looks great with a torn edge too. I don't know why, but having come to edit my photo the pink washi tape doesn't look straight, but I can assure you it is - next time I'll go with something more random!

Back tomorrow with another card; 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

Mixed Bunch Meets Gorgeous Grunge

by Joanne James28. February 2014 21:01

Today I have a quick card for you which was inspired by both the sketch over at The Paper Players this week and last week's trio of colours over at Dynamic Duos. Here is Jaydee's sketch over at the Paper Players:

And here is my card:

I toyed with going with a literal interpretation of the sketch using nothing more than various papers for the design, but instead I decided to go down a different route and use a combination of washi tape to create my 'stripes', with a tone-on-tone Mixed Blossom flower as my focal point. I then used one of my Gorgeous Grunge stamps to add some interest to the background. This card was something of an experiment but I love the bright, bold colours and the addition of a green stem is just enough to lift the other key colours. I'm also just in time to link up with 'Less is More' where the challenge this week is to add metal to your card - whilst there is only one candy dot brad on my card, I think it serves an important purpose in bringing the whole design together.

That's all from me today; 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.

 

You Make Me Happy Sale-A-Bration Class Card

by Joanne James7. February 2014 21:05

Well, that was a week! One of my busiest and I sure am glad it's the weekend. Tonight I thought I would share with you one of the cards we made at my classes this week. All the cards we made featured Sale-A-Bration products that could be yours free with an order of £45 or more. Today's card is another featuring the 'You Make Me Happy' stamp from the 'See Ya Later' stamp set:

We stamped the sentiment onto the centre of our 'sun', which we constructed from layered circles and either triangles created with the new triangle punch or banner pieces using the banner punch (my sample shows triangles). I cut a tiny cloud out of an offcut of silver foil and added it to the front on a dimensional to add interest, and added a strip of This and That washi tape below the embossed panel just to bring a little colour and create definition.

If you would like to be the proud owner of this stamp set, then pop on over to my online store via the product links below to place your order. If you live local to me in Northampton and the surrounding area, why not come to one of my monthly card classes or my weekend project classes? My full class schedule can be found here; you don't need to have any previous knowledge or experience, we are a friendly bunch and all are welcome. Do give me a call if you'd like to know more.

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

 

Stampin' Up! Products Used:

Table built using Stampin' Up! Product Table Builder from The Crafty Owl.

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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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This is my personal blog and is not endorsed by Stampin’ Up! I hope you find it a plentiful source of ideas and personal inspiration but please don't copy my designs for contest submission or use for classes, publication or sale without express permission.