Gift Wrapped Meets Trimming The Town Sneak Peek

by Joanne James26. July 2020 15:00

There are lots of Christmas In July challenges about at the moment so I thought I would combine a couple and squeeze in an extra post today and share a couple of sneak peeks from the upcoming Autumn-Winter Catalogue with you in the process:

   

The team over at The Spot are looking for any kind of Christmas card creation and The Card Concept has a great inspiration photo that lead me to take my inspiration from one of the presents under the tree (front row, second from the right) to create a card and a matching gift card holder using some fun new products - take a look:

 

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

Trimming The Town - The designer series paper that covers the front of my card is from a new pack called 'Trimming The Town' - a pack full of contemporary designs featuring cosy villages and winter scenes. Some are really large and some really small and detailed, like the fun design I used to mimic wrapping paper on my gift parcel card.

Gift Wrapped Bow (And A Trick) - My bow comes from a new stamp set called 'Gift Wrapped' and is stamped in Real Red on Whisper White cardstock and punched out with the new co-ordinating Gift Bow Builder Punch. I added a handcut tag and some 'ribbon' too - and therein lies the trick! I actually used a current DSP for the ribbon strips that co-ordinate with my bow; can you tell which one? It's actually the reverse of one of the patterns in the Playful Pets DSP pack - isn't that a great shortcut? I added a little more stamping on the inside of my card too:

 

Gift Card Holder - I thought my gift-inspired card would be great to go with a co-ordinating gift-card holder too - I always need a few of these at Christmas time:

I can't take the credit for the design; it's based on one designed by the talented Erica Cerwin of Pink Buckaroo Designs (you can see the measurements for her original project on her blog here). It's a great little make, where the lid pulls out of a sleeve and you can add a message and your chosen gift card:

I think these make a cute pair of projects and are a great start to my Christmas crafting. I'm slowly but surely increasing my Christmas crafting - it always seems harder to do when the sun is shining outside though!

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:

To be updated 4th August.

An Apple For The Teacher Thank You Card And Gift PP495

by Joanne James14. June 2020 09:00

 

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Laurie to host this week and she has an interesting colour challenge for you to work with:

    

First up, I have a confession to make: I couldn't find my Tranquil Tide ink pad so substituted with Garden Green. I have a few projects for you today; armed with Narelle's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches I decided to use some retired designer series papers in the challenge colours and my 'Harvest Hellos' stamp set to make a couple of teacher thank you cards and some cute gift packaging.  Here's the first of my cards:

 

Some simple layering of my DSP and a stamped and punched apple, along with a 'thanks' diecut courtesy of the Well Written Dies, completed my card. I actually made two - on the second one, I reversed the layering of the papers and had the letter paper in front as opposed to the numbers:

 

 I added some simple stamping to the inside of my card from the same set:

 Here are the two cards together - which one do you prefer?

I had picked up a couple of cute apple notepads that I thought would be perfect for some extra small teacher gifts so took the opportunity to create some co-ordinating boxes for my cards, complete with tags:

 

And here's another view:

 

And that cute apple notepad that is in the box? Here it is:

 

The apple folds flat but when clipped open it forms an apple shape, so I just had to create a lidded box that could present it whole for full effect - here are both projects together:

 

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. 

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

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 four challenges, TOTAL.
4.  Have FUN!

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; the weather was glorious here in the UK yesterday so I'm hoping that will continue today and I can spend some time in the garden. I'll be 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.

Peaceful Moments Poppy Birthday Card and Hanging Ornament

by Joanne James1. May 2020 17:00

 

Today I'm sharing a couple of projects from one of last month's classes that featured the Peaceful Moments bundle, part of the Painted Poppies Suite. First up a birthday card:

 

I used the designer series paper from the Peaceful Poppies Suite beneath a diecut layer and embellished with two layered diecut poppies and a banner sentiment. We also made a co-ordinating hanging ornament using the same diecut poppies and a sentiment stamped directly onto a wooden circle:

 

We don't often make 3D items in our technique class, so this was a change for us. It was a great way to make use of the dies which we were featuring and it's fair to say the ladies loved it too.

Here's a photo of both items together:

 

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. 

I've had one of those days when I've been seriously fighting technology today with nothing going right and the internet is clearly not appreciating all of the at-home Jameses running multiple devices at once! I feel exhausted by the whole thing and like I need to step away - so I'm off to finish my online groceries shopping and then am taking the night off!! 

I'll be 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.

All Dressed Up Gift Bag and Creative Escapes Craft Retreat Keyring Gift

by Joanne James26. March 2020 17:02

As promised I have another quick make to share with the lovely team over at TGIF Challenges as they are featuring the Best Dressed Suite this week:

This time a fun gift bag using the papers from the Best Dressed suite along with some Purple Posy cardstock and a fun keyring made from shrinky plastic - take a look:

 

The sweet little bag was easy to create using the All Dressed Up Dies - just diecut everything and put together. I used some scraps of gold foil for the button and buckle clasps - I just love that added detail! - and added a tag stamped and punched with the new Label Me Fancy Punch and just tucked it into the pocket. My little bag houses this cute keyring that I also stamped using the 'Dressed To Impress' stamp set then coloured with Blends and punched out using the other new label punch, the Label Me Lovely punch, before putting into the oven to shrink and adding to my keychain with a co-ordinating ribbon - here's a closeup of my keyring:

 

In hindsight I should have taken a 'before' they went into the oven photo too so you can see how much smaller they are - I will try and remember to take one next time! I love that sentiment - I thought it would be perfect for a little keyring embellishment. It has become customary for the ladies attending my Creative Escapes Weekend Craft Retreats to receive a keychain like this at the end of the weekend - the regular attendees have quite the collection now! Here's a photo of all of them jumbled before packing:

 - to be updated -

And one last one of both the bag and keychain together:

 

So what do you think - have you ever used shrink plastic in any of your projects? Better still, would you like to receive a keyring just like this one, or to be more precise the one that I will be designing for my next residential weekend craft retreat? If you need something to look forward to (and right now, I'm thinking we could all do with a little of that!) my October retreat, to be held 3-4th October 2020, is now open for booking and I'd love you to join me! You can see full details on my website here or just get in touch with any questions.

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. 

Back tomorrow with another project for our new challenge over at As You See It; Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

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

Let It Snow Card In A Box For PP470

by Joanne James1. December 2019 09:00

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Laurie to host this week and she has a fun theme challenge for you to work with:

    

I have a fancy card to share with you today that is perfect to give someone special for the festive season - take a look:

 

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

A Card In A Box - Is it a gift? Is it a card? I guess it's a little of both! When closed it looks like a gift box, but undo the ribbon and the top and bottom of the box separate to reveal an accordion-style expanding card:

 

I made a holly-themed 'card in a box' project at my October Creative Escapes Craft Retreat using the Christmas Gleaming Stamp Set and made a few other versions to show the attendees how they could use the same concept using other papers and stamp sets - this is one of them. They are quite straightforward to make and rather addictive; I've had lots of photos from my retreat weekend attendees after the event showing me more examples of ones they've created too, so it must be catching! One of my top tips when making this type of card is to use temporary adhesive or a couple of glue dots to hold the last panel in place so that you can remove it to write your message to the recipient before gluing it in place; this is much easier than trying to write it when it's already in the box.

Let It Snow - I used the 'Let It Snow' papers for the accordion-fold of my card and the letters that spell out 'snow', which I diecut using the Hand-Lettered Prose dies and I used the adorable Let It Snow Embellishment Kit to dress up the snowman on the front of my box - how cute are those little felt accessories?!

 

Snowman Season - The sentiment on the front and inside my card are from the 'Snowman Season' stamp set. The 'Let It Snow' stamp was perfect for a partial stamp to then finish the sentiment with the diecut letter panels. I also used the snowflakes in the stamp set with some Stampin' Glitter to add some sparkle to each of the Coastal Cabana panels and a snowman on the first panel that I coloured with co-ordinating Stampin' Blends markers:

 

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'm also linking today's project up with the current fancy fold challenge over at Inspire Create.

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

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 four challenges, TOTAL.
4.  Have FUN!

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; as it's the first of December we are going to begin decorating the house for Christmas today, much to the children's delight! Especially as we have a couple of extra Christmas trees and some new rainbow baubles too. I'll be 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.

Everything Is Rosy Is Now Available To Buy - Order Yours Today!

by Joanne James1. May 2019 09:00

Just a quick post to let you know that the Everything Is Rosy Product Medley is now available to order. You can read all about this kit in my earlier post here; also here's a quick reminder of what is included:

Contact me to order yours or alternatively click on the link below that will take you directly to my online store to purchase:

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

 

The Everything Is Rosy Product Medley costs £74 and is available from today only whilst stocks last or until May 31st, whichever comes sooner. Order yours today - race you to the shop!

 

Everything Is Rosy - Limited Edition Kit Available May 1st

by Joanne James29. April 2019 16:00

When I attended Onstage recently, we were updated on some exciting new Stampin' Up! developments, one of which was the development of a new concept called the 'product medley'. Product medleys are a concept based on demonstrator feedback. In addition to being filled to the brim with cute, coordinating products, they have been designed to provide you with endless creative possibilities.

The Everything Is Rosy Product Medley is our first product offering of this kind and this exclusive, limited-time collection of coordinating, petal-packed products has everything you need to let your creativity bloom.

The Everything Is Rosy Product Medley costs £74 and includes these exclusive products:

 

Here's a close-up of the stamp set detail:

And here's a selection of photos of projects made with the Everything Is Rosy Product Medley (there are more of these to view on my Facebook page that you can access here):

             

             

             

The nice people at the Stampin' Up! home office have also produced this short video that shows the products in the suite in more detail:

The set was shared with demonstrators at Stampin' Up!'s recent demonstrator-only Onstage event, however we have been unable to pre-order it so we will be waiting in line with you to get our hands on it! I can assure you the samples shared above really don't do this suite justice; having seen it in real life it really is beautiful, especially the rose gold elements. Everything is Rosy costs £74 and is available from May 1st until May 31st only or while supplies last, so if this set is for you, be ready to order as soon as it launches on May 1st as it is likely to be hugely popular!

How Sweet It Is Sweetie Shaker Card #GDP179

by Joanne James8. March 2019 11:30

Good morning lovely readers! An apology is in order for the lack of blog posts this week. I have been fairly tired following another successful Creative Escapes Weekend Craft Retreat last weekend and whilst I've spent my days catching up on household chores and preparing for next week's card classes, when it comes to the evenings I've been good for nothing; I've fallen asleep in the chair for three nights in a row way before bedtime, much to the amusement of the James Juniors! So today I thought I would make time to blog early so that you didn't miss out!

I'm sharing a card for a couple of challenges this week: The team over at Global Design Project are all about the candy and the folks at Stamps Ink Paper are asking for cards featuring gingham, plaid or stripes:

     

Not only does my card feature lots of sweet treats and some fetching candy pink stripes, it's a shaker too - take a look:

 

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

How Sweet It Is -  If you have a sweet tooth, the 'How Sweet It Is' Suite is for you! Bright and fun, with bold patterns of sweets and traditional sweet jars, it's great for cards and packaging alike. The papers, which feature bold stripes and spots in addition to candy-inspired patterns, really are good enough to eat. I used a pink stripe for the front of my shaker and a sweetie print for the inside at the back of my window, I also used the Jar of Sweets Framelits to cut out one of the sweet jars directly from the designer series paper to decorate the front of my card - I love it when dies and paper co-ordinate like this!

Jar Of Sweets - I used another of the Jar of Sweets Framelits to cut out the aperture for the window of my shaker, stamping the same image onto Whisper White and fussy cutting the jar lid to adhere to the top of my window section. I filled my shaker with a selection of sequins and some diecut sweets in bright, co-ordinating colours; you can see from the extras that I added to the front of my card these dies emboss a pattern onto the diecut sweet shape too which adds an interesting textural detail. There's very little stamping on today's card, save the sentiment and jar lid. A little extra stamping on the inside of my card courtesy of the 'Sweetest Thing' stamp set too:

 

Sweeter Than Candy - The 'How Suite It Is' Suite also includes some fun treat cups, that are perfect for dressing up to contain some sweet treats for your loved ones. I managed to snag these shots with my phone of some of the decorated sweet cups that filled with a selection of jelly beans and gummy bear for the lucky ladies on my retreat as one of their little gifts - I do love to spoil the whilst they are with me! 

 

I covered the cups with designer series paper and stamped a simple label for each of them decorated with a sweet jar cut from the DSP, and tied the tags to the cups with some of the very yummy Coastal Cabana/Granny Apple Green 3/8" reversible ribbon:

 

So cute and easy to decorate and I know from the feedback that my ladies loved them!

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:

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

Lovely Lipstick Layered Hearts Valentine's Day Card and Diamond-Faceted Gift Box

by Joanne James8. February 2019 21:15

Yay it's Friday and the weekend is just around the corner! Today has been a day of rest for the girls of the James household - both of us are suffering with colds, courtesy of the youngest James Junior who thoughtfully shared his cold with us and today it has knocked us for six. Today I'm sharing a card I made earlier this week using the lovely Julee Tilman's sketch; I was thrilled to learn recently that she had revived her Mojo Monday sketch challenge which she is now hosting on her blog Poetic Artistry - always worth a read, so do go take a look. So here is the current Mojo Monday sketch:

With only a week to go until Valentine's Day, I decided to take Julee's layout quite literally and used the heart focal point to influence the remainder of my design - take a look:

 

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

All Heart - My card today is all heart: I cropped my main heart with the Be Mine Stitched Framelit Dies and used the bold heart-patterned paper from the All My Love DSP pack for my main panel - there's nothing that says 'I Love You' for Valentine's Day more than hearts, hearts and more hearts! 

Layers of Lovely Lipstick - Julee's sketch has lots of layers and since I didn't want to detract from the heart patterned paper, I used a plain banner of Lovely Lipstick cardstock in conjunction with a couple of co-ordinating papers for the additional panel layers and used the monochromatic shade of Lovely Lipstick to unify my card. 

And a Matching Treat Box Too - I had a couple of lidless diamond-faceted gift boxes in Lovely Lipstick and made with the Gift Bag Punch Board on my desk, left over from another project, so quickly whipped up a lid in the heart-patterned paper to make a small gift box to co-ordinate with my card: 

Perfect for a small item of jewellery or some chocolates - I might have to drop a few hints to Mr James and see if he can put one of these to good use!

Here's one last photo of both of my projects together:

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 evening and I'll be 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 Tails Card and Treat Box for PP423

by Joanne James6. January 2019 09:00

Woohoo! Today it's Sunday and it's time for the first challenge of the year over at The Paper Players! We have all enjoyed the Christmas break and are back with a fresh new blog header and some snazzy challenge badges courtesy of Nance and two amazing guest designers: Su Mohr and Wanda Cullen. If you missed my introductory post over at The Paper Players earlier this week you can read all about these lovely ladies here. We are thrilled that they are going to be sharing their creative talents with us and you in 2019 - a big Paper Players welcome to both of you! 

For our first challenge of 2019 it's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host this week and she has a fun theme challenge for you to work with:

     

I had so many choices for today's card; in fact, I ended up making not one, not two - but four different cards for this week's theme, and then couldn't decide which one to use! I blogged one of them featuring a sweet little bumble bee yesterday - if you missed it, you can see that card here - and decided today to go with something old and something new with a card and matching treat box that is a tribute to all four-legged friends. First up, here's my card:

 

Now I must confess I almost didn't blog this card today, as my fellow teamie LeAnne also used the sketch layout from Global Design Project for her layout this week and used the new 'Nine Lives' stamp set that is the feline equivalent of the 'Happy Tails' set I chose to use and so there is a distinctly similar look and feel to our cards this week as a result. I figured though that whether you are a cat or dog lover, between us we have you covered so I decided to go ahead! You can check out LeAnne's card on the Paper Players blog post and read more about the detail of her card over on her blog WeeInklings which is well worth a follow. 

In the meantime, here's the low-down on today's card:

Happy Tails - The 'Happy Tails' bundle is one of my favourite bundles in the new Spring-Summer catalogue. The stamp set has a realistic dog with a collection of fun sentiments and decorative bits and pieces - a kennel, heart, collar and bone and a great selection of sentiments for all kinds of cards for the dog-lovers amongst us. The #GDP170 sketch was perfect to highlight lots of these co-ordinating words and images - and I chose to use this sentiment on the inside of my card too, with a few more pawprints for good measure:

 

Dalmation Dog - I created a dalmation with my black-on-white spots and added a red background so that he would really stand out. As if the stamp set wasn't great enough, it has a co-ordinating Dog Builder Punch too so that you can punch your puppy dog straight out with ease - no fussy cutting required!

A Kennel Treat Box - The minute I saw the dog builder punch I just knew I would need to create a little dog kennel for him using my retired Home Sweet Home thinlits - the box is the perfect size! I actually made this first and then took the embossed striped panels of my kennel and bright Poppy Parade red roof and incorporated the same texture and colour into my co-ordinating card. The roof of my box opens to hold a few chocolates or maybe even some doggy treats - I added a tag using another sentiment from the Happy Tails set, along with a punched heart, also courtesy of the Dog Builder Punch:

 

I hope you like my pair of projects today - they were fun to make! 

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. 

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

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 four challenges, TOTAL.
4.  Have FUN!

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; I'm hoping to get a little more time in my craft room and have some quality family time since our sporting commitments don't ramp up fully until next week. Either way, enjoy your Sunday and I'll be 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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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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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.