Today I'm excited to be sharing another card I've made using the new Thoughtful Branches bundle, an exclusive set that will be available for a limited time only 2-31 August. As I mentioned earlier in the week, having been on vacation for most of July I had to wait patiently to come home and play with my pre-order set. I have tons of ideas for this set (you can see my card and home decor frame that I made earlier in the week here and here if you missed them) and for me the apple tree alone is enough to sell it - this will be my new 'go to' set for teacher's cards for sure - however the card that I want to share today isn't one I designed - it is a CASE of the one that the super-talented Brian King submitted to our challenge over at The Paper Players a couple of weeks ago.

So what is a CASE? Well, it can mean a couple of things: 'Copy And Share Everything', where you literally make a copy of the card that you see, or 'Copy And Selectively Edit', where you take the things from the card that inspires you and create something that has some foundation in the original card but the end result can look quite different. My card today uses the first definition - I've changed the colours and stamp choice, but my card is virtually identical to Brian's. Here's the link to Brian's original blog post that gives the detail on how he made his card and here is a photograph of it, reproduced with kind permission from Brian:

I just love this card and so wanted to create my own version in an alternative colourway - here's my card:

So what is about Brian's card that I love so much? I guess if I had to choose just three things they would be:

Perfect Layering - Brian is the King (no pun intended!) of Layers and often uses them to great effect on his cards and this one is no exception. The smaller layered panel behind the large bloom adds a bold block of colour that further accentuates the detail of the diecut.

Interesting Details - Brian chose a number of different ways to add interest to his bloom, using texture, lift and shine. He could have just diecut the bloom and left it 'naked' - but he is far too considered for that! The details added are what takes this bloom from 'pretty' to 'pretty spectacular' in my book! I inked my bloom with the stamp from the set as opposed to the textured stamp that Brian used, but did use the additional diecuts for lift and a liberal dose of clear Wink of Stella for shine.

Vertical Sentiment - Whilst this wasn't Brian's original intention, I think the size and script of the font really lend themselves to a vertical orientation. Sometimes a 'happy accident' is all it takes to create design genius!

I chose to use Dapper Denim for my hydrangea, coupled with Mint Macaron, Very Vanilla and Tip Taupe Taupe, the same colour combination I used recently for this card here. Feel free to save this combination if it's one that appeals to you too:

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. 

Thank you Brian for allowing me to share your card today and create my own CASE'd version - this was a worthy 'top pick' for sure and if Sandy hadn't got there before me it would most certainly have been mine!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Thoughtful Branches Photopolymer Bundle	Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock	Dapper Denim A4 Cardstock	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock
Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Pad	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

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

I decided it was time to break out my Flourish Thinlits for my card today - take a look:

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

Frame With a Flourish - The Flourish Thinlits were on my 'must have' list when I saw the new catalogue - I think they are just lovely and you can create so many leaf and flower combinations with them, with or without the co-ordinating Flourishing Phrases stamp set. What's more, their detail can provide a great centrepiece, with not a lot else required. Here I cut mine in Mint Macaron and paper-pieced the flower heads in Rich Razzleberry, adding some clear Wink of Stella for shimmer.

Just a Note - I stamped my sentiment, from the Flourishing Phrases stamp set, in Rich Razzleberry in a 2" punched circle. There isn't much of this bright purple on my card, but where it appears it plays an important role: the sentiment, to highlight the flower petals and to create a border for my base. With two strong purple colours, less is definitely more in my book!

Pearls A Plenty - I added some doily behind my sentiment and a piece of Sweet Sugarplum ribbon, with an abundance of large pearls as 'berries' on my flourish. For some reason I rarely use this size of pearl and have an excess of them; luckily for me, they fit the circular berry spots perfectly.

A simple card where the sentiment could be switched out for lots of different occasions. 

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. 

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

Enjoy your day; I'm going swimming and then to the park for some outdoor fun! I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Flourishing Phrases Clear-Mount Bundle	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock	Sweet Sugarplum A4 Cardstock	Sweet Sugarplum 3/8" (1 Cm) Ruched Ribbon
Rich Razzleberry A4 Cardstock	Rich Razzlebberry Classic Stampin' Pad	2" (5.1 Cm) Circle Punch	Pearl Basic Jewels	Delicate White Doilies

Today is the day of the release of the exclusive limited time stamp set Thoughtful Branches! Available now until 31 August, you have just one month to get your hands on this set and its co-ordinating framelits too! Here's a close up of the images and framelits in more detail:

I am playing catch up with this beautiful set; due to my recent vacation I pre-ordered late, but I've been making up for lost time! I couldn't leave today without sharing a quick project using this fabulous and versatile set:

This is a quick teacher thank you card, inspired by a recent one I saw by Erica Cerwin (you can see her original card here). I actually made this card with the pieces I had left over from the project that I'm going to share with you tomorrow - it is rather lovely even if I do say so myself so do come by then, as you won't want to miss it!

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Thoughtful Branches Photopolymer Bundle	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Writing Notes Clear-Mount Background Stamp	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine

Happy Monday everyone! Week 2 of the long school summer holiday! I managed to get some quality craft time over the weekend, so have a few things to share with you this week. The first is a card for this week's CASology challenge:

This week's cue card is 'journey'. I've been having fun playing along with this challenge when I can as it's a great opportunity both to hone my CAS card style and have fun, as there are often numerous ways the cue card can be interpreted. The design team are also awesome with amazing cards each week - you should definitely check them out! So with 'journey' it didn't take me long to get to thinking about transport, but I still managed to make a slightly quirky interpretation; take a look:

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

Is it a star? No it's a plane! - I decided to go with a simple notecard and paper aeroplane for my card today. It reminded me of my schooldays, when I spent far too much time sending notes across the classroom to my class mates via this mode of transport. But I digress! My paper aeroplane today comes from the 'Shooting star' stamp set and is easily cut out with the co-ordinating Sliding Star Framelit Dies. I added a dotted trail using a retired stamp from the 'Cool Kid' set, but you could just as easily hand draw this in with your Basic Black Stampin' Write marker.

Airmail Border - I decided that I would use an airmail-type border around the edge of my notecard base to tie in with the postal theme, but on hunting for a suitable stamp that would give me the alternating red, white and blue stripes I was looking for and failing to come up with anything suitable, I decided instead to use my retired striped stencil and sponge in the alternating colours to create my border. It worked a treat! Here's a picture showing you how I did it:

Just A Note - Despite the simplicity of my notecard, I managed to use three stamp sets! My third set is 'Picture Perfect' and this is where I found my simple sentiment to finish my card. I stamped it in Pacific Point and finished with a Real Red enamel shape heart to complete my visual triangle.

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. 

A fun notecard that would be useful for any little notes that you want to send. I might actually use this card to send a note to one of my blog friends who lives across the pond - it seems a fitting card for that kind of journey!

That's all from me today; I have a child-free day today as I am attending a business function; the James Juniors are looking forward to spending the day with Granny and Ollie dog, as he is on vacation with her whist my brother-in-law and his family are holidaying abroad. I'll be back tomorrow with another project and news of the new Thoughtful Branches set that will be available to order; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Shooting Star Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Sliding Star Framelits Dies	Picture Perfect Photopolymer Stamp Set	Brights Enamel Shapes
Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Laurie to host this week and she has a fun tic-tac-toe board challenge for us to play along with:

I have been rather time-pressed this week - the joys of school summer holidays! - so although I knew what I wanted to do with today's challenge, it took me some time to find the time to get to my desk to make it! For my card this week I decided to go with the middle column of Laurie's card and create something that was reminiscent of warm, sunny summer days, with the help of this week's sketch over at Global Design Project - take a look:

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

A Serene Scene Indeed - I chose to use a piece of the beautiful Serene Scenery designer series paper for my card today. The photographic images in this paper stack are just so beautiful, they really don't need much other than a sentiment to finish a card. Inspired by nature, there are several images that feature sunshine in this pack and for this card I decided to go with this grassy field, with its warm summer glow. I made my card larger than usual (the finished card measures 14.9cm x 21cm) as I wanted to feature as much of this beautiful paper as possible.

Sunshine Says It All - I used a 'sunshine' diecut sentiment from the Sunshine Wishes die set to finish my card. I toyed with adding the rest of my sentiment using the Sunshine Sayings stamp set to the front of my card, but decided to stamp it inside instead as I really wanted to keep the front as clean as possible. I will let you into a little secret though: in hindsight it should be set a little more to the left, so that it doesn't get as absorbed into my white mat layer, but with no time to go back and start again I'm going to have to live with it! Sshhh - don't tell ;-)

Sunny Honey - The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that my card base looks a little light for the Delightful Dijon that this paper stack co-ordinates with; the mustard yellow made my card look more autumnal than summery, so I took a piece of my retired in-colour cardstock in Hello Honey to get the colour I was looking for. It always help to stockpile a little retired cardstock for such instances - and I know I'm not the only one! I finished with a sliver of Old Olive cardstock and some Delightful Dijon ribbon for my banners, and a Classy Designer Button threaded with Old Olive baker's twine.

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. 

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

Family calls so I'm off to get back to having fun of the non-crafting kind! One last thing: don't forget today is the last day that you can take advantage of the July Bonus days offer; if you are placing an order online, make sure you use this month's hostess code 63RNATE3 when prompted to get a little thank you in the post from me. This hostess code will be closing tonight at 8pm, so be sure to get your orders in before then. I look forward to seeing what you create with Laurie's board this week.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Serene Scenery Designer Series Paper Stack	Sunshine Wishes Thinlits Dies	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Classy Designer Buttons	Old Olive Baker's Twine
Delightful Dijon 5/8" (1.6 Cm) Mini Striped Ribbon	Old Olive A4 Cardstock

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

For my card today I decided on one of my personal must-have sets from the new catalogue - the Sunshine Sayings stamp set and co-ordinating Sunshine Wishes Thinlit Dies - take a look:

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

Sunshine Sayings & Wishes - This is a stamp set and thinlit combination that so appeals to me: easy to use florals, lots of good sentiment combinations and thinlit greetings - my favourite! I stamped the flower in Soft Sky for my background, and overlaid it with a diecut flower in Bermuda Bay and greeting, which I cut out of Whisper White and gave a graduated wash of Melon Mambo with my aquapainter. I also added some Melon Mambo ribbon behind and a trio of enamel dots for additional pops of pink.

Inspired Colour Combo - The colour combination for my card today was inspired by the 'Penned and Painted' samples on page 143 of the annual catalogue. I loved the fresh colours with a pop of pink - feel free to pin it if it's one that appeals to you too:

Playful Backgrounds - For the diagonal lines in the sketch, I used one of the stamps in the 'Playful Backgrounds' stamp set. This set was our all-attendee giveaway at Onstage in April and it is useful for this kind of background stamp detail - a fresh take on 'Gorgeous Grunge', if you will.

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. 

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's sketch; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

Don't forget you've only a few more days to take advantage of the Bonus Days money-off coupon offer - for full details click here.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

I'm a little later posting today - I blame trying to catch up with my latest favourite TV drama last night (The Catch - if you want to check it out - I'm addicted!) Anyways, 152 days until the big 'C' day - it must be time for Christmas in July! Lots of card makers start preparing for Christmas at this time of year, in addition to which us lucky Stampin' Up! demonstrators get to see and pre-order from the new Stampin' Up! Autumn Winter catalogue - which if you're a customer you have to wait until 2nd September for! I've seen some sneak peeks and can assure you there are some new products that you are going to LOVE!!!!

If you would like to get ahead of the curve and be able to see and order these products before everyone else, do get in touch to find out more about joining my team. In the meantime, I thought I would make a card for this week's colour challenge over at Fab Friday, where although a Christmas card is not compulsory the colour scheme this week is certainly festive:

For my card today I decided to go with the new Christmas papers in the annual catalogue and one of the carryover Christmas sets, Perfect Pines to create a simple holiday card:

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

More For You This Christmas - At Stampin' Up! we do Christmas all year round however in your excitement to see everything in the new Annual Catalogue you might have missed a key detail about the new This Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper: like the now retired Typeset Specialty Designer Series Paper, This Chrismas is printed in lightweight paper - similar to a newspaper print. As a result, you also get 4 sheets of each of the 6 designs in the pack, so 24 sheets in total as opposed to 12 - bonus!

Double-Up - Because the This Christmas paper is not a thick paper, it's tricky to pop up on dimensionals if it's not backed with something thicker. I wanted to be able to tie my baker's twine around my DSP layer, so in order to make it more sturdy, I backed it with a piece of extra thick Whisper White that was the same size, by simply gluing together. Easy! 

Paper-Pieced Perfect Pines - I decided to use one of the Perfect Pines Christmas trees to act as both sentiment and focal point on my card today. I stamped my tree in Garden Green and cut it out with the co-ordinating framelits, then stamped it again in Cherry Cobbler on some scrap cardstock and fussy cut the banner so that I could add the tiniest paper-pieced detail to my tree. This, in addition to a gold metallic enamel star, a sliver of gold glimmer paper and some split Cherry Cobbler baker's twine (I divided the twine into three so that it would add less bulk to my card) complete today's festive masterpiece (even if I say so myself!!) 

One more for the Christmas pile - I guess that means I'm in danger of appearing organised, right? 

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 have a rare child-free day today, so I am making the most of it to get through a chunk of activities on my growing 'to do' list. Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

This Christmas Designer Series Specialty Paper	Peaceful Pines Photopolymer Stamp Set	Perfect Pines Framelits Dies	This Christmas A4 Cardstock	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad
Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad	Gold Glimmer Paper	Project Life Corner Punch	Metallic Enamel Shapes

There are some great sketches out in blog land this week and for my card today I was inspired by this rather lovely one from the team over at the As You See It Challenge:

I saw those flowers and thought it was the perfect opportunity to get out my Blooms and Wishes stamp set for some 'random' stamping - take a look:

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

Blooms and Bliss Colour Combo - The trio of colours I chose for my card today all appear in the Blooms and Bliss Suite and in particular the designer series paper of the same name, so I was drawn here for the colour scheme for my card. Again I chose to use a bold, patterned base for my card rather than one of the floral papers; it's is great for a background as it doesn't interfere with the detail of the focal image and the watercolour-like flecking adds a softness to this otherwise strong colour. Here is my colour combination today in case it's one you would like to save for use at a future date:

Blooms and Wishes - I stamped my floral panel using the sketch as a guide and using the co-ordinating Blooms & Wishes stamp set to create an almost watercoloured effect. I used a combination of both first and second generation stamping for the colours to add depth and overlapped the flowers slightly too, finishing some with pearls and fussy cutting a single flower and centre to anchor my sentiment panel.

Sugarplum Bow - I added a single bow out of 3/8" Ruched Ribbon in Sweet Sugarplum as per the sketch; I was a little unsure about this act of randomness, but I think it works. One thing is for sure - this ribbon is gorgeous with a wonderful texture and makes bow tying a doddle!

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 card - this time for Christmas (it pays to be organised!); until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Blooms & Wishes Photopolymer Stamps	Blooms & Bliss Designer Series Paper	Sweet Sugarplum 3/8" (1 Cm) Ruched Ribbon	Pearl Basic Jewels	Sweet Sugarplum Classic Stampin' Pad
Blushing Bride A4 Cardstock	Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad	Rich Razzlebberry Classic Stampin' Pad	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock

Happy Monday everyone! For me this is officially the first day of the long school summer holiday! The James Juniors actually finished a couple of weeks ago, but having spent two weeks abroad on vacation today marks the start of our time at home - 6 weeks of no school runs, yay! So how long before I get cries of 'I'm booorrrreeeeedddd' do we think??!

I was pleasantly surprised to return home to the UK to find that summer has finally arrived, so I'm hoping that today's card doesn't tempt fate! I made it with a few challenges in mind:

The team over at CASology have a cue card of 'rough', which can mean many things; I decided to go with a 'get well soon' sentiment and also included some diecutting which the team over at TGIF are looking for this week and a little paper piecing for the team over at Just Add Ink. Take a look:

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

Umbrella Weather - With the exception of the sentiment, which comes from the co-ordinating 'Weather Together' stamp set, my card is all about diecutting today. The umbrella, clouds and raindrops are all part of the Umbrella Weather Framelits set. I've been wanting an umbrella set for ages (you can see my previous punch art attempt at creating my own umbrella here) and this framelit set is perfect: it contains two different umbrella types and lots of border patterns that you can use to customise them, in addition to clouds, hearts and raindrops. The framelits are a great standalone set and you don't need the stamp set to get great use out of these, although given that together they can be purchased as one of the many discounted bundles in the catalogue, I'm not sure why you would buy them alone (just saying :-) )

Paper Piecing - Paper Piecing, the technique that uses small pieces of paper or card to create a pattern, originates from an old quilting technique where the quilter sews small pieces of fabric onto paper in order to make it easier to join them together. On my card I decided to paper-piece the sections of my umbrella. I cut one complete umbrella out of Real Red, then cut a further three umbrellas - one red, one yellow, and one out of a scrap of retired Cherry on Top DSP from my scrap box - and fussy cut each of these by hand into three sections, that I then paper-pieced together and glued to the red base to create my colourful brolly.

Minimal Layers, Maximum Interest - I wanted to create interest not only with my use of bright blocks of colour but also in terms of dimension, with the raindrops, sentiment, clouds and umbrella all completing for layer space on my card. In order to maintain my 'clean and simple' feel, I created a recess in my top mat for my sentiment and popped this layer up on dimensionals to add depth to my raindrops. I then adhered my umbrella directly onto this layer, arching the recess, and finally popped the clouds onto dimensionals for a little lift too. 

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. 

A brightly coloured card that should cheer someone having the roughest of times!

That's all from me today; I have a date with a huge basket of post-vacation ironing along with some time outdoors with the James Juniors making the most of the nice weather whilst it lasts. I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Weather Together Photopolymer Bundle	Island Indigo A4 Cardstock	Island Indigo Classic Stampin' Pad	Pool Party A4 Cardstock	Real Red A4 Cardstock
Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Cardstock

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of my sweet friend LeAnne to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge for us to play along with:

This is one of those sketches that has so many possibilities and when I sat down with my sketch book I came up with about six different cards straight off, there were just so many choices! In the end I decided to go with the soft and nautical By The Shore suite to create a rather fishy card today - take a look:

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

Under The Sea - My regular readers will know that the James' are a family of keen swimmers and scuba divers, so this was never going to be a set I could pass up for long! Fishes, seaweed, bubbles, an anchor, shells and starfish, along with some great sentiments and rope/border stamps - a veritable underwater cornucopia. I used the main sentiment on my card today, inked up using my Stampin' Write marker to easily incorporate each of the three colours that feature most strongly in this suite and cut out with my circle framelits and used the seaweed in Mint Macaron to add a little background interest, stamping off once first to give a paler colour. I used an all-blue angel fish (if there is such a thing!) as my embellishment element as per the sketch, popping it up slightly higher than my sentiment circle. Here is today's colour combination should you wish to save it to use again too:

By The Shore - The By The Shore Designer Series paper has some wonderful patterns, including two sheets of ombre in coral and denim blue. The Calypso Coral ombre worked perfectly for my card base, and I also used a piece with a circular pattern for my vertical banner - it reminded me of bubbles, in an abstract way, so it co-ordinates with the other elements of my card.

Nautical Details - In addition to my sentiment and fish, I added a few other nautical details: I stamped a trio of starfish on my card base directly onto the ombre paper, added some pearls and finally a sailor's reef knot in vanilla baker's twine around my horizontal banners. This adds a lot of dimension to my card, making it a little un-post friendly, but I like the added texture and detail it gives so I will just save this card for someone closer to home.  

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 love this fun set and just know I will get tons of use from it. The lovely Linda Callaghan also used this set this week - her card is beautiful and quite different to mine so be sure to check it out for additional nautical inspiration.

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 what you create with our sketch this week.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Seaside Shore Wood-Mount Stamp Set	By The Shore Designer Series Paper	Layering Circle Framelits Dies	Very Vanilla Thick Baker’S Twine	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock
Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad	Dapper Denim A4 Cardstock	Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Pad	Calypso Coral A4 Cardstock	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad
Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Pearl Basic Jewels