I had a great day yesterday with the first of this month's technique classes, an outside BBQ dinner and an evening bike ride along the canal - not a bad start to the week! Today I have my third-in-a-row masculine card for you, using this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch:

I decided to have some fun with the idea of the vertical lines and sentiment so combined the two to come up with today's card:

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

It's All About Perspective - I was definitely inspired by the sketch, but chose to reverse the perspective of the vertical lines and the sentiment. I stamped the 'you're the best' sentiment from the Watercolour Words stamp set in Versamark and heat embossed it in gold, then diecut my letters using the now retired Little Letters Thinlits. Before adhering the letters to the background, I cut 4 extra sets and glued these each on top of each other to give my 'DADDY' dimension.

A Touch Of Gold - I wanted to preserve the clean-and-simple look and feel of my card so kept to a monochromatic colour scheme with Pacific Point for my 'white space' and added a touch of gold for my lettering and framing mat.

You're The Best - I love the handwritten styling of the sentiments in the 'Watercolour Words' stamp set. This is a great sentiment set with lots of possibilities and it works perfectly to sum up my Father's Day message on this card.

 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; I have another day of classes and music lessons after school, so mine will be full! I will also be at Bell's in Northampton tomorrow for my fortnightly drop-in Coffee & Card Session if you're local and fancy some crafty respite!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Watercolor Words Photopolymer Stamp Set	Pacific Point A4 Cardstock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder
Heat Tool (Uk)	Magnetic Platform	Big Shot

Happy Monday everyone! What a lovely day we had here in the UK yesterday - sunshine at last! I'm here bright and early this week as I have a busy one: two monthly technique classes today and tomorrow, my Project Life memory keeping class, a drop-in coffee and card session at Bells in Northampton and my Annual Catalogue Open House at the end of the week to look forward to, amongst other things! Today I'm back with another masculine card, this time for the colour challenge over at Pals Paper Arts:

I thought these colours would suit a little ocean scene - I originally started out with the sketch I used for yesterday's card, but eventually my idea morphed into this:

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

Sail Away With The Swirly Bird - It's official - I am in love with the Swirly Bird stamp set and co-ordinating thinlits! This bundle is definitely at the top of my list of favourite things from the new annual catalogue. It has flowers and birds, boats and kites and the splatters you see in the background behind my boat - such a fun set! I stamped my boat in Sahara Sand, then for the sails I stamped one in Night of Navy and the other in Mint Macaron (stamped off first) then overstamped the stripes in Night of Navy and clear heat embossed them for a lovely shine.

A Life on the Swirly Scribbles Ocean Wave - The sea on my card was made using a die from the co-ordinating Swirly Scribbles Thinlits: I cut it out of the top Mint Macaron layer, which was attached to my base layer with dimensionals, and paper-pieced the negative pieces into the space on my Night of Navy base layer. It's a little difficult to see in the photograph, but this gives a lovely added dimension to my rolling waves.

A Swirly Greatest Greeting - I wanted my sentiment to follow the curve of my cardstock, so I used my sentiment from the 'Greatest Greetings' stamp set and curved it to follow the contours of the cut line before adhering to my stamp and stamping it. This is much easier to do with photopolymer stamps, however since I hadn't adhered the word image to the back of the stamp it was a little more sticky than would otherwise have been the case and held in place on my block long enough for me to get a shaped image. I then finished this with some retired Mint Macaron It's My Party enamel dots. 

I love this fresh colour scheme and although my card features only the tiniest pieces of Sahara Sand for the hull of my sail boat, I think my design really makes the most of these colours.

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'm off to get ready for my class. I'll be back tomorrow with another masculine project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Swirly Bird Photopolymer Bundle	Greatest Greetings Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool (Uk)	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad
Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock	Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the super-talented Claire to host our challenge this week and she has a timely theme for you to play along with:

With only a couple of weeks to go until Father's Day, today's challenge is a great opportunity for you to get your cards made (and posted if necessary!) in a timely manner. For my card this week I debated with myself what stamps to use: old or new! In the end I ended up making not one but 3 cards, each using a different set. I will be sharing them all over the next three days so if you're in need of masculine inspiration be sure to check back for three very different cards, each of which would work for both Father's Day or a male/Dad's birthday.

For today's card I used this week's sketch over at the Global Design Project and decided to go with one of my favourite existing masculine sets, Guy Greetings, along with some new product - copper embossing powder. Take a look:

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

Add Shine With Copper - Heat embossing adds a 'wow' to any project and the new copper embossing powder is no exception. I stamped my anchors from the 'Guy Greetings' stamp set in Versamark onto a panel of Whisper White and heat embossed them in copper. Check out the lovely sheen that you get when the light bounces off it on my card above! I chose Bermuda Bay for the base and top split layer above my recessed anchor panel; it looks great with the copper and reminds me of the sea, so seemed appropriate for today's card. 

A Multi-Purpose Guy Greeting - I saved my 'Happy Father's Day' sentiment for the inside of my card and chose the anchor one for the front. It ties in with my visuals of course, but would also make this card a multi-purpose masculine card that could be used for other occasions too.

A Layered Label And Embellished Anchor - I used a layered label from the Tags & Labels Framelits set for my sentiment, modifying the mat as I wanted it to have a thinner border than the standard framelit size. This was easy to do: I just cut a standard sized one, then cut it again to remove a slice off two of the four sides. To finish I embossed another anchor in copper, then fussy cut it by hand, removing the rope pieces. I then took some thick Bermuda Bay baker's twine and wrapped it around the anchor where the embossed rope would have been and secured it in place with glue dots. You can see it in more detail in the thumbnail at the top of today's post.

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:

I look forward to seeing your masculine creations in our gallery this week. The weather hasn't been great here this week, however yesterday was a little warmer and today is forecast the same, so I'm looking forward to a BBQ lunch in the garden - doesn't food always taste better if eaten in the open air? I think so! Then I'm hoping to spend some time in the afternoon preparing for my Annual Catalogue Open House on Friday later this week. I hope you enjoy your Sunday too.

I'll be back tomorrow with another masculine project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Guy Greetings Photopolymer Stamp Set	Tags & Labels Framelits Dies	Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder	Bermuda Bay Thick Baker’S Twine	Bermuda Bay A4 Cardstock
Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Heat Tool (Uk)

It's Saturday and the weekend! I've had a hugely productive day today, which has included collecting my brand new car - exciting stuff! I also have all-new products to share today, for my floral card using this week's sketch over at Stamp Ink Paper:

My card today features products from the Affectionately Yours product suite - take a look:

Isn't that just so pretty? (even if I say so myself!) Here's the low-down on today's card:

Affectionately Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper - Ok, so you know how much I love (and hoard!) paper and I always get excited when there are new ones to choose from - well, this one is gorgeous! Bright pops of colour with Night of Navy and Crumb Cake having a starring role. The best bit though is that the two special sheets are copper embossed - I haven't used either of those on today's card - can't quite bring myself to cut into them yet! - but all in good time, they are too beautiful not to be showcased on a project!

In Love With Love And Affection - I used the Love and Affection stamp set on yesterday's card and I love the bold floral images that co-ordinate with the paper. Here I've stamped the individual elements in Night of Navy onto colours of co-ordinating cardstock and fussy cut them to create the floral bough that frames my sentiment circle. 

And Washi Makes Three! - The Affectionately Yours suite also includes a set of co-ordinating washi tapes. After stamping my sentiment, i needed something to balance the flowers around my circle, so I taped some washi to some Whisper White cardstock and snipped a couple of banners. With a thick baker's twine bow in Cucumber Crush it was just what I needed to complete my card. It's quite difficult to tell on today's card, but the spotted one is actually metallic copper - it even made it onto the washi tape!

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'll be back tomorrow with this week's card for our new challenge over at The Paper Players; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Love & Affection Photopolymer Stamp Set	Affectionately Yours Specialty Designer Series Paper	Affectionately Yours Designer Washi Tape	Affectionately Yours A4 Cardstock	Crumb Cake A4 Cardstock
Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Layering Circle Framelits Dies	Cucumber Crush Thick Baker's Twine	Whisper White A4 Cardstock
Cucumber Crush A4 Cardstock

Happy Friday everyone! I can't believe the week is almost over - time seems to have zipped by this week! We have achieved lots though, including a trip to the theatre yesterday to see the musical 'Annie', which was great. I have a really quick post today for the challenge over at CASology where they are celebrating their 200th anniversary - wowsers! Their challenge this week:

The CASology guidelines for a clean and simple card are summarised as:

1. One main image
2. Lots of open space, uncluttered
3. Limited layers & embellishments
4. Quick & easy to recreate 

I decided to go with a one layer white card using some new in colours and a couple of products from the Affectionately Yours product suite:

My sentiment from the Love and Affection stamp set in Dapper Denim, along with some embossing courtesy of one of the Floral Affection embossing folders (there are two in the set) and finished with a few flowers and sprays in Sweet Sugarplum, Flirty Flamingo and Emerald Envy to complete the oval shape. Super clean, super quick!

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'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Love & Affection Photopolymer Stamp Set	Floral Affection Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Pad	Emerald Envy Classic Stampin' Pad
Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad	Sweet Sugarplum Classic Stampin' Pad

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 to use one of the new hostess sets, 'Pun Intended', along with some new paper from the Playful Palette Designer Series Paper Stack:

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

News Flash - You Are Awesome - ... and so are the extra Stampin' Rewards you could get if you hosted a Stampin' Up! party in June! The 'Pun Intended' stamp set has lots of fun images, including a bee, a light bulb and some super-punny sentiments. This set is exclusive to hostesses - and with an extra £25 of Stampin' Rewards for all party sales of £250 or more, you will have more than enough rewards for to get your hands on this stamp set or any of the other fabulous new hostess sets or other new catalogue goodies. I'm in love with this retro camera; here I've stamped it in black and punched out two circles to give a 3D look to the lens - I have lots more ideas for it though, so stay tuned!

Playful Palette - The Playful Palette suite contains lots of lovely products, including a designer series paper stack that includes papers with three of five of the new in-colours. It also contains some great black and vanilla patterns, such as the one I've used to create the background panel for my card today.

Watermelon Wonder-ful - When deciding what colour to choose to compliment my black/vanilla colour combo, I decided I would highlight the heart on my sentiment banner and wanted a red that was not too 'red', so happened upon Watermelon Wonder, one of my in-colour favourites from last year. It was the perfect colour for my card base and flagged banner too. I also added a little epoxy heart to add shine and subtle dimension to my heart, along with the final trio of rhinestones for sparkle.

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!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Bank Holiday Monday - what better than a long weekend! I spent yesterday catching up on some gardening and had dinner with my in-laws and nephew, which made for a nice change. Today my parents are visiting so I'm looking forward to more time in the garden and another BBQ - is it me, or is there something that makes food taste so much better when cooked and eaten outdoors?!

Anyway, my card for today uses this week's sketch over at Less is More; I was so pleased to see my turtle card from a couple of weeks ago chosen as a Top 3 card this week - the competition over there is stiff, so this makes a win all the more special (thank you ladies!) With only 6 weeks to go until the end of the school year here in the UK, I thought it was time to get cracking on my teacher thank you cards, so here is today's card:

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

ABC, 123 - I used a piece of retiring Schoolhouse Designer Series Paper to cover one of the portions of my background on my extra-thick Whisper White card base. Perfect for adding to the school theme, whilst leaving the all-important white space.

An Apple For The Teacher - I stamped my apple from the retiring 'Apple of My Eye' set in Real Red and fussy cut it out, cutting the leaf out separately and adding it on top. I'm not sure that children give an apple to their teacher any more (we are more likely to send cake in to ours!) Nevertheless this is such a good stamp set for teacher cards - a keeper, for sure.

Thanks, You're The Best - I finished my card with a die cut sentiment cut using my Big Shot and 'thanks' from the Greetings Thinlits. I used black cardstock and stamped the front in Versamark and heat embossed with black embossing powder a few times to give a nice shiny finish. I popped this up on dimensionals aligned with my apple and finished my card inside with 'you're the best' from the 'Sunburst Sayings' stamp set.

Easy and quick to create - just what you need if you've lots of these 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 '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:

Apple Of My Eye Photopolymer Stamp Set	Greetings Thinlits Dies	Basic Black A4 Cardstock	Versamark Pad	Big Shot
Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool (Uk)	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host our challenge this week and I have my very own tic-tac-toe board for you to play along with:

Tic Tac Toe - hmmm, so many possibilities! For my card this week I decided to go with the diagonal - yellow, die-cut, paper clip - and using this week's Pals Paper Arts sketch for my layout, this is what I came up with:

My card is a card from a special little girl to her precious Daddy - here's the low-down:

Bear Hugs - The front of my card features the baby bear from the Bear Hugs stamp set, cut out with the co-ordinating Bear Hugs framelits. I also fussy cut his nose and added a couple of pearls coloured black with my Sharpie for eyes. These little bears are so cute - I'm glad that these are being carried over to the new catalogue. I also carried this little sweetie over to the inside, where I paired her with her Daddy and finished the final part of the sentiment:

Bow Paper Clip - I added my oversize bow paper clip with a little white seam binding ribbon tied around the middle to the ear of my little bear for an obvious feminine touch. 

A Daffodil Delight - I added a piece of Daffodil Delight flower-patterned designer series paper from the Brights DSP Stack for the main panel of my card. I wanted my card to feel girly, even though the recipient was the world's best Dad - I think he'll appreciate it! I think the yellow really compliments the Soft Suede too; here's my colour combo should you wish to save it:

I'm also linking up with the team over at Just Add Ink where the challenge this week is to 'Just Add B' which in my case, is B for Bear.

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. 

Whilst I love the bright yellow and cute bear, I must confess the execution of today's card is lacking a little something. I played around with it lots and couldn't work out exactly what it was that wasn't working, so in the end time constraints meant I had to just go with it. Don't you just hate it when that happens?!

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 many different combinations you make with my board this week. We are off to basketball today and are having a little James family get-together later, which should be fun. Otherwise the day will be spent clearing up the mess that was yesterday's flooded kitchen. We had such a busy day, that included shopping for Rebecca's new bike, a trip to the garden centre and a mow of the lawns, that when a pipe burst in the kitchen as we were cooking dinner we spent the rest of the evening filling bowls, waiting for emergency plumbers and mopping up. Hence no blog post yesterday - just too exhausted! Today I'm hoping will be the start of the restful Bank Holiday I was hoping for...

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Bear Hugs Clear-Mount Bundle	Bow Paper Clips Embellishments	Brights Designer Series Paper Stack	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad
Soft Suede A4 Cardstock	Pearl Basic Jewels	Whisper White A4 Cardstock

Happy Friday everyone! Today I'm sharing a card that I made in my shaker card technique class that featured the Hearth & Home Thinlits at the back end of last year:

So long ago I know, and whilst some of the products on this card are retiring (namely the flower and bird punches, the Alphabet Rotary Stamp and the ribbon), the Hearth & Home Thinlits are staying so it's still worth a share! Not only that, but the new Foam Adhesive Strips that are coming in the new catalogue will make this kind of card a breeze. 

This one isn't a shaker card; I made a little video tutorial to show how I created my colourful roman blind window treatment and have finally got around to editing it, so here it is:

I'm so glad the Hearth & Home Thinlits are staying, they really are so useful. I'm looking forward to seeing what new ribbons are coming our way to see how I can give my next window a makeover!

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. 

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Hearth & Home Thinlits Dies	Brick Wall Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Bermuda Bay 1-1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon	Kraft And White Corrugated Paper	Window Sheets
Smoky Slate A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Foam Adhesive Strips