It's New Year's Eve and it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a great sketch for you:

As soon as I set eyes on this sketch I knew what I was going to do with it - I just love it when that happens! I decided to use up some scraps of Winter Wonderland designer series paper and create a card to celebrate the new year - take a look:

I used a mix of patterns and papers for my banners and then a collection of stars, some solid and some just in outline, cut with my Big Shot and Star Framelits, some metallics star sequins and with my sentiment from the 'Six Sayings' hostess set stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in black across the front of the main star to create the focal point of today's card.

Do visit the other Design Team members to see how they interpreted this week's sketch; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too! I will be delivering this card today to my Mother-in-Law who is hosting the annual New Year's James family gathering - I am reliably informed that my brother-in-law's gorgeous puppy Ollie is joining us too, so here's to a day that is likely to be fun and chaotic day!

I'm also linking up today's card over at SUO Challenges where the theme is new years projects.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Good evening lovely readers! I hope you've all had a pleasant day. I went for my second visit of the week to the pantomime, this time the turn of The Snow Queen, which was excellent. I love pantomime - for me it is one of those traditions that make my Christmas. As for crafting - I'm back today with another 'sneak peek' for you, this time using the current sketch over at Mojo Monday as the basis for my birthday card:

Today's card features not one, but FIVE new products from the forthcoming Stampin' Up! Spring-Summer catalogue. Here's my card - can you spot them all?

So how did you do? Check out the fun party-themed designer series paper from the 'It's My Party' Designer Series Paper Stack, along with the stamps, both from a new set called 'Party Wishes' (I coloured them with my Stampin' Write markers to get the detail). Then there's the fabby two-tone baker's twine that I also shared on yesterday's card and check out the trio of enamel dots on my birthday cake - these come in a pack with Mint Macaron coloured dots too! Finally, did you spot the fifth item? This is a slightly sneaky one - the candle on the cake was punched with one of a trio of punches in the 'Party Punch Pack' (it also includes a balloon and a mini cupcake!) If you are wondering where the striped paper across the bottom panel came from - this is actually a piece of black and white striped paper from the Neutrals paper stack where I coloured in the white stripes with my Melon Mambo Stampin' Write marker to create my custom paper to co-ordinate in with the rest of my colour scheme.

So much party fun in one card! I just love the bold colour combinations of the 'It's My Party' Suite - they offer so many different creative possibilities!

Back tomorrow with a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary where it's out with the old and in with the new! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

The following items will be available on 5th January:

140552 It's My Party Designer Series Paper Stack

140961 Party Wishes Stamp Set

140608 Party Punch Pack

140555 Baker's Twine Combo Pack

140554 It's My Party Enamel Dots

Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock	Many Marvelous Markers	Neutrals Designer Series Paper Stack	1-1/2" Circle Punch	1-3/4" Circle Punch
Basic Black A4 Cardstock

Good evening lovely readers! Have you missed me? I took a week off to celebrate Christmas with my family and friends. Whilst I had plenty of projects to share, my blogging opportunities have been few and far between. I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Christmas and are still making the most of the festivities. Today has seen me back in my craft room though and the first real opportunity to create with my new Spring-Summer catalogue goodies, so I now have lots of sneak peeks to share with you in advance of the catalogue launch next week!

The first is a sweet little project using the new hostess set 'Love You Sew' and showcasing some of the fabby new baker's twine that is in the new catalogue - take a look: 

I made a fun little cotton reel card from a Stampin' Up! notelet using my Envelope Punch Board and stamped it with the cross-stitch hearts and sentiment from 'I love you sew' and wound a long length of the gorgeous new two-tone baker's twine (available in a combo pack with a roll of Basic Black/Mint Macaron twine too), finished with a Melon Mambo Brights button and a bow. An epoxy pink heart embellishment and a decorated envelope finish my card.

I often make these little cotton reel cards to share ribbon and twine samples with customers as it's such a nice way to present it - the addition of a sentiment makes this into a fun card! I'm linking today's card up with the lovely ladies over at 'Less is More' where the theme this week is 'Homespun'; I think my cotton reel works! 

If you like this set, it will be available exclusively to all customers who either place a single order or who have combined party sales of £150 or more. There are some great incentives to host a party during Stampin' Up!'s Sale-A-Bration event that also begins next week on 5th January when the new catalogue launches; more information on this to follow, but if you would like to book a party please contact me now to get a date in the diary. This is such a lovely set for crafters with lots of humorous sayings, you will definitely want to add it to your collection. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hostess set - 140640 Love You Sew - available 5th January

140555 Baker's Twine Combo Pack - available 5th January

Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Envelope Punch Board	Itty Bitty Accents Epoxy Stickers
Brights Designer Buttons

It's Sunday and whilst there is no Paper Players post from me today - we are taking a couple of weeks off from our design commitments to enjoy the festive season with our families - however fear not - as promised I still have a project to share with you today! 

My December technique classes featured creating backgrounds with the salt technique. I had created the following pair of cards cased from the lovely Jen Timko just for fun:

I just loved the white, layering and beautiful and unique sky created using this fun technique:

You can see Jen's card and a great video on the technique here. In my class we made a similar card using the 'Jingle All the Way' stamp set but the real focus of our class was a 3 dimensional Christmas bauble ornament and a co-ordinating box to gift it in, all featuring backgrounds made using this technique. Here is my finished bauble:

This bauble is quite stunning in real life; the layering, silver foil and embossing and dazzling diamonds glimmer paper, along with that amazing sky, really show the Sleigh Ride Edgelits off to full advantage. I'm so sorry that these will not be carried over on 4th January; if you haven't already purchased them, place your order now before it's too late!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Jingle All The Way Wood-Mount Bundle	Silver Cording Trim	Silver 5/8" Satin Ribbon	Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper	Silver Foil Sheets
Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool (Uk)
Watercolor Paper	Aqua Painters	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Iced Rhinestone Embellishments

Good evening lovely blog readers! Christmas preparations are full steam ahead here in the James household and now that the Juniors have broken up from school for the holidays I'm sure there will be even less crafting time than usual; so tough when there is a huge big box of pre-order Spring-Summer seasonal goodies sitting in the corner of my office! Luckily for you I still have some Christmas cards and projects that I haven't shared with you. So today I'm sharing one of the cards from my all day Christmas stamp-a-stack back in September - this one features the Home for Christmas DSP and one of the stamps from the Cozy Christmas set and was a favourite for the ladies who attended:

The Pacific Point really makes the colours on this card pop and the addition of the gold corded trim and the red glimmer paper poinsettia cut out using the framelit from the Delicate Ornament Thinlit Dies set adds a lovely touch of sparkle to this card. If you are in need of some last minute Christmas cards, you could knock a few of these out in no time. This sentiment is one of my absolute favourites - it says everything that is good about the holidays for me.

That's all from me tonight; The Paper Players team and I are taking a couple of weeks break over the Christmas period but fear not - I will be back tomorrow with another festive project that I think you'll like. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Cozy Christmas Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Home For Christmas Designer Series Paper	Gold Cording Trim	Big Shot	Circles Collection Framelits Dies
Banner Triple Punch	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Pacific Point A4 Cardstock	Delicate Ornament Thinlits Dies
Red Glimmer Paper

I've had a few blog-free days this week - so much going on with the end of the school term and Christmas preparations, blogging has had to take a bit of a back seat - however today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary so I'm back with it and this week we have a great colour combination for you:

My card this week is all about the reindeer - take a look:

I decided to make a feature of the reindeer antler paper and vellum from the Winter Wonderland designer series paper, with a little gold glimmer paper, a few gold sequins, corded trim and one of my favourite reindeer paper clips to finish off my little layered tag. A little bit of layering but still easy enough to make for those last minute Christmas cards and a great way to use up that rather tricky heavily patterned paper.

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! Due to the Christmas festivities, this challenge will run for two weeks instead of one, so lots of time for to squeeze in an entry!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

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 December 99Y3W6CF 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 - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

And Many More Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Brights Sequin Assortment

Cherry On Top Cotton Paper Assortment

Pretty Petals Designer Series Paper Stack

A fun stamp set and lots of colour today! 

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

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! This week it is the turn of my good friend LeAnne to host and she has the following colour palette to get our creative juices flowing this week:

This is a special week for us as we say goodbye to our guest designers Jodi, Amy and Lisa. We are grateful that these lovely ladies have shared their considerable talent and creativity with us for the last 6 months and we wish them well on their respective journeys. We will miss you!

For my card this week I was inspired to use yet more of the lovely Home For Christmas paper and designed my card all around the holly. I also used the sketch over at The Global Design Project for my layout:

Really simple, allowing the holly patterned paper to do all the hard work on this one. The sentiment is from 'Oh What Fun' and the sentiment piece cut using the Tags and Labels Framelits. I added some Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon and highlighted the berries on my holly with pearls coloured with my retired Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities. I also created a second version of this card whilst I had everything out on my desk, using the same sketch but this time using the similar but slightly different colour palette over at Paper Pals Arts this week:

I used gold foil to make my sentiment banner stand out and fussy cut some holly from the dsp in place of the stamped sentiment and also added a flatter, more post-friendly bow with a scrap of ribbon I found in my stash:

Here's a close up of the label detail:

I really like how the gold gives a different effect.

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 this colour combination this week. We are hoping to put our Christmas tree up today - it's time to really get our Christmas preparations underway!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Home For Christmas Designer Series Paper	Oh, What Fun Photopolymer Stamp Set	Big Shot	Tags & Labels Framelits Dies	Pearl Basic Jewels
Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock	Gold Foil Sheets	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Cherry Cobbler A4 Cardstock

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

I'm still making Christmas cards and wanted something quick and easy that packed a punch, so I decided to go with the only piece of Holiday Fancy Foil Vellum I haven't used - the Christmas trees - and the 'Your Presents' stamp set:

I layered my vellum over a base of Mint Macaron, then added a panel of Whisper White edged in silver glimmer paper with my popped up presents, stamped in Real Red and decorated with either the 1/8" striped ribbon or a bow from the Mini Treat Bag Thinlits. I stamped my sentiment from the same set, punched this out with a 1 3/4" circle punch and popped it up on a dimensional so that it balanced out the gifts.

Do visit the other Design Team members to see how they interpreted 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:

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 December 99Y3W6CF 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 - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

Crushed Curry Baker's Twine

For The New Two Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Precision Base Plate

Stamp A Bag Photopolymer Stamp Set

The deal of the week this week has to be the Precision Base Plate - essential for all Big Shot users to get the best cut on those intricate dies and thinlits and reduced to only £16.50 for one week only -  the perfect Christmas present for the seasoned crafter. 

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