I've had a lovely crafty morning earlier but am later with my blog post as I've been at a basket ball tournament this afternoon with the youngest James Junior (his school club team were tournament winners - woohoo!) and then since we have a rare swim-free Saturday, the children are sleeping over at Grannies and the DH and I treated ourselves to dinner and a movie - Pitch Perfect 2 (aka-awesome - every bit as good as the first one!) All in all a great day, but since what you're really here for is my card let's get to it! Today I used this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch as my inspiration:

I needed a birthday card for a 10 year old girlfriend of Rebecca's and decided that this sketch would be perfect for what I had in mind - here's my card:

I started out with my Simply Created Hooray It's Your Day Card Kit and co-ordinating stamp set, and whilst I used the stamp set and embellishment and took my ideas from the kit, I really wanted something altogether more pink so chose a combination of Strawberry Slush and Pink Pirouette for my card and sponged onto a piece of Sale-A-Bration Irresistibly Yours Designer Series Paper for my background. I did interpret the sketch somewhat loosely, but you can see the main elements: the glimmer strip in the background, the speech bubbles (I am so going to miss these retiring framelits!) for the panel and the wooden 'hello' embellishment as my main focal point, although I did also add an Itty Bitty Accents punched flower and a glimmer butterfly to balance it out and add to the girly feel. I also added a Tip Top Taupe speech bubble to break up the pink a little - this colour goes so well with Pink Pirouette!

I hope you like today's birthday card; come back tomorrow to see what fun we have in store for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players - there will be more sneak peeks, so you won't want to miss it! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hooray It's Your Day Card Kit	Pink Pirouette Classic Stampin' Pad	Pink Pirouette A4 Card Stock	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack
Silver Glimmer Paper

Yay it's Friday! I really don't know where this week has gone! I started the week on such good form, yet seem to have achieved steadily less and less as the week has flown by! No matter - we have a Bank Holiday weekend to look forward to here in the UK so I'm hoping it will stay nice enough to enable me to get outside and potter in my garden and fit in a little crafty time too!

As promised, I'm back with more sneak peeks for you today and not one, but two cards. Here's the first one using this week's sketch over at Retrosketches:

I decided to get out one of my pre-order stamp sets, 'Sprinkles of Life', this year's charity stamp set benefiting the Ronald McDonald House Charity, for my card:

This card is an absolute cornucopia of new product: new in-colour inks Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, Mint Macaron and Tip Top Taupe, new in-colour cardstock in Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush and Mint Macaron, Cherry on Top DSP stack, some Watermelon Wonder dotted lace trim and of course the Sprinkles of Life stamp set and the co-ordinating Tree Builder punch. I interpreted the stacking cups in the sketch as a very over-the-top ice cream cone with 3 scoops and finished it with a cherry punched from my Build A Cupcake punch that I paper-pieced and covered in Crystal Effects to give a lovely shiny finish. I just love these new bright in colours! 

This stamp is oh-so-versatile with so many possibilities - my second card today uses the same stamp set for a totally different look, and is combined with some sponged sunshine using the mask from my 'Simply Created Hooray It's Your Day' card kit:

This time my ice cream is a cloud, complete with heat-embossed silver lining, and the perfect co-ordinating sentiment. How clever is that? This stamp set really is so versatile.

I'm linking this CAS card up with the lovely ladies over at Less Is More where the theme for this week's challenge is 'Hello Sunshine' - I missed linking up my water-themed card last week so am glad I've made it in with the sunshine today. 

Here's looking forward to an equally warm and sunny weekend. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

As detailed above

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

I also have a sneak peek for you today as I made my card with a new set from the 2015-16 Annual Catalogue called 'You've Got This' - take a look:

This gorgeous stamp comes in two parts with a very useful hatched pattern background stamp that I stamped in Soft Sky on my Soft Sky panel, a few sentiments and beautiful large flower bloom. I stamped my flower in Versamark on vellum and heat embossed it in silver then I coloured the stem with Smoky Slate and the petals with Blackberry Bliss ink and used a blender pen to achieve the detail. I then fussy cut my flower and adhered it to my card front using glue dots, allowing the edges to lift away from the card. The sentiment was also heat embossed in silver directly to the card front and I finished my card with a piece of Soft Sky seam binding ribbon tied in a bow. 

I just love this flower stamp and know that this is one I will be getting lots of use out of, so you can definitely expect to see more of it. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with this colour combination this week - do check out how the other designers have used this colour combination too, as there are some great and varied cards to inspire you. 

I'm also linking today's card up with this week's challenge over at Can You Case It? where their theme is 'May Flowers' - I think my card certainly qualifies as one of those!

I'll be back tomorrow with another sneak peek project, so stay tuned for that. Unitl then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

I am starting this week with a quick post to share a card that I made with my ladies at one of my recent Stamp-A-Stack classes which was all about punch art and fits perfectly not only for the colours but also the inspiration photo over at The Color Throwdown this week:

I had been wanting to make an 'Up!' style card for a while and had seen lots of versions on Pinterest - here's my take with the card I made with my ladies:

Quite simple, but it needed to be as everyone was making a few each - Stamp-A-Stack is all about creating lots of cards in a - relatively! - short time.

The base is a piece of Soft Sky, onto which I adhered a few Whisper White clouds and stamped a few straight lines using the balloon string from the 'Celebrate Today' stamp set. We then stamped the house from the now retired Sale-A-Bration set in Memento Black onto Crumb Cake and punched it out with the retiring 'What's Up?' arrow punch and popped it on a dimensional at the base of the strings. The cluster of balloons is a carefully layered group of balloons made with the small oval punch and a foot from the Owl Builder punch. The sentiment is taken from the also retired winter seasonal set 'Holiday Home'. These bright primary colours are perfect for this card and so remind me of the scene where the house takes off in the Disney movie 'Up!'; I'm a big Disney fan and this movie holds special memories as it was the movie I watched with my daughter the first time we visited the cinema.

That's not quite all from me today - I have a second post which is my-fill in post from Saturday when I was at the Stampin' Up! UK Regional training event in Telford, so scroll back to read that one if you want to hear about the fun I had! 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Owl Punch	What's Up Punch	Cupcake Punch	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Pacific Point A4 Card Stock
Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Celebrate Today Photopolymer Stamp Set

It's Sunday and time for another challenge over at The Paper Players! There was some great inspiration using LeAnne's colour palette last week and this week it is the turn of the lovely Jaydee, who has a great CAS-themed challenge to get us creating this week:

Girly thanks - I immediately thought 'flowers' for this one and wanted to use some of the lovely 'Gold Soiree' specialty DSP. It's rather busy for a clean-and-simple card though, so I toned it down with a vellum overlay - take a look:

I matted a piece of DSP on some Garden Green with a base of Pistachio Pudding, then on a piece of vellum stamped my thank you sentiment from the 'Big on You' stamp set in Calypso Coral and Garden Green inks and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder to give it a lovely textured shine (although this is difficult to see in the photograph). I wrapped the vellum with a piece of Pistachio Pudding thick baker's twine and finished with single Calypso Coral flower stamped in the same colour using the 'Flower Shoppe' stamp set and punched out with the co-ordinating Pansy punch (the Garden Green leaves were a couple of wings punched with the Bird Punch) and a cluster of pearls. Here's a close-up of the flower, which echoes the pattern on the paper beneath the vellum overlay:

I then adhered the vellum overlay to the base using dimensionals, attached behind the flower and the stamped sentiment, so that they aren't visible on the top layer. I love these big, bold sentiment stamps and the floral DSP - both of which will be retiring at the end of the month, so if they're on your wishlist you should snap them up now before it's too late!

So that's my clean and simple floral thanks today - I'm also linking my card up over at SUO Challenges, where the current theme is 'fun flowers'. Before you reach for your inks and thank you stamps, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

I look forward to seeing your CAS creations this week. I'm looking forward to a quiet family day today as I recover from the yesterday's Stampin' Up! UK Regional Event.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Big On You Photopolymer Stamp Set	Embossing Buddy	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder	Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper
Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad	Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Garden Green A4 Card Stock	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad	Bird Punch
Pansy Punch	White Vellum A4 Card Stock	Flower Shop	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents

Today I've been at a Stampin' Up! UK regional training event in Telford. These events are both exhilarating and exhausting at the same time! It's a great opportunity to get together with team members, other SU! demos and the Stampin' Up! UK and European Home Office teams, to see lots of new and exciting product and swap work with others as a means of creative inspiration. I love creating swaps for this type of event although they can be time-consuming and always seem to create something rather too elaborate for mass production, hence no post yesterday and a late one today. I made a card for this week's challenges over at The Paper Craft Crew and Colour Me! and then based my swap on this as it features a stamp that is new to us here in the UK so is an annual catalogue 'sneak peek', although if you are a USA reader this set will be familiar to you as it has been available as a photopolymer set for some time: Endless Birthday Wishes.

So here is my original challenge card:  

I stamped the sprinkles stamp on my base of Melon Mambo and used the challenge colours to create my own custom happy birthday DSP which I used for the right hand panel - thank heavens for photopolymer stamps, they made lining up a doddle! I then stamped the cake in Memento Black on Whisper White and coloured with my retired Blendabilities, before mounting on a starburst cut with the retiring Starburst framelits - still available and a bargain at only £11.48 for the set! I added a few sequins for sparkle and to tie in my gold button, and then added a strip with a few DSP banners and the second part of my sentiment (the stamp has these words side by side, so I stamped it in two separate goes, so that the words sat on top of each other and fitted my banner better). 

I liked this card so much I created a (only slightly!) simpler version as my swap for the Stampin' Up! regional event. Here it is in the same colours:

The background and DSP panel was the same, however to save on colouring I stamped the cake in a single colour and mounted on a combination of a 2" circle, 2 3/8" scallped circle and 2 1/2" circle instead and I left off the button and twine. I also created it in three other colour combinations, but totally forgot to take photos of the whole pile when finished! I do however have this 'work in progress' shot of the chaos on my office desk last week:

Well, organised chaos! Here are the other colour combinations: Tangerine Tango and Tempting Turquoise (top left), Calypso Coral and Bermuda Bay (bottom left) and Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant (bottom right).

Thanks to everyone who swapped with me - I have some lovely samples that I'm looking forward to sharing with my customers. Also, before I go here's another quick photo of some of my downline and team members who I was lucky enough to spend the day with:

Even the camera-shy Samantha doesn't look to cross to have been snapped in this one :-) Love you ladies!

I'm looking forward to sharing lots more of the new and fun things that we got to see and create with at our training in the coming weeks; only a couple more weeks until the new 2015 Stampin' Up! annual catalogue launches!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (challenge card):

Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad	Melon Mambo A4 Card Stock	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Pear Pizzazz	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Starburst Framelits Dies	Old Olive Baker's Twine
Gold Sequin Trim	Gold Basic Metal Buttons	Banner Punch

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (swap card):

Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad	Melon Mambo A4 Card Stock	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Pear Pizzazz	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Banner Punch	2-3/8 Inch Scallop Circle Punch	2" Circle Punch	2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie And Mary and this week we have a sketch challenge for you - my favourite!

This is a great card for using up scraps of DSP so I set to work with my Birthday Bash Speciality DSP and Birthday Bash Stamp set to create today's card:

I let the DSP drive the colour scheme for my card so used a Crushed Curry base with a panel of Night Of Navy down the left hand side, which I then overlaid with four co-ordinating rectangles of patterned paper. I then added a piece of Night of Navy seam binding ribbon to cover the join and for my focal point stamped the candles from the 'light 'em up' stamp in the Birthday Bash set in navy on Whisper White, having masked off the words first. I coloured this with my Calypso Coral, Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry Stampin' Write markers and layered this circle onto another of Night of Navy and two scalloped circles, one each in Bermuda Bay and Calypso Coral. I also punched the candle flames out of Tangerine Tango using my owl builder punch - a small touch, but looks so much better than navy ones! To finish, I stamped the sentiment, this time masking off the candles, in navy in the right hand corner.

I made this card with the ladies in my Stamp-A-Stack class last week and they loved it, so I hope you like it too. Don't forget if 'Birthday Bash' is on your wishlist, it will be retiring on 2nd June so don't leave it too late to place your order. 

That's all from me today - I look forward to seeing your takes on this week's sketch in the gallery. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

I have a super quick post for you today to share a super-quick card that I've been trying to find the opportunity to blog for a while now that fits in perfectly with the current challenge over at Fab Friday, where the designers want us to use any or all of the retiring 2013-15 in-colours:

I like to make a little thank you card and co-ordinating bag tag for my local customers to hand out with their orders and in March I decided to feature the in-colours to remind them of their forthcoming retirement and to stock up on re-inkers, cardstock and so on before the retiring list launched. Here is my card:

Quite self-explanatory - I used a bunch of the Stampin' Up! notelets and envelopes and used one of the 2015 Sale-A-Bration promotional stamps 'For Being You' across the centre of my card stamped in Momento Black, then went across the letters and highlighted each one with a fun splodge of Gorgeous Grunge in each of the in-colours and starting and finishing with the same one on each card. I then added a piece of co-ordinating thick baker's twine and tied in a bow - job done! A little extra stamping on the envelopes, and then a bag tag to match, this time stamped with the heart stamp from the thank you set 'For Being You' as the background:

A super - quick and easy card and tag to reproduce, just what you need for mass stamping and a perfect reminder to my customers to order their retiring in-colour supplies before it was too late.  It also illustrates another way to combine stamps to great effect; one of my customers in particular loved the 'For Being You' stamp set, yet she isn't into colouring with marker pens at all and so had been asking me for other suggestions as to how she could use her stamp. Along with paper-piecing, watercolouring or embossing, combining stamps is another great way to introduce colour without resorting to colouring in with pens.

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with this week's card for the new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary. Until then, happy stampin'! 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

All now retired, except for the notelets and envelopes!

I've had a busy couple of days with this month's classes (hence no blog post yesterday - I'm sorry about that!) so today I thought I would share with you one of the cards we made. This month's technique class has focused on using background stamps and our chosen feature stamp set was the lovely 'Something Lacy'. The class also featured heat embossing and this card shows how coloured embossing powder adds a real touch of luxury to a card:

For our Blushing Bride monochromatic wedding card, we stamped the Something Lacy background stamp in Versamark and heat embossed with Blushing Bride embossing powder. This panel was wrapped with some White satin ribbon before adhering the Blushing Bridge cardstock base. A couple of layered labels cut with the Big Shot and Labels framelits were then added, with the sentiment chosen from the now retired 2015 Sale-A-Bration set 'Simply Wonderful', which was also heat embossed. A few pearls and punched flowers, along with a big bow, finish my card. This card has a lovely sheen in real life that really isn't captured in the photograph and the monochromatic colour scheme is so very pretty.

The 'Something Lacy' background stamp is available until the end of the current seasonal catalogue on the 2nd June and isn't carrying over into the annual catalogue, so if it's on your wish list, you only have a couple of weeks left to purchase. The Labels Framelits are retiring and have already sold out, however Blushing Bride embossing powder is still in stock and half price, so there's still time to snap up a bargain!

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with another project and this week's Wednesday Weekly Deals. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Something Lacy Clear Stamp	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Heat Tool - Uk Plug
Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Blushing Bride Stampin' Emboss Powder	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents	Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride

It's Sunday - my favourite day of the week and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players. I loved the variety of the transportation-themed cards in the gallery last week. This week, the lovely LeAnne has an interesting colour challenge for you to play along with: 

I'm also playing along with the TGIF Challenge this week as I've used their sketch as the inspiration for my layout this week. So I deliberately used the word 'interesting' for LeAnne's choice of colours this week - this colour combo had me stumped for a good long while! Then I remembered the piece of Lost Lagoon and Pistachio Pudding patterned DSP in the All Abloom paper stack; I think it's the only piece I've never used (and I've been through a few packs!) as I prefer the pattern on the reverse,so I decided to challenge myself to see if I could make it work on today's card. Here is my finished card:

I used Sahara Sand for my base and a mat of Lost Lagoon, then went all out and covered the entire card front with my DSP. This is such a busy pattern, I knew I would have to be careful what else I used on my card to avoid it looking too busy. For my focal point, I chose to stamp one of the silhouette flower stamps in Pistachio Pudding on a circle in the same colour - the paper pattern reminded me of this set - and stamp the sentiment over the top in Lost Lagoon. I mounted this on a slightly larger circle of Lost Lagoon and then a piece of Sahara Sand cut with my Big Shot and a Deco Label framelit. I mounted this on a banner of Sahara Sand that I added a little lace trim to in the same colour - something for a little texture and interest, but not wanting to clash with the strong pattern. Lastly, I added a piece of Lost Lagoon ribbon that I ruched across the front of the card. 

This isn't my usual type of card, but I quite like it. The Sahara Sand does a great job of toning down the pattern and also meant I didn't use any Whisper White cardstock at all, which is quite unusual, not even for my sentiment panel. The thing that pleases me most though - I actually managed to use the sheet of patterned paper effectively!

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

I look forward to seeing how you interpret this week's colour palette. I'm off to finish the preparation for my technique classes this week and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

World Of Dreams Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Banners Framelits Dies	Deco Labels Collection Framelits Dies	Big Shot Magnetic Platform
Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad	Lost Lagoon A4 Cardstock	Lost Lagoon 3/8" Satin Stitched Ribbon
Sahara Sand 7/8" (2.2 Cm) Lace Trim