Today I'm sharing a card that I made for this week's challenge over at Less is More that is full of sneak peeks from the new seasonal Autumn-Winter catalogue that is launching at the end of the month. This week it's a one layer challenge with the focus on foliage; the minute I saw the theme, I knew exactly what I wanted to create. Here is my card:

I have used the new Wondrous Wreath set for my card today. This set comprises layered elements to create a beautiful Christmas wreath and also comes with a set of co-ordinating framelits, that make light work or cutting out. It's a photopolymer set too, which makes for incredibly easy alignment of the images - no stamp-a-ma-jig required! For today's card though I used the stamps alone - they are also great for a one layer card. I stamped the base wreath in Pear Pizzazz, then stamped the second section in Old Olive. I then stamped the berries and bow in Versamark and heat embossed with Cherry Cobbler embossing powder to leave a lovely sheen. Lastly, I added the sentiment from the same set in Cherry Cobbler ink.

The seasonal catalogue is choc-full of amazing products, but I think this may turn out to be my favourite of the Christmas sets due to its sheer versatility. If you like the look of this set, you only have another 16 days to wait until the new catalogue launches.

Following yesterday's fun day of Lego building, a trip to the cinema and birthday cake, today I'm partying of a different kind - I'm demonstrating at a Stampin' Up! party this afternoon. Wish me luck! Back tomorrow with this week's Design Team card for the Colour Me...! card challenge. until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

*Wonderous Wreath - available 28th August

Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad	Embossing Buddy
Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Versamark Pad	Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Emboss Powder

It's Monday and today I have a special card for a special day - today my youngest James Junior turns 7! I can't quite believe it - some days I'm not sure where the last 7 years have gone. So today I'm sharing a birthday card I made for Ben to celebrate his special day. I used this week's sketch over at the Paper Craft Crew as my inspiration: 

My card is slightly larger than usual - A5, 21cm x 14.9cm - and features a fun shaker element along with my favourite Sea Street stamp set:

The shaker is made using the surround from the On Film framelit set and filled with fussy cut starfish, crabs, lobsters, gold sequins and some fish and anchors cut with my now retired Oh Whale! clearlit. I stamped the 'Hip Hip Hooray' onto the background before putting the shaker together and carried the sentiment on to the inside of the card:

We have a fun day planned today, including a visit to the cinema and maybe even a cycle ride on his new bicycle if the weather holds! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Sea Street Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Bravo Photopolymer Stamp Set	Fabulous Four Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Starburst Sayings	On Film Framelits Dies
Starburst Framelits Dies	3/4 Inch Circle Punch	Small Oval Punch	Banner Punch	Medium Window Sheets
Gold Sequin Trim	Gold Baker's Twine	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad	Tempting Turquoise Classic Stampin' Pad	Pacific Point A4 Card Stock	Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform

Yay - it's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! Today Nance has an interesting colour challenge for us:

Today I have an unusual card to share with you, in more ways than one! When I saw Nance's colour palette, I immediately thought of the Simply Created Banner Kit that I used for the decorations for Rebecca's recent birthday party; I knew I had a few offcuts and leftover pieces of DSP from the kit and that Calypso Coral, Blushing Bride and Basic Grey were 3 of the feature colours of the add-on kit, so using this week's sketch over at Create with Connie and Mary as my starting point (perfect for using up scraps!) I set to work. Here is my finished card:

Using Calypso Coral as my base, I layered a number of strips of DSP in varying widths/lengths across the front of my card, alternating between the Calypso Coral/Blushing Bride chevron pattern and the Basic Grey/Smoky Slate chevron pattern. I then embossed a strip of Blushing Bride cardstock with the Arrows Embossing Folder and cut one end to a point. I layered some Calypso Coral chevrons that I had cut out with one of the framelits from the Circle Thinlit card, then created a tag, again using a pre-printed leftover tag from the kit. I added some black chevron ribbon (a little bit of a liberty as far as the colour scheme is concerned, but the closest match I could get from my stash!) and tied it with some retired Calypso Coral baker's twine in a double bow. I finished my tag with a die cut 'thank' in Hello Honey, part of the 'thankful' framelit from the now retired Expressions Thinlits set (still available on the European Clearance Rack if you fancy snapping up a bargain!) and the YOU cut out of Basic Grey with my Big Shot and the new Perfect Print Alphabet Bigz die. lastly, I added an Essentials Hardware Clip to my tag before adhering it to my card with dimensionals.

I love the idea of collage cards but find them really difficult to create, so am quite pleased with the way this arrow-filled card turned out. Also, on completion I realised that I hadn't done any stamping at all on this card - how unusual is that??! For more inspiration from the Design Team and to see the fabulous cards they've made using this colour palette, pop on over to The Paper Players blog to see what they've created and to link up your own card.

Back tomorrow with a fun birthday card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Calypso Coral Celebration Add-On Kit	Celebration Basics Kit	Perfect Print Alphabet Bigz Die	Expressions Thinlits Dies	Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Hello Honey A4 Cardstock	Basic Gray A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride	Essentials Hardware Clips
Basic Black 3/4" Chevron Ribbon	Circle card Thinlits Die	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Stampin' Dimensionals

Yesterday we spent a fun day with friends and I was out in the evening, so didn't manage to squeeze in a blog post. However today I'm sharing two cards to make up for it! These are a couple of cards I made for Stampin' Up! using the Traveler stamp set that I demonstrated at the Stampin' Up! UK Regional Training Day in Telford at the end of May. The Traveler stamp set consists of a number of travel-themed sketch images and I created the cards that I'm sharing today to show that masculine cards don't always have to be dark or brown colours - take a look at the first one:

Both cards follow the same basic design: this one has a Marina Mist card base, with a Wild Wasabi panel stamped with the World Map stamp in the same colour, then the Very Vanilla tag is punched with the Angle Tag Topper Punch, stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Early Espresso embossing powder and the globe sponged with Marina Mist and Wild Wasabi. An early Espresso bker's twine double bow finished it off and it is adhered to the card with dimensionals. The final banner is cut from Marina Mist and stamped in Early Espresso and embellished with a tag left over from my Hip Hip Hooray Simply Created card kit.

I created exactly the same card, this time using a much brighter colour combination just to pep things up a bit:

This time I used a Pumpkin Pie card base, stamped the map in Cherry Cobbler and embossed the tag in Silver on Night of Navy, tied with some silver baker's twine and finished with an Essentials Hardware Clip. As we enter the season for exam results during the next couple of weeks, I think these cards would make great congratulations cards for someone who has passed and is about to embark on a new phase - be that further study, travel, a new job.

So, thoughts - which colour scheme do you prefer? Leave me a comment below - I'd love to know what you think.

Back tomorrow with my design team card for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players; unitl then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Traveler Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Really Good Greetings	World Map	Angled Tag Topper Punch	Marina Mist A4 Card Stock
Wild Wasabi A4 Card Stock	Marina Mist Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad
Early Espresso Baker's Twine	Embossing Buddy	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Stampin' Emboss Powder Early Espresso	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder
Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock	Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad
Silver Baker's Twine	Essentials Hardware Clips	Stampin' Dimensionals

Today I'm excited to share with you my first Flower Patch card! Now, this may not seem like a big event, but for someone who has had the stamp set for over a month whilst having to wait (not so) patiently for the matching framelit set, it is a big deal! I decided to make a card for the challenges over at 'Less is More' and Retrosketches, where the colour palette and sketch were perfect for what I had in mind:

Since the lovely Sarah over at 'Less Is More' is celebrating her birthday this week, I decided a birthday card should be the order of the day. Here's what I came up with: 

My card base is Coastal Cabana, which I matted with Whisper White and stamped my sentiment in Momento Black, then surrounded it with a trio of flowers in Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight and Bermuda Bay, cutting out one of these with my framelits and layering it to add depth and dimension. I finished with a few candy dots for the flower centres and a random one (just because!). The stamp set is photopolymer, which makes aligning everything so easy no need even for a stamp-a-ma-jig!

I liked my card so much, I decided to create another one with one of the other framelits in the set - I need a few extra birthday cards in my 'emergency' box - here is my slight variation on the card above:

These cards use surprisingly few supplies, yet I think they have real interest. This set has so much potential I am so glad that I can finally get creating with it - it my well replace Simple Stems from the Spring-Summer seasonal catalogue in my 'bold flower' affections! I'm also linking my card up over at SUO Challenges, where the theme this week is 'new toys' - well, I've certainly had fun playing with mine!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Flower Patch Photopolymer Bundle	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad
Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad
Brights Candy Dots

Happy Wednesday everybody! Today is a good day - the sun is shining again, my Autumn-Winter pre-order has arrived so I have lots of Halloween and Christmas goodies to play with, there's a new bunch of weekly deals (see earlier post here) and it's time for this week's Colour Me...! Challenge, where we have a monochromatic colour challenge this week using Pistachio Pudding and a neutral:

I thought this challenge would be trickier than it actually was. I used the latest sketch from the Deconstructed Sketch for my layout and inked up my new Kinda Eclectic stamp set which I have been keen to get working with - here's my card: 

For my card I used a base of Pistachio Pudding, then layered one of the die-cut pieces from the now retired Simply Sent card kit in last year's annual catalogue. I added some Pistachio Pudding polka dot paper from the All Abloom DSP stack, then stamped the sunburst from Kinda Eclectic in Pistachio Pudding onto Whisper White and cut out using my Big Shot and Circles Framelits and cut the bottom third off the circle. For the central banner, I stamped the spots in Pistachio Pudding on the cardstock of the same colour, then stamped my sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed in White embossing powder over the top to add additional dimension. Lastly, I replaced the flags in the sketch with the butterflies from Kinda Eclectic, stamped in Pistachio Pudding onto Whisper White cardstock and punched out using the co-ordinating punches. I think the key to a single colour card where you are using one single colour plus a neutral, and don't have then benefit of tonal shades of the same colour, is to add layers, patterns and shapes for extra interest. If you're based in the UK and Europe, the Pistachio Pudding ink pad is on this week's Wednesday Weekly Deals List too and can be yours for just £3.71 instead of the usual £4.95 this week, so if you needed an incentive to have a go at this week's challenge, this is it!

I look forward to seeing what you come up with in the gallery this week - meanwhile, check out what the other designers have in store for you over at Colour Me and our new featured guest designer for the month of August.

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Pistachio Pudding Classic Stampin' Pad	Kinda Eclectic Clear-Mount Stamp Set	All Abloom Designer Series Paper Stack	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Pistachio Pudding
Elegant Butterfly Punch	Bitty Butterfly Punch	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform
Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	White Stampin' Emboss Powder

Considering that today is Monday, I feel like I've lived half my week already! So a quick post from me to share one of the cards made in today's Blendabilties class.

We made a variety of cards with everyone using different colour pens so we ended up with a complete mix of finished pieces. This is one of the samples I made using the Daffodil Delight Blendabilities set - I think the yellows are my favourite! Here's my card:

All of the cards in this month's classes featured the Blended Bloom stamp and were quite simple in design, since the focus was on colouring the images and practising different blending techniques. For this card, we simply stamped the Blended Bloom flower onto an offset panel of Whisper White, coloured using Daffodil Delight and Skin tone (for the centre) Blendabilities and added the 'celebrate' sentiment from the Fabulous Four stamp set in Early Espresso and a taffeta ribbon bow in the same colour (this colour is now retired in this ribbon type but you could easily substitute with the new 1/4" cotton ribbon in the same colour). 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Blended Bloom Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Fabulous Four Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Skin Tone Assortment	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad
Stampin' Blendabilities™ Alcohol Marker Color Lifter	Early Espresso 1/4" Cotton Ribbon	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Whisper White A4 Card Stock

It's time for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players and Sandy has a theme challenge for us this week that's all about buttons:

You can use any kind of buttons - real, embossed, paper - so for my card I decided to take Sandy's theme quite literally and create a 'Cute as a button' card suitable for a baby girl and featuring a clay button made with Simply Pressed Clay in one of Stampin' Up!'s silicone moulds - here is my card:

I used a Pink Pirouette card base and matted my Whisper White panel with a piece of Strawberry Slush DSP from the In-Colour stack in the chevron design, although with just enough showing so that it looks like a simple diagonal to echo the lines of the text. On my white panel, I stamped 'cute as a <3' using the new Epic Alphabet set. This set is photopolymer, which makes aligning the letters accurately so easy - with no stamp-a-ma-jig required! I moulded my clay button in the Simply Pressed Clay Mould and allowed it to dry before colouring it with my Pink Pirouette Stampin' Write marker - you can colour your clay before you mould it with reinker or afterwards with ink/markers, it's really up to you. The colour differs slightly depending on the method; personally I like to mould my buttons and embellishments in uncoloured clay a few at a time, then keep the dried pieces in a box to be coloured as required depending on the project. Here's a close up of my button:

To finish, I pierced two holes in the button with my paper piercer and threaded some Strawberry Slush baker's twine through the holes and tied in a bow and added a scattering of In-Colour heart sequins.

I really love how my card turned out - but I couldn't stop there! I thought it would be fun to create a button gift box to go with it, using my Big Shot and Circles Framelits - here it is:

 I used Strawberry Slush cardstock and the second largest of the circle framelits for my box, which measure 9.3cm in diameter and 7cm tall. I lined my box with Pink Pirouette cardstock for rigidity and to allow for an edge-to-edge closure. This box is just big enough to fit in a cute onesie, some bibs or a pair of booties - here's a photo of the inside:

Lastly, I threaded some retired Pink Pirouette ribbon through the button holes and tied in a bow. So there you go - two cute as a button projects, I hope you'll agree! Do pop over to The Paper Players and see what the other talented designers have for you today and I very much hope you'll join us in creating something for this week's challenge.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Epic Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set	Strawberry Slush Classic Stampin' Pad	Strawberry Slush Thick Baker's Twine	Pink Pirouette A4 Card Stock	2013-2015 In Color Designer Series Paper Stack
Simply Pressed Clay	Buttons & Blossoms Simply Pressed Clay Molds	2013-2015 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	2013-2015 In Color Sequin Assortment	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Card Stock A4 Strawberry Slush	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine

Hello there - this card is for you all! I used the latest sketch at Create With Connie and Mary this week, as I liked the unusual layout:

I'm too late to link up with the challenge, but wanted to share the card with you as it is a little different for me - here's my card:

I'm not sure I've ever used so much Strawberry Slush on one card! I thought the All Abloom papers would be perfect for this kind of paper-piecing and I loved the way that Mary Brown used thick bakers twine across the joins on her design team card here so I decided to do the same on my card. I also added some of the retired ruffle trim in the same colour to edge the patterned panel. Lastly I finished with one of the sentiments from the 'Hello There' hostess set, having first inked the outline with Strawberry Slush and Mossy Meadow markers to frame it and added a simple twine bow.

I really like the combination of Strawberry Slush and Mossy Meadow on this card; the green seems to really balance the vibrancy of the pink, and along with the vanilla and Blushing Bride cardstock makes for a very feminine card, without being too 'pink'.

I hope you like today's card - I'm off to prepare a picnic for an afternoon at the park, do enjoy your day, however you choose to spend it.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hello There Clear-Mount Stamp Set	All Abloom Designer Series Paper Stack	Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad
Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock	Strawberry Slush Classic Stampin' Pad	Strawberry Slush Thick Baker's Twine	1-1/4 Inch Circle Punch	1-3/8 Inch Circle Punch

Good morning everyone - today I have my Design Team card for our challenge this week over at Colour Me...! where we are having a creative week where you get to choose your colour palette and which team you would like to play along with:

I am on 'Team Tara' this week so I'm working with Night of Navy, Soft Sky, Garden Green and a neutral (in my case, Whisper White). Here's my card:

I decided to use Soft Sky for my base and flowers, stamped and fussy-cut from the Summer Silhouettes stamp set, with Garden Green for the foliage and Night of Navy as my accent colour and for my statement 'hello' greeting - this is from the 'Hi There' stamp set - I think it's going to be a new favourite of mine. A smattering of pearls and a piece of retired grosgrain ribbon (you could substitute this with the new seam binding ribbon in the same colour) finish my card.

To see what the rest of the team have created in each of the colour schemes, stop by their blogs for inspiration and do play along with us at Colour Me this week!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Summer Silhouettes Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Hi There Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad
Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents