Today I have something special to share with you! As my regular readers know, I  live in a house of Lego! Well, not literally, but Lego is a big part of our family life - we have a massive brick collection and I have a 6 year old whose ambition it is to be a master builder someday. Either that, or a brain surgeon so that he can earn enough money to fund his ever-expanding Lego collection! Last week was half-term here which neatly coincided with the release of the first ever Lego Movie - a set built entirely from Lego that tells the story of the 'ordinary' builder Emmet who is mistaken for the chosen Master Builder and whose destiny is to prevent the world of Lego being glued together by the evil Mr Business. Of course the first of our half-term excursions was to the cinema to watch the new movie and Ben at least was not disappointed - he sat 'glued' to the screen throughout.

I decided to create another Lego punch art card to celebrate the release of the new movie and add to my collection (you can see some of my previous Lego punch art here). Here is my card:

Whilst Emmet is possibly the most ordinary of the characters, my card had to incorporate him as he is central to the movie. I used this week's layout over at The Paper Craft Crew PCCCS081 for my card and split Emmet's catchphrase in the movie, 'Eveything is awesome' across both the banner and the word bubble. I printed the 'Everything is' on my computer and matched up the colour to print it in Pacific Point, then stamped the 'awesome' by partially inking one of the stamps in the 'Yippee Skippee' stamp set. I used lots of different punches to create my minifigure and drew on some of the detail by hand with either my Stampin' Write black marker or my white gel pen and used a piece of pacific Point Brights DSP to add colour to the background without overwhelming the focal point.

I love creating this kind of card, although they really do take an age to make - a real labour of love. It was all worthwhile though when Ben took one look at the finished card and declared it "Awesome!" and promptly burst into Emmet's 'Everything is Awesome!' song from the movie.

Back tomorrow with something a little more traditional; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Good evening blog readers! I managed to grab a few hours this afternoon to catch up on some crafting (a reward to myself for getting some of my admin out of the way this morning!) and I made a card using both this week's 'tall and skinny' Mojo Monday sketch and the colours over at Colour Q:

I don't often make 'tall and skinny' cards and historically was always put off by not having the correct sized envelope, but now I have my Envelope Punch Board, irregular envelope sizes don't phase me at all! As for the Colour Q challenge, well you may remember when I made this card a few weeks ago that I confessed I had two ink pads in my stash that I had owned for more than 12 months and never broke the cellophane wrapper on; one of them was Garden Green, that I used on the previous card; the other - Always Artichoke. So when I saw this colour challenge, I just had to have a go! Now Peach Parfait and Apricot Appeal are retired SU colours; I did have an old inkpad and some Peach Parfait cardstock, which I've used, but no Apricot Appeal, so I substituted with Pumpkin Pie instead. Here is my card:

I followed the background layering of the sketch with solid colour cardstock and overlaid with a slim panel of Pumpkin Pie Brights DSP. Instead of a circle as my focal point, I decided to use a tag punched with my Scalloped Tag Topper Punch. I cut my cardstock slightly wider than the 2" groove in order that it could accommodate my corner flower stamp from the 'You're So Grateful' stamp set. I stamped the image in black Stazon  and used my Aquapainter to colour in the design. When the image had dried, I went around the inside edge of the image with the co-ordinating colour marker pen to give it added definition. I have one small confession, which is that I used a small piece of Old Olive ribbon to finish off my tag as it was the closest match I had to Always Artichoke. And finally - I made a co-ordinating envelope!

Hope you like today's card; I'll be back tomorrow with a very special punch art creation, so do check back to see what I've made. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

One last quick post from me today - call it an early post for tomorrow! I saw the current sketch over at Retrosketches and was really keen to have a go as I managed to squeeze in a little extra crafting time this afternoon, so thought I would combine it with the challenge over at Addicted to CAS this week:

Now I don't have a current coffee stamp, but I do have a cute little stamp that was part of one of last year's Sale-A-Bration sets that I knew would fit the bill. Here is my card: 

I used coffee as the inspiration for my colour scheme too, with my base card of Early Espresso picked up in the co-ordinating baker's twine. I coloured my coffee cup in red to give a pop of colour and embossed my card base with the Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder to add texture and interest.

That's all from me; I'm off to catch up on a little late night TV. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

So here is my second card of the day, just in time for this week's challenge over at Less is More where the theme this week is 'masculine cards'. I decided to use the 'Cool Kid' stamp set for my card; when I saw this stamp set I just had to have it - my children always get so excited if they have been chosen as the class 'cool kid' for the day at school. So here is my card:

I chose to use the Brights colour combination of Real Red, Tempting Turquoise and Tangerine Tango for my card - all colours my son would love! - and having stamped the dog in orange, I coloured in his scarf and boots with my Stampin' Write markers. I used the blue to outline both my circle and sentiment panel, then picked up the orange with a thin strip cut from a piece of cardstock embossed with the new Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. I inked up the sentiment using my markers too, so that I could have multi-coloured lettering - I love the effect that this give on this card.

I used this week's sketch over at Create with Connie and Mary for my layout.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

I've had a very crafty day today and managed to make a few quick cards to catch up on some of this week's challenges. I'm just in time to get in my entry for this week's challenge at The Paper Players, where LeAnne's challenge this week is CAS Clean and Simple with Stars:

I decided to go with a gold and blue theme and used the sketch over at CAS Colours & Sketches this week for my layout (too late to enter for the challenge, but I liked the unusual layout) - here is my card:

I stamped my stars with the gold metallic ink pad, then heat-embossed the 'Congratulations' stamp from the Ronald McDonald set on gold and set this on a mat of gold foil so that it really stood out. I cut out the label using the co-ordinating framelit and cut the foil mat freehand, using the outside edge of the framelit as a guide. This card will be on it's way to one of my team members - two of them have recently gained promotions, so along with a new team member this week, there's plenty to celebrate!

Back soon with another of my 'makes' today; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Good evening blog readers! My busy days continue as this week the James juniors are off school as it's half term. Today has been a day of piano and singing practice, book reading and review writing, nail painting and telling the time problems, with a little basketball and a couple of baskets of ironing thrown in! Crafting time is in short supply this week, so today I'm sharing with you a stepped up version of a card that we made in my Sale-A-Bration card class this month. This card was a CASE of this one by Mary Fish, although I tweaked a few things, primarily the colour scheme as I wanted to use the Pistachio Pudding DSP from the Sale-A-Bration set. Here is my card:

I stamped the image twice, once on Whisper White for the label, which I cut out using the Big Shot and Deco label Framelits and once on Summer Starfruit, which is the piece that I used to cut the flowers from. I paper-pieced all four of the flowers on this card and coloured the leaves and stems with a Pistachio Pudding marker, then finished with a few pearls. I think this would make quite a nice Easter card too, with an alternative sentiment.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Today I've had the most fun day. I was privileged to be invited to run a Crafty Owl birthday party for a 10 year old and her classmates, which was great fun. We made some wall art and they had a fun time punching shapes and using the Big Shot to create their masterpieces. When I run a craft party, I always create a punch art kit for the party bags so that the children can continue the crafty fun at home. For today's party, the birthday girl loves horses so I knew that a pony needed to feature on my card. I had a quick surf on Pinterest for some general inspiration then set to work creating my card. This is what I came up with:

I used a variety of punches to create my card (see full list below) and some Core d'inations cardstock embossed with the woodgrain embossing folder to give texture to my stable door. I've always loved grey horses so made my card with a grey pony, but since my eight year-old informed me that this made it look like a donkey, the kits I made for the party girls all had brown horses to remove any doubt!

The girls loved their kits and I'm sure they will have had as much fun completing them as they did at the party itself. I'm linking today's card up with the challenge over at SUO Challenges where the theme this week is 'Punch Art', so this card fits perfectly.

I ended my day with a trip to the cinema to see the new Lego Movie; it was a great children's movie for half term and fulfilled one of Ben's main aims for the week, so all in all a good day was had by all.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

I've had the busiest of days today, dominated by last minute preparations for the wedding fair I am exhibiting at tomorrow, so today I've just got time for a quick post to share with you something I made with another of the items you can receive free with a £45 spend during Sale-A-Bration.

There are two My Digital Studio digital ensembles available as part of this year's Sale-A-bration free gift offering - one of them is the 'Hooray for Parties' set, which includes some great designer templates for invitations, thank yous, treat holders and much more. Here's a party invitation I made with it using the basic layout:

This is a great package if you need to make lots of invitations or party bits and pieces and have limited time - you only need to design once, then can just print out as few or as many as you need. And it can be yours free with a spend of £45 or more during Sale-A-Bration before 31st March.

Another busy day ahead tomorrow; if you're local to me and a bride-to-be, do pop in to the Budget Bride Live Wedding Fair at Diana's in Wellingborough - I'll be there talking to brides about how they can make the wedding stationery of their dreams using Stampin' Up! products and I would love to see you too.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Good morning everyone! Today's blog post could have been titled so many things: 'Yay it's Valentine's Day!', 'Yay it's Friday!', 'Yay it's stopped raining!' - I could go on, but instead I went with 'Yay for Retro Fresh!' as the Retro Fresh DSP is definitely the star of this card. I have used the sketch layout over at Create with Connie and Mary for week 3 of the Spring 2014 Challenge for my card (I love a good sketch challenge!).

I decided to go with a congratulations card, as I seem to be using a lot of these for different things lately and inspired by the DT samples this week I went against my natural instinct and challenged myself to see just how many different designs of Retro Fresh DSP I could use on one card without overwhelming the focal point. Here's my card - can you spot them all? 

I used four in total, which might not sound like much, but for me that's unusual. Funny thing is, like all of Stampin' Up!'s designer series papers, the Retro Fresh patterns all work really well together, so it works. I decided to keep my focal point sentiment bold and clean, then used striped paper for my banners, broken up with a flag of 'homemade' DSP using Tangerine Tango cardstock randomly stamped with the star from the Banner Blast stamp set. I cut the banners using the new Banners Framelits dies - these are great for perfect banners in a jiffy. I used a thin strip of the arrow paper to draw the eye to the focal sentiment and edged this with some stretch ruffle trim to echo the scalloped circle, then lastly used a light pattern for my base layer. I considered leaving it plain, either just above the horizontal strip or both above and below it, but it was just too bland, so I added yet another pattern to the mix.

So there you have it - yay for Retro Fresh! Sometimes it pays to be a bit more adventurous with your patterned papers and not be afraid of using more than one at a time. Don't forget to hop on over to Create with Connie and Mary to see what everyone else has done with this sketch.

As it is Valentine's Day today, I shouldn't let it pass without a mention; I received the cutest card this morning from the number one man in my life - I'm sharing a picture on my Facebook page, so pop over if you'd like to see and share some love today!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Coastal Cabana 3/8" Ruffle Stretch Trim	Circle card Thinlits Die	Banners Framelits Dies	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform
Retro Fresh Designer Series Paper	Card Stock A4 Baked Brown Sugar	Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock

So I didn't quite manage to squeeze in another 'make' for you yesterday, but I'm here bright and breezy (or should that be windswept, given the gales we've had here for the last day or so!) this morning with today's card. Given my recent dalliances with the colour black, I thought I would try something different using black cardstock and one of my most favourite stamps - yes, the Flowerfull Heart (still available to order until Friday if you'd like one - click on the link to my online shop below!) Here is my card:

Now, I know you might be thinking "Anniversary card - on black??!" but hear me out! I wanted to use this stamp again with some heat embossing; I toyed with gold (well, it worked pretty well on this card I think) but eventually decided to use Pool Party embossing powder. My colour combination was inspired by one of the DSP patterns in the Sweet Sorbet pack that is available as one of the free Sale-A-Bration gifts currently when you spend £45 or more - the little blue Pool Party flowers with black centres. I would not necessarily have thought about using these colours together had it not been for this paper. A simple sentiment from the 'Express Yourself' hostess set (such a versatile set of greetings in a very usable font, it can be yours when you host a Stampin' Up! party - contact me to book yours) finishes this simple card.

So what do you think - a colour combination that works or one to be avoided, especially on a romantic card? I'd love to know what you think. I'm also linking this card up with the 'One Layer Card - Anything Goes' challenge over at Less is More this week (currently the only card using black for it's 'white space' - should I be worried?!) and CAS(E) This Sketch as my card uses their sketch again:

Funny how you can use the same two starting points, yet end up with two cards that couldn't be more different. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Flowerfull Heart Wood-Mount Stamp	Pool Party Stampin' Emboss Powder	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig
Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Envelope Punch Board	Heat Tool - Uk Plug