It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Bhavya is hosting for the month of April and it's time for her first sketch challenge of the month: 

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. For my card today I decided to grab my retiring 'What's Cookin'' stamp set and Cookin' Dies and create a simple card for the baker or would-be chef in your life - take a look:

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

I almost passed over the colours at Just Add Ink this week, when it occurred to me that they really reminded me of Cornishware pottery, with its distinctive blue or red and vanilla stripes, so I decided that a Cornishware-inspired mixing bowl, along with a little texture from my neutral chopping board and mixing spoon and a pop of red from a Cherry Cobbler sentiment and twine bow were just what I needed for today's clean and simple card. Check out the texture that the die gives the chopping board on the closeup below:

I also added a little additional decoration to the inside of my card - aren't those miniature chef hats just the cutest?!

I can't believe this set is on the retiring list this year; I had so many more plans for it and am really sad to see it leave the annual catalogue. I will definitely be holding on to mine - I love to spend time in the kitchen and I know I'll find many more uses for it. If you would like to be the proud owner of the What's Cookin' stamp set and co-ordinating Cookin' Dies, they will only be around for another couple of weeks, and even then only whilst stocks last, so do get your order in sooner rather than later! I'm also sharing today's card over at Less Is More where the theme this week is 'occupations'  - this set is perfect for chefs, bakers and kitchen enthusiasts! 

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 love to cook and my family suggest I'm quite good at it. Whilst out for lunch at the weekend, my son was tucking into his lasagne and when asked if everything was ok with his meal, he announced "It's good - but not as good as my Mum's!" I'm not sure there's anything you can reply to that; if only all problems could be solved with a homemade lasagne!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WHAT'S COOKIN' CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)	COOKIN' DIES (£27.00)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	MISTY MOONLIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MISTY MOONLIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	CHERRY COBBLER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
SAHARA SAND A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	SAHARA SAND CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

Today I'm sharing a card I made at the weekend that uses Jen M's great layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and also uses the current Color Hues combination of pink and green:

Jen's sketch has a lovely open panel that can be used in so many different ways. I decided it would be a great place to have one last hurrah with my Dandelions 3D embossing folder - take a look:

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

I simply embossed my dandelions on a panel of white cardstock and added Polished Pink to the seed heads and Pear Pizazz to the stems lightly with a blender brush for just a hint of colour to the raised elements. I added them to a base covered with a piece of Polished Pink In-Colour designer paper and added a simple heat embossed sentiment from 'Flowing Flowers' and a trio of iridescent rhinestones for some subtle sparkle:

I think this embossing folder is so pretty and a great way to make texture a feature on an otherwise clean and layered 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. 

Just a quick post from me today - I have a long 'to do' list that I'm trying to rattle through and a new annual catalogue pre-order that has just arrived that I want to get the opportunity to play with!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

I have an extra card today to share a card a special card I made for Rebecca and her hockey team mates to say goodbye to one of their members who is leaving at the end of the season to go to university. I thought the motley crew of animals in the retiring 'From All of Us' stamp set would be perfect for a team farewell - take a look:

I used a bright and fun unconventional colour scheme to colour my group of animals and fussy cut them and placed on the centre of a larger A5 card, over a simple scored panel of Coastal Cabana - I needed room for lots of messages inside! I added a 'good luck' message using a retired alphabet set either side of my colourful gang:

I added one other stamp to the inside to finish:

Cute, right?! This is a great stamp if you need a collective card from a group.

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 sharing this card over at SUO Challenges with the theme is 'animals and critters' and The Alphabet Challenge where their theme is 'A for Animal Antics' - I think my collective definitely look they could get up to some mischief!

I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Anne Marie to host this week and she has a bright colour challenge for us to work with:

I love Anne Marie's bright and sunny colours this week and ended up making a couple of cards. First up I used this week's layout over at Hand Stamped Sentiments and went with some florals, care of my Pierced Blooms Dies - take a look:

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

I diecut a trio of layered flowers and leaves and paired them with a piece of Daffodil Delight coloured Hand Penned designer series paper and used white as my neutral. A few polished pink gems add a touch of sparkle to the front of my card:

And a little extra stamping inside completes my card:

I wanted to try and use these colours on something other than flowers, so made a second card using the retiring 'Hippo Happiness' stamp set and co-ordinating Hippo & Friends Dies:

Some simple stamping and diecutting is all there is to it. The best part about this card is definitely the punny sentiment though - Hippo birthday...

... 2 ewe! Isn't that just so sweet?!

I used the sketch over at TGIF Challenges this week for the layout for this card and I am also linking up over at SUO Challenges where they are all about 'animals and critters' for their current challenge.

Two very different cards but I think both work with these colours. Which one do you prefer? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my Product and '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:

Enjoy your day; we have some chores to take care of and we are out to lunch - should be a good day! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (where still available): 

Happy Friday everyone - the end of the week is here! This also means I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a fun sketch challenge:

I paired our sketch full of horizontals with this week's Color Throwdown colours and set to work. Initially this sketch had me stumped; my 'go to' would normally be designer series paper but I just wasn't inspired (check out what some of my teamies did with DSP though - amazing!) I perused my catalogue and then happened upon a retiring die that I thought would make a pretty repeating design - take a look at what I came up with:

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

Do you recognise this die? Or actually dies, as it uses two? Both the stitched rectangle and the floral line are from the retiring Ornate Layers Dies. In addition to the fancy frames in this set, there are two pretty floral diecut elements too and this is one of them. What this card lacks in supplies - you need literally just a handful of items to recreate it - it more than makes up for in time: all of the tiny floral elements have been paper-pieced into the negative of the white rectangles and yes it took a while! It's so worth it though; I considered leaving the panels white with the negative space unfilled and also considered cutting the panels from coloured cardstock, but they just didn't look as good. Instead I cut five rectangles with the negative die inset, then diecut the floral band an additional five times each in Coastal Cabana and Soft Sea Foam and using some Press 'n' Seal and the putty end of my Take Your Pick Tool, paper-pieced the pieces into each white panel (having first adhered it to a piece of cardstock using an adhesive sheet. 

For the gold elements, instead of using gold foil I rubbed the remaining areas with gold gilded leafing; this stuff gets everywhere, but I love the bright shine and slightly textured effect that it gives - you can see it more closely below:

I finished with a sentiment from the retiring 'All Things Fabulous' which has sadly already sold out here in the UK (love this set!) So what do you think? This card took a while but was so worth it - I love it! I'm also linking today's card up over at The Flower Challenge where they want us to add a heart to our floral cards; is it me, or are those not 'hidden' gold hearts on their sides either side of the central flower? For all you Walt Disney World fans out there, think of it like a hunt for 'hidden Mickey's' - you see them, right?!

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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.
• In a sketch challenge, you are welcome to rotate or flip a sketch. You can replace shapes used such as substituting a circle panel for a square panel. However, we must be able to still see the basis of the original sketch in your finished product.

Enjoy your day; I have my usual list of Friday chores to complete today, including amongst other things trying to line-dry my washing in between the April showers (so far this week the score is 'Weather 2 - Joanne 0'!) but I'm hoping since I have a helper or two I met get done quicker and be able to squeeze in a little crafty time too. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

It's Thursday and today's card is for a couple of challenges: 

I used the colour palette over at TGIF Challenges (love those colours!) and the new sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge for a birthday card to pay homage to a favourite retiring stamp set and some of my most favourite ever dies - take a look:

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

Happiest of Birthdays - I used the big sentiment from 'Happiest of Birthdays' front and centre - the size of this greeting really makes a card, with nothing more than some decoration required.

Farewell Pierced Blooms - For said decoration, I used my Pierced Blooms Dies to cut some flowers and leaves and layered them to decorate both the outside and the inside of my card, where I also used another of the sentiments in the set:

Finishing Touches - A strip of contrasting Brights designer paper, some 'retired) sparkly enamel dots and a pair of tiny brushed brass butterflies add some final finishing touches:

Some of my favourite retiring products today though, both of which will be 'keepers' for me; it's not all sad though - I'm sure there will be some great new ones arriving soon!

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 Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Bhavya is hosting for the month of April and our first challenge is a colour challenge: 

For my card today I decided to have one last outing with my retiring Turtle Friends bundle for a fun bleated birthday card - I used the current Inspire.Create sketch for my layout:

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

I did add a few layers to today's card, including a strip of Pansy patch gingham, but otherwise was very careful to preserve my 'white space' and keep my design simple. A punched turtle, complete with party hat, was simply stamped and some highlights added with tone-on-tone Blends markers, along with a touch of chalk marker to highlight his eye:

It's always good to have a belated birthday card on hand - for a card maker, I seem to need all too many of these! I love the 'Turtle Friends' set and will be sorry to see it go; the turtle punch is already sold out, but the stamp set is still available as part of the Last Chance Products Promotion; as is the retiring Pansy Patch paper and the chalk marker - a super-useful crafting staple. 

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. 

As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! colour names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

I do have a bonus card for you using today's colours too; I was playing around with the colours and originally made this card, using this week's Paper Craft Crew Sketch and the retired 'Flowering Cactus' bundle:

It is a little more clean and simple than my turtle card to be fair, but I didn't like it as much so moved it to second place - but I thought I'd share it with you anyway! And here's the PPC sketch:

Enjoy your day; I have a mountain of ironing to get through - wish me luck! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host this week and she has a fun theme challenge for you to work with:

Laughter is the best medicine - so true! I had a rummage amongst my stamps for something funny and using Jen T's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week (it's a keeper!) for my layout I set to work. This is what I came up with:

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

I actually don't have that many stamps that are out-and-out funny, but plenty that can raise a smile and 'Hey Birthday Chick' is definitely one of them! I love that sentiment 'you're still a spring chicken' so I decided to pair it with the chicken in this set that always looks to me like she's dancing! I added some rainbow glimmer bunting and some stamped confetti, and having coloured my chicken decided to add a ribbon ruffle skirt by running a stitch through a piece of Polished Pink ribbon - doesn't it look as if she's doing the can-can?!

Very 'oo la la'!! What do you think - comical enough to raise a smile? It made me chuckle anyway :-) I added another chicken along with another sentiment from this set to decorate the inside of my card to finish:

'Hey Birthday Chick' and the co-ordinating Birthday Chick Dies are on the retired list, so if they tickle your funny bone and you'd like to add them to your collection, they are currently both available at 50% off - a real bargain! Rainbow glimmer paper is also on the retired list - I am so sad to see this go! Here's hoping there is more glimmer paper on the way in the new annual catalogue ... 

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 Product and '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:

Enjoy your day; I am mid-way through a 'Mum and son' weekend with the youngest of the James Juniors: we spent yesterday watching Manchester United play at home in Old Trafford, stayed overnight and today we are doing the stadium tour - so we are all about the football, for sure! A lovely way to start the Easter school break though. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

HEY BIRTHDAY CHICK CLING STAMP SET (£10.00)	BIRTHDAY CHICK DIES (ENGLISH) (£12.50)	RAINBOW GLIMMER PAPER (£4.40)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
MAGENTA MADNESS CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)	MAGENTA MADNESS STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	PUMPKIN PIE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	POLISHED PINK 3/8" (1 CM) OPEN WEAVE RIBBON (£6.50)
SCALLOPED CONTOURS DIES (£33.00)

Yay - the end of the week! Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday:

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'World Art Day' which is on April 15th. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I decided to go all-out with the theme of our challenge and used paint splats, easel, primary colours and a little masking and this is what I came up with:

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

I delved into my collection of retired stamps for today's card - the retired 'Painter's Palette' set from a few years ago had everything I needed! I stamped a bunch of paint splats onto my white card base in primary colours (along with a little green for good measure) along with an easel, then stamped the easel along with a birthday sentiment and decorated with a few more paint splats (this is where the masking came in so that the dots stayed within the frame) and added this to my card base with dimensionals: 

A few retired enamel dots, along with some additional paint splats both inside my card and on the envelope completed my card - perfect for the budding artists amongst us!

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the  Festive Friday Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Stephanie Lanzalotto
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James - that's me!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SOFT SUEDE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	PACIFIC POINT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	POPPY PARADE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

Today I'm sharing a card that uses blue, orange/peach and green from the current Color Dare challenge ( I used my closest matches) and the sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge:

I had my as yet uninked 'Every Chapter' stamp set out on my desk as I was considering using it for last week's Fusion challenge but didn't get around to making a second card, so decided to pair it with some of the retiring 'You're A Peach' designer series paper and this is what I came up with:

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

Every Chapter - The 'Every Chapter' stamp appealed to me straight away because it's a single image stamp that's great for colouring - pair with some white cardstock, black ink and a colouring medium such as pencils or Stampin' Blends and there's your card - done! 

Step It Up - Today's card is a stepped-up version of that simple concept though; I added a touch of flowered 'You're A Peach' paper (now discounted in the Last Chance product sale - grab it while you can!) and coloured my image with various colours of co-ordinating Blends, then fussy cut it and added it to my card with dimensionals, having scored between each book and used my bone folder to curve them slightly for added effect. I also added some ribbons in coordinating colours to edge my paper, along with a few enamel dots.

Finishing Touch - For a final flourish, I added a couple of tiny punched leaves and a Flowering Flourish in Pale Papaya in place of the stamped flower on one of the books; I think this adds a fun extra detail:

So what do you think? This is the perfect card to share with a book-loving friend - I think I might pop a note inside and put inside the next paperback that I recycle to one of mine! The image would also be great to decorate bookmarks with, or perfect to share with members of a book club. So many ideas - I will definitely be using again!

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:

EVERY CHAPTER CLING STAMP SET (£17.00)	YOU'RE A PEACH 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£6.45)	CALYPSO CORAL STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	PETAL PINK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	PALE PAPAYA STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	PUMPKIN PIE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
BALMY BLUE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	OLD OLIVE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	PALE PAPAYA 3/8" (1 CM) OPEN WEAVE RIBBON (£6.50)	LOOSE FLOWER FLOURISHES (£7.00)	2021–2023 IN COLOR JEWELS (£5.20)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)