This is the first of two posts today, as there's lots of news to share! Firstly, I'm excited to announce that there is a new series of never-before seen single stamps available from today, all with a Christmas theme:

These stamps are available as clear-mount only (blocks available separately) and won't be sent in typical SU! cases or packaging; they'll be packaged in cello bags. If you'd like a case for your stamp, you can buy Clear-Mount Stamp Cases that come in packs of four separately (these are available in the main catalogue).

There are 8 different stamps to choose from, starting from £4.50. These stamps are only available through 31 January 2014 and will be great for cards and tags during the festive season, so get them while you can! Choose one or collect all eight - the choice is yours.

Secondly, as today is Tuesday it's the day for this week's My Digital Studio (MDS) downloads - click on the date buttons below to link to my online store to view them in more detail and to purchase. I've also included the links to the downloads for the last two weeks in case you're new to all this and want to catch up!

This week's downloads include the new in-colour ribbons, the Thankful brush and tablescape kit and some of the Christmas stamps from the current seasonal catalogue. 

If you haven't already looked at MDS, you should really consider downloading the free trial version from my store: you get a really comprehensive trial version for 30 days absolutely free, to help you decide whether you would like to go ahead and purchase the full version for £13.95. I would urge you to download it and take a look: whatever your area of interest - scrapbook pages, photo albums, cards, home décor and more - you will be amazed at the things you can create.

I'll be sharing some of my own MDS projects here on my blog in coming weeks - if you've already downloaded and started creating, do share your creations with me - I would love to see them.

Back shortly with today's creative post; until then, happy stampin!

A busy day today in more ways than one: both James Juniors returned to start a new school year today, but also some big news from Stampin' Up!:

Firstly, you can now shop with me online! 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; so if you have an urgent need for a roll of ribbon, or are awake in the early hours and have a sudden urge to start planning your next craft project, just click the 'Order Online' button on the right hand side of my page and start shopping. No need to change out of your pyjamas :-)

In addition to the button on the right, here is the link to my online shop for you to copy and save to your 'Favourites' bar:

http://joannejames.stampinup.net

All you need to do is go to my page, click on the 'Shop' button in the top right hand corner, then click on 'Create Account' on the left hand side, then you are ready to go. There is a flat fee delivery charge of £4.95 no matter how much you order, and your goodies will be delivered to your door by UPS within 3-5 days.

Secondly, for all of you who have been waiting since you saw the teaser on the back cover of this year's annual catalogue and have been waiting patiently - My Digital Studio (MDS) is here!

MDS allows you to embrace digital design the Stampin' Up! way: it's really easy to use with tons of fonts, stamps, punches and backgrounds included in the package. These, coupled with regular easy digital downloads will allow you to create and print your own custom-designed scrapbook pages, cards, invitations and other products with ease. Here's a link to an introductory video by Paula Gorry from Stampin' Up! UK showing you just how easy it is to create a tag in minutes:

I'll be sharing some of my own creations in due course, but if you can't wait to start using it yourself, you'll be excited to know that there is a 30 Day FREE MDS TRIAL available for you to download NOW! All you need to do is go to my online shop, create an account and look for the 'My Digital Studio' link on the left hand side and order it for immediate download (item number 130910). If this gets you hooked and you want to download the full version, this is available for the bargain price of just £13.95! Simply order MDS, item 130646, again for immediate download at £13.95. There are new digital downloads released every week, which I will share with you via my blog and Facebook pages.

That's all for now - any questions, please get in touch. Until next time, happy stampin'!

Today I'm sharing a birthday card commission that I made for my sister-in-law's very special Mum, who celebrates her 70th birthday today. I decided to use a combination of some of my favourite of this year's in-colours and the lovely Secret Garden framelits. Here's the finished card:

I love the pretty ruffle trim ribbon and added a tiny sliver of silver glimmer paper to add a little sparkle. I must confess to having had a few failed attempts before producing a card that I was really happy with - I needed this card to be 'just right' and am pleased to say I was happy with the finished result. Here's a quick picture of the card I made for Ann to wish her a special 70th birthday: 

Not the best of photographs, I'm afraid - when flat you can see the sentiment through the aperture cut with an oval framelit - but hopefully good enough to give you an idea. This one uses a similar colour scheme and the Flower Shop stamp set - check out the vellum flowers on the front, which I stamped then heat embossed with Iridescent Ice for a lovely sparkle.

One last thing on my original card: did you notice the little butterfly stamped on vellum that highlighted my label? Here's a close-up:

This is one of the butterflies in the Papillion Potpourri stamp set, punched out with the Bitty Butterfly punch - these are the items on offer at 15% off when you buy them together before 30th September - you can read more about this offer here.

Both James Juniors are back at school tomorrow; whilst I'll miss them not being at home, I can't deny that I'm looking forward to getting back into my craft room for a bit more creating - lots to do!

Do come back in the next day or so to see what I've been creating; I'm looking forward to sharing some of my Christmas ideas and September is a month of birthdays for me, so I'll have lots on this front too. Until next time, happy, stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Secret Garden, Delightful Dozen, Memorable Moments, Papillion Potpourri

Cardstock: Whisper White, Strawberry Slush, vellum

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers:  Strawberry Slush, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding

Tools: Secret Garden Framelits, Oval Framelits, Bitty Butterfly Punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Finishing Touches: Strawberry Slush Stretch Ribbon Trim, Silver Glimmer Paper, Basics Pearls

Another product update post for you: as some of you may be aware, there are a number of catalogue errors in the current catalogue (contact me if you would like a full list!), most notably the pricing of the new colour ink and cardstock bundles. This item was temporarily withdrawn from sale, but I can now announce that the following items are now once again available to order:

In addition, for a limited time only (until 3 January 2014) single markers in the new colours are also available to order individually at a cost of £2.95 each.

This is the last of the SU product update posts for the time being I promise! Back tomorrow with a craft creation (or two!) Until then, happy stampin'!

This is a quick post with details of this month's exciting Stampin' Up! offer and the new 'Best of...' set for September. This month's offer is on this great butterfly-themed bundle:

Buy the Papillion Potpourri stamp set and Bitty Butterfly Punch (pages 90/183 of the Annual Catalogue) together before 30th September and receive a 15% discount. If you've been considering purchasing either or both of these items, then this is the promotion for you!

 Secondly, the 'Best of...' set for September is 'Best of Christmas' - a lovely set of four stamps, that includes the little brother of the much-loved and missed 'Dasher':

This set represents great value at £13.95 (clear mount only) and like the other 'Best of..' sets, will be available until 31st March, although the sooner you get this set, the sooner you will be able to get cracking on those Christmas cards!

I will be posting ideas using both of these sets this month, so do check back to my blog in the coming weeks for inspiration. Meanwhile, if you would like to order either, do get in touch and I can place an order for you.

Until next time, happy stampin'!

Another 40th birthday card today, this one showcasing lots of new products. This was the birthday card from my children to their uncle, so I wanted it to fauna fun design; this is what I came up with:

I used the Birthday Basics Designer Series Paper as the inspiration for the colour scheme for this card - that and the fact that I already had Bermuda Bay out on my desk (I love this new colour!) I built the sentiment from my Simply Sketched Alphabet stamps and added a fun element by replacing the 'OO' with a pair of spectacles and googly eyes. I stamped the spectacles by inking up one pair on my 'Spectacular' single stamp - I have been having lots of fun with this stamp (as a specs wearer it really appealed to me!); this, and the other single stamps, are still available to purchase until the end of the month. See the box on the right of my blog page for more details and make sure you contact me before the end of the month if you'd like to order one.

My children thought this card was really funny, although I'm not sure that I would have got away with it as far as my specs-wearing brother-in-law is concerned, were I not a specs wearer myself!

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

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: ABC-123 Sketch Alphabet and Numbers, Spectacular

Cardstock: Summer Starfruit, Bermuda Bay, Raspberry Ripple, Very Vanilla, Birthday Basics Designer Series Paper (SAB - retired)

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Bermuda Bay, Raspberry Ripple

Tools: Simply Scored, Big Shot, Typeset Alphabet Die, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Finishing Touches: Googly eyes (non SU)

I've had a busy day today having fun with a bunch of lovely ladies making Christmas projects. I will share the first of these with you tomorrow, but today I want to announce the new 'Best of' set for August - Best of Shelli. Following the UK launch in June, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, Stampin' Up! is releasing a new 'Best of' stamp set featuring 3-4 past favourites and one brand new design, each month until October. Each set costs £13.95 and will be available to purchase until 31 March 2014 (clear mount only). This month's set was personally chosen by Stampin' Up's CEO and founder, Shelli Gardner, as her personal favourites from the last 25 years. The set features the following designs:

This month's set is an eclectic mix of styles and will offer a wide variety of creative opportunities. If you can't wait to get your hands on them, then drop me a line at joanne@thecraftyowl.co.uk and I will happily place an order for you.

The month of August also heralds a new discount promotion: for every 3 packs of designer paper you order from the annual catalogue (*excluding specialty papers and paper stacks) you can choose an additional pack free!

So this is a great time to stock up on your designer paper - with 11 different sets to choose from, you will be spoilt for choice!

Back tomorrow with some fabulous Christmas inspiration; until then, happy stampin'!

What can I say? Busy, busy, busy! Now that my little ones are on holiday, I'm struggling to find blog time; usually I'm short on time to make up my creations (well, there's never enough time to put all one's creative ideas into practice!) but having got ahead of myself on the making front, I now can't seem  to get in front of my laptop. Hey ho - I am going to try and schedule a few posts starting tomorrow, so that should make things easier.

Now that I am here, I wanted to share with you the other of my 'Best of Flowers' cards featuring the floral bouquet. This time I went for a more colourful look and took the opportunity to use up some of my Tea For Two designer series paper:

I stamped the bouquet in Early Espresso, then picked up the colour of the rose on the DSP with my marker pen to create the central focus of my bouquet. I made this card notecard size, to fit in one of the crumb cake notelet envelopes. Quite different to the last card using this stamp, but altogether very pretty.

More fun in the sun tomorrow, but all being well will have something new to share with you too, so do pop back to see. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Best of Flowers

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla Tea For Two Designer Series Paper (retired)

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Early Espresso, Calypso Coral, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Old Olive

Tools: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Designer Frames Embossing Folder, Ovals Framelits

So I have a confession: I don't like all the stamps that Stampin' Up! has to offer! I like modern, clean and unfussy design and don't really go in much for the vintage, distressed look. So whilst I loved three of the four stamps in June's 'Best of Flowers' set, I struggled with the fourth one. The bouquet of roses had a real 'old fashioned' look I thought and I would probably have left it in the box uninked. I could happily spend endless hours creating things with the other three stamps in the set, each of which I love, but for the fact that I had decided to use this set for this month's card class and therefore felt I should use each of the stamps equally. After much huffing and puffing, I came up with a couple of cards and this is one, of them:

This is something of a departure from my usual style, but I quite like the way it turned out. It was also a great opportunity to teach the ladies in my class the double embossing technique, which enabled me to make the stamp the focal point, without creating an overly fussy design. Some sponging of Crumb Cake ink over the surface and some ruched seam binding ribbon were all that I needed to finish it off.

I think maybe it's the kind of card that grows on you; the more you look at it, the more appeal it has - some 'olde worlde' charm, perhaps! if you would like to own the 'Best of Flowers' set, it is still available to purchase for £13.95 until 31st March 2014. Equally, if you would like to join one of my card classes, do get in touch for more details - our September class will feature the new 'Mosaic Madness' stamp set, along with the coordinating punch and embossing folder.

Back tomorrow with another card I made using this stamp; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Best of Flowers

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Crumb Cake

Tools: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Designer Frames Embossing Folder, Sponge Dauber

Finishing Touches: Crumb Cake `1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon

Another mad busy day today, working on several commissions, a few household chores and preparing for the last day of the school term tomorrow. As promised, here's the other card Barbara and I made when we were busy embossing the other day - a sunny yellow base with a heat embossed white daisy pattern:

Here's a close up of the embossed detail where you can see the raised pattern:

I love the simplicity of this kind of card and Barbara and I originally left ours with the embossed panel taking centre stage, but I later decided to add a sentiment from the Sweet Essentials stamp set and two of the lovely new build-a-brads with Daffodil Delight candy dots (did you guess the new product correctly?!)

Just a reminder too that 'Sweet Essentials' is one of the greeting stamp sets available at 25% off this month - it can be yours for £10.46 (clear mount).

Back tomorrow with another project - another of my new annual catalogue favourites. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Sweet Essentials

Cardstock: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Daffodil Delight, Versamark

Tools: Heat Gun

Finishing Touches: White Embossing Powder, Brights Candy Dots, Candy Dots Brad Bases