Wednesday evening already? Where did the beginning of this week go?! That's what having the James Juniors home from school on half term does for you! We have been having fun with more still to come this week. Time I got back to sharing a card or two with you though; here's one that I made in my Sale-A-Bration class earlier this month featuring a selection of the gorgeous balloon papers that can be yours free during Sale-A-Bration with an order of £45 or more:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Carried Away With Colour - I love designer series paper at the best of times, but I could get totally carried away with this one! The bright and colourful prints in the Carried Away designer series paper pack are just gorgeous; great for cards but they also make great scrapbook backgrounds too. Check out this gorgeous palette of colours to be found in the 6 designs in this paper pack:

Lift Me Up Too - We all know how Stampin' Up! does such a great job of product co-ordination in terms of inks, cardstock and accessories; there are also times when suites of products co-ordinate too. The Carried Away papers are designed to co-ordinate perfectly with the Lift Me Up Bundle in the Spring-Summer Occasions catalogue. The diecut and stamped balloons along with some useful sentiments in a great modern font, make it easy to pull together professional-looking cards. Here I left some of the diecut balloon open so that the papers below would peek through and used the stamp set for the sentiment and to decorate the envelope and inside of my card.

Everyone Loves A Freebie - Would you like to get your hands on the Carried Away Designer Series Paper? If you buy all the other supplies I used on today's card, you'll earn enough to qualify for a free Sale-A-Bration item - like the Carried Away Designer Series Paper. Just click on the items in the table below to go directly to my online shop and add these items to your basket.

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'll be back tomorrow with another project using these fabulous papers. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Lift Me Up Clear-Mount Bundle	Night Of Navy Solid Baker's Twine	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Peekaboo Peach A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock
Project Life Corner Punch	Carried Away Designer Series Paper

My cold has really got the better of me these last couple of days, hence the absence of blog posts. Back with it today though; I have a quick share of another card made with a free Sale-A-Bration set that also uses a fun and easy technique - take a look:

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

A Shadow Thank You - I stamped the large thank you stamp from the 'So Very Much' in Blushing Bride then moved it very slightly up and to the left and stamped again in Sweet Sugarplum. A simple technique but effective, don't you agree? The thing that I really like about this stamp set - apart from the fact that it's FREE of course! - is the alternative option stamps to complete the thank you sentiment. The 'from all of us' in particular is an unusual stamp that you don't see very often.

A Teeny Tiny Gift - I decided I would add a little symbol of a gift next to the second part of my sentiment - this is taken from another Sale-A-Bration set, Any Occasion. This set is predominantly a collection of banners that work really well on pocket notelet-sized cards, but includes a few teeny tiny embellishments - the present, two hearts and a tassel - that work really well on lots of projects.

A Playful Palette - My strip of border paper is from the Playful Palette designer series paper stack and was the inspiration for my entire colour scheme. This card design would be a great way to use up odd strips of paper left over from other projects though and would work in lots of different colourways.

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 this week's project for the new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

So Very Much Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Playful Palette Designer Series Paper Stack	Sweet Sugarplum A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Basic Black Solid Baker's Twine
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Sweet Sugarplum Classic Stampin' Pad	Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad	Any Occasion Photopolymer Stamp Set

I've had a couple of blog-free days on account of having to juggle a few things around as I have one of my Juniors at home poorly this week. I think they may have given it to me too, but that's a story for another day! To make it up to you I'm sharing not one but two cards today, both using the most popular of the Sale-A-Bration free stamp sets. Here's the first one, a CASE of the card shown on page 5 of the Sale-A-Bration catalogue:

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

Botanical Flower - The Avant Garden stamp set contains two very different flower stamps: the flower stem on the above card is a fine line drawing, almost like the ones you find in botanical plant identification books. Here it is simply coloured with a blender pen and my Daffodil Delight and Old Olive watercolour pencils, then fussy cut using my trusty paper snips. The second flower is a much more fluid, almost watercolour effect bloom - this is the one you can see on the card below, which is a CASE of the card on page 4 of the Sale-A-Bration catalogue, with the layout of the banner horizontal instead of diagonal and an alternative colourway. 

Easy Woodgrain - Do you recognise the background on this card? The ladies in my recent Sale-A-Bration class were keen to understand how I had created this background so full of texture; they were very surprised when I pointed out that it was actually one of the patterns in the Serene Scenery Designer Series Paper stack. This pad is choc-full of great patterns and designs, that make light work out of creating interesting backgrounds. So easy, it almost feels like cheating!

Texture Abounds - Whilst the paper adds texture in the pattern, this card has a lovely collage feel with all the other elements of added texture: a woodgrain embossed circle, a strip of burlap ribbon and piece of lace trim, along with a snippet of doily, some linen thread and a sprinkling of pearls. 

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 the second card using the same stamp set but with a completely different feel:

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

It's no wonder Avant Garden is so popular: lots of creative ways with florals, not forgetting a useful trio of sentiments that work on lots of different types of card. Lots of my customers have already ordered this set; if you're not one of them but it appeals to you, then all you have to do is place an order for £45 or more and you can receive it for FREE! If you are ordering online, simply add the item code (143272) to your shopping basket once you've added your other items and it will add it free of charge. If you are ordering online (it's easy to do: just click on the shopping basket link in the 'Shop Online' basket on the right of this page, or alternatively click on any of the product links in the supply table below) don't forget to add this month's hostess code 4X3KWTZY in order to receive an extra little thank you in the post separately from me. 

So which one of these cards do you prefer? Do let me know in the comments below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Serene Scenery Designer Series Paper Stack	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Avant Garden Photopolymer Stamp Set	Very Vanilla 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Lace Trim
Linen Thread	Woodgrain Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Pearl Basic Jewels	Delicate White Doilies	Watercolor Pencils

It's Wednesday already - happy hump day! Today I'm sharing a card that I made for a little challenge that I'm currently having with my team.

My team consists of people from all walks of life and each of them wants something different from their Stampin' Up! demonstratorship: whether they are actively running a business and using it as their main source of income, sellling to friends and family to provide family 'extras' or simply enjoying their hobby and enjoying a discount on their Stampin' Up! purchases, there is one thing that unites us all - a shared love of crafting! I like to set them challenges from time to time and one of our current ones is using the new 'Celebrate Every Day' Project Life memory keeping collection from Stampin' Up!

Each of my team were given a selection of cards in various sizes from the Celebrate Every Day card collection and one of the pockets from the 6" x 8" variety pocket pack and asked to come up with one or more projects that could be shared with the group, adding whatever additional accessories they had to hand. I love the bright, summery colours of this particular collection and so I couldn't wait to use some of mine to make a cheery card for a friend of mine who is going through a rough patch - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Celebrate The Every Day with Project Life - The Celebrate The Every Day Project Life set has some great sentiments to illustrate your Project Life pages and record those special times with loved ones. They can also work as the focal point for a card too: I've used one of the 3" x 4" cards that I cropped to focus on the sentiment, which is perfect for someone going through a rough patch to let them know you are thinking of them. I then backed this with one of the bright floral 3" x 4" cards for a burst of summer flowers and pop of colour. The final element to my card was a Watermelon Wonder Heart embellishment that I cropped out of one of my lined Project Life journalling cards with my circle Stitched Shape Framelit Dies. I love how these framelits add just the right amount of detail to frame a sentiment or image.

Co-ordinating Accessories - One of the great things about the Stampin' Up! project Life range is that it exclusively features Stampin' Up! colours. This makes it so easy to go to your craft supplies and instantly find other items that will co-ordinate. The colour palette for the Celebrate Every Day range looks like this, along with the addition of Basic Black and Whisper White as neutrals:

I chose to use some A4 Daffodil Delight cardstock for my base and mat, along with a punched circle of Watermelon Wonder and two pieces of Emerald Envy 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon on my card. Effortless co-ordination - one of the many reasons I love to craft with Stampin' Up! products!

I'm A Hoot And You Can Be Too - The Hoots are the lovely bunch that make up my Stampin' Up! team (The Crafty Owl - Hoots - get it?! ;-) ) and I would love to welcome you too. If you've ever thought about joining Stampin' Up!, now is a great time time to do so. During Sale-A-Bration, your starter kit is extra special as not only do you get your choice of £130/175 Euros worth of product for £99/129 Euros, but you get to choose an additional 2 stamp sets FOR FREE - that could be worth as much as an extra £93/126 Euros. There are so many ways in which you can benefit from being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator- please do give me a call on 07773 421446 or email me if you'd like to discuss further.

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:

Celebrate Every Day Project Life Card Collection

Ribbon Taffeta 1/8" (3.2 Mm) Emerald Envy

Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock

Watermelon Wonder A4 Cardstock

Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies

Happy Monday everyone! As promised yesterday, I have another card for you using the Special Reason bundle and this week's colour palette over at Fab Friday:

In the process of making my card for our challenge over at The Paper Players this week, I had lots of bits and pieces left over, including the very piece I started out with that included a stamped flower. So often these end up in my scrapbox never to see the light of day again; to avoid this happening, I set about making another card right away - here it is:

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

A Special Reason to Rock 'n' Roll - As I mentioned yesterday, I love how the pale blue and warm vanilla tone down the Sweet Sugarplum in the above colour combination, as I sometimes find this purpley-pink a little stark when paired with stronger colours. I thought I'd use the rock and roll technique to add a little plum to the tips of the petals of my blue inked flower taken from the Special Reason stamp set; I also used a cotton bud (aka 'cue tip' for my USA friends!) to add a little to the inner petals too; I love how this gives subtle added definition to the form of the flower itself.

Ways With Stylish Stems Framelits - In addition to my large diecut flower and leaf, I also used my Stylish Stems Framelits to add some subtle detail to my stamped flower: if you look closely, you will see I partially die cut the mat in order to have my flower hang over that lovely piece of Fabulous Foil Designer Acetate and the metallic ribbon. It adds dimension without bulk and the need for an extra layer.

Fancy Some Free Metallics? - In addition to the strip of gold scallop pattern Fabulous Foil Designer Acetate (I just love this stuff!) I added a strip of ribbon and a bow to my card, using the gorgeous vanilla and gold ribbon from the Sale-A-Bration Metallic Ribbon Combo Pack (the other ribbon in the pack is white and woven with silver). This ribbon has a soft, almost velvety feel and ties the most beautiful bows - check out this fabulous gift packaging too:

This is one of the items that can be yours free during Sale-A-Bration with a £45 order - you are definitely going to want some!

I also used one of the two-part sentiments from the Special Reason stamp set - the inside of my card reads "...except to let you know how special you are!" How lovely is that?! Perfect to send to a friend of mine 'just because'.

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. 

I'll be back tomorrow with another project; I'm finally getting back into the swing of things here in blog land! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Special Reason Clear-Mount Bundle	Sweet Sugarplum A4 Cardstock	Sweet Sugarplum Classic Stampin' Pad	Soft Sky A4 Cardstock	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad
Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Stylish Stems Framelits Dies	Special Reason Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool (Uk)	Fabulous Foil Designer Acetate	3/8" Metallic Ribbon Combo Pack

It's Sunday and time for the first challenge of 2017 over at The Paper Players! Did you spot our new look? Our fearless leader, the lovely Nance, has given us a refresh and makeover over the Christmas break and we are returning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and raring to go! Our new guest designers are joining us too; a warm PP welcome to Crystal, Valentyna and Deanne - we are so happy to have you join us for the first part of 2017! 

To kick off the new year, it's the turn of my good friend LeAnne to host this week and she has a timely theme challenge for us to work with:

If your house is anything like mine, the festive season has generated much packaging waste and many opportunities for recycling. So this week's challenge is perfect! I took the opportunity to recycle a Christmas gift on my card today and used the sketch over at Fab Friday for my layout. Recycling Christmas gifts already?! It's not quite as bad as it sounds - take a look:

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

Join The Colouring Craze - One of my Christmas gifts was a page-a-day colouring calendar. Well, to be truthful I bought one for Rebecca and loved it so much I treated myself to one! The calendar comes in a pretty box that can be used to display our coloured pieces once completed. I decided that by recycling my pages, I could easily use them to create a birthday card. Here's my day one finished page before I trimmed it to fit my card:

Effortless Blending - I coloured my page using Stampin' Up!'s new watercolour pencils and used a blender pen to seamlessly blend the colours and give a smooth finish as the paper was too thin to blend using an aquapainter. I also adhered my coloured piece to a piece of extra thick Whisper White for extra rigidity. I love that these pencils can be used in a number of different ways and am looking forward to trying other techniques with them too.

A Fiesta of Colour - I chose to inject some bright summer colour into my card today, using a card base of Daffodil Delight and a selection of papers from the Festive Birthday Designer Series Paper set for my layers behind the coloured-in panel. I love these clashing brights - here are my main colours in case you would like to save them for future project inspiration too:

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. 

I hope you like today's card; you could create the same effect using the new 'Inside The Lines' Designer Series Paper Sale-A-Bration gift (free with a purchase of £45 or more) - I will have a fun project for you using this paper later this week, so be sure to pop by and check it out.

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

I look forward to seeing what you create with our fun theme this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly; I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Watercolor Pencils	Festive Birthday Designer Series Paper	Sunshine Sayings Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock
Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Brights Enamel Shapes	Blender Pens

Hello lovely readers! I hope you've all enjoyed browsing the new Spring-Summer Stampin' Up! catalogue and this year's Sale-A-Bration offering and are busy making wishlists and buying those must-have items. Today I'm sharing a card I made with my pre-order goodies back in December for my team Christmas outing. Instead of our usual team meeting, we decided in December to have our very own festive Crafternoon Tea. In addition to enjoying a lovely afternoon tea, we spent the afternoon doing a shoebox swap with each of us creating the cards cards that the others had designed, some using new pre-order items from the spring-Summer and SAB catalogues, thus providing us with lots of new samples. I am loving the new hot air balloons so I just had to feature them on my card:

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

Up & Away Balloon - The star of today's card is most definitely the layered diecut hot air balloon - isn't it gorgeous? It's made using the new Up & Away Thinlits Dies. This is a great set with three different balloon sizes, clouds and lots of basket and layering options along with this lovely detailed large balloon. 

Your Smiles Lift Me Up - What's better than a great die set? Well, a great die set with a co-ordinating stamp set! the 'Lift me Up' stamp set has some great stamped balloon images, clouds and accessories as well as five varied sentiments for everything from birthdays to congratulations and sending smiles. 

Carried Away For Free - The paper on today's card is from the Carried Away Designer Series Paper pack that can be yours for FREE with a £45 purchase. It co-ordinates perfectly with the Lift Me Up bundle - a selection of pretty balloons, skyscapes and maps in bold, bright colours. Love it!

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. 

Here's a picture of some of my lovely team members at our festive gathering - what a great bunch:

I love these ladies, none of whom would I have met but for our shared love of crafting and some of whom joined during previous Sale-A-Brations. Sale-A-Bration is a great time to join Stampin' Up! with one of the best recruitment offers; if you would like to know more about the benefits of joining my team, please do get in touch for a no-obligation chat - we would love you to join us!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Lift Me Up Wood-Mount Bundle	Lift Me Up Clear-Mount Bundle	Carried Away Designer Series Paper	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock	Watermelon Wonder A4 Cardstock
Peekaboo Peach A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad

It's time to shake off the January blues, today is THE day - yes, the highlight of the Stampin' Up! calendar, Sale-A-Bration is here! No more sneak peeks - the catalogue is available, the shop is live and from now until 31st March the benefits are yours for the taking. You can click on the icon above or the catalogue on the right hand side of my blog page to access the Sale-A-Bration leaflet to download a copy or go directly to my online shop to place an order - we are LIVE!

So what is Sale-A-Bration? For anyone who hasn't come across it before, it's Stampin' Up!'s annual promotion that is loaded with offers whether you shop, join or host:

Earn a free Sale-A-Bration product for every £45 you spend between 4 January and 31 March. It's the perfect time to purchase those products you've had on your wish list and earn more products for free! 

It’s the best time of year to join Stampin’ Up! During Sale-A-Bration, you can become a demonstrator for just £99 and choose £30 more of FREE products for your Starter Kit. Plus, the kit ships for free! There is plenty of choice and flexibility, whether you want to be a hobby demonstrator and just use your discount to enable you to purchase craft supplies more cheaply, or alternatively would like to build a flourishing direct sales business and sell supplies to others - it's entirely up to you. In addition, you can choose two free stamp sets of your choice - that could be worth as much as another £93 to you!

Earn an additional £20 in hostess credits when you host a party and have party sales of £200 or more (this also applies to individual orders). So for party sales of £200, that makes a whopping £40 of Stampin' Rewards - more freebies! What's more, you can even apply your Stampin' Rewards to a Starter Kit and become a demonstrator yourself - I would love to welcome you to my team!

If you would like to host a party, real or virtual, please do get in touch; my diary is filling up but there are still lots of slots available and I would love to share these great benefits with you. If you've ever thought about becoming an SU! demonstrator, now is a great time to do so - I would love to have a no-obligation chat with you about joining my team and the benefits.

As if that wasn't enough, today also sees the launch of the new Spring-Summer catalogue - full of gorgeous new products:

Just click on the image above or in the sidebar on the right to browse the catalogue online, or contact me on 07773 421446 if you would like a paper copy posted out to you and you don't already have a demonstrator. If you are as excited as me and just can't wait, here's the link to my online store - everything is available to purchase from today!

Thanks so much for popping by today - it's always nice to share good news! Back tomorrow with a project showcasing some of the products from the new catalogue. Until then, happy shopping!

I had a little time this afternoon so I had a go at the challenge over at Global Design Project, where this week they are case-ing the designer Jessica Williams:

I don't get the opportunity to play along at GDP as much as I'd like but they do have some great challenges and I particularly like the CASE The Designer ones. Inspiration can strike in many ways and I think this type of challenge is a great way to create something that is clearly inspired by one person's work yet is wholly your own. It also makes for an interesting blog post (hopefully!) that explains where the inspiration for your own take on the original work came from. So, without further ado, here is my card:

So how did Jessica's card inspire me? Read on to find out:

Layout - Whilst I love the layout of Jessica's card, I decided this was one of the things that I was going to change. I used this week's sketch over at Mojo Monday for my card.

Colours - Jessica's colour combination is not one I would ordinarily have chosen, so I decided to work with it to see where it took me. I kept Sahara Sand for my base, although I did major on Watercolour Wonder as opposed to Calypso Coral though, largely on account of my choice of ribbon. Whilst this ribbon is rather wide for a card bow, I liked the rather fancy bow that Jessica used on her card and decided to use my ribbon to make a similar statement. Likewise, whilst I incorporated the black and white colours of Jessica's washi tape borders, I chose to use some Everyday Chic Designer Series Paper for the twin panels on my card. 

Wreath and Sentiment - I recreated the wreath on my card, but instead of using the 'Timeless Love' stamp set, I created my own using the flowers and leaves from the Sale-A-Bration set 'Botanicals For You'. I was also inspired by the sentiment of Jessica's card - I chose one from the 'Suite Sayings' stamp set that has a similar tone. 

Here is the visual summary of the supplies used to make today's card for you to save for easy future reference:

I hope you like my card and found the explanation of my creative process insightful. I'd love to know what you think of my CASE of Jessica's card; do leave me a comment below - I read and appreciate them all!

I'll be back tomorrow with another couple of projects; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Botanicals For You Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Suite Sayings Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Big Shot	Everyday Chic Designer Series Paper
Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad	Basic Black A4 Cardstock
Sahara Sand A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Cardstock