Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a recipe challenge with the ingredients chosen by the lovely Heather Cooper:

Lots of ingredients in this week's recipe! The black/white/gold colour combination was my starting point and I had a look through my retired paper stash as I knew I had some options featuring those colours. I happened a pack of Merry Little Christmas paper and immediately everything fell into place and yes, by complete coincidence, I have another Christmas card for this week's AYSI card - take a look:

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

A Retired Celebration - I happened upon this black and white starry night paper and thought it would make the perfect night sky for a layered scene created using my retired Bethlehem Edgelits dies (I added some gold borders using some other retired paper from my stash). I cut both pieces in white and added a gold glimmer star, along with some clear rhinestones to the centres of the stars on the paper - you can just about make them out if you look closely:

Night In Bethlehem - My heat-embossed sentiment is from the co-ordinating (retired) stamp set called 'Night In Bethlehem'. I used another of the sentiments and an image from the same set to add a verse and decoration to the inside of my card:

All in all, not too tricky to make up that recipe when I got going - and another Christmas card for my pile using one of my favourite religious Christmas sets to boot.

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 or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Recipe Challenge use all elements of the recipe - the possibilities within those parameters are endless.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)

METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)

RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£5.75)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

I've been away on vacation so it's been a little quieter than usual around here, but I'm back now so normal (ish) service is about to resume! It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. I'm hosting this month and our second challenge is a colour challenge: 

I chose a trio of summery colours for this challenge however you can use them however you like! For my card today I went floral and am playing along over at Festive Friday where their theme is National Friendship Day (I chose stencils, friend sentiment and florals from the picklist) with a clean and simple floral friendship card - take a look:

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

I CASED an earlier card of mine for the layout on this one and added in that bold 'friend' die from the (retired) Friends For Life set to my sentiment. The main difference on today's card is the way I coloured my florals: I stencilled the yellow petal elements and green leaves and stem, but I added Strawberry Slush highlights and to the centre petals using my Stampin' Blends markers. Do you ever mix mediums in this way? It's a great way to pick up the centres without blending them separately and then fussy cutting and gluing in place and works particularly well where the background colour is lighter than the colour you want to use in the centre:

It does give them a slightly coral hue, but by adding a Strawberry Slush diecut sentiment and co-ordinating flat pearls, it re-emphasises the pink tones. I love the finished effect!

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.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

THANKFUL GARDEN BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£62.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	STRAWBERRY SLUSH STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)
STRAWBERRY SLUSH A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	2025–2027 IN COLOR™ FLAT PEARLS (£8.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a fun 'fill in the blank' challenge chosen by me:

Shapes are the theme! But not just any shape - your favourite! If you could only choose one shape, which would you choose? The title of today's post gives me away, but I know that for me hands-down the answer is ... a circle. I shared my love of them in my post last Sunday and for today's card I thought I'd try another fun circular pattern, but this time as a background for some other bits and pieces. I challenged myself to work with the red and white colour combo over at Color Hues and ended up making a Christmas card - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Stylish Shape Circles - My circles are once again courtesy of the Stylish Shapes Dies. For me these dies are a go-to with the fab stitched edge detailing, with my favourite of course being the circles; they add so much to any project. 

Red and White - I thought the Color Hues challenge this week was a fun one! A red and white colour combo makes me immediately think either Valentine’s or Christmas so I went with the latter.  I really wanted to use a variety of reds, so chose to create my swirl of circles in a combination of Poppy Parade, Real Red and Cherry Cobbler. I almost left it there, but decided that this would make a fun backdrop for some candy canes, so I diecut some using my retired Sweetest Borders Dies, using red and white glimmer paper to add interest with both texture and sparkle check out the sparkle below:

Peppermints and Candy Canes - To continue the circle theme, I added in some additional round diecuts, sparkling gems and a liberal sprinkling of adhesive-backed peppermints and a suitable sentiment. I love that those peppermints are still available - they are so great for festive projects!

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 or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Fill In The Blank Challenge, be sure to complete the sentence and explain how your card illustrates this.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	REAL RED & WHITE ADHESIVE-BACKED PEPPERMINTS (£8.00)
REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	NEUTRAL MATTE DOTS (£7.50)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. I am hosting this month and our first challenge is a sketch challenge featuring a sentiment and a single stem of some kind: 

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. 

For my card today I chose a single stem from the 'Natural Botanicals' stamp set - perfect for the 'botanical' challenge over at CAS on Friday too - and set to work to create a simple one layer card:

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

I stamped my leaf and sentiment (from 'Sweet Blooms') in Tuxedo Black onto thick white cardstock and added some colour to the leaf sections using three of the 2025-27 In Color Stampin' Write markers:

Stampin' Write markers are great for one layer cards as they don't bleed through and since the sections are so small, it's easy to get an even colour without the need for a Blend. A trio of Cloud Cover flat pearls complete my card. Unorthodox colours for a leaf, for sure, but that's the creator's prerogative, 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. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

NATURAL BOTANICALS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£21.00)

SWEET BLOOMS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£23.00)

2025–2027 IN COLOR™ STAMPIN' WRITE MARKERS (£17.00)

2025–2027 IN COLOR™ FLAT PEARLS (£8.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)

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

Circles! I originally chose this theme (Stef and I swapped weeks to accommodate each others vacation time) because I feature circles on so many of my cards and I think they are so versatile. Use them on their own, or as a base for flowers or other images - there really is no limit to their uses. The aim of this week's challenge is to really make circles a feature of your card, so I went all out to do just that - take a look:

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

2025-27 In Colours - I decided to make another card featuring all 5 of this year's new in colours - in fact, I didn't feature any white cardstock at all, which is very unusual and a contrast to the other card featuring these colours that I shared last week. If I remember, I'll also link this one up over at SUO Challenges for a second entry where they are all about the in colours this week!

Stylish Shapes Dies - I used my favourite Stylish Shapes Dies circles to diecut a trio of circles in three of the in colours, then cut them in half and layered them either side of my sentiment strip to cover the join.

Circles Everywhere - In keeping with the theme, I added some embossed circles with the (retired) Large Polka Dot embossing folder to my background, whilst also adding a couple of other subtle circles too - a flat in colour pearl and the round full stop of my sentiment - not chosen by accident:

That's it! Super simple, all 5 in colours and a design that could be used with any colours or sentiment 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. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)

2025–2027 IN COLOR™ A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

SAYING HEY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£6.40)

SECRET SEA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

2025–2027 IN COLOR™ FLAT PEARLS (£8.00)

Today I'm sharing a card for the current challenge over at SUO Challenges where they are all about creating with the new in colours:

I decided to create a wall of florals with a bold centre sentiment using all 5 in colours - take a look:

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

Impressions Abloom - I used two of the diecut flowers from the Impressions Abloom Dies and cut a whole bunch in white to create my flower wall background. I was inspired by those flower walls that you sometimes see at parties as a photo backdrop; I thought it would be a creative way to use florals, without using green.  

A Glossy Tip - I used a different in colour for the flower centres for each horizontal row and before diecutting, I added a tip of clear packing tape to my cardstock. This resulted in an easy glossy finish, with minimal mess - you can see the shine better on the close up below:

Sweet Blooms - I finished with a statement sentiment from the 'Sweet Blooms' stamp set in the two remaining in colours, heat embossing the secret Sea diecut for additional shine.

What do you think? Does the floral wall idea work? 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 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:

IMPRESSIONS ABLOOM BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£45.75)

SWEET BLOOMS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£48.50)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

2025–2027 IN COLOR™ A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

SECRET SEA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Jaydee to host this week and as it's the fifth Sunday of the month she has a fun tic-tac-toe board challenge for us to work with:

I went down the first column with CAS, florals and postal element (although I realised afterwards if fits the first row too as my card is square and has a trio of butterflies too!) and grabbed the new colour palette over at Colour Inkspiration to create an almost monochromatic, mosaic-style card - take a look:

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

The style of my card today was somewhat inspired by this earlier card and a desire to see those rectangles filled in! In my never-ending quest to use the 'Layers of Beauty' stamp set in new and exciting ways, I decided that I would create a mosaic-style card by stamping the image then cutting it up using a square Perennial Postage die. I was originally intending to create a monochromatic card using a subtle pastel, but when I saw the palette over at Colour Inkspiration, wondered if something bolder with Cajun Craze and two neutrals was in order. 

I stamped my image in Cajun Craze onto Basic Beige and then used Crumb Cake for my sentiment tag, to keep in with the postage feel. A simple twine bow and a trio of brass butterflies complete my card.

I like the way you can still see the image across the panels even though it's been cut into 9 pieces and whilst instinctively these colours make me think vintage, with lots of texture and background stamping, my card is anything but. The Crumb Cake tag is a great way to incorporate this colour and help the sentiment stand out from the floral design. Whilst this is not at all what I envisaged, I really like how this card turned out.

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; today we are taking things easy as our second heatwave here continues, coupled with which the James Junior is recovering from a night of partying and excesses as yesterday was Senior School Prom. A BBQ lunch and some time in the shade possibly with an afternoon nap for some, might be in order! I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

PERENNIAL POSTAGE DIES (£31.00)	LAYERS OF BEAUTY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£19.00)	CAJUN CRAZE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CAJUN CRAZE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BASIC BEIGE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
LINEN THREAD (£4.75)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's a colour challenge, chosen by Deborah:

I love Melon Mambo - the original and best pink in my view so this was always going to be a popular colour combo with me! I was still in a stencilling move after making yesterday's card, so decided to grab the sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge (although I was slightly contrary, adding the pattern inside my arch rather than on the base panel) and set to work - take a look:

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

I decided to use the primrose-type flowers in the Thankful Garden pack, stamping and colouring the petals twice and fussy cutting and layering my Peach Pie centre onto my Melon Mambo main petals. I placed my flowers inside a layered arch and used the same floral stamp to create a light background in Peach Pie - something I'd seen my team mate Jan do on one of her cards recently and I liked the effect, so wanted to try it myself; you can see that detail better below:

A thankyou sentiment and a few colourful enamel dots complete my card, along with an outline stamp detail on the inside of my card and the corner of my envelope - no naked layers here! 

Another reminder too that the Thankful Garden Suite is one of a number of suites that are part of this month's 'Buy one, get one at 50% off' promotion - so whether it's the bundle or the whole suite that has taken your fancy, there are great savings to be had. You can read more about the promotion here - there are just 3 more days to go to make the most of it, so what are you waiting for? Check out the featured suites in the online store today!

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 or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Colour Challenge use all of the given colours and only those colours with these exceptions:
• White and Very Vanilla are free colours.
• In addition, you may use of ONE of these neutrals: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

THANKFUL GARDEN BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£62.00)	EVERYDAY ARCHES DIES (£27.00)	PEACH PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	PEACH PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	MELON MAMBO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SUNNY DAY IRIDESCENT DOTS (£6.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)

It's my fourth and final week as Guest Designer over at Just us Girls and this week it's Stencil Week and anything goes. 

Stencils are also the theme over at Inkspirational this week, with the optional theme of geometric, so I went on the hunt for something vaguely geometric in style and grabbed the clashing colours over at Color Dare and set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

I'm often drawn to bright, clashing colours (especially where they feature orange outside of Halloween season!) and I thought this trio would look great balanced with an abundance of white for a fun stencilled background. I grabbed my retired Loveliest Layers Decorative Masks and created a fun chequered background in Pumpkin Pie and Berry Burst, masking the edges to create an even border. A simple Pretty Peacock border and layered diecut sentiment was all I needed to complete my card:

I could really do with more stencils in my collection - they are so versatile and fun to create with. Check out the other JUGS designers for some fabulous stencil inspiration; why not see what you can find in your craft stash to play along 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Thanks to the lovely ladies over at Just Us Girls for having me as their guest designer this month - it's been a blast and I can't wait to play along with you all again soon! Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project for out new challenge over at As You See It. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

FRIENDS FOR LIFE BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£50.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	PRETTY PEACOCK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	PRETTY PEACOCK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	PUMPKIN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BERRY BURST CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)