Happy Easter Sunday wishes everyone! As 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 she has a beautiful colour challenge for us to work with:

I used Jacquie's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches as the basis for my card today (I used a Layered Square Die instead of a diamond, turning it onto it's point) which showcases the main floral stamp from the Ornate Garden Suite pre-release - take a look:

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

Ornate Style - The Ornate Style stamp set is one of two that feature in the Ornate Garden Suite that is on early pre-release from the new 2020-21 Stampin' Up! catalogue; you can read more about the whole suite in my earlier post here if you missed it. I used the main floral stamp in the Ornate Style stamp set as the focal point for my card. I heat embossed the image in silver onto Whisper White cardstock and coloured it with my Seaside Spray, So Saffron and Smoky Slate Blends. I added the single flower stem from the same set to the inside of my card:

I haven't added a sentiment yet; I might turn this into a birthday card, as I have lots of them coming up, but for the time being I've left it black until I've decided.

Something Blue - I used Seaside Spray as the main colour on my card today: for my base, a layer of in-colour DSP inside my aperture and a trio of faceted enamel dots. I've used this same colour combination before on these projects, where I used So Saffron as the main colour. Which one do you prefer? Feel free to leave me a comment below, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Ornate Thanks - I finished my card with a heat embossed sentiment from another of the stamp sets in the Ornate Garden Suite, called Ornate Thanks. This is a great set with lots of sentiment combinations and I particularly like the style of the handwritten font.

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:

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; we will of course be hunting for Easter eggs today and spending much of the afternoon consuming large quantities of chocolate whilst making the most of our own company - again! Safe safe everyone! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Ornate Style Cling Stamp Set	Seaside Spray A4 Cardstock	2019–2021 In Color 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper	Shimmery White A4 Cardstock	2019-2021 In Color Faceted Dots	Embossing Buddy
Versamark Pad	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder	Seaside Spray Stampin' Blends Combo Pack	So Saffron Stampin' Blends Combo Pack	Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack	White Stampin' Emboss Powder

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a theme challenge:

As promised, I've another rainbow card for you today! I decided that 'Varied Vases' would be the perfect way to incorporate my rainbow colours - take a look:

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

I'm a big fan of the Varied Vases stamp set - I love the simple outline detailing and it has some lovely birthday sentiments too. My card is larger than usual (21cm x 11cm) which was necessary to accommodate all of my vases. I stamped a row of 14 overlapping vases in varying sizes, then added flowers to 7 of them and stamped the infills, before then stamping 7 vases in the same colours and punching them out with my Vases Builder Punch and popping them over some of the outlines on dimensionals for a little extra lift. I stamped water into the vase holding my violet flower stem and added a few pearls to finish. I stamped my shelf and sentiment and then finished this on the inside of my card with another flower vase: 

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. 

Before you put your creative thinking caps on, why not check out the blogs of the other As You See It team members:

Amy Jasper

Heather Cooper

Jan Clothier

Jane Knudsen

LeAnne Pugliese

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.

We look forward to seeing your creations in the AYSI gallery.

What are your plans for this Good Friday? I will be spending some time in the garden enjoying the warm weather and planting some new raspberry canes whilst reluctantly also continuing to plough through my ironing pile. The National Theatre is one of the many companies that are streaming live performances for free whilst we are all under lockdown and this week it's the turn of 'Jane Eyre', one of my most favourite books of all time, so I might watch this at the same time for some welcome distraction! There may well be some baking too - Easter cupcakes, perhaps?!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Varied Vases Photopolymer Stamp Set (£31.00)	Vases Builder Punch (£22.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£10.00)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Poppy Parade Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)
Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Gorgeous Grape Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)
Pearl Basic Jewels (£6.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£7.50)

I've been busy making, photographing and video editing the past couple of days and I've just got time to squeeze in a card for the current challenge over at Just Us Girls where their challenge this week is 'feathers':

I recently purchased the 'Positive Thoughts' stamp set and took advantage of the limited edition co-ordination release to pick up the co-ordinating dies too. As well as a die to cut out the feather stamped image, I discovered it also had a slightly larger embossed feather die so I chose to use this on my card:

I went for a rainbow of overlapping feathers and a simple embossed sentiment with a little baker's twine to finish - simple!

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 evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another rainbow project - I think I've had rainbows on the brain today! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Nature's Thoughts Dies (£35.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£10.00)	Real Red A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock (£10.50)
Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Pacific Point A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Gorgeous Grape A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Highland Heather A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£10.50)
Embossing Buddy (£7.50)	Versamark Pad (£11.50)	White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£7.25)	Vibrant Vases Photopolymer Stamp Set (£21.00)	Whisper White Solid Baker's Twine (£4.25)

I've been busy making, photographing and video editing the past couple of days and I've just got time to squeeze in a card for the current challenge over at Just Us Girls where their challenge this week is 'feathers':

I recently purchased the 'Positive Thoughts' stamp set and took advantage of the limited edition co-ordination release to pick up the co-ordinating dies too. As well as a die to cut out the feather stamped image, I discovered it also had a slightly larger embossed feather die so I chose to use this on my card:

I went for a rainbow of overlapping feathers and a simple embossed sentiment with a little baker's twine to finish - simple!

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 evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another rainbow project - I think I've had rainbows on the brain today! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Nature's Thoughts Dies (£35.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£10.00)	Real Red A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock (£10.50)
Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Pacific Point A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Gorgeous Grape A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Highland Heather A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£10.50)
Embossing Buddy (£7.50)	Versamark Pad (£11.50)	White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£7.25)	Vibrant Vases Photopolymer Stamp Set (£21.00)	Whisper White Solid Baker's Twine (£4.25)

Happy Monday everyone! Mine was going great until I was just about to click publish on this blog post then my computer crashed! So I'm now retyping to get my card in over at FMS under the wire! So here goes! Today I'm sharing a card that uses Judy's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week for my layout and the Just Add Ink colour palette:

I'd like to say a big thank you to the FMS team for choosing me as their 'Queen of Clean' for this card last week - I am truly honoured! - and a big 'hello' to the JAI ladies, with whom I haven't found time to play along in several weeks. I have a card that is a little 'something old, something new' - take a look:

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

Something Old - My starting point for today's card was the florals from a new set - more on that in a moment - but I decided to pair them with an old favourite, 'Country Home' as I thought the milk churn in that set would be perfect for these cottage garden florals. I love the 'Country Home' set and have used it many times, with and without the embossing folder I used on today's card too, and it's always nice to give an old favourite a new lease of life by mixing with new items. I stamped my milk churn on some retired galvenised metal cardstock to give it the brushed metallic look and used this for my embossed panel too. 

Something New - The 'something new' are the florals, which feature in the new 'Grace's Garden' stamp set. I am using this bundle in my technique class this month which will now be held online this week for the first time, given the social distancing rules we are now following (I'll let you know how we get on later in the week!) This isn't one of my class cards, but I wanted to be able to give my attendees some ideas of other ways in which they could use their bundle and make some suggestions as to how they could combine with other stamp sets and the FMS sketch was perfect for this. 

Something Borrowed, Something Blue - The 'Something blue' comes from the JAI colour palette (tweaked slightly to suit my Blends collection) and is used in my long floral stocks in the container, one of the circles, the scallop edge ribbon bow and the sequins. These pastels made me think of sugared almonds and Easter in the first instance, but I resisted the urge to go down that route and thought the pastels would be perfect for my pastel cottage garden florals too. Finally, the 'Something borrowed'? A red herring I'm afraid, but my headings wouldn't have made sense without 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Right, I'm running to catch the FMS challenge before the close! Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Country Home Photopolymer Stamp Set (£25.00)	Grace's Garden Bundle (English) (£57.50)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£36.00)	Tin Tile 3D Embossing Folder (£12.00)	Seaside Spray Stampin' Blends Combo Pack (£11.00)
Purple Posy Stampin' Blends Combo Pack (£11.00)	Woven Threads Sequin Assortment (£6.00)	Seaside Spray 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Scalloped Linen Ribbon (£9.75)	Peaceful Moments Cling Stamp Set (English) (£25.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£11.75)
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£7.50)	Seaside Spray A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Purple Posy A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)

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

Cards featuring animals you would find at the zoo! Well, since none of us are able to visit the zoo in the current climate, our gallery this week will be the next best thing! Armed with the current sketch over at the Global Design Project this week I knew exactly where I was headed - take a look:

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

Party Toucan - I had to reach for the Bonanza Buddies suite for my card today and that fun party toucan in particular - I love visiting these colourful birds at the zoo! I used a piece of Bonanza Buddies paper, featuring lions and koala bears too, as the base pattern, then fussy cut one of the larger toucans carrying balloons from another sheet of paper. There isn't much stamping on today's card - just a greeting on the front and then a co-ordinating sentiment inside and another toucan, stamped this time in the corner:

A Doily Banner - The banner that I used from my sentiment on the front of my card is from the Doily Wishes DIe set - it was the perfect size and shape to fit under the stitched circle that I used to back my toucan. 

Twocan Toucan - This card was a quick and easy make and a great storecupboard standby so I decided to make two at the same time as it was not twice the effort once everything was to hand. On my second card I used a different toucan, this time one wearing a party hat:

 I love the bright colours of these fun birthday cards and they are perfect for any gender too. Here's one last photo of both my cards together:

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:

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; we are forecast a warm day here in the UK so we will be undoubtedly spending some of our time outside in the garden. Yesterday was gorgeous and the James girls went for a long bike ride for our daily exercise yesterday, passing all of the sheep in the fields with their newborn lambs, frolicking about without a care in the world. Oh to be a lamb right now! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Birthday Bonanza Designer Series Paper (£14.00)	Bonanza Buddies Photopolymer Stamp Set (£21.00)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£36.00)	Doily Wishes Dies (£42.00)	Banner Triple Punch (£28.00)
Coastal Cabana A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Mango Melody A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Bermuda Bay A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£11.75)

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and Felicita is our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

I went with the vertical column layers/friend/heat embossing this week! I had some of the panels of Pressed Petals designer series paper out on my desk leftover from the cards I shared with you last week and wanted to use them up and thought I would combine it with this week's challenge over at TGIF Challenges (thanks for the pick last week ladies!) where they are looking for projects that are gold-dipped, something I've been wanting to try with my Heirloom Frames 3D embossing folders for a while. So I pulled out my Positive Thoughts stamp set for my sentiment and some background detail on my first card and this is what I came up with:

On this card I used a Night of Navy embossed frame. To achieve the antique-dipped effect, you simply rub the embossed frame with your Versamark pad then sprinkle with gold embossing powder and heat - in some places it sticks and in others the base colour is exposed. For my second card, I used a few more layers on my base instead of background stamping, and used an oval frame heat embossing gold onto Mossy Meadow:

I used the same sentiment and anchored with a Designer Element accent on each. And here's one last photo of both my cards together:

So what do you think? This style of card is quite different for me so whilst I like them, I'm not sure I love them - but it's always good to try something different once in a while! I would love your comments and if vintage is your thing and you think these cards can be improved in any way, I'd love to hear!

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. 

A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge. 

Enjoy your day; on Tuesday I finally took delivery of a new washing machine, having had mine break down completely 10 days ago - what great timing! I knew it was on its way out so I ordered a new one before it went completely, however with the whole country going into lockdown I was afraid that my new machine wouldn't arrive at all. Fortunately the lovely people at John Lewis made it happen and I have spent the last 2 days washing non-stop! I have another 4 loads to do today and then I should be caught up - just the ironing to get stuck into then! At least the weather has been fine enough for me to line dry and no school has meant that the Juniors could wear anything as we had run out of school uniform! It's probably a good job that none of us have had to leave the house though - our outfits were starting to look a little eclectic! I am hoping to get some crafting in today before tackling my ironing mountain (hubby has suggested since no-one can see us we should just go with the crumpled look, but I'm not sure if my standards will allow it!). 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

 To be updated.

Sale-A-Bration may be over for another year, but that's no reason for the excitement to end! From today you can get blooming with an exclusive early release from our new annual catalogue that is due to launch at the beginning of June - the Ornate Garden Suite.

This vintage, floral suite with beautiful spring theme contains two stamp and die bundles, a 3D embossing folder, ribbon combo pack, specialty designer series paper with gold foil detailing and gilded gems. Here are some pictures of the items within the suite:

And here are just some of the lovely samples provided by Stampin' Up! to show it's potential:

There is also a video that you might find useful too:

I will be sharing lots of samples using the suite in due course. In the meantime, head on over to my newly updated Stampin' Up! store that also launches today! 

Back tomorrow with a project (or two!) Until then, happy shopping!

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and as it's the fifth Sunday of the month we have a tic-tac-toe challenge for you to work with:

I'm getting used to the idea of a tic-tac-toe board; my starting point tends to be as many options as possible, so I ended up with 3 lines complete: central row - diecut, spring, birthday, and far right column - DSP, birthday, flowers and lastly the diagonal pink, spring, DSP - talk about over-achiever! I used Amy's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches for my layout (great layout, Amy!) and decided to use one of my favourite new florals for a new purpose - take a look:

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

Crocuses Are Not Just For Easter - I love the 'Easter Promise' stamp set and the crocus stamps. They are perfect for spring and I decided that they would make a pretty birthday card too. I chose my favourite pink, Melon Mambo, for today's card - did you know that you can actually get pink crocuses? I didn't, but Google showed me some so as my kids so often say, well it must therefore be true! I coloured and fussy cut a couple of the bunches for the front of my card, then added the row to the inside for a little extra detail:

Label Me Bold - I used the Happy Birthday from 'Label Me Bold' on today's card; plain block sentiments are perfect for something simple where the florals are the main focus. 

Pretty In Pink Watercolour - I decided to use a rough watercolour to colour my crocuses. I stamped them in Stazon on watercolour paper and then added loose colour in layers, deliberately not keeping inside the lines (which was hard for the perfectionist in me!) and I just love the finished effect:

I added a twine bow and some champagne rhinestones to complete my card. I just LOVE this card - do you ever make a card that totally ticks all of your boxes? This is one of mine!

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:

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; the clocks went forward overnight so we have an hour less today, although in the grand scheme of things at the moment I'm not sure it will matter that much! We spent some time together yesterday completing a fiendishly tricky quiz that Ben has been set by school, so I think this afternoon it might be time to involve the grandparents in our endeavours! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Easter Promise Cling Stamp Set (English) (£18.00)	Label Me Bold Cling Stamp Set (English) (£16.00)	Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£5.50)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Subtle 3D Embossing Folder (£9.25)
Brights 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.75)	Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper (£8.25)	Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Mango Melody Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Jet Black Stāzon Ink Pad (£9.25)	Whisper White Solid Baker's Twine (£3.25)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)

Just popping by with a quick update post for you all; you all know that this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion will end on 31st March and in addition to hosting and joining benefits (you can read about those here) you also earn a free product for every £45/90 spend - you can see the existing items here and here. Please note the Kerchief Card Kit and the Golden Honey Specialty Designer Series Paper are both sold out and no longer available. 

Plenty of good news though: from now until the 31st March, you will also be able to choose from a number of other catalogue items (you must use the special code as detailed as opposed to the usual item code to get one of these items free with a £45/90 spend):

As you can see, this new selection includes some gorgeous Designer Series Paper packs, embellishments, Blends and more that can be yours free with a spend of £45/£90 or more. 

To make things easier for you, I've created a table linking each of the products directly to the promotional item in my online store - just click on the links below:

Red Rhinestone Basic Jewels (X2) (£0.00)	Mini Shipping Boxes (X2) (£0.00)	Follow Your Art Designer Series Paper (£0.00)	Dinoroar Designer Series Paper (£0.00)	Woven Threads Designer Series Paper (£0.00)
Shimmer Detailed Laser-Cut Specialty Paper (£0.00)	Rococo Rose Stampin' Blends Combo Pack (£0.00)	Butterfly Duet Punch (£0.00)	Wild Rose Dies (£0.00)

If you would like more information or to place an order, either go here to purchase from my online store (don't forget to add this month's hostess code RDJNFTTJ) or you can email or telephone me if you would prefer. Please note there will be no local pickups or deliveries at the present time, due to the countrywide lockdown restrictions, but product is shipping as normal and can be posted as usual.

Back tomorrow with a new creative project; until then, happy shopping!