I've had a busy couple of days but I wanted to pop by with a quick card that I made for this week's sketch challenge over at CAS(E) This Sketch:

Did you know that the new Project Life accessory packs now include a set of photopolymer stamps? I used the ones in the All Year Long pack to create a little notelet - take a look:

I stamped each of the little seasonal stamps and heat embossed the sentiment in gold, added a gold frame and mounted on a Crumb Cake base. Super simple, super quick!

I'll be back tomorrow with a card for this week's challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

All Year Long Project Life Accessory Pack	Gold Foil Sheets	Crumb Cake A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Versamark Pad
Embossing Buddy	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool (Uk)

Happy Monday everyone! Today I have the first of this month's technique classes featuring the 'Touches of Texture' stamp set and I'm sharing one of the cards that we will be making, that is based on this week's Paper Craft Crew Challenge sketch:

Here is my card:

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

Touches of Texture - Touches of Texture is one of a number of stamp sets in the annual catalogue that are all about artistic expression. The stamp set features three outline florals, a bee, a dragonfly and then a number of textured stamps that can be used in lots of creative ways. It's a great stamp set for a beginner, as there are no real rights or wrongs; no need to align the stamps precisely and you can achieve a different look each time. For this card I used the large flower head and infilled it with Cajun Craze, having added a little Early Espresso to the flower centre with a sponge dauber before stamping. I used the fine splatter behind the flower on my punched circle in Delightful Dijon, the more dense splatter in Emerald Envy on my card base for some tone-on-tone texture and lastly the dragonfly, which I fussy cut and added a little clear Wink of Stella to its wings. 

A Touch of Morocco - The ladies that attended my Moroccan Nights class last month really enjoyed using the papers and colours of the product suite and rediscovering the use of washi tape in their cardmaking, so I've continued the theme this month with similar colours and using some of the Moroccan Designer Series Paper behind my flower and some of the co-ordinating washi tape for the vertical stripe and to decorate the inside of my card and the envelope. 

Thoughtful Banners - I make more thank you cards than any other and today's card features the sweet thank you from the Thoughtful Banners stamp set, set inside a stamped banner and punched out with the co-ordinating Duet Banner punch. Another of the great bundled pairs to be found in the annual catalogue, with a saving of 10% if you buy both items together - yay!

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 off to the cinema with the James Juniors this afternoon to watch the BFG; enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Touches Of Texture Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Moroccan Designer Series Paper	Moroccan A4 Cardstock	Moroccan Designer Washi Tape	Layering Circle Framelits Dies
Thoughtful Banners Photopolymer Bundle	Delightful Dijion Classic Stampin' Pad	Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Emerald Envy Classic Stampin' Pad
Emerald Envy 3/8" (1 Cm) Ruched Ribbon	Blender Pens	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have a fun theme for you to play along with:

I decided to choose something really open-ended with my 'you light up my life' theme - from sunshine to light bulbs and everything in between, so long as your card includes a source of light, real or artificial, it will fit the bill for my challenge this week! I decided to try something that I've been wanting to have a go at for a while - an actual light-up card! Take a look:

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

A Jar of Light and Love - I decided to watercolour a little scene for my card, stamping my large Jar of Love as the temporary home for my fireflies. I did all my stamping in Archival Black ink onto watercolour paper, then coloured my image using my inks and an aquapainter. I didn't worry about being too precise with my watercolouring as I wanted that fluid, loose feel. I also added a few tiny dots representing more fireflies in the distance with my white gel pen and some Dazzling Diamonds glitter to my firefly wings with my fine tip glue pen. 

A Fire Fly Glow - Mr James is passionate about electronics and the James Juniors are really into circuits and creating things and, amongst other things, they have made cute light-up houses with their circuit pens previously; I have been wanting to have a go at 'drawing' my own circuit and using it to incorporate lights into my card for a while so for today's card, I raided hubby's electronics supply of LEDs, circuit pens, copper tape and batteries to create my very own circuit and give my fireflies a bright glow. The circuit sits behind the image panel and when you press on the sentiment tab it completes the circuit and the fireflies light up like this:

Isn't that just so much fun?! It really wasn't that tricky to do and does create a fun element to your card, although it can work out expensive if you need to purchase lots of electronics supplies, so this is definitely a card to send to someone special.

Meadow Grass - To create the grassy ground for my jar to sit on, I used the flower stems stamp and grass from the 'In the Meadow' stamp set. The loose, sketchy style of this set fitted perfectly with my jar and watercoloured scene. I stamped the flower stamp twice, masking the stamp the second time I stamped it so that my grasses would taper away across my card.

I'm linking today's card up with the team over at Just Add Ink where the theme is 'Just Add F' or things beginning with F - in my case, fireflies.

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 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 my theme this week. I am spending the day at home today, taking it easy; the James Juniors had a friend each over to camp in the garden last night so a late night and early morning will undoubtedly have been had by all! Daddy was on camp out too, so he will have fared the worst; I suspect much of today will be spent surviving until we can all have an early bedtime, but this kind of fun is most definitely what summer holidays should be about!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Jar Of Love Photopolymer Stamp Set	In The Meadow Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad	Aqua Painters	Watercolor Paper
Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	So Saffron A4 Cardstock	So Saffron Classic Stampin' Pad	Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Pad
Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad	Always Artichoke Classic Stampin' Pad	Perfect Plum Classic Stampin' Pad	Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad
Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter	Fine-Tip Glue Pen

Today I'm excited to be sharing another card I've made using the new Thoughtful Branches bundle, an exclusive set that will be available for a limited time only 2-31 August. As I mentioned earlier in the week, having been on vacation for most of July I had to wait patiently to come home and play with my pre-order set. I have tons of ideas for this set (you can see my card and home decor frame that I made earlier in the week here and here if you missed them) and for me the apple tree alone is enough to sell it - this will be my new 'go to' set for teacher's cards for sure - however the card that I want to share today isn't one I designed - it is a CASE of the one that the super-talented Brian King submitted to our challenge over at The Paper Players a couple of weeks ago.

So what is a CASE? Well, it can mean a couple of things: 'Copy And Share Everything', where you literally make a copy of the card that you see, or 'Copy And Selectively Edit', where you take the things from the card that inspires you and create something that has some foundation in the original card but the end result can look quite different. My card today uses the first definition - I've changed the colours and stamp choice, but my card is virtually identical to Brian's. Here's the link to Brian's original blog post that gives the detail on how he made his card and here is a photograph of it, reproduced with kind permission from Brian:

I just love this card and so wanted to create my own version in an alternative colourway - here's my card:

So what is about Brian's card that I love so much? I guess if I had to choose just three things they would be:

Perfect Layering - Brian is the King (no pun intended!) of Layers and often uses them to great effect on his cards and this one is no exception. The smaller layered panel behind the large bloom adds a bold block of colour that further accentuates the detail of the diecut.

Interesting Details - Brian chose a number of different ways to add interest to his bloom, using texture, lift and shine. He could have just diecut the bloom and left it 'naked' - but he is far too considered for that! The details added are what takes this bloom from 'pretty' to 'pretty spectacular' in my book! I inked my bloom with the stamp from the set as opposed to the textured stamp that Brian used, but did use the additional diecuts for lift and a liberal dose of clear Wink of Stella for shine.

Vertical Sentiment - Whilst this wasn't Brian's original intention, I think the size and script of the font really lend themselves to a vertical orientation. Sometimes a 'happy accident' is all it takes to create design genius!

I chose to use Dapper Denim for my hydrangea, coupled with Mint Macaron, Very Vanilla and Tip Taupe Taupe, the same colour combination I used recently for this card here. Feel free to save this combination if it's one that appeals to you 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. 

Thank you Brian for allowing me to share your card today and create my own CASE'd version - this was a worthy 'top pick' for sure and if Sandy hadn't got there before me it would most certainly have been mine!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Thoughtful Branches Photopolymer Bundle	Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock	Dapper Denim A4 Cardstock	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock
Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Pad	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a colour combination for you:

I decided it was time to break out my Flourish Thinlits for my card today - take a look:

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

Frame With a Flourish - The Flourish Thinlits were on my 'must have' list when I saw the new catalogue - I think they are just lovely and you can create so many leaf and flower combinations with them, with or without the co-ordinating Flourishing Phrases stamp set. What's more, their detail can provide a great centrepiece, with not a lot else required. Here I cut mine in Mint Macaron and paper-pieced the flower heads in Rich Razzleberry, adding some clear Wink of Stella for shimmer.

Just a Note - I stamped my sentiment, from the Flourishing Phrases stamp set, in Rich Razzleberry in a 2" punched circle. There isn't much of this bright purple on my card, but where it appears it plays an important role: the sentiment, to highlight the flower petals and to create a border for my base. With two strong purple colours, less is definitely more in my book!

Pearls A Plenty - I added some doily behind my sentiment and a piece of Sweet Sugarplum ribbon, with an abundance of large pearls as 'berries' on my flourish. For some reason I rarely use this size of pearl and have an excess of them; luckily for me, they fit the circular berry spots perfectly.

A simple card where the sentiment could be switched out for lots of different occasions. 

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. 

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's colours; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

Enjoy your day; I'm going swimming and then to the park for some outdoor fun! I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Flourishing Phrases Clear-Mount Bundle	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock	Sweet Sugarplum A4 Cardstock	Sweet Sugarplum 3/8" (1 Cm) Ruched Ribbon
Rich Razzleberry A4 Cardstock	Rich Razzlebberry Classic Stampin' Pad	2" (5.1 Cm) Circle Punch	Pearl Basic Jewels	Delicate White Doilies

Happy Wednesday everyone! As promised, I have another project today using the limited time stamp set and thinlits bundle 'Thoughtful Branches' - a home decor frame that includes my family tree. As soon as I saw this set I knew it would be perfect for a family tree idea that I've had in mind for a while, so combined with my 'Letters For You' stamp set and co-ordinating Large Letters Framelits I set to work. Here is my finished project:

This is a rather large project - it has a finished frame size of 9" x 19 3/4" - so was something of a challenge to photograph - but I absolutely love it! 

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

Letters For You - I recently invested in this letters bundle - 'invested' being the key word here, as at £119.50 the bundle is the most expensive in the catalogue - but so worth it for projects like this one. The set has the whole alphabet along with useful punctuation and just like the Large Numbers Framelits and Number of Years stamp set, it is a set that can be used for so many projects and is timeless - a definite 'keeper'. I stamped my letters in Early Espresso and cut them out using my Big Shot and co-ordinating framelits, then substituted the 'I' in 'FAMILY' with my family tree.

Thoughtful Branches Tree - I stamped and cut out my tree trunk, then in order to create a tree big enough to comfortably accommodate my family members, I cut three treetops and layered them to create a fuller tree. Each one was backed with another base (so I cut 6 tree tops in all) for rigidity and I layered them together for added dimension. 

Family Touches - I stamped the names of each of my family members in black onto Whisper White cardstock using the modern Labeler Alphabet and cut them out by hand, then placed them in my tree in descending order of age and with a couple of birds to identify the parents and the apples identifying my children. Here's a close up of the tree so that you can see all of the elements in more detail:

This took longer to work out and put together than explain - but I am so pleased with the end result and am looking forward to hanging it on the wall. You are so going to want to get the Thoughtful Branches Bundle this month!

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 linking today's project up with the team over at SUO Challenges where the theme this week is 'Delightful Dies' - the two I've used on this project are definitely firm favourites.

Enjoy your day; I'm off for a bike ride and some fresh air whilst the unpredictable British weather holds! I'll be back tomorrow with this week's new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Thoughtful Branches Photopolymer Bundle	Letters For You Photopolymer Bundle	Labeler Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi A4 Cardstock	Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock
Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad

Today is the day of the release of the exclusive limited time stamp set Thoughtful Branches! Available now until 31 August, you have just one month to get your hands on this set and its co-ordinating framelits too! Here's a close up of the images and framelits in more detail:

I am playing catch up with this beautiful set; due to my recent vacation I pre-ordered late, but I've been making up for lost time! I couldn't leave today without sharing a quick project using this fabulous and versatile set:

This is a quick teacher thank you card, inspired by a recent one I saw by Erica Cerwin (you can see her original card here). I actually made this card with the pieces I had left over from the project that I'm going to share with you tomorrow - it is rather lovely even if I do say so myself so do come by then, as you won't want to miss it!

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Thoughtful Branches Photopolymer Bundle	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Writing Notes Clear-Mount Background Stamp	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine

Happy Monday everyone! Week 2 of the long school summer holiday! I managed to get some quality craft time over the weekend, so have a few things to share with you this week. The first is a card for this week's CASology challenge:

This week's cue card is 'journey'. I've been having fun playing along with this challenge when I can as it's a great opportunity both to hone my CAS card style and have fun, as there are often numerous ways the cue card can be interpreted. The design team are also awesome with amazing cards each week - you should definitely check them out! So with 'journey' it didn't take me long to get to thinking about transport, but I still managed to make a slightly quirky interpretation; take a look:

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

Is it a star? No it's a plane! - I decided to go with a simple notecard and paper aeroplane for my card today. It reminded me of my schooldays, when I spent far too much time sending notes across the classroom to my class mates via this mode of transport. But I digress! My paper aeroplane today comes from the 'Shooting star' stamp set and is easily cut out with the co-ordinating Sliding Star Framelit Dies. I added a dotted trail using a retired stamp from the 'Cool Kid' set, but you could just as easily hand draw this in with your Basic Black Stampin' Write marker.

Airmail Border - I decided that I would use an airmail-type border around the edge of my notecard base to tie in with the postal theme, but on hunting for a suitable stamp that would give me the alternating red, white and blue stripes I was looking for and failing to come up with anything suitable, I decided instead to use my retired striped stencil and sponge in the alternating colours to create my border. It worked a treat! Here's a picture showing you how I did it:

Just A Note - Despite the simplicity of my notecard, I managed to use three stamp sets! My third set is 'Picture Perfect' and this is where I found my simple sentiment to finish my card. I stamped it in Pacific Point and finished with a Real Red enamel shape heart to complete my visual triangle.

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. 

A fun notecard that would be useful for any little notes that you want to send. I might actually use this card to send a note to one of my blog friends who lives across the pond - it seems a fitting card for that kind of journey!

That's all from me today; I have a child-free day today as I am attending a business function; the James Juniors are looking forward to spending the day with Granny and Ollie dog, as he is on vacation with her whist my brother-in-law and his family are holidaying abroad. I'll be back tomorrow with another project and news of the new Thoughtful Branches set that will be available to order; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Shooting Star Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Sliding Star Framelits Dies	Picture Perfect Photopolymer Stamp Set	Brights Enamel Shapes
Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Laurie to host this week and she has a fun tic-tac-toe board challenge for us to play along with:

I have been rather time-pressed this week - the joys of school summer holidays! - so although I knew what I wanted to do with today's challenge, it took me some time to find the time to get to my desk to make it! For my card this week I decided to go with the middle column of Laurie's card and create something that was reminiscent of warm, sunny summer days, with the help of this week's sketch over at Global Design Project - take a look:

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

A Serene Scene Indeed - I chose to use a piece of the beautiful Serene Scenery designer series paper for my card today. The photographic images in this paper stack are just so beautiful, they really don't need much other than a sentiment to finish a card. Inspired by nature, there are several images that feature sunshine in this pack and for this card I decided to go with this grassy field, with its warm summer glow. I made my card larger than usual (the finished card measures 14.9cm x 21cm) as I wanted to feature as much of this beautiful paper as possible.

Sunshine Says It All - I used a 'sunshine' diecut sentiment from the Sunshine Wishes die set to finish my card. I toyed with adding the rest of my sentiment using the Sunshine Sayings stamp set to the front of my card, but decided to stamp it inside instead as I really wanted to keep the front as clean as possible. I will let you into a little secret though: in hindsight it should be set a little more to the left, so that it doesn't get as absorbed into my white mat layer, but with no time to go back and start again I'm going to have to live with it! Sshhh - don't tell ;-)

Sunny Honey - The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that my card base looks a little light for the Delightful Dijon that this paper stack co-ordinates with; the mustard yellow made my card look more autumnal than summery, so I took a piece of my retired in-colour cardstock in Hello Honey to get the colour I was looking for. It always help to stockpile a little retired cardstock for such instances - and I know I'm not the only one! I finished with a sliver of Old Olive cardstock and some Delightful Dijon ribbon for my banners, and a Classy Designer Button threaded with Old Olive baker's twine.

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

Family calls so I'm off to get back to having fun of the non-crafting kind! One last thing: don't forget today is the last day that you can take advantage of the July Bonus days offer; if you are placing an order online, make sure you use this month's hostess code 63RNATE3 when prompted to get a little thank you in the post from me. This hostess code will be closing tonight at 8pm, so be sure to get your orders in before then. I look forward to seeing what you create with Laurie's board this week.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Serene Scenery Designer Series Paper Stack	Sunshine Wishes Thinlits Dies	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Classy Designer Buttons	Old Olive Baker's Twine
Delightful Dijon 5/8" (1.6 Cm) Mini Striped Ribbon	Old Olive A4 Cardstock

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a sketch for you:

For my card today I decided on one of my personal must-have sets from the new catalogue - the Sunshine Sayings stamp set and co-ordinating Sunshine Wishes Thinlit Dies - take a look:

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

Sunshine Sayings & Wishes - This is a stamp set and thinlit combination that so appeals to me: easy to use florals, lots of good sentiment combinations and thinlit greetings - my favourite! I stamped the flower in Soft Sky for my background, and overlaid it with a diecut flower in Bermuda Bay and greeting, which I cut out of Whisper White and gave a graduated wash of Melon Mambo with my aquapainter. I also added some Melon Mambo ribbon behind and a trio of enamel dots for additional pops of pink.

Inspired Colour Combo - The colour combination for my card today was inspired by the 'Penned and Painted' samples on page 143 of the annual catalogue. I loved the fresh colours with a pop of pink - feel free to pin it if it's one that appeals to you too:

Playful Backgrounds - For the diagonal lines in the sketch, I used one of the stamps in the 'Playful Backgrounds' stamp set. This set was our all-attendee giveaway at Onstage in April and it is useful for this kind of background stamp detail - a fresh take on 'Gorgeous Grunge', if you will.

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. 

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's sketch; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

Don't forget you've only a few more days to take advantage of the Bonus Days money-off coupon offer - for full details click here.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: