Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players - yay! It's my turn to host this week and I have a clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

Remember in addition to including an apple on your card, this week is a Clean-and-Simple (CAS) challenge!  What do we mean by CAS?

• Minimal layers and embellishments
• Plenty of open space, aka "white" space
• Simple and uncluttered

I decided that for my card this week I was going to pair a little of something old with something new and create a bunch of thank you cards - take a look:

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

A Basket Of Apples - My little basket of apples comes from the Bike Ride set and is cut out with the Build A Bike framelits. This little image works in its own right - not a bike in sight on today's card! It is super quick and easy to stamp as the leaves and apples and basket all have solid images to be stamped to fill in the colour quickly and easily - great for clean and simple cards.

Thanks A Bunch - I layered my basket on a set of layered ovals, with a sentiment from the Beautiful Bouquet stamp set. Ok, so this stamp was designed to work with flowers, but I think it works for apples too!

Buffalo Check Background Made Easy - I know I'm using it again this week, but can you tell I'm loving the new Buffalo Check background stamp? I went with a straightforward single colour stamped image in Granny Apple Green to contrast with the apples - it reminds me of a picnic table cloth!

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

Having completed my full-size card for today, I decided to run off a whole bunch of these using the same design, in both a red and green colourway, to use as my customer thank you cards this month - here are two of my finished cards:

I actually think I prefer the balance of the size/shape of the oval on the lightly smaller card - what do you think? Either way, I like this design so much I think I'll run off a set of co-ordinating bag tags 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:

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; I will be spending mine with a lovely group of ladies on the second day of our weekend residential craft retreat - more about that in tomorrow's post! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Buffalo Check Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£14.00)	Bike Ride Photopolymer Stamp Set (£20.00)	Build A Bike Framelits Dies (£25.00)	Beautiful Bouquet Photopolymer Stamp Set (£25.00)	Layering Ovals Framelits Dies (£33.00)
Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies (£28.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Poppy Parade Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes (£6.00)

Did you miss me? A whole week since I last blogged: having been nurse to the men of the James household the week before, they thoughtfully shared their bugs with the girls and for the latter part of this week Rebecca and I have been suffering and feeling decidedly under the weather with streaming colds. Combined with trying to make the final preparations for my residential craft weekend next week, it's left no time for blogging. Luckily for you it's Sunday, so I've put my box of Kleenex to one side and squeezed in a little creative time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the wonderful Jaydee to host this week and she has an autumnal colour challenge for you to work with:

I immediately thought of sunflowers when I saw Jaydee's colour palette and decided to combine with the challenge over at The Card Concept and use the sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches and got my paper snips out to do a little fussy cutting - take a look:

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

Painted Harvest Sunflower - Painted Harvest has been sat on my shelf and not been used for a long while, so today's card sets out to make amends. I used the mix of Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and Mossy Meadow to create my layered bloom and double-stamped leaves and then fussy cut my flower to add dimension and interest, whilst using my leaf punch to make easy work of the leaves, adding some braided linen trim to finish. 

Customised Buffalo Check - This is my first outing for the fabulous Buffalo Check background stamp that I used for my features panel on the right, which I decided to customise from the off and having stamped it in Cajun Craze on Very Vanilla, I added a line of Mossy Meadow and a line of Crushed Curry either side of this with my Stampin' Write markers to create a more colourful plaid. I can see that this is a stamp that is going to get a lot of use - so many creative possibilities!

So Subtle Texture - After stamping on my sentiment, I ran my Crushed Curry card base through the Big Shot with my Subtles Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder for added texture. It is subtle, for sure, but I am loving the additional detail that this embossing folder gives to otherwise plain backgrounds. I also stamped this sentiment from the Painted Harvest set on the inside to complete my card:

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:

I can't wait to see what you create with this week's colours and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly. We will be focusing all our efforts on beating the lurgy that has descended upon us in the hope that next week is a slightly more productive one! I'll be back soon with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Painted Harvest Photopolymer Stamp Set (£20.00)	Leaf Punch (£15.00)	Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (£9.25)	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Crushed Curry A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Cajun Craze A4 Cardstock (£8.00)
Many Marvelous Markers (£112.75)	Buffalo Check Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£14.00)	3/16" (1 Cm) Braided Linen Trim (£6.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players- yay! It's the turn of the super-talented Sandy to host this week and she has a timely theme challenge for you to work with:

Trees and leaves - perfect for autumn and fall, with so many colours at this time of year. I'm on a festive roll though, so decided to go for a Christmas card - still with leaves though as opposed to a tree or trees, as you might expect. I have another Feathers and Frost card for you, but this time using the leaves only - take a look:

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

No Feathers ... - The Feathers and Frost stamp set features a pair of robins and poinsettia flower as centre pieces for this leaf pattern, but I decided on this card that I wanted the leaves themselves to take centre stage. Don't get me wrong, I love the pair of robins (and have another project that features them lined up for another day) and have featured the flower on this card previously, but for today it's all about the leaves!

A Leaf Triptych - I decided to create a repeating pattern with a triptych of leaves, creating a longer than usual card (my card measures 21cm in length and is 11cm wide) and joining 3 of the leafy squares into a seamless row. I stamped them in my favourite festive green, Shaded Spruce, onto watercolour paper and used an aquapainter to pull some of the outline colour in and give a light wash over each leaf. When this had dried, I them went back in with some extra ink and my aquapainter and added an additional swipe of colour on each leaf. This is a rather labour-intensive way of colouring, but I think it really adds to the loose brushstroke effect of the stamp set.

... But Plenty of Frost - Whilst there's an absence of feathers, my card has plenty of frost - of the sparkly gold kind at least! I used my retired gold Wink of Stella pen to colour the berries in between my green leaves (you could use the new Vegas Gold Shimmer Paint to achieve the same effect) and flicked some across the surface of my card, along with a sprinkling of gold sequins, some loops of gold thread, gold glimmer paper border and finally my sentiment, which I stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in gold on a vellum strip and wrapped it around the centre of my card. Vellum is a great base to add a sentiment to a card where you don't want it to overly obscure the pattern or stamping beneath. It also enables me to link up with the lovely ladies over at Just Add Ink who are challenging us to use vellum on our cards this week - do check them out, they've some great ideas and suggestions on other ways you can use it in your cardmaking too.

 I also did a little co-ordinated stamping on the inside of my card (and remembered to photograph 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. 

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. 

So what do you think? Can you use leaves as the main focus and decoration on a Christmas card to good effect? I'd be interested to here your thoughts - do leave me a comment below. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Feather & Frost Photopolymer Stamp Set (£20.00)	Vegas Gold Shimmer Paint (£7.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.25)	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.75)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)
Gold Metallic Thread (£3.25)	Metallics Sequin Assortment (£4.75)	Watercolor Paper (£4.75)	Gold Glimmer Paper (£4.75)	Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Merry Merlot A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Vellum A4 Cardstock (£8.25)

Hello everyone! I'm starting the week with a couple of news items for you.

Firstly, for papercrafters everywhere, to celebrate World Card Making Day on 6th October Stampin' Up! has a number of products that are available on offer from 1st-7th October with 10% off:

With discounts on cardstock and adhesives, it's a great opportunity to stock up on your cardmaking essentials. There are also some great offers on kits and stamp sets too - why not treat yourself and save a few pennies into the bargain? These offers last for just one week until Sunday 7th October, so get your order in today!

The second piece of news to start off October is that the first wave of Stamparatus accessories is here! The case/bag won't be available until later in the year, but for now you can purchase additional plates, magnets and foam pads, along with new custom-sized grid paper. Here's the complete list:

If you would like to know more about any of the above or would like to place an order, then please do get in touch.  I'll be back tomorrow with a creative post; until then, happy shopping!

Today I have an extra post for you - I've been trying to find the time to share this post since Wednesday but classes and life have gotten in the way! You can see my regular Paper Players post from earlier here. This is  a clean and simple Christmas card using one of my favourite background stamps that is perfect for this week's challenge over at Stamps Ink Paper:

My card also makes use of one of those useful products in the annual catalogue that at fist glance you might have overlooked - more about that in a moment. Here's my card:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

The Perfect Starry Sky - I used the starry background stamp from the Bokeh Dots background stamp set to create a colourful night sky behind the houses on my card. One of the things I like about the Bokeh Dots background stamps is that they are smaller in size and can be used a a feature in their own right on a card, without covering the whole of the cardbase. 

A Rainbow of Colour -  Did you spot the Uninked Spectrum Ink Pads on page 202 of the annual catalogue? Easily overlooked, they can be inked with 5 separate colours of your choice and are particularly handy when paired with a stamp such as the one I've used here to create a night sky with hues of purple through to blue.  What stamps do you have in your collection that you could use with a spectrum ink pad to create colourful ink effects?

Hearts Come Home - I used the smallest of the Hometown Greetings Edgelits to create my border of houses, cutting it out of Whisper White cardstock brushed with a liberal coating of clear Wink of Stella for a subtle sparkle and shine. To finish, I stamped one of my favourite Christmas sentiments from the co-ordinating 'Hearts Come Home' stamp set in Night of Navy - never more approprate than at Christmas time.

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:

Hometown Greetings Edgelits Dies (£30.00)	Hearts Come Home Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£20.00)	Bokeh Dots Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£14.00)	Uninked Spectrum Pad (£11.25)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)
Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.50)	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Balmy Blue Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)
Highland Heather Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Gorgeous Grape Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players - yay! It's the turn of my sweet friend, the lovely LeAnne, to host this week and since it is the fifth week of the month she has a tic-tac-toe challenge for you to work with:

The fun thing about tic-tac-toe are the many creative possibilities the board offers and as you will see from the design team cards this week, there is a wealth of inspiration to choose from. 

I decided that I would go down the centre for my card this week - patterned paper, pumpkin, orange/rust (although by coincidence my card fulfils one of the diagonals of diecut, pumpkin, green too) for my card this week - take a look:

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

Inspired By Country Lane - My card today was inspired by the bold repeating pattern on my sheet of Country Home Designer Series Paper. I used the Mint Macaron green to frame my card and colour my milk churn, and paired it with a small panel of Whisper White that has been embossed with the Softly Falling Textured Impressions Embossing Folder too; it's a little difficult to see in the photo but I wanted to keep the balance of colour light and the panel not too busy.

Blended Country Home - I stamped and partially diecut my filled milk churn using my Stitched Shapes circle thinlit, courtesy of the country Home stamp set, then coloured it with similar shades to the milk churns on the DSP using my Stampin' Blends. I'm really pleased that the seasonal catalogue includes additional shades of these marker pens; they give such a smooth finish. I added a small bow of braided linen trim to finish.

Pick A Pair of Pumpkins - To complete the picture, I added a pair of pumpkins from the retired 'Pick A Pumpkin' stamp set. I heat embossed them both in white onto Basic Grey cardstock, and coloured one of them with my Cajun Craze Blends markers - along with the berries in my milk churn and the thankful sentiment, these are my rust/orange contributions to the tic-tac-toe board.

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 my Fall themed card today; I'm also linking up with the team over at SUO Challenges where the current theme is Nature/Fall. 

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; having spent yesterday dividing my time between hockey, a swimming gala and a fairly hefty jam making session (raspberry jam and chilli jam, in case you're wondering!) to use up the last of my own garden harvest, I'm hoping today will be slightly less hectic! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Country Home Photopolymer Stamp Set (£20.00)	Country Lane 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.25)	3/16" (1 Cm) Braided Linen Trim (£6.50)	Blackberry Bliss Combo Pack Stampin' Blends (£8.50)	Cajun Craze Combo Pack Stampin' Blends (£8.50)
Softly Falling Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (£8.00)	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Blackberry Bliss A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Crushed Curry A4 Cardstock (£8.00)
Cajun Craze Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Old Olive Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Bronze Stampin' Blends Marker (£4.25)	Mint Macaron Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)

Today I'm sharing a card that I designed for this week's challenge over at Just Add Ink. I also used this week's CAS(E) This Sketch layout and coincidentally my card also features the current colour palette over at the Global Design Project:

Here's my card that I created - take a look:

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

Just Add K - I have been enjoying playing along with the team over at Just Add Ink lately but must confess that this week I nearly did not rise to the challenge! Just Add K - despite their helpful suggestions and lovely design team cards, when it came down to it, nothing beginning with K came to mind. Intrigued, since this really did now feel like a challenge, I got a pencil and paper and got my thinking cap on. Not only did I come up with one K, but three. Can you spot them? Yes, my three Ks are Kindness, Kraft and Knots! 

A Label For Everyday - The K for Kindness comes from the sentiment that can be found in the Waterfront stamp set. I stamped it in Blakberry Bliss onto Mint Macaron cardstock and punched it out with my Everyday Label Punch, snipping off the bottom piece and slipping it behind my horizontal coloured strip.

Three Colours - The three colours on my card were inspired by the Nature's Twine that I used for my knots around contrasting strips of coloured cardstock. I also used a piece of Nature's Poem Blackberry Bliss patterned paper for my mat layer. My third and final K is for Kraft (a handy storecupboard neutral). I found this piece of clear pre-embossed kraft cardstock in my scraps box (its retired and I can't remember what it was called) that I decided to use for my central panel for subtle pattern and interest. 

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. 

So what do you think of this card? Whilst it was fun to solve the 'k conundrum', I'm not sure about the end result. The knots are a little rustic for me and this trio of colours is a little harsh. Oh and did I mention that every time I look at the sentiment label I see a tombstone?! Must be the time of year!! Not my finest creation perhaps but I figured I'd share with you anyway to see what you think. Do leave me a comment below - I'm really interested to hear your thoughts!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Waterfront Photopolymer Stamp Set (£16.00)	Nature's Twine (£8.25)	Nature's Poem Designer Series Paper (£10.25)	Share What You Love A4 Cardstock Pack (£8.00)	Everyday Label Punch (£17.00)
Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)

Firstly apologies to anyone who had difficulty accessing my Paper Players post early yesterday; there was a scheduling blip on my part which I hadn't appreciated until later in the evening, so apologies for that. Here's the link to yesterday's post if you missed it - it's a bumper project post too, so definitely worth a look! Back to today - I'm sharing a card for the current challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays that features sequins and I'm using the colours over at CAS Colours and Sketches:

I decided to with a simple fall-inspired shaker card - take a look:

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

Seasonal Patterned Pumpkin Shaker - I have lots of spare sequins in my stash and just happened to have some in Pumpkin Pie, so decided to combine them with a few copper ones to create a simple shaker using the retired Patterned Pumpkin thinlits. I love the pop of bright green that the Granny Apple Green adds to the leaves and tendrils too! 

A Masked Sentiment - I wanted a simple sentiment in keeping with the theme of thankfulness (I could have gone with Halloween I guess, but I know this card will be more useful and these colours reminded me much more of autumn/fall) so inked one of the stamps in the 'Labels To Love' set with my Fresh Fig marker, omitting the branches above and below it. This is the only stamping on the front of my card, although I did use my markers to selectively colour a pumpkin from the 'Seasonal Chums' set to decorate the inside of my card too:

So Subtle Texture - The last feature of today's card is the subtle embossed texture that I added to my card base and orange banner piece, courtesy of the new Subtle 3D Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. I finally caved and bought this embossing folder as I've seen so many wonderful cards that feature it, many from my lovely Paper Players teamie LeAnne over at WeeInklings (thank for being my enabler LeAnne - I think!) I must say, I'm not at all disappointed; whilst a little difficult to see on the dark colours of today's card, it adds a wonderful subtle texture that 

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:

Subtle Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (£9.25)	Window Sheets (£4.75)	Foam Adhesive Strips (£7.25)	Metallics Sequin Assortment (£4.75)	Labels To Love Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£20.00)
Seasonal Chums Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£20.00)	Fresh Fig A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	2017-2019 In Color Stampin' Write Markers (£13.75)
Many Marvelous Markers (£112.75)	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock (£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 fabulously creative Jaydee to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge, for you to work with:

I decided to continue getting a headstart on my Christmas card making preparations (so my projects are perfect for the challenge over at TGIF Challenges too this week) and spent a few hours making a more involved boxed Christmas card with a matching gift box too. First things first - here's my card:

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

Diagonal Swirly Snowflake Border - Whilst I love a good sketch, I often struggle with the concept of a diagonal. I decided to alter the dimensions of Jaydee's sketch and create a horizontal fold out card as I wanted to use my Swirly Snowflakes Thinlits Dies to create a layered diagonal edge and I needed the extra width to balance my card and fit the entire border in (I'm sure she will allow me this liberty ;-) ). I snipped away the straight edge of my copper foil snowflakes and added a sentiment embossed in white, before adding my embellishment (more on that below). My card opens from the right to reveal a complete panel of my favourite copper-embossed Joyous Noel Specialty Designer Series Paper, then the left hand side lifts to reveal the sentiment inside, embellished with a narrow strip of copper washi tape:

Christmas Copper Snowflakes - I created a layered embellishment on the front of my card, using one of the copper snowflake wire elements as the centrepiece. I layered this with a Shimmery White diecut from the Eastern Medallions Thinlits set, with a centre of a clear epoxy droplet on a copper sequin, all layered up on a fancy double bow in the gorgeous Merry Merlot and Copper Reversible Ribbon. This showy embellishment adds a lot of dimension to the front of my card, so much so that it wouldn't fit in a standard envelope. Instead, I made a box with a co-ordinating belly band closure:

A Gift Box To Match - This kind of card takes a little while to make and is destined for someone who I know will appreciate the effort and time taken to create it. Whilst I was fully 'in the zone', I decided to create a co-ordinating gift box with a magnetic closure. The box measures approx. 15cm x 6cm x 5cm, so not huge but large enough for a small gift to accompany my card. I created a triangular box with a decorative flap created using the Swirly Snowflakes Thinlits for the border detail, based on this one I'd seen on Pinterest. I decorated the front panel of my box with more of that gorgeous Joyous Noel DSP too: 

And here's one last photo of all three of my project elements together - I hope you will agree, a lovely Christmas set in rich, festive colours:

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. 

Thank you Jaydee for a great sketch - who would have thought that it would have resulted in 3 projects in one go!

Enjoy your day; the weather has been dreadful here the past couple of days so I'm hoping I get the longer straw and get to stay home and craft whilst hubby takes the James Juniors to hockey trials this afternoon. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Snowflake Sentiments Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£20.00)	Swirly Snowflakes Thinlits Dies (£28.00)	Joyous Noel 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	Snowflakes & Stars Wire Elements (£7.00)	Merry Merlot & Copper 5/8" (1.6 Cm) Reversible Ribbon (£7.00)
Frosted & Clear Epoxy Droplets (£8.25)	Metallics Sequin Assortment (£4.75)	Merry Merlot A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Copper Foil Sheets (£3.75)	Shimmery White A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Eastern Medallions Thinlits Dies (£31.00)

I had a busy day yesterday, having been treated to a rare breakfast catch up with my sister-in-law, and lots of work and prep in between chasing various items around the garden in the face of the terrific winds we've been having here in the UK at the moment. I finished my day by hosting a Stampin' Up! party for the lovely Jane and her crafty friends yesterday evening to share all things Christmas.

Today I'm squeezing in another entry for the current challenge over at at As You See It where the team are all about getting back to basics with stamps, ink and paper:

I always send a card out to my customers when I mail them a new catalogue with a 'sneak peek' of what's inside. This is one of my big mass production exercises of the year though, so it needs to be something simple to enable me to get a large volume churned out within a reasonable time frame - yet I still want it to be pretty and have impact. Here's this year's Autumn-Winter catalogue card:

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

Back To Basics - The theme over at As you See It this week is 'Back To Basics', creating cards using little more than stamps. ink and paper. There is something liberating though about creating with just stamps, ink and paper and it is fun to be able to share creations from time to time like this. They can be quick(er!) to create and show that it's still possible to create something pretty without needing a ton of supplies. My card uses only 5 items: a blank card base, two ink colours, one stamp set and one (optional) embellishment - basic supplies indeed! The 'Wishing You Well' stamp set is perfect for this kind of card; it's one of Stampin' Up!'s Distinktive stamps, where you can ink your stamp once yet create different opacities in a single stamped image, giving the illusion of dimension. The wreath and bow look layered, even though they have been stamped only once. Clever, right?

Mass Production Made Easy With The Stamparatus - My simple wreath with stamped bow and sentiment would be easy to stamp in multiples even if I did it 'freehand', but the days of that kind of mass-production are long gone for me now that I am the proud owner of the best ever stamping positioning tool, Stampin' Up!'s Stamparatus - this tool makes light work of this kind of stamping! I placed my wreath on one plate and my bow and sentiment on another, then inked and stamped without needing to reposition and got my simple stamping done in record time!

Add A Pearl - Or Thirteen - The dimensional inking of these stamps means that I could have just left my card as is, but I decided to add a sprinkling of tiny seed pearls throughout my wreath, a little like mistletoe berries, for some added interest. It seems despite my extensive ribbon collection, I'm more of a magpie - I can't resist a little sparkle or shimmer.

And The Winner Is ... I've been running a fun competition with my customers over on my Facebook page to see if they could guess correctly how long it took me to make 40 of these cards with the help of my Stamparatus. Well, the answer is just 17 minutes and 21 seconds - it took me longer than that to stick all of the pearls on afterwards! I'm pleased to announce the winner of my competition is Barbara Civil who guessed 17 minutes and 50 seconds - clearly already a seasoned Stamparatus user! Samantha Daglish gets the runner-up prize for her best guess of 7 minutes and 7 seconds; I'm afraid I'm just not that good however that is my new target! Congratulations both of you; look out for the postman as there will be a little something in the post to each of you to thank you for playing along this week!

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; I have another day of prep, in readiness for an in-home kit party that I'm hosting for a group of friends this evening, although I am minus one of my James Juniors as Ben has gone to the Peak District for a few days with school on an outward bound trip so have a few less school runs for the next few days. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Wishing You Well Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£18.00)	Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)	Pearl Basic Jewels (£4.75)
Stamparatus (£46.00)