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:

I feel like I need to start off with an apology for the sheer amount of different stamp sets and general bits and pieces that I've used on today's card! The truth is, I pulled out everything I had that fitted the recipe ... then used most of it on my card! Take a look:

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

Blue Birthday Wishes - I couldn't resist the colours over at Global Design Project #GDP257 this week - they were my favourite colour duo that I used for the last AYSI Challenge, with the addition of Misty Moonlight, so I decided to use them on my card for this challenge, but this time to create a card that was anything but Christmas, even though it does use some seasonal product. I used the sketch at Paper Craft Crew for my layout, where the oval was perfect for showcasing a birthday 'B' from the Monogram Messages set. 

Butterfly Gala Beauty - I originally intended to use the little butterfly in the Monogram Messages set for my butterfly, but it was too small. Instead I went for a layered butterfly from 'Butterfly Gala', with one punched in Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper for a sparkly base and then another stamped in Misty Moonlight and clear embossed on vellum, with the detail coloured with Highland Heather Blends and embellished with a Balmy Blue Gilded Gem - so pretty:

Recipe Check and An Inside Finish - So that has birthday sentiment and butterfly covered, along with both diecut (stitched shapes oval) and punch. The circles were courtesy of the bokeh dots from another butterfly stamp set, 'Beauty Abounds'; I stamped them tone-on-tone in Highland Heather on my card base, and carefully went over each one with my clear Wink of Stella pen for extra sparkle. For my DSP I used a strip of Balmy Blue/Highland Heather watercoloured paper from the Snowflake Splendor pack, and overlaid it with some polka dot tulle ribbon (more circles!). That was my recipe complete - and as if I didn't have enough out on my desk already, I added a sentiment from yet another stamp set, 'So Sentimental', for my inside greeting:

A twine bow and some blue gilded gems as well, I really went to town with this card - you can only imagine the state of my desk when it came to clear up 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. 

 A pretty result though that show the versatility of these colours I think too. An interesting challenge for me too - I've decided I don't use butterflies much on my cards these days, so I really need to try and use them more often!

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.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

MONOGRAM MESSAGES CLING STAMP SET (£19.00)	STITCHED SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	BUTTERFLY GALA PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)	BUTTERFLY DUET PUNCH (£17.00)	BEAUTY ABOUNDS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£21.00)
BANNERS PICK A PUNCH (£21.00)	BLUE ADHESIVE-BACKED GEMS (£7.50)	BALMY BLUE GLIMMER PAPER (£4.75)	SNOWFLAKE SPLENDOR DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	WHISPER WHITE 5/8" (1.6 CM) POLKA DOT TULLE RIBBON (£7.00)
WINK OF STELLA CLEAR GLITTER BRUSH (£7.50)	HIGHLAND HEATHER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	HIGHLAND HEATHER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	MISTY MOONLIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MISTY MOONLIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	CLEAR STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	VELLUM A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.25)	STAMPIN' BLENDS HIGHLAND HEATHER COMBO PACK (£8.50)	FLOWERS FOR EVERY SEASON RIBBON COMBO PACK (£9.25)

Today I'm sharing a super quick clean and simple card for a few challenges:

Thursday already?! I've tried to write this post since Tuesday and I've barely come up for air! So I'm getting to it now before I head back out on the school run again!! I started with those rich Autumn colours over at Fab Friday and the Festive Friday Inspo List - I chose leaves, acorns, squirrels, stitching and brown - to make a card inspired by the changing seasons - take a look:

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

Sights and Sounds of Autumn - The above challenges were perfect for an Autumnal card and I decided to go super simple with mine - that's where the Banner Year' stamp set comes in. Easily overlooked because of the fabulous banner punch that it pairs with, it has lots of fun images and is great for creating seasonal cards for this time of year. Each of the four images, and the sentiment on this card, comes from this set. 

Rich Colours - Sometimes a restricted colour palette is a great way to create focus on your project. I used each of the colours and either stamped the image wholly in one colour, in pairs of colours or for the leaf I created a proper leaf full of autumn colour by sponging the stamp in all three colours to create a variegated effect.

September - My card is so simple there really isn't anything else to add - except that I am also linking up with the lovely peeps over at CASology where the theme is 'September' - my September is full of birthdays, back to school, class and retreat preparation, but is also a time as I drive through the countryside on my school run to admire the colouring of the falling leaves and squirrels (sadly only grey ones here in the UK) as they go about their pre-hibernation activities 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. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BANNER YEAR PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)	STITCHED SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	CINNAMON CIDER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	CINNAMON CIDER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
BUMBLEBEE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	CAJUN CRAZE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

Yay - a second post! Just popping by with a quick post to share the second card I made with Narelle's great sketch this week over at Freshly Made Sketches:

Whilst I tried to channel my 'inner Narelle' with my first card (she truly is the queen of beautiful florals), this card was an attempt to add to my Christmas card stash and use up some of my leftover retired products: 

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

I had some of these retired Joyous Noel papers leftover from one of my weekend craft retreats the year before last, along with the copper glimmer paper and the Festive Farmhouse wooden sentiments and thought the layout was perfect. I'm actually going to colour a few more of the wooden sentiments and make up a few more of these in other colourways with other papers in the pack. Super simple and packed with sparkle; such a great sketch from Narelle this week!

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

Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm sharing a card that I made using this week's Color Throwdown colours with the great sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I saw those vertical panels and decided that I'd get creative with some dies and use a new-to-me stamp set for the first time - take a look:

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

All Things Fabulous - I was attracted to the 'All Things Fabulous' stamp set because of the dimension you get simply by stamping as it is a three-step stamp set, with each of the flowers being made up of three layers. It did take a little practice to produce my first set of blooms (I found it easiest to start with the most detailed piece in the darkest colour, and work outwards rather than the other way around) but I was really pleased with the result - so pretty! I can see me having lots more fun with this set.

A Die Trick - The co-ordinating Fabulous Florals Dies cut out each of the flowers, buds and leaf stamps, but also include an intricate diecut border piece that I thought would make a pretty detail for the vertical element of the sketch. How to achieve two pieces of differing lengths, that still looked like a complete piece (there is a pattern to the diecut)? The solution: cut the diecut across the centre and overlap the central piece, so that the shorter vertical has three points on each side instead of four (quite difficult to explain - hopefully if you look closely at the photo you can see what I mean!) The joint was covered my my sentiment banner, so not even visible.

All About The Bundle - This card really is all about the bundle and the trio of colours I've used on my card; I considered using some designer paper or even a coloured base, but decided that the best way to truly allow the bundle and those colours to shine was to keep things simple and go with white diecuts on a white base, to really allow the stamped images and that lovely sentiment to shine.

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. Today it's all happening here in the James household - one of the James Juniors is back to school and one of us is also celebrating a birthday today (happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me!!). So we are back to the school run, but the youngest Junior and I did venture out for breakfast today and I have a Colin the Caterpillar cake to look forward to this evening, so it's all good! I loved this week's FMS sketch and I made another super simple card with it using up some retired product, so if I get the chance I'll share it with you in a quick post later; if not I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

ALL THINGS FABULOUS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£44.00)	WHISPER WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	RICH RAZZLEBERRY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BLACKBERRY BLISS CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
OLD OLIVE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	PEARL BASIC JEWELS (£4.75)

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

I have lots of birthdays this month and one of those is my Dad's. I made his card from me earlier this week (you can see that card here if you missed it) but I needed to make another one for the James Juniors to send to Grandpa, so Jaydee's theme is perfect timing! I used Julee's Mojo Monday sketch for my layout and set to work - take a look:

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

Way To Goat - I decided to make a fun and colourful card using the 'Way To Goat' stamp set, so paired my serious-looking stamped goat with some retired party-themed papers (I especially like the partially eaten doughnut, given the sentiment!) for some birthday wishes.

Another Way To Personalise - There are lots of layers on this card and I wanted the main sentiment to be the humorous one highlighted in the circle about the cake-eating goat. I wanted to be able to reference Grandpa too though (the stamp is from the retired set 'For My Family'), so decided to use some tone-on-tone stamping onto one of my layers. You can't see the whole word anywhere, but it's stamped enough times that you get the gist.

Crossing A Line? - I have been having lots of debates with the ladies attending my weekly Zoom sessions about this stamp set and how old you have to be for this stamp set to be funny - or equally, for it to be seen to be crossing a line. It's not the sentiment that I used on the front of my card that's up for the debate - rather the one that I used on the inside:

Personally, I think this set is hilarious - and I may or may not have been teasing my mother-in-law (who also has her birthday this month and is the same age as my Dad!) that I am going to use it to make a card for her birthday too, much to her dismay! My Dad has absolutely no interest in stamping so he won't have seen this set, so the children and I are looking forward to seeing his reaction when he opens his card! What do you think - funny or too close to the mark? 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 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 be enjoying our final day of the long summer holiday for one of the James Juniors, who returns to school on Monday (Junior Number 2 isn't back until Wednesday) and doing things such as polishing shoes and packing school bags, for the first time complete with face masks. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

WAY TO GOAT CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£18.00)	STITCHED SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	RECTANGLE STITCHED DIES (£33.00)	BERMUDA BAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BERMUDA BAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	STAMPIN BLENDS SMOKY SLATE COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CRUMB CAKE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS BERMUDA BAY COMBO PACK (£8.50)

Today I have a quick post to share a card I made that was inspired by the following challenges:

I was totally inspired by the CASE The Designer Challenge over at Global Design Project this week and actually CASEd Kayla's card twice (I'll hopefully share the second one with you tomorrow); for this card I used the Colour Dare's red, white and blue colour palette and combined another of those cute Gnomes from the 'Gnome For The Holidays' set with one of the little houses from the Home Together Dies to create my faux embossed background - take a look:

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

I thought these houses would make a cute background to compliment the 'no place like gnome' sentiment, especially with the little heart cut outs. I paired these with a label from the Hippo and Friends Dies and a variety of red, white and blue ribbons and twine to decorate my card. The little hearts from the centres didn't go to waste - I used some of them to add to the inside of my card for a little extra border decoration:

Creating a faux embossed background using diecuts is a fun alternative way to use your dies. I'm also linking today's card up with the team over at SUO Challenges where they are all about dies and punches 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 and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

GNOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£18.00)	HOME TOGETHER DIES (£32.00)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)
TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS NIGHT OF NAVY COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS BRONZE & IVORY COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN BLENDS SMOKY SLATE COMBO PACK (£8.50)
STAMPIN' BLENDS COLOR LIFTER (£4.25)	3/8" (1 CM) DENIM RIBBON (£6.50)	MISTY MOONLIGHT 2020–2022 IN COLOR RIBBON (£5.50)	FLOWERS FOR EVERY SEASON RIBBON COMBO PACK (£9.25)	RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£4.75)
WHITE STAMPIN' CHALK MARKER (£3.25)	HIPPO & FRIENDS DIES (£33.00)

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

I went on the diagonal down from the top left square with stripes, colouring and gnome for a cute Christmas card - take a look:

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

Gnome For The Holidays - I stamped and coloured one of the cute gnomes from the 'Gnome For The Holidays' stamp set as the centrepiece for my card today. Gnomes are so on trend at the moment, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this set - they are so adorable and make for a cute card for the festive season! 

Heartwarming Stripes - My gnome has a stripy hat and stripy socks and I also added a strip of Heartwarming Hugs Designer Series Paper to my card and used this as the basis for my colour scheme.

Don't Forget The Inside - I did a little extra colouring on the inside of my card too, with this cute little gnome home for some extra decoration:

I'm linking today's card over at Time Out Challenges, where the theme is 'season', with the optional twist of colouring.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

GNOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£18.00)	HEARTWARMING HUGS DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	STITCHED SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	OLD OLIVE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
MOSSY MEADOW A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	BANNERS PICK A PUNCH (£21.00)	RED RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£6.50)
REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	OLD OLIVE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS MOSSY MEADOW COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BRONZE & IVORY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN BLENDS SMOKY SLATE COMBO PACK (£8.50)
VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)

This is my second post today; click here to catch up on the important news of the day! For my creative post I'm sharing a card for a couple of challenges:

September is the month of birthdays in the James family (mine included!) so I have lots of cards to make. My Dad's birthday isn't until later this month, but I thought I'd get a headstart since the team at Just Add Ink are encouraging us to make 'Cards for Guys' this week and the sketch at Fusion gave me the perfect layout (I am using the sketch there this week and taking a fairly liberal interpretation at that, although I was somewhat inspired by the soft greens of the photo too) - take a look:

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

Garden Shed - For as long as I can remember my Dad has been a keen gardener - of vegetables, rather than flowers though! He has a greenhouse and a kitchen garden at home and a large allotment with a shed where he spends much of his time each day now that he has retired and more recently given up golfing too. He can while away hours pottering away, whilst taking shelter in his shed if it rains or sitting out front watching the world go by as he drinks his morning coffee with his fellow allotmenteers. As such the Garden Shed stamp set is perfect for his birthday card; whilst his doesn't have a straw hat adorning the outside and the exterior is more brown in colour than the one I coloured with my Stampin' Blends, the inside is full of paintings and pottery made by his grandchildren and is certainly filled with green-fingered creativity. 

Family Party - I used a slimline card format for my card today, as I knew I would need a larger, customised sentiment and wanted to give my shed plenty of space to shine without being obscured. If you need a special sentiment for a relative, the Family Party stamp set is perfect - I used four different stamps to make my greeting and it fits just right on my card.  

On The Inside - No more embellishments on the outside of my card (it is for a guy, after all!) but I did add a little extra colouring along with a custom greeting to the inside of my card:

I'm sure he will love it; I just need to make a Grandpa card too now and then that order is complete!

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 project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

GARDEN SHED CLING STAMP SET (£21.00)	FAMILY PARTY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£20.00)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	MINT MACARON A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS MINT MACARON COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS NIGHT OF NAVY COMBO PACK (£8.50)
STAMPIN BLENDS SMOKY SLATE COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SOFT SUEDE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS MOSSY MEADOW COMBO PACK (£8.50)	OLD OLIVE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CINNAMON CIDER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
STAMPIN' BLENDS GRANNY APPLE GREEN COMBO PACK (£8.50)

Good morning everyone! I will be back later with a creative post but it's the start of a new month and there's lots happening, so time for an update post first!

Firstly - the clearance rack in the online store has been updated! Bargains are selling out fast but there are some great discounts to be had, especially in terms of kits: the Bird Ballad Laser Cut Cards and Tin is reduced from £17 to £6.80 - add a pack of Bird Ballard Designer Paper which is also reduced to £4.30 and you have the makings of a project in itself for under £12! 

The Lots of Happy All-Inclusive Card Kit is also reduced to just £13.20 - almost £20 off! This kit would make a great gift for a crafty friend - time for a little early Christmas shopping, perhaps?

The second news of the day is that during the month of September there is a great 'Get and Go' joining promotion for anyone wishing to join Stampin' Up! that is totally geared to helping you get your Stampin' Up! business off the ground. In addition to the already great value Starter Kit, new recruits will receive pre-cut paper, stamps, and embellishments to use in their first event. 

In addition to the regular starter kit (for £99, new recruits choose £130 worth of products) new recruits will also receive enough cardstock pieces to make 16 cards, a pack of Rhinestone Basic Jewels, the So Much Love stamp set, and the Queen Anne’s Lace stamp set—all for their first event. 8 packs of pre-cut cardstock in Coastal Cabana will be provided, and 8 packs of pre-cut cardstock in Granny Apple Green, for a total of 16 cards (packs include envelopes). You can choose what samples to replicate and how to distribute your packs to your customers. (Important note: ink, adhesive, cutting tool, and clear block for stamping must be purchased separately, however these products may be included as part of the Starter Kit product selection.) You will also receive instructions on how to recreate the samples shown, access to promotional materials and support from me to hold your first event and get your business off the ground. If this is something that appeals to you, please get in touch - I would love to help you realise your potential! Or simply click on the 'join my team' link on the right hand column on my blog and start your journey today.

The third piece of news today is that the Stampin' Cut and Emboss Machine (standard size) is finally here and available at last for you to purchase! This durable machine is easy to use, lightweight and portable yet simple to store - and it can be yours from today! Just click on the link to my online store below to get your hands on one! Here's a short video that shows it in action:

The mini Stampin' Cut and Emboss is still in production having experienced COVID-related manufacturing delays so you will have to wait a little longer to get your hands on this one's little sister; in the meantime, the standard size machine has you covered!

Right, that's a lot of information for one post - I'll be back later with today's creative musings! 

STAMPIN’ CUT & EMBOSS MACHINE (£112.00)

MAGNETIC CUTTING PLATE (£22.00)

BIRD BALLAD LASER-CUT CARDS & TIN (£6.80)

BIRD BALLAD DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£4.30)

LOTS OF HAPPY CARD KIT (EN) (£13.20)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the fifth week of the month and the turn of the amazing Ann to host this week with a fun TicTaToe challenge board for you to work with:

My cards today feature lots of products from the Snowflake Splendor Suite in the Autumn-Winter mini catalogue. Take a look:

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

TicTacToe - I love a tic tac toe board - they offer such a wealth of creative possibility and always result in an interesting gallery. I went along the diagonal bottom left to top right - diecut, embossing and patterned paper - for my card today, but realised afterwards it also works for the middle horizontal row of ribbon, embossing and gems - check out the sparkly blue faceted gem I used to centre my diecut layered snowflake:

CASEing The Catalogue - Does the layout I chose for today's card look familiar? The team over at SUO Challenges are challenging us to CASE (Copy And Share Everything or Copy And Selectively Edit, you choose) either of the cards featuring the 'Whale Done' Suite on page 94 of the catalogue:

I often use my Stampin' Up! catalogue for inspiration in terms of colours or layouts and this was a fun challenge to show how you can take inspiration from the catalogue to create something fresh and new. I actually made both of the cards I'm sharing today live in a Zoom demonstration with the ladies in my Online Classes Facebook Group during last week's session, as I wanted to explain my process and encourage them not to discount pages that featured products that might not be of interest to them, but instead look to see what other inspiration they could take. My card uses the same layout as the one on page 94 and includes all of the same elements: patterned paper, a central banner with contrasting stamping, a feature diecut image, diecut vellum pieces behind the banner and an embossed sentiment backed with ribbon - yet my card looks quite different to the one on page 94 as it uses a completely different product suite.

Snowflake Splendor Times Two - Having made this card, I then went on to CASE the second card on this page, that highlights an inked embossing folder technique:

I used the Winter Snow embossing folder and instead of a stamped panel, used a couple of pieces of contrasting designer series paper for the feature panel, embellished with some rhinestones and Whale of a Time sequins, along with a sentiment created from stamping two of the greetings from the 'Peace And Joy' stamp set next to each other to create a single one; this one is slightly different in layout to the catalogue sample, yet the similarities in layout still make it recognisable. 

Here's both of my CASEd 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. Do you ever use layouts from the catalogue as a starting point for your card making? Do let me know in the comments below - I'd love to hear what inspires you to create! Equally, if you would like to watch the video of me making both of these cards, do get in touch for more details on how to join my Online Classes group - I would love to have you join me.

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; my day today will be a busy one, for a Sunday. Rebecca is back to hockey for the first time in 6 months for pre-season training so is very excited about that and I have hours of content to catch up on from Stampin' Up!'s Leader Summit this past few days, much of which I didn't do live because we were otherwise engaged as a family celebrating young Master James' finishing of prep school. Thank heavens for online recordings and catch-up - where would we be without it?! I also have a mound of raspberries to make into jams, jellies and more - the weather here these last few days has been positively autumnal so I have some very soft and squishy fruit that has been rather battered by the high winds! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SNOWFLAKE SPLENDOR DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	SNOWFLAKE WISHES BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£51.25)	WINTER SNOW EMBOSSING FOLDER (£7.00)	BLUE ADHESIVE-BACKED GEMS (£7.50)	SNOWFLAKE SPLENDOR 1/4" (6.4 MM) RIBBON (£6.50)
VELLUM A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.25)	PACIFIC POINT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	HIGHLAND HEATHER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GORGEOUS GRAPE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	PACIFIC POINT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	UNINKED STAMPIN’ PAD & WHISPER WHITE REFILL (£8.75)
WHISPER WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	PEACE & JOY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£17.00)