Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's our last Paper Players challenge of the year before we take a break for Christmas! It's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host this week and she has a rich colour challenge for us to work with:

I knew that my starting point for this card would be the Season of Elegance Specialty designer series paper as it features all of Ann's chosen colours this week. I decided to pair it with the Sophisticated Sled bundle for a rich Christmas card and using the above layout from Sketch Saturday where they are asking us to choose a previous sketch (I took the optional twist and went with sketch #341 from 2014) and set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

I used the reverse of the Pretty Peacock Seasons of Elegance foiled paper for the base of my card, then added a panel of the foiled side, matted with gold foil, for the centre. I added my diecut skates and foliage from the Sophisticated Sled bundle, then picked out the Cherry Cobbler in my sentiment banner, skate laces and a rather over-the-top ribbon bow:

A few textured gold enamel dots and some gold twine complete my card. Talking a leaf out of my PP teamie Elizabeth's book, I made two cards at the same, adding a smaller, more post-friendly bow to the second card; you can see them both together below:

As you know I don't often use a lot of ribbon on my cards, but I really love the showy ribbon bow on today's card; totally impractical for posting, but beautiful! Worth the hand-delivery, I'm sure you will agree. The Seasons of Elegance papers are so beautiful too and the foiling really adds a touch of luxury to these cards.

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

You can see all of my Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

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

Enjoy your day; we are battling storm winds and rain here in the UK, so I will definitely be staying inside keeping warm. I am making Christmas crumble for dessert today - if I remember I'll take a picture to share in a future post. I am pretty much done with making Christmas cards now (although I still have a few more to share with you this week!) I am now in the throws of writing them, so that will be this afternoon's task. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SOPHISTICATED SLED BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (50.25)	SEASON OF ELEGANCE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (16.00)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)	GOLD TEXTURED ADHESIVE-BACKED DOTS (7.50)	CHERRY COBBLER & GOLD 1/4" (6.4 MM) SATIN RIBBON (7.50)	PRETTY PEACOCK A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)	CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)

It's the weekend - yay! Today I'm here bright and early with you as further to my recent win over at AAA Cards (you can see that card here if you missed it), the lovely Maaike invited me to join them for their new challenge as a guest designer. Not only that, but it's my favourite - a sketch challenge! Here's the sketch that we are following:

I tried a few different things with this sketch, resisting the temptation to use snowflakes as per the sketch. In the end, my favourite one was using a retired favourite and a beautifully clean and simple abstract take on the sketch and a trio of blues from the Color Dare palette - take a look:

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

I started by stamping my treeline in Versamark and heat embossing them in white, then masking a rectangle in readiness for my ink blending, leaving the treeline overhanging the rectangle slightly on the right hand side, although this is difficult to see in the picture. I punched out a circle and masked the moon, before stamping my snowdrift in Balmy Blue, along with my deer and their shadows. Using my blending brush, I then added a touch of Balmy Blue ink to the edges of the bottom snow-covered portion of my scene, before blending my sky, starting with Balmy Blue then adding Azure Afternoon and (retired) Orchid Oasis working outwards from the moon to create my night sky. 

Having removed the mask, I added a touch of clear Wink of Stella to the bottom inside edge of the moon and to the heat-embossed trees, finishing with a fine splatter of white ink to give the look of snow in the air:

The serenity of this winter scene led me to search for the perfect sentiment which I found in another retired stamp set, 'All Is Calm'; I stamped it in Orchid Oasis and popped it up on dimensionals, overlaying my inked panel. That completes my card, which turned out just as planned - I love it when that happens! This is one of those sets I don't feel I used enough when it was current and it is so great for CAS cards. Do check out the Design Team cards over at AAA Cards - I'm sure they have some amazing interpretations of this layout 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:

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (14.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	AZURE AFTERNOON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (8.50)
VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's we have reached a milestone - it's our 550th challenge! As is traditional, for the final challenge of the year you can choose any of the challenges in 2024 - colour or sketch - and make it seasonal. I decided to choose my sketch from way back in March - here's a reminder of that sketch:

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. You can see the original card I made using this sketch here. For my card today I decided to the Iconic Imagery stamp set - the images are the perfect size for this kind of layout - to create my seasonal card. Check it out:

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

I stamped six snowflakes in Azure Afternoon and added rhinestones at the centre for a little sparkle. I added my heat embossed sentiment to a little tag - I used the retired Tailored Tags Dies but you could use the label in the Iconic Imagery bundle or any other one of your choice and finished it with some silver twine:

My sentiment is from the retired 'Sparkly Seasons' stamp set as I made this card before I had purchased the current 'Sophisticated Sled' stamp set, which has another stamp with the same wording which would be a better current alternative. Another quick clean and simple Christmas card that is already in the post! I'm linking today's card up over at AAA Cards where the theme is 'anything CAS goes - with the optional theme of Christmas/winter', which I chose.

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:

ICONIC IMAGERY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (36.75)

RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (5.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (10.50)

AZURE AFTERNOON A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

AZURE AFTERNOON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)

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

Now you don't have to make a Christmas card for this week's challenge - any card that features a deer is acceptable. I considered making another card using the same Reindeer Days papers that I featured on last week's PP card, but when I saw Linda's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches my mind went in a completely different direction! I paired the layout with the seasonal colours over at Sunday Stamps (I used gold, silver, (retired) Evening Evergreen and Very Vanilla) and ended up making two slightly different cards. Here's the first one that I made:

I added a trio of festive pines cut from glimmer paper using one of the (retired) Christmas Tree Dies to my card base (I mirrored Linda's sketch as I wanted my panels to rise left to right rather than drop left to right, as if fitted better with the shape of my deer) and overlaid this with a gold foil deer cut from my favourite deer set of all time: the (retired) Detailed Deer Thinlit Dies. I love this deer - it's so elegant! I added a simple silver twine bow and a gold heat-embossed sentiment from 'Greetings of the Season'. I loved the finished card and since I'd cut enough trees and deer for two cards, I decided to change up my second one slightly and emboss my card base with the Snowflake Sky 3D embossing folder. 

Here's the second one:

I wasn't sure if the embossing would be too much alongside the contrasting foil and glimmer paper texture, but the embossed detail really adds an extra dimension to this card - you can see it better on the close up below. Isn't it beautiful?

I decided this second card was my favourite, even though my first one is much more my true style. I'm also linking up over at TGIF Challenges where their theme is 'Winter Wonderland' this week - the addition of the snowflakes definitely adds to the wintery feel. Which one do you prefer? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm really pleased with how these cards turned out; I have a few more Christmas cards to make and share, but need to think about writing and posting them soon!

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

Enjoy your day; today we are putting up the tree and decorating the James house for Christmas. This is earlier than we usually do, but Ben and I have been listening to Christmas songs whilst on the school run for over a week already, so are excited to be getting into the festive spirit! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

GREETINGS OF THE SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)

SNOWFLAKE SKY 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (10.25)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)

VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)

METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)

VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)

Today I'm sharing a super quick card that uses Jen M's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week:

I struggled to get away from Karren's Santa suit when I saw this layout, but in the end decided to fill that centre square with a festive sentiment and surround it with some greenery - take a look:

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

I had my A Little bit Festive paper pack out on my desk and realised that there was another of the foliage squares that I hadn't used, so I made my custom sentiment using 'Greetings of the Season', framed it in Real Red and backed it with my foliage square. Inspired by DT Kim's card, I went with a pine-embossed white background, but added a band of festive red across the centre for a pop of festive colour:

A trio of peppermint swirl dots complete my card, which incidentally did start off square as per Jen's layout, but my central square detail seemed too small for a 6" square card so I trimmed it down - it looks much better as a standard A6 size. Another simple festive card to add to my stash - I'm almost ready to stop making and start writing!

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 have a longer-than-usual day today as the youngest of the James Juniors has a late stay at school as opposed to the usual extra early finish, so I am hoping to get lots done. The day didn't start too well with a water leak in the kitchen cupboard, but many soggy towels later that has now been dealt with so onwards and upwards! Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

GREETINGS OF THE SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)

A LITTLE BIT FESTIVE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) MIX & MATCH SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.50)

REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)

REAL RED & WHITE ADHESIVE-BACKED PEPPERMINTS (8.00)

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

The open space of Steph's sketch allows for so many options. I thought I was going to go in a completely different direction, but I've been wanting to use this Reindeer Days paper and when I saw the inspiration of those two fluffy reindeer slipper in the bottom right corner of the Just Us Girls mood board I took it as a sign that today was the day - take a look:

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

I love the pattern on this Reindeer Days paper sheet, but as it's quite busy it doesn't work with all kinds of layout. That open space is just perfect though.  I made sure the design of the paper was centred, as this makes for a more harmonious design. I picked out the red for my festive diagonal stripe and part of my sentiment from 'Iconic Imagery' which I paired with a retired wooden diecut 'celebrate':

I added a few snowflake sprinkles for added decoration, but otherwise let the paper do all the work. Having made this card, I decided to make a second one using a smaller, cropped panel:

I paired this one with a heat-embossed 'celebrate' from Iconic Imagery and kept all other details the same. Whilst I like the smaller panel for bringing the reindeer more into focus, I prefer the sentiment placement on the first one. Here's a photo of both cards together - which one do you prefer?

I love this paper - and a great sketch too - thank you Steph!

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

You can see all of my Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

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

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

REINDEER DAYS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (11.75)	ICONIC IMAGERY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (19.00)	WHITE LOOSE SNOWFLAKES (7.50)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)
VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)

I have a super early post for you today - welcome to the weekend! I was honoured to win the recent sketch challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown with this card and was delighted to be asked by Andreja to guest with them for their stash challenge this week:

Ribbon - well that's something I have lots of, but I don't often use on my cards. Lots of twine, yes, but ribbon - not so much! It's great for special occasion cards, but can add bulk which isn't great for posting. If you, like me, have lots of ribbon though and would like to use it on a Christmas card with no bulk - I have the perfect card design for you! Take a look:

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

A ribbon Christmas tree! I used a retired Stitched Triangle Die to cut out my tree shape, but you could cut a simple shape using your trimmer or use any punch or tree-shaped die you have. All you have to do is add some double-sided tape on the reverse around the outside and stick your ribbon strips in a hapharzard design pattern across the back until the whole aperture has been covered. Stamp a greeting, adhere to your card base, add a star to the top of your tree and you're done! It looks more festive if you have ribbon with a little sparkle or metallic edging as I've done here:

This works with ribbon in lots of colours and is a great way to use up ribbon ends and scraps too. You could even use it with thin strips of cardstock and trimmings if you don't have any ribbon to hand. 

It's great to find a way to use ribbon on a card that is still clean and simple in its style - I'm sure the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown gallery will be full of fabulous inspiration, so be sure to check it out.

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

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

Trees offer us so many options and feature on so many different types of cards. I am still making Christmas cards and found the perfect answer to a quick card - take a look:

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

A Little Bit Festive - It will no surprise to my regular readers that the time-saving hack for today's card was found in the A Little Bit Festive paper pack. The Christmas tree that is the focal point for today's card is a pre-printed panel that was ready to go - I just pushed it out of the paper sheet and done! I couldn't leave it there though! I picked out the red and green colours in the design and added a couple of panels behind to add a little more interest and robustness to my card.

Joyful Sayings - My Christmas tree has a gold foiled star and that led me to one of the pre-diecut sentiments in the Joyful Sayings Ephemera pack for an impactful overlaid sentiment. I added it to my card with some snippets of dimensionals for a little lift and completed my sentiment with the only stamping (apart from the inside) to feature on today's card with the word 'happy' from the 'Greetings of the Season' stamp set:

I considered adding some gems to my finished card, but decided it against it, not on the grounds of time but more that I didn't want to clutter my clean design.

Christmas on Speed - The festive season is always a great time to have some quick and easy card making ideas to hand - so this week's challenge is definitely a timely one. How long did my card take today?

Six minutes exactly - woohoo! There are lots of other panels in the A Little Bit Festive paper pack that can be used for similar quick and easy cards.

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

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Speed Stamping Challenge you must tell us the time it took to make your project and it must be finished in under 10 min.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

A LITTLE BIT FESTIVE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) MIX & MATCH SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.50)	JOYFUL SAYINGS MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (ENGLISH) (9.00)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)
GREETINGS OF THE SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)

Today I'm sharing a super-quick card that I made for the current sketch challenge over at AAA Cards:

This card is a real 'scraps off the desk' card; I had lots of animals cut from retired Penguin Playmates designer paper in my scraps box and I thought they would make a fun trio peeking out of those diecut aperture windows:

I added a sentiment from the retired 'Penguin Place' stamp set that is also in triplicate and - job done!

This card is going into my box of cards ready to send to Ben when he hopefully heads off to uni next year - I think it makes for a fun, seasonal 'hello' card.

Enjoy your day; I'm catching up with a friend and I'll be back here tomorrow with another project for our new challenge over at As You See It. Until then, happy stampin'!

Happy hump day everyone! Yes it's midweek and freezing cold here in the UK, so I'm hiding away on the warmth of my craft room and have another Christmas make for you! I couldn't resist those deep, jewelled tones over at Colour Inkspiration which totally got me thinking about Christmas baubles! So I went hunting through my extensive stash of retired tree decorations and happened to find one that allowed me to play along with the team over at Just Us Girls where the code word is JOY:

I decided to use the sketch over at Sunday Stamps for a second go (this is such a great layout!) and set to work - take a look at where I ended up:

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

I was so tempted to use my favourite JOY stamp from 'Joyful Nativity' for the Just US Girls Challenge, but when I rediscovered this bauble in the Delicate Baubles Dies set, I decided to use this instead. I added a strip of metallic gold vellum and a subtle splatter of gold Wink of Stella to my Pretty Peacock card base, then added my gold and blue ornament, picking out the berries with some Melon Mambo enamel dots - be warned, you need a lot!

I finished the sentiment by heat embossing some words from another retired stamp set, 'Peaceful Wreath', onto the card base and added a few gold gems to complete my card. Actually quite a straightforward card - I love these rich colours 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:

PRETTY PEACOCK A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

BLUEBERRY BUSHEL A4 CARDSTOCK (10.75)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)