I've a busy this week ahead with this month's technique classes then a trip to Amsterdam for Onstage Live with thousands of other Stampin' Up! demonstrators from across Europe for the launch of the new Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue - a whole two months ahead of its publish date - just one of the many things I love about being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. More of that in future posts for sure, so this is a week I have to be organised! Today I have a couple of cards to share: here is the first one for this week's challenges over at The Color Throwdown and CAS Colours and Sketches:

I love this sketch layout - perfect for a large image. I chose to use one of the sketched images from the 'Mediterranean Moments' set and unusually decided to stamp it directly onto a coloured background:

I stamped in Night of Navy rather than black and added an enamel dot to my sentiment banner, but otherwise the stamped image speaks for itself and is perfect uncoloured for a clean and simple card. I also stamped one of the other images from the Mediterranean Moments set on the inside of my card. I'm also linking this card up with the challenge over at Less Is More where the recipe this week is to use three pastel 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Mediterranean Moments Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Dragonfly Dreams Photopolymer Stamp Set	Pool Party A4 Cardstock	Wild Wasabi A4 Cardstock	So Saffron A4 Cardstock
Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Regals Enamel Shapes

My second card today is for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge where the sketch was perfect for a fun Easter card idea that I had:

I saw some great Easter biscuits on Pinterest and one of them got me thinking about creating a round punch art-style chick - take a look:

I used my stitched shape circle framelit, a heart and flower framelit and the smallest shape from the Blossom Punch to create my fun chick and added a few co-ordinating strips of floral Brights designer series paper. My sentiment is from the Sale-A-Bration set 'Hey Chick' but if you don't have this you could add a 'Happy Easter' from Teeny Tiny Sentiments instead. A lighthearted clean and simple take on the sketch 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:

Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies	Brights Designer Series Paper Stack	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Pumpkin Pie A4 Cardstock	Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock
Sweet & Sassy Framelits Dies	Wonderful Wreath Framelits Dies	White Perfect Accents	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock

This is my second post for today - you can see my regular Paper Players post here. This card is for this week's challenge over at The Global Design Project where this week they are casing one of their design team, Louise Sharp and this is her inspiration card:

I haven't made a tag card in a while and this one of Louise's is so pretty! Here's my take on it:

Here's the lowdown on today's card:

If The Cape Fits - I chose to feature the fun cape image from Everyday Hero on my tag as opposed to Louise's wheelbarrow and go with a fun card in bright primary colours that would make a great masculine card, for a would-be superhero. My image was also coloured, albeit in just one colour, Pacific Point - I also added a gold foil star and brushed my whole cape with my clear Wink of Stella brush for some caped-crusader sparkle. I also included the first part of my sentiment across my tag - the remainder I stamped on the inside:

Party Pattern - For my background I also chose to use a piece of designer series paper, taken from the Party Animal pack. The bold Pacific Point paper with subtle pattern was just what I needed for today's card.

Superstar Border - Instead of using a co-ordinating piece of DSP for my horizontal border, I decided to go with a punched border of confetti stars in red and gold, to add to my hero design. The fun thing about casing someone else's card is that you can take lots of basic elements that are the same - the layout, tag, coloured image - yet make them your own to produce something completely different.

My card is much less subtle than the challenge card, but similar in many other ways and it's clear to see where I did a 'Copy And Selectively Edit' of Louise's original. Thanks Louise for the inspiration 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. 

I'll be back tomorrow with another project (or two!) Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Everyday Hero Photopolymer Stamp Set	Party Animal Designer Series Paper	Confetti Stars Punch	Gold Foil Sheets	Real Red A4 Cardstock
Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

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

I took the opportunity to take a break from cards this week and have a couple of quick and easy 3D items perfect for Easter treats for you to choose from. The first one is a basket made with the Window Box Thinlits to hold these cute chocolate carrots that I found when out shopping recently:

The Window Box Thinlits are so versatile and make the cutest Easter baskets! Of course I had to add a little tag with a bunny and fun sentiment and some Peek-a-boo Peach ribbon bows for decoration.

Sticking with the Easter bunny theme, I also made a punch art 'bow bunny' to decorate my little bucket of chocolate mini eggs:

I made my bunny using a combination of my Bow Builder, Festive Flower Builder and Owl Builder Punches, adding a few pearl eyes and some whiskers drawn in with my Stampin' Write marker. Not so sure about this one (I think perhaps his eyes are too far apart!)  Still, an easy way to decorate a treat container or Easter package.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects 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 look forward to seeing what you create with our fun theme this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly; I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Window Box Thinlits Dies	Basket Bunch Photopolymer Stamp Set	Basket Builder Framelits Dies	Soft Suede A4 Cardstock	Pear Pizzazz A4 Cardstock
Peekaboo Peach 3/8" (1 Cm) Ruched Ribbon	Tags & Labels Framelits Dies	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Classic Label Punch
Many Marvelous Markers

Basket Bunch Photopolymer Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Bow Builder Punch	Festive Flower Builder Punch
Owl Builder Punch	Pink Pirouette A4 Cardstock	Pearl Basic Jewels

Today I'm sharing a couple of cards that I made for my last Sale-A-Bration class using Stampin' Up!s precut notelets and envelopes - take a look:

These cards would be great for a note to welcome a new baby boy or girl and would also make nice birth announcement cards. I made a video showing how I put these together - here it is if you would like to see just how quick and easy they are to make:

This stamp set contains lots of fun bits and pieces - I'm sure there are lots of similar combinations you could make for well, any occasion! 

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. 

The links to my online store for the supplies to make today's cards are included below, but bear in mind you only have until 10.50pm GMT tomorrow evening to snap up your own 'Any Occasion' stamp set before we say goodbye to Sale-A-Bration for another year.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Any Occasion Photopolymer Stamp Set	Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes	Duet Banner Punch	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad
Pool Party A4 Cardstock	Pink Pirouette A4 Cardstock	Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim	Blushing Bride Sequin Trim	Stars Framelits Dies
Sweet & Sassy Framelits Dies

Today I'm sharing a card for this week's challenge over at CAS(E) This Sketch which is also my second entry over at Less Is More this week:

Here's my card:

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

Diecuts and Layers - When designing my card, I couldn't decide whether to stamp my base layer and diecut the sentiment, as suggested by the sketch, or whether to work it the other way around. The great thing about a sketch is that it's a starting point and always open to interpretation. I eventually opted for the latter, stamping my sentiment on my absolute base layer of Smoky Slate and heat embossing it in white, then creating a diecut oval in my top layers to frame my sentiment and then decorate this with my Flourish Thinlit diecut flowers. 

A Heartfelt Sentiment - Stampin' Up! sells some great stamp sets that have religious sentiment at the heart of their design and whilst they aren't for everyone there are a number that have a good mix and can be appreciated whatever your preference. Flourishing Phrases is one of those sets: some wonderful words of sympathy and marriage congratulation alongside some of general greeting and thanks. They also come in two parts: the inside of today's card is stamped with the second part of the one shown above, which reads "so he made you" - perfectly appropriate for the intended recipient of today's card.

A Flirt With 'That' Pink - When choosing my colour combination today, I started knowing that I wanted to use white for my floral diecut and so needed to choose a colour for my base that would highlight my embossed sentiment and another that would both compliment it and show off my white florals. I decided to go with Flirty Flamingo for my card front 'white space'; this is one of those colours that I find can be a little harsh when stamped, especially on white (you can see if on the envelope beneath my card in the photo above) yet the cardstock has a wonderful rich, yet soft warm pink tone and compliments Smoky Slate beautifully. Feel free to save this colour 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. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Flourish Thinlits Dies	Flourishing Phrases Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Flourishing Phrases Clear-Mount Bundle	Layering Ovals Framelits Dies	Flirty Flamingo A4 Cardstock
Smoky Slate A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Pearl Basic Jewels	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
White Stampin' Emboss Powder

Today I'm sharing a card for this week's Less Is More challenge where the recipe is to use a frame:

I used a heart diecut to frame a panel of ribbon weaving as a feature on a wedding anniversary card - take a look:

I made today's card to showcase the metallic ribbon that is one of the Sale-A-Bration products available FREE with a £45 order before the end of the month - only a couple more days to go to get yours! This gorgeous smooth ribbon ties beautiful bows, but I wanted to show another way that ribbon can be used on your project. I made a video tutorial to explain how you too could recreate this card with the same metallic ribbon or something similar:

I hope you found that useful - I haven't made any video tutorials in a while, I'd forgotten how much fun they are! 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

3/8" Metallic Ribbon Combo Pack	Falling For You Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Falling In Love Embellishments	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Sweet & Sassy Framelits Dies
Silver Foil Sheets	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder

Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm sharing a quick clean-and-simple card using this week's colours over at The Color Throwdown:

I love these bright colours and having had a pleasant few days of sunshine here in the UK my thoughts have been turning to Cool Treats - take a look:

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

Cool Treats - The trio of bright colours with a compliment of white were perfect to showcase these delicious looking lollies from the Cool Treats stamp set. I stamped one of the lollies directly onto my white mat, then fussy cut the orange one so that I could pop it up on dimensionals. There are co-ordinating framelits for this stamp set, but I didn't use them here as I wanted my lolly to have a white border so cut it by hand. Hardly a trial though - it's such an easy shape.

Meltingly Delicious - One of the things that is fun about this stamp set is that there are a number of co-ordinating detail stamps that you can use to add highlights to your ice creams or lollies to make it look as if they are two-tone, or even melting. I added stamped mine onto the lollies in Versamark and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder to add a nice sheen - so difficult to photograph, but great in real life. Such fun!

A Visual Triangle - It is often said that a good designer works in threes - in terms of card elements, images or embellishments, for example. It helps to balance a card and is particularly good to create a focal point on a clean and simple card. Here I've balanced my two lollies with my sentiment to create a visually pleasing triangle of images, and I've mirrored this with the placement of my candy dots. I also used three colours. A little card-making tip that is worth bearing in mind if you have a card that doesn't seem to be working for you - you're welcome :-) 

And that's it - all done! I'm sure as Summer is well and truly upon us this is a set that I will be using more of.

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:

Cool Treats Photopolymer Stamp Set	Tempting Turquoise A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Tempting Turquoise Classic Stampin' Pad	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad
Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad	Versamark Pad	Embossing Buddy	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder
Brights Enamel Shapes

To all my UK readers - Happy Mother's Day! It is of course Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! My good friend the super-talented Claire is the hostess this week and she has a sketch for us to work with:

I love a good sketch and this one has some great layering options. I decided that I would use the pretty Spring colours over at Fab Friday to create a basket of flowers for an Easter card - take a look:

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

I kept my layers fairly neutral - a stitched circle in Mint Macaron, a panel of Calypso Coral By The Shore designer series paper - and used the Easter sentiment from the 'Suite Sentiments' set on a Very Vanilla banner, with the real focal point for my card being my basket of flowers. I cut and layered my basket using the Basket Builder framelits then stamped my daffodils and peach flowers in Memento Black onto solid colour cardstock using the Basket Bunch set and cut the out with the co-ordinating framelits, finishing them with some Calypso Coral subtles candy dots. I love the Basket Bunch bundle, not only for the Easter eggs and bunny, but also the perfect daffodils (well, I am Welsh so it is to be expected!). The framelits make cutting out these little pieces so easy and offer some great layering options too.

I'm also linking up with those lovely ladies over at As You See It too - for me, there is nothing that says Spring more than daffodils. They are so bright and cheery and inexpensive and I love to have them cut in a vase, but also to see them along the banks and hedgerows as I drive around the countryside. At the moment there are rows and rows of them on my journey driving Ben to school - they never fail to brighten my day!

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 look forward to seeing what you create with our sketch this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly; I'm looking forward to a family lunch and maybe, just maybe, a sneaky visit into my craft room this afternoon. I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Basket Bunch Photopolymer Bundle	Suite Sentiments Clear-Mount Stamp Set	By The Shore Designer Series Paper	So Saffron A4 Cardstock	Calypso Coral A4 Cardstock
Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies	Subtles Enamel Shapes
Soft Suede A4 Cardstock

Today I'm sharing a special baby card for a very special person!  The wonderfully talented and amazing Lesley Croghan, designer and creator of many popular online papercraft challenges, and her husband Corey, are expecting their first child, a little girl. To this end the lovely Lori Turner of Caffeinated Creativity has organised a fabulous blog hop to celebrate the forthcoming new arrival into the Croghan family.

I have participated in many of Lesley's challenges, am a regular reader of her blog, Always Playing With Paper and I am privileged to be a designer with The Paper Players, a challenge that Lesley founded some years ago that is still going strong. I have a lot to thank her for and am thrilled to be participating in this hop to celebrate the arrival of Little Miss Croghan.

I knew immediately what kind of card I wanted to create - it had to feature one of the cuties from the Moon Baby stamp set:

As my card was going to have to travel from the UK to Canada to reach Lesley, I decided I was best to stick to my clean and simple style. Here's the low-down on today's card:

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice - I just had to go with 'Moon Baby' for my baby card this week - this is such a perfect baby set! You know how I am a fan of partial die cutting and today decided to use my sweet umbrella baby to overhang the top layer of my card for added visual interest. I watercoloured my baby and umbrella in Melon Mambo using my aquapainter to add a pop of colour to my pale pink card.

Hello, Hello, Hello - I decided to use one of the sentiments in the 'Moon Baby' set to create a repeat 'Hello Baby' background panel - a great way to combine the sentiments in the set. I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to get everything nicely lined up and staggered the words on each row to create a uniform pattern. 

A Shower of Hearts - I felt like my baby needed a shower of something to warrant the umbrella, so decided to use the hearts framelit from the Umbrella Weather set to create my shower. With the pink layer beneath, the little hearts against the beautiful lustre of the Shimmery White top layer look so pretty: 

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. 

There are a huge number of people participating in today's blog hop; you can see the full collection of cards on Lori's blog here and it would be great if you could visit as many of these as possible and leave the owners some love. We have also sent our cards to Lesley for her to open today en masse, so you will get a sense of the wonderful shower of love we sent to the Croghan family this morning!

Enjoy the rest of your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Moon Baby Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Umbrella Weather Framelits Dies	Shimmery White A4 Cardstock	Pink Pirouette A4 Cardstock
Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad	Pink Pirouette Classic Stampin' Pad

Today I have some exciting news! You all know that this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion will end on 31st March and in addition to hosting and joining benefits (you can read about those here) you also earn a free product for every £45 spend - you can see the existing items here and here.

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

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

2016-2018 In Color A4 Cardstock	Party Animal Designer Series Paper	Succulent Garden Designer Series Paper	Tasty Treats Specialty Designer Series Paper
Party Animal Designer Washi Tape	Petal Burst Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Seaside Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Sparkle Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

If you have your eye on any of the other Sale-A-Bration items, do bear in mind that they will only be available whilst stocks last - the glimmer paper is already sold out, so don't leave it to late to place your order. 

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