Yay it's Friday - always a good day! Today I'm sharing my card for this week's Less is More challenge, where the theme is non-traditional colours on a Christmas card (specifically no red or green). I decided to go with another Nutcracker card - he is so perfect for non-traditional colour schemes, and this time with a very simple layout; here's my card:

I used a base of Soft Sky and layered a couple of mats of Rich Razzleberry and Soft Sky, then stamped my Nutcracker image directly onto the Soft Sky layer and did some basic paper piecing on the jacket and hat to add the Rich Razzleberry elements and the Soft Sky crown. His face was stamped on Blushing Bride and again paper pieced together. I coloured the eyebrows and hair using my Smoky Slate Stampin' Up! Blendabilities markers, and stamped the moustache in Memento Black onto Smoky Slate cardstock and popped it up on dimensionals. Some Rich Razzleberry candy dots on his crown and Soft Sky ones on his jacket complete the look.

There you have it - another non-traditional nutcracker card. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Subtles Candy Dots	Santa Stache Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform
Mustache Framelits Die	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment	Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Rich Razzleberry A4 Card Stock
Brights Candy Dots	Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride

Good morning everyone! I'm back with another Christmas card today - well, it truly is the season for it now! Today's card uses the sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch which was the perfect layout for me to showcase some lovely Nordic Noel DSP and incorporate a layered die cut. Here's this week's sketch:

And this is my card: 

A simple layering of Garden Green on Soft Sky, followed by the Nordic Noel DSP. This paper has such a busy pattern I find it only really works on cards like this where there isn't anything to clutter it; I cut my 'Joy' die cut in Real Red, then stacked it on a couple of identical die cuts in Garden Green to give it real dimension (I used adhesive transfer sheets to hold the layers together, which made for very easy layering). I decided to mount it onto a rectangular piece of Garden Green cardstock, because the die cut didn't stand out enough against the patterned paper without, then I added the 'to you' from the Endless Wishes stamp set in Garden Green on Calypso Coral beneath it - the only stamping on today's card! Lastly, I added a sprinkling of candy dots in something of a nod to the sketch, albeit that I restricted use of them to the solid colour panels.

Hope you like today's card - if you like this layout you should check out the other cards on the CAS(E) This Sketch page - there are some great examples there.

Right, I'm off to get some work done - back tomorrow with another Christmas card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Nordic Noel Designer Series Paper	Wonderful Wreath Framelits Dies	Endless Wishes Photopolymer Stamp Set	Transfer Adhesive Sheets	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky
Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Subtles Candy Dots	Garden Green A4 Card Stock	Regals Candy Dots	Real Red A4 Card Stock
Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad

It's Wednesday and time for this week's challenge over at Colour Me...! where we have a monochromatic palette for you to work with this week:

I decided to go with something CAS and festive with this week's feature colour of Real Red - here's my card:

I used Real Read as my card base, then used some of the red chevron pattern paper from the Brights DSP stack down the centre of my card, which I then overlaid with another panel of Real Red, mounted on dimensionals. I cut a white Santa mustache using the Mustache Framelit and my Big Shot and adhered this using dimensionals and stamped my 'Ho, ho, ho!' sentiment from the 'Good Greetings' Stamp set in Versamark and heat embossed in White embossing powder to finish. Simple, yet effective, I think - I am surprised at just how much I love my Mustache framelit!

So what do you think? Feel free to leave a comment on today's card, before hopping over to check out the amazing cards by the rest of the Colour Me...! team:

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Mustache Framelits Die	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Versamark Pad	Embossing Buddy
White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Brights Designer Series Paper Stack
Stampin' Dimensionals

A late post from me today as I've spent a lovely day crafting with friends, followed by James family piano lessons this evening (3 out of 4 of us are learning!) so have only just got around to it. Our craft session was fun - we finished off some projects we started a little while ago, which always gives a good sense of achievement. With Christmas creeping ever closer, today I thought I would share with you the advent calendar I made for the James juniors, which is a case of a project by the lovely Julie Kettlewell. I love the Tiny Treat Boxes in this year's Stampin' Up! seasonal catalogue, which are of course perfect for making advent calendars. The sample in the catalogue shows just how easy it is to make something to a basic design, however having seen Julie's project a little while ago - you can see her original project here - I knew I wanted to create something similar. So without further ado, here is my framed advent calendar in all its glory:

Isn't it beautiful?! It is framed in a 20" frame/50cm, so is a substantial piece in terms of size and it makes a real statement. I chose to make mine using the All is Calm Speciality Designer Series Paper, here are some close ups:

This is the central panel, with a sentiment stamped using the Epic Alphabet and some trees punched using the Tree Punch and decorated with some frosted sequins.

Each of the boxes is covered on 5 sides using the All is calm DSP, then a number label made from a layered section using a 1 3/4" scalloped circle punch and a 1 3/8" circle punch, and numbers cut out of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper using the Perfect Print Numbers Bigz Die and the Big Shot.

This is a great project to showcase all of the lovely papers within the All is Calm DSP stack.

I adhered my boxes so that the flaps would open upwards and put my numbers in order from one through twenty four, however you could 'mix and match' if that's more your style. Each pack of treat boxes contains 25 boxes, so you have one spare to package an extra special treat for Christmas Day if that's your thing. I'm really pleased with how my calendar turned out and am busy acquiring lots of little treats to fill my boxes for the month of December. I can see this project becoming a real heirloom piece that we bring out year after year.

Hope you like today's project; back tomorrow with the new Wednesday Weekly Deals and my Design Team post for this week's challenge over at Colour Me...! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Perfect Print Numbers Bigz Die	1-3/8 Inch Circle Punch	1-3/4 Inch Scallop Circle Punch	Frosted Sequins	All Is Calm Specialty Designer Series Paper
Tiny Treat Boxes	Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad
Lost Lagoon A4 Cardstock	Whisper White 12 X 12 Smooth Card Stock	Tree Punch	Mini Glue Dots	Sticky Strip
Tombow Multi-Purpose Adhesive

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players, where this week LeAnne has an interesting challenge for us:

I had a minor panic when I saw this week's challenge, for two reasons: firstly, vintage as a style is not my forte, and secondly, when I looked through my (extensive!) stamp collection, it was obvious I didn't have much in the way of vintage stamps either!! In fact, I only have one set that looks even remotely 'vintage' and that's my Traveler set - at that moment though, I relaxed. I love this set and suddenly remembered an idea I'd had way back when it first came out in July. I wondered what the vintage steam train would look like converted into the Polar Express, the famous train in the Christmas movie starring Tom Hanks - well wonder no more, here's my card:

I used Night of Navy for my card base, stamped with some grunge spatters from Gorgeous Grunge in Gold Encore ink, and matted my focal image with an offset piece of Brushed Gold cardstock. I stamped my image in black Stazon on watercolour paper, then sponged in my sky using Night of Navy and a little Pacific Point. I added more colour to the train using my Aquapainter and a touch of gold, then I used Whisper White kraft ink for the snow on the ground, the smoke from the train's funnel and I masked off an area and sponged white for the beam of light coming from the front of the train. I also stamped some falling snow using the snow stamp in the 'White Christmas' set. I wanted to frame my image with the 'On Film' framelit as per the sketch from The Paper Craft Crew because I wanted the connection to the movie, but in truth it does crop the image a little small and you lose some of the detail. I will probably make another version of this without such a tight crop, but as I was racing towards my deadline I didn't have time to make another for today so had to go with this one. I do love the overall effect though. The flags are made from striped gold vellum and gold foil, and the sentiment from 'Good Greetings', in keeping with one of the famous straplines from the movie, 'The bell still rings for all who truly believe', which I punched out with a small oval punch and finished with a small brushed gold star.

I hope you like my vintage festive train today; do check out the other design team cards over at The Paper Players - there is, as always, some fantastic inspiration to be found there.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Traveler Clear-Mount Stamp Set	On Film Framelits Dies	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform
Stars Framelits Dies	Gorgeous Grunge	Good Greetings Wood-Mount Stamp Set	6 X 9 Watercolor Paper
Stazon Cleaner	Jet Black Stazon Pad	Aqua Painter	Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad
Gold Metallic Encore Pad	Gold Stampin' Dazzle Marker	Brushed Gold A4 Card Stock	Gold Fancy Foil Designer Vellum
Gold Foil Sheets	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad
Sponge Daubers	Large Oval Punch	Whisper White A4 Card Stock

A quick post from me with today's card which is for this week's Merry Monday and Freshly Made Sketches challenges:

Snowflakes, naturals and dry embossing - and here is my card:

When I saw the challenge over at Merry Monday, I knew immediately that I was going to use the lovely Early Espresso/kraft paper in the DSP Under The Tree Speciality DSP pack; I teamed it with the Mingle All the Way stamp, stamped in Early Espresso on kraft, which also has little snowflakes on it and punched this out using a 2" circle punch and layered it using a couple of additional circles. I used the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder for my embossed panel and had to finish with one of the little wooden snowflake embellishments from the Merry Many Stars kit - I love these and with I could buy them just one their own, I could find so many uses for them!!

I usually find monochromatic colour schemes so tricky, but this card came together so well and I love the natural look that this card has.

That's me for today; back tomorrow with my Design team card for The Paper Players; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Mingle All The Way Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder Die	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform
Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Under The Tree Specialty Designer Series Paper	Early Espresso A4 Card Stock	2" Circle Punch
2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch	Kraft 12" X 12" Card Stock	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Many Merry Stars Simply Created Kit

I'm off to a Halloween party today with friends and I wanted to do a quick post to share with you some of the treats I made to take for the children. I found these cute mini pumpkins for the girls and slightly more scary eyeballs for the boys, and just tied them in some cellophane with the White and Tangerine Tango Two-tone Trim and added some cute tags:

I also found these cute chocolate Halloween figures that I dressed up with some covers made using the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch with a large oval punched out of the front section, and decorated with some colourful tags - I stamped the Halloween image from the 'Merry Everything' stamp set twice, once on Tangerine Tango then again on some scraps of retired Lucky Limeade cardstock and cut out the Dracula on the green cardstock and paper-pieced them together.

How cute are these? I'm entering these into this week's challenge over at Colour Q, as they were inspired by this week's colour scheme and challenge badge (I substituted Rich Razzleberry as my purple, since I didn't have and Concorde Grape):

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Merry Everything Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Note Tag Punch	Scalloped Tag Topper Punch	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad
White & Tangerine Tango Two-Tone Trim	Extra-Large Oval Punch	Rich Razzleberry A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock
Basic Black Baker's Twine

It's Wednesday and time for this week's challenge over at Colour Me...! where we have not one but two colour palettes for you to choose from this week:

I'm playing along with option 2 this week, so I have the colour combination of Chocolate Chip, Lost Lagoon, Blushing Bride and a neutral (I chose Very Vanilla) to work with. Using the above sketch from CAS Colours & Sketches as the inspiration for my layout (I turned it through 90 degrees), I decided to make (another!) baby card using one of my favourite baby sets, Baby We've Grown. Here is my card:

I stamped my focal image in Chocolate Chip and coloured in using ink and my blender pens, to give a slightly vintage look to my owls. I matted this panel onto a piece of Chocolate Chip Cardstock, which overlays a vertical strip that has been edged with a piece of Lost Lagoon punched with the hearts border punch. I added my sentiment, again stamped in Chocolate Chip on Lost Lagoon cardstock, to finish. Although the base is Blushing Bride, I think this could be a good unisex baby card; you could always alternate the pink and blue elements if you wanted something more masculine in appearance.

So what do you think? Feel free to leave a comment on today's card, before hopping over to check out the amazing cards by the rest of the Colour Me...! team:

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Baby, We've Grown	Hearts Border Punch	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad	Lost Lagoon A4 Cardstock
Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride	Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad	Chocolate Chip A4 Card Stock
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock

I'm very late posting today - eek! - having had a fun day with the James juniors, amongst other things shopping for the contents for our annual Samaritan's Purse Shoeboxes. This is something we really enjoy and is a great way to encourage the children to think of others less fortunate than themselves as we are about to embark on one of the most commercial seasons of the year and to be grateful for all they have.

With gratefulness in mind, I thought I would share a little pumpkin that I made using the Curvy Keepsake Thinlit Die - this would make a perfect Thanksgiving table favour for my American readers and equally with an alternative tag would be suitable for Halloween too. There are tons of variations on pumpkins made with the thinlit die out there in blogland, but this is my version:

So simple to make: just cut two pieces of Pumpkin Pie cardstock with the thinlit, stamp the inner sections of the box with one of the stamps from the Work of Art set, then finish with some Old Olive leaves cut using the Fun Fall Framelits, some twisted tendrils, a couple of my favourite Autumn Wooden Embellishments and a tag from the Merry Everything set, all tied on with linen thread. I love this die and have made so many gorgeous boxes with it; I am hoping to be able to share some of them with you later this week.

Meanwhile, today I'm going to leave you with a fun photo that is destined for this year's Halloween Project Life page for sure - whilst out shopping today, we treated ourselves to some Halloween 'trick or treat' donuts at Krispy Kreme; sure enough, we had one of each filling:

The oozing green filling was actually quite nice, but the appearance was definitely a surprise!

Back tomorrow with this week's Wednesday Deals and my Design Team post for Colour Me...! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Curvy Keepsake Box Thinlits Dies	Merry Everything Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Note Tag Punch	Fun Fall Framelits Dies
Autumn Wooden Elements	Work Of Art Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad	Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock
Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Old Olive A4 Card Stock	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Linen Thread
Fuse Fast Adhesive

Happy Monday everyone! I've had a fun day today: made today's blog card first thing, caught up with a friend who's been away for a while, then spent the afternoon with the lovely ladies that attend my monthly card class - there can't be a better way to start my week! I tell you, those ladies are an absolute hoot and there are some real artists amongst them for sure (yes Chris, the reindeer was inspired!!) Pictures to follow on my Facebook page!

We used the Endless Wishes stamp set in my class today, but today's blog card is back on the theme of Halloween - I need to get the use out of my Halloween sets before they get retired for another year! I took my inspiration from the photo over at Fusion, but didn't double up and use their sketch too (I might have another go at this later in the week) - instead I used the rather interesting layout over at Pals Paper Arts:

I knew I wanted to use orange with a touch of black and definitely needed to incorporate the pumpkin in the photo - this is what I came up with:

I used Sahara Sand for my card base, and used a piece of the Motely Monsters DSP that is covered with happy smiling pumpkins as my first angular layer. For my top piece, I used a piece of Tangerine Tango cardstock and cut out a pumpkin shape using my Fall Fest framelits, so that the DSP beneath would show through. I then stamped another smaller pumpkin is Crushed Curry onto Whisper White, stamped a face in Memento Black, cut this out with a framelit, tied it with a piece of linen thread and adhered to the edge of the open aperture. I popped this whole section onto dimensionals to give a little extra lift and depth. To finish, I stamped my sentiment from 'Good Greetings' in Memento Black onto the base of my card.

I hope you like today's card; back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Fall Fest Photopolymer Bundle	Motlley Monsters Designer Series Paper	Good Greetings Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Linen Thread
Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad