Good evening blog readers! I managed to grab a few hours this afternoon to catch up on some crafting (a reward to myself for getting some of my admin out of the way this morning!) and I made a card using both this week's 'tall and skinny' Mojo Monday sketch and the colours over at Colour Q:

I don't often make 'tall and skinny' cards and historically was always put off by not having the correct sized envelope, but now I have my Envelope Punch Board, irregular envelope sizes don't phase me at all! As for the Colour Q challenge, well you may remember when I made this card a few weeks ago that I confessed I had two ink pads in my stash that I had owned for more than 12 months and never broke the cellophane wrapper on; one of them was Garden Green, that I used on the previous card; the other - Always Artichoke. So when I saw this colour challenge, I just had to have a go! Now Peach Parfait and Apricot Appeal are retired SU colours; I did have an old inkpad and some Peach Parfait cardstock, which I've used, but no Apricot Appeal, so I substituted with Pumpkin Pie instead. Here is my card:

I followed the background layering of the sketch with solid colour cardstock and overlaid with a slim panel of Pumpkin Pie Brights DSP. Instead of a circle as my focal point, I decided to use a tag punched with my Scalloped Tag Topper Punch. I cut my cardstock slightly wider than the 2" groove in order that it could accommodate my corner flower stamp from the 'You're So Grateful' stamp set. I stamped the image in black Stazon  and used my Aquapainter to colour in the design. When the image had dried, I went around the inside edge of the image with the co-ordinating colour marker pen to give it added definition. I have one small confession, which is that I used a small piece of Old Olive ribbon to finish off my tag as it was the closest match I had to Always Artichoke. And finally - I made a co-ordinating envelope!

Hope you like today's card; I'll be back tomorrow with a very special punch art creation, so do check back to see what I've made. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

One last quick post from me today - call it an early post for tomorrow! I saw the current sketch over at Retrosketches and was really keen to have a go as I managed to squeeze in a little extra crafting time this afternoon, so thought I would combine it with the challenge over at Addicted to CAS this week:

Now I don't have a current coffee stamp, but I do have a cute little stamp that was part of one of last year's Sale-A-Bration sets that I knew would fit the bill. Here is my card: 

I used coffee as the inspiration for my colour scheme too, with my base card of Early Espresso picked up in the co-ordinating baker's twine. I coloured my coffee cup in red to give a pop of colour and embossed my card base with the Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder to add texture and interest.

That's all from me; I'm off to catch up on a little late night TV. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

So here is my second card of the day, just in time for this week's challenge over at Less is More where the theme this week is 'masculine cards'. I decided to use the 'Cool Kid' stamp set for my card; when I saw this stamp set I just had to have it - my children always get so excited if they have been chosen as the class 'cool kid' for the day at school. So here is my card:

I chose to use the Brights colour combination of Real Red, Tempting Turquoise and Tangerine Tango for my card - all colours my son would love! - and having stamped the dog in orange, I coloured in his scarf and boots with my Stampin' Write markers. I used the blue to outline both my circle and sentiment panel, then picked up the orange with a thin strip cut from a piece of cardstock embossed with the new Arrows Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. I inked up the sentiment using my markers too, so that I could have multi-coloured lettering - I love the effect that this give on this card.

I used this week's sketch over at Create with Connie and Mary for my layout.

Back soon with another card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

I've had a very crafty day today and managed to make a few quick cards to catch up on some of this week's challenges. I'm just in time to get in my entry for this week's challenge at The Paper Players, where LeAnne's challenge this week is CAS Clean and Simple with Stars:

I decided to go with a gold and blue theme and used the sketch over at CAS Colours & Sketches this week for my layout (too late to enter for the challenge, but I liked the unusual layout) - here is my card:

I stamped my stars with the gold metallic ink pad, then heat-embossed the 'Congratulations' stamp from the Ronald McDonald set on gold and set this on a mat of gold foil so that it really stood out. I cut out the label using the co-ordinating framelit and cut the foil mat freehand, using the outside edge of the framelit as a guide. This card will be on it's way to one of my team members - two of them have recently gained promotions, so along with a new team member this week, there's plenty to celebrate!

Back soon with another of my 'makes' today; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Good evening everyone! Today I have a video tutorial to share with you that I prepared a couple of weeks ago that shows you how to make an extra-wide pouch using the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch. Here's the finished extra-wide pouch:

Here is a standard size treat pouch made with the Scalloped Tag Topper Punch - you can find my previous video tutorial on how to make this here:

As you can see, when compared to the standard-size punch, the extra-wide version is about 1" or 2.5cm wider and taller. The video tutorial shows you how to adapt your punch and shares my top tip for a smooth punch every time - go and take a look:

Here are the measurements I used in the video in case you didn't catch them:

Cardstock: 2 3/4" x 7 3/4" or 7cm x 19.5cm

Score at: 3 3/4" and 4" or 9.5cm and 10cm

I hope you found this video tutorial useful - this is such a versatile punch with so many uses beyond a standard tag. The treat pouches make great little wedding favours too.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Good evening blog readers! My busy days continue as this week the James juniors are off school as it's half term. Today has been a day of piano and singing practice, book reading and review writing, nail painting and telling the time problems, with a little basketball and a couple of baskets of ironing thrown in! Crafting time is in short supply this week, so today I'm sharing with you a stepped up version of a card that we made in my Sale-A-Bration card class this month. This card was a CASE of this one by Mary Fish, although I tweaked a few things, primarily the colour scheme as I wanted to use the Pistachio Pudding DSP from the Sale-A-Bration set. Here is my card:

I stamped the image twice, once on Whisper White for the label, which I cut out using the Big Shot and Deco label Framelits and once on Summer Starfruit, which is the piece that I used to cut the flowers from. I paper-pieced all four of the flowers on this card and coloured the leaves and stems with a Pistachio Pudding marker, then finished with a few pearls. I think this would make quite a nice Easter card too, with an alternative sentiment.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Good morning everyone! Today's blog post could have been titled so many things: 'Yay it's Valentine's Day!', 'Yay it's Friday!', 'Yay it's stopped raining!' - I could go on, but instead I went with 'Yay for Retro Fresh!' as the Retro Fresh DSP is definitely the star of this card. I have used the sketch layout over at Create with Connie and Mary for week 3 of the Spring 2014 Challenge for my card (I love a good sketch challenge!).

I decided to go with a congratulations card, as I seem to be using a lot of these for different things lately and inspired by the DT samples this week I went against my natural instinct and challenged myself to see just how many different designs of Retro Fresh DSP I could use on one card without overwhelming the focal point. Here's my card - can you spot them all? 

I used four in total, which might not sound like much, but for me that's unusual. Funny thing is, like all of Stampin' Up!'s designer series papers, the Retro Fresh patterns all work really well together, so it works. I decided to keep my focal point sentiment bold and clean, then used striped paper for my banners, broken up with a flag of 'homemade' DSP using Tangerine Tango cardstock randomly stamped with the star from the Banner Blast stamp set. I cut the banners using the new Banners Framelits dies - these are great for perfect banners in a jiffy. I used a thin strip of the arrow paper to draw the eye to the focal sentiment and edged this with some stretch ruffle trim to echo the scalloped circle, then lastly used a light pattern for my base layer. I considered leaving it plain, either just above the horizontal strip or both above and below it, but it was just too bland, so I added yet another pattern to the mix.

So there you have it - yay for Retro Fresh! Sometimes it pays to be a bit more adventurous with your patterned papers and not be afraid of using more than one at a time. Don't forget to hop on over to Create with Connie and Mary to see what everyone else has done with this sketch.

As it is Valentine's Day today, I shouldn't let it pass without a mention; I received the cutest card this morning from the number one man in my life - I'm sharing a picture on my Facebook page, so pop over if you'd like to see and share some love today!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Coastal Cabana 3/8" Ruffle Stretch Trim	Circle card Thinlits Die	Banners Framelits Dies	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform
Retro Fresh Designer Series Paper	Card Stock A4 Baked Brown Sugar	Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock

So I didn't quite manage to squeeze in another 'make' for you yesterday, but I'm here bright and breezy (or should that be windswept, given the gales we've had here for the last day or so!) this morning with today's card. Given my recent dalliances with the colour black, I thought I would try something different using black cardstock and one of my most favourite stamps - yes, the Flowerfull Heart (still available to order until Friday if you'd like one - click on the link to my online shop below!) Here is my card:

Now, I know you might be thinking "Anniversary card - on black??!" but hear me out! I wanted to use this stamp again with some heat embossing; I toyed with gold (well, it worked pretty well on this card I think) but eventually decided to use Pool Party embossing powder. My colour combination was inspired by one of the DSP patterns in the Sweet Sorbet pack that is available as one of the free Sale-A-Bration gifts currently when you spend £45 or more - the little blue Pool Party flowers with black centres. I would not necessarily have thought about using these colours together had it not been for this paper. A simple sentiment from the 'Express Yourself' hostess set (such a versatile set of greetings in a very usable font, it can be yours when you host a Stampin' Up! party - contact me to book yours) finishes this simple card.

So what do you think - a colour combination that works or one to be avoided, especially on a romantic card? I'd love to know what you think. I'm also linking this card up with the 'One Layer Card - Anything Goes' challenge over at Less is More this week (currently the only card using black for it's 'white space' - should I be worried?!) and CAS(E) This Sketch as my card uses their sketch again:

Funny how you can use the same two starting points, yet end up with two cards that couldn't be more different. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Flowerfull Heart Wood-Mount Stamp	Pool Party Stampin' Emboss Powder	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig
Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Envelope Punch Board	Heat Tool - Uk Plug

Another early post from me today - makes me look organised, but if you'd witnessed the library book hunt that rampaged through the James household this morning before school, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise! As promised, today's card uses the same stamp from the 'From This Day Forward' set that I used yesterday, but to give a completely different effect. Here is my card:

The photograph really doesn't do this card justice (not least because it is so difficult to get a great shot of an almost all-white card!) but up close, this card is really beautiful; I stamped the image and sentiment in Versamark onto Shimmery White cardstock - a lovely cardstock for this kind if project, it is flecked with minute specks of shimmer glitter and catches the light beautifully - and then heat embossed with silver embossing powder to add texture (important when your card is only one layer) and a lovely sheen).

It just goes to show that you don't always need lots of layers to create an impactful card - I'm getting quite into this one layer thing!

I'm going to link up today's card with this week's challenge over at 'Less is More' where the challenge is 'One layer - anything goes' and at CAS(E) this Sketch, as I used this sketch for my layout (turned through 90 degrees).

I'm off to get crafty - lots to do today! I might even pop back later and squeeze in another post.

Until then, happy stampin'!

P.S.: In case you're wondering we found the library book eventually - phew!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

This Day Forward	Shimmery White A4 Card Stock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	Heat Tool - Uk Plug

Good morning lovely blog readers! This morning's card is one I made as an acceptance card for a wedding invitation received recently. I actually had the stamp out on my desk for an alternative card which I will share with you tomorrow, when I decided it might work with this week's colour challenge combination at Pals Paper Arts:

When I originally saw this colour combination I did immediately think 'Valentine' (well, it's that time of year, right?!) Truth is, I've made lots of Valentine's cards already this year and I just don't have that many Valentine's to send them to! Instead, this is what I came up with:

I decided to keep the design quite simple and stamped the image and sentiment in Basic Grey directly onto the Blushing Bride cardstock. I wasn't sure about this beforehand, but it looks so much nicer than on white, which left the image too stark. I quite like the slightly mottled effect of the stamping, which reminds me of stone, however this was more by accident than design - my Basic Grey inkpad is one of my few remaining old style pads and having used it to stamp a solid image, you can really see the difference when compared to the finish of the new foam pads. Needless to say, I have since ordered a new Basic Grey foam pad! I also stamped the image onto a scrap of Rose Red and cut out the two hearts with my paper snips and just paper pieced them in place - none of my myriad of heart punches, stamps or framelits were quite the right shape to take care of this for me. Worth it though, just to give a little 'pop' of colour and bring the colour scheme together.

I hope you like today's card; come back tomorrow to see an alternative card using this same stamp and don't forget to check out the folks over at Pals Paper Arts for more great ideas using this colour combination. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

This Day Forward

Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad

Basic Gray A4 Card Stock

Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride

Rose Red A4 Card Stock