Pierced Blooms Special Moments Friendship Card PP578

by Joanne James13. February 2022 09:00

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

    

I used Kim's fabulous sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week for my layout and decided to create something fresh with a hint of spring - take a look:

 

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

Special Moments - I love Kim's sketch this week and will most definitely be CASing her card using my favourite Floral Squares Dies. I decided to use the square to feature my sentiment and the circle for my floral decoration. I love this sentiment from the current Sale-A-Bration set 'Special Moments' - it is a paired sentiment that finishes like this on the inside of my card:

Isn't that so sweet? Perfect to let a friend know how much they mean to you. I layered my sentiment square and added a strip of Sunshine and Rainbows designer paper behind - another Sale-A-Bration freebie!

Pierced Blooms and Stitched Greenery - In addition to my sentiment, my card is all about stitched detailing. I used the Pierced Blooms Dies to create my trio of flowers and leaf stems in the challenge colours to add to the corner of my sentiment square and diecut the background with the Stitched Greenery Dies.

Brass Butterflies - As a finishing touch, I added a couple of teeny tiny brass butterfly embellishments to my sentiment square; these are in the mini catalogue - aren't they sweet?

I really like LeAnne's colour choices this week - they are just the thing to bring a breath of fresh air and spring colour on a cold winter's 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:

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:
 
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission.
3.  Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL.
4.  Have FUN!

Enjoy your day; we have no plans so will be spending it enjoying the start of the half-term break. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Floral Hearts Dies Inlaid Diecut Technique AYSI268

by Joanne James11. February 2022 13:00

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a fun 'fill in the blank' challenge:

       

A favourite technique - how fun! I decided to choose inlaid diecut technique as one of my favourite techniques to share with you today and decided to have another crack at the inspiration photo over at The Card Concept, this time with a clean and layered card (you can see my earlier clean and simple entry here in case you missed it). I was totally inspired by the greenery and pink flowers of that beautiful heart and the texture of the white brick wall behind and where better to turn to demonstrate the inlaid diecut technique than my trusty Floral Heart Dies - take a look:

 

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Floral Hearts Dies and Inlaid Diecuts - I cut out the main heart from a piece of green ink-washed watercolour paper and added some additional pieces of foliage as the basis for my heart wreath, then used the separate flower dies to cut out the flowers in both Melon Mambo and Flirty Flamingo. Before brushing out the pieces from the petals of the flower outlines, I carefully used some Press 'n' Seal to lift the pieces out in the same position. I then adhered the outline pieces to some scrap cardstock, and carefully inlaid the alternative colourway into the outline pieces. This gives a selection of two-tone flowers with all pieces intact. I love to use just the outlines of these flowers, but think they look really pretty with their infills too. This technique is quite fiddly with small pieces, however is really easy when larger diecuts are involved, such as the new Tropical Layers Dies, for example.

Textured Brick - I used the Bricks and Mortar 3D embossing folder to add texture to the base of my card; this is a great way to add detail and interest to plain white cardbase.

My Heart Is Tied To Yours - Finally, in addition to some pearls and a simple double bow, I added a banner with my favourite sentiment from the 'Eden's Garden' stamp set:

 

Is that not just the nicest greeting someone can see when they open a card? I think so. My card is already in the mail to someone who has been having a tough time lately and I'm hoping when she reads this it will truly warm her heart and let her know I'm thinking of her.

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 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.
  • In a Fill in the Blank challenge, complete the sentence in the Challenge Banner with the phrase that is true for you and create your project using the words you used. Tell us what you said in your blog or on your site.
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:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Sweet Talk Love You TTT148

by Joanne James10. February 2022 18:00

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 Felicita is our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

       

I went down the first column with red/heart/sentiment (my card also works for the middle row of heart/free/stitching) and I used the lovely red and pink hearts inspo over at Double D and the fabulous sketch over at Sunday Stamps (this one is a keeper ladies!) for the layout for my sweet-on-you card today - take a look:

 

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

Sweet Talk - The Sunday Stamps sketch was crying out for a showcase of some lovely patterned paper (check out the DT cards on the link above - they are amazing!) so I decided to go all-out pink and red hearts and use another two contrasting patterns from the Sweet Talk paper pack that I used for yesterday's card. I used one for my card base, then with a layer of Real Red in between, added a panel decorated with pink and red lollipops and hearts - so sweet!

All About The Angles - Today card is all about the angles, or more specifically, rectangles! I used two large ones for the central tilted panels, then two smaller ones for the sentiment detail. The Stitched Rectangle Dies are such a great way to frame a piece of paper or scene and add subtle detail, without detracting from the main event. 

All About Love - The die cut 'love you' sentiment on the front of my card is actually part of the larger diecut sentiment in the 'Love You More Than' Dies set, where I just used the first two words. I love to look at diecut word sets to see how they can be repurposed or reused with other sets to expand their range of use:

I fussy cut some lollipops and sweets from another of the sheets of Sweet Talk patterned paper and tucked these in just beneath my sentiment for an extra fun touch.

I added a sentiment from 'A Wish For Everything' to the inside of my card - this is one of my favourite sentiment sets:

My card can be used at any time to remind the recipient that they are loved - after all, to love is for always, not just for Valentine's!

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 am out this evening attending a music recital that includes a performance of a piece of music that Rebecca wrote for her GCSE Music exam earlier this year. When I asked if she'd like to come with me, she said 'Why would I want to do that? I wrote it, so I know what it sounds like - I'm off to hockey training!' And that was the end of that - you can't fault teenage logic!

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Clean and Simple Here For You CCS 456

by Joanne James8. February 2022 13:00

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and YoonYoung has asked that we include a trio of shapes towards the bottom of our panel and overlay with a sentiment. Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

        

For my card today I thought I'd get a little practice using my new skin tone Blends and feature the 'heart hands' from the 'Here Together' stamp set - take a look:

 

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

I stamped and coloured my hands with SU900 and SU1000 Stampin' Blends and diecut them using my Here For you Dies, adding an arch of colour to my white cardbase before adhering them to my card. I stamped my sentiment in Versamark onto vellum and heat embossed it in (retired) Lovely Lipstick embossing powder, before wrapping this around the hands on my card and adhering on the reverse of the panel.

 

My card is a rather creative take on this week's sketch, with the hands representing the two outer shapes and the heart that they make the smaller central one. A vellum strip for my sentiment allows the hands and heart to remain visible, whilst also adding a pop of colour from the sentiment itself. By keeping the design to the lower portion of the card is a great way to preserve 'white space' and a clean, uncluttered feel. I'm also linking my card up with the team over at CASology, where the current theme is 'affection' - my teenage son is much more likely to make this sign with his hands than he is to kiss me these days, but he assures me it is a sign of affection so I'll take it! I'm also linking up for a second go with the lovely ladies over at Just Add Ink with another minimalist design.

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:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Driving By With Love Clean And Simple

by Joanne James7. February 2022 10:00

This is my second card for today, again using the 'Driving By' stamp set that I made with a few challenges in mind:

    

It uses the current Color Throwdown colours and is most definitely a clean and simple take on the codeword at Addicted to CAS this week which is 'Hearts' - and it's another vehicle for the 'V is for Vehicle' challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge blog. I was inspired by a few clean and simple cards that one of the Stampin' Up! Artisans had posted on Instagram that used white ink on a kraft cardbase, so decided to take the fun open top sports car from 'Driving By' and replace the oval balloons with some heart-shaped ones - take a look:

 

The car and sentiment is stamped in white kraft ink and not heat-embossed, hence the paler appearance (in hindsight, I think I should maybe have used my Stamparatus to get a stronger image - I'll remember that next time!) I used the heart stamp from 'Here Together' and stamped the heats onto the ends of my freehand strings, adding highlights and some dots between the tiny stamped hearts with my chalk marker (these tiny hearts are from the 'Rainbow of Happiness' stamp set). I coloured my trio of hearts using my dry watercolour pencils in Cherry Cobbler, Melon Mambo and Flirty Flamingo to allow for some grainy shading: 

My sentiment is from the 'Happy & Heartfelt' stamp set and I finished with a freehand squiggly frame and some linen thread.

So what do you think? This was a bit of an experiment for me as I rarely use Crumb Cake as a base, but I do like the way it really highlights the three pink hearts. Besides, it's always fun to try something new - especially when the stamp was a freebie to boot! Yay for free products and Sale-A-Bration - you have until the end of the month to get your hands on yours!

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:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Nuts And Bolts Interactive Light-Up Valentine's Card PP577

by Joanne James6. February 2022 09:00

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

          

Love and friendship is our theme this week and my card today is all heart (perfect for the hearts challenge over at Double D). I used the sketch layout over at Paper Craft Crew and decided to put into practice an idea I've been wanting to try with another Valentine's card using the awesome 'Nuts & Bolts' stamp set - take a look:

 

At first glance, my card is quite simple: some stamped tone-on-tone hearts on my pink layer, a square of heart-patterned Sweet Talk designer paper and a robot, coloured with my Smoky Slate and Real Red Stampin' Blends.

The best part about today's card though? It lights up! I used a simple circuit and a red LED to give my heart a fun Valentine's glow:

 

When you press the sentiment, it light up the heart - check it out on the video clip below:

This type of card is so easy to create - and the interactive element makes for a super-cute card, right?! I also used an offcut strip of paper and one of the other robots in the set to decorate the inside of my card:

 

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. 

I'm also linking today's card up for a second entry over at SUO Challenges where they are all about Valentine's Day for their current challenge.

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

Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:
 
1.  Create a new paper project
2.  Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission.
3.  Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL.
4.  Have FUN!

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

More Love CAS Watercoloured Notecards

by Joanne James5. February 2022 18:00

Today I'm sharing a couple of clean and simple cards that I made for the current AAA Cards Challenge where they are looking for no layers and an optional big sentiment. Both of my cards were also inspired by the photo over at The Card Concept and I'm also linking up over at CASology where clean and simple 'affection' is the order of the day and at Just Add Ink where the theme is minimalism:

         

I love a good no-layer card, especially if it features a single sentiment. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the 'More Love' stamp set in the Stampin' Up! mini catalogue as it is the perfect 'one and done' stamp and whilst it could be used for Valentine's, I think it's a lovely set to send to someone as a gesture of more general love and affection. I love the bright green of the foliage on the Card Concept's inspiration photo, and as I was rummaging through one of my drawers came across some retired notecards that had a pre-watercoloured base in green that I thought would make a nice easy, yet interesting background for my stamp. So this was the first card I made:

 

I heat-embossed my sentiment in gold, then coloured the flowers in with Melon Mambo and Granny Apple Green Blends, in a nod to the pretty florals on that floral heart:

 

I really liked the texture of the watercolour paper and the green, but it was definitely a different take for me. I wasn't sure about my experiment so decided to revert much more to my clean-and-simple comfort zone and recreate my card onto a basic thick white cardbase:

 

On this card I used watercolour pencils to colour my flowers, as I didn't want my Blends to bleed through to the reverse, since my card was a no-layer:

 

My CAS-loving heart feels much better about this card, and the white base is more fitting with both the background in the Card Concept inspiration photo and my general approach to CAS card making. Either way, a simple card base, single stamp and a simple-yet wow impact from the metallic heat embossing with just a little colour is about as minimalist as I get!

I am linking up the white version of my card for the above challenges, but I'd be really interested to know which one you prefer - do leave me a comment below, I would love to hear your thoughts. Here's a side-by-side photo for comparison:

I really like this stamp and haven't seen many examples of it being used in blogland, so maybe I'm in the minority! Either way, I will be sending some of these to some special people this week to let them know they are in my 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 '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 a special project for this week's Paper Player's theme challenge - you won't want to miss it! Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Abstract Beauty Yay For Love Valentine FF102

by Joanne James4. February 2022 09:00

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday:

    

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is Valentine's Day which is on February 14th. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used pink, romantic sentiment, hearts, watercolour and aperture and this is what I came up with:

 

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

I decided to create a Valentine's card using a combination of both paper and pre-cut pieces from the Abstract Beauty Ephemera pack, based around the gold and white frame and watercoloured heart, layering them onto my cardfront until I was happy with the balance of elements. I added some black adhesive-backed hexagons and gold twine bow and finished my card with a fun sentiment from the 'Happy & Heartfelt' set, stamped in Magenta Madness to match my cardbase and fussy cut:

I added another sentiment from the same set and an offcut strip of paper to decorate the inside of my card to finish: 

I really like that this card with its modern, rather eclectic, feel - a change from the more traditional red and pink, hearts and flowers - although I still have some of those to share with you too! I'm linking today's card up with the lovely ladies over at SUO Challenges where they are asking us for Valentines-themed projects 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. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the  Festive Friday Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Stephanie Lanzalotto
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James - you are here!

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Forever And Always Valentines Card CCS455

by Joanne James1. February 2022 13:00

This is my second post of today - to read all about the pre-release of skin-tone Blends and the exclusive 'All Together' bundle, please see my earlier post here.

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. YoonYoung is hosting this month and our first challenge is a colour challenge: 

       

These colours are perfect for Valentine's so I dug out a bunch of my favourite retired Valentine's bits and pieces and along with the Try Stampin' on Tuesday sketch and some inspiration from my talented blog friend Kim Singdahlsen, I set to work! This is what I came up with:

 

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

I absolutely loved this card that Kim made for last week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge - isn't that stencilled background amazing?! I didn't have anything similar in my stash, but decided that the TSOT sketch was perfect for a trio of (retired Sweet & Sassy Framelits) diecut hearts in this week's challenge colours, so I made my own stencil from a retired Detailed Hearts Die and blended all three colours into the central background circle to bring the diecuts together. I added a diecut and stamped sentiment from another retired stamp and die set, 'Forever & Always' and the Always Dies to complete my card:

 

These will always be some of my most favourite Valentine's items - so timeless and therefore super useful! 

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. 

As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! color names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

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

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

New Release: All Together Collection And New Skin-tone Blends Pre-Release

by Joanne James1. February 2022 09:00

A new day, a new month and time to tell you about some new product too - the All Together Collection! In the words of Stampin' Up!, "loving hands and heartfelt words are the best way to show you care. With hand designs that illustrate coming together in friendship and solidarity, the All Together Collection will help you create cardmaking and paper-crafting projects that reflect the people you know and love."

The All Together Collection includes early-release products from the 2022–2023 Annual Catalogue—an exciting new range of natural Stampin’ Blends—and exclusive products you can’t get anywhere else! While the Natural Tones Stampin’ Blends are an early-release product from the 2022—2023 Annual Catalogue, the collection’s additional products are exclusive and only available while supplies last. Encourage them to shop early to ensure they receive the entire collection!

Here's a video from the lovely people at the Stampin' up! home office that shows the suite in more detail:

See the product details on the flyer below for more information, or to purchase from my online store I've included the clickable shopping links at the bottom of this post.

 

 

I have some great projects to share in the coming weeks that showcase these new naturals Blends markers and they will also be featuring in my upcoming March class that features the 'In The Moment' stamp set. This online class is scheduled for 21st March 2022, 11am-1pm - please get in touch for more information or to book your place. 

Equally, if you love the whole All Together Collection, you might like to consider joining my Stampin' Up! team and ordering it as part of your start kit - for just another £1.25 you could receive an additional £31 of product AND 2 free stamp sets of your choice - along with all of the wider benefits that come from being part of the Stampin' Up! family. If you'd like to know more, then please get in touch - I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Back later with today's creative post for this week's colour challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches; until then, happy shopping!

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

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About Me

Hi I'm Joanne and live in Northampton and when I'm not looking after my husband and two beautiful children, am an avid crafter with a passion for all things Stampin' Up!

I must confess that I have never been a big rubber stamper - until I discovered Stampin' Up! that is. I love the fact that I can get such great results with co-ordinating stamps, inks, papers and punches - the possibilities are endless! Join me on my stamping journey as I share the things I love and be inspired to create amazing things yourself!

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This is my personal blog and is not endorsed by Stampin’ Up! I hope you find it a plentiful source of ideas and personal inspiration but please don't copy my designs for contest submission or use for classes, publication or sale without express permission.