Happy Monday everyone! Today I'm sharing a super clean and simple card for the following challenges:

The sketch over at InspireCreate was perfect for a clean and simple (CAS) card so I decided to grab a quick 10 minutes to create a card also inspired by the Addicted to CAS challenge of 'Nature' inspired by autumn colour and foliage - take a look:

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

Now I know here in the UK we are enjoying the second day of what looks to be a 4 day mini heatwave, but I couldn't resist the rich blackberry tones of the Blackberry Beauty designer paper on my card today. I just love the jewelled tones of this paper and I paired it with one of my current favourite generic sentiments from the 'Beauty of Tomorrow' stamp set, which finishes on the inside of my card:

Isn't that just the nicest sentiment? I debated whether to reverse the paper and 'white space' on my card, but decided that the strip on the sketch was perfect for really highlighting the beauty of the paper and its gold foil detail - just look at those pretty acorns and oak leaves: 

This is a great standby design if your pressed for time and a good way to use up those leftover strips of paper we all have in our craft room 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; mine's been a busy one, with pre-season football training this morning and a trip to buy new hiking boots in readiness for the next Duke of Edinburgh expedition amongst other things! At the rate at which teenage boys grow (or is it just mine?!) these have to be left until a few weeks before the hike; enough time to break them in, but not enough time to grow out of them!! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BLACKBERRY BEAUTY 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)

BEAUTY OF TOMORROW CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)

VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)

METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)

BLACKBERRY BLISS A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

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 you to work with:

LeAnne's theme was a timely one for me this week since my 'better half' celebrates a milestone birthday early next month so this gave me the perfect opportunity to make his birthday card. I thought the colours over at Just Add Ink were perfect for a fresh, masculine card and I absolutely love Kim's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches so I used this for my layout (albeit I created my card in a landscape orientation in order to fit all the words in! So first up - take a look at my card:

Whilst browsing the internet for birthday inspiration, I saw a pin badge that had the above phrase on it and I thought it would be perfect for a milestone birthday card and I know Jason will appreciate this kind of sideways humour. I stamped the phrase in Night of Navy using my retired 'Sophisticated Serif' stamp set with the 'F' highlighted in Coastal Cabana, which I carried through to my '50', diecut using my retired Large Number Framelits, and used for contrast on my background panels in some retired Brights DSP in a masculine argyle pattern.

Kim's sketch also features a vertical sentiment banner, which was the perfect place to add a happy birthday greeting (stamped using my retired 'Milestone Moments' stamp set) which I heat-embossed in silver on vellum so that it wouldn't obscure the message on my central panel. This was also the perfect place to add an embellishment of a trio of retired co-ordinating ribbons tied with silver twine:

My card is otherwise very clean and uncluttered, but I figured it might be a masculine card but a milestone birthday needs a little pizzazz, right?!

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

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; the forecast here is for a warmer day so we are hoping for one last BBQ before the James Juniors return to school and the summer well and truly leaves us for good. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

This card uses mostly retired products apart from the current colours so there is no supplies list today.

I've had a few days break from the blog as I make the most of the last few days of the long summer holiday before the James Juniors head back to school next week. I'm back today though and I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a theme challenge:

I used the great sketch over at Sunday Stamps for my layout this week. So many options for that central panel but with our theme this week of 'up in the air' I decided to feature a festive feathered friend on mine - take a look:

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

Happy Holly Days - First up, I have a little story for you! I can't tell you how many UK Leadership training events I've attended over the years where I've been in meetings where we've brainstormed ideas for future catalogues, and if I had a penny for every time the request for a traditional Christmas robin has been made I would be rich by now! The cardinal gets featured frequently in the Stampin' Up! catalogue and whilst he is a common visitor for many in Stampin' Up!'s global markets, the robin is a particularly European bird and doesn't travel as far south as the USA. As such, our requests have often fallen on deaf ears - until now! This year's mini catalogue has a beautiful robin just waiting to be coloured, so I had to scoop him up and I'm so glad to give him his first outing on my card today.

I've seen some interesting colours applied to this bird as I've browsed the internet, but my robin is true to type! His tummy is maybe a little more red than a real-life bird, since they are actually more of an orange-red colour, but I wanted to emphasise the red so went with Poppy Parade Blends and made mine a full-on 'robin red breast'. As for this set, not only does it have this lovely robin and some holly to colour (more on that in a moment) but it has some lovely sentiments for both the outside and inside of your cards. I used a large 'Noel' on the front of my card, then continued on the inside with this one:

Shimmer With The Holly Border - In addition to the holly in the stamp set, which I coloured and fussy cut and adhered around the feet of my robin, the stamp set is bundled with a holly border punch. I didn't use the border pattern in my design today, instead I punched it out of some Evening Evergreen vellum and then adhered the leaves in between my stamped ones for some extra sparkly detail:

 I did wonder if I was a little over-enthusiastic about this, but I do like the little added shimmer it adds to the card. Once complete I also wished I'd splattered my white rectangular panel as I felt it was a little too 'clean' (if there can ever be such a thing!) but I didn't want to remake or deconstruct, so added a trio in in-colour gems to break up the space and add a little more sparkle instead. 

Painted Christmas - For my split background panel, I chose two patterns from the Painted Christmas DSP pack. There are some lovely foliage patterns in this pack and I had a hard time choosing just two. I covered the join with some lovely dark green chevron weaved ribbon to complete 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

 So what do you think? I really love this robin and am on a mission to feature him on lots of cards this season, especially since he has been so longed-for in terms of stamp sets! In the meantime, what will you choose to feature for our 'up in the air' theme this week?

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.

Enjoy your day; the James Juniors are off to get pre-school haircuts today and Ben for one needs it - the yeti currently has nothing on him!! Rebecca is actually going in for Sixth Form Induction day this afternoon and she is so excited! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

HAPPY HOLLY-DAYS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£36.75)	PAINTED CHRISTMAS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	STITCHED RECTANGLE DIES (£33.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
EVENING EVERGREEN (3/8" 1 CM) CHEVRON WEAVE RIBBON (£5.50)	2021–2023 IN COLOR SHIMMER VELLUM (£11.25)	2021–2023 IN COLOR JEWELS (£6.50)	POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SOFT SUEDE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BRONZE & IVORY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SHADED SPRUCE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SOFT SUCCULENT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

Happy Bank Holiday Monday to all my UK readers! It's the last holiday before Christmas so I hope you're going to make the most of it - maybe even squeeze in a little extra crafty time! Today I'm sharing another card featuring the Floral Squares Dies that I used on yesterday's card; this time using the sketch over at Fusion and colour inspiration from the fabulous photo over at Just Us Girls:

I love the Fusion sketch, which is a great layout for a wide variety of styles. I rotated the sketch through 90 degrees for my card and decided that I would focus on simple lines of block colour to draw the eye to just one of those gorgeous Floral Dies - take a look:

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

I added interest by tilting my diecut square and weaving my central stripe through the die and heat-embossed my sentiment from the 'Art Gallery' stamp set in white:

Super simple and another great way to feature those floral square dies!

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:

FLORAL SQUARES DIES (£25.00)	ART GALLERY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£20.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	SO SAFFRON A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
SMOKY SLATE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	BASICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Jaydee to host this week and since it is the fifth Sunday of the month we have a tic-tac-toe challenge for you to work with:

I was spoilt for choice this week! In the end I decided to follow the diagonal and go with florals/diecut/square card and use four of the colours on the Color Dare palette to create a card to showcase my favourite Floral Squares Dies from the annual catalogue - take a look:

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

Three of the colours in the Color Dare palette feature in one of my favourite plaid designs in the now retired Plaid Tidings DSP from this time last year, but I still have some left so decided it would make a great frame to surround a central square showcasing each of the Floral Squares Dies. I backed each of my squares in the corresponding solid colour and stamped a two-part sentiment in Cajun Craze that finishes inside my card:

My card also features the retired in-colour Pretty Peacock, but it looks so good with those autumnal browns and yellows I just couldn't resist:

This card could be easily recreated with other papers or colours though, so if you don't have these ones in your stash, get creative with what you have!

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:

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; we have a long weekend here in the UK so will be making the most of the last public holiday before Christmas. The forecast is good - it might even be BBQ weather! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

ALL SQUARED AWAY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£41.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	CAJUN CRAZE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	CAJUN CRAZE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	CINNAMON CIDER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BUMBLEBEE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

Today I'm sharing a quick card that uses the sketch layout at Paper Craft Crew (I substituted the square with a circle) and this week's colours over at Colour Throwdown:

I love those bright primary colours and I couldn't resist the adorable inspiration photo! I decided to use some retired product and dug out my Harvest Hellos stamp set and Apple Builder Punch to create a teacher card for my stash - take a look:

A super simple design, I created a base of floating lines in blue and green and added my apple behind my heat-embossed sentiment:

No supplies list as the key items featured are retired, but if you have any specific queries, then pop a comment below and I will happily answer them.

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

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and our fearless leader Felicita is our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

I loved Felicita's board this week and I could have chosen so many routes! I ended up using this week's Global Design Project #GDP306 sketch for my layout and going diagonally across the board from bottom left to top right with birthday/free/balloon (it also fits the second row of any colour ink/free/any shape die) for a simple and colourful birthday card - take a look:

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

Pattern Party - I used a sheet of fun, colourful stripey paper from the Pattern Party host pack as the background for my card - this totally inspired my bright colour scheme today! I love the way this frames my central scalloped panel.

Ombre Biggest Wish - My central panel is cut with one of the Scalloped Contours Dies and I used it to create a focal point ombre 'happy' sentiment overlaid with a fussy-cut birthday, both from the 'Biggest Wish' stamp set. Love these big, bold fonts, that are useful in lots of ways.

What No Penguin? - The balloons I featured on my card are from the 'Penguin Place' stamp set - and yes, not a penguin in sight! When I originally started my card, I was intent on adding one but in the end decided I liked it just like this. I fussy cut my balloons and strings and added them to my panel for a final pop of colour.

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 day; I am taxi service to hockey training this evening -  we are starting to ramp up as the new season approaches! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BIGGEST WISH PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)	SCALLOPED CONTOURS DIES (£33.00)	PENGUIN PLACE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)	PATTERN PARTY 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) HOST DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£17.00)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	PETAL PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	POPPY PARADE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
COASTAL CABANA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

Today will be a two post day! I will be back later with my TicTacToe inspiration for our new challenge, but first I'm sharing a card that I made for a very special occasion: the fabulous team over at Freshly Made Sketches are celebrating their 500th challenge and a decade of sketch inspiration - how amazing is that?! These wonderful ladies are a constant source of challenge and inspiration and I play along whenever I can and certainly couldn't miss out on the opportunity to play with Linda's fabulous sketch this week!

I decided to pair with the new mini catalogue inspiration over at TGIF Challenges, which I had been mulling over as I have been playing with a CASE of one of the cards in their inspiration photo. It wasn't really working for me so instead I decided to take that vertical panel of the FMS sketch and instead take my inspiration from the featured Whimsy & Wonder Suite - take a look at what I came up with:

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

All About The Layers - Linda's card has five layers, one for each of the decades the challenge team are celebrating. I wanted to feature the beautiful tree print in the Whimsy & Wonder specialty designer paper for my third layer, but didn't want to obscure it completely with layer 4, as I wanted the tree that is layer 5 to feel 'part' of it. So I used vellum to create my layer 4 panel, cut with one of the Ornate Layers Dies. It provides a distinct background for my focal point diecut tree, but ensures my background whilst softened can still be seen.

Trimming The Tree - I diecut the largest tree in the Christmas Tree Dies set in Mint Macaron, then added a garland cut from (retired) sparkly white glimmer paper and added tiny baubles cut from the silver holographic striped paper in the Whimsy & Wonder pack, to tie in with the holographic stars on the background paper design. I almost didn't add the baubles, but the tree definitely looks better with than without! 

Finishing Touches - I added a simple 'joy' sentiment and underpinned this with a piece of white glittered organdy ribbon tied with some silver twine. I love the addition of the subtle sparkle to complete the final element of my design.

This is my first outing with the Whimsy and Wonder Suite but I think I'll be using it again very soon!

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:

WHIMSICAL TREES BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£47.50)	WHIMSY & WONDER 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)	WHITE 3/8'' (1 CM) GLITTERED ORGANDY RIBBON (£8.00)	VELLUM A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	MINT MACARON A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
MINT MACARON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	ORNATE LAYERS DIES (£34.00)	SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (£7.00)

This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Bhavya has asked that we overlay a repeating sentiment with a focal point shape. Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will already have noticed that I used this sketch layout for my CAS Colours & Sketches last week; I really liked this layout and couldn't wait to have a play with it! For my card today I went with a Christmassy theme:

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

I stamped a repeating sentiment from the 'Penguin Place' stamp set and a punched penguin, all dressed up as a reindeer, complete with red Rudolf nose:

Super simple and so cute! I really like this layout for a clean and simple card and will definitely be using it again. I can't wait to see what entries we have in the gallery 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. 

We are off to visit friends today for lunch and to catch up on our holiday news. Whatever your plans, enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

PENGUIN PLACE BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£29.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	MISTY MOONLIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	PUMPKIN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

Today I'm sharing a card that uses Lou's fabulous sketch over at Just Add Ink this week and is also my entry for the current challenge over at SUO Challenges titled 'plant life':

Before I show you my card, I need to say a big thank you to the team over at Just Add Ink for choosing my Dahlia card as their Top Pick last week - thank you ladies! If you missed that card, you can see it here. For this week's card, I was tempted to go with something clean and simple but instead decided that the ribbon divider on the sketch would give me the perfect focal point for a row of leafy plants - take a look:

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

I've been wanting to fussy cut some of the plants from the 'Bloom Where You're Planted' designer paper for ages, so added a brick wall bottom border edged with some (retired) green ribbon, then added a selection of fussy cut, leafy pot plants:

I added a simple thank you sentiment from the 'Art Gallery' stamp set to complete my card - you can never have enough thank you 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. 

We are shopping for new school shoes amongst other things today - that can only mean one thing, the start of term is drawing near! Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)

EVENING EVERGREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

ART GALLERY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£20.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)