Today I'm sharing a clean and simple card inspired by a couple of challenges:

AAA Cards are looking for designs 'along the edge' with an optional twist of dry embossing and over at The Alphabet Challenge they are on 'I is for Insect'. I embraced all three to come up with a super simple card - take a look:

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

I embossed my panel of thick Basic White with the Greenery embossing folder; it goes off the edge on both sides, but here I just ran it through along one edge. I added a get-well soon sentiment in Night of Navy and to finish could resist a golden bumble bee trinket for my insect:

And that's it - super simple but I hope you'll agree quite effective nonetheless.

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:

GREENERY EMBOSSING FOLDERS (£7.50)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

BUMBLEBEE TRINKETS (£7.00)

FLOWERS OF FRIENDSHIP CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)

NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

This is my second post for today - if you missed the first one, be sure to go back and read that one here! It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Bhavya is hosting this month, we have a new guest designer and our first challenge is a colour challenge: 

For my card today I decided to use a new set that has yet to make it out of the box: What's Cookin'. I used the sketch layout over at Paper Craft Crew as my starting point and created a fun mix of utensils for my card - take a look:

I backed my utensils with a square of Rich Razzleberry for impact and fussy cut my sentiment and added a trio of enamel dots to finish:

I love to cook so this is a fun set for me, although I do find it mildly amusing that the saucepans are so small relate to the size of the bowl and knife, for example - creative license I guess!

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:

WHAT'S COOKIN' CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)	RICH RAZZLEBERRY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	RICH RAZZLEBERRY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	SMOKY SLATE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
BASIC GRAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

So many reasons to celebrate today - or should I say, Sale-A-Brate?!

First up, we have a new mini catalogue, with everything you need for your seasonal and festive crafting, to take you from autumn, through to Halloween, Christmas and beyond! Here is the new mini catalogue, in all its festive glory:

Just click on the image above or in the sidebar on the right to browse the catalogue online, or contact me on 07773 421446 if you would like a paper copy posted out to you and you don't already have a demonstrator; paper copies have been sent to my regular customers. If you are as excited as me and just can't wait, here's the link to my online store - everything is available to purchase from today!

And as if that wasn't enough, we get a second bite of the Sale-A-Bration cherry this year too, with our second 2 month long Sale-A-Bration promotion! Starting from today 3rd August until 30th September, you can once again get more bang for your buck when you shop, host or join. You can click on the catalogue on the right hand side of my blog page or below to access the Sale-A-Bration leaflet to download a copy or click on the icon above or on the right to go directly to my online shopto place an order - we are LIVE!

So a reminder of how Sale-A-Bration works: for anyone who hasn't come across it before, it's Stampin' Up!'s annual promotion that is loaded with offers whether you shop, join or host. You can earn a free Sale-A-Bration product for every £45 you spend between 3 August and 30 September. There is also the opportunity to earn even bigger rewards with a £90 purchase. It's the perfect time to purchase those products you've had on your wish list and earn more products for free! Here's a link to a video from the nice people at the Home Office that lets you see each of those free products up close in more detail:

I hope that was useful and rest assured I will be sharing plenty of additional projects on my blog in the next few weeks that show these items in more detail. 

It’s also one of the best times of the year to join Stampin’ Up! There is a fabulous joining option during this year's Sale-A-Bration promotion: as usual, you can become a demonstrator for just £99 and choose £130 of FREE products for your Starter Kit. In addition to an extra £31 worth of product in your starter kit, you can select an additional one of 12 bundles FOR FREE. Here are the bundles that you are able to choose from:

There couldn’t be a better time to join the Stampin’ Up! family. Plus, the whole kit ships for free! There is plenty of choice and flexibility, whether you want to be a hobby demonstrator and just use your discount to enable you to purchase craft supplies more cheaply, or alternatively would like to build a flourishing direct sales business and sell supplies to others - it's entirely up to you. 

Hosting is also even more rewarding during Sale-A-Bration. When you host a party and reach a certain amount in sales (see the Stampin’ Rewards chart in the Sale-A-Bration brochure for more information), you can earn a free stamp set - this time the 'In Your Words' stamp set shown above. Even if your order reaches the qualifying amount on your own outside of a party, you can earn the same free stamp set too, both in person and when shopping in my online store. What's more, you can even apply your Stampin' Rewards to a Starter Kit and become a demonstrator yourself - I would love to welcome you to my team!

If you would like to host a virtual party, please do get in touch. Equally if you've ever thought about becoming an SU! demonstrator, now is a great time to do so - I would love to have a no-obligation chat with you about joining my team and the benefits.

If you would like more information on any of the above, please don't hesitate to get in touch! 

Thanks so much for popping by - it's always nice to share good news! Back soon with lots of projects showcasing products from the new catalogue and today's clean and simple post for our new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Until then, happy shopping!

Today I'm sharing a card that uses Judy's current sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and the fresh colour palette over at Just Add Ink:

I though the panels on Judy's sketch would be perfect to break out another new stamp set, Celebrate With Flowers - take a look:

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

I added elements of the flowers from the set into two of the boxes and saved my sentiment for the third one. I stamped my stem and leaves in black and the flowers in the other two colours and fussy cut them before adding with dimensionals. I added in-colour gems to the centres and stamens in each of the colours for a little extra sparkle:

The paper behind the panels is some of the Beautifully Penned black and white paper that can be yours free with an order of £45 or more from tomorrow when our next Sale-A-Bration campaign begins.

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. 

Before I go, a reminder that today is your last chance to receive 15% off in the designer series paper sale - you can read all about it here.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CELEBRATE WITH FLOWERS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£17.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	2021–2023 IN COLOR JEWELS (£6.50)	POLISHED PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
PALE PAPAYA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have a timely theme challenge for you to work with:

Whilst lots of us are already starting to work on Christmas projects, it is still very much summer time and I chose this week's theme with that in mind. As the rhyme goes, 'Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the sea' - sand between your toes, fish and chips, buckets and spades and more - the seaside is one of my favourite places to be. I decided to break from my usual card and make a scrapbook page to share with you for a change this week.

I live in Northampton which is very close to the very centre of England, so is about as far from the coast as you can get. I recently took the James Juniors to visit their grandparents, my parents, in Wales for the first time since the start of the Covid pandemic and the first place they always ask to visit is the beach. This left me with lots of great photos ready to scrapbook. I am mostly a Memories and More pocket scrapbooker, but occasionally I do make full 12" x 12" layouts and with the gorgeous 'Friends are Like Seashells' bundle in the annual catalogue I couldn't resist. Take a look at today's layout:

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

I captured a great photo of Rebecca jumping the waves as I followed her down to the shoreline, so thought it would be perfect for my layout. Here's a close-up of my photo and the surrounding decoration in more detail: 

 I backed my photo with a piece of 'Expressions In Ink' designer paper and added a strip of the gorgeous Night of Navy ombre glimmer paper down the left side, to pick up on the bright blues of the sky in the photo. I embossed and diecut the seaside shells from pearlescent paper, then used the corner to decorate my photo whilst snipping the the other shells and seaweed apart to add as decoration elsewhere. I did a little background stamping beneath my layering and my main sentiment is fussy cut from one of the 'What A Year' Memories and More cards; you can see that more closely below:

I love that sentiment and it totally sums up the mood of the day and Rebecca in particular in that moment. Both of the James Juniors were so thrilled to be at the beach that day, jumping the waves, fishing in rock pools and generally enjoying the sea air.

In addition to a sprinkling of sequins and gems, I also added a sentiment tag to the corner of my page, decorated with a fussy ribbon bow:

My layout is actually quite simple, and very much like my card making style - although if you could see the pile of patterned papers that covered my desk as I made this page you would think that it must have been anything but and I did procrastinate for quite some time before deciding on my final papers and design!

So what do you think? Did you enjoy my scrapbook layout today for a change? Should I share more of this kind of thing on my blog? Feel free to leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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

I can't wait to see how my theme inspires you this week!

Since I did something other than a card today, I am going to link up over at Just Us Girls where that happens to be their theme this week.

Enjoy your day; I have a family day at home today, with nothing special planned. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FRIENDS ARE LIKE SEASHELLS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£50.25)	SEASHELLS 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£8.25)	PEARLESCENT SPECIALTY PAPER (£3.75)	OMBRE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PAPER (£9.25)	EXPRESSIONS IN INK 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)
WHAT A YEAR MEMORIES & MORE CARD PACK (£9.25)	BASIC WHITE 12X12 (30.5 X 30.5 CM) CARDSTOCK (£7.25)	PALE PAPAYA 3/8" (1 CM) OPEN WEAVE RIBBON (£6.50)	SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (£7.00)	2021–2023 IN COLOR JEWELS (£6.50)
ARTISTRY BLOOMS ADHESIVE-BACKED SEQUINS (£6.50)	PALE PAPAYA A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	TASTEFUL LABELS DIES (£29.00)

 

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and I am the featured designer this week! This is the fun board that I came up with: 

I chose lots of my favourite things for my board this week and I am thrilled that the Design Team truly rose to the challenge - especially with the fabulous shaker cards in the mix this week! I went on the top left-bottom right diagonal with fruit/designer series paper/shaker for my card today and used both the sketch layout and the lemons in those hydrangea vases over at Fusion as the inspiration for my shaker card today - take a look:

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

Yellow is one of my favourite colours to create with, especially bright yellow - there is something so cheery about yellow! I used some retired paper covered in lemons for the background to my shaker, and used a combination of sequins, gems and bits and pieces on my shelf for the contents of my shaker. I added a semi-circle with a sentiment from the 'In Symmetry' stamp set to the front of my shaker and modified the happy birthday sentiment from the 'In Bloom' stamp set for the inside of my card: 

I thought this punny sentiment would raise a smile and added a smiley lemon to finish too. I made this card for one of Rebecca's friends - I know it will appeal to her quirky sense of humour!

Here you can see my shaker elements in more detail - so sparkly!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

IN SYMMETRY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£16.00)	LAYERING CIRCLES DIES (£33.00)	STITCHED RECTANGLE DIES (£33.00)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	WINDOW SHEETS (£4.75)
DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	IN BLOOM PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)

Today I have a couple of festive Christmas cards that I made using my favourite 'Festive Foliage' background stamp from the annual catalogue - here's the first one:

I stamped one background stamp in Real Red on Basic White and another in Versamark onto Real Red cardstock and heat embossed it in white, then split the panels and swapped them so that there is one of each on each card for contrast. Here's the second one:

I added a sentiment from 'Poinsettia Petals' on a label cut with my Tasteful Labels Dies and backed each with some white glittered organdy ribbon from the upcoming mini catalogue:  

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've been looking at creative ways to use background stamps for my upcoming online class in September that features both the 'Festive Foliage' and 'Daisy Garden' background stamps and will look at ways to use them for all-year round cards. A split panel card is a great way to create two cards quickly using the same background stamp, so today's post is a nice taster for my class ladies who are already signed up for this class. If you would like to join them, you can find full details for this and all my online classes on my Facebook Page here or just message me for more information.

I used the sketch over at Inspire.Create and the monochromatic red colour scheme from over at The Rainbow Challenge as further inspiration for my cards today and since I'm still doing Christmas I'm also linking up with Christmas Craft Creations and their 'anything goes' theme.

The weather here has alternated today between brilliant sunshine and torrential downpours and apart from giving up on using the washing line completely, I have successfully managed to get a whole bunch of errands run whilst dodging the rain (mostly!) Since we are on the summer holidays, the children are taking turns to help out with cooking the evening meal. One is more enthusiastic than the other (I wonder if you can guess which one!) Needless to say, if I survive the flour tornado that is currently my kitchen, I will be eating Turkish-style flatbread pizzas for dinner this evening! Enjoy the rest of your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

FESTIVE FOLIAGE CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	BASICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)
TASTEFUL LABELS DIES (£29.00)	POINSETTIA PETALS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£25.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Holly is hosting this month and our final challenge this month is a sketch challenge featuring stripes: 

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

For my card today I was also inspired by the photo inspiration over at Just Us Girls and the similar nautical theme over at Festive Friday (I chose blue, red and twine) to create another clean and simple congratulations card using my whale builder punch - take a look:

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

I flipped the colours in the bottom-right JUGS inspiration photo and added a simple navy blue punched whale to a set of red and white cardstock stripes. with a sentiment from the 'Whale Done' stamp set and this time adding a cute mortar board to my whale since once again exam congratulations are in order. To create my mortar board, I handcut a diamond shape from black cardstock and added it to a small rectangle then threaded some basic black twine through it and secured at the back before unravelling it to create my tassel

The tassel was the fussiest part of today's card, which otherwise is super clean and simple. Great for a masculine congratulations card I'm thinking - nothing too fussy!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WHALE PUNCH (£17.00)	WHALE DONE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (£10.25)

Happy Monday everyone! I had a little extra crafting time at the weekend so to start the week I have not one, but two cards that were inspired by some current challenges. My first card is using Amy's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I'm also linking up over at Time Out where the code word is 'hungry' and at Christmas Craft Creations where their theme is 'anything goes':

I didn't let myself be put off by Amy's diagonal lines and decided that some festive gingerbread was in order - take a look:

My card features two of the designs in the Gingerbread & Peppermint designer series paper set from the upcoming mini catalogue - the gingerbread cookies are cut out of one of the papers (the sentiment is from a retired set):

This suite makes me hungry just looking at it - I mean, is it too early to start baking gingerbread in July?!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on this 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. 

My second card uses the colours over at Color Throwdown and I went across the top row of Paper Craft Crew's tic-tac-toe board with trees/diecut/watercolour:

Following my AYSI team mate Amy's fabulous watercolour using this stamp set, I was itching to have a go at creating with a stamp called 'feels Like Home' that will be free with a £45 purchase in the upcoming Sale-A-Bration promotion. I though the Color Throwdown colours had a lovely Mediterranean feel to them, so I had visions of holiday isles as I watercoloured my simple scene. I added a sentiment cut with one of the label dies in another new set, Harvest Dies:

This set so reminds me of summer holidays abroad; such a distant memory, but whilst my own garden doesn't look anywhere near as Mediterranean, it is my happy place so will be just fine until we are able to truly travel far and wide again.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on this 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 hope you are enjoying my sneak-peek shares - I can't believe I'm feeling so in the festive zone when it's so warm and sunny outside, but the temptation of a box of new goodies is too much to resist!

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

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

I had so many great ideas for this sketch! I also loved the rainbow of purples, blues and greens on that fabulous bird on the Color Dare inspiration photo, so decided to pair them with the stamp in the Colours & Contours set for a stem of rainbow flowers - take a look:

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

Colours and Contours - I coloured the infill stamp of the main flower stem in the Colours & Contours stamp set using my sponge daubers and a trio of blue and purple inks, the cut it out with the co-ordinating die. I added it to a panel cut with one of the Scalloped Contours Dies (and narrowed slightly), having stamped the sentiment directly onto this panel. I added another sentiment and additional flower from the same set to the inside of my card:

Rainbow Glimmer - The rainbow of colours that I used enabled me to use some co-ordinating rainbow glimmer paper for my horizontal strips to compliment flowers. Whilst there's only a little of it visible, I love the addition of that sparkle and glimmer:

Pattern Party - In order to allow my glimmer paper to really stand out, I chose a piece of neutral black and white Pattern Party paper for my background. The Pattern Party paper pack is a hostess reward that you can earn with purchases of £150+ and is such great value with a great variety of patterns and designs 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 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; I will be spending mine cooking and having a lazy day with the family. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

COLOR & CONTOUR BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£47.50)	PATTERN PARTY 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) HOST DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£17.00)	RAINBOW GLIMMER PAPER (£5.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
COASTAL CABANA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	PACIFIC POINT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	GORGEOUS GRAPE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)