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 she has my favourite, a sketch challenge for us to work with:

I decided to use one of my Beary Christmas Memories & More cards with a pre-printed sentiment for the front layered panel of my card and the rest of the design evolved from there. Take a look at my finished card:

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

I cut down one of the large Memories & More cards and used the colours of the card to create my card base and layers. Although I used the co-ordinating envelope from the co-ordinating pack, I didn't use the card base. Instead I added a Very Vanilla layer that I added some soft stencilling to using one of the retired Butterflies and Flowers Layering Decorative Masks, adding some red rhinestones to pick out the pattern centres. I also added some Real Red baker's twine to the card and a wooden snowflake element from my stash:

These Memories & More cards are great to use for quick and easy Christmas cards; they are easy to step up too with the addition of a few additional bits and pieces. I think this card has something of a Scandinavian feel to it - what do you think? Leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your 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 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:

Enjoy your day; we are having a relaxing weekend as it is the start of the half-term break. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BEARY CHRISTMAS MEMORIES & MORE CARD PACK (9.50)	BEARY CHRISTMAS MEMORIES & MORE CARDS & ENVELOPES (9.50)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	MISTY MOONLIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	MISTY MOONLIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
BLENDING BRUSHES (13.00)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (10.00)

Today I'm sharing a card that's a little more involved so perfect for a spot of weekend crafting! I used the fabulous sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches for my layout:

I've made quite a few cards with my 'Joy of Noel' bundle and wanted to try something a little different with this slimline layout - take a look:

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

Joy Of Christmas - The colour scheme for today's card was inspired by the beautiful piece of Joy of Christmas Designer Series Paper I used for the first layer on my card. A white background covered in red berries and festive holly and pine foliage, this paper is perfect for a traditional Christmas card. Whilst much of this panel is covered by the other layers of the card, enough of it can be seen to tie in the other elements. 

Joy of Noel - Most if not all of my other cards using the NOEL 'Joy of Noel' stamps and dies have positioned the letters in a square. This slimline format allowed for me to use the letters in a column (still broken with 'joyous') - this works really well. I originally stamped my letters in Real Red onto Basic White, but they didn't have enough impact. I swapped them for Real Red cardstock embossed with silver and liked this much better. The silver picks up on the grey outlines of the base DSP and the silver and red combo stands out much better and the red ties in with both the red frame I used for the sentiment panel and the two strips of Real Red cotton ribbon I used on the base DSP layer.  

Christmas Classics - For the square layers of the sketch, I used a couple of diecuts of the Christmas Classics foliage border square die. I originally used a sild colour of green for this layer, but it was too stark. Eventually I cut the layers out of a piece of (retired) Garden Green check paper that resulted in a softer, more interesting variegated look. I added some extra detail with a green Blends marker, along with a few red rhinestones for a little extra red berry detail:

This card has seven layers, but I think each of them serves a purpose and makes a valuable contribution to the overall design, which I love. What do you think - does this celebration of festive foliage remind you of a traditional Christmas? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your 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 my card for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CHRISTMAS CLASSICS DIES (35.00)	JOY OF NOEL BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (45.75)	JOY OF CHRISTMAS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (11.75)	METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (17.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.50)
REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)

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

Vellum - so many creative things you can do with it and the Design Team will be sharing lots of them for this challenge. One of my favourite things to do with vellum is ... to dry emboss it! I made a Christmas card using the colours over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this week that showcases embossed vellum in all its glory - take a look:

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

For my card today, I created a faux bookbinding card. I embossed a whole sheet of vellum using the Christmas Tidings embossing folder and attached it along the edge beneath my binding edge - this is a useful way to avoid visible adhesive, which is something you need to think about when working with vellum. This embossing folder has lots of festive words and images and I chose to highlight the gingerbread man (you can see him near the bind) and add a couple of stamped gingerbread men to my card. I stamped them in Pecan Pie using a long-retired set, 'Scentsational Season', and added bows from 'Cookie Cutter Christmas' (also retired). I've included the link to a current set with a cute gingerbread man in below, in case you don't have one in your collection. You can see mine more closely below - they provide a nice contrast to the fabulous dimension and texture of the embossed vellum:

I added another gingerbread man and a sentiment from 'Joy to You' to the inside of my card too:

You might also notice on the photo above that I embossed the envelope flap too for a co-ordinated look. I love to decorate envelopes in this way - it's super simple and so effective.

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.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CHRISTMAS TIDINGS EMBOSSING FOLDER (8.00)	VELLUM A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	PECAN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	SENDING CHEER BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (50.25)
JOY TO YOU CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (23.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.00)

I was feeling a little under the weather today, so I retreated to my craft room to play along with a couple of challenges that enabled me to use up some of my retired bits and pieces!

First up a pink Christmas card to play along with the ladies over at Jingle Belles that uses the current Try Stampin' On Tuesday layout:

The retired Whimsy and Wonder designer paper was perfect for a pink Christmas card and a couple of stitched snowflakes and sentiment from the 'Merry Snowflakes' stamp set, which I heat embossed in silver - you can see that a bit better on the photo below:

My second card is a 'dies only' card for the current challenge over at Addicted to CAS that uses three of the four colours on the Color Dare board (all except Glacier) that is also for the 'Anything Spooky' theme over at AA Cards:

I made my ghost using the retired Boo To You and Fall Fun Framelits; it's for my daughter, hence the pink card base and I added the 'Boo!' with foam for a little added depth:

I added googly eyes and a flower for a feminine touch, although I think this makes my ghost rather more sweet than spooky!

A couple of cards that used up some of my retired stash, so no supplies list today. It is really dark and stormy here today too with the arrival of Storm Babet, so it made photographs a little trickier too - hopefully still a few creative ideas for you though! 

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

Card 1:    

Card 2:       

Today I have an additional late post to share a card I made for the following challenges:

I had been mulling over the lovely colour palette at Just Add Ink for a few days and when I saw the new sketch over at Hand Stamped Sentiments today I had an idea! Since the Great British Bake Off was replaced by World Cup Rugby on the TV schedules this evening, I took the opportunity to grab some extra craft time and make my idea a reality - take a look:

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

I thought these colours would make a slightly unconventional Christmas card and I had the 'Christmas Classics' bundle out on my desk, looking for an opportunity to use the fabulous label and foliage dies. I decided to use the foliage-embellished label for the diagonal element, extending it from a label to stretch across the width of my cardfront. I cut the label again out of Berry Burst and paper-pieced the berries to the Pretty Peacock base. To add a little extra interest, I diecut a couple of holly leaves out of some variegated Bright & Beautiful DSP and added these behind a circle of distressed gold paper:

I finished my card with a few Fresh Freesia Tinsel Gems. I like this unusual Christmas colour scheme; what are your favourite unconventional colour combinations? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your 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 soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CHRISTMAS CLASSICS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (49.50)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (28.00)	DISTRESSED GOLD 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PAPER (4.75)	PRETTY PEACOCK A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	PRETTY PEACOCK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	BERRY BURST A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)
FRESH FREESIA A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	BRIGHT & BEAUTIFUL 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (11.75)	TINSEL GEMS THREE-PACK (7.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Lucy has asked that we create a slimline card with a central sentiment panel:

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. For my card today I decided to have another outing with the beautiful 'NOEL' stamps and dies from the 'Joy of Noel' bundle - take a look:

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

The slimline layout worked really well to keep the square design of the 'NOEL' letters, which I heat embossed in gold onto Very Vanilla cardstock. I added the 'Joyous' on vellum, so that it didn't obscure the letters and edged the central panel with some thin strips of gold foil. Here's a close up of that layered sentiment:

Above and below that I added a couple of panels of Shining Brightly designer series paper - the starry design is open enough to still work on an otherwise clean and simple card. I adore this paper and so do many of you, judging by the speed with which it comes into and out of stock in the online store! I was hoping that when I posted my card today I would be able to tell you it was back in stock again - but alas, the most recent stocks have once again been depleted. I placed more orders yesterday for customer who had been patiently waiting for it; additional supplies are still due in soon, so keep an eye on the online store if it's on your list.

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; we are having a week of breakdowns in the James household: so far the broadband, my steam iron and the central heating are all casualties! The latter means that I am spending as little time as possible at my desk, so a short post from me as I'm off for a romp through the countryside to keep warm! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

JOY OF NOEL BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (45.75)	SHINING BRIGHTLY 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (9.50)	VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.50)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)	VELLUM A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (17.00)
VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)

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 seasonal clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

Signs of autumn - this can mean so many things but for me is summed up above all in the changing colours of the leaves on the trees as I drive through the countryside each day. The 'Framing Foliage' host stamp set has a lovely autumnal frame made of leaves, fruit and berries that is perfect for clean and simple cards - take a look:

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

#SimpleStamping - Firstly, did you miss the Framing Foliage stamp set in the current mini catalogue? It's on page 79 and is an exclusive stamp set that can be purchased with Stampin' Rewards earned when you host your own Stampin' Up! party (or place a single order of a qualifying amount). For my clean and simple design I decided to go with a one layer, #simplestamping card: stamps, ink and paper and nothing more. I stamped the frame, my 'thanks' sentiment from 'Biggest Wish' stamp set in Early Espresso on a kraft notecard and having added a little Crumb Cake ink to the edges of my card base with a blending brush, I coloured the details of the frame with my watercolour pencils. I also stamped a partial frame onto the outer envelope flap and coloured that to coordinate. Super simple - done! I don't make smaller notecards often, although it's a great size to pop into customer order bags, so I made a few of these and that's where they'll be headed.

Stepped Up - Whilst I had everything out on my desk, I thought I'd also create a second, stepped up version to show how a few additional elements can enhance the basic design. This time I used a standard size card base and added a pattern to my cardfront using a blending brush and some Copper Clay ink with the houndstooth pattern Abundant Beauty Decorative Mask. I stamped the frame onto a second piece of cardstock, cropped it closely then this time coloured the elements with my Stampin' Blends markers. 

Before adding my stamped panel to my cardbase with dimensionals, I punched a couple of holes and thread some linen thread through, tying in a bow. I could have just glued on my bow, but one of our Guest Designers currently, the lovely Fran Wing, has such creative ways of adding thread to her cards I thought I'd take a leaf out of her book and try something a little different!

So one design, two ways - which one do you prefer? Both are fairly clean and simple and I think I prefer the second one if I'm honest, but the first one is I think a great example of #SimpleStamping and how you don't need much in the way of supplies to create a decent card. 

I'm linking up my first card today with the team over at CASOnSunday where their current challenge theme is also autumn; my second card I'm linking up over at The Alphabet Challenge Blog where they are currently on 'N is for Nature'. 

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:

Enjoy your day; I have no special plans so am hoping to enjoy some cooking and crafting in equal measure! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FRAMING FOLIAGE HOST CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (14.00)	BIGGEST WISH PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (16.00)	ABUNDANT BEAUTY DECORATIVE MASKS (10.00)	KRAFT NOTE CARDS & ENVELOPES (9.50)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (13.00)
EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	COPPER CLAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CRUMB CAKE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	WATERCOLOR PENCILS ASSORTMENT 1 (15.00)	WATERCOLOR PENCILS ASSORTMENT 2 (11.75)	LINEN THREAD (4.75)

Today I've a quick post with a card I made for a couple of challenges which gave me the opportunity to use up some of the retired bits and pieces in my stash - take a look:

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

I saw the layout that I've used on today's card over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown last week but didn't have time to play along, but no matter - it was perfect for this warm and cosy (retired) Festive Farmhouse patterned plaid paper, along with a trio of rustic retired wooden snowflake embellishments. I added them to a piece of neutral coloured ribbon and tied this with some Cherry Cobbler twine, to which I added a little tag featuring the sentiment from the 'Brightest Glow' stamp set - this was a fun way to add a sentiment without obscuring the plaid:

I'm linking this card up over at Global Design Project #GDP415 for their current 'pattern' challenge and I'm playing along over at SUO Challenges where they are making cards with a masculine theme. I know this is a Christmas card, but I think the rustic feel makes it a perfect masculine card; I hope so anyway, because I made this with a male relative in mind!

No visual summary of the key products used on today's project as most of them are retired - I will provide links to the online store for those that are current below.

Enjoy the rest of your evneing and I'll be back tomorrow with my projects for the new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BRIGHTEST GLOW CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)

TAILOR MADE TAGS DIES (21.00)

VERY VANILLA C6 ENVELOPES (8.00)

VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.50)

TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (6.25)

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge. 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'Halloween' which is on October 31st. 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 black, silver, spooky sentiment and ghosts and this is what I came up with:

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

I have no current Halloween product, so delved into my retired box of favourites for this one! I decided to create a card that has a distinctly Halloween feel, so used some retired silver-foiled black paper and added that to my card base, then added a black strip, onto which I heat-embossed my 'faBOOlous' sentiment in silver from the retired 'Six Sayings' stamp set, bordering this with some silver glimmer paper. To add the fun, spooky feel, I heat embossed a trio of ghosts in white (from the retired 'Holiday Home stamp set) onto vellum, fussy get these and added them to my card 'floating' out of the OO:

How fun! My sentiment was inspired by the famous advertising strapline that the L'Oreal cosmetic brand uses: because you're worth it (cue Jennifer Anniston hair flick!) I will be sending this to my daughter with a few Halloween treats at university - because she is afterall, faBOOlous!

I am also sharing this card over at Inspire.Create Challenges where their current theme challenge is Autumn/Halloween.

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 Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

Enjoy your day; if you're superstitious about Friday 13th, wishing you a lucky one; I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used (current product only):

CIRCLE SAYINGS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (23.00)

VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)

METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (17.00)

BASICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (17.00)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)

VELLUM A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)

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

So many lovely seasonal elements on Vicky's board this week! I went down the first column with leaves, autumn colours and twine and used the beautiful autumnal colour palette over at TGIF Challenges to create a clean and simple card with a little 'something old, something new' this week - take a look:

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

Blended Autumn Colour - The TGIF colour palette so reminded me of autumn leaves and I thought this trio of colours would be perfect to create a simple blended ink background using the leafy stencil in the Abundant Beauty Decorative Masks - so I'm also sharing my card with AAA Cards this week. I applied each of the colours across my stencil randomly, being careful to blend them to avoid any harsh lines. I love the finished effect! These stencils are such great value for money - with 4 different creative options in each pack, they really can be used in so many different ways.

Envelope Detail - I am no stranger to a decorated envelope; my regular readers will be familiar with lots of different ways that I've shared to easily spruce-up the outside of your envelopes so I just had to play along with the current Inkspirational challenge to decorate your envelope to co-ordinate with your card. For today's envelope, I simply repeated the background stencilled pattern across the outer flap of my envelope - you can see it beneath my card in the photo above. So simple and a lovely hint of the detail inside too.

A Seasonal Saying - I chose to make the centrepiece of my card this beautiful quote from the retired 'Beauty of Tomorrow' stamp set - my 'something old' for today. This quote seemed to fit with the ombre blended background perfectly. I stamped it onto a label diecut with the largest of the rounded rectangles in the Nested Essential Dies set and added a twine bow and retired wooden leaf embellishment as a final decoration:

This card doesn't have as much 'white space' as I would like for a super-CAS card, but using a stencil is a great way to add a quick pop of colour to a card base. A larger sentiment panel might have allowed for a little extra white space, albeit resulting in me covering up some of that lovely ombre colour - you see my dilemma, right?!

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; the unexpected warmth at the start of the week has reverted now to temperatures more typical of this time of year, along with lots of rain in recent days and I am definitely starting to see more autumnal colour on the foliage as I'm driving around and about. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

ABUNDANT BEAUTY DECORATIVE MASKS (10.00)	NESTED ESSENTIALS DIES (32.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (13.00)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CAJUN CRAZE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	PUMPKIN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
LINEN THREAD (4.75)	VERY VANILLA C6 ENVELOPES (8.00)	VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.50)