I'm having a fun week at home with the James juniors this week, but it isn't leaving much time for crafting! Once we've finished our holiday homework we should be able to do some crafting together, which will be nice; I have a few Halloween things planned which I should be able to share with you in due course.

This week's Merry Monday Challenge is #80 'Use Music or a Carol Inspired Card' and having seen the great inspiration cards, I was keen to have a go. Here's my card:

I made a simple card where I cut out a circle using my Circle Framelits to reveal the 'deck the halls' stamp on the inside of the card. I decorated simply with some punched holly tied with baker's twine. I finished the punch berries with some Crystal Effects to add a nice shine (it looks much nicer in real life!) and scored the centre of my card panel using my Simply Scored borders plate to add some texture and interest to the Baked Brown Sugar card front. A simple card, yet I have this urge to break into song: Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, la la la la! I love Christmas time.

With all of yesterday's news, I didn't get round to sharing the link to this week's new digital downloads, so here it is:

There are some fun autumn pocket cards and some recipe layouts, along with a variety of different Christmas stamps to take a look at. The free trial for MDS is still available to download, so if you haven't already why not take a look - it will open up a whole new avenue of crafting to you.

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

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

For my second post today, I am delighted to announce that the new Thinlit Card Dies are here and available in my online store NOW! If you've ever made a 'flip' card the long way, you will love these new framelit dies - they make making cards like this a breeze!

Here's one made by one of Stampin' Up!'s designers:

This is how it opens ...

The whole thing can be created in minutes by running your chosen cardstock through the Big Shot with the Thinlit layout of your choice - there is both a circle and label layout to choose from. Both sets come with a variety of additional pieces to add to your creativity, either on your flip cards or can be used separately with other cards and projects - this is what they look like:

Stampin' Up have produced a great video showing the Thinlits in action; take a look:

Aren't they great? I'm looking forward to sharing some of my creations with you in the coming days and weeks; if you can't wait and need to order either of the framelit sets now, then pop along to my online store or give me a call today - at only £29.95 they are great value and offer endless possibilities!

I'll be back tomorrow with a card to share; until then, happy stampin'!

Today I'm sharing a card that I made a few weeks ago, but couldn't share at the time. I actually made this card for my husband's birthday, but as he photographs all my cards for me I couldn't share until after the event. I used my This and That DSP as the inspiration for the colour scheme for my card (it's not just for journaling with!) and a stamp from the retired set 'Word Play' as the feature for this card:

I chose the hexagon map paper to fit with the globe in the sentiment; I stamped the sentiment twice and punched out one of the globes and coloured it with markers before putting on a dimensional. A nice shiny button tied with twine and done; these buttons are now available on Clearance Rack for only £2.19 - bargain!

Hope you like it; back tomorrow with another rather special project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

I know, you're probably thinking 'Merry Monday? It's only Friday!' I'm not wishing away my weekend, far from it. Rather today's card is another Christmas card made with the challenge over at Always Playing with Paper in mind. The challenge was to use blues, grey/silver and white and snowflakes:

I've been wanting to use a sketch layout I saw over at the Paper Pal Arts site a little while ago; here's the card I made:

I used Pool Party for the base of my card and layered with Island Indigo and Smoky Slate and some of the Winter Frost DSP for the top layer. My design is anchored with a lovely Festive Flurry layered snowflake , which is stamped Whisper White on Pool Party cardstock for the first layer, Island Indigo on Whisper White for the second layer and then Metallic Silver on Whisper White for the top layer, finished with a single Island Indigo candy dot - I love these! Here's a close up of the snowflake, with the shimmery metallic silver finish (that is very difficult to photograph!):

This photo shows the build of layers of the snowflake - this set is so good for this and the framelits make cutting out so easy:

I finished the inside by stamping this verse from the Christmas Messages set:

As of today the James Juniors are on half term for two weeks. We have lots of homework to do, but I am relieved to be having a break from some of the challenges and routine of school life and looking forward to having fun with some pre-Christmas activities of our own. I'm also looking forward to another of my special project classes this weekend; I have a group of lovely ladies coming to make Christmas banners using the Build a Banner kit. Check out my Facebook page tomorrow if you would like a 'sneak peak'; otherwise I will be sharing the completed banners next week.

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

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

I managed to grab a quick hour of crafting today in between other jobs and as I debated with my self whether or not to brave the washing line or resort to the tumble dryer, the sun broke through the clouds and I had a sudden flash of crafting inspiration for this week's sketch at Retrosketches. So instead of my planned post, I thought I'd sneak this one in before the close. Here is the inspiration sketch:

Here is my interpretation of the sketch:

I have been so 'in the zone' with Christmas cards that I've been struggling to look at sketches and think about anything else. I think we can all agree that this card couldn't be further from Christmas if it tried! It cheered me up no end though - yellow is one of my favourite colours. I used some retired 'sunshine and sprinkles' DSP (eliminating the and a row of coloured overlapping circles to create a rainbow border in place of the scalloped edge. The perfect background for one of the 'Feel Goods' stamped sentiments, along with the sunny yellow of course.

Lastly, a quick reminder: only 4 more days to take advantage of Stampin' Up!'s incredible joining offer where you can sign up and receive all the benefits Stampin' Up! has to offer for just £25. Click here to read more details about this rarest of offers - I would love to welcome you to my team.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

A quick post from me today as I'm keen to finish watching the rest of tonight's Great British Bake Off semi-final. Here's a birthday card I made last week, very similar to this one by Mary Fish, which is so easy yet so effective:

I thought this would be the perfect card for my teenage niece - girly, but not too childish with clean geometric lines. The in-colour designer paper does most of the work here without the need for lots of stamping. It was also a good excuse to get my bird punch out of the drawer, as he hasn't been used in a while. If you're quite new to stamping and reading this and thinking I've finally lost the plot as there isn't a bird to be seen on this card, you'd be right - but the wing shape from the punch in question makes the perfect flame for the birthday candles (so I'm not completely mad, just a little!)

Just before I go, it's Tuesday which means MDS Digital Download Day. Here's a quick look at some of today's new downloads:

Just click on the date button to go straight to my online store to download them.

Back tomorrow with another project - right now I'm off to watch the end of the Bake Off! Until tomorrow, happy stampin!

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

Today I'm sharing another birthday card that I made last week, this time for my daughter to give to one of her school friends who celebrated his birthday yesterday. After much consultation, we decided that we would go with something fun. They've both seen the Dispicable Me movies, so I decided to have a go at creating my very own punch art minion. Here is the end result:

He was actually quite easy to make with the aid of a selection of circle punches and I'm very pleased with the result. I particularly like the striped embossing on his dungarees and the white stitching to add definition. The hair was made following a tip by Tanya Bell of StampingT.com.au by stripping some standard black ribbon into strands and threading through some holes. I've never been one for sewing, but as far as cards are concerned I think this is about as far as it gets! The only stamping on this card was on the inside - I don't have a photo, but I used my ABC 123 Sketch Alphabet to stamp 'You're One In A Minion!' A perfect sentiment to finish off this fun card.

Before I go, a quick reminder that we are 7 days in to the 14 day 'Join Stampin' Up! for £25'. This is a once in a lifetime offer to celebrate Stampin' Up's 25th anniversary and is unlikely to be repeated. You can find more information in my previous post here - if you're thinking of signing up, do give me a call to talk about the benefits that being a part of Stampin' Up and my team has to offer.

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

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

Well, the weather here has been dreadful here but yesterday our monster home-grown pumpkin was harvested during one of the day's few dry spells (photos to follow!) and today we went to the theatre to watch 'Dinosaur Zoo', so all in all not a bad weekend. Today I've a change from Christmas cards for you: I thought I would share a birthday card commission I made for someone whose birthday it is today. Another football-mad Chelsea fan, so here's what I came up with:

 I used my 'Great Sport' football stamp to decorate a background base panel, then created a central panel with some great football paraphanelia: a trophy, a shirt with the recipient's player number (not age, as one of my eagle-eyed offspring was quick to point out!) and a football and finished the panel with some co-ordinating bunting, Chelsea blue, of course.

If you're a stamper and wondering where I got the trophy stamp from, it's from one of the stamps in the 'Tag It' set. I've just covered the wording with a DSP 'ribbon' so that it fits with my football theme.

Hope you like the card; tomorrow I'll be sharing another birthday card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

It's the weekend and today I have the last of the cards from this week's class to share with you. This time another Merry Little Christmas, but with spots instead of stripes:

This time I used two of the stamps in the Merry Little Christmas set, and stamped the 'Merry' part of the main stamp again in Gumball Green and cut out with paper snips into a little banner to add some dimension. I also embossed the background piece of Cherry Cobbler with the Stylish Stripes embossing folder to add texture. Another simple yet effective design.

All the ladies at this month's classes were very pleased with their makes and we are already looking forward to next month when we will be adding to our Christmas card collection. If you would like to join us, please contact me for more details.

Back tomorrow with a birthday card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies Used:

Today I'm sharing another of this week's class cards using the Festive Flurry stamp set and framelits bundle. Another simple layout featuring the Winter Frost paper stack. Here's the card we made:

This time we layered the snowflakes and overstamped on the top one (the snowflake was stamped in Smoky Slate, having been stamped off once first onto scrap paper to give a softer background). Bermuda Bay cardstock adds a real striking background and gives this colourway quite a modern feel. Some silver Dazzling Details on the tips of the snowflake adds a little finishing sparkle.

We used both of the seasonal colourways in our class, and I'm really undecided as to which one I prefer most. Which one do you like the most?

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

Stampin' Up Supplies Used: