Celebrate The Good Stuff - Guest Designer With Inspired By All The Little Things

by Joanne James9. December 2017 13:00

Today I've been invited by my good friend and team leader over at The Paper Players, the lovely Nance Leedy, to be the Guest Designer over at Inspired By All The Little Things - what an honour!

I love this challenge, also set up originally by the creative powerhouse that is the lovely Lesley Croghan, and although I don't get to play along as often as I would like I can often be found browsing the gallery each week, for inspiration from the awesome team of designers, the challenge for the week and also to have a little nosey at the invited guest - you see they have a fun feature where they do a little interview  and you get to find out what inspires them, along with some interesting things that you might not know about the featured designers. Yes, that includes me - I included one or two fun things that even my regular readers might not know about me too, so hop on over and have a read if you'd like to find out more! You could even have a go at this week's challenge - I would love to see what you make of it!

And so to my card! Here is the inspiration photo for this week's challenge:

 

Now I must confess, I thought long and hard about this card and had a false attempt too before I produced something that I felt embodied the feeling of 'party' evoked in the inspiration picture. Here's what I came up with:

 

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

Inspired By All The Little Things - I thought I would give you a little insight into how I used the inspiration photo to get to my final card design today, as I often get asked "where do you start?" when making a card. The photo has lots of elements: black, gold, peach, vellum, white, confetti, hexagons, squares, circles, art deco, party blowers, glitter balls, happy new year, a rosette, a champagne glass to name just some -  and whilst I could have used any or all of them on my card, I chose to zone in on a few. I decided to major in on the black and gold colours for my colour scheme, with just a pop of peach, and create a card with a party theme that could be used for new year but would also work for any other kind of party celebration. Then I browsed my stamp sets and accessories to see what would work and set to work.

A Playful Background - I originally set about creating some rather fancy art deco-inspired hexagons using gold washi tape and black cardstock, but eventually decided these were too busy on my card so they are now waiting in my scrap box for another project! I decided to go with something less geometrical and create a background using one of the stamps in the Playful Backgrounds stamp set that mimicked the mat beneath the peach party cup in the photo (I selectively inked it so that the little dots on the stamp are omitted from my design) and heat embossed it in gold. I then did the reverse colour combination for my sentiment, i.e. black heat embossed on gold foil, so that it provides contrast yet is still in keeping with my theme.

A Picture Perfect Party - My card needed a focal point, so what better than a couple of party blowers? And a new stamp set that I acquired at Stampin' Up!'s Onstage event recently provided just the thing - the 'Picture Perfect Birthday' set has ribbon bows, candles, confetti and party sentiments galore, but also has the bits to construct a party blower - how fun! I made two and gave them each a vellum frill that I cut with my fringe scissors, as another nod to the inspiration photo. I wanted to make them stand out from the rest of the card, hence to addition of my Peekaboo Peach stitched circle behind; I didn't want peach to be a major feature of my design yet it serves a useful purpose here to highlight my blowers and ensure they don't get lost against the busyness of the background pattern. Picture Perfect Birthday is in the new Spring-Summer Stampin' Up! catalogue out on January 3rd - be sure to get in touch with me if you'd like a copy.

And that's how I did it! I'm also linking my card up with the team over at Freshly Made Sketches - what can I say, I love a good sketch :-)

 

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 for the last challenge of the year (gulp!) over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

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

Comments (6) -

Leigh Penner
Leigh PennerCanada
09/12/2017 14:29:39 #

Congratulations on being featured at Inspired By All the Little Things! I love your wonderful take on the inspiration photo!

Joanne James
Joanne JamesUnited Kingdom
09/12/2017 19:43:46 #

Thanks Leigh - it's always fun to see where an inspiration photo takes you and I love that us creatives are all inspired by different things!

Jen Brum
Jen BrumCanada
10/12/2017 01:22:57 #

What a beautiful card!  I love the black and gold together!  Those swishes in the background are fabulous!  Super fun!  Thanks for joining us this week at Freshly Made Sketches!  

Linda Callahan
Linda CallahanUnited States
11/12/2017 15:18:07 #

Well you are a wonderful party guest for sure!  Love the splashes of gold and the noisemakers are so cute!

Kimberly Lackenbach
Kimberly LackenbachUnited States
12/12/2017 16:10:04 #

The perfect card for the challenge. Love all the gold. Thanks for guesting with us!

Sheri Gilson
Sheri GilsonUnited States
15/12/2017 23:52:00 #

What a fun & festive take on the inspiration!  Congratulations on being featured at Inspired By All The Little Things!

Comments are closed

Mini Catalogue

BROWSE THE CATALOGUE

The mini catalogue is now live! Read and download your copy here.

Shop Online

Access my online shop 24 x 7, 365 days of the year:

Current March hostess code:

S9F2XJJW

Shop Online

Join My Team

It's always a great time to join Stampin’ Up! New team members can get £130 worth of products for only £99 + free business supplies + free shipping + all the fun being a part of Stampin’ Up! Stampin' Up! has something for everyone: join my growing team and benefit from my support to enjoy Stampin' Up! however you choose.

If you're interested, call me for a chat to understand how I can help you realise your goals. Alternatively, if you have already decided to sign up and you just can't wait, please click here for the link to the online form where you can sign up and order your starter kit right away! 

Latest Kit!

Stampin Cut and Emboss

The Rock Legend Kit has all you need to make 8 cards with coordinating envelopes. Along with the new Panda Friends Kit, both are available from January 4th for just £14 each - get yours here!

2023-24 Annual Catalogue

BROWSE THE CATALOGUE

Click on the catalogue for a full list of current SU! supplies - if you would like to order any of the items featured, please drop me a line at [email protected] or give me a call on 07773 421446 - I'd be happy to help.

New Online Exclusives

There will be new products available exclusively in the online store from 5 March - check them out here.

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!

Follow Me

Monthly Newsletter

Box Builder

Click the button above to use Box Buster to create your custom box design using the Envelope Punch Board!

Kits Collection Now Available!

Stampin Cut and Emboss

The new Kits Collection from Stampin' Up! is now available!

Click here to see the current kits available and order yours online today.

I Design For

 

 

 

Stampin' Up Stuff

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.