Good morning,

It's time for another challenge over at Simply Stampin' and this week it's back to the sketch round. Now lately the challenges have been a little puzzling for me, and this sketch was no different, it took me ages to come up with something. Take a look at this week's sketch

I decided to go for a CAS card, well as CAS as it gets for me. So for the grid I embossed lines onto one of the gorgeous new DSP's Twitterpatted, it's so pretty and feminine, and also has some great geometric shapes in there for men's cards! I backed this onto Island Indigo CS. I chose to use one of the stamps from the Apothecary Art set, which is fab for colouring in, I used my Rich Razzleberry, and Baja Breeze, markers for this.

Make sure you check out what the rest of the DT have come up with using this sketch, I can't wait to visit you and see how you've used it! xx

Simply Stampin With A Splash

Good morning, stampers,

I'm very impressed that you weren't too scared of those colours that we challenged you with last week over at Simply Stampin' and we had some amazing entries!!!

This week it's much more flexible, we are asking you to make your crafting projects with a theme of monochrome with a splash, this just means, either, black and white with a splash of one other colour, or shades of one colour with a splash or another colour.

For my card I decided that I wanted to go black and white, I always think it looks striking, and I decided to add Tempting Turquoise as my accent colour, here's my card

I love this new balloons set, it's makes fab men's cards, so hopefully I won't be so stuck in the future when I'm asked to make one!

I can't wait to see what you come up with for this challenge, so come and join me and the girls, and lets get inky!

Yep.....Another Christmas Card

Good afternoon,

I'm back with another Christmas card, I'm determined to have all my cards done ahead of that last minute panic period that normally has me tearing my hair out and the 52cct challenge is the perfect (and fun) solution to the problem.

This week the ladies have asked us to come up with a purple green and silver creation, which suited me just fine. I chose Rich Razzleberry and Old olive for my colours the silver is subtle, not a word that describes me very often but I have gone for a glimmer brad and rhinestones, you can't have a christmas card without some bling!

I paired the colours with a fab new challenge I stumbled across called Retro Sketches, don't you just love it, I can see this challenge being visited a lot by me!!

So here's my card, I hope you like it,

Why not start your Christmas cards now with this challenge?! xx

Simply Stampin' Colour Challenge

Good morning,

It's time for another challenge over at Simply Stampin' and this week it's a colour challenge, normally I love colour challenges but I must admit when I read these colours out loud I thought, they are NEVER going to work together!!

I set to work and made a card, but when I got the rest of the DT cards through I realised I had used the same set as another of the team, argh! stamps set and same colours, but rather than panic I thought, no it's OK I'll just make another, so here it is

Now I have to confess, Ihave swapped the neutral from white to vanilla, and I have also been a it naughty in that as I used First Edition DSP as my background I have also used black ( the print), but I'm hoping that you and the rest of the team won't mind.

I think I may have got a little carried away but once I'd started I found it very hard to stop, I have used, Forever Young, Solid Stripe, and Just Believe for the sentiment, as well as ribbon, brads, pearls, I really think everything I have is on this card.

I hope you like it and I will share my original with you later in the week.

If like me you were a little scared of the colours, I hope you will still give it a go, can't wait to see what you come up with! Happy stamping, xx

Christmas In May!

Good afternoon,

A few months ago I found a Christmas challenge called 52 christmas card throwdown, each week a new challenge is set so that by the time Christmas comes around you'll have most of (if not all of) your Christmas cards done! I had to tell my friend Ruth, who started to join in the challenge straight away. I kept telling myself that I should join in, but I never seemed to get around to it.

I was reading Ruth's blog the other day and she had posted her entry for this weeks challenge, and at the bottom of her post she had completely called me out on my lack of joining in, well I couldn't have that so here is my very first (I hope of many) entries into the Christmas card challenge, and is definitely the earliest I have EVER made a Christmas card.

This week the challenge is a sketch, and I'm just squeaking through, the closing time is within hours!

Now I found the hardest thing about starting my card was deciding on a colour scheme, firstly I pulled out Razzleberry, then old olive, but then in a flash I decided to go for a Scandinavian feel card and went with Cherry Cobbler and Crumb Cake, I also found a bit of retired  Christmas DSP from last years catalogue that matched my theme perfectly. I have decided not to add a sentiment as I wanted to add a crumb cake seam binding bow and didn't want to over power the card, I hope the ladies won't mind.

So here we are Ruth, I have joined in and I'm really glad I did! Why not start your Christmas cards now too?!

Happy Birthday to Ruth

Good morning,

This morning I want to share a birthday card with you that I made for my good friend and fellow DT-er on the simply stampin challenge Ruth, now Ruth's birthday was over Easter so I have been waiting an age to show you but I'm afraid as I'd used new products from the summer mini on it (yep, that's right us demo's get our hands on goodies a whole month early!) I had to wait to show you!

I used the brand new punch that co-ordinates with the mixed bunch stamps, isn't it yummy!? It's hard to see in this picture but I stamped in Pool Party with one of the flower stamps, I also stitched the card, I love doing this but rarely do as it's quite time consuming, but Ruth is definitely worth it.

Hope you like it as much a Ruth did.

Simply Stampin Sketch Challenge

Good morning,

It's wet and miserable here, but don't worry over at Simply Stampin' we have a brand new sketch challenge to brighten your day, not only that but as it's the first challenge of the month so that means that we also have a new guest designer joining us, this month it's my fabulous stampin' up upline Amanda Fowler! So be sure to pop over and read all about Amanda and see her gorgeous samples!

Right back to the sketch, here it is

You can use the sketch exactly how you see it here, but feel free to flip or rotate it, as long as we can see you've used it, for the project inspiration.

Here is my take on this weeks sketch.

I wanted to use one of my new sets Tea Shoppe, it's right up my street, I love afternoon tea, in my local tea room Donny's, so this set was the first on my I NEED list.

I have teamed the stamps from the set with the Beyond the Garden DSP, I thought it worked well with the flowers on the teacup, I stamped my cup in the two colours and then cut out the flowers from one and glued them over the top of the green teacup, it looks fiddly but it wasn't at all! Wow, I didn't realise just how many new products I'd used.

I really hope I've inspired you to take part in this weeks challenge, if you still need a little more inspiration please check out what the design team have come up with!

Happy stampin'