
Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for the oft-dreaded speed challenge:

This one was chosen by me: you have to create a card using a punch or punches, in under 10 minutes! I didn't have anything in mind when I chose this challenge, other than I wanted to use my Bee Builder Punch - but not necessarily to punch a bee! Thanks to a great sketch over at Sunday Stamps and the green and white colour combo over at Color Hues - perfect for the St Patricks Day inspired board at Festive Friday too ( I chose green, clover leaf and rainbow from the board) - the idea for my card came together pretty quickly too! Take a look at the card I created then read on for the detail:

Here's the low-down on today's card:
Gather Your Supplies - The key to a speed stamping challenge is preparation - and this can be done before the stopwatch starts! I had my Bee Builder Punch and decided that the heart shape that forms the bee's wings would also be perfect for the basis of a lucky four-leaf clover. I wanted to keep things simple, so focused everything around one main green - Shaded Spruce. I grabbed that ink pad and some green cardstock, trawled through my (extensive!) designer paper collection for three papers I could use for those background layers that all featured Shaded Spruce as the primary colour (all 3 are retired) and grabbed those, grabbed a precut white card base and diecut circle - I keep a box of pre-cut white cardbases on my desk as these are the ones I use most, and a box of precut shapes for those I use the most and went on the hunt for a current stamp set with a 'lucky' sentiment - I settled on 'Country Flowers'. Here are my supplies, all ready to go:

I also had my embellishment box to hand, with any green or white ones at the front in case I wanted to add them at the end. Then I set my stopwatch - go, go, go!
Bee Builder Punch - My card is fairly straightforward: three overlapping panels of DSP, my Stylish Shapes diecut circle and the focal point: my four leaf clover, this is where my Bee Builder punch comes in! I punched 5 hearts from Shaded Spruce cardstock, overlapped four of them and cut a curved stem from the fifth one and glued them to the circle to create my lucky clover:

I added some green tinsel gems to cover the join and add some sparkle and used the 'best friend' sentiment for the front of my card, adding the 'lucky' one to the insde of my card:

I think it's fun to see what else you can use punches for, other than their main purpose. This isn't the first time I've used a punch or die to create a four leaf clover either - if you do a search on my blog, you will find many examples over the years!
The Result - So how long did my card take? An impressive 7 minutes and 51 seconds, even if I say so myself!

The key is in the preparation - and keeping it simple, with minimal stamping. So what are your favourite ways to use your punches for a speedy card? Do leave me a comment below and better still, play along with our challenge this week!
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 or packaging project that fits the challenge.
- For a Speed Stamping Challenge you must tell us the time it took to make your project and it must be finished in under 10 min.
- Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
- Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
- Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
- You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges.
- We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.
We look forward to seeing your creations in the AYSI gallery.
Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:
