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 'St Patrick's Day' which is on March 17th. 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. I used the sketch layout over at Try Stamping on Tuesday (and their option of stripes) and I used green, gold, clover, gnomes and luck from the inspo board to create my good luck card this week - take a look:

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

I used a mix of the sadly now retired Dandy Designs papers for my background and frame - Sale-A-Bration may be over again for another year but I love these papers so don't be surprised to still see me use them from time to time and stamped my girly gnome onto a stitched rectangle and coloured her with my Granny Apple Green and Shaded Spruce Stampin' Blends. I coloured her hair with Pumpkin Pie - I went for a stereotypically Irish look to compliment one of my favourite good luck sentiments, from the retired set 'A Wish For Everything'. An oversized punched four-leaf clover with a gem centre and two gold pearl shoe buckles complete my card:

I just love this cute gnomie and it will be perfect to wish the eldest of the James Juniors good luck when she starts her A Level exams. I am going to have to make another one using a boy gnome in this set since the youngest of the Juniors is also sitting GCSEs at the same time and couldn't possibly be left out, so watch this space!

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. 

I'm also linking today's card up with the lovely ladies over at SUO Challenges where they have the theme of shades of green/St Patrick's Day - and my card today has a touch of both!

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 and I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

FRIENDLY GNOMES PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (23.00)	STITCHED RECTANGLE DIES (33.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.25)	SHADED SPRUCE A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (8.50)
SHADED SPRUCE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (8.50)	PUMPKIN PIE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (8.50)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS LIGHT COMBO PACK (8.50)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (5.75)

Today I'm sharing a quick card I made with a few challenges in mind - I used the sketch over at Try Stamping on Tuesday and the option of watercolouring (albeit when I added my banner to my card I inadvertently put it too far to the left - oops!) and used the new Color Throwdown palette along with the Easter bunny inspiration over at Just Us Girls:

I don't have any current Easter sets featuring bunnies, eggs or carrots - but having posted this card a while ago on my social media, one of my customers commented that the bunny from 'Nature's Beauty' would work well for an Easter card too, so I thought I'd give it a try. This is what I came up with:

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

I stamped my bunny onto watercolour paper then coloured him in using my waterpainter. When dry I used my Stamparatus to re-stamp the outline again in Crumb Cake over the top to add the definition of the rabbit's fur. I also watercoloured in some sky and grass, adding some stamped tufts of grass and a few hand-drawn orange flowers to tie in to the colour of my card base.

I cut the rabbit out using my Layering Circle Thinlits and added a sentiment from 'A Wish For Everything' before adding to my (retired) Grapefruit Grove card base with gingham banner and crinkle ribbon bow. My watercolouring isn't brilliant, but my customer was right - I think this stamp does make a cute Easter bunny!

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. 

I am feeling a little under the weather today as if I am trying to ward off a cold. The dark, grey day with constant drizzle has done nothing to lift my spirits - where oh where are the sunny days of spring?! Nothing to do other than stay in, keep warm and craft! Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

NATURE'S BEAUTY CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)	A WISH FOR EVERYTHING CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£36.00)	LAYERING CIRCLES DIES (£33.00)	WHITE 1/4" (6.4 MM) CRINKLED SEAM BINDING RIBBON (£7.00)	BALMY BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	CRUMB CAKE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	FLUID 100 WATERCOLOR PAPER (£8.25)	WATER PAINTERS (£11.25)

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

I went down the first column with red/heart/sentiment (my card also works for the middle row of heart/free/stitching) and I used the lovely red and pink hearts inspo over at Double D and the fabulous sketch over at Sunday Stamps (this one is a keeper ladies!) for the layout for my sweet-on-you card today - take a look:

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

Sweet Talk - The Sunday Stamps sketch was crying out for a showcase of some lovely patterned paper (check out the DT cards on the link above - they are amazing!) so I decided to go all-out pink and red hearts and use another two contrasting patterns from the Sweet Talk paper pack that I used for yesterday's card. I used one for my card base, then with a layer of Real Red in between, added a panel decorated with pink and red lollipops and hearts - so sweet!

All About The Angles - Today card is all about the angles, or more specifically, rectangles! I used two large ones for the central tilted panels, then two smaller ones for the sentiment detail. The Stitched Rectangle Dies are such a great way to frame a piece of paper or scene and add subtle detail, without detracting from the main event. 

All About Love - The die cut 'love you' sentiment on the front of my card is actually part of the larger diecut sentiment in the 'Love You More Than' Dies set, where I just used the first two words. I love to look at diecut word sets to see how they can be repurposed or reused with other sets to expand their range of use:

I fussy cut some lollipops and sweets from another of the sheets of Sweet Talk patterned paper and tucked these in just beneath my sentiment for an extra fun touch.

I added a sentiment from 'A Wish For Everything' to the inside of my card - this is one of my favourite sentiment sets:

My card can be used at any time to remind the recipient that they are loved - after all, to love is for always, not just for Valentine's!

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 evening; I am out this evening attending a music recital that includes a performance of a piece of music that Rebecca wrote for her GCSE Music exam earlier this year. When I asked if she'd like to come with me, she said 'Why would I want to do that? I wrote it, so I know what it sounds like - I'm off to hockey training!' And that was the end of that - you can't fault teenage logic!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SWEET TALK 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)

LOVE YOU MORE THAN DIES (£28.00)

STITCHED RECTANGLE DIES (£33.00)

A WISH FOR EVERYTHING CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£36.00)

REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Laurie to host this week and she has a fun and seasonal theme challenge for you to work with:

I was initially a little concerned that I would struggle this week; I don't make many Halloween cards as I rarely send them as it isn't a big thing here in the UK and I don't really buy many Halloween sets as a result. I didn't even have any current Halloween paper! What to do?! I decided to take stock of all current sets and pull out anything that had something Halloween-related in it, whilst also taking inspiration from a few other challenges too, and ended up making a card really easily. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

Halloween Seasonal Swirls - The star of today's card is most definitely the Seasonal Swirls Dies. They have this fun star wreath (which along with my bat silhouettes fulfilled my 'Just Choose 2' for Just Add Ink this week) which I cut out of sparkly black glitter paper, then embellished with a trio of pumpkins and witches' brooms cut from some retired textured kraft paper I had, which along with my purple background uses this week's Color Throwdown colours which are perfect for Halloween.

Sparkle of The Season and A Wish For Everything - Alongside my diecut wreath, there isn't much stamping on my card: the sentiment on the front comes from the 'Sparkle of the Season' stamp set that is bundles with the dies; I also found this fun Halloween sentiment in the 'A Wish For Everything' stamp set that I used on the inside of my card:

Perfect for the inside of my card!

Spooky? - I wasn't sure that my sparkly wreath alone could truly be considered 'spooky', but luckily Narelle's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week came to my rescue on that front: I took that second circle shape behind, masked off and sponged in a moon with white craft and a little  silver metallic ink for shading, along with the splatter stamp in the 'Quiet Meadow' stamp set for crate-like detail and a trio of black bats from 'Sparkle of The Season' for added spooky:

A final diecut bat, along with some blended tone-on-tone colour around the edge of my purple layer, complete my suitably spooky card.

I felt like I needed a lot of help to get me going with my card this week, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Even more impressive is that it didn't include a single Halloween-specific stamp set! So if you are looking at this week's theme and thinking you don't 'do Halloween', check out the stamp sets on your shelf or get creative with some punch art - like me, you might be surprised at what you'll find!

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:

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; today is a very special day in the James household! Tomorrow is a milestone birthday for my 'significant other' ( also known as the first Mr James! - if you missed his card, I already shared that here); since his birthday falls on a day that is filled with work, school and sport for pretty much everyone in the James household, we are celebrating today. We have cake, balloons, fizz, presents and more so whilst he is not one to make a fuss, the children and I are ready to celebrate his half-century in style!  I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SPARKLE OF THE SEASON BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)	BLACK 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) GLITTER PAPER (£5.50)	GORGEOUS GRAPE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GORGEOUS GRAPE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	PUMPKIN PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
PUMPKIN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	OLD OLIVE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	A WISH FOR EVERYTHING CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£36.00)
UNINKED STAMPIN’ PAD & WHISPER WHITE REFILL (£8.75)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Wei has asked that we create something with the following layout:

 Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. For my card today I wanted to showcase one of my most favourite retiring circles of all time, one of the circles from the Stitched Shapes Dies (unfortunately already out of stock and discontinued by the time you read this):

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

I chose to feature Magenta Madness as the colour with my black and white colour combo today for the current challenge over at Color Dare, but this card would work paired with any colour. I cut a partial circle from the front of my card and infilled it with a piece of window sheet, and added a stitched circle to the acetate panel. I added a sheet of In-Colour DSP with a circle pattern to the inside of my card so that a small portion of it could be seen through my cardfront. Whilst the outside of my card has plenty of white space, inside there's not so much! Wondering what I did with the piece of cardstock I removed to accommodate my window sheet? I flipped it and adhered it to the inside of my card to write my greeting:

 Waste not, want not and all that! I added a stacked birthday diecut from the retiring Well Written dies along with a stamped greeting from 'A Wish For Everything' to complete the front of my card:

Super simple but I really like it! What do you think? Do leave me a comment below - I would 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 another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WELL WRITTEN DIES (EN) (£37.00)	2020–2022 IN COLOR 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	LAYERING CIRCLES DIES (£33.00)
WINDOW SHEETS (£4.75)	MAGENTA MADNESS CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	A WISH FOR EVERYTHING CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£36.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. YoonYoung is hosting this month and today we have a colour challenge: 

For my card today I decided to go with some triple-step stamping and a sunny yellow rose for a cheery Easter card - take a look:

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

To A Wild Rose - I'm not sure I've used this set on my blog before, but the 'To A Wild Rose' stamp set has some wonderful blousy blooms, that have great dimension just by layering colour - perfect for clean and simple cards. I used each of the challenge colours to create my layers, stamping off the third layer of both the leaves and the petals in order to get the depth of colour with only 3 inks.  

Bricks and Mortar - Over at Just Us Girls this week Bobby has asked us to embrace the trend of embossing folders. I decided to use a So Saffron card base so that I could use a white circle embossed with the Bricks and Mortar embossing folder to highlight my yellow rose. I'm sure there will be some wonderful and creative uses of embossing over in the JUGs gallery, but in an effort to keep things clean and simple I used a simple punched circle of texture on my card:

 Sometimes less is more I think!

Blessed Easter Wishes - I love the font of the large 'Blessed' stamp in the 'To A Wild Rose' stamp set, which works beautifully with the other friendship-themed sentiments included. I used a little creative licence and heat-embossed it in gold before I paired it with some other stamps from the super-versatile 'A Wish For Everything' stamp set to create my Easter greeting, which you can see in more detail below:

Do you ever combine stamp sets in this way? I love that with lots to choose from, the possibilities are endless! I also added a trio of sparkly enamel dots - I just couldn't help myself!

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. 

As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! color names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

Enjoy your day; I have a date with the ironing pile but will be back later with a quick post about something very exciting that's happening tomorrow! I'll be back later! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

TO A WILD ROSE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£24.00)	WILD ROSE DIES (£32.00)	A WISH FOR EVERYTHING CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£36.00)	BRICK & MORTAR 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£9.25)	SO SAFFRON A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
SO SAFFRON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	PEAR PIZZAZZ CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	MANGO MELODY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	GOLD STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the amazing Laurie to host this week and she has a theme challenge for you to work with:

I don't have any turkeys in my current stamp collection so decided to go with pumpkins and the overall 'thankful' theme, along with the layout of the inspiration photo over at Inspire.Create, to create my card this week - take a look:

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

Harvest Hellos - I used the 'Harvest Hellos' stamp set for my feature pumpkin on today's card, and highlighted the detail with Pumpkin Pie and Calypso Coral Stampin' Blends, before punching out with the Apple Builder Punch. 

Texture, Texture - There's lots of texture on today's card: a woodgrain background courtesy of the In Good Taste designer paper, wooden leaf embellishments, twine, linen braid and the lacy diecut panel from the Stitched Lace Die. Not very post-friendly granted, but the texture and dimension add so much interest and detail:

Word Wishes - For my sentiment, I snipped the word 'thanks' from the 'thanksgiving' die in the Word Wishes set and stacked it on the front of my card, and paired it with the word 'giving' that was masked from the full sentiment that I used inside my card:

I was really pleased with the way this card turned out. I'm also linking up with the team over at SUO Challenges with another entry for their Autumn/Fall challenge.

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:

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 will more than likely be spending the day indoors to once again escape the howling winds and rain - the weather has been dreadful here this week! With continued social distancing a focus during this half term, we resorted to an online escape room game on Friday afternoon; whilst not the same as doing one in person, it was surprisingly good fun. We bought a 3 game package so I think the James' may well be spending the afternoon breaking more codes and solving puzzles against the clock!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

HARVEST HELLOS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)	STITCHED LACE DIES (£33.00)	APPLE BUILDER PUNCH (£17.00)	IN GOOD TASTE DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£17.00)	WORD WISHES DIES (EN) (£33.00)
A WISH FOR EVERYTHING CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£36.00)	EARLY ESPRESSO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	PUMPKIN PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	STAMPIN' BLENDS PUMPKIN PIE COMBO PACK (£8.50)
STAMPIN' BLENDS CALYPSO CORAL COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CAJUN CRAZE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	3/16" (4.8 MM) BRAIDED LINEN TRIM (£6.50)	LINEN THREAD (£4.75)	IN GOOD TASTE ELEMENTS (£6.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of sweet Claire to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge for you to work with:

With all these lovely layers I decided Claire's sketch was perfect to showcase some designer series paper. Lots to choose from, but I eventually settled on the Flowers For Every Season paper again - I've been having so much fun with these floral designs. This is what I came up with:

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

Flowers For Every Season - I chose two co-ordinating patterns with a Misty Moonlight background for today's card - I love this blue and I've been itching to use this sunflower floral pattern. This paper contains four of the five new in-colours, so is also perfect for the current challenge over at Fab Friday, where the aim is to use one or more of these new colours. These papers really are the star of my card and I wanted them to be prominent; I used the Flowers For All Season twine to represent the vertical panel/column so that it wouldn't detract from or obscure the florals beneath.

A Wish For Everything - The sentiment on this card could be used for a number of different occasions and it is definitely one of my favourites in the 'A Wish For Everything' set.

Memories and More - I added a co-ordinating floral embellishment from the Flowers For Every Season Memories and More pack to my stitched rectangle sentiment panel, with a twist of Cinnamon Cider ribbon beneath it for added decoration. Here's a closer look: 

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:

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 have no big plans today, just a day of pottering around the house and some cooking - we have some new recipes that we would like to try out, so that should be fun.  I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FLOWERS FOR EVERY SEASON MEMORIES & MORE CARD (£10.25)	FLOWERS FOR EVERY SEASON DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	STITCHED RECTANGLES DIES (£33.00)	A WISH FOR EVERYTHING CLING STAMP SET (EN) (£36.00)	MISTY MOONLIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
2020–2022 IN COLOR ENAMEL DOTS (£7.50)	CINNAMON CIDER 2020–2022 IN COLOR RIBBON (£5.50)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	FLOWERS FOR EVERY SEASON RIBBON COMBO PACK (£9.25)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Claire to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge for you to work with:

I had an idea in my head as to what I was going to do with this sketch until I pulled my DSP box off the shelf and saw something that inspired me to go in a completely different direction! I ended up making three cards in one go, two using Claire's sketch. They are all different but do have one thing in common - Pressed Petals Specialty Designer Series Paper. Here's my first card:

The Pressed Petals Specialty Designer Series Paper has photographic images of real pressed petals on one side and one of the sheets in the pack has distinct sectional designs to cut out and use on card fronts, and two of the sections feature floral ovals which I thought would work for Claire's sketch. They also reminded me of Laurel's pretty Inspired By badge this week which comprised of pressed florals so I'm linking my first card up there. I stamped my sentiment in the centre of the wreath (I needed a get well card so used this one from the 'Dandelion Wishes' stampset) and fussy cut it out, mounted it on a panel of Mossy Meadow wrapped with the Magnolia Lane linen ribbon and twine and paired this with a Rococco Rose card base and added a trio of faceted dots to finish.

I decided to make another card using another of the sections, this time switching out the ribbon and adding a stamped and diecut sentiment combo to make an Easter card that is great for the current Just Us Girls challenge where the challenge is to feature shades of blue, green and yellow on your card:

I'm also linking my Easter card up to SUO Challenges where the current theme is Spring.

I created one last card to use up the strip of daisies. I inset it within a split Rococco Rose panel that I popped up on dimensionals and paired it with a sentiment from 'Peaceful Moments', this time using the current InspireCreate sketch rather than Claire's - it was ideal to save this piece from wallowing in my snippets box:

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects 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; it's Mother's Day here in the UK but due to our social distancing everyone will be at home in their own houses, which will feel strange. I'm looking forward to being waited on by the James Juniors and Skype calls with the other Mums in our extended family, maybe with some quality jigsaw time too! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Pressed Petals Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	2019-2021 In Color Faceted Dots (£6.00)	Magnolia Lane Ribbon Combo Pack (£8.25)	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Rococo Rose A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Seaside Spray A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)	White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)	A Wish For Everything Bundle (£62.00)
Dandelion Wishes Cling-Mount Stamp Set (£19.00)	Peaceful Moments Cling Stamp Set (English) (£20.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Jaydee to host this week and she has an interesting colour challenge for you to work with:

I had an idea of I wanted to do with this week's colour palette and the sketch from TGIF Challenges was just what I needed to turn my idea into a reality (although I made my base horizontal rather than vertical and used an extra-large card base) - take a look:

Today is a special day in the James household: the youngest of the James Juniors celebrates his 12th birthday. I'm not sure where those years have gone, but I did need as a result need a couple of special birthday cards to celebrate. Today's card is the card I made for Ben from Rebecca and features Blueberry Bushel as my featured additional colour. Here's the low-down on today's card:

When Is An Adventure Not An Adventure? - The two figures on today's card from the Silhouette Scenes stamp set so remind me of Ben and Rebecca. I can honestly say they truly are each others best friends and always have been. Even as they approach their teens, they still enjoy each others company more than anyone else's - and I love that about them! So it seemed only right to feature them together on my card. I could have stamped the sentiment 'as is', however I wanted to feature the 'adventure' diecut to tie in with the sketch - but I needed it in the plural. Luckily for me, the Sweet Silhouettes dies also incude the word 'inspire' - so I diecut this too, snipped away the letter 's' and paper-pieced it seamlessly to my 'adventure'. Clever, right? :-) I diecut both twice, once in Blueberry Bushel and again in Basic Black and offset this one behind; this allows the diecut to stand out from the background a little better.

A Starry Sky - Since I only had one colour to pair with my black and white, a sponged or brayered sky wasn't really an option. The starry stamp in the 'Bokeh Dots' set came to the rescue; the distinktive nature of this stamp meant that even with one colour, there would be enough variation to create interest. 

Sisterly Love - Lastly, not content with my tinkering of sentiments, I did the same on the inside. Do you recognise this sentiment from an existing stamp set? I'll give you a clue - it's in the 'A Wish For Everything' stamp set, but it doesn't look quite like this:

Did you spot it? I took the stamp that reads 'First my Mother...forever my friend' and masked out the 'Mo' of Mother and replaced it with the 'Br' from another stamp in this set that reads 'Hope this new year is filled with promises of many bright tomorrow's':

It took a little while to ink and mask with my Stampin' Write marker, but I'm really pleased with the result. Do you look for opportunities to create your own customised sentiments out of your stamp collection when you don't have the perfect fit? Do share any that you've created - I'd love to know what other combinations there are.

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:

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 will be celebrating with cake, an escape room outing and a best friend sleepover - wish me luck! I have my monthly technique class tomorrow but I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Silhouette Scenes Bundle (£48.50)	Bokeh Dots Cling-Mount Stamp Set (£14.00)	A Wish For Everything Cling Stamp Set (£36.00)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Blueberry Bushel A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£4.75)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)	Black Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)