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 a seasonal clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

Winter fun! I was totally inspired by our challenge badge this week, so grabbed this week's Color Throwdown colours and the sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches with my Penguin Place stamp set and got to work - take a look:

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

I added my penguin sliding down some snowy slopes and cut him out with the largest of the Tailor Made Tags Dies and tied it with some sparkly twine:

I added it to a base onto which I stencilled some Boho Blue snowflakes using one of my Abundant Beauty Decorative Masks; I ran this through my diecutting machine with an embossing mat and the stencil in place to give it a slightly embossed look, although this is quite difficult to see in the photos. A simple stamped sentiment from the same stamp set completes my clean and simple card.

The 'Penguin Place' stamp set is great for winter fun cards - it is also currently available on the Clearance Rack in the online store for the bargain price of £4.75. What's more you can even purchase the co-ordinating punch too for just £4.25 - what are you waiting for?! I'm also linking today's card up over at Inkspirational where they are asking us to use stencils on our projects.

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:

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

TAILOR MADE TAGS DIES (21.00)

BOHO BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)

BOHO BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)

PETAL PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)

BUBBLE BATH CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. We have a third Tuesday in the month so Patricia has designed a retro-double for us, featuring a retired colour palette and a sketch we've used previously: 

These colours were perfect for autumn so for my card today I decided to feature the 'Season of Chic' stamp set and co-ordinating Chic Dies - take a look:

I blended all three colours and added some autumnal stencilling using one of the Abundant Beauty Decorative Masks into the triangles. I tied some twine to define the triangle borders and added a couple of diecut leaves as a focal point:

Inking my sentiment in two colours added a little extra interest and completed my card.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

ABUNDANT BEAUTY DECORATIVE MASKS (10.00)	SEASON OF CHIC PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (26.00)	CHIC DIES (35.00)	CAJUN CRAZE A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	CAJUN CRAZE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CRUSHED CURRY A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)
CRUSHED CURRY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	LINEN THREAD (4.75)	VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have a seasonal clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

Signs of autumn - this can mean so many things but for me is summed up above all in the changing colours of the leaves on the trees as I drive through the countryside each day. The 'Framing Foliage' host stamp set has a lovely autumnal frame made of leaves, fruit and berries that is perfect for clean and simple cards - take a look:

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

#SimpleStamping - Firstly, did you miss the Framing Foliage stamp set in the current mini catalogue? It's on page 79 and is an exclusive stamp set that can be purchased with Stampin' Rewards earned when you host your own Stampin' Up! party (or place a single order of a qualifying amount). For my clean and simple design I decided to go with a one layer, #simplestamping card: stamps, ink and paper and nothing more. I stamped the frame, my 'thanks' sentiment from 'Biggest Wish' stamp set in Early Espresso on a kraft notecard and having added a little Crumb Cake ink to the edges of my card base with a blending brush, I coloured the details of the frame with my watercolour pencils. I also stamped a partial frame onto the outer envelope flap and coloured that to coordinate. Super simple - done! I don't make smaller notecards often, although it's a great size to pop into customer order bags, so I made a few of these and that's where they'll be headed.

Stepped Up - Whilst I had everything out on my desk, I thought I'd also create a second, stepped up version to show how a few additional elements can enhance the basic design. This time I used a standard size card base and added a pattern to my cardfront using a blending brush and some Copper Clay ink with the houndstooth pattern Abundant Beauty Decorative Mask. I stamped the frame onto a second piece of cardstock, cropped it closely then this time coloured the elements with my Stampin' Blends markers. 

Before adding my stamped panel to my cardbase with dimensionals, I punched a couple of holes and thread some linen thread through, tying in a bow. I could have just glued on my bow, but one of our Guest Designers currently, the lovely Fran Wing, has such creative ways of adding thread to her cards I thought I'd take a leaf out of her book and try something a little different!

So one design, two ways - which one do you prefer? Both are fairly clean and simple and I think I prefer the second one if I'm honest, but the first one is I think a great example of #SimpleStamping and how you don't need much in the way of supplies to create a decent card. 

I'm linking up my first card today with the team over at CASOnSunday where their current challenge theme is also autumn; my second card I'm linking up over at The Alphabet Challenge Blog where they are currently on 'N is for Nature'. 

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:

Enjoy your day; I have no special plans so am hoping to enjoy some cooking and crafting in equal measure! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FRAMING FOLIAGE HOST CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (14.00)	BIGGEST WISH PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (16.00)	ABUNDANT BEAUTY DECORATIVE MASKS (10.00)	KRAFT NOTE CARDS & ENVELOPES (9.50)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (13.00)
EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	COPPER CLAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CRUMB CAKE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	WATERCOLOR PENCILS ASSORTMENT 1 (15.00)	WATERCOLOR PENCILS ASSORTMENT 2 (11.75)	LINEN THREAD (4.75)

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

So many lovely seasonal elements on Vicky's board this week! I went down the first column with leaves, autumn colours and twine and used the beautiful autumnal colour palette over at TGIF Challenges to create a clean and simple card with a little 'something old, something new' this week - take a look:

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

Blended Autumn Colour - The TGIF colour palette so reminded me of autumn leaves and I thought this trio of colours would be perfect to create a simple blended ink background using the leafy stencil in the Abundant Beauty Decorative Masks - so I'm also sharing my card with AAA Cards this week. I applied each of the colours across my stencil randomly, being careful to blend them to avoid any harsh lines. I love the finished effect! These stencils are such great value for money - with 4 different creative options in each pack, they really can be used in so many different ways.

Envelope Detail - I am no stranger to a decorated envelope; my regular readers will be familiar with lots of different ways that I've shared to easily spruce-up the outside of your envelopes so I just had to play along with the current Inkspirational challenge to decorate your envelope to co-ordinate with your card. For today's envelope, I simply repeated the background stencilled pattern across the outer flap of my envelope - you can see it beneath my card in the photo above. So simple and a lovely hint of the detail inside too.

A Seasonal Saying - I chose to make the centrepiece of my card this beautiful quote from the retired 'Beauty of Tomorrow' stamp set - my 'something old' for today. This quote seemed to fit with the ombre blended background perfectly. I stamped it onto a label diecut with the largest of the rounded rectangles in the Nested Essential Dies set and added a twine bow and retired wooden leaf embellishment as a final decoration:

This card doesn't have as much 'white space' as I would like for a super-CAS card, but using a stencil is a great way to add a quick pop of colour to a card base. A larger sentiment panel might have allowed for a little extra white space, albeit resulting in me covering up some of that lovely ombre colour - you see my dilemma, right?!

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 day; the unexpected warmth at the start of the week has reverted now to temperatures more typical of this time of year, along with lots of rain in recent days and I am definitely starting to see more autumnal colour on the foliage as I'm driving around and about. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

ABUNDANT BEAUTY DECORATIVE MASKS (10.00)	NESTED ESSENTIALS DIES (32.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (13.00)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CAJUN CRAZE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	PUMPKIN PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
LINEN THREAD (4.75)	VERY VANILLA C6 ENVELOPES (8.00)	VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.50)

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

I paired Jaydee's colours with the sketch at Hand Stamped Sentiments and since I had a little more time this week decided I would have a little play with some new product - take a look:

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

Exposed Brick Texture - First up is a new-to-me product, the Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder that I used to emboss not only a piece of Pebble Path-coloured designer paper from the Fresh As A Daisy pack, but also the solid coloured trio of panels that sit on top of the base. I don't use a lot of embossing as a rule, but isn't that texture just something? It is great for adding detail to backgrounds and I really love the effect.

Abundant Beauty Sunflowers - It will be no surprise to my regular readers that the Abundant Beauty masks were one of the first things onto my pre-order shopping list - I do love a good stencil! This is a great pack with a herringbone design, autumn and snowflake panels and a layering stencil that includes a trio of sunflowers. These are the stencils I used today - I used my blending brushes to apply colour to my flower trio - I used Crushed Curry as my additional colour to 'brighten' my sunflowers and allow for more graduated colour - and some additional leaves, then fussy cut them out and pieced them onto my frame/panel background. Check out the texture and detailing on the close up below:

Charming Sentiments - To finish I added a simple sentiment from the 'Charming Sentiments' set and diecut it with the coordinating die. I love that this stamp set has such a great variety of phrases for each and every occasion, and they can be diecut perfectly with no need to fussy cut - bonus!

I'll be honest I did find Jaydee's colour palette a challenge this week and I wasn't sure about this card once finished but having let it sit a while, I've decided it looks just fine, even if those leaves are a slightly unorthodox choice! What do you think? How would you use these colours? What do you have to be grateful for today? Leave me a comment below - I'd 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 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; we are still in the grips of the late summer heatwave we've been experiencing here in the UK this week, so as much as I'd love to type more posts and share more things with you, my craft room is a veritable sauna, so I am spending as little time in it as possible - the garden and BBQ beckons! I'll be back later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

ABUNDANT BEAUTY DECORATIVE MASKS (10.00)	PEBBLED PATH A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	WILD WHEAT A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	COPPER CLAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	WILD WHEAT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CRUSHED CURRY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
PRETTY PEACOCK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	FRESH AS A DAISY 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (11.75)	2023–2025 IN COLOR™ DOTS (7.50)	COPPER CLAY 3/8" (1 CM) TEXTURED RIBBON (7.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (13.00)	EXPOSED BRICK 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (10.25)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.00)	CHARMING SENTIMENTS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (22.00)	SENTIMENT SILHOUETTES DIES (33.00)