Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous LeAnne to host this week and as it's the fifth Sunday of the month we have a tic-tac-toe challenge board for you to work with:

I went down the first column of our TicTacToe board with blue/die-cut/heat embossing and decided to use Jen's Freshly Made Sketches layout and make another slimline card that was totally inspired by the fabulous nautical photo over at The Card Concept - take a look: 

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

Sailing Home - I took the inspiration for my 'clean and layered' card from The Card Concept's great nautical inspiration photo this week, specifically the cushion at the top of the photo, with the blue and red stripes on cream. I incorporated these into my design but decided to change out the anchor for the sailboat that features on the central cushion as it fitted better with my sentiment, as I wanted to make a congratulations/good luck for the future-type card. I heat-embossed the large sailboat from the 'Sailing Home' stamp set in white on Night of Navy then diecut it with my Come Sail Away dies. A 'thank you' too to the team over at The Card Concept for choosing this card as one of their Honourable Mentions recently and for their kind comments on a card that felt quite out of my comfort zone but was totally inspired by their awesome photo!

A Beautiful World - For my sentiment I used both the retired stamp set 'Beautiful World' and paired it with one of my favourite diecuts from the retired Summer Silhouettes dies - the long, slimline design is perfect for showcasing the long 'adventure' diecut, which I cut a couple of times and glued together for added height. I also added another stamped greeting from the same stamp set to the inside of my card:

A Cautionary Tale - So I'm sure you are looking at today's card and thinking it came together really quickly; to be fair, if I made a second one it probably wouldn't take long at all. For this one that was not the case though! I spent quite a bit of time deciding on which nautical elements to incorporate on my card and then just as I had everything stuck together, I decided my card needed a little something extra so decided to add a trio of stamped gulls. And that was where the disaster happened! I missed one part of one of the gulls, and then slipped with my stamp-a-ma-jig when I went back in to correct. So what to do? Luckily I managed to remove the top vanilla panel with some dental floss (such a craft room life-saver!) and then I removed the top portion and replaced with another one, with birds correctly stamped before I glued into place. Crisis averted - and let that be a lesson to you: don't glue everything down until you are completely sure your stamping is complete! I do like the addition of the birds though, so it was worth it:

This is one of those cards that I would not have made without the photo that inspired it, but I love it! What do you think? Do you like the current trend for slimline designs? Do 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:

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; I am looking forward to spending some time in the garden today as we are enjoying some warmer weather here in the UK for a change - it bodes well for our Bank Holiday weekend for sure. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Edited to add: I was the Challenge Winner over at The Card Concept with this card!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SAILING HOME CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£22.00)

SMOOTH SAILING DIES (£30.00)

NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

Today I'm sharing a card I made for this week's Mojo Monday challenge using a stamp I've yet to use even though it is about to retire (oops!) Here is this week's sketch:

This week is 'tall and skinny' week so my card is taller than usual - my actual dimensions are 7" x 4" - and has a distinctly nautical theme:

I am continuing my quest to use more DSP on my cards and this one features the retiring Maritime papers, one of my favourites. I used a base of Real Red and a mat of Night of Navy, then covered the front of the card with a piece of DSP. I cut a banner out of a co-ordinating piece of Maritime DSP and a double-ended one from Coastal Cabana cardstock, both of which were made using my new Triple Banner Punch. I then added a piece of Night of Navy cardstock, slightly wider than my card, and tied with a sailor's knot in Coastal Cabana thick baker's twine. The main focal point of my card is the round sailor stamp from the stamp set 'Adventure Awaits', which I stamped twice, once in Night of Navy on Whisper White and once in Real Red, and fussy cut the words from the centre of the red one and overlaid them onto the navy one. My friend LeAnne did this on a card a while ago and I loved the effect, so was keen to include it here. You can see LeAnne's original card here. I can't believe we are three days before the Spring-Summer seasonal catalogue ends and I'm only just using this stamp! 

This card is so fresh and fun and would be great to send to a friend who needed a little motivation and encouragement. That's all from me today; back tomorrow with my card for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Adventure Awaits Photopolymer Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad
Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine