It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of our fearless leader Nance to host our challenge this week and she has a fun theme challenge for you to play along with:

For my card this week I decided to do something a little different and make a card featuring a couple of my Project Life cards. As a family we do a lot of cycling and it often features in my memory keeping, so it was a tough decision to actually part with this one and use it on a card! When I saw Ginger's sketch layout over at Pals Paper Arts this week it was perfect for showcasing an alternative use for my Project Life cards so I 'bit the bullet' and this is what I came up with:

My card is A5, so slightly larger than usual, in order to accommodate my pair of Project Life cards, yet it really was quite straightforward to put together as the Project Life cards do so much of the creative work. That said, there are a few things worth highlighting:

Let's Get Away - The Project Life cards featured on today's card are from the 'Let's Get Away' box set. This set is perfect for documenting your travels, near and far and contains lots of transport, including cars, aeroplanes and bicycles. What's more, this set is retiring so now is the perfect time to pick it up at a bargain price. The card I chose is perfect for today's challenge, with illustration and sentiment all in one. Here's a closer look at it in all its glory:

I mounted it onto a mat of Bermuda Bay for added definition and rounded the corners using my Project Life corner rounder punch. The second large polka dot card is one of the filler cards from the same set.

Bicycle Wheel Background - The stamp that I've used for my background is from the 'Balloon Celebration' set in the seasonal catalogue. I'm not exactly sure what this stamp is intended to be, but to me has always felt like a bicycle wheel - although I've no idea what that has to do with balloons! The open design works well to create interest in the background and incorporate my base and mat colours, which ties it in with my feature cards. 

Balloon Trio - As an added detail, I punched out a trio of coloured balloons using the mini balloon punch in the Party Punch Pack (you are so going to snap this up before it retires at the end of this month!) and adhered them over the top of the original ones that decorated the Project Life card, popping the pink one on a dimensional. They are slightly larger than the printed ones, so create a nice overhang and cover completely the printed balloons without any further work being required.

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. 

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

I look forward to seeing what you make of our theme this week. We are off to basketball this morning but no hockey today as the season has officially ended. If the weather forecast is correct and we are in for an afternoon of rain, we will be snuggling up on the sofa for a family movie afternoon watching the classic 'The Wizard of Oz'. Rebecca has an audition for a role in a school production of this musical this week, so is keen to 'gen up' on all aspects. Her practising of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' is coming along nicely - Judy Garland, eat your heart out!

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Party Punch Pack	Balloon Celebration Photopolymer Stamp Set	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad	Calypso Coral A4 Cardstock	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad
Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad	Bermuda Bay A4 Cardstock	Punch Corner Project Life	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock

Good evening lovely blog readers! It's finally Friday - yay! I've been enjoying the last day of the half-term holiday with the James Juniors today and haven't managed to squeeze in any crafting time (no matter - there's always tomorrow!) so I'm sharing a couple of cards I made earlier in the week for this week's Less Is More challenge, which is to create a one layer card with a stem. Now I'll be quite honest - I had something specific in mind when I created these cards and I'm not sure I achieved it. But since I haven't had time to 'try again' and I missed last week's LIM link up for the birthday white-on-white challenge (you can see my card here if you missed it), I wasn't going to miss playing along today! So here is the first of two cards:

I was keen to play with the dandelion seed stamp in the 'Balloon Celebration' set so for my first card I stamped a stem, centre and seeds in Versamark and heat embossed them in white, along with a sentiment from Butterfly Basics which works really nicely with it. I sponged a little Perfect Plum ink into the centre of my seed head then took some circle templates and sponged in some white kraft ink to create a soft bokeh effect. 

For my second card I used the same basic design, but doubled the stem, ommitted the centre and heat embossed my dandelion in silver onto Shimmery White cardstock and watercoloured in a background wash using Pool Party ink:

This card is much brighter than the first and in real life has a lovely shimmer, but I do feel that for both cards there is something missing; my urge to add layers was overwhelming! I'd love to know what you think - do leave me a little comment below with any thoughts you have on today's cards. 

I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Balloon Celebration Photopolymer Stamp Set	Butterfly Basics Photopolymer Stamp Set	Perfect Plum Classic Stampin' Pad	Perfect Plum A4 Cardstock	Embossing Buddy
Versamark Pad	White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool (Uk)	Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad	Sponge Daubers
Shimmery White A4 Cardstock	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Aqua Painters	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder