It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Samantha has asked that we frame a sentiment as the focal point and decorate with two additional elements. Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

For my card today I also took my inspiration from the deep blue of the sofas in the Time Out inspiration photo, along with the touches of gold and collections of things in twos - take a look:

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

For today's card I reached for my Abstract Beauty Cards and the co-ordinating Abstract Beauty Ephemera pack - these are so great for quick cards and I knew I had everything there that I needed. My card base is pre-printed with a Night of Navy watercolour-effect background (and the envelope co-ordinates too - see the photo at the bottom of the post!) I cut a hexagon shape using my Beautiful Shapes Dies and partially inked one of the stamps in the new 'Simply Fabulous' stamp set so that I could isolate and stamp the word 'hello'. I popped this up on dimensionals, decorated with a couple of the flowers and leaves from the ephemera pack and added some (retired) gold gilded gems and Pumpkin Pie sequins from my stash to complete my card: 

Quick and easy! Sometimes this kind of card making feels a little like cheating, when it all comes together so smoothly - but these kinds of cards are great when you are pressed for time and still allow for creativity, so no complaints from me! The Abstract Beauty Cards and Envelopes and the Ephemera Pack are currently on sale, reduced by 50% and 30% respectively until the end of the month when they retire - double bargain! The perfect time to stock up - just click on the links at the bottom of the post to go straight to the online store.

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; mine will be a busy one, with a considerable amount of baking going on in readiness for tomorrow's birthday celebrations - we are treating the whole of Sixth Form at school! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

ABSTRACT BEAUTY EPHEMERA PACK (£4.20)

ABSTRACT BEAUTY CARDS & ENVELOPES (£4.62)

BEAUTIFUL SHAPES DIES (£27.00)

SIMPLY FABULOUS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£17.00)

NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday where this week we are celebrating 'National Best Friends Day' which is on June 8th.

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. This week I used feminine, pink, sparkle and patterned paper along with the sketch over at Atlantic Hearts for my layout and this is what I came up with:

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

Abstract Beauty - I made a simple card today using two contrasting pieces of Abstract Beauty designer series paper: an abstract background and a bright, floral central strip. These papers are sized perfectly for A5 cards. I chose a couple of flowers and some leaves from the co-ordinating ephemera pack that complimented the floral strip to decorate my sentiment oval. 

Full of Love - The sentiment on my card comes from the new 'Full of Love' stamp set. I stamped it on the swirly rectanglular diecut from the Beautiful Shapes Dies set from the same suite:

Finishing Touches - I added a few (retired) gold gilded gems for a little extra sparkle to compliment the gold foiling of the floral paper and having used only a strip of floral paper on the centre of my card, I used the remainder to line my envelope for a little extra touch of 'pretty':

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. 

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 Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Stephanie Lanzalotto
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BEAUTIFUL SHAPES DIES (£27.00)

ABSTRACT BEAUTY 4" X 6" (10.2 X 15.2 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)

ABSTRACT BEAUTY EPHEMERA PACK (£6.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.75)

FULL OF LOVE CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)

NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)

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 a fun 'and/or' theme challenge for us to work with:

Birds and/or bees - what fun! I decided to go with 'bees' for my card today - take a look:

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

Honeybee Home - I decided that 'Honeybee Home' would be the perfect set for today's card. I paired my bees with a watercoloured floral stem and some diecut florals and grasses from the co-ordinating Honeybee Blooms Dies in white and yellow. I also added a little stamping to the inside of my card:

Beautiful Shapes - The eagle-eyed amongst you may well recognise the layout I used for today's card - it's the sketch I designed for my week as Paper Players hostess last week. I thought the three elements would work really well as hexagons in various sizes, so I used my Beautiful Shapes Dies to cut some hexagons in various sizes and stencilled one, watercoloured and  embossed another and layered them to build up my scene. I added some twine and hexagon enamel shapes to complete my design. 

Bye Bye Bumblebee - To give my card a cohesive feel, I worked in black, white and the retiring Bumblebee. By using a combination of blending, watercolouring, markers and cardstock it varies the intensity of colour:

With Bumblebee as my choice colour, I am also entering today's card over at Inspire.Create for their current challenge too. I really like this set; this card took a long time to create as there are lots of elements and small details, but it was so worth it!

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 have a long weekend here in the UK so an extra day with everyone at home. We have no specific plans other than to relax, spend some time in the kitchen and enjoy the sunshine too. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

HONEYBEE HOME BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£42.25)	HIVE 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£8.25)	BEAUTIFUL SHAPES DIES (£27.00)	ADHESIVE-BACKED HEXAGONS (£7.00)	WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (£7.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)
BUMBLEBEE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BUMBLEBEE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	WATER PAINTERS (£11.25)	FLUID 100 WATERCOLOR PAPER (£8.25)

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

I decided to use the sketch over at Just Add Ink for my layout this week and used two overlappping hexagons, negative and positive, cut with the Beautiful Shapes Dies for my central shapes and chose to feature the two cute monkeys from the 'Catch You Later' stamp set for my wildlife - take a look:

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

I stamped my monkeys onto some white cardstock and coloured them with my new skin tone Blends markers, then masked them off and used some Balmy Blue ink and a stencil I made using my Basic Borders Dies to create a soft and subtle background of clouds with my blender brush behind them:

I added this to my Shaded Spruce card base and then added my top panel, which I ran through my diecutting machine with the Stitched Greenery Die before cutting out the hexagon shape and popping this panel up on dimensionals to frame my little jungle scene. I added a sentiment to another popped-up hexagon and finished my sentiment on the inside, with another stamped-off image of the monkeys too:

So what do you think? Cute, right?! It's my 23rd wedding anniversary today and whilst this didn't start out as a card for my DH, it may well be the one I send as he would appreciate the humour over sweet and smushy love hearts any day!

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; one of the James Juniors had a friend stay for a sleepover yesterday, so apart from taking him home, we are having a quiet day indoors. The James girls definitely deserve it; as my regular readers know it is not uncommon for us to be out in all weathers either playing or watching hockey at the weekend. Well, despite storm Eunice and the incredible high winds and driving rain we've had here over the past few days, yesterday's match wasn't cancelled. We all turned up and despite a seriously waterlogged pitch, the umpires decided it was safe to play. The end result? Players and parents soaked to the skin and frozen to the bone - and just to give you a flavour of what I'm talking about, here's a photo I managed to snap during 'warm up' before the game started: 

I have genuinely never known anything like it! To make things worse the girls lost 4-2, despite their best efforts. So today we are staying warm - I think we might actually huddle under a blanket and watch 'Encanto' - it's about time we discovered why no-one talks about Bruno!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

CATCH YOU LATER CLING STAMP SET (£22.00)	STITCHED GREENERY DIE (£30.00)	BEAUTIFUL SHAPES DIES (£27.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	SHADED SPRUCE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	SHADED SPRUCE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BRONZE & IVORY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM COMBO (£8.25)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM DEEP COMBO (£8.25)

Today I'm sharing a card that I made for fun using the sketch over at TGIF Challenges and the pink and blue inspiration board over at Hand Stamped Sentiments , where the same colours feature at Colour Hues too:

I love the pink and blue colours of the HSS board and was particularly drawn to the florals and the pink camper van with the palm trees. It was the perfect opportunity to ink up the cute camper in the Sale-A-Bration 'Driving By' stamp set - take a look:

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

I used hexagons cut using my Beautiful Shapes Dies, as opposed to a heart as the basis for design, having cut one in the gold-splattered navy paper from the Abstract Beauty pack, and layered it with gold vellum and a double-edged gold hexagon from the Expressions In Ink Ephemera pack, although you could be forgiven for not being able to tell; I didn't have any palm trees, so I used the retired 'Tropical Chic' stamp set and Tropical Thinlits Dies to create some bi-coloured florals and tropical leaves as a back drop for my fun camper van, that I coloured with Blends. Once I'd started layering, I just couldn't stop! I also added in some gold foliage and gold faceted gems alongside my sentiment to finish:

This is one of those cards that I wanted to create 'just for fun' - the sketch and inspo board were too good to pass up!

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:

DRIVING BY CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£0.00)	ABSTRACT BEAUTY 4" X 6" (10.2 X 15.2 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)	BEAUTIFUL SHAPES DIES (£27.00)	EXPRESSIONS IN INK EPHEMERA PACK (£6.50)	BLUSHING BRIDE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BLUSHING BRIDE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)

Today I'm sharing a card that is a 'sneak peek' of one of the cards that I am making with the lovely ladies signed up form my 'Daffodil Daydream' online card class that is taking place next week; I used the great sketch over at Sunday Stamps for my layout, so am linking up with their current challenge. Here's their sketch:

And here's the card that I made using it as my starting point:

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

Daffodil Afternoon - I knew I wanted to use this particular design of Daffodil Afternoon designer series paper as my background. Bold designs on dark backgrounds can be intimidating, so I chose it as I wanted to give my class attendees ideas how to use them. Taking advantage of the split panel and choosing the lighter colours for both the card base and mat layer both serve to lighten this pattern. Lots to love about this paper pack, but most of all - it's FREE with a £45 purchase during the current Sale-A-Bration promotion! If you buy the Daffodil Daydream stamp set and die bundle, this makes a great free product choice to accompany it as it co-ordinates beautifully.  

Daffodil Dies - And so onto those Daffodil Dies! There are lots of die pieces in this set but they go together really easily when you know how. We will be going through that in class, so it was only right that I make up a couple of flower heads and use them to decorate my sentiment label. I cut them from colours that matched the daffodils on the paper, then added some ink with a blender brush to each piece to bring a little more depth to the colours. 

And A Beautiful Shape - Finally, I did start out with a circle shape as per the sketch, albeit I then layered it with my sentiment label and daffodil heads almost covering it up! You can see that circle. courtesy of a new die in the Beautiful Shapes set, a little closer on the photo below, where the debossed detail can just about be seen:

I know this die is one I'll be using lots; the added detail makes it a nice centrepiece. It's no stitched circle, granted, but it is a nice alternative!

I'm looking forward to making a version of this card in my 'Daffodil Daydream' online card class next week. I have lots of other classes and events planned in the coming months - if you would like more information, then do get in touch - I'd love you to join me!

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; I have been granted a free pass on the school run this afternoon, so am fortunate to be getting a little extra crafting time (I might even make a head start on tomorrow's chores too!). I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

DAFFODIL DAYDREAM BUNDLE (£51.25)	DAFFODIL AFTERNOON 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£0.00)	BEAUTIFUL SHAPES DIES (£27.00)	PIERCED BLOOMS DIES (£34.00)	MATTE BLACK DOTS (£6.50)	VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)
BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	PALE PAPAYA A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	PEAR PIZZAZZ A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	PALE PAPAYA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)