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

Remember in addition to including an apple on your card, this week is a Clean-and-Simple (CAS) challenge!  What do we mean by CAS?

• Minimal layers and embellishments
• Plenty of open space, aka "white" space
• Simple and uncluttered

I decided that for my card this week I was going to pair a little of something old with something new and create a bunch of thank you cards - take a look:

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

A Basket Of Apples - My little basket of apples comes from the Bike Ride set and is cut out with the Build A Bike framelits. This little image works in its own right - not a bike in sight on today's card! It is super quick and easy to stamp as the leaves and apples and basket all have solid images to be stamped to fill in the colour quickly and easily - great for clean and simple cards.

Thanks A Bunch - I layered my basket on a set of layered ovals, with a sentiment from the Beautiful Bouquet stamp set. Ok, so this stamp was designed to work with flowers, but I think it works for apples too!

Buffalo Check Background Made Easy - I know I'm using it again this week, but can you tell I'm loving the new Buffalo Check background stamp? I went with a straightforward single colour stamped image in Granny Apple Green to contrast with the apples - it reminds me of a picnic table cloth!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

Having completed my full-size card for today, I decided to run off a whole bunch of these using the same design, in both a red and green colourway, to use as my customer thank you cards this month - here are two of my finished cards:

I actually think I prefer the balance of the size/shape of the oval on the lightly smaller card - what do you think? Either way, I like this design so much I think I'll run off a set of co-ordinating bag tags too! 

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 will be spending mine with a lovely group of ladies on the second day of our weekend residential craft retreat - more about that in tomorrow's post! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Buffalo Check Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£14.00)	Bike Ride Photopolymer Stamp Set (£20.00)	Build A Bike Framelits Dies (£25.00)	Beautiful Bouquet Photopolymer Stamp Set (£25.00)	Layering Ovals Framelits Dies (£33.00)
Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies (£28.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Poppy Parade Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes (£6.00)

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! Firstly, thanks to everyone who left such lovely comments on my High Tide square pop out swing card last week; I have a few more cards made using the same design and will be sharing a more detailed 'how to' for this fun fold, so stay tuned for more information on this one. Back to today: it's the turn of the awesomely-inspiring Sandy to host this week and she has a colour challenge for us to work with:

I must say I did find this colour palette rather challenging; the green got me thinking of flowers, but I was struggling to make the three colours work together. Instead I chose to focus on the blue and I took the opportunity to get out my Bike Ride stamp set and create a fun birthday card - take a look:

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

Build A Bike Made Simple - This is the first time I've use my Bike Ride stamp set with the co-ordinating Build A Bike Framelits, as the cards I made with it previously were having returned from Onstage in Amsterdam where we received the stamp set only as an all-attendee giveaway but not the framelits. What a difference they make - I pieced together the pieces of my bicycle with ease and got to use the little wire basket too - love it!

Flip The Sketch And Chop The Bike - I used the sketch over at CAS Colours & Sketches for my layout today (I figured a bike is about as non-rectangular a shape as you can get!), rotating it through 180 degrees as I wanted my bike to be riding onto my card rather than off it. Patricia's sketch shows the shape appearing to hang off the edge of the card so there was nothing else for it - I chopped off the end of my bicycle! I think it works though - if anything, it adds to the sense of movement I think. 

Coffee Break Border - My card is predominantly blue, with the Pear Pizzazz and Calypso Coral featuring only in small quantities: the flowers in the basket, a heart enamel dot. I almost left it there, but I felt like I wanted to ground my bicycle and include a little more of one of the colours so added a strip of Coffee Break designer series paper with a subtle green and white stripe.

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:

I look forward to seeing what you create with this week's colour palette. Enjoy the rest of your weekend - we are continuing with Ben's weekend of birthday celebrations, so lots of fun to be had here! I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Bike Ride Photopolymer Bundle	Bermuda Bay A4 Cardstock	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad
Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Silver Foil Sheets	Brights Enamel Shapes	Subtles Enamel Shapes
Coffee Break Designer Series Paper	Dragonfly Dreams Photopolymer Stamp Set

Today I'm sharing a card for this week's new challenge over at CAS Colours and Sketches where this is the last of my guest designer posts this month. This week it's a sketch challenge: 

I also decided to use the inspiration photo over at Fusion as a starting point for my card today, which features another sneak peek of the forthcoming 'Bike Ride' stamp set and a few other new products besides - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

New Stamps - Not one, but two new stamps from the forthcoming new Stampin' Up! annual catalogue on my card today! The lovely Bike Ride bicycle, this time in Smoky Slate (not quite a truck, but still transport, right?) with a cascade of flowers in the front basket. I stamped and fussy cut these so that I could pop them onto a dimensional; not tricky, but I'm still looking forward to ordering my co-ordinating framelits! The sentiment is from a new set too called 'Happy Birthday Gorgeous' that has some wonderful sentiments in pretty scripts and fonts - more on this another day.

New In-Colours - Two new in-colours on my card today too: my cardbase and bicycle highlights are the new Powder Pink, a delicate soft pink that is almost a neutral, and Berry Burst - a rich, berry red with warm undertones, the colour that I used for my scalloped top border and enamel dots. Did you spot those lovely new accessories too? Glitter enamel dots, in various sizes and shades of Berry, with a wonderful glittery sparkle. I am going to need a TON of these!

New Tools - Wondering how I made that scalloped border? Yes, another something 'new' from the Seasonal Layers Thinlits is a scalloped border edge thinlit; I know this will be useful for all kinds of projects.

Isn't that a whole lot of new loveliness for a clean and simple 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. 

Be sure to check out the other DT cards over at CAS Colours and Sketches and look out for me in the gallery from next week onwards!

Enjoy the rest of your day; the James Juniors are (finally) back to school so today I am loooking to move mountains and get into the thick of my significant 'to do' list. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: No product table today, as most of the items on today's card will not be available to purchase until the new catalogue launches. Item numbers are included on the visual above though, so why not add this to your Pinterest board and contact me when the catalogue is live to place your order?

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the amazing LeAnne to host this week and she has a clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

So I couldn't resist sharing a sneak peek of a brand new stamp set with you today - a fabulous two-step stamping set called 'Bike Ride', that I received as part of an all-attendee giveaway at Onstage in Amsterdam last week - take a look:

Isn't that fun?! Read on for the low-down on today's card:

Demonstrator Perks And A Sneak Peek - One of the best perks about being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator is being able to get your hands on new products before anyone else does! I came home from Onstage last week with some new stamp sets including this fun bicycle stamp set. I was also able to participate in an event-only pre-order which means I am expecting another box of new goodies on Tuesday morning - can't wait! If you are excited by getting your hands on new products early, do get in touch with me about joining my team now so that you can take advantage of these pre-order demonstrator perks too.

A Bike Ride For Teacher - Today's sneak peek is a set called 'Bike Ride'. Such a fun two-step stamp set with lots of little accessories - everything from flowers to apples and books to an adorable puppy dog! You can build endless combinations to make your two-wheeled creations totally unique. The best bit? This set also has some co-ordinating Build A Bike framelits that will make putting your creations together as easy as can be! My CAS card today uses just the stamp set - I created a few masks to enable me to stamp my bicycle as a single layer and adapted the basket to fit the front of my bike. For my first card I stamped my bicycle slightly off the page and added a basket of apples with an overlaid thanks diecut from the retiring 'Hello You' thinlit set (I cut this out 3 times, stacked them and heat embossed with clear embossing powder for added dimension and shine) and the word teacher stamped with my Layered Alphabet set -so useful for custom greetings. 

Teacher Thank You Take Two - I was having so much fun with my set, I created a second card to share with you too! This time I stamped the whole of my bicycle on the card front so that in addition to my basket of apples (accented with my fine tip glue pen) I could add a stack of books to the rear. I also grounded my bicycle with a little sponging and some stamped grass (from the retiring 'Basket Bunch' stamp set) and stamped the word teacher in bold block lettering and cut it out and popped it up on dimensionals for added impact:

I had so much fun playing with this set and making an early start on my teacher thank you cards for the end of next term. I've lots more ideas for this set and I can't wait to get my hands of the framelits when the new catalogue goes live on June 1st! 

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:

I look forward to seeing your clean and simple creations in the gallery this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend - we will be either hunting for or eating chocolate as our primary activities today - I think we might need a bike ride later to work some of our calories off! I'll be back tomorrow with another project, also with a travel theme so be sure to tune on for that, Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Hello You Thinlits Dies	Labeler Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red A4 Cardstock	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
Versamark Pad	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder	Basic Gray Archival Stampin’ Pad	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Fine-Tip Glue Pen