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 she has a fun theme challenge for you to work with:

Cards featuring animals you would find at the zoo! Well, since none of us are able to visit the zoo in the current climate, our gallery this week will be the next best thing! Armed with the current sketch over at the Global Design Project this week I knew exactly where I was headed - take a look:

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

Party Toucan - I had to reach for the Bonanza Buddies suite for my card today and that fun party toucan in particular - I love visiting these colourful birds at the zoo! I used a piece of Bonanza Buddies paper, featuring lions and koala bears too, as the base pattern, then fussy cut one of the larger toucans carrying balloons from another sheet of paper. There isn't much stamping on today's card - just a greeting on the front and then a co-ordinating sentiment inside and another toucan, stamped this time in the corner:

A Doily Banner - The banner that I used from my sentiment on the front of my card is from the Doily Wishes DIe set - it was the perfect size and shape to fit under the stitched circle that I used to back my toucan. 

Twocan Toucan - This card was a quick and easy make and a great storecupboard standby so I decided to make two at the same time as it was not twice the effort once everything was to hand. On my second card I used a different toucan, this time one wearing a party hat:

 I love the bright colours of these fun birthday cards and they are perfect for any gender too. Here's one last photo of both my cards together:

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; we are forecast a warm day here in the UK so we will be undoubtedly spending some of our time outside in the garden. Yesterday was gorgeous and the James girls went for a long bike ride for our daily exercise yesterday, passing all of the sheep in the fields with their newborn lambs, frolicking about without a care in the world. Oh to be a lamb right now! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Birthday Bonanza Designer Series Paper (£14.00)	Bonanza Buddies Photopolymer Stamp Set (£21.00)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£36.00)	Doily Wishes Dies (£42.00)	Banner Triple Punch (£28.00)
Coastal Cabana A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Mango Melody A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Bermuda Bay A4 Cardstock (£10.50)	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad (£9.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£11.75)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a sketch challenge:

My card today is all about the bees - take a look and you'll see what I mean:

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

Shake It Up - Try as I might, I couldn't get past the fact that the shape on today's sketch looked like a beehive, so in the end I decided to roll with it and make a shaker card, because a shaker card is always fun, right? I stamped my beehive in Mango Melody then used this as the base for my beehive. I did take a little liberty with the sketch, in as much as I 'moved' my sentiment and used the one from the Honey Bee stamp set that fits around the curve of the beehive rather than place it bottom right on my card, as I wanted to use the big bee diecut and there wasn't really room for a sentiment too.  

It's In The Detail - The Detailed Bee Dies really make this card easy: I used them to cut out my beehive window, along with a couple of stamped bees and a pair of the teeny tiny hearts in this set too - well, today is Valentine's Day after all! I then cut out two of the honeycomb pieces, one in Daffodil Delight and one in Mango Melody, and cut them apart to create two honeycomb strips to mimic the banners of the sketch. I also used some retired gold flakes that are honeycomb shaped; along with the clear Wink of Stella on the bee's wings, this gives my shaker a nice sparkle. Here's a close up so that you can see it in all its glorious sparkly detail: 

A Bee Bonanza - Lastly, to my background paper. I resisted the urge to use the gorgeous Golden Honey Specialty DSP that is one of the current free Sale-A-Bration gifts and based the whole colour scheme for today's card on the bright stripes found in the Birthday Bonanza designer series paper pack. This paper is designed to co-ordinate with the 'Bonanza Buddies' birthday set featuring the cute animals, but this is a great example of how the more neutral patterns in a paper pack can be used successfully with other sets 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Before you put your creative thinking caps on, why not check out the blogs of the other As You See It team members:

Amy Jasper

Heather Cooper

Jan Clothier

Jane Knudsen

LeAnne Pugliese

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.
• In a sketch challenge, you are welcome to rotate or flip a sketch. You can replace shapes used such as substituting a circle panel for a square panel. However, we must be able to still see the basis of the original sketch in your finished product. 

We look forward to seeing your creations in the AYSI gallery.

Enjoy your day - do you have special Valentine's Day plans? There are Valentine's themed Friday treats for the James Juniors when I collect them from school today and I'm sending cards to everyone of course; so far I am at a ratio of cards sent 3: cards received 0 - no surprise there then!! Otherwise today is much the same as any other in the James household. Do let me know if you are being wined and dined and experiencing a day filled with romance, hearts and flowers - and above all, enjoy it! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Honey Bee Bundle (£38.50)	Birthday Bonanza Designer Series Paper (£10.75)	Window Sheets (£4.75)	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Mango Melody A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Mango Melody Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)
Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.50)