Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Jaydee to host this week and she has an interesting colour challenge for you to work with:

I had an idea of I wanted to do with this week's colour palette and the sketch from TGIF Challenges was just what I needed to turn my idea into a reality (although I made my base horizontal rather than vertical and used an extra-large card base) - take a look:

Today is a special day in the James household: the youngest of the James Juniors celebrates his 12th birthday. I'm not sure where those years have gone, but I did need as a result need a couple of special birthday cards to celebrate. Today's card is the card I made for Ben from Rebecca and features Blueberry Bushel as my featured additional colour. Here's the low-down on today's card:

When Is An Adventure Not An Adventure? - The two figures on today's card from the Silhouette Scenes stamp set so remind me of Ben and Rebecca. I can honestly say they truly are each others best friends and always have been. Even as they approach their teens, they still enjoy each others company more than anyone else's - and I love that about them! So it seemed only right to feature them together on my card. I could have stamped the sentiment 'as is', however I wanted to feature the 'adventure' diecut to tie in with the sketch - but I needed it in the plural. Luckily for me, the Sweet Silhouettes dies also incude the word 'inspire' - so I diecut this too, snipped away the letter 's' and paper-pieced it seamlessly to my 'adventure'. Clever, right? :-) I diecut both twice, once in Blueberry Bushel and again in Basic Black and offset this one behind; this allows the diecut to stand out from the background a little better.

A Starry Sky - Since I only had one colour to pair with my black and white, a sponged or brayered sky wasn't really an option. The starry stamp in the 'Bokeh Dots' set came to the rescue; the distinktive nature of this stamp meant that even with one colour, there would be enough variation to create interest. 

Sisterly Love - Lastly, not content with my tinkering of sentiments, I did the same on the inside. Do you recognise this sentiment from an existing stamp set? I'll give you a clue - it's in the 'A Wish For Everything' stamp set, but it doesn't look quite like this:

Did you spot it? I took the stamp that reads 'First my Mother...forever my friend' and masked out the 'Mo' of Mother and replaced it with the 'Br' from another stamp in this set that reads 'Hope this new year is filled with promises of many bright tomorrow's':

It took a little while to ink and mask with my Stampin' Write marker, but I'm really pleased with the result. Do you look for opportunities to create your own customised sentiments out of your stamp collection when you don't have the perfect fit? Do share any that you've created - I'd love to know what other combinations there are.

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 will be celebrating with cake, an escape room outing and a best friend sleepover - wish me luck! I have my monthly technique class tomorrow but I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Silhouette Scenes Bundle (£48.50)	Bokeh Dots Cling-Mount Stamp Set (£14.00)	A Wish For Everything Cling Stamp Set (£36.00)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Blueberry Bushel A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£4.75)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)	Black Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)

Today I have an extra post for you - I've been trying to find the time to share this post since Wednesday but classes and life have gotten in the way! You can see my regular Paper Players post from earlier here. This is  a clean and simple Christmas card using one of my favourite background stamps that is perfect for this week's challenge over at Stamps Ink Paper:

My card also makes use of one of those useful products in the annual catalogue that at fist glance you might have overlooked - more about that in a moment. Here's my card:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

The Perfect Starry Sky - I used the starry background stamp from the Bokeh Dots background stamp set to create a colourful night sky behind the houses on my card. One of the things I like about the Bokeh Dots background stamps is that they are smaller in size and can be used a a feature in their own right on a card, without covering the whole of the cardbase. 

A Rainbow of Colour -  Did you spot the Uninked Spectrum Ink Pads on page 202 of the annual catalogue? Easily overlooked, they can be inked with 5 separate colours of your choice and are particularly handy when paired with a stamp such as the one I've used here to create a night sky with hues of purple through to blue.  What stamps do you have in your collection that you could use with a spectrum ink pad to create colourful ink effects?

Hearts Come Home - I used the smallest of the Hometown Greetings Edgelits to create my border of houses, cutting it out of Whisper White cardstock brushed with a liberal coating of clear Wink of Stella for a subtle sparkle and shine. To finish, I stamped one of my favourite Christmas sentiments from the co-ordinating 'Hearts Come Home' stamp set in Night of Navy - never more approprate than at Christmas time.

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:

Hometown Greetings Edgelits Dies (£30.00)	Hearts Come Home Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£20.00)	Bokeh Dots Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£14.00)	Uninked Spectrum Pad (£11.25)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)
Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.50)	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Balmy Blue Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)
Highland Heather Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Gorgeous Grape Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)

I'm sorry this week has been a little less blog-filled than anticipated; I am getting back into a routine now that the James Juniors are back at school, however I'm still playing catch-up. I've had two classes this week and lots more going on besides, and can't quite believe it's Thursday before I've managed a post - eek!

Anyway, today I'm sharing a card that I made with the ladies in my stamp class earlier this week that was inspired by the challenges over at As You See It  and Less Is More: 

My class featured the Dandelion Wishes stamp set and we looked at different techniques to create interesting backgrounds. The Dandelion Wishes set is perfect for clean and simple cards - take a look:

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

Back To Basics - The theme over at As you See It this week is 'Back To Basics', creating cards using little more than stamps. ink and paper. I love clean creations, although they aren't always basic in this sense. There is something liberating though about creating with just stamps, ink and paper and it is fun to be able to share creations from time to time like this. They can be quick(er!) to create and show that it's still possible to create something pretty without needing a ton of supplies. My card uses only two ink colours and two colours of cardstock - basic supplies indeed!

Layer Images for Interest - One of the ways to create interest on a basic card is to layer images to create interest. In addition the basic card layers, with a little tone-on-tone stamping on the base, I used the bokeh dots stamp as a 'background' for my dandelion seed heads and positioned both them and my sentiment across the edges in order to create the illusion of an extra layer.

A Drop of Frost - I could have just left my card there as it looked pretty enough to be fair. I often add a little something to a CAS card for extra interest and in this instance decided to add a trio of the new frosted epoxy droplets from the seasonal catalogue. I love the frosted finish they have and am a sucker for something shiny! I'm hoping the ladies at AYSI approve - my justification is that it's less fussy than ribbon ;-)

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. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Dandelion Wishes Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£19.00)	Bokeh Dots Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£14.00)	Balmy Blue Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Balmy Blue A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)
Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Frosted & Clear Epoxy Droplets (£8.25)