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

I used this week's Global Design Project colour palette and the sketch layout over at Sunday Stamps and chose a set that might surprise you for my card this week - take a look:

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

A Mother's Love - We have already had Mother's Day here in the UK, so instead of making a Mother's Day card I decided to make a card to send to my daughter. I filled in the blank for today's challenge with 'The best thing about Mothers is ...unconditional love' and I thought this sweet image of two birds from the 'Catch You Later' stamp set, alongside the sentiment of 'I'll always be here for you' sums this up nicely. The image of the protective mother bird keeping her little one close underlines the idea that a Mother is the one person who loves you - no matter what. As a Mother of two myself, that's exactly how I feel about my offspring and this simple card is a great way to make sure that they know it. 

Stylish Circles and Banners - I used the Stylish Shapes Dies both to edge my cutaway circle - I love that these dies have the stitched detail on both sides of the cut line - and for the trio of stitched banners that house my sentiment. This dieset is an absolute must-have!

Beautiful Blends - I coloured my pair of birds in this week's GDP colours; I think these birds are supposed to be quails, but since these are rather uninteresting, neutral coloured birds to look at, I thought a brighter look with a funky top feather was much more fun! 

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. 

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 Fill in the Blank challenge, complete the sentence in the Challenge Banner with the phrase that is true for you and create your project using the words you used. Tell us what you said in your blog or on your site.

Enjoy your day; I've a super busy end to my week but will hopefully be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CATCH YOU LATER CLING STAMP SET (£22.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	PALE PAPAYA A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	PALE PAPAYA STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	POOL PARTY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
CALYPSO CORAL A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	CALYPSO CORAL STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.75)

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 my design team card for our new challenge over at As You See It where it's time for a colour challenge from the lovely Heather C:

I am using the current Fusion sketch again today for my layout (in the correct orientation this time ;-)) and another first-time outing for a new stamp set - take a look:

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

Catch You Later - Today's card features the cat and goldfish combination from the 'Catch You Later' stamp set, found on page 63 of the mini catalogue. An unlikely pair of friends perhaps, but the sentiment suggests they share a definite affection between them! I like this set because it contains lots of small images that are easy to colour. 

Circles, Circles - I added my stamped image to a pair of layered circles in each of the challenge greens and also used a strip of Soft Succulent in-colour designer paper with a circle motif across my card to tie the whole thing together. 

A Pop Of Extra Colour - I actually chose to use this image for today's challenge because I thought the goldfish would be the perfect animal to showcase Calypso Coral. When my card was almost complete, I decided I wanted to add a little more coral to accentuate it; luckily I found a few retired enamel hearts in my stash that were just the job!

The funniest thing about today's card? I didn't even register that our challenge badge also featured a cat until after I had loaded up my card into my blog post! Heather must have been sending me inspirational vibes in more ways than one!

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. 

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 colour challenge, black or other neutral can be used in outlines and sentiments but no other colours should be included. Stampin’ Up colours are used for reference but colours that are a close match are welcome.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CATCH YOU LATER CLING STAMP SET (£22.00)	LAYERING CIRCLES DIES (£33.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	2021–2023 IN COLOR 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	EVENING EVERGREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
SOFT SUCCULENT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	SOFT SUCCULENT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CALYPSO CORAL STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CRUMB CAKE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)