It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Michal has asked that we focus our design on opposing corners with a central sentiment.  Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

For my card today I decided to use the lovely autumnal browns, oranges and cream of the Sunday Stamps colour palette to give an autumnal feel to my clean and simple thank you card - and since that is the theme over at Just Us Girls I can link today's card up there too - how nice to be on-trend! I decided to go for off-the-edge sunflowers for my corner detail - take a look:

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

The large sunflower image in the 'Celebrate Sunflowers' stamp set is perfect for adding a partial image to decorate my opposing corners; it's clear what the image is, even though only part of it is shown. I coloured my sunflowers with my Stampin' Blends and used a thank you sentiment from the same set for ease:

I like the idea of these orange sunflowers; whilst the large, yellow ones are more common, they do come in lots of different colours from yellow and orange through to a dark red and these seem to evoke autumn and the changing seasons more so than a sunny, summery yellow I think.

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. 

As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! color names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CELEBRATE SUNFLOWERS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£23.00)	VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)	PUMPKIN PIE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CALYPSO CORAL STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS DEEP COMBO PACK (£8.50)
STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM DEEP COMBO (£8.50)

Here's my second card for today! This one was inspired by both the colours and inspiration photo over at Color Throwdown and uses the sketch over at Try Stamping on Tuesday for my layout:

Another card with a dark background - this time courtesy of some (retired) Pretty Peacock cardstock - the perfect base for some vibrant sunflowers - take a look:

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

I used an embossed tree ring for the centre of my card and added my quartet of sunflowers, coloured with a combination of Stampin' Write and Blends markers, and some diecut green leaves around this. I added a heat embossed sentiment with some twine and enamel dots for extra touches of gold. Whilst it's tricky to see on the main photo, I did add in the option of stencilling to the card base, by using some tone-on-tone blending through a stencil made from one of my Sunflower Dies - you can see it a little better on the photo below:

I also used my (retired) Pretty Peacock Blends to colour the edges of my stamped sunflower images to remove the harsh white border against my background. I haven't used the oldie-but-goodie 'Celebrate Sunflowers' stamp set in ages, but it is so perfect for this time of year as summer fades all too quickly into autumn. Another thank you card that will be winging its way to one of my lovely customers this month!

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 for our new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SUNFLOWERS DIES (£31.00)	CELEBRATE SUNFLOWERS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£23.00)	BRUSHED METALLIC ADHESIVE BACKED DOTS (£8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.75)	SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (£7.00)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)
DAFFODIL DELIGHT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	EARLY ESPRESSO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	SOFT SUEDE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	REGALS STAMPIN' WRITE MARKERS (£30.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)
METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. It's a new month and Holly is hosting and our first challenge is a colour challenge: 

These colours made me think of autumn so for my card today I pulled out an old favourite and set to work - take a look:

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

Celebrate Sunflowers - These colours really reminded me of sunflowers so I pulled my 'Celebrate Sunflowers' set from the shelf and set to work. I didn't want to have any leaves on my flower, so I decided to focus on the large image and stamp it in a neutral Early Espresso. I couldn't decide whether to go with white or a more natural Crumb Cake for my base, so I made one of each.  I love the detail on this large bloom and also added a partial stamp in Crushed Curry to decorate the inside of my card too: 

Colour Blocking - I used a technique called 'colour blocking' on my card today. I stamped the sunflower once onto cardstock in each of the three challenge colours, then using my rectangle stitched framelits I cut each image into three identical rectangles and then mixed the pieces to create three, pieced images using one piece of each of the three blocks of colour, hence the name. This is a great technique for clean and simple cards. 

Added Texture - Since I had three more pieces, I created a third card, this time using a Crumb Cake base and this time I added some dry embossing using my Tasteful Textile embossing folder to the base of my card - you can hopefully see the subtle added detail below:

Here's a photo of all three versions together - which one is your favourite?

I'm also linking my cards up over at Inspire.Create today where they are looking for thank you cards. I will be sending these cards out in the post to my Stampin' Up! customers - so if you'd like to receive one, head on over to my Stampin' Up! store by clicking on the links below!

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. 

As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! color names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CELEBRATE SUNFLOWERS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£22.00)	STITCHED RECTANGLE DIES (£33.00)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	CAJUN CRAZE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	PUMPKIN PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
CRUSHED CURRY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	TASTEFUL TEXTILE 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£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 sketch challenge:

I designed this week's sketch and decided to use some of the new in-colours and make a blue card - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Today's card features two different patterns from the Flowers For Every Season designer series paper stack. Some simple layering, a couple of co-ordinating floral embellishments from the Flowers For Every Season Memories and More pack and a simple heat-embossed sentiment from the 'Celebrate Sunflowers' set. And that's it - super simple! I must say, having seen the amazing cards from the rest of the team mine looks positively mediocre - they all came up with some fabulous takes on this week's sketch!

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 linking up with the team over at Inspire.Create as my card today features three of the 5 new in-colours: Misty Moonlight, Just Jade and Cinnamon Cider.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Table to follow

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

I always need lots of thank you cards and at this time of year as the academic year is coming to and end, even more so. A good clean and simple design that can be easily replicated can come in very handy. So a quick reminder for you - over at The Paper Players, what do we mean by Clean and Simple?

I decided to play along with a new-to-me-challenge Color My Heart Color Dare and go with a monochromatic yellow card to test run my new in-color Bumblebee ink with my Celebrate Sunflowers set - take a look:

I kept my card super-simple, with a white card base, a piece of in-colour DSP in Bumblebee and then added a white panel onto which I had stamped a partial sunflower in yellow and added a scored border detail. I offset this panel onto the DSP and added a trio of enamel dots and a white on yellow heat embossed sentiment, that I fussy cut and popped up on dimensionals.

I like the finished card so much I think I'll make a few more in the other in-colours and use these for the first of my in-colour club cards this month!

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 having bike rides today and one of the James Juniors is having a socially distanced picnic with a few of her girlfriends today to celebrate her birthday earlier this week.. The rest of the day will be spent getting ready for the big return to school as both James Juniors will be back this week!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

CELEBRATE SUNFLOWERS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£22.00)	BUMBLEBEE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BUMBLEBEE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	2020–2022 IN COLOR 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	2020–2022 IN COLOR ENAMEL DOTS (£7.50)
VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	WHISPER WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

Today I'm sharing a couple of cards that started with the current challenge over at Just Add Ink but are also perfect for the current challenge over at Just Us Girls and Global Design Project too:

I decided to go with the same base papers - some retired wood patterned DSP and retiring brights DSP in Daffodil Delight - and make a feature of one of the sunflowers in the new Celebrate Sunflowers bundle that launches tomorrow in the new 2020 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue. The trouble, is I couldn't decide which one to choose! Instinctively, I reached for the smaller flower first: 

I coloured it with my Blends and then added a heat-embossed sentiment, some ruched ribbon and a scattering of pearls. But I couldn't help thinking what would it look like with one of those huge layered sunflowers instead - so I made another one!

What do you think? Isn't that amazing detailed sunflower die just something?! Both images were stamped in Early Espresso before colouring instead of black, which I think works better for the sunflower and also compliments the diecut in the same colour. I also decorated the inside of each card:

Normally I would never choose a flower so large with a sketch like that, but some of the JAI DT had gone with larger flowers and I loved the effect, so thought I would experiment - and I love it! The only dilemma now, is which one should I link up for each challenge?! I think I'll go with the smaller flower for Just Add Ink and Just Us Girls, since it's the one most faithful to the sketch and has most of the designer paper visible. I'll add my larger sunflower to the gallery over at Global Design Project #GDP243 - I feel it has to be shared somewhere! Here's photo of both cards together:

So which one is your favourite? I'd love to know!

Here is the visual summaries 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. Equally, if you would like to buy this fabulous sunflower bundle I'd be delighted - it will be available from 9am tomorrow morning in my online store and I will update this post in the morning with the direct clickable links.

Enjoy your day; mine is being spent in a flurry of online activity as my retired 'BOGOF' sale gathers pace in my online catalogue launch party group and I am busy collating new catalogue orders, paper share requests, in-color club bookings and having a lot of fun too! I am sharing most of this info via my Facebook page so either hop on over there, search my blog or drop me a line if you would like more info on any of the above. All of this whilst currently invigilating the third of Master James' exams today - Biology. The silence in what is usually such a noisy household is deafening! I'll be back tomorrow with another post to celebrate everything exciting that is happening in June and hopefully I will have another creative project for you too. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

To be updated.