Yay it's the weekend - and the start of a long one for those of us here in the UK as we have a Bank Holiday on Monday! the weather forecast is poor, so I'm thinking this may offer a great opportunity for getting in some quality crafting time. Here's hoping! Today I have a card for a couple of challenges: I used the colours over at Global Design Project and this week's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

This colour palette is quite similar to the one we used over at Create With Connie and Mary this week, yet I was inspired to use it in a completely different way - take a look:

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

Offset Frames - My first thought when I saw the FMS sketch was to add a strip of something to the panel down the left side, but as I started to put my card together I realised I didn't want to introduce any additional pattern and decided instead to create offset frames and allow the Night of Navy to take a more prominent role.

Bird of Happiness - I love this little bird from the 'Choose Happiness' stamp set and have wanted to use him to create a pattern for some time. Since he is about to retire, I thought it was about time I got onto it! My panel was the perfect size for a tic-tac-toe of birdies in all three colours (Night of Navy is the winner here too!)

A Touch of Lace - I decided to stamp my sentiment in navy onto Calypso Coral to give more emphasis to the two strongest colours of the trio and matted it with a thin border of Night of Navy too. I decided to add just a little sliver of Venetian crochet trim to the edge of my sentiment for a little embellishment.

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 my card for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Choose Happiness Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad	Calypso Coral A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad
Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad

Today I'm sharing a card I made for this week's challenge over at CAS Colours and Sketches, where they have a double week and we are challenged to work with both colours and sketch:

Now no-one is more surprised than me that I took on this week's challenge; the colour palette isn't a combination that I usually use, however I found myself strangely drawn to it - along with the sketch, although I must confess those two dots in the middle did get the better of me! Take a look at what I came up with:

I decided to make a notelet using Very Vanilla cardstock, and starting with my central panel where I stamped the linked image from the 'Choose Happiness' set in each of the challenge colours, I worked out from there. Some simple layering with panels in each of the challenge colours and the sentiment form the same set, finished with a bird stamped in Baked Brown Sugar, fussy cut and popped on a dimension in the centre of the main panel. I even decorated my Crumb Cake envelope to match. There are minimal supplies required to re-create today's card; you could change out the colours for whatever you have in your stash to create something similar. Don't you just love that sentiment though? Perfect to tell someone just how much they mean to you.

I bought this stamp set a while ago thinking it would be good to explore more collage-style papercraft - whenever I use it though, my cards still look clean and simple! There may be something in there about teaching an old dog new tricks ... oh well! I hope you like today's card regardless. Back tomorrow with a fun birthday card; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Choose Happiness Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock	Baked Brown Sugar Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Baked Brown Sugar
Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Pear Pizzazz	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Crumb Cake Note Cards & Envelopes

Today I'm sharing another of the cards we made at our quarterly training session last month, designed by Monica Gale. Yes, it is a Christmas card, but with the exception of the sentiment, uses products that can all be purchased from the Annual Catalogue. Here is the card we made:

Using Mossy Meadow for the card base, we then cut a piece of kraft cardstock, embossed with the dots embossing folder and lightly wiped with white kraft ink to give the impression of snow. We cut a piece of Naturals Ivory cardstock and punched the edge with the scallop punch, then layered a couple of pieces of DSP from the All Abloom DSP stack on top. Real Red cotton ribbon was wrapped around this section and tied in a bow across the join, and a few green stems punched from the bird punch tucked in around the bow before adhering the bird on top, along with a trio of tiny pearls: the bird is from the 'Choose Happiness' stamp set and is stamped in Real Red on naturals Ivory and fussy cut. Lastly, the sentiment was stamped in Real Red onto Naturals Ivory and punched out with the Decorative Label punch, and adhered using dimensionals. 

This sentiment is from the set 'Christmas Messages', which is one of the sets that is available on the Autumn/Winter carryover list until August 27th. Full details of all items on the carryover list can be found in the box on the right-hand side of my blog page and they can be purchased either by clicking directly on the links in the product table below or by clicking the 'shop online' icon that will take you directly to my online store, or of course you can email me or give me a call if you prefer and I can take your order over the phone.

That's me done for today; back tomorrow with a new set of Wednesday Weekly Deals and my Design Team card for this week's Colour Me...! challenge. until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Choose Happiness Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Christmas Messages Clear-Mount Stamp Set	All Abloom Designer Series Paper Stack	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
Naturals Ivory A4 Card Stock	Real Red 1/4" Cotton Ribbon	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents	Scallop Edge Border Punch	Bird Punch
Decorative Label Punch	Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad	Kraft 12" X 12" Card Stock