It's the first of October - where does the time go?! Today I'm sharing a clean and simple card that I made to squeak in for the current 'circles' challenge over at Addicted To CAS using the palette from Color Dare:

I paired Secret Sea, a very dark navy, with Flirty Flamingo and Daffodil Delight, for a clean and simple 'hello' card using a new die set that was gifted to me recently by my craft friend Elizabeth - take a look:

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

I decided to use a Daffodil Delight card base instead of white (it's ok for 'white' space to be coloured, although I suspect this sunny number might stand out in the ATCAS gallery!) and lightly ran the base through my diecutting machine with the Concord and 9th Pattern Play press plate to give a light pattern, before focusing the detail of my card across the bottom edge, creating a border that picked up in the circle/semi-circle shapes of the press plate in all three colours using the other die pieces in the set, and finishing it with a stacked hello sentiment (also from Concord & 9th - Big Type Greetings) in Secret Sea:

 And that's all there is to it - a colourful card with a clean and graphic design featuring circles to let someone know you're thinking of them. These dies are a lot of fun as there are lots of ways to create interesting patterns and will work in lots of colourways; they will be great for masculine cards in particular I think. 

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

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches Suzy is hosting this month and our first challenge is a sketch challenge consisting of a panel with a slightly overlapping sentiment: 

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

For my card today I couldn't wait to use the new colour combo over at Color Hues along with some other new products for a clean and simple masculine birthday card - take a look:

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

I recently won a Uniko gift voucher in the challenge over at Time Out and I used it towards some new stencils and I thought I'd give one of them a try on my card today. I used the MOD Background Builder Stencil, masking off the cross section to give me a broadly rectangular shape, and stencilled it onto my card using one of my favourite teals, (retired) Bermuda Bay. I then added a stamped and diecut sentiment using my Big Day Birthday Dies from Kristina Werner and Concord & 9th, popping the diecut piece up on dimensionals:

A sprinkle of shimmery Night of Navy enamel dots to accent the stencilled pattern and the sentiment complete my clean and simple masculine birthday card. Super simple, but effective - just the way I like a CAS card to be! 

Enjoy your day; I've already done my session at the gym today and I have some desk-based bits and pieces to deal with today and will hopefully manage to squeeze in a little crafty time too - it's still to hot here for a lot else! All being well I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today I have an extra post with a card I was intending to share yesterday but the day just ran away with me! It was inspired by a number of current challenges:

I used the layout over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge along with the stencil and/or die challenge at Just Add Ink (I used both) and it's Anything Goes Stencil Week over at Just Us Girls. I recently added another new stencil set to my collection - the Big Birthday Stencils by Kristina Werner at Concord & 9th - and treated myself to the co-ordinating stamp and die set bundle too and this was the perfect opportunity to take it out for its first test run. Here's my card:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

The first thing I did was stencil a panel using my chosen colours: Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, Summer Splash (ret.), Coastal Cabana, Lemon Lime twist and Parakeet Party (ret.) My colour scheme was inspired by a pack of retired sparkly enamel dots that I had in my box and I thought these colours would work well for a bright, masculine card; this one is headed to my brother-in-law whose birthday it is this week. I stayed faithful to the sketch and used my Perennial Postage Dies to diecut the shapes for the four quarters, then trimmed my stencilled panel accordingly. I made this card larger than usual - its finished size is A5) as I wanted to leave the stencilled panels as large as possible so that you could still make out the detail. 

I added a stamped and diecut sentiment and a few sparkly enamel dots in coordinating colours to complete my card:

As with all of the KW stencils, this one is huge, so I had a couple of decent leftover pieces that I will undoubtedly use on other projects at some point. Here's one so that you can see more of the uninterrupted stencil detail:

I was concerned that the detail of the stencil might not be visible once cut down, but I'm pleased that you can still make out balloons, bunting gifts and birthday cakes - all essential elements for a good birthday celebration! 

I really like these stencils and the co-ordinating bundle and I can't wait to try this again in different colourways too.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

PERENNIAL POSTAGE DIES (£31.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£16.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	GORGEOUS GRAPE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	GORGEOUS GRAPE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)
HIGHLAND HEATHER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)	COASTAL CABANA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)