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

I say 'interesting' ... I could not initially work out what to do with these colours! Then I decided they might work for a card I wanted to make to welcome a new puppy addition - take a look:

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

Puppy Love - My crafty friend Elizabeth is soon to welcome a new puppy: his name is Beau and he is adorable! He is already a couple of months old, but he won't be moving in with Elizabeth for another couple of months yet. I immediately wanted to include the puppies from 'Cutest Crew' on a card - Beau is almost white in colour and looks not unlike the first one in the row, so I coloured him accordingly. You can see that more closely on the image below.

What's In A Name? - I decided to include Beau's name on my card for a personalised welcome (the word 'welcome' is from the retired set 'Welcome Words') and diecut the letters in Azure Afternoon using the Party Alphabet Dies. I used a slimline design and overlaid the 'welcome' on top of the name (I might actually adjust this slightly as now I'm looking at the photo, I think it interferes with the 'B' of his name too much). I added the row of playful puppies to the bottom right hand corner of the card to balance the sentiment.

A Little Background Detail - I used a couple of layered panels in Azure Afternoon and Crumb Cake behind the main panel, but it looked a little bare so before I glued my letters in place I lightly stencilled the dot pattern in Crumb Cake using a decorative mask for a little extra detail. This mask comes in the set with the waves one, which I have used lots. I had actually forgotten about the dots one until Jan used it on a card last week and reminded me about it, and I really like the effect. You can see the detail more closely below, along with a close up of the colouring of the pupples:

On this closeup you can see the tiny amount of Granny Apple Green I've used on this card: just the flower leaves and the checked bandana that one of the pups is wearing. I often find one colour ends up being the 'poor relation' in a colour challenge, and this time it's green's turn!

It's not like me to be so organised to have a card ready long before I need to mail it, so I guess I have Jan and her unusual colour combo to thank for that. Now I just need to hope that Elizabeth doesn't read my blog post before she receives it!!

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; the James Junior is home from university for the weekend, as it was his annual Cricket Club awards dinner yesterday evening. Te event was followed by much celebrating with the team for the various accolades individuals achieved this year and the team's promotion to the next league for the fourth year running, so he is enjoying a lie-in this morning. Me - I'm still working my way through his laundry and a massive ironing pile, so that everything is ready to go back with him tomorrow! I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

CUTEST CREW BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£42.25)	PARTY ALPHABET DIES (£93.00)	WATER & DOTTED LINES 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DECORATIVE MASKS (£20.00)	BASIC BLACK HYBRID STAMPIN' PAD (£11.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£16.00)
AZURE AFTERNOON A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	AZURE AFTERNOON STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)	CRUMB CAKE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)	VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)
BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

It has rained pretty much all day here in the UK today so I took the opportunity to escape to my craft room this afternoon and get my craft on! I wasn't intending to make any Halloween cards this year and I didn't buy an new seasonal products, but a couple of Halloween challenges at both Inspire.Create and the Die Week at Just Us Girls, combined with the daily midnight musings of my blog friend Christy (if you're a fan of all things spooky you should definitely check out her blog here too) for the month of October got me wanting to create something for the occasion. 

I thought that the kittens dies in the Cutest Crew die set would make cute witch's cats, so that was my starting point for today's card - take a look:

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

I diecut a number of kittens in black in various poses and combined with with some broomsticks and pumpkins from the retired Seasonal Swirls Dies and arranged them into a circular shape. I filled in the gaps with some stamped ghosts from the retired 'Holiday Home' stamp set (I fussy cut these - I didn't have any small ghost dies), popping all of the elements up on dimensionals, and some shiny black sequins:

I added a tiny Halloween-appropriate greeting from the retired stamp set 'Spooky Fun' to complete my card. 

I love how this card turned out; it took a while to position all of the elements until I was happy with them and fix them in place - spooky fun!

Right I need to get my card into the JUGS gallery before it closes so I'm signing off but I'll be back bright and early tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

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 chosen by Jan:

I think this may be a tricky colour combo for some, although I did have a couple of ideas. I decided to go with another collection of kitties from 'Cutest Crew' - take a look:

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

I used a piece of retired watercolour-effect DSP for my background, then layered the two shades of grey to create a diecut pawprint border and added a sentiment before stamping my kittens onto Basic White cardstock and colouring with my Stampin' Up' Blends in the challenge colours, using my light Basic Black Blend for some dark grey detailing. I added my row of kitties, along with a white twine bow, to my card, then added a sprinkling of diecut white butterflies around them, accenting each with a rhinestone that I coloured with m Azure Afternoon Blends marker:

Super cute! I seem to have made lots of cards featuring these kitties, which is ironic given that I am much more a dog person. I need to put this right and feature a few more of those puppies on future cards for sure.

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 or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Colour Challenge use all of the given colours and only those colours with these exceptions:
• White and Very Vanilla are free colours.
• In addition, you may use of ONE of these neutrals: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CUTEST CREW BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£42.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£6.75)	BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (£11.25)	SMOKY SLATE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BASIC GRAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£11.90)
SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)	AZURE AFTERNOON STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)	BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Christy to host this week and she has a bright colour challenge for us to work with:

I thought these colours were perfect for summer and the Just Us Girls Challenge this week, and I’m also linking up over at Time Out Challenges with ‘summer’ and ‘water’ as my chosen words - take a look at what I came up with:

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

I decided to use my Party Alphabet Dies to create a punny sentiment as the focal point of my card. I added some water stencilling to the letters before adding some diecut foam from the Rolling Waves bundle (I did both of these steps before I diecut the letters) then layered some fun leaves, shells and umbrellas using the other dies in the Rolling Waves bundle to add a little extra summery feel:

I thought this was a fun way to create a ‘sea card with a difference’ - what do you 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 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; I'll be back later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

PARTY ALPHABET DIES (£93.00)	ROLLING WAVES BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£48.50)	WATER & DOTTED LINES 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DECORATIVE MASKS (£20.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£16.00)	LINEN THREAD (£5.75)
LEMON LIME TWIST A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	GORGEOUS GRAPE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	COASTAL CABANA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	COASTAL CABANA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	STRAWBERRY SLUSH A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
STRAWBERRY SLUSH CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)	WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (£9.50)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. The lovely Rachel is hosting this month and this week we have a colour challenge: 

For my card today I thought I'd hone in on the grey and use it to colour another collection of cute kitties from the Cutest Crew stamp set - take a loo:

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

This card really is super simple: I stamped and diecut the kitties, coloured them in Grey Granite and added Night of Navy butterflies with some highlighting in Balmy Blue:

A simple sentiment and a Balmy Blue enamel dot complete today's card.

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! colour 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:

CUTEST CREW BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£42.25)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

GRAY GRANITE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)

NIGHT OF NAVY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)

BALMY BLUE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Our first challenge of the month is a sketch challenge: 

We have a focal rectangle with a sentiment beneath and a diagonal line behind. Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

I did turn the layout through 90 degrees for my card today, as I wanted to use the bird trio from 'the Online Exclusives Cutest Crew' stamp set (I'm also linking up with the 'animals' challenge over at CAS on Friday) as I wanted the diagonal behind to be little footprints and it worked better this way around. It did give me a sideways sentiment, but I think it's OK since the card is uber CAS and it's easy to read without too much bodily contortion! 

I used 3 of the new 2026-28 In Color Blends to colour my tweet trio: Golden Glow, Crisp Cantaloupe and a little Peaceful Pine for the grass:

 My favourite part of this card is definitely the row if tiny birdie footprints - sometimes it's the little things, right?

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! colour 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:

CUTEST CREW BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£42.25)

NESTED ESSENTIALS DIES (£32.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

PEACEFUL PINE STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)

CRISP CANTALOUPE STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)

GOLDEN GLOW STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£11.25)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Christy to host this week and she has a fun clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

Baby animals! I knew exactly where I was going with this one, so I grabbed the sketch over at Inkspirational and the colour palette at Just Add Ink and set to work - take a look at today's card:

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

Cutest Crew - I'm sure my regular readers would have guessed that the 'Cutest Crew' stamp set might make an appearance today - after all, those kitties and puppies are just too cute! I actually bought this set originally because of the dogs, but until now I've only used the birds and the cats - go figure. Today's card was the perfect opportunity to remedy that though, so puppies for the win! Instead of stamping the row intact, I stamped each puppy individually, masking off the others each time, so that I could then diecut 4 squares as per the sketch. I coloured them with my Stampin' Blends - you can see the detail more closely below:

Hydrangea Hue Blue - I made a card earlier in the week that used the Just Add Ink inspiration and I love their colour combo so much that I wanted to play again, this time featuring the browns too. I used the upcoming new in-colour, Hydrangea Hue, for my card base - I think this might be my new favourite blue! Think the retired Boho Blue, but with a slight purple hue - lovely!

Finishing Touches - As it's clean and simple week, I wanted to keep layers to a minimum, keep plenty of clean 'white' (or in my case blue) space with a few well-chosen embellishments. I used a small sentiment from the Lovely Arrangements stamp set, added some In Colour pearls and left the only other decoration to a simple stamped border inside my card: 

There you go - clean and simple and a cute crew indeed! This card is going into the pile that I keep to send to Ben when ever I'm sending care packages to him at uni. I like to send him little surprises in the post - although sometimes it's things he's forgotten too, such as cricket whites earlier this week! He certainly keeps me on my toes.

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. 

Which baby animals are you going to feature on your cards this week? Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you:

Enjoy your day; my niece and her partner recently bought their first home so Jason and I are going to visit for the grand tour today, then I am going to my sister-in-law's for afternoon tea, so I have a fun day planned! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

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

I say 'interesting' as I found this colour combo quite challenging - it kept making me think of bees! I perused my shelf and progressed from bees to animals of another kind - take a look:

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

I saw the layout over at Hand Stamped Sentiments and thought it would be perfect for more of those Cute Crew kittens - and so today's card was born! I decided to use yellow for my base and add a quintet of black, white and grey kittens along with some yellow butterflies, to the central panel of my card. I stamped some pay prints onto Smoky Slate cardstock and then tore the edges to mirror the sketch, as well as adding a row of tone-on-tone butterflies stamped lightly onto the cardbase. You can see my sweet kitties in more detail below: 

A sentiment and some black baker's twine, along with a little heart charm from my stash, completes my card. I added additional rows of kitties both inside my card and on the envelope flap too for a little extra feline decoration. This will be heading to a member of my extended team who has an upcoming birthday and I know loves this set!

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; the James Junior is back to university today to start his final term of the year tomorrow - it seems hard to believe that's his first year done! I'll be back soonwith another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

CUTEST CREW BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£42.25)	BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (£10.25)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£6.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
DAFFODIL DELIGHT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	SMOKY SLATE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SMOKY SLATE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)

Today I'm fortunate to be the guest designer with the lovely team over at Colour Inkspiration for Challenge 205 which starts today, following my win of Challenge 203 with this card. They have a great trio of colours - so much so, that I ended up making two cards using it! For someone who doesn't often use colour as her starting point, that is an achievement!

Both of my cards use new stamps that are available as part of this month's new Online Exclusives drop. The first one features a background stamp called 'Flower Fair':

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Flower Fair is a lovely floral background stamp that can be used in lots of ways. I liked the idea of using Basic Grey for the background of my card, so I heat embossed the top portion of the stamp onto the bottom edge of my card and then used my aquapainter to firstly paint the flowers in white kraft ink. Once dry, I over-painted the flowers in Berry Burst and their centres and leaves in Granny Apple Green. I added some splatters of white ink then added my favourite Words of Beauty diecut sentiments and some sparkly enamel dots to finish:

I was really pleased with how this card turned out. My second card features another new Online Exclusive, the Cutest Crew stamp set, and the row of cute kittens:

I repeatedly stamped the row of kittens in Basic Grey tone-on-tone across the cardfront, then added some diecut pieces and sparkly bits and pieces, including some inlaid butterflies that I'd brushed with Wink of Stella for a little extra shimmer, before adding a row of kittens that I'd stamped on basic white and coloured with my Stampin' Blends. To achieve the effect of Basic Grey, I used my dark Smoky Slate and Light Basic Black markers, blending with my Colour Lifter, using a stippled effect to try and emulate fur:

I also stamped a row of kittens on the inside and the back of the envelope for a fun little extra detail. I actually really liked the finished effect so I thought I'd share this card too!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects 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. 

Thank you to all the ladies at Colour Inkspiration for having me as their guest this week; be sure to check out their Design Team gallery and why not play along too? Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WORDS OF BEAUTY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)	FLOWERS FAIR PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£22.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)	WHITE CRAFT STAMPIN' INK REFILL (£6.75)	PURPLE FINE SHIMMER GEMS (£7.50)
BASIC GRAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BERRY BURST CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BASIC GRAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BERRY BURST A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CUTEST CREW BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£42.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	BERRY BURST STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	BASIC BLACK STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)
WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (£9.50)