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

Birds and/or bees - what fun! I decided to go with 'bees' for my card today - take a look:

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

Honeybee Home - I decided that 'Honeybee Home' would be the perfect set for today's card. I paired my bees with a watercoloured floral stem and some diecut florals and grasses from the co-ordinating Honeybee Blooms Dies in white and yellow. I also added a little stamping to the inside of my card:

Beautiful Shapes - The eagle-eyed amongst you may well recognise the layout I used for today's card - it's the sketch I designed for my week as Paper Players hostess last week. I thought the three elements would work really well as hexagons in various sizes, so I used my Beautiful Shapes Dies to cut some hexagons in various sizes and stencilled one, watercoloured and  embossed another and layered them to build up my scene. I added some twine and hexagon enamel shapes to complete my design. 

Bye Bye Bumblebee - To give my card a cohesive feel, I worked in black, white and the retiring Bumblebee. By using a combination of blending, watercolouring, markers and cardstock it varies the intensity of colour:

With Bumblebee as my choice colour, I am also entering today's card over at Inspire.Create for their current challenge too. I really like this set; this card took a long time to create as there are lots of elements and small details, but it was so worth 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; we have a long weekend here in the UK so an extra day with everyone at home. We have no specific plans other than to relax, spend some time in the kitchen and enjoy the sunshine too. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

HONEYBEE HOME BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£42.25)	HIVE 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£8.25)	BEAUTIFUL SHAPES DIES (£27.00)	ADHESIVE-BACKED HEXAGONS (£7.00)	WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (£7.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)
BUMBLEBEE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BUMBLEBEE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	WATER PAINTERS (£11.25)	FLUID 100 WATERCOLOR PAPER (£8.25)

I've been working lots with the honey bee bundle lately as it's one of the sets that will feature at my luxury residential craft retreat this weekend and whilst it was out on my desk I made a quick card for the current theme challenge over at Addicted to CAS that also uses this great sketch from the Inkspire-Me team (they have an optional colour element too but I opted out):

I thought this bee would be a good thing to use for the code word of 'symmetry' since it is pretty symmetrical and the trio of bees as per the sketch further emphasises this I think - take a look:

No real explanation required on this one, other than I stamped and diecut three bees, added some yellow to them with my Daffodil Delight Blends markers and then finished with some clear Wink of Stella on their wings - which looks so sparkly in real life, but try as I might I could not capture in my photo. A simple sentiment and bee-inspired base and mat complete my 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. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Honey Bee Bundle (£38.50)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.50)	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)

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:

My card today is all about the bees - take a look and you'll see what I mean:

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

Shake It Up - Try as I might, I couldn't get past the fact that the shape on today's sketch looked like a beehive, so in the end I decided to roll with it and make a shaker card, because a shaker card is always fun, right? I stamped my beehive in Mango Melody then used this as the base for my beehive. I did take a little liberty with the sketch, in as much as I 'moved' my sentiment and used the one from the Honey Bee stamp set that fits around the curve of the beehive rather than place it bottom right on my card, as I wanted to use the big bee diecut and there wasn't really room for a sentiment too.  

It's In The Detail - The Detailed Bee Dies really make this card easy: I used them to cut out my beehive window, along with a couple of stamped bees and a pair of the teeny tiny hearts in this set too - well, today is Valentine's Day after all! I then cut out two of the honeycomb pieces, one in Daffodil Delight and one in Mango Melody, and cut them apart to create two honeycomb strips to mimic the banners of the sketch. I also used some retired gold flakes that are honeycomb shaped; along with the clear Wink of Stella on the bee's wings, this gives my shaker a nice sparkle. Here's a close up so that you can see it in all its glorious sparkly detail: 

A Bee Bonanza - Lastly, to my background paper. I resisted the urge to use the gorgeous Golden Honey Specialty DSP that is one of the current free Sale-A-Bration gifts and based the whole colour scheme for today's card on the bright stripes found in the Birthday Bonanza designer series paper pack. This paper is designed to co-ordinate with the 'Bonanza Buddies' birthday set featuring the cute animals, but this is a great example of how the more neutral patterns in a paper pack can be used successfully with other sets too.

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. 

Before you put your creative thinking caps on, why not check out the blogs of the other As You See It team members:

Amy Jasper

Heather Cooper

Jan Clothier

Jane Knudsen

LeAnne Pugliese

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 - do you have special Valentine's Day plans? There are Valentine's themed Friday treats for the James Juniors when I collect them from school today and I'm sending cards to everyone of course; so far I am at a ratio of cards sent 3: cards received 0 - no surprise there then!! Otherwise today is much the same as any other in the James household. Do let me know if you are being wined and dined and experiencing a day filled with romance, hearts and flowers - and above all, enjoy it! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Honey Bee Bundle (£38.50)	Birthday Bonanza Designer Series Paper (£10.75)	Window Sheets (£4.75)	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Mango Melody A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Mango Melody Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack (£8.50)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)
Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.50)