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

Now you don't have to make a Christmas card for this week's challenge - any card that features a deer is acceptable. I considered making another card using the same Reindeer Days papers that I featured on last week's PP card, but when I saw Linda's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches my mind went in a completely different direction! I paired the layout with the seasonal colours over at Sunday Stamps (I used gold, silver, (retired) Evening Evergreen and Very Vanilla) and ended up making two slightly different cards. Here's the first one that I made:

I added a trio of festive pines cut from glimmer paper using one of the (retired) Christmas Tree Dies to my card base (I mirrored Linda's sketch as I wanted my panels to rise left to right rather than drop left to right, as if fitted better with the shape of my deer) and overlaid this with a gold foil deer cut from my favourite deer set of all time: the (retired) Detailed Deer Thinlit Dies. I love this deer - it's so elegant! I added a simple silver twine bow and a gold heat-embossed sentiment from 'Greetings of the Season'. I loved the finished card and since I'd cut enough trees and deer for two cards, I decided to change up my second one slightly and emboss my card base with the Snowflake Sky 3D embossing folder. 

Here's the second one:

I wasn't sure if the embossing would be too much alongside the contrasting foil and glimmer paper texture, but the embossed detail really adds an extra dimension to this card - you can see it better on the close up below. Isn't it beautiful?

I decided this second card was my favourite, even though my first one is much more my true style. I'm also linking up over at TGIF Challenges where their theme is 'Winter Wonderland' this week - the addition of the snowflakes definitely adds to the wintery feel. Which one do you prefer? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm really pleased with how these cards turned out; I have a few more Christmas cards to make and share, but need to think about writing and posting them soon!

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

Enjoy your day; today we are putting up the tree and decorating the James house for Christmas. This is earlier than we usually do, but Ben and I have been listening to Christmas songs whilst on the school run for over a week already, so are excited to be getting into the festive spirit! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

GREETINGS OF THE SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (24.00)

SNOWFLAKE SKY 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (10.25)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)

VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)

METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (20.00)

VERY VANILLA A4 CARDSTOCK (13.00)

I've had a busy day today and a fun evening spent Christmas crafting with a group of local Brownie Guides and Rainbows so I'm back late with a quick post to share another card that uses my sketch over at The Paper Players that I used for yesterday's card (you can see that card here if you missed it), this time for the challenges over at Festive Friday (my card has a woodland creature, glitter, gold and twine from the Inspo List) and Inkspire Me where metallics are the order of the day:

I decided to go all-out with the sparkle for today's card and combined a leaping gold glimmer deer cut with the Detailed Deer Thinlits combined with some festive Wrapped in Plaid designer series paper - take a look:

I used the same sentiment from 'Itty Bitty Christmas' stamp set that I used on yesterday's card, this time heat embossed in gold onto Cherry Cobbler cardstock. I even customised one of the Gold Mini Pizza Boxes to make a matching gift box:

I think they look really great together - I especially like the addition of the jingle bells to the deer on the gift box for an extra festive touch.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Detailed Deer Dies (£32.00)	Itty Bitty Christmas Cling Stamp Set (En) (£20.00)	Gold Glimmer Paper (£4.75)	Wrapped In Plaid 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	Cherry Cobbler A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Shaded Spruce A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Jingle Bells (£4.75)	Gold Mini Pizza Boxes (£6.50)	Shaded Spruce/Gold 3/8" (1 Cm) Striped Ribbon (£6.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)
Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)	Gold Glitter Enamel Dots (£7.50)

Today I've a short post to share a clean and simple Christmas card using this week's sketch over at CAS Colours & Sketches:

I had my Dashing Deer Dies out on my desk for another project I had been working on and it suddenly occurred to me that the two smallest deer would work perfectly for the shapes on the sketch:

I stamped one on the cardbase and then added a top layer with the diecut overlay (a process made much easier with the use of my trusty Stamparatus), then stamped the second one and popped it in front on a dimensional. I added a stamped sentiment with a diecut floral embellishment, finished with a faceted dot and I was done. It took longer to think about the design of this card than to make 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

We started today with our very first family 5k parkrun, then had an afternoon where the boys and girls of the James household divided and conquered: the boys went to watch the local football match and the girls did a little shopping and music making. A fun day!

Remember today is your last chance to spend your bonus coupons or take advantage of the current 'Extra, Extra' joining promotion that is happening this month. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Dashing Deer Cling-Mount Stamp Set (£20.00)	Detailed Deer Dies (£32.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Pretty Peacock Classic Stampin’ Pad (£7.00)
2019-2021 In Color Faceted Dots (£6.00)	Cherry Cobbler A4 Cardstock (£8.25)

I've been busy decorating today so I'm a little later with my post again. Hopefully it's worth the wait though: I'm sharing another of the pillow gifts that the lucky ladies received on my Creative Escapes Craft Retreat a few weeks ago, and a co-ordinating card that I made to go with it since I decided I liked the box design so much! Firstly, here is the pillow gift box:

I liked the box so much when I got home I made another one and decided to make a card using same design to co-ordinate with it:

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

Luscious Layers - There's so much I love about this card! My most favourite thing is the layering of the diecuts to create the focal point. I used a Stitched Label, the jumping deer from the Detailed Deer Thinlits and a 'merry' in copper foil from the Merry Christmas Thinlits dies. Gorgeous, even if I say so myself!

And More Joyous Noel - The paper I used that inspired my centrepiece is from the gorgeous copper-foiled Joyous Noel paper pack. This paper is now sold out across the globe, so I hope you already have a stash as it's my favourite this season and I still have projects using it to share with you.  

Merry Christmas In Many Ways - The Merry Christmas To All bundle allows you to create many different festive sentiment combinations for the holiday season with a combination of stamps and dies. I used two different combinations for my card and box to give you a flavour of the flexibility it offers. the diecuts are quite large and perfect if a statement sentiment is the order of the day. 

I'm linking my card up with the current challenges over at Just Add Ink where they are looking for big bold sentiments and Fusion where the sketch inspired the layout for today's Christmas card (I flipped it and used the mirror image).

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. 

Finally here is a photograph of both of my projects together:

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Merry Christmas To All Photopolymer Bundle (£45.75)	Detailed Deer Thinlits Dies (£32.00)	Stitched Labels Framelits Dies (£31.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)	Versamark Pad (£8.25)
Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Copper Foil Sheets (£3.75)	Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.75)	Gray Granite A4 Cardstock (£8.00)