Happy Monday everyone! Today was class day so my day has been a busy one. I'm just popping in to share a couple of my class cards that I made using this week's Color Throwdown colours:

We were using the Dragonfly Garden stamp set and co-ordinating Dragonflies punch and one of the things I wanted to do today was to teach my class ladies how to create a card using the 'floating frame' technique. So this actually means I have two cards for you! Here's the first one: 

And here's the second one, featuring the outer frame element:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Floating Frames - The floating frame technique is really easy to create with a few basic tools: some 'Press and Seal' food wrap or similar, a framelit - I used my Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies - and lots of dimensionals! You simply stamp and punch/diecut your images, lay them out, cover with Press and Seal, trim to frame size and cut out your central piece, before adhering dimensionals to the back of the diecut pieces and adhering to your chosen card base. Finally you remove the Press and Seal and your floating shapes remain in place. 

Dragonfly Garden - I used a combination of large punched dragonflies in the three challenge colours and interspersed them with smaller white ones to fill in the gaps. The dragonflies are a great shape and size for a floating frame as they are easily identifiable even when only partially visible:

Frame It - For the central portion, I added a rectangular border and heat-embossed sentiment:

Lastly, here's a photo of both cards together - which one do you prefer?

I think I like the one with the central detail and coloured frame best, but I like the other one too - it's a tough call!

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:

DRAGONFLY GARDEN BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£34.00)	STITCHED RECTANGLE DIES (£33.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MINT MACARON A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
MINT MACARON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	POOL PARTY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and I am your featured designer this week! This is the fun board that I came up with for us to play along with: 

So many ways that I could have gone with my board this week, but I eventually settled with the first column and wings/leaves/nature as the basis for my card. I was also inspired by the wonderful inspiration photo over at The Card Concept this week in more ways than one - more on that below! Firstly, here's the card I came up with - take a look:

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

Dragonfly Garden - I have a class with the Dragonfly Garden bundle next week so have been working a lot with this set in recent weeks and I thought it would be perfect to create a meadow-style background for my beehive today. I stamped the long florals in a repeating pattern and then blended a trio of yellow inks across my panel, before tearing my edges and adding some additional colour to the flowers with my Stampin' Blends, reflecting the yellow black-eyed susans and the purple florals in the Card Concept photo (leaves and nature on the TTT grid - check!). I also added some outline blooms and a little ink blending to the inside of my card:

A Skep For A Bee - In addition to the florals, I was draw to the skep and the bee-decorated plates in the inspiration photo. Skeps are traditionally made of straw, so I used a retired die from the Detailed Bee Dies set to create an outline, covered it in a self-adhesive sheet then took some retired jute twine and created my very own rustic-looking skep. Of course I couldn't have a skep without a bee - and a beautiful gold bumblebee trinket was the perfect finishing touch (and gave me 'wings' for my grid)! Whilst bee skeps are often seen in kitchen/ceramic/artistic designs, did you know in many countries it's actually illegal to keep bees in skeps? This is because the bees cement their combs inside their skeps and they can't be removed and inspected for diseases. In addition, when the beekeeper removes the honey the bees are either killed or made homeless, which isn't the case with more modern box hives; so keeping skeps as a decorative feature seems much more sensible!

A Change In Style - My regular readers will now that this card is something of a departure from my usual clean and layered style. The ink blending, torn edges, textured dimensional skep and bee make my card much more 'shabby chic' (there are some great design definitions over on the Card Concept website which I highly recommend you check out if you're interested in this kind of thing). So what do you think - did I pull it off? Whilst this is a little different for me, I did have a lot of fun working outside of my comfort zone for a little while.

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. 

A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

DRAGONFLY GARDEN CLING STAMP SET (£21.00)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)	SO SAFFRON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BUMBLEBEE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	MOSSY MEADOW STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
BUMBLEBEE TRINKETS (£7.00)