Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a sketch for you:

For today's card I decided to go floral - take a look:

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

English Garden - I am on a quest to use up my retiring papers so I started my card today with a piece of patterned English Garden Designer Series Paper. There are such pretty patterns in this set and I went for a rather busy one, with lots of colour and pattern. 

Vellum Soft - I decided to tone down the vibrancy and business of my DSP by overlaying it with a piece of vellum. This softens it and also gave me a surface to stamp my sentiment onto, which allows it to stand out a little more against the pattern of the background. I took my inspiration from some of the samples on page 119 of the current seasonal catalogue where this technique is used to great effect. 

Garden In Bloom - I used the 'Garden in Bloom' stamp set for my sentiment and butterfly, layering two colours for my butterfly wings before stamping with the outline stamp. I also added a liberal does of clear Wink of Stella to the finished butterfly for a beautiful sparkle.

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.  

I also made a second card using the same design but an alternative colourway, which I'm linking up with the team over at Stamp Ink Paper where they have a fun tic-tac-toe board. I've also included a sneak peek product on this one too - check out the thick Melon Mambo baker's twine:

I went across the board, top row - flowers, butterfly, twine - but by coincidence it also fits down the middle too - butterfly, birthday, patterned paper. I think the pink against the navy has a little more 'pop' than the first card, but I like them both; do leave me a comment and let me know which one you prefer!

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's sketch; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a colour combination for you:

These colours immediately made me think of nature so I decided to use my new 'In The Meadow' stamp set for my card today:

I stamped my images in Archival Black ink and used my aquapainter and inks to colour them in before cutting out with my Circles Framelits. My Soft Suede card base is square and I layered this with a mat of Mossy Meadow and a piece of striped paper from the English Garden designer series paper pack that has a lovely watercoloured feel. I added a strip of Mossy Meadow and before I added a few twists of linen thread and a bow, decided to add a strip of wide Watermelon Wonder ribbon on something of a whim. The only other place I used this one of the challenge colours was on the butterflies next to my sentiment, so thought I would try a bold injection of colour; I liked it, so I kept it! This stamp set is not the type I am normally drawn to, but having seen some beautiful scenes created with it I decided I had to have it and I love the creative possibilities it offers.

Here's today's visual summary of the key products used to create today's card for easy reference:

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's colours; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

I have another busy day in store today (no rest for the wicked and all that!)

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a great colour challenge for you:

When I sat down to work on my card this week I realised that all of the challenge colours could be found in the lovely English Garden Designer Series Paper, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to showcase it. I also used this week's sketch over at Retrosketches as the basis for my layout. Here's my card: 

I used a base of Hello Honey with a mat of Soft Suede, then covered my cardfront with a piece of floral patterned paper featuring all of the colours. I added a 2" circle of Mossy Meadow and cut my banner from a piece of neutral kraft corrugated paper, to add texture and detail without detracting from the pattern. I stamped my sentiment from the 'Garden In Bloom' set in Soft Suede on Whisper White and matted this on a banner of Hello Honey, both of which I punched with my Triple Banner Punch. I considered using the butterfly from this set too as my embellishment, however it was a little too small to really stand out. I decided to go with a simple layered butterfly instead, punched using my Bitty Butterfly and Elegant Butterfly punches, with a couple of strands of gold metallic thread for antennae. To finish, I added a trio of Mossy Meadow enamel dots. This is one of those cards that really is 'all about the paper' - the English Garden papers are so very pretty though, they deserve to take centre stage. 

Do visit the other Design Team members to see how they used this week's challenge colours; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Good morning everyone - it's Friday! I'm sure you are all more pleased than I am since it might be nearing the end of the week but for me it means that there are only a few more days left of my vacation before I return to the dreary weather of the UK. Oh well, let's not dwell on that!

Today I have a card that I made with one of my card class customers in mind, that features the bold patterns of the English Garden DSP. Here is my card:

We had been perusing through my DSP samplers whilst taking orders for the latest round of paper shares and the English Garden DSP came in for much comment. It was universally liked but some of my customers were unsure just how they would go about using paper with such bold patterns of a card. We chatted about it but since 'a picture tells a thousand words' as the saying goes, I thought some examples would better explain and today's card is a great example. Some of the patterns in the pack have smaller patterns so can be used in smaller quantities to add interest to a card, however others such as the paper I've used on today's card really need to be a feature of the card, rather than an add-on - the bold patterns work best when you can see as much of them as possible. 

On this card I used a base of Soft Suede, then cut a large piece of DSP into three equally sized panels and mounted each of these onto a piece of Night of Navy to give a narrow border before adhering them to my card. I could just as easily have stopped there, however on this occasion I added some retired Baked Brown Sugar thick baker's twine and a sentiment from the 'A Whole Lot of Lovely' hostess, coloured with my co-ordinating Stampin' Write markers, and added this to the front of my card. It compliments the paper without overshadowing it.

Another great example of how to use the bold patterns in this pack can be seen on this card, by my friend and fellow Paper Player the lovely LeAnne Pugliese:

This too allows the paper to take centre stage with a sentiment treatment that compliments and not overshadows it. I hope you like both my card and LeAnne's - please do leave me a comment below with your thoughts and pop over to LeAnne at her Wee Inklings blog to leave he a comment on her card too - and I hope these cards inspire you to 'be bold' with the patterns in the English Garden Designer Series Paper Pack.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

English Garden Designer Series Paper	Soft Suede A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	A Whole Lot Of Lovely Wood-Mount Stamp Set
2" Circle Punch	Many Marvelous Markers