Today I have a quick post to share a card I made that was inspired by the following challenges:

I was totally inspired by the CASE The Designer Challenge over at Global Design Project this week and actually CASEd Kayla's card twice (I'll hopefully share the second one with you tomorrow); for this card I used the Colour Dare's red, white and blue colour palette and combined another of those cute Gnomes from the 'Gnome For The Holidays' set with one of the little houses from the Home Together Dies to create my faux embossed background - take a look:

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

I thought these houses would make a cute background to compliment the 'no place like gnome' sentiment, especially with the little heart cut outs. I paired these with a label from the Hippo and Friends Dies and a variety of red, white and blue ribbons and twine to decorate my card. The little hearts from the centres didn't go to waste - I used some of them to add to the inside of my card for a little extra border decoration:

Creating a faux embossed background using diecuts is a fun alternative way to use your dies. I'm also linking today's card up with the team over at SUO Challenges where they are all about dies and punches this week.

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:

GNOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£18.00)	HOME TOGETHER DIES (£32.00)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)
TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS NIGHT OF NAVY COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN' BLENDS BRONZE & IVORY COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN BLENDS SMOKY SLATE COMBO PACK (£8.50)
STAMPIN' BLENDS COLOR LIFTER (£4.25)	3/8" (1 CM) DENIM RIBBON (£6.50)	MISTY MOONLIGHT 2020–2022 IN COLOR RIBBON (£5.50)	FLOWERS FOR EVERY SEASON RIBBON COMBO PACK (£9.25)	RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£4.75)
WHITE STAMPIN' CHALK MARKER (£3.25)	HIPPO & FRIENDS DIES (£33.00)

It's Friday and almost time for the weekend! My week has been a fun one with the children home for a change and a slightly less frantic pace than usual, which is nice. I haven't had much time to get in my craft room but did manage to create a couple of quick cards yesterday whilst simultaneously coaching Rebecca through her Music Theory in readiness for her Grade 4 exam in a couple of week's time. Today I'm sharing one of those cards with a technique I've been wanting to have a go at that is perfect for the current challenge over at StampsInkPaper who, like us over at The Paper Players for our clean and simple challenge, also chose to have 'monochromatic' as their theme this week:

Having watched this video by the uber-talented Jennifer McGuire a few weeks ago, I was keen to have a go at a card using the same technique and the border die from the Wonderful Floral Framelit Dies set. This is what I came up with:

I simply layered three of the Wonderful Floral border diecut pieces, one each in Granny Apple Green, Call Me Clover and Shaded Spruce front the back to the front, along the left hand vertical edge of my card, overlapping each one a fraction to the left of its predecessor. This die is often used with the leaf pattern along the outer edge, but here I laid the pieces with the leaf shape to the centre of my card so that the layered leaves would really stand out against my white card base. You can really see the effect of the overlaying of the diecuts in this photo here:

It also allowed me to position my gold heat-embossed sentiment along the straight edge. This actually looks shinier in real life, although looking at the photograph I think that heat embossing in white might have been a better idea. Next time, perhaps!

And that's all there is to 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. 

I really like this effect and am definitely going to revisit my collection of dies to see what other cards I can create using this technique. Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Wonderful Floral Framelits Dies (£32.00)	Wonderful Romance Cling Stamp Set (£21.00)	Shaded Spruce A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Call Me Clover A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock (£8.00)
Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.25)	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.75)