Today I'm sharing a card that I made for a couple of challenges this week, initially inspired by the intriguing sketch over at Pals Paper Arts but also with the theme over at TGIF Challenges in mind:

I'm also linking up with the talented team over at The Challenge - my card is definitely more contemporary than traditional, but it has snowflakes as per the inspiration photo; I might have to do another one for this challenge too with a little more red and green! Anyway - my card today is another of those so-difficult-to-photograph-yet-so-beautiful white and silver Christmas cards that I'm so fond of! here it is:

I used a base of extra-thick Whisper White and decided that the three circles in the sketch should be represented by a trio of Winter Wonderland Embellishments and the rest of my design came from there. I created a layered panel of silver foil, Whisper White and then the lovely snowflake patterned Holiday Fancy Foil Vellum. I stamped the medium sized Flurry of Wishes Snowflake in Smoky Slate onto Shimmery White cardstock, then stamped two of the three elements of my sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed in silver, then punched out the shape with my Flower Medallion punch. I added a silver glimmer die cut 'peace' and adhered the whole piece to my card using dimensionals, having added some thin silver metallic thread behind. 

This is one of those cards that is so very pretty in real life - it has so much shimmer and sparkle, it's gorgeous! You can see the detail of the snowflake better in this close-up shot:

So many pretty snowflake elements too - embellishments, vellum and stamps!

That's all from me today; I'm looking forward to spending the day having some quality crafting time and a good catch up with a couple of friends.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Flurry Of Wishes Photopolymer Stamp Set	Winter Wonderland Embellishments	Holidays Fancy Foil Designer Vellum	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad	Flower Medallion Punch
Silver Glimmer Paper	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Shimmery White A4 Cardstock	Silver Foil Sheets	Embossing Buddy
Versamark Pad	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool (Uk)	Big Shot	Silver Metallic Thread
Christmas Greetings Thinlits Dies

It's Wednesday and you know what that means: a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals! These offers are valid for one week only. As always, a new collection of deals will be announced next Wednesday.

If you want to take advantage of any of the deals on offer, you can support my business by placing your order online by clicking here or using the link to my store on the right hand side of my blog page where it says 'Shop Online' or with me in person. Don't forget to add the new Hostess Code for November SHRENCSC if your order is under £150 and be sure to make sure that you don't check the 'no contact' box if you'd like to be kept updated with the progress of you order and receive a little thank you in the post from me. 

Here's a summary of this week's one-week only Wednesday deals - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

Boughs & Berries Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Embellished Ornaments Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Flower Medallion Punch
Real Red Envelope Paper

Four things on offer this week - and a couple of Christmas products to boot, along with the flower medallion punch that co-ordinates with the large snowflake in the Flurry of Wishes stamp set. 

Back later with today's creative project; until then, happy shopping!

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! This week it is the turn of my wonderful friend LeAnne to host and she has my favourite type of challenge, a sketch, for us to work with this week:

This is a sketch with lots of possibilities; I eventually settled on a silver and white snowflake-themed card - here it is:

I used a piece of extra-thick Whisper White cardstock for my base and for the three vertical panels, used three pieces of the silver snowflake Holidays Fancy Foil vellum, adhered to three pieces of Whisper White on to three mats of silver foil cardstock. I stamped my sentiment from the 'Flurry of Wishes' stamp set in Versamark onto Whisper White and heat embossed it in silver and matted this onto a piece of silver foil too, having flagged both ends with my Triple Banner Punch. For the circle element of the sketch, I took a bit of a liberty and stamped the medium sized snowflake from 'Flurry of Wishes' in Versamark and heat embossed in silver and punched it out using the Flower Medallion Punch. I adhered this to my card using dimensionals, with some loops of silver cord trim underneath it. For the final element of the sketch, I added one of the Winter Wonderland Embellishments to the point of my snowflake. 

I adore this card - it is so wonderfully sparkly and shimmery in real life, although it is so white it was quite difficult to photograph and the picture definitely doesn't do it justice! The Holidays Fancy Foil Vellum is just gorgeous and a little definitely goes a long way.

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

I look forward to seeing how you interpret our sketch this week. The children are back this morning so I will be collecting Ben from basketball and then we are having Granny over for lunch. In the afternoon we are going to start looking at Rebecca's music assignment - half term homework, boo hoo!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Flurry Of Wishes Photopolymer Stamp Set	Holidays Fancy Foil Designer Vellum	Winter Wonderland Embellishments	Flower Medallion Punch	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock
Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Heat Tool (Uk)	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder	Silver Foil Sheets
Silver Cording Trim	Banner Triple Punch

A quick card from me today showcasing some of the lovely papers in the Into The Woods DSP collection from the new catalogue and a rather new style of card for me: the ladies over at SUO Challenges are looking for 'cards without a sentiment' this week so I decided to have a go at creating a collage-style card. I love these, although my style is rather more 'clean and layered' so for me they are something of a challenge. Anyway, here goes - my card for today: 

I was inspired by the lovely sunflowers my CCMC colleague Connie Babbert has been creating recently - you can see one of them in the SUO Challenge DT cards for this very challenge, although I chose to create mine with the Flower Medallion punch rather than the new Poinsetta punch (still waiting for that one to arrive!) I took a selection of Into the Woods papers, using my Project Life framelits to cut a rectangle and then punched a trio of flowers in my brown and yellow colour scheme and then adhered a mix of ribbons and some fine gold twine before adhering them to my card. I layered my flower and added further texture with some candy dots to represent my sunflower seeds.

I'm not sure this is the best example of a collage card, but I do love the bright colours and textures/layers and because the card is sentiment-free, I can use this card for any number of purposes. I think it would make a nice 'get well soon' card - the yellow is so cheery. 

That's all from me today; I am having a lovely week at the seaside, but can honestly say that a week without a phone signal or internet connection is proving difficult for me! Back soon with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

We are on the 'home run' towards the weekend and as it's Thursday that means time for a new challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary. This week we have a great sketch for you:

So many possibilities with this one! I decided to use up yet more of my hoarded DSP and showcase a whole host of retiring product on my card this week:

I've used both 'Back To Black' DSP along with a retiring in-colour, Strawberry Slush, and the Petal Potpourri stamp set and co-ordinating Flower Medallion punch, in colour sequins and Black chevron ribbon - all of which are either retiring or not carrying over into the new annual catalogue next week. Not so though for my sentiment stamp, which comes from the 'Fabulous Four' stamp set (I stamped it in black and coloured it in with my Strawberry Slush marker pen), the dazzling diamonds glimmer paper or the black bakers twine - these at least will still be available! 

I'm not generally a fan of black and white on a card in vast quantities, but when paired with a bright colour such as Strawberry Slush I think it really works - you could try this combo with lots of other colours and I am sure it would look great with some of the new in-colours!

I'm looking forward to seeing what you create with the sketch this week - do check out the cards made by the rest of the Design Team, there's a great variety as always!

I'm off to spend the day outdoors with friends today as we make the most of the milder weather that we've been experiencing this week; a picnic and some tree climbing is on the agenda - well, the latter for the youngsters at least!

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

It's Wednesday (still just!) so that means a new collection of Wednesday Weekly Deals! This week's deals are included below - they will be available for one week only, before a new collection of deals is announced. 

As always, if you want to take advantage of any of the deals on offer, you can support my business by placing your order online by clicking here or using the link to my store on the right hand side of my blog page where it says 'Shop Online' or with me in person. Don't forget to add the Hostess Code for April DBJFM4DG and be sure to make sure that you don't check the 'no contact' box if you'd like to be kept updated with the progress of you order and receive a little thank you in the post from me. 

Here's a summary of this week's one-week only Wednesday deals - click on each item to go to the online store to purchase:

Build A Bouquet Photopolymer Stamp Set	Flower Medallion Punch	Handpicked Framelits Dies	Ornate Tag Topper Punch
Stylish Stripes Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Sweet Dreams Designer Buttons	Sweet Dreams Designer Series Paper	Vine Street Textured Impressions Embossing Folder