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 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:

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:

These colours have a real ombre feel to them and I decided to go with something pretty and floral today using the 'Garden in Bloom' stamp set. Here's my card: 

I used a Very Vanilla base and a mat of Calypso Coral to set off my Pretty Petals striped DSP. I punched a 2" wide banner of Blushing Bride with my Triple Banner Punch and overlaid this with a piece of Very Vanilla satin ribbon, then for my focal panel I stamped the sentiment and flower outlines in Watermelon Wonder and 'coloured' them in with the other two challenge colours. I love this stamp set and in photopolymer, it makes light work of two-step stamping for sure!

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: