It's Sunday and time for another challenge over at The Paper Players! There was some great inspiration using LeAnne's colour palette last week and this week it is the turn of the lovely Jaydee, who has a great CAS-themed challenge to get us creating this week:

Girly thanks - I immediately thought 'flowers' for this one and wanted to use some of the lovely 'Gold Soiree' specialty DSP. It's rather busy for a clean-and-simple card though, so I toned it down with a vellum overlay - take a look:

I matted a piece of DSP on some Garden Green with a base of Pistachio Pudding, then on a piece of vellum stamped my thank you sentiment from the 'Big on You' stamp set in Calypso Coral and Garden Green inks and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder to give it a lovely textured shine (although this is difficult to see in the photograph). I wrapped the vellum with a piece of Pistachio Pudding thick baker's twine and finished with single Calypso Coral flower stamped in the same colour using the 'Flower Shoppe' stamp set and punched out with the co-ordinating Pansy punch (the Garden Green leaves were a couple of wings punched with the Bird Punch) and a cluster of pearls. Here's a close-up of the flower, which echoes the pattern on the paper beneath the vellum overlay:

I then adhered the vellum overlay to the base using dimensionals, attached behind the flower and the stamped sentiment, so that they aren't visible on the top layer. I love these big, bold sentiment stamps and the floral DSP - both of which will be retiring at the end of the month, so if they're on your wishlist you should snap them up now before it's too late!

So that's my clean and simple floral thanks today - I'm also linking my card up over at SUO Challenges, where the current theme is 'fun flowers'. Before you reach for your inks and thank you stamps, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

I look forward to seeing your CAS creations this week. I'm looking forward to a quiet family day today as I recover from the yesterday's Stampin' Up! UK Regional Event.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Big On You Photopolymer Stamp Set	Embossing Buddy	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder	Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper
Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad	Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Garden Green A4 Card Stock	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad	Bird Punch
Pansy Punch	White Vellum A4 Card Stock	Flower Shop	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents

I'm starting my week nice and early with today's post which is a card for this week's challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I decided to stay true to the sketch with my clean and graphic card:

I chose Pistachio Pudding for my base then layered this with a piece of Whisper White down the centre of my card followed by a feature piece of DSP, this time the Gold Soiree Specialty DSP, as the circle pattern echoed my chosen focal point. I stamped the 'Thanks So Much' stamp from the #hello set in Versamark and heat embossed in gold then punched out with my 2" circle punch. I layered this onto a banner of gold foil and popped the whole piece up on dimensionals for added lift. 

This card is conveniently post-friendly and will be heading out to one of my most recent online customers this week to thank them for supporting my Stampin' Up! business. If you would like to receive a card just like this one, all you have to do is place an order in my online store this month and ensure your contact preferences are set to 'contact' and one will be on its way. 

Today is the first day of the Easter holidays for the James Juniors, but for me there is no rest: I am hosting a children's craft class where we are masking Easter treats. I will be sharing photos over on my Facebook page if I remember to take pictures as we go along and will share the projects later in the week. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

(Hashtag) Hello Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper	Card Stock A4 Pistachio Pudding	Gold Foil Sheets	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	2" Circle Punch
Hexagon Punch

It's Wednesday 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 January (you can find this under the 'Shop Online' section on the right) 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:

2013-2015 In Color Designer Series Paper Stack	Blushing Bride 12" X 12" Cardstock	Book Of Birthdays Swatchbook Template - Digital Download	Envelope Punch Board
Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock	Pear Pizzazz 12" X 12" Cardstock	Typeset Specialty Designer Series Paper

There are some great offers on cardstock and designer series paper this week, but why do I think these Wednesday Weekly Deals are the best ever? Well, because my beloved Envelope Punch Board is on offer - I think it's a steal at its full price of £17.95, but at this week's offer price of £13.46 there really is no excuse for everyone not to own one!!

This really is such a versatile piece of kit and when you combine it with my Envelope Expert and Box Buster tools, the sky really is the limit! Nothing more to say other than get yours today!!

Back shortly with today's creative post - happy shopping!

It's Wednesday and time for another challenge over at Colour Me...! where this week we have a monochromatic colour scheme for you:

I also used this week's sketch over at Retrosketches for my layout. Now I have to confess, Calypso Coral is a colour I don't use often (I don't know why) but this is particularly unfortunate, given that the last time I ordered a pack I ordered two by mistake and now I have Calypso Coral cardstock coming out of my ears! So today's challenge was the perfect excuse to make a dent in the pile. After much deliberation, this is what I came up with:

I used a piece of the Gold Soiree Speciality DSP as the main feature of my card. This paper has a very luxurious feel and definitely needed to be used where it could be seen! I matted this on a piece of gold foil and a Calypso Coral base. For my sentiment, I stamped 'Hello There' from the hostess stamp set of the same name in Calypso Coral on Whisper White, along with a flower from the same set stamped in Gold Encore ink finished with a candy dot and matted this onto a piece of Calypso Coral edged with the scallop edge punch.

I added a couple of flags of Calypso Coral chevron ribbon and some strings of gold sequins and a gold button threaded with baker's twine as per the sketch and finished the corner with three flowers: two in gold foil punched with the retired flower Itty Bitty Punch and one stamped in Coral on Whisper White where I added detail with my gold pen and this was punched with the Petite Petals punch.

That's my Colour Me...! card for this week - why not visit the other Colour Me...! designers and check out their takes on this week's colour combination:

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Gold Soiree Specialty Designer Series Paper	Hello There Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Gold Foil Sheets	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad	Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Calypso Coral 3/4" Chevron Ribbon	Gold Sequin Trim	Subtles Candy Dots	Petite Petals
Petite Petals Punch	Gold Stampin' Dazzle Marker