Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I've a colour challenge for you to work with:

I chose pastel colours for this week's challenge; I rarely choose pastels as a starting point, much preferring brights, so I thought this would both challenge me and also give me a gallery full of pastel design inspiration - a win-win I'd say! With the recent Stampin' Up! announcement of a full colour refresh, we are saying goodbye to not only the outgoing 2021-23 in-colours, but several from across the colour families too. I've used one of the retiring in-colours and three of the four retiring pastels from the subtles family on my cards today along with the layout over at Try Stamping on Tuesday - take a look at the first one:

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

Farewell Hand Penned Petals - I used the retiring 'Hand Painted Petals' stamp set and coordinating Penned Flowers Dies on my car today, along with the border dies from the Eden Dies set, also retiring, to pick out the border edge of my Country Gingham panel. This is a great stamp set if you're new to stamping - it has both outline stamps and individual pieces to infill the various flowers and leaves with colour, but they intentionally don't line up with each other exactly. The easy, artsy look means that you don't have to align the stamps perfectly - yet they still look great, perfect for a beginner! Get your stamp set and dies from my online store here whilst stocks last. 

Bye, Bye Blushing Bride - This card features Blushing Bride and Mint Macaron, retiring pastels from the Subtles family, along with Pale Papaya, a retiring in-colour. I've never been a big fan of Blushing Bride (I find it a 'muddy' pink) but I do think it can be enhanced when paired with other colours. Paired with the peachy tones of Pale Papaya and the fresh green of Mint Macaron and some ribbon and gems in those colours too, it does look quite pretty - what do you think?

So Long, So Saffron - So Saffron is another of the departing Subtles, so I decided to make a variation on my first card using Pale Papaya for the larger flowers and the pale yellow of So Saffron for the smaller ones; all other details were the same.

I think I prefer this version, but I'll leave it for you to decide if you have a favourite!

So are you a fan of the Subtles colour family and pastel shades? If so, you should definitely consider entering our challenge this week!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects for you to pin for easy reference:

And the second one:

You can see all of my Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

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

Enjoy your day; I'm off to set up my Easter egg hunt for the James Juniors - they might be in their teens now, but they still like to hunt for their chocolate, they are nothing if not sticklers for tradition! We have a roast turkey lunch planned then this afternoon will be spent consuming the fruit of their spoils and if the sun continues to shine, walking it off! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today I'm sharing a card that I made using this week's colour palette over at Global Design Project #GDP381:

I love purples, but wasn't sure I could balance this colour combination. I decided I needed to balance it with a lot of white. I had also been considering which of the cards on page 5 of the Sale-A-Bration catalogue I was going to CASE for the current SUO Challenges challenge, and then I had an idea as to how I could bring the two together! I still had my Hand-Penned Petals bundle out on my desk from Thursday's card, so grabbed it and this is what I came up with:

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

CASE Copy And Share Everything - Despite the rather literal definition, as a rule of thumb you should aim to alter the least three things on your card so that whilst the similarities to the original card are clear, you create something that is unique to you. So can you see from the photo below which card I CASE'd? 

Yes, it's the one with the bird's nest, coloured strips and spring sentiment. The layout is instantly recognisable - but the colours, stamp set, dies and sentiment are all different.

Make Your Own Background - The Hand-Penned Petal stamp set is a two-step set and has lots of Small stamps that can be used as infills for the flower and leaf outlines. Do you ever look at these stamps and consider how they could be used differently? Today's card is a good example. I used a different stamp for each of my coloured strips to create a unique tone-on-tone pattern. You can see each pattern more closely on the photo below:

What stamps do you have in your collection that could be used in this way?  

White on White - With those blocks of colour as my base, I wanted my diecut focal point to be white. I layered the large posy from the Penned Petal Dies, along with a few additional flowers and leaves, with just a single gem of colour. A trio of loose flower embellishments in Fresh Freesia and my get well soon sentiment complete my card.

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've done double duty at the hockey pitch today covering home and away matches, so I am going to enjoy an evening with my feet up in front of the TV.  Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'! 

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

HAND-PENNED PETALS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (21.00)	PENNED FLOWERS DIES (28.00)	BLUSHING BRIDE A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)	BLUSHING BRIDE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)	FRESH FREESIA A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)	FRESH FREESIA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)
HIGHLAND HEATHER A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)	HIGHLAND HEATHER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.25)	LOOSE FLOWER FLOURISHES (7.00)