
Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Elizabeth to host this week and she has a fun clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

I knew if we were featuring 'critters' on our clean and simple cards this week I would be reaching for those Turtle-y Cute papers again, so I grabbed them and Verena's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches and set to work - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:
It has been all about the celebrations here in the James household this week: following the youngest James Junior's birthday at the start of the week, we had A Level Results Day on Thursday (a university place is dependent on success, so these are important exams). I am delighted to share that Ben's hard work paid off and he got the grades he needed to confirm his place at his first choice university, so we are all thrilled.
I thought this cute trumpeting turtle would be perfect for another congratulations card and I dug into my retired stamp collection again for the perfect sentiment to go with it. I was intrigued by Verena's FMS sketch this week and found the perfect sentiment stamp in the 'Here's To Cheers' stamp set. I stamped the sentiment in Garden Green, then stamped it again in Darling Ducking and fussy cut the word 'celebrate' so that it extended beyond the circle, as in the sketch. I added my sentiment circle in front of my turtle with dimensionals, having glued him directly to my cardbase, along with a few stamped music notes and sparkly enamel dots:

And that's it! Lots of white space, minimal layers and embellishments - clean and simple, done! This is a less-than-conventional take on the FMS sketch for me, putting the turtle behind the circle, but I think it works - what do you think? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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 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:
The Paper Players Design Team
Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:
1. Create a new paper project
2. Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission.
3. Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL.
4. Have FUN!
Enjoy your day; we are out and about today; Ben is off to watch the cricket at Edgbaston and Jason is heading out to the water to go paddleboarding - I think I'm tagging along as official photographer! I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:
