Another Monday, another week! As promised, I'm back today with another card that meets the criteria for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players - this one uses the current challenge colour palette over at CAS Colours and Sketches:

Today's card has a similar layout to yesterday's with a clean and simple style - and no stamping at all on the front of my card! So here it is: 

Again I used my Hometown Greetings Edgelits Dies, with a simple uncluttered design and minimal layers and embellishments. I used the challenge colours in blocks: the Crumb Cake for my card base, a panel of Balmy Blue for the sky and a pop of Real Red for the snowman's scarf which I cut by hand and adhered to his body with a little Tombo glue. For the snow on today's card, I used my retired Blizzard Thinlits die and used lots of the tiny circular diecut elements that nestle in between the larger snowflakes and stuck each of them on individually to create my falling snow. A rather painstaking exercise, but not too tricky with my handy Pick Up Tool and worth it for the overall effect.

Whilst there's no stamping on the front of my card, I did stamp a greeting on the inside, along with another pop of red (the heart is from the new Meant To Be stamp set):

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects 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. 

Enjoy your day; I am hoping mine is going to be a productive office day - if I get all of my admin tasks completed, i may even manage a little stamping time! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Hometown Greetings Edgelits Dies (£30.00)	Hearts Come Home Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£20.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)	Balmy Blue A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Real Red A4 Cardstock (£8.00)
Crumb Cake A4 Cardstock (£8.00)

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

Remember: this is clean and simple week. What do we mean by 'clean and simple' ? Create a card that has:

• Minimal layers and embellishments
• Plenty of open space, also known as 'white space'
• Is simple and uncluttered

I had a clear idea of what I wanted to create for Claire's challenge this week and the colours at Color Throwdown complemented it perfectly (see the challenge badge above) - take a look:

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

Hometown Greetings - This week's theme was a perfect excuse to start on this year's Christmas cards, so I pulled out my Hometown Greetings Edgelits Dies to create a focal point for my snowy day scene and simply cut them out of extra thick whisper white card stock. I added a little blue scarf to my snowman but otherwise left them untouched and popped them up on dimensionals above my sponged sky.

Blended Sky - I wanted to create a blended sky background for my little scene and couldn't decide between watercolouring and an ink-blended background. I opted for the latter, having been inspired by this amazing background that Linda Van Wely-Zwolle. I am in awe of the fabulous backgrounds she creates on her cards (there are lots of other examples on her blog too) so I thought I would have a go at creating a similarly intense colour. I used a sponge brayer and a combination of the retired Tempting Turquoise and current in-colour Blueberry Bushel to create my ombre sky and used a base of Shimmery White cardstock - it's difficult to see in the photos, but it gives these panels a lovely all-over shimmer. 

Textured Shimmer Snow - To finish my sky, I had to add the snow to create my snowy day. I used a dry aquapainter to flick frost white shimmer paint across my sky panel to create a random pattern of shimmery textured snow. I love the way the liquid created a mix of fine spray and larger globules - I know the snow doesn't look like flakes, but I think this is what snow looks like from a distance when it's falling. Here's a close up so that you can see the detail:

I liked my first card so much I made a second one using a second piece of snowy background that I created at the same time and one of the other dies in the set:

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

And here's the second one:

I also made another card using the same layout but approached it in a completely different way - but you'll have to pop by tomorrow to see that 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:

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

Enjoy your day; I am looking forward to a day of homework supervision then some cosy family time indoors, having spent yesterday outside watching sport with both of the James Juniors - not so much fun in the current sub-zero temperatures we are experiencing here in the UK!  I'll be back tomorrow with another snowy day-themed card that looks quite different to today's cards. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Hearts Come Home Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£20.00)	Hometown Greetings Edgelits Dies (£30.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)	Shimmery White A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Sponge Brayers (£7.50)
Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Frost White Shimmer Paint (£7.50)	Aqua Painters (£16.00)

Today I have an extra post for you - I've been trying to find the time to share this post since Wednesday but classes and life have gotten in the way! You can see my regular Paper Players post from earlier here. This is  a clean and simple Christmas card using one of my favourite background stamps that is perfect for this week's challenge over at Stamps Ink Paper:

My card also makes use of one of those useful products in the annual catalogue that at fist glance you might have overlooked - more about that in a moment. Here's my card:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

The Perfect Starry Sky - I used the starry background stamp from the Bokeh Dots background stamp set to create a colourful night sky behind the houses on my card. One of the things I like about the Bokeh Dots background stamps is that they are smaller in size and can be used a a feature in their own right on a card, without covering the whole of the cardbase. 

A Rainbow of Colour -  Did you spot the Uninked Spectrum Ink Pads on page 202 of the annual catalogue? Easily overlooked, they can be inked with 5 separate colours of your choice and are particularly handy when paired with a stamp such as the one I've used here to create a night sky with hues of purple through to blue.  What stamps do you have in your collection that you could use with a spectrum ink pad to create colourful ink effects?

Hearts Come Home - I used the smallest of the Hometown Greetings Edgelits to create my border of houses, cutting it out of Whisper White cardstock brushed with a liberal coating of clear Wink of Stella for a subtle sparkle and shine. To finish, I stamped one of my favourite Christmas sentiments from the co-ordinating 'Hearts Come Home' stamp set in Night of Navy - never more approprate than at Christmas time.

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. 

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hometown Greetings Edgelits Dies (£30.00)	Hearts Come Home Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£20.00)	Bokeh Dots Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£14.00)	Uninked Spectrum Pad (£11.25)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)
Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.50)	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Balmy Blue Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)
Highland Heather Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Gorgeous Grape Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)