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 as it's the fifth Sunday of the month we have a tic-tac-toe challenge for you to work with:

I'm getting used to the idea of a tic-tac-toe board; my starting point tends to be as many options as possible, so I ended up with 3 lines complete: central row - diecut, spring, birthday, and far right column - DSP, birthday, flowers and lastly the diagonal pink, spring, DSP - talk about over-achiever! I used Amy's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches for my layout (great layout, Amy!) and decided to use one of my favourite new florals for a new purpose - take a look:

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

Crocuses Are Not Just For Easter - I love the 'Easter Promise' stamp set and the crocus stamps. They are perfect for spring and I decided that they would make a pretty birthday card too. I chose my favourite pink, Melon Mambo, for today's card - did you know that you can actually get pink crocuses? I didn't, but Google showed me some so as my kids so often say, well it must therefore be true! I coloured and fussy cut a couple of the bunches for the front of my card, then added the row to the inside for a little extra detail:

Label Me Bold - I used the Happy Birthday from 'Label Me Bold' on today's card; plain block sentiments are perfect for something simple where the florals are the main focus. 

Pretty In Pink Watercolour - I decided to use a rough watercolour to colour my crocuses. I stamped them in Stazon on watercolour paper and then added loose colour in layers, deliberately not keeping inside the lines (which was hard for the perfectionist in me!) and I just love the finished effect:

I added a twine bow and some champagne rhinestones to complete my card. I just LOVE this card - do you ever make a card that totally ticks all of your boxes? This is one of mine!

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:

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; the clocks went forward overnight so we have an hour less today, although in the grand scheme of things at the moment I'm not sure it will matter that much! We spent some time together yesterday completing a fiendishly tricky quiz that Ben has been set by school, so I think this afternoon it might be time to involve the grandparents in our endeavours! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Easter Promise Cling Stamp Set (English) (£18.00)	Label Me Bold Cling Stamp Set (English) (£16.00)	Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£5.50)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Subtle 3D Embossing Folder (£9.25)
Brights 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£10.75)	Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper (£8.25)	Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Mango Melody Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Jet Black Stāzon Ink Pad (£9.25)	Whisper White Solid Baker's Twine (£3.25)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where for this fortnight we have a fun recipe challenge for you:

I often struggle with this kind of recipe challenge, but must confess that along with Julee's Mojo Monday sketch for my layout (sketch 3) today's card came together quite easily - take a look:

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

Flowering Foils - I decided to use the Flowering Foils Specialty Designer Series Paper as the basis for today's card. This is one of the second-release items that can be yours FREE with a purchase of £45 or more during the current Sale-A-Bration promotion and has been super popular with my customers, so I was keen to show them how they could use it. I used a rose-gold hatch patterned piece along with a piece of silver foil cut using my Stitched Rectangle Framelits for two of my layers, then fussy cut one of the flowers from another sheet to form the centrepiece of my card. I backed my flower with a stitched vellum circle to preserve the shape of the sketch but not detract from the detail of the bloom itself. These papers are so, so pretty and the photographs in today's post really don't do them justice - it is so difficult to photograph foil!  

Sparkle, Sparkle - To compliment the foiled papers, I decided to add lots of sparkle and shine. I used some white ribbon with a silver metallic edge for my bow, along with some silver twine behind my flower and a sprinkling of champagne rhinestone jewels and clear epoxy droplets for extra sparkle. I even added a silver (retired) tassle - then had to stop myself before I went really overboard!! 

Label Me Bold - Whilst this card would make a lovely wedding card, I have no need for one so decided instead that it would work equally well as a special birthday card. I inked up my 'Label Me Bold' stamp set for the first time to add a simple silver heat-embossed sentiment to my card. You can see that better on the photo below:

This sentiment stamp set was one of the first I bought from the new seasonal catalogue as I've been wanting a set like this for ages, but this is the first time I've inked it up. I love the clean, block font which is perfect to cut through the detail on a card like this.

So what do you think? Do you love these Flowering Foils as much as me?

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. 

Before you put your creative thinking caps on, why not check out the blogs of the other As You See It team members:

Amy Jasper

Heather Cooper

Jan Clothier

Jane Knudsen

LeAnne Pugliese

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.

We look forward to seeing your creations in the AYSI gallery.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Flowering Foils Specialty Designer Series Paper (£0.00)	Stitched Rectangle Dies (£33.00)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)	Silver Foil Sheets (£4.75)	Silver Metallic Thread (£3.25)
Silver 3/8" Metallic-Edge Ribbon (£6.50)	Frosted & Clear Epoxy Droplets (£8.25)	Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£5.50)	Label Me Bold Cling Stamp Set (English) (£16.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)
Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)