It's Thursday and that means a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary. This week it's colours:

I'm also using this week's sketch over at Retrosketches for my layout. So I debated long and hard what to do with this colour combination; then I decided I would go with something fun! I used my Life in The Forest set - not inked up in a while and soon to be retired so it seemed like a good opportunity to use it:

I used Soft Sky for my base, then created a little paper pieced scene for my racoon. I used the soft sky paper from the Painted Blooms DSP pack for my sky, then paper pieced my trees from Wild Wasabi cardstock and my racoon from a combination of Basic Grey, Basic Black and Whisper White cardstock. I cut my large word bubble out using my Big Shot and oval framelits, handcutting the speech piece and stamped the sentiment from the 'So You' stamp set. I love the addition of the wild wasabi grass, cut with my fringe scissors, and the Soft Sky Painted Blooms cotton twine, but my absolute favourite part of this card? The addition of the tiny googly eyes to my little racoon:

It brings out the child in me  - so cute!!! Do hop on over to the other designers to see how they have interpreted this week's colours - I look forward to seeing your creations in the gallery.

I will be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Today I have a special blog post for you - a guest blogger, none other than my 8 year old daughter! As I was eating my breakfast and minding my own business one day, she was reading over my shoulder and fell in love with the card featured - this fabulous card featuring the fox from the Life in The Forest set, by the talented Erica Cerwin.  She promptly announced she just HAD to copy the card and as Rebecca has always fancied the idea of writing her own blog, I asked if she would like to write the blog post for it and she jumped at the chance! So here is her CASE of Erica's card and a few words about how and why she made it:

"I really liked this card when I saw it and decided it would make a perfect card for my singing teacher, to say thank you for her help in enabling me to get a distinction in my recent grade one singing exam. I stamped lots of foxes on the card base, and coloured in the white bits with a chalk marker. I love how you can see them through the vellum. I then stamped another fox and cut him out and stuck him on the front behind the grass, which I cut with fringe scissors. I made the banner with 'You're one in a million' but added a row of gold sequins to mine too, for extra sparkle. I also stamped a fox on the card envelope and coloured him in with a Cajun Craze marker pen. my singing teacher loved her card!"

I hope you like Rebecca's card - normal blog service resumes tomorrow! until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Jet Black Stazon Pad	Life In The Forest	Fringe Scissors	White Stampin Chalk Marker	White Vellum A4 Card Stock
Scallop Edge Border Punch	Cajun Craze A4 Card Stock	Garden Green A4 Card Stock	Regals Designer Series Paper Stack	Oh, Hello Clear-Mount Stamp Set
One In A Million Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Regals Stampin' Write Markers	Gold Baker's Twine	Gold Sequin Trim

My James juniors are back at school today after a long Easter break, but I assure you that's not the reason behind the sentiment for today's card ;-) I started off with an idea in mind for this week's Less Is More challenge, where the theme is 'something that makes you smile'; unintentionally, I ended up combining this with the colour challenge this week over at CAS Colours and Sketches, where black and shades of grey are the order of the day:

 I knew immediately that my 'something that makes me smile' would have to be that cute little mouse from the Life in the Forest stamp set that I used on this card last week; I decided to use him in conjunction with the word 'smile' from the Happy Day stamp set and position him as if he was standing just behind the word and peering around. I stamped 'smile' in Versamark and heat embossed in black embossing powder, as I wanted the sentiment to really stand out and look solid, then stamped the mouse using black stazon and coloured him with the greys and my blender pen. I sometimes struggle with the simplicity of 'less is more', but this card seems to tick all the boxes for clean and simple: lots of white space, few layers (none) and minimal embellishments (none). I think this may be my 'zen' of CAS cards!

I love this card for all its black and white one-layered simplicity, but couldn't help play around with an initially discarded version where I sought to introduce some colour - this card is so far out of my comfort zone, I just couldn't help it. If you'd like to see a more colourful version, check out the post on my Facebook page today - I'd love to know which one you prefer. For me, the one above wins; as for the mouse, he makes me smile every time, with or without!

I'm off to my office for a nice early start: lots to do today, including amongst other things start preparing next week's classes. Back tomorrow with another project, until then happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Life In The Forest	Happy Day	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Jet Black Stazon Pad	Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad
Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Black Stampin' Emboss Powder	Blender Pens
Stazon Cleaner	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	Heat Tool - Uk Plug

As promised, today I have the second of the cards I made for this week's sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch - I saw this layout and couldn't resist another interpretation. This time I also combined it with the colour challenge over at Dynamic Duos:

This card is altogether more fun than yesterday's - take a look and you'll see what I mean:

I had the idea that if the squares were circles, the little mouse from the 'Life in the Forest' stamp set could play 'peek a boo' as if he was in a block of Swiss cheese (something of a graphic interpretation, given that the circles are identically sized and placed, but hopefully you can see what I mean!) I stamped the mice onto Whisper White and simply punched out with my 1" circle punch so that only parts of them were showing, and I mounted these onto circles of Wisteria Wonder only slightly larger that I cut with my Circle Framelits. I coloured the mice with my Wisteria Wonder and So Saffron inks and a blender pen and finished the card with the sentiment 'smile' - well, I didn't have one that says 'chuckle', which is what I was doing as I coloured these little fellas so this was the next best thing :-)

I hope you like my fun take-two on the sketch; back tomorrow with my entry for this week's Paper Players challenge (and yes, it was a challenge indeed!) Until then, I'm off to the theatre with Ben this morning whilst Rebecca is on a swimming course and my dear husband is having to monitor the bathroom fitter who is replacing a floor tile that has been booked to do the job for some 14 months - hopefully today is (finally) the day!

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Life In The Forest	Happy Day	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Blender Pens	So Saffron Classic Stampin' Pad
So Saffron A4 Card Stock	Wisteria Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad	Wisteria Wonder A4 Card Stock	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform
Circles Collection Framelits Dies	1 Inch Circle Punch	3/16 Inch Corner Punch