Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the first of a new month - Happy St David's Day to my fellow patriots! - and the turn of the fabulous Christy to host this week. She has a fun theme challenge for us to work with:

Mythical creatures - mermaids, dragons, unicorns and more! I had to dig into my retired stash for this one and had a lot of fun!! I'm also playing along with the CASE The Designer Challenge over at SUO Challenges with my card this week - take a look and I will explain all:

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

Myths and Magic - So I had a stash of retired Myths & Magic designer series paper that I had preserved and decided this was a good time to cut into some! I spent a good few evenings fussy cutting mermaids and the teeny-tiny seahorses you can see on today's card, but also unicorns, knights and dragons from the other sheets too. I paired my mermaid with a sentiment from the Magical Mermaids stamp set that is also retired:

 I also used the stamps in this set to add a little additional decoration to the inside of my card:

CASE The Designer - I had a lot of fun CASEing Tammy's card over at SUO Challenges this week! I chose a teal mythical underwater theme as opposed to a pink love hearts theme for my card, switched out the sentiment banner for a circle and used the tiny seahorses instead of the dimensional hearts on Tammy's card, but I retained the layout, the embossed-DSP-embossed background panel combination, albeit featuring the beautiful Soft Waves 3D embossing folder for an under the sea look and feel, combined with the sparkly column of bubbles. My card looks distinctly different to Tammy's, but it's clear to see where and how I CASEd her card as my inspiration.

You Slay Bonus Card - Given that today is St David's Day I had to take the opportunity to make a card with a dragon (or two!) as well, so I went a little 'left field' for my next creation. The slang term 'slay' is quite popular with young people; Wikipedia states that it is used to express admiration or success, so with this in mind, I thought that I would pair a custom sentiment using the Mini Alphabet Dies with some of the knights and dragons from the Myths & Magic paper for a tongue-in-cheek congratulations card, using the sketch layout over at Hand Stamped Sentiments. Here's their layout:

And here's the bonus card that I made for today's challenge:

I absolutely love the sparkly detail on this paper!

Possibly not a card for everyone, but I know Ben will love it!

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's main 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:

Enjoy your day; nothing remarkable happening chez James today. Enjoy the remainder of your weekend and I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)

SOFT WAVES 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£10.25)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

COASTAL CABANA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

PRETTY PEACOCK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

Today I'm sharing a card that uses a fun technique that is inspired by the theme and photo inspiration for the current FUSION challenge:

I love that fabulous colourful mermaid tail cupcake and took that as my inspiration rather than the sketch this week, as I also wanted to try out a fun technique inspired by a rather unusual household item. Here's my card:

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

A Magical Mermaid ... Or Two Or Three - I created a mermaid-patterned cardfront using the small solid mermaid image from the 'Magical Mermaid' stamp set; I stamped each image freehand as I wanted the spacing close than I could achieve with my stamp positioning tool. I haven't used this stamp in this set before - I usually use the large mermaid image - so it was a good opportunity to use the set in a different way. 

A Fun Technique - to achieve the multi-coloured effect, I revisited the 'oldie but goodie' baby wipe technique. I created two separate stamp pads using baby wipes and drops of three reinkers on each, then alternated stamping with each one to create my pattern. This is such a fun technique if you are trying to create variegated colour; no two stamped images are the same so it makes for colourful patterns. 

Unusual Inspiration - You may be wondering where I got my rather eclectic colour inspiration from this week; all is revealed in the photo below:

Yes, one of Rebecca's bedsets! She loves these brightly coloured mermaids and since my card is a little notecard that I slipped into her school bag as a surprise note as I sometimes do, I knew she would instantly recognise the inspiration. The thing I love most about the finished card is the watery effect of the blended colours, which seems fitting for my nautical mermaid. 

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. 

So as you can see, inspiration really can be found in the most unusual of places. What is your most unusual source of inspiration in your crafting? Do leave me a comment below - I would love to know.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Magical Mermaid Cling-Mount Stamp Set (£19.00)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes (£6.50)	Lovely Lipstick 1/8" (3.2 Mm) Grosgrain Ribbon (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)
Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)	Lovely Lipstick Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Highland Heather Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)
Poppy Parade Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Call Me Clover Classic Stampin' Ink Refill (£3.50)	Highland Heather A4 Cardstock (£8.25)

Today I'm sharing a card for the current challenge over at TGIF Challenges where they have a gorgeous bright colour palette this week:

I used these colours for Rebecca's birthday card from Ben as they were perfect for what I had in mind - take a look:

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

Magical Mermaid - I bought this set to make a set of pictures for my very own water baby - with her long, blond hair and swimming skills Rebecca could definitely pass for a mermaid! I heat embossed this one in gold onto shimmery white cardstock and fussy cut it, then coloured the tail with a combination of Gorgeous Grape and Melon Mambo, then added another coat of shimmer with my clear Wink of Stella pen - it is so sparkly in real life!

A Watery Scene - My watercolour skills generally leave a lot to be desired, so I stayed simple and watercoloured using Sahara Sand as my neutral for sand and overstamped with some shells for added detail, and used a wash of Coastal Cabana for the sea, with some bubbles stamped in full strength over the top. I also added some strands of seaweed in green for added detail, blending them in at the base.

A Touch of Sparkle - I stamped my sentiment on a stitched circle in Gorgeous Grape and before it was dry, sprinkled it with gold embossing powder and heat set it so that I managed to create gold highlights where the powder stuck. In addition to the sparkly mermaid tail this adds a lovely shimmer - essential for any card destined for Rebecca, that's for sure!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Magical Mermaid Cling-Mount Stamp Set (£19.00)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.50)
Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Gorgeous Grape A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Gorgeous Grape Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Stitched Shapes Dies (£28.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.75)

Another busy day today catching up on household admin today, but just time to share a card for this week's challenge over at CAS(E) This Sketch:

For some reason I had lots of ideas for this sketch, which is a pretty good job since the first card I made featured a couple of pens from the Crafting Forever set and a 'Just a Note' sentiment and my lovely Paper Players teamie and friend LeAnne posted one that was almost identical! You can see her card here; I decided that instead of posting my card that was so similar, I would work up one of my other ideas and got out my Magical Mermaid stamp set for some aquatic fun - take a look:

I stamped the seaweed twice and added my sentiment below as per the sketch, creating an ombre effect by sponging the sentiment stamp with Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay and Tranquil Tide before stamping and fussy cutting a gold embossed starfish. The real star of this card though is the mermaid: I stamped her in Versamark and heat embossed in gold, then coloured her by sponging ink and blending lots of pinks and aquas to create her tail, before covering with a liberal does of clear Wink of Stella, fussy cutting and popping her on some dimensionals for extra lift. I also allowed her to sit slightly off the edge of the card for added interest.

This really is one of those cards where the photo doesn't do my card justice - it is so shimmery and sparkly in real life and the blended tail colour so pretty. Try as I might though I could capture the effect on film, so you'll just have to take my word for it! I did take a quick picture of the inside too, with its seaside border:

I think this is the first time I've blogged a card using this set, but it is actually getting lots of use as I've recently decorated Rebecca's room and one of her bed sets has mermaids on it, so we are in the process of using this set to create some fun wall art and home decor pieces. 

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'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Magical Mermaid Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£18.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.50)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£6.50)	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.25)
Glitter Enamel Dots (£6.25)