It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and Felicita is our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

I went with the vertical column layers/friend/heat embossing this week! I had some of the panels of Pressed Petals designer series paper out on my desk leftover from the cards I shared with you last week and wanted to use them up and thought I would combine it with this week's challenge over at TGIF Challenges (thanks for the pick last week ladies!) where they are looking for projects that are gold-dipped, something I've been wanting to try with my Heirloom Frames 3D embossing folders for a while. So I pulled out my Positive Thoughts stamp set for my sentiment and some background detail on my first card and this is what I came up with:

On this card I used a Night of Navy embossed frame. To achieve the antique-dipped effect, you simply rub the embossed frame with your Versamark pad then sprinkle with gold embossing powder and heat - in some places it sticks and in others the base colour is exposed. For my second card, I used a few more layers on my base instead of background stamping, and used an oval frame heat embossing gold onto Mossy Meadow:

I used the same sentiment and anchored with a Designer Element accent on each. And here's one last photo of both my cards together:

So what do you think? This style of card is quite different for me so whilst I like them, I'm not sure I love them - but it's always good to try something different once in a while! I would love your comments and if vintage is your thing and you think these cards can be improved in any way, I'd love to hear!

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. 

A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge. 

Enjoy your day; on Tuesday I finally took delivery of a new washing machine, having had mine break down completely 10 days ago - what great timing! I knew it was on its way out so I ordered a new one before it went completely, however with the whole country going into lockdown I was afraid that my new machine wouldn't arrive at all. Fortunately the lovely people at John Lewis made it happen and I have spent the last 2 days washing non-stop! I have another 4 loads to do today and then I should be caught up - just the ironing to get stuck into then! At least the weather has been fine enough for me to line dry and no school has meant that the Juniors could wear anything as we had run out of school uniform! It's probably a good job that none of us have had to leave the house though - our outfits were starting to look a little eclectic! I am hoping to get some crafting in today before tackling my ironing mountain (hubby has suggested since no-one can see us we should just go with the crumpled look, but I'm not sure if my standards will allow it!). 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

 To be updated.

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 my favourite, a sketch challenge for you to work with:

I had an idea in my head as to what I was going to do with this sketch until I pulled my DSP box off the shelf and saw something that inspired me to go in a completely different direction! I ended up making three cards in one go, two using Claire's sketch. They are all different but do have one thing in common - Pressed Petals Specialty Designer Series Paper. Here's my first card:

The Pressed Petals Specialty Designer Series Paper has photographic images of real pressed petals on one side and one of the sheets in the pack has distinct sectional designs to cut out and use on card fronts, and two of the sections feature floral ovals which I thought would work for Claire's sketch. They also reminded me of Laurel's pretty Inspired By badge this week which comprised of pressed florals so I'm linking my first card up there. I stamped my sentiment in the centre of the wreath (I needed a get well card so used this one from the 'Dandelion Wishes' stampset) and fussy cut it out, mounted it on a panel of Mossy Meadow wrapped with the Magnolia Lane linen ribbon and twine and paired this with a Rococco Rose card base and added a trio of faceted dots to finish.

I decided to make another card using another of the sections, this time switching out the ribbon and adding a stamped and diecut sentiment combo to make an Easter card that is great for the current Just Us Girls challenge where the challenge is to feature shades of blue, green and yellow on your card:

I'm also linking my Easter card up to SUO Challenges where the current theme is Spring.

I created one last card to use up the strip of daisies. I inset it within a split Rococco Rose panel that I popped up on dimensionals and paired it with a sentiment from 'Peaceful Moments', this time using the current InspireCreate sketch rather than Claire's - it was ideal to save this piece from wallowing in my snippets box:

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. 

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

Enjoy your day; it's Mother's Day here in the UK but due to our social distancing everyone will be at home in their own houses, which will feel strange. I'm looking forward to being waited on by the James Juniors and Skype calls with the other Mums in our extended family, maybe with some quality jigsaw time too! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Pressed Petals Specialty Designer Series Paper (£13.00)	2019-2021 In Color Faceted Dots (£6.00)	Magnolia Lane Ribbon Combo Pack (£8.25)	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Rococo Rose A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Seaside Spray A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Versamark Pad (£8.75)	White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£5.50)	A Wish For Everything Bundle (£62.00)
Dandelion Wishes Cling-Mount Stamp Set (£19.00)	Peaceful Moments Cling Stamp Set (English) (£20.00)