Today I have a card for the Fab Friday challenge, but first I would like to say thank you to the Fab Friday team for choosing my in-colour Christmas tree card as one of their winners for the last challenge (if you missed it, you can see that card here). I love the challenge of trying to create something to a brief, but it's even more special when my creative efforts are recognised. This week the team have a great sketch to play with:

I'm also linking up with the peeps over at Stamps Ink Paper as I went monochromatic with a couple of the gorgeous By The Shore papers and a cute coral-coloured crab from the You're Sublime stamp set:

I also used my Layered Circles framelits for my focal point and created a customised sentiment - oh how I love that Labeler Alphabet set! 

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. 

Back tomorrow with my post for this week's new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	You're Sublime Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Layering Circle Framelits Dies	Labeler Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set	By The Shore Designer Series Paper
Calypso Coral A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of my sweet friend LeAnne to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge for us to play along with:

This is one of those sketches that has so many possibilities and when I sat down with my sketch book I came up with about six different cards straight off, there were just so many choices! In the end I decided to go with the soft and nautical By The Shore suite to create a rather fishy card today - take a look:

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

Under The Sea - My regular readers will know that the James' are a family of keen swimmers and scuba divers, so this was never going to be a set I could pass up for long! Fishes, seaweed, bubbles, an anchor, shells and starfish, along with some great sentiments and rope/border stamps - a veritable underwater cornucopia. I used the main sentiment on my card today, inked up using my Stampin' Write marker to easily incorporate each of the three colours that feature most strongly in this suite and cut out with my circle framelits and used the seaweed in Mint Macaron to add a little background interest, stamping off once first to give a paler colour. I used an all-blue angel fish (if there is such a thing!) as my embellishment element as per the sketch, popping it up slightly higher than my sentiment circle. Here is today's colour combination should you wish to save it to use again too:

By The Shore - The By The Shore Designer Series paper has some wonderful patterns, including two sheets of ombre in coral and denim blue. The Calypso Coral ombre worked perfectly for my card base, and I also used a piece with a circular pattern for my vertical banner - it reminded me of bubbles, in an abstract way, so it co-ordinates with the other elements of my card.

Nautical Details - In addition to my sentiment and fish, I added a few other nautical details: I stamped a trio of starfish on my card base directly onto the ombre paper, added some pearls and finally a sailor's reef knot in vanilla baker's twine around my horizontal banners. This adds a lot of dimension to my card, making it a little un-post friendly, but I like the added texture and detail it gives so I will just save this card for someone closer to home.  

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 love this fun set and just know I will get tons of use from it. The lovely Linda Callaghan also used this set this week - her card is beautiful and quite different to mine so be sure to check it out for additional nautical inspiration.

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

I look forward to seeing what you create with our sketch this week.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Seaside Shore Wood-Mount Stamp Set	By The Shore Designer Series Paper	Layering Circle Framelits Dies	Very Vanilla Thick Baker’S Twine	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock
Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad	Dapper Denim A4 Cardstock	Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Pad	Calypso Coral A4 Cardstock	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad
Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Pearl Basic Jewels