This is today's second post; if you missed the notification about the discounts on retiring products that Stampin' Up! announced today please click here. Today I'm sharing a couple of cards from a class I held much earlier in the year featuring the Serene Garden bundle. I shared one of the other cards we made here in case you missed it. This bundle is retiring next week so I thought I ought to get around to sharing the other two! Both of these cards were a CASE (Copy and Share Everything or Copy and Selectively Edit, depending on your interpretation of the cards on page 166 of the annual catalogue. Here's the first one:

And here's the second one:

This is such a beautiful bundle; the Garden Scene Framelits allow for some fabulous layering, especially when paired with the Big Shot Embossing Mats - check out the emboss detail on the cards above. It's also a great set if you like to colour, as the second card illustrates.

Here are the visual summaries of the key products used on today's projects 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:

(if you need further information on any of the other elements used please leave a comment or email me directly):

Serene Garden Photopolymer Bundle (£39.50)

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! Firstly, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who joined in with our 400th anniversary celebration theme challenge these past two weeks - what an amazing gallery! You made it very difficult for us to choose our 'cut aboves' and the headliner this week for sure. We will be announcing the results of our random.org draw and the winners of all those amazing prizes donated by our generous sponsors on Wednesday; meanwhile, it's my turn to host this week and I have a bold and vibrant colour challenge for you to work with:

I've had the Serene Garden stamp set and Garden Scene Framelits out on my desk preparing for my next technique class, so decided to use them for my card today, which also uses this week's Global Design Project sketch for my layout:

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

A Peek of Granny Apple Green - I've been getting to grips with the new inks in my collection following the recent colour revamp by Stampin' Up! and I chose three of my new favourite bold and bright colours for my challenge this week. That said, my card today features a lot of white in order to balance these colours and keep my card feeling light and bright and not too garish. I've stamped each of the elements of my design - leaves, flowers and butterfly - in one of the challenge colours. The colour that features most is the fresh Granny Apple Green, since I stamped the leafy corner on a mat in the same shade and then used the Garden Scene Framelits to cut out the leaf sections, to reveal the tone-on-tone image below. I toyed with stamping the flowers and butterfly tone-on-tone too, but when I put it together I decided I preferred the colours on white with a little more added with a blender pen - an altogether more subtle affair.

Words of Courage - The Serene Garden stamp set is sentiment-free, so I rooted through my stamp collection and decided these words from the Ribbon of Courage stamp set fit perfectly with my layout and immediately gave me an intended recipient too, which is always nice. The swirly font fits nicely with this stamp set, although I'm sure there will be many others that work well with it too.

Polka Dots and an Embellishment Cheat - When it came to embellishing my card, I added a strip of Lovely Lipstick cardstock with a couple of notches punched out with my 1/2" circle punch to hold my pretty white polka dot tuille. I also added a trio of one of my favourite new embellishments, the glitter enamel dots, around my sentiment and yes, here's the cheat: they are actually Gorgeous Grape and Melon Mambo in colour. They tone in beautifully with the colour scheme though,so I went with it (I know my secret is safe with you!)

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. 

I love this colour combo and know it's one I will use again; the tuille bow is a little fussy for my generally clean style, but I do love how easy it is to work with and adds a real touch of pretty to the finished card.

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

I can't wait to see what you create with this week's colours and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly. Today I will be waving off the eldest of my James Juniors for a 2 week sports tour of South Africa to play hockey and netball and experience all of the tourist delights this fascinating country has to offer. As for me, I will be at home braving week 2 of the summer vacation with the youngest of the James Juniors and continuing to monitor progress on the kitchen renovation project - I know where I would rather be, for sure! I have at least managed to get a little making done over the last few days so I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Serene Garden Photopolymer Bundle (£39.50)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)	Ribbon Of Courage Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£18.00)	Lovely Lipstick Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Lovely Lipstick A4 Cardstock (£8.00)
Highland Heather Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Glitter Enamel Dots (£6.50)	Whisper White 5/8" (1.6 Cm) Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon (£7.00)
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	1/2" (1.3 Cm) Circle Punch (£5.50)