Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a great sketch challenge for you:

I saw this sketch layout and immediately thought 'snowflakes' so dug out my 'Festive Flurry' stamp set and some Lost Lagoon cardstock, a colour that I haven't used much this season. Here's my card:

I decided to go with a square card today and worked directly onto my card base, as I wanted my snowflakes to add the layers. I stamped my first snowflake in Lost Lagoon directly onto my card base and centred it with an iced rhinestone , then stamped my sentiment in Versamark overlapping this and heat embossed it in white. Before adding my punched snowflakes, I also stamped the splatter stamp from Gorgeous Grunge in Versamark onto the background and heat embossed this in Iridescent Ice; it looks quite dark in the photo but is actually really sparkly. For the remaining circular elements of the sketch, I stamped one of the smaller snowflakes in Lost Lagoon on Whisper White, added a rhinestone to the centre and punched it out using the co-ordinating punch, then for the remaining circle I used one of the natural snowflake elements that I stamped in versamark and heat embossed in white, then stamped it again in versamark and heat embossed it in Iridescent Ice so that it is super-sparkly. lastly, I added some silver cord trim to the folded edge.

I just love this card - so very sparkly and Christmassy, all rolled into one! I love the combination of snowflakes to add a little flavour of collage to my card today.

Do visit the other Design Team members to see how they used this week's challenge sketch; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Good morning everyone - another nice early post from me for a change! I had a lovely day yesterday making Halloween treats with all the little ones at the fundraiser that I attended; today it's all about music, with piano lessons and some last minute revision for Rebecca's music theory exam next week, along with completion of our holiday homework music project (I live in hope!) Anyway, enough about my plans for the day - I have a Christmas card to share with you today, for the current sketch challenge over at Pals Paper Arts:

I haven't played along with this challenge for a while - for some reason their posts stopped showing up in my blog feed - although I've sorted it now and this week's sketch intrigued me and so I had to play along. I decided to use the Christmas stamp in the new seasonal hostess set called 'Six Sayings' for my card today:

I love the saying on this cute Christmas stamp and I chose my colour scheme of Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler and Night of Navy as I thought it would work perfectly with my natural Snowflake Elements - yes, I actually left them in their undecorated glory today - no heat embossing or glitter in sight! I inked the stamp using my Stampin' Write Markers, alternating the lines for contrast, and for the Cherry Cobbler strip across the centre of my card, I also stamped it with the knit-pattern stamps from the current Project Life Seasonal Snapshot 2015 stamp set to add a sweater-feel to my card.

The wooden snowflake embellishments add a little bulk to this otherwise flat card, but at the same time this is an interesting way to use them and the use of the dark colours really allows them to stand out. As for the stamp set: 'Six Sayings' has a lovely selection of stamps that suit a variety of occasions and is exclusively available to be purchased with Stampin' Rewards to party hostesses or individual customers who place an order of £150 or more. There is still time to take advantage of the current promotion to earn an extra 3% of Stampin' Rewards on qualifying party sales before 9th November, so if this is something of interest to you, please do get in touch with me for more information.

That's all from me today; back tomorrow with news of this week's Wednesday deals and a little Halloween fun for you using another of the stamps in this lovely hostess set. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Six Sayings Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Project Life Seasonal Snapshot 2015 Photopolymer Stamp Set	Snowflake Elements	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Regals Stampin' Write Markers
Cherry Cobbler A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock

Just time to sneak in a creative post today with a couple of cards for this week's CAS(E) This Sketch Challenge. They have a great sketch this week and I managed to make not one but two cards (and will be using this layout for a couple more too!). Here's the sketch:

I wanted to make a Christmas card and whilst originally I had planned on an execution to my second card below, I was inspired byChrissy's card on the CAS(E) This Sketch design team and decided to take a slightly different tack and use some Designer Series Paper and a layer - here's my card:

I covered the front of my extra thick Whisper White cardstock base with a piece of snowflake-patterned Season of Cheer DSP and made a panel out of Night of Navy, cut out with my Project Life framelit and Big Shot, and repeatedly stamped the ' Let it snow!' sentiment from the 'Snow Place' stamp set in Versamark and heat embossed it in white. To finish I took a Snowflake Elements embellishment, stamped it in White kraft ink and heat embossed it in white, then stamped it again in Versamark and heat embossed it in Iridescent Ice to give it a wonderful sparkle. This snowflake DSP is one of my favourites in the Season of Cheer pack - I love the ombre effect of the finish and those snowflake embellishments are gorgeous, whether left plain or jazzed up a little as I did here. The photo doesn't show just how wonderfully sparkly the snowflake is in real life - it's really something!

For my second card I went with an every day card and decided to make something bright and colourful:

I used a Bermuda Bay card base and I took my colour inspiration from the Cherry on Top DSP stack of papers. I created my repeated 'Hello' sentiment using my Greetings thinlits. I decided to add a simple punched bird as my embellishment this time, punched from a piece of Watermelon Wonder Color Me Irresistible Specialty DSP  - you can't really see it in the photo, but I love the subtle embossed pattern this adds in real life - and a little Bermuda Bay wing.

Two very different takes on this week's sketch - do let me know which one you prefer in the comments below! Back tomorrow with my card for this week's new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Season Of Cheer Designer Series Paper	Snow Place Photopolymer Stamp Set	Snowflake Elements	Versamark Pad	White Stampin' Emboss Powder
Heat Tool (Uk)	Embossing Buddy	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Project Life Cards & Labels Framelits Dies
Greetings Thinlits Dies	Color Me Irresistible Specialty Designer Series Paper	Bird Builder Punch	Bermuda Bay A4 Cardstock	Pool Party A4 Cardstock
Crushed Curry A4 Cardstock	Cucumber Crush A4 Cardstock	Watermelon Wonder A4 Cardstock	Big Shot