Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous LeAnne to host this week and she has a fun theme challenge for you to work with:

I  used Jen's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches and the fresh colour palette over at Color Dare (I used all of the colours except Linen) and made a thank you card featuring a sweet songbird - take a look:

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

I used a stencil I had made previously using one of the Basic Border Dies along with a blending brush to create a cloudy sky using Pool Party ink, then added a solid panel in the same colour that I had embossed with music using the Merry Melody 3D Embossing Folder as the backdrop for my songbird. I stamped my branch and the bird's legs onto a piece of white cardstock and fussy cut them, then stamped my bright blue songbird in Tahitian Tide, punched it out using my co-ordinating Songbird Builder Punch and popped the bird up on dimensionals for a little extra lift. A stamped punny musical greeting and a trio of additional music notes complete my scene:

I like the addition of the texture behind the bluebird and love that this bundle worked for our music theme - I haven't used it nearly enough! Not to mention I was a little pressed for time this week, so I was pleased that this card came together quite easily. I wanted to make a few in alternative colourways, but they will have to wait for another time!

If the Sweet Songbirds bundle is on your wishlist, you might be pleased to know that the Songbird Builder Punch can now be yours FREE with a £45 purchase as one of the additional products that are available this month as part of Stampin' Up!'s Sale-A-Bration promotion - for full details read last week's post here.

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. 

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

Enjoy your day; ours will be a homework-filled one! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SWEET SONGBIRDS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (32.25)	MERRY MELODY 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (9.50)	POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (8.75)	POOL PARTY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.25)	TAHITIAN TIDE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)
PALE PAPAYA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)	PEAR PIZZAZZ CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)	CRUMB CAKE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (7.50)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (5.75)

Happy Friday everyone - the weekend is in sight! Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a recipe challenge:

I made a very special card to share with you today! You know when you get an idea and you just can't rest until you make it a reality? Yes, that was today's card! My card to welcome a new baby features the new Sweet Songbirds bundle - take a look:

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

Sweet Songbirds - Everyone loves a good punch bundle and the Sweet Songbirds bundle, comprising the stamp set of the same name and the Songbird Builder Punch, is definitrly a great addition to your crafting collection. Perfect to welcome someone to a new home or to welcome a new baby, for thank yous, news notes or any kind of celebration (even Christmas - these birds would make great robins!), the Sweet Songbirds bundle has it all. The punch will either punch the stamped image of the large bird in the set, or allow you to simply punch a bird from cardstock. This is particularly useful to easily create mirrored birds, as I've done on my card today. 

Double Slider Reveal - What might not be immediately obvious at first glance, is that today's card is a double slider card. When you pull the tab at the side of the card, the mama and papa birds slide out to reveal their baby bird in the nest:

I might be biased, but I think this is such a cute idea! 

Here's a short video clip showing you how that works:

I'm mindful that today's post doesn't show the detail of the 'how' I created my double slider; I watched a number of actually very frustrating YouTube videos, and ultimately ended up re-engineering the mechanism until it is so super easy! It really needs a video to explain it though and I didn't then have time to film one this week, but I will pick this up and share in another post with you next week since I feel like I owe it to the crafting community to demystify this type of card!! I finished my sentiment and re-stamped my baby songbird on the inside of my card to finish.

A Recipe For Success - Whilst I was all about bring my creative ideas to fruition this week, it's recipe week over at As You See It and so worth me recapping on how I incorporated the elements of the recipe in my card:

• Diecut or punch - Songbird Builder Punch and Basic Borders Dies (I used the cloud shaped as a stencil to add clouds to my background with a blending brush and some Balmy Blue ink)
• Embossing folder - Merry Melody 3D Embossing Folder (This covers my slider mechanism)
• Something beginning with 'B' - Birds and baby
• Pastel colours - Balmy Blue, So Saffron and Polished Pink
• Something shiny - A sparkly in-colour vellum flower and single rhinestone jewel to decorate mama bird (almost missed this one!)

That's everything - phew! What a sweet little pair:

This was such a fun card to make!

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.  

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SWEET SONGBIRDS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£32.25)	MERRY MELODY 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£9.50)	BASIC BORDERS DIES (£27.00)	POLISHED PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	BALMY BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)
SO SAFFRON A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	SO SAFFRON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)	SOFT SUEDE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.50)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)
TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£5.75)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.75)