Yay it's Monday - where did that weekend go?! A hectic Mother's Day yesterday and today I'm back to it - with a card using this week's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

In addition to Rita's great sketch, I was also inspired by the photo images for the current challenges over at The Card Concept and Fusion, where luck, green and shamrocks are also the order of the day. I know a few young people about to sit their GCSEs and am in need of a few good luck cards, so these challenges gave me the perfect opportunity to make an appropriately-themed card:

I decided to contrast the bright Cucumber Crush green with kraft for my card today and made a feature of a few different elements to pull together my 'clean and layered' card:

Shine On Specialty Designer Series Paper - Great for boxes and bags, this sturdy kraft paper also adds a bright pop of colour to cards, especially when bordered with some Cucumber Crush cardstock to really make it stand out.

Larger Than Life Alphabet and Numbers - These letters and numbers really are larger than life and are great for a statement sentiment as I've done here with the word 'luck'. Alphabet sets are useful for so many different types of projects and since they cost a little more than the average stamp set, Sale-A-Bration is a great time to invest in one and get a free gift into the bargain!

Pansy Punch Four Leaf Clover/Shamrock - Everyone knows that the four leaf clovers are the ones that are supposed to bring you luck. No punch for that? No problem - you can use your five-petal Pansy Punch to create a four leaf clover with ease! Just cut away part of one of the petals to create a stem as in the photo below:

It's that easy! Inspired by The Card Concept photo, I stamped some spots using the spot stamp in the 'Celebrate Today' stamp set stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in clear to add pattern and shine to my lucky clover and tie it in with the rest of my card.

Envelope Punch Board - I altered the dimensions of the sketch and went for a more horizontal rather than vertical card to accommodate my sentiment. As such it gave me a finished card size of 6" x 6 3/4" - not a standard size. A sheet of 2015-17 In Color Envelope Paper in Cucumber Crush, my Envelope Punch Board and my handy Envelope Expert tool made light work of a solution though, and with a few clicks of the mouse and punches and scores and I had a beautifully co-ordinated envelope too - job done!

Here's today's visual summary for easy reference of the key supplies needed to make this card and today's top tip:

That's all from me today; I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Larger Than Life Alphabet & Numbers Photopolymer Stamp Set	Shine On Specialty Designer Series Paper	Pansy Punch	Celebrate Today Photopolymer Stamp Set	Cucumber Crush Classic Stampin' Pad
Cucumber Crush A4 Cardstock	Kraft 12" X 12" Cardstock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder
Heat Tool (Uk)	2015-2017 In Color Envelope Paper	Envelope Punch Board

Good evening blog readers! Well, what a lovely day - today it was so mild and warm it almost felt like summer! I used my washing line for the first time this year and had a lovely couple of hours out riding my bicycle with the rest of the James family this afternoon, then came home and finished carving my first set of Undefined stamps. More on that later in the week; today I have an entry for this week's Colour Q challenge, where this is the inspiration:

When I saw the colour scheme and clover leaf-type flowers, I immediately thought of St Patrick's Day; whilst not Irish myself (I'm not even wanting to admit my Welsh heritage following the Five Nations rugby results today!) this is the month when the Irish also celebrate their patron saint day, so having made daffodils for St David's Day last week, today it's the turn of the shamrock. I turned to My Digital Studio and created this Lucky Frameable, which could be used either on a card or framed as a piece of home décor:

I love these graphic frameables (here's one I did for my New year cards this year) - you can play around with them until you get the look you're after. The other bonus with using MDS for today's project is that I could use all of the suggested colours, including the retired Glorious Green.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Mds Download - Digital Download

Lucky Framable Designer Template - Digital Download