Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! Firstly a big thank you to everyone who joined us for our milestone 800th challenge last week; the gallery was amazing! It's the turn of the fabulous Jaydee to host this week and as it's the fifth Sunday of the month we have a tictactoe board for you to work with:

I decided to go across the top row with patterned paper/things that fly/layers for a Christmas card (or two!) featuring more of those Creative Celebrations designer series paper patterns and a new Online Exclusives Christmas stamp set called 'Woodland Wishes' - take a look:

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

Woodland Wishes includes a whole range of outline animals, with a main stamp including a pyramid of animals in the shape of a Christmas tree, that are great for colouring individually or alternatively simply stamping as is. For my card I layered a piece of Hydrangea Hue patterned paper onto a white mat and Hydrangea Hue base, then heat embossed the main tree of woodland animals stamp from 'Woodland Wishes' in white onto another panel of Hydrangea Hue and die cut this with a Perennial Postage DIe. I added a ribbon tab in the same colour and a trio of white sparkling sequins, then added it to my prepared base with dimensionals. Can you see all of the things that fly in the image? I counted a bird (maybe a robin), an owl and two doves: 

A simple heat-embossed sentiment on a banner below completes my card. I really like this card, so I made a few more using other patterns of DSP in the Creative Celebrations pack. Here's a green one, stamped in Peaceful Pine onto Soft Succulent:

On this one the image is heat-embossed in gold onto Real Red cardstock:

 The final one is stamped in Real Red onto white cardstock, with a colourful plaid background:

I made a few more of these stamping in red or green onto white too - here's a shot of all of the different designs together:

With a stamping platform, this card was a great one to make multiples of. I sent a whole bunch of these out to customers with their new September Stampin' Up! catalogues and had a bunch left over to add to my Christmas stash too. The blue car is my favourite, although I am quite partial to the one with the plaid background too. Do you have a favourite? Do let me know in the comments below.

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; it's a long Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK and es you've guessed it that can only mean one thing: rain! There was no cricket yesterday as it poured down all day, so I stayed inside and spent the day cooking instead. If today's cricket proves a wash out too, I will get more time to craft so may well have a few extra projects to share with you this week! I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host and we have a special challenge for you this week to celebrate our 800th challenge! As it's sketch week, we are going to revisit the very first sketch we used here at The Paper Players when we started:

Ann was one of the original team members, so it's only fitting she should be our host this week.My own blog doesn't go back that far so I know I didn't play along with this sketch the first time around; Challenge 169 was the first challenge I played along with and I joined the design team as a guest then a permanent member on Challenge 203 - so I'm nearer my personal 600th anniversary post, but I digress! You know how much I love a good sketch, so revisiting number 1 was fun - and I broke open some of my new pre-order product from the new September Stampin' Up! catalogue to make a Christmas card to share with you today - take a look:

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

There's a mix of old and new on today's card: I used one of the patterns in the new Creative Celebrations Mix & Match designer series paper pack with a printed wreath as the centre of my focal layer, cutting it out with an Everyday Arches Die to follow the shape of the wreath. I used a base of (retired) Soft Succulent cardstock and covered the top portion with a piece of (retired) Tidings of Christmas patterned paper - the colour, including the retired Evening Evergreen, coordinates really well with these new papers.

For my accent image I used a deer, complete with winter scarf.  The deer is a pre-cut diecut piece that is also included in the Creative Celebrations DSP pack - it contains a mixture of patterned sheets, split sheets, tag designs and a few sheets of precut pieces that are great for quick and easy cards. The designs also co-ordinate perfectly with the Season of Celebration Mix & Match Ephemera Pack and the Happiest Season Tags Mix & Match Ephemera Pack - both of which you can expect to see on future cards. I fussy cut the diecut deer's border a little closer and decided to add some clear rhinestones to my wreath and a Hydrangea Hue bow behind my dear for a couple of extra festive touches:

A banner of Evening Evergreen cardstock and a simple 'Noel' greeting from the (retired) 'Peaceful Noel' stamp set complete today's card.

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:

It would be lovely to see as many of you as possible join us for our milestone anniversary challenge this week. Enjoy your day; I don't have anything special planned today, so I'm hoping it will be a relaxing one. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

EVERYDAY ARCHES DIES (£27.00)

2026–2028 IN COLOR™ A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£6.75)

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

We have just had our fifth heatwave of the summer here in the UK and whilst the extreme heat has been challenging to deal with, especially in the absence of air conditioning, I'm still not ready to welcome fall just yet. It certainly felt strange playing with autumn colours and leaf sets whilst the outside temperature was 38 degrees centigrade and rising and my craft room felt double that, but in the spirit of the challenge, I grabbed Jen B's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches for my layout and some leafy favourites and set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

I decided to use a base of Golden Glow for my card today; I really love the warm tone of this yellow and I think this will be a new go-to fall colour for me. I used a strip of Very Vanilla and stencilled it with a leaf pattern using my blending brush and some Golden Glow ink and a Pretty Pink Posh leaves background stencil that I was recently gifted by my crafty friend Elizabeth as the centre of my diagonal, and bordered it with Timid Tiger and Pecan Pie, which are the other two colours I used for my diecut stitched leaves that form my centrepiece:

A sentiment from the retired 'Lighthearted Leaves', stamped in Early Espresso for a slightly softer look than black, and a trio of Pecan Pie enamel dots complete my card. I also used a leftover strip of stencilling and a spare diecut leaf to decorate the inside of my card: 

I'm not generally a big fan of diagonals on a card, but I'm pleased with how this one turned out although I feel I'm pushing the boundaries of clean and simple here with the layering. Plenty of open 'white' space and minimal embellishments though, so I'm taking it!

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

Enjoy your day; we are on a two day cricket weekend, so after a family brunch with my brother and sister-in-law this morning I will be back at the cricket pitch for the second time this weekend. The hubby came along last weekend and managed to get some great photos, so I thought I'd leave you today with my not-so-James Junior in action:

You can see how little rain we've had - even the cricket pitches are turning yellow!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Today I have another double-post Sunday as I'm delighted to be guesting with the team over at AAA Cards again for their new 1+1 challenge:

I chose 'animals' to go with my 'on the farm' central circle and I decided to revisit an old favourite, Peekaboo Farm, which is perfect for this challenge. Take a look at what I came up with:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

 My card features a cow and horse as my chosen farm animals, peeking over the drystone wall. I stamped the wall first in two stages onto a piece of white cardstock, then added the animals into the gaps and coloured with my Blends. I decided to pop this section up for a little added dimension, so after cutting it out (without leaving a border as I usually do because I wanted it to blend into the scene) I positioned it onto my base (without gluing) and stamped the clouds and sentiment in place. I then masked the clouds and used my blending brush that I use for light blue to lightly colour the bottom portion of the background to add a little colour to the sky, then I removed the masks and added on the panel with dimensionals:

With all those neutrals there isn't much in the way of colour on this card and you do have to suspend reality a little as far as the cow's pose is concerned (I've seen horses rear up, but never cows, although happy to be corrected if anyone out there has!), but otherwise, this makes for a cute CAS card. 

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

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

When I had my Charming Landscapes embossing folder out on my desk when I made this card a few weeks ago, I wondered if there was the opportunity to turn these little houses into gingerbread houses and create a different look with this embossing folder. The Christmas in July challenge over at Just Add Ink and Stef's colour palette gave me the perfect colour combination to do so - take a look:

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

The first thing I did was to emboss the panel in white, then mask off the foreground, houses and trees and using my blending brushes, I inked in the sky using a combination of Coastal Cabana and (retired) Bermuda Bay inks. I then embossed the deign onto both Crumb Cake and Real Red cardstocks, and fussy cut the houses and roofs, before piecing the together and gluing them in pace. I added a peppermint embellishment to the door of one of the houses in place of a wreath, coloured in the snowflakes with a white gel pen and added some white glossy enamel dots for a little extra snowy detail:

I wasn't sure what to do about a sentiment, but in the end I added one from a 'go to' retired set called 'Brightest Glow', adding some Real Red ribbon behind and tying with some peppermint-striped twine for a final festive flourish. This card did require a little effort over and above a simple embossed card front, but it was nice to use this embossing folder in a different way. And I've another Christmas card for my stash!

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; today is officially the start of the James Junior's birthday week; since his actual birthday falls midweek, today we are having family for lunch so birthday cake is the order of the day! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	COASTAL CABANA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)	REAL RED & WHITE ADHESIVE-BACKED PEPPERMINTS (£8.00)
BLENDING BRUSHES (£16.00)

Today I'm the Guest Designer for the new challenge over at CAS on Friday following my recent win with this card. The theme for the challenge this time around is 'Get Well' - take a look at the card that I created:

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

I decided to feature one of the large sentiment dies from the retired 'Wanted to Say' Dies as it is perfect for getting the message across and makes a great focal point for a clean and simple card. I cut the sentiment from Pretty Peacock and adhered two stacked diecuts together onto a thick white card base, then added a collection of punched flowers in Pool Party and Flirty Flamingo, with Pretty Peacock enamel dot centres:

Super simple and pretty - and no stamping too!

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. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

PRETTY PEACOCK A4 CARDSTOCK (£11.90)

POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (£11.90)

FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (£11.90)

ARRAY OF DOTS (£8.00)

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

Cards for little ones - babies and young children. I don't have many of those in my family these days, but this week's challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to make another card with my SilIy Old Bear suite, so we're all good! It's CASE A DT Week over at Just Us Girls and having checked out the Design Team cards, I decided I would CASE Carol's card for my card today. First up - take a look at my card:

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

Here's a picture of Carol's card that I decided to CASE: 

Like Carol's, my card is for a child and uses vintage papers, however mine features the beloved Winnie the Pooh and Piglet on a winter walk and features the Silly Old Bear Papers and the Sweet Words & Labels bundle. I switched my card to landscape, but used the same layout as Carol's card, with similar layering and sentiment position. I accented my aperture with some diecut acorns that are included in the set:

I think the sentiment on this card is one of my favourites in the set - what better than a message of unconditional love?

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; I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today I have an extra post with a card I was intending to share yesterday but the day just ran away with me! It was inspired by a number of current challenges:

I used the layout over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge along with the stencil and/or die challenge at Just Add Ink (I used both) and it's Anything Goes Stencil Week over at Just Us Girls. I recently added another new stencil set to my collection - the Big Birthday Stencils by Kristina Werner at Concord & 9th - and treated myself to the co-ordinating stamp and die set bundle too and this was the perfect opportunity to take it out for its first test run. Here's my card:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

The first thing I did was stencil a panel using my chosen colours: Gorgeous Grape, Highland Heather, Summer Splash (ret.), Coastal Cabana, Lemon Lime twist and Parakeet Party (ret.) My colour scheme was inspired by a pack of retired sparkly enamel dots that I had in my box and I thought these colours would work well for a bright, masculine card; this one is headed to my brother-in-law whose birthday it is this week. I stayed faithful to the sketch and used my Perennial Postage Dies to diecut the shapes for the four quarters, then trimmed my stencilled panel accordingly. I made this card larger than usual - its finished size is A5) as I wanted to leave the stencilled panels as large as possible so that you could still make out the detail. 

I added a stamped and diecut sentiment and a few sparkly enamel dots in coordinating colours to complete my card:

As with all of the KW stencils, this one is huge, so I had a couple of decent leftover pieces that I will undoubtedly use on other projects at some point. Here's one so that you can see more of the uninterrupted stencil detail:

I was concerned that the detail of the stencil might not be visible once cut down, but I'm pleased that you can still make out balloons, bunting gifts and birthday cakes - all essential elements for a good birthday celebration! 

I really like these stencils and the co-ordinating bundle and I can't wait to try this again in different colourways too.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

PERENNIAL POSTAGE DIES (£31.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£16.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	GORGEOUS GRAPE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	GORGEOUS GRAPE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)
HIGHLAND HEATHER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)	COASTAL CABANA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Christy to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge, for us to work with:

I love things in threes so this sketch is right up my street! I also knew immediately what I was going to do with it - take a look:

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

The 'Capturing Smiles' Online Exclusives stamp and die set bundle has a little film strip with three images that worked perfectly for the sketch so that's what I used. I coloured the snapshots and glued them behind the film reel, then added a sentiment and a little camera accent:

I continued the design to the inside of my card, with a partial image of the larger camera and the last piece of my sentiment, tucked in the bottom corner:

Although it's not clean and simple week, this sketch definitely lends itself to clean and simple cards. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed I used this sketch for the layout of my beachy CAS card last week too. Thank you Christy for a great sketch. :-)

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; I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

CAPTURING SMILES BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£44.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

BASIC BLACK HYBRID STAMPIN' PAD (£11.25)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

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 Clean And Simple challenge for us to work with:

Going to the beach - how fun! Given that the beach is all about sand and sea, I knew today's card was going to have to feature both. How to keep this clean and simple though? I decided that a three square layout was the answer. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

Using a Crumb Cake base, I layered on some Azure Afternoon waves and white sea foam using the Rolling Waves Dies, then used a square Stylish Shapes Dies to diecut three squares from it, just to add interest to the layout and design. A simple sentiment from 'Splash & Relax' anchored by a pair of pink dotty flip flops complete my clean and simple card:

Lots of 'white' space and minimal layers and embellishments - clean and simple, done! I'm also linking today's card up over at Time Out where the current challenge theme is 'water'.

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; we are going to enjoy a BBQ lunch and I'm hoping to fit in a little baking too, but otherwise taking things easy. I'll be back shortly with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

ROLLING WAVES BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£48.50)	SPLASH & RELAX BUNDLE (£42.25)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	BASIC BLACK HYBRID STAMPIN' PAD (£11.25)	AZURE AFTERNOON A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	CRUMB CAKE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£10.25)	MELON MAMBO A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)