Happy Valentine's Day everyone! It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! This week it is the turn of the queen of die-cuts, the lovely Laurie, to host and she has a colour challenge for you to play along with:

This week's colours are about as far from Valentines as you could possibly get, but this colour palette offers some great opportunities for bright cards on a cold Winter's day. For my card this week I was inspired to use my new Sunburst Thinlits to create a layered sunburst, paired with some patterned cloud paper:

To create my sunburst I cut two sunbursts, one in Daffodil Delight to fit my card panel and the other full size in Tangelo Twist. To get a perfect 'shadow' I cut the orange one into three pieces to give equal shadow lines on each ray, then trimmed the ends to fit flush with the yellow one. I mounted my sunburst onto a piece of Pool Party cloud paper, taken from the Sweet L'il Things designer series paper stack. I stamped my sentiment in Tangelo Twist onto Very Vanilla and layered the circles to create the centrepiece for my sun. Finally, I added a trio of orange Brights sequins to finish. Quite a simple card to look at, but consisting of nine layers in total, each of which adds to the finished look and feel of the card. I love the bright colours of this week's colour palette  -so cheery and sure to brighten everyone's day! 

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

I look forward to seeing what you create with this week's colours. We have a restful day planned today, with a sport-free day as it's the start of the half-term holiday for the James Juniors. Pretty much a whole week of lie-ins - bliss!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Sunburst Sayings Clear-Mount Bundle	Sweet Li'l Things Designer Series Paper	1-1/4" Circle Punch	1-3/8" Circle Punch	1-3/4" Circle Punch
Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Pool Party A4 Cardstock	Tangelo Twist Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangelo Twist A4 Cardstock
Brights Sequin Assortment

Happy Monday everyone - a new week begins! Today I'm sharing a card using this week's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

I decided the horizontal panels would work for a two-piece sentiment, so I chose to pair the Wonderland sentiments with the holy family image from 'All Ye Faithful' and some not so Christmassy designer series paper - take a look:

I used Tip Top Taupe for my card base, with a mat of Hello Honey and a piece of the Sweet Li'l Things starry paper for the background panels. I stamped my holy family in Memento Black and coloured it using my inks and blender pen, stamping my sentiment in black on two panels of Marina Mist. Not altogether tricky and I must say I love the pop of blue from the Marina Mist sentiment panels. Great to be able to use this paper in a non-baby way too. I've already had another idea for this sketch which, all being well, I will make up and share later in the week. 

That's all from me today; a piano lesson, business meeting then hopefully some time at my desk crafting this afternoon. Enjoy your Monday - I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Wonderland Wood-Mount Stamp Set	All Ye Faithful Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Sweet Li'l Things Designer Series Paper	Marina Mist Classic Stampin' Pad	Marina Mist A4 Cardstock
Tip Top Taupe Classic Stampin' Pad	Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock	Hello Honey Classic Stampin' Pad	Hello Honey A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock
Blender Pens	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

Happy Monday everyone! I am starting my week with a fun birth congratulations card for the challenges over at Freshly Made Sketches and Pals Paper Arts this week:

I love the sketch but was initially perplexed when I saw the PPA colours this week as I wasn't sure I could make the Mint Macaron and Pool Party work together; I loved the colour combo though so thought I'd give it a bit more consideration and this is what I came up with:

With both Pool Party and Tip Top Taupe featuring in the Sweet L'il Things Designer Series paper pack, I decided to go with a new baby card - a boy of course! I just love the cloud pattern on the DSP sheet (it comes in the alternate colourway of Pool Party cloud outlines on Very Vanilla too) and whilst this is by no means only of use for a baby card, it provided the perfect backdrop for my little panel of 'zzzzz's' and my Very Vanilla panel with cute Pool Party babygro cut using my Baby's First Framelits. I paper-pierced the babygro to add interest and added a 3/4" Very Vanilla circle with a Mint Macaron punched heart, that I covered with one of the heart-shaped Itty Bitty Accents Epoxy Stickers - this looks so lovely in real life! The heart and banner were just enough Mint Macaron I think with the other two colours and I'm so pleased with my final card. It also made me realise just how much I love Tip Top Taupe - this isn't a colour I've used much at all to date, yet its soft tones work so well with pastels and paler colours, I must try and use it more often.

That's all from me; I am expecting a visit from my parents today, which is making Ben very excited since with his birthday tomorrow he is virtually assured of presents! - and I'm also expecting the arrival of my pre-order of SU! goodies from the new seasonal catalogue. I am beyond excited!!!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Baby's First Framelits Dies	Eclectic Paper-Piercing Pack	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack	Big Shot	Sweet Li'l Things Designer Series Paper
Itty Bitty Accents Epoxy Stickers	Banner Triple Punch	Tip Top Taupe Classic Stampin' Pad	Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock
Pool Party A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	3/4" Circle Punch	A Dozen Thoughts Clear-Mount Stamp Set

It's the weekend and following a glorious day here in the UK, today I have a card to share for this week's Mojo Monday challenge where this week's sketch is all about the layers:

The minute I saw this sketch I knew exactly what I was going to do with the central circle; I bought the 'Hello Life' stamp set for the big feature sentiment but don't get to use it often on cards because it's quite large, so this layout gave me the perfect opportunity:

I stamped my sentiment in Watermelon Wonder onto Very Vanilla and decided to use another of the pieces of Designer Series Paper from the Sweet L'il Things pack as my background, then used the featured colours as bold blocks of colour for my rectangular layers and my banner. I love the patterns in this pack - whilst this does feature some cute animals, I think it is quite a fun pattern, that works for non-baby cards too. Truth is, as I was perusing I decided this paper makes me happy - so I went with it!

Short and sweet from me today; I'll be back tomorrow with a card for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hello Life Photopolymer Stamp Set	Sweet Li'l Things Designer Series Paper	Banner Triple Punch	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad
Watermelon Wonder A4 Cardstock	Hello Honey A4 Cardstock	Tangelo Twist A4 Cardstock	Pool Party A4 Cardstock	Circles Collection Framelits Dies
Magnetic Platform	Big Shot	Stampin' Dimensionals

It's Sunday, my favourite day of the week and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players. Thank you to everyone who played along with Sandy's colour challenge last week - so many fabulous cards in the gallery. This week it is the turn of my talented good friend Claire who has a great clean and simple challenge for us:

Summer treats - yum! When I started thinking about my card, I was all set to go down the ice-cream route, as in our lovely badge this week. Then two things happened: I saw this week's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and I received my SU! order containing some new DSP. Let me show you my card and I will explain what I mean:

I was swooning over my new DSP purchases, determined to open and use more of it than ever before (hoarding is no longer allowed!) when I came across the strawberry pattern  - hidden away in the 'Sweet L'il Things' DSP. I say hidden away, because when I saw this pack I thought the papers would be very baby-themed, yet this really isn't the case - there are some lovely patterns in there that can be used on all kinds of cards. For me, strawberries and cream are a quintessential part of the British summer and with the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament just around the corner we will all be eating them in vast quantities! The sketch layout was perfect for a CAS card to showcase this paper - a simple Very Vanilla mat and a banner stamped with my sentiment, from the 'Bravo' stamp set (I stamped it in Watermelon Wonder on Very Vanilla then stamped it again in Versamark over the top and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder for added shine).

So that's my CAS take on a summer treat! Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

I look forward to seeing your summer treats in the gallery this week. I have a reasonably relaxing day planned today, which will make a nice change. Although today is Father's Day of course, so there will be a fair amount of pampering of the Dad in our household. Happy Father's Day to all the other Dads out there!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Bravo Photopolymer Stamp Set	Sweet Li'l Things Designer Series Paper	Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad	Watermelon Wonder A4 Cardstock	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock
Banner Triple Punch