It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have a great sketch for you to work with:

This is one of my 'go to' layouts; I used it most recently on this card here. It works for so many designs. I decided today to use one of the cute little mice from the 'Merry Mice' set. Here's my card:

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

Merry Mouse - I featured the carol-singing mouse from the 'Merry Mice' set on my panel. I stamped him on Very Vanilla in Archival black ink and coloured him with inks and my aquapainter. I added a few pearl snowflakes and stamped my sentiment directly onto the panel just below.

Music This Christmas - For my background panel, I used the music paper from the This Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper. This is one of the great reverse patterns in this pack, that works for Christmas but will also come in handy for other cards too. This is the perfect background to compliment my festive carol singer.

Primary Colours - I chose to use Pacific Point for my card and panel base today, along with some Real Red baker's twine and a little Emerald Envy green too with my Tip Top Taupe mouse. The blue is not a colour that I normally use on a Christmas card, but I think it works. Feel free to save this colour combination if it appeals to you 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. 

This is one of those sweet little cards that you could stamp a whole bunch of then colour in at your leisure - produce a whole bunch of Christmas cards and get some relaxation therapy into the bargain! I actually created a second version of this card too which is quite different that I will share with you tomorrow.

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week - their cards are varied and awesome:

I look forward to seeing what you create with this week's sketch. We are off to basketball today and have plans for an otherwise restful day before the busy week ahead. Enjoy your Sunday - I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Merry Mice Clear-Mount Stamp Set	This Christmas Designer Series Specialty Paper	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Pacific Point A4 Cardstock
Candy Cane Lane Baker's Twine	Aqua Painters	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Emerald Envy Classic Stampin' Pad
Tip Top Taupe Classic Stampin' Pad	So Saffron Classic Stampin' Pad	Pearl Basic Jewels

I'm a little later posting today - I blame trying to catch up with my latest favourite TV drama last night (The Catch - if you want to check it out - I'm addicted!) Anyways, 152 days until the big 'C' day - it must be time for Christmas in July! Lots of card makers start preparing for Christmas at this time of year, in addition to which us lucky Stampin' Up! demonstrators get to see and pre-order from the new Stampin' Up! Autumn Winter catalogue - which if you're a customer you have to wait until 2nd September for! I've seen some sneak peeks and can assure you there are some new products that you are going to LOVE!!!!

If you would like to get ahead of the curve and be able to see and order these products before everyone else, do get in touch to find out more about joining my team. In the meantime, I thought I would make a card for this week's colour challenge over at Fab Friday, where although a Christmas card is not compulsory the colour scheme this week is certainly festive:

For my card today I decided to go with the new Christmas papers in the annual catalogue and one of the carryover Christmas sets, Perfect Pines to create a simple holiday card:

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

More For You This Christmas - At Stampin' Up! we do Christmas all year round however in your excitement to see everything in the new Annual Catalogue you might have missed a key detail about the new This Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper: like the now retired Typeset Specialty Designer Series Paper, This Chrismas is printed in lightweight paper - similar to a newspaper print. As a result, you also get 4 sheets of each of the 6 designs in the pack, so 24 sheets in total as opposed to 12 - bonus!

Double-Up - Because the This Christmas paper is not a thick paper, it's tricky to pop up on dimensionals if it's not backed with something thicker. I wanted to be able to tie my baker's twine around my DSP layer, so in order to make it more sturdy, I backed it with a piece of extra thick Whisper White that was the same size, by simply gluing together. Easy! 

Paper-Pieced Perfect Pines - I decided to use one of the Perfect Pines Christmas trees to act as both sentiment and focal point on my card today. I stamped my tree in Garden Green and cut it out with the co-ordinating framelits, then stamped it again in Cherry Cobbler on some scrap cardstock and fussy cut the banner so that I could add the tiniest paper-pieced detail to my tree. This, in addition to a gold metallic enamel star, a sliver of gold glimmer paper and some split Cherry Cobbler baker's twine (I divided the twine into three so that it would add less bulk to my card) complete today's festive masterpiece (even if I say so myself!!) 

One more for the Christmas pile - I guess that means I'm in danger of appearing organised, right? 

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. 

I have a rare child-free day today, so I am making the most of it to get through a chunk of activities on my growing 'to do' list. Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

This Christmas Designer Series Specialty Paper	Peaceful Pines Photopolymer Stamp Set	Perfect Pines Framelits Dies	This Christmas A4 Cardstock	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad
Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad	Gold Glimmer Paper	Project Life Corner Punch	Metallic Enamel Shapes