Welcome to my first creative post of the day! Following my selection as Featured Stamper for this card using the above challenge colours over at Color Throwdown a couple of weeks ago, the lovely ladies over there have invited me to be a guest designer for this week's challenge - yay! As if that wasn't enough, just look at the lovely colours and inspiration photo we had to work with:

I had to go with something Christmassy and I found the mix of textures in the inspiration photo provided me with the starting point for my card. So this is what I came up with:

I used Whisper White for my base and layered this with a mat of Early Espresso, then another piece of Whisper White, having first embossed this piece with my On Point embossing folder. I then created a little 'corner collage', comprising some gold striped vellum, a piece of tree-patterned DSP from the 'Trim The Tree' stack, a gold and snaller silver foil starburst circle, and then two Christmas trees - one stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in gold on Early Espresso cardstock and the other stamped in Early Espresso on Whisper White, with the baubles heat embossed in gold and a few silver rhinestones added for extra sparkle. A couple of silver glimmer paper stars top the trees and I looped some silver thread removed from some silver baker's twine behind them. To finish, I stamped my sentiment in between the embossed area in Early Espresso and Versamark heat embossed in gold. Collage-style cards are not my usual thing, but I must confess I enjoyed getting slightly carried away with this card and am really pleased with the result.

Do pop over to the Color Throwdown blog to see what the other designers have created using this colour palette; these ladies do a great job each week and would I'm sure appreciate your visit. I for one will be stalking the gallery with interest!

Back shortly with today's third post! Until the, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Gold Foil Sheets	On Point Textured Impressions Embossing Folders	Trim The Tree Designer Series Paper Stack	Festival Of Trees Photopolymer Bundle	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents
Gold Fancy Foil Designer Vellum	Silver Fancy Foil Designer Vellum	Silver Glimmer Paper	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Early Espresso A4 Card Stock
Starburst Framelits Dies	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Silver Baker's Twine

Today's card is for this week's Colour Me...! card challenge where we have are working with a subtle palette of autumnal browns:

I also decided to use the rather unusual sketch layout over at Create With Connie and Mary for my card this week. Here is my card:

I used Soft Suede as my card base and layered a piece of paper from the Trim The Tree DSP stack at an angle across the bottom of the card. For the main image, I used the tree from the Nuts About You hostess set and having inked it up with my Soft Suede and Cajun Craze Stampin' Up! markers, stamped in out onto very Vanilla cardstock and partially cut out using my circle framelits, fussy cutting the leaves so that they would overhang the edge of the circle. I deliberately created a streaky finish on the tree truck to make it look a little bit like tree bark. I stamped both the sentiment and little creature (is it a possum? I'm really not sure what he's supposed to be, but he's cute all the same!) in Versamark and heat embossed them with Early Espresso embossing powder. I fussy cut the animal and adhered him over the tree so that he looked like he was 'hanging in there'. I finished with some strips of Early Espresso and a piece of retired Early Espresso taffeta ribbon to complete my card.

I made this card for a female friend who is having a tough time of it recently and I wanted to send her a little something to brighten her day and just let her know I was thinking of her. I really liked the finished card, then I read on a blog somewhere this week that it was the author's view that a thinking of you/get well card should always be in brighter colours to lift the recipients mood. As someone who was entirely happy with her card until I read this, and who also loves bright colours, I'm now having second thoughts  - maybe I should remake it with something less subtle; what do you think? Either way, I still love today's card!

Feel free to leave a comment on today's card, before hopping over to check out the amazing cards by the rest of the Colour Me...! team:

Nuts About You Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Many Marvelous Markers	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Circles Collection Framelits Dies
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Soft Suede A4 Card Stock	Early Espresso A4 Card Stock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Stampin' Emboss Powder Early Espresso	Trim The Tree Designer Series Paper Stack

Today has been a busy day full of highs and lows: a poorly boy at home and a central heating boiler that has packed up and won't be fixed until early next week, but also a pleasant Ladies Afternoon at a local salon and a fun-filled evening at our annual Bonfire and Fireworks Display at school. All in all a busy one and a late blog, so I'd best get on with today's card! Today's creation uses this week's sketch over at Mojo Monday combined with the colour challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary:

I really liked this sketch and thought the colour combination was an interesting one, as I wouldn't normally choose to combine blue with red on a Christmas card, so I wanted to have a play and see if I could make it work. Here is my card:

I used Cherry Cobbler for my base and added a strip of Lost Lagoon followed by a piece of Whisper White trimmed on one side with the Scallop Border Punch and overlaid with a piece of white and Cherry Cobbler patterned paper from the Trim the Tree DSP paper stack. To create the pennant banner, I stamped the 'Holiday Happy' stamp from the Mingle All The Way stamp set and coloured it with my Lost Lagoon marker and Cherry Cobbler and Smoky Slate Blendabilities. I added a strip of All is Calm washi tape the the top of the pennant and added a few rhinestones coloured with my Stampin' Up! Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities markers and stamped the 'Happy' banner a second time on a scrap of Whisper white cardstock, which I then cut out with my paper snips and popped on a couple of dimensionals for a little extra interest. To finish, I added a piece of Lost Lagoon Silky Taffeta Ribbon tied in a bow.

I rather like the finished look of today's card and this colour combo is certainly one I would consider using again.

Back tomorrow with my design card for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players.

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Mingle All The Way Clear-Mount Stamp Set	All Is Calm Designer Washi Tape	Trim The Tree Designer Series Paper Stack	Lost Lagoon 3/8" Silky Taffeta Ribbon	Lost Lagoon A4 Cardstock
2014-2016 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Scallop Edge Border Punch	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad
Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents

Good evening lovely blog readers! Now I know it's Sunday and for me that's normally an early post with my Design Team card for The Paper Players, right? Well, those lovely ladies have given me a week off as I'm heading to Brussels for Stampin' Up!'s European Convention later this week and so won't be around to comment on all the lovely cards in the challenge gallery or choose my favourite. This week Ann has a colour challenge for you so why not pop over to The Paper Players challenge blog for some great design team inspiration and to link up your card? If you need a little inspiration from me, check out my card for Sandy's sketch challenge a couple of weeks ago - you can find it here - as by complete coincidence I used this week's challenge colour palette on my card. I'll be back 'with the programme' next Sunday and my blog post will be scheduled to go live before I return home from Brussels, so normal service will resume then.

For those of you that don't already know, Stampin' Up!'s European Convention is an annual event that is exclusive to demonstrators and is a great opportunity to meet other demonstrators, craft, gain business insight and knowledge and be rewarded for achievements in sales and recruitment throughout the year. I will be bringing you more information about the event here on my blog later this week and will be sharing news and excitement via my Facebook Page whilst I'm away too, so if you haven't already 'liked' my page, hop on over and do it today so that you don't miss out on all the latest news, excitement and maybe even a few 'sneak peeks'.

Anyway, onto the crafty stuff! I managed to squeeze in some crafting today so made a card for this week's challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches, which had the following sketch for inspiration:

This is what I decided to do with it:

I decided to use my Santa Stache Santa stamp - gotta love that mustache! - which I coloured with my Blendabilities markers, and combined it with some of the bold striped paper from the Trim The Tree DSP paper stack for the patterned panel.

That's all from me for today; back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Santa Stache Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Mustache Framelits Die	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Skin Tone Assortment	Garden Green A4 Card Stock
Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad	Trim The Tree Designer Series Paper Stack	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

Yay - it's Friday! I've had a productive craft day today, even if no housework managed to get done (ah well, there's always tomorrow for that!) and am finally finding time to write today's blog post. I used this week's sketch over at Retrosketches to make today's Christmas card and broke out my Festival of Trees stamp set for the first time. Here's the sketch I based my card on:

A great layered layout - and here's what I did with it:

I based my card around the graphic Christmas tree design paper from the Trim The Tree DSP stack - these are so great for making cards! - and having layered this piece onto my Early Espresso card base and a mat of Whisper White, I embossed a piece of gold foil with the On Point embossing folder, which looks like little Christmas tree shapes, then followed this with a smaller piece of Whisper White mounted on Early Espresso and stamped with the first part of the sentiment that comes with the Festival of Trees stamp set. I then added my Christmas tree, which I stamped in Early Espresso on Whisper White, then stamped the baubles in Versamark and heat embossed them in gold - in real life they are really shiny and contrast beautiful with the dark brown of the tree. Oh and did I mention how easy it was to punch out with my co-ordinating tree punch? No? Well, it's a doddle!

An unconventional colour scheme for a Christmas card maybe, but I like it! Before I forget - I'm also joining up with the lovely Darnell's NBUS challenge - pretty much everything other than ink and solid colour cardstock that I used today was officially 'Never Before Used Stuff!'

Right - I'm off to catch up on some of the jobs that I should have been doing at home today. Back tomorrow with another Christmas card in an altogether more conventional colour scheme -until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Festival Of Trees Photopolymer Bundle	On Point Textured Impressions Embossing Folders	Trim The Tree Designer Series Paper Stack	Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad	Early Espresso A4 Card Stock
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder
Gold Foil Sheets