Yay! It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players. We loved your watercoloured creations last week; today the lovely Ann is hosting and she has a sketch challenge for us - and you know how I love a good sketch! This is the sketch layout:

So many possibilities for this great sketch, but I decided that today I had to go with a birthday card for 2 reasons: I have lots of birthdays coming up in the next month, so I need to get into a birthday groove, but more importantly, today the lovely Ann is also celebrating her birthday, so it seemed entirely appropriate. I have sent a card (not this one!) in the post, but I'm not sure she will have received it in time for the big day so I'm playing safe with a virtual one too! I decided to use a piece of Birthday Bash paper as the inspiration for my colour scheme, and paired this with a retiring stamp set, Well Worded:

I used Tangelo Twist for my base and a mat of Bermuda Bay, then used a split layer with Birthday Bash DSP across the top and Whisper White along the bottom. I covered the join with pennants in co-ordinating colours, then stamped my birthday cake in Tangelo Twist with Bermuda Bay candles and cut this out with my Big Shot and Oval framelits, matting it onto a slightly larger oval that I paper pierced using my piercing template. To finish, I added a final sentiment to the bottom corner using the 'birthday girl' stamp from the 'Hooray It's Your Day' set - this set co-ordinates with the project kit of the same name, but is useful for lots of cards and can be used for some fun personalisation - this card could equally be tailored to a 'birthday boy' and you wouldn't even need to change the colours. I stamped a trio of stars from the same set in co-ordinating colours to finish my fun birthday card. 

So before you reach for your paper and inks, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

I hope my birthday card puts you in a celebratory mood today - best wishes to Ann for a super day and I look forward to seeing what you make with our sketch this week.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hooray It's Your Day Photopolymer Stamp Set	Birthday Bash Specialty Designer Series Paper	Well Worded Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Ovals Collection Framelits Dies
Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Occasions Paper-Piercing Pack	Paper-Piercing Tool	Stampin' Pierce Mat
Tangelo Twist Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangelo Twist A4 Cardstock	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad
Old Olive A4 Card Stock	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Crushed Curry

Today I have another card using the moustache stamp from Well Worded. It was still out on my desk from this card that I made with it the other day, so I took the opportunity to use it again for today's card for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge; I also used the colours over at The Color Throwdown this week, where they are really suited to another Valentine's or anniversary card:

This one is definitely made with a man in mind - here is my card:

I layered a couple of rectangles of paper from the 'Stacked with Love' DSP paper stack onto a base of Basic Black cardstock (I am so making the most of my 'Stacked with Love' DSP!), then a Real Red heart cut out with my Hearts framelits and a moustache stamped in Memento Black onto Whisper White, which I then cut out with my mustache framelit and popped up on a couple of dimensionals. To finish, I stamped my hashtag sentiment in Versamark and heat embossed it in white.

Another simple, modern card that would work well for Valentine's Day, a wedding anniversary or just to say 'I love you' card. 

I'm also linking up with the 4 Crafty Chicks, where the theme this week is anniversary cards.

Back tomorrow with this week's card for a new challenge over at The Paper Players; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Stacked With Love Designer Series Paper Stack	Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Mustache Framelits Die	Versamark Pad
Embossing Buddy	White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Hearts Collection Framelits Dies
Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Real Red A4 Card Stock

I'm having a busy day today; productive though, so I'm not complaining! Today's post is a quick one - I'm sharing my card for Less is More this week where the colour challenge is to use black, metallic and one other colour on your card. Now I must confess, this card was embarrasingly quick to put together, but I am also rather pleased with the finished result - here it is:

I decided to use Basic Black for my card base, then layered with a red glimmer heart cut out with my Big Shot and Heart Framelits and topped with a black moustache onto which I stamped the corresponding stamp from the 'Well Worded' stamp set in Versamark and heat embossed in gold, before cutting out with my moustache framelit. To finish, I stamped my hashtag sentiment from the '#hello' stamp set and heat embossed in gold onto the base of my card. Simple right? It really is as easy as that! Don't get me wrong, I experimented with lots of different versions of this card before I decided on this one as my preferred version to share, but end to end you could produce this card in minutes - and who doesn't love a moustache?! I think this makes a great guy card, despite the glimmer.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Well Worded Clear-Mount Stamp Set	(Hashtag) Hello Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder
Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Mustache Framelits Die	Hearts Collection Framelits Dies	Red Glimmer Paper
Basic Black A4 Card Stock