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 seasonal clean and simple challenge for us to work with:

Winter animals - so many options! I decided to dig out a rather neglected stamp set of late and using Judy's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches and very much inspired by the snow and blue tones over at AAA Cards  set to work on my clean and simple card - take a look:

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

 I diecut a circle from my white cardfront and added a piece of Beauty of the Earth paper with a watercoloured blue behind and stamped some bushes and twigs in Versamark across the aperture and heat embossed them in silver. I then also stamped and fussy cut a leaf branch and arctic fox, heat embossed them both in silver then added some shading with my Smoky Slate Blends, before finishing with a sentiment from 'timeless Tulips' and a sprinkling of sequins. You can see the detail on the fox and the shine of the metallic slightly better below:

A quick reminder to all of you playing along over at The Paper Players this week, in addition to the theme of winter animals, it is more importantly 'clean and simple' week. What does this mean?

• minimal layers and embellishments
• clean, white space

 I liked this card so much I made another one, mirroring the sketch and using the arctic rabbit as the focal point:

 I used a different sentiment on this one - this one comes from the new 'Honeybee Home' set - but I like this card just as much as the fox. Again, you can see the shine and detail slightly better below:

Since my second card also uses this week's colours over at Just Us Girls of white, silver and light blue, I'll be linking it up there.

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. 

And one last photo of both cards together - which one do you prefer? I like them both and it was nice to give this stamp some love again.

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

Enjoy your day; having spent yesterday outside in the freezing fog watching the oldest of the James Juniors play hockey whilst hubby went to watch the youngest do the same (fun games and wins all round, so that helped!), we are all looking forward to a day indoors enjoying the warmth today! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

NATURE'S BEAUTY CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)

BEAUTY OF THE EARTH 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)

LAYERING CIRCLES DIES (£33.00)

SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)

METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and I am the featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

I went down the first column with Winter/Sentiment/Circle and made a simple wintry thank you card - take a look:

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

Wintry Blues - The Beauty of the Earth designer papers contain lots of wonderful leafy images featuring trees and greenery and I used lots of them during the autumn in particular and I have been wanting to create something with this beautiful blue and grey watercolour-inspired pattern. I didn't get the opportunity to incorporate it into a Christmas card, but thought it would made a lovely centrepiece for a simple wintry thank you. 

A Surprise Sentiment - When looking for the right sentiment for my card, I came across this one that was perfect - and actually from a set that couldn't be further from the winter season. Do you recognise it? It actually comes from the 'Sweet Ice Cream' stamp set. I thought it would work just as well with a frosty scene, paired with a simple 'thank you' on the inside of my card from the same set. What do you think? Always worth perusing the catalogue - you may be surprised what you will find. Have you ever made any other unusual stamp and paper pairings? Do let me know in the comments below - I'd love to hear about them!

A Subtle Sparkle - Finally, honestly, too difficult to see on the photo, but I brushed each of the watercoloured trees with my clear Wink of Stella brush for an oh so pretty subtle sparkle. I also added a single rhinestone to my heart for a more obvious shine:

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. 

A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge. 

I'm also linking today's card up over at The Alphabet Challenge blog where they are currently on 'T is for Trees'. 

Enjoy your day; I'll be back tomorrow with another project for our new challenge over at As You See It. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BEAUTY OF THE EARTH 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	SWEET ICE CREAM PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)	BASIC GRAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC GRAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	MISTY MOONLIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	PICTURE THIS DIES (£32.00)
RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£4.75)