Apologies for the lack of blog posts this week but the weather has taken a turn for the better here in the UK so I have taken the opportunity to spend some time giving my garden some much-needed TLC and enjoying spending time outdoors with the youngest of my James Juniors who is still on Easter break until early next week. Today it's Sunday though and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the wonderful Jaydee to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge, for you to work with:

So many ways I could have gone with this one! In the end I decided that having spent some time this week sorting through the old to make way for the new, it would be a great opportunity to share some retiring favourites with you  - take a look:

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

A Birthday Marquee Message - I have had a lot of fun with this stamp set: great for invitations, birthdays and more general celebrations, Marquee messages works for clean and simple and more detailed and layered cards. Here I've heat-embossed the outlines in silver and paper-pieced the various elements together, stamping the central wording with my Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blends. To finish I added a whole bunch of rhinestones to the arrow - it made a fair dent in a new packet, but it was so worth it for the finished effect - after all, who doesn't want their birthday message up in lights?! 

Pick A Neutral Pattern - I decided to use something with a little pattern for my background, but that wouldn't detract from my focal point sign and this black and white pattern from the Pick A Pattern designer series paper collection was the perfect choice. 

Colour Movers and Shakers - My card also features two colours that are about to retire and one that is about to move colour families as a result of the Colour Revamp. I will miss Island Indigo more than Tangerine Tango for sure, but am very exciting by the new colours that will be joining our new families in their place. My third colour, Real Red, is thankfully sticking around, but moving from Brights to Regals as part of the reshuffle. Here are today's colours should you wish to save this colour combo, but remember - you only have until May 7th to guarantee supplies of the retiring colours, so be sure to stock up before they're gone:

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. 

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

I can't wait to see what you create with this week's sketch and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly. I am hoping to get out into the garden again and enjoy the rest of the nice weather before it departs and leaves us with cooler temperatures later this week. I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Marquee Messages Photopolymer Stamp Set (£19.00)	Pick A Pattern Designer Series Paper (£10.00)	Basic Black A4 Cardstock (£7.25)	Island Indigo A4 Cardstock (£7.25)	Tangerine Tango A4 Cardstock (£7.25)
Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Real Red A4 Cardstock (£7.25)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.50)
Rhinestone Basic Jewels (£4.50)	Versamark Pad (£7.75)

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a colour combination for you:

This struck me as a rather masculine colour combination, although this may be just because I have male cards on the brain lately with lots of masculine birthdays on the horizon. I decided to break out a stamp set that I've had for a while but not yet used - here's my card:

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

Marquee Messages - I used the stamp set 'Marquee Messages' on my card today, with a full-on birthday greeting. This is such a fun stamp set with a variety of greetings that mean it can be used for birthdays, invitations or to congratulate. I coloured the central element of my sentiment with Dapper Denim ink and my blender pen for a slightly ombre look. 

Little Foxy Stripes - The neat grey and white stripes on my background are from the Little Foxy DSP stack - yet not a fox in sight! It's always worth checking out the patterns as sometimes you can find neutral patterns such as this that make great backgrounds.

Paper-Pieced Neon -  For the arrow and box sign elements of my card I got out my paper snips and did a little fussy cutting to allow me to paper-piece them on my card. I wanted bold blocks of colour just like a neon sign; of could I had to add some pearl light bulbs and a couple of gold glimmer stars too for a real touch of glamour 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. 

Do visit the other Design Team members to see what they did with this week's colours; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Marquee Messages Photopolymer Stamp Set	Gold Glimmer Paper	Dapper Denim A4 Cardstock	Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangerine Tango A4 Cardstock
A Little Foxy Designer Series Paper Stack	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Pearl Basic Jewels