Today I'm sharing a card for the final challenge over at CAS(E) This Sketch:

I'm so sad this challenge is ending! I thought this sketch was a tricky one, and I did take quite a liberal interpretation, but since it was the very last one I couldn't not play along. After much consideration, I decided to go with dandelions for my card - take a look:

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

A Dandelion Trio - I've both a trio of dandelions and a trio of dandelion products on today's card! The first is the beautiful Dandelions 3D embossing folder from the main catalogue. This embossing folder is the makings of a card in itself and I thought the positioning of the dandelion seed heads worked really well for the tag elements of the sketch - just check out the detail:

I addition to the embossed dandelions, Once I'd added my strip of DSP (more on that in a moment) I added a scored line at the edge of the paper to tie it into my embossed design, which you can just see on the photo above. A small and subtle detail, but it really adds to the finished appearance of the card.

Dandy Garden - I decided I needed something to represent the vertical element of the sketch, so decided that some of the dandelion-patterned paper from the Dandy Garden DSP pack in the current mini catalogue woould do the trick. I used a strip of white and Bumblebee for my first card, then I also made a second card and used a strip of the Calypso Coral design. On both cards I used a circle punch to remove a semi-circle so that my strip fit around my embossed dandelion head:

My customes and team know how much I have a love-hate relationship with the dandelion designs in the Dandy Garden DSP pack; I am not keen on the bold designs of proper yellow dandelions in this pack (they realy are just weeds, right?!) but I do love the reverse patterns that depict the more whispy dandelion seed heads that I've used here. Here's a shot of each of the cards together - which one do you prefer?

Dandelion Wishes - Finally, I paired my embossed design and DSP border with a heat-embossed sentiment from the 'Dandelion Wishes' stamp set - the third dandelion element. I also used the dandelion stamp in this set to add some decoration to the inside of my card:

I added a trio of faceted gems to the front to complete my card. So what do you think - did I do the final CAS(E) This Sketch justice? I hope so.

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. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

DANDELIONS 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£9.25)	DANDELION WISHES CLING STAMP SET (£19.00)	TASTEFUL LABELS DIES (£29.00)	DANDY GARDEN 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)
VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

Happy Monday everyone! So no snow here over the weekend in the UK, much to the disappointment of the James Juniors, but more than enough rain - with more on the way! So I'm staying away from the flood waters and dreaming of distant shores today with a card inspired by the inspiration photo over at The Card Concept that also uses the sketch over at Fusion:

As much as I love the Fusion inspiration photo, I wanted to use the sketch to create a Clean and Layered card using some rather neglected annual catalogue supplies for The Card Concept - take a look:

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

World of Good - I chose to break out some of the World of Good papers for today's card, which reminded me of the colours and textures in the CC inspiration photo. Having chosen a piece of embossed map paper for my main panel, I then used this as the basis for the colour scheme for the rest of my card. 

Beautiful World - There isn't a huge amount of stamping on today's card, since it's the diecuts and paper that takes centre stage. That said, the sentiment, detail for the base of my globe and the detail inside my card are all courtesy of the 'Beautiful World' stamp set, which is about travel in the traditional sense but also personal journeys, which is where I went with my card today. You can see how the sentiment finishes inside my card below:

World Map Dies - I decided to pick up on the gold embossed detail of my paper by using a golden globe (not of the acting award kind!) as the focal point for my card. I backed this with a vellum panel, as I didn't want to detract from that wonderful map paper. I adhered my globe to it, then added glue to the reverse of the vellum where the globe was to enable me to add this to my card base without seeing any adhesive through the vellum. 

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. 

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with this week's card for our new colour challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WORLD OF GOOD SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)

BEAUTIFUL WORLD BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£45.00)

CINNAMON CIDER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)

VELLUM A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.25)

EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the fifth Sunday of the month so the lovely Laurie is hosting this week and she has a fun tic-tac-toe challenge board for us to work with:

I used Julee's current Mojo Monday sketch as the basis for my card and went top left to bottom right on the diagonal across the board with die cut-embossing-blue for another fruity card for you this week - take a look:

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

Berry Blessings - Today's card is all about the free - free product that is! Both the stamp set and the designer series papers on today's card are part of the Berry Blessings bundle that is one of the free products available with a Stampin' Up! order of £90 or more during Sale-A-Bration. I love the designer papers that feature both the blueberries and raspberries in the bundled stamp set and also the strawberries from the Sweet Strawberry bundle - fruity patterns and also some fabulous checks and plaid. This card is all about the blues and greens, so I chose two plaids that would co-ordinate with my blueberry focal point. They just so happen to also be perfect for Stesha's takeover at TGIF Challenges this week where they are all about the plaid too. I also used the stamp set for the sentiment and a little extra stamping on the inside of my card too:

Stitched Shapes - The layers of Julee's sketch allowed me to fully indulge of my love of stitched shapes: rectangles for the background and then a circle as the base for my fussy cut berries. These are my most used of all my dies and the circles are for sure a staple - I just love the way they elevate a humble shape into something just a little bit more.

It's In The Details - I did a lot of fussy cutting on my berries and leaves, so wanted to add only a few extra small details. The embossing that completes my tic-tac-toe line is both dry embossing using my favourite Subtles folder on the white layer, and a white heat-embossed sentiment on my blue sentiment banner. I also added a simple white twine bow (with my banner that makes my two things from the Just Add Ink list this week) and a single pearl to the centre of my blue flower. You can see those finishing touches better below:

I really love how this card came together. Pacific Point was one of the first ink pads I ever bought when I started stamping, yet it isn't a colour I use often now so it was great to get it out for this card. I love that most of the rest of the product that I used was free - links to the store below if you'd like to snap up this bundle 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 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:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your day; we were forecast more snow here in the UK this weekend, but yesterday both James Juniors were disappointed to find temperatures had plummeted but it was more like freezing rain than snow. Today they will be hoping for the proper white stuff so that we can build another snowman! If not, we have some cooking to do and we might even get cracking on a knitting project that we've been promising to start for a while. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BERRY BLESSINGS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£0.00)	SWEET STRAWBERRY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£17.00)	STITCHED SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	RECTANGLE STITCHED DIES (£33.00)	SUBTLE 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£9.25)
TRIPLE BANNER PUNCH (£21.00)	SNAIL MAIL TWINE COMBO PACK (£6.50)	PACIFIC POINT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)
WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	PACIFIC POINT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
PEARL BASIC JEWELS (£4.75)

Today I'm sharing a couple of cards I made using the first sketch of the year over at Fab Friday:

It's definitely a keeper, and is a sketch with lots of possibilities - I would definitely suggest you check out the DT cards and those in this week's gallery, as there are some great crafty creations. I considered a few options, but ended up going super simple and making a couple of cards to showcase some of my favourite FREE Sale-A-Bration papers - take a look:

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

I just love the colours and bold floral patterns of the Paper Blooms paper, so decided to make a couple of cards with two of the patterns. A simple Night of Navy offset mat, sentiment in a Stitched Rectangle and added a loop of denim ribbon to each:

Here's the second one that I made where I flipped the colours:

And a shot of both cards together:

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. 

Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

PAPER BLOOMS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£0.00)	HYDRANGEA HAVEN PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£24.00)	RECTANGLE STITCHED DIES (£33.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
PETAL PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	SEASIDE SPRAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	3/8" (1 CM) DENIM RIBBON (£6.50)

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

I chose a simple layout for my sketch so that it give lots of creative licence. I decided to take the opportunity to break out another new bundle, or two bundles in fact. Today's card is all about the berries - take a look:

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

Sweet Strawberry - Today's starting point was the strawberry that I used to anchor my sentiment - courtesy of the Sweet Strawberry stamp set. The set comes complete with two-step stamps for a berry, flower, leaf and stem, in addition to a selection of varied sentiments. Interesting fact for you: did you know that technically, a strawberry is not actually a berry at all? Botanists call the strawberry a "false fruit," or a pseudocarp. A strawberry is actually a multiple fruit which consists of many tiny individual fruits embedded in a fleshy receptacle. Who knew?! I also used the stamps to decorate the inside of my card:

Strawberry Builder Punch Tip - A stamp set with a co-ordinating punch is always great for quick embellishments and whilst I've shared this tip with you before, I thought it worth reminding you of a great way to save even more time with a builder-type punch. Create a mask using a piece of cardstock with all of the pieces punched out as a guide to stamp the individual pieces. This way, when you put the stamped cardstock into the punch, all of the images are aligned and punch out perfectly - check out the photo below to see what I mean:

Berry Blessings - What could be better than one berry bundle? Well, two of course! One of this year's Sale-A-Bration freebies with a £90 purchase is the Berry Blessings bundle, comprising the Berry Blessings stamp set that features the sentiment on the front of my card along with the Berry Delightful DSP, full of great berry patterns and coloured ginghams and plaids. These bundles co-ordinate perfectly with each other and if you have one, you are probably going to want the other too - check out the hand-painted look below:

This is the first card I've made with these bundles, but they won't be the last - there lots more berries, patterns and colours to choose from!

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:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

IEnjoy your day; we are forecast snow here in the UK today; the James Juniors are very excited, although I'm not sure it will be enough to build a snowman - I'll update you tomorrow! I'll be back then with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SWEET STRAWBERRY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£30.50)	BERRY BLESSINGS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£0.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	STITCHED SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)
WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the lovely Claire to host this week and she has a seasonal clean and simple  challenge for us to work with:

I used the sketch over at Global Design Project for my layout (I rotated it through 180 degrees) and was also inspired by the snowman and the blue and white winter sentiment over at Hand Stamped Sentiments this week for my clean and simple snow card - take a look:

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

I used the Oh So Ombre free Sale-A-Bration paper as the base for my card and heat-embossed the cute skyward-looking snowman onto the ombre paper in white, adding a little extra white with a chalk marker. I added my sentiment, finishing with the word 'snow' made out of the Playful Alphabet letters in white and replacing the 'o' with a glittery white glimmer paper snowflake. Finally I added a sprinkling of sequins from a selection of mixes in my stash amongst the falling snow:

I think I might add this card to next year's Christmas card stash - not that it ever snows here in the UK at Christmas, much to the disappointment of the James Juniors who continue to live in hope! We had the tiniest dusting yesterday morning first thing but it didn't hang around, and we are forecast a return to drizzle and grey skies by today! Hope my little snowman brings some cheer your way in lieu of some sunshine.

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:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your day; nothing much happening here this weekend as we continue to endure lockdown. I am enjoying having more time to read and build Lego and as a family we seem to have rediscovered chess this past week as we finished watching 'The Queen's Gambit' on Netflix. If you haven't seen it, I can highly recommend it. And you can't bit a game of chess for immersive distraction! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

SNOWMAN SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£17.00)	PLAYFUL ALPHABET DIES (£32.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	BERMUDA BAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
WHITE STAMPIN' CHALK MARKER (£3.25)	OH SO OMBRE 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£0.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

Today I'm sharing a card that I made yesterday using the current colours over at Color Throwdown and this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch:

I love the palette of browns and rust over at Color Throwdown and though they would be the perfect colours to try out a stamp set that I've had on the shelf for a while but not yet inked up. Using the long and skinny layout of Jen M's sketch (albeit with a few liberties in terms of layering my images) this is what I came up with:

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

Walk In The Woods - I love the woodland images in the 'Walk In The Woods' set and I was tempted to try some no-line watercolouring with them, but decided instead to colour them with my Stampin' Blends markers. I fussy cut my hedgehog and popped him up on dimensionals in front of the toadstools. 

Tasteful Textile - Once I'd coloured my images, I added some texture to my stamped layer by running it through my Tasteful Textile embossing folder, which adds a lovely look and feel. Because I was making a longer slimline card, this required two passes through my diecuttting machine, one from each end of the cardstock, but the random embossing pattern meant this was easy enough to do as I didn't need the embossing to line up in any way. Hopefully you can see the subtle texture a little better below:

Everything Will Be Okay - I used this sentiment from the same stamp set as I needed a 'get well soon' card, but it would be useful for other occasions too - even just to cheer someone up on a dreary winter day - and we have plenty of those at the moment, 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. 

School's out for the day so we are going for a quick walk to blow off the cobwebs before it get's too dark. Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WALK IN THE WOODS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)	TASTEFUL TEXTILE 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£8.25)	VERY VANILLA A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	EARLY ESPRESSO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
CINNAMON CIDER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	CINNAMON CIDER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BRONZE & IVORY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SOFT SUEDE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CRUMB CAKE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)
RECTANGLE STITCHED DIES (£33.00)	CINNAMON CIDER 2020–2022 IN COLOR RIBBON (£5.50)	2020–2022 IN COLOR ENAMEL DOTS (£7.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Ann to host this week and she has an interesting colour challenge for us to work with:

Now I know I said Ann had an 'interesting' colour challenge for us this week ... what I really meant to say was 'incredibly difficult'!! Or at least, it was for me this week! Whilst I don't mind any of these colours in their own, or even paired, as a trio I struggled with them. All three are featured in the new Dandy Garden designer series paper, and usually DSP would be my first port of call for a colour challenge, but the truth is I am not a fan of this pack! Or at least, I should qualify that by saying I'm not a fan of the sides with mixed colours - the monochromatic patterns in this pack are just lovely! Anyway, I had to call in help for this one, both in the form of this week's Paper Craft Crew sketch and a certain James Junior - take a look at what we came up with:

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

A Trio Of Triangles - I was drawn to this week's PCC sketch with its three triangles, as I had been having a team chat this week with one of my team who has been using her stitched triangles as part of an ongoing challenge and I mentioned that I had bought these before Christmas but not yet used them and I thought the sketch would be a good way to remedy that. The trio would also enable me to work in this week's colours, so provided a great starting point.

A Darling Donkey - I then needed to decide upon my neutral colour; this is where Rebecca, the self-confessed 'brains' behind today's card, suggested I go with grey and a donkey from the super cute 'Darling Donkeys' stamp set, one of the sets that can be yours free with a £45 spend during Sale-A-Bration. So I coloured one of the funny kicking donkeys and fussy cut it out - perfect!

Hinge-Step HeeHaw - Finally, I just had to work out what to do use for the horizontal background panel. I decided to go with a tri-colour sentiment block, made up of alternating colours of 'heehaw!', one of the sentiments in the Darling Donkeys set. I used my Stampuratus and moved the plates up and down the hinge to perfectly space my words to create a seamless flow across the page. The Stamparatus made light work of the stamping, although 'the hands' (Rebecca's reference to my contribution!) were definitely not working as quickly as 'the brain' (apparently, since it was all her idea!!) I finished my card with a birthday sentiment and a trio of enamel dots. 

Despite my initial reservations about this week's colours, I'm actually pretty pleased with the end result. What do you think? Did Team James pull it off?! Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'll be linking today's card up over at SUO Challenges too where they have 'Designer's Choice' themes this week.

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:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your day; I'm hoping to do a little crafting and maybe wrap up and brave the elements for a brisk walk - but I'll see what the temperatures are like first! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

STITCHED TRIANGLES DIES (£33.00)	DARLING DONKEYS CLING STAMP SET (£0.00)	CLASSIC LABEL PUNCH (£17.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	BLACKBERRY BLISS A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BLACKBERRY BLISS CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BUMBLEBEE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BUMBLEBEE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	MISTY MOONLIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MISTY MOONLIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHITE STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	2020–2022 IN COLOR ENAMEL DOTS (£7.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for the first challenge of the new year over at The Paper Players! We have a new trio of guest designers to welcome - hello to Debbie, Amanda and Nancy, and it's the turn of the fabulous LeAnne to host this week and she the perfect theme challenge for you to work with:

Something new - what a great theme to get our craft on into the new year! I have so many lovely new things that can't wait to share with you - I was truly spoilt for choice! I decided to use the current layout over at The Spot and use new papers, foils dies and stamps on today's card  - take a look:

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

Floral Heart Centrepiece - Today's card features a number of new items from the Love You Always suite, which includes two stamp set and die bundles. On today's card I used the fancy floral heart as my centrepiece, cut from Rococco Rose foil to compliment the foiled specialty paper that I used for my panel piece and decorated it with some additional flowers and foliage cut from other dies in the set. Isn't it just so pretty?!

Love You Always Foils - There are both solid foils and specialty foiled paper in the suite. It's always difficult to show foil to full effect on a photograph, so you'll have to take my word for it how beautiful and shiny it is! Here's another view that hopefully captures some of it for you:

Always In My Heart - The Floral Heart Dies alone are fabulous, but it also had a lovely stamp set too. I decided to go with a white heart for the front of my card, stamped in Merry Merlot (I think this red compliments Rococco Rose beautifully) given that I had used Merry Merlot for my card base and finished with a little extra stamping on the inside of my card:

It is my wedding anniversary in February, so I might save this one and use it for my dear hubby - if that's not too organised of me! So what do you think? Is the 'Love You Always' Suite one you can see yourself falling in love with? Do leave me a comment below - I will be sharing more projects using new products from this suite in the coming weeks.

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:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. No links to the online store today as these products are not available to purchase until 5th January; only another couple of days to wait though!

Enjoy your day; we will be taking our Christmas decorations down today as Jason is back to work tomorrow and this is definitely a two-person job. The Juniors have another week of Christmas vacation but if they had their way, we would have Christmas decorations up until April, so they can't be relied upon to help in a constructive way so it's not a job that can be left until Twelfth Night!! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

ALWAYS IN MY HEART BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£46.75)	LOVE YOU ALWAYS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)	LOVE YOU ALWAYS FOIL SHEETS (£9.25)	MERRY MERLOT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MERRY MERLOT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	ROCOCO ROSE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's our last challenge of 2020 and the turn of the amazing Claire to host this week. She has a colour challenge for you to work with:

I've been super busy this week so have not been a frequent blogger I'm afraid. To make amends, I have two cards for you today! I'm still making Christmas cards and wanted to play along with challenge over at The Card Concept because I loved the textures in the inspiration photo so I decided to make two cards, both using the Fab Friday sketch layout: a silver, black and white one for my Paper Players card and then a gold, black and white version for The Card Concept. So first up - here's my Paper Players card:

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

Both cards feature a pair of ornaments from the Christmas Gleaming set, one heat embossed on Whisper White card and the other onto Basic Black, along with piece of foil embossed with the Parisian Flourish 3D embossing folder and wiped with black ink for a slightly more aged look, black and silver/gold glimmer paper, tassels, gem embellishments and mesh ribbon and twine bows. Just check out the texture and detail:

I switched out the background embossing folder and one or two other small details to recreate a gold, black and white version:

I'm going for a 'classy and elegant' look with my cards today: the polished, shiny finish, layered textures and sparkly embellishments are a definite change from my normal 'clean and layered' style, but I quite like them. I think the sparkle and shine balances all the black and the textures are just lovely:

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's projects 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:

This is our last challenge of the year before we take a short break over Christmas. It is time to say thank you and goodbye to Stef, Allisa and Mary, our fabulous guest designers this year. They have all been fabulous and we will miss them lots! 

Enjoy your day; I am going to try and finish writing my Christmas cards today, whilst also squeezing in some festive baking and maybe just a little crafting too. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

CHRISTMAS GLEAMING CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£14.00)	PARISIAN FLOURISH 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£9.25)	SILVER FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	SILVER STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)
RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£4.75)	SUBTLE 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£9.25)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

CHRISTMAS GLEAMING CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£14.00)	PARISIAN FLOURISH 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£9.25)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
GOLD STAMPIN’ EMBOSS POWDER (£5.50)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)	GILDED GEMS (£6.50)	TASTEFUL TEXTILE 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£8.25)