It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players. There were some great CAS florals last week and this week we have my favourite kind of challenge. My good friend and talented team member LeAnne has a great sketch challenge for us:

I decided this sketch would be great for a DSP showcase, so today I have a very bright and colourful card to share with you:

I covered my entire card front with a piece of one of the 'busy' patterns from the Flowerpot DSP pack then used a piece of vellum to tone down the pattern so that my 'thanks' die cut in Night of Navy would still stand out against the pattern. I wrapped a piece of Tangerine Tango around the vellum in a bow before adhering it to my card base, using glue dots where they are covered by other elements so that they don't show through. I added the second part of my sentiment from the 'Crazy About You' stamp set and layered over my banner trio, punched out of colours I had picked up from the pattern using my banner punch. Lastly, I finished with a bold orange flower finished with a candy dot.

This card has such a clash of bright and bold colours and yet I think they work with the sketch beautifully. There are some great cards from the Design Team this week, all of whom have interpreted the sketch in interesting ways. Do pop by their blogs and take a look:

I look forward to seeing your takes on this week's sketch in our gallery this week. 

No lie in for me as I am off for an early morning of hockey as today is tournament day and then hopefully home again to dinner cooked by the men in our house - this is becoming something of a habit! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Crazy About You Photopolymer Bundle	Flower Pot Designer Series Paper	White Vellum A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad	Regals Candy Dots
Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Night Of Navy A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride
Banner Punch	1-3/4 Inch Scallop Circle Punch

It's Sunday - my favourite day of the week! Why? Well, I usually get a cup of tea in bed before I start my day (and I definitely will today, as it's Mother's Day here in the UK) and it's time for our new challenge over at The Paper Players. This week the hugely talented Ann has a great clean and simple challenge for us:

I love CAS cards and decided that this week's challenge was the perfect opportunity to use my Lotus Blossom stamp that I received during the current Sale-A-Bration promotion. I also paired it with the colours over at Color Throwdown this week as I just love the purples and green of the inspiration photo - here is my card:

This set has been the most popular of all the Sale-A-Bration promotional items that you can receive free with a £45 spend amongst my customers and whilst I've used mine to demonstrate how to stamp the flower to my customers on a number of occasions, this is the first time I've actually used it to make a card - shocking! It's a great flower and perfect for CAS cards. I stamped the sentiment and my first image of the flower in Elegant Eggplant and the same for the second one, having stamped off first. I then stamped the third solid image in Perfect Plum. I used Old Olive for my stem and then stamped the first image again in Versamark, and overstamped the sentiment in Versamark too and heat embossed both of them in clear embossing powder. Try as I might I couldn't get it to show up in the photo, but this does look lovely in real life with a lovely glossy sheen and it adds a little texture to the flower. I matted my stamped panel on a piece of Elegant Eggplant cardstock and a Whisper White base, which really allows my blossom to take centre stage. To finish, I added a trio of pearls that I coloured with the darkest of my Wisteria Wonder Blendabilities (I'm not ready to part with these just yet, even though they are sadly no longer available). If the Lotus Blossom stamp is still on your wish list, you have until the end of March to receive it free with a £45 spend - 16 days left, so don't leave it too late. 

There are a whole host of amazing floral CAS cards from the Design Team this week; do pop by their blogs and take a look:

I look forward to seeing your floral CAS creations in our gallery this week. 

I am off for a morning of hockey and then hopefully home to roast dinner cooked by the men in our house! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Lotus Blossom Photopolymer Stamp Set	Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pad	Perfect Plum Classic Stampin' Pad	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad	Elegant Eggplant A4 Card Stock
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Versamark Pad	Embossing Buddy	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug
Basic Pearls Jewel Accents

Yay it's Sunday and time for another challenge over at The Paper Players. This week it is the turn of the lovely Anne Marie, who has a light and bright colour challenge combo for us:

Laurie's challenge last week has put me firmly in the mood for spring and these colours immediately got me thinking along similar lines. I decided I would have some fun and create an Easter card with a difference - I made a slider card using the 'For Peep's Sake' Easter stamp set. So lots of photos for you today -here's the first one of the outside:

A Crumb Cake base decorated with eggs and a cute little trio of Easter characters stamped using my Stampin' Write markers on Whisper White and fussy cut out, adhered behind some Wild Wasabi grass cut using my fringe scissors - one of this week's Weekly Deals, in case you're thinking of picking up a pair - then you pull the ribbon top to reveal the 'Eggscellent' Easter message and the little chick: 

Here's a close up of the sentiment:

Followed by a close up of that cute little chick with his own message on the slide out portion above:

Isn't he so cute? This was such a fun card to make and I think looks lovely in this week's colours. So which stamp set will you reach for to create with these colours? Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing how you interpret this colour combination in our gallery this week. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Wild Wasabi A4 Card Stock	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	For Peeps' Sake Clear Stamp Set	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad	Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock
Subtles Stampin' Write Markers	2013-2015 In Color Stampin' Write Markers	Crisp Cantaloupe Thick Baker's Twine	Wild Wasabi 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon	So Saffron Classic Stampin' Pad
Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad	Crisp Cantaloupe Classic Stampin' Pad	Fringe Scissors

It's Sunday and you know what that means - a new challenge over at The Paper Players. This week the lovely Laurie has a fun theme to help us shake off our Winter blues:

When I 'think Spring' I immediately think of spring pastels and flowers in bloom, so the obvious choice for my card today was one of my favourite pieces of DSP from the All Abloom DSP stack:

I love the pretty little flowers on this particular paper and wanted to showcase as much of the paper as possible. I decided it would make a great background layer for a shaker-style open window featuring some cute little die cut flowerpots that I cut from kraft and co-ordinating coloured cardstock using my Handpicked Framelit Dies. I finished one of the flowerpots with a tiny Blushing Bride baker's twine bow and used one of the Bitty Banner framelits to cut out the sentiment stamped from the 'From The Garden' stamp set and accented this with a couple of Daffodil Delight candy dots.

Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your visions of Springtime in our gallery this week. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

All Abloom Designer Series Paper Stack	From The Garden Photopolymer Bundle	Bitty Banners Framelits Die	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Pistachio Pudding	Brights Candy Dots
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Strawberry Slush	Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride	Kraft 12" X 12" Card Stock	Blushing Bride Baker's Twine

It's Sunday and time for another challenge over at The Paper Players. Thank you to everyone who played along with my CAS bird challenge last week - there were some fabulous entries. This week the lovely Sandy is hosting and she has a sketch challenge for us - my favourite! Here is her sketch:

I decided to use the colour palette over at Colour Me for my card today - I haven't had the opportunity to play along with these lovely ladies since I finished my Design Team post over there at the start of the year, so time to say 'hello ladies!' to Hayley, Tara and the team. I just so happen to be using another stamp in the 'Time To Celebrate' hostess set that I used on my Paper Players card last week - take a look:

The temptation to use a feather in my design as per the sketch was high, however there are some wonderful examples using feathers by other members of the Design Team, so I decided to look at what else I could use and settled on the hot air balloon instead. My top mat layer is a piece of 'Flashback' DSP, the circle pattern perfect to echo the central circle of the sketch. I embossed a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock with the now retired 'Cloudy Day' embossing folder and sponged the sky in Pool Party around the clouds and framed this with a Real Red circular frame cut with my Big Shot and Circle Framelits. I added a simple sentiment banner with a little fussy cutting around the 'y' in 'you', then mounted the hot air balloon with dimensionals for a little lift. I stamped the balloon on very Vanilla and coloured it with my So Saffron Stampin' Write marker and the lightest of my Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities. I also added a little Crystal Effects to my stars for some additional dimension, although that's quite difficult to see in the photo below: 

That's my card done and I hope you like it. I love the stamps in the 'Time To Celebrate' hostess set - if they are your thing too, please get in touch if you would like to host a party to lay your hands on your very own set. Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing how you interpret Sandy's sketch this week - so many possibilities! 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Time To Celebrate Clear Stamp Set	Flashback Designer Series Paper	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Big Shot Magnetic Platform
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Sponge Daubers	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red A4 Card Stock
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Subtles Stampin' Write Markers

It's Sunday and time for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players - and this week it's a double does of excitement as I am hosting my very first challenge with this wonderfully talented group of ladies. 'Feathered friends' is the theme of my clean and simple challenge this week so I'm looking for a bird (or two!) on your card! Here is the wonderful challenge badge that the lovely Nance has created for this week's challenge:

This is one of those challenges when I was truly spoilt for choice - there are lots of great bird images around at the moment. I decided after my busy week that I was definitely in need of some theraputic colouring, so decided to reach for the quirky bird stamp in the Spring-Summer hostess set, 'Time To Celebrate':

Since this bird doesn't look like any I've ever seen in my garden, I decided to throw caution to the wind and colour him in some totally tropical colours and really go to town! I used my Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry Blendabilities markers and a Tempting Turquoise Stampin' Write marker and got colouring. I love that you can colour images like this and you really don't need to be any kind of expert to get a good result. Here's a close up of my bird so that you can see just how imprecise my colouring is: 

I really would urge anyone who is reading this and not tried colouring with Blendabilities to give it a go - I guarantee you'll like the results! I paired my bird with a piece of brightly coloured 'Sweet Taffy' paper and added a few simple banners in co-ordinating colours to finish off my card. I love the colours I used on my card today - Brights are my favourite of the Stampin' Up! colour families, and whilst there isn't a huge amount of 'white space' on my card due to my piece of bold, patterned DSP I love the finished card, which I think still has a clean feel with minimal layers and embellishments.

Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your bird projects in the gallery this week, whether chirpy, quirky or just plain feathered! The children are on half-term holiday this week so we are having a more restful week than usual. I was almost ready for a sport-free day today, when Ben was selected to play in a basketball tournament this afternoon. He is really excited about it though as it's his first one and he LOVES basketball, so is really looking forward to it.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Time To Celebrate Clear Stamp Set	Sweet Taffy Designer Series Paper	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Circles Collection Framelits Dies
Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch	Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock	Rich Razzleberry A4 Card Stock
Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Tempting Turquoise A4 Card Stock	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Rich Razzleberry Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment	Brights Stampin' Write Markers

Good morning lovely blog readers! Today it's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players, where this week the lovely Nance has this great colour combination for us:

I also used this week's sketch over at Mojo Monday for the layout of today's card. I was tempted to use the florals in the inspiration photo as the starting point for my card - isn't the badge great? Nance creates all our blog challenge badges and does such a fantastic job, thank you Nance! - but in the end the lure of my 'Stacked with Love' DSP paper stack was too strong and I decided to make another Valentine's card! Come and take a look:

I used one of the large sentiments from the 'Big on You' stamp set as the focal point for my card and stamped it in Versamark on blackboard paper and heat embossed in white. I rubbed a little white kraft ink around the edges to add to the chalkboard look and feel of this panel. The large sentiment allowed me to use a number of the other DSP patterns for the background layers to my card. Red and black are clearly taking centre stage on my card, but there are a couple of pops of Calypso Coral - both the flag banner behind the strip of punched hearts and in the popped-up heart, finished with a Real Red bow cut with one of the Mini Treat Bag Thinlit accessory dies and a rhinestone. I haven't made a card using these papers for over a week and I was clearly getting withdrawal symptoms; having got them back out on the desk I've been creating with them again and I have a few more cards to share that feature them this week, so stay tuned!

Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery this week. I'm off to hockey this morning and looking forward to an afternoon with a spot of crafting and some fun with the rest of the family before the new week starts again in earnest.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Big On You Photopolymer Stamp Set	Stacked With Love Designer Series Paper Stack	Chalkboard Paper	Versamark Pad	White Stampin' Emboss Powder
Embossing Buddy	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies	Real Red A4 Card Stock
Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Hearts Border Punch	Sweetheart Punch	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players, where this week Claire has the following challenge for us:

I also used Rita's sketch layout over at Freshly Made Sketches for my card this week. Now this week's card caused me some mild consternation, as anyone who knows me knows that I've never really had a pet and so I have been known to get myself into all kinds of trouble with friends for under-estimating the depth of their feelings towards their two-and four-legged friends. I am not intentionally insensitive, it's just that I don't 'get it' - so the idea of creating a Valentine's card for or from a pet sent me into quite a spin! Both James Juniors have had goldfish as pets previously, but since I used fish on my card last week I thought today's card needed an alternative, altogether more fluffy friend - so this is what I came up with:

I created a custom sentiment using my 'Back to Basics' alphabet stamps and added a selection of banners using patterns from the 'Stacked with Love' DSP stack. For the heart-shaped centrepiece, I stamped a pair of adorable bunnies and coloured them in with my Smoky Slate Blendabilities. Do you recognise the bunnies, or should I say, bunny? The bunny on the right is from the 'Baby We've Grown' stamp set. I stamped him once, then having masked him off with a post-it note, I then stamped him again onto a piece of window sheet and using the reflection technique transferred this image onto my cardstock, overlapping the legs slightly. The tiniest drag line on the ear resulted in a cute fold-over look, so I left it, as it made the bunnies a little less symmetrical. Don't they make such a cute pair? I finished this centre piece by framing the bunnies in a Real Red heart-shaped frame cut using my Big Shot and Hearts Framelits and added a tiny punched heart with a rhinestone to the centre. If I had a bunny rabbit, I would be happy to send him this Valentine - job done! I'm also linking up with SUO Challenges today too, where the theme is 'Valentine's Wishes' - very appropriate.

Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery this week.

I'm looking forward to a quiet day today: the hockey pitch is frozen as a result of the sub-zero temperatures we've been having this past week and poor Ben is struggling to shake his cough and cold that he's had for weeks now, so he is going to have a rugby-free week too, as running around a freezing pitch for a couple of hours is certainly not going to improve things. Rebecca and I will be completing the masterpiece that is her ancient Greek theatrical mask, the result of two weeks of paper mache and modelling clay - all being well it should be dry enough to paint. We may even manage to squeeze in another family movie afternoon; last week we watched Malificent for the first time, which was hugely enjoyable and an interesting alternative take on a classic.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Baby, We've Grown	Back To Basics Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set	Hearts Collection Framelits Dies	Stacked With Love Designer Series Paper Stack	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Calypso Coral Assortment
Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players. Last week we were truly overwhelmed with the response to LeAnne's CAS challenge. This week Jaydee has a great sketch for us - and you know how much I love a good sketch! Here is the sketch:

My card today is a cute Valentine, where I finally got around to use some of the bokeh-patterned paper in the Best Day Ever Sale-A-Bration pack - take a look:

The bokeh effect on the DSP reminded me of light rippling through the clear blue water of the Caribbbean seas, so the fishes were an obvious addition! I stamped the fishes in Memento Black ink on Whisper White, then coloured them in with my Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo, Crumb Cake and Bermuda Bay Blendabilties pens. I layered this circle on top of two more to echo the bubbles in the water, then stamped the sentiment from the same 'Hey. Valentine' stamp set on a strip of Pool Party across the bottom, having masked off my stamp first. All of the images in this stamp set are perfect for this - they can all be used for non-valentine's cards too. In fact, this was one of the things that appealed to me about the set - it will make some great children's birthday cards too. I added a strip of Bermuda Bay sequins to the sentiment strip for a little extra sparkle and my favourite embellishment is the little Crystal Effects added to the spotty fish for his spectacles - here's a close up:

However cute are they?! I hope you like today's card - I love the way that the circular patterns are echoed throughout. Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery this week. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hey, Valentine Clear Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Alcohol Marker Color Lifter	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Bermuda Bay Assortment Stampin' Blendabilities Markers
Pink Pirouette Assortment Stampin' Blendabilities Markers	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Crumb Cake Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Melon Mambo Assortment	Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Pool Party A4 Card Stock
Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	2" Circle Punch	2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch	Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper	Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim
Crystal Effects

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players, where this week LeAnne has a fun CAS challenge for us:

There are lots of great sentiment sets in the Stampin' Up! range; I have lots of birthdays coming up so this was a great opportunity to use the new 'it's your day' stamp from the 'Big On You' set in the Spring-Summer catalogue and create a fun birthday card. Here's my clean and simple card:

I used Bermuda Bay for my card base and covered my entire card front in a piece of confetti-patterned paper from the 'Birthday Bash' DSP range. I then took a piece of acetate window sheet, cut slightly longer than the front of my card, stamped my stamp on it in versamark and heat embossed it in gold. I then scored across the top and adhered it to the back of my card and folded it over the front. I like the effect of the floating sentiment and the fact that you get to see the whole of the DSP underneath. I almost finished my card at this point, but decided to add a string of Bermuda Bay sequins and a gold button to add to the party feel of my card - minimal embellishments are ok for this type of card and sometimes can add a nice touch.

I even did a little stamping on the inside of my card and better still, remembered to photograph it so that I could share it with you:

I hope you like today's card - rather glitzy yet at the same time clean and simple and easy to re-create. Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery this week. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Big On You Photopolymer Stamp Set	Birthday Bash Specialty Designer Series Paper	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Tangelo Twist Classic Stampin' Pad
Medium Window Sheets	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim	Gold Basic Metal Buttons	Age Awareness Photopolymer Stamp Set