
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 clean and simple challenge with a seasonal theme for us to work with:

We have just had our fifth heatwave of the summer here in the UK and whilst the extreme heat has been challenging to deal with, especially in the absence of air conditioning, I'm still not ready to welcome fall just yet. It certainly felt strange playing with autumn colours and leaf sets whilst the outside temperature was 38 degrees centigrade and rising and my craft room felt double that, but in the spirit of the challenge, I grabbed Jen B's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches for my layout and some leafy favourites and set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

Here's the low-down on today's card:
I decided to use a base of Golden Glow for my card today; I really love the warm tone of this yellow and I think this will be a new go-to fall colour for me. I used a strip of Very Vanilla and stencilled it with a leaf pattern using my blending brush and some Golden Glow ink and a Pretty Pink Posh leaves background stencil that I was recently gifted by my crafty friend Elizabeth as the centre of my diagonal, and bordered it with Timid Tiger and Pecan Pie, which are the other two colours I used for my diecut stitched leaves that form my centrepiece:

A sentiment from the retired 'Lighthearted Leaves', stamped in Early Espresso for a slightly softer look than black, and a trio of Pecan Pie enamel dots complete my card. I also used a leftover strip of stencilling and a spare diecut leaf to decorate the inside of my card:

I'm not generally a big fan of diagonals on a card, but I'm pleased with how this one turned out although I feel I'm pushing the boundaries of clean and simple here with the layering. Plenty of open 'white' space and minimal embellishments though, so I'm taking it!
Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:
The Paper Players Design Team
Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:
1. Create a new paper project
2. Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission.
3. Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL.
4. Have FUN!
Enjoy your day; we are on a two day cricket weekend, so after a family brunch with my brother and sister-in-law this morning I will be back at the cricket pitch for the second time this weekend. The hubby came along last weekend and managed to get some great photos, so I thought I'd leave you today with my not-so-James Junior in action:


You can see how little rain we've had - even the cricket pitches are turning yellow!
I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:
