Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the first of a new month - Happy St David's Day to my fellow patriots! - and the turn of the fabulous Christy to host this week. She has a fun theme challenge for us to work with:

Mythical creatures - mermaids, dragons, unicorns and more! I had to dig into my retired stash for this one and had a lot of fun!! I'm also playing along with the CASE The Designer Challenge over at SUO Challenges with my card this week - take a look and I will explain all:

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

Myths and Magic - So I had a stash of retired Myths & Magic designer series paper that I had preserved and decided this was a good time to cut into some! I spent a good few evenings fussy cutting mermaids and the teeny-tiny seahorses you can see on today's card, but also unicorns, knights and dragons from the other sheets too. I paired my mermaid with a sentiment from the Magical Mermaids stamp set that is also retired:

 I also used the stamps in this set to add a little additional decoration to the inside of my card:

CASE The Designer - I had a lot of fun CASEing Tammy's card over at SUO Challenges this week! I chose a teal mythical underwater theme as opposed to a pink love hearts theme for my card, switched out the sentiment banner for a circle and used the tiny seahorses instead of the dimensional hearts on Tammy's card, but I retained the layout, the embossed-DSP-embossed background panel combination, albeit featuring the beautiful Soft Waves 3D embossing folder for an under the sea look and feel, combined with the sparkly column of bubbles. My card looks distinctly different to Tammy's, but it's clear to see where and how I CASEd her card as my inspiration.

You Slay Bonus Card - Given that today is St David's Day I had to take the opportunity to make a card with a dragon (or two!) as well, so I went a little 'left field' for my next creation. The slang term 'slay' is quite popular with young people; Wikipedia states that it is used to express admiration or success, so with this in mind, I thought that I would pair a custom sentiment using the Mini Alphabet Dies with some of the knights and dragons from the Myths & Magic paper for a tongue-in-cheek congratulations card, using the sketch layout over at Hand Stamped Sentiments. Here's their layout:

And here's the bonus card that I made for today's challenge:

I absolutely love the sparkly detail on this paper!

Possibly not a card for everyone, but I know Ben will love it!

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

Enjoy your day; nothing remarkable happening chez James today. Enjoy the remainder of your weekend and I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)

SOFT WAVES 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£10.25)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

COASTAL CABANA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

PRETTY PEACOCK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a colourful speed stamping challenge:

I love purple so this was a fun week for me! But it's speed stamping - so there are some very important considerations before we start to craft as we are against the clock!  I decided to use the sketch layout over at Sunday Stamps as it was perfect for what I had in mind. Take a look at my card and then I'll explain:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Thankful Garden - I had lots of floral options that would work well with purple and settled on Thankful Garden, which I haven't played with for a while and is now on the last-chance list. First I stamped my flower and sentiment using my stamping platform. 10 minutes wouldn't be long enough to colour my card with Blends, or complete the stencilling of each layer, so I decided to mask an area and blend a selection of purples in a vertical column. I actually masked two columns, for a unique take on Claire's Sunday Stamps layout (tweaking the width of each of her columns for more visual interest on my one layer card). A smattering of purple gems following the shades of purple to highlight the detail on the inked panels were the finishing touch to my card:

Keep It Simple - Keeping my design simple - minimal stamping/colouring and a straightforward layout meant I finished my card well within the 10 minute time limit:

Super speedy!

An Added Extra - Since I still had extra time, I took another minute to reposition the flower stamp and add a sentiment to the inside of my card, along with a little extra colour using my blending brush:

And that really is my card finished - and well under the 10 minute deadline - yay!

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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• For a Speed Stamping Challenge you must tell us the time it took to make your project and it must be finished in under 10 min.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

THANKFUL GARDEN PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£13.80)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	PURPLE FINE SHIMMER GEMS (£7.50)	FRESH FREESIA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	HIGHLAND HEATHER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
GORGEOUS GRAPE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BLACKBERRY BLISS CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)

Today I'm sharing a card that I made using the layout over at Try A Sketch on Tuesday:

As soon as I saw this layout I knew it would be perfect to showcase more of the papers in the Lovely Blossoms pack - take a look:

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

I used one of the printed images from the pack as my focal point and added three co-ordinating patterns (2 from this pack and one from Florals in Bloom) for the background, adding torn edges for texture and interest. 

Some enamel dots and a stamped and diecut sentiment were all that was needed to complete my card. I love it when the patterned paper does all the heavy lifting!

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:

LOVELY BLOSSOMS 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)

LOVELY ARRANGEMENTS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£45.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

MOODY PALETTE GLOSSY DOTS (£7.50)

SECRET SEA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Jan to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge for us to work with:

As soon as I saw Jan's sketch, I knew it would be perfect for another outing with my Friendly Foliage bundle. The collection of monochromatic greens over at The Card Concept influenced the colour scheme for my clean and layered card - take a look:

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

I chose a strip of Florals In Bloom DSP for my horizontal strip, as it included lots of greens and the leaf shape ties in with the overall theme. I stamped my foliage square in Shaded Spruce onto two-tone cardstock - this is a great way to introduce a lighter shade of Granny Apple Green and lets the diecut stand out a little more from the background. I placed a piece of Shy Shamrock behind the open aperture for another pop of contrasting green:

Some green enamel dots and a get well sentiment from the same set complete my card. I love shades of green and find it a restful colour, so I think it works well for a pick-me-up card.

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:

Enjoy your day; I'll be driving the James Junior back to university after a few days at home, so hoping it will be dry at least. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FRIENDLY FOLIAGE BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£36.75)	FLORALS IN BLOOM 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)	SHY SHAMROCK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SHADED SPRUCE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) TWO-TONE CARDSTOCK (£9.50)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

I hope you are enjoying your weekend! Today I'm sharing a card with a difference. My fellow Paper Players teamie and blog friend Christy Stanford at Snapdragon Stamps is a prolific card maker and scrapbooker and if you aren't familiar with her blog, you should definitely check it out. Christy is also a keen bookworm and a lover of Nancy Drew mysteries. She has a whole collection of them and currently has a weekly blog post series where she takes a particular mystery, reviews the case file and then makes a card or two inspired by the cover. I love reading Christy's posts each week and I am constantly amazed at how the book covers inspire her. When I saw her recent post for the cover of The Secret Of The Golden Pavilion I also had an idea when I saw the cover - so thought I'd play along! Here's the link to Christy's original post and the cards she created and here's my version:

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

Here's the cover of the book in question that I've borrowed from Christy's post:

I'm sure you can see what inspired me! The moment I saw that golden pavilion, I thought of a coneflower so I had to use the Coneflower Celebrations bundle and feature one on my card. Like Christy I also used a Midnight Muse cardbase; I added a panel of embossed soft waves to pick up on the sea in the background of the cover, then added my diecut coneflower in Darling Duckling - I just love the texture and detail of the diecut:

A simple sentiment and a trio of enamel pearls complete the front of my card and I added a belated birthday greeting to the inside:

I am so pleased I managed to create something using Christy's book cover inspiration. She has already featured another couple of covers since this one, so be sure to check them out - perhaps you could play along too, I'm sure she would be thrilled if you did!

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. 

I've spent some time in the garden today as the hubby has been replacing our raised beds in readiness for spring planting and we are having a quiet dinner at home this evening, having been out for a celebratory meal yesterday to celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary - it's shaping up to be a great weekend! Enjoy your evening and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CONEFLOWER CELEBRATION BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£50.25)	SOFT WAVES 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£10.25)	DARLING DUCKLING A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	DARLING DUCKLING CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	SECRET SEA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SECRET SEA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	EARLY ESPRESSO A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	2025–2027 IN COLOR™ FLAT PEARLS (£8.00)

Happy Friday everyone! Today I have a super quick #scrapsoffthedesk Christmas card that I made for the challenges over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and Festive Friday (I chose black, gold, sequins and heat embossing) this week:

I wouldn't ordinarily choose black and gold as a colour combo for a card, but a found a scrap of retired Lights Aglow DSP in my scrap box and with a leftover gold glimmer banner thought I could make something suitable - take a look at what I came up with:

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

I paired my scraps with a star-shaped paper clip, some gold sequins and diecut some additional stars that I backed with scraps of gold glimmer before adding a gold heat-embossed sentiment to complete my card.

Lots of bits and pieces used up and another Christmas card for the pile! Before I go, one last reminder that today is the last day to take advantage of Stampin' Up!'s three day free shipping offer:

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)

VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)

METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

Valentine's Day might have been and gone, but there are still a few themed challenges around and it's always good to be ready for next year, right? Today I'm sharing a card that was inspired by a few of those challenges:

The lovely ladies over at Just Us Girls have 'Valentine' as the Word of the Week (and I missed last week's heart die challenge, so I had to include a trio of those too!), at Addicted to CAS they are all about 'Pink' and my card also means I can play along over at TicTacToe Challenge (I went across the top with Hearts/Diecutting/Pink). Now I could have gone full-on hearts and flowers, but decided to create a very clean and simple card that very much reflects my personal style  - take a look:

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

I started out with three shades of pink, then diecut a trio of circles, further diecutting a heart out of the centre of each and then mixing them up and re-insetting them. I stamped my sentiment in the two darkest shades of pink - another from 'Words of Beauty' that is never off my desk these days - and added the trio of heart-filled circles to my panel, adding a trio of pink stripes to my base before adhering my upper panel for an additional hint of pink:

Clean and simple for sure, but I think it says everything it needs to :-) It would make a Valentine or a love-you-anytime card I think.

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. 

Whilst I had my supplies out on my desk, I made another card using a bunch of retired supplies and the offcuts of pink from the above cards. I love the Inkspirational inspiration photo this week - look at all the fab details:

I found a pack of these mini notelet cards when I was clearing out and I used one to make the quickest ever lunch box love note using my retired Word Bubble dies:

Can you see where I took my inspiration from on the photo? Yes, the pink speech bubble in the top-left of the visual. I kept things super simple, popping up my pale pink heart and adding nothing more than a sentiment to my card front - lunch box love notes don't need to be fussy or complicated, they just need to create a sweet spot in someone's working day - which hopefully this one will ;-) Stay tuned as I may well have another play along with this challenge and create a more detailed card - there are so many jumping-off points in that graphic.

For now though I'll leave you with the news that there is free shipping on all orders over £60 placed during the next 3 days - so if you haven't yet spent bonus coupons earned last month, this is a great time to do so!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WORDS OF BEAUTY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£19.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	BUBBLE BATH A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	STRAWBERRY SLUSH A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
STRAWBERRY SLUSH CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge and Amanda has asked that we place two images/shapes on opposing sides, with a sentiment towards the bottom of the card.  Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

For my card today I wanted to ink up a new-to-me set that a number of my crafty friends have been using to great effect - the Nature's Symphony bundle - so I grabbed the colour palette over at Colour Inkspiration where I haven't played along for a while (they had me with these colours!) and set to work. Here's my card:

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

Nature's Symphony is a great set for clean and simple cards, as well as for something more layered and detailed; but there was one thing in particular that attracted me to this bundle - yes, it is that beautiful diecut leaf stem! I actually snipped it into two here and used the respective pieces for my top and bottom detail, on top of some layered stamping in all three colours using the other stamps in the set (and a splatter stamp from Notes of Nature):

A simple sentiment anchored with a rainbow dot completes my card. Whilst there's some layering to the stamping, keeping it to a two discreet areas and leaving lots of white space retains the clean and simple feel of my card. I'm also linking today's card up over at CAS On Friday where the current theme is 'anything goes'.

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; today is Shrove Tuesday - will you be celebrating with pancakes? The hubby is entertaining clients this evening so it's just me for dinner. A pancake or two might be just the ticket! I actually saw a new recipe for Austrian pancakes from the lovely Martha Collinson on Instagram last week that I've never tried, so I might gives those a go - here's a link to it if you fancy taking a look too. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

NATURE'S SYMPHONY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£44.00)	AZURE AFTERNOON A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	AZURE AFTERNOON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	SMOKY SLATE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BASIC GRAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
RAINBOW ADHESIVE-BACKED DOTS (£8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

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

I was considering how to tackle Stef's challenge this week and had been perusing my shelves for balloon-themed supplies, then I saw Verena's layout over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I knew exactly where I was headed - I love it when that happens! Another combination of old and new for you today with a simple balloon-filled birthday card - take a look:

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

I turned Verena's layout through 90 degrees and went for a large card (it measures 21cm x 14.9cm) to accommodate my diecut bunch of balloons that I found in my Wildflower Birthday designer series paper stash that works perfectly for the ellipse in the sketch. I added a panel of pink gingham check and another sentiment combination from Words of Beauty - this bundle is never off my desk at the moment! 

A thin strip of gold foil to join the panels and a trio of gold enamel dots to tie in with the gold detailing complete my card - with lots of white space to preserve the clean and simple feel. 

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:

Enjoy your day; I'm out walking today, weather permitting, with an organised group - and I'm bringing along my vegan brownie that I was experimenting with last week - it was a great success!

Leave me a comment below if you'd like me to email you the recipe - anything with chocolate is a winner in my book but this one really did surprise me! Who knew baking without dairy could taste so good?! I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

WORDS OF BEAUTY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)

PRETTY IN PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GOLD FOIL SHEETS (£4.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a theme challenge chosen by Heather H:

I had to dig into the retired box for this one because whilst I had plenty of sentiment options, I didn't have any current product featuring candy. So a little mix of something old paired with something current this week - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

 I knew that I could make an appropriate sentiment for a candy-themed play on words with my Words of Beauty bundle, so I just needed to pair it with some suitably themed designer series paper. I actually had a couple of options and settled on this bright and cheery pattern that was one of my favourites in the retired How Sweet It Is designer series paper pack. I fussy cut one of the lollipops from the paper and added this for a little extra decoration, tied with a Gorgeous Grape twine bow:

A trio of purple enamel dots complete my card. A fun design that is perfect for a young sweetie fan or one who is young at heart! I'm more of a chocolate person rather than sweets, but am partial to the odd gummi bear :-) How about you? Do leave me a comment and let me know if you have a sweet tooth! I'm also linking today's card over at Time Out Challenges where I chose pink and twine from their list for the current 'choose 2' challenge.

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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your post.
• Make sure you link the specific post and not the whole blog to the Linky. Use AYSI#(insert challenge number) when uploading to a public gallery
• Please turn off word verification so that we can send you lots of feedback.
• You can combine our challenge with up to 3 other compatible challenges. 
• We do reserve the right to delete, or not consider for Top Pick and Featured Artist, entries that do not comply with these guidelines.

Enjoy your day; I am finally getting some time in my craft room today for the first time all week, so look forward to creating some projects to share with you in the next few days Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WORDS OF BEAUTY BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£43.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

MELON MAMBO A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GORGEOUS GRAPE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

COASTAL CABANA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GORGEOUS GRAPE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)