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

I paired Jaydee's colours with the sketch at Hand Stamped Sentiments and since I had a little more time this week decided I would have a little play with some new product - take a look:

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

Exposed Brick Texture - First up is a new-to-me product, the Exposed Brick 3D embossing folder that I used to emboss not only a piece of Pebble Path-coloured designer paper from the Fresh As A Daisy pack, but also the solid coloured trio of panels that sit on top of the base. I don't use a lot of embossing as a rule, but isn't that texture just something? It is great for adding detail to backgrounds and I really love the effect.

Abundant Beauty Sunflowers - It will be no surprise to my regular readers that the Abundant Beauty masks were one of the first things onto my pre-order shopping list - I do love a good stencil! This is a great pack with a herringbone design, autumn and snowflake panels and a layering stencil that includes a trio of sunflowers. These are the stencils I used today - I used my blending brushes to apply colour to my flower trio - I used Crushed Curry as my additional colour to 'brighten' my sunflowers and allow for more graduated colour - and some additional leaves, then fussy cut them out and pieced them onto my frame/panel background. Check out the texture and detailing on the close up below:

Charming Sentiments - To finish I added a simple sentiment from the 'Charming Sentiments' set and diecut it with the coordinating die. I love that this stamp set has such a great variety of phrases for each and every occasion, and they can be diecut perfectly with no need to fussy cut - bonus!

I'll be honest I did find Jaydee's colour palette a challenge this week and I wasn't sure about this card once finished but having let it sit a while, I've decided it looks just fine, even if those leaves are a slightly unorthodox choice! What do you think? How would you use these colours? What do you have to be grateful for today? Leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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; we are still in the grips of the late summer heatwave we've been experiencing here in the UK this week, so as much as I'd love to type more posts and share more things with you, my craft room is a veritable sauna, so I am spending as little time in it as possible - the garden and BBQ beckons! I'll be back later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

ABUNDANT BEAUTY DECORATIVE MASKS (10.00)	PEBBLED PATH A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	WILD WHEAT A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	COPPER CLAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	WILD WHEAT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CRUSHED CURRY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
PRETTY PEACOCK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	FRESH AS A DAISY 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (11.75)	2023–2025 IN COLOR™ DOTS (7.50)	COPPER CLAY 3/8" (1 CM) TEXTURED RIBBON (7.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (13.00)	EXPOSED BRICK 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (10.25)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.00)	CHARMING SENTIMENTS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (22.00)	SENTIMENT SILHOUETTES DIES (33.00)

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

Hobbies - what a fun theme this week and so many options, even when working against the clock! My hobbies include running, playing piano, cross stitch and stamp collecting (the postal kind although my rubber stamp collection is extensive too!) to name but a few, but I'm sure that my choice of crafting for my card today won't surprise you at all!  - Since we are against the clock with no more than 10 minutes at our disposal, quick cards are the order of the day! I ended up making two cards during my crafting session and each came in well within the time limit, so I thought I'd share both since each uses a different approach to saving time! Both cards feature the 'Crafting With You' bundle and the first card I created uses the sketch layout over at SUO Challenges - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Preparation Is Key - The key to a quick card is preparation. You can gather your materials before you start the clock, so knowing exactly what I was going to create I gathered my Bubble Bath card base, offcuts of white and Crumb Cake cardstock, mounted the stamps I was going to use onto blocks and placed them in front of the open ink pads in the correct colours, selected the dies I needed, the necessary tools and gathered together any other supplies such as ribbon and sequins that I had in Bubble Bath in case I wanted to add some final embellishments. Then I pressed start on my stopwatch!

Monochrome Makes Easy - This first card sticks to a simple monochrome pink colour scheme, with just a little grey for the sentiment and outline. This is another good way to save time when you need to make a quick card - keeping colours to a minimum requires much less co-ordination. I stamped and fussy cut the sentiment, stamped the balls of wool and coloured them, then diecut them along with the basket and the stitched frame (I don't know why, but this frame always reminds me of unravelled wool so I thought it would work well with my knitting theme) in one pass through the diecutting machine to save time. I added all of the elements to my card base, then added some tone-on-tone stamped hearts and a trio of self-adhesive sequins to complete my card:

Time taken? Just 6 minutes and 29 seconds!

I even surprised myself at how quickly this came together, especially as one of the biggest time savers - no diecutting - is something I often struggle with. This card just shows though that so long as you are smart about it and at least minimise it or run as much through in one go as possible, you can make it work. I'm also linking this card up over at Less Is More where the current challenge is 'anything goes' - as long as it's clean and simple!

The Ultimate Speed Hack - Having cleaned my stamps and cleared away the debris from my first card, I thought I'd have a go at a second version, this time using the current sketch layout over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, for a second card using my favourite speed hack of all: designer series paper! Designer paper is a great way to maximise pattern and detail with minimal time and effort and I knew I had some of this fabulous, albeit retired, Follow Your Art designer series paper in my stash and I have been itching to pair it with the current 'Crafting With You' bundle, so this was the perfect opportunity. This was the card that I created:

Still simple in design: the vertical panel of DSP does much of the work, with a simple banner sentiment that I decorated with a piece of (retired) Calypso Coral ribbon and 4 cotton reels that I diecut using some co-ordinating scraps of cardstock:

This card took slightly longer at 7 minutes and 16 seconds (no photo I'm afraid, I accidentally reset my stopwatch before I could grab a photo so you'll just have to take my word for it!) - whilst those cotton reels were all cut in a single pass, as there are 4 dies in the set, they are small and fiddly to glue. I also had OCD on those banner ends for the cardstock and ribbon, so allowed myself time to get them even. I think this card is my favourite of the two - hence me using it as my ASYI card. I hope you found my tips and tricks useful for creating cards in a hurry - why not make a card celebrating one of your hobbies and join us for our current challenge?

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 '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 project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.
• In a speed stamping challenge, please time yourself and say in your post how long your card took to complete. 

Enjoy your day. We are expecting another day of glorious sunshine here so I will be making the most of it! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CRAFTING WITH YOU BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (51.25)	STITCHED WITH WHIMSY DIES (27.00)	PASTEL ADHESIVE-BACKED SEQUINS (7.50)	BUBBLE BATH A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	BUBBLE BATH STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)	BASIC GRAY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)
BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (8.50)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	BLUEBERRY BUSHEL A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	BLUEBERRY BUSHEL CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	CALYPSO CORAL A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	COASTAL CABANA A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Rachel is hosting for the month of September and our first challenge is a colour challenge: 

For my card today I paired these lovely summery colours with the sketch over at Try Stamping on Tuesday and the 'choose 2' challenge over at Just Add Ink (I chose tearing and twine) to make a baby card for the challenge over at CAS on Friday:

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

My card is a pretty straightforward combination of elements and it was something of a happy accident that it worked for each of the challenges that I'm linking up with today. Let me explain! So I started with Rachel's summery colours and combined with the late return of summer sunshine here in the UK I was inspired to look through summery sets on my shelf. I happened upon my Sailboat Builder Punch, which has been neglected of late now that the co-ordinating stamp set has retired, so I pulled it off the shelf to give it some love. I am not a big one for tearing paper as my regular readers will know but when I saw Lou Kitzleman's card over at Just Add Ink this week I totally fell in love with it (you can see her fabulous card here) and whilst I will undoubtedly CASE her card another time for fun, I wanted to use the idea of the torn strips on my card today. In order to preserve my 'white space' I used the sketch over at Try Stamping on Tuesday (love their layouts!) and created a corner detail of torn cardstock using some old Coastal Cabana coloured coredinations cardstock from my stash to give the feeling of waves. I punched out my sailboat using a scrap of Starry Sky cardstock and another of Lemon Lolly striped Bright & Beautiful designer series paper for the sails and finished with a sentiment from the 'Sweet Songbirds' stamp set. I added everything to my card and finished my sailboat with a twine bow:

I just love these bright colours for a slightly less traditional new baby card and I'm so pleased with how this card came 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. 

What will you make with this week's colours? As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! colour names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

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

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 a fun theme challenge for us to work with:

I feel like I need to start today's post with a confession! I am hosting this week - and for a variety of reasons I have been super busy with family commitments and not had a moment to craft all week! So when it came to making my card with limited time to spare, I remembered I had the cutest family of four-legged friends that would enable me to make a super-quick card - take a look:

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

Yes - the Beary Christmas Memories & More Cards to the rescue! For this week's card, I used not only one of the printed cards but also a pre-printed card base with co-ordinating envelope; all I needed was to add a little ribbon loop detail and pop the card up on dimensionals and I was done. By using the pre-printed bases, this card was even quicker to pull together than last week. And isn't this cute family of polar bears just the cutest?

The Memories & More cards are perfect for crafting when time is of the essence - and this set of four legged friends is just adorable! They are making me sleepy just looking at them - so contented.

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 back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Today I have my project for the new challenge over at Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge. 

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'World Gratitude Day' which is on September 21st. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I did embrace the challenge theme wholeheartedly and used ribbon, gift packaging, die cuts, flowers and thank you and this is what I came up with:

I created both some gift packaging and a co-ordinating card using the lovely autumnal colour palette over at Hand Stamped Sentiments this week. Here's the low-down on today's projects:

Gift Packaging Made Easy - For my gift box, I created a decorative belly band for one of the Envelope Treat Boxes that can be found on page 126 of the Stampin' Up! annual catalogue. Have you seen them? They are white, stampable boxes that measure 2 1/4" x 3 1/2" x 1" when folded and are perfect for packaging little treats. I made my wrap using the Glorious Gingham designer paper in Pecan Pie, then added a label that I decorated with foliage and stamped and coloured flowers and a trio of solid gems:

Here's a picture with the belly band removed, so that you can see how the box opens (gold foil stickers are also included with the boxes to seal them, although they are principally decorative - the box will hold itself closed):

Here's a close up showing the stamping on my label and my coloured flowers - I just love the warm tones of this trio of colours together:

A Co-ordinating Thank You - I decided to create a co-ordinating card to give with my gift; I used elements of my packaging design and carried them into my card, using the simple layout over at Try Stamping on Tuesday as the basis for my design:

On my card I only added foliage to the bottom portion of the sentiment strip, to mimic the sketch; I also added a thin, solid strip of cardstock to highlight the simple thank you sentiment:

The layering of the foliage diecuts in the Timeless Arrangements bundle adds so much detail to this otherwise clean card and I love the blend of this trio of warm, almost autumnal colours. It's been so chilly here in the UK these past few days, this set fits right in!

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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Festive Friday Card Making and Paper Crafting Challenge Design team:

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

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and I am our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

I went down the middle column with books/yellow/bird and using the sketch layout over at Sunday Stamps and the colours over at Color Dare (I went along the top row and used Toffee and Capri too) and created a good luck card for someone who is about to start the new school year at senior school - take a look:

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

The Sunday Stamps layout is a favourite of mine and one I've used previously in other ways. Today I thought that panel in the corner would make the perfect old-fashioned classroom chalkboard to ground my colourful bird from the 'Bird's Eye View' stamp set. I love the birds in this set - they are so quirky and comical and the addition of spectacles just adds to the sense of whimsy. I added some white swishes of chalk to my blackboard and stamped my Starry Sky base with some tone-on-tone books to add to the back-to-school feel and finished with a sentiment from 'Charming Sentiments':

Isn't that fun?! Good luck wishes to anyone embarking on new educational adventures in the coming weeks; this includes both of the James Juniors, one of whom will be starting Sixth Form and studying for A Levels having passed his GCSEs this summer and the other will be heading to the University of Birmingham to study Biochemistry, having achieved a fantastic set of A Level results. Exciting times!

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. 

A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge. 

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

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. Patricia is hosting this month and as we have a fifth Tuesday in this month we have an additional double colour and sketch challenge: 

For my card today I decided to make a simple thank you card using my Dainty Delight Dies to create an arch of flowers in the challenge colours:

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

I didn't have any of the old retired colours, so I substituted with Fresh Freesia, Moody Mauve and Mossy Meadow as my closest match (this is allowed within the terms of the challenge). I added a simple stamped sentiment from the co-ordinating Dainty Delight stamp set to complete my card. Check out the detail on the interwoven pieces that make up the floral arch - so pretty, right?

These dies cut delicate pieces with subtle embossed detail - beautiful in these muted purples, and just about any other colour combo 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. 

As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! colour names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

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

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

I thought that the main panel on LeAnne's sketch was crying out to frame something, so decided to create a quick and easy Christmas card using the panel with an aperture to frame a Memories & More card from the Beary Christmas set in the upcoming mini catalogue. - take a look:

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

The new Beary Christmas Memories & More cards feature polar bears, trees, presents and patterns and are just great for quick and easy Christmas cards. I added a small one featuring a large sentiment and trimmed slightly to a Balmy Blue card base, then taking a smaller panel of Balmy Blue, cut a square aperture using the Stylish Shapes Dies then ran the whole panel through my diecutting machine with my (retired) Wintry 3D embossing folder - check out the lovely embossed effect in more detail on the close up below:

I added a Real Red ribbon and bow to complete my card. So simple, yet the embossing adds a really pretty detail. I'm linking today's card up over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown where they are asking us to make Christmas cards that feature an embossing folder 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:

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

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

At the beach - wouldn't I like to be there right now? I most definitely would, but instead a card will have to do! I decided to feature sun, sea and sand on today's card which is also a fancy fold - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Circle Sayings - Today's card is a Peek-A-Boo fancy fold: when closed you see one thing in the window, then as you open the card the panel slips aside to reveal a second image or message. The Circles Sayings stamp set is perfect for this style of fancy fold card - it has lots of co-ordinating stamp images and sentiments that can be mixed and matched to create fun combinations. I used the sea and sun image for my first image, along with a fussy-cut partial sentiment attached to the frame and I paired it with the 'warm hello' sentiment, along with shells and sand for the peek-a-boo reveal:

Rays of Light - I wanted to add some additional colour to the front of my card, but without distracting from my seaside image. I decided on some ton-on-tone stamped detail using the Rays of Light stamp set, radiating out from the stamped image and fading into the base. Because I wanted my rays to radiate from the image, they wouldn't reach to the opposite edge of my card, so I added an Azure Afternoon ribbon and bow to balance my design. You can see the detail on the stamped image below, including some snowflake puff paint that I added to the wave foam for some extra dimension:

Peek-A-Boo Fancy Fold - This fold is really not tricky to execute - you just need to ensure the circle aperture is positioned correctly on each layer to ensure they align and that each of the mechanism panels are cut to the correct size. Here's a video that shows the peek-a-boo action:

Isn't that fun?! You can see another example of a card I made with this design here. I'm linking this one up over at The Paper Craft Crew where 'fun folds' is their theme 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 '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 project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CIRCLE SAYINGS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (23.00)	RAYS OF LIGHT CLING STAMP SET (17.00)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	AZURE AFTERNOON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (8.50)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (6.25)
DAFFODIL DELIGHT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)	AZURE AFTERNOON STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)	TAHITIAN TIDE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (9.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (10.00)	3/8" (1 CM) SHEER RIBBON COMBO PACK (11.75)

Today I'm sharing a card that is special in more ways than one! It contains a sneak peek of some new Christmas products from the upcoming mini catalogue but more importantly I am a guest with the lovely ladies over at Freshly Made Sketches where the team are celebrating their 600th challenge - wow! I love to play along with their sketches whenever I get the opportunity and I was thrilled to be asked to join them alongside a number of other esteemed guests to celebrate this momentous occasion! This is the sketch we are basing our designs on:

I decided I would create a wreath with the circular element - this is what I came up with:  

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

I diecut a couple of Country Wreaths Dies wreaths, one in brushed gold and one in gold foil, and layered them onto a panel of Shining Brightly specialty designer series paper on a Night of Navy card base. This is one of six single-sided foiled designs in Very Vanilla and Night of Navy in the pack - and they are all gorgeous! I heat-embossed my sentiment in gold onto navy cardstock - this is also from a new stamp set called 'Christmas Classics' - and added this to my card, along with a gold twine bow and trio of matt gold sequins:

I also added a little extra stamping from the same set to the inside of my card - check out the corner detail:

I just love the gold and navy colour combination of this card - expect to see lots more in this colourway in the upcoming festive season! 

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. 

Be sure to check out the designs from the Freshly Made Sketches Team and the other guest designers this week - there will be some fabulous inspiration there for sure. Thank you and a huge congratulations from me to the team for inviting me to take part in the celebrations - here's to the next 600 challenges!

Enjoy your day and I'll be back on Friday with this week's new challenge over at As You See It. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

COUNTRY WREATHS DIES (37.00)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (9.50)	GOLD FOIL SHEETS (4.75)	PASTEL ADHESIVE-BACKED SEQUINS (7.50)	SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (7.00)	VERSAMARK PAD (9.00)
METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (17.00)