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 sketch challenge:

I decided to have a play with some designer papers from the new mini catalogue for today's card and add another Christmas card to my stash - take a look:

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

Christmas Tags and More - The diecut strips of patterned paper on today's card are from the new Christmas Tags and More designer series paper pack. This is a 6"x6" pack that is exactly that: some great festive designs, with everything from the mistletoe pattern I used on today's card to plaid, some of which can be easily cut into tags, along with a few sheets of pre-diecut co-ordinating shapes. This is your go-to pack for speedy Christmas cards and packaging - I can see me using a lot of it!

Serene Greens - I used a Soft Sea Foam card base for today's card. This colour doesn't feature directly in the DSP, but it compliments the boldness of the Garden Green mistletoe perfectly.  I chose to feature three punched sprigs of mistletoe as the 'anchors' to my DSP panels. You can see them with their pearl berries better here:

In hindsight I might have added a little extra detail to those punched leaves with a gel pen, to help them stand out a little better. Regardless, I think they work!

A  Mix of Old and New - I paired my new papers with some existing - retired - items from my stash: the sprig punch I used for my mistletoe and the Tidings and Trimmings set for the 'Noel' and greeting on the inside of my card:

Now that I'm no longer running regular classes, this is something you should expect to see me do here on my blog more often. Whilst I am in the process of having a good clear out (expect to see a preloved sale here sometime in the near future!), and I will continue to showcase my favourite new products, there are lots of retired items that are firm favourites that co-ordinate too well with new things to not put them to good use! 

I'm linking today's card up over at Inspire.Create Challenges where their challenge is 'It's never too early for Christmas' - so true!

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.

Finally, my trusty laptop unexpectedly 'died' with no warning earlier this week, so there may be some gaps with product details and links to the online store in this and my next few posts that will be added at a later date, since I am posting on the fly at the moment! My laptop is with the PC doctor so fingers crossed he works out whether resuscitation or replacement is the order of the day in short order, as I currently feel as if I've lost a limb lol! Enjoy your day and I'll be back on Sunday with my Paper Players project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SOFT SEA FOAM A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

IRIDESCENT PEARL BASIC JEWELS (£7.00)

CHRISTMAS TAGS & MORE 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) MIX & MATCH SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)

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

Leaves - we've all got those in our stamp collection, right? I decided to go with a really simple two-colour card inspired by the combo over at Color Dare and featuring two leaves from one of my favourite current leafy stamp sets, Natural Botanicals - take a look:

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

Natural Botanicals - The leaves in the 'Natural Botanicals' stamp set can be used in so many ways! Today I used one of the larger leaves to stamp the bottom half of my white panel with Pretty Peacock coloured leaves to create my own patterned paper (I masked off a border first with masking paper, but you could forgo this and save a little extra time) then using the same colour, added ink with a blending brush to create a solid block of colour. I added this panel to my white card base, then a leftover strip of Flirty Flamingo cardstock, before stamping another of the leaves in the set in Flirty Flamingo onto white cardstock, and diecut this with one of my trusty Stylish Shapes Dies. 

Thankful Garden - Since Natural Botanicals is a sentiment-free set, I chose a thankful sentiment from another stamp set, 'Thankful Garden', and stamped this in Pretty Peacock directly onto my stamped pink leaf. The bold turquoise colour and large font is enough to stand out against the leaf beneath:

I added this to my card using dimensionals for a little lift, then added a trio of Pretty Peacock faceted enamel dots from my stash (having previously gone through my collection looking at all possible options before I started my timer, of course!) to complete my card.

Speed Stamping Addition - As always, the key to a speed stamping card is preparation: I had browsed my saved sketches to choose a layout before I started and gathered all possible supplies, opened my ink pads, mounted my stamps before starting the timer. So how long did my simple leaf card take? 

Just 6 minutes and 48 seconds - plenty of time leftover, so I stamped the flap of my envelope to coordinate and still finished inside of the 10 minute allowance. OK, so my pink leaf isn't perfect (next time I'd use my stamp platform) but otherwise, I'm pretty pleased with how this card turned out - thanks Jan for a fun 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.
• For a Recipe Challenge use all elements of the recipe - the possibilities within those parameters are endless.
• For a Colour Challenge use all of the given colours and only those colours with these exceptions:
• White and Very Vanilla are free colours.
• In addition, you may use of ONE of these neutrals: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige.
• 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:

NATURAL BOTANICALS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£21.00)	THANKFUL GARDEN PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£23.00)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	PRETTY PEACOCK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

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

Having made this card for my paper Players DT card last Sunday, I knew that I was going to go a similar route for today's creation, given that there was an empty picnic scene in the Turtle-y Cute designer series paper pack that was just waiting to be filled - take a look:

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

These Turtle-y Cute papers are so fun, especially if you like fussy cutting! I simple added the scenic background to my card base, then decorated it with a whole bunch of fussy cut elements:

My turtles are enjoying a picnic of ice-cream and watermelon; even the birds are getting in on the action! I finished with a sentiment from the retired stamp set 'Picnic With You', which suited my scene perfectly. These little scenes are so fun to build, but I have used so many dimensionals this week - I am definitely going to need to add more to my next Stampin' Up! order! 

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 and I'll be back soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

TURTLE-Y CUTE 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a recipe challenge with the ingredients chosen by the lovely Heather Cooper:

Lots of ingredients in this week's recipe! The black/white/gold colour combination was my starting point and I had a look through my retired paper stash as I knew I had some options featuring those colours. I happened a pack of Merry Little Christmas paper and immediately everything fell into place and yes, by complete coincidence, I have another Christmas card for this week's AYSI card - take a look:

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

A Retired Celebration - I happened upon this black and white starry night paper and thought it would make the perfect night sky for a layered scene created using my retired Bethlehem Edgelits dies (I added some gold borders using some other retired paper from my stash). I cut both pieces in white and added a gold glimmer star, along with some clear rhinestones to the centres of the stars on the paper - you can just about make them out if you look closely:

Night In Bethlehem - My heat-embossed sentiment is from the co-ordinating (retired) stamp set called 'Night In Bethlehem'. I used another of the sentiments and an image from the same set to add a verse and decoration to the inside of my card:

All in all, not too tricky to make up that recipe when I got going - and another Christmas card for my pile using one of my favourite religious Christmas sets to boot.

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 Recipe Challenge use all elements of the recipe - the possibilities within those parameters are endless.
• 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 soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)

METALLICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)

RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£5.75)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

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 'fill in the blank' challenge chosen by me:

Shapes are the theme! But not just any shape - your favourite! If you could only choose one shape, which would you choose? The title of today's post gives me away, but I know that for me hands-down the answer is ... a circle. I shared my love of them in my post last Sunday and for today's card I thought I'd try another fun circular pattern, but this time as a background for some other bits and pieces. I challenged myself to work with the red and white colour combo over at Color Hues and ended up making a Christmas card - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Stylish Shape Circles - My circles are once again courtesy of the Stylish Shapes Dies. For me these dies are a go-to with the fab stitched edge detailing, with my favourite of course being the circles; they add so much to any project. 

Red and White - I thought the Color Hues challenge this week was a fun one! A red and white colour combo makes me immediately think either Valentine’s or Christmas so I went with the latter.  I really wanted to use a variety of reds, so chose to create my swirl of circles in a combination of Poppy Parade, Real Red and Cherry Cobbler. I almost left it there, but decided that this would make a fun backdrop for some candy canes, so I diecut some using my retired Sweetest Borders Dies, using red and white glimmer paper to add interest with both texture and sparkle check out the sparkle below:

Peppermints and Candy Canes - To continue the circle theme, I added in some additional round diecuts, sparkling gems and a liberal sprinkling of adhesive-backed peppermints and a suitable sentiment. I love that those peppermints are still available - they are so great for festive projects!

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 Fill In The Blank Challenge, be sure to complete the sentence and explain how your card illustrates this.
• 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 next week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	CHERRY COBBLER A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	REAL RED & WHITE ADHESIVE-BACKED PEPPERMINTS (£8.00)
REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	NEUTRAL MATTE DOTS (£7.50)

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

I love Melon Mambo - the original and best pink in my view so this was always going to be a popular colour combo with me! I was still in a stencilling move after making yesterday's card, so decided to grab the sketch over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge (although I was slightly contrary, adding the pattern inside my arch rather than on the base panel) and set to work - take a look:

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

I decided to use the primrose-type flowers in the Thankful Garden pack, stamping and colouring the petals twice and fussy cutting and layering my Peach Pie centre onto my Melon Mambo main petals. I placed my flowers inside a layered arch and used the same floral stamp to create a light background in Peach Pie - something I'd seen my team mate Jan do on one of her cards recently and I liked the effect, so wanted to try it myself; you can see that detail better below:

A thankyou sentiment and a few colourful enamel dots complete my card, along with an outline stamp detail on the inside of my card and the corner of my envelope - no naked layers here! 

Another reminder too that the Thankful Garden Suite is one of a number of suites that are part of this month's 'Buy one, get one at 50% off' promotion - so whether it's the bundle or the whole suite that has taken your fancy, there are great savings to be had. You can read more about the promotion here - there are just 3 more days to go to make the most of it, so what are you waiting for? Check out the featured suites in the online store today!

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 Colour Challenge use all of the given colours and only those colours with these exceptions:
• White and Very Vanilla are free colours.
• In addition, you may use of ONE of these neutrals: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake, Basic Beige.
• 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 BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£62.00)	EVERYDAY ARCHES DIES (£27.00)	PEACH PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	PEACH PIE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	MELON MAMBO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	GARDEN GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	GARDEN GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SUNNY DAY IRIDESCENT DOTS (£6.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's a sketch challenge, designed by yours truly:

I liked the idea of three 'somethings' overlaid with a sentiment and I think this is a sketch with so many creative options - the team have certainly done a fab job with it! I couldn't resist using it to showcase some pretty designer paper - fussy cut, of course! Take a look at what I came up with:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Yes, I fussy cut a trio of birthday cakes from the Wildflower Birthday papers and added a simple heat embossed birthday sentiment from the (retired) 'Sending Smiles' stamp set. This paper does have a faint pink background, so I added some Pretty in Pink ink with a blending brush both behind my cakes and on my card base to give a soft, feminine feel:

A trio of faceted iridescent dots and a simple gold twine bow to pick up on the gold embossing on the paper complete my pretty birthday card. So what do you think when you see those 3 panels? Why not have a go and add your card to our challenge gallery?

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

WILDFLOWER BIRTHDAY 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£16.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

PRETTY IN PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where Jan is hosting and it's time for a speed challenge with an interesting theme:

Water - in all it's forms! I don't mind saying, I procrastinated for ages before making my card today; I was convinced I didn't have any current product that would fit the bill, but after a quick conversation with my fellow teamie Jan and a peruse through the Stampin' Up! catalogue, I saw this week's sketch over at Global Design Project and I knew exactly what to do! This is my finished card:

But how did I get there? Here's the low-down on today's card:

Beautiful Gallery - I actually had a few items with a water theme - the Otterly Adorable suite and the Waves Embossing Folder to name a couple - and I used one of the seascapes in the Beautiful Gallery pack for my panelled card over at The Paper Players at the start of the week (you can see that card here if you missed it). My conversation with Jan prompted me to revisit the pack to see if there were any other designs that featured water. I found one, so chose a stamp set, gathered the remainder of my supplies and set my stopwatch - go!

I chose Lost Lagoon and Secret Sea as my coordinating colours, and trimmed my DSP and a panel of Lost Lagoon, then split my image into three sections:

With Sympathy - I did choose a retired stamp set for my sentiment: a previous Sale-A-Bration stamp set called 'Heal Your Heart', which has some lovely sentiments for sympathy cards. I am low on sympathy cards and thought that the tranquility of this image would work well for this kind of card, especially one with a masculine feel. If you want a current set with similar sentiments, 'The Right Words' on page 89 of the catalogue would be a good choice.

A Close Call - Basic card complete in just a few minutes and that's when I decided to go on the hunt for a suitable embellishment - and realised I didn't have any to hand! I filddled with a Mossy Meadow twine bow (nope!) followed by a quick rifle through the embellishment basket let me to a simple trio of Lost Lagoon enamel dots  - better! - to complete my card. Did I get there in time?

At 9 minutes 36 seconds, I was still within my 10 minute limit - phew! The moral of the story though - gather EVERYTHING you need (or might need!) before you start - in a speed challenge, that is most definitely the key to success!

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:

BEAUTIFUL GALLERY 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)

RAINBOW ADHESIVE-BACKED DOTS (£8.50)

SECRET SEA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

SECRET SEA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

LOST LAGOON A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

Firstly, apologies to anyone who struggled to link their project to our last challenge over at As You See It; we experienced some challenging IT issues that took a while to put right. All sorted now though and today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where Jan is hosting and it's time for a fun theme challenge:

Spots or stripes - how fun! I added flowers to my choice so that I can also play along in the current challenge over at The Flower Challenge and grabbed the pretty colours over at Hand Stamped Sentiments and the layout at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge, along with some new goodies and set to work. Take a look at what i came up with:

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

Embossed Spots - I went with spots as opposed to stripes, and in a nod to Jan's love of all things embossed I decided that I would make a bold feature of mine by embossing my base layer with one of the (retired) 3D Basics Embossing Folders that has a raised spot design. This was the only EF in this trio I have never used, but I really don't know why as I really love the finished effect - especially in that vibrant Summer Splash colour. 

Impressions Abloom - I paired my embossed base with an aperture and flowers from the Impressions Abloom bundle - one of this month's Online Exclusives. The dies have a fabulous embossed diecut detail and I love that the aperture comes with a beautiful framed edge too; you can see both in more detail on the close up below:

I inked my flowers for added depth and added lots of tiny Fresh Freesia enamel dots to my sprays of white blossoms for a little added sparkle.

Finishing Touches - There isn't much in the way of stamping on today's card; just the sentiment on the front, which I paired with another in the set, along with a stamped flower, on the inside of my card:

The Impressions Abloom bundle, along with the rest of this month's release, is available now in my online store - definitely worth a second look. Click on the link on the table at the end of the post to go and take a closer look.

I wasn't sure about this colour combination when I first saw it, with two pastels and the bold aqua, but I love how it turned out! It really makes me want to use Summer Splash more - I just love the vibrancy of this colour. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

IMPRESSIONS ABLOOM BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£45.75)	SUMMER SPLASH A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SUMMER SPLASH CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	FRESH FREESIA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	FRESH FREESIA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	SOFT SEA FOAM 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 recipe challenge chosen by Heather H:

I started my card today having chosen dinosaurs as my animal (the 'Darling Dinos' stamp set is great for colouring too!) and armed with the layout over at Sketch Saturday and the bold, bright colours at Color Dare I set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

Texture and Shine - Aside from my pair of cute, brightly coloured dinosaurs (the Blends colours I used are listed at the bottom of my post), I decided to go big on the texture/emboss element in this week's recipe. I added a background of heat-embossed footprints, layered in lots of boulders across the horizontal and added two panels of corrugated cardstock in highlighted colours behind each of my dinosaurs. I even added in some pebble-shaped enamels from my stash too! All of these combined add more texture and interest than my usual style and whilst this is something of a departure for me, I really like the effect. Maybe, sometimes more is more! 

Footprints in the ... Plants - Did you notice those oversize shiny, embossed footprints on my base panel? This stamp isn't from the 'Darling Dinos' stamp set; in fact, it's got nothing to do with dinosaurs at all! It's actually the reverse of one of the plant stamps in the 'Planted Paradise' set - I've highlighted it with a red circle below:

How clever is that?! I can't take the credit for this idea; the wonderfully talented Brian King made this card a while ago that got me looking at this set in a whole new light - I think I'll probably use this single stamp more than any of the others in this set now, so thank you Brian! Once you've seen it, you just can't unsee it - right? Here's a close up where you can really see the shine of my prints: 

And Finally - Just as I thought I was done, I did my finally recipe check - and realised I'd forgotten twine - aarggh!!! I found some that picked up the red and tied it around my panel; it's ok but I think I preferred the card without. Nonetheless, recipe finally complete - phew!

This card is headed to a friend who will hopefully appreciate the sentiment and those quirky little details.

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 Recipe Challenge use all elements of the recipe - the possibilities within those parameters are endless.
• 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:

DARLING DINOS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£38.50)	MINI CORRUGATED 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£10.25)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	PLANTED PARADISE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£18.90)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	GORGEOUS GRAPE A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	BASIC GRAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)	POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)
PUMPKIN PIE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	AZURE AFTERNOON STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	BLUEBERRY BUSHEL STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	HIGHLAND HEATHER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)