Well it's Monday and whilst I'm off on my way to the beach today, I couldn't go without squeezing in an entry for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge - they are afterall celebrating their 200th sketch challenge, what an achievement! This is their sketch - so many possibilities:

I decided to use the line as the top of a brick wall, with a peeking penguin in the style of Kilroy/Chad graffiti of old (here's the Wikipedia link if you have no idea what I'm talking about!):

Using a base of thick Whisper White cardstock, I adhered a piece of Soft Suede cardstock embossed with the Brick Wall TIEF and some Dazzling Diamonds which I cut freehand as snow on top of the wall. I stamped my penguin and sentiment from the 'Snow Place' stamp set in the new Archival Black ink directly onto my card base, then stamped the penguin's ear muffs and scarf in Real Red and cut them out with the co-ordinating 'Snow Friends' framelits and pooped them up on dimensionals for a little extra lift. 

So what do you think of today's card? I am loving the little penguin in the new 'Snow Place' stamp set - you will be seeing lots more of him this week! You still have time to link up to FMS if you want to have a go at this week's challenge and you should certainly check out this week's gallery, it is absolutely amazing!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

* Snow Place - available September 1st

*Snow Friends - available September 1st 

*Archival Black ink - available September 1st

Big Shot	Magnetic Platform	Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper	Brick Wall Textured Impressions Embossing Folder	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Soft Suede A4 Cardstock

It's Thursday and that means a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary. This week it's colours:

I'm also using this week's sketch over at Retrosketches for my layout. So I debated long and hard what to do with this colour combination; then I decided I would go with something fun! I used my Life in The Forest set - not inked up in a while and soon to be retired so it seemed like a good opportunity to use it:

I used Soft Sky for my base, then created a little paper pieced scene for my racoon. I used the soft sky paper from the Painted Blooms DSP pack for my sky, then paper pieced my trees from Wild Wasabi cardstock and my racoon from a combination of Basic Grey, Basic Black and Whisper White cardstock. I cut my large word bubble out using my Big Shot and oval framelits, handcutting the speech piece and stamped the sentiment from the 'So You' stamp set. I love the addition of the wild wasabi grass, cut with my fringe scissors, and the Soft Sky Painted Blooms cotton twine, but my absolute favourite part of this card? The addition of the tiny googly eyes to my little racoon:

It brings out the child in me  - so cute!!! Do hop on over to the other designers to see how they have interpreted this week's colours - I look forward to seeing your creations in the gallery.

I will be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: