It's Sunday and time for a reminder that we are still celebrating over at The Paper Players! It's our 400th birthday and our theme challenge is running for two weeks in total, to give you all plenty of time to play along. Some of us are back with some additional mid-theme inspiration for you, where we continue to be all about celebration:

Before I get to my card, a reminder of all of the fabulous prizes you can win - so many prizes!! 40 in fact, from our many generous sponsors across the crafting community - check out our post for more details but here is the full list to whet your appetite:

Listed in alphabetical order:

1. Altenew - $30 gift card
2. Atenew Academy - $20 gift card  - compliments of Jaydee
3. Avery Elle - $20 store credit
4. Butterfly Reflections - Breathe Rainbows Stamp Set (US only)
5. CAS-ual Fridays - $25 store credit
6. Cheery Lynn - $20 gift card  
7. Cheery Lynn - $20 gift card - compliments of Laurie
8. Concord & 9th - $25 gift card
9. Craftin Desert Diva's - $10 store cedit
10. Dies R Us - $15 gift card
11. Ellen Hutson -  20 gift cards - compliments of Annie 
12. Ellen Hutson $20 gift card - compliments of Eliz
13. Happy Little Stampers - $20 store credit
14. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Sets (exclusive - not available for purchase)
15. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
16. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
17. Heffy Doodle - Sticky Friends Stamp Set (exclusive - not available for purchase)
18. Lawn Fawn - $25 gift card
19. My Favorite Things - $25 store credit
20. Neat & Tangled - $15 store credit 
21. Newton's Nook - $20 store credit
22. Pink & Main - $20 store credit
23. Power Poppy - $10 store credit
24. Stampendous - $20 rewards cards (US only)
25. Stampendous - $20 reward card (US only)
26. Stampendous - $20 reward card (US only)
27. Stamplorations - $20 gift certificate
28. Stampin' Up - $20 gift certificates compliments of Nance (US only)
29. Stampin' Up! $20 gift certificate - compliments of LeAnne (US only)
30. Stampin' Up! £20 gift certificate - compliments of Joanne (UK only)
31. Stampin' Up! $20 gift certificate - compliments of Claire (US only)
32. Stampin' Up $20 gift certificate - compliments of Jan (NZ only)
33. Technique Tuesday - $20 gift card
34. The Foiled Fox - $25 store credit
35. Trinity Stamps - Let it Grow and Lady Liberty Stamp Sets
36. Tutti Designs - $15 gift card
37. Uniko - any in-stock stamp set of winner's choice
38. Verve Stamps - stamp & accessory bundle - compliments of Sandy (US only)
39. Verve Stamps - stamp & accessory bundle - compliments of Sandy (US only)
40. Waffle Flower - $15 gift card

Isn't that fantastic?! All prizes will be awarded randomly between challenge participants - so if you enter, you are in with a chance of winning!

I was fairly short on time this week, having had a class, a bunch of end of term activities for one James Junior and a wedding to attend this weekend, so clean and simple was most definitely the order of the day. Unintentionally I ended up with another card with balloons too - take a look:

How cute is that little elephant?! 

I reached for my new Little Elephant stamp set and along with my co-ordinating Elephant Builder punch and a few favourite colours, I set to work. I punched out the elephant and his ear for added dimension and added some balloons punched with my now retired tiny balloon punch, added some clear Wink of Stella and then done! This is one of those great quick cards that is a simple combination of stamps, ink and paper and can be put together in a jiffy - great when you are short on time!

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:

There are already some fabulous cards in the gallery but there's still more time for you to enter. Whatever you're celebrating, share it with us! Enjoy the rest of your weekend - I'll be returning from the wedding and spending the day painting before the kitchen fitting begins this week. I'll be back soon with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Little Elephant Clear-Mount Bundle (£31.50)	Rich Razzleberry Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Rich Razzleberry A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Bermuda Bay A4 Cardstock (£8.00)
Coastal Cabana A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Grapefruit Grove A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£9.00)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.50)

Hello everyone! Did you miss me? My extended blogging break wasn't anticipated. I have had a few big things on of late: a girly weekend, a thirteenth birthday to prepare for and celebrate and I was performing in Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat along with the youngest of my James Juniors on Friday evening. Add to that a persistent knee injury from running that finally resulted in me needing an extended course of physiotherapy to put right, along with a spell of single parenting and well, as you can probably tell, family and school life has somewhat got in the way! I still held a couple of wonderful launch parties to welcome the arrival of the new catalogue, my class schedule is uninterrupted and I have been finalising the details for my next 2 retreats (I will blog these another time but meanwhile you can read all about them here) but blogging has had to take something of a back seat.

However, today is Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! I'm a little late but here nevertheless! It's the turn of the marvellous Jaydee to host this week and she has a clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

Thank heavens this week was clean and simple - although I must confess I had a couple of aborted attempts in order to achieve today's card - not enough time spent in my craft room, methinks! I eventually settled on a bright and colourful thank you card  - take a look:

I decided to go with a thank you card (we always need those, right?!) and some bright and colourful banners courtesy of the 'Pick a Pennant' stamp set and this week's challenge colours over at Just Add Ink featuring amongst others the new vibrant Granny Apple Green - love it! Now I know the challenge is 'clean and simple - birds' and there's only one feathered friend present amongst all those banners, but he's there and so I'm hoping that counts! I stamped my banners directly onto my one layer card, stamping the backgrounds off once to better highlight the patterns, whilst fussy cutting my bird and bows as I'm still waiting for my framelits to arrive.

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. Today's card really is clean and simple - stamps, ink and paper: the 3 things Stampin' Up! do best!

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

I can't wait to see your clean and simple creations and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly. I'll be back as soon as I can with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Pick A Pennant Photopolymer Stamp Set (£20.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£7.25)	Lemon Lime Twist Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)
Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)

Good morning and happy Monday everyone! I am up and about and blogging nice and early today as I have a busy day and evening so need to be organised! Today I'm sharing a card using this week's colour challenge over at CAS Colours and Sketches that would also be perfect for our current challenge over at The Paper Players too:

As I had the 'Remarkable You' stamp set out on my desk for the second of my cards yesterday, it struck me that the above colour combo was perfect for those lovely arum lilies so I set about making today's card - take a look:

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

Making 'White Space' Blue - One of the principles of clean and simple design is to have plenty of 'white space' visible on your card. White space doesn't have to be white in colour though; in order for my design to work today, I wanted my white lilies to stand out and what better way than to place them against a bright blue Pacific Point coloured background? The blue plays a central role on my card with the other two colours adding just the merest hint of colour, whilst still allowing my card to feel CAS. 

Clean and Simple Paper Piecing - I stamped my lilies directly onto my card base and again onto Whisper White cardstock. I then fussy cut my white lilies, and after colouring the stems in Pear Pizzazz and adding some So Saffron highlights to my blooms with a blender pen, I paper-pieced them in place onto my card base. This is a great way to get all of the detail of the sketch-like outline whilst also ensuring the flowers stood out adequately against the blue background. A simple white embossed sentiment finishes the front of my card.

Words of Sympathy - These lilies make a beautiful sympathy card; one of my go-to sentiment sets for this type of card is 'Flourishing Phrases' -  this set has some wonderful and thoughtful sentiments, and no more so than for those sometimes tricky cards where words are never really enough. Here's the inside of my card - I love how the words fit with the shape of the flowers too:

I always find sympathy cards difficult to make to order so like to have a few on standby for when the need arises. I particularly like to use colour on my sympathy cards too, so this one definitely ticks all the boxes for me and will head to my card box for future use.

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:

Remarkable You Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£23.00)	Flourishing Phrases Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£33.00)	Pacific Point A4 Cardstock (£7.25)	So Saffron Classic Stampin' Pad (£6.00)	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad (£6.00)
Blender Pens (£10.75)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Versamark Pad (£7.75)	White Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.50)

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! I'm back following my week off and raring to go. It's the turn of the wonderful Laurie to host this week and she has a clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

Remember in addition to the theme of "blooms", this week is a Clean-and-Simple (CAS) challenge!  What do we mean by CAS?

• Minimal layers and embellishments
• Plenty of open space, aka "white" space
• Simple and uncluttered

I have a couple of cards of cards to share with you today (and another tomorrow!) that fit this week's theme. I decided to use the retiring 'Definitely Dahlia' stamp for my cards today, and was very much inspired by our badge this week created by the oh-so-talented Nance. Here's my single clean and simple bloom:

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

Farewell Definitely Dahlia - I will miss the 'Definitely Dahlia' background stamp, as it is so great for CAS cards. Whether you simply stamp 'as is' (see my uber-CAS card below) or do as I have here, where I inked with two colours to create a two-tone effect, this is a stamp that needs little else for a clean and simple card - the stamp really does much of the work.

Hello Pineapple Punch - I used one of the new in-colours, Pineapple Punch, to create the base layer of colour for my dahlia, stamping off once before adding some Melon Mambo pink with a sponge dauber to the petal edges to create a pretty two-tone effect. This adds a little more depth and interest to the final stamped image. I really like the new in-colours this year - they work so well as a collection and compliment many of the other colours in our palette.

Amazing You - I finished my card with a stamped and diecut sentiment from the 'Celebrate You' thinlits set - can't wait for these to become available in the new catalogue, you know how much I love a diecut thinlit :-) 

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 I go, here's another version of the same card, this time super clean-and-simple in style, that I made for the current mix it up challenge over at Sugar Pea Designs, using both sketch and photo inspiration:

Whilst I didn't choose a rose for my flower, I did go with the pale pink and a single bloom, and I used the sketch. Here's my card:

I simply stamped my dahlia in retiring Pink Pirouette ink, stamping off once to get a pale flower, heat embossed my sentiment from another retiring stamp set, Remarkable You, in silver and mounted on a Pink Pirouette card base. 

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Definitely Dahlia Wood-Mount Stamp Set (£18.00)	Celebrate You Thinlit Dies (£21.00)	Sponge Daubers (£4.50)	Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock (£7.25)	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad (£6.00)
Pineapple Punch A4 Cardstock (£8.00)	Pineapple Punch Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£8.25)

Another busy day today catching up on household admin today, but just time to share a card for this week's challenge over at CAS(E) This Sketch:

For some reason I had lots of ideas for this sketch, which is a pretty good job since the first card I made featured a couple of pens from the Crafting Forever set and a 'Just a Note' sentiment and my lovely Paper Players teamie and friend LeAnne posted one that was almost identical! You can see her card here; I decided that instead of posting my card that was so similar, I would work up one of my other ideas and got out my Magical Mermaid stamp set for some aquatic fun - take a look:

I stamped the seaweed twice and added my sentiment below as per the sketch, creating an ombre effect by sponging the sentiment stamp with Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay and Tranquil Tide before stamping and fussy cutting a gold embossed starfish. The real star of this card though is the mermaid: I stamped her in Versamark and heat embossed in gold, then coloured her by sponging ink and blending lots of pinks and aquas to create her tail, before covering with a liberal does of clear Wink of Stella, fussy cutting and popping her on some dimensionals for extra lift. I also allowed her to sit slightly off the edge of the card for added interest.

This really is one of those cards where the photo doesn't do my card justice - it is so shimmery and sparkly in real life and the blended tail colour so pretty. Try as I might though I could capture the effect on film, so you'll just have to take my word for it! I did take a quick picture of the inside too, with its seaside border:

I think this is the first time I've blogged a card using this set, but it is actually getting lots of use as I've recently decorated Rebecca's room and one of her bed sets has mermaids on it, so we are in the process of using this set to create some fun wall art and home decor pieces. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Magical Mermaid Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£18.00)	Embossing Buddy (£5.50)	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder (£4.50)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£6.50)	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.25)
Glitter Enamel Dots (£6.25)

Today I have another card that I made with this week's challenge over at The Paper Players in mind. 

I love the card that I used as my design team entry on Sunday, but wanted to try another idea that I had for that lovely magical unicorn that was a little more clean and simple - take a look: 

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

Keep It CAS - Whilst still not entirely 'white space', I created a subtle repeating pattern of pale grey outline unicorns to add enough detail to allow me to highlight my unique 'one of a kind' unicorn and sentiment.

One Of A Kind Unicorn - I stamped and coloured another unicorn to anchor my sentiment, adding a rainbow mane and tail, a liberal dose of clear Wink of Stella and a sparkling gold unicorn horn. This unicorn is all about standing out from the crowd!

Rainbow Highlights - My unicorn anchors my rainbow sentiment, coloured with Stampin' Write markers in the same colours as my unicorn mane and backed with some gold glimmer paper. A pop of colour on my clean and simple card, created with just one stamp set and some inks - truly clean and simple.

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. 

Remember, you have until Friday to join our magical Clean and Simple challenge over at The Paper Players - we look forward to receiving your entries!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Magical Day Wood-Mount Stamp Set (£27.00)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£6.50)	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush (£7.25)	Many Marvelous Markers (£99.00)	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad (£6.00)
Gold Glimmer Paper (£4.50)

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the awesomely artistic Sandy's turn to host this week and she has a clean and simple challenge for you to work with and a fun 'magical' theme:

I used this week's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches again (Karren definitely came up trumps with this one!) and just had to go with unicorns for my card today - take a look:

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

Myths And Magic - So I broke one of my 'clean and simple' rules with today's card in my use of designer series paper across the whole of my card front; this Myths and Magic DSP is to good to cut down though. I am happy to pass up my 'white space' for these sweet, sparkly unicorns - I love them! Each and every one of them shimmers with glitter. 

A Magical Unicorn Day - I stamped and coloured another unicorn to anchor my sentiment and covered the body of this one in Dazzling Diamonds glitter too - Wink of Stella wasn't enough for this one! I also added a trio of pearls that I coloured with my Pool Party Stampin' Blends. My unicorn had to be pink - this is headed for a girly girl, so nothing else would do.

Fairy Words - I added a solid banner of Melon Mambo to back my skinny sentiment, taken from the 'Fairy Celebration' set, as this suited the sketch better than those in Magical Day. 

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. 

I am so sad that this set is retiring at the end of May - it's one of my favourites in the current seasonal catalogue and I haven't used it nearly enough! Rebecca is obsessed with mermaids and unicorns, so I know I will get plenty more use from it yet; I definitely won't be parting with it anytime soon, for sure.

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

Don't forget the theme is clean and simple this week - so minimal layers and embellishments and aim for lots of white space. I can't wait to see what you create and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly. We are finally getting some nice weather here in the UK so I will be aiming to spend as much time outdoors as possible; I think Spring may finally be on its way. I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Magical Day Wood-Mount Stamp Set (£27.00)	Myths & Magic Specialty Designer Series Paper (£11.50)	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock (£6.50)	Fairy Celebration Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£17.00)	Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter (£4.50)
Melon Mambo A4 Cardstock (£7.25)	Smoky Slate A4 Cardstock (£7.25)	Powder Pink A4 Cardstock (£7.25)	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad (£5.50)

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's Nance's turn to host this week and she has a clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

I decided to take Nance's challenge literally and have a clean-and-simple rainbow card to share with you this week - take a look:

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

Build A Rainbow The Easy Way - Today's card features a fun rainbow made using the Rainbow Builder Framelits Dies - these really do make building a rainbow super quick and easy. I ran all 7 pieces through the Big Shot at the same time and held them together with some washi tape across the back.

Myths and Magic - I don't usually use designer paper on a clean and simple card, but I couldn't resist a background of clouds and sky courtesy of this fun pattern fro the Myths and Magic Specialty DSP Pack. It makes the perfect backdrop for my bright rainbow and layered clouds.

Sunshine and Rainbows -  My card is mostly made up of diecuts and has very little stamping - just the sunshine and the sentiment. I decided to continue the rainbow theme into my sentiment stamp and coloured it with the colours of my rainbow using sponge daubers for a fun variegated effect.

Whilst my card is a little more layered than I usually go with for clean and simple, this card is really straightforward and super quick to put together and I love the pop of bright colour that the rainbow gives. 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:

Don't forget the theme is clean and simple this week - so minimal layers and embellishments and lots of white space. I can't wait to see what you create and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly. I'm meeting an old school friend today and we are going on a course to brush up on our Copperplate Calligraphy skills, assuming the snow we are expecting here in the UK (again!) doesn't scupper our plans.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Sunshine & Rainbows Photopolymer Bundle	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Real Red A4 Cardstock	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangerine Tango A4 Cardstock
Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad	Emerald Envy A4 Cardstock	Emerald Envy Classic Stampin' Pad
Pacific Point A4 Cardstock	Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Elegant Eggplant A4 Cardstock	Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pad	Perfect Plum A4 Cardstock
Perfect Plum Classic Stampin' Pad	Myths & Magic Specialty Designer Series Paper

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the delightful Jaydee to host this week and she has a rather timely theme challenge for you to work with:

My card was totally inspired by the lovely inspiration photo Nance chose for Jaydee's challenge badge this week: those red tulips are just lovely so I had to feature some on my card today. We have been experiencing sub-zero temperatures here in the UK for the past week, along with significant snowfall and I for one am ready for Spring, even if only with my card today - take a look:

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

Get Tranquil Tulips For Free - Tranquil Tulips is one of the hostess sets in the annual catalogue, that is available exclusive to those that host a Stampin’ Up! party or place a personal order of £150 or more. A gorgeous set with blooms that can be stamped directly or fussy cut and layered as I’ve done here. Sale-A-Bration is the best time of year to host a Stampin’ Up! party, as with qualifying sales you can earn an extra £20 in rewards on top of the usual levels. I’ve had lots of customers take advantage of this and earn this sets and lots of other free produc, whilst having a fun evening with friends into the bargain. If you would like to earn this set for free, then talk to me about hosting your own party - I still have a few slots left this month if you would like to squeeze one in before the end of the month, but you’ll have to be quick!

A Tutti Frutti Pattern - I paired my red tulips with some blue grape hyacinths and that inspired the colour scheme for the rest of my card. The background paper is from the Tutti Frutti paper stack - lots of bold fruit patterns here, but if these are not your thing there are some great patterns such as the one I’ve used today on the reverse of each sheet too.

A Spring Banner - I took the wording for my banner from the current ‘Hello Easter’ set and paired it with the banner from the Bunch of Banners set to fit my theme. Some navy crinkle seam binging ribbon finishes my 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:

I can't wait to see how you interpret this week's theme and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly.

I am spending today with a bunch of lovely ladies who braved the British weather to join me for my first residential luxury crafting retreat. Yesterday was a craft-packed day and theres just as much fun in store today. Wish you were here to join in the fun too!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Tranquil Tulips Photopolymer Stamp Set	Tutti-Frutti 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper	Hello Easter Photopolymer Stamp Set	Night Of Navy 5/8" Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon	Lots Of Labels Framelits Dies
Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Night Of Navy A4 Cardstock	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad
Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Bunch Of Banners Framelits Dies	Banners For You Photopolymer Stamp Set	Glitter & Clear Epoxy Shapes

It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my fabulous friend LeAnne's turn to host this week and she has a clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

This week's challenge was indeed 'sew' much fun and I have not one but two super clean-and-simple cards to share with you this week! This is also something of a 'something old, something new' post for me and perfect for the current challenge over at As You See It where they are asking us to remember the first tool or stamp set we bought or the one that made us fall in love with stamping, so I have a story for you today! First things first though - here is card number one:

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

Take A Hoop - I've been wanting to use these cute little mini embroidery hoops in the seasonal catalogue and today gave me the perfect opportunity. Perfect for framing miniature works of art, they are just like the real thing. 

Cross Stitch With Hoop La La - The stamp set I've used today is an old set called 'Hoop La La'. It isn't the first stamp set I ever bought (that was called 'Sweetheart' I think and you could make treat cup cards with it - I still have it somewhere but couldn't find it anywhere when I looked this week!) but this was one of the first. I chose it because it combined two of my favourite hobbies: my love of cross stitch and my new passion for card making - I just had to have it and haven't been able to part with it since. On this card I used the house, coloured with my Stampin' Write markers in Pool Party and Bermuda Bay and added a red enamel heart. Another 'new home' card - I seem to be needing a lot of these lately! The stamp set includes a stamp of an embroidery hoop, but I love the dimension that the little wooden hoops give to the card.

Get Stitching - To continue the stitching theme, I used my stitched circle framelits to cut out my circle to sit inside the hoop (I popped it up on dimensionals). I also added a diecut needle from last season's Quilt Builder Framelits and threaded it with some Pool Party baker's twine. I also added a twine bow to the top of my hoop for decoration. 

Here's the second of my cards, this time using the smaller size embroidery hoop and adhering my stitched circle to the top of the frame for an alternative mount:

This one shows up a little better with the darker purple colour against the white - here is a close up of the hoop so that you can see the alternative mount on the smaller embroidery hoop:

I like this mix of old and new so much I think I'm going to have to get another pack of hoops and make up some more of these cards! 

Here is the visual summaries 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:

Don't forget the theme is clean and simple this week - so minimal layers and embellishments and lots of white space. I can't wait to see what you create and look forward to visiting your blogs this week! Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly. I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Mini Embroidery Hoops	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Brights Enamel Shapes	Pool Party Solid Baker’S Twine	Silver Foil Sheets
Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad	Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies