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:

It's my birthday tomorrow and that's what inspired my choice of theme this week. You can't have a birthday cake without at least one candle, right? You are not restricted to birthday candles for your cards though - Christmas candles, menorah or any kind of seasonal candles are fine - just include at least one on your card. I was leafing through my new Creative Celebrations Mix & Match Designer Paper and realised there were two different festive candle designs, so I decided to choose one as the focal point for today's card. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

This pretty festive candle is on an arch-shaped tag, so I carefully fussy cut three of them from the Creative Celebrations paper (because everything looks better in threes!) and mounted them onto three split-colour arches cut with my Everyday Arches Dies. I used another pattern in the pack for the top half of my background (the lower portion is from another retired Christmas pack) and added in some diecut bows, foliage and snowflakes along with a sentiment from my stash:

Lots of layers on this one, but actually the paper has enough detail to stand alone - even without my additions the paper is perfect for both quick and more detailed Christmas cards. So what kind of candles will you feature on your cards? 

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 later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

CREATIVE CELEBRATIONS MIX & MATCH 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£13.00)

EVERYDAY ARCHES DIES (£27.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)

PEACEFUL PINE CLASSIC STAMPIN PAD (£14.00)

2026–2028 IN COLOR™ A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! Firstly a big thank you to everyone who joined us for our milestone 800th challenge last week; the gallery was amazing! It's the turn of the fabulous Jaydee to host this week and as it's the fifth Sunday of the month we have a tictactoe board for you to work with:

I decided to go across the top row with patterned paper/things that fly/layers for a Christmas card (or two!) featuring more of those Creative Celebrations designer series paper patterns and a new Online Exclusives Christmas stamp set called 'Woodland Wishes' - take a look:

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

Woodland Wishes includes a whole range of outline animals, with a main stamp including a pyramid of animals in the shape of a Christmas tree, that are great for colouring individually or alternatively simply stamping as is. For my card I layered a piece of Hydrangea Hue patterned paper onto a white mat and Hydrangea Hue base, then heat embossed the main tree of woodland animals stamp from 'Woodland Wishes' in white onto another panel of Hydrangea Hue and die cut this with a Perennial Postage DIe. I added a ribbon tab in the same colour and a trio of white sparkling sequins, then added it to my prepared base with dimensionals. Can you see all of the things that fly in the image? I counted a bird (maybe a robin), an owl and two doves: 

A simple heat-embossed sentiment on a banner below completes my card. I really like this card, so I made a few more using other patterns of DSP in the Creative Celebrations pack. Here's a green one, stamped in Peaceful Pine onto Soft Succulent:

On this one the image is heat-embossed in gold onto Real Red cardstock:

 The final one is stamped in Real Red onto white cardstock, with a colourful plaid background:

I made a few more of these stamping in red or green onto white too - here's a shot of all of the different designs together:

With a stamping platform, this card was a great one to make multiples of. I sent a whole bunch of these out to customers with their new September Stampin' Up! catalogues and had a bunch left over to add to my Christmas stash too. The blue car is my favourite, although I am quite partial to the one with the plaid background too. Do you have a favourite? Do let me know in the comments below.

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; it's a long Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK and es you've guessed it that can only mean one thing: rain! There was no cricket yesterday as it poured down all day, so I stayed inside and spent the day cooking instead. If today's cricket proves a wash out too, I will get more time to craft so may well have a few extra projects to share with you this week! I'll be back soon 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 Ann to host and we have a special challenge for you this week to celebrate our 800th challenge! As it's sketch week, we are going to revisit the very first sketch we used here at The Paper Players when we started:

Ann was one of the original team members, so it's only fitting she should be our host this week.My own blog doesn't go back that far so I know I didn't play along with this sketch the first time around; Challenge 169 was the first challenge I played along with and I joined the design team as a guest then a permanent member on Challenge 203 - so I'm nearer my personal 600th anniversary post, but I digress! You know how much I love a good sketch, so revisiting number 1 was fun - and I broke open some of my new pre-order product from the new September Stampin' Up! catalogue to make a Christmas card to share with you today - take a look:

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

There's a mix of old and new on today's card: I used one of the patterns in the new Creative Celebrations Mix & Match designer series paper pack with a printed wreath as the centre of my focal layer, cutting it out with an Everyday Arches Die to follow the shape of the wreath. I used a base of (retired) Soft Succulent cardstock and covered the top portion with a piece of (retired) Tidings of Christmas patterned paper - the colour, including the retired Evening Evergreen, coordinates really well with these new papers.

For my accent image I used a deer, complete with winter scarf.  The deer is a pre-cut diecut piece that is also included in the Creative Celebrations DSP pack - it contains a mixture of patterned sheets, split sheets, tag designs and a few sheets of precut pieces that are great for quick and easy cards. The designs also co-ordinate perfectly with the Season of Celebration Mix & Match Ephemera Pack and the Happiest Season Tags Mix & Match Ephemera Pack - both of which you can expect to see on future cards. I fussy cut the diecut deer's border a little closer and decided to add some clear rhinestones to my wreath and a Hydrangea Hue bow behind my dear for a couple of extra festive touches:

A banner of Evening Evergreen cardstock and a simple 'Noel' greeting from the (retired) 'Peaceful Noel' stamp set complete today's 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:

It would be lovely to see as many of you as possible join us for our milestone anniversary challenge this week. Enjoy your day; I don't have anything special planned today, so I'm hoping it will be a relaxing one. I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

EVERYDAY ARCHES DIES (£27.00)

2026–2028 IN COLOR™ A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£6.75)