It's Sunday and you know what that means - a new challenge over at The Paper Players. This week the lovely Laurie has a fun theme to help us shake off our Winter blues:

When I 'think Spring' I immediately think of spring pastels and flowers in bloom, so the obvious choice for my card today was one of my favourite pieces of DSP from the All Abloom DSP stack:

I love the pretty little flowers on this particular paper and wanted to showcase as much of the paper as possible. I decided it would make a great background layer for a shaker-style open window featuring some cute little die cut flowerpots that I cut from kraft and co-ordinating coloured cardstock using my Handpicked Framelit Dies. I finished one of the flowerpots with a tiny Blushing Bride baker's twine bow and used one of the Bitty Banner framelits to cut out the sentiment stamped from the 'From The Garden' stamp set and accented this with a couple of Daffodil Delight candy dots.

Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your visions of Springtime in our gallery this week. 

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

All Abloom Designer Series Paper Stack	From The Garden Photopolymer Bundle	Bitty Banners Framelits Die	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad	Mossy Meadow A4 Cardstock	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Pistachio Pudding	Brights Candy Dots
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Strawberry Slush	Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride	Kraft 12" X 12" Card Stock	Blushing Bride Baker's Twine

It's Sunday and time for another challenge over at The Paper Players. Thank you to everyone who played along with my CAS bird challenge last week - there were some fabulous entries. This week the lovely Sandy is hosting and she has a sketch challenge for us - my favourite! Here is her sketch:

I decided to use the colour palette over at Colour Me for my card today - I haven't had the opportunity to play along with these lovely ladies since I finished my Design Team post over there at the start of the year, so time to say 'hello ladies!' to Hayley, Tara and the team. I just so happen to be using another stamp in the 'Time To Celebrate' hostess set that I used on my Paper Players card last week - take a look:

The temptation to use a feather in my design as per the sketch was high, however there are some wonderful examples using feathers by other members of the Design Team, so I decided to look at what else I could use and settled on the hot air balloon instead. My top mat layer is a piece of 'Flashback' DSP, the circle pattern perfect to echo the central circle of the sketch. I embossed a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock with the now retired 'Cloudy Day' embossing folder and sponged the sky in Pool Party around the clouds and framed this with a Real Red circular frame cut with my Big Shot and Circle Framelits. I added a simple sentiment banner with a little fussy cutting around the 'y' in 'you', then mounted the hot air balloon with dimensionals for a little lift. I stamped the balloon on very Vanilla and coloured it with my So Saffron Stampin' Write marker and the lightest of my Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities. I also added a little Crystal Effects to my stars for some additional dimension, although that's quite difficult to see in the photo below: 

That's my card done and I hope you like it. I love the stamps in the 'Time To Celebrate' hostess set - if they are your thing too, please get in touch if you would like to host a party to lay your hands on your very own set. Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing how you interpret Sandy's sketch this week - so many possibilities! 

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Time To Celebrate Clear Stamp Set	Flashback Designer Series Paper	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Big Shot Magnetic Platform
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Sponge Daubers	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red A4 Card Stock
Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock	Subtles Stampin' Write Markers

It's Sunday and time for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players - and this week it's a double does of excitement as I am hosting my very first challenge with this wonderfully talented group of ladies. 'Feathered friends' is the theme of my clean and simple challenge this week so I'm looking for a bird (or two!) on your card! Here is the wonderful challenge badge that the lovely Nance has created for this week's challenge:

This is one of those challenges when I was truly spoilt for choice - there are lots of great bird images around at the moment. I decided after my busy week that I was definitely in need of some theraputic colouring, so decided to reach for the quirky bird stamp in the Spring-Summer hostess set, 'Time To Celebrate':

Since this bird doesn't look like any I've ever seen in my garden, I decided to throw caution to the wind and colour him in some totally tropical colours and really go to town! I used my Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry Blendabilities markers and a Tempting Turquoise Stampin' Write marker and got colouring. I love that you can colour images like this and you really don't need to be any kind of expert to get a good result. Here's a close up of my bird so that you can see just how imprecise my colouring is: 

I really would urge anyone who is reading this and not tried colouring with Blendabilities to give it a go - I guarantee you'll like the results! I paired my bird with a piece of brightly coloured 'Sweet Taffy' paper and added a few simple banners in co-ordinating colours to finish off my card. I love the colours I used on my card today - Brights are my favourite of the Stampin' Up! colour families, and whilst there isn't a huge amount of 'white space' on my card due to my piece of bold, patterned DSP I love the finished card, which I think still has a clean feel with minimal layers and embellishments.

Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your bird projects in the gallery this week, whether chirpy, quirky or just plain feathered! The children are on half-term holiday this week so we are having a more restful week than usual. I was almost ready for a sport-free day today, when Ben was selected to play in a basketball tournament this afternoon. He is really excited about it though as it's his first one and he LOVES basketball, so is really looking forward to it.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Time To Celebrate Clear Stamp Set	Sweet Taffy Designer Series Paper	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Circles Collection Framelits Dies
Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch	Pumpkin Pie A4 Card Stock	Rich Razzleberry A4 Card Stock
Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Tempting Turquoise A4 Card Stock	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Rich Razzleberry Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Daffodil Delight Assortment	Brights Stampin' Write Markers

Good morning lovely blog readers! Today it's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players, where this week the lovely Nance has this great colour combination for us:

I also used this week's sketch over at Mojo Monday for the layout of today's card. I was tempted to use the florals in the inspiration photo as the starting point for my card - isn't the badge great? Nance creates all our blog challenge badges and does such a fantastic job, thank you Nance! - but in the end the lure of my 'Stacked with Love' DSP paper stack was too strong and I decided to make another Valentine's card! Come and take a look:

I used one of the large sentiments from the 'Big on You' stamp set as the focal point for my card and stamped it in Versamark on blackboard paper and heat embossed in white. I rubbed a little white kraft ink around the edges to add to the chalkboard look and feel of this panel. The large sentiment allowed me to use a number of the other DSP patterns for the background layers to my card. Red and black are clearly taking centre stage on my card, but there are a couple of pops of Calypso Coral - both the flag banner behind the strip of punched hearts and in the popped-up heart, finished with a Real Red bow cut with one of the Mini Treat Bag Thinlit accessory dies and a rhinestone. I haven't made a card using these papers for over a week and I was clearly getting withdrawal symptoms; having got them back out on the desk I've been creating with them again and I have a few more cards to share that feature them this week, so stay tuned!

Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery this week. I'm off to hockey this morning and looking forward to an afternoon with a spot of crafting and some fun with the rest of the family before the new week starts again in earnest.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Big On You Photopolymer Stamp Set	Stacked With Love Designer Series Paper Stack	Chalkboard Paper	Versamark Pad	White Stampin' Emboss Powder
Embossing Buddy	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Basic Black A4 Card Stock	Mini Treat Bag Thinlits Dies	Real Red A4 Card Stock
Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Hearts Border Punch	Sweetheart Punch	Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players, where this week Claire has the following challenge for us:

I also used Rita's sketch layout over at Freshly Made Sketches for my card this week. Now this week's card caused me some mild consternation, as anyone who knows me knows that I've never really had a pet and so I have been known to get myself into all kinds of trouble with friends for under-estimating the depth of their feelings towards their two-and four-legged friends. I am not intentionally insensitive, it's just that I don't 'get it' - so the idea of creating a Valentine's card for or from a pet sent me into quite a spin! Both James Juniors have had goldfish as pets previously, but since I used fish on my card last week I thought today's card needed an alternative, altogether more fluffy friend - so this is what I came up with:

I created a custom sentiment using my 'Back to Basics' alphabet stamps and added a selection of banners using patterns from the 'Stacked with Love' DSP stack. For the heart-shaped centrepiece, I stamped a pair of adorable bunnies and coloured them in with my Smoky Slate Blendabilities. Do you recognise the bunnies, or should I say, bunny? The bunny on the right is from the 'Baby We've Grown' stamp set. I stamped him once, then having masked him off with a post-it note, I then stamped him again onto a piece of window sheet and using the reflection technique transferred this image onto my cardstock, overlapping the legs slightly. The tiniest drag line on the ear resulted in a cute fold-over look, so I left it, as it made the bunnies a little less symmetrical. Don't they make such a cute pair? I finished this centre piece by framing the bunnies in a Real Red heart-shaped frame cut using my Big Shot and Hearts Framelits and added a tiny punched heart with a rhinestone to the centre. If I had a bunny rabbit, I would be happy to send him this Valentine - job done! I'm also linking up with SUO Challenges today too, where the theme is 'Valentine's Wishes' - very appropriate.

Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery this week.

I'm looking forward to a quiet day today: the hockey pitch is frozen as a result of the sub-zero temperatures we've been having this past week and poor Ben is struggling to shake his cough and cold that he's had for weeks now, so he is going to have a rugby-free week too, as running around a freezing pitch for a couple of hours is certainly not going to improve things. Rebecca and I will be completing the masterpiece that is her ancient Greek theatrical mask, the result of two weeks of paper mache and modelling clay - all being well it should be dry enough to paint. We may even manage to squeeze in another family movie afternoon; last week we watched Malificent for the first time, which was hugely enjoyable and an interesting alternative take on a classic.

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

Baby, We've Grown	Back To Basics Alphabet Photopolymer Stamp Set	Hearts Collection Framelits Dies	Stacked With Love Designer Series Paper Stack	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Calypso Coral Assortment
Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players. Last week we were truly overwhelmed with the response to LeAnne's CAS challenge. This week Jaydee has a great sketch for us - and you know how much I love a good sketch! Here is the sketch:

My card today is a cute Valentine, where I finally got around to use some of the bokeh-patterned paper in the Best Day Ever Sale-A-Bration pack - take a look:

The bokeh effect on the DSP reminded me of light rippling through the clear blue water of the Caribbbean seas, so the fishes were an obvious addition! I stamped the fishes in Memento Black ink on Whisper White, then coloured them in with my Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo, Crumb Cake and Bermuda Bay Blendabilties pens. I layered this circle on top of two more to echo the bubbles in the water, then stamped the sentiment from the same 'Hey. Valentine' stamp set on a strip of Pool Party across the bottom, having masked off my stamp first. All of the images in this stamp set are perfect for this - they can all be used for non-valentine's cards too. In fact, this was one of the things that appealed to me about the set - it will make some great children's birthday cards too. I added a strip of Bermuda Bay sequins to the sentiment strip for a little extra sparkle and my favourite embellishment is the little Crystal Effects added to the spotty fish for his spectacles - here's a close up:

However cute are they?! I hope you like today's card - I love the way that the circular patterns are echoed throughout. Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery this week. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Hey, Valentine Clear Stamp Set	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Alcohol Marker Color Lifter	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Bermuda Bay Assortment Stampin' Blendabilities Markers
Pink Pirouette Assortment Stampin' Blendabilities Markers	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Crumb Cake Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Melon Mambo Assortment	Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Pool Party A4 Card Stock
Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	2" Circle Punch	2-1/2 Inch Circle Punch	Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper	Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim
Crystal Effects

It's Sunday and time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players, where this week LeAnne has a fun CAS challenge for us:

There are lots of great sentiment sets in the Stampin' Up! range; I have lots of birthdays coming up so this was a great opportunity to use the new 'it's your day' stamp from the 'Big On You' set in the Spring-Summer catalogue and create a fun birthday card. Here's my clean and simple card:

I used Bermuda Bay for my card base and covered my entire card front in a piece of confetti-patterned paper from the 'Birthday Bash' DSP range. I then took a piece of acetate window sheet, cut slightly longer than the front of my card, stamped my stamp on it in versamark and heat embossed it in gold. I then scored across the top and adhered it to the back of my card and folded it over the front. I like the effect of the floating sentiment and the fact that you get to see the whole of the DSP underneath. I almost finished my card at this point, but decided to add a string of Bermuda Bay sequins and a gold button to add to the party feel of my card - minimal embellishments are ok for this type of card and sometimes can add a nice touch.

I even did a little stamping on the inside of my card and better still, remembered to photograph it so that I could share it with you:

I hope you like today's card - rather glitzy yet at the same time clean and simple and easy to re-create. Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery this week. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Big On You Photopolymer Stamp Set	Birthday Bash Specialty Designer Series Paper	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Tangelo Twist Classic Stampin' Pad
Medium Window Sheets	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim	Gold Basic Metal Buttons	Age Awareness Photopolymer Stamp Set

It's Sunday and time for this week's challenge over at The Paper Players, where today Anne has a great colour challenge for us:

I also used the current sketch over at The Deconstructed Sketch as the basis for the layout of my card. So for my card today I've had the first opportunity to play with one of my most favourite products from the new Spring-Summer catalogue: the new 'Hello You' thinlits. I loved the Expressions thinlits we had previously and I still use mine and would never part with them, so I was delighted to see a whole new set of word thinlits in the new catalogue, and the fabulous 'Crazy About You' stamp set that co-ordinates with them. The number of sentiment possibilities are endless! Anyway, using Anne's colour choice today, this is what I came up with:

I went with a square card and lots of layers. The layers are Sahara Sand and Lost Lagoon, with the Sahara Sand DSP from the 'Moonlight' DSP paper stack. I die cut the word 'hello' from my central Sahara Sand square, then inlaid this with another 'Hello' diecut in Crisp Cantaloupe, allowing the Lost Lagoon from the layer below to show through into the negative space. I finished my sentiment with a 'you' stamped in Lost Lagoon on a banner of Whisper White, that I tucked under my Crisp Cantaloupe stamped flower. I diecut some leaves and a centre for my flower from Lost Lagoon cardstock using my Flower Frenzy Bigz Die, then finished it with a white button threaded with Crisp Cantaloupe thick baker's twine. I love how the 'Hello You' thinlit dies can be used in so many ways. Just look at the detail on this close-up:

I hope you like this card and are as crazy about the new thinlits dies as I am. Watch this space for lots more ideas from me!

We are back to hockey and rugby following the Christmas break today; no rest for the parents of sporty ones, it seems! At least dinner is prepared and will be in the slow cooker waiting for us on our return. Before you reach for your ink pads, do visit the other design team members to see what interesting ideas they've had this week:

I look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery this week. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Crazy About You Photopolymer Bundle	Big Shot Magnetic Platform	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Flower Frenzy Bigz L Die	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Moonlight Designer Series Paper Stack	Crisp Cantaloupe Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Crisp Cantaloupe	Crisp Cantaloupe Thick Baker's Twine	Lost Lagoon Classic Stampin' Pad
Lost Lagoon A4 Cardstock	Sahara Sand A4 Card Stock	Neutrals Designer Buttons	1-3/4 Inch Scallop Circle Punch

It's Sunday and time for my Design Team post over at The Paper Players - and my last one, as my 6 month post has come to an end, boo hoo! These ladies have been an awesome bunch of people to work with and are a source of immense talent and inspiration. I shall miss designing with them, but will of course continue to play along with their weekly challenges.

This week Nance has a great challenge for us, to see out the end of the year in style - it is a 'black tie' challenge, to showcase holiday projects that are fancy:

I am sharing a rather different project today, which is not Christmas-specific but was designed using the Holiday Home stamp set and co-ordinating framelits from the Autumn-Winter seasonal catalogue and would make a lovely Christmas present to celebrate each and every season. Judging by the time it took me to complete it, I think it definitely qualifies as fancy! I made a 3D frame with a house for each month of the year, each one celebrating the seasons and events relevant to each month.

Here is my completed frame:

Each month is a little mini piece of artwork all by itself, with everything from a snowman and the winter snow to the shamrocks for St Patricks Day, summer sunshine and holiday aeroplanes to the autumn apple harvest, Halloween pumpkins and Santa and his reindeer and lots more in between. Each section uses a variety of papers, ribbons, embossing and colouring - far too many to list! If you have specific questions on any of the rectangles, please leave a comment below or drop me an email and I will be happy to provide further detail.

I hope you like my final Paper Players Design Team project; hop on over to the challenge blog to see what the others have come up with this week - as always there are some amazing projects! Do continue to visit and see what I come up with for future challenges as a participant and to the rest of the lovely Paper Players team and other guest designers, thanks a bunch ladies - you are all awesome and it's been a real pleasure working with you!

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Holiday Home Photopolymer Bundle

It's time for a new challenge over at The Paper Players today and this week the lovely Jaydee has a fun tic-tac-toe challenge for us:

I'm linking up today's card with Merry Monday where the challenge is to use red, green and white on a Christmas card, and Create with Connie and Mary where they have the following sketch layout:

When considering Jaydee's grid I was drawn to the top horizontal line - tree, transport and white - although I ended up completing two more lines too (see if you can work out which ones!). One of the reasons I purchased the 'White Christmas' stamp set was for that cute little car and this is the first time I've used it! Here is my card:

I took some artistic licence with the sketch and turned it upside down and made it into a side stepped card - I think you can see all the elements though. I used Smoky Slate for my card base and having made my folds, I began to customise it. For the main panel, I added a Whisper White snow drift and a road for my car to travel along, then stamped my car, complete with Christmas tree, in Memento Black onto Whisper White, coloured with my Blendabilities and Stampin' Write markers and fussy cut it out and popped it up on dimensionals:

For my stepped side, I added a snow drift of dazzling diamonds glimmer paper at the front, along with a bold satin bow. The house that is the destination for the travelling Christmas tree is on the layer behind, again coloured with Blendabilities and decorated with a mini wreath and some glimmer snow, and a few fir trees. The layer at the rear has a couple more trees and two more houses, this time in Smoky Slate and stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in white, as these houses are in the background of the scene. Here are a couple of additional views from this side of the card:

Here's a close up of the houses:

This was a fun card to create and the Holiday Home houses and co-ordinating framelits work really well on a stepped card. This week's tic tac toe challenge offers lots of opportunities to be creative, so be sure to share your creation with us at The Paper Players!  Check out what the other designers did as well:

• Andrea
• Ann
• Claire
• Jaydee
• LeAnne
• Laurie
• Nance
• Sandy
• Yapha

Back tomorrow with another other project; until then, enjoy the rest of your weekend and happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

White Christmas Photopolymer Stamp Set	Holiday Home Photopolymer Bundle	Real Red 3/8" Satin Woven Ribbon	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad
White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Cherry Cobbler Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Markers Smokey Slate Assortment	Stampin' Blendabilities™ Alcohol Marker Color Lifter
Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad	Uni-Ball Signo Gel Pen