Hello everyone - I'm back! It's never good when a vacation and blog migration issues combine, but I'm back, crossing my fingers and hoping that finally everything has been resolved and I have some quick and easy cards to share with you! 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 speed challenge chosen by Jane:

I don't have any current fruit in my stash, but thought this challenge would be a perfect opportunity to use up a glut of retired Tutti Frutti designer series paper. I grabbed a couple of retired fruit theme stamp sets too and started out with a bright, zesty card - take a look:

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

Speedy Tips - I decided on a super simple layout that would allow my DSP to do the heavy lifting and decided I would score a couple of lines directly onto the reverse of my card front to create 3 rectangles, then fill two of them with DSP and stamp a vertical sentiment onto the third. If you look closely you can see the scored detail on the image below:

A sentiment from 'Sweet Citrus' completes my simple yet fruity card.

Quick In Half The Time - Well, almost - my card took me just 5 minutes and 32 seconds to complete:

A Fruity Collection - since my challenge card really was so quick to make, I decided to use up a bunch of other papers in the pack and with a variety of other sentiments, created a whole bunch of cards with a fruity theme:

They really were so easy! Each patterned panel across the bottom is the reverse of the fruity panel, so with a few quick scorelines and slices of my trimmer, I'd manage to create a bunch of fun cards. Here they are in more detail:

And I used up a bunch of paper too - bonus!

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 soon with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Well, the brief visit of warm weather here in the UK last week was short-lived; we are back to the cold and wet, with it having rained pretty much for two days straight! If this continues I think I'm going to have to issue my poor chickens with arm bands (aka water wings for my American readers!) In the hopes of willing a change in the forecast, I thought I'd play along today with the challenge over at Global Design Project, using the layout over at CAS Colours and Sketches too:

My card also fits the middle column of the board over at TicTacToe Challenge: metallic, free, stripes. I went bold, with a nice bright yellow and some crisp white for my clean and simple card - take a look:

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

Bring Me Sunshine - This cute little 'button' from the A Good Day stamp set works perfectly for a 'Show Me The Sunshine' theme. I stamped it in Tuxedo Memento Black on Whisper White and again on Smoky Slate cardstock, then fussy cut and paper-pieced the clouds back in place. This gives a little detail without too much dimension and provides contrast to my ombre yellow sun behind, which I coloured with my Stampin' Blends.  

Deckchair Stripes - This yellow and white striped paper is from the Tutti Frutti designer series paper stack, which I bought primarily for the non-fruity designs. It works perfectly for my bright, sunny card - it reminds me of stripy deckchairs on the beach!

Raindrop Sparkles - To finish my card, I added some of the teardrop-shaped clear epoxy shapes to my raindrops; they are bigger than the stamped raindrops, but I like the added interest this gives to my focal point.

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 hoping today's card brings back Spring here, even if we have to wait a while for summer - I'm not sure it will be enough to do the trick though, the weatherman was prediciting icy temperatures again with an outside chance of snow again early next week - yuk!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

A Good Day Clear-Mount Stamp Set (£17.00)	Glitter & Clear Epoxy Shapes (£6.25)	Tutti-Frutti 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper (£9.00)	Daffodil Delight A4 Cardstock (£7.25)	Whisper White A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Smoky Slate A4 Cardstock (£7.25)	Layering Circle Framelits Dies (£32.00)	1-3/8" (3.5 Cm) Circle Punch (£14.50)	Metallic Foil Doilies (£3.75)	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 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