It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches Suzy is hosting this month and our first challenge is a sketch challenge consisting of a panel with a slightly overlapping sentiment: 

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card.

For my card today I couldn't wait to use the new colour combo over at Color Hues along with some other new products for a clean and simple masculine birthday card - take a look:

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

I recently won a Uniko gift voucher in the challenge over at Time Out and I used it towards some new stencils and I thought I'd give one of them a try on my card today. I used the MOD Background Builder Stencil, masking off the cross section to give me a broadly rectangular shape, and stencilled it onto my card using one of my favourite teals, (retired) Bermuda Bay. I then added a stamped and diecut sentiment using my Big Day Birthday Dies from Kristina Werner and Concord & 9th, popping the diecut piece up on dimensionals:

A sprinkle of shimmery Night of Navy enamel dots to accent the stencilled pattern and the sentiment complete my clean and simple masculine birthday card. Super simple, but effective - just the way I like a CAS card to be! 

Enjoy your day; I've already done my session at the gym today and I have some desk-based bits and pieces to deal with today and will hopefully manage to squeeze in a little crafty time too - it's still to hot here for a lot else! All being well I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Happy hump day everyone! Today I'm sharing another card for this week's challenge over at Just Us Girls where it's anything goes Stencil Week:

I said on Sunday I had another idea that I wanted to try involving one of my Christmas stencils and since I managed to grab some crafty time today I thought I'd share it - take a look:

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

I used this stencil, called Christmas Bauhaus by Uniko, for a previous JUGS stencil challenge (you can see that card here if you missed it). Today I chose a blue and aqua colour scheme inspired by the palette over at Color Dare as I wanted to turn Santa into a snowman. During the Craft Room Clear Out (this is now worthy of capital letters, it is turning into an event of epic proportions!) I discovered part of a long retired accessory kit containing some fun snowman-themed enamel pieces, so I used these to overlay the stencilled face. I cut a base and mat in the same colours before adding my stencilled panel and a heat-embossed retired sentiment from the 'Christmas Messages' stamp set. I added a few other co-ordinating sparkly gems to complete my card: 

Isn't that just so fun?! I was unsure whether the orange carrot nose might disqualify me over at Color Dare, as those ladies run a tight challenge ship, but I notice that one of their DTs, Rebecca, has a few touches of orange on her delightful penguin, so I'm going to link up and take my chances ;-)

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 the rest of your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BALMY BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	COASTAL CABANA A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	COASTAL CABANA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	POOL PARTY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)
BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)