Today I'm sharing a card that I made for fun at the weekend to play along with a couple of challenges:

I was intrigued by the colour combination over at TGIF Challenges (thanks for last week's shout-out ladies!) - I don't use Petunia Pop often, so thought I'd give it a try. I paired it with the sketch over at Try a Sketch on Tuesday (turning it through 180 degrees) for a fun birthday card - take a look:

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

Yes - I am using my now-retired 'One year Older' stamp set - although if you're quick, you can still pick it up on the Last Chance Products section of the online store. I'm focusing on the cake today, which I first stamped all over my Daffodil Delight cardbase for a tone-on-tone background detail. I stamped the first part of my sentiment in a label from the Nested Essentials Dies, and accented this with another cake, this time stamped and coloured with my Stampin' Blends markers. I added some Wink of Stella to give a little extra sparkle to the candle flames, and backed it with a swish of Petunia Pop ribbon and added a sprinkle of enamel dot gems in both Petunia Pop and Balmy Blue to add for the party feel:

 Given the sentiment on the front of my card, it seemed only right that I add a party-hat decorated canine friend to the inside of my card alongside the second part of my greeting:

A little snarky I know, but this card is headed to a dog-loving friend of mine who has a birthday later this month and I know will appreciate the sentiment. Now that we are ladies of a certain age, if you can't have a giggle about it, well ...!

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; mine's going to be a busy one! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

ONE MORE YEAR CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£23.00)	NESTED ESSENTIALS DIES (£32.00)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)
DAFFODIL DELIGHT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	BALMY BLUE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	PETUNIA POP STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	GRAY GRANITE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	PETUNIA POP 3/8" (1 CM) BORDERED RIBBON (£7.00)	2024-2026 IN COLOR™ RESIN DOTS (£5.25)

Happy Wednesday, stampers! Have you had the opportunity to browse your new annual catalogue yet? Today I'm sharing a card that showcases more of the lovely new products contained within, made with a few current challenges in mind:

It's Die Week over at Just Us Girls and they are wanting us to use flower dies. I couldn't resist using the flower I used for this card again; the blooms seemed perfect for the circle shapes in the current Sunday Stamps sketch and it gave me the perfect opportunity to embrace the yellow and blue challenge over at Color Hues too. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

Sweet Blooms - This large layered flower from the Pretty Petals Dies is my hands-down favourite at the moment! For today's card, I actually cut the flowers and leaves in white (no green allowed!), with the thin outline layer in Lemon Lolly, as I wanted my roses to have a creamy, pale yellow colour and not be too 'yellow'; using a combination of ink blending and Blends markers on white cardstock enabled me to get the colouring I was aiming for. I overlaid my blooms with my larger-than-life diecut sentiment from the 'Sweet Blooms' set, this time paired with the word 'you' that was snipped from another sentiment in the bundle. I backed my diecut with a layer of vellum, to help it stand out from the rest of the card.  

Ombre Background - I decided to create a panel of blended ombre blue as the base for my creamy lemon yellow flowers. I used a trio of blues and blended light to dark, then added some splatters of water and white ink before allowing it to dry, although you can't really see the detail - I might need to be more vigorous next time! I cut my panel down to allow a wide white border - I think this makes more of a feature of the ombre panel.

Hidden Elements - I also added some script stamping behind each of my flowers, using the round text stamp in 'Elements of Text' for a little extra tone-on-tone background detail. It's subtle and easier to see on the close up below:

I quite like the extra detail. I almost dry-embossed this layer too, but in the end decided against it. I find the more layering that goes into a card, the easier I find it to add more things - and it is important to know when to stop!! A few sequins and gems and I called time. I really love this colour combo - thank you Color Hues!

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:

SWEET BLOOMS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£48.50)	PRETTY FLORALS DIES (£35.00)	ELEMENTS OF TEXT CLING STAMP SET (£25.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£16.00)	LEMON LOLLY A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	LEMON LOLLY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)
LEMON LOLLY STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	AZURE AFTERNOON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BLUEBERRY BUSHEL CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)
BLUEBERRY BUSHEL A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

Happy Bank Holiday Monday all! I managed to find time for a little crafting this afternoon so I have a super quick post as I'm hoping to squeak in an entry of at Freshly Made Sketches:

I went with a clean and simple card to welcome a new baby, using the cute image in the 'Sweet Pea' stamp set, pulling the colours from a strip of Full of Life designer paper:

How cute is she?!

Perfect for a second entry over at AAA Cards this week too.  I'll miss these fun Sweet Peas - I'll be keeping hold of my set though, so don't be surprised if you see them here again at some point in the future.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SWEET PEAS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£15.20)	FULL OF LIFE 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)	SPOTLIGHT ON NATURE DIES (£33.00)	MELON MAMBO A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£10.50)
LEMON LIME TWIST STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	SHADED SPRUCE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	PRETTY IN PINK STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)

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:

As crafters we are always adding to our crafty stash, so today's challenge is about pairing something that you recently bought with an old favourite. I have some beautiful new floral sets from the upcoming annual catalogue that I hadn't had the chance to play with yet, so today was the perfect opportunity to remedy that. I was inspired by the colours of those beautiful tulips in the top right corner of Hand Stamped Sentiments inspiration photo and used the layout over at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

Pretty Florals - Today's card really is all about the florals - this card is choc-full of them! I used the new Pretty Florals Dies and diecut a trio of blooms and buds from Pretty In Pink cardstock and inked them with Pretty in Pink and Melon Mambo and layered them into a floral cascade, interspersed with some bright green leaf foliage. I love the diecut detail and unusual layering of these large flowers (peonies, perhaps?) - so pretty! I also added some fine white and clear Wink of Stella ink splatters to my blooms and cardbase for a little extra detail.  

Sweet Blooms - The Florals in Bloom Suite contains two bundles: the Pretty Florals bundle that I used for the flowers, and the Sweet Blooms bundle, that is predominantly a sentiment-builder set based around two large sentiment dies - I used the 'bloom' one on today's card. I cut the uppermost layer out of co-ordinating glimmer paper for some extra sparkle and shine:

I also added some in-colour pink glimmer gems because, well, you can never have enough pink!

Brickwork Texture - The 'old favourite' item on my card is the Exposed Brick 3D Embossing Folder that I used to add texture to my Smoky Slate card base. I'm not a big EF user, but this one is a keeper and definitely one of my favourites.

I love the mix of old and new products on this card and I'm really pleased with how my finished card turned out; I think I'll be getting a lot use from these new bundles.

CAS Take Two - I had some spare blossoms cut and coloured leftover from my card, so decided to use them up and make a quick card for the clean and simple colour challenge over at AAA Cards, since I had used 3 of their 4 colours:

I used the same sentiment but this time stamped it directly onto my white cardbase, next to my simple flower stem:

 The detail on these flowers really is something, don't you think?

 As you can see, the Pretty Florals and Sweet Blooms bundles are great for both super detailed and layered cards, and clean and simple ones too. here's a photo of both cards together:

Which one do you prefer? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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

And for the second card:

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; the weather has turned cooler again here in the UK so I think I might have the opportunity to indulge in a little crafting; I had lots more ideas for new projects when I was playing yesterday, so I'm keen to get them down on paper! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

EXPOSED BRICK 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£10.25)	SMOKY SLATE A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	PRETTY IN PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	PRETTY IN PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	MELON MAMBO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	LEMON LIME TWIST A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)
GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	2024–2026 IN COLOR™ GLIMMER 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) SPECIALTY PAPER (£10.25)	2024–2026 IN COLOR™ SHIMMER GEMS (£4.80)	WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (£8.50)

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for a recipe challenge chosen by Heather H:

I started my card today having chosen dinosaurs as my animal (the 'Darling Dinos' stamp set is great for colouring too!) and armed with the layout over at Sketch Saturday and the bold, bright colours at Color Dare I set to work. Take a look at what I came up with:

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

Texture and Shine - Aside from my pair of cute, brightly coloured dinosaurs (the Blends colours I used are listed at the bottom of my post), I decided to go big on the texture/emboss element in this week's recipe. I added a background of heat-embossed footprints, layered in lots of boulders across the horizontal and added two panels of corrugated cardstock in highlighted colours behind each of my dinosaurs. I even added in some pebble-shaped enamels from my stash too! All of these combined add more texture and interest than my usual style and whilst this is something of a departure for me, I really like the effect. Maybe, sometimes more is more! 

Footprints in the ... Plants - Did you notice those oversize shiny, embossed footprints on my base panel? This stamp isn't from the 'Darling Dinos' stamp set; in fact, it's got nothing to do with dinosaurs at all! It's actually the reverse of one of the plant stamps in the 'Planted Paradise' set - I've highlighted it with a red circle below:

How clever is that?! I can't take the credit for this idea; the wonderfully talented Brian King made this card a while ago that got me looking at this set in a whole new light - I think I'll probably use this single stamp more than any of the others in this set now, so thank you Brian! Once you've seen it, you just can't unsee it - right? Here's a close up where you can really see the shine of my prints: 

And Finally - Just as I thought I was done, I did my finally recipe check - and realised I'd forgotten twine - aarggh!!! I found some that picked up the red and tied it around my panel; it's ok but I think I preferred the card without. Nonetheless, recipe finally complete - phew!

This card is headed to a friend who will hopefully appreciate the sentiment and those quirky little details.

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 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.
• 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 tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

DARLING DINOS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£38.50)	MINI CORRUGATED 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£10.25)	STYLISH SHAPES DIES (£28.00)	PLANTED PARADISE PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£18.90)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)
POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	GORGEOUS GRAPE A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	BASIC GRAY A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	VERSAMARK PAD (£9.00)	BASICS WOW! EMBOSSING POWDER (£20.00)	POPPY PARADE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)
PUMPKIN PIE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	AZURE AFTERNOON STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	BLUEBERRY BUSHEL STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	HIGHLAND HEATHER STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)

Today I'm sharing a couple of cards that I Made for this week's challenge over at TGIF Challenges where they have a product challenge focusing on alphabet dies this week:

I have been lax in keeping up with my Christmas card making, so inspired by a couple of my blog friends who made Christmas cards in the past week, I though I should remedy the situation. It's a great opportunity to play along over at Inkspirational too, where the theme is seasonal - I suspect there will be more sunshine than snow in their gallery, but I'm not going to let that stop me! What's more, using my Mini Alphabet Die gave me the opportunity to make two at the same time with hardly any extra effort - take a look at the first one:

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

Mini Alphabet - As with this card here, I used my Mini Alphabet Dies to create my custom sentiment, cutting the alphabet several times in black and adhering to some white cardstock, cutting around this allowing for a border, to for the base:

If you're someone that has a habit of losing or misplacing letters in your alphabet die sets, the Mini Alphabet Dies might be a great solution for you! All of the letters are attached and you can diecut the whole alphabet (including duplicates of commonly used letters) in one go. Any letters you don't need you can set aside for future projects. 

Two For One - Having completed my card, I used my leftover negative alphabet diecuts to make a second card:

I simply cut each letter into a rectangle using my paper snips, and again adhered to a piece of white cardstock, this time with the white cardstock forming the letters courtesy of the negative diecuts:

This is a great way to make two cards in one, with very little extra effort. You might want to keep the little pieces that create the letter infills (such as the A and O on my card). I chose not to use them on this occasion and I think it looks fine without - but it's entirely up to you. 

I added a simple background using some retired festive DSP from my stash and added some diecut holly as an embellishment to complete my cards.

Here's a photo of both cards together:

You can use the same principle with other alphabets too. Is this a technique that you ever use? 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your day; yes, I must be crazy sharing Christmas cards on what is predicted to be the hottest day of the year here in the UK, but I can assure you I am loving the sunshine! I'll be back tomorrow with another project for our new challenge over at As You See It. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

MINI ALPHABET DIES (£29.00)

POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)

OLD OLIVE A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)

REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)

BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. I'm hosting this month and my final challenge is a colour challenge: 

For my card today I used a lovely stamp called 'Grateful Blessing' that I'm pleased to say will be on carryover from the current annual catalogue, because I haven't used it anywhere near enough! Here's my card:

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

Today's card really is so simple! The bell floral stamp in the Grateful Blessing stamp is perfect if you want to do just a little colouring with your Stampin' Blends, or if colouring isn't your thing there is an infill stamp so you can simply stamp it instead. I decided to do something a little different with today's card though: I used Balmy Blue and Shy Shamrock to colour my bluebells using my Stampin' Write markers, using just the outline of the stamp:

This technique is really easy to do; it works better on red rubber stamps than photopolymer, but if you stamp your flowers using a stamp positioning tool, you can repeat it a few times and increase the depth of colour. I stamped one of the sentiments in the set alongside my bluebells in Night of Navy, then added a simple scored border to complete my card. 

The flowers are so delicate when only the outlines are coloured; do you ever use this technique with your outline stamps? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to know how you are using your Stampin' Write markers. 

I also made a second card using the same stamp set, layout and colours, but this time heat-embossing the image in white onto Night of Navy cardstock:

To colour the flowers, I first painted the flower with diluted white kraft ink to give a base for the colour to key to, then when dry I added the colour on top using watercolour pencils:

This gives quite a different look. Two techniques with one stamp set - do you have a favourite? 

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

And the second card:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

As a reminder, for our colour challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colours. You may also use neutral colours; however, the challenge colours should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up! colour names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colours as closely as possible.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

GRATEFUL BLESSING PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£19.00)

NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)

2024–2026 IN COLOR™ STAMPIN' WRITE MARKERS (£17.50)

SUBTLES STAMPIN' WRITE MARKERS (£35.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£10.50)

Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Claire to host this week and she has my favourite, a sketch challenge for us to work with:

I knew I wanted to play with my Floral Delights papers today; the Delightful Wishes Suite was my first choice from the mini catalogue - I do love yellow! - yet it hasn't seen anywhere near enough love, so today is a step towards changing that - take a look:

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

Floral Delights - I decided I would stick with the basic round shape in the sketch and use this as the basis for my collection of fussy cut flowers, taken straight from the Floral Delights papers. I wanted to create an arch of flowers to frame my sentiment, so just layered them up until I was happy with the arrangement.

Delightful Wishes - The 'wishing' die is my favourite element of the Delightful Wishes bundle - along with the other sentiments in the set, so many bespoke greetings can be created. Today I went for 'Wishing You Well' - this would work as a get well soon card, but also as a farewell or even good luck wishes for the future. I stamped part of the sentiment onto my diecut circle, then overlaid my 'wishing' diecut onto the cluster of flowers added previously. The white border of the diecut, along with the white border of my fussy cut flowers and the mat layer all tie in to give a neat, uniform appearance. 

Just Two Colours - I was originally intending to use some yellow gingham plaid for my base, but my ribbon got rather lost amongst the pattern. When I spied this faux-textured Old Olive paper, I immediately switched - it works so much better. Almost without trying, I ended up using only two colours on today's card: yellow and green (with white as a neutral). I'm so pleased with the finished effect - and I hope the ladies over at Color Dare will like it too, since they are also looking for two-colour combos including yellow this week. 

I'm pleased that the Delightful Wishes bundle is on carryover; the Floral Delights paper though is not, so if you have it in your sights, it's your last chance to snap it up. The link to it in the online store is below - you're welcome ;-)

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; the hubby and I went to the theatre yesterday evening to watch 'War Horse', the dramatisation of Michael Morpurgo's famous book of the same name. It was amazing - the life-size mechanical horse puppets really were a sight to behold. Back down to earth today! I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FLORAL DELIGHT 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£11.75)	DELIGHTFUL WISHES BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£46.75)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT 1/8" (3.2 MM) SATIN RIBBON (£7.50)	SPOTLIGHT ON NATURE DIES (£33.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£14.00)	OLD OLIVE A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)
OLD OLIVE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)

I had a little crafty time yesterday so pulled together a clean and simple card for a few current challenges:

There is a great layout over at AAA Cards and at Colour Inkspiration they are celebrating the retiring 2023-25 In Colours. I actually managed to use all 5 on my card - take a look:

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

The 2023-25 In Colours are a tricky bunch to use together I think; I have some favourites in the mix - Boho Blue - and some that I won't be so sorry to see leave us (I'm talking to you, Wild Wheat!), so on perusing the  shelves of stamps that are retiring too, I settled on A Bird's Eye View and set to work. I added a couple of birds to my leafy branch and coloured them using my Stampin' Blends, then masked off a circle and stencilled in some clouds using a stencil and blending brush (perfect for the stencil challenge over at CAS on Friday this week too):

Finally, I'm also linking today's card up over at The Alphabet Challenge Blog where they are on 'A is for Alphabet' and we can choose a letter and theme of our choice - I am of course choosing 'B for Birds'.

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. 

Would you believe in the time it took me to make my card and write this post, 'A Bird's Eye View' is out of stock and has been discontinued here in the UK. This serves as a timely reminder that for those things on the Last Chance List are only available whilst stocks last. Enjoy your evening and I'll be back Sunday with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

BOHO BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.65)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	COPPER CLAY STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.20)	WILD WHEAT STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£9.22)	MOODY MAUVE STAMPIN’ BLENDS COMBO PACK (£10.25)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£7.50)
BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£10.50)

Today I'm sharing a card for this week's challenge over at Just Us Girls, where my friend Elizabeth has a fabulous mood board to inspire us:

So many cute things on that board! ! I was drawn to the balloon rainbow in the top right hand corner - take a look at what I came up with:

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

Everyday Arches - So when are the Everyday Arches not arches? Well, when they're a rainbow, that's when! I had this idea that if I cut the arches in a nested pattern (and elongated the inner arches), I could create a rainbow; what do you think? I kept to the four main colours of the balloon arch in the inspo photo, rather than use traditional colours, and cut two arches in each colour as I wanted the extra stitch detail, but you could just cut with every other die and create four wider arches.  

Easiest Ever Tri-Fold - I decided to make my card into a tri-fold design, with the rainbow on the right panel and some clouds on the left panel, opening to the ink-blended sky inside. This is how it opens up:

Then the second flap opens to reveal space for your message inside:

The tri-fold design was created from a single sheet of A4 cardstock; a piece of cardstock was cut at 15cm on the short side, and this piece was divided into three panels by scoring at 10cm and 20cm on the long side. I used one of the (retired) Basics Borders Dies to diecut my cloudy edge on the left panel, and used the largest of the arch dies to draw the outline of the arch shape onto the right hand panel, before cutting freehand up to the scoreline. I then simple cut away the top portions of each of the side panels as shown in the photo above to create my shaped design. I added some ink blended clouds to the top of the inner panel and the outer arched panel, then cut my diecut arches and glued them into place. I added a diecut sun (cut using my retired Hey Chuck Dies) and I used my sentiment - one of the precut elements from the Greetings For All ephemera pack - as the cloure for my card: the clouds simply tuck underneath to hold the card closed.

Finishing Touches - My card was all but finished, when I decided to some glittery enamel dots from my stash in the colours of the rainbow randomly across the layers for a little added sparkle and to bring in the round shapes of the balloons in the inspo photo - I think these added sparkles are my favourite element of the 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

Enjoy your day; following a wet bank holiday yesterday (typical - but it allowed for more reading time and I finished another book, so there's always an upside!), the sun is once again shining today. Why does the day always seem both literally and figuratively brighter when the sun shines? I hope you have a lovely day and I'll be back later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

EVERYDAY ARCHES DIES (£27.00)	GREETINGS FOR ALL MIX & MATCH EPHEMERA PACK (ENGLISH) (£6.75)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£10.50)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£14.00)	COASTAL CABANA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£8.50)	COASTAL CABANA A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)
DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	MELON MAMBO A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£10.75)