Today I'm sharing a second card that I made last week; squeaking this one in for the current challenge over at The Card Concept - check out their inspiration photo:

I love the nautical colours and strong geometrical prints in the inspiration photo and though they would be perfect for a similarly coloured clean and layered card featuring the Slim Card Dies - take a look at what I came up with:

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

I diecut the slim card die with the angles lines out of 4 different colours of cardstock, then paper-pieced the negative pieces back into the diecut outline for some fun nautical stripes. 

I didn't have a boat that was the right size for this card (the new Sailboat Builder Punch would have been perfect, but the boats in the 'Sailing Home' set were both too small) but on closer inspection I noticed there were a number of black dogs in the photo too, so thought a black labrador silhouette punched with my now retired Dog Builder Punch would work a treat. I added him to a sentiment stamped with the 'Biggest Wish' stamp set that was stamped and cut out with one of the Painted Labels Dies: 

And that was my card complete! Stampin' Up! even has a new range of slimline envelops the perfect size for my finished card, so I don't have to make my own - bonus!

I have a friend with a black labrador that looks just like this one so I think that's where this card will be headed when their birthday rolls around. The Slim Card Dies are super easy to use and great for paper-piecing; not only that, if you save all of the pieces you can make a number of cards in one go - here's a shot of the other cards I started to make whilst making this one:

One of them still needs a sentiment and they both require additional decoration, but it's good to have the bases already made. 

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 and some exciting news for the month of March. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SLIM CARD DIES (£55.00)	BIGGEST WISH PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£16.00)	SLIMLINE ENVELOPES (£9.25)	PAINTED LABELS DIES (£33.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	NIGHT OF NAVY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
NIGHT OF NAVY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BALMY BLUE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

I had a productive card making session last week so I have an extra couple of cards to share today - this one uses Cecile's intriguing sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches:

This is a great layout that was perfect to highlight another of my favourite 'Nuts & Bolts' stamp set robots - take a look:

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

I chose a bright Mango melody card base and stamped my robot on a (retired) diecut stitched square. I decided to have a go at some 'rusty' colouring with my Blends. This was so much fun and not as difficult to achieve as I thought it might be. You just start with orange and browns and blend them in to your greys. I also added another rusty robot to the inside of my card:

Cecile's sketch is at first glance fairly straight forward, with a focal point square and sentiment beneath it. The thing that most intrigued me about it were the arrow-like details at opposing top and bottom corners. I wanted something to highlight this detail and remembered I had some retired spanner embellishments in my stash; given the otherwise clean and simple nature of my card, I decided to use them as a fun addition:

I wonder if those spanners are slightly too small to accent my square panel - or maybe it's just that I don't usually use an embellishment in this way, but I kind of like it so I went with it!

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. 

LAST CALL!! One last reminder that today is your last chance to snap up a Sale-A-Bration free product or take advantage of the current enhanced joining offer - head on over to the online store or get in touch if you'd like to take advantage!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

NUTS & BOLTS CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)	MANGO MELODY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MELON MAMBO STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	HOLIDAY RHINESTONE BASIC JEWELS (£5.50)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	PUMPKIN PIE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CAJUN CRAZE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

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

I do love a good sketch and this week I really went to town! I have been making lots of cards with the 'Tulip Fields' bundle as it was the feature bundle for my online class last week and I decided that the layout of Anne Marie's sketch was perfect for a diecut windmill for the central focal point and the beginnings of what turned out to be a rather special card - take a look:

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

Many Layers - This is a card of many layers - which means I'm also playing along with the ladies at Just Add Ink this week where I chose 'layers' and patterned paper as my two things. More on patterned paper in a moment, but firstly those layers! I can count 13 on the front of my card alone (not including the band of ribbon!) - and there are even more inside! I used a (retired) stitched oval diecut as a base for my windmill cut using the Windmill dies and added a sentiment combining stamped words taken from 'Art Gallery' and a layered 'amazing' cut using the Amazing Thanks Dies. I attached these to a horizontal band as the focal point for the front of my card.You can see the layered loveliness in more detail below:

A Belly Band Surprise - The layered windmill is in fact attached to a belly band decorated with a strip of DSP, which when removed reveals the beautiful red, pink and white tulips of the Flowering Fields DSP in all it's glory, along with a sentiment made from a combination of some partial stamping from a stamp in the 'Flowering Tulips' stamp set and the word 'Mother's' cut using the Word Wishes Dies:

With Mother's Day here in the UK only a few weeks away, this was a great opportunity to get ahead and make my Mother's Day card. I love that the layered circle greeting sits below the windmill oval of the belly band and is only revealed when the belly band is removed. 

Mother's Day Details - The surprises don't end there though. My card has an additional flap, so when it's opened you see this panel, also decorated with another piece of Flowering Fields DSP and a trio of tulips cut with the Tulips Dies:

 These Tulips Dies are amazing - they create the most amazing dimensional tulips! I cut mine from another pattern in the Flowering Fields DSP pack; it is actually a Petal Pink sky with white and red clouds, but I like the mottled effect that it gives the tulips and they compliment the pattern on the front of the card:

The sentiment, along with the one on the inside of the card is from the retired stamp set 'Strong and Beautiful'. This set is a keeper - the words in this set are so perfect for special female cards. when you open the next flap, the inside panel is revealed. I bordered the edge of the bottom panel with a trio of tulip border dies (I might add another diecut windmill behind these tulips - now that I am looking at it again this panel is a little light on decoration compared to the others):

 And here's a close-up of the innermost panel, decorated with some layered tulips stamped with the 'flowering Tulips' stamp set:

As you can imagine, all those layers make for a bulkier than usual card, so I will be making a custom box-envelope to enclose it in. That's a job for another day though! This kind of card does take a long time to make, but it is worth it - I love the end result and know my Mum will appreciate it too.

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; we are hoping for another restful Sunday, mainly centred around cooking and eating - we are cooking a Turkish recipe for dinner today for the first time, so that should be fun! I'm also hoping to squeeze in another movie this afternoon - last week's 'Encanto' proved a big hit so this week we might go for 'Sing 2' - hope it's as good as the first one!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FLOWERING TULIPS BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£49.50)	WINDMILL FIELDS DIES (£31.00)	FLOWERING FIELDS 12” X 12” (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	AMAZING THANKS DIES (ENGLISH) (£25.00)	LAYERING CIRCLES DIES (£33.00)	POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
OLD OLIVE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	OLD OLIVE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	POPPY PARADE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	SOFT SUEDE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	CRUMB CAKE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	WORD WISHES DIES (EN) (£33.00)	ART GALLERY PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)

I've spent a lovely day outside in the fresh air today watching back-to-back hockey matches, still chilly but with glorious sunshine - at last! So I've a super quick post today to share a clean and simple card that uses the colours over at Sunday Stamps and the sketch challenge over at AAA Cards:

I went for the middle rectangle of the nine grid split and chose a cute party-going otter as my favourite animal (of the moment!) as he won't be around for much longer - take a look:

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

The Sunday Stamps challenge is entitled 'Winter Blues' but there's nothing sad about today's card! This cute little otter is from the 'Awesome Otters' stamp set: I stamped him and added a party hat from the same set and coloured him with a selection of Stampin' Blends markers (added below, plus a retired Coastal Cobana set) before finishing with a simple sentiment:

The 'Awesome Otters' stamp set is one of a number of items that can be yours FREE with a £45 purchase during Stampin' Up!'s current Sale-A-Bration promotion. If it's still on your wish list, you have until next Monday when the promotion ends to order yours before it's gone forever. Just click on the links below to go to my online store to get yours - remember to add the current host code for a special thank you from me.

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:

AWESOME OTTERS CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£0.00)

NATURAL TONES STAMPIN’ BLENDS COLLECTION (£41.25)

BERMUDA BAY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

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:

We have a great recipe for you this week and I can't wait to see what you cook up with it! I paired my ingredients with this week's colour palette over at Color Throwdown (gorgeous!) and the fabulous sketch over at Hand Stamped Sentiments (and thank you to these ladies for choosing my camper van card as one of their Artist's Picks for their last challenge; if you missed it you can see that card here). I decided to go with pretty florals and break open a set I've not had a chance to use yet - take a look:

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

Flowing Flowers - I decided to create some two-tone flowers using ink and sponge daubers to decorate my card. The 'Flowing Flowers' stamp set is perfect for stamping straight onto a card base, but I decided to stamp a few flowers and leaves and fussy cut them as I wanted to create a cluster that would accent my sentiment tag. I also curved them a little with my bone folder for added dimension. I also added an extra flower to pretty up the inside of my card:

I used a panel embossed with the painted texture embossing folder on the front of my card; I really like the look behind those blousy flowers:

Pastels - check. Embossing - check.

A Tailor Made Tag - The Tailor Made Tags Dies are great as gift tags; the smaller sizes made really neat sentiment tags on cards too and that's how I used mine today. And it enabled me to tick off another two recipe items: dies - check. Ribbon/twine - check (both!). 

And A Modern Day Sentiment - My tag also features the final item of this week's recipe - my sentiment. Whilst it doesn't overtly say 'thinking of you', I just love this sentiment from the 'Flowing Flowers' stamp set and is perfect to let someone know you are thinking of them in the old fashioned way, with something more meaningful than a text. I mean 'snail mail' is still a thing, right?! Thinking of you - check. Recipe complete! 

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 project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.

I love that one of my customers who I see fairly regularly still send me cards and such like in the post. I sometimes share them in my Facebook Group but she is not a Facebook user so doesn't get to see the lovely comments that get left. Here's a picture of one that I received this week, using the Floral Squares Dies that we both love:

Isn't that wonderful? It is always nice to receive something in the post; thank you Gill for this lovely card and to everyone else - if you're reading this and wondering when was the last time you sent a card instead of a text, make that your challenge the next time you pick up your phone. Any excuse for more crafting has to be good!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

FLOWING FLOWERS CLING STAMP SET (£24.00)	PAINTED TEXTURE 3D EMBOSSING FOLDER (£8.25)	TAILOR MADE TAGS DIES (£20.00)	FRESH FREESIA 3/8" (1 CM) OPEN WEAVE RIBBON (£6.50)	BAKER'S TWINE ESSENTIALS PACK (£10.25)	FRESH FREESIA A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
FRESH FREESIA CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	RICH RAZZLEBERRY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	SOFT SUCCULENT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	SOFT SEA FOAM CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	2021–2023 IN COLOR JEWELS (£6.50)

It's Thursday and time for a new challenge over at TicTacToe! It's the turn of Team X to host this week and the lovely Vicky is our featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

Vicky chose some great options this week and I could have gone in any direction! In the end I went across the top of the board with pastel colours/designer paper/diecut and grabbed some of my designer paper and paper snips and set to work:

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

Friendly Hello Times Two - I decided to use both the 'Friendly hello' stamp set and the co-ordinating papers on today's card. I set to work fussy cutting one of the multi-coloured sheets and created a layered image of the bird surrounded by leaves and flowers. The stamping on my card is limited to my sentiment on the front, that I stampsed twice, once onto the base and then again onto some Pool Party cardstock and fussy-cut the word 'friend' for a contrasting look. I also stamped a birthday sentiment inside and used some left over flowers to decorate my insert:

These papers are gorgeous - I even used a piece to decorate the envelope flap for a card that is pretty both inside and out!

Dots and Circles - I layered my bird, flowers and foliage onto a circle of Granny Apple Green with a black scalloped mat - you can just see it peeking through below all of that fussy-cut goodness below:

I grounded the decorative circle with a strip of dotty paper which is another design in the same Friendly Hello pack.

Still Time To Sale-A-Brate - The 'Friendly Hello' bundle is available FREE with a £90 purchase during Stampin' Up!'s current Sale-A-Bration promotion. If it's still on your wish list, you have until next Monday when the promotion ends to order yours before it's gone forever. Just click on the links below to go to my online store to get yours - remember to add the current host code for a special thank you from me.

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. 

Today's card uses the sketch over at Atlantic Hearts for the layout (I did move the sentiment though - and it's my first time of playing too!). There are also lots of dots and circles so I'm linking up over at Global Design Project as that's their theme this week and I'm linking up over at TGIF Challenges where they, like me, are all about Sale-A-Bration (thanks too for chooing me as your winner last week ladies!)

A tictactoe board offers so many creative possibilities - how does this week's board inspire you? Why not have a go? We would love to see you in the gallery and who knows - you might be selected for Designer's Choice and be eligible to be a guest designer on a future challenge. 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FRIENDLY HELLO BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£0.00)	LAYERING CIRCLES DIES (£33.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	PALE PAPAYA A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
POOL PARTY A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. This is the final challenge this month and YoonYoung is ending her hostess duties in style with this great sketch for us: 

Feel free to flip or rotate the sketch when making your card. I combined today's card with my entries for the current challenges over at Addicted to CAS where the codeword is 'snowflake' and the lovely ladies over at The Alphabet Challenge Blog where Melanie has chosen 'W is for Winter'. The recent storms we've had here in the UK with wind, sleet and rain definitely had me thinking about the weather and although we have yet to get a proper snowfall here so far this winter I decided YoonYoung's sketch would be the perfect opportunity to add one to my card - take a look:

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

Following on from my experiment of using dies as stencils last week (you can see my first example of this in last week's post here), I decided to have another go at this technique. YoonYoung's sketch made me think of a window and I was inspired by the beautiful stencilled snowflakes on Jaydee's ATCAS card, so I took the snowflake die from the now retired giving Gifts Dies from last season and created a stencil by cutting the twice and then masking a central column using some washi tape to create my four quadrants (you can see my mask on the photo further down this post). 

I then used a combination of Balmy Blue and Pacific Point inks with my blending brushes to add ink to my card, concentrating the darker colour across the diagonal and fading to the outer corners. Similarly inspired by Vicky's beautiful stencilled snowflake creation over at ATCAS where she used a contrasting bright orange for her sentiment, I decided to use bright pink and used a simple sentiment from the retired 'Sparkly Seasons' set for a pop of contrasting colour:

I also added some iridescent rhinestones to the centre of some of the snowflakes for a touch of subtle sparkle - I love the way they take on a slightly pink hue to compliment the sentiment too.

I didn't add a sentiment to the inside of my card as I haven't decided whether to use it as a Christmas card or just send as a festive winter notecard and write a note inside. 

The James Juniors have been wishing for snow since the wintry weather arrived in October; anything for a day off school, or so they thought. Rebecca was most perplexed when we received a letter home from school recently stating that the plan should we be subject to inclement weather from this point onwards would no longer involve a day off; instead all learning would simply move online. Covid clearly has a lot to answer for - it would seem that improved use of technologies is not always welcome, for the pupils at least!! 

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

IRIDESCENT RHINESTONES BASIC JEWELS (£7.00)

BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)

MAGENTA MADNESS CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

PACIFIC POINT CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

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 this week and she has a clean and simple challenge for you to work with:

I decided to use the sketch over at Just Add Ink for my layout this week and used two overlappping hexagons, negative and positive, cut with the Beautiful Shapes Dies for my central shapes and chose to feature the two cute monkeys from the 'Catch You Later' stamp set for my wildlife - take a look:

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

I stamped my monkeys onto some white cardstock and coloured them with my new skin tone Blends markers, then masked them off and used some Balmy Blue ink and a stencil I made using my Basic Borders Dies to create a soft and subtle background of clouds with my blender brush behind them:

I added this to my Shaded Spruce card base and then added my top panel, which I ran through my diecutting machine with the Stitched Greenery Die before cutting out the hexagon shape and popping this panel up on dimensionals to frame my little jungle scene. I added a sentiment to another popped-up hexagon and finished my sentiment on the inside, with another stamped-off image of the monkeys too:

So what do you think? Cute, right?! It's my 23rd wedding anniversary today and whilst this didn't start out as a card for my DH, it may well be the one I send as he would appreciate the humour over sweet and smushy love hearts any day!

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; one of the James Juniors had a friend stay for a sleepover yesterday, so apart from taking him home, we are having a quiet day indoors. The James girls definitely deserve it; as my regular readers know it is not uncommon for us to be out in all weathers either playing or watching hockey at the weekend. Well, despite storm Eunice and the incredible high winds and driving rain we've had here over the past few days, yesterday's match wasn't cancelled. We all turned up and despite a seriously waterlogged pitch, the umpires decided it was safe to play. The end result? Players and parents soaked to the skin and frozen to the bone - and just to give you a flavour of what I'm talking about, here's a photo I managed to snap during 'warm up' before the game started: 

I have genuinely never known anything like it! To make things worse the girls lost 4-2, despite their best efforts. So today we are staying warm - I think we might actually huddle under a blanket and watch 'Encanto' - it's about time we discovered why no-one talks about Bruno!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

CATCH YOU LATER CLING STAMP SET (£22.00)	STITCHED GREENERY DIE (£30.00)	BEAUTIFUL SHAPES DIES (£27.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)
BALMY BLUE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	SHADED SPRUCE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	SHADED SPRUCE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	BRONZE & IVORY STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM COMBO (£8.25)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM DEEP COMBO (£8.25)

Happy Friday everyone! Today I have my card for the new challenge over at Festive Friday:

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is 'National Peanut Butter Lovers Day' which is on 24th January each year. Remember the fun thing is that at Festive Friday you do not need to actually celebrate the occasion; your goal is to simply use three or more items from the inspiration list on your project. This week I used baked goods, brown and enamel dots for my clean and simple cookie card today - check it out:

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

Nothing's Better Than ... - I love the sentiment combinations in the 'Nothing's Better Than' stamp set - I mean, coffee, chocolate, cookies and cocktails!! I'm a tea drinker over coffee, but that would disrupt the 'c's, so I'm good with it! Today's card of course features cookies as my baked goods; the fun thing about the sentiments in this set is that they can be used inside and outside to make fun combinations - this is how I finished the inside of today's card:

... Cookies - I used a simple layered square for the sentiment on the front of my card, backed with a strip of (retired) pink plaid paper, and accented my sentiment with a couple of diecut cookies, complete with crumbs:

A trio of pink enamel dots 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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. 

How does our board inspire you? I can’t wait to see what YOU create! For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the  Festive Friday Challenge Design team:

Ann Schach
Beth McCullough
Sharon Hashimoto Burkert
Melanie Hungerford
Helen Jennings
Stephanie Lanzalotto
Melva Peters
Jaydee
Diane Evans
Joanne James

Enjoy your day; it's the last day of half-term today however with the impending storm the James Juniors and I shall be battonning down the hatches and spending the day indoors! and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

NOTHING'S BETTER THAN PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£20.00)	LOVE YOU MORE THAN DIES (£28.00)	EARLY ESPRESSO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MELON MAMBO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	EARLY ESPRESSO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	MELON MAMBO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)

Today I'm sharing a second card that combines a couple of challenges:

The trend in focus over at Just Us Girls is to use a die as a stencil and over at Time Out the challenge is to case a card by the fabulous Michele Ferguson of I Card Everyone. I have been experimenting with stencils - and dies as stencils - quite a bit lately, with varying degrees of success so the JUGS team are most definitely onto something! I had also been playing around with ideas to CASE Michele's beautiful card over at Time Out - if you've never seen Michele's work, you should definitely pay a visit to her blog or look her up on social media - she makes the most amazing creations and is just the nicest person! In an effort to create something that was unique but had a clear nod to Michele's card, I decided to combine both challenges. This is what I came up with:

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

A Floral Heart - I decided that the Floral Hearts Dies that I've used a few times lately might work as a stencil. I used the die to make a stencil, replacing the heart in the centre then using a blending brush with some Polished Pink ink to add ink and fade from the centre outwards. This is what the finished stencilled panel looked like:

I love the effect of the soft, pale pink and subtle stencilled pattern, although it was tricky to capture on the finished card.

Here For You - I decided to add a 'here for you' diecut sentiment from the Here Together Dies to a white heart for the centrepiece of my stencilled card, tucking in a few additional pieces of white diecut foliage behind my heart and a trio of iridescent rhinestones to finish:

With an alternative sentiment this card would work for a variety of occasions, including a wedding or anniversary I think.

To 'CASE' - I've talked about it here before, but the expression to 'CASE' or Copy And Share Everything' is really about using someone's work to inspire you to create something unique with a nod to the original in a variety of ways. When looking at Michele's original card, I retained the white heart as a focal point with a white-on-white sentiment, and used a combination of pink and white foliage/florals around the outer edge of the heart. Whilst there are similarities, there are also aspects of my card that are unique, such as the ink and stencilling. Side by side, my inspiration is clear - but I also created something that has its own sense of individuality too. I'm not sure that my card does Michele's justice, but it was a fun exercise!

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 for our new challenge over at Festive Friday. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

FLORAL HEART DIES (£35.00)

HERE FOR YOU DIES (ENGLISH) (£30.00)

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)

POLISHED PINK CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

IRIDESCENT RHINESTONES BASIC JEWELS (£7.00)

BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)