Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's the turn of the fabulous Laurie to host this week and she has a fun theme challenge for you to work with:

Love and friendship is our theme this week and my card today is all heart (perfect for the hearts challenge over at Double D). I used the sketch layout over at Paper Craft Crew and decided to put into practice an idea I've been wanting to try with another Valentine's card using the awesome 'Nuts & Bolts' stamp set - take a look:

At first glance, my card is quite simple: some stamped tone-on-tone hearts on my pink layer, a square of heart-patterned Sweet Talk designer paper and a robot, coloured with my Smoky Slate and Real Red Stampin' Blends.

The best part about today's card though? It lights up! I used a simple circuit and a red LED to give my heart a fun Valentine's glow:

When you press the sentiment, it light up the heart - check it out on the video clip below:

This type of card is so easy to create - and the interactive element makes for a super-cute card, right?! I also used an offcut strip of paper and one of the other robots in the set to decorate the inside of 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. 

I'm also linking today's card up for a second entry over at SUO Challenges where they are all about Valentine's Day for their current challenge.

Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

NUTS & BOLTS CLING STAMP SET (£20.00)	SWEET TALK 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	FLIRTY FLAMINGO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)
REAL RED STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	SMOKY SLATE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)

Today I'm sharing a couple of clean and simple cards that I made for the current AAA Cards Challenge where they are looking for no layers and an optional big sentiment. Both of my cards were also inspired by the photo over at The Card Concept and I'm also linking up over at CASology where clean and simple 'affection' is the order of the day and at Just Add Ink where the theme is minimalism:

I love a good no-layer card, especially if it features a single sentiment. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the 'More Love' stamp set in the Stampin' Up! mini catalogue as it is the perfect 'one and done' stamp and whilst it could be used for Valentine's, I think it's a lovely set to send to someone as a gesture of more general love and affection. I love the bright green of the foliage on the Card Concept's inspiration photo, and as I was rummaging through one of my drawers came across some retired notecards that had a pre-watercoloured base in green that I thought would make a nice easy, yet interesting background for my stamp. So this was the first card I made:

I heat-embossed my sentiment in gold, then coloured the flowers in with Melon Mambo and Granny Apple Green Blends, in a nod to the pretty florals on that floral heart:

I really liked the texture of the watercolour paper and the green, but it was definitely a different take for me. I wasn't sure about my experiment so decided to revert much more to my clean-and-simple comfort zone and recreate my card onto a basic thick white cardbase:

On this card I used watercolour pencils to colour my flowers, as I didn't want my Blends to bleed through to the reverse, since my card was a no-layer:

My CAS-loving heart feels much better about this card, and the white base is more fitting with both the background in the Card Concept inspiration photo and my general approach to CAS card making. Either way, a simple card base, single stamp and a simple-yet wow impact from the metallic heat embossing with just a little colour is about as minimalist as I get!

I am linking up the white version of my card for the above challenges, but I'd be really interested to know which one you prefer - do leave me a comment below, I would love to hear your thoughts. Here's a side-by-side photo for comparison:

I really like this stamp and haven't seen many examples of it being used in blogland, so maybe I'm in the minority! Either way, I will be sending some of these to some special people this week to let them know they are in my thoughts.

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 a special project for this week's Paper Player's theme challenge - you won't want to miss it! Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

MORE LOVE CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£17.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	METALLICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)	WATERCOLOR PENCILS (£15.00)	WATERCOLOR PENCILS ASSORTMENT 2 (£11.75)
GRANNY APPLE GREEN STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	MELON MAMBO STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

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

The challenge that we are celebrating this week is Valentine's Day which is on February 14th. 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 pink, romantic sentiment, hearts, watercolour and aperture and this is what I came up with:

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

I decided to create a Valentine's card using a combination of both paper and pre-cut pieces from the Abstract Beauty Ephemera pack, based around the gold and white frame and watercoloured heart, layering them onto my cardfront until I was happy with the balance of elements. I added some black adhesive-backed hexagons and gold twine bow and finished my card with a fun sentiment from the 'Happy & Heartfelt' set, stamped in Magenta Madness to match my cardbase and fussy cut:

I added another sentiment from the same set and an offcut strip of paper to decorate the inside of my card to finish: 

I really like that this card with its modern, rather eclectic, feel - a change from the more traditional red and pink, hearts and flowers - although I still have some of those to share with you too! I'm linking today's card up with the lovely ladies over at SUO Challenges where they are asking us for Valentines-themed projects 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 '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 - you are here!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

ABSTRACT BEAUTY EPHEMERA PACK (£6.00)	ABSTRACT BEAUTY 4" X 6" (10.2 X 15.2 CM) SPECIALTY DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£14.00)	ADHESIVE-BACKED HEXAGONS (£7.00)	HAPPY & HEARTFELT CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£23.00)	MAGENTA MADNESS A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MAGENTA MADNESS CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
SIMPLY ELEGANT TRIM (£7.00)

This is my second post of today - to read all about the pre-release of skin-tone Blends and the exclusive 'All Together' bundle, please see my earlier post here.

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches. YoonYoung is hosting this month and our first challenge is a colour challenge: 

These colours are perfect for Valentine's so I dug out a bunch of my favourite retired Valentine's bits and pieces and along with the Try Stampin' on Tuesday sketch and some inspiration from my talented blog friend Kim Singdahlsen, I set to work! This is what I came up with:

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

I absolutely loved this card that Kim made for last week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge - isn't that stencilled background amazing?! I didn't have anything similar in my stash, but decided that the TSOT sketch was perfect for a trio of (retired Sweet & Sassy Framelits) diecut hearts in this week's challenge colours, so I made my own stencil from a retired Detailed Hearts Die and blended all three colours into the central background circle to bring the diecuts together. I added a diecut and stamped sentiment from another retired stamp and die set, 'Forever & Always' and the Always Dies to complete my card:

These will always be some of my most favourite Valentine's items - so timeless and therefore super useful! 

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. 

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! color 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:

BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	MELON MAMBO A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	MELON MAMBO CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)
BLUSHING BRIDE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BLUSHING BRIDE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

A new day, a new month and time to tell you about some new product too - the All Together Collection! In the words of Stampin' Up!, "loving hands and heartfelt words are the best way to show you care. With hand designs that illustrate coming together in friendship and solidarity, the All Together Collection will help you create cardmaking and paper-crafting projects that reflect the people you know and love."

The All Together Collection includes early-release products from the 2022–2023 Annual Catalogue—an exciting new range of natural Stampin’ Blends—and exclusive products you can’t get anywhere else! While the Natural Tones Stampin’ Blends are an early-release product from the 2022—2023 Annual Catalogue, the collection’s additional products are exclusive and only available while supplies last. Encourage them to shop early to ensure they receive the entire collection!

Here's a video from the lovely people at the Stampin' up! home office that shows the suite in more detail:

See the product details on the flyer below for more information, or to purchase from my online store I've included the clickable shopping links at the bottom of this post.

I have some great projects to share in the coming weeks that showcase these new naturals Blends markers and they will also be featuring in my upcoming March class that features the 'In The Moment' stamp set. This online class is scheduled for 21st March 2022, 11am-1pm - please get in touch for more information or to book your place. 

Equally, if you love the whole All Together Collection, you might like to consider joining my Stampin' Up! team and ordering it as part of your start kit - for just another £1.25 you could receive an additional £31 of product AND 2 free stamp sets of your choice - along with all of the wider benefits that come from being part of the Stampin' Up! family. If you'd like to know more, then please get in touch - I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Back later with today's creative post for this week's colour challenge over at CAS Colours & Sketches; until then, happy shopping!

ALL TOGETHER 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	HERE TOGETHER CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£21.00)	HERE FOR YOU DIES (ENGLISH) (£30.00)	HERE TOGETHER BUNDLE (ENGLISH) (£45.75)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS LIGHT COMBO PACK (£8.25)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM LIGHT COMBO PACK (£8.25)
STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM COMBO (£8.25)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS MEDIUM DEEP COMBO (£8.25)	STAMPIN’ BLENDS DEEP COMBO PACK (£8.25)	NATURAL TONES STAMPIN’ BLENDS COLLECTION (£41.25)	ALL TOGETHER SUITE COLLECTION (ENGLISH) (£97.75)

Today I'm sharing a card that I made for a couple of current challenges:

I just loved Lori's colours over at Color Throwdown this week and when I saw the photo inspiration over at Paper Craft Crew I knew it was time to dig out my new Butterflies and Flowers Layering Decorative Masks and get stencilling to create some floral love with a thank you card for one of my lovely customers - take a look:

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

Stencilling is very on-trend right now and I've been wanting to experiment more with background stencilling so couldn't wait to have a go with these new Layering Decorative Masks. I chose to feature the florals on my card today and I can honestly say they are so easy and fun to work with! I added the first layer of colour in Blushing Bride and then added the detail in Highland Heather, using a blending brush to build up the intensity of the colour. I then swapped out the masks and added two lots of leaves in two shades of green. It really takes no time at all to create these fun floral patterns. I then added a layered 'thanks' using some vellum and picking out the Highland Heather for the main sentiment - love these Amazing Thanks Dies too! A trio of clear elegant faceted gems complete my card:

I actually think I could get quite addicted to stencilling with these flowers - look out for lots more in different colours in the coming weeks!

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. 

I have a busy week so today is being spent largely at my desk in an effort to get organised! Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project and news of an exciting pre-release from the upcoming annual catalogue. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

AMAZING THANKS DIES (ENGLISH) (£25.00)	BUTTERFLIES & FLOWERS LAYERING DECORATIVE MASKS (£9.25)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)	ELEGANT FACETED GEMS (£7.00)	VELLUM A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.25)
HIGHLAND HEATHER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	HIGHLAND HEATHER CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BLUSHING BRIDE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	MINT MACARON CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	JUST JADE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)

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 since it is the fifth Sunday of the month I have a tic-tac-toe challenge for you to work with:

I designed this board with lots of things that I wanted to use so that when it came to making my card, I was spoilt for choice! In my excitement I duplicated the 'birthday' square and didn't notice until my dear teamie Nance had already made the challenge graphic, so I decided to go with it - we all need lots of excuses for birthday cards, right?! That said, I ended up going in a completely different direction! I used the layout from Jen M's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week (I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to the left and flipped it on the vertical edge for a mirror image) and went across the top row of my board with rainbow/sparkle/diecut and made a fun rainbow shaker card - take a look:

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

A Brilliant Rainbow - Having firstly used some Pool Party ink and a blending brush to create a cloudy sky background, I used the largest of the Brilliant Rainbow Dies to cut the windows for my half rainbow. I backed these with a piece of window sheet, ready to create my shaker. 

Frosted Shaker - I chose the four colours for my rainbow stripes, then selected some co-ordinating beads from the frosted beads assortment in the mini catalogue for my shaker element. For added sparkle, I brushed the coloured back panels with clear Wink of Stella. The rainbow shaker effect is so pretty - here's a close-up to show it in more detail:

I used the foam adhesive strips to create four individual shaker elements so that I could keep the colours separate. It's worth noting that because of the size of the frosted beads, the shaker does need a double thickness of foam strips to allow your beads to shake freely. This does made the card quite thick, but I think it's worth it!

All Things Stitched - I used my Basic Borders Dies to create a border of white clouds and to make a stencil for my background, with a combination of a stitched circle and four layered stitched triangles behind for my sunshine. The sentiment is from the free Sale-A-Bration set 'Special Moments' and I paired it with another from the same set on the inside, with some faintly stencilled clouds behind:

I think this will make a nice special card to show appreciation for someone who went the extra mile, don't you?

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

BRILLIANT RAINBOW DIES (£29.00)	FROSTED BEADS ASSORTMENT (£7.00)	WINK OF STELLA GLITTER BRUSH (£7.50)	SPECIAL MOMENTS PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£0.00)	BASIC BORDERS DIES (£27.00)	FOAM ADHESIVE STRIPS (£7.25)
WINDOW SHEETS (£4.75)	POPPY PARADE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	PUMPKIN PIE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	HIGHLAND HEATHER A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	DAFFODIL DELIGHT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
STITCHED TRIANGLES DIES (£33.00)	PICTURE THIS DIES (£32.00)	BUMBLEBEE CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	POOL PARTY CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	BLENDING BRUSHES (£11.25)

Edit: Jen B chose my card as one of the princesses for FMS520 - yay!

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As You See It where it's time for a colour challenge from the lovely Heather C:

I am using the current Fusion sketch again today for my layout (in the correct orientation this time ;-)) and another first-time outing for a new stamp set - take a look:

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

Catch You Later - Today's card features the cat and goldfish combination from the 'Catch You Later' stamp set, found on page 63 of the mini catalogue. An unlikely pair of friends perhaps, but the sentiment suggests they share a definite affection between them! I like this set because it contains lots of small images that are easy to colour. 

Circles, Circles - I added my stamped image to a pair of layered circles in each of the challenge greens and also used a strip of Soft Succulent in-colour designer paper with a circle motif across my card to tie the whole thing together. 

A Pop Of Extra Colour - I actually chose to use this image for today's challenge because I thought the goldfish would be the perfect animal to showcase Calypso Coral. When my card was almost complete, I decided I wanted to add a little more coral to accentuate it; luckily I found a few retired enamel hearts in my stash that were just the job!

The funniest thing about today's card? I didn't even register that our challenge badge also featured a cat until after I had loaded up my card into my blog post! Heather must have been sending me inspirational vibes in more ways than one!

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.
• In a colour challenge, black or other neutral can be used in outlines and sentiments but no other colours should be included. Stampin’ Up colours are used for reference but colours that are a close match are welcome.

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CATCH YOU LATER CLING STAMP SET (£22.00)	LAYERING CIRCLES DIES (£33.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)	TUXEDO BLACK MEMENTO INK PAD (£5.50)	2021–2023 IN COLOR 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	EVENING EVERGREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)
SOFT SUCCULENT A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	SOFT SUCCULENT STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CALYPSO CORAL STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)	CRUMB CAKE STAMPIN' BLENDS COMBO PACK (£8.50)

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 LeAnne is the featured designer this week. This is the fun board that we are playing along with: 

I went with the first column of pink/Valentine or heart/white for my card today and took the layout from Fusion (I made it horizontal to fit everything in0!) and red, pink and black from the 'cool winter love' colour palette over at Sunday Stamps and used some new papers and a new stamp set too - take a look:

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

For The Record - The 'For The Record' stamp set on page 74 of the mini catalogue is most definitely the star of today's card! With sentiments for a range of occasions, this set is sure to be a hit with vinyl collectors and music lovers alike and has a fun retro vibe! Both my record and sentiment come from this set.

Sweet Talk - I decided to go all-out with the sweet talking on today's card, not only with the fun sentiment but also this heart-filled background designer series paper that is from the Sweet Talk pack. 

Shimmer and Shine - The detail on this record is great and totally lends itself to being heat embossed, to show the ridges and grooves. I stamped and heat-embossed the heart at the centre of the record again in black on Real Red cardstock then fussy cut it out, then filled it with Shimmery Crystal Effects for added sparkle and shine:

This card is bold, bright and full of fun - perfect for the favourite song in your life!

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. 

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. Also, if you like this layout, spoiler alert - I used the same Fusion sketch as the starting point for tomorrow's card too for our new challenge over at As You See It - although that card couldn't be more different! Come back tomorrow to see my second take on this great layout.

Enjoy your evening; until tomorrow, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: 

FOR THE RECORD CLING STAMP SET (£21.00)	LAYERING CIRCLES DIES (£33.00)	SWEET TALK 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£10.75)	VERSAMARK PAD (£8.75)	BASICS EMBOSSING POWDERS (£17.00)	BASIC WHITE A4 THICK CARDSTOCK (£7.75)
SHIMMERY CRYSTAL EFFECTS (£4.75)	REAL RED CLASSIC STAMPIN' PAD (£7.00)	REAL RED A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

Today I'm sharing a quick card that I made for a few current challenges:

I saw the badge over at Just Us Girls and that inspiration photo immediately reminded me of the retired stamp set 'Spirited Snowmen' so I dug it out and paired it with the Color Dare challenge colours for a sweet love-filled card:

Stamped, coloured and mounted using my Layered Squares dies, with some added clear Wink of Stella to make that heart shine:

No supplies list today as the stamp set is retired (I also used up some Tempting Turquoise card too!). I'm also linking up with TGIF Challenges and Global Design Project #GDP327 where both are asking for love-themed cards - it's clearly the season!!

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