Stitched Stars Exam Congratulations Card

Today I'm sharing a card using this week's CAS(E) This Sketch layout that is also perfect for the theme over at Global Design Project #GDP203 this week:

Today is the day when for lots of students in the UK the wait is finally over as GCSE results are announced. My nephew is one of those students for whom today represents the culmination of months of study and hard work and whilst I don't know his results at the time of writing this, I am confident that a card to congratulate him on his exam success will be in order. Since my card is for a boy I didn't want anything too fussy, so the above sketch layout was perfect. I took the opportunity to play with some new product from my Autumn-Winter catalogue pre-order to create a cool and colourful card - take a look:

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

Not Just For Christmas - Stitched Stars are one of the few stitched shapes now missing from the Stampin' Up! collection - but not any more! The Autumn-Winter catalogue has a great bundle called 'So Many Stars' featuring both stitched and decorative stars and that great rolling, starry die that I've used on my card today. I inset the die into my top layer of Granny Apple Green and used a base of Mango Melody so that the base colour shows through the star shapes (I paper-pieced the non-star elements back in) before finishing with my sentiment in a larger stitched star. Great for Christmas, but perfect for a congratulations card too! 

A Punny Sentiment - My sentiment comes from the Darling Label Punch Box stamp set - one of my favourites for a cool congratulations card for a discerning teenager. I masked off the stripes that surround it so that I had just the words, which fit inside my stitched star perfectly. I finished the inside of my card with a sentiment from the now retired 'Amazing Congratulations' stamp set and some stars from the new So Many Stars stamp set:

Two Cards, Four Colours - I chose a bright and colourful palette for my card today and couldn't initially decide whether to add Granny Apple Green or Poppy Parade to my pairing of Mango Melody and Blueberry Bushel. So I created two cards featuring each of the colours. Here's the second one:

And here's a photo of the cards together - which one do you prefer? Leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Either way, here's the colour palette I used in case you would like to save it to inspire your future crafting projects:

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:

Stitched Stars Dies (£35.00)	So Many Stars Photopolymer Stamp Set (En) (£24.00)	So Many Stars Bundle (En) (£53.00)	Darling Label Punch Box (£42.00)	Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Pad (£7.00)	Blueberry Bushel A4 Cardstock (£8.25)
Granny Apple Green A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Poppy Parade A4 Cardstock (£8.25)	Mango Melody A4 Cardstock (£8.25)