One Layer Flower

Goodness me, I find the single layer card challenges difficult! I'm always so pleased to actually have an idea and then manage to follow through and finish the card. Today's card combines  Less is More's #376:

with Fab Friday's #142:

Ingredients: Stampin' Up ink (Powder Pink, Mint Macaron, Mossy Meadow and Tranquil Tide), card (Whisper White) and stamps (Thoughtful Banners for sentiment, Playful Backgrounds, Swirly Frames, time for Tea)

Monochrome Flowers

I'be wanted to enter The Flower Challenge for ages, but this is the first time I've actually accomplished that. I found this latest challenge really - well, challenging!

I find it hard to stay within one colour family. Here's the card I came up with:

Ingredients: Stampin' Up ink (Basic Black, Blushing Bride, Sweet Sugarplum), card (Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Merry Merlot), Thinlits (Botanical Tags), Stamp (Happy Birthday Gorgeous - sentiment) and tag punch.
Other: Derwent Intense Watercolour Pencils.

Daisies & Lace

One thing I love about the Retro Rubber Challenge blog is that it makes me reconsider and reuse old favourites - and for the latest sketch challenge:

 I turned back to one of my 'best of the best' stamp sets - Grateful Bunch - one of the very first stamps I bought when I discovered the wonderful world of card making (from the 2016- 2017 catalogue). Paper Craft Crew provided me with a lovely set of very spring-like colours:

 - entirely suitable down here in New Zealand, where we're seeing daffodil plants edge their way above the cold ground's surface - a promise that spring will be here soon!

Ingredients:
Stampin' Up card, (Thick Whisper White, Lemon Lime Twist, Whisper White), ink (Tempting Turquoise, Lemon Lime Twist, Basic Black), Stamp set (Grateful Bunch and Mixed Borders for sentiment), Daisy punch, Glitter enamel dots
Other products: francheville diamantes and Sizzix Tattered Floral thinlits.

Cloud celebration

A CAS card for two CAS challenges today: CASOLOGY's #308 'Cloud'  and CAS(E) this Sketch's #281. 
I imagine I'll use this as a baby card, but I kept the sentiment a little more generic to broaden the card's potential.
There's something so calming, for me, about sponging clouds onto paper. I should do it more often!

Ingredients:
Stampin' Up ink (Soft Sky, Watermelon Wonder, Basic Black, Smoky Slate), card (Shimmery White, Soft Sky), stamps (Balloon Celebration, Thoughtful Banners (sentiment)), thinlits (Up and Away to make a mask to sponge).
Other products: American Craft twine, Rosies stamp - 'spread your beautiful wings'.

Winning Colours

I think The Paper Players have really outdone themselves with their latest colour challenge - the colours are gorgeous and the design team cards are stunning! As their blog said, the colours - Highland Heather, Lovely Lipstick and Granny Apple Green - particularly suited flowers, so of course I decided to try to use something else. Luckily, Freshly Made Sketches came through with a great sketch that made me think of Stampin' Up's Eastern Palace Suite - and so a card was born!

Ingredients
Stampin' Up Card (Whisper White, Highland Heather), ink (Lovely Lipstick, Granny Apple Green, Basic Black), Eastern Beauty Stamps (and Varied Vases stamp for the sentiment), Eastern Medallions Dies, Layering Circles Dies and Glitter Enamel Dots.
Other Products: Couture Creation Christmas Wrap embossing folder

Time for a Cuppa

I enjoyed playing with one of my recent purchases, Stampin' Up's 'Time for Tea' set, for this challenge, which married Just Add Ink's 'T' challenge with As You See It's Sketch and invitation to think vintage.
I love the rich Razzleberry velvet ribbon - makes me think of books I loved as a child, like Anne of Green Gables (although I'm pretty sure Anne would have resisted anything so pretty!)

Ingredients
Stampin' Up card, (Rich Razzleberry, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Whisper White), ink (Basic Black), watercolour pencils (Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Bermuda Bay) DSP (Share What You Love), Stamps (Time for Tea, Petal Palette(sentiment)), framelits (Spot of Tea), Rich Razzleberry velvet ribbon, So Saffron pearls.

Celebrate

This card is just in time to celebrate with the Paper Players - congratulations to the team on their 400th challenge! I used a sketch from Freshly Made Sketches as a starting point. I had my first go with Stampin' Ups Make a Difference stamps. It may be my last - talk about fiddly! (Patience is not my strong point.) Still, I did manage to spell one pretty simple word! I love the smudgy dots in the Share What You Love DSP and the little row of candles from Birthday Backgrounds is awesome - that backgrounds set is one of those ones you wonder about buying but turns out to be extremely versatile - I'm glad I got it.

Ingredients
Stampin' Up card (Grapefruit Grove, Rich Razzleberry), Share What You Love DSP, ink (basic black), Stampsets (Make a Difference, Birthday Backgrounds)

Flying Banner

I'm really hoping I haven't jinxed my father making this card: he's moving to a retirement village if he can sell his house, and I'm planning to give him this when he does. When I saw CAS(E) this sketch's latest,

 I immediately thought of the charming little plane in the 'In the City' stamp set from Stampin' Up, and wondered if I could use it. CASology's challenge word 'zoom' reinforced my desire, and the colours from Global Design Project - Mint Macaron, Fresh Fig and Grapefruit Grove - gave me the last piece of the puzzle.

I think I'm going to love the new Stampin' Up stampset 'Birthday Backgrounds - it's going to be versatile - here it gives some 'zoom' to the planes.

Card Ingredients:
Stampin' Up ink (Fresh Fig, Basic Black, Mint Macaron), card (Whisper White, Grapefruit Grove, Mint Macaron, Fresh Fig), stamps (Birthday Backgrounds, In the City)

Elegant vases

I was so happy when my Stampin' Up Varied Vases arrived - I'd been looking forward to playing with it. The combination of a great sketch from Just Add Ink and colours from Color Throwdown gave me the chance. (I always feel odd about writing 'colour' - spelling it the English way - when the blog is spelt the American way, but I feel even odder spelling it without the 'u'! So I've resigned myself to two spellings in the same sentence!)
Here's the card. I tried to get three different intensities of navy on the vases, but not sure how successful I was!

Card ingredients:

Stampin' Up ink (Night of Navy, Blushing Bride, Basic Black), card (Blushing Bride, Night of Navy, Whisper White), stampset (Varied Vases) 

Other: francheville gold diamantes and some gold washi tape (sorry, no idea where I got it!)