Journaling Tag

 Spurred on by my recent post where I used a layered tag I had a little trawl around Amazon to see what different tag dies are around and there were in fact quite a few.  You can guess what happened next - my fingers strayed onto the 'Buy Now' button for this unbranded die set.  Making this tag wasn't quite as straightforward as I'd imagined, probably because I chose a fairly sturdy card for the base tag which is a sort of triptych but I had to do quite a bit of trimming of the pockets to enable the three layers to fold into the closed position.  It occurs to me that the die was probably designed to work with Designer paper rather than card and I did a quick trial with a few scraps and that seems to be the case.  Yes, I know I should have done the trial before the actual tag but I couldn't resist diving right in without thinking it through.

Anyway I now have another tag for the Tag-along (and ATC) challenge - my fourth one so that's it until the new theme is announced for next month.  The main tag and most of the inclusions in the pockets were made using the die set and bits and pieces of card from my snippets collection.  Stamps used were mostly from a selection of magazine freebies which I've had for a few years, along with a few 'bits' from my 'useful bits' pot.

The open tag showing the pockets (card used is very dark navy and the papers shades of blue and light grey) although it looks dark brown on my screen - sigh!

The closed tag

 

MAYJOYDIY Planner Folder Tag from Amazon
Stamps used - various magazine freebies
Gummiapan butterfly die

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Tagalong (and ATC) Challenge - also Snippets

 I'm back again with something else for the Tagalong (and ATC) challenge which has a theme of *Anything Autumn*.  I don't have much call for Halloween cards but as this falls within Autumn I thought I'd make an ATC using a stamp and die set which is several years old, and which, although being predominately for Christmas, does include a couple of Halloween elements.  I simply trimmed a snippet of cream card to 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" and stamped the little owl along with the words, adding a spider's web die cut (also from the same set).  Sponged the edges and added a little bit of visual texture for added interest and that's it - my single contribution towards Halloween this year..

The cream Snippet used was from the strip left over when I make my own card blanks and the web was cut from a small snippet of black card so I'm also dashing along to the Playground as well with this ATC. Hope I'm not too late for a warming cup of something to drink 😉

Stamp and die set from Stampin' Up  - Have a Hoot (long retired)

Anything Autumnal

Anything Autumnal is the theme for the current challenge for Tag-along (and ATCs) and as I found a stray leaf on my desk, left over from a couple of recent projects I thought I'd use it for a tag.  I remembered that a while ago I was gifted a couple of ready cut three-layer tags in plain white card so I smooshed them with some Distress Oxide inks in Autumn colours and over printed using some text stamps and found three in different scales so I could use the largest on the large tag and going to the smallest on the little one in the frame.  A little gilding wax was used to highlight the edges and then I adhered the die cut leaf.  A small piece of gold ribbon was stapled on to the top.

Tag - was a gift so no idea of the source of the die, sorry (see below)
Text - largest a stamp from Amazon, the other two were from different magazine gifts
Leaf - Artsy Leaves from Sizzix, Tim Holtz

Edit - I've been given the tag details which are - 

 Boundless Journal Locking Tag by Paula Pascual. MPL016. “Miss P Loves” range by Crafts-Too. 

Allsorts Challenge #834

 Time for another challenge at Allsorts and this time the theme has been chosen by Lynne who would like to see you use **Traditional Christmas Colours** or of course there is the usual *Anything Goes* option.  Full details of the prizes you might win are on the Allsorts Challenge Post if you pop along to check it out and you can also see what inspiration is there from the rest of the team.

For my Design Team card I've chosen to use some die cut penguins on a background which has some circles die cut to give interest. A couple of years ago a generous blogging friend sent me some ready cut circular Christmas sentiments and I've use one of them to frame one of the penguins and added a few die cut snowflakes from my Christmas oddments box.  The design was then backed with a piece of designer paper which I'd printed from a download.

Background - paper design downloaded from Buddly Designs
Sentiment - gift from a friend some time ago
Peguins - unbranded set of dies from a couple of years ago
Circular dies - Radiating circles from Craft Addiction UK
Torn Edge Square - unbranded die from Amazon

Darling Donkeys

 I'm doing my best to use up some of the oddments in my previously mentioned 'useful pot' and these donkeys were left over from a previous project - already stamped, coloured and fussy cut but. until now, unused.  Of course I had to produce other items to be able to make them into a card and so I proceed ad infinitum 😉.  I pulled out some snippets of blue 'sky' and green 'grass' paper and trimmed them to form a background; die cut some planks to form the large fence and then added a smaller picket fence and tree for added interest.  Finally decided on a pleasing arrangement and simply added a die cut sentiment - job done!!

Donkeys - from Darling Donkeys stamp set Stampin' Up (long retired)
Large fence - die set from Craft Addiction UK
Picket Fence and tree - from an old Sizzix die set, probably no longer available
Sentiment - dies from Crafters Companion

Tag-along (and ATC) Challenge

 First day of October already, which means the start of another challenge at Tag-along (and ATC) - this time with a theme of *AUTUMN* set by Brenda.  There are some great Design Team projects and a lovely tag-themed prize.  I've had to prod my Mojo back into action and have come up with an ATC using some die cut leaves which were left over from a previous project.  I took an ATC-sized piece of cream card and lightly stencilled a swirly design over it, added a little text stamping and sponged the edges.  Next move was to die cut a tattered notebook fragment from a piece of kraft card.  Another torn edge scrap was found in my 'useful bits pot' and I managed to stamp the word using a very ancient set of individual letter stamps.  The leaves were added and I made a tiny bow from a scrap of raffia and that's it - my offering for the ATC Autumn themed challenge.  There's a whole month for you to think about making a tag or an ATC and be in with a chance of winning the prize and/or being chosen as one of the top picks

Leaves - Artsy Leaves die set from Sizzix
Torn Notebook and torn Fragment - unbranded die sets
Letter Stamps - Hampton Art Studio G (from 2008)
Background stamping - magazine freebie stamps (quite old)

Snippets Challenge #516

I'm popping over to the Snippets Playground this morning to see what's afoot and taking my homework with me.

 Everything on this card, apart from the gold layer has come from my snippets collection and of course cutting the gold square has left me with snippets for another time.  I found a cream piece large enough to cut a slightly smaller square and then also cut the slatted rectangle from another snippet along with a gold backing piece.  The poppy was cut from a snippet of red and the barley was cut from cream and coloured, using Distress Oxide ink.  The vase used up a really small snippet of dark card with a metallic finish which I'd obviously coloured at some time for another project - this was a left over snippet. The finish doesn't really show up in the picture but it is there and I managed to die cut a centre for the poppy with pretty much all that remained of that piece.  The sentiment was snipped from a sheet which I'd printed a while ago which now has several 'holes' where I've been dipping into it to use on my cards.  A scattering of gems and there it is, homework completed for another fortnight.

Slatted Rectangle - dies from Craft Addiction UK
Barley and Poppy - Gummiapan dies
Vase - die from a Sizzix die set which I've had for a while
Sentiment - composed using MS Word