Magical

 The theme for Allsorts challenge #802 is *anything goes* or *magical. myths and/or legends* and very appropriately prizes of beautiful Lavinia stamps.  My card has a fairy featured so I guess it covers the theme.  I used a round Gelli plate with some Distress inks to start off a background and then used a mask so that I could add the details of the hills, foliage and of course the fairy and goose. My next decision was to use a die to cut out this circle.  Some stencilling and second generation stamping has been added to the background for added interest.

Stencil - from Lavinia
Stamps - combination of Lavinia and Card-Io stamps

Snippets Challenge #491

 Whenever I set out to make a card I always try to include something from my Snippets mountain - I know I've said it before but somehow this collection never seems to diminish despite my best efforts.  Anyway this one is to take along to the Snippets Playground where I understand there's a conker match in progress and some hot drinks available.

Apart from the base card everything here came from my Snippets collection starting with part of a sheet of snowflake paper which was printed onto some pearl paper for another project.  I also have quite a lot of pearlised card snippets in various shades of white, ivory or cream so I decided to use some of the different shades to make a start on die cutting this elaborate 'Colorize' snowman using a die which I won in a challenge last year and had only used once previously.  These dies are quite elaborate with many layers and some concentration is required to get it all assembled.  I decided to focus on each colour and work methodically from the bottom up as it were - it's incredibly easy to lose some of the tiny pieces if you blunder in and cut them all at once.  No need to ask me how I know this 🤣 and I seem to recall that when I made the first one last year the die was put away with thoughts of 'never again'.  However, I'm pleased I tried again this year because I actually enjoyed making this one even if it did take me quite a long time - certainly not one for batch making.  Once he was assembled I decided the card needed something else so I cut some 'snow' to ground him and added a die cut tree from another set of dies - I didn't think it needed a sentiment.  Lots of snippets used and being in methodical mode I remembered to save them for a photo.

A great prize to be won this time so why not dig out some of your snippets and have a go

Background - Printed from Seasons Greetings CD Artylicious (possibly discontinued)
Snowman - Tim Holtz Colorize Snowman dies
Tree - set of unbranded dies

We Love Stamping

 The theme for the We Love Stamping Challenge for October is **Autumn** or of course *Anything Goes* and it so happens that the theme for Stamping Sensations is - you guessed it - **Anything Goes** or *Autumn Colours*.  I've decided to take my card along to both challenges this time as it seems to fit the criteria and there's a limit to the number of Autumnal cards I need in my box.

I started with a square of white stamping card and a circle mask so that I could put a faint line of ink to guide me in placing the leaf stamps for which I used a selection of yellows, greens and brown with a touch of orange for the berries.  I then decided to pop the little owl in amongst the leaves and he was coloured using pencils before being masked so that I could add a light dusting of yellow in and around the wreath with a some orange concentrated on the leafy area.  The final touch was to add some purple to highlight the edges (more Halloween than Autumn I guess, but - hey - artistic licence 😉).  As usual with this style of card I dithered over adding a sentiment but have left it blank for now.

The usual opportunity to maybe win a prize at the end of the  month

Stamping - All using Lavinia stamps
Inking - Distress Ink and Versafine Clair
Colouring - Polychromos pencils

Allsorts Challenge #801

 The theme for the current Allsorts Challenge is **Falling Leaves** or of course the usual *Anything Goes* and there are great prizes too as well as Design Team inspiration if you follow the link.  For my card this time I've splodged various Autumn colours onto some scraps of cream card before die cutting the leaves, adding a little gilding in places.  The base card is also cream, topped with a cream square and a die cut circular motif  using kraft card with three of the leaves added.  A few of the smaller 'fall-out' circles were also gilded and scattered around and a die cut 'Hello' in the centre.  Sadly the gold doesn't show up too well in the picture 🙄

 Circle Motif - unbranded die from Amazon
Hello - die from Gummiapan
Leaves - Leaf Fragments dies designed by Tim Holtz

Autumn Themes

 There seem to be lots of Autumn themed challenges around at the moment so I brought out some of my leafy dies to see what I could come up with.  In actual fact I wouldn't call this an Autumnal card because it's just a CAS one using a single leaf die with a scrap (snippet) of card out of my bits box.  It was only a small piece and I think it was probably coloured using Pixie Powders, some of which include mica for a bit of glimmer.  I cut a square of card to fit the card blank and used a cutting die to emboss, followed by cutting a couple of frames using two smaller sized dies from the set.  One of the fall-out circles was embossed with an embossing folder and the leaf simply added to the centre.  I still have quite a few leaf dies to play with so hopefully there will be some more suitably coloured cards to follow, watch this space 😉

Circles - Pierced circle dies from Creative Expressions 
Embossing Folder - from my collection but not named on the actual folder
Leaf - from Tim Holtz Sizzix Artsy Leaves die set

Butterflies

 I'm sure there have been fewer butterflies around this year which is sad but I've brought out a set of dies so that butterflies can adorn this card.  I started by splodging Distress Oxide inks onto some scraps of cream card so that they could dry and be ready for die cutting.  I then cut a square of the same cream card to layer onto a kraft card blank,  adding a few splodges of DOX and allowing to dry before using a couple of stencils to add some partial detail.  A final touch was a few spatters of ink in the colours used for the butterflies which were die cut and layered to be arranged on the background along with a simple sentiment.  Just a reminder of Summer now that Autumn seems to be here - each season has beauty but in different ways.  

I spotted that today is World Card Making Day - what a lovely excuse to stay in and craft (as if we needed an excuse) 😊.

Butterflies - Die set from Tim Holtz  Brushstroke Butterflies
Stencils - from Lavinia and AAll & Create
Sentiment - generated on the computer using Word

Allsorts Challenge #800

 Another card for the special 800th Allsorts Challenge where the theme is **Anything Goes**.  This card is a stamped one using my own version of a polyplate which was inked with some Distress inks and  lightly spritzed with water before 'stamping' it onto a piece of white card to make a background panel.  I then stamped the floral/leafy image and added a simple sentiment to this CAS card.  Various polyplates are available from Crafty Roo but this one was one I made by cutting down an A5 sheet of what must be some form of clear stamping material which was purchased some time ago from John Next Door before I ventured into using genuine gelli plates.  I think both items have a place although they do behave slightly differently with inks - just need to experiment AKA play 🤣

Leafy Stamp - from Autumn Leaves set purchased in Crafty Roo's sale