Cute!

 Looking through my file of card pictures I seem to have rather a lot of 'cute' ones for some reason - possibly because I was tempted by some stamps designed by Louise Dunne who draws them so well.  Anyway here is just one of them to share today.  It's a 'New Baby' card where I've used some oddments of patterned paper as a background; stamped the image onto a white circle and coloured using water based ink and a paint brush.  The sentiment was part of the stamp set, cut with its own matching die.

Background - printed from a Buddly Crafts download set
Image and Sentiment - designed by Louise Dunne for Craft Addiction UK
Circles - Daisy Mae nesting stitched circle dies

Snippets Challenge # 540

 There's a new challenge over in the Playground and of course another lovely prize to be won.  I decided to make a Christmas card this time and there are lots of quite small and fiddly Snippets used here, particularly in the construction of the gingerbread people. I started with a Snippet of seasonal paper which was more or less the right size to fit my card blank; die cut the icicles and the slatted rectangle from some white card before turning to some quite small bits in kraft, red, green and blue with the addition of a few more white pieces for the other details.  The sentiment was also cut from  a snippet of the same brand of white card but somehow it looks a different shade on my screen. 

Thank goodness the weather has turned a little cooler and we've had some rain. The paddling pool has been packed away and I reckon we will soon be queueing for hot chocolate in the Playground 🤣

Background - downloaded paper from  a Buddly Crafts Christmas collection
Icicles - unbranded die which I've had for a couple of years
Rectangle - Slatted Rectangle set from Craft Addiction UK
Sentiment - dies from Britannia (still available from Pink Pig I think)
Gingerbread People - unbranded die set from Amazon (lots of tiny elements)

Allsorts Challenge #857

 The theme for the next challenge at Allsorts has been chosen by Brenda and is **Creatures Great and Small** with of course the anything goes option.  Prize this time is from Lavinia stamps - full details can be seen on the Allsorts Blog post. 

I've chosen to use some of my Lavinia stamps to illustrate this theme and my little butterflies definitely come into the 'small' category - unless of course you believe in fairies.  Thought for the day - is a fairy a creature I wonder??  I used one of my lighter inky backgrounds and stamped the fairy and castle before using masks to build up the hills and land.  The lavender was added in the foreground and the other foliage to frame the scene, finally adding the butterflies.  Some stickles were applied to the fairy wings. I've had these stamps for quite a long time and they are all Lavinia designs

 Fairy - Daydreaming 
Castle - small castle
Flowers - Lavender
Foliage - Dragon thorn
Small butterflies

Rudolph Days

 It's time for the August Rudolph Days challenge, which each month gives us encouragement to make Christmas cards throughout the year, thus avoiding a rush in December.  Each month the challenge runs from the 25th to the end of the month.  For my card this time I've used a printed background which has been in my stash for ages and I've added some die cut robins which were loitering in my 'pot of useful bits'.  I imagine they were surplus to requirements from when I was making Christmas cards for last year.

Happy Rudolph Days to everyone

Background - from my stash
Robins - dies from Craft Addiction UK
Squares - deckle edge dies (unbranded)

Sunflower

 Some recently received Happy Mail included a selection of die cuts which have found their way into my 'pot of useful bits' but I couldn't resist colouring this stamped and die cut sunflower and leaves.  I then decided to make a relatively CAS card using a slatted hexagon die which I've cut into a square card panel and backed with some yellow printed paper from my oddments collection.  The bee was die cut using some dark brown and gold card and the small sentiment stamped and also die cut.

Updated information - I'm reliably informed that this is, in fact, not a sunflower but a gerbera from Uniko Pure Flowers  collection  - gerbera stamp and die set 😉

Hexagon die - from Craft Addiction UK
Sunflower - gifted to me already stamped and die cut
Colouring - Polychromos pencils
Bee and Sentiment - dies and stamp (sentiment) also from CAUK
Printed background paper - from an old Papermania pad

Creating a Scene!!

 I love to make a scene - on cards that is, just in case anyone misunderstands and can imagine me being a public nuisance 🤣🤣.  

During the recent hot weather  crafting was somewhat curtailed but one thing I did  managewas to get a pile of images stamped so that I could sit and colour them at my leisure, thus building up quite a stock ready to hand.  I pulled out a few florals, thinking that they'd make a garden scene.  At that point I remembered a garden greenhouse stamp and die set which I've had for some years so that came out of retirement - using just the greenhouse.  The fence and birds on a wire were pulled out of my 'useful bits and pieces' pot which is always on my desk.  Some of the other components were die cut and others fussy cut where I felt they'd be better without the white border.  Background was a piece of printed 'sky' paper and some green ink was smooshed to give the effect of ground. 

Background - printed from My Craft Studio Setting the Scene CD
Greenhouse - from a long retired Stampin' Up set Garden Greenhouse
Pot, Wheelbarrow and Boots - Pots of Joy stamps from Craft Addiction UK
Fence and Birds - from oddments on my desk (probably unbranded dies)
Sentiment - also from CAUK

Tag-along and ATC challenge

 The young lady on this little ATC came from a CD dating back to 2011 and hopefully she will fit the theme for the current Tag-along and ATC challenge which is **Fashion**.  If not I'm sure she won't mind going into the *anything goes* category.  I simply printed her and resized to fit the 2.5 x 3.5 inch ATC size, using a die to cut a frame for her.  The background was a piece from my 'inky play' Snippets collection and I've added a little stencilled detail for added interest.

Girl - from Pretty Sweet Polkadoodles CD dated 2011
Stencils - Tim Holtz mini layering stencil collection
Frame - an unbranded die