Allsorts Challenge #850

There's a special event over at the Allsorts Challenge blog where they are celebrating their 17th birthday with extra prizes and and until the end of the month Aall & Create are offering a 15% discount on purchases. What's not to like??   Full details can be seen on the Allsorts blog post..  The theme is *anything goes* and for my Design Team card I thought that a birthday card would seem to be appropriate. I've made a CAS card with a fairly prominent birthday sentiment.  A slatted rectangle die was used to cut into a white square and A strip of colour was added behind it to tone with the 'inky play' card from which the leaves and sentiment shadow were cut.  The leaf veins and words were die cut from some scraps of card coloured gold with gilding flakes.

W'e'd love to see what you make to help us celebrate this special birthday event.

Slatted Rectangle - die from Craft Addiction UK
Leaves - Artsy Leaves die, Tim Holtz for Sizzix
Birthday - unbranded dies from Amazon

Get Well Bouquet

 Some 9 or 10 years ago an embossing folder which was a magazine gift went viral and was followed by more in the same style. I've used one of them as a backdrop to a bouquet made using some lovely floral stamps and dies. Once the flowers were stamped, coloured and die cut it was a quick card to make and I decided to make it a 'Get Well' card using a sentiment from a favourite magazine gift of sentiment stamps which I've had, and been using, for many years.

Embossing Folder - from series by Apple Blossom but possibly no longer available Flowers - Designed by Susan Hardy available from Craft Addiction UK Sentiment - from a magazine gift set from many years ago Sentiment Label - from a die set by Creative Expressions Greek Island Collection

Another DIY Lattice Card

 I've still held off buying any of the latest lattice dies and  I've used a different, and very ancient, die from my stash.  This time it's framed by a circle and I've added butterflies and a stamped and die cut sentiment.  I seem to recall that this particular lattice die and its matching embossing folder (which I never managed to get hold of) were both extremely popular when they appeared and crafters were almost 'queueing around the black' to acquire one or both of these items.

Circle Die - from Noble Pierced Circles set Creative Expressions
Lattice - Cover Plate die  Tied Together from Couture Creations
Sentiment - from Craft Addiction UK flower stamps/dies by Susan Hardy
Butterflies - also from CAUK 

Paper Piecing

 I was having a sort out of some of my snippets of patterned papers, wondering if I should discard some of the smaller pieces but I just couldn't bring myself to put them into the recycling box.  Instead I've used a couple of them to make this card using a stamp which I've had for some time although I have to confess it's not been used recently.  I stamped it onto a die cut square of white card and again onto the two pieces of patterned paper so that I could neatly fussy cut the two dogs.  For a bit of added interest I did some over stamping onto the background before sticking them into place, where according to the packaging they are 'waiting for their next adventure'.  A fun card which I enjoyed putting together and making good use of some scraps.

Stamp - from Crafty Individuals, sadly no longer trading
Background Stamping - Selection of stamps from magazine giveaways
Sentiment - Tiny tag from Craft Addiction UK set

Snippets Playground Challenge #532

 I'm off to visit the Snippets Playground to see what's afoot - not quite warm enough for the paddling pool but no doubt the breakfast club is doing well.  Time for another challenge with the usual lovely prize.  Everything on today's card, apart from the card blank and the pink card layer, has been made using bits and pieces from my Snippet mountain.  I'm polishing my halo too because - at least for the time being - I've resisted purchasing any of the latest release from Craft Addiction UK which included some really tempting lattice style dies.  I put my thinking cap on and tried to work out ways of achieving similar effects by using what I already have in my well stocked stash of dies.  I came up with some ideas and then started a search for at least one lattice  die which I knew must be lurking somewhere.  Well I didn't find anything with a straightforward lattice but managed to pull out a couple of slightly more elaborate ones which haven't been used for many years and I've actually come up with a couple of cards and this is one using an arch shape.

I trimmed a snippet of white card to be slightly smaller than the pink layer and used an arch die to make a frame (cut twice and glued together to give it a bit of strength).  I then die cut the lattice die from another snippet of white and placed it behind the resulting aperture, slipping a small snippet of pink paper behind to show through. The white frame was popped back into the aperture. Next move was to stamp, colour and die cut Buttons the mouse using another white snippet, finally stamping and die cutting the sentiment.  Phew - quite a selection of small white snippets used and I nearly forgot to mention that I used a brick stencil to add a little colour to the surround of the archway..  

The card I made using the other lattice die is a circle design for a different look and I will be blogging that one fairly soon.

Arch Die - from Graces Garden stamp/die set Stampin' Up (long retired)
Lattice Die - Ornate Trellis Crafters Companion (years old)
Mouse - Buttons stamp/die set Craft Addiction UK Louise Dunne design
Stencil - from an unbranded set of stencils  

Allsorts Challenge # 849

 The theme for this Allsorts Challenge has been chosen by Liz who would like to see some monochrome projects (shades of one colour) or there is the usual 'anything goes' option.  The prize is a stencil and stamps from Creative Expressions - full details on the Allsorts post.

For my Design Team card this time I've I've made a DL card in shades of  lilac starting with some smooshed ink down the centre of the background and then stamping to add some visual texture.  I then cut a panel for the main image of cone flowers in a loose watercolour technique.  Final addition was a die cut sentiment to tone.

Background - unbranded stamp from Amazon
Main Image - Cone Flowers from Paper Artsy, designed by Alison Bomber
Sentiment - dies also unbranded from Amazon

There's an exciting challenge coming up for the fortnight after this because it's our 17th Birthday with lots of prizes, so something to look forward to.  Hope you will come along to help us celebrate.

Tag-along Challenge

The theme for the May challenge at Tag-along & ATCs is to add some pink so I started by smooshing some pink ink onto my die cut tag and then overstamped in a different shade of pink with some visual texture from a background stamp.  I then selected a different background stamp to over stamp onto a snippet of the remaining smooshed card and fussy cut the small hexagons to add to the design.  The quotation was added, followed by a die cut bird and a piece of pink ribbon.  That's it my tag with a touch of pink.

Background stamps - large numbers and hexagons both from Crafty Roo
Quotation - from Tim Holtz Attic Treasures CMS123 stamp set
Bird - unbranded die set