Tag-along and ATC Challenge

 My Mojo still seems to be on his summer holidays and I've been struggling to come up with a design for the latest theme on the Tag-along and ATC Challenge.  Straightforward theme really **Circles** with the usual *Anything Goes option*.  However, yesterday I spotted a video on Louise Dunne's You Tube Channel where she was making some shaker baubles using a set of dies which of course were circular.  Well, I don't have the dies and not much inclination,  or items to produce shakers, so I decided to have a go at making a bauble-shaped tag for Christmas.  I used two different sizes of circle dies to make the frame and a really small circle die to cut the top part.  The Cropodile came in handy for making a hole in the tiny circle.  A plain circle was cut for the backing and I found a Snippet of seasonal paper to glue in place as a background.  A couple of small poinsettia dies came out of hiding and these were cut from scraps of inky background and then treated with Wink of Stella.  A small 'Noel' word was also cut from the same snippet.  Finally a bit of red ribbon , some glitter on the background trees and that's it - job done - my entry for the circles theme at Tag-along. It certainly took me a while to get going this time 🙄

Circles - Noble Pierced Circles Creative Expressions
Poinsettias - Marianne dies probably 15-20 years old
Noel - die from a magazine cover gift set a few years ago

Allsorts Challenge #858

 The theme for the next Allsorts Challenge is **Sympathy/Thinking of You** and has been chosen by Gail.  There is the usual *Anything Goes* option as well of course.  The prize is from Highlight Crafts and full details can be seen on the Allsorts blog post.

For my card this time I decided to use My Craft Studio and I looked through images on some of my quite old CDs to select a suitable background design.  Can't remember now which CD collection this one came from - sorry. My intention was to produce a digital stencilled effect and this involved using the 'digital punch' function within the programme. (there are lots of punch designs to choose from).  Luckily I spotted a tutorial on You Tube to remind me of how this was done because it's quite a while since I'd used the programme for anything other than printing and/or resizing digital images. Once printed I cut the panel using a stained glass die and backed it with a toning square of card.  A white die cut flower was added for extra interest.  

Background - My Craft Studio Artwork CD  (programme from Highlight Crafts) 
Flower - Wildflower Stems die set from Sizzix
Stained Glass Die - Creative Expressions

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