Stencil Fun

 I recently spotted that there was a stamp and stencil cover gift on an issue of Creative Stamping and decided that I should treat myself.  I do my grocery shopping online these days and so don't get to see the latest magazines sitting on the shelves to tempt me but I'm so pleased that I spotted this one was around.  I duly ordered it online and I can see I'm going to have lots of fun using this great gift set.  I started with this design which is similar to one of the ones within the magazine and it's far from perfect but, hey, it's hand crafted 🤣🤣.  The suggestion was to leave the 'squares' stencil in place to stamp the images but I found this just didn't work for me which was frustrating but I persevered and set about masking off each section with Post-it notes before stamping each one separately.  I very nearly gave up the whole idea because to be honest it was far too hot in my craft room to be fiddling about with this. I certainly needed a lie down in a darkened room to recover before eventually assembling it into a finished card.  There are already other ideas going around in my head and you will be seeing more cards using this super set of stamps and stencils in due course.  It's boring going on about the weather but it really is too hot to be tinkering about with masks, ink and stamps - sorry 🥵

Stamps and Stencils - cover gift from Creative Stamping #162
Sentiment - from Art Gallery Stampin' Up set (long retired)
Background - printed from a Buddly Crafts download
Wavy Edge square die - unbranded set from Amazon

Snippets Challenge # 536

 Time to hand in my homework for another Snippets Playground challenge and this time I have a masculine birthday card to share.  This card started with an A4 piece of cream card and a purchased  6" kraft card blank  I pulled out a selection of random stamps, mainly from magazine gift collections which I've gathered over the years.  I just kept stamping them here and there until I'd filled the entire sheet to my satisfaction and then smooshed a bit of Distress ink around.  Once happy with the result, I cut a panel to fit onto the card blank, which of course has left me with a fair sized Snippet to keep for future projects.  Now it was time to make a start on building up a design for the card using up some of my actual Snippets of card and remnants of pieces from a large script paper pad which I've had for many years and I still treasure every last scrap.

actual Snippets used were the strip behind the die cut man, a piece for the man. the two tiny 'flags' and also a strip for the horizontal layer which was backed with a snippet of kraft card..  This was a card I really enjoyed making and I will probably repeat the technique of using some of my vast collection of suitable stamps to make more backgrounds.  Of course I still have a good supply of suitable snippets to use to build up more card designs 😉. 

.Background - selection of random stamps, mainly from past magazine gift collections
Text Snippets - from an ancient Prima scrips paper pad
Silhouette Man - unbranded die
Little 'flags' - punch from Stampin' Up (long retired)

Colours

 The theme for the latest Tag-along and ATC challenge is **your favourite colour** which I have to admit is a bit of a difficult one for me because there are so many lovely colours all around us that I find it difficult to settle on one which I'd prefer above all others.  I think a lot depends on the occasion or situation but one colour which I always think of as being cheerful and happy is perhaps a nice sunny yellow so that's what I've chosen as the background for this ATC.  The small card was trimmed from a snippet which was in my box of inky play backgrounds and I've simply added a couple of die cuts to make this, adding a small label which I produced on the computer.  Just a bit of fun really but I guess it fits the theme.

Frame - an unbranded die from a set of three in different sizes
Cat - die from a 'mixed bag' of random unbranded dies which I purchased a couple of years back
Label - produced using MS Word

Allsorts Challenge # 853

 The theme for the Allsorts challenge this time is **Stencil/s** chosen by Donna and of course there's the usual *anything goes* option.  There will be stencils featuring as prizes too and you can read full details on the Allsorts blog post.  For my DT card I've used a stencil of multiple circles to produce a Bokeh effect background and, not wanting to cover too much of it, I cut a frame and a simple sentiment, finally adding a small layered butterfly which was hanging around in my pot of 'useful bits' and happened to be the right colour.  The design was then matted onto two more toning layers.

Square Frame - die from Craft Addiction UK
Deckle Edge Dies - unbranded set from Amazon
Scalloped Die - from a Tonic set which I've had for many years
Butterfly - I think came from a Stampin' Up tutorial kit, again from a few years back
Bokeh - You Tube video by Susan Hardy, fairly recent
Sentiment - unbranded dies

Postage Theme

 I've had a play with my postage style die and this is the result using a selection of small stamps which I've had for a very long time.  I decided to go down the monochrome route here which I feel suits the images..

Postage die - unbranded from Amazon - I think (had it a while)
Stamps - from Chocolate Baroque designed by Glenda Waterworth 
Birthday Sentiment - from a recent Craft Addiction UK stamp set

Rudolph Days June 26

 Here we are at the Rudolph Days challenge and it's definitely flaming June with extremely high temperatures.  Never mind here's my Christmas card which might put you into a cooler frame of mind.  I've used a digital image which I resized so that I could group them together to look as if Daddy Rudolph has two younger family members to help him in his work.  I die cut a decorative window frame offset into the piece of white card and then popped the image into the frame.  The simple addition of a die cut tree and stamped sentiment complete the composition.  Happy Rudolph Days everyone - shame we can't go outside and roll in the snow 🤣🤣

Image - digital download from Craft Addiction UK (several variations in the set)
Frame Die - also from CAUK
Tree - unbranded die
Sentiment - from a long retired Stampin. Up set
Deckle Square - unbranded die from Amazon
Background - piece of seasonal paper from my oddments stash

Snippets Playground Challenge # 535

 I think I may be first through the Playground gates this morning because I just couldn't wait to try a new slant on an old technique.  Miss Di had spotted this 'game changer' way of making Eclipse style cards and showed us a wonderful example, also sharing links to a video.  This looked so interesting that I just had  to give it a try and this is my version using circles instead of narrow strips of 'Snippet' card.  The cream background is a fairly large snippet and of course the nine circles needed were also cut from my cream snippets.  A quite large stamp has been used, for the first time as it happens, because I was somewhat taken aback at just how large the stamps were in this set so they've not really been used as often as intended so it was great to have an opportunity to make use of this one.  There's a slight change in the way things happen the Snippets challenge as regards prizes - read all about it and catch up with news of Dudley's exploits as usual - always my first port of call on a Sunday morning 😉.

Coffee Time Stamp - Aall & Create # 642 which I've had for quite a while
Sentiment - computer generated