Landscape Scene

 A bit of 'thinking outside the box' today to show that stamp sets don't always have to be used for their original purpose.  I've used what started  out as a seascape set, with the addition of other stamps and a die cut, to come up with an inland landscape design.  I started with the sky sky and then added the 'sea' and 'sand' using two shades of green, adding some grass.  I then took some trees from a different stamp set and also a flight of birds.  Final touch was to add the die cut reeds and grasses along with a sentiment.

Main stamping - Ocean Front stamp set Stampin' Up (retired)
Trees and Birds - from other SU stamp sets (retired)
The die cut reeds were hanging around on my desk waiting to be used

Autumn Colours

 The theme for the latest Allsorts Challenge is **Autumn Colours**  or, as always **Anything Goes** so as it seems to be perfect crafting weather today (AKA damp and dreary) I set about making a card using some of my Lavinia stamp collection.  It so happens that the prizes this time are also Lavinia stamps which is great.  I started by smooshing various yellow and orange Distress inks onto some watercolour paper (300 gsm) and once dry I cut out a circle and set about building a colourful scene in various browns - decided against using any black this time.  Once I'd decided that 'enough is enough' I then stencilled a diagonal sweep across the base card and simply glued the circle in place.  No sentiment just in case the recipient decides to frame this card, in which case a sentiment would be superfluous 😉.  Very therapeutic working with these beautiful stamps in such lovely warm colours.

Stamps - all Lavinia designs
Stencil - also a Lavinia design
Inks - Distress Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw, Marigold and Spiced Marmalade
          Versafine Sepia and Versafine Clair Fallen Leaves and Golden Meadow

Inspiration

 Inspiration is all around us and sometimes when I'm trying to decide what technique to use for my next card I turn to the Group of Seven Cardmakers where there is a wealth of ideas to be found along with tutorials and links to videos.  For today's card I've used a colouring technique using a Speedball Elegant Writer and if you look HERE you will find full details and examples by the various members of this talented group.

This is my first time trying this pen and it was fascinating to see just how the colour changed as I added water, blotting with kitchen paper along the way.  I started by stamping the flower using second generation Versafine Clair Twilight ink which I thought would be less harsh than using black. I'm looking forward to trying this pen on a selection of different paper or card to see what variations are possible.  For this one I used some watercolour paper.

 Stamp - Sketch Flower from Crafty Roo, fussy cut
Colouring - Speedball Elegant Writer 1.3 mm pen
Texture Background - unbranded die

Stamping Sensations September Challenge

 The theme for this month's challenge at Stamping Sensations is **Anything Goes** or **Animal Magic**  and my card is certainly in the first category and with a stretch of the imagination might be covered by the second.  I made an inky background with Distress Oxide inks and overstamped with the some word stamps and the diamond pattern.  The bird was stamped directly onto the background and then the little bird stamped again onto some white card and fussy cut with scissors.  A simple computer sentiment was added.  Some great prizes as usual this month for the lucky name pulled out of the hat.

Stamps - all from Crafty Roo

Twofer

 I don't  normally make more than one of any card design but this one really lent itself to being done as a 'twofer' because it required two pieces of double sided designer paper to be die cut for the infills.  I started with a Snippet of white card and cut the cover plate die twice before finding some suitable DSP to cut again for the infills which were alternated on each card.  Next thing was to find some toning plain card snippets for the backing layer.  A small snippet was used for the stamped sentiment and the whole panel was popped onto a 5" x 7" card blank, which left a space at the bottom.  Rather than trim the card down to suit the panel size I decided to leave it as it was and had just enough of the two background colours to die cut three little matching flowers for each card.

This is a twofer in more ways than one because I made it for the Snippets Playground challenge *use snippets* and also for the latest Allsorts challenge **add a sentiment**.  Sorry no photo of the snippets this time - I used practically every last shred of the coloured card and the tiny bits left weren't worth taking a pic so they went into the bin.  There are the usual great prizes from each challenge so why not have a rummage and see what you can come up with.

Coverplate Die - unbranded
Papers used - DSP from Butterflies set Stampin' Up (retired)
Sentiment - From Stampn' Up Daisies stamps and dies
Flowers - Spellbinders die set which was a magazine freebie

Allsorts Challenge #795

 I was pleased to be asked along to the current Allsorts Challenge as a Guest Designer and this is the card which I made to the theme of **Delightful Animals**.  There is of course the option of **Anything Goes** and you can read all the details HERE. 

I decided to make an Anniversary card using Darling Donkeys stamps which were coloured and fussy cut to place onto layered hearts.  The red heart is plain and the white pearl card one has been embossed with some tiny criss-cross hearts.  A layer of grey floral DSP was placed onto the card blank.  Finall addition was a scattering of hearts and a sentiment.

Darling Donkeys - Stampin' Up (retired) coloured with alcohol pens
Embossing Folder - from Creative Expressions (A4) (probably discontinued)
Background - paper from an ancient Docraft paper pad
Sentiment - stamped using a favourite set of magazine freebie stamps

Snippets Playground Challenge #487

 Time for a new challenge in the Playground and some super items in the prize pot as always so why not have a rummage through your Snippets and have a go.

I really was intending to stick by my decision not to purchase any new Christmas-themed items but as you've probably guessed by now I'm weak when faced with temptation 🤣.  This rather cute Santa just had to come and live with me so I rifled through my smaller snippets to find pieces to die cut him - I also remembered to take a pic of the remnants too.  I found a white snippet square which was slightly smaller than my base card and cut a decorative circle from that, which was backed with a snippet of blue snowflake paper.  The Santa and Ho, Ho Ho were cut from suitably coloured snippets and that's it really - a fairly simple card to make once Santa was assembled. Don't you just love his big boots and gold-rimmed specs 😊

Circle Die - from a Stampin' Up set (retired I think)
Santa - dies from Amazon
Words - unbranded die which I've had since last year

I remembered to take a picture of the remnants