Allsorts Challenge #713

The theme this week on Allsorts is **For Boys or Men** and for my entry I've pulled out a quite old set of stamps and a few bits and pieces from my oddments boxes.  I chose a kraft card blank and cut a piece of text paper to fit; stamped the penny-farthing on cream card using brown ink and clear embossed before layering it onto brown and gold die cut squares.  I embossed another strip of brown and rubbed lightly with Treasure Gold; stamped a sentiment which was then die cut and layered up, adding a couple of die cut cogs for a bit of added interest.  A scrap of raffia around the embossed layer and that's it - a card suitable for a man.  There are some great cards from the design team giving us plenty of ideas for male cards - sometimes difficult to design but it is possible, with a bit of thought, to get away from football and/or beer 😉😉.

Stamp - from Feeling Sentimental Stampin' Up (long retired)
Squares - dies from Creative Expressions
Embossing - E/F from Cuttlebug
Cogs - dies from Docrafts

Playground Challenge #446

 Time for another challenge at the Snippets Playground and as usual I've found quite a selection of snippets to use.in a variety of colours. The otter was stamped and coloured before being fussy cut and all of the other elements were die cut before being assembled onto the 'brick wall' background which was the largest snippet, trimmed to fit onto the kraft card blank.

Brick Wall - embossing folder from Stampin' Up
Otter and all die cuts - various sets by SU (some current, some retired)

A New Challenge

 A Christmas card challenge has recently come to my notice and you can find the details of the current one HERE.

This is specifically a Christmas challenge with presumably a different theme each time and it so happens that this month they are asking for snippets to be used.  As you probably know I have a mountain of these so here goes with a card. I started with a fairly large snippet of patterned paper which although not specifically a Christmas design, I thought it could represent baubles.  The gnomes and house were stamped onto a snippet of white and coloured using pencils and more scraps of red and white card were used for the layers and sentiments. There's plenty of inspiration if you follow the link to their blog and it is an opportunity to make a good start on cards for later this year rather than have a rush at the last minute.

Stamps - from Stampin' Up 

Allsorts Challenge

 The theme for the Allsorts Challenge this time is **spots and/or stripes** and I've gone with spots as a background to this floral card.  The floral motif was die cut and layered onto some ovals which in turn are layered onto a piece of DSP.  A simple sentiment and all popped onto a piece of spotted paper printed from a USB.  A short post today because my fingers are getting really cold making it difficult to type accurately 😊

Flowers and DSP - Penned flowers collection Stampin' Up
Background - Paper Pantry USB

Allsorts Challenge #711

 The theme for the Allsorts Challenge this time is **A/G or Winter Blues** and I've decided to go along with the colour theme because I've just been making a bookmark for a friend who has a birthday later this month.  There is some reflection from the plastic sleeve which seems to be slightly wrinkled but I'm going to pop it under a heavy book which should flatten it out.  Also it has yet to have a ribbon added - I had nothing the right colour so I've coloured a piece using the same colour as I used for some of the inking, but leaving it to dry before I add it. I did think of taking the bookmark out of the sleeve and taking another picture (minus wrinkles) but I didn't want to risk creasing the piece of card which is a fairly tight fit in the sleeve.

All stamps from Lavinia Stamps
Distress ink and Versafine Claire for stamping

Stamping

 Looking through my file of cards made last year I see there are a few which I've not shared on my blog.  I do enjoy building up scenes with stamping onto backgrounds which I've made and this one used stamps from Lavinia - I can never have too many of them - so beautiful and very versatile as well. I started off by masking off a circle on the card, adding some small foliage stamps and applying some inks using a soft brush. the mystical boat (Liberty) was stamped and a mask was used to add the little passenger,  A bot of delicate colouring using pencils.  The stars were added as a final touch along with a sentiment.

Distress inks used and a selection of Lavinia stamps

Snippets Challenge #445

 Celebrations in the Playground because it is an Anniversary for the lovely Di who took over running this challenge 11 years ago - such dedication.  This time the challenge has been set by SaRn who has now joined Di  to lend a hand and there is an opportunity to be entered into the draw for another really generous prize this time.  As usual we have to rummage through our snippets to find something suitable for making a card and as an added extra, take a photo of said snippets.   I've had to be a bit more organised making my card this time, remembering to take pics of the snippets - I normally just 'wing it' using bits and pieces which come to hand 🤣.  

I started by deciding which stamps and dies I was planning to use and then sorted out a selection of greens and yellows/browns.  I actually had to cut into a whole piece of white card for the embossed background but of course that's left me with some white snippets for another project - always loads of small white/cream snippets around, handy for adding sentiments.  The embossing folder was inked using a brayer before running it through and then I set about stamping the dinosaurs and die cutting them along with a selection of rocks and leaves.  I then put everything together and that's it - my entry for the current Snippets Challenge and a card suitable for anyone who likes dinosaurs.

Background - Birch trees E/F Stampin Up (retired)
Dinosaurs - No Bones About it - Stampin' Up (also retired)
Leaves, grass and rocks - various Stampin' Up retired stamp/die sets