Two Challenges

 Don't you just love 'two for the price of one' and this is happening here with one card for two current challenges.  One is the Snippets Playground and the other is Allsorts..  As usual anything goes for the Snippets challenge as long as snippets have been used and Allsorts theme is autumn leaves.

For this card I searched my 'inky play' snippets collection and found enough of a piece which had been coloured using a selection of Oxide inks in autumn colours so some distressed leaves were cut from this piece (those are my Snippets).  I then had to cut into a new piece of cream card to make a layer to fit the card blank and used a leafy cut out border die, placing another inky piece of card behind the aperture.  This was left over from a shaving foam playtime so another Snippet.  The Autumn leaves are covered for the Allsorts challenge with the die cuts and the colours chosen.  The leaves have been edged with some gilding wax but that doesn't really show up in the picture.

If you want proof of 'great  minds thinking alike' it is worth popping along to this blog where the talented Sarn has used the self same autumn leaf dies with some clever background work.

Leafy Border - unbranded die
Leaves - Tim Holtz Leafy Fragments

White Christmas

 I have another white on white card to share today, made using items I've had for some years along with a couple of die cut trees which were gifted to me recently.  I simply cut a square aperture in a piece of white card, backed it with an embossed falling snow design before adding the die cut 'snowflake' word and the trees.  Glamour dust was added to the 3D elements for a bit of sparkle.

Snowflake - die from Sheena Douglass - no longer available
Embossing Folder - also from Sheena and again, no longer available
Trees - Gummiapan 'Fluffy Trees' courtesy of a generous friend

Allsorts Challenge #747

 There is a *four-legged friends* theme for the Allsorts challenge this time and I've made a Christmas card using some stamped die cuts which were gifted to me by a kind friend last Christmas.  I did use some of them last year but came across a few unused ones when trying to bring a bit of order to the chaos which is my craft room.  I coloured the images using alcohol pens, found a piece of Christmas background paper and put everything together fore this fairly quick card which I reckon fits the Allsorts theme.

Background - Christmas download pack from Buddly Crafts
Everything else was from MFT Happy Pawlidays stamp and die set

Seaside Theme

 This card was made a couple of weeks ago but I thought I should publish it before we really get into winter.  We've had some torrential rain but this morning the sun is shining again.

I've used  stamps and a selection of die-cuts, some of which were gifted to me and some I've cut using my own dies.  I started with a piece of white card which was coloured using blue and yellow shades of Distress Oxide before stamping and heat embossing the waves over the top.  Wooden posts, gulls and lifebelt were all cut using white card and then coloured with watercolour pens.  Once the scene was assembled, I added a sentiment and layered it all together.

Waves - stamp from Inkylicious, heat embossed with white
Gulls, Posts and Lifebelt - Gummiapan dies
Rocks, Gate, Grass and Flying Birds - stamps and dies from various Stampin' Up sets

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #78

 The current theme for the Christmas Kickstart challenge is ** Chillin' with my Snowmies ** and for  my card I've stamped some snowmen having fun.  I stamped him three times so that it looked as if three snowmie pals were turning cartwheels in the snow.  Image coloured using coloured pencils and layered onto some red glitter card with a background of seasonal design paper.  A simple stamped greeting and that's about it.  There is still a bit of time to make your own card for this challenge so why not see what you can come up with 😉.

Snowmen - from a retired Stampin' Up set Spirited Snowmen
Background - paper downloaded from Buddly Crafts
Colouring - Polychromos pencils

White Snippets

 I think I have more white snippets than any other colours, closely followed probably by cream and I've used some of the white ones for my latest card for the Playground Challenge, making a white on white card.  I used a ready made card blank but everything else was a snippet - of varying sizes and I needed a fair few smaller ones for the layered petals.  A die set which came free with a magazine has  been used here but what I'd not realised was the number of times I needed to cut the small one to get enough petals to layer over just two of the flowers. I trimmed a white square to be slightly smaller than the card and then cut out the centre motif leaving an aperture.  I also ran this through the machine again with an embossing mat to give it a bit more definition.  A smaller snippet was embossed with a 'birthday' embossing folder which I've had for many years and this piece was layered behind the aperture using thin foam pads.

It was at this point I realised that the second die in the set was all in one piece to cut the words (which I didn't actually use for this card) and individual petals/leaves and the smaller flowers.  There was only one of each size which meant that I needed to cut this TWELVE times to build up just two of the larger flowers.  As you can guess I have lots of words and smaller bits left over - all carefully saved to use at some time.😀.  Eventually, once everything was assembled I added some Glamour Dust to the centres of the tiny flowers and also added a little die cut bee, also with Glamour Dust.

There are a couple of weeks to enter into this challenge with a great prize at the end for one lucky person chosen at random so why not try to use up some of your snippets - I'm sure you have plenty 😉

Here is  an image of just some of the left overs from the marathon die cutting of these petals

Die Set - by Memory Box, given away with a Die cutting magazine
Bee - die from a Tonic die set
Birthday Layer - embossing folder by Cuttlebug from years ago

Another Way

 I've come up with another way of using the stamped daisy image for a fairly CAS card.  This time I coloured the image using Zig watercolour pens and then die cut a small circle from a spare flower head and added it spotlight style using foam pads.  The card blank has had some texture added using  a scoreboard and a white die cut sentiment was the finishing touch.  I find it so interesting working out different ways of using the self same image.

The white  card used is all the same shade IRL but the card blank has a linen texture which I guess is why they look different in the picture.

Flower Stamp - daisy by Carabelle