Coffee Lover

I have an ATC to share today and I'm taking it along to the Tag-along and ATC Challenge under the *anything goes* category.  I know lots of people like owls and also coffee so I've combined the two here. I started by trimming a ready made background to the correct size and then stamped the owl image and the wording using Versafine Clair and some clear embossing powder.  Not much more to be said about this small piece of art really but if you fancy entering the challenge take a look - the theme is **Spring Flowers** so along with the anything goes option there's lots of scope.

Background - ready printed from Aall & Create
Owl and words - Funky Fossil Coffee Lovers stamp set

Snippets Playground Challenge # 527

 Time for another new challenge in the Snippets Playground with some lovely prizes for a lucky winner. I'm not sure that the fussy cut images really count as Snippets because they were from a download and of course I had to use a whole piece of card in the printer but the background, parcels and tag were all cut from Snippets.  For the background I trimmed a large snippet to slightly smaller than the card blank before cutting a circular aperture using a tattered edge die, followed by cutting another tattered circle off centre from the fall out circle.  Next move was to emboss the larger circle (the one with the small aperture).  I then added thin foam strips to the back of the backing piece and adhered it to the base card, finally dropping the small and embossed pieces back into the recess which adds interest to the white on white background layer..  I then fussy cut the two pre-coloured  characters and die cut some parcels using toning snippets of card.  A little tag, decorated with a tiny punched flower and there it is - my offering for the latest Snippets Playground challenge.

Embossing - folder which was a magazine gift from several years back
Circle dies - an unbranded set from Amazon
Parcels and Tag - from Tiny Tag set of dies Craft Addiction UK
Characters - Jellybean and Pipkin coloured downloads from Craft Addiction UK
Tiny Flower - punch from Stampin' Up (long retired)

Daffodils

 I'm back again with more Spring flowers for the Tag-along and ATC challenge because, as usual, I cut and coloured too many flowers for my previous project and of course I have lots of the background strips to use as well.  This time I cut a tag using a punch which cuts a nice top shape and I also rounded the bottom corners as well to match.  I overstamped using a colour which would tone with the daffs; stamped and cut the word and added a stamped bird to the bottom corner.  The bottle to hold the flowers was coloured and then sparkled with a Wink of Stella pen although it's not easy to see the shimmer in the picture.  A toning ribbon was added.  I'm enjoying using these backgrounds and it's good to be using up some of my white left over strips of card in an interesting way.

Tag Top punch - from Stampin' up (probably retired)
Bottom Corners - rounded using an ancient X-cut punch
Daffodils - Gummiapan dies
Bird - a Lavinia small robin stamp
Bottle - Sizzix die from a set of three 666199 Freshly Picked
Beautiful Word - from Life is Beautiful Visible Image

Spring flowers

 Now that we are into March there is a new theme for the Tag-along and ATCs Challenge, very appropriately **Spring Flowers** or there is the *anything goes* option as usual.  I saw a video recently where someone had taken some strips of left over white card, taped them together and then prepared a sort of 'masterboard' by smooshing colour, stencilling and random stamping.  As I've gathered quite a number of strips when making my own card blanks I thought it would be a good idea to have a go and the resulting strips should be ideal for snipping into ATC blanks and small tags with ready prepared subtle backgrounds.

I've used one such piece for this ATC, trimmed to 1/4" smaller than the finished size, finally backing it with some toning green to make the finished ATC.  I cut a selection of Spring flowers, a tree trunk and some grass all from scraps of white card and set about colouring them using watercolour brush pens (Zig).  The twisty branch was cut from kraft and the fairy from black.  I typed the word 'Spring' into a text box using the computer and fussy cut.  I then spent some time moving the bits around until I was happy with the arrangement and then glued them in place. I have lots more of my inky strips left to make more Tags and/or ATCs - so much easier making a background on a larger surface rather than on fiddly small pieces.  I've added a link to the video below.

Spring Flowers - all dies from Gummiapan
Twisty Branch - also Gummiapan die
Tree Stump - from Playing in the Rain Stampin' Up (long retired)
Fairy - die from Craft Addiction UK Mini Fairy Garden set
Grass - die from Craft Addiction UK Hoppy Together set
Link to Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDS2q3ME4p0&t=15s

Allsorts Challenge #844

 The theme for the next Allsorts challenge has been chosen by Sarah and she would like to see a ribbon or bow on your card.  There is the anything goes option as usual.  The prize this time is a digital download (full details on the Allsorts post).  

A very tenuous link on my card this time but one of the 'hedgehugs' has a bow in her hair ☺️. The image is a download which I resized using My Craft Studio and then water coloured lightly using distress inks.  Die cut the image and a backing layer which I then matched up to a piece of designer paper from my stash.  I also embossed a narrow panel with hearts and added a little heart tag and tiny flower.  The Anniversary greeting was stamped and die cut.

Hedgehugs - downloaded image from Craft Addiction, drawn by Louise Dunne
Rectangle Dies - an old Tonic set
Heart Embossing - using a Cuttlebug embossing folder which I've had forever
Heart Tag - from mini tag set Craft Addiction UK
Sentiment - from a favourite magazine give away several years ago (die from Stampin' Up)

Rudolph Days, February 2026

 Happy Rudolph Days everyone.  Luckily I've saved a few Christmas cards which were surplus to requirements and this is one of them for the current challenge.  I've used two digital images, resized using My Craft Studio, then fussy cut and simply popped them onto a background which was die cut using some great circle dies which are so versatile.  I do like items which can be used to give many different looks.  A simple stamped greeting and some random snowflakes and that's it - my card to celebrate Rudolph Days this month.

Images - digital downloads designed and drawn by Louise Dunne for Craft Addiction UK
Circle dies - also from Craft Addiction UK
Snowflakes - just lying around on my desk

Snippets Playground Challenge # 526

 I'm afraid I've had to raid my file of unpublished cards to take along to the Playground for the current challenge because, believe it or not, I haven't managed to make any cards for a couple of weeks due to feeling decidedly 'under the weather'.  This is a floral offering which I made some time ago although I do know that it used up quite a good selection of coloured snippets. I started by die cutting a slatted circle into a fairly large white snippet to fit the card blank and backed this with a small snippet of green.  The flowers and leaves were all cut from various coloured snippets and the sentiment was snipped from a sheet which I'd composed and printed on the computer.

Sadly it appears that numbers of entries into this challenge (and I suspect some others too) are dwindling, so why not raid your snippets mountains to see if you can make something to use them up. Miss Di and Sarn work hard to keep the Playground active and deserve our support. Don't forget it's somewhere where the sun always shines.  ☺️☺️

Slatted Circle - dies from Craft Addiction UK
Floral Spray - unbranded die from Amazon
Sentiment - produced using MS Word