A Week

I see it's a week since I last posted anything here but one way and another it has been a frustrating week.  Following on from recently losing both my land line and broadband for nearly a week, leaving me with lots of catching up to do, I seem to have had various problems - why oh why is it so difficult to speak to a real person when phoning to untangle things or make appointments which seem to be like hens' teeth🙄. Life just seems to get more and more complicated - or maybe it is just me getting old but I don't think so.

Anyway I have a stamped card made fairly recently to share today.  I started with a Gelli plate background and built up the scene with a selection of stamps, finally adding some second generation words around the edge just to give a bit of extra texture along with some light inking.

Very cold weather at present but maybe a good excuse to head for the craft room - keep warm everyone.

Stamps - all from Lavinia

Seasonal Snippets

 I have a Christmas card for the latest challenge in the Snippets Playground - worth visiting today because the sun always shines there - allegedly - and we seem to have relentless fog for several days on the trot so it will be nice to see some sunshine. Of course the tree house is all lit up for Christmas so that should brighten things anyway, the big switch on was last night.

 As usual I've managed to make my card using snippets for everything apart from the card blank.  This is a side opening 7 x 5 card started by finding the snippet of patterned paper and trimming to size, followed by a white snippet which I streaked with some colour direct from a fairly old distress ink pad which wasn't too 'juicy'.  I then scrabbled through my smaller snippets of green, red and gold to die cut the poinsettia flower and leaves; finally stamping a greeting onto a snippet of white, fussy cutting and layering onto a piece of red.

Dies used - Tim Holtz Sizzix Holly and Poinsettia set

Flowers

 Today's card is a floral one - a change from making cards for Christmas.  I was sorting out some of my older stamps recently - wooden ones which I rarely use these days and came across the crackle effect one which I've used to make a background for this card.  It's not that I don't have loads of patterned paper but I thought this would work to showcase the pretty flowers in their jars.  The jars were die cut from some dark blue pearlescent card scraps and the flowers from left over oddments of watercolour paper which I then coloured using Distress ink pens.  The sentiment was printed using the computer and die cut with a handy small rectangle die.

Dies - Tim Holtz floral set which included the jars
Stamp - Hampton Arts USA wooden stamp, years old

Trees and Leaves

 This week's challenge at Allsorts is **A/G or trees and leaves** and having made this card I realise that although it has trees  they have no leaves but I suppose in any case it will fit the A/G (anything goes) category so all is not lost 😀😀.  Some great inspiration from the design team as usual.

Stamps - Lavinia
Sentiment - produced on computer

White Christmas

 Time for another challenge over at the Playground, where as you probably know by now we are encouraged to use up our snippets. A little while ago I had purchased some white card blanks but it wasn't until I opened the pack to use them that I noticed quite a proportion of them had damaged corners - I guess the pack had been dropped at some point. Anyway I wasn't sure where they had come from so rather than faff about trying to find out I decided to cut my losses and simply trim off the damaged part, leaving me with some sizeable snippets of white card  as if I didn't have enough white snippets already but heigh-ho that's the way the cookie crumbles 😀.  This has led me into making a white-on-white Christmas card for the challenge and apart from the card blank (undamaged) everything else was cut from the snippets.  There's always a silver lining and in this case at least the snippets actually matched the background perfectly 😉.  Why not pop along to the Playground to use up some of your snippets - a lovely prize as usual and possibly hot chocolate and crumpets if you time your visit well!.

Dies from Stampin'up, Lawn Fawn and some unbranded ones
Sentiment Die - a magazine gift from several years back 

Christmas Wreath

 I've made another Christmas card even though I still have quite a lot left from last year's makes but I feel I should open up my box of Christmas themed stamps and dies because I'm sure they need an airing. I started by using a circle mask and lightly inking around with a  light green before adding the twigs, holly leaves and berries.  The tiny berries on the holly were coloured with a glaze gel pen but of course that doesn't show in the picture.  The larger berries were coloured using watercolour pencil and the final thing was to add the stamped sentiment.

Stamps by Lavinia apart from the twig which was from Card-IO
Sentiment - from a set of free magazine gift stamps by Phill Martin

Christmas Theme

 The theme this month at We Love Stamping is **Christmas** - who would have guessed 😉.  For my card I've picked up on an idea inspired by the talented Jo Rice.  Branches and berries have been stamped onto cream card and some tiny die cut baubles have been added along with a stamped greeting. Do pop along to visit and see the inspiration from the design team.

Stamps - Lavinia Stamps branches and berries
Greeting - free magazine gift stamp
Baubles - dies which were also a free magazine gift from a previous year

Challenges

The latest challenges seem mostly to be based around a **Christmas** theme and Stamping Sensations for November is no exception with some beautiful examples from the Design team.  Also there are two super Christmas themed prizes for  lucky winners.  My card is very much based on one of the brilliant demonstrations from Tracey of Lavinia Stamps.  It is a DL card and I've used Distress Oxide inks in various shades of blue for the scene and for the stamping Versafine Clair was used along with a little bit of white embossing on the branches.  Really enjoyed making this one 😉

Stamps - by Lavinia Stamps
Inks - Distress Oxides and Versafine Clair Twilight

Snowflakes

 I see that the latest Allsorts challenge is **sparkle and shine** and this recently made Christmas card came to mind because sparkly silver card has been used behind the die cut snowflakes and also for the decorative word which is the main feature of the card.  A piece of suitable paper came from my Christmas oddments box, job done - another card ready for the festive season.

Background - printed using Season's Greetings CD from Artylicious
Large Word - die from Creative Expressions
Snowflakes - die from my Christmas collection gathered over many years

Allsorts Challenge #700

 An extra special week on the Allsorts blog with it being their 700th challenge and as they are asking for something which celebrates a special occasion  I've chosen to go with Christmas.  Do pop along to see the special occasions chosen by the talented guest designer and the regular design team members.  Some great prizes to be won as well.

A generous blogging friend kindly sent me this reindeer stamp so of course I had to feature him on a card straight away.  Background was produced using Distress Oxide inks and the details stamped using Versafine Clair.

Stamps - by Lavinia Stamps

Snippets Challenge #440

 The current challenge over at the Playground has an optional theme this time and yes, you've guessed it, Halloween or Autumn although if you want to play along with 'anything goes' as usual then that's fine.  Plenty of fun things going on there as well with hot soup, witches brew and the like and there's a rumour that the residents are dressing up😉.  Of course there is a great prize to be won  so why not delve into your supply of snippets and have a go.

I have no need of a Halloween card but I did decide to go along with the Autumnal idea and everything apart from the card blank was taken from my snippets mountain - mostly using white or cream snippets which I've coloured.  The first thing was to find some not too small pieces which were smooshed through a selection of Distress Oxide inks which, once dry, were used to die cut the larger leaves with the addition of a touch of gold glimmer here and there.  The toadstool and other small pieces were die cut from the cream and then coloured using Distress markers; the two layers of wreath were cut from snippets of brown and green.I found a larger cream snippet which was trimmed to fit onto the card, leaving a small margin and another die was used to cut out the corner detail, backed with yet another snippet of text paper, adding a few inky splodges along the way for added interest.  I even used a tiny snippet of raffia tied into a knot - you will have gathered by now that I rarely throw anything away if I think it could be used 🤣.

Dies used - from FIVE different Tim Holtz (Sizzix) sets

Birthday Cat

 The inspiration for this card came from something similar seen on YouTube where the main feature was a stag but as I don't have a stag stamp I did a bit of lateral thinking and used this quirky cat stamp instead to make a birthday card for a cat-loving friend.

Background - inked using Distress Oxides
Stamps - from Card-IO, Lavinia and free magazine gift
Sentiment - computer using Microsoft Word
Masks - from Lavinia Stamps

Allsorts Challenge #699

 A nice easy theme this week on the Allsorts Challenge **colours of Autumn** and I thought this landscape card would fit the bill - a mixture of stamping and die cutting to make this autumnal scene.

Stamps and Dies - Grassy Grove by Stampin' Up

The next Allsorts challenge is their 700th and the week promises to be something special so pop back in a week's time to see what is coming up

Christmas Bauble

 Each year I bring out a bauble stencil which I bought after seeing demonstrations at a craft show several years ago.  I must say I do miss going to the larger craft shows to see new products being used but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with crowded places since Covid reared its nasty head. For this card I've used purple shades to compose this little wintry scene using some silhouette stamps. The image was mounted onto a piece of toning design paper which I've had for more years than I can remember.

Stencil - from Card-IO
Stamps - from different Card-IO seasonal sets

Allsorts Challenge #698

Another challenge from Allsorts and of course the opportunity to win a great prize. The theme this time is **Add a Sentiment** and as usual there is plenty of inspiration from the design team.

I decided to make a feature of the sentiment by re-visiting the eclipse technique which is something I've not seen for quite a while - ideas seem to come and go don't they and most techniques come around at some point as a reminder.  I started by stamping some flowers onto a square of card before using a die to cut out the words,  adding a die cut label with the final word, which could have been anything but I chose 'birthday'.  The words stand out well in real life but, as is often the case, the picture doesn't show it as clearly 🙄 

There are various ways of achieving this effect and plenty of YouTube tutorials available. 

Flowers - Stamps from Art Gallery set Stampin' Up
Words die - matching die set Art Gallery Stampin' Up
Birthday - word produced using Microsoft Word

Snippets Challenge # 439

 It's the turn of Sarn to host the Playground Challenge this fortnight  and she has used a small snippet of white card on which to draw one of her beautiful 'tangle' designs.  It doesn't matter how few or how many snippets you use, you can still enter with a chance of winning as great prize so why not pop along for a visit - hot chocolate is usually on offer too now the weather has turned colder 😉😉.

Everything, with the exception of the base card, came from my snippets mountain which, as I've mentioned before, never seems to diminish.  I found a square of white and a square of blue which were trimmed slightly to fit the card blank.  A stitched circle die was used to cut out the apertures, leaving three blue circles to pop back into the 'mountain' for another day and the white square was embossed.  I then used small snippets of white to stamp and colour the hippos, with even smaller snippets of colours for the accessories.  I do hope they are in a heated swimming pool 😄.  The layers were put together with thin foam pads so that the hippos could peep out of the apertures.

Circle Dies - Creative Expressions
Embossing Folder - Creative Expressions
Hippos - Stampin' Up, as was the sentiment die

Autumn Colours

 My attention has been drawn to another stamping challenge HERE and the theme for this month is **Colours of Autumn**.  As my second Bumble Lodge card has been coloured in shades of yellow, green and brown I thought I'd pop over there to share it.  This one was coloured using pencils and the surrounding area inked with Distress ink and some stamped stars.

Stamps - from Lavinia Stamps
Stencil - also Lavinia
Lodge Coloured using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils

New Home

 I'm not at all sure that many people will be moving house in the current financial climate but I have made a 'New Home' card anyway because I just wanted an excuse to use this beautiful stamp.  This is a great stamp to colour and I  actually stamped and coloured two in different colourways.  This one was coloured using Inktense pencils and a water brush and the other, which you will see another day, was coloured using Polychromos pencils.  I started by cutting a large tag from watercolour paper and once the image was finished I sponged with toning colours, adding ribbon to match.  The DL base card was stamped with some 'splodges'before adhering the tag and the words.

Image - Bumble Lodge from Lavinia Stamps
Tag - die set from Sizzix

Autumn

 The theme for the current Stamping Sensations challenge is **all things Autumn** and of course the project must have stamping as a main feature.  For my card I started by applying yellow and orange Distress inks to a piece of white card and then flicking with some water for a faux bleach effect.  Once dry I used stamps from a variety of sources to build up the design..  The panel was then mounted onto brown to tone with the various Autumn colours in the stamping. 

Gate, Tree and Birds - stamps from Card-IO
Foliage - mix of Lavinia stamps with a floral border free stamp (magazine gift)

A Day Out

 This card was made quite a while ago but not posted here at the time.  I had acquired some beautiful scenic DSP which came as 6" squares and I used some of the sheets cut into four to make a selection of cards, thus making it stretch a little further.  I imagined someone stopping  the car  to just sit for a while and enjoy the peaceful scene.

 Scene - New Horizons DSP Stampin' Up
Trellis die - a very old Sizzix 'Bigz' die
Car - die from a magazine gift set

Cat and Mouse

 Who says cat and mouse can't be friends and share a windowsill to gaze at the moon - they can in my fantasy Lavinia world 😉.  This card was inspired by something I spotted a while back when trawling the net - as you do - but unfortunately I couldn't find it again and can't remember the source.  I used a die to cut the opening into a piece of white card which I then embossed with a brick wall pattern before inking with grey and black Oxide inks.  The opening position was lightly marked onto another piece of white card so that I could build up the scene before layering the pieces together on a card.

Embossing Folder - Stampin' Up
Cat and Mouse - Lavinia stamps

Snippets Challenge #438

 I'm off to the Snippets Playground this morning to see if there is any mischief afoot and also I'm taking some cups and saucers as there should be a brew of some sort on the go, probably lovely hot chocolate now that the autumnal weather is kicking in.  As usual everything here apart from the base card has been collected from my various snippets collections.  The teacups were stamped and/or die cut using scraps of cream card.  For some reason there are no saucers included in the set so I improvised and die cut some stitched ovals and small snippets were used for the lemon slice, tea bag and sentiment.  Slightly larger snippets were brought in to play for the various layers and the lacy edge.  There is a super prize to be won by the lucky person whose name gets chosen at the end of the two weeks. This challenge is a great opportunity to maybe use up some of those bits and pieces of card and paper which we all hoard, so why not have a go 😉

Lacy Edge - die from Sizzix
Cups, saucers and sentiment label - dies/stamps from various Stampin' Up sets

Gardeners' Delight

 The title of this post is the theme for the latest Allsorts Challenge and as I'm told it is World Cardmaking Day I decided to make one today for the challenge.  I found some paper and card in suitable colours and also dug out a few plants and pots which were leftovers from previous projects and then set about stamping and die cutting the greenhouse layers.  The square of soft green card has been embossed for a bit of extra texture.  As is usual, I did a couple of 'dry runs' with the components until I was happy with the arrangement before sticking everything down and that's it - a challenge covered and something made on World Cardmaking Day, double whammy.😉

Greenhouse and Stamped Leaves - Garden Greenhouse set Stampin' Up
Pots and Plants - leftovers, Sizzix dies
Embossing - bark texture 3D embossing folder Stampin' Up
Background - DSP from Docraft several years ago

Card for a Young Male

 I recently came across a partially used sheet of toppers which I've had for some years and decided to actually use them up rather than put them away again for who knows how long.  This is one of the cards I made and it occurred to me that it would fit the current Allsorts Challenge which is *anything goes with the option of spots and/or stripes* so I'm popping along there to share it.  I printed some papers to match the image colours as I had nothing in my stash which would do although having made four cards I now have a selection of matching snippets to use up on another project.😉

Image - from Hobby House Topper sheet designed by Mo Manning
Papers - printed from Paper Pantry USB X111

Leaf Me Alone

The strange title on this post is the theme for the latest challenge from Shopping Our Stash - see SOS480.  As you might have guessed something incorporating a leaf or leaves is called for and it so happens I'd recently been 'shopping' through my stash and had come across a leaf die which had for a while and some ladybird stamps which have been languishing for even longer.  The matching background paper and sentiment are also items from my stash. The ladybird has been stamped, coloured and fussy cut.

 Worth taking a look at the great cards the design team members have made for inspiration - lots of lovely leaves.

Leaf - die from The Works
Ladybird - stamp from Docraft 

Winter Scene

 I was inspired by seeing a card on my friend Anne's blog and felt I just had to try this 'new to me' idea - not sure why I've never seen one of these 'frozen bubbles' before but I so love the effect.  This is my very first try and I'm not totally happy with it but hopefully if I make more my technique should improve. I decided not to tinker with it any more in case I completely ruined it.  Main thing is that I really enjoyed my morning creating this and for me that's what it is all about 😉.

Inks used - Distress Oxide and Versafine Clair
Stamps - Lavinia

Allsorts Challenge # 695

 The Allsorts challenge theme this time is **anything goes with an option of spots or stripes** and my card features some striped background paper from a pad which I've had for a long time.  I wanted a card for my son who is keen on photography and was lucky to find this image when trawling through some old CD's and I've added a die cut camera as well.  There is a great prize on offer if you'd like to have a go at using some spots or stripes.

Main image - printed from Just Inklined CD
Camera - a Tim Holtz Sizzix die

Snippets Challenge #437

Time for another challenge over in the Playground and this time everything came from the Snippets mountain apart from the base card. I had a snippet of background paper large enough to trim so that it fits the card and the 'windows' section was cut from a snippet of white.  Plenty of white snippets always so I was able to stamp and colour the gnomes, and the die cut trees were some left over from last year's seasonal card making - I knew they'd come in handy eventually 😉.  The fussy cut lamp post was also amongst these saved bits.and there were also a few holly leaves and berries just asking to be used.  Another white snippet for the stamped and die cut sentiment and that's another card for the Christmas box which is gradually filling up.

Two to Share

 I certainly seem to be having a run on making this style of card at the moment and I've made two very similar ones, both inspired by a YouTube demonstration from the talented Jo Rice.  I have the Forest Inn stamp which she used but sadly not the poppies so had to improvise.  I started by stamping two of the toadstools onto watercolour card - one was coloured using Inktense pencils and a water brush and the other with Polychromos pencils (no water needed).  Both of these cards are more of a CAS style than many of my designs which are often done on Gelli plate backgrounds - I like both styles and would find it difficult to decide which method I prefer.  Depends how the mood takes me I suppose😉.  Think I will have to get back to clearing my desk again and using up some of the 'stuff' which seems to pile up when my attention is elsewhere - Either these bits breed or someone is scattering leftovers 🤣🤣

Stamps and stencils - all  Lavinia Stamps

Stamping

 Another inked and stamped card today, made for a friend's birthday and as I know she has now received it I can share it with you.  Again I've used one of my Gelli plate backgrounds using cream card rather than white.  Not much more to say about this one really - you can see that I've stamped the fairy in black and her wings were brushed over with Wink of Stella clear although sadly this doesn't show up in the picture as well as it does in real life.  Dandelions were stamped using green ink and coloured using pencils and the rest of the foliage was first and second generation stamping in various colours to tone with the background.

Stamps from Lavinia
Background - Distress inks and Brusho powders on circular Gelli plate
Inks for stamping - Versafine Claire
Colouring - Faber Castel Polychromos pencils

Christmas Wreath

 I make a point of trying to catch video tutorials from the talented Eileen Godwin posted on YouTube and I quite often make my own versions of them using stamps which I have in my collection.  I must admit there is the ever present temptation to order more stamps but I'm trying to resist 😉😉.  One I saw recently was a Christmas wreath card - holly leaf stamp used - but of course if a different stamp were to be used for the leaves I think this would suit other times of the year as well. A wreath isn't just for Christmas. I really enjoy using Lavinia stamps in this way to build up designs - lots of inspiration on YouTube from several members of their design team.

Stamps by Lavinia
Gel Pens and stencil used as well

Quick Cards

Most of the cards I make aren't of the 'quick and easy' variety but this one came about because I decided to re-arrange some of my stamps - became side-tracked as usual 😃.  I came across a couple of sheets of Hobby House printed images with just a few odd ones left on each and instead of putting them away I've challenged myself to make them all into cards straight away to use them up.  This is the first one and I'm afraid I had to print some papers to match the image but hopefully I should have something in my stash to go with the remaining ones which I hope to get made tomorrow.  

Image from Hobby House

Elephant Fun

A fun card to share today with some cute elephants and a little mouse friend - it is said that elephants are scared of mice but that doesn't appear to be the case here 😉.  I started by cutting the round windows into a piece of card which was then backed with a piece of patterned  paper using some thin foam pads.  Elephants and other 'bits' were stamped onto watercolour card and coloured using watercolour pencils before being die cut and arranged peeping out of the little 'windows'.  Some toning card and DSP finished off this card with the addition of a stamped sentiment.

 Dies and Stamps - Stampin' Up
Colouring - Inktense pencils blended with water

Stamping Sensations Challenge

 The theme for the September challenge on Stamping Sensations is **feminine** and, naturally, the main element of the project must feature stamping.  Luckily I had prepared a selection of Gelli plate backgrounds recently and have used one of them to produce this card which I think fits the brief.  I've pulled out some of my Lavinia stamps for a mystical scene with a fairy and a hare.  Why not look at your own stamp collections and maybe have a go - there are prizes on offer for the lucky winners drawn at random at the end of the challenge.

Bird Houses

A stamped bird house, birds and flowers on my card today and it wasn't until I saw the picture on the screen that I realised the birdhouse itself was slightly wonky so I stamped and coloured another one and put it over the top, but straight this time so that the finished card looks better..  Quite a few snippets used in the making of this card so I will be popping along to the Playground with it.  Everything came from my various snippet boxes apart from the base card and the woodgrain background.  I used a snippet of tan card and embossed with brick texture, cut various circular windows into another toning piece of card and a brown piece to back it.  The various images were stamped onto scraps of cream card and coloured using pencils - these pieces were then put into place behind the little round 'windows' before assembling the card using thin foam tape for a bit of dimension..  As usual there is a great prize for the lucky person whose name is picked at the end of the two week challenge.

Let's Dance!!

 A fun card today with some energetic mice dancing to the music provided by their  foot-tapping pal.  Background was one of my Gelli plate experiments with some stencilling and sponging added.  The weather appears to be on the change today so we  might get some much needed rain later.

Background - Distress inks and Brusho used with DL Gelli plate
Mice and Music Notes - Lavinia stamps

Flowers

 I came across these floral images which I'd stamped and coloured quite a long time ago but not used at the time.  I've cut them out using stitched circle dies and put them together with some oddments of patterned papers, also in my leftovers box then simply added a stray butterfly and a sentiment banner for a reasonably quick card.

Stamps used - a retired set from Stampin' Up

Play Time

 I had a lovely time yesterday using a circular Gelli plate to make some - I hope - interesting backgrounds on which to stamp.  I love that this method is fairly unpredictable and each result is a 'one-off'.  I used a mix of Distress ink and Brusho powdered pigment dissolved in water..  Once dry I selected one of the colourways and stamped a mystical scene, finally deciding to stencil some colour around the circle - still not sure about this, think it could be a bit OTT but you have to try these things don't you 😉😉.  During the week I noticed that Stamping Sensations are asking for entries with a Magical theme so I'm popping over there with this one.

Stencil and most of the stamps - Lavinia Stamps
Hare - stamp from a Card-i-O set

Spotlight Technique

 I recently watched a YouTube tutorial  by the talented Jo Rice (Lavinia Stamps You Tube) and decided to make something similar but instead of using plain card as a background I turned to one of my Gelli plate experiments.  Normally the spotlight technique involves stamping part of a design onto a separate piece of  card and then die cutting into a circle to overlay but my card (and Jo's) are both single layer with the spotlight being achieved by masking and sponging ink.  The area within the circle has been coloured using pencils and a bit of artistic licence has been employed with the chosen colours - I quite like pink dandelions 😉😉.

Using Snippets

Today I'm sharing a card made for the latest Snippets Challenge - see details HERE.  Apart from the card blank everything used came from my various snippets collections.  The background paper was a piece left over from a magazine give-away and the trellis was die cut from a fair sized white snippet. Finally the various flowers and leaves and butterfly were from my 'useful leftovers' containers where I tend to pop items which have been stamped, fussy cut or die cut and then get left behind after almost every project which I do - always a tendency to make far more 'bits' than I need 🤣🤣

 Trellis - die from Crafter's Companion Sarah's Signature
Flowers etc - mostly retired stamps and dies from Stampin' Up

Roses

 The theme for the latest Allsorts Challenge is **anything goes with the option of roses** so here goes with my card for this two week challenge.. I've used dies to cut the layered roses, leaves and a square frame to build up a composition onto a background which has been embossed with a rose design folder. Everything is in toning shades of browns and cream with a touch of gold

Flowers - dies from Beautiful Brushstrokes dies Stampin' Up (retired)
Leaves - stamps and dies from SU Forever Fern
Frame - Creative Expressions Noble stitched frame dies (maybe no longer available)
Embossing - folder from Crafter's Companion (maybe no longer available)

Forest Toadstool

 I spent an enjoyable afternoon yesterday playing with this beautiful Forest Toadstool stamp and of course others as well to build up a mystical scene.I must say the time just flew by 😉.  I started by stamping the toadstool onto a square of white card and again onto a masking sheet so that I could fussy cut to use this as a mask when colouring the background.  Colours were blended using soft brushes and also some ink was applied through a stencil and then the mouse, snail and various foliage stamps were used.  Finally I peeled off the toadstool mask and coloured the toadstool with pencils.  I can never make up my mind about adding sentiments to this type of card and for the moment I've left this one without although I might just add a small, simple one before I send it to anyone.

Stamps - all from Lavinia, as was the stencil in the background.
Toadstool coloured using Polychromos pencils
Various Distress inks used to colour background

Fun Card

 Sharing a fun card today which I made for one of my great grandsons who had a dinosaur themed birthday party.  The image came from a CD which I've had for many years. The background paper was printed from a more recent USB and the bunting, numbers and letters were die cut using up some scraps of matching card.

Image from a My Craft Studio CD
Background - printed from a Paper Pantry USB
Bunting and Letters etc - unbranded dies and magazine free gifts from way back

Mixing it Up

 Mixing things up a bit is a great way of coming up with designs for cards and it's something I do quite often - the important thing is a bit of discipline to make sure that when finished, all the dies and/or stamps get returned to their correct storage so that each set is complete.  For this card I started with a piece of white card slightly smaller than a DL card blank and brushed it with blue and green inks before colouring and die cutting or fussy cutting a selection of bits and pieces to build up a Happy Birthday scene.  I've used a mixture of items from some different sets, a mix of current and retired items.  I must say that during the very hot spell a bit of quiet colouring and fussy cutting was just about all the crafting I could cope with.  Temperatures are much closer to normal now thank goodness and we've had some gentle rain.

Lucky Win

 I was lucky enough recently to be the winner of a give-away which Christina offers most weeks - usually a copy of a magazine along with the free gift it contains.  Owls always seem to be popular and this one die cuts nicely and has embossed and cut details as well.  There was also of course the magazine and a set of sentiment stamps.  Look out for Christina's posts on a Friday if you are interested.  For my card I started with some cream pearl card and cut a circular window before embossing with a 'bark' texture; backed it with a scrap of text paper and then added the own which I'd die cut from kraft card and rubbed lightly with some copper gilding wax.  The sentiment was one of the stamps which came as part of the magazine gift.

Embossing Folder - Stampin' Up

Allsorts Latest Challenge

 My card for this latest challenge is based on one which I spotted on Lesley's blog recently where she had used a large stamp as a background.  Seeing this reminded me that I have a very similar embossing folder from a few years ago so this is what I used for my card.  At Allsorts the theme is **anything goes with an option to create your own background** so I've inked the embossing folder and stamped trees and a deer before transferring the ink to a piece of white card by running it through the machine.  All that was needed to finish the card was a sentiment.  This way of using embossing folders was one which I'd almost forgotten about but it is a relatively quick way of making a card.  Thanks Lesley for the inspiration 😉.

Embossing - Woodland Textures Stampin' Up (retired for quite a while)

Special Delivery!

 Time to visit the Playground again and although we've just had two Christmas themed challenges, I've come up with another idea for a Christmas card even though 'anything goes' as long as Snippets are used. Apart from the white base card, everything else came from my various Snippets collections. The red layer was a fairly large snippet and I found two snippets of different Christmas papers and a piece of white which I cut with a curvy die.  Next I raided the smaller snippets collections to die cut the bicycle, tree and presents for this eco-friendly delivery.  The sentiment was one which I'd stamped and fussy cut last Christmas and not used (found in one of my pots of bits 'which will come in handy' sooner or later) 😉😉

Bicycle - Memory Box die
Tree and Presents - from a Sizzix Christmas Elf die set

Gelli Plate Play

 I have another card to share where I've used a gelli plate, this time stamping onto the plate before pulling a print.  The idea came from a video I'd watched quite a while ago and I don't seem to be able to find it again but think it was from Jo Rice on You Tube.  The round gelli plate was first inked using a couple of colours using a brayer and then the lower part had some colour added using a tree stamp.  Once the print had dried I used a circular paper mask before stamping the rest of the details

Stamps - from Lavinia stamps
Distress inks used on the gelli plate

PS - apologies, only just realised this post had no title (senior moment I guess)