Toadstool - and the Rest

 I  sometimes wonder if any of you have a favourite card making technique and when I tried to decide which was mine I came to the conclusion that I don't have one, but just like to lose myself in making cards with no particular favourite.  I would say that the only thing I really don't like doing is to 'batch-bake'  or production line making - definitely not for me.  I do occasional have a run of doing lots of die cutting or perhaps stamping and at the moment I've made several cards in what I call 'Lavinia' style using the geli plate, stamps, inks et al - great fun and no two cards are alike.

The one I'm sharing today was made by cutting a piece of white card the same size as my DL geli plate, inked using a roller and then added some stamping on the edges of the plate before pulling a print.  Once this was dry I had a rummage amongst my stamps and selected some I thought could build into a pleasing scene.- no particular plan in mind - just let the overall image build up as I went along. What you might call 'winging it' but I must say the morning just whizzed by and I even forgot to have my elevenses cuppa😉.  

Inking - all done using Ranger Distress inks and Versafine Clair
Stamps - Lavinia Stamps with some other silhouette foliage stamps (mainly magazine freebies)

A Fun Birthday Card

 I probably make more birthday cards than any others and today's is a fun one featuring some airborne sheep. Started off by using a cloud mask for the sky followed by stamping, colouring and die cutting the three sheep.  I then found a piece of green card and die cut the top edge for grass, adding a fence and some colourful balloons.  It so happens that Allsorts are asking for **anything birthday related** to celebrate their 13th Blog Birthday so I will be popping over there with this card. Lots of great ideas from their design team 😀

Stamps and Dies - from various Stampin' Up sets ( mostly retired)

Celebrate Bee Day

 I read somewhere that today is Bee Day so what does a card maker do - why, make a card of course 😉.  I've not seen it mentioned anywhere since but I will share my card anyway and do my bit for the bees by not mowing the daisies and buttercups on the lawn - any excuse to avoid that job although it will have to be done at some point.  It is raining this morning so the grass will be growing longer by the minute.

For my card I used  suitable paper which came with some stamps as a free magazine gift a few years ago and have die cut a honeycomb in gold and a large bee.  The sentiment was part of the free gift stamp set..

Happy Bee Day everyone!!

Bee - dies from Sizzix
Honeycomb - another Sizzix die
Sentiment and background - free gift with a magazine some time ago
Sentiment dies - Stitched so Sweetly Stampin' Up, retired I think

Allsorts Challenge #676

 The challenge over at Allsorts this week is **add some sparkle** and I've added some Wink of Stella and a little golden bee to my card.  I've stencilled some colour onto the background here and then die cut a bottle, some wild flowers and a little bee.  The bottle was die cut from white before being coloured and then painted over a couple of times with some Wink of Stella although the true sparkle doesn't really show in the picture.  The wild flowers were cut from white card also and then water coloured.  The sentiment was stamped directly onto the background and then I remembered I had a small scrap left of some card to which I'd applied gilding flakes so I used this to cut the little bee.  You will see from the 'recipe' below that I've had all these items for a long time - no recent purchases used 😉 so I will also be taking this over to Shopping our Stash where the theme is pastels  and this challenge encourages the use of things already in our stash rather than always going for something new.

Bottle - a  'steel rule' die from Tim Holtz which I've had for years
Flowers - Wildflowers and Wildflower Stems #2 from Tim Holtz
Stencil - Honeycomb Tim Holtz
Bee - from a Tonic die set which came free with a magazine
Sentiment - another magazine gift stamp from way back

Snippets Playground Challenge #428

 Time for another challenge over at the Snippets Playground and I've made a card with a garden scene this time.  Everything came from my snippets mountain apart from the base card and a piece of woodgrain paper from a 6" paper pad.  I started with a stitched rectangle cut from a snippet of cream and backed it with a slightly larger brown piece which has had a stitched zig-zag detail die cut at the bottom.  I then got out several different die sets and cut all the rest of the elements from an assortment of coloured snippets.  These 'bits' were then arranged, and re-arranged, until I was satisfied with the composition before gluing them down - the leafy border was cut in green and then again from some tiny coloured snippets so that I could snip the little flowers off to glue into place!! 

There is super collection of stamps as the prize this fortnight so why don't you rummage through your snippets and have a go 😉😉.  Your Snippets don't have to be as tiny as mine, but I just love fiddling to build up scenes.

Bird Feeder and larger birds - dies from Joanna Sheen
Smaller birds - dies from Memory Box
Tree, border and fence - die set from Sizzix
Zig-zag edge - dies from Daisy Mae
Sentiment - composed using My Craft Studio, printed and cut with Stampin' Up die

Another Floral

 Another floral card to share today and this one was made using a stamp which I came across when looking for something else (as you do) and realised that it hadn't been used recently.  Stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured using Inktense pencils and a water brush..  Once coloured I looked for a selection of toning papers and card.  The challenge on Allsorts this time is to use a favourite stamp or die and I'd been wondering just how I could choose one favourite - too difficult really but as fuchsias are so pretty and one of my favourite flowers I'm popping over to their blog with this card even though I thought I'd probably not enter this week 😉

Stamp - Imagination Crafts

Floral Birthday

 I seem to make quite a lot of floral cards but they always seem popular and there are endless ways of combining elements to come up with varying designs.  The ones on this card had been fussy cut from some patterned paper a while ago and had been sitting in one of my oddments boxes, where I also came across the lacy parchment embellishment (gifted from a crafty friend) which I backed with a piece of mauve card.  The splodgy background had been produced during an inky play session so I've combined everything to make this card after deciding to leave the flowers uncoloured, echoing the black flower centres with a matching sentiment.

Butterfly Challenge #170

 Today's card is for the Butterfly Challenge where we have options of various colours, a theme and a shaped  card design as usual - read all about it HERE and see the great inspiration cards from Mrs. A.This time I've used two of the colours, three different patterned papers and of course butterflies (some on one of the papers and some added gold ones.  The floral motif was die cut from white pearl card and I carefully saved all the flower petals, coloured them with an alcohol pen and then popped them back in - a bit fiddly but worth it I think 😉

Papers from Paper Boutique, Paper Pantry Vol I USB
Floral Motif - die cut from Penned Petals set Stampin' Up.

Allsorts Challenge #674

 Just made it  for this Allsorts challenge with only a few hours to spare.  The theme is **anything goes with an option to go scenic**.  For my card I've gone with a garden gate showing a small part of the scene visible on the other side of the wall.  The aperture was cut into the piece of card before embossing the brick wall and then stamping and die cutting the other elements to build up the card. Final addition was a kaleidoscope of golden butterflies.  Lots of lovely inspiration from the design team and still a few hours left to enter if you fancy going into the draw for a prize..

Brick Wall - Stampin' Up brick embossing folder
Gate and Flowers - Grace's Garden stamps with matching die set Stampin' Up (retired)
Butterflies - Die which came with a magazine some time back (smallest ones used here)

Penned Petals

 I have some scraps of the DSP (designer series papers) for this set of stamps and dies so I've been using them up to make a few cards.  The images were stamped onto white card and coloured using Inktense pencils and a water brush before die cutting.  I don't think the DSP is still available so I will have to find something else suitable when I next use these stamps.  

Stamps and dies - Hand Penned Petals Stampin' Up

Snippets Challenge #427

Time to visit the Snippets Playground again and I hear there is Maypole dancing so I hope the weather is better there than it is where I am - grey and rainy today, typical Bank Holiday weather I guess. Everything apart from the  base card came from the Snippets mountain..  I started with a piece of yellow background paper left over from some sheets which I printed recently for another project and everything else came from the white card snippets - always seem to have far more white bits and pieces for some reason.  The largest white piece first had a beehive-shaped aperture cut into it followed by stamping the curved words and then embossing it with a honeycomb pattern using a stencil.  This aperture was backed with a small white die cut honeycomb.  The bees and flowers were stamped, coloured and die cut and there was a small strip of the yellow paper remaining so I cut a decorative edge to it before layering it across the base of the front, adding a stamped and die cut 'Hello'.  Do follow the link and pop along to see a great card for inspiration as well as the lovely prize which will go to the lucky person whose name is drawn at the end of the two weeks.

Honeycomb stencil - free with a magazine ages ago 
Stamps and Dies - Honeybee set from Stampin' Up (retired)
DSP - from Paper Boutique USB

More Animals

 Thought I'd share the remaining two animal cards which I made using toppers and papers printed from a USB.  They are similar to the ones in the previous post but then there are only so many ways to use a square topper on a square card 😉😉.  I'll try not to bore you with any more animals for a while.

Toppers and Papers - Paper Boutique USB # XI

Animals

 I have a couple of cards to share today featuring some animal toppers which were four to a sheet and rather than using just one and putting the remainder away for another day I used all four of them to make similar cards.  I printed off a selection of matching papers and actually cut into them to assemble these cards which, of course, has left me with more off cuts to store in my snippets collection.  Couldn't possibly not save them 😉

Images and Papers - from Paper Pantry Vol XI USB 

Garden Card

 A garden themed card to share today which I guess would be suitable to send to anyone interested in gardens.  The greenhouse was cut from some dark green card and then the outline cut  into the lighter green shape to make a 'window'.  Some foliage was stamped onto a piece of white  before layering behind the 'window' using thin foam pads so that the greenhouse could be dropped into the aperture.  Hope this makes sense - easier to do than to explain 😉  A flower pot and some leaves were die cut and added for a bit of interest.  Sentiment produced using My Craft Studio.

A lovely sunny morning here but still pretty chilly, hope you are all having good weather too.

I-Spy

 Playing I-spy today which is the latest challenge on the Allsorts blog (using the letter 'B').  I've gone with birds, blooms, blue and birthday and possibly 'bits and pieces' because most of the components used here came from  my bits boxes 😉.  I really enjoy the challenge of building up a card from a random selection of papers, images and/or die-cuts and hopefully ending up with something which 'gels'. As always there are some great  I-spy cards from the design team using a variety of things beginning with 'B'..

Stamping/die-cutting and background papers - from various Stampin' Up sets - (some retired)

Poppies

 Some yellow poppies on a sympathy card to share today.  I came across these die cut flowers when I was having a bit of a sort out and thought they should be used rather than lying in a box of oddments.  I found some matching paper and card to put this card together and decided to add a sympathy sentiment.  The flowers had been printed using a free CD with a matching die which came with a magazine a few years ago. and the sentiment was stamped using a stamp from my favourite free set of sentiments. Quite a quick card to put together once I'd sorted out the components.

Poppies - free CD and die with a Tattered Lace Magazine from a few years ago
Paper and card - from my stash
Sentiment - from my favourite free set of various sentiments.

Snippets Playground #426

Off to the Playground this afternoon with the latest card made using some of my snippets and this time it is a card for someone who really enjoys reading.  I've used an embossing folder and some dies which came free with a magazine some time ago - probably a couple of years or more because these days I rarely go into any shops where these magazines used to jump off the shelves into my basket.  Everything except for the card blank has come from my snippets collection.  The background paper was a scrap left from a magazine give-away and I've over-stamped some text detail onto it.  The cream snippet was run through the embossing folder and mounted onto a snippet of blue.  The 'books' were die cut using several different colours of quite small snippets and I was very careful to save every little piece, including the fall out bits so that they could be popped back into the spines of the books.  There were also some stamps with this give away set so I stamped and fussy cut a little plant and a sleeping cat to add to the bookshelves.  Decided there wasn't really space for any words on the front but the inside has a birthday sentiment.

Baby Boy

 Sorting out my stock of cards I realised that I was a bit short on boy baby cards - plenty for girls though.  I decided to make at least one card in blues and for this I've used a kangaroo stamp and of course the baby roo which were coloured using alcohol pens and then fussy cut along with a little cluster of hearts.  The white circle was die cut from a piece of card which had been stamped with a woodgrain pattern and I've added some more die cuts for background along with a sentiment and three punched white hearts.

Stamps - Kangaroo and Company Stampin' Up
Wood grain - stamp also from SU but retired
Sentiment - from kangaroo stamp set on die cuts from Stitched So Sweetly SU
Rectangles - dies from a John Next Door set
Stitched circles - Sizzix dies

Donkey Birthday

 This card came about because I was having a long overdue clear up of the working space on my desk.  I'm sure you all find the same as I do in that the actual work space seems to shrink at an alarming rate until it turns into something akin to keyhole surgery.  I often wonder if it is worth saving almost every scrap of paper and card which is inevitably left over after making a card, not to mention numerous surplus die cuts etc but I'm afraid the hoarder in me just won't let me throw them away.  I do try to use all the oddments but they do accumulate and often making use of them leads to searching for more paper or card to go with them, which in turn leads to even more left overs and isn't really the most efficient way of working..  I must say I've been toying with the idea of gathering up all the scraps and putting them into the recycling box (without even looking through them!!), and starting from scratch but so far haven't been brave enough 🙄🙄.  I've been crafting for a long time  and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find bits and pieces from the early days still lurking at the bottom of some of my boxes..

Anyway, back to today's card which started because I found a stray donkey which reminded me of an idea which I'd spotted somewhere (Pinterest probably).  Of course I needed more than one donkey so had to stamp, colour and fussy cut another one.  I had a piece of white card handy into which I cut the narrow strip apertures and then selected some patterned paper and plain toning card.  The sentiment was stamped onto the bottom of the white card and a couple of the fall-out pieces were used to ground the two donkeys. All layered up using thin foam pads. I thought this was a fun idea for a card but afraid I couldn't find the source again so can't credit the originator of the idea - sorry.

Stamps - Darling Donkeys from Stampin' Up
Cut out areas - Beautiful Brush Strokes die set Stampin' Up

Spring Gnome

 Just to show that gnomes aren't just for Christmas, here is a Spring one wheeling in some lovely flowers. These are digital images and I've used up some matching scraps of patterned papers for an interesting background.  The sentiment was created on the computer.  Not much more to say about this one - just a bit of fun I thought.

 Images and Papers - from Creative World of Crafts Beverley Eden designs
Sentiment - designed using My Craft Studio

Allsorts Challenge #671/672

 Time again for another challenge at Allsorts and this time the theme is **masculine** and the design team has come up with some great ideas for this often difficult card theme.  Mine this time is for quite a young male and I've used a digital image from a CD which has been in my collection for many years.  I've been having a bit of a clear out of CD's and DVD's many of which are quite old but in doing so of course I had to look at lots of them to remind myself of what they contained.  Luckily this one which features Teddy bears still works  even though it says it requires Windows 98 😉.  Once printed the bear was die cut using an oval die and a scalloped oval die used for a second layer.  The two blue balloons were die cut and added as a little extra touch.

Image and Background - printed from Tumble Ted and Tizzy
Balloon Dies - from two different Stampin' Up die sets
Sentiment - from Hey Birthday Chick die set also SU

Snippets Playground #425

 Off to visit the Playground with my latest Snippets card - Sarn is in charge this time and she has shown us a great selection of cards using up some of her snippets - plenty of great ideas here for inspiration. There are also two super Crafty Individual stamps on offer as a prize for a lucky person whose name is drawn.

 I've been improvising a bit for my card with an idea which I saw for using a Penny Black fancy frame die which I must say I was tempted to order but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it was out of stock.  I pulled out some snippets of cream pearl card and die cut two square frames which I sort of interlaced and placed onto an inked and stencilled background before adding some leaves and a flower.  Everything apart from the base card has come from my snippet mountain.

  If you want to know who introduced me to the Penny Black fancy frame you can see a card HERE where it has been used in a conventional way - I do like the look of this frame and might keep an eye out for it to come back into stock!!  This is a blog where I often become tempted - thanks Di, (I think 😉)

Stencil - by Sheena Douglass Creative Expressions
Frames - dies from Creative Expressions
Leaf and Sentiment - stamp and dies from Stampin' Up
Flower - very old Marianne die with small punched flower added

Snowdrop Sympathy

 I've CASE'd a card posted recently by Liz (scroll down a bit to find her version) and she has also recently done something similar with another edger die.  Seeing her card reminded me that I'd purchased a papercut style edger die a fair time ago in the good old days when we could safely go to large craft fairs, but not until I dug mine out of retirement did I realise I had the self-same die she had used - good taste in dies obviously!!  I've also made my card as a Sympathy one but of course hope I won't need it - always handy to have a couple in reserve though.  Unusually for me I've actually cut into three whole new pieces of card for this one but of course doing so has left me with some very useful snippets for future use😉.  This type of card does really need to be quite simple and unadorned so thanks Liz for giving me the idea.

Card - two shades of green from Stampin' Up and cream pearlescent from Crafter's Compantion
Sentiment - die cut using Crafter's Companion die
Papercut - Snowdrops Papercut die from Creative Expressions

Daisies

A DL Daisy card to share today.  This one took a while to make because it entailed die cutting in several different colours so that I could piece the details all together to form the design - just as well I enjoy that sort of crafting 😉😉 but then if I didn't, I suppose I probably wouldn't do it.  As luck would have it I had some daisy patterned paper in my stash which I could use to back the whole design.   It's certainly a day for staying inside today because it is bitterly cold outside despite some sunshine - think they call it wind chill - brrr!!  Taking it fairly easy anyway because I had my Covid Spring booster jab last night - oops! might be giving my age away here 🤣 

Dies - Split Daisies from Tonic

Flower Fairy

 I have another Flower Fairy card to share today using up one of the images and some papers I printed from a CD recently.  This is not a recent CD but one I've had for some years and I was pleased to find that it still works OK with the latest Windows.  I chose some card which toned well with the image and papers and simply die cut various squares, layered them up and composed them into this 'Just for You' card - nothing complicated but it has used one more of the images and bits and pieces of card from my oddments box.

Image and Papers - from Crafter's Companion Flower Fairies Garden CD
Square dies - from Tonic
Sentiment - computer generated punched with Stampin' Up punches

Allsorts Challenge #669

 A bit earlier for the Allsorts Challenge this time where the theme is **in the garden**.  It so happens that I actually made a garden themed card recently which just fits the bill.  I used a digital image along with some wood patterned background paper and a few strips of die cut   faux 'ric-rac' braid.. There is a lovely prize of some Card-i-o stamps for a lucky winner and of course great inspirations from the design team.

 Image - Lili of the Valley digital
Background - paper pad from The Works
Sentiment - Tim Holtz stamp and die 
Faux braid - die from Daisy Mae

Allsorts Challenge #668

The theme for the Allsorts challenge this time is **feminine** which gives plenty of scope but I've gone down the floral route and printed off some pretty designs from a USB to make my card.  There are lovely images from which to choose and also matching plain and patterned paper.  I've used a one image from a design sheet, cut into an insert page for the background and also printed a plain page in the same green shade as the leaves. I've added two borders of die cut faux lace. A fairly simple card but hopefully it fits the bill.  Some lovely inspiration from the design team and of course a super prize for one lucky winner.

Image and background - from Paper Pantry USB The Paper Boutique
Faux Lace - die by Sizzix

Snippets Challenge #424

 Time for another challenge in the Playground with the usual super prize and some news about the future - read all about it HERE. My card has quite a few snippets included but for some reason the snippet mountain doesn't seem to diminish.  Everything here apart from the 5 x 7 card blank has come from my various snippets boxes.  I started by stamping the garden gate and then die cutting it into a rectangle, cutting another larger one in kraft card to back it and also cut a scalloped strip of green and some suitable patterned paper as a background.  The die I used for the toadstool border was cut from a cream snippet and coloured with alcohol pens.  This border came as a surprise because I had assumed that it was a floral border - it has been in my stash for a while and this was its first outing.  Green wellies and flower pots were die cut from other snippets and the sentiment was lying on my desk, made for a different card but not actually used.  Final touch was a tiny flower and leaf spray from a pot of left over  die cuts 'too useful to discard' 😉

Garden Gate - stamp from Graces Garden set Stampin' Up
Rectangles - dies from Colour and Contour set also SU
Green Wellies - from garden die set by Robert Addams
Pots - dies from Joanna Sheen
Toadstool Border - die from Polkadoodlexs
Sentiment - computer generated on die cut from Stitched so Sweetly SU

Butterfly Challenge #168

 Time for another Butterfly Challenge and this time it is the letter 'L' with an interesting Latch Fold card along with Lace, Lavender and a selection of other colours.  See the full details HERE.  Although I do appreciate some of the fancy folds around I'm not a great fan of making them so I've just gone along with the lace and some of the colours with of course some added butterflies.  The image was printed from a CD, as was the patterned paper which has lavender, blue and lettuce colours..  The lace is a die cut and I've added a simple sentiment with a scattering of tiny blue butterflies.

Image and Background - from Lavender Tea CD Polkadoodles
Lace - Sizzix die
Butterflies - small embossing die from Stampin' Up (long retired)
Sentiment - Computer generated, SU punch and die used to cut

Blossom Tree

 I'm still persevering with my efforts to curb spending on crafty stash, apart of course from the essential consumables, and with this in mind I've come up with a card design based on on something I saw on TV just this week which almost had me hitting the 'buy now' button.  However I remembered that I had a tree die amongst my collection so this is my take on the card I saw demonstrated - only similar in that I've used a tree and some blossom but I'm glad I had a go.  I started by die cutting a cream oval and then die cut the tree into the centre (this tree has no outside cutting edge).  I then cut the same tree three times more from scraps of red, brown and green card and having backed the cream oval with another blue one I proceeded to collect as many of the 'fall out' die pieces as was practical and glued the red hearts and some of the larger leaves back into the spaces - the easiest piece to place was of  course the brown tree trunk.  That job done I then found a scrap of pink pearl card and cut out a selection of tiny flowers and adhered them to make the tree blossom.   Having decided to back the image with a slightly larger green oval I realised that what I should have done instead of using a piece of blue card behind the cream at the start,  I could have just used green in the first place. This way I could have avoided having to scrabble around popping the tiny leaves back into the tree outline and simply used the hearts and tree trunk - hindsight is wonderful isn't it!!  Finally I found some pink papers in my stash and added a sentiment to complete this card.

In case you are wondering, the die set which I so nearly bought is called Tree of Life from John Next Door - nothing like the one I've used but at least seeing it got my brain ticking over to come up with my own design based on the blossoming tree theme

Tree - die from My Favourite Things
Blossom - small flowers die set by John Next Door
Papers - from a couple of different magazine give-aways
Sentiment - produced in Word and die cut using SU die (Colour and Contour set)
Oval dies - Tonic

Wonky Patchwork

 I spotted a mention of 'wonky four-patch squares' recently - something new to me so of course I had to investigate via good old YouTube.  There always seems to be something different to learn or try out so I just had to have a go at this using up some miscellaneous 5" charm squares before launching into cutting any of my larger pieces of fabric. It is quite a simple idea and I ended up with a small pile of wonky squares so rather than just let them sit I worked out some measurements to enable me to use these squares along with some other fabrics from my stash to make a straightforward but useful tote bag.  It has a handy pocket in the lining.  Just goes to show that something useful and attractive can be easily made from oddments of fabric.  If you started with larger squares you could soon put together enough to make a quilt which could be colour-coordinated or scrappy depending on what fabrics you have.

Flower Fairies

Last week seems to have flown by since I last shared a card here but I've been in stitching mode, making a bag and also finishing off a quilt which was started a while ago.  It is always a good feeling to clear up some 'works in progress'.  I have a good sized shelf lined with a variety of craft CD's and DVD's most of which haven't been used for ages and this Flower Fairy one must have been sitting there for about 10 years or more and in fact I wasn't even sure if it would still work with Windows 10 because I've discovered that some of my collection now seem to be obsolete in that respect.  Sad really but I think I'm going to have to work through them and discard those that no longer function but at least it will make space for a bit more tidying up of crafty 'stuff'.  I chose a fairy design and matching papers which were printed and then I found some card to tone and set about putting this card together, added a little sentiment and that's it done.  Mind you there were 6 images to a page so I still have another five to use - must try not to leave them languishing in my oddments box for too long 😉

Image and papers - Crafter's Companion Flower Fairies CD
Sentiment - Computer generated and punched with Stampin' Up punches (retired)
Square dies - Tonic

Snippets Playground #423

 The weeks certainly seem to come around quickly and it is time for a new challenge in the Snippets Playground.  I've made a DL card this time and everything apart from the card blank has been 'found' in my various snippets collections.  The  background paper was a left over snippet from a paper give-away which came with a magazine and the frame was cut from a snippet of cream card.  The watch was stamped and gold embossed on a scrap before fussy cutting and the selection of cogs die cut from small snippets of brown and kraft card with the addition of some gold gilding wax.  Finally a sentiment was die cut from yet another snippet of gold pearl card.  Some over stamping was added to the background paper which was fairly plain to start with.

Frame - dies from Phill Martin set
Cogs - die set from X-cut which I've had for a long time (so useful)
Stamping - various free stamps (magazine give-aways)

Allsorts Challenge #665

The challenge at Allsorts this week is **hand coloured or paper pieced image** and because the bird on this card was hand coloured I'm popping along to share it.  I started with some partial stencilling on a square of cream card; die cutting the swirl, sentiment label and two birds before colouring the larger of the birds using watercolour pencils.  The swirl was cut from a piece of Pixie Powder coloured kraft card which was left over from a recent project.

Birds - from Best Birds Stampin' Up (retired)
Swirl - Swirly Scribbles Stampin' Up (retired)
Stencil - Lavinia Stamps
Sentiment - from my favourite freebie sentiment stamp set

Windmill

 I received a class in the post recently from the lovely Jenny and if you visit her at Stamping Moments you will be able to see there is currently another one on offer - scroll down to see details of previous ones.  Occasionally there is a card within the class which just doesn't immediately appeal  and this was the case here, nothing at all wrong with the design but just not for me..  I decided to use some things from my own stash along with some of the die cuts provided for the class and have made a different card.  

I started with a square of blue card which I embossed and then I cut a piece of green patterned paper using a grassy edge die.  Next thing was to stamp and fussy cut some tulip flowers and leaves  and to print a sentiment before assembling everything together using the die cut windmill and the rows of small tulips (these last two items came with the class).  

Windmill - from Tulip Fields set Stampin' Up
Small tulip border - from Flowering Tulips also SU
Embossing Folder - Bark 3D folder from SU
Large Tulips - Timeless Tulips set SU

Making Do

Recently I'd spotted a set of stamps and dies featuring a greenhouse and just as I was thinking of adding it to my stash, I remembered that I was trying to resist the retail therapy 😉. I decided that perhaps I could 'make do' or improvise by seeing what I have already which might be brought into play.  No greenhouse die but I do have a fairly large birdcage one from way back so I fished it out and had a bit of a play.  I drew around the die onto some white card and fussy cut to make a backing piece and then stamped some leaves onto this before sticking the layers together and yes, I think it does vaguely resemble a fancy sort of greenhouse.  Next I die cut some flower pots and found some flowers and leaves left over from a previous project.  So far so good - next move was to stencil a brick background and assemble everything.  I know it's not a greenhouse but at least it has enabled me to make the card design which came into my head inspired by seeing the original greenhouse stamp set and another potential purchase avoided ... for the time being at least 😄😄

'Greenhouse' - birdcage die from Marianne 
Flower Pots - dies from Joanna Sheen
Brick Wall - stencil from Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi
Flowers and Leaves - stamps from two Stampin' Up sets

Llama

 A simple card to share today - the image is quite large and almost fills the 5" x 7" card so I simply layered it up and added a  greeting.  I did enjoy the colouring though so I guess that's the main thing and I used a stencil to give  a  bit of interest in the background  😉.

Llama stamp - Crafty Individuals
Stencil - All and Create
Sentiment - Tm Holtz label
Coloured using watercolour pencils

Snippets Playground #422

 We have a guest designer for the challenge in The Playground this time - our talented prefect Sarn  who has made a super coffee themed card, well worth visiting to see the card and find out what mischief might be afoot 😉.  A great Tattered Lace prize on offer this time and in duplicate so double the chance of being drawn out of the hat if you take part.

I raided my 'creams and browns' scrap box to make this card as well as digging out an image stamp which has lain unused for longer than I care to admit and in fact it could be that this is the first time it's been inked - can't really remember using it, but we are talking a good few years here 😉.  Background paper is part of a sheet from a pad of A4 designs (I always keep the bits and pieces tucked inside the pack once I've cut into a piece); the darker brown piece was a small strip from the oddments box and I selected some offcuts of cream for the stamping.  The Wise Gents were stamped and then sponged with Tea Dye ink; the tall cream strip had the numbers stamped in black along with more stamping using a sepia ink and finally the sentiment outline and words were lined up and stamped -  using the Misti of course.  A stray metal watch charm was added as a finishing touch.

Background Paper - Urban Textures, Phill Martin Sentimentally Yours
Main Image - Wise Gentlemen from Crafty Individuals
Numbers - stamp from a Phill Martin magazine gift set
Sentiment - from Tim Holtz stamp set

Flower Power

This card is made for a man so although I've paper-pieced the van I selected a subtle floral design of paper.  The vehicle was stamped onto a strip of cream card and then again onto the designer paper so that I could fussy-cut and adhere in place after I'd coloured details such as wheels, windows etc.  Next move was to get out my Pixie Powders and colour a piece of kraft card which, when dry was cut into a couple of strips and dry embossed, then lightly touched with gold gilding wax.  The  background paper was an odd piece from a magazine freebie collection from last year some time.

I hope you've all survived yesterday's storms without any major damage - certainly good advice was given for us to stay indoors.  Not that I needed much persuasion to spent some crafty time.

Otters

Had some fun stamping and colouring these cute otters and then decided to die cut them using stitched circles to make this card. Coloured using alcohol pens.  Quite quick to put together once I'd decided what to do with them and with the sentiment from the same stamp set this would suit a variety of situations.  One to add to my box of cards anyway.

Images - Awesome Otters stamp set Stampin' Up
Background - DSP also from SU
Circles - Stitched Shapes dies from SU, (may be retired)

Bird Cages

 Another card to share today featuring bird cages, although it is in quite a different style.  This time I've used a stamp from a set which came to light recently when I was going through my collection for inspiration.  I stamped in black onto a medium/dark piece of card and then selectively coloured parts of the image using Coloursoft pencils which seem to work well used in this way - looking better in real life than on screen.  I then fussy cut the image before layering it up with a piece of cream embossed card and adding a sentiment.

 Stamp - from Chocolate Baroque Pretty Birdcage set
Embossing - folder which came free with a magazine

Allsorts Challenge #663

Back again with a card for the new Allsorts Challenge and this time they are asking for **Clean and Simple (CAS) with the option of Elegance**.  I'd say my card is CAS but will leave the decision about 'elegance' to my viewers and the design team - not sure if it qualifies on that point.  I've used some dies which I've had for a while and as the lines are quite fine it was quite a task to apply glue to them so I hope they all stay put.  Quite a bit of 'white space (which is actually cream) and the sentiment was stamped direct with the aid of a positioning platform - not sure where I'd be without that - probably ending up with lots of throw-away pieces of card with messy stamping on them 😉.  Black and gold card from my scrap boxes was used for the die cutting.

Dies Used - Birdcages set from Sizzix
Sentiment - stamp from a favourite magazine freebie set

Allsorts Challenge Blog

The Allsorts Challenge this time is **anything goes with the option of adding red flowers** .  There is a lovely prize and some great ideas from the Design Team.  The idea came to me for this card while I was walking home from meeting some friends for coffee and I've used a die set which has been in my stash for a considerable time and despite it being a 'must have' at the time, I'm ashamed to say it has never been out of the packet 🙄.  I chose a DL card blank and inked some random splatters using two different stamps and die cut the 'coffee rings' from a scrap of 'inky play' card which has also been lying around for some time.  The flowers and leaves were also die cut from scraps.

Splatters - random stamps from Stampin' Up retired sets
Rings - die from Sizzix Coffee Rings
Flowers - Creative Expressions Dandelion Clocks die set

Snippets Playground

 Off to visit the Snippets Playground for the latest challenge - worth following the link for a visit to see the lovely inspiration card which showcases the prize which will be won by the  lucky entrant whose name comes out of the 'hat'.  Everything apart from the base card has come from my collection of leftovers although I do think that 'snippets' is a nicer name for them.  I started with a piece  of white card slightly smaller than the base card and stencilled a leafy area before finding smaller snippets of heavy watercolour paper to die cut the  coneflowers which I then coloured with Distress inks.  The vase was stamped and die cut, using another snippet.  The final touch was a sentiment left over from another project for which I'd printed a few in varying sizes so that I could use the most appropriate.  A tiny scrap of pink card was added to highlight the sdentiment and pick up the colours of the flower petals.  

Stencil - from Lavinia Stamps
Coneflowers - unbranded die
Vase - stamp and die from Stampin' Up Boho Indigo (retired)
Sentiment - produced on computer using Word

Faux Cloisonne

 This is the theme for the CAS Mix Up Challenge this time around and there is some great inspiration from the design team as well as links to some tutorials.  I'm afraid I was unable to lay my hands on any glossy magazines to use so I stamped the floral motif onto white card using glimmer gold ink and then heat embossed with detail gold powder.  The colouring was done using Twinkling H2O's (a real blast from the past) and then I fussy cut the motif.  I then unearthed a large swirly stamp to use as a background on the card base, added the 'cloisonne brooch' and a sentiment.

Floral Motif - Ruby Tuesday Design a Flower from Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque)
Swirl - Nature Swirls from Chocolate Baroque
Sentiment - from my favourite freebie sentiment stamp set

Butterfly Challenge Letter 'C'

 Card design and colours etc beginning with the letter 'C' for the Butterfly Challenge this time - follow the link to read all about it and to find a tutorial for the Collar Card which is one I'd not heard of before.  I've made a collar card and used three of the colours, some circles and of course a butterfly  I started with a square of double sided patterned paper in a suitable colour to form the collar element and infilled it at the top with a strip of glimmer parchment although the glimmer doesn't show on the screen I'm afraid.  I then searched through my dies to see what circles I had and came across this set which hasn't been used in quite a long time.  Circles and butterfly were die cut from blue and green card with a touch of pink (celadon, cornflower and coral).  This was quite straightforward to make using the tutorial so why not have a go - there are prizes on offer too as usual.

Designer Paper and Glimmer Parchment - from Stampin' Up
Circles - die set from Marianne which I've had for a long time
Butterfly - dies from Sizzix (Tim Holtz)
Sentiment - die from Stampin' Up Hay Birthday Chick set

Birthday Time

 Another card to share today where I've used one of the stamps which I seem to have had forever (quite possibly not been inked before) and which came to light when I was looking for the stamps used on my previous project.  I stamped the hot air balloon onto some cream card,  added some colour and cut it out before sponging the edges.  Next thing was to decide what to use as a background and I stamped several of the watch and clock stamps onto masking paper and carefully cut them out so that I could build up a design onto a square of cream card of the right size, finally infilling with a text stamp before again sponging the edges.    Making this background required a degree of concentration but I quite enjoyed doing it which is the main thing.The two words were stamped onto scraps of card and cut out to add a greeting. 

Balloon Stamp - Crafty Individuals
Clocks and Watches - from two sets of magazine gift stamps
Background Text - from Tiny Stamp set Chocolate Baroque
Words - random stamps from my collection of sentiment stamps

Inspiration

 Inspiration - where does yours come from I wonder?  From many sources I guess, just like mine.  One good source is trawling round crafty blogs and seeing what other like-minded people are making and of course quite often doing this is the trigger for a bit of retail therapy which I'm trying hard to resist at the moment 😉 by looking through my stash and using items which have not seen the light of day recently (if at all in some cases, I'm ashamed to admit).  Guess I'm not alone in this failing though 🤣🤣.

The idea for this card started when I saw the miniature stamps had been used by Design Team members at Chocolate Baroque. I remembered that I've had these stamps since their initial launch  many years ago so I had a rummage and brought them out of retirement, spotting quite a few (lots!) of other neglected stamps in the process so I'm now on a mission to bring more items out of hiding.  I started by stamping the little topper using a selection of the stamps and while I was thinking about how to turn it into a card I suddenly thought that another under-used item could be just what was needed.  This street scene embossing folder is what came to mind so I embossed a piece of cream card and then inked it to bring out the detail.  Just finished off with a birthday greeting on a banner and ended up with a card suitable for a man, often difficult ones to make if the recipient isn't into football or beer 🙄.

Stamps - Mail Art, Curiosities and Mini Stamps from Chocolate Baroque
Sentiment - stamp from Tim Holtz
Banner - dies from Creative Expressions
Embossing - fold by Sheena Douglass