Running it Close!!

 I'm running a bit late this time with my Snippets make, only 2 more days to go until the gates clang shut on the current challenge.  Part of the reason is that having made this Christmas card I realised that it would also fit with another challenge so I hung fire until today which of course is Rudolph Day for this month so 'two birds, one stone' as the saying goes.  Not that any birds were harmed of course 😉.  I decided to have another play with my postage stamp die using some little snowman images with matching dies.  A small poinsettia from my oddments pot came in handy to fill the smallest space.  Everything here, apart from the card blank, is from my snippets mountain - the leafy paper was left over from cutting into a 12" DSP; red, white and pale blue  layers from card offcuts. Really small snippets came in handy for stamping the snowmen and sentiment.

...and I remembered to take a picture of my snippet leftovers

Background DSP - Stampin' Up (retired) from couple of years back
Postage Die - from Amazon (Globelands I think)
Snowmen - unbranded stamp/die set

Challenges - Snippets Playground and Rudolph Days

Bargains

 I'm sure we all like a bargain and a friend kindly told me about a company who have a sale of some of their stamps at the moment so of course I couldn't resist a small purchase.(See link below)  They don't seem to show details of the sizes of the stamps on the website so I was pleasantly surprised to see that the ones I ordered are mostly larger than I imagined they would be.  The one I've used here would easily fit onto a DL size card although I used it on a 6" square allowing it to overhang.  I started by masking off part of a piece of card and blended three colours of Distress Oxide ink to make a border.  This was dried thoroughly before stamping in black and clear embossing.  I then used a fine paintbrush and a little water to lift colour from some of the small areas within the stamp.  A simple sentiment finishes this CAS card.

Border Stamp - Crafty Roo Designs (sale prices on some stamps)

Strange Birds

 A fun card to share today - might make someone smile anyway.  The background was left from a sheet  I'd printed for another project and the large white circle was die cut.  The birds were stamped onto scraps of inky play card from my 'useful bits'  box with a bit of extra pencil colouring for added interest.  After fussy cutting the birds I glued them in place and then stamped the  fun wording.  Hope you are all having a good weekend - weather fairly bright but we've still been seeing frost early on the last few mornings here in the south.

Stamp Set - Strange Birds from Aall & Create
Circle dies - from John Next Door set

Floral Silhouette

 A floral card to share today, CAS style using up a piece of card left over from one of my inky play sessions.  I added a bit of stencilling to make it a bit more interesting and then cut out a circle and glued it to a white card, adding a narrow white frame around.  The floral spray was die cut twice from black card and layered together for extra stability.  The final touch was a matching black sentiment and a few tiny gems.

Sentiment produced using Microsoft Word
Silhouette Flowers - unbranded die

April at Stamping Sensations

 The Theme this month at Stamping Sensations is **anything goes** and there is also a mood board for extra inspiration. I've used the daisy image which is echoed in my choice of background paper for this Spring garden card.The greenhouse and foliage have been stamped and I've added various die cut elements to complete the scene.  As usual there is a lovely prize for the person whose name is drawn at the end of the challenge.

Greenhouse and foliage - Garden Greenhouse stamps and dies Stampin' Up (retired)
Cat - dies by Impression Obsession
Rectangles - Creative Dies Designs (possibly no longer available)
Pots - dies from Joanna Sheen
Tiny flowers in pot - Sizzix Ikebana dies set
Butterflies - from my pot of 'useful bits and pieces'

Allsorts Challenge #776

 The theme for the current challenge at Allsorts is **Spring** and I'm certainly happy to note that it seems to have arrived at last - two consecutive days with sunshine and NO rain 😊.   I think this card with its planter tub filled with crocus should fit the bill so I'm popping along with it.  There are great prizes too with winners announced monthly so why not break out your Spring-themed crafty stash and have a go.  There is always the 'anything goes' option too.

Brick Background - 3D embossing folder from Stampin' Up
Dies - all from Gummiapan
Sentiment - produced on the computer

Spring

 Well at last it's starting to look a bit more like Spring outside - sun is shining this morning and - say it quietly - it's actually not raining 😊.  Also the lilac tree is showing signs of bursting into flower, followed closely by a laburnum, always a welcome sight.  I came across this stamp recently and thought it would make a nice card for someone who enjoys crosswords - love these hedgie characters.  A straightforward card with an image stamped and coloured along with some pretty background paper and a strip of embossed card to match.

Hare

 The results of a bit of inky play to share today using Distress inks, silhouette stamps and a technique I spotted a while back on a YouTube video by Tracey from Lavinia Stamps.  The watercolour card was cut to size and  wetted with some clean water and then a circular plastic lid was wetted around its edge and dipped into some Brusho pigment powder sprinkled onto a glass mat. This lid was then 'stamped' onto the paper and allowed to dry naturally which left an attractive ring shape to use as the basis for more stamping of the various foliage and other elements to make a little scene.  Such a great idea and bound to be slightly different each time of course.  A text stamp was second-generation stamped around the image for a bit of texture effect, a simple sentiment and that's it.  Many variations possible on this theme I'm sure.

Stamps all from Lavinia Stamps

Allsorts Challenge #775

 The Allsorts challenge this week is **For the Love of Animals** .  It so happens that April is National Pet Month to raise awareness of responsible pet ownership so they are asking for anything showing pet or domestic animals.  Lots of people keep cats I know and as I had a couple of stamped, coloured and fussy cut cats left from a previous project I decided I'd use them for this card.  The large sentiment was also loitering in my 'useful bits and pieces' box from when I first cut this die to see how it cut and to work out how best to put the layers together.  I seem to remember that this one was a bit difficult to layer up neatly but I eventually worked out the best method for me.  I started by cutting two layers to fit the card blank and stamped some words from the stamp set in black ink before adhering the large sentiment and adding the two fussy cut cats.

Cats and stamped words - stamp set from a magazine dating back to around 2018
Colouring - used Inktense pencils and a water brush
Large Sentiment - unbranded die

Coffee Anyone??

 Following up my alcoholic card with a caffeinated one, definitely not CAS this time though - more of a mixed media style.  I do like to mix things up a bit - variety is the spice of life.  The image was stamped using brown Versafine ink and some extra colour was added using Inktense pencils and a water brush.  I then added some stencilling and extra stamping using Distress Oxide ink and finally the words were produced on the computer and die cut.

Large stamp - from Aall & Create Caffeinated set
Stencil - one I've had a while (no details, sorry)
other stamps from the above set and also from my stamp collection

Glass of Red Anyone??

 A bit early in the morning I'd say (more like coffee time) but I thought I'd share this card today.  It's quite CAS - a word cloud which I produced on the computer with the addition of a die cut.  I cut the die twice and layered them together to give it a bit of stability.  Some toning ink was stencilled over the words for added interest.

Stencil - Lavinia design
Word Cloud - Produced using Word (Office 365)
Wine - unbranded die
Ink and Card used - Cherry Cobbler from Stampin' Up

Snippets Playground Challenge #477

 Fun and games in the Playground today with an Easter Egg Hunt - Happy Easter everyone😊🐰.  I thought the occasion called for our favourite bunny to make another appearance and this time he's sitting amongst the trees enjoying the odd burst of sunshine which we've been having in between the showers.  I started with a fairly large snippet of kraft card to fit my card blank and die cut the forest scene in the centre using a die set which was a magazine gift back in 2017 - this set also included the scalloped circle and I used a smaller die from another set to cut out the aperture to fit the scene, using a snippet of cream card.  This was back4ed with a snippet of designer paper.  Bunny and the 'text speak' sentiment were also cut from snippets of cream.  The little flowers and butterflies were cut from minute snippets of card from my collection of inky background snippets.  Apologies - no picture of the snippets because I swept them all into the bin without taking a picture this time.  The only thing which wasn't a snippet is the card blank.

Bunny - unbranded die
Sentiment - die from Gummiapan Mystery Bag
All Other Dies - magazine free gift dating back to 2017
Sky Background - snippet from Stampin' Up DSP (possibly retired)

Butterfly Challenge #194

 It's quite a while since I took part in the Butterfly challenge so I thought I'd pop in with this recently made card.  The theme is D for decoupage, die cuts and a range of colours, details of which you can see by following the link.  I'm playing along for fun because I only managed the die cuts and of course butterflies 😊.  I cut an oval aperture into a piece of cream pearl card and backed it with a leafy die cut.  Two butterflies were stamped, coloured and die cut and the sentiment was cut twice and glued together to give it a bit of stability.

Leaves - die by Stampin' Up
Oval - die from Tonic nested ovals
Butterflies - stamps and dies from Globleland (Amazon)
Sentiment - unbranded die

Rudolph Days Challenge

 The Rudolph Days Challenge is a great opportunity to make Christmas cards through the year, thus hopefully avoiding a mad dash in December..  You can read all about it if you follow the link.  I've made a Christmas scene here and haven't added a sentiment because it sort of speaks for itself.  I cut the frame into a piece of white pearl card and backed it with some snowflake design paper; added a die cut hill and then the little reindeer on his sledge.  I felt it just needed something extra so added some tall trees and a tiny bird from my bits box to perch on the lamp post.

Frame and Trees - unbranded dies
Sledge and Reindeer - Gummiapan dies
Hill - die from MFT set

Allsorts Challenge #773/4

 The theme for the two-week  Allsorts Challenge  is **Keep it Simple** or of course there is always Anything Goes as an option.  I've been trawling through my collection of magazine give-aways and have pulled out a set from 2018 which I thought deserved an airing.  It's a collection of dies including the pretty cut our circular design and a selection of small leaves, flowers and butterflies.  I cut a backing to fit my card and backed it with an embossed panel before cutting out leaves and butterflies from some scraps (snippets) of card which had been coloured using Pixie powders. A simple computer sentiment and that's it - a simple card for the challenge.

Dies - Card Making Magic magazine free gift 2018
Embossing Folder - not marked possibly Creative Expressions

Inspiration from a Blog Visit

 As I've said before ideas for cards very often come from seeing what other people post on their blogs and when I saw a recent post by the talented Sarn  HERE  I was immediately reminded of some bird stamps which I've had in my crafty stash for a long time (since 2008 in fact) although I was surprised to see just how long I've had them 😉.  I can't recall when this set last saw ink but it felt good using one of the birds to make a card inspired, and similar to the one Sarn had made.  The flower stamp I used as part of the background and the 'arty' words were also neglected stamps.  The bird was stamped and embossed and the background floral one stamped using Distress Oxide.  Some Oxide ink in another colour was 'splodged' around and the words simply stamped in black.  The panel was then popped onto a kraft card and a simple adhesive sentiment added.

Flower stamp - Elusive Images 2007 (now known as Chocolate Baroque)
Bird - stamp from Elusive Images Dawn Chorus 2008
Arty words - Elusive Images 2008 ATC stamp set
Sentiment - Indigo Blu

Snippets challenge #476

 Despite trying my hardest the snippets mountain never seems to diminish but making something for the Playground Challenge certainly helps a little and there is always an opportunity to be in the draw for some lovely prizes along the way.  This time I used quite a few of my smaller white snippets to stamp a series of cat images and then coloured and fussy cut them ready for arranging into what I hope is a pleasing composition 😉.  Sorry no picture of the left overs as there were just tiny 'trimmings' from my snipping which all went straight into the bin. The white background square was a larger snippet but the blue layer was cut from a whole sheet leaving the remainder to go into my snippets collection.  This set of stamps is one which was given away with a magazine several years ago - would you believe I actually have a box of freebies, some of which haven't even been opened but I do trawl through them now and then seeking inspiration.

Cats and words - free set of stamps from a magazine (several years ago)
Birthday Sentiment - wiry words set of stamps
Colouring - Inktense pencils and water brush

Current Allsorts Challenge

 The theme for the Allsorts Challenge this week is **Feathers and/or Fur** with of course the usual anything goes option.  What better excuse for me to bring my favourite bunny out to play and this time he is seated on the window sill, probably looking for Spring 😊.  Guess what, it's raining again today so I hope he's taken shelter.  I've used an archway image stamped by a generous friend and the flowers were fussy cut (they are quite small so not the easiest option) 🙄.  The arch was masked off before using a stencil for the wall effect.  Some lovely prizes this week so good luck everyone!

Arch stamp - from Paper Artsy
Wall effect - stencil from Tim Holtz
Sentiment - produced on the computer

Silhouette Flowers

 Amongst the crafty items sent to me recently were two stamped and embossed floral silhouette images. die cut using a stitched rectangle die.  I've turned them into two 'same but different' cards which I'm sharing here.  The first one had the background 'smooshed' with Distress Oxide inks adding a little bit of stamping for interest.  The second one was stencilled in a quite different colour with the addition of three die cut butterflies in a toning colour.  Both images were mounted onto a black background and die cut sentiments were cut from the same black card.  

Sentiments - dies from Crafter's Companion
Stencil - unknown source
Butterflies - Crafter's Companion
Texture stamps - from my stash Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque)

Spring Flowers

 I've been playing with some die cuts and stamped images which I received from a kind bloggy friend - it was a lovely surprise to receive out of the blue an envelope containing some 'happy post'.  Very many thanks - you know who you are.  This is just one of the cards I've made so far - starting with an arched window stamped onto white card which had been die cut using a stitched rectangle.  I masked off the arch and used a stencil to make a stone effect wall, then die cut a selection of leaves, flowers and grass to build up a little Springtime scene. The window box was added using part of a window die set from my collection. No sentiment added yet but it's handy to have a few cards without so that any message can be hand written on the insert.  I do enjoy the challenge of working with something chosen by another crafter and there will be more cards to come.

Wall Effect - a very old Tim Holtz stencil
Window Box - Snipped from a Crafter's Companion window die (not recent)
Daffs, Crocus and Snowdrops - dies from Gummiapan
Grass - unbranded die
Leaves - from a retired Stampin' Up die set
Arched Window - stamp from Paper Artsy

On The Fence

 This card is for the current Allsorts Challenge where the theme is **USE YELLOW** - there's certainly a fair bit of yellow here, both in the image and also the stencilling.  I started by pencilling a faint circle onto a piece of card before building up the surrounding foliage and then stamping the baby owl sitting on the fence.  The final touch was to stencil around the outside using a Lavinia stencil.  The stamps are also Lavinia designs.

Another One

 Another of my Stickeroo cards to share today, this time a small tall one which I thought suited the proportions of the mage . I  found some toning background paper and just added a narrow pierced strip of card and a computer sentiment .

Pierced Strip - from a Tonic embossing die set
Background paper - from a Phill Martin pad

A Few More

... cats again.  This time I made a smaller card using up the remainder of the colourful cats which were left from my previous one.  Thought I'd use them straight away rather than consign them to the 'to be used in the future' box  which is brimming over with oddments.  This one was quick and easy to put together.- once I'd managed to find an A6 card blank (not a size I use very often).

Multicoloured Snippets

 Challenge # 475 in the Playground and my homework this time has used up snippets of several different colours - barely made any inroads into the snippets mountain but every little helps.  I thought these 'cats' were rather fun, especially in some cheery colours; they are all the same height (they've been trimmed) but come in three varying widths and I have a few left over to play with another day.  I've included a photo of my pile of snippet leftovers after cutting them out, something I often forget until it is too late and they've disappeared into the bin.  A lovely selection of items for the prize this fortnight as always so time for you to see what you can make using Snippets.

Frame - Noble Pierced Squares Creative Expressions
Greeting - die from Gummiapan
Sentiment - stamps from a magazine giveaway set
Tall cats - unbranded die

Curiosities

 I'm back again with one of my current favourite dies which is the very versatile postage stamp collage - so many possibilities.  Looking through some of my older stamps recently I came across four sets of mini stamps with curiosities, trees, scripts and mail art and I've used just a small selection for this card which I thought would be ideal for a masculine card although, to be fair, it would suit anyone.The die was cut using some script paper and there was another similar sheet in the same pad, part of which was used as a background.  A simple sentiment was all it needed.  I've had these stamps for many years but they've not seen ink for longer than I care to remember.

Stamps - Chocolate Baroque mini stamp sets designed by Glenda Waterworth
Papers - from a script pad by Prima
Postage stamp die - unbranded
Sentiment - stamps from Tim Holtz Sizzix (again from way back)

Blog Inspiration

 So many ideas and inspirations come from crafty blogs which often act ass a reminder of techniques and/or items we may own but have maybe not used in a while.  One such inspiration came from seeing a card posted by a friend using a Stickeroo which certainly brought to mind that I have a few of these loitering in my stash so I pulled them out and have produced a few varied cards.  For this one I mounted the sticker onto a piece of toning card, leaving a small margin and then set about finding matching background paper and other items which would make it into an interesting design. A 5" x 7" card.

For anyone who may not know  Stickeroos are sticky backed images of varying designs which come on A4 sheets, ready to peel off and use as required.  They also produce some beautiful Christmas images.

Image - Stickeroo from Penny Black (Buddly Crafts stock them I believe)
'Bubbles' border - an old die from Tattered Lace
Sentiment - Unbranded die
Butterfly - also from the Stickeroo sheet

Rudolph Days

 ... and the good news is that Rudolph Days is to continue with monthly challenges and is being overseen by Helen who has stepped in to keep things going.  This is a great opportunity to make at least one Christmas card per month during the year which should help to avoid a huge rush in December.  Full details can be seen on the new blog page.  My card was made using a stamped image with a die cut greeting. 

Image - from a retired Stampin' Up stamp set
Octagon dies - Daisy Mae
Sentiment - Julie Hickey
Background - printed from a Buddly Crafts download

Allsorts Challenge

 The theme for the current Allsorts challenge is **things that fly** and after having a bit of a ponder going through flying things in my mind I remembered that I had some stamps which have lain  on a shelf neglected for far too long so I took the set out for this card.  I needed a quick card to pop in the post for someone and despite having loads of cards made there didn't seem to be anything to suit as the majority were for particular occasions.  I started by stencilling a couple of colours directly onto the card front then stamped the image and a couple of random words from the stamp set.  Some colour was added to parts of the balloon using pencils; another stamp at the bottom and that was job done.  A card suitable for both the challenge and to pop into the post, two birds with one stone (no pun intended)😊

Stamps - Steampunkery from Chocolate Baroque - years old so possibly discontinued
Sentiment - from a Sizzix stamp set also years old

Twofer

 Isn't it great when you can get two cards out of one design, and that's what I've done here using a circle dot die and a piece of card from my colour play sessions box.  I cut the die in white to match the card base and cut it again from the piece which had been coloured using the shaving foam technique (I think, but  it was a while ago and I can't really remember).  Anyway I thought it would be suitable for this card.  I then adhered the white outline circle to the card before fitting all the different circles back into the spaces - took me a while 🤣.  The Birthday greeting was die cut twice and layered together for stability before being added to finish off the card.  My intention next was to use the coloured outline circle in the same way, inserting the white dots but decided to take the easy way out with this second card and just let the white background show through which gave the same effect but without all the fiddle of inserting the small dots.  A similar sentiment was added and that's it - twofer completed.😉 

Thanks

 Another small scale card to share today, this time it's a 4" square Thank-you note card mainly using up bits and pieces from oddments left over from previous projects.  I started by die cutting a square frame to fit the card and then found a scrap of previously die cut floral card to match which I backed with a pale lilac scrap.  The 'thanks' word was cut twice and layered to give it a bit of substance and that's it - a quick and easy little card.

Square frame - Noble Pierced frame die from Creative Expressions and a plain square die
Thanks - word die from Concorde & 9th

Fun Card for the Playground

I've used more of my snippets and another small slim card to play along in the Snippets Playground latest challenge. This is a 3" x 8" card blank - odd proportions but I'm sort of getting used to them in my efforts to use them up.  I trimmed a snippet of patterned paper to slightly smaller than the card then pulled out a scrap of card from my home made backgrounds collection and stamped some strange birds which were then fussy cut (no matching dies sadly).  Some extra colour was added using pencils. The branches were die cut from snippets of brown card and the words stamped onto snippets of white and also fussy cut.  The Playground gates are open for two weeks and there is a great prize on offer as usual.

Remembered to take a photo of what I used 😉

Background - printed from a MCS CD (probably no longer available)
Birds and Words - Aall & Create Strange Birds set
Branches - die from a SU set

Just to Say

 I have another of my smaller 'tall slim' cards to share today.  For this one I cut a panel of matching card using the same die as on my previous one which left a space at the bottom of the card where I added three little die cut flowers.  The panel was 'smooshed' through a couple of colours of Distress Oxide ink and once dry I stamped some text down one edge and added some stencilling.  The words were cut from some matching card.  I think I might be getting to like this size of card although once used up I probably won't buy any more 😉.  Next challenge could be a pack of 4" square cards which were hiding in the box - can't really imagine why I bought them because working on such a small scale does rather freak me out 🤣

Text stamp - came with an Indigo Blue magazine kit
Stencil - from Lavinia
Words - Art Gallery dies from Stampin' Up (retired)
Flowers - die set from John Next Door

Postage Theme

 It's said that great  minds think alike and while I was in the middle of making this card yesterday I spotted one  made by Linby using a similar idea and posted on her blog .  I've used different colours and stamps but with the same postal theme.  Back to my more usual square format today because this is quite a large die but so versatile, depending on what stamps are used.

Stamp Die - unbranded
Stamps - Card-IO, Lavinia, Clarity and some magazine freebies

Smaller Cards

 The majority of my cards are 6" squares with occasionally 5" x 7" or DL ones thrown into the mix and I rarely make anything smaller.  I've been making cards for many years and naturally have amassed large amounts of crafty 'stuff', amongst which was a large plastic box containing miscellaneous card blanks, mostly with envelopes and I decided it was time I turfed everything out and had a good sort through to see just what might be lurking in the depths.  Well as you've probably guessed there were quite a few (lot) of small cards, mainly squares but also a couple of full packs of something called 'tall slim cards'.  I could never resist a bargain and I see they were BOGOF at the time 🤣🤣.  Strange proportions to my eye though at 3" x 8".  Anyway I've decided to challenge myself to use up some of these smaller cards, starting with said tall slims which I thought might be handy as notelets rather than actual greetings cards - I think some of the smaller squares might be made into 'cards for no particular occasion' but just to send as random acts of kindness (RAKS).  

This one is my first go at working to a smaller format although at the moment it feels very restricting but perhaps if I persevere it should come easier 😉 .  Watch this space!

Stamps - a mix of Lavinia, Inkylicious and Card-IO

Hippos

 A birthday card to share today which was made for one of my great grandsons.  Not much to say about it really as it rather speaks for itself.  The stamps and dies used were from my stash and are mostly now retired although the kite is from SU's Playing in the Rain set which I believe is in the current annual catalogue.

Stamping Sensations Challenge

The theme for the current challenge on Stamping Sensations this month is ** Animals, Birds or Creatures**.  I was fortunate to receive this lovely owl stamp as a gift very recently so of course I had to have a play so that I could pop along to the challenge with this card because it has a large bird and a couple of little mice 😉

Stamps - Lavinia and Inkspirations
Owl Coloured using Inktense pencils

Fun Anniversary Card

 The February theme at We Love Stamping is **ROMANCE**, very apt for this Valentine month and I've chosen to take along an Anniversary card featuring a couple of frogs which have been stamped, coloured and die cut.  The large heart background was cut in two shades of pink, as was the shaped sentiment tag.  I also cut out a few more smaller hearts for added interest.  The sentiment was also stamped onto a piece of white card and then die cut..

Hearts - dies from Tonic - quite old so possibly no longer available
Sentiment Stamp - from a magazine freebie set, also from years ago
Sentiment Tag - from a Sue Wilson die set, again old so maybe no longer available
Frogs - from an unbranded stamp set, coloured using Inktense pencils

Snippets Playground Challenge #473

 Here is my homework for the latest Snippets Playground Challenge.  Sarn is in charge this time and she has made a super card from some of her lovely snippets.  Of course there is a great prize to be won by the lucky person whose name is drawn at the end of the fortnight.

For this card I decided to use up a snippet of card which I'd coloured using various Pixie Powders and had a fancy to use my Crazy Bird stamps although when I started I had no idea what the finished result was going to be.  Once I'd stamped and die cut the birds I decided I wasn't too keen on the outer margins of the die cuts which looked a bit too 'spotty' so I trimmed them much closer to the line with scissors - better!.  Next I scrabbled through my box of sundry die cuts, mostly white ones, which I always save because they might be useful one day, and found some leafy branches.  I coloured these using Distress ink pens and found some larger white snippets of card to cut the circle and to stamp and die cut the sentiment tags.  Another little problem with the birds was that being stamped onto inky card their beaks and eyes were somewhat 'lost' so I stamped again onto snippets of white card and fussy cut the eyes and beaks so they could be layered.  I also added a bit more colour to the bird bodies using coloured pencils.  Found a snippet of blue card to tone with the birds and then assembled the card - that's it, job done 😉

Actually remembered to take a pic of my snippets!!

Birds - Crazy Birds Sizzix Tim |Holtz
Branches - a very old Sizzix die

Toadstools

 This card was relatively quick to put together once I'd spent some time die cutting and assembling the group of toadstools which as you can see is made up of quite a few separate and tiny pieces.  I did some light stencilling onto a piece of cream card slightly smaller than the base card.  My original intention was to use just the group of toadstools but they looked a bit lost on their own so I die cut and coloured some grasses to pop behind them, finally adding a sentiment stamped in brown.  Colouring was done using alcohol pens.

Froggy Birthday

 A fun birthday card from me today.  I had a little stamping session with a set of frog stamps and enjoyed colouring the images which were then die cut ready to be made into cards.  The frog is leaping about - as they do - in celebration of someone's birthday which should raise a smile I think.  The background was stamped onto a piece of white card and the sky area brushed with some blue ink before adding the die cuts.  

 Water - a retired Stampin' Up stamp
Grasses - stamps from Inkylicious
Frog and waterlily - unbranded stamp/die set
Colouring - Inktense pencils and water brush

Today's Card

I do hope you're not bored by my recent posts using items from the famous Gummiapan mystery bag and after this one there might be a break from seeing them while I put the rest to one side and get into using other items from my stash.  For this one I die cut the cow head in black and again in white so that I could swap the pieces around to make a couple of Friesians.  Next I had a scrabble around in my pot of miscellaneous die cut bits and pieces, mostly left overs from previous projects, to see what I could use to build up a card.  The result is this country scene.  The  back layer is a brick wall effect achieved with an embossing folder, followed by a snippet of patterned paper which looks like sky and green for the ground.  The cows are peering over a 'fence' made using three strips from a die set which has a quite different purpose and finally I added some corn and grasses  which were also loitering in the 'useful bits' pot.

 Wall - embossing folder from Stampin' Up
Landscape background - New Horizons DSP also SU
Fence - Beautiful Brush Strokes dies SU
Corn - from Hey Chick set SU (retired)
Grasses - from two other retired SU sets

Snippets Time Again

 Time for a new challenge in the Snippets Playground and I've used yet another item from my recently purchased mystery bag of retired dies and stamps from Gummiapan UK.  There were dies of two sizes in this set and I've used the larger of the two.  I translated the Swedish name of the set to be 'oval gems' but really had to think hard of ways to use them effectively.  I finally decided the larger die of the two would perhaps work as a sort of paperclip to hold some snippets of torn papers so I cut it in dark brown card and added a bit of gilding wax for interest.  The torn papers were all from my snippets collection and as usual the only non-snippet thing here is the base card which is 5" x 7".  As one of the torn pieces was a music one I've added a treble clef, also cut from a dark brown snippet and touched with gilding wax.  Another great and varied prize this time around, good luck everyone.

Oval 'paperclip' - Gummiapan UK (retired)
Notebook Punch - EK Success
Treble Clef - a very ancient die from Marianne
Sentiment - Tim Holtz stamps

Monsters

 This is another card made using one of the stamps in my bargain Mystery bag.  The monster was stamped a couple of times onto scraps of card, coloured using alcohol markers and then fussy cut with scissors. I thought it would be fun to imagine they were singing a birthday greeting so I stamped some notes and a stave, finally adding the 'text speak' sentiment.  That's it, a fairly CAS card making use of another of my newly acquired stamps and dies.  The square mat was cut using a die already in my collection and was backed with a plain square to match one of the monsters

Music Stamps - Lavinia
Monster stamps - Gummiapan (retired)
Square and Greeting -  dies from Gummiapan
Colouring - Copic alcohol markers

Allsorts Challenge #763

 Here is  my card for the current Allsorts Challenge where the theme is **make your own background**.  My background was made using spray starch and pigment powders.  I coloured a fairly large piece of card and the background used here is just a small piece left from a previous project.  Luckily there was enough  for the dragonfly body and the wings were cut from a scrap of toning pearl card..  The background was embossed and I added a die cut frame around the aperture and finally a sentiment and a scattering of gems.

Circular Frame - die set from Daisy Mae
Embossing Folder - magazine freebie
Pigment Powders - Pixie Powders
Dragonfly - Gummiapan