Fairy in a Bottle

 I had a bit of fun recently trying to decide which of my many stamps would fit and look good inside a bottle and this is the result.  I cut a piece of white card to fit onto a  card blank and then used one of the fairly new Lavinia stencils to apply some ink for the bottle, adding a stamped cork.  I have to admit I felt a bit bad about actually enclosing her in this way but then thought that as she is magical, no doubt she'd be able to escape if she so desired 😊😊.  Mad I know but that's how my brain works.  Some foliage and a  'shroom complete the scene and a sentiment was composed using Word.  There was some second generation stamping of text to give a little interest to the background.

 

Sticker Stencil and Stamps - all from Lavinia

There's news today of a brand new monthly challenge and you can read all about it HERE - officially starting on 1 May so plenty of time to get your brains thinking along Tag and/or ATC lines

Allsorts Challenge #820

 The theme for the next fortnight at Allsorts has been chosen by Ellie, who would like to see some **Spring Flowers** or there is the usual *Anything Goes* option.  Prizes  are from Aall & Create. 

For my DT card I've chosen to feature snowdrops which I think are one of the earliest signs of Spring.  I started by cutting a panel of white card and a slightly larger one of light green.  A polyplate was used to stamp a 'streak' of green as a background, adding a few stamped grasses.  The snowdrops were stamped in grey onto a scrap of white card, coloured and die cut before adding to the card using thin foam pads.  The sentiment was prepared on the computer and die cut with a small stitched rectangle.  The snowdrop stamp and die set has been in my stash for many years and the other elements are more recently acquired.

Edit - it would appear I might have been misinformed about Clearly Besotted as it does appear that they are still trading - SORRY🙄

Snowdrop - magazine freebie from Clearly Besotted 2019 (sadly no longer trading)
Green Background - Polyplate from Crafty Roo 2025 (again sadly no longer trading after 1 April))
Sentiment - prepared using Microsoft Word
Stitched Rectangle - die from retired Stampin' Up stitched rectangle set

Rudolph Days

 Happy Rudolph Days for the month of March which is nearly at an end.  If you don't know how this works you can read all about it by following the link.  I've been busy in the garden whilst the weather has been nice rather than in the craft room so I had a little rummage in my pot of  'useful bits and bobs' and pulled out a couple of snowmen, some trees and a scattering of stars.  These were all a bit small to make much of a card so decided to put together an ATC using a snippet of gelli print and a torn scrap of white paper for the snowy ground.  It never ceases to surprise me just what you can actually fit onto a card which is only 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches 😃 and they are great fun to make.

  

Snowmen - stamps and dies, possibly a magazine freebie (I've forgotten, sorry)
Trees - from a long retired Stampin' Up Christmas set
Stars - possibly from a Tim Holtz seasonal die set

Spring has Sprung!

 There seem to be so many Spring-themed challenges going the rounds at the moment and for once the weather this year seems to have also realised that Spring has indeed sprung.  This card isn't for any of the challenges but whilst mulling over ideas I realised that I have quite a lot of craft CDs which have been very neglected, so I had a look at the images on a couple of them and printed some floral pages.  They do  look somewhat dated - to my eye anyway but here's a card I decided to make using some primroses which came with matching background paper.  The background was trimmed to fit the base card and was backed with a slightly larger piece of toning dark green card, which was also used to back the floral panel.  A simple stamped greeting was cut using a punch and there it is - a simple to make card.  I feel that card making these days seems to be far more creative with the wide choice of stamps, dies and so much else at our disposal - what do you think?

Primroses - from Floral Fantasy CD by Joanna Sheen (from 2008 would you believe)
Punch - from Stampin' Up (long retired)

Spring at Stamping Sensations

 The theme for the current Stamping Sensations challenge is **Hello Spring** or the usual *Anything Goes*.  My card is a floral one and I reckon the colours are saying 'Hello Spring' although I think the actual flowers might be more Summer time ones which would take my card into the Anything Goes category.  I started by smooshing two colours of Distress Oxide ink, followed by adding some visual texture using stamps in the same colours.  The flowers and leaves were stamped onto spare pieces of white card, coloured using Zig markers and then fussy cut.  The sentiment was also stamped and coloured to match.  I then shuffled the components about until I was happy with the arrangement and then decided to add some strategically placed stamped vines onto the background.  This card was inspired by a video made by Kym (Crafty Roo) and the floral, vine and sentiment stamps were the final surprise to open on Christmas Day last year as part of her Christmas Countdown project (variation on an Advent calendar).

All of the stamps were part of the Crafty Roo Christmas Countdown for 2025

Snippets Challenge #502

 It's lovely to see the sunshine again today but still pretty chilly outside so I'll need to wrap up warm to pop along to the Playground with my card for the latest challenge.  This time I've used some of my white snippets - one larger one for the background and some smaller pieces for the rectangle and the little house.  I've not included a photo because I felt that just seeing three pieces of white card could be boring for you  😉.  I started with the larger piece and smooshed some ink until I was happy with the result, followed by over stamping with the keys background stamp.  I also stamped a larger key at the base of the small die cut rectangle.  The little cottage was stamped onto an even smaller snippet, coloured using pencils and then fussy cut.  The sentiment was also a snippet from a part sheet of computer generated ones produced some time ago and which I keep handy so that I can cut them as and when required.

Keys - stamp sets from Crafty Roo
Cottage - stamp from Lavinia Stamps
Rectangle - die from Stitched Rectangles, Stampin' Up (retired)
Sentiment - computer generated, banner die Creative Expressions

Allsorts Challenge #819

 The theme for this fortnight on the Allsorts Challenge has been chosen by Lynn and she is asking for **Feminine Projects** and of course there is the *Anything Goes* option.  Prizes this time will be from Stamp Addicts.

For my DT card  I have a 100th birthday card to share and I thought such a milestone deserved a larger card than I normally make.  This was a commission and I was told that the lady loved pretty colours and flowers. For many years she was a member of a Patchwork Group so I thought that the background paper was very appropriate and then I set about finding toning colours for the layers and the flowers.  All of the white elements were cut using some pearlescent card; the flowers were cut using dies from two sources and arranged around the central numbers.

Background Paper - from a selection of 12" papers which I've had for a long time
Decorative Layers - Die set from Tonic, probably no longer available
Flowers - Dies from Creative Expressions and Spellbinders
Numbers -  dies from Amazon (possibly Globeland)

Spring Bird

 The card I'm sharing today covers a couple of challenges set by the talented Darnell.  Firstly for her I.D.E.A.S where there is a rolling theme through the month with a different technique or 'idea' for each week.  I'm not sure I've explained this too well but you can read all about it if you follow the link to her blog 😊. Secondly this card will fit with the NBUS challenge where we are encourage to knuckle down and actual use some of our 'never before used schtuff'.

The ideas theme this week is to use dies - the circle and of course the bird and flowers.  The circle die I've had for ages but the bird on the floral branch is definitely NBUS..  I selected a square scalloped card and a piece of patterned paper from my stash and then die cut the circle and other elements from bits and pieces from my ever-growing snippets collection.  A simple stamped and die cut sentiment added - job done!!

Circle Die - from a John Next Door set from way back
Bird and Flowers - Sizzix Spring Bird die set
Sentiment - from a retired Stampin' Up set

Stencilled Butterfly

This card was made quite a while ago but never posted here so I thought I'd share it today.  The butterfly was coloured using a set of layering stencils which came with matching dies and the lattice panel was die cut into the cream panel using a die from a set I've had a long time.  The sentiment was also die cut with its shadow and that's about it really, a fairly CAS card 

Sentiment - from Julie Hickey
Lattice - die from Sue Wilson, Creative Expressions (years old)
Butterfly - layering stencil/die set from Amazon 

Reminders

 Travelling around to various blogs and seeing what other people are making often serves as a reminder of a technique which we might have forgotten about as well as sometimes being introduced to something new.  Recently I've spotted a couple of reminders of the faux bleach technique or reverse stencilling as it is sometimes known.  This involves colouring card or watercolour paper using water-based inks such as Elements, Distress, Distress Oxides or similar and once it is dry a stencil is placed over the top and water sponged on (best to try not to make it too wet otherwise it can seep under the stencil and spoil the effect).  The water lifts the colour leaving the design of the stencil.  I used blue, purple and yellow on heavy watercolour paper and a leafy stencil..  Once I'd trimmed the piece to the size I wanted I spattered it with some mica mixed with water.

I've trimmed a snippet of my piece to make a panel for this card which I'm taking along to the challenge at the  Snippets Playground for this fortnight.  Had a rummage and found snippets of silvery glitzy card and some toning purple which were almost the right size for a couple of layers so very little left over from that.  The dragonfly layers were die cut from snippets of the silver and faux bleached pieces, also the fun sentiment came from the piece I'd coloured..

Here is a picture of the smallest snippets and I still have some of the coloured piece left

Dragonfly and sentiment - dies from Gummiapan
Element inks in yellow, purple and blue (from Lavinia Stamps)

One of the 'reminders' of this technique came from a video by Chrissie Stokes who used 'Mr Magic' sponge (a domestic cleaning product) to apply water to the stencil and this is what I used - works well. Link to her video  https://youtu.be/MzSjRRvijWQ?si=h-nEUruH6RkqcVqu

Allsorts Challenge #818

 The theme for this fortnight on the Allsorts Challenge has been chosen by Helen who would like to see something Clean and Simple (CAS) or of course there is always the 'anything goes' option.  Prizes are from Oakwood.

For my card I started with a cream 5 x 7 card blank and cut a matching layer slightly smaller.  Next I cut a cream circle which was then embossed using a double pierced die from a set of nesting circles.  Next move was to cut a smaller plain circle which was then stamped with text for a bit of interest.  Once assembled I  added a die cut sprig of lavender (2 layers of cream card for stability).  Final touch was the stamping of a sentiment in a colour to match the text background.

Pierced Circle dies - from Creative Expressions Noble double pierced nesting circles set
Lavender - unbranded die
Sentiment - from a magazine give-away set of stamps
Text Background - stamp from an old Stampers' Anonymous set Tim Holtz

Inspired

 I was inspired to make this card by seeing a recent video from Jo Rice and this is my version as I don't have the tree stamp which she used.  I'd recently made a few DL backgrounds using inks on the Gelli plate so decided to use one of them as my tree seems to fit that format in preference to the square of the original.  The tree and pixie were both stamped onto the background and a few mushroom dwellings and a bit of foliage added.  A mask was used to give the impression of a moon with some toning yellow ink.  I'm undecided about adding a sentiment, or perhaps a word sticker but there is space for either at some point. Some touches of gold glimmer were added to the moon,  tree and shrooms but of course they don't show up particularly well in the picture.

All stamps by Lavinia

Christmas Tag

 I'm sharing a Christmas Tag for Rudolph Days  - fewer of them this month with February being a shorter month.  I may decide to pop this tag onto a card at some point but there's plenty of time for that decision later in the year.  I'd followed along with making a tag book in December inspired by Kym of Crafty Roo fame and this one is my version using one of the floral stamps in the Christmas countdown and turning it into a poinsettia. I started by smooshing some Distress Oxide onto the tag and adding some visual texture with a text stamp before adding a swirl of leaves.  I then used some scrap white card and stamped more leaves and the flowers which were then coloured and fussy cut to arrange over the leafy swirl.  The Noel word was stamped and fussy cut as well and the tag finished off with some toning ribbon. It doesn't show in the picture but some glimmer was added to the top layer of each flower.  Happy Rudolph Days everyone 😃

Noel Stamp - from Lavinia
Rest of stamps - all from Crafty Roo Christmas Countdown collection 2024
Tag was cut using a Tim Holtz die which I've had for some years

PS - The sad news is that Crafty Roo will be closing down on 1st April

Celebrate!

 It's celebration time over at the Snippets Playground because this is challenge #500.  This time there is a mandatory theme of *Celebration* and there are two mystery bumper prizes to be won. There is cause for celebration on lots of occasions and for my card I've chosen to make one which says 'Celebrate Your Day'  rather than making it too specific.  Apart from the card blank this was made using various snippets but I've only included a picture of the two smaller ones which I used for the sentiment.  The white and grey backgrounds were trimmed from slightly larger snippets which left me with some very narrow slivers which went into the bin..  I coloured the white layer using a layered stencil (4 layers in all) using Distress inks in four colours.

My snippets picture

Stencils - Four layer set from Sizzix called Scroll Text
Celebrate - unbranded die

Love Stamping

 The theme at We Love Stamping is **Clean and Simple* but I've chosen to go for the *Anything Goes* route this time with my card.  Thought I'd change things up a bit and coloured my dandelions in pink for a change.  A couple of bumble bees hovering over them and that's it with just a small computer generated sentiment.  Some great inspiration from the Design Team as always and some lovely prizes.  This card also suits the theme at Stamping Sensations of **Love/Romance** so I'm popping along there with it as well.

Stamps all from Lavinia - dandelion clocks with Bumble and Hum
Words - produced on the computer

Allsorts Challenge #817

 The theme for the Allsorts Challenge this fortnight has been chosen by Liz and is **Shades of Blue** or of course there is always the *Anything Goes* option so why not look through your crafty items for something blue and have a go.  Prizes this time are from Lavinia and we welcome Carol as a guest designer..

For my card I've chosen some designer papers for the background and then stamped a flower onto a piece of white card.  I masked off the flower head and leaf before adding the texture stamp and then added colour using Distress Oxide ink with a water brush.  The sentiment was stamped and coloured and cut using a stitched rectangle die.

Background Papers - from Boho Indigo collection Stampin Up (retired)
Stamps - all from Crafty Roo
Stitched rectangle - die from Stampin' Up (retired)

Valentine

 A quick post this morning to share a card suitable for a Valentine although I've not indicated that purpose inside.  That way it would fit other occasions such as Wedding, Anniversary or simply sending love.  I simply cut the swirly hearts out from a square of white card which I then backed with a pink layer.  The word was die cut a couple of times from the remains of the pink and layered to give it a bit more height.

Dies are unbranded ones from Amazon

Branch

 When is a branch not a branch?  Odd question maybe, but I turned this one into a tree, adding a sentiment for this tall card.  I started by making an inky background before stamping the 'tree' with a few extra leaves and trailing vines - a fairly quick card once the background inking was dry.   

Stamps from Lavinia
Sentiment stamp I've had a while - think it was from a magazine give-away

Snippets Challenge #499

 Time for another visit to the Playground for the current challenge - looking forward to a yummy chocolate croissant too if there are any left.  This card is from my drafts file, still a few left there which were made at the end of last year and for that reason I don't have photos of the snippets used - sorry.  Rest assured though that the Snippets mountain is ALWAYS my first port of call each time I make a card and I'm sure everything but the card blank came from there.  The two cream pieces were trimmed to size along with their slightly larger layers in brown.   The larger piece was embossed and then lightly brayered to show up the design and the smaller piece was stamped using a random text stamp.  For the leaf I found a small snippet of some glimmer card which had been swiped with alcohol ink and a really small snippet of a darker colour for the leaf detail.  The sentiment was snipped from the remains of a sheet of sentiments which I'd produced and printed using Microsoft Word

Embossing Folder - an ancient one from Tim Holtz
Leaf - from a Sizzix set called Artsy Leaves

Allsorts Challenge # 816

 The theme for the current Allsorts Challenge has been chosen by Gail who would like to see **Romance/Music notes/Instruments** or of course there is the *Anything Goes* option.  There are prizes from Aall & Create.

I've made a card which would be good for a Valentine; maybe a wedding or anniversary; or just to send  some love.  I cut a piece of pink card slightly smaller than the card base and another white one smaller again.  The hearts were die cut from this layer followed by stamping the little mice and the music notes.  A die cut sentiment added within the swirl of hearts - job done - a fairly CAS card to suit the theme.

Swirl of Hearts - unbranded die from Amazon
Stamping - Stamps from Lavinia
Sentiment - die which was a magazine gift a while ago
Squares - die cut using Creative Expressions Noble Pierced squares nesting dies

A 'Borrowed' Design

 The Mojo is still being somewhat elusive here but when I spotted this card made by Miss Di for the recent Playground challenge I was reminded that I have the Birthday version of the die which she used and I have to agree that it's not the easiest of dies to use which is probably why I didn't go for the Christmas one as well.  I do, however, really like the size and format of the wording and just happen to have the tall parcel die and stamp set as well so, with her permission, I decided to 'CASE' her ideas (copy and share). I've had the sentiment die for probably well over a year and despite being a tad troublesome, it does deserve to be seen more frequently as it's quite versatile.  Fortunately the tall parcel stamp and die set is a dream to use and I certainly have plenty of Snippets to make use of both dies.  Thankyou Di for the inspiration which encouraged me to try again with the sentiment die 😉

Birthday Die - unbranded
Parcel - Stamp and die set from Gummiapan
Sequins - Die-namics die set which was a challenge lucky win a few years ago
Card Layers - DL nesting die set from Creative Craft Products (Craft Stash)

Happy Rudolph Days

 I was very lucky recently to win a bumper bundle of Christmas related items in one of the Snippets December challenges so I thought what a great idea it would be to use one of the die sets to make a card to celebrate the January Rudolph Days.  I started with a pile of green and red card snippets to die cut all the pieces from the set.  These were then assembled and the flower was painted with Wink of Stella, which sadly doesn't show in the photo.  Next move was to bring out a die set which I've had for many years to make a background on which to mount the floral spray.  This in turn was mounted onto a piece of suitable design paper and a sentiment was stamped and added.  That's it - I've started on my cards for this year - entering a challenge such as this on a regular basis will build up a nice collection of cards for later on so why not see what you can find to make something for Rudolph Day each month.

Background paper - printed using a download from Buddly Crafts
Background shapes - die set from Sue Wilson, Creative Expressions.  Probably no longer available
Main Motif - Die set from Sizzix Holiday Brushstroke #3
Sentiment - Stamp from Contempo Christmas, Stampin' Up (retired)

Snippets Challenge #498

 There's an optional theme on the Snippets Playground challenge this time to make something incorporating hearts, bearing in  mind that Valentine's Day will soon be here or of course an anniversary card could be made. I've used various snippets to make my card which doesn't really feature hearts although I did notice that the little leaves on the sprays are vaguely heart-shaped 😊.  Everything apart from the card blank has come from my snippets collection and I've included a photo of the smaller remnants.  The design is loosely based on a card made by Chrissie Stokes who posts a video  on You Tube most days showing her latest makes and giving lots of useful hints and tips along the way.

I started by embossing a snippet of cream card using a text E/F using a plain strip with embossed edges to give it some extra interest (one of Chrissie's tips).  I then die cut two sprays of leaves in gold along with a cream vase, which I've just noticed has cut-out hearts at the top.  Finally the sentiment was die cut in gold. As usual there is a great prize to be won so why not sort out some snippets and have a go.

Leaves - die from Gummiapan
Vase - die from retired Stampin' Up set Boho Indigo
Sentiment - Die from retired Stampin' Up Hey Chick
Embossing Folder - unbranded from Amazon

Allsorts Challenge #815

 The theme for the current Allsorts Challenge, chosen by Brenda, is **Close to Nature** (animals/trees/flowers etc) or of course you can always choose the *Anything Goes* option.. Prizes this time are from Aall & Create.  For my card I decided to use a stamp featuring a hedgehog and baby which came with a matching die.  Stamped and coloured using Polychromos pencils before die cutting.  I used some green inks and random stamps to colour a scrap of white card before die cutting some grasses so the hedgies had somewhere to sit.  A simple sentiment was added, making this a relatively CAS card with everything being placed onto a tattered edge square die which is slightly smaller than the card blank.

Tarttered Square - die from Gummiapan
Hedgehogs - Stamp and Die from Gummiapan
Grasses - unbranded die
Sentiment - Stamp and Die from a retired Stampin' Up set

Mystery

 I occasionally treat myself to one of the regular monthly mystery stamp sets from Crafty Roo and this card has been sitting in my draft file since  last year so I decided I'd share it with you.  I started by stamping the main background image onto a square of white card using Versamark ink and embossing with clear embossing powder to act as a resist..  This was followed by inking the background using yellow Distress Oxide and finally a few droplets of water for a bit of visual texture.  The remaining stamps in the set were the 'splats' and tiny numbers texture stamps.  A butterfly was then stamped, coloured and fussy cut, popped on top to form a focal point.  A stamped sentiment and that was it - job done

.All stamps from Crafty Roo

Apologies

 I'm afraid I've not ben too active on my blog recently but fortunately I still have a few cards which were  made last year and tucked away in my draft file.  I've not been particularly productive so far this year - along with quite a few other crafters Mr Mojo seems to have deserted me but at least I've tidied away most of the Christmas 'stuff' and should be ready to get back into the swing shortly.  The cold spell of weather hasn't helped - making cards with cold hands isn't the easiest 🙄. Excuses, excuses - anyway here's one I made earlier as the saying goes.

I've used a sticker stencil and some Distress inks before stamping the flowers, foliage and a bee.  A little colour was added to the bee and Wink of Stella on the wings.  The stopper for the jar was also stamped.  I decided to add a sentiment to the inside rather than detract from the image on the front.

Sticker stencil - Lavinia Stamps
Flowers, foliage, bee and stopper - all Lavinia stamps using Versafine Clair ink

Snippets Challenge #497

 Monday (I think) and it will be good to be back into routine weeks after the holidays.  With both of the occasions being mid-week it seems as if four weekends have been crammed into just two weeks which I've found somewhat disorientating.  Anyway it's time to visit the Snippets Playground with my latest Snippets card and there are celebrations afoot because it's been 13 years since Miss Di took charge of the keys - 11 of those years running solo until Sarn joined her a couple of years ago to ease the load somewhat.  I wonder how many kilos (or tonnes) of Snippets have been used during that time, yet the supply seems to be endless, certainly in my case as I can't bear to throw out even the smallest scrap of anything which could be deemed 'useful' 🤣🤣.  Many congratulations on this Blogoversary and thanks for making the Playground such a sunny and happy place to visit.  A very generous prize this time for a lucky winner drawn at random.

Anyway onto my card for which I've used a stamp and die set acquired very recently.  After some thought I decided to print a 'word cloud' which I had saved on the computer - this of course had to be printed onto a whole sheet of card but once it was die cut I have the large snippet of white card left over for future use.  I used a large Snippet of white card to cut a layer slightly smaller than the card blank. This was then smooshed with Distress Oxide ink and overstamped with some light circles and edged using a fine liner pen.  The little parcel was stamped onto a snippet of a gel print from my collection and the blue circle cut from another Snippet.  A bit of extra colour was added to the spots and bow on the parcel. Phew! that took longer to explain than to actually do 😉  The shades of blue are in fact better matched than they appear on the screen 🙄

Just a picture of the smaller snippets here

Parcel - die and stamp set from Gummiapan
Blue Circle - die from Daisy Mae
Circle stamp - texture stamp from Crafty Roo
Word Cloud - produced by me a while ago using Craft Artist (I think)

Allsorts Challenge #814

 The theme for the first Allsorts Challenge of the year is **Matching Pairs** (card and tag/gift bag/ envelope ...) or of course there is always the *Anything Goes* option.  Don't forget that this challenge is now running on a fortnightly basis and you can see full details of how this will work by following the link to the Blog.  Prizes this time from Lavinia Stamps.

I've made a card with matching envelope - stamping a border onto a piece of card slightly smaller than the card blank using Versafine Clair ink and then using Distress Oxide inks to watercolour around the area and then painting into the tiny hexagons, which then made me think of honeycomb so I've added two die cut bees.  The sentiment was produced on the computer.  For the envelope I simply stamped the border down the left hand side, leaving it uncoloured because I thought the Oxide inks would run or smudge if the envelope got wet while it was in transit.

It will be interesting to see just what ideas come up as matching pairs for this theme so why not see if you can surprise us 😉

Border Stamp - from Crafty Roo Designs
Bees - dies from Gummiapan
Sentiment - produced on computer using Microsoft Word