Birthday Time!!

 It's birthday time at  Allsorts - the challenge has been running for 15 years and to celebrate there is a huge bundle of prizes from Aall & Create to be shared with the lucky winners this time.  The theme is very simple too **Anything Goes** and I've made a stamped card on a coffee theme and added a few extra texture stamps and a computer sentiment.  There is lots of inspiration from the design team and guest designer too so well worth taking a look.

Coffee Grinder - stamp from Caffeinated set by A & C
Texture stamps - various stamps from my stash
Colouring - Inktense pencils with water brush
Sentiment - produced using Microsoft Word

CAS Ideas

 There are so many ideas around for making Clean and Simple cards and once having got over the fear of unwanted inky marks on all that 'white space' it can be quite a fun process although I must say it isn't always as quick a solution as the name suggests.  Today's card was made by adding a block of colour to a piece of plain card which is slightly smaller than the card blank and then over stamping with a floral motif with the addition of a computer sentiment.

Quite a long time ago I purchased an alternative to a gelli plate which I guess was manufactured from the same material as clear stamps. This was A5 in size but I have to confess I was not very successful in using it at the time and not happy with the results, ending up with a couple of genuine Gelli plates instead.  However I came across this item during a sort out of my craft room and decided to chop a piece from it to use as a method of achieving a random inky area - using it like a stamp and inking with Distress Oxide ink, three colours and drying the print each time before cleaning the block, partially re-inking and stamping again.  Once thoroughly dry the flower spray was over-stamped using Versafine Clair in black. I hope this makes sense - much easier to do than to explain in words 😊.  I'm certainly pleased to be getting some use out of what was at the time an impulse buy which I'd regretted and I now have a selection of different sizes cut from the original A5 sheet.

A5 alternative plate - from John Next Door quite a long time ago.
Flower - Funky Flowers design, Kay Carley (The Stampman) - very old stamp set
Distress Oxide inks Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, Dusty Concord
Sentiment - produced using MS Word, printed and die cut.

Snippets Playground Challenge #480

 Time for a new challenge and another lovely crafty prize in the Playground - a great floral card for inspiration too.  Everything apart from the card blank and sentiment has come from my snippets collection.  I used white snippets to die cut the border, the watering can was cut from grey card which I'd brushed over using some silvery mica powder and a drop of water.  The lavender stems were die cut from scraps of card which had been coloured with various pigment powders and the flower heads from another scrap which was coloured in the same way using shades of purple - both of these snippets were left from previous projects (I do like to use up every last scrap of these).  The sentiment was die cut from a sheet of sentiments which I'd produced in 'Word' - not sure if this counts as a snippet or not 😉.

Border - die from Creative Expressions Sue Wilson - possibly no longer available
Watering Can - Gummiapan die
Lavender - unbranded dies
Sentiment - produced using Microsoft 365 Word

Allsorts Challenge # 780

 Time for another challenge on the Allsorts blog and this week the theme is **spots and stripes**, it can be both or one of them and of course anything goes is always an option.  I was very lucky recently to win a voucher to spend with Crafty Individuals and of course I just had to make a selection from their lovely range of stamps to add to my collection - which incidentally still keeps growing despite having decided not to acquire any more 🤣.I've used one of the new stamps to make this card and have added some stencilled spots (no stripes).  The partial effect of the stencilling was achieved by die cutting a curve into some scrap paper, using it as a mask before laying on the stencil.  A simple die cut sentiment and that's it - a cards with some spots for the challenge.

Flower - stamp from Crafty Individuals
Colouring - used Inktense pencils with a water brush
Sentiment - unbranded

Don't forget that next week is an Allsorts birthday with a promise of special prizes (clue in the flyer below!!) so why not pop along to join in the celebrations

Allsorts Challenge #779

 The Allsorts Challenge theme this week is ** more than one fold ** but as I'm not really into fancy folded cards I've chosen to go with ** anything goes ** this time.  I've used some stamps which I recently purchased in a sale which is still ongoing.  I started by inking a background with Distress Oxides, over-stamping with some 'texture' stamps in the same colours and then adding some small text which was embossed in white.  Final addition to the background was the word sentiment using Versafine Clair.  The flower was built up by stamping the various shapes onto white card, colouring using Inktense pencils and then fussy cutting before sticking into place.  The frame around the edge was drawn with a fine  liner pen.

Stamps - purchased from Crafty Roo (at sale prices)

Allsorts have a birthday event coming up so do keep a look out for more details - promise of some great prizes

The Postage Die - Again

 The postage stamp style die seems to be quite popular at the moment and of course it is very versatile either used whole or it could be snipped into individual stamps - something I've not done with mine so far.  A set of nature stamps in a vintage style has been used here - monochrome as well with the addition of some tiny die cut butterflies and a simple sentiment.  I've used DSP for the background and also to cut out and stamp the individual images.

As I was typing this post I remembered that the theme for May's We Love Stamping challenge is **Vintage**, or of course **anything goes**.  I think this probably fits the Vintage theme so I'm popping over there with this card.

Hope you are all having a good Bank Holiday weekend although I have to say I think the weather could be better.

Paper used is from a Prima pad which I've had for many years
Die and stamps are unbranded

Typography

 I do rather like designs based on typography and for this card I've made use of  a stamp which came as part of a magazine giveaway and an embossing folder which I've had for a while.    The panel was a piece of dark green card embossed using a 3D embossing folder, lightly brushed with some gilding wax and mounted onto a piece of gold card.  The typewriter and sentiment were stamped onto a piece of cream card using black ink and clear embossing powder.  This was then fussy cut and popped onto the card.

Using this stamp took me back to many years ago when I first worked in an office - believe it or not this is so reminiscent of the machine I used when learning to touch type when even such things as electric typewriters were but a dream, let alone the electronic devices available these days.  Showing my age here I guess 🤣🤣

Background - paper from a Prima Script pad which I've had a long time (so useful)
Embossing - 3D embossing folder from Sizzix (called typewriter)
Typewriter - stamp from a magazine giveaway set