Floral Theme

I 'found' these two stamped and die cut flowers and a leaf amongst the bits and pieces littering my work space along with some scraps of blue and green card with of course the inevitable pieces of white - always plenty of those around.  Far too many to be hoarding really if I'm honest but 'old habits' and all that.  Anyway I've put together a card with a bit of a Spring feel about it matching up with the colours outside the window at present although it has been coming over dark and chucking hail-like showers at us.

Started with a piece of toning background paper remaining from a pad I probably bought years ago; cut a couple of circles, a square and a birthday sentiment.  Once assembled I thought it just needed a little something more so stamped and punched a couple of small butterflies and tied a little blue bow using organza ribbon finishing off with blue sparkly gems as flower centres.

Flowers - Dies by Sue Wilson, Creative Expressions

Butterflies - stamp and punch from Stampin' Up

Snippets Challenge #372

I've realised that I seem to have missed the previous challenge - not quite sure how it happened, a senior moment maybe!!  Anyway I have a  card to take along to the Playground for the current one.  This was made using up bits and pieces which were lying around left over from recent projects.  I do try to clear up my working space when it shrinks too much but these bits hadn't even made it into the 'store' of snippets.  The ovals were cut out from a scrap of text paper (quite heavy weight, almost card) and then the flower silhouettes were stamped in black.  A larger snippet was about the right size to fit onto my normal card blank and some over-stamping was done using a text stamp. The piece of brown card was run through an embossing folder for a  bit of texture and a narrow snippet of the same card was used to die cut the sentiment.  Do pop along to the Playground to see the adorable Easter card which Di has made to showcase the great prize on offer for a lucky winner.

Stamps - an old set of Stampin' Up stamps Silhouette Sentiments
Embossing Folder - Hessian texture from Embossalicious
Sentiment - Source forgotten, sorry
Text Stamp - set from Phill Martin

Filling Gaps

I've been filling  gaps in my box of cards and this time I noticed a shortage of sympathy cards which unfortunately are needed from time to time and it is good to have some ready to hand.  For this one I started by using a textured stamp inked up in two colours to make a section of background following up with stamping the tree, birds and sentiment..  This is a fairly simple card but I feel cards for these occasions don't need to be too elaborate.

Background - textured stamp from Clarity
Tree - Sheltering Tree by Stampin' Up
Birds - from a Lighthouse stamp set by Stampin' Up
Sentiment - from a set of free stamps which came with a magazine some time ago

Books

This week seems to have gone by in a flash but I do have a card to share today.  I've used another piece of the card which I embossed and coloured in an inky session with male cards in mind although I think this one would work for anyone really.  The books and sentiment were stamped onto scraps of watercolour paper and the colouring done using Distress inks and a water brush.  The embossed card was also coloured using Distress inks and gilding wax added afterwards for definition and a bit of subtle glitz.  The background is a piece of script paper and I've added a cog which has been embossed and gilded after die cutting.  In case you are wondering - the sentiment is deliberately 'messy' because that's how it stamps out!!

Stamps - by Phill Martin
Embossing folder - from Sizzix
Cog - Bigz die from Sizzix
Background paper from Prima.

Challenge #370 Pixie Snippets

Time for new challenge in the Playground and this is another dragonfly card but nothing like my previous one.  I used a die which came free with a magazine and which partially cuts out a 'flight' of dragonflies - cut it twice on a square snippet of white card.  There was a matching set of stamps and thank goodness for the Misti so that I could line things up (more or less anyway) to stamp over the cut out dragonflies.  A blue glimmery embossing powder was used throughout.  A couple of larger dragonflies were stamped. embossed and layered up for some dimension and tiny pieces of 3d foam were popped under all of the wings.  A greeting was stamped onto a small snippet of white, backed with some blue and put into the centre of the card. A few matching gems were scattered around.

The lovely Di has made a super cheery card using some cactus stamps - very colourful and just right to brighten the dull days we seem to be having.  Of course that set of stamps with matching dies is the prize on offer for the lucky person who is drawn at the end of the two weeks.

Die and Stamp set - from Stamps by Chloe
Embossing Powder - Cosmic Shimmer Tropical Aqua Blaze

Dragonfly Love

I've had a change from making male cards and this card could be ready for Valentine's Day which isn't really all that far away.  The various elements were die cut from cream and gold pearl card and layered up onto a pink butterfly background paper.  We've had quite a change in the weather today - nice blue sky and some sunshine but very cold with quite a frost first thing this morning which hung around for quite a while.  It is nice though to see the sunshine after a week of grey and rainy days.

Background paper - from Polkadoodles
Dies - all from Tonic

Steampunkery

Today's card is similar to the previous one but with different colours, different embossing folder used and a stamped image added instead of a die cut.  Again the embossed background strips were coloured using Distress Stains.  The steampunk image was stamped and heat embossed onto a piece of text card, then backed with a purple oval mat.  A stamped sentiment on the same text card and that's another one for the box - could be suitable for male or female I think.  The purple background technique has shown up more brightly on screen than it is in real life. It was touched with some pewter stain to highlight the texture.

The weather here has again deteriorated into relentless rain and wind and I hope it isn't too bad where you are.

Embossing Folders - Tim Holtz Alterations
Sentiment - Tim Holtz stamps
Text background - from a Prima paper pad, more card weight than paper
Stamp - from Steampunkery stamp set by Chocolate Baroque