Bees

 There is a campaign ongoing to save our bees and now apparently the latest thing is a threat from some very large hornets which are due to arrive any day. People are being asked to photograph any they see and report sightings of these predators.  I think the bees on my card will be safe though and  the colours will brighten up what has turned into a very dark morning here, more like winter than August,

Stamps - Honeybee set from Stampin' Up
Papers - oddments from my stash, Buddly Crafts I think
Sentiment - from a free set of stamps with magazine way back
Border - punch from Stampin' Up

Pixie's Playground Challenge #385

 I have a male themed card to take along to the Playground this time and as usual quite a few varied snippets have been used in the making. The background paper is one which was given away with a magazine and I've over stamped it with some images to give it a bit of interest.  Snippets of cream card were used to stamp the watch, pointing finger and the sentiment strip, cut out using scissors.  Various cogs were die cut from snippets of black card and brushed over with Treasure Gold before popping onto the card.  I'm just playing along for fun this time but there is the usual interesting prize on offer to one lucky person.

Stamps - from a Phill Martin set
Cogs - dies from an ancient set of dies by Docraft

Neglected Items

 The stamps used on this card came as part of an Extravaganza Day I attended, possibly at least a couple of years ago and I'm pretty sure they've not seen any ink since that day so I thought I'd give them an airing.  They are triple layer stamps and I have fussy cut  the three resulting flowers  and several leaves  using scissors.  Took me a while I  must say.  Anyway I've added a label shape with a sentiment and made them into a cheery card.  It has been raining steadily all day today so the craft room seemed a good place to spend some time.

Stamps - Painted Harvest from Stampin' Up
Labels - dies also from SU
Sentiment - from a freebie set given with a magazine ages ago

An Experiment

 I thought this morning I'd have a play and see how I got on with making a 'scrapling' card which is something which the lovely Jules does so well - take a look at her blog and scroll down a little way to find a Christmas one of these.

For mine I used up a little piece of card which had been sprinkled with Pixie Powders but it was a bit bland so I added some inking, stencilling and over stamping to liven it up a bit.  Next I die cut a honeycomb, a flower and a tiny golden bee. Some of the 'waste' from the honeycomb has been popped back in at random.  Yes each time I die cut a honeycomb I save all the 'waste' 😀😀

 I must say I wasn't sure this small size of card was for me and in my head couldn't really see how I could incorporate much to make it interesting.  I've always been more comfortable working in square format at around 150 mm but it is good to step outside the comfort zone now and then.  This little card is 65 mm x 135 mm - no sentiment added because I think it could be very useful as a gift card maybe.

Background - using Pixie Powders, honeycomb stencil and a text stamp
Honeycomb - from Honeybee stamp and die set Stampin' Up
Flower - die which sadly has lost its packaging
Bee - die from a Tonic set

Birthday Flowers

Thankfully flowers are always popular and I have another floral card to share.  Tulips aren't exactly seasonal at the moment but as these were stamped and cut out I thought I'd use them anyway.  I started by die cutting a fancy stitched rectangle in white, sponged the edges and then stamped some of the flowers, stems and leaves before adding the ones which I'd cut out.  A scrap of toning ribbon wrapped around and a little sentiment tag were added.  A larger rectangle was cut in green to tone with the leaves and then I put some more white card through a script embossing folder to use as background - sponged the edges of this also to bring out the detail.  I've just realised I meant to add some scattered gems along with the dotty stamping on the pink layer so will do that later.

Embossing Folder - Creative Expressions I think (not marked)
Rectangle Dies - from Creative Dies
Stamps - Timeless Tulips, Stampin' Up
Tiny Tag - Sizzix die set with several sizes

Echinacea

 I was pleased to come across some dies for Echinacea or cone flowers which I particularly like,  but they had no stems so I used stems from a set of Sizzix flower dies.  Found a plain piece of background paper which was a magazine freebie which I over stamped with some trees for a bit of extra interest.

Thankfully we've been having some rain which has slightly cooled things down,  I'm not good with hot and humid conditions.

Tree Stamp - from Chocolate Baroque
Rectangle Dies - Sizzix
Stems - Sizzix dies
Sentiment - produced using Word

Temptation

 I've mentioned before that following blogs often leads me into temptation - seeing stamps or dies which I feel I NEED.  Not so this time when I saw a recent post from the lovely Jules which prompted me to search through my stamps so that I could bring a set out of 'retirement'.  As soon as I saw these flowers I realised that I've had this set of stamps for at least as long as the 10 years mentioned by Jules so I had a rootle around and found them.  I've used scraps of patterned paper to stamp and cut out the flower heads before stamping again in black ink onto an oval of cream card so that I could place the 'cut-outs' onto the stems.  just finished off with some toning patterned paper and a sentiment stamped onto a banner.  Two tiny punched flowers in the smallest scraps of the paper were added to this banner.

Jules mentioned problems writing a post and I've also started to experience similar glitches just recently.  I switched to the new version some time ago and it was fine at first but the main problem now seems to be the double spacing (see below) which I don't seem to be able to clear.  I also have to edit the photos to be the correct size whereas in the past they came in OK.

Stamps - Hampstead floral set by Papermania     

 Banner - Creative Expressions

Tiny Flowers - Stampin' Up punch