Baby Card

I have a Baby Card to share today, made one in pink and one in  blue because I didn't know which would be needed.  I saw something similar on Pinterest a while ago and thought it would be fun to make. The spotted paper was adhered to a piece of card to give it a bit of substance and a circle die used to cut out the 'window', which was then framed with a scalloped circle.  The rabbit peeping out was made up  'punch-art' style using some stamps with matching punch and then a die was used to cut the 'welcome baby' wording.  The blue card has been popped into the post to welcome my first great grandson.

Spotted Paper - from the Paper Pantry
Circle dies - from Spellbinders
Square dies - from Tonic
Stamps and punch - Stampin' Up Friends and Flowers (retired) 
Wording - unbranded die

Oldies

 No I'm not talking about old folks but old stamp sets and other 'stuff' which I've had for varying lengths of time and some of which haven't seen the light of day for years rather than months or weeks.  Trawling through my collections I remember that these were all purchased because I really liked them and I've realised that on the whole I still like them so my aim is to give some of them an airing and try not to be tempted into buying more new 'stuff'.  Not sure how the resisting temptation thing will go, that remains to be seen.😉

This card started out from coming across an already stamped ornate label - and yes it was stamped a really long time ago.  We are back before the days of matching dies so it has been fussy cut.  This led me to finding the stamp set to see what else was included so that I could make up a card and I stamped the oval frame and added a sentiment before using an oval punch to cut it out.  The bird was also stamped and fussy cut.  I had a small scrap of already embossed cream card which I extended by adding a punched strip on the bottom.  The background was made by over stamping some flowers from another ancient stamp set onto a piece of paper which was part of a magazine freebie.  Finally backed with a scalloped square of matching card and there it is - a card made from a heap of oddments - I do love to challenge myself to use up the bits and pieces I have lying around.

Oval, fancy frame and bird - from Suitably Ornate stamp set Stampin' Up (long retired)
Background Flowers - stamps from Everything Eleanor Stampin' Up (long retired also)
Embossing - folder from Creative Expressions 
Punched Strip - border punch from Stampin' Up
Sentiment - freebie stamp which came with a magazine
Card and Ink - Cherry Cobbler also SU
Square dies - Tonic

Christmas Wishes

 This comes with very best wishes to all my blog friends and followers and I would like to say thank you very much for all your visits through the year and for the lovely comments - all very much appreciated. It has certainly been a very strange year - here's hoping that 2021 will see a turn-around so that there are happier and more settled times times ahead for everyone.  In the meantime stay safe.

Dies used - from Crafts Too, Karen Burniston, Britannia and Crafter's Companion

Playground Challenge #393

 This is the final challenge for the year over in the Playground and there are some extra goodies to be won - best pop over for a visit and read the precise details for taking part if you are interested.  The lovely Di works so hard on our behalf to keep this challenge running and on 1 January it will be the nine years anniversary.  Goodness me that's a whole lot of posts and prizes if you think about it so well done Di, the regular playmates appreciate what you do for us.  Congratulations!!

Apart from the base card everything on this card was taken from various snippets boxes.  I started with the stamped image onto a snippet of white, coloured with pencils and then cut into an oval. I then selected some pieces of card and patterned paper which I thought toned together nicely and set about cutting banners.  A sentiment stamped onto another scrap of white with a tiny punched flower added and there it is - my snippets card for this challenge.

Hydrangea - stamp from a long-retired Stampin' Up set
Papers and card - all chosen from my snippets boxes
Sentiment - using one of the stamps from my favourite freebie sentiment set
Dies - ovel from Tonic, banners from Stampin' Up

Have You Guessed I Like Flowers?

 Yet another floral card to share today, made yesterday to cheer me up on a very grey, very wet Wednesday.  Bit of a contrast today because we have blue skies and sunshine although still winter temperatures of course. For this one I've pulled out a long-retired stamp set which I've had for many years. These date back to well before stamp sets came with matching dies so anything we wanted cut out had to be fussy cut with scissors which is what I've done here - at least everything except the sentiment oval which was die cut. For the outer blue square I was unable to find a piece of card to tone nicely with the blue I'd used for the stamping so I simply inked around the edges using the same ink - perfect match of course. The white square had the darker blue swirls stamped before being put through an embossing folder for some texture.  The blue plaque and flowers were fussy cut and the sentiment was stamped and die cut into an oval.

Embossing Folder - Art Deco style by Creative Expressions I think (no markings on folder)
Flowers, Swirl and Plaque - Everything Eleanor stamp set from Stampin' Up (retired)
Sentiment - free stamp onto stitched oval die cut Stampin' Up Stitched Shapes

Snowflakes

 Another Christmas card to share today which hopefully has reached its destination although it was well into teatime yesterday before  my post arrived so the postal delivery people are obviously being kept pretty busy this year.  I remember a time when each year there was plenty of seasonal work for students who used to join the 'posties' in the run up so that the mail all got through in time and of course in those days there were also more deliveries each day rather than just the one we get now. There were even deliveries on the Sunday prior to Christmas day then - Guess I'm showing my age here 😉.  

For this card I made up the background using two pieces of designer paper, the bottom one being die cut and laid over the 'sky' area.  The large word was die cut using white card and also a few miscellaneous snowflakes were cut to scatter around.  The little iridescent stars in the centre of the snowflakes look pink here but they look different depending which angle you view them on the actual card. The whole design was backed with a scalloped square of pretty silver card

Sky Paper - left over piece of Artylicious Seasons Greetings printed paper
Darker Blue Paper - from Stampin' Up Trimming the Town collection
Curved Die - from Curvy die set Stampin' Up
Snowflake Word - Sheena Douglass die Creative Expressions
Small Snowflakes - die cut from various die sets
Iridescent Stars - Stampin' Up

Let's Squash It Challenge #3

This time the team at Let's Squash It are asking for a combination of embossing and die cutting or fussy cutting - lots of possibilities here I'm sure. I decided to go down the die cutting route and started by cutting out a 'brass' jar to contain an assortment of die cut flowers.  This jar was then embossed using a floral embossing folder to give the appearance of a decorative brass pot.  The selection of die cut flowers were in a container on my desk left from a session of stamping, colouring and cutting - always handy to have a few flowers ready to pick up and use. This was all arranged onto some die cut shapes with the addition of a paper doily along with a label for the sentiment.  I'm sure many of us have lots of rarely used embossing folders in our stash and this challenge is a great excuse to bring some of them out into the limelight.

Square Dies - Tonic
Shaped dies - Window Frames Collection Stampin' Up
Brass Pot - Everyday Jars Framelits from Stampin' Up
Embossing - Sheena Douglass floral embossing folder
Flowers - from Floral die set designed by Christina Griffiths Craft Stash
Colouring - Inktense Pencils