Baby Boy

 Sorting out my stock of cards I realised that I was a bit short on boy baby cards - plenty for girls though.  I decided to make at least one card in blues and for this I've used a kangaroo stamp and of course the baby roo which were coloured using alcohol pens and then fussy cut along with a little cluster of hearts.  The white circle was die cut from a piece of card which had been stamped with a woodgrain pattern and I've added some more die cuts for background along with a sentiment and three punched white hearts.

Stamps - Kangaroo and Company Stampin' Up
Wood grain - stamp also from SU but retired
Sentiment - from kangaroo stamp set on die cuts from Stitched So Sweetly SU
Rectangles - dies from a John Next Door set
Stitched circles - Sizzix dies

Donkey Birthday

 This card came about because I was having a long overdue clear up of the working space on my desk.  I'm sure you all find the same as I do in that the actual work space seems to shrink at an alarming rate until it turns into something akin to keyhole surgery.  I often wonder if it is worth saving almost every scrap of paper and card which is inevitably left over after making a card, not to mention numerous surplus die cuts etc but I'm afraid the hoarder in me just won't let me throw them away.  I do try to use all the oddments but they do accumulate and often making use of them leads to searching for more paper or card to go with them, which in turn leads to even more left overs and isn't really the most efficient way of working..  I must say I've been toying with the idea of gathering up all the scraps and putting them into the recycling box (without even looking through them!!), and starting from scratch but so far haven't been brave enough 🙄🙄.  I've been crafting for a long time  and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find bits and pieces from the early days still lurking at the bottom of some of my boxes..

Anyway, back to today's card which started because I found a stray donkey which reminded me of an idea which I'd spotted somewhere (Pinterest probably).  Of course I needed more than one donkey so had to stamp, colour and fussy cut another one.  I had a piece of white card handy into which I cut the narrow strip apertures and then selected some patterned paper and plain toning card.  The sentiment was stamped onto the bottom of the white card and a couple of the fall-out pieces were used to ground the two donkeys. All layered up using thin foam pads. I thought this was a fun idea for a card but afraid I couldn't find the source again so can't credit the originator of the idea - sorry.

Stamps - Darling Donkeys from Stampin' Up
Cut out areas - Beautiful Brush Strokes die set Stampin' Up

Spring Gnome

 Just to show that gnomes aren't just for Christmas, here is a Spring one wheeling in some lovely flowers. These are digital images and I've used up some matching scraps of patterned papers for an interesting background.  The sentiment was created on the computer.  Not much more to say about this one - just a bit of fun I thought.

 Images and Papers - from Creative World of Crafts Beverley Eden designs
Sentiment - designed using My Craft Studio

Allsorts Challenge #671/672

 Time again for another challenge at Allsorts and this time the theme is **masculine** and the design team has come up with some great ideas for this often difficult card theme.  Mine this time is for quite a young male and I've used a digital image from a CD which has been in my collection for many years.  I've been having a bit of a clear out of CD's and DVD's many of which are quite old but in doing so of course I had to look at lots of them to remind myself of what they contained.  Luckily this one which features Teddy bears still works  even though it says it requires Windows 98 😉.  Once printed the bear was die cut using an oval die and a scalloped oval die used for a second layer.  The two blue balloons were die cut and added as a little extra touch.

Image and Background - printed from Tumble Ted and Tizzy
Balloon Dies - from two different Stampin' Up die sets
Sentiment - from Hey Birthday Chick die set also SU

Snippets Playground #425

 Off to visit the Playground with my latest Snippets card - Sarn is in charge this time and she has shown us a great selection of cards using up some of her snippets - plenty of great ideas here for inspiration. There are also two super Crafty Individual stamps on offer as a prize for a lucky person whose name is drawn.

 I've been improvising a bit for my card with an idea which I saw for using a Penny Black fancy frame die which I must say I was tempted to order but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it was out of stock.  I pulled out some snippets of cream pearl card and die cut two square frames which I sort of interlaced and placed onto an inked and stencilled background before adding some leaves and a flower.  Everything apart from the base card has come from my snippet mountain.

  If you want to know who introduced me to the Penny Black fancy frame you can see a card HERE where it has been used in a conventional way - I do like the look of this frame and might keep an eye out for it to come back into stock!!  This is a blog where I often become tempted - thanks Di, (I think 😉)

Stencil - by Sheena Douglass Creative Expressions
Frames - dies from Creative Expressions
Leaf and Sentiment - stamp and dies from Stampin' Up
Flower - very old Marianne die with small punched flower added

Snowdrop Sympathy

 I've CASE'd a card posted recently by Liz (scroll down a bit to find her version) and she has also recently done something similar with another edger die.  Seeing her card reminded me that I'd purchased a papercut style edger die a fair time ago in the good old days when we could safely go to large craft fairs, but not until I dug mine out of retirement did I realise I had the self-same die she had used - good taste in dies obviously!!  I've also made my card as a Sympathy one but of course hope I won't need it - always handy to have a couple in reserve though.  Unusually for me I've actually cut into three whole new pieces of card for this one but of course doing so has left me with some very useful snippets for future use😉.  This type of card does really need to be quite simple and unadorned so thanks Liz for giving me the idea.

Card - two shades of green from Stampin' Up and cream pearlescent from Crafter's Compantion
Sentiment - die cut using Crafter's Companion die
Papercut - Snowdrops Papercut die from Creative Expressions

Daisies

A DL Daisy card to share today.  This one took a while to make because it entailed die cutting in several different colours so that I could piece the details all together to form the design - just as well I enjoy that sort of crafting 😉😉 but then if I didn't, I suppose I probably wouldn't do it.  As luck would have it I had some daisy patterned paper in my stash which I could use to back the whole design.   It's certainly a day for staying inside today because it is bitterly cold outside despite some sunshine - think they call it wind chill - brrr!!  Taking it fairly easy anyway because I had my Covid Spring booster jab last night - oops! might be giving my age away here 🤣 

Dies - Split Daisies from Tonic