Butterfly Challenge

The Butterfly Challenge is back after a short break and this time the letter of the alphabet is 'S', with the usual theme of a card shape and various colours - read all about it HERE.  There are some lovely prizes on offer as well so why not have a go.  I've only managed two of the colours on my card (salmon pink and sage green) and of course some butterflies fluttering around the basket of flowers.  The papers were left over from a previous project and the small flowers were lying around in a container on my desk where I usually drop any oddments which I can't bear to throw away.

Bicycle - Memory Box die which I've had for years
Flowers - Flower die from John Next Door
Butterfly die - from Crafter's Companion
Papers - from a Paper Pantry USB

Cone Flowers

 This card is not quite how it started out but at least I managed to rescue it.  Background is a Gelli print which was done using fairly textured watercolour paper and the two flowers were stamped using Versamark ink and embossed with white followed by stamping all the rest of the foliage using various inks.  Unfortunately because of the texture the white embossing just didn't have the intended impact and the piece almost made it into the bin 🙄. However after a bit of thought I stamped the flower heads onto some scrap card so that I could colour and fussy cut them to layer over the offending white blooms.  As I said not quite what was intended but at least my time making the background and adding all the stamping wasn't wasted.

Hope everyone is surviving the extreme heat - thankfully the temperature seems to have returned to a more normal level.  Feeling uncomfortably hot just sitting still is a bit much isn't it🥵

Cone Flowers - stamps from Hobby Arts
Foliage - various stamps, mainly from Lavinia with some freebies

Allsorts Week 685

 Guess what the challenge is this week on Allsorts - yes it's **Christmas in July** and today is set to be the hottest on record so they say🥵.  For this card I started with two pieces of patterned paper and a narrow strip of red arranged to look like wallpaper and carpet.  Next I die cut a window and backed it with a piece of scenic DSP.  Finally die cut the Christmas tree, presents and the black cat lying on the windowsill. I decided this one didn't need a sentiment on the front as it speaks for itself.

Window - Memory Box die
Tree and parcels - Sizzix dies
Snowy scene - DSP from Stampin' Up (long retired)
Cat - die which was a free gift when I purchased the window

Inspiration

 Inspiration comes from all around us, both consciously and sub-consciously and the idea for this card was inspired by seeing that my friend Anne had included some cats on her latest card.  I knew that I had the self same dies in my stash but, as happens, they'd not seen the light of day for a really long time so I set about unearthing them.  The idea of using the 'brick wall' embossing folder along with some beautiful landscape paper was the sub-conscious part .😀

Papers - from New Horizons Stampin' Up (retired)
Curvy Hill - Curvy die set also SU (retired)
Brick Walls - Brick 3D embossing folder SU
Cats - dies from Impression Obsession in my stash for years
Sentiment, Fence and grasses - SU New Horizons

Christmas in July

 It always feels a bit odd to be making Christmas cards at this time of the year, particularly when it is so very hot and threatening to become even hotter - phew!!.  Anyway it is Christmas in July over in the Pixie's Playground with a bumper Christmas prize for the lucky winner.  Of course the card made has to be Christmas related and the usual use of snippets required. I started with a card blank and cut a piece of red card from a whole sheet - has to be done sometimes but naturally it leaves me with more bits for the snippets box!  The patterned layer was a fairly large snippet from last year and the gnome, holly and green circle were all die cut from bits in my snippets collection.  It is quite possible that the 'merry Christmas' sentiment and small white circle came from the snippets box of the friend who kindly sent me some of them to use.  I did emboss the white piece using a very small winter scene embossing folder..

Gnome - die was a gift from a friend
Holly Sprig - die set by Sizzix
White embossing - E/F by Crafter's Companion
Sentiment - die cut was a gift from another friend

So Glad

 This card was made a  while ago but not shown before and it seems just right for the Allsorts Challenge which is **Allsorts of Animals**.  These cute sheep are having a great time saying 'So Glad It's Your Birthday' and doing a happy dance in the sunshine..  As usual there some great cards made by the design team and a super prize available for a lucky winner.  I started with a square of white card which I brushed with blue and green Distress inks before adding all the stamped and die cut elements.

Stamps and Dies - Counting Sheep from Stampin' Up (retired I think)

A Riddle ...

...  for a very hot Sunday afternoon 😀.  When is an ocean not an ocean?? When my head saw these stamps as a landscape 😉.  I die cut a scalloped rectangle and set about building a mini landscape with various stamps and then made it into a card using another piece of the beautiful Horizons DSP which was simply trimmed to fit my card and a row of die cut trees and a sentiment added.  The colour match is so much better in real life

Scalloped Rectangle - Colour and Contour set from Stampin' Up 
Landscape - built up using Ocean Front stamp set and trees from New Horizon set SU
Details - distant treeline and fence - stamps from Card-Io