Nesting Bird

 I'm sure Spring must be just around the corner and I enjoyed putting this card together although I have to say there were more dies in the set than I imagined and it did turn out to be a bit fiddly.  The leaves are so tiny!  I stamped and coloured the first layer of the nest together with a branch and of course the bird, before die cutting the rest of the components.  I had no idea how I wanted to put things together to build up a card but eventually decided on some ovals as a backing and then found patterned paper and other pieces of card to complete the job.  As usual I had a few 'dry runs' before I decided on the final layout, adding in a stamped, coloured and die cut spray of berries which I came across, left over from a previous project.

Nest, Branches and Bird - Nested Friends stamp and die sets Stampin' Up
Berries - Forever Fern stamp and die set also SU
Tiny Bird on Sentiment - Memory Box die set

Two Current Challenges

 I've been missing in action for a while, due mainly to a 'major fault' with BT landlines in this area which started in mid December and seems to have been ongoing forever 🙄.  This of course caused intermittent internet connection which was irritating but at least I wasn't entirely cut off.  That is until the major fault was finally rectified, at which point I lost broadband completely and had to wait almost another week for an engineer to investigate.  Thankfully he appears to have solved the issue so hopefully I can get back into the swing of posting on my blog.

Today's card was made with two challenges in mind so I'm popping into the Snippets Playground and actually remembered to take a picture of some of the snippets remaining after I'd snipped into them.  Everything apart from the blank card came from various snippets collections.  The owls were stamped onto scraps of white, coloured with alcohol pens and fussy cut because they didn't come with matching dies.  The hearts, leaves and flowers as well as the sentiment were all die cut using random dies from a selection of sets.

The mention of hearts takes me to the Allsorts challenge where **anything goes with an option of featuring hearts**

Adorable Owls - stamp set from Stampin' Up (Sale-a-Bration)
Hearts, flowers, Sentiment etc - dies from various retired Stampin' Up sets

Allsorts Challenge #713

The theme this week on Allsorts is **For Boys or Men** and for my entry I've pulled out a quite old set of stamps and a few bits and pieces from my oddments boxes.  I chose a kraft card blank and cut a piece of text paper to fit; stamped the penny-farthing on cream card using brown ink and clear embossed before layering it onto brown and gold die cut squares.  I embossed another strip of brown and rubbed lightly with Treasure Gold; stamped a sentiment which was then die cut and layered up, adding a couple of die cut cogs for a bit of added interest.  A scrap of raffia around the embossed layer and that's it - a card suitable for a man.  There are some great cards from the design team giving us plenty of ideas for male cards - sometimes difficult to design but it is possible, with a bit of thought, to get away from football and/or beer 😉😉.

Stamp - from Feeling Sentimental Stampin' Up (long retired)
Squares - dies from Creative Expressions
Embossing - E/F from Cuttlebug
Cogs - dies from Docrafts

Playground Challenge #446

 Time for another challenge at the Snippets Playground and as usual I've found quite a selection of snippets to use.in a variety of colours. The otter was stamped and coloured before being fussy cut and all of the other elements were die cut before being assembled onto the 'brick wall' background which was the largest snippet, trimmed to fit onto the kraft card blank.

Brick Wall - embossing folder from Stampin' Up
Otter and all die cuts - various sets by SU (some current, some retired)

A New Challenge

 A Christmas card challenge has recently come to my notice and you can find the details of the current one HERE.

This is specifically a Christmas challenge with presumably a different theme each time and it so happens that this month they are asking for snippets to be used.  As you probably know I have a mountain of these so here goes with a card. I started with a fairly large snippet of patterned paper which although not specifically a Christmas design, I thought it could represent baubles.  The gnomes and house were stamped onto a snippet of white and coloured using pencils and more scraps of red and white card were used for the layers and sentiments. There's plenty of inspiration if you follow the link to their blog and it is an opportunity to make a good start on cards for later this year rather than have a rush at the last minute.

Stamps - from Stampin' Up 

Allsorts Challenge

 The theme for the Allsorts Challenge this time is **spots and/or stripes** and I've gone with spots as a background to this floral card.  The floral motif was die cut and layered onto some ovals which in turn are layered onto a piece of DSP.  A simple sentiment and all popped onto a piece of spotted paper printed from a USB.  A short post today because my fingers are getting really cold making it difficult to type accurately 😊

Flowers and DSP - Penned flowers collection Stampin' Up
Background - Paper Pantry USB

Allsorts Challenge #711

 The theme for the Allsorts Challenge this time is **A/G or Winter Blues** and I've decided to go along with the colour theme because I've just been making a bookmark for a friend who has a birthday later this month.  There is some reflection from the plastic sleeve which seems to be slightly wrinkled but I'm going to pop it under a heavy book which should flatten it out.  Also it has yet to have a ribbon added - I had nothing the right colour so I've coloured a piece using the same colour as I used for some of the inking, but leaving it to dry before I add it. I did think of taking the bookmark out of the sleeve and taking another picture (minus wrinkles) but I didn't want to risk creasing the piece of card which is a fairly tight fit in the sleeve.

All stamps from Lavinia Stamps
Distress ink and Versafine Claire for stamping