Rain!!

 I thought that the theme for this week's Allsorts Challenge was very apt - we've certainly had a fair bit of it recently.  I remembered that I had a download on the computer of some rainy papers which came free with a magazine a few years ago along with some stamps and a 'splash' die.  I've added other stamps and dies to come up with my card for the challenge.

Rainy paper and puddle die - magazine freebie from a few years ago
Circle - die from Daisy Mae
Images - Playing in the Rain, Stampin' Up
Sentiment - from freebie stamp set
Colouring - Inktense pencils and water brush

Easter Egg Hunt

 Another card using the cute bunny die and this one is a more colourful version although it still includes quite a selection of fiddly little die cuts to build up the scene.  He is perched on a window box amongst the flowers just waiting for someone to turn up and search for the hidden eggs.  All I can say is it's a good job I'm not doing this for a living because it took me ages to make from initial thoughts through to the finished article and I've yet to collect up all the dies and stow them away where they belong 😉

Wall - 3D embossing folder from Stampin' Up
Window - die from Crafter's Companion
Grass - Marianne die which I've had for years
Tree - die from a Sizzix set
Flowers, Birds etc - dies from several sets; freebies, Memory Box, Stampin' Up

White on White

 I don't normally send cards for Easter but as I'd acquired this rather cute bunny die I started out with the idea of actually making one - that is until I discovered that amongst my vast collection of crafty 'stuff'' there just wasn't an Easter sentiment of any kind.  I couldn't go for my usual solution of doing one on the computer because the white card I was using is far too heavy to go through the printer.  I've seen a couple of cards recently where this bunny has been used and I've been trying to think of something a bit different so I die cut the bunny and a selection of other bits and pieces using dies from lots of different sets so that I could shuffle them around to see how they looked.  I eventually decided on cutting a framed aperture into a piece of white card before building up the little scene.  The die used for this aperture actually has a window frame inside the aperture so of course that's been saved for another card.  Lots of small die cuts employed here but I've been watching some videos on YouTube made by Christine Stokes and have picked up several really handy hints and tips for using tiny pieces without getting glue everywhere.

I can assure you that the white card is all from the same source but unfortunately the camera wants to suggest otherwise - sigh 🙄

I'm thinking now that while these dies are on my desk I might make a variation with some colour

Aperture - from window die set by Paper Rose
Rabbit - unbranded die, he comes with his own stool to sit on
All other dies - taken from various sets mainly magazine freebies and Stampin' Up

Quick Snippets Card

 Time for another Snippets Playground challenge and I've again managed to use snippets of varying sizes to make this.  I started with a square card blank and trimmed some larger snippets of design paper to fit.  The flowers were stamped onto a snippet of white card using a mask of the larger flower before stamping the surrounding smaller ones and the leaves.  Once this shape had been die cut I stamped the sentiment using the Misti.  The strip of toning paper came from one of my snippets boxes and the butterfly was fussy cut from a snippet of designer paper from the same collection.  A great prize is on offer for a lucky winner this time around.

Background Papers - snippets of papers printed from a Paper Pantry USB
Flowers - stamps from Flowing Flowers set Stampin' Up
Sentiment - stamp from the same set
White die cut shape - Stitched So Sweetly Stampin' Up
Butterfly and strip border snippet- DSP from Butterfly Collection Stampin' Up

Allsorts Challenge #719

 The Allsorts Blog Challenge this time is **anything goes with an option to include a trio of something** and I've chosen to opt for the trio.  I had this piece of background lying around from one of my inky play sessions.  It is watercolour paper coloured using Brushos with a dash of Pixie Powder thrown in.  I decided that my trio would be these mice living dangerously, dancing on a branch and I've used various foliage stamps to build up the scene. I'm still undecided about adding a sentiment but might do so before sending this to anyone. Why not have a go yourself choosing either the anything goes or maybe you can come up with a trio of something - you might be lucky enough to win a prize 😉

Branch - stamp from Stampin' Up
Everything else stamped using Lavinia stamps

Snippets Challenge #449

 I've usually popped along to the Snippets Playground with my latest snippets card during the first week of the challenge but somehow I've lagged behind this time.  No excuse really but at least I've not missed it completely - certainly no shortage of snippets here to use up that's for sure.  I just hope there is still some hot chocolate on offer because the weather still isn't good - fancy this has been a long winter and it doesn't seem to be ending any time soon - sigh 🙄.  Anyway here's my card which has used a variety of toning snippets which I've pulled out of my collection along with a few surplus die cuts which I always seem to have left over from previous projects.  Guess I often stamp, colour and die cut too many every time I make something and as you know, I can't bear to throw anything out.  Everything used apart from the card blank came either from my snippets collection or from the container where I keep all the surplus die cuts.

Everything here is from Stampin' Up, either current or retired

Animal Theme

 The Allsorts Challenge theme this time is **anything goes with an option to include four legged friends (domestic)**.  I've chosen to use a quirky cat stamp for this fairly quick and simple card. The cats were stamped onto a piece of watercolour paper which had been 'Brusho'd' followed by a bit of partial colouring done with pencils.  A strip of the left over paper was punched to look as if it had been torn from a notebook and everything was popped onto a piece of script paper.

Stamp - Trilby Cats from Crafty Individuals
Sentiment - stamp and die from Sizzix, years old
Colour - Brusho and Polychromos pencils
Punch - from EK Success, also an old one