Class in the Post

 I treated myself to another class in the post.  The instructions are for three cards and a little gift box to contain them but I've gone a bit 'off-piste' although I did make two of the cards as per the tutorial apart from adding some of my own DSP to extend the designs into larger cards..  At this point I decided I wasn't too keen on the third design so I used some of the bits and pieces from the kit along with more of my own paper and made a square card, followed by another 7" x 5".  There are still a few pieces of card and die cuts left from the class so I should be able to make them into yet another.  Getting this class has given me an opportunity to have a play with this Cheerful Daisy set and they are cheerful cards I think.  I love to see daisies growing on the lawn and am always reluctant to mow them down - mind  you they soon pop their heads up again 😉😉.

  Daisies, layers and sentiment - Cheerful Daisies from Stampin' Up
Fancy Border - die from the Works which I've had for some time
Background paper - printed from a download which has been on the computer for ages

Snippets Playground #455

 I'm not sure I will ever see the end of my snippets mountain but at least it gives me lots to play with when designing a card.  I always seem to have far more snippets in white and cream than in other colours so for this card all of the snippets (with the exception of the green sentiment backing) came from the white and cream collection and have been coloured using Distress pens and a water brush. I'm taking this along to the Playground where as usual there is a super prize for a lucky winner and a great snippets card for inspiration..  The two layers of the background weren't snippets although, as most of you will know, cutting them from a whole sheet leaves me with MORE snippets to use for something else. I've stamped a flight of birds on the patterned piece before assembling the various die cuts into what I hope is a pleasing arrangement, finally adding a computer sentiment which is layered onto a snippet of coloured card.

Background - DSP from New Horizons Stampin' Up (retired)
Dies - mix from Gummiapan, Stampin' Up and a few odd bits
Sentiment - produced using Word

Allsorts Challenge #730

 I've made this card for the Allsorts Challenge this week where the theme is **anything goes with the option of using a stencil**.  I wanted to use up some snippets left over from recent projects while they were still lying around prior to being tidied away into various boxes.  I managed to cut a couple of narrow strips from some of my experiment with spray starch and pigment powders.  The strips have been embossed to give them a bit of interest and I've added a fancy strip, die cut from dark teal pearlescent card.  The background has been partially stencilled using a toning ink. Still more of the dark teal card left so I die cut the sentiment and a butterfly.  This two-layer butterfly die comes all in one piece so I did actually cut one set in teal and one in gold which means I now have a 'spare' gold one with teal additions ready to use on another card.  The butterfly die is a recent purchase but all other items have been in my stash for quite a few years, so possibly no longer available.

Stencil - Distress grid from Sheena Douglass
Embossing Folder - from a magazine give away
Curvy Border - Swirl and Corner set Lea'bilities
Sentiment - by Concord & 9th, a lucky win from Snippets Challenge
Butterfly - Tim Holtz Thinlits Brushstroke Butterflies set of three

Flowers

I'm still using up bits and pieces - there seems to be no end to the amount of oddments I accumulate despite trying to make use of them in most of my projects.  The jar in this composition was cut from a snippet of the glimmer card which I'd coloured recently using alcohol inks (and there is still enough left for something else at some point) 😉.  The flowers were die cut from snippets of coloured card and the tiny bee and sentiment from snippets of gold.  The background was made using a die to form a cut-out in the upper corner to reveal the pearlescent card used as the bottom layer.

Jar and flowers - dies from Sizzix (Tim Holtz)
Corner cut out - from another Tim Holtz die set (4 different corners)
Bee - die from a Tonic die set which came with a magazine quite a while ago
Sentiment - die which I think was another one which came free as a magazine gift

Allsorts Challenge Birthday

 It's the 14th birthday of the Allsorts Challenge with some bumper prizes.  Many congratulations to everyone involved with running this challenge - quite a bit of hard work I imagine one way and another.  The theme this time is **Absolutely Anything Goes** and my card this time is a little scene built up using a selection of stamps, mixing them up a bit from some of the different sets which I have in my collection. I probably won't add a sentiment to the front - I can never decide if I like it left as is or with a suitable sentiment, particularly with this sort of design.  Good luck everyone with the birthday draw for prizes.

Stamps - all from various Card-IO stamp sets

Garden Theme

 Over at We Love Stamping the theme this month is **anything stamped with a garden option**.and I've come up with this garden gate scene where the wording and all of the floral sprays have been stamped.  Flowers and foliage were coloured with watercolour pencils and then die cut.  The wall was embossed using a 3D embossing folder and then touched lightly with a white ink pad to give a little accent to the bricks.

Brick Wall - embossing folder from Stampin' Up
Sky background - printed paper using download from a magazine offer
Scene - built up using stamps and dies from Graces Garden  Stampin' Up (retired)
Colouring - Inktense pencils with water brush

Snippets Challenge #454

 It is said that great minds think alike and it so happens that the inspiration card for the Snippets Playground challenge this time has been made using strips  die cut from snippets of patterned paper.  There is also a fabulous prize of two very snippet friendly dies which will help the lucky winner to make good use of their snippets..  My card has also used strips of paper but mine were left-overs of various widths all from the same paper pad.  I keep any snippets with their matching paper pads as they often come in useful and I know where I can find them if needed.  The strips were simply glued onto a snippet of red card, leaving varying gaps between them and once the glue was dry I used a die to cut out a heart, using another snippet of the same red card for the larger scalloped heart.I then took a fresh sheet of paper from the pad (has to be done) to cut a square slightly smaller than the card blank - popping the offcuts back into the pad for future use of course 😉.  I was undecided about a sentiment and settled for 'congratulations' which could cover anniversaries or maybe an engagement - more snippets used here and the backing layer was made by drawing around the die and then fussy cutting because this one was just a stand-alone word with no matching background.

Heart dies - from Tonic and also Papermania
Sentiment - Crafter's Companion
Paper Pad - an old one with a variety of texts pages in black and white from Papermania