Curiosities

 I'm back again with one of my current favourite dies which is the very versatile postage stamp collage - so many possibilities.  Looking through some of my older stamps recently I came across four sets of mini stamps with curiosities, trees, scripts and mail art and I've used just a small selection for this card which I thought would be ideal for a masculine card although, to be fair, it would suit anyone.The die was cut using some script paper and there was another similar sheet in the same pad, part of which was used as a background.  A simple sentiment was all it needed.  I've had these stamps for many years but they've not seen ink for longer than I care to remember.

Stamps - Chocolate Baroque mini stamp sets designed by Glenda Waterworth
Papers - from a script pad by Prima
Postage stamp die - unbranded
Sentiment - stamps from Tim Holtz Sizzix (again from way back)

Blog Inspiration

 So many ideas and inspirations come from crafty blogs which often act ass a reminder of techniques and/or items we may own but have maybe not used in a while.  One such inspiration came from seeing a card posted by a friend using a Stickeroo which certainly brought to mind that I have a few of these loitering in my stash so I pulled them out and have produced a few varied cards.  For this one I mounted the sticker onto a piece of toning card, leaving a small margin and then set about finding matching background paper and other items which would make it into an interesting design. A 5" x 7" card.

For anyone who may not know  Stickeroos are sticky backed images of varying designs which come on A4 sheets, ready to peel off and use as required.  They also produce some beautiful Christmas images.

Image - Stickeroo from Penny Black (Buddly Crafts stock them I believe)
'Bubbles' border - an old die from Tattered Lace
Sentiment - Unbranded die
Butterfly - also from the Stickeroo sheet

Rudolph Days

 ... and the good news is that Rudolph Days is to continue with monthly challenges and is being overseen by Helen who has stepped in to keep things going.  This is a great opportunity to make at least one Christmas card per month during the year which should help to avoid a huge rush in December.  Full details can be seen on the new blog page.  My card was made using a stamped image with a die cut greeting. 

Image - from a retired Stampin' Up stamp set
Octagon dies - Daisy Mae
Sentiment - Julie Hickey
Background - printed from a Buddly Crafts download

Allsorts Challenge

 The theme for the current Allsorts challenge is **things that fly** and after having a bit of a ponder going through flying things in my mind I remembered that I had some stamps which have lain  on a shelf neglected for far too long so I took the set out for this card.  I needed a quick card to pop in the post for someone and despite having loads of cards made there didn't seem to be anything to suit as the majority were for particular occasions.  I started by stencilling a couple of colours directly onto the card front then stamped the image and a couple of random words from the stamp set.  Some colour was added to parts of the balloon using pencils; another stamp at the bottom and that was job done.  A card suitable for both the challenge and to pop into the post, two birds with one stone (no pun intended)😊

Stamps - Steampunkery from Chocolate Baroque - years old so possibly discontinued
Sentiment - from a Sizzix stamp set also years old

Twofer

 Isn't it great when you can get two cards out of one design, and that's what I've done here using a circle dot die and a piece of card from my colour play sessions box.  I cut the die in white to match the card base and cut it again from the piece which had been coloured using the shaving foam technique (I think, but  it was a while ago and I can't really remember).  Anyway I thought it would be suitable for this card.  I then adhered the white outline circle to the card before fitting all the different circles back into the spaces - took me a while 🤣.  The Birthday greeting was die cut twice and layered together for stability before being added to finish off the card.  My intention next was to use the coloured outline circle in the same way, inserting the white dots but decided to take the easy way out with this second card and just let the white background show through which gave the same effect but without all the fiddle of inserting the small dots.  A similar sentiment was added and that's it - twofer completed.😉 

Thanks

 Another small scale card to share today, this time it's a 4" square Thank-you note card mainly using up bits and pieces from oddments left over from previous projects.  I started by die cutting a square frame to fit the card and then found a scrap of previously die cut floral card to match which I backed with a pale lilac scrap.  The 'thanks' word was cut twice and layered to give it a bit of substance and that's it - a quick and easy little card.

Square frame - Noble Pierced frame die from Creative Expressions and a plain square die
Thanks - word die from Concorde & 9th

Fun Card for the Playground

I've used more of my snippets and another small slim card to play along in the Snippets Playground latest challenge. This is a 3" x 8" card blank - odd proportions but I'm sort of getting used to them in my efforts to use them up.  I trimmed a snippet of patterned paper to slightly smaller than the card then pulled out a scrap of card from my home made backgrounds collection and stamped some strange birds which were then fussy cut (no matching dies sadly).  Some extra colour was added using pencils. The branches were die cut from snippets of brown card and the words stamped onto snippets of white and also fussy cut.  The Playground gates are open for two weeks and there is a great prize on offer as usual.

Remembered to take a photo of what I used 😉

Background - printed from a MCS CD (probably no longer available)
Birds and Words - Aall & Create Strange Birds set
Branches - die from a SU set