Back to making normal sized cards and these two pooches are clearly asking to be taken for a nice walk. Quite a straightforward card starting with a piece of DSP on which I've printed the sentiment. I then die cut a circle into a piece of cream card and backed it with a scrap of scenic paper before adding the die cut dogs and a doggie paw print
I've used the other two ATC bases which were left from my recent colour blending session. One uses a flower image which was stamped onto a snippet of white card, coloured and fussy cut. I did stamp the whole image onto the background first and just the two flower heads were cut out and layered along with some words from the same stamp set. The other one used a tiny scooter die which came as a free gift with an order some long time ago - amazing just how much detail there is in such a tiny die although I must admit I'd struggled to think of a way to use it until I saw a card made by a blog friend and used her idea. Thanks, I'm sure you know who you are 🥰.
Flower stamp and words - Aall & Create (The Good)
Scooter - free gift from Gummiapan
Circles - dies from Stampin' Up (retired)
The Studio Light triptych die set seems to be a favourite at the moment so I've jumped onto the bandwagon with my version in shades of blue. I have a box of 12" papers which I've had for such a long time so I delved into the box and came up with a pretty blue piece featuring flowers and butterflies which I've used for the top layer. I couldn't find any dark blue so used black for the bottom layer with a smoky blue mid layer. The butterfly was fussy cut from the left over DSP and brushed with Wink of Stella clear glaze. I then die cut some flowers from white card - dithered a bit whether black flowers might look better and not fully convinced I made the right choice so I think I'll probably make another one using black flowers anyway if I can find another sheet of similar DSP.
I've been playing with inks again, this time I used Distress Oxides onto an A5 piece of watercolour card and added a bit of texture with a selection of stamps and also with a clean stamp spritzed with water to lift some of the colour here and there. Once dry I chopped it up into ATC size (makes 5 cards) and here are three of them using a selection of dies and stamps. Next move is to rummage through some more of my stamps and dies to see what I can do with the other two pieces.
In a recent post HERE the talented Sarn has shown a selection of ATCs along with details of how she achieved the background effects and completed cards. Seeing this reminded me that it's a really long time ago that I made any ATCs so thought I'd remedy this by getting out stencils and inks for a play session. This is one of the cards I made using her method for the background and adding some stamping and a fussy cut bird. It's quite a challenge switching to this small size after working on larger cards but an interesting and enjoyable exercise nonetheless . It's also of course a great way of maybe using up some of my huge amount of white and cream offcuts although any other colours can be used as the mood takes you. In case there's anyone who doesn't know, the size of an ATC is 2.5 x 3.5 inches. As Sarn mentioned, if you don't have use for an ATC, this size is handy for a card topper.
Stamps - stamp of the month (May) set from Crafty Roo
Inks - Distress colours Rusty Hinge and Chipped Sapphire. Versafine Clair (black)
Time to pop along to the Snippets Playground with my homework for the current challenge where I'm sure pretty well everyone knows that usually the only requirement is that we try not to harm any full sheets of card or paper when making our cards. My snippets 'mountain' is the first place I look when setting out to make a card and I also have a collection of left over die cuts and other oddments which often remain on my desk once a project is completed. Obviously we need to cut into whole pieces of card occasionally but then of course that leaves us with more to add to the snippets pile 😉. I started with my usual square card blank and trimmed a snippet of cream card to be slightly smaller - this was then embossed with a brick wall pattern. Next step was to raid my snippets of kraft card to die cut the steps/shelf unit on which to place the plants. The cats, butterflies, most of the foliage and the pots were found in my collection of useful left over bits and I only needed to find some small snippets for a few extra leaves and pots. The scalloped border used to ground everything was also a snippet which was lying around waiting to be used. Sentiment was produced on the computer and die cut from the printed sheet. Sorry no photo of snippets 'cos most were cut ages ago.
Steps/Shelf Unit - unbranded die
Leaves and Pots - mix of dies from Sizzix, Stampin' Up and magazine freebies
Cats - Impression Obsession (I think)
Border - very ancient Tim Holtz die (Sizzix)
Butterflies - die from Crafter's Companion
Brick Wall - 3D embossing folder from Stampin' Up
The Allsorts challenge this week is ** Flowers Galore** and there are some great cards from the Design Team and Guest Designer Sarn to inspire everyone. Some super prizes for the winners to be announced at the end of the month as well. I've managed flowers on three layers, with the background paper, the strip across the centre and the image which I popped onto a postage style die cut which I'd received from a generous friend - for which many thanks, you know who you are 😊
Background - from a 12" x 12" paper which I've had for a long time
Strip - Daisies, printed from a Buddly Crafts download
Image - Stickeroo by Penny Black
Postage Stamp Diecut - die set also from Penny Black
