Happy Post

 Anything craft related which arrives through my letter box is called 'happy post' and earlier this week I received a package from a generous blogging friend who kindly sent me a selection of Christmas bits and pieces which she had stamped and die cut. I think that it's  great when crafters share, whether it be their knowledge and expertise or, indeed, something tangible like this.

I know we are still in June but I have seen the 'C' word being mentioned quite a bit recently so I've done some colouring and put together a Christmas card and will try and remember to make more from time to time so that there isn't a mad rush in December.  This is a side opening 5" x 7" card and I raided my Christmas stash to find a suitable background paper and embossed a piece of white card with a snow effect E/F.  Images were coloured using alcohol pens and then arranged before gluing them down.

Background Paper - Stampin' Up (retired)
Embossing Folder - Falling Snow Stampin' Up (retired)
Images and Sentiment from MFT Happy Pawlidays 

Ladybirds

There seem to be quite a few ladybird cards going the rounds at the moment which reminded me that I had a lovely ladybird stamp which I've had for a few years and which hadn't been out of its box for a while. There are three fairly large ladybirds in the set so I've stamped, coloured and fussy cut them (they were produced before matching dies became the norm for practically everything). Only two here but the other  largest one has been used on another card which I will share at some point.The white die cut circle has been splattered with some green and I had a couple of suitable leaves already cut,  Put everything together onto a matching floral background and that's it - my ladybird card to join with the trend without needing to buy anything new 😉

Ladybirds - stamp set from Docrafts (Papermania) no longer available
White circle - die from Daisy Mae 

Gnomes

 The theme at Shopping Our Stash this time is **There's Gnome One Like You** where of course they are looking for cards with a gnome or gnomes.  My card is a Christmas one even though we aren't into July yet but a start has to be made at some point if we are to stay ahead of the game.  The background scene was made up using patterned papers and an embossed piece of white card.  The house was fussy cut from a piece of patterned paper as well and the trees were some odd die cuts which I'd saved.  The two gnomes and the signpost were stamped and die cut using a stamp set which came free with a magazine a number of years ago and comes out every year.

Background - stitched hills dies from MFT
House and Tree covered Hill - DSP from Stampin' Up (retired a couple of years ago)
Gnomes and Sign - stamp and die set given free with magazine several years back

Summer Flowers

 The theme for the latest Allsorts Challenge #681 is ***Summer Flowers*** and for my card I've die cut some wisteria flowers but have used yellow shades and turned them into laburnum.  The tree in my garden has been spectacular this year with loads of flowers whereas some years it is quite sparse.  As always there is lots of inspiration from the design team and a great prize to be won.

All the Fun of the Fair

 I've been looking through my collection of 'freebie' die and stamp sets which I've collected over the years although due to Covid and Lockdown it seems ages since I bought any craft magazines - not that I'm short of dies and stamps, free or otherwise but I could never resist picking them up from the supermarket 😉.  Unfortunately, or may be fortunately, craft magazines don't seem to be available with my online grocery shopping!!

 Anyway I came across a large set of dies from four years ago which includes houses, which I have used before, and also some city-scape dies and ones depicting a fairground which I've never used so I set about making a card with a fairground theme which I thought would be apt for the lovely summery weather we are having at present.  This card involved quite a bit of measuring and trimming of pieces of card to build up the various layers and I certainly wouldn't want to be making a lot like this but I think it has turned out OK in the end.  I've yet to use the city-scape dies but I'm sure an idea will come to me at some point for these as well.

Snippets Playground #430

 The weeks certainly seem to come around quickly and it is time for another opportunity to use up some of my Snippet mountain for the latest challenge HERE.  There is as usual a great prize for the lucky person drawn out of the hat so why not take the opportunity to reduce your pile of snippets and have a go. Apart from the DL card blank everything else has been gathered from my snippets collection.  The piece of background paper was left over from a sheet used on another card and it came from a magazine freebie paper pack.  The three ovals were die cut from white scraps and I then stamped images and coloured using pencils.. I was lucky enough to find a snippet of 'gutted' card which was large enough to trim to size to layer behind the DSP.  For anyone who doesn't know, 'gutting' is where you cut out a shape from the middle of any of the lower layers when matting and layering to make a card.  It's an 'economy' thing - as if we don't have enough left over bits already 🤣🤣

Ovals - Stitched Shapes dies Stampin' Up (retired)
Stamping - using stamps from Garden Birdhouses set also Stampin' Up

Allsorts #680

 The theme for the current Allsorts Challenge is **any stamped image** which is great - love stamping and I certainly have plenty to choose from..  Fortunately I had a Gelli plate background sitting on my desk so I rummaged through my Lavinia stamps collection to see what I could make of it and this is the result using a paper mask with matching circle cut out. Well worth following the link to see the inspiration from the design team.

Lavinia Stamps - Woodland Hare, Star lights, Twisted Vine, Slender Mushrooms
Background - used circular Gelli Plate