Snail Mail

 I'm sharing a card today which I made a while ago but which I didn't post on my blog.  I spotted it when looking through my files and thought it seemed appropriate given the current postal situation - 'nuff said🙄.  Lots of our lovingly made cards are late in reaching their destinations which is disappointing. A fair bit of fussy cutting on this card using patterned papers.

 Thank goodness the very cold weather seems to be over for the moment but has been replaced by very dark, wet and windy conditions.

Paper usedx is from Stampin Up (probably retired now)

Snippets Playground #443

 Quite a collection of small snippets used on this Christmas card so I'm taking it along to the Playground. As usual there is a super prize to be won and a great card from Sarn for inspiration so do pop along and take a look - maybe use up some of your own snippets for a card.  Everything except for the card blank was taken from my various snippets containers, even the piece of background paper which was left from a previous project.  Quite a lot of die cutting here using various sets of dies and the sentiment was stamped onto a snippet of white and fussy cut.  Assembling those little parcels was a bit of a challenge but kept me out of mischief for a while 😂.

Gnome - die set from Stampin' Up
Wreath and parcels - die set from Sizzix
Snowflakes - just  happened to be  lying around left from another project

 

Allsorts Challenge #706

 Time for another challenge at Allsorts and this time it's **A/G or Let it Snow**.  I am pretty well up to date with Christmas cards, especially as I thought they should be posted earlier than I would do normally because of  possible hold-ups due to strikes.  I've opted for the anything goes option this time with a couple of bookmarks which I've made as Christmas gifts.  It's a bit of a challenge in itself to come up with interesting designs in such a tall thin layout but I do always enjoy a challenge, especially when the end result doesn't look too bad 😂.  As usual there are lovely prizes to be won and some great inspiration from the design team.

Stamps by Lavinia

A Week

I see it's a week since I last posted anything here but one way and another it has been a frustrating week.  Following on from recently losing both my land line and broadband for nearly a week, leaving me with lots of catching up to do, I seem to have had various problems - why oh why is it so difficult to speak to a real person when phoning to untangle things or make appointments which seem to be like hens' teeth🙄. Life just seems to get more and more complicated - or maybe it is just me getting old but I don't think so.

Anyway I have a stamped card made fairly recently to share today.  I started with a Gelli plate background and built up the scene with a selection of stamps, finally adding some second generation words around the edge just to give a bit of extra texture along with some light inking.

Very cold weather at present but maybe a good excuse to head for the craft room - keep warm everyone.

Stamps - all from Lavinia

Seasonal Snippets

 I have a Christmas card for the latest challenge in the Snippets Playground - worth visiting today because the sun always shines there - allegedly - and we seem to have relentless fog for several days on the trot so it will be nice to see some sunshine. Of course the tree house is all lit up for Christmas so that should brighten things anyway, the big switch on was last night.

 As usual I've managed to make my card using snippets for everything apart from the card blank.  This is a side opening 7 x 5 card started by finding the snippet of patterned paper and trimming to size, followed by a white snippet which I streaked with some colour direct from a fairly old distress ink pad which wasn't too 'juicy'.  I then scrabbled through my smaller snippets of green, red and gold to die cut the poinsettia flower and leaves; finally stamping a greeting onto a snippet of white, fussy cutting and layering onto a piece of red.

Dies used - Tim Holtz Sizzix Holly and Poinsettia set

Flowers

 Today's card is a floral one - a change from making cards for Christmas.  I was sorting out some of my older stamps recently - wooden ones which I rarely use these days and came across the crackle effect one which I've used to make a background for this card.  It's not that I don't have loads of patterned paper but I thought this would work to showcase the pretty flowers in their jars.  The jars were die cut from some dark blue pearlescent card scraps and the flowers from left over oddments of watercolour paper which I then coloured using Distress ink pens.  The sentiment was printed using the computer and die cut with a handy small rectangle die.

Dies - Tim Holtz floral set which included the jars
Stamp - Hampton Arts USA wooden stamp, years old

Trees and Leaves

 This week's challenge at Allsorts is **A/G or trees and leaves** and having made this card I realise that although it has trees  they have no leaves but I suppose in any case it will fit the A/G (anything goes) category so all is not lost 😀😀.  Some great inspiration from the design team as usual.

Stamps - Lavinia
Sentiment - produced on computer