September Rudolph Days Challenge

 Amazing just how quickly these Rudolph Days seem to come around.  There are some lovely cards for inspiration including one from guest designer Brenda who has made a beautiful one using Lavinia stamps.  For my card this month I've used some dies which came as a freebie with the current Die Cutting magazine - couldn't resist because I've always fancied having dies to cut ice skating boots but somehow never got around to buying any.  I've combined the skates with a wreath die set which has been in my Christmas box for many years.  A combination of blue and white pearl card was used along with some kraft and a plain blue circle which was embossed using a snowfall embossing folder.  I used a die to cut the bows for the laces rather than use ribbon as suggested in the magazine

Wreath - Sizzix die from several years ago
Embossing Folder - from Sheena Douglass (no longer available)
Boots and 'Joy' - from die set which came free with the magazine
Bows - Gummiapan die

Quirky Flowers

 I've been playing this morning with some die cut shapes to see if I could make some flowers and these odd looking ones are my first effort.  I'd like to try some animals or characters but not sure I can be quite that imaginative.  I do look at YouTube videos by Deb Hallett who builds up some great ones  which must require lots of patience.  I didn't really want to copy what she's made although I don't think she has done flowers in this way.  Having made a couple of passable flowers the next thing was to decide just how to use them and I've gone for a stamped and stencilled grungy background within a framed circle.  This was fun but it took me most of the  morning 😉.

Stencil - Lavinia
Stamps - Globleland (Amazon)
Die Cutting - Abstract Elements from Sizzix (Tim Holtz)

Allsorts Challenge # 799

 For the Allsorts Challenge this week Liz has asked us for **Get Well or Sympathy Cards** - always handy to have one or two of these ready to hand if needed.  Of course there is, as always, the *Anything Goes* option.  I decided to make a Get Well card in the CAS style so I cut a panel of white card to fit onto a square card and started by stamping the sentiment and a background image using  grey Versafine ink.  I then die cut some butterflies in the same white card and these were painted using some glimmer watercolours which I've had for many years although I realise they'd not been used for a while.  I die cut a slightly larger square from light grey card to tone with the stamping.  Assembled the card, adding some tiny blue gems and that's it - a CAS Get Well card for the challenge.

Background Stamp - one of a set of mixed stamps from Amazon
Butterflies - Memory Box
Sentiment - from my favourite set of magazine freebie sentiment stamps (years old) 

Stamping Sensations Challenge

 I spotted a mid month reminder this morning for the current Stamping Sensations challenge where the theme is *Animal Magic* or of course *anything goes*.  It so happens I was having a bit of a tidy up of my workspace and had come across these three fun hippos which were stamped, coloured with alcohol pens and fussy cut quite a while ago and I'd   already decided it was about time they danced their way onto a card - so here they are.  I also found the little cat and the tiny tufts of grass at the bottom of a container of 'bits' - handy or what?  I cut a panel to fit a 7" x 5" card and adhered some 'sky' printed paper and a die cut strip of green for the 'grass'.  A simple birthday greeting and that's a few more of my oddments used - always satisfying to see these being made into something which, hopefully, will give pleasure to the recipient of the finished card.  There are animal themed prizes from A & C for the lucky winners at the end of the month.

Hippo Stamps - from Stampin' Up (retired)
 Kitty - also from SU (retired)
Tufts of Grass - dies possibly also SU but cut ages ago and 'saved'
Die to Cut Grassy Edging - from MFT possibly no longer available

Birthday Fishes!!

 No, the title isn't a typo because **Something Fishy** is the theme for the latest challenge at Allsorts and this one nearly had me stumped because despite my vast array of crafty goodies I discovered that I'm sadly lacking in anything fishy.  That is until I remembered that at some time in the past there had been a fish themed die set given away as a magazine freebie although to be honest I wasn't sure I still had it and I know for a fact that the packet was never opened (you guessed - not a favourite theme of mine 😉).  However, I delved deep and found the set which actually dates from 2017 and this is the first time the dies have been used - the magazine is long gone.  I used the fishbowl die to cut an aperture into a square of white card  which I backed with a scrap of green pearl paper and layered onto some green pearl card.  The bowl was cut using silver card and was then inserted into the aperture.  I selected some of the smaller dies to cut out so that they could appear to be swimming around in the bowl, adding an extra bit of weed and a starfish to the bottom corner of the card.  The fun sentiment dies were also included in the set which was actually good value.  There are some lovely Lavinia stamps as prizes this month and don't forget if you don't have anything fishy there's always the *anything goes* option.

Dies were a magazine freebie set dating from 2017 and the packet had not been opened until today🤣

Snippets Playground #489

 Time to pop into the playground to see what's afoot today - I hear there might be cake and a drop of bubbly 😊.  I've raided my ever growing Snippets collection to make a Christmas card this time although I did actually have to break into a whole piece of white card to fit my card blank but of course there was some left to join the rest of my Snippets for another time.  I started by cutting the large words with their backing from red and white Snippets so that I could place them to work out where I needed to cut out the Star Frame aperture.  A snippet of blue snowy printed paper was placed behind said aperture and I've added a row of tiny trees (cut from a snippet of green which was in my 'inky play' snippets pile.  Finally I die cut a little house to add to the scene and decided to call it a day, apart from cutting another of the starry frames to make that one a double layer.  Some great prizes as always so why not raid your Snippets collection and make a card.  

Greeting - dies by Julie Hickey
Star Frame and Trees - dies from Gummiapan
House - unknown but I've had the dies for a long time (come out each year for Christmas)

Landscape Scene

 A bit of 'thinking outside the box' today to show that stamp sets don't always have to be used for their original purpose.  I've used what started  out as a seascape set, with the addition of other stamps and a die cut, to come up with an inland landscape design.  I started with the sky sky and then added the 'sea' and 'sand' using two shades of green, adding some grass.  I then took some trees from a different stamp set and also a flight of birds.  Final touch was to add the die cut reeds and grasses along with a sentiment.

Main stamping - Ocean Front stamp set Stampin' Up (retired)
Trees and Birds - from other SU stamp sets (retired)
The die cut reeds were hanging around on my desk waiting to be used