Love Stamping

 The theme at We Love Stamping is **Clean and Simple* but I've chosen to go for the *Anything Goes* route this time with my card.  Thought I'd change things up a bit and coloured my dandelions in pink for a change.  A couple of bumble bees hovering over them and that's it with just a small computer generated sentiment.  Some great inspiration from the Design Team as always and some lovely prizes.  This card also suits the theme at Stamping Sensations of **Love/Romance** so I'm popping along there with it as well.

Stamps all from Lavinia - dandelion clocks with Bumble and Hum
Words - produced on the computer

Allsorts Challenge #817

 The theme for the Allsorts Challenge this fortnight has been chosen by Liz and is **Shades of Blue** or of course there is always the *Anything Goes* option so why not look through your crafty items for something blue and have a go.  Prizes this time are from Lavinia and we welcome Carol as a guest designer..

For my card I've chosen some designer papers for the background and then stamped a flower onto a piece of white card.  I masked off the flower head and leaf before adding the texture stamp and then added colour using Distress Oxide ink with a water brush.  The sentiment was stamped and coloured and cut using a stitched rectangle die.

Background Papers - from Boho Indigo collection Stampin Up (retired)
Stamps - all from Crafty Roo
Stitched rectangle - die from Stampin' Up (retired)

Valentine

 A quick post this morning to share a card suitable for a Valentine although I've not indicated that purpose inside.  That way it would fit other occasions such as Wedding, Anniversary or simply sending love.  I simply cut the swirly hearts out from a square of white card which I then backed with a pink layer.  The word was die cut a couple of times from the remains of the pink and layered to give it a bit more height.

Dies are unbranded ones from Amazon

Branch

 When is a branch not a branch?  Odd question maybe, but I turned this one into a tree, adding a sentiment for this tall card.  I started by making an inky background before stamping the 'tree' with a few extra leaves and trailing vines - a fairly quick card once the background inking was dry.   

Stamps from Lavinia
Sentiment stamp I've had a while - think it was from a magazine give-away

Snippets Challenge #499

 Time for another visit to the Playground for the current challenge - looking forward to a yummy chocolate croissant too if there are any left.  This card is from my drafts file, still a few left there which were made at the end of last year and for that reason I don't have photos of the snippets used - sorry.  Rest assured though that the Snippets mountain is ALWAYS my first port of call each time I make a card and I'm sure everything but the card blank came from there.  The two cream pieces were trimmed to size along with their slightly larger layers in brown.   The larger piece was embossed and then lightly brayered to show up the design and the smaller piece was stamped using a random text stamp.  For the leaf I found a small snippet of some glimmer card which had been swiped with alcohol ink and a really small snippet of a darker colour for the leaf detail.  The sentiment was snipped from the remains of a sheet of sentiments which I'd produced and printed using Microsoft Word

Embossing Folder - an ancient one from Tim Holtz
Leaf - from a Sizzix set called Artsy Leaves

Allsorts Challenge # 816

 The theme for the current Allsorts Challenge has been chosen by Gail who would like to see **Romance/Music notes/Instruments** or of course there is the *Anything Goes* option.  There are prizes from Aall & Create.

I've made a card which would be good for a Valentine; maybe a wedding or anniversary; or just to send  some love.  I cut a piece of pink card slightly smaller than the card base and another white one smaller again.  The hearts were die cut from this layer followed by stamping the little mice and the music notes.  A die cut sentiment added within the swirl of hearts - job done - a fairly CAS card to suit the theme.

Swirl of Hearts - unbranded die from Amazon
Stamping - Stamps from Lavinia
Sentiment - die which was a magazine gift a while ago
Squares - die cut using Creative Expressions Noble Pierced squares nesting dies

A 'Borrowed' Design

 The Mojo is still being somewhat elusive here but when I spotted this card made by Miss Di for the recent Playground challenge I was reminded that I have the Birthday version of the die which she used and I have to agree that it's not the easiest of dies to use which is probably why I didn't go for the Christmas one as well.  I do, however, really like the size and format of the wording and just happen to have the tall parcel die and stamp set as well so, with her permission, I decided to 'CASE' her ideas (copy and share). I've had the sentiment die for probably well over a year and despite being a tad troublesome, it does deserve to be seen more frequently as it's quite versatile.  Fortunately the tall parcel stamp and die set is a dream to use and I certainly have plenty of Snippets to make use of both dies.  Thankyou Di for the inspiration which encouraged me to try again with the sentiment die 😉

Birthday Die - unbranded
Parcel - Stamp and die set from Gummiapan
Sequins - Die-namics die set which was a challenge lucky win a few years ago
Card Layers - DL nesting die set from Creative Craft Products (Craft Stash)