Tag-along (and ATCs)

 The optional theme for the current challenge at Tag-along (and ATCs) is **DRINKS** and I was pretty sure I had nothing to use which would fit onto an ATC until I remembered I had a CD which came out back in 2010 containing images connected to wine.  I managed to resize one of the cartoons so here is what I've made - pretty simple really and not that much work once I'd fathomed out how to make the image fit the ATC.  The most difficult part was choosing which of the designs to use😊 

Image - CD 'The Wine Buffs' from Katy Sue Designs dated 2010. Images designed by Mike Payne.  I'm guessing this CD is no longer available

Masculine Card

 I don't often make cards which are specific to either male or female recipients but think this one would probably class as masculine.  A little while ago I was gifted a fun stamp which represents distressed corrugated cardboard and this is what I've used here.  Thank you, I love it and you know who you are 😍.  I've stamped it onto some kraft card and then fussy cut with scissors, combining this piece with a die cut clock face, some inking, stencilling and random background stamping.  There's also a die cut torn notebook effect which I like and some washi tape scraps which I don't especially like but when I tried to remove them, the surface of the background was being lifted so I had to stick them down again before the whole card was ruined 🙄🙄.

Stamp - Woodware FRS802 Torn Cardboard
Clock - die from a magazine boxed set from way back, Phill Martin
Torn Notebook die - unbranded
Stencil - Tim Holtz clock faces (quite an old stencil)
Background stamping - border stamp Aall & Create
Washi Tape - also A & C

Snippets Challenge #507

 Time to hand in my homework at the Snippets Playground and this time I decided to make what would probably be thought of as a masculine card although one of my granddaughters is into books in a big way so I know she would like it.  Everything on this card, apart from the kraft card blank and the large cream square, came from my Snippets mountain.  The large cream layer was embossed using an embossing folder featuring text and a smaller snippet of cream card was cut using a pierced square die.  Onto this I placed four fancy-edged text squares of  design paper.  These were from a box of such squares and other shapes which I came across recently at the back of a cupboard and which dates back to my very early days of card making.  It's a  large plastic storage box containing 2,000 fancy shapes in an assortment of designs and colours and to my shame I think most of them are still in the box, untouched 🤣.  I think it could take me a while to get through that many and I'm not sure if they count as snippets.  However more small snippets of kraft and cream card were used to die cut the books and the banner for the sentiment.  The actual sentiment was die cut from the last of a sheet of printed sentiments which I produced on the computer.

This pictures shows some of my snippets, not worth hanging onto these scraps

Embossed Layer - unbranded folder from Amazon
Smaller Square - Noble Pierced squares dies Creative Expressions
Small Squares - Large box of assorted shapes by Papermania from many years ago
Books - unbranded die
Sentiment - produced using Microsoft Word to tone with kraft card
Sentiment Banner - die from Creative Expressions 

Rudolph Days

We're moving through the year month by month and now it's time for the May Rudolph Days Challenge where the theme is Anything Goes just as long as it has something to do with Christmas.  I had an image in mind which I 'd decided to use but was unsure as to how; until I remembered that Jules (Always With a Heart) has a good selection of layout sketches on her blog so I decided to take a look.  I settled on using square sketch #2 and trimmed my image into a square and searched for some suitable background papers.  The two small white squares were cut and embossed with a snowflake pattern.  For the moment I've left the card without a sentiment as it speaks for itself and there will be one added to the insert anyway.  Taking part in this challenge is a good way of building up a stock of cards ahead of the end of the year so why not think about making something - you have until the end of the month to take part.

Image - from pad of seasonal images Lili of the Valley (dated 2013)
Designer Papers - by Stampin' Up (retired) dating back 3 or 4 years I believe
Snowflake die - Source unknown - it was just in the box with most of my Seasonal stash
Narrow strip of green card from my snippets box. 

Allsorts Challenge # 824

 Big celebrations at Allsorts Challenge this time because it is our 16th Birthday and the theme is *Anything Goes* or you might like to celebrate with us and make a Birthday card.  There are multiple prizes this time as well - details below.  Some for winners in the UK and some for entrants from 'across the pond'.  Full details can be seen on the Allsorts Blog post.

All & Create - several prizes 
Lawn Fawn - 25$ store voucher
Colorado Craft Company - three stamps
Gina K Designs - 25$ store voucher (Worldwide)

For my Design Team card I've chosen to make a birthday card and have stamped the image onto cream card as a change from using white which can sometimes be a bit stark.  Colouring was done using Inktense pencils with a water brush and the image was cut out using a square die with  pierced detail  - a  slightly larger square was used  to back it.  I added a small simple sentiment.  

Stamp - From a Coffee Themed set by A & C
Square Dies - Noble Pierced Squares from Creative Expressions (Sue Wilson)

Eclipse Style

 I've spotted a few different ways of using the popular slatted dies and one way seems to be using them to make eclipse style cards using two identical stamps or images - also spotted one which used plain black behind an image which had black as part of the design and I imagine this would also work if the slatted cut out was backed with whatever colour happened to be predominant in the picture.  Anyway I decided to have a go using my heart slatted dies with two images from an ancient pad of assorted designs because fortunately there were two or three of each  still remaining.  I centred the dies onto one image and cut them , adhering the resulting 'frame' onto the duplicate (uncut) one making sure it was lined up correctly..  Once the glue was dry I used a square die to cut out the whole thing, backing that with a slightly larger green square.  At this point I decided the slatted heart needed a bit of dimension so used the three dies together to cut another heart in white card so that I could glue it behind the patterned one before popping it carefully back into the aperture..  A die cut sentiment was added - job done!!

Image - from pad of images by Lily of the Valley dated 2014
Slatted Heart Dies - Craft Addiction UK
Square Dies - Pierced Noble Squares, Creative Expressions
Die Cut Sentiment - Britannia Dies 

...and Another Pair

 This time I have a pair of Artist Trading Coins to share, the making of which was triggered this morning by a number of things leading on from my usual Sunday morning visit to the Snippets Playground. Firstly I saw that Di had been busy making ATCs which you can see  HERE and on Sarn's post she'd used a long retired embossing die which I knew I had in my stash.  There was a Snippet of Gelli print on my desk which I thought would be sufficient to cut two 2.5 inch circles which is the size of the Coins - turned out I could only cut one full size and the other 1/4 inch smaller but that's fine as I glued it to a cream circle of the correct size.  I had a rummage in a box of dies and found the butterfly one I was looking for and with it was a similar one which cut and embossed a series of buttons so I thought 'why not?' and went ahead cutting the butterflies and buttons I needed along with a couple of little bows to go with the buttons because a song title had sprung to mind as soon as I saw the buttons 😉.  I decided to add some silhouette stamped foliage to one circle and some rows of stamped stitchery to the other before adhering the other components.  I turned to the computer to produce my own tiny text labels for one of the coins and that's an enjoyable Sunday morning done and dusted.

My original intention was to make a pair of AT Coins using the butterflies but that changed when I came across the button die although they do share the same Snippet of Gelli print background.  I'm popping along to  Tag-along (and ATC) Challenge blog where the theme for their very first challenge is 'Anything Goes'.  

Foliage Stamp - from a magazine gift set  dated 2015
Stitchery Stamp - from a magazine gift dated 2017
Butterfly and Button Dies - long retired Stampin' Up
Bow Dies - Gummiapan