Allsorts Challenge # 855

 It's the turn of Sarah to choose the theme for the Allsorts Challenge this time and she has decided on **Colours of Summer** or, as always there is the *Anything Goes* option.  Prize this time is from Visible Image and you can see more details on the Allsorts blog post.

Summer is of course a colourful time of the year but I eventually settled on blue for the skies with touches of yellow for the summer sunshine, using  printed papers from some downloads and stamps which came as a magazine cover gift fairly recently.  The images were stamped, coloured with pencils and a damp paintbrush before being fussy cut.  A stamped sentiment was added to complete this Summery card.  It will be interesting to see what colours are chosen by others - I do think that we've had rather an excess of blue skies and sunshine this year in this part of the world.

Stamps - from Creative Stamping Magazine designs by Polkadoodles
Background Papers - from a Buddly Crafts download
Colouring - Inktense pencils used with a damp paintbrush
Sentiment - from Craft Addiction UK Buttons stamp set

CAS in Shades of Green

 I had just over half a sheet of A4 white card on my desk so decided to use some shades of green ink to smoosh, stencil and stamp which has given me a handy piece of background.  For this CAS card I die cut a small stitched rectangle from the inky piece and another in white using a matching larger die.  I always have strips and scraps (aka Snippets) of the same white card to hand so I was able to die cut the quirky 'flowers' from some of this.  All that was needed was a toning sentiment and that's it.  A CAS offering to share with you today.  The final touch was three gold sequins to match the gold splatters on the panel.

Panel -  Distress Oxides, Cracked Pistachio, Speckled Egg, Mowed Lawn
Stitched Rectangle Dies - a long retired set from Stampin' Up
Flowers - unbranded die recently acquired
Sentiment - produced using MS Word
Sequins - die set won as a prize from Snippets Playground many years ago
White Card - 300 gsm from Pink Frog

Rudolph Days

Christmas in July for the Rudolph Days challenge and for my card I've used a digital image acquired from Etsy a few years ago - a fun Snowman playing Santa and driving the sleigh.  The background papers were in my Christmas oddments collection and I printed the image onto white card and die cut into a circle, backed with a slightly larger red one.  There are a few more Rudolph days until the end of the month so why not see if you can take part - a good opportunity to add another card to the collection for the end of the year.

Background - papers from a download by Buddly Crafts
Image - digital image from Etsy
Sentiment - a favourite of mine from a long retired Stampin Up set (Contempo Christmas)
Torn Edge Circle die - unbranded

Today's Card

 The card I'm sharing today was made using another of the large stamps from my recent Creative Stamping magazine purchase.  I'm really pleased I managed to get hold of these designs and I can see they are going to brought out quite often and for different occasions..  This was stamped onto a piece of cream card which had been smooshed with two colours of Distress ink.  Colour was added to the watch and flowers using pencils and a damp paint brush.  I also stamped, coloured and fussy cut a couple of butterflies from the same stamp set.  I then used a die set to cut out the panel with its matching frame background.  I've not added a sentiment for the time being, mainly because I couldn't really decide on a suitable one.

Stamps - from Creative Stamping magazine (designed by Francoise Read)
Frame and Panel - Roadway Vista design by Aall & Create
Colouring - Inktense Pencils and damp paintbrush
Background - Distress ink pads

Snippets Playground Challenge #537

A quick card made for the latest Playground Challenge and apart from the card blank, was made entirely from Snippets which were already on my desk just waiting to be used or tidied away.  The cute bugs were stamped, coloured and cut before adding them to the little framed windows which were left over from another project, as was the matching sentiment.  More Snippets used up and less to tidy away.  It's lovely to see that Miss Di is back in action again after her recent mishap and I'm sure Dudley will be keeping an eye on her to make she doesn't overdo it.  Brilliant too that Sarn has stepped in to keep things on an even keel - great teamwork in the Playground as always.

Stamps and dies - all unbranded

Allsorts Challenge #854

 It's my turn to choose a theme for the Allsorts Challenge and I thought that **At the Seaside** would be appropriate and of course, if you don't fancy that, then there's always the *Anything Goes* option.  Prizes this time are from Stamp Addicts - full details on the Allsorts blog post..  For my DT card I've pulled out a long retired set from Stampin' Up and also dies from my stash along with some  white cut wooden posts which were sent to me a couple of years ago by a kind friend. 

I started with a white card blank and cut a stitched frame slightly smaller to fit.  This was backed using a piece of suitable paper from my oddments box.  The tall grasses were stamped onto this layer, as were the birds and the sentiment. I then coloured the wooden posts using Distress inks; die cut and coloured the seagulls and the light fence  before assembling the scene.

Frame - die from Craft Addiction UK
Wooden Posts and Seagulls - dies from Gummiapan
Fence - die from a long retired Stampin' Up set Ocean Front
Grasses - unbranded stamps from Amazon
Birds - stamp from a Card-Io set
Sentiment - from a long retired SU stamp set New Horizons

Stencil Fun

 I recently spotted that there was a stamp and stencil cover gift on an issue of Creative Stamping and decided that I should treat myself.  I do my grocery shopping online these days and so don't get to see the latest magazines sitting on the shelves to tempt me but I'm so pleased that I spotted this one was around.  I duly ordered it online and I can see I'm going to have lots of fun using this great gift set.  I started with this design which is similar to one of the ones within the magazine and it's far from perfect but, hey, it's hand crafted 🤣🤣.  The suggestion was to leave the 'squares' stencil in place to stamp the images but I found this just didn't work for me which was frustrating but I persevered and set about masking off each section with Post-it notes before stamping each one separately.  I very nearly gave up the whole idea because to be honest it was far too hot in my craft room to be fiddling about with this. I certainly needed a lie down in a darkened room to recover before eventually assembling it into a finished card.  There are already other ideas going around in my head and you will be seeing more cards using this super set of stamps and stencils in due course.  It's boring going on about the weather but it really is too hot to be tinkering about with masks, ink and stamps - sorry 🥵

Stamps and Stencils - cover gift from Creative Stamping #162
Sentiment - from Art Gallery Stampin' Up set (long retired)
Background - printed from a Buddly Crafts download
Wavy Edge square die - unbranded set from Amazon