Christmas

 I've made a couple more Christmas cards using the houses which I'd cut out but with this one I've gone a little off-piste because I only had a couple of smaller houses left.  I did incorporate a strip of the DSP with printed trees for one of the layers.  Decided to die cut a car using a die from a freebie set which I've had for a few years, cut out some larger trees and 'found' a stray lamp post in the tray on my desk.

Sky layer - printed from Artylicious Season's Greetings CD
Tree layer and houses - DSP from Stampin' Up Trimming the Town
Car - die cut using a free set of dies and stamps I've had for some time
Large trees - Sizzix Seasonal die set Santa's Workshop
Lamp post - stray item found on my desk, left from last Christmas I imagine
Snowy area - embossing folder from Creative Expressions
Hills - cut using dies from Lawn Fawn stitched hills borders

Christmas Cards

 I thought it was probably time to get on with some Christmas cards - I've made a few here and there through the year but a more serious effort is required to get more done.  My friend Anne suggested to me (persuaded me!) that I really needed to acquire some designer series paper (DSP) which has a series of houses on some of the sheets which can be cut out either using a lovely die set which I don't own ~ yet ~ or alternatively they are quite easy to cut out using scissors.  I know that Anne has been making cards using this DSP and if you watch out for her next blog post I'm sure you will be seeing what she has come up with.  

So far I've made a total of five cards, all similar but not exactly alike - batch making isn't really my scene although I have to say it would be a more efficient method than my normal way - not really into time and motion study and let's face it time isn't really a problem when I'm at home pretty well all the time.  I printed off some background papers for the sky and die cut the snowy landscapes and trees adding sentiments in most cases.

For this card I die cut some snow with a line of trees, snowline with row of houses which I also cut using some yellow card so that I could light up the windows.  The snow at the base was die cut and then put through an embossing folder for texture.  Coloured houses and paper trees were all cut from the DSP and for this one no sentiment has been added although there is a space in the sky if I decide to add one later.  You will probably be seeing the other four cards at some point.

Background paper - printed from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD from way, way back
Treescape and Houses - dies from Crafter's Companion
Houses and Paper Trees - cut from Stampin' Up DSP Trimming the Town
Embossing Folder - Creative Expressions I think
Snow - Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside borders

Pixie Snippets #388

 Time to visit the Playground once again and what a fun card the lovely Di has produced for us this time ~ I think I will have to ask for my name to be included in the draw for the brilliant die used - don't you just love the long johns 😁.  I've used quite a lot of fairly small snippets for  my card this time as well as delving into several different sets of dies in order to build up an interesting scene.  I started with the octagon die which I cut once in green and once in a patterned card.  I then sliced the top off the patterned piece to form a little slope.  Next came the tree house cut from a kraft card snippet, over stamped with bark design; followed in turn by the toadstools, flowers, grass and last but not least the two gnomes. Phew, that was a lot of die cutting and sticking I must say.  I'm probably going to use this as a New Home card but will add a suitable sentiment when I finally decide (left space for it at the bottom).

Octagon - die set from Daisy Mae
Tree House - from die set by Hello Bluebird
Large Toadstool and Flowers - Sizzix Funky Foliage die set
Gnomes and Small Toadstools - die set Gnome and Santa from Karen Burniston
Ground Slope - Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders die set
Blades of Grass - Grassy Edges Dienamics from My Favourite Things
Stamping on Tree - Woodgrain stamp from Stampin' Up

Butterfly Challenge #147

 It's been a while since I made a card for the Butterfly challenge and I did intend to try the clever fold idea but sadly this was not to be but the details of all the different card shapes are on the Butterfly Blog so I can try again another day.  The alphabet letter for #147 is 'D' - double point fold, diamonds and colours of delft blue, dandelion and damson with of course the usual butterfly.   I managed to incorporate diamonds in the large die cut background shape and some 'diamond' gems on the butterfly body, also colours delft blue and dandelion yellow.  The die used for the main fancy shape is one which I've had for more years than I care to imagine and using it has made me realise just how dies have improved over the years in terms of ease of use.  This one needed more than one pass to cut and then it wanted to hang on to all the pieces rather than letting them just drop out.  The butterfly was cut in the two colours as well and some matching paper was used for the background.  Card was finished off with some matching 'card candi' - something else which I've  had forever!!

Die cut Shape - Marianne die set
Sentiment - stamp from my favourite freebie set
Butterfly - Sizzix die

Free as a Bird

Yesterday I was quite pleased that I had to stay at home because the weather started out by being just a bit damp but deteriorated into being extremely wet and dreary as the day went on.  Just the sort of day for sitting by the fire doing a bit of stamping, colouring and fussy cutting.  I finished up with a bird, a branch and a selection of blossom and leaves which I then turned into this card.  I found some pretty background paper, die cut two shapes and embossed the smaller, white one before arranging the bird and blossoms in what I hope is a pleasing way.  Found an odd strip of pink card which I die cut on both edges to form a border, finally adding a birthday sticker. Blue skies and sunshine so far this morning but the forecast doesn't look good - mind you it is October so I suppose we can't hope for endless summer weather.

Bird and Blossom - Free as a Bird stamp set from Stampin' Up
Border - die from Crafter's Companion
Sentiment - sticker from Clarity book of stickers for many occasions
Shapes - Window frames collection Stampin' Up
Embossing - 3D Embossing folder from Creative Expressions
Colouring - done with Inktense pencils

Humming Bird

 I came across this image when I was sorting through a box of miscellaneous pieces of paper and card. I'm sure I must have printed it but for the life of me I can't recall the source. It was ages ago I know and probably before my computer crashed and had to be replaced.  Anyway I thought I'd use it to make up a card using some toning punched strips of card and adding a few more of my stray flowers and leaves which happen to be the right colours.

Image - unknown source
Background - from my stash of papers
Ovals - Tonic nesting dies
Strips - Stampin' Up punch
Sentiment - computer generated using Word
Flowers and leaves - Stampin' Up Botanical Builder dies

Stray Flowers

 The other day I used some stray die cut mice and today I have a card to share which has used up some stray flowers and leaves from the tray on my desk.  I started off by using a large octagon die to cut the base card - makes a change from my usual square ones!  Next I cut more octagons using smaller dies using white and different shades of green card.  A few flowers and leaves were arranged in a little spray, everything layered up and glued and there we have it - yet another card for my ever growing supply of finished ones.

The sun is shining this morning and it looks as if we are in for a pleasant weekend, weather-wise anyway even though it is quite a bit cooler than of late.  Enjoy 😷🙂

Larger Octagons - die set from Daisy Mae Designs
Smaller Octagons - die set from Tonic
Sentiment - from my usual free set given with magazine ages ago
Flowers and Leaves - 'spares' from various sets,  kept in a tray on my desk