Too Nice to Use???

How many of us I wonder have some wonderful background papers which are 'just too nice to use'?  Well I've decided that if they are that nice then maybe they should be used to bring pleasure to the person who receives the card or whatever else we make, rather than remaining hidden in our craft rooms.  Today I received the Hand Penned DSP and have bravely cut into  a sheet  to make this card, teaming it up with some toning plain card and stamped floral motifs.

Hand Penned - from Stampin' Up
Oval - embossed using 3D bark embossing folder also SU

Dandelions

 As I look out at the lawn I can see plenty of daisies and a few dandelions and very pretty they look even if they aren't really supposed to be there.  In fact they don't worry me - my garden is far from pristine and must be good for small wildlife.  There are also dandelions on the card I'm sharing today (no daisies) but there is a tiny dragonfly.

Curved Card - cut using Stampin' Up Quite Curvy die set
Floral Paper - From Stampin' Up to match Garden Wishes stamp set
Flowers - dies from Dandy Wishes die set Stampin' Up
White Background Shape - Apothecary Accents die set (SU long retired)
Dragonfly - X-cut punch which I've had forever

Flowers

I received another class in the post recently but decided to 'break free'  and do my own thing with some of the die cut flowers which came with it using up some scraps of card and paper from my oddments boxes.  As the flowers were all white my initial idea was to colour them but once I'd found the paper and card I wanted to use, decided that they would be fine left as they were although I did die cut some leaves using one of my dies and also cut some coloured centres for the flowers.

Background papers - scraps from some long retired DSP Stampin' Up
Flowers - Pierced Blooms dies Stampin' Up (class in the post)
Leaves - die from Curvy die set SU
Flower Centres - from retired SU floral die set

Anniversary

A friend commented on my recent Garden Snail card that it could be used for an anniversary so as I had some more stamped and coloured images handy I gave it some thought and came up with this one for a bit of fun.  Hopefully it will make someone smile.

Images - Snail Mail stamp set by Stampin' Up
Hearts - dies from Crafter's Companion
Sentiment - download from Netty's Cards resized to fit a punch.

 

Garden Snails

 I've created a little garden scene with a couple of snails and a few other bits and pieces - always a bit of a fiddly job gathering everything together and arranging  to make a pleasing scene but this is something |I enjoy doing.  I started with a square of white card and blended blue in the sky area and some earth effect for the ground before digging out various die sets to build up the scene as well as stamping the snails which are coloured using alcohol pens and then fussy cut.  Lots of 'stuff' to tidy away after making this one and care has to be taken with the tiny dies so that they don't get lost - might need them to build a different scene 😉😉

Snails - Snail Mail stamp set Stampin' Up
Trees, Fence, Flower Border - from two Sizzix die sets
Bird, Toadstools, Grassy Tufts - Dies which I think came as  magazine freebies 

Steampunk

Another masculine card to share today using up various bits and pieces .  Started with a piece of cream heavyweight paper which came from a pad of text designs and the Steampunk 'airship' was stamped and embossed on this before cutting it into a circle. A larger circle was cut into a scrap of kraft card and then the whole thing was popped onto yet another piece of text background.  This pad seems to go on forever and has proved so very useful.  Finally a small sentiment was stamped onto another scrap added.

Image - from Steampunk stamp set Chocolate Baroque
Text Papers - Prima designs paper pad

Snippets Challenge #404

 Time certainly seems to fly and it is time for another Playground Challenge with the chance to go into the draw for a super prize.  Why not pop along to see some inspiration?  I've gone with a rainbow theme this time and used up some really small snippets for the flowers.  I've used  snippets of  blue and white card trimmed to fit onto a DL card blank and started by die cutting the rainbow flowers which I then popped in place to see how they would need to be spaced out so that I could then stamp the splodges using matching ink. before finally sticking down the flowers and adding a sentiment.  Clean and Simple style which didn't make much of a dent in my snippets mountain but it was fun to make, leaving me with boxes of scraps and six different ink pads which all needed to be tidied away before I could make anything else.