Twofer

 Isn't it great when you can get two cards out of one design, and that's what I've done here using a circle dot die and a piece of card from my colour play sessions box.  I cut the die in white to match the card base and cut it again from the piece which had been coloured using the shaving foam technique (I think, but  it was a while ago and I can't really remember).  Anyway I thought it would be suitable for this card.  I then adhered the white outline circle to the card before fitting all the different circles back into the spaces - took me a while 🤣.  The Birthday greeting was die cut twice and layered together for stability before being added to finish off the card.  My intention next was to use the coloured outline circle in the same way, inserting the white dots but decided to take the easy way out with this second card and just let the white background show through which gave the same effect but without all the fiddle of inserting the small dots.  A similar sentiment was added and that's it - twofer completed.😉 

Thanks

 Another small scale card to share today, this time it's a 4" square Thank-you note card mainly using up bits and pieces from oddments left over from previous projects.  I started by die cutting a square frame to fit the card and then found a scrap of previously die cut floral card to match which I backed with a pale lilac scrap.  The 'thanks' word was cut twice and layered to give it a bit of substance and that's it - a quick and easy little card.

Square frame - Noble Pierced frame die from Creative Expressions and a plain square die
Thanks - word die from Concorde & 9th

Fun Card for the Playground

I've used more of my snippets and another small slim card to play along in the Snippets Playground latest challenge. This is a 3" x 8" card blank - odd proportions but I'm sort of getting used to them in my efforts to use them up.  I trimmed a snippet of patterned paper to slightly smaller than the card then pulled out a scrap of card from my home made backgrounds collection and stamped some strange birds which were then fussy cut (no matching dies sadly).  Some extra colour was added using pencils. The branches were die cut from snippets of brown card and the words stamped onto snippets of white and also fussy cut.  The Playground gates are open for two weeks and there is a great prize on offer as usual.

Remembered to take a photo of what I used 😉

Background - printed from a MCS CD (probably no longer available)
Birds and Words - Aall & Create Strange Birds set
Branches - die from a SU set

Just to Say

 I have another of my smaller 'tall slim' cards to share today.  For this one I cut a panel of matching card using the same die as on my previous one which left a space at the bottom of the card where I added three little die cut flowers.  The panel was 'smooshed' through a couple of colours of Distress Oxide ink and once dry I stamped some text down one edge and added some stencilling.  The words were cut from some matching card.  I think I might be getting to like this size of card although once used up I probably won't buy any more 😉.  Next challenge could be a pack of 4" square cards which were hiding in the box - can't really imagine why I bought them because working on such a small scale does rather freak me out 🤣

Text stamp - came with an Indigo Blue magazine kit
Stencil - from Lavinia
Words - Art Gallery dies from Stampin' Up (retired)
Flowers - die set from John Next Door

Postage Theme

 It's said that great  minds think alike and while I was in the middle of making this card yesterday I spotted one  made by Linby using a similar idea and posted on her blog .  I've used different colours and stamps but with the same postal theme.  Back to my more usual square format today because this is quite a large die but so versatile, depending on what stamps are used.

Stamp Die - unbranded
Stamps - Card-IO, Lavinia, Clarity and some magazine freebies

Smaller Cards

 The majority of my cards are 6" squares with occasionally 5" x 7" or DL ones thrown into the mix and I rarely make anything smaller.  I've been making cards for many years and naturally have amassed large amounts of crafty 'stuff', amongst which was a large plastic box containing miscellaneous card blanks, mostly with envelopes and I decided it was time I turfed everything out and had a good sort through to see just what might be lurking in the depths.  Well as you've probably guessed there were quite a few (lot) of small cards, mainly squares but also a couple of full packs of something called 'tall slim cards'.  I could never resist a bargain and I see they were BOGOF at the time 🤣🤣.  Strange proportions to my eye though at 3" x 8".  Anyway I've decided to challenge myself to use up some of these smaller cards, starting with said tall slims which I thought might be handy as notelets rather than actual greetings cards - I think some of the smaller squares might be made into 'cards for no particular occasion' but just to send as random acts of kindness (RAKS).  

This one is my first go at working to a smaller format although at the moment it feels very restricting but perhaps if I persevere it should come easier 😉 .  Watch this space!

Stamps - a mix of Lavinia, Inkylicious and Card-IO

Hippos

 A birthday card to share today which was made for one of my great grandsons.  Not much to say about it really as it rather speaks for itself.  The stamps and dies used were from my stash and are mostly now retired although the kite is from SU's Playing in the Rain set which I believe is in the current annual catalogue.