Rudolph Days Already??

Can it really be time for the Rudolph Days challenge and I guess the answer is yes so here is my card which was inspired by seeing one fairly recently from the lovely Di of Snippets Playground fame who does a great job of enabling other crafters to acquire new stash 🤣.  This little deer was so cute I just couldn't resist.  I also had inspiration here from Susan Hardy for  a way of using the circle die for a quick card.  I die cut the circle into a piece of white card and then used a smaller plain circle to cut out the aperture which I backed with a snippet of printed paper from my Christmas collection.  I then die cut the deer and a couple of tiny Christmas trees.  The nose on the deer was brushed with Wink of Stella for a bit of shine and a simple sentiment was added to what was a quick and easy card for the Rudolph challenge this time.  Happy Rudolph Days everyone ☺️

Circle die - Craft Addiction UK
Deer - die from Amazon
Trees - from a long retired Stampin' Up Christmas set
Snippet of Paper - printed from Craftylicious Season's Greetings CD from many years ago

Small Dwellings

I fancied a dabble with some stamping so, inspired by a video,  I sorted out some suitable stamps and a piece of water colour paper, trimmed to fit onto a DL card and came up with this.  The first thing I did was inked up my DL Gelli plate and pulled this background print then it was fairly straightforward to add the various stamps to build up the design.  The 'sticker' was one which I produced on the computer and glued in place.  Some sparkle was added here and there but sadly it doesn't show on the picture.  I do so enjoy building up inky scenes such as this.

Stamps - all Lavinia designs
'Sticker' - produced using MS Word and trimmed with scissors.

Snippets Challenge #511

 Time for another challenge in the Snippets Playground and as usual a lovely prize for the lucky person whose name is drawn at the end.  This card was made a short while ago so no photograph of the snippets this time but rest assured I reached for snippets to die cut the slatted squares and also the donkey was stamped onto a snippet before being fussy cut.  The blue layer also came from the snippets collection although the card blank was a purchased one and I needed to use a whole piece of a thinner white card so that I could print the words before trimming it down to fit nicely.  Sadly my current printer just refuses to take anything but the thinnest of card.  I've had the donkey stamp set for a few years but they are such fun and quite versatile.

Donkey - Darling Donkeys stamp set Stampin' Up (retired)
Slatted squares - Craft Addiction UK
Words - composed by me and printed using MS Word

Allsorts Challenge #828

 The theme for the latest Allsorts challenge has been chosen by Lynn and it is **Pretty Flowers** or of course you have the usual option of selecting the *anything goes* theme.. Prizes are from All & Create - more details on the Allsorts blog post if you follow the link.

This is the first time I've used this particular die set although I've had it for some time but as it incorporates flowers I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to use it here.  I cut out the various components from coloured card - the birdhouse was a piece of blue which I'd stamped using a wood grain stamp and the flowers were cut from a piece of white card smooshed with some Pixie powders which gives an interesting sheen.  The cream background piece was embossed with a floral embossing folder which I've had for more years than I care to remember.  Sentiment was produced on the computer and die cut.

Background - embossing folder from Sheena Douglass (from years back)
Woodgrain Stamp - Stampin' Up (long retired)
Birdhouse and Flowers - dies from Stampin' Up (also retired)
Sentiment - produced using MS Word, die cut with a retired SU die

Masculine Card

 One of the cards we sometimes find difficult to make to share today although I don't suppose that fly fishing is exclusively a male pursuit ☺️.  Anyway I'd spotted the dies and realised they were just right to make a card for the man I had in mind.  I looked through some of my designer papers and came across this piece which I thought would be ideal as a backdrop to show off the wording and the silhouette fisherman.. I also used one of the slatted circular dies for some added interest. There are quite a few other 'fishy' dies in the set for future cards as well. Although the wording came together as one die, each letter cut out individually so I made a template for lining them up  by die cutting it with some scrap card and laying the 'waste' over the area where the words were to go and then I could carefully adhere the individual letters into the spaces, finally carefully removing the template once they were in place.  Hopefully this card will be well received.

Background - DP from a retired Stampin' Up collection so no longer available
Slatted Circle - die from Craft Addiction UK
Fisherman and Words - Die set from Globeland (Amazon)

Bee Happy

 I made this card a little while ago when I first acquired the slatted hexagon dies but somehow I've not posted until now.  I started by doing some partial stencilling using a hexagonal stencil and then die cut three of the smaller hexagons using all three dies for each and then backed them with some yellow card before arranging onto the card panel.  Two die cut bees and a simple sentiment complete this card.  

Hexagon Stencil - from Lavinia Stamps
Slatted Hexagon dies - from Craft Addiction UK
Bees - a die from Sizzix which I've had for some years, no idea if it's still available

New Baby

 For a change I decided to make a Baby card, mainly just to fill a gap in my box of cards because I like to keep a selection ready for various occasions.  I started with a piece of blue background paper from my stash and then die cut the cute panda with a blue bow.  The next decision was to bring out these octagonal dies for a change and finally I added a banner with the wording.

I hear we're heading for yet another heatwave ... just when I thought the temperatures had become more bearable 🙄

Octagonal Dies - Set from Daisy Mae which I've had for some years
Panda die - Spellbinders
Banner - Dies from Creative Expressions, also years old
Words - Dies from Crafter's Companion