The Imagine Tree

Hi there dear Reader!

Today, I have a one layer card to share with you, featuring only stamping and stencilling on the card front. 

The stencilling means I can join in with Donna’s theme at the current ALLSORTS CHALLENGE #853 where you can win more stencils to play with if you’re lucky. 

5” x 4” card

Materials:

• Numbers at left hand edge by Visible Image, from the You’re A Classic stamp set
• Tree by Stampin; Up - from Hopeful Thoughts stamp set
• Imagine word by PaperArtsy from the Coneflowers Edition Eclectica stamp set EAB49
• Grass stamp by Hobby Art from the Bee Kind set
• Dotty circles stencil from a magazine cover gift, stencilled with Distress Inks in Wild Honey, Peacock Feathers and Shabby Shutters.

It’s NEARLY Rudolph Day!

Hi there!

It’s Rudolph Day tomorrow . . . but as I often post on a Wednesday, my penguin ATC is a day early! 

Instead, I’m entering this ATC into one of my favourite challenges - TAG ALONG & ATCs - where they want to see you ADD SOME TEXT to your tag, ATC or bookmark. 

My ATC has text stamped faintly in the background and the word “penguin” in the orange/green bit of the image.

ATC

Details:

• Snippets of white and SU Island Indigo to create the ATC base 
• MFT Stitched Snowflakes for the two smaller flakes; unknown make for the largest snowflake.
• Script stamp (stamped in SU Pool Party ink) is from the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous set THMM123.
• Penguin is by AALL & Create - Set #604

Sunday Snippets - Hello Friend ATC

Hi Playmates!

For my homework this week, I made a floral ATC. 

The inner purple/pink flower was one of the left over snippets from those cut in THIS POST.

Snippets for die cutting the flower and
stamping the sentiment 

Details:

• MFT sentiment from the "Friends Like Us" set, stamped onto the white snippet in the picture.
• Background created using pink and purple ink, and a stamp from the SU Artistically Inked set
• Book text by Florileges Design stamp ref: FG317034
• Marianne Designs' Daisy flower dies used on the white snippet in the picture
• Purple paper snippet from Studio Light Unicolour Paper pad

I would like to enter this ATC into the current TAG ALONG & ATCs CHALLENGE where the theme is ADD SOME TEXT.

I have published RESULTS from the previous challenge, so please hop over to the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND to admire the top picks and discover which lucky playmate won the prize. There's still nearly a week left to play in the current challenge if you haven't already done so.

You're invited to Allsorts' 17th Birthday Party

I am thrilled to be one of the Guest Designers at ALLSORTS Challenge 850 while they celebrate their 17th birthday.  Go check out the Design Team’s lovely makes. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLSORTS - congrats to Brenda and her team on your longevity.

The challenge theme is ANYTHING GOES - so a nice easy one.

There are lots of lovely prizes on offer (details HERE) and you can enter up to 5 times, so why not come and join in with the Allsorts Birthday Party and you might go home with a little goody bag!n On top of all that there is a code for 15% off of Aall & Create products which is AllsortsBD17.

I got out the wonderful Studio Light triptych dies to make this shaped card, along with some vintage style stamps by Tim Holtz. I stamped the butterfly twice so I could decoupage it. If you fold one panel back on itself, this card fits inside a 6" x 6" envelope.

Materials:

• Studio Light triptych die
• Botanic Collage Stamps CMS447 by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous
• White panels matted onto SU Tip Top Taupe card
• SU Birthday stamp from a long retired set, stamped with Tip Top Taupe ink
• Lavinia Elements Mulberry ink used for the main panels

Sunday Snippets - A Butterfly Card

Hi Playmates!

There's a new challenge to play along with over at the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND hosted by Miss Di for the next fortnight.

Here's my homework:

A6 sized card

I've only used ONE snippet on this card (the butterfly), but I hope you'll agree it has IMPACT!

Details:

• Concord & 9th Butterfly (snippet from an art journal page I discarded)
• Funky Fossil - Geometric Flowers stencil (green ink)
• Tim Holtz THMM123 grungy letters stamp (grey ink)
• SU Gorgeous Grunge splatter stamp (purple ink)

Sunday Snippets - another Bunny card!

Hi Playmates!

Here's another bunny card. You have the chance to win a bunny die as part of the prize package over at THE SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND for the next week. 

Zigzag card

Left over snippets!

Details:

• Pink patterned paper snippets
• SU Sahara Sand snippets of card used for die cutting, matting and layering
• Zigzag shaped card created from a snippet strip of white card left over from cutting my own card bases. (Strip measured 11" x 2" and was scored & folded at 4", 8" & 9.5")
• Unbranded Bunny and flower dies, cut from Sahara Sand snippets
• Retired SU four petal flower outline die cuts used on back panel; waste leaves used to ground Bunny

Di has published RESULTS from the previous challenge, so please hop over to the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND to admire her top picks and discover which lucky playmate won the prize. 

Butterfly thank you card

Today I have a collage style card to share with you.

I was inspired to make this after seeing a lovely card by Cecile Ribon on Pinterest, so I CASED it.

My version - A6 sized card

CECILE RIBON'S original card is below:

The card I CASED

Details:

• Rectangle Frame die by Heffy Doodle 
• Leafy sprig from the Hidden Foliage die set by Sizzix
• SU background “paint stripe” stamp from long-retired set (I can't remember the name of it)
• Thank You sentiment the Simply Said set by Uniko
• Text Stamp by Florileges Designs
• Butterfly cut out from patterned paper

Sittin’ Pretty!

Hi there!

I decided to play with my lovely wooden stamps. This chicken, sitting pretty on top of a pile of gifts, is an old favourite. I have left the card sentiment-free for the time being.

I’d like to enter the card into the current ALLSORTS CHALLENGE 844 where the theme is RIBBONS AND BOWS. I took a leaf out of VAL’S book and used a stamp with ribbons and bows on it (in the gifts). 

A6 sized card

Details:

• SNIPPETS = Everything stuck to the card front!
• SU patterned paper, mounted onto SU Night of Navy card.
• My 23-year old-Penny Black “Party Perch” 2619H wooden stamp!
• Image coloured with watercolour pencils and a water brush. 

Delighted to be part of Allsorts Top 7 with this card - thank you so much.

Friendship Card

Today I have a CAS one layer card to share with you - using just three stamps and a little watercolouring.

I would like to enter this card into the March STAMPING SENSATIONS CHALLENGE where the optional theme is SPRING (or anything goes). I thought the buds looked like Pussy Willow so I'm entering under the theme. There's a lovely prize on offer and you have until noon on 1st April to enter.

A6 sized card

DETAILS:

• PaperArtsy JOFY 102 set for the bud image
• Bird stamp by SU (from the long retired Everything Eleanor set)
• Friend definition stamp by Crafty Roo (no longer trading)
• Inks: SU Sahara Sand and VF Onyx Black

February Rudolph Day - Christmas Gonk

Hi there!

It's "Rudolph Day” for us crafters, so I'm sharing one of the festive cards I made earlier this year, ready for the coming December! 

 A6 sized card

Materials:

• Torn paper masks for snow drifts.
• Gonk by unknown make
• PaperArtsy snowflake stencil
• Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide ink, plus SU Night of Navy ink for the sentiment.
• Creative Expressions snow stencil
• Posca Pens scribbled onto a non-stick sheet and picked up with a waterbrush to colour the gonk.
• White snippet used to stamp the gonk on. It was then coloured, cut out and glued to the card front. 

Snippets Sunday - Ooh La La!

Hi Playmates!

Di has published RESULTS from the previous challenge, so please hop over to the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND to admire her top picks and discover which lucky playmate won the prize. There's still nearly a week left to play in the current challenge if you haven't already done so.

For my homework this week, I made a background and then added a snippet collage over the top. This means I can also join in with the current ALLSORTS CHALLENGE #842 where the optional theme is to CREATE YOUR OWN BACKGROUND (or anything goes).

Finished A6 sized card with a side opening.

The stamped & stencilled background.

Snippets pulled out ready to use.

Details:

• BACKGROUND created with Visible Image Daisy stencil. With the stencil still held in place, I stamped a little background stamp from Studio Light's Grunge Collection stamp set SL451 among the petals.
• SNIPPETS for this card had previously been stamped on to a scrap of white printer paper (left over from making card inserts) using Hobby Arts' "Vintage" set. The female figure is from SU's "Beautiful You" set and was cut out from scrap of white card. I often stamp things on to white snippets, cut out and keep for later!

Sunday Snippets - Let’s Rock!

Hi Playmates!

I have published RESULTS from the previous challenge, so please hop over to the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND to admire the top picks and discover which lucky playmate won the prize. There's still nearly a week left to play in the current challenge if you haven't already done so.

For my homework, I made another guitar card for a friend of the guitarist in my life!

A6 sized card

I would like to enter this card into the current ALLSORTS CHALLENGE #841 - under their theme of “For Boys or Men”.

Materials:

• Stamps: Sentiment from a retired SU stamp set; guitar inc background (all one stamp) from the Rock n Roll set by Funky Fossil.
• Inks: SU Basic Grey ink for the guitar stamp. A few brown Distress Inks to colour the guitar itself.
• Dies: Retired stitched circles from The Works; retired Stitched Rectanges from Heffy Doodle.
• Snippets: The circular sentiment; the white image panel and a larger brown snippet trimmed to fit.

Sunday Snippets - Masculine Card

Hi there!

I needed a masculine card for the guitarist in my life - so here’s what I came up with - a box card with a hinged sentiment.

A tutorial for this card is on the tabs at the top of this blog HERE - just scroll down to “Square Box Card” for details.

Materials:

• Guitar image from Visible Image’s Music Speaks set
• Sentiment from an old set by Stampin Up
• Bottom edge swirl from the Funky Fossil Rock n Roll set
• Sizzix circle dies used for the hinged sentiment
• Snippets: white card and SU Sahara Sand card used for the panels and sentiment

Di has published RESULTS from the previous challenge, so please hop over to the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND to admire her top picks and discover which lucky playmate won the prize. There's still nearly a week left to play in the current challenge if you haven't already done so.

Coffee Love!

Hi there!

I made a little ATC which I would like to enter into the January TAG ALONG & ATC CHALLENGE where the theme is Love and Romance. 

Well, I LOVE decent coffee! If that’s too “out there” as an interpretation of the theme, there’s always the ANYTHING GOES option!

ATC 2.5" x 3.5"

My snippets!

Details:

• Background stamps used on ATC base: Tall Grass set by Funky Fossil; Studio Light Grunge Collection SL451; splatters from the Gorgeous Grunge set by Stampin’ Up! 
• Background Stencil: Ink Swirls by Visible Image.
• Focal point:Coffee Cup stamp = magazine cover gift, stuck to ATC with foam pads. Brown ink and waterbrush used to ground image.
• Words by Clearly Besotted (retired set)
• Heart from the Accessorize set by Visible Image (stamped, cut out and stuck on with foam pads).

Sunday Snippets - Altenew Rose Cards

Hi Playmates!

Wishing you a very Happy New Year. I hope 2026 is good to you.

For my homework, I CASED a card that the wonderfully talented Viv made back in March last year. I just love this Altenew stamp set and ended up making 2 more cards with it while I had it sat sitting on the desk!

Card measures 5” square

Details:

• Stamps: Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set for ALL stamping on the above card.
• Inks: SU Calypso Coral; Lucky Limeade; Certainly Celery, Basic Grey & Smokey Slate. As well as Mustard Seed & Wild Honey Distress Inks.
• Snippets: all the coloured foliage and flower are stamped onto white snippets of card.

Here are the other two cards I made with the same stamp set:

5” square card
+ Paper Artsy JOFY sentiment and Funky Fossil Geometric Floral stencil

A6 sized card
+ Retired SU birthday sentiment

Sunday Snippets in Red and Green

Hi Playmates!

Miss Di is in charge of the new SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND challenge for the next fortnight - and I must say the Playground is looking VERY festive. Everything has been decorated and there’s a huge Christmas tree in the Assembly Hall. 

Rehearsals for the Nativity Play are going well with all you little (ahem!) angels running amok. It’s going to be the usual mayhem with myself, Di and Dudley running around like headless chickens, but it is a lot of fun!

For my homework this week, I made a festive card with plenty of red and green on it so that I could enter the current WE LOVE STAMPING CHALLENGE using their theme.

The cream card measures 5" square

Materials:

• Background stamping = Numerous grunge stamps by Kaiserkraft, Studio Light, plus splatters fromSU’s  Gorgeous Grunge set, stamped onto a white snippet.
• Focal point stamping =The postmark stamp is from the Hobby Art Christmas Post CS068D set. I stamped it on the panel and again onto another snippet so that I could cut it out and stick it on with foam pads. I inked the postmark and panel edges with whatever orange Distress Oxide ink was left on the brush. 
• Die Cutting: Winter foliage from gel print snippets (Hidden Leaves dies by Sizzix Code 664581).
• The bird die (unbranded set from TEMU) was cut from the last remaining red snippets of card I could find.

Green gelli plate snippets & the last couple 
of red snippets I managed to squeeze the birds out of!

I also made an ATC while I had the above snippets out on my desk. Managed to cut x 2.5" x 3.5” piece out of the dark green gel print to mount the bird panel on. I stencilled the white snippet (not shown in the pic) first, adding some dark brown splatters, then stamped the sentiment before glueing the foliage and bird in place. 

ATC

I would like to enter the ATC into the DECEMBER TAG ALONG & ATC CHALLENGE where the theme is RED & GREEN (but there’s also an anything goes option).

Materials:

• Heffy Doodle “Numicon” stencil used on the white panel with light green ink.
• SU splatter stamp from “Gorgeous Grunge” used with dark brown ink.
• Crafty Roo “Happy Christmas” sentiment stamped in VFC Spruce ink.
• Dark green gel print snippet shown in the photo trimmed to 2.5” x 3.5” - used for the main panel mount.
• Green foliage die from the Hidden Leaves set by Sizzix (Code 664581) - cut from a gel print snippet.
• Red bird (unbranded die set bought from Temu) cut from red snippets of card.

Remember there are EXTRA PRIZES to be won in the December challenges at the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND, so why not come over to play? 

Christmas Snippets!

Hi Lovely Reader!

Thanks for dropping by at this busy time of year.

As previously mentioned, I have started making next year's Christmas cards, so I stamped up a few white card snippets and coloured them in. Then I cut them out and set about making some festive cards. 

Stamped up snippets.

Coloured and cut out images.

Cards made with a few of the snippets.
I still have the remaining images to use up.

I was going to enter one of the red and green gonk cards into the We Love Stamping December Challenge . . . until I realised that I had no idea of the gonk stamp details (a requirement for copyright purposes). I thought the set might have been by Lisa Horton for Creative Expressions, but it's several years old and I cannot locate it anywhere, so that's that plan scuppered!

Textured ATCs

Hi there!

Today I have a couple of textured ATCs to share - but be warned - this post is a bit photo heavy! Both ATCs were originally playing cards, which I trimmed to 2.25" x 3.25" and rounded the corners so that I could mount them onto a 2.5" x 3.5" base.

Here's the first:

ATC

Attempting to show you the embossed texture
of the base and the flower.

ATC MATERIALS:

• Focal flower: Flower head from a retired Stampin' Up! set, coloured with yellow & orange Distress Inks then heat embossed with clear EP. The stem and leaves are from Tim Holtz Flower Garden CMS125, stamped in black VFC ink, then heat embossed with clear EP.
• Background: Stamps from Studio Light Grunge set SL GR STAMP229 and Creative Expressions Arty Background stamp set CEC-784. Base was created by painting and smearing the playing card with a mixture of black, white and turquoise gesso. (Yes! You read that right . . . TURQUOISE gesso - by Jane Davenport!)
• Texture: created with different layers of gesso; heating embossing and the flower head was stuck to the card with a foam pad.

I couldn't believe how glossy the flower turned out. I had simply stamped it onto some plain old copy paper and coloured it with a yellow and orange Distress Inks. I liked it like that - but, as I had the heat gun and embossing stuff out on my desk, I wondered what would happen if I dabbed a VersaMark ink pad onto it and covered it with clear embossing powder! This was the delightful result:

Sooooo glossy! Happy days!

I would like to enter the flower ATC into the TAG ALONG & ATCs CHALLENGE where the theme is to ADD TEXTURE.

Delighted to be picked.

This is how the playing cards looked at first:

I covered the playing cards with
gesso and acrylic paints.

Here's the other textured ATC I made from the above:

The photo below shows how it looked after the gesso & acrylic paint, with the added stamping, stencilling  and heat embossing, but minus the chicken and flower "sun" and the sentiment which I cut out from a magazine and inked.

If you managed to get to the end of this longer blog post . . . congrats and THANK YOU!

Blue Birthday Flowers

Hi there!

Today I'm sharing a one layer birthday card with you.

A6 sized card.

Details:

• Lovely large background stamp by Crafty Individuals (ref CI-514), stamped in SU Pool Party ink.
• Flowers from Aall & Create's Flower Smudge set No. 985, stamped in SU Island Indigo ink. Please note that I have cut the flower stamp into pieces to better suit my needs - it does not look like this when you buy it!
• Flowers grounded with a small grungy stamp designed by Asia Marquet for IndigoBlu. 
• Sentiment by Stampin' Up!

Sunday Snippets - 5th October

Hi Playmates!

I have published RESULTS from the previous challenge, so please hop over to the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND to admire the top picks and discover which lucky playmate won the prize. There's still nearly a week left to play in the current challenge if you haven't already done so.

For my homework I've created a floral card using lots of snippets. In fact, EVERYTHING stuck to the card front is a snippet! It's been a wild and woolly week of weather here in the UK, but remember the sun always shines in the Snippets Playground, so come on over to play!

Card measures 5" square

The snippets after die cutting!

Details:

• "Modern Floristry" die set designed by Tim Holtz for Sizzix - cut from various gelli prints to make up the flower, stamen and leaves.
• Flower & leaves glued to snippet of patterned paper, and mounted onto a gelli print snippet before being added to the card front.
• Sentiment by Stampin' Up! inked with Marina Mist.