Rudolph Day - January 2015

It's Scrappy Mo's first time at hosting the Rudolph Day Challenge, since taking over from Sarn. Already folk are buzzing in and out linking up to Mo's blog HERE, so of course I had to join in the fun:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blanks (I made three cards all exactly the same!)

- the image is a pre-coloured LOTV one from their 'Christmas Angels' Art Pad, die cut using a Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' die - and I also added a little tickle of Clear Wink of Stella to the wings and also the little starry halos :)

- the plain backing card is SU's 'Wisteria Wonder, topped with patterned paper from LOTV's 'Frosty Christmas' paper pad

- in one corner I added a 'Snowflake Corner', Memory Box die cut from white card

- the sentiment banner was stamped using Memento 'Gray Flannel' ink and a stamp from the Creative Expressions sentiments set called 'Joy to the World'. I've said before, this set comes with loads of lovely sentiments

- then I just trimmed the banner to size and punched the fishtail using SU's 1" square punch

- final touch, Josy Rose matt silver nail heads at one end of the banner

This card is also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - where the theme this week is 'Joy to the World', and also Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for 'January - where it's always 'Anything Goes'.

And to prove that I really did make three cards the same, even though Mo only wanted one card:

That brings the total made so far for 2015 to 15 :)

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 161

Oooer, with other things going on here I worried whether I'd manage to make a snippets card - but of course 'there's no show without Punch' and this is my offering:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- a snippet of white card, die cut across almost the centre using the Memory Box 'Piestra Tile' die

- the die cut panel was then popped onto a panel of 'rainbow card' - found in the snippets folder

- sentiment is by Hero Arts, from their 'Truly Appreciated' set - stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- then the assembled panel was trimmed down and popped onto the card front using very thin sticky pads

- final touch, a butterfly die cut from the last of the rainbow card snippet plus some white - using Memory Box 'Vivienne' and 'Darla' dies

There are a lot of fairly similar cards out there, on Pinterest and such, using the Piestra die along with a butterfly. Bit of a match made in heaven!

Onto this weeks picks:

Such a terrific tuxedo style card, made by Carol - super stuff!

I love this card, made by Lynn - and such a clever way to use up little white snippets too. A flower shaped punch and snippets of different coloured card stock would also give a similar effect :)

I'm always blown away by white on white cards, and this fabulous Wedding card - made by Shaz - really ticked all the boxes!

LOVE this card, made by Viv. Every element is absolutely right for the subject of the card, and the red and parchment colours go together beautifully - a nice change from blues.

I wish I could just keep adding to the picks, there were so many brilliant entries to choose from!

And we had no new playmates this past week - although there was a really serious risk of a horse joining us! What next?!?! A little group of 'rebels' decided it would be fun to accommodate said horse in the bike sheds - until I sent Parsnip out on guard duty right though the freezing nights we've been having - shame on you girls!

The winner of last week's prize (the Roses stamp set) is:

 Sally H

Well done Sally, first time you've won I think?  Can you please drop me an email with your address and I'll post your prize off ASAP (di_wray@hotmail.com).

This coming week's prize is a Memory Box die just like one I used on my snippets card today:

Yup, it's the lovely 'Piestra Tile' die. I absolutely love it and am sure most of you would too. The great thing I found is that it cuts without any 'buckling' of the card - I do have a couple of other MB dies with repetitive patterns which aren't as good as this one for maintaining perfectly flat card.

SLIGHT CHANGE OF SCHEDULE. The Snippets Challenge will run for eight days as I'm out playing all day on Saturday 31st January- so the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Sunday 1st February. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say 'Yes please' (or similar) in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Remember girls, it's Rudolph Day today over at Mo's!! I'll be joining in and hope you came along to give Mo every encouragement on her first running of the Challenge since she took it over from Sarn, and you have until the end of January to join in. Mind you, Sarn was one of the protagonists wanting a horse in the Playground so I'm wondering if she actually now has too much time on her hands?!

Di and of course, Parsnip! 

That little chap has been stomping round in his wellies in a very grumpy frame of mind - sure I heard him muttering something about 'horses, not while I'm around'!
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The Snippets Playground, in just one word

NO!
 

Di - I'm watching those of you to whom this will strike a chord :)
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Friends are the essence of life

Made a quick decoupage card last week:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- a piece of mauve spotted backing paper from Dove craft's 'Back to Basics II' paper pad

- white snippet, die cut using Spellbinders 'Floral Oval' die

- foiled decoupage flowers from a sheet I bought ages ago whilst 'out hunting' with Mrs A (Newbury I think). I tend to use thin sticky pads for decoupage, which can be snipped into the smallest strips if necessary

- sentiment is from Kaisercraft's 'Friendship Sentiments' set, stamped using Memento 'Gray Flannel' ink pad

And a close-up to show the layers and foiling more clearly:

I love this sentiment- it sums up how blessed we are when we have good friends.

Di 
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Another upcycled Christmas card

Having moaned that not many of this last Christmas's cards really lending themselves to up cycling - what does Hazel do over at Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge ask us to do? Up cycle, recycle, re purpose or use something free! So I scrabbled round in the box of saved cards and came up with this:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- backing paper from the My Mind's Eye 'All Is Bright' paper pad - chosen as it went well with the colour of the church in the image that I wanted to use. Plus I worked it so that the word 'Christmas' in the design shows and means no need for a sentiment as the card is probably busy enough

- the image came from a  shop bought Christmas card, die cut using a Spellbinders 'Labels One' die -it's a lovely sparkly image ( on the snow especially) which doesn't show up sadly in the piccy :(

- then I die cut a frame using a Spellbinders 'Luscious Labels One' die, glued behind the image and then glued the whole topper onto the card - using Collall glue - still in love with the little bit of maneuverability of course

- the baby blue pure silk ribbon (sigh, this makes such gorgeous bows) is from The Ribbon Girl, tied in a bow and adhered to the card using the glue gun

- finishing touch, an already glittered snowflake shaped button (from Hobbycraft, bought eons ago), just with a bit of iridescent cord tied in a bow and then glued onto the blue bow using the glue gun. Thereby making this a card which will not go through the normal sized letter slot - but hey-ho, sometimes it's worth it :)

This should have been a quick card to make, but I hit a huge pot hole in the road snag that's probably worth sharing.

I'm not sure how many of you may have seen (on blogs and YouTube) tutorials about the reasonably new idea of using tumble dryer sheets to remove all the fiddly bits from dies?

I spotted that Enfys of 'Going Buggy' had done a tutorial HERE and it looked a really great idea just to run your newly die cut piece of card, still in the die, through your cutting machine with the die face down onto folded tumbler dryer sheets. Quite magically the 'dross' from the die cutting should stick to the dryer sheets leaving you with a clean die plus your cut shape all neatly minus any little clinging pieces.

I'm a big fan of Enfys and she made it look so easy, so whilst doing the Sainsbury's run at the weekend I picked up a box of their 'own brand' tumble dryer sheets and tried out this new 'wonder technique'.

Now, it could be that Sainsburys dryer sheets are much moister than others. Folk do recommend you buy the cheapest from places such as Poundland or a Dollar Store, and also that you experiment a bit as perhaps you need only three folded sheets instead of four. But, I was horribly disappointed for the following reasons - the card shape didn't release from the die at all and I ended up poking bits out of the metal die once I'd managed to remove the shape, the shape itself seemed to be damp but I soon realised it was almost oily and also looked greasy and a bit discoloured - and to add insult to injury the cutting plates were left icky and needed a good wash.

So for me, right now, it's a thumbs down :( As I've said, perhaps less moist/oily sheets would be a vast improvement but needless to say I threw the test die cut out and reverted to good old waxed paper, which always works a treat.

I'd love to hear if any of you have had real success trying this out - especially as it looks such a great idea. And if you did have success, where (in the UK) did you buy your dryer sheets?

And I'd also like to add this card to Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for January.

Di
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Less Is More - Week 207, NBUS #3 and Uniko Studios

The current theme over at Less Is More is 'Friends'. Loads of options there and such fun thinking what to make/use. Shame on me, I eventually found a LOTV stamp set languishing in a folder - having never been used,  despite me having it for absolutely ages:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- image and sentiment are from the LOTV 'Watering Can' set, stamped in Memento 'Tuxedo Black ink and coloured with Pro Markers (ages since I played with these)

- the image was then die cut using a Spellbinders Labels One die, which I then ran an embossing tool round rather than dig out the embossing mat

- then drew round the same die onto SU 'Smoky Slate' card stock and trimmed it to make a mat to fit behind the image

- used Collall All Purpose Glue for the layering and to glue the assembled topper to the card - it's just got that edge for a bit of manoeuvrability :)

As it's the first time I used the stamp set, this card is also a third entry into Darnell's NBUS #3 (Never Been Used Schtuff) challenge - it's been very busy over there and you have a little bit of time still to play. The challenge closes at noon Pacific Time on Thursday 22nd January - plus there are $25 gift cards to be won from the ever-generous Darnell.

 

And, as suggested by Sarah, I'm also linking this into the latest Uniko Challenge which is 'Love and Friendship'.

Di 

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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 160

Yet another very easy snippets card from me this week - and it's also for Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge which is Butterflies + Brads. Well Mrs A, you get one butterfly - which is also a brad - so I hope it counts!

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- snippets of plain SU 'Melon Mambo' and 'Pistachio Pudding' card stock

- patterned paper from the Wild Rose Studio 'Butterfly Garden' paper pack

- stamped roses were done using a snippet of white card, SU's 'Melon Mambo' ink pad and a stamp from the Personal Impressions Lindsay Mason 'Rose Galore' stamp set. I love this particular stamp as it looks so three-dimensional and have seen cards where it's been used to stamp all over a background and then just had a sentiment popped on top - very pretty effect

- the butterfly brad came with my craft carousel - each drawer had a little packet of embellishments in and they've been sitting in a little box on my desk whilst I decided whether to keep them or not :)

- sentiment is a Craftwork Cards one with bright pink foiling

Lots of pink on this card needless to say, and the pinks are a perfect match in real life too :)

Right, this week's picks are as always so hard to choose. A few of you had been playing with Brushos this week, each card was fabulous and so I don't favour any particular one all I can suggest is that you girls hop over to see them for yourselves.

Anyhow, these are my other picks for this week:

Feathers are really popular just now, stamped and/or die cut - but I'd never seen a feather stamp used to create an almost fern-like background as Val did here. Brilliant idea!

Laura brought this fabulous layout to share. I just love how all the greys work so well together and it's such a super use of lots of snippets of course :)

Cornelia came to play, bringing this fabulous card with a bokeh background - something I've not tried yet. And just look at all the heart confetti falling down the card - love it!

Still with hearts, I picked this card made by Pat. I love the hearts die cut partly off the page and the apertures backed with patterned paper. And just look at the perfection of Pat's hand drawn faux stitching around each heart- brilliant isn't it?

No apologies, here's yet another heart themed card - made by Brenda L. It's absolutely fabulous, called a triple swing card I think. There are other views over at Brenda's blog that are well worth looking at - absolutely loads of work must have gone into this beauty!

There's been a 'layered embossing' challenge going on this week and I know that others brought some really lovely cards using the technique but felt that this card, made by Janis, ought to be a pick. It's absolutely gorgeous, hope you agree.

And now for something different, which I think we could do with in the tree house right now:

Kate made a fabulous blanket, using snippets of wool. Each square seems to be knitted using a different pattern and the effect is just fabulous. I picked this close up photo so you could see just how textured it is.

And we have four new playmates this week:

Hands up everyone who remembers Spirograph? That's what Bobbi used for this beautifully vibrant card.

And we had another trip down Memory Lane when Tracey brought this great retro style card, featuring a juke box :)

Darlene brought this totally stunning card to show - chivvied guided here by Mrs A :)

And finally Dawn Louise skipped in with this terrific owl tag - love all the bright colours!

Thank you for coming to play with us - hope to see you again soon!

Now the draw for the Spellbinders A2 Distressed Edge dies - chosen by the random number generator:

Cathy R

Wahoo, well done Cathy. Sometimes I have to run the draw more than once to find someone who said they wanted the prize - your name popped straight out on the first run! I have your address and in fact nipped into my local Post Office and posted your die set off to you yesterday.

And I also got Viv's paper pad and pokey tool posted at the same time :)

The prize this coming week is probably a smaller one than usual. Partly as I felt we needed a change from dies (although I have quite a few waiting in the toy box and secondly, I bought the stamp set ages ago and it's been pleading with me to be offered as a prize every time I peek into the toy box:

Yup, it's the 'Rose Galore' stamp set, same as the one I used today. I did originally buy the set for the stamp I used today but do love the row of tall stem roses as well as the single rose as well.

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 24th January. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say 'Yes please' (or similar) in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. I know it might not be to everyone's taste but I do hope you'll still come and play!

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

On the Playground news front - some of you will know that Elizabeth has been in hospital with pneumonia, she's back home now and has to rest for a few weeks, big hugs from all of us! Also, our absentee Princess Judy skipped in on Friday to play (at number 72) - yay! And, Gillian who used to play here but has moved onto a few DTs is gonna be a Mummy! Wahoo - congratulations.

Di and of course, Parsnip!
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