Pixie's Snippets Playground - Weeks 311 and 312

This time in two weeks I can bet that many of us will be fluttering around in a bit of a last minute panic. The best philosophy is to do what you can, but don't make yourself ill in the process - mind you, I'm a fine one to talk!

And goodness knows how I found time to make not one but four snippets cards! Because of the design I chose to make, I was (ahem) forced to make four at once - you'll see why below:

I used:

- 5" x 5" white card blank

- a piece of 5" x 5" white card on which to assemble the die cuts - much easier to assemble and then die cut down to a smaller stitched square afterwards

- snippets of sticky backed glitter paper from the XCuts 'Darks' pack (red, purple, lime and turquoise)

- then die cut one complete Christmas tree from each snippet of glitter paper - apart from the star. I die cut all the stars from a snippet of bronze glitter paper from the XCuts 'Metallics' pack

- that gave me four Christmas tree die cuts in each colour and four stars all the same colour

- next I carefully snipped across the top of each 'Christmas' word and stuck it onto the white card square - leaving plenty of space for even die cutting later on

- did the same with the word 'Merry' in a different colour and popped it on top of the word 'Christmas' - thereby 're-assembling' the die cut but in different colours

- worked right to the top - making the four card fronts as I went then topped them with a bronze sparkly star

- ran each panel through the Cuttlebug using embossing plates and a large unopened embossing folder for pressure - this makes sure the letters are firmly stuck in place and (IMHO) often gives a more professional finish

- die cut the panels using a stitched square die sized 4" x 4" from The Works (you can't get those die sets for love nor money right now!). As I had plenty of 'wiggle room' I was able to position the tree centrally in the stitched square - so it paid off doing the sticking first!

- glued the Christmas Tree panels in place onto the card fronts, using a slightly smaller square of fun foam between the card and the front panel to add dimension

I wish I could recall where I spotted this idea of slicing across the Christmas tree die cuts and using a mix of different colours. If it was you please let me know and I'll update the post to give credit for a super idea!

I found it easy to stack the words on top of one another as they should be, but if you're unsure then just cut a template from plain card as a guide :) 

In real life the cards look so bright, cheerful and very sparkly - I'll be making more of these for sure, when time allows.

Our lovely Scrappy Mo, who runs the monthly 'Rudolph Days Challenge' has come up with a super little surprise over HERE. She's running an additional challenge which began on 1st December and if you entered every Rudolph Days challenge from January to November, you're eligible to link in! Yay! I'm not sure if you need to make a special something to enter or not but, in any case, my snippets cards above are Christmas ones and I entered every month. Sometimes it was a struggle but I did it :)

And, after not playing there for absolutely ages, I would like to enter Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge 363 (where there's an option of 'Sparkle') as well as Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for December.

Let's move onto this fortnight's prize:

Yup, it's a Lil'Inker Designs 'Christmas Words Tree' die of course. The light was just too bad here to take a photo of the packet without glare or total darkness, so this is copied from Lil'Inkers own website. Now you can see properly how the die looks. It's a lovely size at 3.5" square and can be used in one colour or very easily split up as I did. If you check on line by Googling the name of the die, you'll see that one colour looks really good (and a lot less work) - making it a really versatile die.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 23rd December. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you're wanting to be in the draw then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' just in case you're playing only for fun. Thanks!

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

Be sure to call back next week to see the winner of last fortnight's prize which is a Woodware 'Huge Santa' stamp set as well as an unbranded 'Ho Ho Ho' stamp set and my picks from the past two weeks. I'm aware how busy everyone is so I haven't asked anyone to be a Guest Designer - but do take a look as I might just have some little pre-Christmas surprises to give away!

Love from Parsnip and of course from me,