Using that Simon Says Stamp die with alcohol ink background

Remember the palaver when I didn't know whether to risk ordering a Simon Says Stamp die from the USA for fear of extra charges at this end? Well, it arrived in double quick time with nothing extra to pay so one rainy day last week I made some more Tim Holtz sparkly alcohol ink backgrounds and set to.

And this is the first card I produced:

I used:

- 5.25" x 4" white card blank  - not a traditional size but it suited the die cut panel better

- piece of alcohol ink background made using Tim Holtz 'Sparkle' alcohol ink card stock and a mix of straight forward Flamingo Pink, Amethyst and Aqua alcohol inks plus some blending solution. It's the card stock that works the 'sparkle' magic

- used Stick-It backed 200gsm white card to die cut the Simon Says Stamp 'Dahlia Corner Frame' die

- trimmed the background to just a little bit smaller than the die cut and then pressed the die cut in place - ran it through the Cuttlebug just using the layered cutting plates to flatten it into place

- then stamped the sentiment onto a snippet of white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from the MFT 'Essential Sentiments' set - plus the Misti of course

- hand trimmed the sentiment and popped it in place using a strip of very narrow red line tape

- backed the whole panel with white fun foam and glued it in place onto the card front

I promised to let you see the result - and here it is! Love making these alcohol ink backgrounds, even more so with the 'sparkle' card stock by Tim Holtz - as Forrest Gump would say 'You never know what you're gonna get' :)

Edit: Val asked where I got the Tim Holtz Silver Sparkle card from - here's the link just in case any others of you want to have a play :)

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #359

We've had a few days of rain here - desperately needed but the drop in temperature was a bit of a shock!

It's been a fun week - I'd forecast to at least a couple of friends that I had an instinctive feeling that our washing machine was nearing retirement - and sure enough, it sighed and just stopped working last Sunday. After a major false start with one supplier a new machine arrived from AO as promised yesterday (Friday) and is working away as I type this.

Let's dive  straight into my snippets card for this fortnight, and a little warning that one of the dies I used isn't forming part of the prize this time round:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, tent style

- a snippet of baby blue pearlescent card, which I die cut using the main Sugar Pea 'Letter Board Messages' die 

- a snippet of white card, die cut using a die from the Avery Elle 'Postage Stamp Elle-ments' set of dies and then fixed to the card front using red line tape before I then added the letter board panel which is a perfect fit, also using red line tape (the main die cuts slits right through the card so any glue would have seeped through to the front)

- snippets of white card, backed with Stick-It and then the required letters were die cut for the 'letter board' part of the message and popped into an upturned plastic lid for safekeeping for after I'd finished the die cutting and also trying out the spacing

- a snippet of X-Cut adhesive backed silver sparkle card, popped onto a snippet of white card and then backed with Stick-It adhesive sheet before die cutting the word 'hello' using Lawn  Fawn's 'Scripty Hello' die

 - die cut the word 'hello' again from Stick-It backed white card and layered the sparkly silver die cut on top

- then added the letters plus the word hello to the card front

- finishing touch, a few white/iridescent sequins

It's only fair to say that I spotted this design, or very similar, when Googling ways to use the Sugar Pea set of dies - you get the main message board panel plus the plain alphabet. The ways you can use this particular die set seem to be endless - black background with different coloured letters, add a flower with a plain message instead of the way I used it, perfect for back to school cards - and of course you can make up umpteen messages! The 'Scripty Hello' is a lovely die as well, a dream to use. And the die set that's missing from the prize is the Avery Elle 'Postage Stamp' set - although I mostly try to just use what makes up the fortnightly prize, this card really cried out for a frame but my pension will only stretch so far :) Plus it was actually a prize about two years ago - you don't really need fancy frames of course.

So, the prize this fortnight is:

Of course it's a Sugar Pea 'Letter Board Messages' set of dies and a Lawn Fawn 'Scripty Hello' die - both items make up the one prize BTW, I don't want to split them.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 31st August. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.
 
It's a maximum of ONE entry, 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 want to be in the draw in a comment on here, 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' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

No photos of Dudley this time. He's just the same as always - full of fun and very entertaining! And always so curious about absolutely everything too.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #357 - results

Thankfully it's been a bit cooler this week - and today (Saturday) we have high winds and rain. One extreme to the other - although to be honest we're certainly ready for some rain as well as enjoying the drop in temperature.

Let's get straight on with Playground business starting with this fortnight's picks:

 

What great use of snippets, love this Christmas card made by Sandy. That die is fabulous and it was interesting to read over on Sandy's post how she managed to get those papers just right!

Linda made this brilliant pop-up card - makes me want to lick the screen! I just love the surprise inside the card, and you can see how many snippets must have been used as well. Love it!

Love, love, love the clean and fresh look of this elegant card, made by Laurie! I'm on a roll myself right now with fresh looking cards and this one really ticks all the boxes. Such a lovely die, I had to sit on my hands to stop myself from buying it!

And, I just realised we've had themes of Christmas, Summer and Spring in the picks - so I'm adding another pick that really caught my eye - and it's an Autumn themed one:

And this card was made by Donna. I love the scene with those spooky bats - and the added twine is a super touch. I know that Donna so wanted to win the 'Puppy Love' prize - but Mr Random thought differently. So I hope this makes up a bit for that Donna! x

We had 54 entries, and no new Playmates this time. 54 is a really healthy total and makes me very happy - thank you!

Time now for the prize draw which is for a Clearly Besotted 'Puppy Love' set of stamps with matching dies, and the winner is:

 Brigitte

Well done Brigitte and I'm almost sure this is your first win. Happy dance for you! Please send me your address, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll post your prize once I hear from you. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

I plan to go to the Post Office on Tuesday afternoon if I have your address by then :) 

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #358 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a Newton's Nook 'Dainty Daisies' set of stamps with matching dies, plus an Altenew 'Feeling Dotty' stencil.

It's been a bit of a busy week, but I'm managing to keep up with commenting in the Playground, whoop, whoop!

Dudley had his 'spa' treatment and looked adorable when I went to collect him. He's under the desk here right now, having 40 winks so no photos this week).

I lied, he just woke up when I was writing further up this post and wandered off to see Len - who took some photos! Here's a couple - you'll see that his coat is growing back nicely - although he won't need another full trim for a couple of months or so.

Len took a few photos but these are my favourites. I love him in the first one, lying on his side taking everything in (those eyes!) - and the second one shows how his coat is growing back, with a smile and those beautiful eyes once again.

I plan to keep his head and face trimmed a little bit myself so we don't need to revert to doing a top knot again. Mind you - we have a packet of almost 1000 tiny white latex doggie top knot bands! He won't keep still enough for me to tackle all of him though - I'll leave that for the professionals to keep him in a puppy cut.

One final point. 'Our' Kath of 'Handmade by Kath' has come up with a great idea. On the first Wednesday of the month, for a while at least, she will be posing some questions about our crafting. This time it's all about card blanks and it's so interesting to stop and reflect on why we buy or make our card blanks, size, colour and weight preferences etc. Kath is offering a little thank you for someone each month who takes the time to comment. My only observation is that if you decide to join in, please play fair and don't do so just for the chance of a prize. I found reading the comments very interesting - and it should provide quite a few of us with food for thought!

Love from Parsnip, Dudley - and of course me,

Remember these alcohol ink backgrounds?

Last week I posted about some sparkly alcohol ink background pieces I'd made (this is the post HERE) and promised to come back and show what I did with them. These were the pieces, just to remind you:

At the time I didn't have the die I was really craving from Simon Says Stamp, one of those used by Jennifer Mcguire. After asking your opinions (huge thanks for all your lovely comments and emails!) I bit the bullet and ordered just the one die that was my favourite - then waited to see what would happen with the likes of our UK Customs and the possibility of being charged VAT - plus a fee of £8 for Royal Mail to collect the VAT if that was the case. This is the die in question, which works well either in portrait or landscape:

Well, it arrived here yesterday (Thursday) in super-fast time with nothing further to pay. But it was pretty well under the £15 UK VAT limit. Was it worth it? I think probably yes, if you really, really want something  - so long as you watch the prices - and of course the postage was astronomical. Interestingly, the dies are designed in conjunction with Memory Box - just wait, they'll perhaps pop up with similar dies before too long.

However, I was too impatient to wait for the package to arrive (I expected it to take much longer to be honest) so I'd already set to and made a set of four cards over the weekend. All fairly similar, yet different, if that makes sense:

For each one I used:

- white card blanks, cut to sizes which suited the 'frames' I was using

- frames all from one die cut using the Impression Obsession 'Rectangle 6 in 1 frames' and one piece of Stick It backed white card

- various pretty die cuts, again cut from Stick It backed white card

- pieces of the sparkly alcohol ink pieces, trimmed to suit whichever frame I wanted to use and then the white frame added without pressing it down too firmly at first if I wanted to tuck a stem underneath

- then I added the white die cuts and where the frame covered a stem I carefully snipped the stem to size before firmly pressing the frame back down on top of it

- backed each framed image with a smaller panel of white fun foam to add dimension

- stamped the sentiments using the Misti and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- and finally glued the framed panels onto each card

Underneath each of the cards I've added a little bit to say what size the card is, which dies I used and also which sentiment sets (again, mostly for my own future reference). Other than that, the process was the same for each card:

6" x 4" card blank, Memory Box 'Dragonfly Stems - Left Corner' die and a sentiment stamp from the Paper Smooches 'Sentiment Sampler' set

5.5" x 4" card blank, Memory Box 'Prim Poppy' die and a sentiment stamp from the Paper Smooches 'Sentiment Sampler' set

5.5" x 4.25" card blank, Memory Box 'Geneva Vine' die, Memory Box 'Mini Butterflies' die and a sentiment stamp from Uniko's 'Simply Said' set, hand snipped and stuck onto the image using red line tape (and many thanks to Sue M who sent me this lovely sentiment set some while ago)

4" x 4" card blank, MFT's 'Hello There' set of dies, Memory Box 'Mini Butterflies' die and a sentiment stamp from the Paper Smooches 'Sentiment Sampler' set

I thoroughly enjoyed making these cards, even though it was almost impossible to pick up the sparkle when the time came to photograph them. And there was very little wastage of the backgrounds as well, which made me happy.

It's a total joy to see a background suddenly take on a whole new life with the addition of some white contrast. Thanks to Jennifer McGuire this is my new favourite style of card :)

Going back to my new Simon Says Stamp 'Dahlia Corner Frame' die - that's waiting here to be used when I make a new batch of sparkly alcohol ink cards. It will mean less fiddling about when you can just add one single die cut - but in truth you can easily look through your own dies and come up with very similar results without having to go for the 'all in one' frame and flower dies.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #358

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who commented about my quandry whether or not to order from Simon Says Stamp! I did end up placing a small order, needless to say the postage is sky high, so it remains to be seen what transpires once it reaches the UK! Fingers crossed.

It's still hot down here in Hampshire, but thankfully we're not having the rain problems and flooding that some others parts of the UK are contending with.

I needed a Birthday card for a good friend last weekend and so I also made it my snippets card ahead of the usual panic here - me not totally stupid.

And therefore, here's my snippets card for this coming fortnight:

I used:

- 4" x 4"square white card blank, side opening

- snippets of peach coloured card which I used as 'frames' for the main image panel and also the sentiment - I try to choose the coloured card before then looking for matching/toning colours for coloring in the backgrounds and images

- another snippet of white card onto which I stenciled a background using Altenew's 'Feeling Dotty' stencil and 'Tumbled Glass' Distress Ink - applied using a Clarity stencil brush

- piece of white card, also a snippet, onto which I stamped the adorable Newton's Nook 'Dainty Daisies' plus a sentiment from the same set (I chose one suitable for a Birthday but I do love the other sentiment which is 'Thanks a bunch!'). And of course I used Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and the Misti

- then coloured the 'daisies' image using Pro markers before die cutting the bunch using a die from the Newton's Nook co-ordinating set, I did find it best to use another snippet of card to cut a template to ensure the placing of quite a detailed die

- I had set out to make a USA A2 sized card but then realised that the balance was going to be all wrong - would have been better to have the daisies within an oval or rectangular frame in the centre perhaps for that card size

- so I cut everything back to go onto the now reduced in size card blank and glued the peach frame and image background panel in place, before trimming and adding the sentiment to another peach frame

- that meant I could sit and sort of juggle things around a bit until I was as happy as I'd ever be

- then glued the bunch of daisies in place and popped the sentiment to the bottom left

- final touch - a rootle through my huge box of gems and other similar (rarely used these days) embellishments and found some lime green sparkly but almost clear 'domes' which I popped in place

- as always, I added an insert although I usually leave those blank but this time I added 'Happy Birthday Wishes' using a stamp from a pre-loved SU set called Avant-Garden (this is really for my own record as it took me ages to find a small enough sentiment that went with the font of the sentiment on the front of the card)

So, it ended up as a much smaller card than I originally envisaged - but, victim of my own OCD really, I like (as far as possible) to only use goodies on my fortnightly snippets card which form part of the prize. Otherwise, I really do think those daises would be in a pretty die cut frame (of which I have a good selection) or aperture - and the sentiment would have also been die cut using an elongated pennant/flag or some such die, IF I could find one absolutely the right size, which is rare when I'm sticking to using a specific sentiment.

There are loads of ideas out there for how to use this lovely 'Dainty Daisies set' - quite a lot don't even need the die cutting and some are such vibrant and quite funky colours. I think the set is a fairly recent release (2019) and I just bet I spotted it on one of your blogs (or Seven Hills blogspot which is fabulous but so tempting) and ran off to buy them.

The prize this fortnight is:

Of course it's a Newton's Nook 'Dainty Daisies' set of stamps with matching dies, plus an Altenew 'Feeling Dotty' stencil.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 17th August. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.
 
It's a maximum of ONE entry, 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 want to be in the draw in a comment on here, 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' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

And we do have a few photos of Dudley this week - in the garden one evening, having one of his favourite times of the day, which always includes a little 'treat' or two of course. He still hasn't opened up his Birthday cake shaped treat though, it's being saved for after this coming Tuesday when he gets home from having a 'shampoo, set and manicure' at our local grooming salon. He'll need so little trimming that, for now, he's going to the local branch. That makes life much easier for us not having to trek to Winchester as I can take him on his own and then either come back home for an hour or nip round Sainsbury's just over the road from the grooming place.

Anyhow - here's the little chap, especially for you:

OK Mama - I'm ready to perform, get that camera clicking!

I can 'dance for my Daddy' for treats anytime!

But just got told to 'sit' and wait

Then,when I give my paw, I get the treat :) Sometimes I'm gentle and other times I just slap my paw like a high five and think 'get on with it!'

And this is my toy box - a few of the toys are strewn around elsewhere - but you can see Benjamin Bear who came to live with me on my Birthday - and of course my beloved 'Stinky Monkey - Mark 2'. I'm working hard on him 'cos one day he was suddenly all fresh and new for some reason!

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Having a play with alcohol inks

I cleared the desk, put on an apron and disposable gloves, had kitchen roll on standby in case, got Len to entertain Dudley and out came the alcohol inks yesterday when it was raining 'Dudleys and Kittys'.

And this was the result:

I ditched one as it came out like mud - my fault entirely. But this is a heads up that if you've seen Jennifer McGuire's recent video on creating backgrounds using alcohol inks and Tim Holtz 'Sparkle' card I can confirm that it's huge fun! I added some silver mixative to the torquoise piece BTW, although it wasn't really needed as the sparkle on its own is so lovely. The array of colours that Jennifer has to choose from is much wider than mine needless to say. And, as ever, pieces like this don't look really finished until they're tweaked/trimmed and popped in a frame or such. And there are three pieces there, a pink one in the middle at the back which has more colour variations than really shows in the photo.

Jennifer used some gorgeous 'frame' dies by Simon Says Stamp that I'm too scared to order for fear of being stung by UK Customs. So, I'm going to attempt to use some pretty frames and some floral dies I have already. There's going to be a join where the floral die cut inside the frame will touch the frame itself but it's worth a try!

I've searched most companies that we stock here in the UK for similar dies and found just one die that almost fits the bill but nothing as pretty and delicate as the SSS ones. No doubt it will only be a matter of time though :)

Just out of interest - has anyone here had experience of SSS goodies being sent to the UK? I'm sure I bought some years ago and not only was I stung for import duty but our Customs had the temerity to even include the cost of postage from the US in their calculations. So I've not fallen into that trap again, although it's a real shame that SSS doesn't have an outlet or franchise in the UK - they would make a fortune!

I'm still trying to catch up on Playground commenting so please bear with me!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #356 - results

What a week! We've almost melted here, by day and night, despite having six fans running strategically placed around the house - basically they've just pushed the hot air around a bit most of the time.Dudley has coped in his own little way - we have a cool mat for him and he tends to seek out tiled floors to lie on a lot of the time. We've been sorely tempted to join him! Today is Saturday and thankfully the temperature has dropped a bit.

More about the little chap later, but let's first do the real Playground business starting with this fortnight's picks, and there are four as I really couldn't whittle it down to three:

I absolutely love this card, made by Elizabeth! It's so elegant and everything is so beautifully placed and balanced. The baubles are snippets of alcohol ink pieces - so rich with the gold. Plus, I fell in love with the sentiment die and just had to run off and buy one, which I used on my Rudolph Days card - published on Thursday. Do hop over to Elizabeth's blog for a look at the inside of the card!

I know, another Christmas card - in this heat! I just love how Jackie T used strips of snippets for the background and how cleverly she used the sentiment die as well. Reflecting it in the sweet little reindeer she added. Jackie, and a couple of others of you won this NOEL Antlers die at Christmas here in the Playground - so here's a great idea for a way to use it!

Mary Anne had been missing in action for a while but I'm so glad she's back again playing with us. What a great card and another super way to use up snippets. It's called the starburst or sunburst technique and is so satisfying to do. The basic part of it is to slice strips/rectangles of paper diagonally so you can build up the background - and the Mary Anne's placement and balance is just so perfect! Topping it with the flowers and a sentiment panel is a great idea too!

Andrea (aka KandA) came to play with this great card. I loved it at first sight - and then I realised just what she'd done! The front gnome is set into an aperture in the front of the card - and his pals are lined up inside, waiting to surprise you when you flip the card open! It's not for me to show but for you to go and see, very clever work, HERE!  

We also had a new Playmate:

Lucy Patrick - and what a wonderfully Summery card as well!

We had 52 entries, including Lucy - brilliant!

Time now for the prize draw which is for an Impression Obsession 'Kite' set of dies and a 'Your Next Stamp' set of two 'Cloud' dies, and the winner is:

Claire

Well done Claire! I know it's about two years since you very first came to play with us - and a quick check tells me that this just might be your very first win? So sorry it's been a long wait! I blame the random number thingy! Please send me your address, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll post your prize once I hear from you. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #357 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a Clearly Besotted 'Puppy Love' set of stamps with matching dies.

First of all, with the heat I haven't been too good at commenting on your entries for Challenge 357, but will catch up ASAP. I've been watching comments for anyone having linking problems though and have sorted a couple out.

Of course, it was Dudley's 1st Birthday on Monday gone - although I doubt if he realised it was anything special. Apart from his pressies and cards - plus another lovely pressie and card from his favourite Auntie SaRn (who is equally as bonkers as we are!). One of his pressies from us is a floppy 'dog toy' bear called 'Benjamin Bear' - and Benjamin has really long legs and arms and is actually rather large for a little chap like Dudley - but he adores him! So funny to see him carrying Benjamin around the house then lovingly giving him a good wash.

I did manage to take some photos during the week - the 'other' dog in three of them is actually a door stop that Dudley isn't allowed to play with but now and then he stops and has a little chat with 'Woody' - named by Len!

 

Ooopsie, got caught showing interest in a pooch that's out of bounds!

I'm only here to ask if you're also finding it hot Woody - but you don't reply. See if the 'hoomans' buy that one!

I rest my case M'lud - he was hot and so I gave his ears a good wash, and now he's cooler and less likely to cause trouble

And after all that licking and washing of a rather unresponsive dog - I lay down on some tiles to cool off - who cares if a 'hooman' needing a wee has to step over me - I'm bushed, and fed up with this heat!

We also bought Dudley a 'doggie treat' Birthday cake - as yet unopened as he had a bit of a tummy upset on Tuesday after we gave him his worming and flea treatments. Not had that happen previously so it might just have been the hot weather. I'll take a photo of him with 'the cake' when we open it up - but if I do that now, he'll want some for sure!

Me, Di, had a docs appointment on Tuesday and the preventative meds are already doing their job and after four weeks had brought the uric acid levels down really dramatically, to almost half what they were. So, am now on an increased dose to reduce it further - taking it slowly and hoping that by increasing the dose gradually it will help to avert any major flares. How I long for a Marmite toastie - but they seem to be off limits for now, it's been months on end!

Love from Parsnip, Dudley - and of course me,