The final Technique Time Tuesday Challenge

I couldn't let the very last Technique Time Tuesday Challenge pass without joining in, although I almost missed the boat. This has been a great challenge with lots of techniques to try - as well as taking us out of our comfort zones.

So thank you Mynette, our very own Karen P,  and the lovely team for all your hard work - sorry to see the challenge closing but huge thanks for all the inspiration.

This final challenge (make a side step card) was a real 'lulu' 'cos I ended up using a craft knife and truly shouldn't be allowed near anything sharper than a teaspoon :( But, no mishaps thankfully and this is the end result:

It's much brighter in real life but without a light tent this is the best I could do when taking the photo.

I used:

- white card stock, cut and folded into a side stepper card

- SU's Rich Razzleberry' card 

- backing paper from Wild Rose Studio's 'Butterfly Garden' paper pad

- Penny Black Stickeroos from the 'Dreamscape' sheet. The big one was stuck onto a piece of white card stock before being trimmed down to size

- the butterflies to the right are from the same sheet, stuck onto paper, trimmed and then popped onto strips of acetate before being stuck to the centre 'step' of the card. Only after that was done did I add the card and paper panel to cover the stuck down ends of the strips  

- final touch, a Craftwork Cards 'Happy Birthday' sentiment

One, two three ........ ten - all digits present and correct, ready to fight another day :)

Di
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Inchies and butterflies

Wahoo, my 1.25" square punch arrived in double quick time from Sirstampalot and I wanted to play with it right away:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- slightly smaller white backing, embossed using Cuttlebug's 'Swiss Dots' folder

- six white 'inchies', punched with EK Success 1.25" then three were embossed using Crafts-Too's 'Butterflies' folder

- the butterfly embossed squares just had some green sparkly gems added here and there - Papermania 'Capsule Verde'. These are lovely gems in varying shades of green, I bought them in Hobbycraft

- the other three squares were topped with a snippet of green gingham paper, from Teddy Teddy's 'Spring Chic' paper pack, and punched using SU's 1" square punch

- lastly added some double layered butterfly stickers and smaller ones (Hobbycraft own brand) to each gingham topped square

I wrecked a 'huff and puff' stamped image on Saturday afternoon. Sorry folks, Irene's got me hooked so there'll be another inchie card appearing soon. They really are such fun to make and perfect for rescuing 'deesarsters' - as well as using up titchy little snippets :)

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 122

And another week of mixed weather in the Playground, even little Puggles the Platypus has run away, last heard of causing mayhem in Sam's craft room :( But, it didn't stop you from playing with snippets and we had 70 entries this week, well done girls!

A very special friend (I'm allowed to say it was Sarn I think 'cos a few other peeps already 'outed' her) had a Birthday recently so I used her favourite SU colours to make her this Birthday card:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- SU's 'Island Indigo' card stock, embossed using a Sizzix embossing folder called 'Corner, Flower Vine', for the background

- a snippet of SU's 'Pool Party' card stock, die cut using the Memory Box 'Grand Happy Birthday' die, and I added a couple of embossed lines along the bottom edge (which don't really show up in the photo)

- a smaller snippet of 'Pool Party', stamped in Memento 'Teal Zeal' using a flower stamp from SU's 'Secret Garden' set then die cut using a matching SU Framelits die

- the leaves were die cut from a snippet of SU's 'Certainly Celery, using another die from the SU 'Secret Garden' set

- butterfly was die cut from more 'Certainly Celery', using SU's 'Beautiful Wings' butterfly Framelits

- little white pearls were added to the centre of the flower and also down the body of the butterfly

Hope you had a lovely day Sarn!

Straight onto this week's picks, and as always I ended up with a mahooooosive list which I had to stick a pin into to select a handful otherwise I'd be here forever :)

I totally love this card, so many snippets and so much lovely detail - made by Kim.

I can't think how long it took Mary to cut out and place those piano keys, what a clever card! And I did giggle at the wry comment in Mary's post when she said 'Note to self, sometimes it's OK to throw away pieces' :) Edit - turned out to be a die for the piano keys! Fabulous all the same.

We had two fabulous box cards this week, these really are all the rage right now. This one above was made by Ann and is just so perfect for a little Princess :) I also love the touch of the scalloped edges to the box flaps.

And how about this box card for a real splash (pun intended!) of Spring? Made by Lynn and it's beautiful. I did get the giggles when a comment from Lynn popped up on here to the effect that she was having a wrestling match making this :) Well worth the Percy Veerance Lynn!

I defy you not to laugh at this brilliant card, made by Sue J!  Fabulous image Sue and so many snippets and different elements - love it, and lots of you said the same in your comments.

I adore this really elegant card, made by Kath. Cheeky minx asked Jules (our Playground Founder) if she could find the heart :) And then there was speculation about whether Kath kept all those heart snippets from the die cut too!


Ileana brought this card to show, absolutely divine! So much work and a stunning result.

Time to welcome two new playmates:

Anne F came to play bringing this beautiful card - so pleased I nudged you into joining in Anne!

And Val also joined us for the first time with this clever use of snippets!

Lovely to see you all and hope you come back and play often!

Time for the draw for the Penny Black 'Pin-striped' stamp, and the winner is:

Anne (Stamps and Paper)

Oh well done Anne, first time lucky too! I just checked your blog and see that you do love Penny Black stamps, so hope you'll be a happy bunny. Can you please let me have your address and the stamp will be on its way this week (di_wray@hotmail.com).

And of course, this coming week's prize is your own Memory Box 'Grand Birthday' die :)

As usual, the snippets challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 3rd May and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be the winner of the prize. 

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

Have a great week - keep those snippets coming :)

Di (and a wave from Parsnip - now minus the Easter bunny ears and whiskers, so we're friends again and peace reigns)
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Saturday Supper - Scotch Eggs with a difference

Gosh, it's ages since I posted a recipe here, but this is really worth sharing.

One of the very first things I learned to cook in Domestic Science classes at school was Scotch Eggs, and even before that I remember my Mum making them for picnic outings. But, the days of deep fat fryers, in fact almost any frying, are long gone in this here house - so I was delighted to find a way to make yummy oven baked Scotch Eggs:

Ooops, when I took the photo I just popped some bits of salad I was in the middle of preparing on the plate to pretty it up a bit - looks like a rather alien face to me!

Scotch Eggs

Serves 2

4 large eggs

6-8 thick sausages - one and a half (or two) per Scotch Egg

1 beaten egg

130g packet lemon, thyme and parsley dry stuffing mix (Sainsbury's own)

a little flour

NB. I find it best to have everything lined up in bowls/on plates before actually assembling the eggs, you're gonna have messy hands.

Hard boil the eggs, cool thoroughly and remove shells.

Skin the sausages and roll into four individual balls (one and half or two sausages equals one ball). At this stage it's best to have a plate handy with some plain flour on it - 1-2 tablespoons is enough.

Take each sausagemeat ball and flatten into a pattie, sit a shelled hard boiled egg in the centre (gently roll the egg in flour first) and fold the sausage meat right round it making sure it's fully sealed.

Do the same with the other three eggs.

Dust your hands with some of the flour and lightly roll the eggs in the flour on the plate, dusting off the excess.

One at a time take the assembled eggs and coat in beaten egg and then the stuffing mix.

Pop the coated eggs onto a non-stick baking tray and cook for 40-50 minutes at 180C. Now this is the bit where it depends on your oven, mine is quite fierce so I reduced the temperature to 160C after 30 minutes. 

Test the sausage meat is thoroughly cooked before removing the eggs from oven.

Can be eaten hot, warm or cold. Delicious with new potatoes and salad.

Things I do: I use Richmond Thick Irish sausages, mostly as the meat is so smooth.

The first time I made these I used half sage and onion stuffing mix and half dried breadcrumbs mixed together - that was very nice but the lemon, thyme and parsley is even better :)

I do cover my non-stick baking trays for some recipes, and this is one of those. Partly because there will be some fat from the sausages and it's a bit easier to clean up. Mostly however, it's because no matter how flat you smooth the foil the eggs don't roll around as they would on a totally flat tray. But, to keep them from rolling round you could always stick a couple of cocktail sticks in as little 'props' :)

I found this recipe on someone's blog a while ago and it just stuck in my mind. Am sure it's not a blog I usually visit but if it WAS you do please say and I'll give you the credit :)

Enjoy!

Di 

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Rudolph Day April 2014 and Merry Monday

It's Rudolph Day over at Sarn's until the end of the month, plus I made the card to fit in with the current Merry Monday Christmas Challenge which is 'Decorative Christmas Words' :

And to prove I made three all the same, 'cos Sarn wants at least two cards for your entry:

I used:

- DL white card blank

- Penny Black image called 'Duck-Noel', stamped in Memento 'Tuxedo Black and coloured with Pro Markers to match the backing card. Gotta love those duckies:)

- patterned background card, probably Kan Ban

- plain SU card layered behind the image - 'Cajun Craze' and 'Daffodil Delight'

The Penny Black stamp was on my wish list for absolutely ages, finally tracked one down a couple of months ago :)

Di
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If you want to get ahead, get a hat!

The current challenge over at Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge is 'If you want to get ahead, get a hat!' - so (naturally) you have to use a hat on your creation. I rootled round in the box of Christmas cards to upcycle from 2013 and found a wide card with five dancing penguins on, a bit sparkly AND wearing hats :) After some careful chopping, these two cards are the result, with one little penguin from the centre of the original card left over to play with another time:

I used:

- A6 white card blanks

- the images, just trimmed to suit and the corners punched with a Woodware notched corner punch

- snippets of coloured backing card - SU 'Melon Mambo' and 'Island Indigo'

- white card embossed using Crafts Too's 'Snowflake Banner' folder

- little snippets of the coloured card across the 'banner' as a belly band - so small they don't join in the middle but that's hidden by the image topper :)

These cards are also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for April.


My Rudolph Day cards are ready for tomorrow too - are yours?

And thank you so much to those of you who helped out with the 1.25" square punch. Eve sent me a link to Sirstampalot (EK Success who make SU punches) and one arrived here yesterday :) Err, and I also ordered a set of square Nesties too, sigh. Bread and jam for the rest of the week.

Di
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More 'huff and puff' stamping

Needed a Birthday card in a hurry so I had another go at colouring a stamp and then 'huffing' on it to remoisten the inks before stamping:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- a floral stamp from SU's 'Serene Silhouettes' set, coloured with a mix of TH Distress Ink and Whispers pens, then die cut with a Nesties plain oval and popped onto a white Nesties 'Floral' oval 

- SU's 'Perfect Plum' card stock for the main backing

- spotty mauve paper from a Christmas paper pack - Wild Rose Studios 'Wintry Christmas'. All of the designs are fine for use other than at Christmas btw :)

- Elzybells sentiment (I masked off the word 'belated' with tape before inking then removed the tape before stamping), stamped using SU's 'Perfect Plum' ink pad, punched with SU's 'Word Window' and then popped onto a punched snippet of 'Perfect Plum' punched with SU's 'Modern Label'

- final touch, a little 'Perfect Plum' butterfly punched with a small Woodware punch and topped with a white pearl

Little tip, which I bet you already know. The sentiment covers different thicknesses on the card, the backing paper and the layered ovals. To make it sit level just add a piece of thin sticky pad to the back of the 'paper' end and flat tape or glue to the back of the 'layered' end of the sentiment before popping it on.

Di
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A learning curve

On Easter Sunday it was raining cats and dogs here most of the day, so I spent a few hours having a play in the craft room. I'd bought the Craftwork Cards 'Kitsch' Collection of papers, embellishments and mini candi specifically to have a go at a handbag card as the papers remind me so much of Cath Kidston fabrics.

Plus, I also spotted that Kath had made a handbag card, much more detailed than mine but with no secrets of how she made it - it's absolutely fabulous! I wanted mine to stand up and open at the bottom but could I find a decent template in the size I wanted, nope - not a chance. Sooooooo, I set to and just made it up as I went along. This is only a first try and I did have a few (ahem) hiccups along the way but after it was all finished I'd learnt some things I'd change to make life simpler.

So, the next time I try this out I'll hopefully have an easier time of it and will also try and do a little tutorial as I go:

And the back so you can see where the spotty flap came from:

I used:

- 2 pieces white card stock - approx 6" square

- the handbag shape was then cut out by first doing the handles on both pieces of card. To do that I used two oval Nesties, one inside the other, but only cutting halfway across the dies, just by careful positioning of the Cuttlebug plates. On the front I cut the extra curved inner part of the handle away straight across the 'bag', but I left the rear one attached and scored across it so it formed a curved flap to push through the handles and to the front of the card

- then I cut up the sides of the card pieces at an angle from the bottom corners to the handles and rounded the bottom corners with very old Fiskars Scissors

- each side was covered with papers from the Craftwork Cards 'Kitsch' paper pad and that was the really tricky part. I've thought how to get round that next time 'cos I almost abandoned ship and ran away at that point

- the front and back of the card were then glued together, round the handles and across the top of the 'bag' only, with the flap pushed through from the back to the front - then the flap was also glued down

- phew! Then it was just a case of adding a leftover snippet of spotty paper across the card front, a flower, bow and some mini card candi from the kit. The mini card candi hides some wonky hand cutting :)

- final touch was a Craftwork Cards sentiment

Lessons learnt and one heck of a mess to clear up afterwards :)

Di 
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Playing with 'inchies'

If this card looks very much influenced by some of those that Irene makes, you wouldn't be far wrong:

Last week I had a couple of very welcome telephone conversations with Irene - what a lovely person she is too. We spoke firstly because I'd bought a Stampin' Up 1" square punch and then realised that Irene uses their 1.25" punch. Guess what, it's been discontinued :( Why, oh why, does that always seem to happen to me. Then we got talking about how Irene colours her stamps and gets such lovely results - I picked up a secret but that's for Irene to disclose, it works brilliantly! My first attempt was a bit 'iffy' so it was put to one side ready for another try.

Then, a lovely selection of punched papers and card arrived through the post from Irene, so yesterday I had a little play and came up with the card above.

I used:

- A6 white linen card blank

- white linen card, embossed using the Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' folder

- six white squares and three pink patterned squares plus the pink hearts and a teeny blue butterfly, all from Irene

- my previously mentioned 'iffy' go at colouring a stamp (blue and green) from SU's 'Serene Silhouettes' set, three squares were punched with SU's 1" square punch

- some white pearls to finish off

I tracked down SU's 1.25" square punch on a USA eBay site. Brand new ones to be had - at approximately $60 including postage! Guess who had to be revived and has gone back to the drawing board :(

Di
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Urgent message from Parsnip!

Will someone please adopt me!

'Miss' was putting out a few Easter decorations on Saturday and she came across a couple of 'fun' items, left from when she used to dress up at Easter (don't even ask her about that one!).

So, she put them on and popped her head round a door to show Mr Len - his reaction was 'You look ridiculous!'.

Stupidly I nodded my agreement with Mr Len's observation - so guess who's now sporting a set of fluffy bunny ears plus nose and whiskers - yup, yours truly :( Miss is still sulking here 'cos I fought off the furry bunny tail that attaches with velcro. A bear has to have SOME dignity, sigh.

 

Hope you're having a lovely Easter!

Hugs, and let's hope the novelty wears off soon here. Bad, bad Miss Pixie :(

/) /)
(-.-)
0_(“)(“)

Parsnip

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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 121

First of all, Happy Easter everyone! I'm writing this on Saturday but the weather forecast for Sunday is wet in the Playground so (if they got it right) I hope you brought your wellies!

Here's my snippets card:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- Penny Black's 'Pin-striped' stamp, stamped using Memento 'London Fog' and then the stem coloured with the fine end of a Whispers marker. Then I got Tatty Teddy's 'Spring Chic' paper pad out and sure enough, there were just the pink and green snippets I wanted, tucked in the little holder at the back of the pad so I re-stamped parts of the image for the flowers and leaves and paper pieced them. Just a tickle with a Pro Marker on the stamens

- after trimming the image to size but leaving spare at the top of the oblong I die cut along the top edge using a My Favourite Things die called 'Notebook Edge'

- snippet of SU 'Certainly Celery' backing card

- pink backing paper from Tatty Teddy 'Spring Chic' paper pad - a whole sheet almost, shock, horror!

- two little green spotty snippets were punched with Martha Stewart's 'Vintage Lace' punch to form a 'belly band' - which doesn't even meet in the middle but that's hidden underneath the image

- the sentiment was stamped using a LOTV 'Small General Greetings' stamp and Brilliance 'Pearlescent Orchid' ink pad, sigh, AFTER the image was paper pieced and die cut along the top edge. Talk about heart in mouth but it worked and I didn't wreck the thing, phew. Note to self, a bit of forward planning would be good

I'd like to enter this into the current Penny Black and More challenge, which is  'Blossoms and Blooms'. Thank you Linby for the prompt!

A couple of tips about paper piecing this 'ere card. As I learnt from Jules, it's always much easier to apply the glue pen to the main image rather than the fiddly little pieces. And, I'm always scrupulously honest when saying I used snippets on a card and what little bits I had to play with needed a bit of thinking about. I did think about using the stamp-a-ma-jig to position the wooden stamp on the little snippets but then remembered a trick I just read about recently. It might have been on one of your blogs, if so let me know and I'll give you the credit. What you do is ink the stamp (let's say one of the leaves), lie it rubber side up and then place your snippet patterned side down onto the stamp, very carefully 'cos you don't want to end up with a smudged image. Take an acrylic block, place that gently on top and press firmly. Of course this isn't an issue with clear stamps anyhow :)

Oh, and by adding the green belly band in two pieces it was easier to make sure the pattern of the punched edge was equal at either end of course.

OK, let's get on with the weekly picks now:

 

Love this card, made by Christine - super use of snippets and the colours go so well together.

Isn't this iris folding brilliant, made by Judy. I just love the way the centre of the apple looks like the core!

I picked this card, made by Hazel, as I love the way the daisies have been added to the embossed stems and then echoed on the sentiment.

You can always rely on Darnell to come up with something to make you smile - and this bunny is no exception! Sugar overload maybe?

I love the soft vintage look of this card, made by Juls, and all the sewing related embellishments - really lovely!

As it's Easter there were a few cards made with that in mind, I picked this lovely card made by Greta. Such a pretty design and colour combination - isn't the egg die gorgeous as well?

This brooch was made by Jenny, using snippets. There's a step-by-step tutorial over on her blog. It's not an easy time for Jenny right now due to severe back pain and also it's affecting one arm so I think Jenny must be our little star of the week for struggling on and making this. Get well soon honey!

Lynn made me laugh earlier in the week when she commented about last week's picks and said she needed to up her game (you really are all getting to use snippets so cleverly) - and then she popped back with this to show! A beautiful snippets card, great gate fold design and even the butterfly charm was made from a snippet of shrink plastic!

I could keep adding more and more picks, but this self-imposed (and policed by Len) limit on time spent sitting at the computer means I ought to move on before he catches me!

So, we had a nice surprise in the Playground this week - hands up who remembers Nessa (The Crafty Laydee blog)? Nessa closed that blog a while back but now has a new one here (Just 4 Challenges) - do please hop over to say welcome back! And this is her card:

And we also have a brand new playmate, Crafting Vicky, who brought us this sweet Easter card:

I do hope you both come back to play soon!

And now, the winner of last week's prize, the Marianne Creatables 'Scandinavian Hearts' die set is:

Cornelia

Well done Cornelia, and thank you for being such a regular playmate too. I just checked back and it's six months since your last win so you were well due another one! Can you please drop me an email (di_wray@hotmail.com) to remind me of your postal address.

And while we're on the subject of Cornelia, I'd like you girls to see this lovely card, made by Cornelia:

 

It's for a little girl called Lauryn, currently being treated for leukaemia, you can read more over at Cornelia's blog. Wouldn't it be lovely if some of us could also send a card for Lauryn - the address is over at Cornelia's blog post.

The prize this week is a stamp the same as the one I used today - Penny Black's 'Pin-striped'. A nice big stamp at approx. 3" wide and over 4" high, perfect for colouring and of course paper piecing:

The funny ripple down the left of the stamp isn't damaged wood by the way, it's just how the light caught the plastic decal/covering with the image on.

As usual, the snippets challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 26th April and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be the winner of the prize. 

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

Have a great week - keep those snippets coming :) And remember, it's Rudolph Day from Friday over at Sarn's.

Di (and a wave from Parsnip, err, and Puggles the Platypus I guess)
x

'Easter March'

This card features one of my favourite Penny Black Easter stamps:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- snippet of plain pistachio green backing card

- Easter Egg patterned paper from the Tatty Teddy 'Spring Chic' paper pack

- Penny Black 'Easter March' stamped in Memento 'London Fog' and coloured with Pro Markers, then die cut using a Nesties 'Labels Eight' die and layered onto a backing snippet of pistachio green card - hand cut in the usual way

- once again, I stamped the Easter sentiment inside the card 


That's the last of the Easter cards - now where was I?

Ah ha, hedgehogs - that reminds me, Spike the hedgehog is doing his nightly rounds in the Playground after his Winter sleep. Aw :)

Di
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Winter love

Crumbs, I almost missed joining in over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge this week. A quick rummage through some Christmas images and I found a GorJuss girls twisted pyramage topper I'd assembled ages ago, still not sure about 'mouthless' images though:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- plain SU 'Crumb Cake' backing card from the snippets folder

- patterned 'plaid' backing paper from LOTV's 'Winter Wishes' paper pad

- the assembled topper plus sentiment, from a GorJuss Girls kit

- a couple of sparkly 'crystal' snowflakes on either end of the sentiment just to 'bling' it up a bit

This week's theme at Hazel's is 'make it square or include a square on your creation'. I went for broke, square card, squares in the patterned paper - and of course the image is made up of pyramaged squares :)

This is also for Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for April, where it's always anything goes.

I know I've shown this tip before, but for those who wonder how I often know the SU name of a card stock snippet:

It's a swatch of 2" squares of card stock with descriptive labels on the back which is really helpful when picking plain colours to go with patterned papers - the main reason I made it in the first place. Me not totally daft :)

Di 
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Spring is sprung

Gosh we've had some lovely weather here! Lots of Spring flowers are blooming and I made a little batch of Easter cards:

I used:

- SU's 'Always Artichoke' card stock to make A6 sized cards

- pre-coloured images from LOTV's fabulous 'Wildflowers' Art Pad, die cut using a Nesties Labels Eight die

Yup, they were made in next to no time, but with love and the images really didn't need anything more than a good strong background colour for the cards plus 'Always Artichoke' is a huge favourite of mine.

There are some colours I do like to keep a decent stock of, 'Always Artichoke', 'Certainly Celery', 'Real Red', 'Wisteria Wonder' and 'Smoky Slate' in particular. They seem to go with so many images and patterned papers I have here. Snigger, I'd like tons of them all really :)

Di 
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Spring Bunny

I made an Easter Easter card for my step-mum and, purely by luck rather than good management, this card is also for the latest Cuttlebug Mania Challenge where you have to use one or more eggs on your entry and I cut round the image with a frame die and my Cuttlebug:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- backing papers from a mix of Bubbles 'Born to Shop' paper pack (the plain reverse sides of a couple of different papers) and a patterned sheet from Daisy and Dandelion's 'Picnic Patch' paper collection

- the image is LOTV's 'Spring Bunny with Eggs', coloured with Pro Markers, and a little tickle of Clear Wink of Stella on the little purple butterfly and the spots on one egg. Then the image was die cut and layered onto a fussy cut layer of lilac paper - using the old trick of drawing round the outside of the die used for the image

- the lacy 'belly band' (tee, hee Elizabeth, that still makes me giggle) was punched using Martha Stewart's 'Vintage Lace' punch and topped with a band of lilac spotty ribbon and a bow

- the charm is just a simple heart saying 'Made with Love', tied through the bow using a snippet of iridescent cord

- sentiment is from LOTV's 'General Greetings - Small' set, stamped using Memento 'Peanut Brittle ink pad then punched with a SU circle punch before being layered onto a lilac backing, punched with SU 'Scalloped Circle'

- the Easter message is stamped inside the card, I only have a couple of suitable Easter sentiments and they're too big for the front of this particular card, but I think the bunny and the eggs are pretty much right for Easter :)

I'm tickled pink here, two recent wins - Cuttlebug Mania's previous challenge which was to 'go dotty' and also Technique Tuesday's 'Captured in Crystal'. Thank you so much ladies, it's lovely to be picked out by the DTs! Gonna buy me a Lottery ticket this weekend! :)

Di
x

Little Easter money wallets

I whipped these up very quickly to send to two little girls who we won't see at Easter:

 

An inside view showing the folded over little pocket and sentiment. When you cut the paper just make sure you leave enough extra to fold a little flap over, cut it down across the card (about halfway is fine), round one corner of the flap and then stick along the bottom with sticky tape.

I used:

- two thirds of a sheet of 12" x 12" SU patterned paper to make the 4" x 4" when folded wallets

- Penny Black 'Easter Bonnet' stamped images, coloured with Pro Markers then die cut using a Spellbinders 'Floral Ovals' die

- the stamped sentiment is Penny Black from the 'Easter March' set

I just checked the date on this cute little stamp and it's 10 years ago when it was released, could have been one of the first stamps I ever bought :)

Things are busy here right now so I'm a little bit behind on commenting and I do apologise, especially to those of you who already came to play in the Snippets Playground. I'll catch up ASAP!

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 120

Time for another weekly snippets roll call, and we had 67 snippets entries this week, yippee! But, someone tell that Puggle/baby Platypus to behave please :) It's been tapping on the door asking to be fed from dawn to dusk each day!

This is my snippets card:

I used:

- A6 white linen card blank

- plain purple backing paper

- white linen card, embossed using the Darice 'Argyle' folder

- snippets of plain pink and spotty purple card from the snippets folder, die cut using Marianne Craftables ' Scandinavian Hearts - CR1228' dies

- once assembled I just popped them onto the card front and added a little saved heart from the die cutting in the centre of each assembled heart

This is a great 'snippets buster' die and such fun to play with.

As always, each snippets entry was fabulous this last week - here are my picks:

 

I picked this Anniversary card, made by Liz, as it's a lovely example of how to use up even little snippets - and a great design!

Laura found time to come and play, and what a fabulous pop up/box card she brought! These are so popular right now and I really do love this!

And so I thought I'd show you another lovely box card, made by Sandra H - what a burst of Spring! Sandra has also added a link to some really clear tutorials in her post, thanks for that honey.

Sarn used a stamp the same as one which was on offer last week to make this gorgeous card. It's absolutely beautiful and I adore the layered wings - another little tip girls :)

This gorgeous vintage card was made by Jean - it's so beautiful I'm sure you'll agree. And, the lace border is actually a self adhesive strip - works so well!

I just love this card, made by Carol L. Amazing paper piecing on those hearts and the turned back corner is such a lovely touch.

Mo made us all do a real 'Wow' with this lovely colourful card. Many of us think it looks like the World viewed from space :) Mo brought three cards to show this week, and you may already know that as the week progresses I keep a note of possible picks - all three of Mo's cards were on my list so do go and take a peek.

I totally adore this beautiful vintage tag, made by Viv! Absolutely beautiful.

And Tammy came back to play after a little while, and what a fantastic Easter card she brought! So fresh - and also a good final pick for this week I think as the Easter Bunny will have been this time next week.

And, we have three new playmates to welcome - it would be lovely if you can hop over to say 'Hello':

Sandy J brought this lovely card, great how the paper pieced puppy is picked up by the background.

Gerrina made this fabulous Birthday card.

And Ileana (Sparkling Pink) entered twice, the first time was with this card - see those teeny little flowers?! Such patience.

Welcome ladies, hope you come back to play really soon.

OK, so onto the draw for the four LOTV stamps and the Wink of Stella brush pen - drum  roll please:

Pippa

 

It took four runs of the Random number generator to select a winner who hadn't said no to the prize :)

 

Congratulations to Kath, yesterday was her 45th Wedding Anniversary - congratulations to you and your husband from all of us. Kath reckons she ought to be known as Saint Kath from now on :)

And onto this coming week's prize, bet you already guessed?

Yup, it's a set of those Marianne Craftables ' Scandinavian Hearts - CR1228' dies :) Something a bit different to play with maybe?

As usual, the snippets challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 19th April and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be the winner of the prize. 

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

Have a great week - keep those snippets coming :)

Di (and a wave from Parsnip)
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