Cuttlebug Mania Challenge - Tag, You're It...

We have a new challenge over at Cuttlebug Mania starting from today, the theme is 'Tag, You're It...' and you just have to use a tag or add a tag to your creation. Entries must only use manual die cutting/embossing machines and also state what you used to make your entry. Easy and good fun so why not come and play? The prize this fortnight is donated by Random Vintage Finds - and of course the DT will be picking our top entry, plus runners up, as usual.

This is what I made:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- a snippet of SU's 'Smoky Slate' card stock for the first layer on the card

- Teresa Collins 'Sweet Afternoon' patterned paper for the next layer

- a snippet of white card, die cut using a label die from the Marianne Creatables LR0154 set

- the sentiment was stamped using SU's 'Smoky Slate' and stamps from the Winnie and Wilfred 'The Big, the Bold and the Happy' set - I adore these stamps!

- then added leaves, punched from a snippet of SU's 'Pistachio Pudding' card stock using Martha Stewart 'Leaf Frond' punch

- topped with flowers, which were die cut using the little flower die which comes with the Marianne Creatables LR0154 set and leftover piece of the Teresa Collins paper

- final touch, little clear pink domes as the flower centres and a snippet of organza ribbon through the top of the label

- once the tag was finished it was just a question of adding it to the card using thin sticky pads

Really obvious tip for today I suspect, when adding the flowers I stuck three straight onto the tag with glue and then the next two were popped on with little pieces of  thin sticky pad just to add dimension.

Hope to see you playing along with us! This card uses the same colours as my last Cuttlebug DT card (white, pink, grey and green) - mental note to ring the changes for the next fortnightly challenge!

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 170

If you live in the UK, remember to change your clocks (2am Sunday) - sigh, an hour's less sleep but the evenings will be lighter of course :)

My snippets card this week is also my second entry into Darnell's NBUS Challenge, where you have to use something for the first time. There are really generous prizes to be won and you have until 31st March to nip in with up to three entries.

 

I used two NBUS items on my snippets 'Congrats' card - yay:

I used:

- 4" x 4" square white card blank

- snippets of turquoise and green card stock for the outer 'frames' to tone with the main panel

- the main panel was a lot of angst in some ways, made over a few weeks to be honest as I couldn't decide just where it was going - it almost went in the bin a couple of times! First of all I took a snippet of watercolour card and played around with blue and green Brushos. The result was much too dark so I put it to one side

- the next play was with a template of circles I'd made from acetate and a white stamping pad in an effort to emulate the 'bokeh' technique. Ack, still too dark and the white hardly showed at all so I put it to one side - agaaaaaaaaaaaaain

- then I spotted a lovely card over at Kathy K's blog the other week here and was fired up to have another try. This time I used a new stencil for the first time (a Clearsnap ColorBox Art Screen called 'Rounded' - I bought mine from The Stampman here in the UK). I stuck the stencil in place for the first pass but then wiped it and added more circles afterwards - using a foam makeup sponge and Daler Rowney's White Graduate Acrylic Colour. Finally things were looking up, albeit not as well defined as Kathy's fabulous work

- at this point I decided not to mess about with the background any more - always another day to try again :) So, I got out another NBUS item and proceeded to make a 'camouflaged die cut' word, the NBUS die I used is Sizzix 'Phrase, Congrats #2'

- I've explained in more detail how to do this previously - here. Basically you cut the die out of the coloured background and then cut (say) three more words the same just from ordinary card and layer them up into the die cut aperture you created before topping off with the top layer of the patterned word/ shape or whatever you're using. The main thing to remember is to keep any solid little pieces that might be cut from the top layer - on this card it was the middle of the 'O', the inner of the 'R', a couple of pieces in the 'A' and a bit within the loop of the 'S'. Do not throw these away - you'll need to add them once all the layers have been built up, they just popped into place down inside the letters at the same level as the background

- then I just added a few clear 'bubble' domes here and there

OK, let's move onto this week's picks:

Kathy bounced right into the Playground waving some great ATCs - gotta love those Tim Holtz 'Bird Crazy' images - given the Kathy treatment :)

Just look what you can make with a variety of punches and some snippets! Kim brought this fabulous butterfly card to share with us.

I immediately fell in love with this beautiful layout, made by Vinita. So dimensional and that little poppet in the photo is our very own Vinita, aged two - soooo cute!

I love, love how Laura used little snippets to make this clever card - and all the details of how to make one the same are there on Laura's blog with step by step photos too!

Diane H skipped in at almost the last minute, with this beautiful card - what a splash of Summer!

And the winner of last week's prize, the Dovecraft goodies of paper, doilies and felt embellishments kindly donated by Jane is:

Kath (of Handmade by Kath)

Well done Kath, I have your address here and will post your prize off to you during  this week.

This coming week's prize is linked to my snippets make for today:

Yup, it's the same as the die and stencil I used today - no acrylic paint I'm afraid. It's bad enough not being able to send liquid goodies abroad but even within the UK they've cracked down. Certainly it's like a cross-examination whenever I go to the Post Office these days - I don't mind if it makes life safer for folk but it does curtail some goodies I'd like to offer as prizes here.

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 4th April (Easter weekend folks!). 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. If you only fancy one or other of the items in the prize then just say so - I could then do a second draw for the other part, but the two items are up for grabs as one 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 :)

Di and of course, Parsnip!
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Rudolph Day - March 2015

It's here again folks, March's Rudolph Day over at ScrappyMo's :) And, this week's challenge over at Merry Monday #151 is 'Tree(s)':

And this is the card I made for both challenges:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- a 'frame' made using SU's 'Tempting Turquoise' and 'Perfect Plum' card stock

- white card stock for the background, embossed using the 'Snowflake Background' embossing folder by Darice

- then used one stamp from SU's 'Festival of Trees' set and stamped three trees using SU's ink pads ('Tempting Turquoise', 'Melon Mambo' and 'Perfect Plum') and then punched them out using the matching SU punch

- the sentiment was stamped using 'Melon Mambo' and a sentiment from Personal Impressions' 'Many Greetings' set - before being die cut using a Spellbinders pennant  die

It was a first outing for the 'Festival of Trees' stamp set, so I'm taking this over to Darnell's NBUS challenge #4 too :) Over 800 followers over there now - go Darnell!!

Di
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Pop up box card

A friend of mine recently had a Birthday, and her sister made her a pop up box card. Squeals of amazement from said friend, who is a card maker but sticks to tried and tested folds (I once gave her the vapours just showing her how to make an easel card!).

However, I've promised to go round for a play afternoon and show her how to make a pop-up box card, trust me, her patience can be very, extremely low so perhaps I should have just played dumb. I did show Sam (Hettie) how to make one of these last year at the WOYWW Crop and she flew along no trouble. However, before embarking on the forthcoming crafting session, I thought it would be a good idea to remind myself of the process at least, and this is what I made:

Such a difficult thing to photograph!

Close-up peek

The back panel, with a fairly plain area to write a message on

 I used:

- an A4 sized sheet of black card stock (the resulting finished and 'folded flat for posting' card ends up at just about an inch shorter than A5 size)

- papers from Papermania's 'Elegance' paper pack

- embellishments are also by Papermania, and are also from the 'Elegance' range

-and just a few amber coloured gems added for some sparkle

Now to show friend how to make one, without her toys flying out of the window - wish me luck!

Di
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Less is More - Week 216 - CASE a DT card

Interesting challenge this week over at Less is More - the DT have each produced a card and you need to choose one to CASE. They're all great starting points so I pondered for a while and finally plumped for Anne's card - which is this one:

 

I love the doodling around the card edge, meeting up with such a cute image. So that's the bit I really followed, plus I added a sentiment above the image although Anne's is part of the stamp she used. I skipped the bakers twine though - and this is my CASE:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- Penny Black's 'Easter Bonnet', stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- then stamped the sentiment (Penny Black's 'Think Spring') using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink again

- and next did the doodling round the edge. Me not totally daft, didn't want to risk spending time colouring the image and then wrecking it at the 'last knockings' :)

- finally, coloured the cheeky little chick using Whispers markers

Thanks again for the inspiration ladies! I don't really send Easter cards out but I think this little lady could well be making her way up the M1 to my step-mum!

Am also entering this into the current Penny Black Saturday Challenge for March - 'Spring Blooms'. As well as the current Uniko Studio Challenge #19, which is Anything Goes.

Di

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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 169

And another week just 'whooshed' past in the Playground. Spring is almost in the air, Spike the hedgie and a friend are out and about most nights and we even have intermittent sunshine as well :) Yay!

My snippets card for this week is also for Merry Monday's latest challenge (#150) which is 'Gifts!'

This is what I made (Edit - and it got an Honorable Mention, wahoo!!):

I used:

- 4" x 5.25" white card blank, tent style

- snippet of white card to cover the front of the card, embossed using a Quickutz folder called 'Holiday Words' - rarely used, slap my wrists :(

- the image (Stampendous 'Gift Angel' was stamped onto a snippet of white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black', coloured with Whispers markers and a touch of clear Wink of Stella added to the wings and also the bobble and trim on the wee angel's hat

- then I just backed the trimmed image with a snippet of SU's 'Real Red' and popped it onto the centre of the card using thin sticky pads for dimension

NB! I don't think this embossing folder is still available to buy, such a shame :(

Onto this week's picks now!

Viv makes beautiful cards, and this perfect card for a chap really caught (grin) my eye this week!

I chose this card, made by Jenny H, for the really fresh look (great idea for the plants too!) and great use of snippets.

Such a pretty bag made by Pippa, to hold Easter eggs. I thought the extra attention to detail by colouring the egg on the image to match the paper for the bag was so clever.

I'm stopping at three picks this week, which is really what I've said for some time would be the magic number. Needless to say, I adore every single entry you bring along so do please go to last week's Mr Linky and peek at the thumbnails if you want to see more work showing off snippets.

And here's the winner of last week's prize, the Stampin' Up set of stamps, kindly donated by Vicky:

KT Fit Kitty

 

This was a long time coming, and I actually mentioned (without naming her) that Kitty had played for nine months without a single win last week. Well Kitty, this is your week! In fairness, the first SIX numbers picked by Mr Random all belonged to Playmates who hadn't wanted to be in the draw - and then out popped Kitty - YAY!!

Can you please email me with your address Kitty and I'll post your prize this coming week (di_wray@hotmail.com). As I said, it was just a matter of time!

This coming week's prize is a lovely mix of Dovecraft goodies (papers, doilies and felt elements - all from the 'Curiosity Corner' range - perfect for vintage cards and layouts, kindly donated by Jane:

All three items make up one prize BTW. So funny, we discovered that Jane lives not very far from me - she was tempted to open her window and throw these in my general direction :)

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 28th March. 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 :)

And of course, this coming week it's Rudolph Day over at Scrappy Mo's. Begins on  Wednesday and as usual will run to the end of the month. PLUS, Darnell is running another of her NBUS challenges - just make something using a never before used item. Perhaps you could make a Christmas card, using snippets as well as something NBUS !? Three challenges for the price of one :)

Di and of course, Parsnip!
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Another new home card

It's a bit late as I lost the recipient's new address, but the thought is very much there!

And so weird, I picked out a house stamp and set to making this card - only to discover I'd coloured it exactly the same as a previous card, with a red front door and also die cut using the same die set. But, the hearts coming out of the chimney are a new idea as is the sentiment ('Welcome to your new home' is just a tad too late!).

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank

- white backing layer, embossed using a Darice 'Argyle' embossing folder

- image stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and a Stamposaurus Stamp called 'Town House - small'. The image was coloured with Pro Markers and Whispers markers and then die cut using a 'Stitched Rectangle' die by Lil'inkers, then I added the three little hearts as smoke from the chimney using a teensy heart stamp from Lawn Fawn's 'Bee Mine' stamp set and SU 'Real Red' ink pad

- SU 'Real Red' card stock for the 'frame' for the image, also die cut using a 'Stitched Rectangles' die

- sentiment is LOTV from their 'General Greetings - small' set, stamped using a Brilliance 'Coffee Bean' ink pad

The three hearts are quite significant as this card will be winging it's way to a lovely young couple and their baby daughter.

The other day I got rather excited (once again to be honest!) over the Fiskars 'Compact Stamp Press' - and a few of you kindly commented and emailed me. I did subsequently find it on Amazon, shipped from the USA, but it's also in stock at Oyster Stamps (UK) for £9.99 and free p and p!! I think that's quite a bargain price, it arrived on Wednesday and am already totally in love with it :) Isn't it strange, I keep thinking that there can't be anything new left to play with in the manual tools line, and then along comes another surprise!

Snigger, the biggest surprise of all could be when the walls of this craft room suddenly explode outwards, due to the amount of schtuff in here.

Di
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Hello Spring - I'm back in town!

Well I never, Darnell already knew I had my suspicions from the food bowl being kicked round the garden last night, but just lookeee who rolled into town again:

 

Photo from the Internet

It seems that both little Spike and probably a larger hedgie were out playing last night - eating the dried food we've been leaving out for so long as well as drinking their water - err, and having a real party just kicking everything around. Quite a mess of scattered food left, although the camera images we have aren't clear enough to post here. We're almost sure it was two different hedgies enjoying their first Spring outing.

Tee, hee - I half expected them to hop onto their hind legs and do an Irish jig in celebration! Great news after the worries we had :)

Di

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CHNC Challenge 220 - use some black

The latest challenge over at Hazel's Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is to 'use some black'. After a little ponder my eye fell upon my 'Sarntangles' set of stamps, still sitting here on my desk as they're too nice to put away :) And this is the card I ended up making:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- a frame of SU's 'Real Red' card stock

-a square of white card stock, stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from the limited edition 'Sarntangles' stamp set, a few sets are still available from Sarn over HERE, but once they're gone, they're gone.

- coloured parts of the image with a red Whispers pen as well as a gold pen

- the sentiment was stamped using SU's 'Real Red' ink and a stamp from the Personal Impressions 'Many Greetings' set

- final touch (idea unashamedly pinched from Sarn!!), a few hematite black pearls here and there

I loved making these so much, the images stamp perfectly every time - so I made three, all the same :) Tee, hee - should I earmark one to send to Sarn this coming Christmas?

And I'd also like to enter this card into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for March - where it's always 'anything goes'.

Di
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Cuttlebug Mania - Freeze Frame

We have another fun challenge over at Cuttlebug Mania this fortnight, called 'Freeze Frame'. This time you have to use or make a frame, basically any shape with the middle removed to make a frame. Loads of scope there ladies! Just so long as you use a manual die cutting/embossing machine that's fine, and also do remember to say which embossing, die cutting products you used.

Our sponsor this fortnight is Digi Scrap Kits- and the artwork over there is fabulous!

So this is the card I made, using my trusty Cuttlebug:

I used:

- A6 white card blank - tent style

- a layer of SU 'Smoky Slate' card stock, topped with a layer of white card stock which had been embossed using a Couture Creations 'Compassionate' embossing folder

- to make the 'Smoky Slate' oval frame I first die cut it using a Spellbinders 'Big Scalloped Oval' die (I love the gentle curve on this set of scalloped dies) and then I die cut the centre out using a plain oval die.

- too funny though, having so carefully made the scalloped frame with two dies I realised that the sentiment needed to be stamped onto plain, non-embossed card, sigh. So, after stamping it onto plain card, I die cut it using the plain oval die. But, my frame truly is a freestanding frame - I promise! The sentiment is a discontinued SU one from their 'Sincere Salutations' set, stamped using Memento 'Gray Flannel' ink

- then added the foliage - Cheery Lynn 'Mini Fanciful Flourish' die and a snippet of green card stock

- the flowers were stamped using SU's 'Petite Petals' stamps and SU pink inks in 'Pink Pirouette', 'Pretty in Pink' and 'Regal Rose' then punched with the matching 'Petite Petals' punch. I just gently curved the petals a bit and added the flowers to the card using small pieces of thin sticky pads

- finishing touch, a Mei Flower pearl in the centre of each flower

Now it's your turn to play, as I said before, there's loads of scope!

Di 
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 168

I found some snippets in the back of my much loved DCWV 'Mariposa' paper stack, wahoo:

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank - tent style

- two different snippets from the DCWV 'Mariposa' paper stack, just cut to size and popped onto the card front

- to hide the join used a piece of ribbon (from Hobbycraft) with the sentiment 'thankyou X' along it - and to hide where the ribbon wraps round the card and is adhered to the inside of the card front, I just cut a slightly smaller piece of card than the front and stuck that inside

- then cut a little blue butterfly out of the last little snippet I had and just popped it onto the 'label' on the bottom part of the card.

- then went over the wings of all the butterflies with clear 'Wink of Stella'

Little tip, I knew that cutting the feelers on the blue butterfly was going to be very tricky, so I gave it my best shot and then just used a blue Whispers pen to colour the feelers once the whole thing was cut - it hides the fact that they aren't cut 100% accurately :)

Swiftly onto this week's picks:

I just love, love, love this gorgeous card, made by Lucy to celebrate today - which over here is Mothering Sunday. So many pretty elements!

The dimensions and vibrancy of Elly's lovely creation caught my eye straight away. When you hop over to take a closer look, be sure to turn on 'translation' and then you'll really appreciate just how much work went into making this!

This card was made by Jane, using her X-cut 'Nautical' die set (won recently in the Playground) with the most fabulous 'encaustic art' background. Put simply, encaustic art is a way of painting using wax and heat BTW. I actually have this gorgeous card on my desk here (thank you again Jane!) and it's even lovelier in real life!

And last, but by now means least - just look at these wonderful Easter egg 'baskets', made by Kate. Aren't they just fabulous?! I did giggle, as Kate lives in Spain she's a bit unsure as to whether these will sell well at the craft events she's taking them to. But, she did wryly say that she has an in-house chocolate eater who would be quite happy if she brings them home again :)

This next part is a serious plea for you all to pray and send positive thoughts to Brenda L, who is one of our much loved playmates. The news of her husband Dwayne's illness isn't good right now and she needs all the love and support we can give please.

And now for the prize draw for last week - the lovely Penny Black 'Hide-out' stamp kindly donated by Eve. The winner is:

 Cornelia

Well done Cornelia! That little hedgie will be on his way to you just as soon as I get to the Post Office, I don't have a copy of your address from your last win - in week 120 which is almost a year ago, so this was well due. Can you please drop me an email to: di_wray@hotmail.com with your address!

I do know of at least one loyal little Playmate who has been playing with us for nine months on end now, and to date just hasn't been lucky in the Random Draw. I truly wish everyone could be a winner but please be patient and keep playing!

And this coming week's prize is a lovely set of Stampin' Up stamps kindly donated by Vicky:

I do know that's it's a discontinued Hostess set, which I think makes it all the more desirable - I know that I would love to win it :) My favourite has to be the little baby's 'onesie', so cute. There are six stamps in the set, all ready for you to mount onto the supplied wooden blocks. Thank you so much Vicky!

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 21st March. 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 :)

Di and of course, Parsnip!
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Merry Monday #149 {Monochromatic Blues!}

I love the current challenge of 'monochromatic blues' over at Merry Monday 'cos, apart from the tradional reds, greens, golds and silvers, I think that blue tones are really lovely for Christmas cards.

 

My first 'port of call' was a set of LOTV pre-coloured art pad images and then I just took it from there:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white hammered card blank

- dark blue plain pearlescent backing paper as the main 'frame'

- a snippet of blue and white snowflake backing paper, from LOTV's 'Frosty Christmas' paper pad

- snippet of white hammered card, die cut into a 'stitched curve' using a Spellbinders Borderabilities 'A2 Curved Borders One die'

- the sentiment is from the 'Many Greetings' set, by Personal Impressions, stamped using Memento 'Paris Dusk' ink pad

- a pre-coloured image from LOTV's 'Christmas Angels' art pad, die cut using a Spellbinders 'Labels One' die - popped onto the backing using thin sticky pads

And whilst at it, I made three exactly the same :)

PS, Just spotted that this card is also eligible for the Winter Wonderland challenge, which is 'Blue Christmas'!

Di

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Less is More - Week 214 - Yellow and Green Colour Challenge

The current challenge over at Less is More is a colour challenge - the Spring colours of

YELLOW and GREEN

I moved more towards Summer with this card:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- snippets of SU green card stock (Old Olive) for matting and layering

- white card stock, one has the stamped image on which is from SU's Sale-a-bration 'A Happy Thing' stamp set. Stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and then coloured with just four different Pro Markers before being die cut using a Lil'Inkers 'Stitched Rectangle' die

- the sentiment was originally going to be 'When life hands you lemons - make lemonade' - but I quite like this version! Just produced on my laptop using the 'Purisa' font and then printed onto white card 

I'm gonna say it, so get your groans in  right now - 'easy-peasy, lemon squeezy' :)

Di
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