Less is More Week 282 - Use a Stencil

Bit of a gasp here when I saw what this week's challenge is over at Less is More - 'Use a Stencil'!

I confess to having a host of pretty ink pads, plenty of brushes and a good variety of stencils - mostly unused due to the fact that I like stamping and die cutting more than messing round with other stuff. But, undeterred out came the stencils, ink pads and a Clarity Stamp brush - and this was the result:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- a piece of Clarity white coated/silk card onto which I stencilled the sunburst using a Stamposaurus stencil and Distress Ink pads (plus the Clarity brush of course). The Distress Ink pads were 'Scattered Straw', Wild Honey' and 'Dried Marigold'

- took away the removable tape and stencil, which revealed a white circle for the sun itself. Dithered about cutting a circular aperture through which I could add ink to cover the white but just decided to go for it without and added Adirondack 'Peach Bellini' ink to cover up the white sun

- stamped a couple of birds onto the centre of the sun using Black Archival Ink and a little stamp from the Lawn Fawn 'Float my boat' stamp set - then put the 6" square sun and rays to one side whilst I fiddled on with the rest of the card

- die cut a square aperture in a piece of white card stock which had been trimmed to an eighth of an inch all round smaller than the card front

- decided to stamp the sentiment next rather than risk wrecking a completed card front, using black Archival ink and a stamp from the Inkylicious set called ''Sunshine Wishes'

- selected which part of the 'sun burst' I wanted to use in the aperture and trimmed it to about quarter of an inch bigger than the aperture before sticking in place from behind using red line tape

- added the completed panel to the card blank using Collall All Purpose glue

Apart from the time it took to clean up the trail of stuff scattered all over the desk, including stamps, brushes and stencil, I really enjoyed playing so watch this space. But don't hold your breath either :)

Di
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Rudolph Days - June 2016

Time for Rudolph Days over at ScrappyMo's - it runs until the end of the month so, although I'm a bit late, you still have at least two days left to join in!

I needed to play catch up with my Christmas card numbers so made four, all the same:

I used:

- 4.25" x 5.5" white card blank, with the opening on the short right hand side for a change

- white card stock, embossed using SU's 'Square Lattice' embossing folder, then trimmed slightly smaller than the card front and glued in place

- the topper is from LOTV's Set 35 'Penguin Pals' Art Pad (two per page so terrific value - shame they don't make 'em any longer), slightly trimmed to fit the scalloped layer behind - and also the corners rounded using a Woodware punch

- the scalloped layer was die cut using a Spellbinders 'Scalloped Rectangle' die and a snippet of SU's 'Real Red' card stock (in fact I found four identical snippets in the folder, so must have known at some point I'd make four identical cards like this one)

- glued the topper layers together and then added to the card front using thin sticky pads

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 235

Bit of a cheat this week 'cos my Sunday Snippets card made an appearance on Tuesday, as my DT card for the new Cuttlebug Mania 'Midsummer' challenge.

Anyhow, wanting to use certain things for the DT card, which were also duplicated in the toy box and lined up as prizes, I decided that maybe I could get away with the one card posted twice - and in fact not all of you visit the blog other than to play in the Playground so maybe you didn't spot it earlier in the week :)

So, here it is again:

I used:

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

- olive green card cut slightly smaller than the card front and glued in place

- snippet of white card, embossed using a Crafts-Too 'Lattice' embossing folder, trimmed slightly smaller than the green layer and glued in place. I just love this embossing folder, it always adds a touch of elegance

- snippet of white card onto which I stamped the sentiment using SU's 'Mossy Meadow' ink and an Inkylicious sentiment stamp called 'Wonderful Day'

- then, using the largest die from the Spellbinders 'Floral Ovals' set, die cut the sentiment panel then glued it in place on the card front. Tip, it's always much easier to stamp a sentiment first and then die cut it

- the fuchsia leaves and flowers were all die cut using olive green, pink and purple snippets of card stock and Joanna Sheen's 'Fuchsia' dies set, then assembled onto the die cut oval above the stamped sentiment. This was the most fiddly part of the card, but great fun to do

- there was a gap underneath the sentiment which looked a bit out of balance so I added a row of three fuchsia pink pearls

- final touch, a double layered sparkly 3D butterfly, in fuchsia pink with a touch of purple

I was totally thrilled to see that this card was selected to be in the Allsorts Challenge Top 5! I can so understand how delighted folk are when they're a weekly pick - the draw prizes are lovely to win but it's such fun to have your work personally selected isn't it :)

So let's move swiftly onto this week's peek at the picks:

I always think that patterned paper snippets are perfect for paper piecing and this darling card, made by Heather, is a perfect example of how just a small snippet paper pieced onto a dress suddenly pulls a whole card together beautifully. I do so like the way Heather used the Polaroid frame with the perfect sentiment too!

This is such a beautiful 'Garden' pop up card - made by Sonia. Loads of snippets, gorgeous detail and a really clever pop up mechanism - still trying to fathom out how it's done :)

This great New Home card, brought to show us by Janice, really caught my eye. Such a clever design with the offset square aperture and the sweet little key. The scen is perfect isn't it - and it really brought home (no pun intended) to me how I, rather foolishly, keep my landscape dies just for Christmas cards. Need to rectify that one for sure!

Meena is such a talented young woman, despite being as she so well describes it 'differently-able', and this beautiful tribute to her Mum really made me well up. Great use of snippets and so much work and love has gone into making this layout - you're a star Meena!

I love, love this nautical box, made by Tina! Just look at all the detail - what a beautiful and very clever Anniversary card for her hubby. Some wonderful die cutting there and isn't the little 3-D sailing boat just darling with its heart shaped sail :)

I think this Christmas card, brought to share by Loll, is absolutely stunning! So elegant and although it looks almost effortless, when you read how Loll made it, as well as studying all the beautiful details, it's clear that a lot of thought and great care went into this fabulous card.

That reminds me, it's Rudolph Days over at ScrappyMo's right now - until 30th June. I'll be playing on Tuesday and it would be lovely if you could join in as well.

Now for the prize draw, for the three Paper Smooches sentiments stamp sets, kindly donated by Tara of Seven Hills Crafts. And the winner is:

Helen

Congratulations Helen! I know that you've often been a weekly pick since first coming to play last year, but it's around eight months since your previous prize win - so, well done! I have your address here (hope it's the same as last August?) and will pop your prize in the post this coming week.

This coming week's prize is firmly connected to my snippets card, as I already said - although I haven't gone so far as to include a set of the Spellbinders 'Floral Oval' dies:

There's a Crafts-Too 'Lattice' embossing folder, an Inkylicious sentiment stamp called 'Wonderful Day' and a Joanna Sheen 'Fuchsia' dies set up for grabs. Either all as one prize or it can be split.

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 2nd July. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

A maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. If you only want to play for one or two of the items making up this week's prize, just say so in your comment and if you win then I'll do a further draw for the other item(s). Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

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 :) 

Di and, of course, Parsnip
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Simple thinking of you card

Made for a friend who recently lost her husband:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" square white card blank

- a snippet of peachy pink card stock for the 'frame'

- snippet of white card stock for the top layer

- 'Thinking of you' stamped sentiment is from a now discontinued SU set called 'Sincere Salutations' - stamped using Memento 'London Fog'

- I'd already worked out where the textured floral rub-on poppy was to go before stamping the sentiment so it was just a case of rubbing the flower in place. It's from a set called 'The Tracy Hollins Elegance Collection' that I bought from QVC many years ago - sadly no longer available anywhere that I can find

The light has picked up what looks like an odd crease on one of the petals, in fact all the rub-ons in this set are textured with ripples here and there on all the petals to add dimension. They're best left well alone, if you rub too hard to try and flatten the 'creases' then you risk tearing the rub-on :(

Di
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Christmas blues

I do love blue and white for Christmas cards and was inspired to make this when I stumbled across a card I'd kept to upcycle from last Christmas:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" square white card blank

- a layer of navy card, cut just a little smaller than the card front and glued in place

- topped that with a one eighths of an inch all round smaller piece of patterned card stock - it's called 'Merry Mistletoe' made by Kanban - and is one of my favourite backgrounds although it's not always easy to find blues (apart from navy) that look right with it

- then I chopped the front of the small Waitrose Christmas card into a somewhat smaller square, still leaving a white border all around

- mounted the image panel onto a larger square of the same navy card stock I used for the first layer on the card front

- then glued the complete image topper with navy frame onto the card front

Such an easy card to make and I did think about kidding you that the word 'hope' had been die cut by yours truly :)

I'd like to enter this card into the current challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge 286, where it's 'Cute or anything goes' this week.

Am also linking into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for June, where it's always 'Anything goes'.

Di
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Cuttlebug Mania Challenge - 'Midsummer'

It's time again for a new fortnightly challenge over at Cuttlebug Mania - and the theme this time is 'Midsummer' to include flowers/floral wreath, just make sure you also include some die cutting and/or dry embossing.

You do have to use a manual die cutting/embossing machine for Cuttlebug Mania entries (it doesn't need to be a Cuttlebug but it must be manual, not electronic). And, you can't mix the two, it must be all manual please. Then make your entry, link into the challenge, link to the challenge in your own blog post and and make sure that you also say what products you used for any die cutting/embossing.

Details of our sponsor can be found over on the Cuttlebug Mania Challenge blog.

There certainly was a hollow laugh here when I was making my DT card last week ..... whilst rain hammered on the windows.

Of course I adore poppies and roses, but another great favourite of mine is the fuchsia - I think they look like little ballerinas dancing in the breeze. As luck would have it, I had a die set here that's been waiting for ages for a first outing and this is what I came up with:

I used:

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

- olive green card cut slightly smaller than the card front and glued in place

- snippet of white card, embossed using a Crafts-Too 'Lattice' embossing folder, trimmed slightly smaller than the green layer and glued in place

- snippet of white card onto which I stamped the sentiment using SU's 'Mossy Meadow' ink and an Inkylicious sentiment stamp called ''Wonderful Day'

- then, using the largest die from the Spellbinders 'Floral Ovals' set, die cut the sentiment panel then glued it in place on the card front. Tip, it's always much easier to stamp a sentiment first and then die cut it

- the fuchsia leaves and flowers were all die cut using olive green, pink and purple snippets of card stock and Joanna Sheen's 'Fuchsia' dies set, then assembled onto the die cut oval above the stamped sentiment. This was the most fiddly part of the card, but great fun to do

- there was a gap underneath the sentiment which looked a bit out of balance so I added a row of three fuchsia pink pearls

- final touch, a double layered sparkly 3D butterfly, in fuchsia pink with a touch of purple

We'd love to see you over at Cuttlebug Mania, it's a great theme with plenty of scope and the challenge runs for two weeks.

I'd like to enter this card into into the CAS Mix Up June Card Challenge (my second time this month playing over at this fun challenge). The theme this month is 'stamping + die-cuts ...... + my own choice of dry embossing'.

And, also the current Happy Little Stampers June Anything Goes with Dies Challenge. I was thrilled to be picked as a favourite in their May Christmas Challenge, where you had to use a gift on your card. Happy dance here :)

And last but by no means least - the fabulous Allsorts Challenge Week 368, where the theme is 'How does your garden grow'. It's been far too long since I played over at Allsorts so I'm delighted to be linking up this week!

Crumbs, I think that's record number of challenge entries for me with just one card.

Edit: Psssst, I can already see that a few of you love this fuchsia die set. Make sure you call in at the Playground from Sunday onwards there's one as part of next week's prize! Was keeping it secret but don't want folk rushing off to buy it without at least having a chance in the Snippets draw :)

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 234

This is all of the Sunday Snippets post in one go, despite my earlier warnings - yay!

Yesterday we were out at the local village carnival - from early morning, setting up and helping out with 'have a go' archery as well as wandering round the many stalls when given a little break! The weather wasn't too unkind, chilly at times but it stayed dry at least - and I must have been busy as the camera never made an appearance!

The atmosphere was just as expected at a traditional English village event, even the local vicar was sketching charcoal faces to raise funds for the church and of course the village WI were out in force - selling cakes and jam. There were loads of rides and the usual fairground sideshows, as well as too much icecream, Cornish pasties from the village bakery and candy floss!

Although very tired at the end of a long day, we both had loads of fun and a lot of laughs. There must have been a cider stall (as usual) but we never found it although, when I drove us home at the end after clearing up, there was a very 'wibbly wobbly' old biddy in shorts with various veined leggies (?!) and sporting blonde curls weebling along, totally oblivious to traffic behind her, on the narrow lane past one of the thatched cottages on our route :) Bet she'll sleep well tonight!

Long live English traditions - and hangovers :)

Here's my snippets make, it actually has no connection with the prize for this week, but I did use snippets of course. Yesterday was the 50th Birthday of a sweet blogging friend and this is the card I made to send to her:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- snippet of white card, onto which I stamped a Penny Black image using a pre-loved stamp called 'Coop Party!', using a Ranger 'Jet Black' Archival ink pad

- coloured the image using Ranger Distress Markers and a water brush before fussy cutting right round it

- then found a free image of chicken wire on the internet, resized it to suit and printed it onto a piece of A4 white card, right in the centre so I could trim around it to my heart's content later on

- I had just the one snippet of the right shade of green Core'dinations card stock (to match the stems and leaves of the little bouquet of flowers) to play with so the next part took a bit of planning out

- first I trimmed the green card to slightly smaller than the card front so I could use it as a border around the chicken wire layer

- next I die cut a square from the centre of the piece of green card (effectively 'gutting' it) and adhered the remaining outer part onto the card front

- something in me is a bit against gutting as I know there's a piece of card with a chunk cut out of it, albeit hidden by the next layer! So, I die cut another white square the same size using a snippet of white card and stuck that in place so that the surface was level again :)

- next I backed the die cut square of green card with Stick-It adhesive sheet and die cut the sentiment using the Joanna Sheen 'Retro Happy Birthday' die and then the 50th using Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' and Tattered Lace 'Alphabet' dies

- worked out how I wanted the end result to look and first of all trimmed the printed chicken wire layer into a square then stuck it in place on top of the green layer of card, using Collall All Purpose glue 

- then just stuck the cute row of chooks, greeting and 50th in place

I bet most of you will guess who this card was made for - hope you had a fabulous day hun!!

Time for this week's 'peek at the picks':

I know that Jules is often a weekly pick, but I just had to show you this brilliant idea for using up snippet strips! Clever or what? Jules is blogging much more regularly now (goodness knows where she finds the time!) so there are loads of lovely cards appearing on her blog to inspire you.

We have had pop up box cards in the Playground fairly regularly - I picked this one by Megan as I adore the little reindeer with the skyline buildings behind. Also, Megan has a really easy to follow tutorial on the blog post - well worth a read!

I picked this fun card, made by April, as it made me giggle. Such a cute card and next thing I knew Parsnip was all geared up in his stetson ready for a ride - but I vetoed the spurs he wanted to wear! Visions of him careering off into the sunset never to be seen again - grimly hanging onto the Llama :)

Here's another fun card - shared with us by Cornelia. Plus, even better, there's a great tutorial showing how she made this - hop over to Cornelia's and follow the link. I know that Livi, Len's youngest grand daughter in Germany, would absolutely adore a card like this!

We had two new Playmates this week:

Nancy sauntered in with this gorgeous scene to share. It reminds me so much of the sun setting over the hills and rock formations on an evening drive we did in New Mexico a while back - and how clever to add the sentiment on a snippet of the same background!

Then Majda arrived, with this beautiful package to show us.There's no translation gizmo on Majda's blog but I'm guessing there might just be some chocolate hidden inside? And isn't the heart made up of buttons so cute?!

Now for the prize draw, for the Lawn Fawn 'Float My Boat' and Memory Box 'Breezy Waves' stamps and dies I used last week. Plus the extra set of Memory Box dies called 'School of Fish', kindly donated by Mary Anne. And the winner is:

Pat

Well done Pat! Each week Pat comes to play nicely - and I'm delighted for her! Plus, Pat always lets us in on her secrets on how she achieves such lovely end results - happy dance here for you Pat. I have your address from a previous win, which is well over six months ago so will post your prize off to you as soon as possible this coming week :) Do let me know quickly if you've moved house since your last win :)

This coming week's prize is also a bit of a bumper one and there's a little tale behind it. I quite often order stuff from Tara's shop called 'Seven Hills Crafts'. What I really love about about the shop is that, not only am I supporting Tara's business, but also she is one of the few UK sources of tons of USA produced goodies - notably dies and stamps, which would cost such a lot to order direct from the USA.

Tara used to play here before life became too busy (which is a good thing as it means the shop is doing OK!) and she queried a recent order of mine which was for more than one of an item. Of course I'd factored in a prize for the Playground but was grateful that Tara queried it anyhow. And then, she offered some goodies for the Playground as prizes! I was super thrilled when a lovely parcel arrived here with, amongst other items, these three Paper Smooches stamp sets:

The sets from left to right are 'Apologies', 'Smooches' and 'Graffiti'.

I'm offering all three as one prize - although you can of course just opt for one or two of the sets. There will be more lovely prizes (including more Paper Smooches stamps!) from the parcel in the near future. I'm delighted to be able to offer you these items and would love it if you would perhaps pop over to Tara's to see what she has in her wonderful shop:

 
The Snippets Challenge will run for one week (we're back to normal for the time being, yay!) and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 25th June. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

A maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. If you only want to play for one or two of the stamp sets, just say so in your comment and if you win then I'll do a further draw for the other item(s). Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

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 :) 

Di and, of course, Parsnip
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Dove of Peace Christmas card

The other day I found time to make a couple of cards, both the same, to add to the box for Christmas 2016. The card wasn't easy to photograph - mirri card never wants to play nicely for the camera does it :(

I used:

- 5" x 5" white card blank

- square of silver mirri card, slightly smaller than the card front, glued in place

- square of white card, slightly smaller than the silver layer, glued in place

- more of the silver mirri card, backed with Stick It adhesive sheet then the dove and sentiment were die cut using Sue Wilson's Creative Expressions 'Dove of Peace' set

- adhered the dove and sentiment in place on the card front - clean, crisp and simple

I'd like to enter this into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge 285 where this week's theme is 'Silver' - as well as Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for June where it's always 'Anything goes'.

Di
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Holly topiary ball Christmas card

Aware that my target of 12 Christmas cards per month is slipping, I whipped up a couple of quick cards to at least achieve the end of May total:

I used:

- 6" x 6" white card blank, the front of which which I then embossed using the largest die from the Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set and then trimmed the card down to size (4.25" x 5.5")

- image from the now discontinued LOTV 'Festive Foliage' Art Pad, die cut using the next size down die from the 'Stitched Rectangles' set

- my first attempts at stamping a sentiment in the top left hand corner smudged on both panels, ack! Basically, the most used stamp in my Personal Impressions 'Many Greetings' set has gone all floppy and over-flexible, sigh

- so, instead used a stamp from the Paper Smooches 'Christmas Sampler' sentiments set (love this set!) and a 'Coffee Bean' Brilliance ink pad on some of the plain white card trimmed from when I made the card blank

- then punched it out using SU's 'Modern Label' punch and glued it in place

- glued the image panel onto the card blank

- added a Josy Rose nail head at either end of the sentiment strip

I was quite upset about the original stamp I wanted to use going 'all peculiar' on me - despite being cared for, never used with solvent based inks, always carefully cleaned after use and stored away in the dark. But, the set is many years old and has been really well-used so it owes me nothing. Luckily, I found a supplier who still stocks this much loved set - phew :)

Di
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Less is More - Week 280 - Splatters

The current theme over at Less is More this week is 'Splatters' - and it's one layer as well.

Hmmm, what to do? Rootling round for a sentiment to use I found a 'grungy/splattery' one - how lucky was that? Then out came a Stampin' Up stamp set and I was off and running:

I used:

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

- splatter stamps from SU's 'Gorgeous Grunge' stamp set with SU's 'Daffodil Delight', 'Pumpkin Pie' and 'Tangelo Twist' ink pads

- used the Misti to stamp the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from a 2015 QCME magazine free sentiments set called 'From the heart' - designed by Jenny Ellory

- rounded the top right hand corner for added interest

To be honest I feel a bit of a fraud just stamping a few splatters and a sentiment and calling it a day, this is waaaay out of my comfort zone! It seems too quick to me, who takes hours making a single card. Also other people do it with great aplomb and get such fabulous results. Plus, it looks a bit like there's been some blood dripped onto the card - IMHO, sigh. But, I wanted the yellow and oranges to echo the word sunshine in the sentiment :) The in-house critic loved it though!

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 233

I'm baaaaaack! And surprisingly the Playground didn't suffer any major disasters and Parsnip was very cool, calm and collected when he opened the door to the tree house for my inspection. Mind you, I did notice that his pockets were jingling with coins - so the little rascal had obviously been making some money on the side!

We had a lovely time (in Southern Germany), and of course we weren't camping! Which is just as well, given the flash flooding just shortly after we safely arrived at our destination after driving from the airport. It came much too close for comfort! We were there to spend quality time with the little grand daughters (Mia and Livi)  and Kai, their brilliant Mama - as always, we came home in need of a rest :) And the pop-up tent that some of you remember now resides in Germany - the girls have a huge play room in the cellar where Len and Kai, whilst I rolled around laughing, mastered the art of putting said tent up and also (much more challenging) folding it away again. That young woman is a whizz at fathoming things out and we feel sure she'll cope fine with perhaps a little bit of a helping hand from Mia - just at one crucial point in the process. I did eventually scamper upstairs for my camera - but was too late 'cos I returned just as they'd just finished off packing it away for the final time :(

With more of the family, we all had a gorgeous meal at Bad Waldsee, overlooking this beautiful lake one evening:

And this is a tower over one of the gates to the pretty little town. You can see the ominous rain clouds lurking, although we did manage to grab a few hours of sunshine here and there:

We took quite a few photos of the girls of course, this one is actually my favourite as they were much too preoccupied to even notice it being taken. They're growing up so fast:

Straight onto my snippets card now:

I used:

- 4" x 6" white card blank

- a slightly smaller snippet of turquoise card stock as a backing

- a slightly smaller again snippet of white card stock with 'waves' die cut using a Memory Box 'Breezy Waves' die - and then the back of the 'waves' were covered with a rectangle of double sided adhesive sheet so that the apertures were backed with sticky

- glued the turquoise layer and the die cut layer onto the card front. Little tip, if you've have open sticky apertures like I had - use the layer of waxed paper you peeled off to expose the sticky to cover it up again whilst you work

- die cut three shades of turquoise card snippets for the waves and inlaid them into the die cut apertures

- stamped the boat and seagulls using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink onto white card - using stamps from the Lawn Fawn 'Float My Boat' stamp set

- coloured the sails of the boat using a yellow Pro Marker then die cut the boat and seagulls using the matching Lawn Fawn set of dies

- stamped the sentiment using SU's 'Real Red' and one of the sentiments from the stamp set

- die cut the sentiment with a Spellbinders 'Nested Pennant' die. Another tip, the sentiment was too long for the die so I just die cut one end at a time - moving the die and making sure I only partially cut the length of the sentiment

- then glued everything in place - and called it finished

The stamp set comes with various really fun sentiments plus a teeny heart, a life saver and an anchor - oh, and a stamp which would make great waves too. The life saver and anchor also have matching dies in the set I used - but it seemed a step too far to throw too much at the one card.

I know that I originally spotted a similar card on a Playmate's blog and rushed off to buy the goodies immediately - quite a while ago now. Needless to say I can't find which one of you lovely peeps inspired me and I've searched high and low in Blogland - if it was you, do please let me know and I'll add your name here.

Time for a 'peek at the picks' from the last two weeks.

Week 231:

I just cracked up at this terrific get well card, made by Megan! What great use of snippets too - following a super sketch that's just perfect for snippets.

Barb is always coming up with great ideas and I think this card is really so clever. Do hop over to Barb's for more detail on how to make those wonderful little 'apertures' on the right hand side of the card - you could be surprised, I was!

I really love this card, it's so CAS and a really great way to use up little snippets at the same time - made by Helen. Such a sweet birdie too!

I think this is such a clever card, made by Pat! Perfect for anyone interested in chess - love the chess pieces and how dramatic is that chess board?

Gosh, Meg has a flying start on her Hogmanay cards for 2017! This is such a brilliant design for a card don't you think? All from a scrap of tartan patterned paper - a great kilt and I think a few of us could be copying this idea!

Week 232:

I picked this card, made by Jane W, for the CAS design and also to show how you can get cracking on your Christmas cards! Once you pick a design like this I reckon you could set up a little production line for stamping, colouring, die cutting, fancy edge scissors (or dies/punches) and away you go. Plus some bling of course :) Super card!

Alison brought this absolutely stunning card to share with us. A perfect example of what can be done with a piece of paper left from a session when Alison was playing with ink effects. Plus, Alison also inlaid some of the die cuts - LOVE it!!

This brilliant pop up gift card holder was made by Liz - and there are really easy to follow photos of the steps on her blog post as well. Such a brilliant idea - I'd already earmarked this as an idea when our Sarn made a holder a few weeks ago - no excuse now!

I picked this card largely as the gorgeous image is just so perfectly coloured to go with that lovely selection of backing papers plus the die cut hearts and little enamel dots. Wanda really did hit the colours on the nail here, great use of snippets and I love the retro feel too :)

And last but not least, here's a card to possibly make your eyes deceive you:

Brought to us by Darnell and those letters are actually inset rather than adhered onto the top of the purple layer of card. Keep looking away and then return to the photo and I think you'll suddenly see what I mean! My eyes were popping in and out like organ stops!! Trust Darnell to come up with this :)

Which reminds me - Darnell's trip to England from mid-July is fast approaching so do go and see if she's likely to be within reach on her visit. First stop is Southampton - yay!!

So, I did better than I thought and had five picks from each of the two weeks. Having said that, I could have had many, many more as always! You really do come up with some wonderful snippets makes and it's always so hard to whittle down my list to a manageable number :(

We had one new Playmate join us during the past couple of weeks, in week 231 NanaConnie brought this lovely card to share:

Wonderful quilling Connie and such a gorgeous design too. Hope you come back often to play with us, I see you joined in again during week 232 - which means the girlies must have been kind on your first visit :) Mind you, they really are the sweetest bunch of bloggers and make the Playground a happy and supportive place to come and play each week.

Now for the two prize draws:

Week 231 - the Frantic Stamper 'Good Friends Daisy Frame' die set and adhesive eraser:

Judy (aka PJ)

 

Crumbs, it looks as if it's Judy's first ever Playground win! Many congratulations are due - and can you please let me have your address PJ, my email addy is on the right hand sidebar :)

Week 232 - the Impression Obsession 'Girl Swinging' and 'Love' die:

Kath (Handmade by Kath)

It's been a good few weeks since Kath last won so this was due :) I still have your address here Kath and will post your prize off ASAP.

This coming week's prize is made up of stamps and dies, the same as I used today - Lawn Fawn 'Float My Boat' and Memory Box 'Breezy Waves'. Plus a lovely extra set of Memory Box dies called 'School of Fish' - which I think might look such fun underneath the waves, kindly donated by Mary Anne:

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 18th June. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Just realised, it's our local village carnival on Saturday 18th June - which may have an effect on things. Certainly the Playground gates will close and open as usual as I can arrange/schedule that ahead of time - my snippets card will be here along with the new Mr Linky and details of the new week's prize. But, I may not have a chance to do the prize draw for the Sunday Snippets post - and possibly not the weekly picks. I'm loathe to alter the Playground closing and opening times so there's a chance you might have to hop back on the Monday or Tuesday to check out the winner and possibly the picks. I'll do my best but have a feeling that we'll be helping out on the Saturday morning ready for the afternoon's fun and games! Just hope we have good weather!

A maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. If you only want to play for either of the die sets or the stamp set then just say so in your comment and if you win then I'll do a further draw for the other item(s). But, it's one whole prize if you wish. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

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 :)

Wishing you all a lovely week, with more sunshine and certainly no flash floods!

I hope this post works OK, for some reason whenever the mouse floats over the post in edit mode stuff jumps here and there! I've been and tweaked some rogue HTML but am loathe to tinker further. It's jumping round like a jack in the box even as I type this closing sentence!! I'm OFF!!

Di and, of course, Parsnip
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