Rudolph Days - February 2017

Running in at the last minute with my entry for this month's Rudolph Days challenge over at ScrappyMo's. February being such a short month always catches me out in so many ways - not least some serious slippage on my planned target of making 12 Christmas cards per month!

Anyhow, I had a NBUS stamp to play with and also made four cards the same while I was at it:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- piece of white card onto which I stamped Woodware's 'Snow Post' stamp using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and the Misti - as already said, I made a batch of four in one go

- coloured the image using Pro markers

- then I faced cutting round all those curves to retain the 'edge of a postage stamp' look.......aak! After some thought I trimmed straight down all sides using scissors. The stamp's outer edge isn't totally 'in line', that's part of the design though, so using a trimmer was out and it had to be scissors

- and here's the sneaky part, I cut each of those half moons out using a normal office single hole punch! It still took a while but nowhere near as long as fussy cutting would have taken :)

- mounted the image onto a slightly larger piece of red card and then onto a slightly larger piece of black card

- just glued the image panel onto the plain card front and called it a day - times four

I think the stamped image itself does most of the work really, so refrained from adding a sentiment or anything else - plus the background to the stamp has lots of Christmassy greetings in small print as it is.

Still a bit behind with Christmas card target though but some serious 'batch baking' in March should help!

Just a little point

Quite a few times I've noticed some lovely cards and makes where the blogger has said they'll be linking into the Snippets Playground. And then they don't do it!

I know it can be hard if you do a scheduled post to remember to go back and make sure you actually link up to the challenges you list. But, it seems such a shame to me - even if you aren't playing for a prize - being linked means that folk will visit you and comment. I certainly will!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 267 and 268 - results

Hello again! It's halfway through the fortnightly challenge in the Snippets Playground and time for some 'picks' and the prize draw.

We also have another brilliant Guest Designer with a snippets card to share this - it's our wonderful and very talented Loll:

What a beautiful card this is - it just shows how you can achieve maximum impact with a few snippets. AND a lot of talent I should add! Loll let me have the following details about how she made the card, but I do think it would be lovely if you could hop over to her blog and leave a comment there.

"Everything used on my card is a snippet except for the card base. :)  The hexagons on my card are die-cut from a snippet of smooshed watercolour paper.  This is the third card I've made from two background pieces I made a few months ago.  I die-cut the hexagons from white foam as well, gluing them to the watercolour hexagons to add dimension to my card.  The foam was cut from snippets too!! :)  And I always have small snippets of black and white ready and waiting to use for die-cuts and sentiments."

And here's the lovely lady herself, I think Loll has such a friendly face - like so many of you I'm sure she's someone you'd immediately feel at ease with in real life:

As most of you will know, Loll makes amazing cards and has a really unique way of creating stylish and elegant makes which are 'clean and simple' but generally with a fabulous technique incorporated/to share as well. She also runs a couple of brilliant challenges along with our lovely Bonnie - so do check those out as well when you pay a visit. I wanted to learn more about Loll's blogging journey for myself and can't recommend enough that you make a hot drink and settle down for a couple of hours browsing. It all begins in February 2011 when Loll first started her blog - and way back then you can see the CAS style evolving as that year unfolds, fascinating to see. Loll is another blogger who cooks, and there's some yummy recipes on her top bar. And, loads of tutorials - both written and also video ones. Better make that a flask of something to keep you going eh? :) Loll readily shares her tips and techniques in her normal blog posts as well and I've learned loads from this very generous lady. And, she's an amazing blog designer as well - I'm so grateful for my own fabulous blog makeover! Oh, and I always wondered where the name Loll came from - now I know, it stems from her given name of Laura, a lovely name for a lovely friend!

Remember girls, you can always let me know if you would like to be a Guest Designer - I have a list and would be very happy to add your name.

So, let's move onto my picks from this past fortnight:

This was made by my dear friend Sarn, who freely admits she got the basic idea from Pinterest - but she certainly has put the 'Sarn Spin' on it! Such a clever new home card and one which we can all 'have a go' at making (with or without the fence if you don't have a punch or die to suit - but I do think it's a brilliant finishing touch!).

This adorable card was made by Jane W, our Guest Designer from last week! And Jane used a prize she won in the Snippets Playground a little while ago - they are actually robins but I just love this ingenious way of transforming them! Paper piecing is one of the very best ways to use up little snippets and Jane's card shows what impact can be achieved with just a few different of them, very cleverly used!

We've had variations on 'patchwork' in the past I know, but I think this card made by Heidi, really deserved to be a pick. All the papers are from one paper pad, little leftovers that co-ordinate so well. Heidi used a square die to cut the pieces, and I do think that's the most accurate way of cutting squares for this sort of design (or a punch of course). And Heidi's tip about sticking the little squares onto a toning shade of card to help lessen any gaps you might still have is well worth following! Ask me how/why I learned this trick a while ago :)

 

There was some discussion on Heidi's post about the problem of leftover snippets falling out of pads if you choose to store them that way. Here's a post about my own solution which might be of use. Warning, it's a long post but even flicking through the photos will give you the gist of how I store my patterned snippets inside paper pads. The system has been in use here for three years now and it still works brilliantly for me.

That's my three picks - as always a very hard choice, and I ended up using a pin to stick into my initial list of 10 entries! Once again I focused very much on ingenious ways to use snippets which might inspire you.

You might wonder why there's no Gold Star every fortnight. That's because I want them to be really sought after - ha, and because I couldn't decide which entry was most deserving this time round, spoiled for choice :)

We had 62 Playmates joining in this past fortnight - with two new little friends joining us:

Carol Cel

Barbara (The Knackered Grouse - LOVE that blog name!!

Welcome girls! Hope you came back and play with us again :)

Prize draw time now and our winner of the LOTV 'All our Dreams' rubber stamp (from me) and lots of lovely pastel/baby coloured goodies by Papermania from the Spots and Stripes Pastel range - kindly donated by Donna is:

Jenny H

 

Well done Jenny! Can you please drop me an email with your address in and I'll post your prize off as soon as possible! My email address is on the right hand side bar.

Our local Post Office is currently closed due to the village shop it's part of being extended and refurbished. I think it's only closed for a further week but it may cause a delay in me posting your prize Jen, goodness knows how folk who really rely on that Post Office are coping as there was no upfront warning!

Keep those snippets entries coming girls, you still have a week left to play HERE remember!

AND, please remember that it's also Rudolph Days over at Scrappy Mo's! February is a short month and the challenge (anything goes for Christmas) closes on Tuesday of course. There's the choice of a great Memory Box die or a really cute Avery Elle stamp set as a prize too. I know you'll all want to join me in sending our love to Mo, her Mum passed away very recently and a few extra hugs would be very welcome I'm sure.

See you on the swings!

Love from the little white peril and me

New toys!

I finally got a set of Zig Clean Colour Real Brush Markers - yay!! There's a long way to go yet in terms of blending, getting used to lighter touches, using the right paper (thanks to me finding tips on Loll's blog it's Strathmore Mixed Media paper you should use) - and a whole raft of stuff. But, this is my very first play - put your sunshades on, it's BRIGHT!:

There were a few hiccups along the way, which I'll confess to as we go.

I used:

- 4.25" x 5.5" white card blank, side opening

- piece of black card for the outer 'frame'

- piece of Tim Holtz 'Distress Watercolour' cardstock onto which I stamped an edging of flowers

- the flowers were stamped using a stamp from the Tim Holtz 'Flower Garden' set and Ranger Archival Black ink

- at this point I really wish I'd then embossed the outlines, although I did go to the trouble of making a mask of the flower (using a snippet of Woodware Mask-It sheet) and using that when stamping the flower outlines

- then I coloured in the flowers using Zig markers and a water brush. Walked away when I realised how bright and stark the flowers looked without any real shading - I now have the Strathmore Mixed Media paper which I hope will be better for blending

- on returning I then stamped the sentiment and botched it up - walked away again

- stamped the sentiment onto a piece of fresh card, several attempts. I now know that stamp is distorted right at one end and leaves a little smudge - a stamp now destined for the bin sadly (tee, hee - I popped my watermark over the smudge to hide it in the photo above!)

- trimmed the piece of white card with the best stamping of the sentiment I could manage

- fussy cut the flower border and glued it to the edge of the sentiment panel

- glued the whole image/sentiment panel to the black panel on the card front

- still didn't look right to me so I followed one of Loll's ideas and added white dots to the flowers, using a white pen

A long way to go - but it was great fun playing - despite battling a ripped nail which is all bound up making my right paw less dextrous than ever! Embossing the outlines is going to make life much easier and I hope the Strathmore Mixed Media paper which has a vellum surface will help too. It certainly feels lovely and smooth!

Cuttlebug Mania Challenge - 'It's a Zoo out there'

We have a lovely theme for this fortnight's Cuttlebug Mania challenge, which starts today - 'It's a Zoo out there' and you can use any animal(s) on your entry.

Details of our sponsor/the prize to be won can be found over on the Cuttlebug Mania Challenge blog, but suffice it to say that Beccy's Place is involved - one of my favourite places to shop for digital images.

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.

This is my DT card:

I used:

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

- layer of white card, embossed using a Quickutz 'Flowers' embossing folder and glued to a frame of SU's 'Wild Wasabi' card stock before being glued to the card front

- the image is from the really adorable 'Ellie' set, over at Beccy's Place. Printed onto white card and then coloured using Faber Castell 'Polychromos' pencils - with a little bit of blending using Sansodor blending solution and paper stumps

- then I die cut the image panel using a Spellbinders 'Lattice Edge Rectangle' die and glued it onto the embossed panel

- next die cut the swirly leaves and tendrils from a snippet of SU's 'Wild Wasabi' using a Cheery Lynn Designs 'Fanciful Flourish' die and glued it to one corner of the image panel (thereby hiding a small tear in the edge of the border - ssshhh)

- die cut three daisies using my much loved Joy! daisy die set (6002/0024) and paper from the Wild Rose Studio 'Vintage Rose' paper pad and glued those in place

- topped the centre of each daisy with a white Josy Rose nail head - finished!

Oh boy, this really was a struggle to make in the middle of my loss of mojo the other week. Every single step was like wading through treacle!

 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 269 and 270

And it's another fresh fortnight in the Snippets Playground! Thank you so much to everyone who came to play - loads of brilliant entries too!

This is my snippets card for the fortnight:

I used:

- 4" x 4" square white card blank

- snippet of white card, embossed using Darice's 'Picket Fence' embossing folder, then trimmed to slightly smaller than the card front

- next added the sentiment using Memento 'Gray Flannel' ink and a stamp from the Hero Arts 'Good Friends' set

- then die cut the flowers using Stick-It backed snippets of card and a Poppy Stamps 'Wildflower Patch' die. First of all I die cut the whole flowers from a green snippet, left the flowers in place in the die, carefully peeled the Stick-It backing away, popped the die on top of the embossed picket fence and then gently poked each flower straight onto the fence through the holes in the die - thus keeping them perfectly lined up

- next die cut the flowers again from snippets of Stick-It backed peach and mauve card, snipped off the flower heads and popped them alternately on top of the green complete flowers

- once that was done all that was left was to back the image panel with white fun foam and glue it onto the card front, using Collall all purpose glue 

And here's this coming fortnight's prize:

MFT 'Wildflowers' two- piece die set and a Darice 'Picket Fence' embossing folder. These were both kindly donated by the lovely Darnell - absolutely AGES ago! The die is similar to but not absolutely the same as the one I used today. It's lovely in that the flower heads die cut separately ready to just pop onto the complete flowers, and the embossing folder is the same of course. Plus, I've added a further Darice embossing folder to the bundle called 'Clouds' (you can see the design on the top right hand side of the packaging). I thought the clouds folder could be used as an alternative to the picket fence folder - or maybe in conjunction with it. I haven't worked out how the two folders could be combined - I'll leave it to the winner to have a play :) For that reason I don't want to split the prize up.

The Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks from now on and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 4th March. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's still a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. The prize is all three items as a single 'bundle' as I already said. 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 :)

Be sure to call back next week to see the winner of last fortnight's prize (the papers, flowers, bows, buttons and LOTV 'baby' stamp) and my picks from the past two weeks as well! And we also have another Guest Designer as well! The standard is so high I might have to do the final whittle down of my short list of picks by drawing straws - amazing stuff girls.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with this fortnight, I think this place is a real hotbed of crafting talent!

Psst, I made this card on Friday afternoon - I think my mojo put in another brief appearance, yay! 

Love from Parsnip and me,

Three Christmas cards - two whole days work!

I'm in serious trouble here, it took me two days (albeit not constant I admit - we do have to eat plus I broke out for a hair appointment and also did some housework plus a baking session) to make three identical Christmas cards. But, overall - the going is very slow and half hearted I fear. There was a lot of stamping and die cutting admittedly, but it's clear that am suffering from a real lack of enthusiasm. I still need to make my snippets card for Sunday in fact! Ooopsie!

Anyhow, less of the whining - this is what I made - one of the set of three identical ones:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- a frame made using gold ever so slightly sparkled card, SU's 'Real Red' card and a white panel on top

- the fabulous SU 'Wondrous Wreath' stamps set and matching dies. First I stamped the wreath using SU's 'Certainly Celery', 'Wild Wasabi' and 'Real Red' ink pads

- then die cut the wreath using matching dies - used my 'card template' method for perfect placement of the dies. I've described it loads of times but if you want a reminder then here's one link that will help

- stamped and die cut the red bow, same set of stamps and dies

- die cut the word 'Joy' from the same set of dies, using the gold card

- assembled the wreath, bow and word 'Joy' onto the card - using Collall Glue as always and a fine tipped applicator

And that's was it. The Misti was absolutely marvellous BTW, I'd have given up totally without it!

Skateboarding Ninja

One of our little neighbours is five years old later on  this week and Len came to the rescue again, when I was fretting over what on earth I should do for his card. He found a great little image on line (Luke is into his scooter, does try to skateboard and also likes Ninjas) - and this is what I made:

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank

- piece of red card stock from the snippets folder, with the top edge die cut using the super-useful Memory Box 'Grand Happy Birthday' die

- trimmed the red panel to size and glued it to the card front

- filled in the white parts of the sentiment by die cutting more letters with the Memory Box die plus white card backed with Stick-It then inlaying them, it just gives a slightly more professional look (IMHO)

- added the '5th' using a Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' die and Tattered Lace 'Alphabet' dies

- glued the image panel in place to suit the vertical space I had

- last touch was to add the name 'Luke', die cut using Tattered Lace 'Alphabet' dies

And that was it - done. Only took me about three hours, and I'm not kidding!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 265 and 266 - results

Hello! It's halfway through the fortnightly challenge in the Snippets Playground so time for some 'picks' and the prize draw.

We also have a really cute Guest Designer snippets card this week, from the super-talented Jane Willis:

Such a fun card! Jane let me have the following details about how she made the card, but I do think it would be lovely if you could hop over to her blog and leave a comment there.

Jane said 'The dies I used are called Magnificent Christmas but I left out the Santa hats, by Yvonne Creations.  The owls and branches are cut from snippets, of course, and the border is a scrap left from a sheet of 12 x 12 that has made numerous cards. It had a scallop border all the way round, so I cut a strip with border and background from one side and then added a strip from another edge of the sheet. Instead of backing the owls in another colour or piecing in the breasts and beaks, I coloured them in with fine markers.'

And here's the lovely lady herself, I love this photo of Jane:

As most of you will know, Jane is a very prolific card maker, with a huge repertoire of techniques and styles to draw on, as well as a wicked sense of humour - which very often shows up on her cards :) She's been a loyal Playmate for ages and also was the very first person to put her hand up for a GD spot - so it was a natural choice. I wonder if you also know that Jane's a very good cook? She can whistle up some great dishes just from a quick rummage in the fridge and it's really worth checking her recipes out on her blog as well.

BTW, I have a list here of victims volunteers to be future Guest Designers and am happy to add your name if you haven't already stuck your hand in the air :)

So, let's move onto my picks from this past fortnight:

I chose this card, made by Alice, as it introduced me to a wonderful technique/art form known as 'Tangrams'. It's a great way to use up snippets and you can be very creative in the process as well - just Google 'Tangrams' to find out more. That's got you thinking I bet!

I love this 'New Home' card made by Helen. Plenty of snippets used and the single blue house packs such impact! A great idea, which I'll be pinching!

I think this card, made by Laurie, is a brilliant example of using up snippets really effectively. It has so much style and really stood out when I was looking for picks!

That's my three picks - as always a very hard choice, especially to keep down to just three. I focused very much on ingenious ways to use snippets which might inspire you - and could still have added loads more! We had 77 (whoop, whoop!!) Playmates joining in this past fortnight - with three new little friends joining us:

Sarah Mac

In the interests of speed you may have noticed that whereas I do adds a few words still about the fortnightly picks (mainly to say why I picked them) - I no longer add a few words underneath our 'new Playmate' entries, I hope you do go and say hello to them though!

And, I do so urge you to nip over and check out Sarah's account of making this sun catcher - some of you have already been and had a good giggle I see :) It will brighten your day I promise and perhaps we should appoint Sarah as our resident story teller/class comedienne!

Jeanne H

Heidi

Welcome girls! Hope you came back and play with us again :)

Prize draw time now and our winner of the Sizzix 'Let's Travel' die set and the Avery Elle 'Handwritten Notes' sentiments stamp set is:

Pen (Sunshinepen)

Well done Pen! Can you please drop me an email with your address in and I'll post your prize off as soon as possible! My email address is on the right hand side bar.

That was a really popular prize and, as so often happens, I just wish everyone could have been a winner - sigh.  

Keep those snippets entries coming, you still have a week left to play HERE remember!

Love from the little white peril and me

Snowdrops

From my craft room window I can see some lovely clumps of snowdrops, and they (thankfully) prompted this card:

I used:

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

- snippet of white card stock onto which I stamped the Stamp-N-Stencil snowdrops, using Memento 'London Fog' ink

- coloured the image using Faber Castell 'Polychromos' pencils

- then used the stencil that came with the stamp set to add a tickle of clear Wink of Stella

- used a snippet of SU's 'Wild Wasabi' card stock, trimmed to slightly smaller than the card front and then die cut the aperture using a SB 'Labels Eight' die

- glued the image to the back of the frame

- added the image panel to the card front, with a piece of fun foam sandwiched between to just lift the front of the card

- the sentiment is from the Personal Impressions 'Everyday Words - Happy Birthday' set, again stamped onto a snippet of white card using Memento 'London Fog' ink

- punched the sentiment out using SU's 'Modern Label' punch and glued it onto the card front

- added a couple of matt green Josy Rose nail heads to the sentiment label

I bought the little snowdrop stamps and stencils set a while ago, whilst in Coventry with Kim. To be honest, once home, I wasn't sure I liked them. Mostly the fact you really should use coloured embossing pastes when stencilling put me off using them - but the tickles of clear Wink of Stella through the stencil really worked a treat!

I had such a struggle making this card yesterday. I have absolutely zero mojo at the moment and there's no sign of it returning. I've looked at all my favourite challenges to see if that will kick start things but right now, no luck! I feel OK in myself - just disinterested in card making and all things crafty. Maybe a bit of a clear up and sort out of my desk is called for to see if that helps. Perhaps I've literally 'worked myself into a tight corner' - snigger :)

Cuttlebug Mania Challenge - 'Roses are Red'

Time for another Cuttlebug Mania Challenge and the theme this time is 'Roses are Red'.

Your theme can actually be anything, just so long as there's lots of red as the main focus. Details of our sponsor/the prize to be won can be found over on the Cuttlebug Mania Challenge blog.

I cheated somewhat with my DT card as it was already made for a challenge (two in fact) that I couldn't enter. I know there's a lot of white on the card but the main and only colour focus (the heart) is red.

This is what I made:

I used:

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

- smaller layer of white card stock, embossed using the Couture Creations embossing folder called 'Bon Jour'

- then I stamped the heart using SU's 'Real Red' ink onto the centre panel - masking off the top and bottom of the panel first. The heart stamp is a much loved one by Penny Black called 'Love is the message'

- then I die cut the word LOVE out of the stamped panel using a die by Impression Obsession called 'Love' (making sure I saved the two little cutouts - a small heart and the centre of the letter 'e'), and also cut the word again from white fun foam

- backed the LOVE aperture in the card panel with double sided adhesive sheet and then popped the fun foam LOVE word in place along with the little cutouts I'd saved

- glued the saved die cut LOVE word from the card centre panel on top of the fun foam

- glued the panel to the card front and called it done

This was a bit of a tricky card to make so you can imagine my horror when I realised that it didn't qualify for the two challenges I wanted to use it in :( First was Darnell's NBUS Challenge #9 where I'd even complied with the options of CASE'ing a card as well as using the camouflage technique for the word LOVE. Ha, what I had totally forgotten was to use something NBUS - the basis of all Darnell's challenges!!

Then, I realised it wasn't fair to enter the card into the current Penny Black Challenge of 'Anything Goes' as the card is such a direct CASE from cards made by both Darnell and Chrissie!

So, I put the card to one side in the hope that it would be useful for a future post or perhaps Cuttlebug Mania DT work. Yay, happy dance when the theme for this fortnight was chosen!

Hope you find time to join in - not long until Valentine's Day. I've kept this card hidden from my in-house critic as it's most likely going to be given to him on 14th February :)

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 267 and 268

And here we go again with a fresh fortnight in the Snippets Playground! Thank you so much to everyone who came to play and also for making life so much easier here.

This is my snippets card for the fortnight, but my use of snippets isn't at all imaginative. In fairness I was a bit limited by the stripy snippet of paper which I wanted to use as a link to this week's prize:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- LOTV stamp called 'All our Dreams', which comes with the sentiment 'in situ', stamped onto a snippet of white card using Memento 'London Fog' ink

- coloured the image using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils

- die cut the image panel using a Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' die (I need more of these wonderful dies, in more shapes!) and backed it with ochre coloured card, from a snippet

- then cut the little snippet of stripy paper (found in the snippets folder and almost matching a paper in part of the prize) I wanted to use to suit the card and backed it with ochre coloured card, from the rest of the snippt I used in the step above

- popped both panels onto the card front using Collall All Purpose glue and left it at that

As I said, not my finest snippets creation by any stretch of the imagination. But, in real life at least the colours I used for the image are much softer and all match the stripy paper and the ochre frames!

This coming fortnight's prize is:

A LOTV 'All our Dreams' rubber stamp from me, same as the one I used. Plus lots of lovely pastel/baby coloured goodies by Papermania from the Spots and Stripes Pastel range - kindly donated by Donna. There's a paper pack, box of flowers, packet of bows and a packet of buttons - all beautifully co-ordinating.

If you sent a prize for the Playground and it hasn't yet appeared, I'm trying to work my way through them and they are still here safe and sound in the toy box! The lovely Darnell sent a prize over a year ago so I think that one's top of my list for two weeks time!

The Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks from now on and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 18th February. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's still a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. I won't be splitting the prize this time. 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 :)

We have a nice little list of Playmates who are happy to be Guest Designers - our first one will make her appearance next week. I thought it would be good to have a GD on the interim week to give you more inspiration then I can with my snippets make.

Be sure to call back next week to see the winner of last fortnight's prize (the VW Campervan die set and the set of sentiments stamps) and my picks from the past two weeks as well!

AND, the wonderful Loll has kindly made up a Gold Star Award badge and it's on my right hand sidebar. So if you were a Gold Star Pick last week (Heather) or are awarded a Gold Star in the future then do please take the badge for your own blog.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with this fortnight, possibly a few Valentines cards?! Love from Parsnip and me,

Less is More - Challenge #313 - 'Balloons'

Mojo still on walkabout and as yet no inspiration even for my Snippets card make for Sunday! But, I had spotted that the current Less is More Challenge is 'Balloons', still no mojo though, sigh.

Sitting here doing some Playground commenting I happened to look up at a small set of shelves above my desk (it's really a very large spice rack with metal rods across the front to hold the spice jars in place, which works brilliantly for small crafting items). It currently houses Martha Stewart punches along the top (they're square and chunky so don't fall off or overbalance!) a lot of my SU punches, a few bottles of glue and spray and a handful of wooden stamps that I swop about as the mood takes me. This is a photo from 2011, things look very different now but it gives you an idea what I'm chuntering on about. The Martha Stewart punches are still there though :)

Anyhow, I spotted a little wooden Teddy Bear stamp I'd popped on there a while ago (possibly thinking about making 'Parsnip' monochrome cards) and low and behold, Teddy was holding a balloon! Happy dance here - and this is what I made, apologies in advance for the quality of the photo, I'm not sure we saw a break in the clouds all day when I made this:

I used:

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

- a further piece of the same white card stock, onto which I stamped the Teddy, using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- the stamp is a wooden one (made by DoCrafts in the 'Forever Friends' series - dated 2008) so I placed/stamped it as close as possible to where I wanted it onto the piece of white card

- only then did I use a Lil- Inkers 'Stitched Rectangle' die to die cut the panel - just a little tip but it did save me getting out the Stamp-a-ma-jig :)

- then I stamped the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink, the Misti and a sentiment from the Paper Smooches 'Sentiment Sampler' set. I deliberately chose that particular sentiment as I wanted to send a hug to someone special - plus I loved how the letter 'S' almost follows the curve of Teddy's outline. Little things please little minds as my Granny used to say!

- then I coloured Teddy and his balloon using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and very deliberately didn't do any blending (ie. using solution) other than just with the pencils as I wanted to pencil stroke to be slightly seen)

- next cut a piece of white fun foam slightly smaller than the image panel and glued it and the panel to the card front

- final touch, three iridescent sequins - to just break up what I thought looked like too big an expanse of white!

Don't know about you, I use sequins here and there quite lot on CAS cards and will be a bit lost when that particular 'fad' moves on. Oh, it already did? Really, so soon? Just shows - tail end Charlie as usual here!

You know what, I think it really is time to make a little batch of cards in monochrome as I mentioned further up - just add some colour to the balloon only perhaps and there could be a few gift cards to enclose with Playground prizes! So that's ONE idea in the pot to cook away :)

Remember this card?

I whined on in my blog post when I first used the die set that the eyes were far too large for the little ducks. And yesterday I stumbled over the reason WHY!

Them weren't eyes, them were wheels! No wonder the little die set came with so many of them - asses ears are pointed straight up into the air here :)