Rudolph Days - May challenge and Crafty Hazelnut's weekly challenge #387

It's time for another instalment of Rudolph Days Challenge - run by Maureen - aka ScrappyMo HERE. The challenge runs every month from the 25th right to the last day of the month.

And, I'd like to join in with Hazel's Christmas Card Challenge #387 - HERE. Hazel is the sweetest lady ever and I feel really guilty that it's been an age since I played along. It's always anything goes nowadays and I used to play really regularly so am delighted to finally join in again! A new challenge each week as well as a lovely prize to be won. At one time entries were up in the hundreds and it would be fabulous if those of you making Christmas cards could link into Hazel's challenge and bring those numbers back up again.

My target of 12 Christmas cards per month was lagging very sadly behind and, in an effort to catch up, I made 12 cards exactly the same. I know, 12 identical ones is about the maximum 'batch bake' for me and I was secretly very glad when they were finished. Maybe I should have scanned a first coloured image - but then that would be cheating a bit .....IMHO. It all started when I found a background card in pale blue which I adore and needed to use (I have tons of it!). And so the card developed from there really.

This is what I made:

I used:

- 4" x 4" square white card blank

- a square of 'Merry Mistletoe' pale blue background card, made ages ago by Kanban and cut to just one eighth of an inch smaller all round than the card itself and then glued to the card front

- stamped the little image onto white card stock using a new 'Hybrid - Black Licorice' ink pad by MFT (more of this below). The stamp is a wood mounted pre-loved Penny Black one called 'Thinking of you' - dated 1999!

- coloured the image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and a little touch of Sansodor blending solution here and there - making sure I had matched the blue background and the scarf

- then die cut the image using a The Works 'Stitched' Squares' die

- next I stamped 12 little LOTV Christmas labels onto white card stock using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and fussy cut round them ( sorry, the stamps are no longer made by LOTV which is such a shame - it remains to be seen but am not sure that their decision to go all digital was a wise one. Again, only my opinion and it would be sad to see them fail in this new change of direction)

- added a round matt red Josy Rose nail head to each 'label' and then adhered them onto the image panels using red line tape - the most secure and also least potentially messy way when you know just where something is to be positioned

- glued the image panel(s) onto the background and sat and looked, feeling something wasn't quite right - it wasn't the lack of clear Wink of Stella as I just felt the image didn't need it so what was wrong?

- asked the opinion of my in-house critic, who had chosen the Christmas Wishes sentiment, and he said - 'he's just gazing up at nothing really'

- bingo! Of course he needed a star to wish upon and so I added a little Josy Rose star shaped silver nail head in what I thought was the little mouse's line of sight - times twelve of course! 

Finished - 12 more for the box!

Back to the MFT hybrid 'Black Licorice' ink pad. The idea is that it works with both water as well as alcohol based colouring mediums and I was really excited to think such a versatile ink pad was now on the market. I was on a 'wait list' for a while and only recently received the ink pad.

However, I have huge reservations and they are: the lid is almost impossible to remove whenever you want to use it (I needed the help of a blade of a pair of scissors each time), the ink pad is overly juicy and liable to 'spread' with too much pressure when you're stamping PLUS the quality of the pad itself isn't anything like as good as the likes of a Memento ink pad. I found there were stray fibres (NOT what you want when inking up an image) - to the extent that one long strand came loose and I peeled it right off one edge of the pad.

My advice is not to fall for the 'hype' and just stick to using two different pads depending on how you intend to colour images. I use Memento for alcohol inks and my Polychromos pencils - and Stazon (with or without embossing powder) for water colouring. We live and learn I guess!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #327

And yet another UK Bank Holiday whizzes round! Right now (Saturday) the sun is shining so fingers crossed it continues for a couple of days at least.

We're anxiously waiting for a little family of blue tits to fledge from a nest box in the back garden. Their cheeping is getting louder and Mum and Dad are kept busy from dawn to dusk flying to and fro with bugs to feed them. The babies must be ready to fly any day now. And the hedgies are eating us out of house and home, whilst neglecting their slug and snail duties!

Here's my snippets card for this week - snippets were used purely for the sentiment:

I used:

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

- a background panel from the fabulous Concord & 9th 'Everyday Tintables' collection - there are four each of four designs in a pack and they come with a 'resist' pattern on each one. I chose to use the one with sort of fan shapes as I also wanted to use a particular die cut sentiment

- put the panel onto a sheet of white paper so I could come in from off the edge and then blended some Altenew 'Puffy Pink' ink all over, using a Ranger foam blending tool to pick it up from the ink pad. Love the shade of pink!

- then trimmed the pink panel to just slightly smaller than the card frame. What's so great about these panels is that they are generously sized at 6.0" x 4.75", allowing the edges to be trimmed off to suit

- next die cut the sentiment twice using a die from the Concord & 9th 'Fabulous Phrases' set of dies and snippets of Stick-It backed shimmery white card then stuck them on on top of the other

- stuck the double layered sentiment in place. I found it much easier to use little slicks of removable tape runner on the back of the pink panel to hold it in place on my glass work mat - and also use a recently acquired T-square to make sure it went on straight

- then ran the panel through the Cuttlebug to make sure the sentiment was well pressed down before gluing the pink panel to the card front 
 
- final touch, some iridescent sequins, popped in place with a little touch of Glossy Accents 

All the items I used are fairly recent acquisitions. The Concord & 9th 'Tintables' are a fairly new product (it cuts out the 'faff' of stamping and heat embossing to create the 'resist' background and they're really lovely to use, the 'resist' patterns on a white background for you to colour as you wish have a lovely shimmer to them. True, they aren't exactly cheap but are great fun to work with. They will work in loads of ways - the card is suitable for watercolours and would be lovely with more than one colour blended of course - lots of ideas to be found on line if you just Google the product itself.

So, here's this week's Snippets Playground prize - and you're no doubt pretty much tuned into just what it is. It's a bit of a bumper one, based on what I used for my snippets card:

There's a pack of Concord & 9th 'Everyday Tintables' and this is what the different patterns look like, four of each so 16 in total:

 

The 'Just a Note' really does take a lot of work out of making a quick card and I so love the falling dots. Can just imagine those with graduated blue blended over as a Christmas card 'snowy' background. From the way they've named the pack 'Everyday Tintables' I'm hoping they bring out some Christmas themed ones with (say) snowflakes/stars and such.

There's also a Concord & 9th 'Fabulous Phrases set of five dies (love the little hearts they included!). Here's a look at the dies, images were picked up from Concord & 9th's website:

And, on top of that there's also an Altenew 'Puffy Pink' ink pad included in the prize - Tara of Seven Hills Crafts popped one for me and one for the Playground into a recent order - such a lovely surprise as well! Thanks so much Tara. Plus, it really makes this into a nice bundle of course.

I'm making this one single prize as it all works together so well plus it's much easier (and cheaper) for me to post off. Of course, if you think 'Hmm, but I wouldn't use such and such from the bundle' then you can always still play along for the prize and then give anything you don't want to a friend. Personally I'd want to keep the lot though :)

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 9th June. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you're wanting to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' - just in case you're playing only for fun.

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 of a Waffle Flower 'Succulents' stamp set with matching dies, plus a Guest Designer and the fortnightly picks of course.

Hope you're having good weather, and that Summer is finally showing signs of arriving. It's been a long Winter this time round.

Little edit: 

It's Rudolph Days over at Scrappy Mos!!!!! I forgot to mention that, and you have until the last day of May to play along.

Parsnip is super well-behaved right now, still! That little scallywag is plotting something for sure, sigh,

Love from Parsnip (the little perisher!) and of course from me,

One for my records, for Taylor

I always keep a post of cards that Len designs, and then I make up, for our little neighbours.

This one is for a young chap who still has his heart set on being a policeman when he grows up:

Not much work on my part, although the star shaped badge was printed separately and had to be fussy cut then added to the card front.

Psycheic card

 Here's my card for today:

I used:

- white card blank, tent style with the lower edge cut using a Lawn Fawn 'Stitched Scalloped Borders' die

- stamped image from the Penny Black 'delicate florals' set - stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and coloured with Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils

- whilst the image was still on a square of card I added the sentiment using the Misti (which likes things tucked into corners or along a straight edge even when using the magnets). The sentiment is from the Clearly Besotted 'Say what?' stamp set (love the selection in that set!) - stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink of course

- then die cut the image using a die from The Works set of 'Stitched Circles' - to place the die I held it in place with the cutting side uppermost so I could see where the stitched lines would go, ran a soft pencil around the inside edge, flipped the die over and held it in position with removable sticky tape

- trimmed a piece of turquoise card, trimmed and glued onto the card front

- then trimmed a piece of patterned paper from the Kate Knight 'Totally Tropical' paper pad which was a magazine freebie way back in 2011! Trimming the paper was a bit heart stopping as I only had one sheet of patterned paper with a butterfly on - the butterfly is as far up and to the left as I could make it

- then glued the paper to the turquoise layer on the card front and also glued the circular image panel in place

Normally I centralise most image panels I wanted to have that butterfly on show - it just wasn't in the right place on the paper no matter how much I jiggled it about - but my in-house critic likes it!

The backing paper reminds me of a dress I had - way back in the dim and distant past. If I say I used to wear it with white knee length boots that gives a bit of a clue about the era!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge # 325 - results

Royal Wedding Day today! The sun is shining for the happy couple down here in the South of the UK and Windsor is such a lovely place for the wedding.

Let's get straight on with the post - I'm typing this on Saturday morning and the TV in my craft room is calling to be turned on so I can watch events - so this will be quite a quick post!

First of all, we have a new Guest Designer, but most certainly not a new crafter! It's Susan Renshaw of 'Calling All Crafters' who is our Guest Designer this fortnight. Susan has been playing along with us for a while now:

And here's what Susan wrote about her card:

Once again I went with the mosaic idea but this time paper piecing into a die from STAMPLorations. All the card pieces are from my scrap bank apart from the cream card base which is a 5 by 7 inch. I added a strip of ribbon with a tiny scrap tied around it and the wooden butterfly embellishments. More details will be on my blog…

If you remember, Susan was one of our picks last time with the brilliant mosaic pelican card!

Bless her - the GD card above was her third idea, bit of a perfectionist like so many of us. I'm stunned by the amount of paper piecing - just fabulous!

And here's Susan to say hello to you:

Isn't it wonderful how happy you Playmates are - all the more so when crafting of course!

And a little bit of information about Susan as well:

I am a retired teacher, a mother of 4 and grandmother of 3 – my grandson with be 18 this month but my granddaughters are younger. I currently live in the UK, Derbyshire, living round the corner from my elderly parents to whom I give a great deal of support. Over the last 20 years, I have been an expat, living in Australia, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and India. My three sons and their families still live in Australia but my daughter is a teacher and lives near Cambridge. My husband still works – he was in Egypt for much of last year and is now in Abu Dhabi again. Rather than living overseas, I now just take the opportunity to visit him when I can. I have been a crafter all my life, turning my hand to quilting, embroidery, crochet and more. I became more interested in papercrafting when I was living in Abu Dhabi and this is my current passion. I make cards but also enjoy making ATCs and playing with mixed media. I think I use my Big Shot every day but I also enjoy stamping. I am not a great colourer! …My style is my own ranging from conventional to more ‘off the wall’. You will see from my blog that I am on a number of DTs. I like to take part in ATC and other craft swaps and I also enjoy attending crafty retreats whenever I can. The photo is from a recent Craft retreat with UK Stampers Network.

So, a very busy lady and a very dedicated crafter - with a fair old bit of globe trotting under her belt as well.

Thanks so much for being our Guest Designer Susan - we're delighted you could take on the role for this fortnight. And Parsnip is offering his services to carry your baggage next time you visit your husband in some exotic country! You gotta admit - that little bear always has an eye on the main chance! 😀

And now for the fortnight's picks - this time I've gone for some ideas you might want to try for yourselves:

Alice whizzed in early on in the challenge with this lovely Christmas card. I love it, but what else was in the post really caught my imagination and I hope it will interest you as well:

This is only one of many photos on Alice's blog post - which you can find HERE. Basically, Alice uses snippets to maintain a stock of ready die cut shapes and stores them in pockets in binders as shown above. It's really such a great idea - if you have the time to do this I'm sure it would save loads of fiddling round when working on a project. I'm a 'cut as I go' gal - but I really can see loads of merit in Alice's idea!

Liz is always coming up with great ideas for card shapes, and this time she showed us a real corker! A great card to begin for a lovely lady named Kitty who is 103 years young and still an avid supporter of Bristol Rovers Football Club. And the extra twist is the shape itself. The basic shape is known as the 'Impossible Card Fold' - the effect is very much like an easel card but the card blank is cut (very cleverly) from a single sheet of card!

I immediately Googled it and found a very good tutorial which I followed to the letter. And blow me, some of the measurements for the layers of paper to add to the card weren't correct! By all means look at the link. but do be aware that the finished article will look a bit off balance - you can actually see that on at least one of the end results on the video, the margins on either side aren't even - and really makes my teeth itch!

And here's my half finished attempt before I decided to leave it alone and go no further so you can see what I mean - I did try to use a paint tool to draw an arrow or two to point to the offending area, with no luck:

Can you see that the right hand side upside down L shape layers of the orange and patterned paper don't have an even border around them? There's a wider margin of white card on the lower right part and also the upper left part of the card? Such a shame and also a waste of some pretty paper as well, sigh. Little Miss Picky strikes again!

So, I suggest you just look at the basic card blank cutting part of the video I linked (which is very clearly explained) and work out your own sizes if you add layers of paper - Liz had done that very successfully with her card. There are tons of tutorials to be found - but the Royal Wedding is calling to me and I'm typing as fast as I can here!

 

Trina P brought us this great card - and another idea to try out from a very talented Playmate! I've shown a couple of photos above so that you can get the overall idea. It's known as an 'in and out card' - I first spotted this die cut aperture idea over on Jennifer McGuire's blog. Trina has helpfully included the link over on her blog post so you can hop over there for more about this card at the same time.

And we had three new Playmates joining in the fun this time:

Sammi

Darshana

Fiona

A huge welcome to you all and these are really lovely cards, all featuring butterflies as well! Do please hop over to say hello to our new Playmates.

So that was three new Playmates this fortnight and 58 entries. That's really good going considering you can only play once each fortnight.

Prize draw time now and what a popular prize as well. Our winner of the MFT 'Marbled Background' stamp and also the MFT 'Wish' die is:

  Trina P

 

Well done Trina! That's a double whammy this fortnight, being one of our 'picks' as well as the prizewinner :) Bet you're doing a Happy Dance right now!

Do please send me your address, with full name at the top so I can copy and paste - for speed and ease. I'll be off to the Post Office ASAP this coming week once I hear from you. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #326 HERE. The prize is a Waffle Flower 'Succulents' stamp set with matching dies.

And, as promised - here's a better photo of Spike the hedgehog at his feeding station. Bearing in mind that it was taken in the dark, with just an outdoor light for illumination, and you have to be very fast - I think Len did us proud! I did think he had taken two photos but it's only the one for now:

He's just had a drink from the little bowl of water that's out of shot (hence the wet patches from underneath his chin) - and is about to nudge the feeding dish lid up to get at his food. No doubt Len will be out there again trying to get more photos - but generally we just leave the hedgies to feed in peace and peek at them from a window in the kitchen.

I do hope you're having great weather right now - I'm just about to settle down to watch the Royal Wedding properly.

Love from the little white peril Parsnip, who is sat here with his flag ready to wave it at the TV whenever required - and of course me,

Hedgehog news!

Make sure to check out the Sunday Snippets Results post this week.

Not only do we have the fortnightly picks and a really great Guest Designer - but also a guest appearance from one of our wildlife photographers :) Err, well - a couple one of his photos at least! I thought he'd taken two but he only emailed one to me so the other one mustn't have been up to scratch! He gets more like a crafter every day!!

This guy (Len of course) almost lay flat on the ground to capture better images of Spike at the feeding trough for you girls. Bless him, our hero.

Just a note - times two

The other day I sat and coloured in some Penny Black images - and subsequently made a couple of them into notelet cards. You can never have enough of those!

Here they are:

I used:

- 5.75" x 4" white card blanks, side opening

- stamped images (I used Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink) were coloured with Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and a stamp from the Penny Black 'delicate florals' set 

- the sentiment was added using the Misti, Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from the Paper Smooches 'Sentiment Sampler' set

- then die cut the image panel using a die from the Creative Dies 'Wonky Stitches Nesting Rectangles' set of dies

- used more white card to die cut the next size up in the same set of dies - so it was just fractionally smaller than the card front. In fact, I die cut this panel first and then trimmed the card blank to suit

- glued the plain white die cut panel to the card front

- then glued the image panel on top, after backing it with white fun foam for dimension

I do love the Penny Black 'delicate florals' stamp set - so quick and easy to colour yet (IMHO) they really do stand out in a crowd :)

Edie: The lovely Brenda from Floral Fantasies hopped in and said this would fit in with the May Penny Black and More Challenge (which is Anything Goes, always a favourite) - so I'm off to link in! Wahoo, a challenge after all!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #326

We have two hedgehogs visiting the garden to feed every night - and of course they have a fresh bowl of water left out for them as well. So cute, they lap just like a little dog or cat would - but almost impossible to take a photo of them. I'll see if I can add one or two right at the end of this post.

Let's dive straight into my snippets card:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, tent style
 
- snippet of green card, trimmed to an eighth of an inch all round smaller than the card front and glued in place then set it to one side

- snippet of white card for the stamped panel - again trimmed to an eighth of an inch smaller all round than the green panel but not yet glued in place

- time to do some stamping using the Waffle Flower 'Succulents' set of stamps

- first of all I stamped three succulent 'outlines' onto a snippet of green card, using a Brilliance 'Moonlight White' ink pad

- then, onto a snippet of white card, I stamped two solid succulents using Adirondack 'Mountain Rose' and 'Peach Bellini'. I was using the stamps for the first time and, as some stamps will do, the stamping was a bit patchy. I could have remedied that as I was using the Misti but decided it looked a bit different with some parts lighter than others

- die cut the succulents using the matching set of dies. Now, here's a heads up - there are five succulents in the set of stamps (plus a lovely selection of words), but only four dies in the matching set! So, I hand cut the solid 'Peach Bellini' flower but what a dope I am! Writing this just now I had a closer look at the set of stamps and one design comes in both an outline as well as a solid stamp - so of course you use the same die to cut either one of them, duh! I did think it was odd as Waffle Flower are a really good company and it was most unlike them to not have a die for each succulent

- checked the placement of the succulents but before sticking them in place I added the two word sentiment using more stamps from the same set and Adirondack  'Mountain Rose' ink again

- then glued the white panel onto the green one and just added the green succulents with dabs of glue and the other two with thin sticky pads - hint, where the lighter (Peach Bellini) succulent overhangs right onto the white card I used two layers of thin sticky pad pieces so that it sits evenly

I've had the stamp set for a while, and it's now discontinued. On hindsight, I didn't really need the matching dies but spotted them on a USA website as a real bargain. Only once they'd despatched the order did they let me know that they only had one in stock (yup, I'd ordered one for the Playground as well). So you can imagine I was not a happy bunny having paid postage assuming two would be sent and certainly will never order from that particular supplier ever again. So, the search was on for a second set of dies and I eventually tracked one down just recently, again a bit of a bargain - happy dance here and all's well that ends well!

So, here's this week's Snippets Playground prize - and you're no doubt already well aware of just what it is:

It's a Waffle Flower 'Succulents' stamp set with matching dies and I'm making this one single prize needless to say - all the more so after the hassle over tracking down the set of dies! But, you can make gorgeous cards by stamping directly onto the background of course, lots of ideas if you Google the name of the stamp set. I was pressed for thinking time so opted to use die cuts - and snippets of course!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 26th May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you're wanting to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' - just in case you're playing only for fun.

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 of MFT's 'Marbled Background' stamp and also the MFT 'Wish' die, plus a Guest Designer and fortnightly picks of course.

Here's a rear view of Spike the hedgie at his feeding station - sorry it's in shadow, really trick to get close enough without him either curling up into a ball or running away. You can see his little snout to the right - he's got a damp little nose it seems:

And, Len did manage to take one of the pair of hedgies on a dinner date a couple of nights later:

So sweet, the original Spike is standing to one side and letting the other one feed. And that is a slightly ginger coloured/bare patch on the feeding hedgie's rear end - it seems quite well but at some point might have had an argument with a strimmer perhaps. And if you look, you'll see that the feeding hedgie seems to be wearing a hat! In fact, it's Len's little device to keep the food bowl covered (the hedgies know how to nose the lid upward but it then flips back down once they back away from the bowl due to a quite light and thin piece of stone as a counterbalance). It's to keep neighbourhood cats and also birds from pinching the food!

Parsnip has been very quiet this past week - always a sign he's up to no good!

Love from Parsnip and of course from me,

Santa's Elves

I totally fell in love with the MFT 'Santa's Elves images on a very sweet friend's blog. Next thing I knew, she'd stamped and die cut a little bunch for me to play with. You know who you are my friend, and many thinks again! But of course, now they're on my very long 'wish list' :)

I made six cards in total, two of each design:

I used:

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

- black, very slightly sparkled, card (looks a bit like the dark sky out in the wilds far away from light pollution when it's just filled with swathes of twinkling stars) - die cut using a Spellbinders die from the 'Wonky Rectangles' set. As usual I then ran a ball ended tool around the ready cut die whilst it sat in the die itself to add the little inner raised edge

- the little images, which I spent a very happy afternoon colouring with Pro markers

- my friend had also thoughtfully included some stamped sentiments and I used the elf themed ones, just trimmed them down and then backed with a slightly larger snippet of SU's 'Real Red' card stock

- and all I had to do on Bank Holiday Monday was sit and assemble the cards, and I was extra lazy and just used a small tape runner so I hope they hold together OK! Another six for the box

Such adorable images and you can mix and match to your heart's content. I must say that this is one of those stamp sets where the matching dies are likely to be so helpful - I certainly wouldn't fancy fussy cutting some of the intricate detail!

Sitting here in a heatwave, thankfully with a fan belting away, it was a bit surreal making Christmas cards I must confess.

And I'm also a bit behind with Playground commenting - blame the sunshine!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge # 324 - results

Wahoo - there's a minor miracle, a UK Bank Holiday weekend and the prospect of really high temperatures! Let's hope the weather folk got it right for once :)

Let's get straight on with the post - I'm typing this on Saturday morning and the sunshine is calling to me so this will be a fairly swift scamper!

First of all, we have our lovely Liz of 'Crafty Sunflower' as a return Guest Designer this fortnight. Liz is the source of loads of inspiration and features as a fortnightly 'pick quite regularly in the Playground. Her stencil storage folder was a pick just two weeks ago. And just look at the three views of the wonderful card Liz made for us:

 

This is what Liz said about her card - and you can find out more by hopping over to her blog HERE:

Except for the black card, everything was snippets.  The dies I used are really for making an owl card, like the one I made here: http://crafty-lizc.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/gatefold-owl-card.html  but I wanted to see if I could turn it into a penguin by changing the colours and doing a little creative cutting to remove the owl ear tufts.  Hopefully it looks like a penguin!  

Oh it most certainly does look like a penguin Liz - very clever use of your owl die.

And of course, here's Liz herself:

.

Another happy, smiling Playmate! And to read more about Liz from her first appearance as a Playground Guest Designer (this is her third), here's my post from a year ago with more background information about this very clever lady. Thank you so much for being our GD this time Liz - and, as is often the case with me, at pretty short notice. Memo to self, PLAN AHEAD!

And now for the fortnight's picks - this time I've gone for 'thinking outside the box' makes as I really couldn't have whittled my list of possible picks down otherwise:

I think this is such a fun card - shared by Susan (Renshaw). Who would think, on holiday with limited supples but wanting to craft with family on the far side of the World, one could come up with such a great mosaic pelican?! Brilliant and such a different take on using snippets too. Love it :)

Laurie has been playing with super-sized Washi tape! The results are just fabulous too - so very elegant. Laurie always comes up with something very special - and she must have immense patience to do all that fussy cutting. Just wonderful.

It reminds me very much of the floral borders that were so popular about 20 years ago - we're just about to get rid of the very last of it - hooray! And then it makes a comeback! Well, in the form of Washi by Altenew. I just might tootle off to our local hardware store and see if they have some floral borders - one always needs a sample or two before making a decision! Ha, if Len catches sight of me bringing border samples home before I can explain, I might find myself, Parsnip and a suitcase evicted pronto!

And last but not least, Jane W has been making bookmarks! They're always a really great way to use up snippets - and the total design of this one is fabulous. I just love the die cut London bus overlaid on the London panoramic stamped scene - and then the lovely matching ribbon as well. Brilliant!

No new Playmates this fortnight and 52 entries. I have spotted a little flurry of new Playmates joining in the current challenge, so it would be really great if you could hop over to make them feel welcome.

Prize draw time now and only 26 of you were playing for the prize, which lessens the odds of course. Our winner of the Clarity 'You Hung The Moon' stamp set and also the Whimsy 'Fadoodles 2' stamp set is:

 Glennis

 

Well done Glennis! Do please send me your address, with full name at the top so I can copy and paste - for speed and ease, and also because I don't keep addresses of previous winners). I'll be off to the Post Office ASAP this coming week once I hear from you. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #325 HERE. The prize is a MFT 'Marbled Background' stamp (6" x 6") and also a MFT 'Wish' die.

I do hope you're having great weather right now - I'm just putting this to schedule and am off outside to soak up some Vitamin D - wahoo!

Love from the little white peril Parsnip, currently filling up the paddling pool and searching around for a sun hat (he obviously has plans as well) - and of course me,

Made with love

Mr Mojo took a bit of a hike again but I absolutely couldn't pick a Birthday card out of my box of finished ones for a certain very good friend who recently celebrated her Birthday. It had to be specially made with her totally in mind.

So, I turned to a lovely Penny Black stamp set, as well as two of her favourite colours (green and blue), and this was the result:

And, as she often stamps on her envelopes, I stamped one corner of the insert I added - plus the envelope - and coloured those to match the card image:

Despite it being sunny here when I took this photo, the camera has chosen to make the envelope look as if it's very pale blue whereas it's white:

I used:

- white DL card blank

- snippet of SU's 'Certainly Celery' card stock to 'frame' the image panel

- piece of white card, the Misti, Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from the Penny Black 'delicate florals' set

- after stamping the image I added the sentiment using the Misti again, the same black ink pad and a sentiment stamp from SU's 'Circle of Spring' set

- coloured the image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils

- only then did I trim the image panel and the green frame down to size (working backwards again, but it allowed me to totally level up the sentiment which I'd suspected might stamp a bit on the wonky side)

- then glued the layers together before adding to the card front

- stamped and coloured the insert and envelope as mentioned above

Hope you had a really lovely Birthday - with plenty of cake and choklit of course!