Christmas Kickstart Challenge #56 - Christmas Snippets

I was really delighted a few weeks ago when the lovely Jo of Dotty Pudding Designs asked me to be November's Guest Designer over at the Christmas Kickstart Challenge. The theme is Christmas Snippets and I jumped at the chance needless to say! It's a long time since I was a Guest Designer and it's such a lovely compliment to be asked.

Mind you, actually deciding what to make for my GD card was so difficult - mostly as the possibilities for using snippets are endless (as we all know) and different ideas just kept on flooding into my mind. It was as if Mr Mojo had returned and brought along several of his friends as well!

This is what I made in the end: 

And these are the snippets I used for the paper piecing. I'm a bit of a 'neat freak' and do trim my snippets to squares or rectangles before storing them away. It works for me and also keeps my OCD satisfied:

I used:

- A6 Kraft card blank

- a layer of red poinsettia patterned paper - trimmed to just slightly smaller than the card front - from Wild Rose Studio's 'Annabelle's Christmas' paper pack

- a piece of pale green paper from the same pack, trimmed to a smidgeon smaller than the red 'frame' to use as the actual background

- used Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and Woodware's 'Hanging Hearts' stamp set to stamp the image and sentiment - using the Misti for good luck!

- then stamped all the elements I wanted to paper piece onto the relevant pieces snippet of patterned paper. Used more of the red poinsettia plus some very dark green holly patterned paper - both were tucked inside'Annabelle's Christmas' inside the 'snippets pouch' I always add inside the back cover of patterned paper pads. Also found some perfect snippets inside the back pouch  of LOTV's 'Krafty Christmas' paper pad

- fussy cut all the paper piecing elements, did colour the robin's beak using a dark brown Whispers pen rather than go on a lengthy hunt for a snippet of dark brown paper but all the rest of the bird, the hearts, holly leaves and berries were paper pieced

- each piece then had a black Whispers pen run around the outside edge to hide any 'core' or mis-snips

- then glued all the pieces in place, making sure to add the glue (using a glue pen) to the images rather than to the fussy cut pieces of paper (an invaluable tip from Jules many years ago!)

- and the final touch, three teeny little self-adhesive diamantes onto three of the strings, just for a little bit of 'schparkle'

I had such fun making this card and indulging in one of my favourite ways to use up snippets. I adore both of these paper pads and eke out every tiny piece possible so really had to do some juggling to get what I wanted from the snippets/scraps ☺

Many thanks to Jo for inviting me to be a Guest Designer over at the Christmas Kickstart Challenge and I'd really love it if you would come along and join in with the challenge - this is the LINK. It's open until the end of the month so you have plenty of time - and you can also link your entry into the Playground of course! 

There's a £10 voucher to be won to spend over at Sticker Kitten and a 10% discount for all participants!   I hadn't come across Sticker Kitten before and absolutely love their online shop. I already have my eye on a few things needless to say, despite my self-imposed curb on craft shopping☺

I'd also like to enter this card into Darnell's current NBUS #32 challenge - HERE. The Woodware stamp set is one of a late Summer haul of Woodware Christmas designs I treated myself to a month or two ago!