Rudolph Days Challenge - August 2024

Crumbs, August already - apparently some shops are already stocking their shelves with Christmas goodies, mostly chocklit of course, perleease!!

This is my offering for both the Rudolph Days Challenge and also the Christmas Kickstart Challenge - two Monthly Challenges I try very hard not to miss: - plus two other favourites:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" pale ivory linen card blank, side opening

- the stamped image was in a Gummiapan (UK Meissen, I think) sale a year or so ago, no name but to me he's 'Skiing Reindeer' - imaginative huh?! I bought three very similar different reindeer images and they too also come with matching dies, they cost me very little and will make an appearance on here ASAP

- stamped the image onto a snippet of pale ivory linen card on the plain reverse for smoother blending, using a VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink pad

- coloured the image using Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils and Sansodor blending solution and then die cut it - using the matching die. I made a little jig of the image for best placement!

- tickled the bauble on the reindeer's antlers using Clear 'Wink of Stella' and put it to one side

- next, took a background 'snowy hillside' piece of card from the KanBan 'Christmas Wobblers' backgrounds pack and die cut it using a 5" x 5" Heffy Doodle 'Stitched Squares' die - now that I knew where the ski-ing deer should be positioned

- next step was to trim a piece of Tonic pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card down to 5.25" x 5.25" square to back the 'scene' panel

- glued the red panel and the scene together and then glued them onto the card blank

- added the sentiment, already made in two layers, in my favourite Tonic Christmas sentiments pot - using a  glue pen

- the final touch is the reindeer in action! I backed him with a blank die cut for stability and then added him to the scene using thin sticky pads and the usual glue stick trick whilst placing him

- made two whilst at it of course! Finished.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

- Rudolph Days Challenge - August 2024

- Christmas Kickstart #89 - Animal Antics

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #65 - the Gummiapan reindeer stamp and matching die were NBUS

And last but never least:

Allsorts Challenge #795 - Delightful Animals

I thoroughly enjoyed being able to see again properly with my new glasses whilst making these cards. But the very best thing is to be able to pick up a magazine or book with smallish print and be able to read it properly. Bliss!

See you on Sunday for a new Snippets Challenge!

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!

It's a puzzle

Ever since I bought the Woodware 'Jigsaw Piece' punch I've had my eye on a few jigsaw dies. Last week I had the time, inclination and well-being (yippee!) to spend time in a branch of 'The Range', which opened at the end of last year, not too many miles from us. Ha, I just checked exactly what date they opened and 'shoo nuff' it was mid-November when I was just a tad laid up :)

I spent quite a while wandering round their craft section needless to say and my eye fell upon this die by DoCrafts called 'Jigsaw Pieces'. BTW, I don't keep the packaging when I buy dies, they're all stored in A4 ring binders on magnetic sheets within strong (side opening) plastic file pouches - and are recorded on white card sheets in the front of each binder:

Anyhow, I replaced my eye from where it had fallen on the die (as you do) and quickly grabbed it as it was all on its lonesome and needed a good home.

I can see loads of uses for this die, I was itching to use it so my card isn't overly exciting - but one thing I subsequently thought could be fun for kiddies would be to use a main image on the front of their card and then included a repeat image inside the card, die cut into the nine piece jigsaw, perhaps with the pieces popped into a little cellophane bag, for them to assemble following the front of the card as a guide?

Anyhow, here's my first play:

I used:

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

- piece of white card stock which I embossed using Cuttlebug's 'Swiss Dots' folder. The folder isn't quite as wide as I wanted so it was a case of moving it across, running through again and then using a ball ended tool to 're-emboss' where some of the dots had been flattened, groan. Then trimmed it to size and glued onto the card itself

- in my box of Kanban goodies I found a square birdie image with a frame just a teensy weensy bit smaller than the outer edges of the die. Without separating image and frame, backed them with double sided adhesive sheet (the medium strength stuff) and coloured three of the flowers using Whispers markers

- time to play with the new die (DoCrafts 'Jigsaw Pieces, which is approx. 4" square) - just taped in place on the adhesive sheet backed image with low tack tape and run through the Cuttlebug

- had a snippet of black card handy as I wanted that to show up the jigsaw cuts a bit and assembled the pieces which were backed with sticky adhesive from my earlier trickery - one at a time onto it, leaving just a little gap between each one

- trimmed the edges of the black card away and then mounted it onto a piece of SU 'Real Red' card as a frame

- popped it onto the card front using thin sticky pads - job done!

Whilst typing this I thought of another way you could include a little jigsaw in a kiddie's card, just cut each piece in a different colour for the card front and also for your little puzzle to include in the card. Good for kids colour recognition and a great way to use up snippets too :)

It's been a windy old day here today/yesterday (Monday) - I'm sure I spotted a neighbour chasing his shed roof down the road and the whole house here has been whistling, creaking and groaning - despite all the insulation, well sealed windows and such. I absolutely hate wind, and I don't mean that sort - the gales and gusts are so unforgiving!

So, it's up to Sarn as to whether the newly formed tradition of the Playground Pancake Day Race goes ahead or not. I hope it does - Parsnip is poised with his huge plate, and a spoon and fork, at the ready :) I'm standing by with the First Aid kit and a fire extinguisher!


Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 191

Another little neighbour had his 2nd birthday during this past week - it's Max's little brother Charlie this time. I'd asked his Mum what Charlie liked, having made the excavator card the other week for Max, and amongst Charlie's favourites things are trains - so a train it was! And this is my snippets card for the week, every single scrap of card came from the snippets folder too:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- a (large) snippet of SU's 'Real Red' card stock

- snippet of 'cloudy sky' backing card, made by Kanban and bought ages ago, stuck over the 'Real Red' layer

- snippet of SU 'Mossy Meadow' card stock, die cut using a Memory Box 'Landscape Border' die, trimmed down to fit and then stuck over the 'cloudy sky' backing card

- snippet of SU 'Certainly Celery' card stock, die cut using a Spellbinders 'A2 Curved Borders One' die, trimmed down to fit and then stuck over the 'Mossy Meadow' layer

- snippets of red and blue card stock and Memory Box 'Tiny Village' die set, which was a present from ScrappyMo,  added these to the hillsides

- a snippets strip of dark brown card stock to sit the train on

- snippet of SU 'Real Red', die cut using a Cheery Lynn 'Choo Choo' train die - which was then stuck along the top edge of the brown strip. I was quite concerned that the die cut might not be too easy to remove from the die itself - but it worked like a dream without any need for waxed paper and all the little windows etc. popped out beautifully 

- also die cut more of the 'Landscape Border' just to fill in here and there on the 'Certainly Celery' Layer, along with a further little house

- printed 'Happy Birthday Charlie' onto white card stock and just drew and then fussy cut a 'puff of steam' around it

- drew and fussy cut another 'puff of steam' and topped it with a '2' which was die cut from a snippet of SU 'Real Red' card stock using a Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' die

- drew and fussy cut one more small puff of steam - then stuck all three onto the card using thin pieces of sticky pads

And moving swiftly onto this week's picks:

This was immediately going to be a pick of the week, brought to the Playground by Lynn (Jimlynn). A brilliant card, such a cleverly made scene (get the crab's eyes!) - and I love how the darling bear (possibly Parsnip with a suntan!) 'planted' his surf board in the sand :)

But, even just as important is that fact that our much loved Playmate Lynn found the time to make and blog this card. I posted here a little while back that Jim (Lynn's husband) had a stroke and I know that so many of you pitched in to send cards, keep Jim and Lynn in your thoughts and prayers. Well folks, Jim is coming along nicely - certainly out of hospital and I think also home from rehab. Your positive thoughts are still needed please - and even though Lynn is obviously shorter on free time right now to blog hop and comment in return - I bet she'd appreciate a little hello from you. AND, if you do hop over - please peek at this card too - I loved it straight away, but then rolled round laughing at the irony of the sentiment combined with the 'little blue bird of happiness' - I've never seen such a perturbed/disturbed expression on a bird! :) Lynn's sense of humour is still the tops!

Isn't this a fabulously rich and beautiful card? Made by Greta and I just think it's gorgeous - wonderful gold stamping on the brayered background. Perfection - there's just something so luxurious about it!

Sue J hopped into the Playground three times this week, each time with a potential pick of the week - but I stuck to my original choice in the end. Plenty of snippets and little details such as the 'poinsettias' being made from the alternate background papers really added to this already lovely card - and of course that LOTV image is one of my all-time favourites. I always giggle over the wee angel's dingly, dangly socks hanging from her feet :) Sue is someone else who's been in the wars, now almost recovered from what sounds like spectacular acrobatics over Woody, one of her pooches :(

The next couple of cards were brought to us by Playmates who are regular picks of the week - but there's absolutely no way I want you to miss these makes!

Laurie blew me away with this card, everything about it is just so 'right'. See how the backing paper goes so well with the snippets tree? It's in the Merry Monday challenge link ups too and must be a winner for sure!

Pat is another one of our regular picks, and there was just no way this fantastic Golden Wedding Anniversary card wasn't going to be shown here.The front of the card is acetate, a super idea - and Pat carefully backed the heart etc. so that it looked perfect from the inside as well!

Minions really are taking the World by storm right now - and Mary Anne brought us this really great little chap to show - so clever! I keep thinking I should knuckle down and make a Minions card - there are lots of tutorials out there to follow :)

This is such a pretty card, made by April. I love the colours and also the jaunty placement of the top layer. I did grin, April apparently 'pinched' some snippets from a friend for the flowers - I've offered to post her a box full of mine if she likes :)

I just love this card, made by Jean! So wonderful how the colours of the background ribbon and the orange layer are perfectly matched to the colouring of the image and that gorgeous butterfly. Which, has some clever touches added by Jean - nip over and read about the antennae!

Time is zipping by (writing this on Saturday morning), a very generous neighbour who goes fishing called by with some fish for us and I ended up standing chatting to him for quite a while! My fish pie is on the menu this week now - if I remember I'll jot down the way I make it, take a photo and post it on here sometime soon. It's ages since I posted a recipe on the blog! Too busy cooking up a storm with snippets I suspect :)

Best press on with our three new Playmates now, and two of them are the grand children of our Playmates - start 'em young:

These really cute cards were made by ScrAPamondo's nine year old niece - aren't they just adorable? I love the patchwork look to those owls :) And I found out that the little crafter is called Aurora - what a beautiful name!

Nate, who is the grand son of Karen (Hasheck) made this terrific Minion card (told you they're popular!) for his - as yet unborn - new cousin. So talented of Nate to make the card in such a clever shape too! I think, but am not 100% sure, that it's also Karen's first trip into the Playground - hope to see you again soon Karen!

Jenni hopped in waving this totally stunning card - another entry which literally brought me up with a start this week! It's just perfection isn't it?! And you truly have to hop over to Jenni's and read her funny comment after her hubby asked what sort of person would she send a card to with the lifesaver sentiment on. I giggled for ages over it! And, whilst there, do check out her cards - some wonderful inspiration to be found - so we hope you'll be back to play with us regularly Jenni!

Now for the prize draw, the Woodware 'Jigsaw' and 'House' punches if you remember, and I do so wish I had loads of them to give away as many of you thought they would be such fun to win. But, with only one winner, this is who popped out of the Randon Number Generator:

Helen

 

And it just shows how random Mr Random is - Helen only began playing with us at the beginning of August (although she did play when Jules was running the snippets challenge) so a nice quick win there kid! Can you please drop me an email with your address and I'll post the punches off to you this week (di_wray@hotmail.com).

And this coming week's prize is:

Yup, it's linked to my snippets card (as is the case when I can manage it) and this time it's a couple of dies the same as I used for little Charlie's card, a Cheery Lynn 'Choo Choo' train die and also a Memory Box 'Modern Landscape' die (which is so, so useful for many cards - fabulous for Christmas backgrounds of course!).

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 29th August. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Also, if you already have one of the dies or aren't really interested in winning both of them but still would like to play for just the one - please say so and if your number is picked as the winner then I'll do a second draw for the other die.

However, the prize IS for both items unless I'm told otherwise in a comment. Do remember that you should 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 :)

And do remember, it's Rudolph Day this week - starts on Tuesday 25th and runs to the end of the month - over at ScrappyMo's, and there's a lovely Memory Box 'Stitched Holly Leaves' die as a prize. I'll be playing as usual - why not combine a snippets card with a Christmas card for Rudolph Day (whisper, after this one there's only three more until the real thing!).

Di and of course, Parsnip!
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Christmas cards - something beginning with 'S'

Another great theme over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge this week - make a card and use something beginning with 'S'. I ended up making two really easy-peasy cards for the box using snow, snowflakes, sparkle, skis and skates :) Oh, and scarves!

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blanks

- backing card by SU, 'Marina Mist' and 'Wisteria Wonder' - chosen to pick up a colour in the topper images

- another layer of card, off-white with a little snowflake pattern

- sparkly decoupage teddy bear images from the same sheet by Kanban called 'Winter Wooly (sic) Bears', layered up using thin sticky pads just snipped down to size where necessary

- the sentiments also came with the Kanban sheet

I was lucky enough to win a prize from Foilplay over at Hazel's challenge the other week - and this sheet was in amongst the real variety of topper sheets they sent to me. Thanks again Hazel!

And of course this is also an entry into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for August, where it's always 'Anything Goes'. 

Di
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Happy 18th Birthday Abi!

Our neighbours' lovely daughter Abigail has just celebrated her 18th Birthday, which called for a bit of a special card. In the past I've made some quite ornate and flowery cards for her - so this time, at the suggestion of my 'in-house critic', her card is less flowery and echoes the fact that Abi is currently doing a Catering and Hospitality training course:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- SU 'Smoky Slate' card stock for a backing layer, topped with patterned paper from Papermania's Capsule Collection 'Blueberry Pie'

- the image and sentiment stamps are from Kanban's 'Damask Divas - Let's Do Lunch' set, stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and coloured with Pro Markers plus a tickle of silver gel pen for her earring - I chose white rather than red for the wine, Abi does like a little glass of Prosecco :) Oh, and I paper pieced the dress using a little spotted snippet from the same patterned paper pad - almost forgot to say that bit!

- the image just didn't fit properly into any of my dies so in the end I just trimmed it to fit the patterned layer, and backed it with some SU 'Smoky Slate' card and kidded myself that it kept the card nice and crisp looking :)

- the die cut 'Happy Birthday' was done using a Memory Box die called 'Grand Happy Birthday' and a piece of white card stock, the '18th' was die cut from white card using a Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' die and Tattered Lace 'Alphabet' dies

- final touch, at Len's suggestion, I die cut Abi's name from a snippet of the left over patterned paper, again using the Tattered Lace 'Alphabet' dies

We went to a charity fund raising evening at the college restaurant a few weeks ago, where the students ran the whole show - amazing cooking, fabulous food and great service too! Some very proud parents, grand parents, families and friends were there to support the event of course :)

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 150

It's Remembrance Sunday here in the UK (as well as elsewhere in the Commonwealth of course), so I'll spend time watching the annual service from the Cenotaph on TV - and shed a tear as always no doubt.

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- image from the Kanban 'Damask Divas - Let's Do Lunch' set, stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black', coloured with Pro Markers and then paper pieced using snippets from Papermania's Capsule 'Blueberry Pie' paper pack. As I often say, I store DP snippets in the back of their 'parent pad', just in half a sealed envelope which has been then cut straight across and stuck into the back of the pad as a little pouch to hold snippets

- the image was then die cut using a Spellbinders Nestabilities die

- background papers are also snippets from the same paper pad

- sentiment is a stamp from the 'Let's Do Lunch' stamp set, stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' then punched out using SU's Extra Large Oval punch

- added the image and sentiment onto the front of the card using thin sticky pads

- final touch, three pieces of 'Sarn Candi', also added using little squares of thin sticky pads. The candi is easy peasy to make - thanks to Sarn for sharing this trick, just punch little rounds (I used SU's round itty bitty punch) from your chosen paper/card and then place face down onto a mouse mat or similar and rub over the back with a ball shaped tool to form the cup shape

I have to confess, I'd already seen this great stamp set being used by Amanda and Caroline - here and here - loved it and bought it! Sometimes this Playground is soooo bad for my pocked money (

Here's my weekly 'picks':

I love this card, made by Red Squirrel! (aka as Rosey) And the blog post is really funny as well - you have to go and read about the adventure of punching out all those lovely little white fronds to make up the wreath :) 

Our Kate has come up absolute trumps this week! The images above are just a small sample from her blog post stuffed, full of Christmas inspiration with some great ideas for using up your snippets. Do go and see!

These are just two out of so many fabulous Playground snippets makes - remember you can check them out by just looking at last week's snippets post. The links and thumbnails are still there.

No new Playmates this week so let's move straight onto the snowflakes dies and embossing folder which was last week's prize. And the winner is:

Laurie

Laurie makes beautiful cards, as I'm sure many of you already know. This was her entry this week:

 

So, Laurie, after playing along since the end of September, your name came out of the hat for the first time! Can you please drop me an email (di_wray@hotmail.com) with your address and I'll post your prize ASAP. Probably tomorrow in fact - bad girl me, I still have Mary Anne's prize from last week to post so I'll take both envelopes to the Post Office at the same time :) It's been a mixed week here with workmen, us being zonked out by flu shots and also me spending many an hour trying to remove a wallpaper border - as some of you already know.

OK, this coming week's prize is, of course, a Kanban stamp set exactly the same as the one I used today (sorry about the rubbish photo). The top stamp of the 'Domestic Goddess/cook' has that well known sentiment to go with it 'I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in food' :)

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 15th November and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say 'Yes please' (or similar) in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. 

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Have a great week! I'll be plodding on trying to remove the last of that wretched border :( Please just shoot me if I ever, ever, even look at wallpaper or borders ever again, sigh.
    
Di (and the usual happy wave from Parsnip of course)
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Rudolph Day - August 2014

I'm a day later for Rudolph Day than hoped, but the 48 hours or so bug seems to be abating, which is great news :) Plus I need to catch up with Playground commenting ASAP so my apologies for being late.

Anyhow, I managed to make not two, but three cards for Sarn's Rudolph Day challenge - mostly as the topper sheet I used had three images on and I couldn't choose which one of the cute faced critters might not be used and would end up back in the toppers box without his mates :)

I used:

- one 6" x 6" cream card blank and two DL off-white card blanks

- three toppers and two sentiments from KanBan's 'Festive Friends' - Blue' toppers sheet

- navy slightly shimmery card stock

- SU 'Crumb Cake' card stock

- shiny gold Josy Rose nail heads

Remember to comment on my 300 followers thank you candy (sticky post at top of blog) if you want a chance to win a Joanna Sheen voucher girls! :)

Di
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Walking down Memory Lane

When I bought some Kanban toppers a while back now, whoosh - they took me back down Memory Lane:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- SU's 'Pool Party' card stock

- patterned paper - a magazine freebie ages ago

- topper is Kanban, from their 'Posing Portraits - Retro' sheet

- SU's 'Pool Party' snippet, embossed with one of the two folders in Sizzix's 'Sewing and Measuring Tape' set, backed with a snippet of cream paper

- the sentiment is by Maya Road, from their 'Spool Sentiments' set, stamped with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad onto a snippet of SU's 'Pool Party' and die cut with a circular die. It was then popped onto a punched circle (using SU's 1 and 3/8ths inch punch). I had so little cream card/paper that was close enough to the topper background that I'd punched the circle from the centre of the strip I used behind the 'measuring tape' - bit of forward planning for a change :)

Waaaaay back in the dark ages, I made quite a few dresses like this one and I used to wear my hair just like this in my late teens, although those hairbands did give you a thumping headache at times. The things we suffered for fashion eh? :(

Di
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Less is More - Thank You

The current challenge over at Less is More is a one-layer 'Thank You':

I used:

- A6 white 'tent style' card

- Kanban 'un-named' stamp. First I made a mask by tearing a strip of paper and attaching it to the card using a removable tape runner then stamped the image using a Stayzon Black ink pad before removing the strip of torn paper, which left a gap for the sentiment

- then (wily old bird is learning here) I stamped the sentiment with the same Stayzon and a stamp from a Hero Arts set called 'CL047 Clear Design Messages'

- and only then did I colour the design using Tim Holtz Distress Markers :)

- final touch, the bottom right corners of the card were rounded using a punch

Di
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Technique Time Tuesday - Caught in Crystal

There's a new challenge for March over at Technique Time Tuesday, the technique was chosen by our very own Karen P and there's also a video to show you how. Couldn't wait to have a play and this is what I made:

 This is a (blurry) close-up so you can see the delicate sparkles

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- the background was done using a Kanban stamp (looks a bit like those lacy stockings/tights from many years ago), stamped in Memento 'Elderberry' onto a piece of white card and set aside

- the foreground was made by using a piece of acetate, same size as the background, black Stayzon ink pad and  foliage from SU's 'Just Believe' stamp set plus a butterfly from SU's 'Bloomin' Marvellous' set

- the 'trickery' is to then turn the acetate over (blot it or make sure it's dry first), scribble Glossy Accents or similar all over the back, splodge some re-inker here and there (I used Time Holtz 'Tumbled Glass') and then sprinkle all over with sparkle - Cosmic Shimmer 'Diamond Sprinkles' was my weapon of choice

- the next step is to press a piece of white tissue paper over the back of the acetate and the Glossy Accents should make it stick and I think it should also seep through a bit so you can then adhere it to the card background you stamped and set aside. Stick? Not likely! I suspect I'm working too slow but no way was I gonna give up so I just covered the back of the acetate with a piece of clear double sided adhesive sheet, peeled the other side off, stuck it to the backing and it worked brilliantly

- trimmed the image and popped it onto turquoise and elderberry coloured snippets of card - phew, that was the topper all ready at least!

- then I did some 1st and 2nd generation stamping around the white card blank with a little set of leaves from the SU 'Bloomin' Marvellous' set, using Memento 'Elderberry' ink again

- little strip of spotty turquoise ribbon across the card, topped with a bow and a black button with some embroidery thread knotted through the holes

- sentiment used a stamp from the SU 'Just Believe' set and 2nd generation Memento 'Elderberry' ink

- two SU punches ('Word Window' for the sentiment and 'Modern Label' plus a snippet of elderberry card

Little tip, I used the bow maker for the bow and when it was sat on the strip of ribbon it wasn't going to look right so I just tied a little piece of thread round the strip of ribbon to pinch it in right where the bow would be stuck.

Oh, you might wonder why not just go straight to the double sided sticky - the scribbled Glossy Accents does disperse the sparkle when you apply it rather than a solid coating - pretty too.

Then I went and had a lie down before clearing everything away!


Di
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A twisted easel

It's ages since I made a twisted easel card and I was reminded when sorting out a box of semi-forgotten goodies:

 Looking from the front

 

And from the side

I used:

- everything came from a QVC Kanban kit, designed by Dawn Bibby, a looooong time ago

- the card is patterned on both sides, which was a great help. I just cut it to 5.5" x 11", scored and creased it in half and then scored and creased diagonally on what I wanted to use as the front

- the topper is layered, using ready cut dies which came in the kit

- popped a little sentiment on the base, using sticky pads, to hold the card upright when it's open

Super fast card today! Do remember to let me know if you entered three times for the 'Mr & Mrs' die and forgot to put the number 3 after your name. I've tried to add them where you have already told me :)

Di

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Lady in red

One of my favourite songs is 'Lady in red' by Chris DeBurgh. I love it when Len plays it on guitar and it also reminds me of a magical moment on holiday a few years ago.

We walked into the hotel restaurant for dinner on our first evening (Cape Panwa, Phuket, Thailand) and the resident group, who we knew well from many previous visits, spotted us. I was wearing red - albeit not with long black gloves, snort - and they immediately stood up, grinned a welcoming 'Hello again' across at us and began to play that very song. Heads turned and I think my face also turned ....... the same shade of red as my outfit ......  as we practically danced across to our table :)

This card was made toot sweet the other day for Len's SIL - it had to be quick and easy so I turned to some Kanban images for a rummage.

I used:

- delicious ready embossed and gilded card stock which was a free gift with an order a while back, can't remember where though, just very slightly trimmed and folded to fit into an A5 envelope. That's a trick I've learnt the hard way, always check that the ready made envelope you want to use isn't a smidgen smaller than the card - unless of course you have the time to make an envelope

- topper is by Kanban as is the sentiment

Told you - it was made toot sweet :)

And this is for all of you lovely folks who are celebrating Thanksgiving:

Why are you here - shouldn't you be tending that turkey?!

Di
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Festive Friends - in July

Recently I hopped over to FoilPlay to stock up on Kanban's red 'Silk Mirri card'  - greedy little pig, I think I bought up all of their stock. It's absolutely beautiful card with a soft sheen to it and not as 'in your face' as pure mirri card. Anyhow, of course a few other things found their way into my basket - including some Kanban 'Festive Friends' toppers:

I used:

- 6" x 6" cream card stock

- gold mirri card

- dark blue pearlescent thick paper, bought at Newbury

- a topper from Kanban's 'Festive Friends - Blue' sheet

- couple of pieces of cream and gold ribbon, rescued from a gift bag and carefully ironed after Christmas. One piece was wrapped round the backing card and the other was just tied into a knot, trimmed and then topped with a gold cord bow. As advised by our lovely Jules, I always thread the cord through the knot using a 'bodkin' (big blunt needle). Then, after tying the cord bow I pop a little piece of double sided extra strong tape under the main knot or bow in the wide ribbon to hold it in place

So quick and easy, plus there are another three similar toppers still to use on the sheet - I feel a little factory production line session coming on :) LOVE the expressions on their faces!

This card is for Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra for July.

Di
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