Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 303 and 304

Happy Birthday for today, Len! Here's hoping you have a great day and that the weather is kind for things we have planned - even if we have to wait until later in the week due to high winds forecast.

My snippets card today is also Len's Birthday card - besides hedgies in the garden, we have a few resident frogs. No pool or pond to speak of, apart from a ground level tray with water in for birds when they're too lazy to use the 'upper pool' - but those little frogs manage to survive. So here's what I made:

I used:

- 4.25" x 5.5" white card blank

- snippet of white card stock, Strathmore's Mixed Media, onto white I stamped the images and sentiment using Black Archival ink and stamps from the so sweet Avery Elle 'Ribbit Ribbit' set

- then I chose a rust and beige patterned snippet which was tucked in the back of LOTV's 'Country Gent' paper pad, to match the colouring I wanted to do and backed it with white card just to make it more sturdy

- also found a green snippet for the backing layer - then I coloured the stamped images using Ziggies (which are pretty unforgiving in photos I see - in real life the blending looks quite good, sigh)

- fussy cut round the images leaving a narrow white border and set them aside 

- die cut the sentiment using a die from the MFT 'Stitched Fish tail STAX' set of dies and set it aside 

- using MFT's 'Rectangle Peek-a-boo Window' die, I die cut an aperture in the patterned paper layer and backed it with a snippet of white card

- ready to assemble the card now, so first of all I added the sentiment banner where I wanted it to go and snipped away the excess overhanging the left hand side of the patterned layer

- glued the patterned layer to the green snippet and then glued both to the card front

- assembled the little montage of images onto and into the aperture area using Collall All Purpose glue and also teeny pieces of thin sticky pad to add dimension

- then added googly eyes to the frog and clear Wink of Stella to the butterfly, bulrushes, lily and lily pad

- final touch was two shiny green Josy Rose nail heads to the left hand end of the sentiment banner, ages since I used those little cuties!

This is such a cheeky set of Avery Elle stamps, with some very 'froggy' sentiments. I now know there are matching dies (duh) but to be honest the images in this set are very easy to cut out freehand. And they're great for those difficult male cards too. I also used 'that' MFT stitched aperture die yet again (one of my very favourites needless to say!), and realised that the stitching doesn't show up too well on heavily patterned paper. But, it was a bit too late when I realised - plus of course I was planning around this fortnight's prize(s)!

And that leads nicely into our prize(s) this coming fortnight, which of course are:

Avery Elle's 'Ribbit Ribbit' stamp set and MFT's 'Rectangle Peek-a-Boo Window' die. I know, we've had the stitched rectangle die as a prize at least once or twice previously - but it's always so popular I thought there would still be people who would like it - and of course the prize can be split.

The Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 28th October. 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. As I already said, the prize is as above and I will happily split the die and the stamp set, in which case I'd do a further draw for the other item. 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 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. Thanks!

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 which is a MFT's 'Bold Stripes' Cover-up die plus MFT's 'Essential Sentiments' set of stamps, another lovely Guest Designer and my picks from the past two weeks.

Love from Parsnip and of course from me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 291 and 292

Crumbs, so where did THAT two weeks go to then? It time for a new fortnightly challenge in the Snippets Playground folks! As always, a huge thank you to everyone who came to play this past fortnight.

Let's get straight in - here's my snippets card for the coming fortnight - trying out a couple of new things along the way:

I used:

- white card blank made using Strathmore Mixed Media Vellum surface 300gsm paper (at 300 gsm it's very sturdy card in fact, and I used it as it's 'a very slightly off-white all of its own' - I wanted all the bits of off- white to be from the same shade (OCD once again!)

- a snippet of the Mixed Media card, which I coloured using the fabulous TH Distress Oxides that arrived here the week before last. I used the pads straight onto the card - just some daubs here and there, heat drying in between colours and then added more colour into any bare patches here and there using a sponge applicator - colours used were 'Broken China', 'Faded Jeans' and 'Iced Spruce'

- next, sprayed the inked up piece of card using a Mini Mister, which produced lovely water marks and heat dried again - then did a happy dance :)

- for the top layer of the card I die cut a snippet of the white Mixed Media card using my much loved MFT 'Stitched Cover-Up Companion - Diagonal die, and set it aside

- then I stamped a hibiscus flower and two leaves using stamps from the Clearly Besotted 'Aloha' set. Stamped them using VersaMark and then heat embossed using Ranger 'Liquid Platinum' embossing powder

- next I coloured the leaves and flower using my (a second outing only!) Ziggys and fussy cut round them leaving a narrow white border

- now I could check exactly where the word 'Aloha' from the same set ought to be positioned on the band across the die cut - did this using the Misti and a small piece of acetate on top of the die cut, which is printed with lines/squares for alignment. Held it in place on the Misti with magnets and once the 'Aloha' stamp was stuck to the Misti lid it was just a matter of whipping the acetate away and leaving the die cut panel in place ready for stamping

- again, I stamped using VersaMark and then heat embossed using Ranger 'Liquid Platinum' embossing powder

- finally, it was just a case of assembling all the pieces to make up the card itself. I used red line tape to adhere the Distress Oxide panel to the back of the die cut frame, glued the backed frame onto the card front and used more red line tape to attach the leaves and flower

My original intention was to use a Distress Oxides panel of orange tones I'd already made but it looked much too 'samey'. Thankfully I'd been playing and had a few pieces in different colours - the blue is more like the sea and sky in Hawaii :) So says my in-house critic anyhow!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

The Flower Challenge #10 - 'Embossing Heat/Dry' - I chose heat embossing and it's the first time I've entered this lovely challenge, one for the future girls! It closes on 25th July - the same day as the latest Rudolph challenge begins over at ScrappyMo's!

Certainly I'm really pleased with the Distress Oxides, such luscious, creamy and rich colours - although I do need much more practice at one of the other techniques which is so popular right now. Inking onto my craft mat, spraying with water and then 'smooshing' - sigh. I have a sneaky suspicion I was too liberal with the water - but am delighted at the 'apply straight to the card and then spray' approach! I need to check out Loll's videos!

Once again, no need to really spell out what this fortnight's prize is made up of, although funds wouldn't run to TH Distress Oxides I'm afraid - but if you live in the UK Joanna Sheen has the original set of 12 selling at £49.99, which is about a £16 saving. So here's the prize:

It's is a MFT 'Stitched Cover-Up Companion - Diagonal die (I first used mine here in May, then ran off and bought one for the toy box - and it can be used either way round depending how much space you want above or below the 'banner strip'), plus the Clearly Besotted 'Aloha' stamps set. I love that the stamps come with three sizes of flower and two sizes of leaves - just perfect for making up a little montage of flowers :) And, when I Googled, I was stunned at how many colours of hibiscus there are in real life - absolutely tons of them! I will split the die and the complete (obviously) set of stamps if you only wish to play for one or the other.

The Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks from now on and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 5th August. 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 both items together as a single prize, unless you really do only want to try for a 'split' - in which case I'd do a further draw for the other item. 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 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. Thanks!

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 (Concord & 9th 'Heartstrings' die set and the MFT 'Label Maker Sentiments' set of stamps) plus my picks from the past two weeks - hopefully as well as another lovely guest designer too!

Love from Parsnip and of course from me,

Less is More - Challenge #319 - One Layer Card - 'Leaves'

This week's challenge over at Less is More is 'Leaves' - and that reminded me of a set of stamps and matching dies, as yet unused here. As it's a one layer challenge, I couldn't try out the dies this time round, but I do so love the stamps on their own anyhow:

I had to take the photo at an angle to pick up the shine of the embossing!

I used:

- 4" x 5.75" card blank, tent style - made using Strathmore 'Mixed media paper - vellum surface' . What's extra great about this is that it's 300 gsm, so it's perfectly sturdy for a card blank when doing just one layer

- the stamps are from the MFT 'Geometric Greenery' set, which (as I already said) does have a matching set of dies

- using the Misti for placement of all the stamps in one go I lined up the leaves and popped the sentiment above

- stamped the images and sentiment using VersaMark and then heat embossed using Ranger 'Liquid Platinum' embossing powder

- coloured in the leaves using my new Zig water colour brush markers and called it done

Using an embossed outline certainly helped me when colouring the leaves - and I'm sure I got the 'Liquid Platinum' idea from Loll as it always looks so great on her beautiful work.

Edit: As encouraged by Loll, I'm also joining in the current CAS Watercolour Challenge, where the theme this month is 'Spring'. I reckon the pretty greens are a harbinger of Spring :) 

New toys, part 2

I wrote last Friday about the new Zig Clear Colour Brush Markers I got recently - here's some tips about them.

Before I began, I looked at the whole raft of 48 Markers sitting in their box and wondered how to identify the colours. They're stored with the brush and almost clear cap upwards and the plastic colour 'guide' is on the other end. Useful and quite an accurate colour match, but I didn't want to have to tip all the pens out in search of particular colours.

This is my solution, quite similar to how I also marked my Pro Markers, except that I could use little round ready made sticky dots with the alcohol inks, the Zigs were too wet and meant that the 'sticky' was lost.

First of all I wanted a colour swatch - I split mine up onto two 4.25" x 5.5" pieces of TH Distress Watercolour cardstock so they'll slot into the Zig box:

Here they are, side by side. 'Scuse dreadful writing, I had a plastered up finger at the time. Hint, I was wise enough to write in pencil, and did have to rub out a couple of mistakes along the way. I kept the markers in the same 'running order as they're stored in the box' BTW. One other tip I'd offer is to leave a few spare slots as I have - for example, Loll says that the red marker blends out to a pinkish colour, so I'll likely be looking for the dark red marker at some point.

One thing you will surely spot is the load of browns and greys in the set - too many I suspect. But, it seems to often be the way that sets of markers are sort of 'padded out' and the 48 marker set did work out at great value against buying the markers separately!

At the same time as I was colouring the swatch, I also did this:

Scribbled little squares of colour, which you can see on the right. Then, using a normal office filing single hole punch I punched each colour out and popped the coloured dot on top of each pen using glue (I used Collall All Purpose glue and it worked fine, my other option would have been Glossy Accents or similar - no doubt you have your own favourites).

And this was the result - half way through, and I just plodded on and did one row at a time:

I'm sure others will already have thought of this solution but thought it worth sharing anyhow :)

So far, so great with the markers! And I now wonder what took me so long to get them of course.

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!