Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #351

Time for another new challenge fortnight in the Snippets Playground. Am writing this on the day before the challenge goes live - and it's damp and windy here. Let's hope we haven't had our Summer already - we've had some glorious days recently, at least the children were off school on holiday to make the most of it.

First of all an apology, I might have rectified things by the time this publishes, but with one thing and another I just haven't managed to keep up with commenting on entries for the challenge that just closed. I'll be there ASAP I promise!

And here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of green card for the 'frame'

- a snippet of white card for the image panel (some challenges I tend to use just a couple of larger snippets -  depending on what the prize is and whether it lends itself to a variety of smaller snippets or not). A snippet is still a snippet!

- stamped the rockery onto the white panel, using a stamp from the fairly new Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set and a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- then used one of the re-usable masks to cover the rockery before using the lizzy stamp to stamp the flowers and foliage. The masks made by Clarity are brilliant, wish more companies did that

- coloured the whole image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending fluid

- only then did I trim the panel down into a square before adding the sentiment using a stamp from the Hero Arts 'Messages' set of sentiment stamps and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink (and the Misti of course!). The set of sentiment stamps is dated 2007 - and sadly no longer available (I did try!)

- then trimmed the snippet of green card (chosen so I could match some of the foliage to it) to just slightly larger than the image panel

- glued both panels onto the card front - all done!

As so often happens - the colours are so much more vivid in real life - especially the bright (almost neon) orange, sigh.

I love Clarity stamps and this set is so lovely to stamp as well as colour. It came with the Clarity perspex mounts (one for each of the two stamps) - which I did use - but the Misti or any perspex block would have worked just as well. Plus, the mounts/handles take up a lot of extra storage space - the stamps are the usual clear cling material (great quality and very well made I should add!) and really I think that Clarity could save work, postage and costs by selling their stamps without accompanying mounts - just my opinion of course. Their products are still fabulous!

And of course, the prize this fortnight is this:

A Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set. Now, I do of course also have the two mounts which came with the stamp set, as shown in the photo, and they're also part of the prize. But, if you win and are happy not to have them sent then that's just fine. It's easier and cheaper postage for me (the difference between a large letter and a small parcel) - but as they came with the stamps it's only fair to give you the option. I think my own ones will end up in the 'donate or throw out' pile of stuff when I do my intended blitz of the craft room!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 11th 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 want 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' on the blog post itself - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

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 finally, a few photos of Dudley for your enjoyment taken just minutes apart the day after his 2nd part of being groomed (so only taken on Tuesday or possibly Wednesday. They do show how he can look so puppy-like one minute - and rather elegant the next! Captions as dictated by Dudley:

Aw come on Daddy. I'm doing my 'please come and play' pose here!

Just to prove that there's still a lot of peach on my ears and down my back (aka saddle). And I'm trying the 'look a bit mournful' approach now to see if anyone will play

Me - being a real Havanese and doing my 'regal' look! Puppy one minute and a real 'poser' the next. And I'm so good when Mama fixes my top knot - I lie very still with my chin on my paws now and rarely move during the whole process. To be honest, it makes life much easier to get it over and done with rather than putting up a fight - but that's just between us!

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me -

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #324

Well hello there once again! It looks like Spring really is on the way - and the rhubarb is growing like crazy in the garden. It's a good job we both like the stuff and it does freeze quite well. A little tip, lightly stewed rhubarb, with a little bit of sugar if you like, makes a fabulous alternative to apple sauce with pork - IMHO.

Anyhow, onto my snippets card and this time I only have one quite large snippet as a deep pink 'frame' because I wanted to let the two stamp sets do most of the work. And large snippets are really fine in the Playground but obviously any examples and ideas of ways to use up sizes right down to tiddy-widdly snippets are always most welcome.

Here's my card:

This time, taking note of one sweet Playmate who really isn't into die cutting, I used only stamps this time.

I used:

- 5" x 5" white card blank

- piece of deep pink card, very likely SU, as the 'frame' which was trimmed very slightly and put to one side for now

- a whole (gasp!) sheet of paper from the Prima 'Firefly' collection, cut down to size 

- I was really wary about using the patterned paper I used next and did a couple of test strips - first to see how the ink/stamping worked out and also would it be problem gluing it to the the background as sometimes glue can show through on porous paper, but they were fine after I'd used the Misti to make sure the solid stamping was fully covered (always the bane of my life before the Misti came along)

- I laid out the image stamp and the sentiment using the Misti, as already said, and stamped them in place onto the patterned paper using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and both stamps from the Clarity 'You Hung The Moon' set

- then I looked at the other lovely set of stamps waiting on the desk for a first outing - it's the Whimsy FaDoodles 2' set. Designed by none other than the lovely Faye - who is Mrs A's daughter of course

- so many lovely doodles to choose from so I picked one stamp 'lines and kisses/hugs'-  to 'ground' the little set of ladders on as they did look a bit as if they were levitating. And then a corner stamp of doodled dangly hearts for the corner above the sentiment

- again, set them in place and stamped with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- and all that was left to do was to layer the image panel onto the deep pink snippet of card and then adhere it to the card front

Compared to last week's snippets card, this was so quick and easy - the part that needed most concentration was positioning the stamps correctly!

The paper pack I used ('Firefly' by Prima) is really gorgeous. Some of the papers actually look very much like Distress Oxide backgrounds.I've had the pack for ages so am unsure if it's even still available.

I've loved the Clarity pair of stamps from the first time I saw them needless to say and Faye's designs were snapped up by Whimsy (her second FaDoodles set BTW) and of course I had to buy those as well. I so envy those of you who add freehand doodles to your work but, to be truthful, I shy away from it lest (as would be very likely) I spoil a card right at the very end stage. And I totally love these stamps! Dies to Die For in the UK usually have them in stock BTW :)

So, here's this week's Snippets Playground prize - and for a change it's purely stamps, for those of you who perhaps give a sigh and thought 'Oh no, not more dies!'. Sorry, there will be dies coming along for sure in the future though:

It's a Clarity 'You Hung The Moon' stamp set, as well as a Whimsy 'FaDoodles 2' set of stamps - just like the ones I used on my card for today.

I'm making this one single prize girls - the sets work so well together and I think you will agree too, plus it saves me working out who wants what and possibly posting a split prize of course. Just take another look at the variety of doodles stamps - just so many for every style and occasion, love them!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 28th April. 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(s) of last fortnight's MFT 'Hog Heaven' stamp set plus the MFT 'Rectangle Peek-a-boo' window die, plus (hopefully) a Guest Designer and fortnightly picks of course.

Love from Parsnip - who is now into gardening, always up to something!! Our lovely DIL sent us a beautiful card from Germany for Easter, which comes with some nasturtium seeds encapsulated in a circle of thin fleece ready to pop into a plant pot. They came with the matching card and such a lovely idea to market cards with matching seeds as well.

I spotted a great make in the Playground doing something similar with packets of seeds just very recently! Anyhow, Parsnip got me to translate the German 'destructions' and is all ready to send me out to buy a little bag of compost, a new small hanging pot as we have a lot of (sadly neglected due to the back problems) hooks and hangers in place around here in the Playground. AND he also wants a bear sized gardening apron as mine is too'grown-up sized' - for goodness sakes, now he really IS taking the Mickey!!

And love of course from me,

Magnetic Bookmarks revisited

It's about 18 months since I last made magnetic bookmarks, but a recent meeting with some bloggy friends meant I wanted to think of something hand made to take along with me as it's tradition to exchange 'little somethings'. So I opted for a 'little something' useful:

I used:

- SU 'Smoky Slate' card stock - after stamping and trimming them, the bookmarks ended up at approx. 1.75" x 5" , when they were folded in half from top to bottom
 
- stamps used are from the Clarity 'Letter Box' set for the names, along with the matching masks to cover up the lettering when doing the floral stamping - and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- once the letter boxes had been stamped then covered with the matching masks I used a stamp from KanBan's 'Stamp 06' set and the following dye inks, all made by Memento, 'Rhubarb Stalk', 'Teal Zeal' and 'Cottage Ivy'

 - the word 'friend' was then stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from Winnie & Walter's 'The Big, the Bold and the Happy' stamp set

- tiny little butterfly stickers

- then I laminated them, my laminator is just a cheapo one from Lidl btw

- trimmed the excess lamination from the sides and ends and rounded each corner with XCut corner rounder punch then made sure the folds were as tight as possible by using the Hoogie Borad and firmly re-embossing the fold lines

- then just added the pairs of magnets, I bought mine from Abel Magnets but can't find them on their website any longer :(

Then, with nothing else to do (that is soooo not true), I made matching holders just to make them look more like a little gift although they certainly won't be robust enough to use much :

 Closed

 And open

They're pretty self-explanatory - and I just invented and measured them as I went along :) The bow was punched with the SU 'Bow Builder' punch and I used lovely thin self-adhesive Papermania 'Magnetic Clasps' to hold the little flap closed.

Di
x 

Playing with stencils again

This time, instead of using embossing paste (got some Sparkle Medium on order so thank to all of you who suggested I ought to try that!) - I used ink pads:

I used:

-  5" x 5" black card blank

- piece of white card stock, just brushed over with VersaColor 'Narcissus' ink pad, using a Clarity stencil brush

- Clarity 'Bird table' stencil (the solid piece that had been cut out to form the stencil so it could be used as a mask) first before laying a sunburst stencil by Stamposaurus - bought at Newbury ArtStamps show last month - over the top. Then added SU's 'Daffodil Delight' stampin' pad for the rays of the sun with the stencil brush

- after the stencil and the bird table mask had been removed I was left with a very pale lemon bird table, backed by the sunburst - so I just popped the bird table stencil itself onto the bird table image and brushed over with Memento 'London Fog' to make it grey

- after removing the the bird table stencil, I decided the very pale lemon centre of the sun wasn't working for me so I die cut a mask using a round Spellbinders die. Then replaced the bird table mask so that the grey 'London Fog' ink was protected, popped the die cut round aperture on top and then added more 'Daffodil Delight' to fill in the centre of the sun - ah, that was better

- then, using Memento's 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and Clarity Stamps 'English Garden Elements' stamps I created a little scene

- the sentiment is by Kaisercraft from the 'Friendship Sentiments' set, stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- trimmed the image down and then backed it using SU's 'Daffodil Delight' and 'Smoky Slate' card before mounting onto the black card blank

Not long ago I was enough lucky to win some lovely blog candy over at Maggie's - and the Bird Table stencil and the SU 'Daffodil Delight' ink pad were part of the prize. And what was such fun and so very thoughtful was that I'd actually bought the Clarity English Garden Elements stamp set (plus a bird table stamp) from Maggie at the WOYWW crop. So she knew exactly what would make up such a lovely and so complimentary prize! Thanks again Maggie!

I really enjoyed this first venture into layering up stencils - it did need a bit of planning about what order to do things in and also to make sure the right bits of the background were protected, but it gave the little grey cells a workout!

Di
x

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 135

Wow, what a scorcher of a week in the Playground (and we had 71 entries, wahoo!!) - Parsnip has taken to wearing a knotted handkerchief on his head to ward off the sun when he nips out to refill the lemonade pitchers, which he kindly left under the tree house for you :)

So, with the sun belting down what did I do? Yup, made a Christmas card for my snippets card this week:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- from the snippets folder, a variety of plain blue card stock (mostly SU I expect) - the more turquoise piece was used to cover most of the card front

- the image was stamped onto a snippet of white card, using Clarity Stamps 'Large We 3 Kings' clear stamp and Ranger 'Jet Black' archival ink. I then covered the image with double sided sticky film, peeled off the top layer and sprinkled Cosmic Shimmer ''Diamond Sprinkles' over the whole image (the photo almost picked it up!)

- then I used one of the plastic templates from the 'Stamps Away Patch Work template, set one' to draw the outlines on darker snippets for the strips of blue card. The template is also perfect for actually re-positioning the cut outs of course, I just used some slivers of removable tape to keep it in place when I was sticking the strips of darker card down. I'd already edged those strips using a silver 'Sakura 5mm Calligrapher pen'

- at that point I popped the assembled and glittered '3 Kings' image onto the card using thin sticky pads to add some dimension and sat gawping at what was a very plain card indeed. I'd veered away from using any patterned snippets but the result was just too stark, sigh

- so, out came the Christmas peel offs - which have almost been thrown out on several occasions. All I added was some sparkly dots down either side strip (Anita's 'Glitterations') then strips of silver holly top and bottom from Anita's Dimensions 'Holly' stickers. The lovely thing about these stickers is that bits of them (most of the holly leaves themselves) aren't adhesive so they can be flicked up to add dimension

- final touch, little clear crystal gems on the holly 'berries' - as well as one in the centre of the Star of Bethlehem' on the stamped image

I'd like to enter this into the current challenge over at Winter Wonderland, which is 'On the move'. I know this often makes people think of skating, ski-ing and such, but we often forget the two really important journeys of Christmas - Mary and Joseph and then the Three Kings.

Gosh it's another scorcher as I'm typing here so I think this could be a quick canter through the weekly 'picks'.

I thought this was such a lovely Christmas card, soft and very pretty - made by Maarit.

Stunning work here by Hazel, and a real touch of ingenuity - who would have guessed that the beautifully filigree panel is actually a votive wrap, popped onto a snippet of gold card. Full marks Hazel for thinking outside the box!

Viv made this totally amazing graduation card - I love all the detail and it's such a clever design!

Kitty made this fantastic 'New Home' card for her 'Honey' with a lovely story behind it. Loads of snippets used here - right down to some torn cardboard from one of the packing boxes. We all wish you loads of luck and happiness in your new home Kitty - do please still come and play!

I love the clean and crisp look of this card, made by Pat. White, brown and sunflower shades - perfect!

And from our Queen of Innovation, Mrs A - here we have a fabulous lantern! To see just how Mrs A made it - just hop over to her blog! I bet a few of you will be trying this one out.

I love this card made by Sandy J - right down to the checked snippet just like a rug or towel we'd have taken to the beach :)

Karen P is always pushing the boundaries and trying new techniques, as well as using up snippets of course. What really caught my eye here is the 'Impressionist painting' look that Karen captured by stamping the image in grey before colouring it. I keep forgetting about that tip and it worked brilliantly here!

Eve caught me a bit with this last minute card, I wondered if I was off on a surprise holiday! Eve freely linked to where she got this idea from - isn't it a fabulous card? A design to remember for the future!

So, that was a quick canter, which actually took me longer than planned needless to say - Len is out all day today but I need to be downstairs looking innocent when he gets home as am supposed to be limiting time spent at the keyboard :)

We had two new playmates join us this week - wahoo!!

First of all, Brenda in IN came to play with this great card. Super idea to pop the face in the window - it reminds me a bit of when our Queen photo bombed a selfie just this week at the Commonwealth Games :)

Now, a little plea - right now Brenda doesn't have many visitors or followers as she's quite new to this malarky. It would be great if some of you could visit - and even nicer if anyone can come up with a solution to Brenda having problems when she tries to upload photos to her blog and gets the message that they're too large. Anyone able to help by hopping over with some advice please?

And right before the gates closed, Lucy W arrived with this absolutely gorgeous card. I love how the colouring perfectly matches the paper, loads of lovely detail.

What I read on Lucy'sLucy's profile moved me deeply:

Introduction

My names Lucy I'm 24 from West Sussex (UK) and I have Severe ME and am bedridden. I'm not able to do much but love cardmaking!

Bragging rights

I live in a dark quiet room too poorly for visitors. I do card making for short periods throughout the day in between naps/rests and it keeps me focused and happy as I love it so much!

I don't know about you girls, but I truly didn't see one teeny ounce of self-pity from Lucy. That made me stop and think about how so many of you have health issues and just battle on - taking pleasure in making cards and creating beautiful work. Bless you all my lovely blogging friends - got me almost in tears here :(

OK, let's move on and it's time to see who Mr Random picked to win the MFT 'Notebook Edge' die and the LOTV 'Here comes Annabel' Art Pad - and our winner is:

Jules

 

Oh well done to Jules - I'm sure most of you know that Jules started off the Snippets Challenge and always joins in our weekly fun. I've peeked back though your blog Jules and I already knew you like LOTV images (even though I see you normally colour your own maybe these will be good for some quick cards for the cards for sale box?) AND, that you have in the past used shorthand notebook paper with the torn edge in some designs - flippin' enterprising gal :) So, I hope you likey your prize - I'll post it later in the week!

Oh wow, I got a shock at how many of you entered at least three cards over the last couple of week, and thereby qualified for the draw for one of the three Penny Black 'Soft Wings' stamps on offer. I counted 16 of you, so you had just under a one in five chance. I numbered the order in which you'd qualified and then ran the Random number generator, which came up with these three winners:

Bonnie, Shaz in Oz and Sandra H

Well done girls, I'm sure I have all your addresses so will post the stamps this coming week!

I do so wish I had another dozen or so fluttering around here so that everyone could be a winner :( Having said that, I suspect I was pretty lucky to even get my hands on three of those stamps and they only arrived here on Friday - be still my thumping heart!

This coming week's prize is of course linked to my own snippets card:

It's a Clarity stamp called 'We 3 Kings - large', the same as the one I used today, along with a pot of Cosmic Shimmer 'Diamond Sprinkles'. The stamped image is 70mm x 78mm. If you've never used Clarity stamps before, this one comes already mounted onto its own perspex 'handle'. Also, although the image comes stained blue it's a good idea to clean the blue from the stamp using something like nail polish remover if you intend to use something like a clear Versamark embossing pad so that you don't stain the pad. As I know Maggie and others will agree, Clarity stamps do produce really crisp and clear images - I love them!

As usual, the snippets challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 2nd August and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be the winner of the prize. And of course, if you're only interested in one or other of the items, then feel free to say so as well.

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 :)

Have a great week!

Di (and a hot and sticky wave from Parsnip)
x

Flutter by... ...butterfly

It's a new challenge over at Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge, it runs for four weeks starting from yesterday. The really versatile theme is 'Butterfly Bingo', where you have to choose a line which must cross the centre of the grid so that you include at least one butterfly - and I made this card:

My card actually uses two lines - pink, butterflies and dry embossing - plus wet embossing, butterflies and flowers:

Having recently bought some 'Gelatos', it was a good chance to try them out. I only bought the 'Tropical' set - which is just as well as the jury is still out here on how much I like them.

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- a snippet of SU's 'Rich Razzleberry' card stock

- white card stock, embossed using the Embossalicious Die'sire 'Swirl Corner' folder

- the sentiment was stamped using an Elzybells stamp (now discontinued) and SU 'Rich Razzleberry' ink pad

- flowers were stamped with Versamark and then embossed with Stampendous black embossing powder - the stamp is from SU's 'Secret Garden' set. Then the flowers were coloured using 'Watermelon' and 'Raspberry' Gelatos. First tip, you do need to use silky finished card otherwise when you rub to spread the colour (even with water), matt card will 'pill' - I used white Clarity Coated/Silk finish card stock. I coloured the flowers before fussy cutting them. Then they were attached to the background with small sticky pads and a medium sized black gem popped onto the centre of each flower

- final touch, two little sparkly butterfly stickers (bought from Accessorize ages ago) plus a little black gem on each of the butterfly heads

Wanna laugh? I was putting Spike the hedgehog's food out last night 'cos he's now a nightly visitor. There I was, stood standing in me PJs with food dish in one hand and water dish in the other - dilly dallying over whether the food dish should be to the left or right of the water dish. Suddenly someone appeared behind me brandishing a set of cutlery and a napkin saying 'Do you think sir/madam would like a slice of lemon and some ice in the water as well once the table has been set?'. Snort - the very same person is out of bed like a rocket to peek outta the window at the first sound of a dish rattling or the outside lights going on to mark the arrival of Spike!

Di
x

Party Animals

I needed a Birthday card for a little boy in a bit of a hurry yesterday, so I turned to a Penny Black Stickeroo:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- Penny Black Stickeroos from the 'Party Animals' sheet, popped onto a backing of SU's 'Pumpkin Pie' card stock and the corners rounded to match the Stickeroo. One hint with Stickeroos as a main image (Sam, you listening 'cos you'll be playing with your Stickeroos soon?) is to try and stick them onto backing card which you can then trim to suit - unless you're very sure handed 'cos once they're stuck, that's it!

- main backing card is SU's 'Pumpkin Pie' topped with spotty paper from a paper pack called 'Let's fly away', free ages ago with Quick Cards Made Easy magazine

- the 'Harvey' banner was made using a snippet of SU's 'So Saffron' card and Clarity Stamps 'Letterbox Set' and matching masks - first outing for these and I love them! The boxes were stamped using SU's 'Pumpkin Pie' and the letters were stamped with Memento 'London Fog' - before being trimmed and then popped onto a backing snippet of 'Pumpkin Pie'

- the number 6 is one that Sarn kindly die cut for me, coloured with a 'Pumpkin' coloured Pro Marker and popped onto a punched oval of 'So Saffron' then just a couple of turquoise 'Josy Rose nail heads added, top and bottom

And this card is also for the current Penny Black Saturday Challenge for April , which is 'Cats and Dogs'. You are allowed to use PB Stickeroos, yay!

Len came up with a classic yesterday morning. He was just about to have a shower and heard me chatting away to myself in our bedroom. We have too much a lot of gadgetry here, and many of the electrics are turned on and off using remote controls, including a table lamp in our bedroom. I often get sentences quite muddled up - basically as my mouth is generally ahead of my brain! This is what I said whilst trying to turn the table lamp off. 'Hmmmm, not too good working. This is the same not - ah, must now here do pressing'. Len, who'd set up a different control unit for the lamp the other day, stuck his head round the bedroom door and asked 'WHAT are you chuntering about? Sheesh, it's like living with Yoda!'

Have a nice day!

Di
x

NOEL

I desperately longed for the Clarity 'Noel Frame' stamp for absolutely ages and finally bought it at the NEC when Mrs A and I had our day out.

Couldn't wait to use it of course:

I used:

- A6 black card blank, with a sliver cut from the bottom edge

- silver and blue (SU's 'Marina Mist') backing card from the snippets folder

- used the Noel Frame stamp by Clarity, and also Clarity Silk finish white card stock. First of all I followed Barbara Gray's advice and  cleaned off the blue 'inking' which defines the stamp, using nail polish remover, thereby keeping my Versamark Embossing ink pad nice and clean - err, and in the process removing half my nail polish, duh :(. Carefully dusted over with an anti-static bag (a light brushing of talcum powder would do just as well) and then I stamped the NOEL in Versamark and embossed it with 'Sterling Silver' powder. Heat embossing and your truly have never really gotten on but I followed Barb's way and heated from underneath - bingo, success!

- phew, after a lie down to recover from that it was time to tackle the image. I'd been watching one of Barbara's DVDs and had all the tips if not the talent. To do the image within the frame you just stamp the Noel onto a post-it and carefully, and slightly generously, trim out the centre of the letter 'O' and dispose of it. The resulting template then covers the embossed Noel leaving the centre of the 'O' exposed and protects the rest of the card stock while you play with the image, still with me?

- for the background tore a hill template from some spare paper and used Tim Holtz 'Faded Jeans' distress ink and a small duster brush for the sky plus a teensy touch where the deer would go

- then stamped the trees using a Black Archival ink pad and a little set of  trees, double stamped from the 'Northern Pine' set by Inkylicious, also from the NEC trip

- next the little deer was also stamped in Black Archival ink - have had this for years and finally discovered it's by 'Stampscapes', called 'Doe - 229A'

- finally just added some dots with a white Signo pen for the snow flakes

For a first try, I ended up with two successful cards the same - err, and two spoiled images in the bin. But, there's nothing like having a play and learning from mistakes :)

Di
x

Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 66

First of all, I hope you're having a lovely Easter - wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

My snippets card for this week just had to be an Easter card, made for my step-mum - and they do look as if they could be guarding the entrance to the Playground:

I normally send her a card with a religious theme, but this year I thought this little scene might make her smile :)

I used:

- DL white card stock

- background inked with Tim Holtz Distress ink (Tumbled Glass), a duster brush and my own 'clouds' template - there's more about the process on this post here

- then I die cut grass to go along the bottom from a snippet of Kanban's 'Green Grass' card, using my Marianne Creatables 'Icicle' die. It works really well the wrong way up if you don't have a proper 'grass' punch or die 

- the 'twining leaves' were cut from a couple of green snippets using Cheery Lyn's 'Mini Fanciful Flourish' die and then sort of woven in and out of the fence before fixing it to the card. The fence was cut from another Kanban snippet of 'Wooden Fence' card using Cheery Lyn's 'Victorian Picket Fence' die and a piece placed at either side of the card. It's such a shame that Kanban have ceased trading - I do like many of their products

- teeny yellow flowers were added, punched from a snippet of yellow paper with a very small Tonic flower punch, and then some orange Hunkydory gems added to the centres

- the very tactile sheep family came from 'The Range' - so cute, Mr and Mrs Woolly-Jumper and their offspring - oh, and I added little googly eyes to Mr and Mrs - and used the whole set of sheep in one fell swoop

- at that point I put the card to one side, summoning up courage for three whole weeks before stamping onto the sky area. Why will I never learn, I always advocate stamping sentiments etc. before making up a card and I broke me own rools - but in fairness, this card sort of evolved as I went along without any real forward planning

- but hey, I managed to finish the card without any mishaps by stamping the sentiment, from the Penny Black 'Easter March' set and also a little flock of birds using Clarity stamps 'Small birds'. Phew - the relief!

I'm entering this card into two challenges:

It's Use it Tuesday's 'All about Spring Challenge'. I used plenty of snippets/scraps of card and paper as described above, the googly eyes I've had forever and a day,  the icicle die has hardly been used - and it was a first outing for the fence die, which (shame on me) I've had for months and months! It's my first time playing along in this challenge, but it won't be the last - a great way to bring out those goodies you haven't used for ages, or even more shamefully in my case, had for ages and never used at all :( Oh dear, I just looked back through this challenge and a winner last week sponged the sky and also used an icicle punch or die for grass - all I can say is that I did mine over three weeks ago, and I guess nothing is really new when it comes to ideas :(

And over at That Craft Place the current challenge is 'Animals' - I reckon that a family of 'Woolly-Jumpers' qualifies nicely :)

Now onto what you've been up to this last week - once again we have loads of lovely snippets makes - and we have three new playmates, Maudieroff, Asha and Sue. Do please go and say 'Hello', that would be so welcoming.

As always, the difficult part is to pick some of the work you've done for 'show and tell'.

I'm sure you'll all agree, this is just stunning use of snippets by Darnell! To see HOW it's done, go here - the magic of chevrons.

Sue is one of our new playmates and she brought this card and another one. This card shows how even those plain white snippets we all have can be given the 'gilding wax' treatment - brilliant!

 

Cathy R brought us two cards showing great use of snippets this week, link to the first one and link to the second one - I can't pick just one as they're both great and so clever. 

At this point I have to move on, otherwise I'd be here all weekend typing away - so many gorgeous snippets makes - which you can look back over here.

So, it time for the draw for the Stamp Addicts unmounted stamp set (kindly donated by Viv) called 'Playful Girls' - as I said last weekend, absolutely perfect for the Playground :)

And the winner is:

 LYNN (of Lynn's Crafty Corner) 

Well done Lynn! Please drop me an email (di_wray@hotmail.com) with your snail mail address and the stamp set will be on its way to you ASAP.

This is really a bit spooky, I just checked back over who'd won over the time we've had regular prizes - and each time it's been someone different. Don't let that stop you from still being in the draw, it's just the way the numbers came out of Mr Random - but it's nice that the chances are being spread so well. 

This coming week's prize might appeal to you too - although I do know that some folk already make their own cloudy backgrounds in much the same way as I did on my snippets card for today, I still thought this was a nice prize for Easter:

A set of three Inkylicious dusters (double headed ones at that) - plus the same colour Distress Ink as I use to make clouds, 'Tumbled Glass'. Snigger, I expect you can cut your own template but I'd make some and enclose them if you really were desperate enough to rely on my cutting efforts :) And, of course, think of all the other things you can do with these brushes - not just clouds. Brushing over those snippet 'masks' left after die cutting to name but one use.

The Playground is open all of this coming week but it will close on Saturday 6th April at noon, UK time and Mr Linky is below as usual. Just enter a snippets make into the Playground this week and I'll do a draw after the Playground closes next Saturday. But, as usual I am asking for a snippets make please, maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be a winner of these brushes and ink pad.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, stay warm, safe and have a lovely week!

Di
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WOYWW - 191

Taken when I trotted back home yesterday after an afternoon crafting with a friend:

Sigh, this is becoming an all too familiar sight, abandoned coffee cup when I dropped everything and ran off to play, basket of cards at the back waiting for inserts and scribbled notes all over.

The flowers were given to me by my crafting friend yesterday afternoon - 90 Kaiser flowers in lovely Christmassy colours (sshhhhh, she doesn't know what she just gave away).

There are a couple of new Clarity stamps ready to be played with, once I face the brayer challenge again, plus a mahoooosive one further back. I almost had the vapours when I saw the size of it but it turns out to either be a wrong code on their website or a wrong pick at dispatch. BUT, how about this for service - when I rang Clarity to speak about it, they said straight away they'd send the correct size out and I should just keep the bigger one! That's what I call getting Brownie points from a happy customer. Particularly as the big stamp would be of interest to others so will be a prize in the Playground sometime :)

OK, that's me for WOYWW - do hop over to Julia's to see what others are up to.

Di
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Sunset or sunrise?

I dunno, could be either I guess:

This is the finished card that was still in progress yesterday on WOYWW - in the end I kept the whole thing reasonably uncluttered and let the image do most of the work, especially after the hours I toiled over it :)

I used:

- 7" x 5" white card stock, with four lines scored, two above and two below the ribbons

- the image - for which (apart from blood,  sweat and tears) I used Clarity White Silk finish card, the 'brayer' (aka by Sarn as 'the tool of the Devil'!), Adirondack ink pads in 'Peach Bellini' and 'Salmon' plus a very old multi-blues pad, stamp by Clarity called 'Spruce Scene' and Memento 'Tuxedo Black'. Yesterday's post explained how I did the reflection - and yes,  I had spotted that using a clear acrylic block was an option but the cello bag method works a treat  - and I suspect could be less prone to slipping/smudging, truly I'm quite clumsy!

- peach and turquoise ribbons layered, from the ribbon box

- Craftwork Cards sentiment, mounted onto an oval of black card

Di
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