March of the gnomes - end result

Last week I posted about assembling 20 little Simon Says Stamp gnomes HERE. The little lady gnomes were kindly die cut and sent to me by Karen L all the way from the USA, along with some spare card so I could use my little 'gnome chap' die to make companions for them. Using my Altenew mini die cutting machine I ended up with a little army of 20 gnomes - eight lady and chap pairs and four lone ladies. And here's a peek at some of the finished cards:

I used:

- white card blanks - four @ 5.5" x 4.25" and eight @ 4" x 4" 

- die cutting the chaps then assembling the gnomes took forever, Karen must have the patience of a saint. The little chaps aren't too bad but the ladies are more painstaking to assemble. I cut the chaps from the spare snippets of card Karen had sent - so that the pairs would co-ordinate yet not have the same outfits (just by swopping the hats and lower body colours)

- all the gnomes were assembled using a glue pen and the little noses were all coloured with a Dusky Pink Pro marker - and the beards were flicked with a Warm Grey Pro marker

- quite rightly, Karen hadn't included any teeny bows for the little ladies' braids - so I rummaged through my own dies and found a bow from Marianne Creatables LR0467 set of 'ballet' dies which suited perfectly. Some of the snippets were too tiny even for that so a further rummage turned up a teeny bow shaped die from an Impression Obsessions set of dies called 'Kite' - result!

- backgrounds were trimmed down from three different scenes in the KanBan 'Christmas Wobblers' pack of pre-printed backgrounds - so that I could make 12 cards, four of each using each scene background, just wearing different colour combinations

- glued the backgrounds to the card fronts

- added the gnomes using thin sticky pads

- finally, added Craftwork Cards pre-printed and die cut sentiments to eight of the cards - the backgrounds are made using glossy card (as shown in some relection from my daylight lamp - sorry!) so I had to avoid stamping the sentiments

- finished!

I did love making these cards - they certainly took me quite a while in several sessions, just as and when I felt the inclination. A massive thank you to Karen - you're a star my friend!

I'm entering the current Allsorts Challenge #650 - where the current theme is 'Christmas'. Hooray, for once I made the deadline - I miss entering this challenge so often as I'm quite a slow thinker/crafter

Speaking of challenges, a little reminder folks that the Christmas Snippets challenge is still running over at Christmas Kickstart, where it's my turn to be 'Jo's Christmas Elf' for the month. Why not join in? So far a lot of you already have played - Jo is kinder than me though and you can actually play up to three times, with a maximum of seven other challenge entries each time you enter a Christmas snippets make. This is now another one of my favourite challenges.

Allsorts Challenge and tribute to Kath

I've already written a good bit on here about 'our Kath' from 'My Plain and Simple', who we all lost a few weeks ago. On Sunday I made a card for the current Challenge for Kath over at Allsorts - where Kath was a DT stalwart. The theme was chosen by Kath months ago as part of her usual DT role and she chose 'Favourite Stamp(s)' - and the DT have added the option of 'floral and paper piecing'. Two things which appeared on Kath's gorgeous cards very regularly.

And this is my card:

I used: 

- DL white card blank

- the front (or back?) half of a DL card, trimmed to an eighth of an inch smaller all round than the card front and then set aside

- one of my most loved, and oldest, stamps is Penny Black's 2007 'love blush' - so I used that and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink to stamp the image onto a piece of white card and also onto a couple of sheets (red and pale green respectively) from the Prima 'Firefly' paper pack

- fussy cut the leaves and roses from the stamped papers - as always I ran a non-bleeding brush pen round the edge of each of the fussy cut pieces

- a few of the pieces were so tiny to fussy cut that I used Polychromos pencils to colour the relevant small pieces on the image panel itself

- then glued the roses and leaves onto the image panel - using a glue pen and added a few red and green Polychromos strokes here and there

- had a dig around my folder of 'stitched edge' dies and found a good fit using a Presscut Oval 'Stitch Hole' die - so then die cut the image into an oval panel

- cut four strips a quarter of an inch wide from some of the leftover patterned paper and glued them to the top and bottom of the main front panel before trimming all sides from the back using small scissors

- chose a sentiment to use from the Penny Black 'Special Thoughts' stamp set

- used a removable tape runner to temporarily fix the image panel in place so the sentiment would be nicely spaced

- then used the Misti and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink to stamp the sentiment

- peeled the oval image panel off and then popped it back in the same place using thin Ultratape sticky pads - I love these as they give dimension without being too thick and can easily be snipped into small piece for adhering small images etc. to cards

- glued the whole front panel to the card front - finished!

As SaRn said, Kath would have had something to say about the 'tongue out' look of concentration that we all seem to assume when doing paper piecing!

You still have a few days left to join in with the Challenge for Kath, link at the top of this post. It runs until 12 noon (GMT) on Friday. Quite apart from being a tribute to a very talented lady, there are also some lovely prizes to be won. 

Edit: Many thanks to Barbara for the heads up to The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers where the current challenge theme is 'Paper Piecing'. My first time playing along and apparently a snarky sentiment isn't necessary. In fact, I always thought it was a 'closed shop' and not open to all. How wrong can you be. I did smile at Barbara's comment along the lines of 'Who would think to paper piece flowers and leaves' - given the tiny size of them, my reply would be 'Only an idiot like me'.

Dragonfly Garden

I recently had a little splurge on some Stamping Up goodies, and one item was the really pretty 'Dragonfly Garden Bundle' of stamps and co-ordinating dies. I knew exactly who I first wanted to use the set for - a very special friend who loves 'flying and fluttering' pretty insect as well as the colour pink:

Here's the result:

I used:

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

- piece of smooth white card onto which i stamped the wild flower image using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- selected the pink papers from an Echo Park paper pad called 'Be Mine' so I could select the right shade of pink for the image colouring

- coloured the wild flowers image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils

- stamped the dragonfly onto more smooth white card using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- coloured the dragonfly image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils, including the silver one in the set

- then went over the wings using a clear Wink of Stella brush pen for some gentle sparkle 

- punched out the dragonfly using the co-ordinating punch, punched two more dragonflies from plain white card and layered the three together using a glue pen

- trimmed the plain deep pink and the script papers then glued the plain pink layer onto the card front

- punched one long edge of the image panel using an ancient Fiskars punch - as close as I could to making the punched out pattern  equidistant at the top and bottom.

- then trimmed the panel to sit properly aligned on the pink script panel and also trimmed the plain left edge. That panel trimming process was possibly the most fiddly part and I've since wondered if I should have created the blank panel first and then done the stamping and colouring as my heart was in my mouth lest I spoiled it!

- glued the image panel onto the pink script panel then added the result to the card front

- next I used a much loved Stamping Up wood mounted stamp to stamp the sentiment, die cut it using a die from the Lil' Inkers Stitched Rectangle A2 set of dies

- backed the sentiment with a trimmed snippet of left-over deep pink paper and glued it in place onto the card front

- added the dragonfly to the card front using little pieces of thin sticky pad, stood back and went 'Hmmmm' - I didn't particularly like the stark white border around the 'critter' so I went around the edge using a silver Wink of Stella brush 

- by this point I was now going 'Hmmmm' over the white area at the top left of the panel - it seemed to make the right hand bottom of the card look too heavy - so I added three sequins in a similar blue to the dragonfly (using Glossy Accents) onto the 'white space', which just pulled the whole card together, IMHO.

- stamped a sentiment onto an insert and added to the card - finished!

The sequins are from Little Things from Lucy's cards and the mix is called 'Bubblegum'. In the USA, Simon Says Stamp carries stocks of Lucy's 'little things'. They don't have her UK full range - but I bet you'd easily find enough to spend your pennies on!

Am entering this card into Darnell's NBUS #26 Challenge - HERE.

I used loads more pencils (for blending, especially on the dragonfly) than those in the photo - but didn't want them to overpower the card itself in the photo. Sigh, but I couldn't pick up the subtle glimmer of the dragonfly, still getting to grips with the new camera.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #390

EDIT: The challenge is now open for an additional week (until Saturday 21st November) and you may enter twice.

Gosh, I'm quite stunned at the number of entries into the Playground this past couple of weeks (62!) with many of you hoping to win the Lawn Fawn 'Be Hap-pea' set of stamps and matching dies. I did think that would be a popular prize - it's such fun and very versatile. The draw will be in a week's time - good luck! Also, there are a whole raft of entries worthy of being 'picks' - I'm probably going to let Dudley have the final say in the picks ☺

It's been another funny old week really, with the prospect of a possible lockdown looming in Hampshire. And right now (Saturday, as I'm finishing this post off) it seems I was well ahead of the game when I wrote this paragraph - we're now faced with a possible overall lockdown within the next few days, right across England, and possibly the rest of the UK. Numbers have soared and at this rate, even with our emergency 'Nightingale' hospitals, the NHS faces being unable to cope. Also, if you do your grocery shopping online - delivery slots are already being snatched up like the initial lockdown. I now have three supermarkets in the mix so I can flip between them when the other(s) can't deliver- which is absolutely crazy and just like being a juggler. Chin(s) up girls - onwards and upwards as they say!

Now let's look at happy stuff - this fortnight I'm sharing the Playground with my lovely friend Sarn. She made a beautiful card which is shown below (I think the picture and link are all fixed now!):

This is what Sarn wrote about making her card:

 

Hare Card details:

 

- 5" square card blank, side opening.

- White and black snippets of card.

 

- First, using a make-up brush, I applied green ink over a torn paper mask, moving the mask down and gradually getting lighter in colour. I found it easiest to do this with the piece upside down then working from the TOP of the upside down scene DOWN so that the darkest hill (at the top of the piece of card) was covered over by the mask as I moved it downwards to ink the lighter colours.

 

- Next, I punched out a circle from a Post-it Note and stuck it down, then, having turned the scene the right way up, I inked over the top with light blue ink, still using the make-up brush. 

 

- To make the purple streaks across the sky, I took an Inkylicious duster brush and pinched it between my fingers to make a line, dragged it across a purple ink pad and then across the blue sky.

 

- After that, it was just a matter of stamping on top (all are Lavinia stamps). I started with the little hare from the Whimsical Hares set, then added the Fairy Buttercup flowers, and drew the little flock of birds. Could have left it there, but decided it needed a little more stamping, so I stamped the Lavinia Vine leaves at the top to frame it. 

Please do hop over to Sarn's blog HERE - called 'Stamping for Pleasure' - which she is currently posting regularly on. It's always been one of my favourite blogs, right from my very early days of blogging - just follow the link and you will land on her post about making this lovely card. It has step by step photos which are so worth seeing. The important thing to note is that Sarn flipped her piece of card upside down to ink the hills - working from dark to light.

And what a star Sarn is, she knew I already had a 'hare' prize lined up and her card links very nicely into it - so here's the prize for this fortnight: 

It's a set of Lavinia 'Whimsical Hares' stamps - exactly the same as the one Sarn used her 'stargazing har'e from, along with an Inkylicious 'Mountain & Valley Sun/Moon' Stencil & Masks template - plus a brand new set of 10 makeup brushes for blending inks perfectly, almost the same as Sarn used for the inking of HER background. I have the same set of brushes here as the one on offer and love them, so velvety soft, really lovely to use and such a variety of sizes to enable you to ink into even the most intricate stencils with ease and as light a touch as you could wish for. I bought them from Amazon at a fraction of the cost of those sold under craft brand names, they're every bit as good ......... and they came from China needless to say. The template was already part of the prize anyhow and it's really versatile, but you can see how easily you can achieve the same effect by using torn paper for the hills and a punched circle from a Post-it note as Sarn did.

As is almost always the case, I won't be splitting the prize, but if you only want part of it for yourself then please feel free to join in the draw and when your package arrives with you, pass on whatever you might not want to a crafting friend. And please remember - it doesn't matter where you live in the World - I'm happy to post prizes, regardless of where you live.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 14th November. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day. Edit - the challenge is now open until Saturday 21st November and you may enter twice.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, 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 only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

 

A little reminder - please let me know if you try to link into the Playground and it doesn't work! Don't just run away - I'm always here to always help out. Sometimes it means me going into the 'inside workings' of Mr Linky to delete a failed attempt in order for it to work, and I always let you know the outcome - after all these years I can do it in two wags of Dudley's tail! 

Speaking of Dudley, his weight had gone back up to his start weight when we weighed him last week! We have no idea how that happened ........ unless the little monkey has worked out how to scramble up onto the top of a unit in the garage where we keep his treats, help himself and then seal up the bags again! In fairness, he'd had a couple of shorter walks due to heavy rainfall (which he hates) - but it shows how delicate a balancing act it can be. More so as we're talking about a small amount of weight. Just so long as he's not doing the balancing ....... along with some climbing. ☺

As I'm typing this we're wondering what will happen with 'Trick or Treat' this evening. It's horrendous weather here right now, plus the threat of a further lockdown. However, some parents are saying they don't see why their children should miss out as so much has already been spoiled for them this year. Some will put sweets out and not answer the door. And some, like us, will skip it altogether - a shame as Dudley thinks it's such fun - but even putting a dish of sweets out and not answering the door won't necessarily work. Someone local apparently once did that and the first callers ran of with the lot - including the dish! I did chuckle when I read that on a local Facebook forum. 

This afternoon, Saturday, I had a little baking session - for Dudley Dog! This is just half the mixture after it had been shaped and baked:

It's a batch of Dudley's very own low fat, high fibre Halloween treats, cooling down. We'd been horrified at the fat content of bought treats as well as all the additives, so I decided to make some and this is my first try. The recipe is pretty easy - namely oatmeal, pumpkin puree and grated apple with an egg to bind the mixture. The oatmeal is quite chunky, even though I blitzed it well, which still made rolling it out, then cutting the bone shapes, a bit 'tricky-woo'. The mix was too chunky for the smallest size of bone shaped cutter (yes, I truly am that sad a person - my 'boy' gets the real deal!) - so these will be snapped in half for his Lordship - if he even likes them! Half the uncooked mix has been frozen and three quarters of the baked ones you see above will also be frozen. So far Dudley hasn't tasted them (I've been tempted, as has Len, but we've resisted) but if he sniffs and walks off then we may just end up wandering around the neighbourhood giving them away! Dudley did like the leftover pumpkin puree - as recommended by Darnell. I'm baking a pumpkin pie tomorrow as today was too busy and I fully expect to have a 'dancing dog' beside me in the kitchen.

I chuckled once again when looking for chilli powder to add into our Ocado order. I always read the reviews if it's a product or brand I haven't tried before and one particular review for Ocado's own hot chilli powder carried the following warning in a review 'This will rip your face off'. 'Ah' thought I - 'bit of a subtle message there - best avoid that one then'!

Edit:The pumpkin treats got a HUGE high-five from Dudley - hooray! But - the little chap is now begging for more at every opportunity! 'Hoist by my own petard' - as the old expression says! Oh poop!

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me. Stay safe - and sane (we're struggling here, grin!)

Our very own rainbow

The other evening whilst we were watching TV, Dudley pricked his ears up and gave a few barks. Then, we heard the letterbox being opened and a lot of effort being put into posting something to us. Next, the doorbell rang and we heard little feet scampering away. And this is what we found:

It's our very own A4 sized rainbow to put in the window! I think it's country wide that children out on their walks are playing 'spot the rainbow' or similar. Children are making these to show there is hope and that everything will be OK.

The little girl next door, called Gabriella, isn't yet seven and she coloured this for us. How sweet is that?

The piece of paper was badly crumpled from the effort of posting so the following day I carefully ironed it between a couple of sheets of paper, adhered it to a piece of card, popped it into a document holder and then stuck it to the inside of one of the front bedroom windows.

There was a note, also crumpled, which I also ironed as flat as I could:

It says - literally:

'To Len dy and duley hope you are oll OK and hope you have a lovely day here is a rainbow for you since you have not got one oredy love from your nabers Gabriella and Teddy'. 

I know, I know - I did shed a few tears. Teddy is their adorable Shih Tzu by the way. Often it's the little gifts from the heart that mean more than so much else.

What to do? I messaged her Mum and she liked my suggestion so I stamped quite a few images for her to colour and also added a packet of unused crayons and quite a few plain and twinkly felt tipped pens. Apparently Gabriella fell upon the sparkly felt tipped pens and began colouring right away!

My next batch of images for Gabriella (and now one of her brothers) to colour is already under way - along with some using pigment ink which can be water coloured as a change. Keeps me out of mischief :)

Less Is More - Challenge #375 - Olive and Tangerine

The current challenge over at Less Is More is 'Olive and Tangerine' - two colours which I love to see together.

Here's my card, hoping it's CAS enough as I strayed from white as the base of the card for a change, so the aperture would stand out more:

And this is the LIM cue card:

Of course, the current bright sunshine washed the colour out of my card quite a bit, in real life that tangerine coloured background card and the bird are both really vivid!

I used:

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

- stamped the image onto white card using Memento 'tuxedo Black' ink plus a bird and a branch from the Stampin' Up 'Bird Banter' set. Little tip - it was so worthwhile masking off the bird's tail before stamping the branch - a small detail but it does make a difference IMHO

- then coloured the image using Pro markers (using olive and also picking up the same shade of tangerine card I'd found in the snippets folder) and set the coloured image to one side

- trimmed the piece of tangerine coloured card to just slightly smaller than the card front

- used a die from the MFT 'Wonky Peek-a-boo Windows' set to cut an aperture in the tangerine card

- then used the Misti and a sheet of 'home printed acetate grid' to line up and stamp the sentiment stamp on the tangerine card - using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink again

- to make sure the white image panel was properly aligned in the aperture I lightly drew a pencil line around it, using the inside of the aperture die and trimmed right round to just over quarter of an inch outside the pencil lines, before rubbing them off

- stuck quarter inch wide red line tape around the back of the aperture, right up to the edge

- took the trimmed down image panel and checked it for alignment before attaching one edge to the back of the aperture using low tack tape

- that allowed me to gently peel off the other three sides, one at a time, whilst knowing that the image hadn't moved at all, then removed the low tack tape and adhered the last side. The main reason for this is because I wanted a firmly stuck down edge without the risk of glue seepage - and it works a treat if you use the tip of taping one edge in place (leaving the red line tape unpeeled of course) so you can work on the other three sides, one at a time

- final step was to glue the whole panel to the card blank

As happens so often here, there was almost a disaster when I was making this card. At the stage where I rubbed out the pencil lines around the image I managed to slightly crumple the coloured image panel in one corner! It was only slight but still would mean a lot of time lost (I'm a slow crafter). I did kick myself for grabbing some much thinner white card stock than I usually use for stamping - it was extra smooth and I just fancied trying it again. However, all was not lost 'cos I backed the panel with more white card using some double sided adhesive sheet (medium weight) and made sure I rubbed it firmly down using my Teflon folder tool, which totally flattened it out again. Phew, saved!

I did giggle later on in the day when Len spotted the finished card on my desk and said he liked it - then he quietly asked if I realised that the aperture was wonky! ☺☺☺

It's ages since I played along with Less is More and I loved making this card. I just hope it's Less is More enough, if that makes sense! As I said earlier, the aperture really needed a contrast but of course I'm dithering about it now. 

Hedgehog update: In this heat we've been leaving the kitchen door open a lot of the time when at home, to get any through breeze that might come along. Late the other evening, Len called to me to get into the kitchen as fast as possible - but I was too late to see what he'd just seen. The hedgie's feeding stations are close to the back door and when Len went to close the door - there was little 'Miss Sweet Face', the prettiest hedgie in the group, standing halfway between the feeding station and the open door looking up very quizzically as if to say 'Dare I venture in for a look around?'. It all happened so fast that I had no chance of scampering there in time - and in fact little Miss Sweet Face ran off behind the garden shed when she heard Len call me.

Happy days! And anyone with a Summer cold has my sincere sympathy!!

Santa's Elves

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

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

I used:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Made with love

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

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

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

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

I used:

- white DL card blank

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

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

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

- coloured the image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils

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

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

- stamped and coloured the insert and envelope as mentioned above

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

70 years young - my friend Moira

Today is the Birthday of one of my very best friends, dating back to our boarding school days! Moira, I hope you have a fabulous day!

As we oldies know, even if we have aches and pains, it's what's going on in your mind that keeps the years at bay. Ha, in which case I should be just about approaching my late teens mentally! Never lose the sense of fun and silliness, and with a cheeky smile you can usually get away with most things!

Anyhow, I wanted to make a memorable card for Moira's special Birthday to sum up how daft we can be when together. So, I sent off for a new stamp set and then got the jitters about colouring it. However, short of selling the stamp set on or giving it away, I had to attack it - and so I did - one week ago. Amazing, I ended up with time to spare and this is the result:

Love this sentiment!

I used:

- 6" square white easel card - ie. one card with a line scored horizontally across the centre of one half and firmly folded and burnished to remain well folded plus
a panel for the front of the card

- plain green backing card - SU's 'Certainly Celery' to cover the base of the easel card and the panel front panel - glued in place

- papers from a QCME freebie pad called 'Let's Fly Away', trimmed slightly smaller than the plain green card and glued in place

- then I stamped the image and both sets of words, using the Misti and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink. The stamp set is of course by Stamping Bella, from the Uptown Girls range and it's called 'Thelma and Louise'. I'd decided that the 'Thelma and Louise' wording would go above the image and the other wording would be used on the the easel card base

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

- despite having a ton of dies here, not one was the right size so I just trimmed the image down and then popped it onto a backing of more green card and glued it in place on the front panel

- stuck the front panel onto the folded easel part of the card using red line tape

- trimmed the 'karma' sentiment (which I just love!) and popped it onto a backing of green card then added some thick Hunkydory sticky pads to the back before sticking it onto the base part of the easel card to act as a 'prop'

- stamped the {HAPPY birthday} onto a snippet of white card,  using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from the Hero Arts 'CLO47 Messages' set

- then trimmed and backed it with green card and glued it in place on the base

- die cut the numbers and sun from medium strength adhesive sheet backed snippets of orange and turquoise card using the sun from the Joy! 'Sun and Moon' set and numbers from the Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' set and popped them in place

- final touch - Glossy Accents on the sunglasses, bottle and rear lights

In the end the stamp wasn't really as frightening to colour as I'd feared. Mind you, it would have been totally different using Pro markers as opposed to nice sharp coloured pencils! And, as it is, that car looks like it's due a respray in close up! Bit like me really :)

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 289 and 290

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 - loads of gorgeous entries.

I was 'missing in action' during some of the challenge - we hopped over to Southern Germany to visit Len's grand daughters and their Mama. Had a wonderful time - as always! Much laughter and a lot of fun was had for sure.

Now, this is my snippets card for the coming fortnight - made as a Birthday card for a very special friend - in real life it shines almost as brightly as she does:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- snippet of black card stock, trimmed to just slightly smaller than the card front and glued in place

- snippet of white card stock, trimmed to just slightly smaller than the black layer which then had a heart shape die cut from it using the fabulous Concord & 9th 'Heartstrings' die set (you can use this set to just cut the 'strings' portion of the heart if you separate the outer die from the inner one - I left them joined for a first play)

- then I backed the heart shaped aperture using a snippet of medium strength double sided adhesive sheet, covered the exposed sticky front with the waxed paper I'd saved when backing the aperture and set the card aside (tip: my next steps were to fiddle about with small die cut pieces of card to fill the aperture so it's always best to have the aperture all prepared just in case the little pieces from the next die cutting stage fall out of the die willy nilly)

- snippet of red card, die cut with the same heartstrings die and inlaid into the sticky aperture on the card front 

- snippet of gold card, again die cut using the same die and this time they were used to inlay in between the 'strings'

- snippet of the same red card to die cut the small heart, using a die from the same set, which was then glued in place

- then I got the Misti set up with a right old selection of words from the MFT 'Label Maker Sentiments' set, inked them using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and stamped them. The stamps are very good but I did love my Misti all the more as restamping really gave such solid black background - so much like the old Dymo label maker I stupidly threw away about 20 years ago!

- then I just snipped the words into rectangles using smallish sharp scissors and played around for ages deciding which ones to use. So much choice I dithered for quite a while before eventually sticking the final selection in place

One finished card, all ready to post off to Darnell a couple of weeks ago! The Heartstrings die set did need a little bit of shimming to get the clean cut right through the quite thick red and gold card I used. It always seems that, the closer together the cuts are, the more pressure is needed for a clean cut on quite thick card.

I stuck to just two quite traditional colours for my heart but can imagine this would look fabulous in a variety of colours - or possibly 'ombre style' going through shades of one colour.

Once again, no need to really spell out what this fortnight's prize is made up of:

The prize is the Concord & 9th 'Heartstrings' die set and the MFT 'Label Maker Sentiments' set of stamps. Loads of words (31 in fact) to combine in this great set. I will split the die set and the 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 22nd July. 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 (the Crafter Companion 'Baby Bamboo' stamp set, a set of 'Stitched Square' dies from The Works and a Bow Maker) 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,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 285 and 286 - results

Hi there. Once again it's time for the fortnightly round up of  the Playground, which includes some 'picks' of the fortnight and of course the prize draw.

What, no Guest Designer I hear you cry? Absolutely right - but we do have a celebration anyhow. Today is this lovely lady's Birthday:

Happy Birthday dearest Darnell - from all of us in the Snippets Playground - and no doubt many other bloggers far and wide will be wishing you the very bestest of days too!

Some of you already know that Darnell recently had surgery and is still recovering - so no swinging from the Playground's rope ladders for her just yet!

Darnell is every bit as delightful in real life as her photo suggests - this time last year she was busily packing her spotted hankie for her 'epic tour' of the UK - which many of us will never quite recover from :)

So, dear friend - we send you our love, friendship and sincere wishes for a marvellous Birthday. Psst, mine's a Gray Goose Gin and Tonic or soda please - with the lemon squeezed over it ...... including the pips! Darnell will relate to this little tale - our hotel in Southampton last year certainly wouldn't win any prizes for making relatively straightforward drinks to order!

Now for my picks from this past fortnight - the usual difficulty in whittling a very long list down to three picks - tough call as always:

Loads of you loved and commented on two similar cards that Liz posted on her blog and the jury was divided on which one was a favourite. This is mine, I love the design of course - and the clever way that Liz used snippets of perfect rainbow colours, in the correct sequence, really made this into a very special card.

I love this card, made by Janice! Such a clever design and great use of snippets as well. I really like how the subtle die cut numbers on the same coloured background just totally draw the eye in and it's a card that can be adapted to suit quite easily for a boy or girl.

What a fabulous crowd of paper pieced cats! Cara brought this to share with us and I was immediately struck by all the work that must have gone into the making of this cute little scene! It really shows that all of us must have stamps which would lend themselves to paper piecing ..... and using up more of those little snippets that positively breed when we're not looking.

That's my three picks - I do hope they will inspire you as well girls. Of course we had loads of fabulous ways to use up snippets and I really had to be very firm with myself and not add in at least three more cards from the short list.  I highly recommend that you grab a cup of coffee and spend some time visiting blogs - the thumbnails with links are always there for you to look back over.

49 of you joined in this past fortnight, I could see the numbers almost stand still as we went through our mini heatwave! And, right at the last minute, we also have one new Playmate:

Welcome to the Snippets Playground Becca, and I do hope you return to play again soon.

Prize draw time now and our winner of the Spellbinders 'Borderabilities A2 - Curved Borders One' set and Clearly Besotted 'Baby Shower II' set of stamps with little matching dies is:

Greta

 

Well done Greta - can you please drop me an email with your address in and I'll post your prize off as soon as possible. My email address is on the right hand side bar.

Keep those snippets entries coming girls, you still have a week left to play HERE remember! And the prize is a Crafters Companion 'Baby Bamboo' stamp set (kindly donated by Val ), a set of The Works 'Stitched Squares' dies and a Bow-Easy bow maker. I will split the prize if you only want to play for part of it.

Love from the little white peril - and of course from me too

Crazy Bird get well card ...........

..........for our own dear Crazy Bird, Miss Darnell!

Lots of you will already know that Darnell wrote on her blog that she was having an operation last Tuesday. It's all gone well and she's no longer in fear of her 'baby basket' making a bid for freedom - as she so neatly described it!

As soon as I knew the date of her 'theatre appearance' I made Darnell a get well card and it has arrived in California already:

I used:

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

- a piece of white card stock, embossed using a Cuttlebug 'Pinking Stitch' folder and trimmed to the same size as the card front

- snippet of white card stock for stamping the image and little extras on

- then I set to using the fabulous Tim Holtz 'Bird Crazy' stamp set as well as the Tim Holtz 'Crazy Things' stamp set. First I stamped the images I wanted onto the white snippet and then coloured them using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending solution

- next I die cut the Crazy Bird using the matching thinlets die set, and fussy cut the 'Crazy Things' hat and bunch of flowers

- at this point I knew where I wanted the bird to sit in relation to the sentiment I planned to add so I did a little grey stripe on the front panelusing a Promarker and covered it with clear Wink of Stella

- next I stamped 'Get Well' using the Misti, Memento 'Tuxedo Black ink and a stamp from the Paper Smooches 'Sentiment Sampler' set

- next assembled the bird by cutting along it's wing to tuck the bunch of flowers in place and also cut along the back part of the hat so it sits properly on the birdie's head - used red line tape to fix things in place

- as the red line tape was already out I used it to add to the back of the assembled image and then stuck it onto the card front

- resisted the urge to add some turquoise sparkly sequins but did ad some little tickles of clear Wink of Stella to the flowers (hat and bouquet)

- finally, when the card was ready to be put safely to one side, I added 'Glossy Accents' to the eyes  

I do have to smile at the birdie (as they say) it almost seems to be looking up to check that nothing's gonna fall on its head from above! :)

Here's hoping that Darnell is soon back to her usual bouncy self!
 

We will miss you .................

As I already said in a previous post, one of our 'partners in crime' (Moira) couldn't make our school reunion - this is the card I sent off to her so it would arrive when the event kicked off. And we did miss her very much needless to say:

I used:

- 4" x 6" cream card blank (I reverted to our A6 measurement as, according to the image panel, plus sentiment, it actually looked more balanced)

- a Penny Black Stickeroo from the 'romance of flowers' sheet - adhered to a snippet of card and then die cut using a Spellbinders oval die - ran a ball ended tool around the edge before removing the image from the die itself

- from the same Stickeroo sheet I then added a separate butterfly sticker

- die cut a backing layer using SU's Wisteria Wonder' card and a shallow scalloped Spellbinders die, again ran a ball ended tool around the outer 'grooves' then glued the image to the backing panel

- the sentiment was stamped, using the Misti, VersaFine 'Vintage Sepia' ink and a sentiment from the Penny Black set called 'special thoughts'

- glued the image panel in place and left it at that - used cream and managed four layers, if you count the addition of the butterfly!

I got back home safely yesterday but do need time to catch up on the Snippets Playground girls! In my absence, Megan stepped forward as our current Guest Designer and offered to make sure she commented on your entries. Bless her heart, I've just begun hopping around your entries and she's been true to her word - thank you so much Megan! What a star.

BTW, I had the colly wobbles about my vastly improved back holding up over the weekend - what with longish car drives, luggage humping, strange bed, clambering about on boats etc. But, so far, all is good! Of course, it might just have helped that this was also the first time I didn't get up on the table and do a can-can followed by a quick swing from a chandelier after the formal Saturday Dinner :)

When I get time I'll pop some photos on a blog post with a couple of tales from recent events - believe me, there are some things at these reunion weekends you really couldn't make up!

I had a face lift!

Just in case you think you came to the wrong place - I (or rather the blog) just had a face lift - courtesy of the super-talented Loll of 'Stamping with Loll'.

What a total star she is, so kind and generous with her time and skills. I'd just recently been thinking that the blog looked a bit tired and the timing was just so right for this fabulous change.

Loll - you really are an absolute star! I totally adore the new look - still a bit of pink there of course as ever with me around, but it's all so much more subtle and and am sure it's a lot more pleasing to your eyes. I know it's a total delight to me!

Big hugs and many, many thanks Loll.
xxx