Rudolph Days Challenge - November 2021

Maureen's husband Al is thankfully making good progress after heart surgery and the November Rudolph Days Challenge is now up and running HERE. The best news of course is that Al is so much improved.

I made my card for the challenge about a week ago - it's a slimline one (DL size) using more from the Whimsy scenic paper pack:

I used:

- UK size white DL card stock - 8.25" x 4" - tent style

- a sheet of paper from the Whimsy Stamps Slimline 'Frozen' scenic  designer paper pack. It's just a snowy slope with sky and mountains in the background - but a perfect foil for what I did next (IMHO)

- cut a piece of silver pearlescent card to 8" x 3.75" and then cut the background Whimsy paper to 7.75" wide and left the height at 3.5" so that it was even all round

- had already chosen the stamps to use and they're from the MFT 'Ready, set, snow' set of stamps - love this set!

- stamped the three really cute snow boarding 'critters' plus a couple of trees onto white card using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- coloured them all using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils

- then die cut them, using the co-ordinating set of MFT dies

- at that point I knew how the scene would fit together, and also that it was safe to stamp directly onto the background (from making a couple of cards using the same scenic background pad back in May) so I added the sentiment directly onto the background, using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- then positioned the 'still not stuck down' snowboarding trio plus two trees and worked out where some ''flipped back snow swirls' would go - using the Misti of course

- stamped the snow swirls, using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' again

- then glued the pearlescent silver panel on to the card blank

- followed that with the Whimsy back ground panel

- added the trees using a glue pen and the snowboarding critters using thin sticky pads

The colours are actually brighter, but still quite pastel, the best I could get as it was so dull here this afternoon when I took the photo. And the little shadows you can see around the images and their snowboards were just picked up by the camera due to the light (I'm not clever enough to have added them deliberately), yet as they're slightly raised, you do get that effect when you look at the cards in real life. 

I'm a big fan of 'Ultratape' sticky pads and have used them for many years. They come in a sheet of 40 pads at approx. half an inch by one inch each in size. As they're lovely and thin, no worries about going into 'Large letter' postal rates - they're quick and easy to use, not messy and also snip into the tiniest pieces.  

It made sense to make two cards exactly the same whilst everything was on my desk, particularly as the background papers come in twos. I totally love the Whimsy 'Frozen' scenic background papers - and already have plans for more pairs of cards. 

As the set of stamps and dies is having its first outing, I'm linking this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #32 HERE.

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.

- 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,