Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 64

Well, we had some extra excitement in the Playground this week - and we're on Wikipedia after an 'inverted ice pyramid or spike' grew overnight in the bird bath - there's a piccie further down this posting. I had a rapid visit from a very interested chap, who even signed up for Blogger to be able to leave a comment on this post here. Then he messaged me asking if it was OK to add photos of our Playground birdbath to the article. Doubt if he'll be trotting in to show snippets makes - but it's been very exciting all the same :) Also, we made it onto BBC South Today, blink and you missed it and sadly they don't have BBC iPlayer for the news 'down here in the sticks' :( Crumbs, just as well - we could have been invaded in the Playground and you could have been queueing for the swings :)

My snippets card this week came about 'cos I was musing about the vast amount of narrow snippets strips I seem to accumulate. Then I remembered an article in this month's Quick Cards Made Easy magazine (my very fave - always something new to learn), which showed the 'bargello' technique - perfect for those pesky strips :) I think how the card is made could be self-explanatory but am happy to make a second one and show measurements and photographs as I go - although, I just found a good tutorial on Splitcoaststampers here.

Anyhow, this is my take on Bargello, but you can do umpteen different things just by lining up strips of snippets and sticking them to thin card, slicing down the layer lengthways and then offsetting them:

 

Bright innit? :)

I used:

- 7" x 5" white card stock in a tent fold

- strips of saved snippets from Echo Park's 'Hello Summer' paper pad, made into a bargello design. More snippet strips from the same pad along the bottom of the card, when I remember I do save most patterned snippets in the front of pads for future use which makes it easier to co-ordinate

- sentiment by Elzybells, stamped in SU 'Pumpkin Pie'

- card candi by Craftwork Cards

Making this card brought back memories of when I did a lot of tapestry and bargello work - even making a box cushion to go on the seat at one side of a mahoosive stone fireplace MANY years ago.

OK, so what else has been happening in the Playground besides this:

Sorry, am still so thrilled 'cos this ice spike is VERY rare, even though it's not a true 'snippet make' it occurred in OUR Playground :) Enuff on the subject - unless we all get invited onto a tee vee show ........... we could hire a coach and take fizzy pop and sandwiches :)

 

Elizabeth made this delightful Christmas card, by upcycling a saved one she had - love the teeny present for the birdie :)

Irene showed us a set of three perfectly co-ordinated cushions in lovely shades of blue, they're gorgeous.

 

Ike had me rolling round laughing with such a clever card - a take on Moulin Rouge - there's a great sense of fun (and naughtiness) there!

And, last but not least, here's such a clever trick for punching those tiny little snippets from Sarn - go and see, it's really neat and one to remember for future use!

As I always say, just wish I had time to show you more but you can check out last week's entries here - they're all fabulous!

Time now for the Random number thingy to do its work and choose who wins last week's prize of the 'Butterfly Suite' stamp:

IKE

Well done Ike, two hot spots this week :) Can you please drop me an email to:

di_wray@hotmail.com with your address and the lovely Penny Black stamp will be in the post to you ASAP.  Ike does such a wide variety of work and some fabulous colouring so am sure this stamp will be well used! Just wish I had more of them to give away as lots of you did drool over it.

But, this week's prize is a corker - sent from the USA, ordered especially for the Playground by Shaz in Oz. What's even lovelier is that Shaz craves this particular die for herself but chose to order it for the Playmates and have it sent to meas a snippets prize - bless you dear Shaz!

Wahoo! It's a fabulous Memory Box die called 'Summer Border'! Someone is gonna just LOVE this.

The Playground is open all of this coming week but it will close on Saturday 23rd March 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 this beautiful die.

Enjoy St. Patrick's Day and have a lovely week!

Di
x

'Happbee' Birthday wishes

Quick card from me today:

I used:

- A6 cream linen card stock

- the main image is a Penny Black Stickeroo from the 'Embrace' sheet, adhered onto a strip of cream linen card. Trust me, you have to be VERY sure handed to place a Stickeroo directly onto your work - so I don't 'do dat' and always leave myself the option of trimming and sorting things out

- SU card 'Perfect Plum, embossed using Crafts-Too 'Scrollwork Frame' folder

- sentiment  stamped using SU's 'Petite Pairs' set and SU 'Perfect Plum' ink pad

- a little bee beside the sentiment, to keep the other one company, which came from PB's Stickeroo 'Bouncing with Joy' sheet

Told you it was short and sweet :)

Have a lovely weekend, weather forecast isn't too great for us in the Playground though, had to resort to the daylight lamp to get a photo of this little card.

Di
x

Strange happenings in the Snippets Playground

Yesterday morning I was almost hauled out of bed to 'Come and see the bird bath, it's amazing'. Yikes, and so it was too:

 First sighting.

 The water had frozen in ripples.

It was like a upside down five-sided pyramid - and so crystal clear.

And at such an angle too.

At first we pondered whether it could have fallen from a passing aircraft, but we're well away from the flight path. Had a bird dropped it? Unlikely as it was 4" tall and well embedded at about a 60 degrees angle into the frozen bird bath.

Then, little Miss Marple began searching the web for ideas and 'bingo' it was an ice spike. In other words - an upwards growing icicle or ice crystal!!

From what we can gather, they aren't exactly your every day occurance. It was quite beautiful and just like a piece of clear crystal. They grow due to 'super cooling' and need quite specific conditions to form it seems, our bird bath must have fitted the bill (so to speak).

We just put it down to being a fluke that we'd been lucky enough to see for ourselves, and watched sadly as later in the afternoon it melted right away - Len wouldn't let me put it in the freezer to keep :)

Here's some info. on Wikipedia I found.

Di
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Seize the Kenny K Birthday

The current challenge over at Seize the Birthday follows last week's sketch, only this week it's to make a card for the male of the species - always a tough call for me but here's my card:

And this is the sketch:

I used:

- A5 white card stock

- Kenny K image (pre-coloured!) from the Kool Kids set of four images, by The Hobby House

- SU 'Real Red' and 'Marina Mist' card behind the image and a strip of 'Real Red', run through the 'ribbler' (which I never, ever think to use)

- sentiment is from a set by Hero Arts called 'Good Friends', stamped in Memento 'Tuxedo Black'

We have a few boys' birthdays coming up shortly so at least I have one in hand now :)

I have a new follower - called Pixie, and it isn't me either (I have been known to accidentally follow meself on here)!! I don't think this Pixie has a blog but what a lovely surprise - we'll be taking over soon, you just wait and see.

Di
x

Coffee and friends

................... a perfect blend.

A couple of months ago, totally out of the blue, I received an email from Stamping Bella saying that I had a gift voucher waiting for me. After initial disbelief it turned out to be true, a lovely act of kindness from a dear friend who knows I love Stamping Bella. I was a greedy little pig and, in all the excitement, spent it on stamps in double quick time! They have been patiently waiting here to be used, while I kept them close by just in case they disappeared like a magician's rabbit - and this is the first outing for one:

 I used:

- 7" x 5" white card stock

- stamp by Stamping Bella called 'Uptown Girls - Clarissa and Camille Share a Cafe', stamped in Memento 'London Fog' and coloured with Pro Markers

- background papers are all from Bubbles 'Born to Shop' pad, love the way the reverse of these papers are plain in matching colours

- sentiment came with the stamp set, stamped using Memento 'London Fog' then die cut with one half of a Nestie die and mounted onto plain paper, cut to size after drawing round the same die

I had such fun colouring this brilliant image, and the sentiment is so true. Thank you again, my dear kind friend - mwah!

Di
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Little notelets and skipping WOYWW

Sarn's post of yesterday reminded me that I too needed to make a little batch of notelets, to enclose with Snippets Playground prizes. So, out came the snippets folder:

And just to prove I made four the same:

The light here was very 'iffy' - you can see that the blue birdie isn't anywhere as dark as the top photo implies, in fact it was an almost perfect match for the SU 'Pacific Point' ink pad I used - despite being cut from Core'dinations card.

I used:

- 4" x 4"white linen card stock

- Cheery Lynn 'Bird on a Branch 2 - A168' die plus blue and green Core'dinations snippets. To my shame I've had the die for months now and this is the first time I've thought to use it, bad girl, although I did think about 'grounding' the branch on the edge of the card at least

- little pink flowers, punched from another little snippet using a Tonic 'small flower' punch then teeny Mei Flower self-adhesive pearls popped on

- sentiment is an Elzybells one (sadly discontinued when they closed down), stamped using SU's 'Pacific Point'

- a little piece of pink Ric Rac tied round - found in a bundle of pink ribbons I bought ages ago from Art of Craft

Am skipping WOYWW this week - need to go and collect those flipping school newsletters from the printers and get down to some serious 'envelope stuffing' :(

Then comes the 'fun' part - our local post offices are either closed down or quite a walk from the car. 600 newsletters adds up to about three mahoosive sackfuls and Superwoman ain't my middle name - so I cheat by splitting the loads into much smaller lots and packing them into heavy duty cotton shopping bags, bought just for the purpose. And then (ssshhh) sneaky me drives round North Hampshire posting as many as possible at a time into the biggest red post boxes available...........usually under cover of darkness or in Summer, when the evenings are so much lighter, wearing huge sunglasses and a big floppy hat :) 

Di
x

Put yer sunglasses on!

It was FREEZING cold and blowing a gale here yesterday, with little flurries of snow  just to add to the fun. I blame that for the bright colours of today's card - which is for Seize the Birthday this week:

The Martha Stewart border punch embosses beautifully along the zigzag, first time I've used it, here's a try at a better piccie:

What'dya mean, you still can't see it? Well, you'll just have to take my word for it :)

Almost all the cards I make are based on white or cream backgrounds, or patterned papers - so it was fun to play with SU 'So Saffron' card (which is darker and richer than shown in the piccies), and also to follow STB's great sketch:

I used:

- SU 'So Saffron' card stock, size 4" x 6" when folded tent style

- Penny Black Stickeroo from the 'Garden Poems' sheet - layered onto SU 'Rose Red' card

- border punched from SU 'Rose Red' card, using Martha Stewart's 'Zigzag' border punch

- sentiment is a discontinued Elzybells stamp, stamped in SU 'Rose Red'

Just hoping those of you in the very South of the UK with snow problems are keeping safe. Come on Spring, hurry up!

Di
x

Santa's helpers - snigger

A busy day here yesterday, need to do some serious blog hopping today to play catch up - especially as quite a few of you have been playing in the Playground already! I'll be there ASAP.

The current challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is 'Santa and/or his helpers'. Plus, am entering the same card into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra, which is always 'Anything goes'.

I went to my box of saved shop bought cards which were sent to us last year and made this:

Think I need to get out a bit more 'cos I sat here 'home alone' chortling to myself whilst making this. Santa would be lost without his helpers although this lot look like they've been at the sherry bottle and then all piled into one of those photo booths - hic :)

I used:

- an almost square cream card, just about 6" x 5.75"

- image from a Christmas card, upcycled by die cutting with a 'wonky square' Nesties die and then mounted onto red backing card from the snippets folder, hand cut after drawing round the outside edge of the same die

- sentiment is by Hero Arts, called 'Merry and Bright', it's a pre-loved one I recently got from Sarn. Stamped with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and the little stars were coloured with Whispers pens. Those pens have really fine nibs at one end and are great for speed if you don't want to clip Ultra Fine nibs onto Pro Markers, plus they don't 'bleed' through card stock

- the little bells are from the elasticated bracelet I bought in Estepona in November and just snipped apart, they're tied on with red fine cord

- and the final touch, which set me off giggling even more - 'googly eyes' on Rudolph :)

A happy card for a child, or an adult who never grew up!

Di
x

Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 63

First of all - Happy Mothering Sunday to all you Mums! My extra big snippets card for this week (the image was partly finished and lying on on my desk on WOYWW) should be with my step-mum up in Northumberland by now:

I used:

- Craftwork cards 8" x 8" white scalloped card stock

- image is a Penny Black stamp called 'Butterfly suite'. Stamped using Memento 'London Fog' ink, coloured with Pro Markers. Then die cut using Nesties Labels Eight, and I used Mary H's trick of tickling the edges with ink before removing from the die using TH 'Milled Lavender'. A second layer of butterflies were added, after being tickled with 'Iridescent Violet' Twinkling H2Os, popped up on little strips of sticky pad and lavender pearls were added to the hydrangea and white ones to the butterfly bodies

- snippets of SU's 'Wisteria Wonder' card

- patterned paper from the snippets folder

- a strip of white self-adhesive ribbon from Hobbycraft - already had the little diamantes on

- Couture Creations 'Tied Together' embossing folder, a snippet of white card and a lorra white pearls :)

- sentiment is a pre-loved SU stamp, stamped using Brilliance 'Pearlescent Lavender'. punched with SU's 'Decorative Label' and mounted onto another 'Wisteria Wonder' snippet which was punched with the same punch and split in half, trimmed a bit and stuck behind the sentiment

- the very last snippet of lavender silk ribbon to my name, from The Ribbon Girl,  tied in a bow and then a little dragonfly charm added using an iridescent cord bow

Of course I then had to wrap the card in tissue paper and make a box for it - to protect it from the vagaries of Royal Mail  :(

I'd like to enter this card into the current challenge over at the Penny Black Saturday Challenge for March - the theme is Spring into Spring. Well, I saw a butterfly the other day,  buds on the hydrangea in the garden and of course this card is for Mothering Sunday. So, I hope it qualifies despite not having bunnies, chicks etc on.

BTW, the embossing folder I used is now as rare as hen's teeth. They sell on eBay for stupid money and thinking I'd never be able to buy one at those prices I actually bought some pre-embossed packs of 'Tied Together' card, which I was more than happy with. Then, by an absolute fluke, I did manage to obtain a pre-loved folder - stroke of luck there - and great for larger cards 'cos you can move it about and match the repeating pattern easily. A little tip - if you find a Couture Creations embossing folder that you really love, don't just write it on your wish list for a potential future purchase as they regularly revamp their range and discontinue even bestsellers. Totally crazy to my way of thinking :(

Onto last week's lovely snippets makes, loads of inspiration there:

Sam's been painting this week - using chipboard snippets, and what a result!

Lynne made this fabulous 17th Birthday card, and the flag is all made up from carefully cut and positioned snippets.

Kath brought a wonderful splash of Spring with her with this card - fantastic stamping too.

And Bubbles has been upcycling a mirror, with this amazing result.

I could go on and on of course, but remember that you can see all of last weeks lovely creations by going to Mr Linky here.

And now for Mr Random number thingy to do his work - and the winner of the funky stamp set is.............................

MARY MAC

Well done Mary! 

Some weeks my own snippets card features the coming week's prize - not every week though so don't be fooled :) As often happens though - when I bought the Penny Black 'Butterfly Suite' stamp I used today, an extra one for the Playground hopped into the basket before I checked out:

Sadly, I know some of you do already have this particular stamp. But even if you don't want to be in the draw it would be great if you still come and play - snippets are the main reason for the Playground, not just prizes.

The Playground is open all of this coming week but it will close on Saturday 16th March 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 this lovely stamp. 

Enjoy today and have a lovely week!

 

Di

x

Eggstra special Easter

We don't send many Easter cards but the other day I rustled up four, all the same:

I used:

- 4.75" x  4.75" white card stock with the bottom corners rounded

- stamped image (using Memento 'London Fog') is a Stampendous Calendar Chicks stamp (bought for a song in a bargain box) called 'Chick Eats', coloured with Pro Markers then die cut with a Nesties oval die

- SU 'Pumpkin Pie' card, die cut with a scalloped oval Nestie

- sentiment is from a Crafty Impressions set called 'Eggstra' - stamped using Memento 'London Fog'

- tiny flower punched from a snippet of lemon paper and topped with a little orange pearly gem

- green ribbon from Hobbycraft

Had a real little card production line going here - and am now in the throes of the next production line, my old school newsletters, sigh. 600+ of those little perishers plus two flyers in each envelope to label, stamp, package and post. Still, this is almost the end of my stint at doing them - one more issue to go and then it's someone else's problem turn :))

Have a great weekend!

Di
x

Meece in the florists?

Am making some Birthday cards for Rach, a bloggy friend. Her son Dan raises funds for the RNLI and Rach is selling cards to help out, through her hairdresser:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- image (pre-coloured) by LOTV from their 'Mice are Nice' set. The detail on these little images is so cute when you look closely, love the little mouse wearing a flower head as a hat! I have a couple of LOTV stamps the same size and just can't trust myself to have a go at stamping and colouring all the detail. One day though :)

- green backing card is SU's 'Wild Wasabi' and the pink backing card came from the snippets folder

- main patterned paper is from the lovely selection that Kay recently sent to me, the other is a little snippet of SU card from the snippets folder

- sentiment by Craftwork Cards, backed with a circle of pink card which was punched using a SU circular punch

- lemon ribbon from Hobbycraft and a little matching bow tied round the ribbon strip

Another one for the box Rach :)

Di
x

Does this hat look OK?

The current challenge over at Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge is to use at least one ribbon on your card - never a problem for me as I use ribbons a LOT:

I used:

- creamy white hammered card, scored and folded to A5

- an upcycled Christmas card from last year. It was already glittered so just a case of cutting to size

- red linen effect backing card

- Kanban's 'Merry Christmas - Gold' backing card

- gingham ribbon bought in NM last year

- Josy Rose brown nail heads

- no sentiment 'cos I thought the Kanban backing card says enough

Am also entering this into Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra - I was lucky enough to win February's challenge :) Thank you Hazel!

Di
x

WOYWW 196

Incredible - the sun shone here yesterday! This was my desk before I reluctantly tootled off to do some ironing yesterday afternoon, it's so lovely to be able to craft in decent light for a change:

Ha! It looks suspiciously tidy dontcha think? Good job you couldn't see the piles of stuff heaped on our bed - but at least the coffee cup had already been taken into the kitchen.The rationale behind piling stuff onto our bed BTW is that it forces me to clear it all away at the end of the day so we can sleep - and in the process do a little more tidying as well.

This is what I was playing with:

Twinkling H2Os just to tickle a second layer of butterfly wings for the image I'd been colouring with Pro Markers.

OCD to the fore again - before ruining touching the butterflies with H2Os I was trying a little patch to the bottom right on the card I'd stamped on and scribbled some Pro Marker on. The stamp is Penny Black's 'Butterfly Suite' BTW.

The Pro Marker storage rack has been in residence here for ages. Sadly, it was a prototype, and production of a new line never happened due to manufacturing problems. But, of course Crafter's Companion now have their super stackable marker pen storage - which is versatile for all shapes and sizes. But, me still loves my rack and it's just such a shame it never materialised as a viable product for big manufacturing runs.

That's my WOYWW for this week - and we did have a bed to sleep in :)

To see what everyone else is playing with on their desks this week just hop over to Julia's (The Queen of WOYWW) and join in the fun and frolics. See you there!

Quick edit: Julia is totally right, the storage rack is mahoosive large. It lives on a shelf behind the desk and, as it's in effect one piece of cleverly shaped and drilled perspex, just lifts to where I need it. Either in front of me, or to the side - depending on surrounding mess :)

Di
x

May your day be filled with flowers

Preferably Spring ones although today's card is more soft shades of Summer:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- pre-coloured image by LOTV from their 'Friends and Flowers set - cut with a Nestie and mounted onto pink backing card, just by pencilling round the outside of the same die and then cutting by hand

- pink backing card for the patterned card and the sentiment

- patterned paper by Wild Rose Studio, from the 'Vintage Rose' paper pack

- sentiment by Elzybells, having its very first outing (bad girl!), stamped using VersaMagic 'Pink Petunia'

- a strip of pale green ribbon and a bow

- a glossy hand made shrink plastic butterfly

- Josy Rose nail heads

This card is now winging its way to a friend - made specially with her in mind :)

Di
x

Pink and black with love

This was a really super fast card to make, once I'd thought of what I wanted to do of course:

I used:

- A6 white card stock

- a snippet of pearly pink card

- a snippet of white card

- all lower right hand corners were rounded using Fiskars 'Corner Edger' scissors. They work 'OK' but I'd love to know if anyone can recommend a corner rounder punch, I have a small one but for this type of card I think it isn't big enough - any ideas ladies?

- little piece of 1.5" wide 'cobwebby' pink ribbon from Hobbycraft. I've used their white and cream colours before, but when browsing for Easter ribbons the other week I found two shades of pink - so it was a 'no brainer' of course! The ribbon is just tied together in the centre with a little piece of thread, which was later hidden by the feather and flower

- a single black feather, from a pack bought ages ago in Hobbycraft - popped on with a little bit of hot glue. Do you KNOW how far little wisps of feathers fly when you rootle through a packet? Ha, to make it worse, I sneezed when the wisps tickled - yup, feathers all over the place!

- the black organza rose is from 'Mei Flower' - again added using a little bit of hot glue on a cocktail stick from the glue gun (that tip from Jules works brilliantly, I thank you nicely Jules!)

- the word 'love' from SU's 'Wonderful Words' set was stamped in Memento 'Tuxedo Black' - before I actually did anything to the card - lest I spoilt it at the final hurdle

- matching pink pearls were then added, three underneath the sentiment and one in the centre of the black organza flower


Di
x

Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 62

Well, it's been another busy week in the Playground - with 40 little visits to 'show and tell', and some new playmates joining us too. Welcome to you - and I hope the girls played nicely!

This is my super fast 'show and tell' for the week - aka my snippets card:

It's also for Seize the Birthday's current challenge, which is to make a masculine card using this sketch:

 

And also for Penny Black and More @Allsorts Challenge - where the them is 'One for the boys' :)
 
I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- SU's 'Sail Away' stamp, stamped onto a white snippet of card using SU's 'Pacific Point' ink pad. Before stamping, I tickled the background using Tim Holtz 'Tumbled Glass' DI, a duster brush and a template which is just a die cut scalloped circle which you move about when 'tickling' to create the effect of clouds :) Then, I stamped directly onto the background before also stamping again onto a snippet of white paper, cutting the sails out and paper piecing them on top of the image. The result was then die cut with a Nestie circle die - the choice of circles was deliberate (bit like portholes) - the alignment of the curve of the sail with the curve of the circle was one of those happy strokes of luck!

- all backing card is a mix of some snippets and a bigger piece of card, also in SU's 'Pacific Point'

- the papers were in the snippets folder - I'm almost sure they're from a Papermania Capsule Collection pad - the main backing paper reminds me of the sea - barf!

- a snippet of 'tickled' background was left after the circle was die cut so I used a LOTV 'Small Greetings' stamp and 'Pacific Point' ink pad to stamp Happy Birthday before punching it out and layering onto a die cut circle of more 'Pacific Point' card

- baker's twine was tied over the striped band across the card and then an anchor charm was just knotted on - grin, I did use a reef knot

- hmmmm, then I sat gawping at the result just knowing that something wasn't quite right (to my eyes anyhow). There was a big blank patch of blue in the pattern in the top right corner - so out came the small birds Clarity stamp, 'Pacific Point' ink and hey presto, a little flock of birdies to pull it all together and also fill in that annoying blank patch

Job done!

So, this week's little showtime first:

Oh my golly gosh - this is sooooo difficult. Each and every one of you brought such beautiful work to wave in the Playground, as always. So, please don't feel despondent if I don't pick your card or snippets make to show - remember that last week's post, here, has all the little thumbnails and if you can find time to go and visit it would be lovely.

These are the ones I picked this week:

 

Amy paid us her first visit with this fabulous card - I totally LOVE the idea of adhering papers to backing card before embossing, love it Amy!

I've searched back through previous weeks in the Playground to try and find who first brought a similar idea to the Playground (covering the whole background with circles) as I forgot to show you it in the weekly roundup. Please do remind me...........'cos it too was gorgeous.

Amanda brought this great card - so 'Breakfast at Tiffanys' :)

This card, made by Rach, is soooo cute - and very cleverly done using SU's owl punch and snippets, especially the little hat :)

 

Sue H brought all these cards, made to be given with LillyBo quilts - what a star you are Sue!

OK, time for Mr Random number thingy to play - and the winner of the LOTV Stitches stamp set and the door hanger is:

RACH
 

Well done Rach - I only had to run Mr Random once 'cos you certainly said in a comment you like the door hanger, and the Stitches Stamps come with it! Can you please drop me an email with your address - thanks!

Just to show how 'real time' this is - I do literally run away to Mr Random number thingy in mid flow when writing this post - so Rach gets two mentions this week!

And  for this coming week we have a PaperArtsy stamp plate:

The Playground is open all of this coming week but it will close on Saturday 9th March 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 this funky chook set. I might even enter myself :)

Have a lovely week!

Di

x

Alfonse Mucha style - take 2

This is the second decoupage from a sheet I bought  a couple of weeks ago:

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card stock

- the decoupage sheet that was bought, nameless, from The Range

- matching green and peachy apricot card, from a pad that might well have been almost the very first one I ever bought! It's by K & Co and I love that it's good quality card and printed on both sides so you can co-ordinate well. Why am I typing this bit of useless information - it's surely looooong out of production :(

- I ran the green card through the Cuttlebug, using a Couture Creations folder called 'Breeze'. It embosses and 'debosses' the design and is a lovely folder, although the decoupage hides a lot of its beauty on this card. Watch out for a giveaway in the snippets playground before long.............. 'cos I bought two!

- the embossed green card was then punched along the bottom edge using the straight punch from Martha Stewart's PATP set called 'Cherish ' and wrapped with peachy apricot organza ribbon, with a little snippet tied round

Hope you all have a lovely weekend planned. I'm helping out at a local craft Fayre on Sunday - probably taking entrance money at the door. It's the same Fayre that I once had a table at with a buddy - and we came home well out of pocket. Oh, the shame of it :(

Di
x 

Triple layer - but no stamping

I really love triple layer stamping, having only recently tried it out for the first time and on Wednesday (thanks to Shaz in Oz) I spotted a shortcut over on a new WOYWWer's blog called Ink~a~Doodle~Do. The blogger is called Anne and her idea of using papers rather than stamping got me thinking.

Out came the paper pads, card and trimmer and this was the (eventual) result:

Basically I just cut three layers of patterned paper exactly the same size with exactly the same patter alignment. I kept the bottom layer as it was and then trimmed an inch off the size of the middle piece, and two inches off the size of the top sheet.

Now, here is a health warning - I wasn't really thinking it through properly and my first attempt failed because I trimmed an inch off one side and an inch off the top. This does not work!!!! Ha, some more snippets were created :(

The right way to achieve the smaller size is to trim half an inch off each side all the way round the second layer, then one inch off all round the top layer so that you get pattern matching. The plain card mats are just quarter of an inch larger, ie. an eighth of an inch on each side.

For example:

I cut three identically patterned pieces of paper measuring 6" x 4" first of all and then did the trimming of the middle and top layers, remember - a bit off each side. The middle layer measured 5" x 3" and the top layer measured 4" x 2". The plain purple card measured 6.25" x  4.25", the next layer measured 5.25" x 3.25" and the final plain purple layer measured 4.25" x 2.25".

The white card I then popped all the layers onto measured 6.25" x 4.25" when folded.

It's a really easy way to use up those multiple 6" x 6" sheets of well patterned paper that I bet you all have, and 12" square paper would work too, so long as the pattern repetition matches. It's also fun if you just fancy playing round trimming paper :) Cutting and trimming paper is one of my favourite occupations - I moved on from 'fringe chopping' many years ago!

So, I used:

- 6.25" x 4.25" white card stock - and it just fitted into an A6 envelope

- plain purple card

- brightly patterned papers from Kate Knight's 'Totally Tropical' pad - free with a magazine

- a pre-loved SU sentiment stamp, stamped using Adirondack's 'Purple Twilight' ink and punched out using SU's 'Decorative Label' punch

- a purple flower which was already patterned with script

- Josy Rose pink heart shaped nail head

I made this card for our friend Kim (Abi's Mum) who is taking a real leap of faith in her career. I'm sure she'll be a great success - and that she really is 100% right to follow her heart. Good luck Kim!

And Happy St. David's Day to all my Welsh friends - you know who you are :))

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