Pixies Snippets Playground - Week 108

One of my New Years Resolutions is to make sure I have Birthday cards already made the month before they're needed - so long as I remember to check my 'Birthday Book' of course :) So this card was made well in advance - for four weeks time. Just spotted over at Sentimental Sundays that the current challenge is 'More than three layers - plus a sentiment' so I'm entering this card as it has six layers if you count the 2 on the little sail:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- all papers, a lot of them snippets, came from the Forever Friends 'Best of British' paper pad - I just tuck my snippets inside the front cover of the relevant paper pad

- the stamp is made by Woodware, called 'Patchwork Boat', paper pieced with snippets. I then rounded the corners of the piece of white card using Woodware's 'Corner Rounder' - and the little boat also comes with three stamps very suitable as names, I used 'Petit Bateau'

- the number 2 was in my little box of die cuts (thanks Sarn!), and I just coloured it with a red Pro Marker

- sentiment was computer produced and then hand cut into a pennant/fishtail shape and mounted onto a snippet of dark blue paper. There's a little 'how-to' which I posted yesterday afternoon here if you have trouble hand cutting even sized fishtails - it works for me :)

- red Josy Rose nail heads to finish off

Onto this week's picks, as always sooooo hard to choose:

I chose Greta's card because not only does it use loads of snippets but the design just jumped out of the screen at me - absolutely beautiful!

This layout, brought by Sam to show, has so, so much lovely detail - lots of layers and snippets too.

 

This was another card that jumped out at me - love those hexagons and Sue also used up quite a few snippets too.

This card, made by Maggie, is a lovely example of how you can use a snippet of Nature to create a fabulous card - have you guessed yet? It's a piece of silver birch bark die cut to make the two hearts! Very clever.

I think this card, made by Sue J, is absolutely divine! Beautiful colouring, plenty of snippets used and Sue's 'little pearl dots trademark' as well :)

Do please remember that these are just my picks, although I often notice when you girls are really enthusiastic about snippets makes in your comments too - which sort of confirms my own thoughts :)

Moving on, as am still limiting my time sitting over the laptop, here's the winner of the little brass easel:

Mary H

 

Well done Mary! I have your address and will pop it in the post to you as soon as I get to the Post Office.

This week's prize is a little something the same as  I used on today's card:

Yup, it's the Woodware 'Patchwork Boat' stamp set. So cute and perfect for cards for little chaps - or even older ones maybe :)

The snippets challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 25th January 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. Please NEVER be afraid to say you're just playing for fun - it doesn't offend me at all, and the Playground is first and foremost for us to have fun, the prizes are just a thank you for playing :)

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

Ahem, and anyone thinking of building a rollercoaster at the end of the Playground can think again. Since we had a gardener in to clear stuff ready for a new fence there have been a few scurryings in the extra space behind the bushes - I'm onto you! :)

Di - and of course Parsnip
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Fishtails - a little 'how-to'

Reading a blog earlier today, I saw that the writer had been having trouble cutting 'fishtails' into the end of a sentiment strip without the use of a safety net die. In fact her card looked fabulous with just straight ends to the sentiment strip but at the risk of seeming like granny and sucking eggs it took me until about six months ago to think of doing this. Musing here, I thought of geometry at school - you know, right angles and such. So this is how I cut my fishtails now - taking any guesswork out of the process:

1. Stamp your sentiment onto a piece of card, as straight as possible to make trimming in the next step easier.

2. Cut the sentiment strip to the width you want - if possible make it an even number of millimetres (or fractions of an inch) wide, I cut mine to 20 mm wide ie. top to bottom.

3. Decide how close you want to cut to the actual sentiment at each end and draw vertical pencil lines across the strip. Then, measuring carefully draw another vertical line outside of the measured strip- half the width of the strip away. So, my strip is 20mm wide and so the right hand line here is 10mm outside the lines I first drew. Then, measuring carefully again, bisect the panel you have pencilled inhorizontally - ie, exactly in half - which was 10mm again for me.

4.Draw, still using a ruler, lines diagonally across the two sections you just created in the photo above. Due to the wonders of maths, I now have a 90 degree angle in the inner part of the fishtail.

5. Trim off the straight ends (I do use a trimmer for this bit) and then carefully snip with small scissors along those diagonal lines you just drew.

6. All that's left is to use an eraser to rub away any pencil lines - and I coloured in the flower :)

OK, maybe it was really obvious and most of you do it already :( Of course, for more elongated fishtails, at step 3. you would just draw your vertical outside line further away. But you would still bisect the panel precisely in half across the middle of course.

A couple of other things, I just grabbed a quite hard pencil to draw the lines so the camera would pick them up - a soft pencil and a light touch rubs out much better! Plus, you could always do the pencilling and cutting on the reverse of the strip - I like to see what's going on though and a soft pencil and light touch works for me :)

If I want to layer the sentiment onto a background piece of contrasting card I just cut a slightly longer and wider strip, stick the fishtail on leaving a border round the three straight edges and then cut a V, usually without measuring. If you want to measure you only need the centre of the V in the fishtail - draw a line outwards from there and cut even snips on either side to the line.


Class closed for today - now go and play on the swings whilst muttering 'Silly old bat, we all do that trick!'

Edit: Am giggling here at comments already made about just eyeballing and snipping or even using a square or hexagonal punch - trust me, I have problems sticking a stamp on an envelope straight - plus I suffer from OCD :)

Di
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Fuchsia, black and white

.............one of my favourite colour combinations. I remember, when I was a teenager, my Mum had a dress very similar to this card. She made it herself in a plain 'shift style' using material that you bought by the patterned panel - and it looked terribly elegant too!

Back to today's card, I was lucky enough to win some goodies from Nessa in those very colours,and a similar pattern, so this is what I made:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square black card blank

- SU 'Melon Mambo' backing card

- a piece of the paper from Nessa along with a glossy rose embellishment which covers one of the centre roses, lovely fluffy fuchsia and black twine with a rose charm - also from Nessa

- the sentiment was stamped with SU's 'Melon Mambo' onto a snippet of white card - first with the 'dotty' stamp from SU's 'Four Frames' set which I then punched out using SU's matching 'Decorative Label' punch. Sigh, in the process I smudged where I wanted to stamp the Elzybells sentiment so I stamped that onto another snippet of white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and punched it using SU's 'Large Oval' punch. I know I'm being picky but it's such a shame that the oval on the frame stamp is just a bit larger than the 'Large Oval' punch - a missed trick by SU there I think :(

Thank you again Nessa - I love my prize and might send this card to myself as it reminds me sooooo much of my Mum :)

Di
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The Sample

I went to the Doctors, after ages you know,

to see if any light on me 'back' they could throw.

The place was stacked with patients galore,

any more and we'd have been sat on the floor.

This place is new, fancy and state of the art,

the best thing that happened was a baby did f*rt.

He grinned sweetly and his nappy did fill,

but to be honest I felt even more ill.

We also smiled sweetly, whilst not breathing in,

but even in pain I was hiding a grin.

Ages later my name was called and off I did go,

unto a hallowed sanctuary I didn't quite know.

I was poked quite quickly and not listened to,

and then I was asked 'do you need the loo?'

'Not likely Doc' I smartly replied

and so got sent home - with a 'bottle' to hide.

I looked at this small thing for a couple of days

then realised it had me totally amazed.

In all of my life I've never had to w**

in a little container - between you and me.

I looked on the 'net for hints and clips

and almost cried at the lack of wise tips.

Someone used a Ribena bottle in her quest,

then it came back as 'high sugar test' :(

At that point I really laughed out loud,

she was funny, crazy and amazingly proud.

So I looked round here for a container and funnel,

all sanitised of course - it were never dull!

The big day came and I locked the loo door

and did acrobatics - you needn't know more.

So off to the surgery I went the 'swag',

 all tucked safely away, in me shoulder bag.

The ground was covered in sheer black ice, a sight to be seen,

as I skated into the place like Torvill and Dean.

And all the while I had this thought in me head,

'if I fall right now I might as well be dead'.

If the bottle breaks on me way down -  oh no, poor me -

they'll say to themselves 'Another old lady smelling of wee'.

Sigh :( Still waiting for results BTW but feeling loads better.

Di

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An old fashioned HELLO

I needed a few little cards to tuck in with Snippets Playground prizes - so made a batch of these little cuties in double quick time:

 I used:

- approx. 4" x 3" cream card blanks

- a small stamp set by Hot Off The Press called 'Hello'. Telephone stamped in Memento 'Tuxedo Black and the sentiment in SU's 'Rich Razzleberry'

Short and sweet today - bit like me really, snigger :)

Di
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Winter weather

The theme this week over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is 'Winter Weather'. Recently, howling gales and torrential rain would have been appropriate, but I opted to upcycle a Christmas card with this snowy scene instead :)

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- image die cut from a Christmas card using an oval Nesties die, popped onto a slightly larger hand cut oval of pearly dark blue card

- backing card in a pale blue snowflakes design, mounted onto another piece of the pearly dark blue card

- sentiment is an Elzybells one, stamped using Memento 'Espresso Truffle'

- a snippet of fringed twine, which came free with an online order a while ago

Am also entering this card into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for January, where it's always 'anything goes'.

Sigh, I did stick the oval onto the blue backing a little bit 'wonky' but not as badly as it looks in the photo :(

Funny, I'd have thought this card would be super fast to make, which in a way it was - but it took me ages to plan the thing!

Di
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Pixies Snippets Playground - Week 107

Coo, a real flurry of 65 entries this week now that the festivities are over - lovely to see you all.

My snippets card for this week was made for Len's great-nephew and I just wanted to make something that was fun:

After rootling through my stamps I then went on the hunt for a digital stamp and found this - it made me smile :)

All the more so since I found this comment from Viv on last week's Snippets Playground post  where I'd mentioned someone 'letting off New Year fireworks in the Playground and damaging the tree house roof':  MISS!! MISS!! Can tell you it wasn't Darn Sarn who made the hole in the roof BUT... she put a small goldfish bowl on Parsnip's head and tied a rocket to his back to see if the hole was big enough for poor bear to fit through.... 

Yup, I got the giggles, especially as this card was made before Viv commented, just the vision of Parsnip being rocketed into space. He's not a happy bear I can tell you 'cos I found him up in a tree in the nearby woodlands :(

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- the image is called 'Bot - Fire Away' from Funky Hand - here - great image for a boy I think. I coloured him with Pro Markers and just added a couple of 'googly eyes'

- the sentiment is a LOTV one from their 'Small General Greetings' set, stamped with SU 'Real Red'. It was then die cut using an XCut die from their 'Speech Bubbles' set 

- all the backing papers and card came from the snippets folder

And onto this week's picks - not an easy job I can tell you! I don't do weekly 'themes' as you know - but this week I've looked for clever ways of using lots of snippets when doing my picks - mostly as it's so hard to pick from 65 entries! We'll be back to normal next week :)

I chose Sarn's fabulous batch of gift tags as, not only are they beautiful, they're such a brilliant way to use up snippets.

Such a lovely card, again using lots of snippets, made by Mo of ScrappyMo - and the parchment background and the butterflies were part of a Playground prize a while back.

I absolutely had to include this card made by Kanda (Andrea), it's so beautiful and shows that even the smallest of snippets make the most lovely flowers. I know that Jules for example will sit and punch a ton of flowers from snippets to always have some to hand.

This card made by Sue J really caught my eye - I adore the primary colours and there's no shortage of snippets!

I included this really elegant CAS card, made by Kath, to show just how cleverly shades/snippets of the same colour can work together - if you're brave enough of course :)

I just adore this beautiful card, made by Christine, lots of plain and patterned snippets used too - love it!

And we have two new playmates this week:

Shona brought this lovely card to show, using the leftover piece of an oval die she'd cut previously. Help, I don't always think to keep those, yet they make fabulous apertures!

Pippa brought this fabulous, and very clever easel card for her first visit. It obviously uses snippets but each of them is in seasonal colours as well as embossed to show the four seasons - how clever.

Welcome girls, hope you came back and play again really soon!

The winner of the LOTV 'Babies' Art Pad and the sweet little bunting die from last week is:

Irene

Well done Irene! I already have your address so the prize will be in the post to you ASAP.

And this week's prize, which I doubt you will have guessed although mine is in the photo of today's card, is this sweet little brass easel:

I totally love the Yankee Candle jar lid that Mo gave me when she was over here in the Summer, and it will always be my favourite when taking photos of cards. I've been looking for something similar as a Playground prize for ages with no success but then I spotted this over at Hope and Chances :) It's a sturdy little thing (approx. 2.5" wide and 4" tall) and does the job very well - as well as being something a bit different as a prize.

The snippets challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 18th January 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.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

Di - and of course Parsnip
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Less is More - Winter Blues

This week's challenge over at Less is More is 'Winter Blues', which is to use shades of blue on your card. I drew a blank when trying to think what to do - until I came across a sheet of Penny Black Stickeroos whilst doing some tidying - I know, it does feel like cheating but at least I made another Christmas card for 2014:

I used:

- a small DL white card blank

- Penny Black Stickeroos from the 'Every Christmas' sheet

- sentiment is by Personal Impressions from their 'Many Greetings' set, stamped using SU's 'Pacific Point'


Di
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Upcycle, re-purpose or use a freebie

That's the current challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge this week - and this is my upcycling:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white  card blank

- a lot of the front of a Christmas card I'd immediately squeaked would be good to upcycle as I opened the envelope back in December :). The lovely sparkly border was much wider, I just cut it down to suit

- red satin mirri card and black glossy card for the backings

- a silver Craftwork Cards sentiment, popped onto a punched oval of the red satin mirri card

When I took the Christmas cards down last week, I was stunned to count more than 25 beautiful hand made cards from my lovely blog friends - thank you so much! They will be kept and treasured - no upcycling of those beauties I promise :)

And this card is also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra, which is always anything goes.

Di
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Hope and Chances Charity Kit - January 2014

I recently discovered this blog: Hope & Chances Creativity with Christine Emberson. Not only is Christine a great crafter (who also has  her own shop), she writes a good blog too. Loads of ideas on how to make the most of using your Spellbinders dies too - including some videos.

Her youngest son, Elliott, has undergone brain surgery followed by radiotherapy and Christine now sells small kits to make beautiful things, with all proceeds going to raise funds for Ronald McDonald House, Camberwell and the Royal Marsden Hospital, Surrey.

This is what I made with January's kit:

A sweet little gift box, topped with a carnation and a large pearl. I added my own row of pearls round the box itself.

A matching mini gift card.

The kit comes with full and easy to follow instructions, everything is die cut already for you to begin to play, even the little peg and the large pearl are included so all you need are sticky tape/glue, a bone folder for nice crisp corners on the box and lid - and away you go!

I found it great fun to play with the kit - and at the same time to help raise funds for two really good causes.

Sorry about the rubbish photos - don't think the sun came out to play once today!

Di
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A parasol full of roses

A while ago I bought a LOTV Art Pad at the NEC. Subsequently I also bought, online, some LOTV papers and was 'pickled tink' when I realised how well they go with a lot of the images in the Art Pad:

 

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- an image from a pre-coloured LOTV Art Pad called 'Cute Cottage Garden'

- backing paper by LOTV from the 'Country Lady' paper pad

- plain card stock by SU, called 'Primrose Petals'

- sentiment by LOTV as well, from their 'Small Greetings' set (which is always so useful), stamped onto the image after it was die cut - using VersaMagic 'Pink Petunia'

I'm entering this card into the current LOTV challenge for January, which is 'Anything Goes'.

I always try to enclose a little hand made card with Playground prizes, sometimes I don't succeed though, sigh. But this will be winging its way to a recent winner ASAP! Just let me get my snorkel and flippers on and I'll be off to the Post Office - sploosh.

Di

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Pixies Snippets Playground - Week 106

Well, despite the New Year celebrations and people recovering from Christmas, we still had  36 snippets entries last week. This is my snippets card for today:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- snippets of plain pink paper from the snippets folder

- image is a pre-coloured one by LOTV from their 'Babies' Art Pad, die cut with a Nesties 'wonky' die and layered onto a slightly wider pink wonky frame

- the sweet little banner was die cut using a Joanna Sheen Signature die called 'Bunting'

- two of the little hearts left from cutting bunting were popped onto the push chair/buggy wheels

- the sentiment is from SU's 'Petite Pairs', stamped using SU's 'Smoky Slate'

- brushed silver Josy Rose nail heads at each corner just to finish it off

Clean and simple :)

And this week's Playground picks are:
  A really stunning card, made by Brenda - I absolutely LOVE it!

 

Such a clever use of snippets by Kay - love all the different embossing!

Really nifty alteration of a little notebook by Ann, and another way to use up those snippets - one to try for sure :)

 Oh I do love this card, made by Karen P - my colours of course and such beautiful detail.

Loll made this fabulous new baby card to celebrate the arrival of her adorable grandson, Cooper. Do hop over and take a peek at him - he's gorgeous!

I was delighted to see this card made by Pat - using some of her 100 weeks Playground prize - it's absolutely beautiful!

As always, I could carry on as every single entry was lovely - but as I type this on Saturday there's a right rumpus going on in the Playground. The sparrows are fighting for shelter from torrential rain in their mahoosive bush, the Playground is still 'open plan' since the storm damage and I need to bail out the tree house 'cos someone let off some New Year fireworks and took part of the roof off! Happy days :)

The winner of the stamps offered last week is:

 Mary Anne K

Congratulations Mary Anne! Can you please drop me an email with your snail mail address in (di_wray@hotmail.com) and I'll post the stamps off to you as soon as possible.

And this coming week's prize is, bet you guessed, baby themed!

It's the LOTV 'Babies' Art Pad which has 30 pre-coloured images, 10 designs with three of each design. It's the same as the lovely pad I used today, plus a Joanna Sheen Signature 'Bunting' die - again the same as the one I used today. I reckon you could cut the die twice in different colours and use the teeny heart leftovers to fill in the gaps - now that sure is using snippets to the nth degree :)

The snippets challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday  11th January 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. Or perhaps you might only fancy the Art Pad or the die - if so, please do say and if you win I can do a second draw with whatever is left.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

Di - and of course Parsnip
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Magazine 'freebies'

This month's 'Quick Cards Made Easy' came with some Kaisercraft papers and embellishments:

 I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- patterned paper and the rose embellishment by Kaisercraft, free with QCME magazine

- SU's 'Tangerine Tango' plain card stock, behind the patterned paper and also used for a scalloped die cut oval behind the rose embellishment

- a snippet of tangerine ribbon, carefully kept from where it was tied round the top of a cello bag of 'Christmas spice and tangerine peel' pot pourri - the house smells gorgeous :)

Another quick and easy make.

Di
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Simply alliums

As you know, I love Sarn's card making style and when I'd finished making this card I think she hopped down from my shoulder, where she'd been perched whilst whispering advice:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- stamped alliums from a set by Inkylicious. The stem is separate and great for curving - I used SU's 'Certainly Celery', 'Perfect Plum' and 'Rich Razzleberry' ink pads. Love the fact that the set also comes with another little stamp bearing the word 'Allium'

- SU's 'Certainly Celery' and 'Rich Razzleberry' card stock for the layers behind the image

Well, Friday came round fast for those of you who might be back at work. TGIF :)

Di
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My favourite five creations of 2013

Eeek, even harder, hot on the heels of our favourite five Christmas creations Debby now wants us to post our favourite five 'other' creations of 2013. Here goes:

Although this card used a pre-coloured LOTV art pad image, I picked it because it's so sunny and cheerful, and I adore sunflowers.

This card, made for Moira my 'bestie', just makes me smile :) And it was such fun to colour.

A change from cards, great fun to make by just colouring images stamped onto white tissue paper and then gently setting the image into the candles by using a heat gun.

This House Mouse easel card was great fun to colour and in real life the sparkle and gloss looked pretty darn good too.

And this final card was inspired by Debby herself - if only she knew just how much of my craft stuff was all her fault inspired by her!

Breaking the roolz again - I just found this sixth card, made for my step-mum. Added it here 'cos it makes me smile, reminds me of the Playground for some reason and took me ages to make :)

Di
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New Year's Day Birthday

I have a friend who has the good, or possibly bad fortune, to have a Birthday on New Years Day. The bad fortune is possibly 'cos often folk forget her Birthday in the aftermath of Christmas, and I guess they don't always double up on presents. The good fortune however is that she always has a big family party 'cos New Year is a celebration in itself :)

Here's the card I made for her this year:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- stamp is an Anita's one, no name though. Stamped using SU's 'Smoky Slate' and then paper pieced using a Back to Basics piece of paper, which I also used behind the image layer

- SU 'Smoky Slate' card stock for the 'frames'

Job done!

Hope you had a great time Angie! And I hope you all had a great time welcoming in the New Year. All the best everyone for 2014!!

Di
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