Another Christmas Card for the Box

I've put together a Christmas card to go into my box for later in the year using up more of the miscellaneous bits and pieces lying around on my desk. The background paper was part of a sheet which I'd printed for another card and the two circles were 'waste' from cutting circular apertures (I have loads of these of various shapes) and of course they aren't really 'waste'.  The blue one I embossed with some snowflakes and then popped the Santa and deer die cut racing across the sky.  Finally I put together some vellum poinsettia flowers, also left overs.

Background - printed from Artylicious CD (I think)
Santa and reindeer - I think was a freebie die from last year

Snippets Playground #361

What is it they say about best laid plans?  I decided that I really didn't need to buy anything else in the way of stamps, dies and so on and was aiming just to top up on the consumables like paper and card only when absolutely necessary and when I'd used up most, if not all, of my scraps mountain.  Well we all know how difficult it is to resist a bargain or special offer and I'm afraid a reduced price offer tempted me into buying 'just one more die' which I've used on my card this time for the Snippets Playground challenge.  I did however raid my scraps and apart from the base card everything was cut from scrap pieces.  I started with the floral die and some white card - this die cuts into the card so I used a square first of all, afterwards deciding I'd prefer it framed within a circle so this was done with a scalloped circle die of suitable size.  The patterned background paper was part of a left over sheet which I'd printed using a CD and the sentiment with its background was one which was surplus to requirements on a recent project and was lying around on my desk.

As always Di has made a lovely card for inspiration this time and of course the items she used will be the prize for a lucky winner so it might be a good idea to follow the link and maybe take part in the challenge.

Background - printed from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD
Scalloped Circle - Tattered Lace Pin Dot decorative circles dies
Flower - Clarity Fresh Cut die Daisy and Friends
Sentiment - Gemini Die

Christmas Rose

I've been unable to do any parchment cards since May which was when I had my first cataract surgery but now the second eye has been dealt with I decided to have a go.  It is still early days but my vision is so much better now although things should be even better once  time has elapsed and I can visit the optician to sort out a new prescription for my specs which I will still need to wear.  I decided to just to a small panel of Christmas roses using a Groovi plate and colouring with pencils from the back, adding a small amount of white work.  The panel was mounted onto some pink card and a toning Christmas design paper was used behind it with the addition of some die cut snowflakes. I feel that parchment work never has the impact in a photo as it does for real which is unfortunate.

Parchment Panel - Groovi Christmas plate designed by Tina
Design Paper - printed from Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD from years ago
Snowflakes - freebie dies and a Docraft one for the large snowflake
Colouring - Polychromos pencils

Clock Card

Filling some gaps in my box of cards and this time it is one suitable for a male.  I have lots of dies (too many I guess really) but I have been collecting them for some years so it does pay to go through the various storage boxes now and again, partly seeking inspiration and partly to remind myself of anything which may have been forgotten.  I knew I had this clock die but have to admit I had no idea which box it was in but luckily I managed to run it to ground.  I cut it from some heavy patterned paper (almost card weight) and then cut a larger circle from a different design in the same pad.  The hands were cut from a scrap of plain black card and the cogs from scraps of kraft card.  The old music design piece was sponged with distress ink to give it some age and a small spray of ivy leaves was die cut from a loose page from an old book which was falling to pieces (very useful to have book pages so wouldn't thrown them away).  The sentiment was a download sized in a graphics programme and punched out before layering onto a small cog.

Text design papers - Pad from Prima (scripts)
Music - a loose sheet from some ancient sheet music
Clock - die set from Marianne
Cogs - Bigz die from Sizzix
Sentiment - free download from Netty's Cards

Vintage Style

One of my recent cards left me with a spare die cut frame which I was determined to use so I've built up a card around this item using an off cut of patterned paper which just happens to have part of the design which just fits nicely into the frame..I actually decided to cut another two of the small frames so that they could be layered up to give it some dimension.  This in turn has left me with some small rectangular and square pieces which you can guess I probably won't be able to throw away!!  I've used a larger off cut from the same paper pad as a background and die cut a lace border in the matching lilac shade.  The sentiment was computer generated and punches used to cut out the shapes.
Now to decide what on earth can I make using a little collection of plain card squares and rectangles??

Background and image in frame - paper from Prima Nature Garden Pad
Frames - Card Creator 1 die from Paper Rose
Lace - Tim Holtz vintage lace die
Sentiment - punches from Stampin' Up

Pixie Snippets #360

Time to visit the Playground again with a card for the current challenge and as usual Di has made a brilliant snippets card using the prize which should come in really handy for using up some of the smallest pieces which we all save.

For my card I've used another piece of sparkle card which was coloured using alcohol inks - encouraged by Di of course who posted recently about this technique which I just had to try.  I had a piece left from my colouring session and found a large snippet of purple to go with it and some snippets of silver card for the oval frame, sentiment and butterflies.  I started by putting the sparkle piece into an embossing folder then just tickling the edges of the embossed butterflies with some silver gilding wax.  An oval was cut from the background purple piece of card before popping the embossed piece behind.  I felt it needed a frame so I die cut one from some scraps of silver card along with a few butterflies.  The sentiment was cut from the remaining piece of the purple card and the backing from some of the silver.  The card was then assembled and there you have it - a snippets card which not only fits this challenge but also just about does it for the Butterfly Challenge (only with the colour and the butterflies) but that should be enough to qualify I hope.

Oval panel - coloured using alcohol inks on Tim Holtz sparkle card
Oval frame - Oval die set from Tonic
Butterfly embossing - free embossing folder from some time ago
Butterflies - dies given away with magazine
Sentiment - dies from Tonic

...and Another Drop

While I had the alcohol inks out on my desk I decided to use them on some Yupo paper which I bought ages ago and which, to my shame, I'd never used for some reason.  I'm sure I'm not the only one guilty of buying things maybe at a show, bringing them home and promptly forgetting to actually use them.  Anyway I did enjoy my recent dabble with the alcohol inks and in this case once the surface was dry I popped a stencil onto it and applied a little of the blending fluid using the felt applicator - this had the effect of lifting off some of the ink to leave a pattern.  My next move was to find some scraps of white pearl card, the largest of which was coloured with the same shades of alcohol ink before die cutting a large oval.  Smaller dies were used to cut a frame and an oval to back the stencilled piece before layering it all together.  I wanted to make a feature of the stencilled pattern so have simply added a die cut sentiment with its own backing.  A linear design was added to the base card before adhering the ovals into place for this CAS style of card.

Ovals - die set from Tonic
Sentiment - Gemini die
Ranger alcohol inks and blending solution used