New Year

Wishing you all a happy and healthy year in 2017

Christmas Greetings

I would like to wish all my friends and followers a very Happy Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.  Thank you to all who have left me lovely comments during the year - these are much appreciated and I will try to visit as many as possible in the coming months and try to post something on a fairly regular basis.

This card was made quite quickly using Craft Artist and I hope it will make you smile!

Not a Christmas card for the Playground

I've done with making Christmas cards for this year and am planing to tidy away all the seasonal bits and pieces littering my work space.  I've made a birthday card for the Pixie Snippets challenge this week for a chance to be included in the draw for the items which Di used to make her super Christmas card  - such a fun card and a great detailed explanation of how it was made.

For this card I've used up snippets of cream card mainly and also used a snippet from a sheet of card which had been coloured using Pixie Powders (how appropriate is that name?).  The large snippet of background paper has been sponged around the edge with Distress ink.  The border strip is built up from strips of the various papers/card and the floral border was also cut from the same cream pearl card and stuck behind the straight border.  I then found a snippet of purple card to die cut the flower spray, using the 'waste' to sponge a little detail onto the background.  An oval was cut from the Pixie powder piece and a tiny greeting stamped using black ink.

Background - script pape from Prima pad, sponged with some colour
Floral border die - Tonic dies
Flower spray - die by Sizzix
Oval - coloured using Pixie powders and die cut with Sizzix oval die
Sentiment - stamp from set by Personal Impressions

Owls

Today I'm sharing a picture of some owls which I've knitted ... and a hedgehog!  These were made as a bit of light relief from making Christmas cards and also stops me falling asleep in front of the TV!!  I had made another owl in blue but forgot to take a photo before giving him away and there is also a smaller hedgehog waiting to be stuffed and finished off (at 160 degrees for half an hour) - NO! NO! that is a joke, no animals were harmed here!!!  I even find myself apologising to them when sticking needles in to stitch them up.

A Change

I needed a change from making Christmas cards and last week a friend asked if I had a card suitable for a 91 year old man who is keen on cricket.  Needless to say I didn't have one readily to hand but said I'd see what I could do for her.  I'm pretty sure he won't be looking at my blog so thought it would be safe to pop it on here for the Pixie Snippets challenge this week.  I started with a large snippet for the background and sponged a bit of colour around the edges.  Next was a search through some of my many (too many) CDs for a suitable image and fortunately I found this one which I printed onto some smooth white card.  Various snippets were then used to die cut and punch some banners, die cut a circle for the sentiment and the birthday greeting was stamped before punching it into a small banner.  I've kept the layers fairly flat because I happen to know she doesn't like having to pay extra to post cards which are too deep - I just hope she likes what I've made because I'm not sure I know of any other 91 year old cricket fans!!

Image - printed from La Pashe CD which I've had for ages
Banners - Sue Wilson dies and Stampin Up punch (just punches the 'V' on a strip of card)
Circle - Stampin' Up stitched shapes die with computer numbers and words
Background - Snippet of Tim Holtz vintage shabby paper
Greeting - Stampin' Up stamp and banner punch

Penguins in the Playground

I've brought three jolly penguins to the Playground this week - a fun Christmas card using up a few of my snippets with a stamp from another magazine freebie set.  The prize this week is a jolly useful gadget to help in removing all the tiny pieces from intricate die cuts.  I'm only playing for fun because I already have one of these and can vouch for the fact that it does work.  I stamped the penguins onto snippets of white card, coloured using alcohol pens and all the cutting out is done with scissors.  The snowy ground is a snippet left from a sheet of glitter card and the 'sign board' was one of a few left on a sheet of digital 'tickets' downloaded and printed a few years ago.  The trees were die cut and I managed to find a piece of suitable background paper lurking in the stash.

Penguins and accessories - stamp from a magazine freebie set
Background Paper - Docraft from some years ago
Trees - Crafter's Companion die
Sign - from digital ticket sheet - download from Cuddly Buddly (I think) some years ago

Christmas Trees

I wouldn't say it is exactly warm today but certainly not as cold as it has been for most of this week - too cold for me to do much in the craft room at any rate.  However today I've had a little play (getting withdrawal symptoms) and made more cards to add to the Christmas box.  For this one I've used some stitched oval dies and stamped trees, lining them up onto a DL card - card shape I've not used for a while but as I have a good supply I might use some of them as a change from my more usual square format.  It is almost a week since I popped anything onto my blog but hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a Snippets offering.

Trees - Festival of Trees stamp set Stampin' Up (discontinued)
Sentiment and Snowflake - from free set of stamps (magazine)
Backing paper - free from magazine
Ovals - stitched shapes set from Stampin' Up (will be in their new catalogue I believe)

Snippets Baubles

Well that's another week gone whizzing by and it is time to visit the Playground again and as always there is a great card made by Di and as usual a prize on offer for one lucky person whose name gets pulled out of the hat.  Apart from the background paper, everything else on this card is cut from bits and pieces of kraft card and paper.  The baubles die only cuts the filigree layer but luckily I managed to find a circle die of just the right size amongst my 'collection' so that I could back them with some gold.  A gold pen was used to draw the 'strings' and a couple of stray red gems added to the bows.  After struggling with adding glue to this very fine bauble die cut I wish I'd remembered to add some 'Stick-It' to the back of the card before cutting them out.

Christmas Papers - from a pad which came free with a magazine
Baubles - dies by Marianne
Bows - cut using a punch from Stampin' Up
Layers - cut using Noble Pierced squares dies from Sue Wilson

Adding to the Pile

I'm still adding to my pile of Christmas cards and while going through some of my seasonal bits and pieces I came across this stamp which I won last year in one of the weekly draws at pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.com.  I stamped onto a scrap of watercolour paper and then again onto red and green patterned paper so that I could cut out the holly and numbers to paper piece them.  A simple card but nice and flat for easy posting.

Stamp - Woodware
Background - various papers from my stash

Pixie Snippets Playground

This week I'm taking  quilling to the Pixie Snippets Playground with something I took along to make at my weekly craft group last week and managed to complete yesterday.  I saw an article on the Quilling Guild website which inspired to make this little tea light table decoration.  Now that battery operated tea lights are so readily available there are many items made from paper or card which can safely be used whereas with the candle type great care is needed to ensure that the flame doesn't cause a fire.  In my opinion it would be nice if the battery ones could be made to look more like the candle type rather than the glaring white plastic appearance but I suppose they would cost too much to manufacture and anyway in many instances they aren't actually seen if they are inside something and used to give a 'glow'.

As always there is a lovely card for inspiration and a prize for the lucky person whose name is picked in the draw - so why not have a go or just make something and play along for fun; just follow the link.

Christmas Quilling

I spent a very enjoyable afternoon yesterday at a Quilling Workshop with Jill of Jill's Quills.  As I'd attended some of her classes in the past I asked if I could possibly have a go at making a three dimensional Santa which I'd spotted on her blog.  If you follow the link you will see her version and I'm showing you what I managed to achieve which is far from perfect and I'm hoping to get a better photograph when the light improves (pretty dismal this morning).  I'm also planning on having another go at making him - practice makes perfect they say!!  The other people were making snowflakes to pop into clear baubles as well as a selection of robins, holly and the like.  As I said before a really enjoyable afternoon and as always we came away with lots of interesting ideas.

Edited - The light suddenly improved so I was able to take a better photograph, should have waited really rather than posting earlier!!

Still Seasonal

I'm still going on with the Christmas cards while all the right bits and pieces are readily to hand and although these items are only used for a short time each year it is surprising just how much seasonal 'stuff' has accumulated over the years.  Each year I tell myself I don't need anything new but usually something or other takes my fancy and gets added to the pile.  The stamp used for the twig with berries is a new addition for this year with the poinsettia stamp and the backing papers were new before last Christmas.  The dies of course can be used any time of year although being cut out in red turns them into 'seasonal'.  Both sets of stamps are clear polymer which is handy because they all required double stamping - poinsettia was cut out with scissors.

Backing papers - Craftwork Cards pads from 2015, probably discontinued
Twig and Berries - Stamp from a recent magazine freebie set
Poinsettia - Stamp set from Stampin' Up 2015 Christmas catalogue
Banner - Stampin' Up die set
Circles - Tattered Lace dies

Seasonal Bear

Another Christmas card today using an image and some bits and pieces which were lying around on my desk.  The bear was triple stamped and the bow double stamped and punched out.  I then found some background paper and a sentiment border strip to make up the card, finally adding a couple of stray flowers and a swirl to match.  Purple seems an odd colour to use for Christmas cards but I seem to remember it was popular several years ago and I still have most of a paper pad  in those colours hanging around and it needs using.😍

Background - Papermania Christmas pad from a few years ago (Docrafts)
Bear - Stampin' Up polymer stamp set including the bow
Punch - Stampin' Up Holly punch
Flower and Swirl - from oddments on my desk

Pixie Snippets Playground

I promised you a card with lots of snippets today and here it is ready for the Playground this week - do take a look HERE to see what Di has made for us and to see some of the lovely picks from last week's entries.  As you see this is another Christmas card and the actual tree is made by cutting a 'tree shaped' triangle from green card and then layering LOTS of little die cut fir tree sprigs over it.  I added a die cut flower pot and star and then would you believe I raided a little box of 'waste' bits of all shapes rescued from punching out fancy borders, die cutting and the like (I usually save any useful looking waste), sad I know but at least some of them have now been used!!  Luckily a good rummage revealed some tiny red flowers and a few matching small shapes so that I could decorate the tree which was then layered onto a white snippet circle which had been embossed before cutting off a small section.  Some more slightly larger snippets of seasonal paper and card for the background, a banner sentiment and that's another card for the Christmas box which is filling up nicely.

Background - paper from pad free with magazine
Flower Pot - Joanna Sheen die
Greenery - die cut from small snippets of various green card using a free die
Sentiment - Stamp from Stampin' Up on die cut banner (Sue Wilson die)
Embossing Folder - Stampin' Up

Trees

I'm still on a roll with Christmas cards and this is another fairly simple stamped one using a stamp with matching die for the scene and trees and a silhouette one from another set for the Santa flying across the sky.     I started by stamping the scene and colouring in the trees before masking off the lower portion to brush ink across the sky area.   A few pine sprigs were stamped around the top and the silhouette Santa stamped in the sky.  The trees were then die cut and embossed before adding embossing ink to the raised areas and heat embossing using white detail powder.  A touch of glitter on the snow in the background and that's it.

I've been playing around this morning with a serious amount of snippets as well so watch out for the resulting card tomorrow.

Scenic Stamp - Creative Expressions designed by Sheena

Santa and Reindeer - from a set of seasonal Cardio stamps

Pine boughs - from a  free set of  Christmas stamps

Trees - Die from Creative Expressions

Nearly Tempted

I spotted a magazine article which was of course tempting people to buy a set of stamps at the very least and almost succumbed when I remembered I had a set of polymer stamps which could be used for my version of the idea.  Although these stamps are basically floral they aren't actual flower images, rather they are a set of separate images of quirky petals, leaves, seed pods and the like which can be built up into all manner of designs.  I started with some white card and stamped a little border along the top, then built up a flower - these areas were then masked off before creating the background using powder colours, spritzed with water and once dry the addition of some distress ink around the edges.  Once dry the masks were removed and a little detail added to the flowers using  coloured pencil.  The stamps have a companion CD so I printed off a couple of the backing papers, cut them down to size and added a simple greeting.  This was fun to do and due to the random nature of the powder pigments there is no way it can be repeated exactly but it was fun to do and I have a few more ideas ready to be tried.

Stamps - Lavender Tea set with companion CD from Polkadoodles
Pigment Powders - Pixie Powder from Cosmic Shimmer

Robin

Another quick Christmas card for the box, this time using a robin stamp which has been coloured with  watercolour brush pens.  I'm trying to keep my Christmas cards fairly flat because of the extra postage for anything with a bit more dimension.  There is some glitter on the snowy branch but not sure it shows up here.

Background paper from a free pad
Image - Creative Expressions stamp by Sheena Douglass
Colouring - Zig Clean colour fine tip brush pens
Die Cut - Sue Wilson Noble s Pierced squares

Santa and Rudolph

Two days in a row, how's that for blogging?  I've had this stamp for ever - well ever since the early days of stamping when it was possible to buy 'grab bags' of unmounted stamps which were always great value and a very varied selection.  To think that I used to buy the  double sided sticky foam to mount them and cut and sand my own wooden blocks from scraps of timber - unmounted stamps were unheard of then and as for clear polymer, certainly none around. I reckon I'm talking some 15 years ago - how things have moved on if we stop to think about it.

Anyway back to the card - the image was stamped and coloured using coloured pencils and the card was finished with a banner and sentiment mostly using up oddments of kraft card, all onto a piece of printed background paper.

Background - from a paper pad by Craftwork Cards 2015 I think
Image - stamp of unknown source in a grab bag probably over 15 years ago!
Colouring - Coloursoft pencils
Banner - dies from Stampin' Up

Pixie Snippets Playground

I've just realised I've not posted anything since the card for the Playground last Sunday - this week has just disappeared without me noticing where it went.  For my card this week I used a fairly large snippet of Centura pearl card which has been embossed using a free folder which came with a magazine some time ago and which I understand was so popular that it actually went into general production and was bought by lots of people - not surprised really, I love it.  The embossed piece was sponged with blue ink and the flowers were stamped using the same colour.  I also sponged a smaller snippet of pearl card to cut out the sentiment.  I had these leaves lying around from another project so they came in handy to finish off the card.

Today started with blue skies and sunshine, albeit a frost as well but I'm so glad I went for a nice walk this morning because by lunchtime it had come over really dark with rain and I don't think the forecast is too promising for the next couple of days - good crafting weather though.

Embossing Folder - free with magazine
Flowers - Flower Shop by Stampin' Up with matching pansy punch
Sentiment - Crafter's Companion die
Banner - Sue Wilson die
Leaves - from Jar of Love die set Stampin' Up

Floral Corner

I'm still working my way through the master board, only a tiny piece left after this fairly large snippet was cut to fit a die cut square left over from another project.  If I'm honest I should admit to the fact it wasn't really left over. I actually didn't realise until I'd finished the card  that I'd completely forgotten to add one of the layers!!  Never mind at least this means that I had some bits and pieces to complete a card for this week's Snippets challenge in the Playground.  A piece of the master board was trimmed to fit this dark red layer.  I found a larger snippet of design paper which matched and then set about stamping a selection of flowers onto some of my mountain of small  scraps.  These were then punched and arranged onto a couple of die cut swirls. I've not added a sentiment for the moment but probably will eventually - always handy to have a few 'neutral' cards to hand.

As always there is some great inspiration in the Playground and also a link to a mirror stamping technique - useful if you happen to be lucky with this week's prize!!

Flowers - stamped and punched using Stampin' Up stamps and matching punches
Flower Centres - Cosmic Shimmer dimensional pearl 'glue'
Master Board - made using gesso, distress inks with stencils and stamps

Robin

Here is another of the little critters I've made using the free dies recently acquired.  This time it is a robin so naturally it's another card for the Christmas box.  He has simply been popped onto some embossed and die cut circles with papers from my stash and a stamped greeting.  It is still fairly early but so far it looks as if we are in for one of those horrible dark and grey days - not nice!

Circles - Tattered Lace dies
Banner - Sue Wilson die
Robin - built from scraps using free dies from magazine

Snowman in a Bottle

I've no idea how long it takes to put a ship into a bottle but I must say it took me a while to get this little chap placed within his snowy landscape.  There was die cutting, stamping and masking to think about and in the right order but after a couple of false starts I succeeded.  The idea came to me out of the blue yesterday evening so I had a play this morning before I forgot what I'd been thinking about. Details of items used are below.

Jar and Lid - Jar of Love set by Stampin' Up
Snowy Scene - Stamps from Cardio
Snowman - Love Never Melts from Wild Rose Studio
Sentiment - from free set of Christmas stamps
Background Paper - from free pad with magazine
Square Die - Sue Wilson Noble Pierced Square die

Something for Christmas

One of the tempting magazines which I bought recently featured some lovely digital designs from Pink Gem and I've used one of the reindeer ones on this card - another one for the Christmas box.  The company also do stamps and other crafty items so well worth checking them out if you NEED something new to spark your creativity.  The background paper is from my stash of paper pads which seem to last me for years so I'm not sure how old it is and the smaller blue paper was in one of my scrap boxes along with some toning blue card to back the image.  A die cut snowflake and a greeting which came with the image and that's it really.

It is so dark and dreary today, also raining so you can probably guess what I might be doing rather than venturing out.

Image - digital download from Pink Gem Designs

Card and Paper - from my stash

Snowflake - free die from magazine

Playground Time

Well I must say that the Snippets Challenge seems to come around so quickly but luckily my friend Anne delivered the goodies which had tempted me at the recent Stampin' Up event so I have something new to use which is always fun.  There were lots of jobs I should have been doing yesterday but once I'd had lunch I decided to have a little play to see what I could make with this stamp set and matching dies.  There is almost too much in these packets - no less than 37 stamps - and I found it difficult to choose which to start off with.  Eventually I settled on a straightforward jar of flowers which involved some double stamping and die cutting - of course using up snippets of card in the process.  Some larger snippets of design paper were used for the background and oddments of card for the corners and greeting.  I have a feeling that it might be a good idea to stamp and cut out a good selection of the jars, flowers and so on in this set so that I can then pick and choose, playing around until I come up with an interesting idea. Sometime when inspiration goes missing it is handy to have a selection of die cuts to 'audition' until something just looks right although I must say that many of my ideas come to mind when I'm out walking (and thinking).

Do take a look HERE to see what inspiration there is this week in the Playground where you can also check out last week's picks.

Jar of Flowers - Jar of Love set from Stampin' Up, stamps and dies
Label - Deco label  from SU embossed with Cuttlebug folder
Background papers - also Stampin' Up
Corner Punch - Stampin' Up

Butterflies

It is time again for a butterfly challenge on Mrs A's blog HERE and this time the alphabetical theme is  HOOPS AND/OR HAREBELLS  which I've loosely translated as circles and blue on my card.  I found a pretty piece of blue paper as a background then cut two scalloped circles from pearl card, one of which I embossed with a butterfly design and the other was sponged with blue distress ink.  Two circular shaped die cuts were added behind the main image to continue the theme.  I bought this die set some time ago as a 'must-have' and this is actually the first time it has been used!!  Finally I die cut some butterflies, again sponging with the same blue ink.  Do take a look at the challenge blog to see some great inspiration for this challenge - well worth a look and there is a themed prize too.

Scallop Circles - Tattered Lace dies
Butterflies - Crafter's Companion dies
Circular embellishments - Tattered Lace dies
Embossing Folder - Docrafts

Simple Card

Because I had quite a lot of my recently made master board left I was able to make this quick card by die cutting a lacy square and simply adding a sentiment in the centre.  There is still enough left for at least one more card when I decide how to use it.

Master Board - made using gesso, distress inks and various stencils and stamps
Sentiment - computer generated, oval punch and die cut
Fancy Frame - Tonic die set Twisted Twine Square

More Christmas

I seem to be on a roll with Christmas cards at the moment so while the right colours of scraps were to hand I quickly cut out the sentiment,  sleigh and deer from various freebie dies as well as stamping, colouring and cutting out the Santa from a free stamp set - coloured using alcohol pens.  A sky background and another strip of glitter paper for snow, job done!

Love Never Melts

I received my lovely prize during the week so of course just had to have a play ready for this week's Pixie Snippets challenge.  As usual there is another great card to inspire you made by the lovely Di using the prize on offer this time around for one lucky person - remember 'you have to be in it to win it' so why not have a go??

Anyway on to my card which was made using a selection of snippets from my 'bits boxes' and some which were littering my desk (I'm so untidy)!!  The background was a fairly large snippet from a seasonal paper pad from many years ago - I'm a hoarder too.  The stormy sky was die cut from an experimental piece using Pixie powders onto water colour paper - falling snow added with a white pen.  I also cut another circle from some glitter paper and trimmed it for the ground, adding a few die cut trees.  The 'main event' is the  snowman which was of course the stamp and die set which I won - so cute.

Stamp and Die Set - Love Never Melts by Poppy stamps
Banner - Sue Wilson die
Background - Papermania paper from several years back
Circles - Tattered Lace dies
Pixie Powders - Cosmic Shimmer black

Getting Inky

Earlier this week I decided to make a master board using gesso, distress inks and a selection of stencils and stamps. There are several tutorials on YouTube if you're not sure how to go about this technique.  I've definitely come to the conclusion that if you want to know anything about a particular method or technique there is more often than not a choice of videos on You Tube for guidance.

 I've often done inky backgrounds but always worked on smallish pieces of card but this time I went for the whole A4 sheet which would give me a good amount to incorporate into several cards.  This is the first one which has only used three narrow strips so there is plenty remaining.  I thought the background needed to feature so just added a sentiment on some die cut shapes.

Rectangular dies - Tonic Studios
Stamp - Stampendous
Central motif - Sue Wilson dies

Upcycling

A bit of upcycling today using a well read paperback book from the charity shop and yes I know there are people who throw up their hands in horror at 'defacing' books.  I am a lover of books to read but when you can produce something decorative using one which has probably been read many, many times and  has done the rounds of the charity shops I feel it is OK.  There are lots of tutorials on YouTube giving ideas of things to make by folding book pages and I chose to make a Christmas candle which incorporates a battery tea light.  It must be stressed that you MUST NOT in any circumstances use a normal candle tea light otherwise the whole thing could go up in flames with potentially disastrous consequences.

After all the folding I simply added a strip of card around the 'candle' and added a die cut fancy label with gold leaves and a die cut poinsettia.

Leaves - Sizzix dies
Poinsettia - Sue Wilson die set

Small Card

Last Saturday I attended a lovely Stampin' Up extravaganza day where we made some great seasonal projects - you can see some pictures HERE.  As part of the day we received a stamp set as well as all the card etc to make the projects.  I've used one of the stamps from the set and the matching punch to make this tiny card (4 inches square), layering up a couple of the punched holly leaves and berries on top of the sprig of holly which was cut out with scissors.

Stamps - Holly Berry Happiness Stampin' Up with matching punch for bow, leaves and berries
Square - Sue Wilson Noble Pierced squares die
Greeting - Britannia Die

Pixie Snippets Week 250

I have another of the cards made from the freebie dies which is ideal for the Pixie Snippets challenge this week.  As usual Di has made a lovely card to inspire us and to showcase the prize which could be yours in the luck of the draw.  I've been very lucky that my name popped out of the 'hat' for a prize last week so I will soon have something exciting and new to use.

Anyway on to my card where I used the dies to cut out various snippets of card and made a little gingerbread person.  The circles, border and banner were all cut from snippets found in my 'bits' boxes and the Christmassy backing paper is from my stash.

Circle Dies - Tattered Lace, white one embossed (Stampin' Up folder)
Gingerbread Figure - using magazine freebie dies
Border - EK Success punch
Banner - Sue Wilson die
Greeting - from a Stampin' Up Christmas set

...further Progress

Yesterday I downloaded the next instalment of the carousel blanket - a series of sixteen multi-coloured pentagons to surround the work done so far.  These are joined as you go along (with the final round of each pentagon) - a method with which I could be quite adept by the end of this project even though at the moment it is completely new to me.  There are actually sixteen colours in all in this project and I've chosen to go along with the ones chosen by the designer but there are so many variations appearing from bright to vintage to pastel and everything in between - brilliant.

Progress on the Carousel Blanket

The second section of this blanket is now completed, all sixteen sections crocheted and joined together with the section one motif in the centre.  I'm very much looking forward to the third set of instructions which are available today to continue extending this blanket outwards.  As far as I know it will be around 60 inches across when completed and obviously each section is larger than the last so will probably take longer to make than the ones already done.  That said, the red and cream section seemed to be taking me forever but I was determined to get it done before starting the next part.

Butterfly Challenge

An interlude in the Christmas card making today with something for the current Butterfly Challenge
where the theme is WHITE ON WHITE with the added extra of wire (for the letter 'W').  I've just gone for the white on white this time and have used mostly die cuts with some embossing.  I was reminded that I had this die set by seeing a beautiful card made by a friend HERE - thanks Anne, it is so easy to forget what die sets are in the drawer!!  I've not added any words on the front at this point and probably won't because I can always put a message on the insert.

White on White isn't the easiest to reproduce in a good picture as I'm sure you know

Embossing Folder in Background - Sue Wilson Pin Point design
White Square - Noble Pierced Squares dies, Sue Wilson
Smaller Squares - Plain and fancy from Sue Wilson New York die set
Butterfly - Sizzix dies

As Promised...

...here is one of the cards I've made using the dies which came as freebies with my second magazine purchase and because these only need quite small scraps of card they are very apt for the Snippets challenge.  There are seemingly lots of possibilities for making a variety of 'critters' of one sort or another, mostly suitable for Christmas but I'm sure with a bit of imagination they will come in for other occasions too.  I sat down one evening with my lap tray, my little Sapphire machine and some of my 'bits' boxes and cut out quite a lot of pieces in various colours which I then built up into some seasonal characters including penguin, robin, gingerbread man, reindeer and a Santa which I wasn't happy with so will have to try again with him.

I've chosen to show you a penguin today and he has been popped onto an oval of white card which was just lying around waiting to be embossed with a snowy effect.  Background paper came from my seasonal stash and the wavy die cut was a stray left over from a previous project.  Another small snippet was used to die cut the greeting.

As usual there is another great card showcasing this week's prize on the challenge blog so why not take a look HERE and maybe make something to use up some of your snippets.

Penguin - using die set which came free with magazine
Snowy Oval - Stampin' Up embossing folder
Wavy Lines - Swirly Scribbles die set Stampin' Up
Sentiment - Britannia dies

Magazine Freebies

I've been quite good recently in avoiding going to near the craft magazines in the supermarket and/or newsagent but I'm afraid I succumbed to temptation during the week - not once but twice and both times with Christmas related dies.  I actually make very few Christmas cards and had told myself that I should use what I already have (ample supplies I assure you) but I was tempted by this woodland scene die.  I started by cutting it out using an offcut of Centura Pearl card, followed by cutting again with kraft card and green card (this time using scraps as I only needed the stag and tree).  The background was a piece of watercolour paper which I had coloured during a messy session with Brusho colours - always a good idea to make quite a few pieces of various colours suitable for backgrounds.  I had a frame left over from another project which just happened to fit the die cut which was really handy so the whole thing was assembled onto a piece of seasonal background paper which is actually a much better match to the 'sky' than it appears in the photo.

Pop back again tomorrow to see what tempted me to buy the second magazine!!  At least these purchases have spurred me on to make a few Christmas cards.

Background paper - from my stash bought some years ago
Frame - Sue Wilson Noble pierced squares dies
Image - die given away free with magazine
Sky behind stag - watercolour paper with Brusho

Playground Time

It is time to visit the playground again HERE to post another  card which this week is entirely made from snippets.  Background is a snippet of whitewash card which has been embossed and sponged with ink; the hexagons were cut from scraps of shabby vintage paper; centre one is a contrasting scrap of card with a sentiment stamped onto yet another small white hexagon; finally three flowers were punched from the remnants of shabby vintage card. ...and still my pile of scraps doesn't diminish!!

Embossing folder - Crafter's Companion
Dies - Crafter's Companion
Flowers - punch from Stampin' Up

An Ongoing Crochet Project

I've embarked on a crochet blanket project using Stylecraft Yarns and with instructions being available to download over a period of time.  You can see details HERE - part one was available a week ago with part two following yesterday; next instalment due 4 October.  My local store is featuring the colourful yarns shown on the promotional leaflet but of course this could be made in any number of versions depending on your colour preferences.  In fact there are quite a few variations appearing around the internet already.  I decided to go with the bright Carousel colours and immediately made the central motif which was the first instalment.  I've now started on the second section which is a series of segments which all have to be joined and attached to the central motif - photo shows just the first two sections laid out for the moment because these will take me a while to make  and join all sixteen of them.   I did have a spot of bother with their instructions for joining the sections together and eventually gave up and simply joined them in my own way with double crochet (single crochet for American viewers).

I'm already looking forward to seeing what the next set of  instructions brings!!

Christmas Snippets

It seems to be a case of 'great minds think alike' in the Playground this week because Di was reminding us of how many (or few) sleeps there are to the big day!!  Yesterday I was playing around with some quilling and these two baubles evolved and as the backgrounds were punched from snippets of white card I decided to pop them on here for the challenge this week.  Only the two snippets unless you count the pieces of quilling paper in which case there are more - I'm not counting though.

I punched the bauble shapes before embossing with a snowflake embossing folder.  I then made the holly leaves, berries and little gold bells for one and added a poinsettia for the other - all made using 2mm papers.  These would be handy for gift tags or they might well be incorporated into cards in due course.

There is some nifty paper piecing from Di and a lovely selection of picks from last week's entries so well worth taking a look at the Snippets blog - a great prize on offer too as usual.

Baubles - punch from Stampin' Up
Embossing - Cuttlebug snowflake folder
Quilling Designs - 2mm papers from my stash

Snowflake

It would appear that most crafters are well into thinking about Christmas by now and last weekend I spotted my friend Jill of Jill's Quills at a local show demonstrating some of her quilling.  She had a series of clear plastic baubles containing a variety of snowflakes so of course I had to treat myself to some of the empty baubles so that I could have a go and this is one of the ones I've made.  As you can imagine these are not the easiest things to photograph and I just couldn't get it to hang facing the right direction for the camera.  I resorted to standing it on a small flower pot and even that isn't the best of photos because of the reflections but hopefully you can see the general idea.  I might carefully take it out of the bauble later to get a picture of the actual snowflake to see the detail so watch this space!

EDITED:  I decided against removing this snowflake from its bauble but I've made another one of a different design using silver paper this time.  It is now ready to be inserted into another bauble.

Something Different for Pixie Snippets

I have something a bit different for the Pixie Snippets Playground this week and fortunately the lovely Di welcomes 'makes' which aren't always cards or other paper projects.  I like to have a bit of knitting or crochet on the go to pick up of an evening - mainly to stop me from falling asleep in front of the TV programmes which I must say are often less than riveting!!  I've been using up oddments (or snippets) of coloured yarns to make this small blanket but of course as is always the way I have had to buy an odd ball or two to supplement what I already had, thus making even more left overs - sigh!!!  A friend sends small quilts and crochet blankets/throws to a Children's Hospice so I will be passing this one on to her - the next one is about to be started with the current pile of leftover yarns.  The pattern for this 'wavy' design came from Attic 24 and is quite easy to make.

We've had thunder storms this morning and I think I can hear the odd rumble again so I hope your weather is better than it is here.

The Playground

I've not visited the playground lately - at least not to post a card although I do take a look most days to see what others have been doing.   I've been tempted to enter the Snippets challenge inspired the beautiful card made by Di this week using the great  prize on offer.   My card was made a while ago using up bits and pieces from my left overs boxes.  The background is the last remnant from a session using wax resist and embossing folders; the square white frame was left from a previous project and the flower wreath and cameo lady cut from white snippets and placed on an oval cut from another snippet pattern paper.

Wax resist panel - Sue Wilson Embossing Folder
Square Frame - Tonic nesting scalloped squares dies
Wreath - die given away free with magazine
Cameo - Tonic die
Pattern Paper - Tim Holtz vintage shabby

Large Bow Bag

I've spent my Sunday morning stitching this Bow Bag which is from one of the patterns on Debbie Shore's High Style Handbags CD.  This one has longer shoulder straps and is quite a bit larger than some of the others I've made.  The fabric used is what I had left over from making a mystery quilt a few years ago (only just about completed) - I finished putting the top together at the time using the monthly 'mystery' instalments and then I'm afraid I put it away instead of getting on with the quilting.

 Anyway back to the bag - this one took a bit longer to put together because of having to make the various components for the bow and the handles, all of which are made in such a way that they have contrast fabric showing on their edges.  I quite like the effect this gives and is an idea which could easily be incorporated into other projects.

Still into Bag Production!

Last Thursday I spotted a 'quick and easy' bag on Debbie Shore's sewing programme at Hochanda. It is called a Hippie Hobo Bag and is a soft slouchy style with ties for fastening and also for the handles which means of course that the length can be adjusted easily.  The ties can be either fastened onto metal or plastic rings (as here) or could simply be knotted together.  The fabric used is from a charity shop curtain and luckily I had some plain pink cotton for the lining to match the roses.  The lining is longer than the actual bag so that it forms a border around the top edge and I also added a floral pocket on the inside.

Stitched Snippets

My contribution to the Snippets Playground this week is yet another bag made from fabric snippets.  I spent a whole morning during the week searching for some fabric which I just knew I had (needed it to complete a quilt which has lain unfinished for a while) and in the process uncovered lots of items I'd not seen for many moons.  Some odd strips of blue fabric came to light which I thought could maybe combined to make a bag so I set about working out how they could be arranged and this is the result.  Incidentally, just when I despaired of actually finding what I was looking for it came to light in the last - and least likely - place I looked!!

As usual there are some great 'picks' from last week and a lovely humming bird card to see if you pop over to the playground.

A Bit More Stitchery

I've been doing a bit more stitching in an effort to use up some of my fabric mountain.  These little hanging storage pouches feature on Debbie Shore's Country Kitchen project CD and actually come in three sizes.  I started with the largest of the three but completely forgot to take a photo before I gave it away.  However today I've made the medium and small ones using up some quite small scraps of fabric and equally small pieces of wadding mostly left overs from layering up quilts because of course I can't bear to throw away the offcuts, knowing they will come handy someday!

The hearts are simply raw-edge shapes stitched on with a straight stitch and I finished off both of these little pockets by making  fabric yo-yo's from the same fabric and hand stitching them on with some ribbon and a button - yes I have a button mountain as well!!  Debbie's  patterns are so easy to understand and once the pieces are cut out the pouches are quite quick to make so I will probably be making a few more for the sales table at our next quilt exhibition.  The lining fabric on the blue one is actually a good match for the main fabric but because it has gold patterns on it hasn't photographed too well.

Butterfly Challenge 59

It is time for another challenge incorporating butterflies and the theme this time is PINK AND/OR PUNCHES - you can see the details and some inspiration HERE.  I started by colouring some watercolour paper with what I call the 'kitchen towel mop-up method' which I saw described on Loll's blog HERE - such a great idea which gives a subtle effect.  I then over stamped in pink using a magazine freebie  art nouveau stamp before die cutting the two panels.  I then cut a fancy oval from another piece of the coloured paper, adding a swirl cut from a scrap of Centura Pearl card.  The butterflies were stamped in pink on the remaining scraps of the coloured background paper, they were then cut out using matching punches.  Behind all this is a piece of pink paper from a pad which I've had for some time and luckily it just fitted the bill here.

Background - Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby

Border Stamps - Art Nouveau designs free with magazine

Dies - Panels by Tonic, Oval by Sue Wilson, Swirl also Sue Wilson

Butterflies - Papillon Potpourri stamps and matching punches by Stampin' Up

Found some More Snippets!

I received this lovely bear stamp set yesterday and wanted to have a play - he was triple stamped on a snippet of white card using three different colours of ink and his bow tie was also done in a similar way as was the balloon he is holding.  Details of colours and stamps are shown below.  I had quite a few surplus die cuts left from the card I made for the Snippets Challenge a couple of weeks ago and have managed to incorporate some of them into the card for this week..  The brown layer was also a piece of 'waste' from a square frame which was die cut quite a while ago and the greeting was cut from more snippets of the turquoise card. I'm still surprised that my piles of snippets never seems to diminish despite using them whenever I can.

There is a pretty teatime/butterfly card to see and also of course the opportunity to be entered into a draw for a lovely prize if you pop over to the Playground to take a look (just follow the link above).

Stamps - Baby Bear and Balloon Celebration from Stampin' Up
Greeting - Britannia die
Die Cuts - Swirly Scribbles from Stampin' Up
Colours - So Saffron, More Mustard, Tempting Turquoise SU; Rich Cocoa Memento