A New Technique (to me anyway)

Today's card is the result of my first foray into the technique of 'eclipse' cards and if, like me, you'd not heard of them there are several YouTube videos to show how it is done.  I decided to go fairly simple to start with and the patterned square was taken from my box of 'inky play' backgrounds made a while ago using Distress Oxide inks and acrylic paint for the random white lines - applied using the edge of an old credit card.  The large letter dies were lined up on the card and taped together so that hopefully I could keep them together to cut a second word from another piece of card to give the letters a bit of depth.  Once cut the patterned square with the 'letter-shaped) holes was stuck to a piece of purple card, leaving a border and  the birthday sentiment was stamped.  The two sets of letters were then stuck together carefully before popping them back into the gaps using foam pads.  Fortunately I had some die cut flowers in one of my pots which matched the background and a scrap of purple was used to die cut the leaves.

I will certainly be trying out some of the other ideas gleaned from YouTube but the only drawback is that the recipients need to have fairly short names otherwise the resulting cards would be so long that they wouldn't fit into the post box!!  My original intention was to make cards for two granddaughters with birthdays this week and guess what - their names both have way too many letters!!

Pixie Snippets Playground

Time to visit the Pixie Snippets Playground again and of course another opportunity to use up some of my snippets of card and paper along with a few bits and pieces such as odd die-cuts or the 'waste' from border punching which are left over from other projects and which I keep in little pots and boxes on my desk (sad or what??).  Quite often they aren't the right colour when I come to use them but fortunately this time I was lucky.

I acquired a little bee die recently and decided to build this card around that.  I coloured a snippet of card using Distress Oxide inks and then die cut a tag;  a scrap of orange card was cut in the same shape but slightly larger (no die for this piece);  the next move was to use a hexagon mixed  media die on a corner of the tag;  some different coloured snippets were used for flowers, leaves and the all important bee; a Distress ink marker was used for the stripes on the bee body and clear Wink of Stella applied to the wings;  most of the flowers and leaves were cut for this particular project from scraps but I've also used a few odd leaves and the tiny flower centres which were in the pots on my desk.  I had a scrabble through my huge pile of partially used paper pads and found an odd sheet suitable for the background layer and this was stamped with the sentiment - using the Misti for positioning.

I do look forward to this particular challenge each fortnight but, as I've said previously, the mountain of snippets doesn't seem to diminish!  I'm sure many of you will have lots of bits and pieces to use up so why not have a go at the challenge?  There is always a tempting prize on offer.  I wrote this yesterday but have now spotted what the prize is this time around - a super set of succulent stamps with matching dies.

Sizzix Dies - Tag and mixed media hexagon cut out
Stampin' Up - Botanical Builder Framelits die set
Sentiment - Apple Blossom Honeybee Heaven stamp set
Bee - dinky die from X-cut