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Friday, 6 March 2026

Snippets Playground Challenge # 527

 Time for another new challenge in the Snippets Playground with some lovely prizes for a lucky winner. I'm not sure that the fussy cut images really count as Snippets because they were from a download and of course I had to use a whole piece of card in the printer but the background, parcels and tag were all cut from Snippets.  For the background I trimmed a large snippet to slightly smaller than the card blank before cutting a circular aperture using a tattered edge die, followed by cutting another tattered circle off centre from the fall out circle.  Next move was to emboss the larger circle (the one with the small aperture).  I then added thin foam strips to the back of the backing piece and adhered it to the base card, finally dropping the small and embossed pieces back into the recess which adds interest to the white on white background layer..  I then fussy cut the two pre-coloured  characters and die cut some parcels using toning snippets of card.  A little tag, decorated with a tiny punched flower and there it is - my offering for the latest Snippets Playground challenge.


Embossing - folder which was a magazine gift from several years back
Circle dies - an unbranded set from Amazon
Parcels and Tag - from Tiny Tag set of dies Craft Addiction UK
Characters - Jellybean and Pipkin coloured downloads from Craft Addiction UK
Tiny Flower - punch from Stampin' Up (long retired)

Tuesday, 3 March 2026

Daffodils

 I'm back again with more Spring flowers for the Tag-along and ATC challenge because, as usual, I cut and coloured too many flowers for my previous project and of course I have lots of the background strips to use as well.  This time I cut a tag using a punch which cuts a nice top shape and I also rounded the bottom corners as well to match.  I overstamped using a colour which would tone with the daffs; stamped and cut the word and added a stamped bird to the bottom corner.  The bottle to hold the flowers was coloured and then sparkled with a Wink of Stella pen although it's not easy to see the shimmer in the picture.  A toning ribbon was added.  I'm enjoying using these backgrounds and it's good to be using up some of my white left over strips of card in an interesting way.


Tag Top punch - from Stampin' up (probably retired)
Bottom Corners - rounded using an ancient X-cut punch
Daffodils - Gummiapan dies
Bird - a Lavinia small robin stamp
Bottle - Sizzix die from a set of three 666199 Freshly Picked
Beautiful Word - from Life is Beautiful Visible Image

Monday, 2 March 2026

Spring flowers

 Now that we are into March there is a new theme for the Tag-along and ATCs Challenge, very appropriately **Spring Flowers** or there is the *anything goes* option as usual.  I saw a video recently where someone had taken some strips of left over white card, taped them together and then prepared a sort of 'masterboard' by smooshing colour, stencilling and random stamping.  As I've gathered quite a number of strips when making my own card blanks I thought it would be a good idea to have a go and the resulting strips should be ideal for snipping into ATC blanks and small tags with ready prepared subtle backgrounds.

I've used one such piece for this ATC, trimmed to 1/4" smaller than the finished size, finally backing it with some toning green to make the finished ATC.  I cut a selection of Spring flowers, a tree trunk and some grass all from scraps of white card and set about colouring them using watercolour brush pens (Zig).  The twisty branch was cut from kraft and the fairy from black.  I typed the word 'Spring' into a text box using the computer and fussy cut.  I then spent some time moving the bits around until I was happy with the arrangement and then glued them in place. I have lots more of my inky strips left to make more Tags and/or ATCs - so much easier making a background on a larger surface rather than on fiddly small pieces.  I've added a link to the video below.


Spring Flowers - all dies from Gummiapan
Twisty Branch - also Gummiapan die
Tree Stump - from Playing in the Rain Stampin' Up (long retired)
Fairy - die from Craft Addiction UK Mini Fairy Garden set
Grass - die from Craft Addiction UK Hoppy Together set
Link to Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDS2q3ME4p0&t=15s