A Flower for the Pixie Playground

This weeks seems to have disappeared very quickly and I've not managed to post anything since the last Snippets offering.  I've been busy sewing during the week but have managed to come up with a card for the Playground Challenge using a few bits and pieces from my desk.  The flower has been cut using a poinsettia punch just to show that it doesn't have to be kept just for Christmas cards as some really nice flowers can be made using it.  I had several odd scraps of white and aqua card which fortunately were large enough to cut all the elements on this card.  The background was a piece of paper from a pad which is nearly all used up now and the aqua layer behind isn't a whole piece of card because I cut the fancy square from it before putting it behind the patterned paper.

Dies - Sue Wilson Australian collection and Tattered Lace circles
Flower - punch and stamps from Stampin' Up.
Greeting - computer generated
Aqua card - actually Pool Party from Stampin' Up

Fabric Snippets

I hope you are all enjoying the Bank Holiday although the weather here isn't the best but at least it is relatively dry.  I have a project to show today which incorporates snippets of fabric so I hope Di won't mind if I post it on her challenge this week HERE.http://pixiescraftyworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/.  A note here to say that the link function seems to working differently today - don't usually get the address showing up like this but I imagine it will work!

However, on with the details of my make.  At our patchwork group meeting last week I was introduced to the 'jelly roll race' quilt which entails sewing all forty strips of a jelly roll together end to end, folding, cutting and repeating until you have a random quilt top which is reputedly very quick to make.  There are tutorials on You Tube and lots of pictures on Pinterest if you want to see what people have made.  I'm wondering if the effect would be as good using fat quarters (I have lots!) and cutting them into 2 1/2 inch strips but as that requires lots of measuring and cutting I might give that a miss on a large scale.  However I did a few calculations and worked out (hopefully correctly) how many strips I'd need to cut to make a randomly striped bag and as you can see my maths was right.  I finished up with a piece of fabric of the right size to make a handy shopping bag and I've shown both sides in the photos because of course they are different (there is no seam along the bottom) - the piece of striped fabric finished at approximately 16 1/2 x 25 inches.  Fabrics used were all from my collection of batiks and I quilted in the ditch along each seam before making the bag.

Butterfly Challenge

Well I think I've got my card made in time for the butterfly challenge HERE which this time around is Texture and/or Teal.  There are some brilliant examples from the design team for inspiration so why not take a look and then maybe have a go yourself.  I seem to have managed two posts today but I really didn't want to miss the challenge once I'd decided what I was going to make - so easy to miss deadlines!

For this card I've used (for texture) an embossing folder which was yet another freebie with a magazine.  It is embossed onto pearlescent card and then rubbed over with teal gilding wax which was also used to colour a spare piece of card so that I could make a mat and also punch out the flowers and butterflies.  Of course for the mat I only needed to wax around the edges.  The sentiment is also part of the same folder which is A6 size and includes the butterfly, sentiment and a little lace border which I've not used today.

EDIT - silly me there is another week before the end of this challenge so there is plenty of time if you do want to take part

Embossing Folder - magazine freebie - yes again!!
Flowers - punch from Stampin' Up
Butterflies - punches from SU

The Other One

Here is the second New Home card which I made; this time using a digital stamp coloured using alcohol pens with the addition of a little coloured pencil.  Papers are from my stash and I've added a fancy border with matching sentiment plaque.

Image - Digital stamp by Sassy Cheryl
Border and Plaque - Dies by Sue Wilson Australian Collection
Label dies - Spellbinders
Sentiment - produced on the computer

New Home Card

A friend asked me to make a New Home card which of course I was happy to do but I sometimes find these requests a bit daunting particularly as in this case when I think I know what the friend would like but have no idea of the identity nor the tastes of the recipients.  However I decided to go along with some stamping and die cutting to make this card which is a bit larger than my usual makes.  The stamp was coloured using pencils and I embossed and sponged some card in a brick pattern for the background before cutting a square frame and adding some stamped and die cut roses.  Fingers crossed it will meet with approval but I've also produced another card in a different style so that my friend can have a choice - watch this space.

Main Image - Chocolate Baroque stamps coloured using Coloursoft pencils
Background -  stone wall texture embossing folder Crafter's Companion
Frames - Noble Pierced Squares by Sue Wilson
Centre layers - dies by Sizzix for Stampin' Up
Roses - Alt & New stamps and die set - magazine freebie

Pixie Snippets Playground week 226

Sunday seems to have come around quickly - again - and time for another Snippets Playground card.  I've used some bits and pieces of patterned paper for the background to suit the image I printed after revisiting some of my many CD's which I'd not looked at for some time.  I tend to forget what great images there are to be found on them and they do deserve to be given an airing now and then to be reminded what resources I have at my fingertips.  As always Di has made a lovely card for us this week and also chosen her 'picks' from last week.  If like me you are of a 'certain age' or thereabouts you will enjoy reading what she has to say this week about several 'blasts from the past' - I remember them all!!

Anyway back to the present and here is my card - as I said, using up several snippets of paper and card along with a cute scarecrow image printed from one of my many (too many) CD's

Image - printed from a Polkadoodles CD Sundae of Seasons
Papers and card - snippets from my stash and scrap boxes
Dies - Spellbinders labels and Sue Wilson banners
Sentiment - Stamp and matching die from Stampin' Up

Would You Believe ...?

Would you believe it ... another crafty magazine hopped into my basket in the supermarket!!  This time it was so tempting because they were giving away a set of stained glass window stamps - four in all, with two sentiment stamps and a border embossing folder.  I've stamped and coloured one of the windows with alcohol pens; then decided to use some of the smaller square dies from a set to frame it.  Often I find that the smaller dies in the graded sets don't get used as much as the large ones. Next I cut some corners from scraps of card to match the inner frame before finishing off with some matching background paper and a larger frame.

Stamp - free with magazine and coloured with alcohol pens
Frames - Noble pierced squares by Sue Wilson
Corners - from Border and corner set also Sue Wilson
Sentiment - Stamp and matching Bitty banner die from Stampin' Up.