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