Snippets Playground Challenge #470

 For most of the year there isn't a particular theme for the Playground Challenge apart from the fact that we are encouraged to use up some of our snippets for whatever we take along each time, also showing either a photo of said snippets or explaining what we've used.  This time there is as usual a very generous prize on offer and a theme of *ANYTHING BUT CHRISTMAS*.  I must admit I'm more or less 'Christmassed Out' so it was lovely to make something different and of course to see what others come up with as well.  Certainly no shortage of snippets here because the pile never seems to diminish despite doing my best to use something from the 'mountain' before even thinking of cutting into whole pieces of card or paper 😉.  

The sunset die was still out on my desk along with a remaining snippet of the Pixie Powder background I used previously and in fact while making the first card the idea for this second one floated into my head. Again apart from using a ready made card blank everything else here came from my snippets collection - The coloured background snippet already mentioned; a piece of cream card trimmed to fit the card; really quite small snippets of black, kraft and brown for the cats, birds and tree.  Why not see what you can make for this challenge and pop along to the Playground with it.  Di and Sarn work tirelessly to keep this challenge going so it would be lovely for them to receive lots of lovely entries to show just how much their efforts are appreciated by us all 😊

 Birds - die set from Memory Box
Cats - die set from Impression Obsession
Sunset and tree - unbranded dies

Merry Christmas!

 It had to be done - Bunny has donned his Santa hat and popped along to help me send very good wishes to my loyal crafty friends and followers.  The fact that so many of you take time to comment means a lot to me.  

Peace and Joy throughout the World - now wouldn't that be wonderful

Blossom

 Hooray, a non-Christmas card 😊.  In my continuing quest to use up at least some of my accumulated snippets I pulled out a remnant of card which had been coloured using Pixie powders and decided to use it to back a die cut aperture of what I think is probably a sunset or even a sunrise.  Speaking of which the sky here was almost that colour at sunrise this morning, beautiful sight..  Anyway, back to the card - the next question was what to add to this for interest so I took out a couple of die sets and cut a branch and a selection of blossoms all cut using really small snippets.  A birthday sentiment was stamped and here we have a birthday card, relatively clean and simple.

Branch and Blossom - from two different Sizzix die sets
Sunset/Sunrise - unbranded die

A Jolly Snowman

I still have a few Christmas cards to share although I'm going to try and concentrate on more general cards as I don't think I need any more seasonal ones at present.  I just had to have a play with this jolly snowman, a die which sort of fell into my basket recently even though I didn't desperately need any more dies 😉.  He is popped onto a split background, the top part of which has been embossed with a snow effect.  The fur on his hat, the sentiment and the edge of the larger oval have all been treated to some Glamour Dust to give some sparkle.  Colouring was done using alcohol pens.

PS: I've just remembered I meant to take this one along to the Christmas Kickstart Challenge  #81where anything Christmassy is called for

 Oval dies - Tonic
Embossing Folder - an old Sheena Douglass one, no longer available
Snowman, Tree and HO, HO HO - unbranded dies

Ribbon Technique

 I've done my homework for the Snippets Playground latest challenge and apart from the card blank everything else used came from my Snippets collections.  I thought I'd try a twisted ribbon effect I'd spotted recently which looks quite effective although as it turns out was quite straightforward to achieve (thanks to YouTube).  I trimmed a snippet of white card into a strip to fit the height of my card blank and also cut some half inch strips of DSP in two designs for the 'ribbons' and set about gluing them in place  before cutting another strip of card in a toning green to back the border strip. I do like a technique which looks clever but isn't difficult to do 😉.  A snowman was stamped onto another white snippet, coloured and then cut out with an oval die.  This was backed with a red layer slightly larger.  A computer sentiment die cut into a banner shape and that's it - my Snippets homework completed and all from Snippets.  As usual some great prizes for a lucky winner at the end of the fortnight.

Papers for 'Ribbon' - Snippets of a retired Stampin' Up Christmas range
Snowman - stamp from a magazine gift set
Colouring - Polychromos pencils
Oval dies - Tonic
Sentiment - produced in Craft Artist on the computer

Playing I Spy

 The theme for the latest Allsorts Challenge is **I spy with my little eye, something beginning with 'B'** and after a bit of thought I decided to go along with B for BOOKS and also BIRTHDAY.  I started by die cutting and colouring the books followed by a bit of head scratching as to how I was going to put them onto a card, finally coming up with the idea of cutting a table to hold the open book.  I then cut an aperture in a square of card to fit my card and backed that with a piece of cream card on which I'd stamped a dictionary page which I thought was an appropriate background. The frame was popped up with foam tape and the table partially hidden behind.  Just a stamped a birthday greeting and that's it - my offering for the Allsorts challenge this week.  I imagine that if all these books were piled onto the table it might collapse under the weight 🤣🤣

Stitched effect Aperture - die from Paper Roses
Table - die from Gummiapan
Books - unbranded dies
Background - Dictionary page stamp from Stampin' Up (retired)

Snowy Scene

 Whilst I do enjoy making more elaborate cards, I find that many people much prefer to have cards which are flatter and therefore more economical to send through the post so I do try to make a mixture of both.  Looking through my stock I realised that many of mine are more suited for hand delivery so I've decided to go for some 'flatter' ones.  I've not added any words to this CAS one because there are people who don't celebrate Christmas as such but would still like to receive a card and this one speaks for itself 😉.

Curvy Die - unbranded
Background - printed from Artylicious Season's Greetings CD