Temptation

 I'm afraid I succumbed to temptation and ordered a Mystery bag of retired dies and stamps at half price and whilst the monetary value was there the actual contents (inevitably I suppose) were not items I would have chosen to purchase and I have to say some of them have presented me with food for thought as to how I might use them.  Never mind - I do like a challenge and it keeps the brain ticking over 🤣.  Anyway I've used three of the small stamps along with others in my stash; a background die and some bits and pieces of patterned paper left from previous projects.  I think I've fathomed out a way of using one of the dies which started out as a complete mystery to me and when that card is finished I will post it.  Images were stamped and coloured using pencils.

Sentiment, Flowers and Birdhouse - from my stash, Stampin' Up (retired)
Cocktail,Chick and Bluebird - came from my Mystery bag (Gummiapan retired)
Background die - unbranded
Colouring - Polychromos pencils

Miscellaneous Bits and Pieces

 I have lots of sundry stamped and/or die cut bits and pieces which have accumulated over time and I think the time has come to either use them up or ditch them.  You might have guessed that I am reluctant to ditch anything which might be remotely useful so I'm going with the 'use it up' option before I  do anything too drastic 😊.  To this end I pulled out this cute donkey and the woodgrain circle; added a freshly stamped sentiment and die cut a slightly larger circle, all of which together with an offcut of patterned paper has come together for this fun card.  Voila! a fairly quick card and a very small proportion of my oddments used but it's a start.

DSP and stamps all retired Stampin' Up items

Torn Edges

 I was reminded of the torn paper technique recently in a post from the talented Sarn who is also hosting the current Snippets challenge this time.  You can see some of her torn paper cards HERE.  This technique is ideal for using up snippets of patterned papers (or indeed plain coloured card) - no shortage of paper in this house so I pulled out a few snippets and had a ripping time to produce this card for the current Snippets Playground challenge which is another special one with two bumper prize packages for the lucky winners.  It is a celebration to mark the 12 years that Di has been looking after the Playground challenge - that's a long time to have been working hard to make the Snippets Playground the happy place it is and recently she has been ably assisted by Sarn.  Such dedication and generosity certainly deserves a BIG THANKYOU 😊.  Because it is such a special occasion there is a theme alongside the usual Snippets requirement and , yes you've guessed, it's  CELEBRATION.🎈✨

For my card I found snippets of papers from a very old Papermania pad and selected some of the smaller pieces to tear so that the white core was showing, and a larger snippet to fit the card blank.  This  was topped with a larger white pearl snippet which had a circle cut out for the torn strips to be glued behind the aperture.  Snippets of the same pearl card were used to die cut the champagne glasses and the backing for the sentiment.  Finally a toning snippet of purple card was used to die cut the word and that's it - my Celebration card. 

Designer Paper - from an old Papermania pad
Sentiment - die from Tonic
Champagne Glasses - unbranded die

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