Anniversary

This is just a quick post before I pop out to meet three crafty friends for some crafty chat, shopping and lunch - a good way to spend time I'd say.  I made this anniversary card for my box using a selection of Sue Wilson dies which are so handy for making such a variety of cards.

Snippets Week 206

The lovely Di has posted such a cute card on the Pixie Snippets blog this week - an adorable hedgehog in an oversized Santa hat and there are also some lovely picks from last week's entries.  one lucky winner will get the stamp too which has to be good. My offering this week is a card using an idea spotted in a recent magazine and I think if I used the technique again I would do it differently.  The background was achieved by using a border die to cut away the corners of a square, keeping the outer corner pieces, then cutting the border again from contrast card so that it could be inserted into the 'gaps' left.  The slight problem I found was that because the border strips seemed to have stretched slightly by being cut and embossed it wasn't too easy to set the pieces back to form a neat square again.  I liked the idea of having a partial border on the corners but would just cut them, lay them onto a whole background piece and trim away the surplus if I did this style another time.  I used some snippets of card to cut circles, stamping some flowers onto the white one and adding stamped and punched butterflies.  More snippets for the greeting and a few gems and that's my entry for this week.

Background paper - printed from Crafter's Companion CD (Downton collection)
Border Die - Signature die from Joanna Sheen
Floral Stamp - Stampin' Up
Butterflies - stamps and punches from Stampin' Up
Sentiment - computer generated on faux washi tape tag made using fancy scissors

One Layer for Christmas

I decided I'd have a play with some stamps to make a single layer Christmas card although I must admit to actually stamping onto a square piece of card which I attached to the card front once it was completed.  I'm sometimes not the cleanest of stampers and it is so annoying to be working on a whole card and find that there is a little smudge or maybe the greeting has somehow a bit askew - happens to everyone I imagine!!  I've done these scenes previously in monochrome but thought I'd go for a mix of colours this time for a change.

Wreath and Greeting - free stamps with Creative Stamping Magazine for December
Snowman, trees etc - stamps from Cardio

Out and About

I've not had much time for blogging this week because I've been out and about with my Son and his Wife who are on holiday.  Nothing madly exciting but we visited a large garden centre which has a huge display of Christmas related 'stuff' - amazing just how much there is around.  They also have a good restaurant so of course lunch was enjoyed and today we popped into a local gallery (with excellent coffee shop) to see a Christmas craft/art exhibition.  However I do have a card to share with you which was made using a free die which came with the Inspirations magazine from Crafter's Companion.  The papers and sentiment panel were printed from the CD with the same magazine.  I raided the oddments boxes to die cut a leafy spray and punched a few flowers from the left over paper.

Papers and Sentiment Panel - Downton Abbey range Crafter's Companion
Die - Edge die from Crafter's Companion cut within the panel rather than on the edge
Leaf Sprey - Sue Wilson die
Flowers - punch from Stampin' Up

Snippets Challenge

I've not used my usual number of snippets for this card but nonetheless they are still snippets and this type of card doesn't need to be too elaborate in my opinion.  The background has been embossed with a deco style design, the label on which the flowers are stamped is also a deco style and the green decorative elements also come from a die with a deco name.  All this is actually coincidental and I didn't realise it until I came to jot down the items used.  There is a great card and also some super pics from last week on the Snippets blog page so well worth taking a look.

Embossing - Creative Expressions Art Deco folder
Stamps - Wild about Flowers Stampin' Up
Dies - Deco labels SU and Deco Lattice by Sue Wilson (used twice behind the main label
Sentiment - Computer generated, SU punch and faux washi label cut with  fancy scissors

Flutterby

I have yet another butterfly card to share today using a variety of die cut butterflies with some pretty background paper printed from a free CD which came with Crafter's Companion Inspirations magazine.  It was printed onto some champagne pearlescent paper which has a lovely shimmer when seen for real although it doesn't really show up on the screen.  The winter seems to have arrived all of a sudden and today is wet and grey as well as being chilly although we've had two nice sunny days at the beginning of the week.

Background Paper - Crafter's Companion free CD
Butterflies - Crafter's Companion dies
Sentiment - Britannia Dies
Oval - Pierced ovals by Spellbinders

Retro Flower

I thought this flower stamp had a retro look about it and I've made a couple of cards by stamping it onto patterned papers, cutting out and assembling into 'paper piecing' designs.  That being the case this card is just the thing for Pixie Snippets challenge because apart from the background paper everything else has been made from snippets.

Background paper is from the remnants of a 6" pad - always a useful size because it doesn't leave much in the way of scraps apart from two narrow slivers which I actually didn't keep!  I die cut a label shape and stamped with wood grain pattern before adding the cut out 'plant' in its pot. Other scraps of card were used for the embossed panel, lacy border and the sentiment plaque.  The flower and leaves were stamped onto scraps of patterned paper and cut out with scissors.

Stamp - flower stamp set from Woodware, wood grain background Stampin' Up large stamp
Embossing - dots folder by Sizzix
Border - Lace design by Signature dies Joanna Sheen
Sentiment - computer generated on die cut shape Crealies die
Flower Pot - Signature die Joanna Sheen