Santa and Rudolph

Two days in a row, how's that for blogging?  I've had this stamp for ever - well ever since the early days of stamping when it was possible to buy 'grab bags' of unmounted stamps which were always great value and a very varied selection.  To think that I used to buy the  double sided sticky foam to mount them and cut and sand my own wooden blocks from scraps of timber - unmounted stamps were unheard of then and as for clear polymer, certainly none around. I reckon I'm talking some 15 years ago - how things have moved on if we stop to think about it.

Anyway back to the card - the image was stamped and coloured using coloured pencils and the card was finished with a banner and sentiment mostly using up oddments of kraft card, all onto a piece of printed background paper.

Background - from a paper pad by Craftwork Cards 2015 I think
Image - stamp of unknown source in a grab bag probably over 15 years ago!
Colouring - Coloursoft pencils
Banner - dies from Stampin' Up

Pixie Snippets Playground

I've just realised I've not posted anything since the card for the Playground last Sunday - this week has just disappeared without me noticing where it went.  For my card this week I used a fairly large snippet of Centura pearl card which has been embossed using a free folder which came with a magazine some time ago and which I understand was so popular that it actually went into general production and was bought by lots of people - not surprised really, I love it.  The embossed piece was sponged with blue ink and the flowers were stamped using the same colour.  I also sponged a smaller snippet of pearl card to cut out the sentiment.  I had these leaves lying around from another project so they came in handy to finish off the card.

Today started with blue skies and sunshine, albeit a frost as well but I'm so glad I went for a nice walk this morning because by lunchtime it had come over really dark with rain and I don't think the forecast is too promising for the next couple of days - good crafting weather though.

Embossing Folder - free with magazine
Flowers - Flower Shop by Stampin' Up with matching pansy punch
Sentiment - Crafter's Companion die
Banner - Sue Wilson die
Leaves - from Jar of Love die set Stampin' Up

Floral Corner

I'm still working my way through the master board, only a tiny piece left after this fairly large snippet was cut to fit a die cut square left over from another project.  If I'm honest I should admit to the fact it wasn't really left over. I actually didn't realise until I'd finished the card  that I'd completely forgotten to add one of the layers!!  Never mind at least this means that I had some bits and pieces to complete a card for this week's Snippets challenge in the Playground.  A piece of the master board was trimmed to fit this dark red layer.  I found a larger snippet of design paper which matched and then set about stamping a selection of flowers onto some of my mountain of small  scraps.  These were then punched and arranged onto a couple of die cut swirls. I've not added a sentiment for the moment but probably will eventually - always handy to have a few 'neutral' cards to hand.

As always there is some great inspiration in the Playground and also a link to a mirror stamping technique - useful if you happen to be lucky with this week's prize!!

Flowers - stamped and punched using Stampin' Up stamps and matching punches
Flower Centres - Cosmic Shimmer dimensional pearl 'glue'
Master Board - made using gesso, distress inks with stencils and stamps

Robin

Here is another of the little critters I've made using the free dies recently acquired.  This time it is a robin so naturally it's another card for the Christmas box.  He has simply been popped onto some embossed and die cut circles with papers from my stash and a stamped greeting.  It is still fairly early but so far it looks as if we are in for one of those horrible dark and grey days - not nice!

Circles - Tattered Lace dies
Banner - Sue Wilson die
Robin - built from scraps using free dies from magazine

Snowman in a Bottle

I've no idea how long it takes to put a ship into a bottle but I must say it took me a while to get this little chap placed within his snowy landscape.  There was die cutting, stamping and masking to think about and in the right order but after a couple of false starts I succeeded.  The idea came to me out of the blue yesterday evening so I had a play this morning before I forgot what I'd been thinking about. Details of items used are below.

Jar and Lid - Jar of Love set by Stampin' Up
Snowy Scene - Stamps from Cardio
Snowman - Love Never Melts from Wild Rose Studio
Sentiment - from free set of Christmas stamps
Background Paper - from free pad with magazine
Square Die - Sue Wilson Noble Pierced Square die

Something for Christmas

One of the tempting magazines which I bought recently featured some lovely digital designs from Pink Gem and I've used one of the reindeer ones on this card - another one for the Christmas box.  The company also do stamps and other crafty items so well worth checking them out if you NEED something new to spark your creativity.  The background paper is from my stash of paper pads which seem to last me for years so I'm not sure how old it is and the smaller blue paper was in one of my scrap boxes along with some toning blue card to back the image.  A die cut snowflake and a greeting which came with the image and that's it really.

It is so dark and dreary today, also raining so you can probably guess what I might be doing rather than venturing out.

Image - digital download from Pink Gem Designs

Card and Paper - from my stash

Snowflake - free die from magazine

Playground Time

Well I must say that the Snippets Challenge seems to come around so quickly but luckily my friend Anne delivered the goodies which had tempted me at the recent Stampin' Up event so I have something new to use which is always fun.  There were lots of jobs I should have been doing yesterday but once I'd had lunch I decided to have a little play to see what I could make with this stamp set and matching dies.  There is almost too much in these packets - no less than 37 stamps - and I found it difficult to choose which to start off with.  Eventually I settled on a straightforward jar of flowers which involved some double stamping and die cutting - of course using up snippets of card in the process.  Some larger snippets of design paper were used for the background and oddments of card for the corners and greeting.  I have a feeling that it might be a good idea to stamp and cut out a good selection of the jars, flowers and so on in this set so that I can then pick and choose, playing around until I come up with an interesting idea. Sometime when inspiration goes missing it is handy to have a selection of die cuts to 'audition' until something just looks right although I must say that many of my ideas come to mind when I'm out walking (and thinking).

Do take a look HERE to see what inspiration there is this week in the Playground where you can also check out last week's picks.

Jar of Flowers - Jar of Love set from Stampin' Up, stamps and dies
Label - Deco label  from SU embossed with Cuttlebug folder
Background papers - also Stampin' Up
Corner Punch - Stampin' Up