Snippets Challenge #346

It is worth popping along to the Playground to see a great Christmas card made using a die and would you believe there are three of these being offered as prizes if your entry is picked out of the 'hat'.  I decided to take along a baby card which was made using up various snippets of card from my ever growing collection of 'bits'.  I've used snippets of various patterned papers for the background and banner - the image was die cut from a sheet which I downloaded and printed.  A circular sentiment and a strip of faux ric-rac completes this card to welcome a baby boy.

Image - Lili of the Valley
Papers - various designs from my snippets collection
Sentiment - downloaded from Netty's Cards
Dies - Creative Expressions, Spellbinders and Stampin' Up.

Feline Christmas

The Christmas Kickstart Challenge this time is Feline Christmas and after some thought I decided that as I had nothing specifically feline and Christmas I would combine a very old Christmas stamp (some 20 years old) with a couple of stray die cut cats which were sitting on my desk.  The stamp is a wood mounted one - remember those?? - which I've certainly not used for a good while and it was coloured with watercolour Zig pens before die cutting the stitched rectangle, simply adding the two black cats.  Some seasonal background and a greeting finishes off this simple card which will go into the box for later this year.

Lamppost - wood mounted stamp from the '90's by PSX
Cats = Impression Obsession dies

Playground Challenge #345

Another week has rushed by and it is time to visit the Pixie Snippets Playground again - maybe there will be a snowball fight going on, given the amount of snow many of us have had this week.  I've raided my box containing snippets of card/watercolour paper etc which have been coloured when I've been in the mood for spritzing ink, dabbling with ink pads and so on and managed to find enough of some watercolour card to cut a narrow panel and to stamp and cut out a selection of flowers.  Next move was to go through my normal card scraps to find a piece to match from which I die cut an octagon border.  Luckily I had a paper pad with just a few sheets left and there was one to match so I trimmed this to size and glued to the front of the card before stamping the words and then adhering the floral panel.

If you visit the Playground you will see a couple of fun cards and no prize for guessing what one lucky person will win this week!  Do go along and see what I'm talking about and have a go to use up some of your own snippets - we all hoard every scrap don't we??

Flowers - Shaded Peony stamp set from Sue Wilson
Border - Modern Octagon die from Sue Wilson

Thank You Blog Hop

Darnell who writes an 'oh so amusing' and fun blog has come up with the idea of a Blog Hop to thank the lovely Di for all her hard work in keeping the Pixie Snippets Playground running for such a long time.  Thanks to you as well Darnell for thinking of this super idea which is well deserved.  I won't waffle on any more but  will simply share my Thank You card and if you hop along to Darnell's blog you will be able to take a look at what I'm sure will be a large number of cards as word gets around.

In true 'Snippets' tradition I've used a fairly large scrap of previously inked card for the background (coloured with Pixie Powders I think) although it was done quite a while ago.  Some distressed text was stencilled onto this and the words stamped before adding a flower which was die cut from white card and coloured with Distress inks.

Flower - Tim Holtz Wild Flower Stems #2
Sentiment - freebie sentiment die set which I've had a while and often use

Snippets Playground #344

It is time to pop into the playground again with another snippets card - goodness me the weeks seem to fly by don't they.  This time I'm taking along one of my masculine cards although I reckon this could be sent to anyone really as it definitely not pink or too 'fancy'.  Like the lovely Di I also started with a whole piece of paper from a small pad of woodgrain papers, just trimmed a little to fit the base card but everything else on the card was cut from various snippets of green card and watercolour paper.  I stamped the birds and sentiment onto the scraps before die cutting the banners but in the case of the spiky foliage I cut the banner first as I only wanted to use part of a larger stamp for this one.  A fairly simple card but I still managed to get one part wrong - gaily went along cutting out the banners and it wasn't until I came to put it all together that I realised the sentiment was facing the wrong way so it is lucky that I have so many snippets of all sorts to turn to!!  Now of course I have yet another 'spare' banner littering my desk along with various other left overs.

The card which Di has made for inspiration features a really cute creature along with hearts so with Valentine's day looming I guess it would be a handy prize to win.

Woodgrain Paper - pad from The Works
Banners - Sue Wilson dies
Birds and Sentiment - stamps by Stampin' Up
Foliage - stamp from Papermania (had it for many years)

Butterfly Challenge #115

Time to spin the wheel at the Butterfly Challenge and this time the letter is 'Y' and I've actually managed to include all seven selections which are Yale blue, yellow, yew, yarn, you and finally your choice (yellow gems for me).  I started out with the intention of cutting four corners using some small pieces of Yale blue card but had forgotten that the die doesn't have an outside edge (not used it for ages) and I didn't have a larger piece of the right colour to cover the whole card. Best laid plans and all that so a rethink was required making use of the small piece of blue rather than add it to my left overs.  There was enough to cut one layer of the butterfly in blue with yellow for the background.  I happened to have a sentiment which includes the word 'you' on a scrap of white card so used two dies to cut out the two layers, adding some yarn on two corners of the blue rectangle.  The piece of yellow background was from an ancient Papermania pad and finally I added some yew leaves and the 'your choice' of yellow gems.  Whew that took a bit of explaining!  Do pop along to the butterfly blog to see some great inspiration and maybe win a prize if you take part.

Butterfly - Sizzix dies
Leaves - Joanna Sheen dies
Sentiment Plaque - Sue Wilson Greek Islands collection dies
Corner die - Papercrafts trellis die

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #2 - Bundle Up!

Time to visit the Christmas Kickstart blog for their second challenge and this time they are asking for a card with an example of wrapping up warmly for winter.  I've chosen to make a snowy scene using some stamps which were given away as freebies possibly the Christmas before last.  These images were stamped, coloured using Copic pens and then carefully cut out with scissors.  The trees were die cut as were the snowy hills.  A scrap of patterned paper was used for the sky and a greeting was stamped directly onto it.  The penguins are all wearing either hats, scarves or ear muffs and all these details were also stamped, coloured and cut out with scissors.  I then had a dry run to compose the scene before sticking everything into place - it's a wonder the penguins aren't dizzy from being shuffled about so many times before settling into place!!

Penguins and Signpost - free stamps from magazine
Hills - dies from Lawn Fawn stitched hills
Greeting - Stampin' Up