Snippets Challenge # 466

 A Christmas scene today for the Snippets Challenge and apart from the card blank everything else has come from my snippets mountain.  Having said that, I realise that the trees were die cut by a friend but I'm pretty certain she will have used some of her snippets for them 😉.  I used a snippet of patterned paper trimmed to fit for the sky area and another fairly large white snippet for the snowy landscape.  Smaller white snippets were used for the sledge, bunny and teddy, also the trim for the Santa hat - the tiniest red snippet came in handy for cutting the hat but of course the other items have been coloured using alcohol pens or Distress Oxide inks.  The sledge runners have a touch of Wink of Stella which doesn't show in the picture.

Time for you to sort through your own snippets to make something for the challenge - as usual a good prize on offer to one lucky winner

Sky - paper printed using Artylicious Season's Greetings CD - an old favourite of mine
Snowscape - cut using a Memory Box die
Trees - Fluffy Trees from Gummiapan - die cut by a generous friend
Sledge, Bunny and Santa Hat - dies from Gummiapan
Bunny - unbranded die 

Embossing

 The theme for the latest Allsorts Challenge is **Embossing - Heat and/or Dry** and for my card I've gone with dry embossing.  I started with a square of white card to fit my card blank and used a stitched square cutting die to emboss a square into the centre.  Next I cut another smaller square of white card which was embossed with a snowfall embossing folder and glued into the centre.  Finally a two layer poinsettia was die cut and adhered and that's it a CAS Christmas card which I don't think needs a sentiment on the outside but will have words on the insert.  Lots of lovely inspiration from the Design Team which might encourage you to sort through your embossing folders and join in this week.

Stitched Square - die from Creative Expressions Noble Stitched Squares
Embossing - snowfall embossing folder from Sheena Douglass - no longer available
Poinsettia - from Sizzix Seasonal Sketch set

Tall Card

 A bit of a change today with a DL card made in a grungy style - I do like to mix it up a bit with what I make - variety is the spice of life 😉😉.  I've used one of the floral stamped images sent to me by a generous friend and have added my own touch to it with some Distress oxide ink smooshed around and with a few extra stamped splodges.  While I had the inks out I also smooshed some onto another piece of card so that I could cut the smaller extra pieces which I've used to add a bit of interest to the layout.  There was a bit of stencilling added to the base card and the same inks were used for this and also for colouring the petals of the flower using a water brush.  

Flower - stamp by Carabelle
Splodges - stamp from French Foliage set by Stampin' Up (retired)
Distress Oxide - Broken China, Dusty Concord and Wilted Violet

Crazy Cats

 I've come up with an idea for a card using a couple of the Crazy Cats which I stamped, coloured and fussy cut recently - I still have a couple of dogs ready to go as well when I can think of another layout for them.  I used a brick wall embossing folder for a background, adding a window with shutters.  Next move was to cut out the large 'happy' word and a smaller 'birthday' - assembled everything and that's it, job done.  I do really like these quirky pets 😉

Cats - Tim Holts stamp set mini Crazy Cats and Dogs
Large Word - die from Crafter's Companion
Small Word - Britannia dies
Window and Shutters - Gummiapan dies
Brick Wall - Embossing Folder from Stampin' Up

A quick Card

 This card was quite quick to make once I'd stamped, coloured and fussy cut the dog. Searching for something recently I came across my set of Crazy Dog and Cat stamps which I've had for many years.  They'd not seen ink for such a long time so I stamped a few of them and had a nice quiet afternoon colouring and fussy cutting.  Once they were done I had to think of how I could use them and my first idea was to use a die cut background with just a single dog and a sentiment.  I then remembered that a kind friend had included some die cut bones as an extra with some others she sent,  so one of these was coloured and used as well.  I could make other very similar cards using the rest of my dogs and cats but I really don't like making more than one card the same so my brain is ticking over now working out what else I can use to make something different.  My die cut background was backed with a snippet of patterned paper and the sentiment was one which I produced on the computer.

Background die - maker unknown, sorry
Dog - from Tim Holtz Crazy Dogs
Bone - die cut using a Gummiapan die (courtesy of a friend)
Sentiment - produced in Word

Playground Challenge # 465

 Well I'm making a quick dash over to the Snippets Playground this morning with my homework - and why a quick dash?  That's because it is raining pretty steadily for the second day in a row.  I just hope there is plenty of hot chocolate on offer 😉😉.  Apart from having used a card blank, everything else on this card came from my various snippets collections.  Started with a large snippet of patterned paper trimmed to fit the card, then sorted out small pieces of white, yellow, greens and mauves to cut the other elements.  The sentiment was stamped using purple ink and the final addition was a scattering of matching pearls.  As usual there is a lovely prize on offer for one lucky person so why not use up some of your snippets to be in with a chance of winning 😊.

Trying Techniques

 Trying different techniques is often the way to go if ideas are lacking and I enjoy watching card making videos on YouTube where a wide variety can be found.  I particularly like seeing videos presented by Chrissie Stokes and of course the offerings from Lavinia are well worth a watch (many others are also available).  Anyway today's card was inspired by a recent video from Chrissie who, in turn, had been watching Lou Collins using this technique.  I've used a stamp which was with a recent Indigo Blu boxed magazine kit, stamped onto some watercolour card and heat embossed with white before adding quite a bit of water and a selection of Distress Oxide inks, drying and re-applying until I was happy.  I started with some random splodges (technical term) and then added more localised colour to the flowers and leaves, finally adding some darker ink to the background areas.  If you watch the videos from either Chrissie or Lou there are lots of hints and tips.  The final touch was just a simple sentiment produced in Word, and if you don't know how easy it is to produce light lettering on a dark background just watch one of the videos and all will be revealed. 

Stamp - from Indigo Blu magazine kit
Distress Oxide - Walnut Stain, Rusty Hinge, Iced Spruce, Cracked Pistachio
Embossing - Wow Opaque white