Snippety collage

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I was amazed to read that Miss Di has been running The Snippets Playground for no less than ELEVEN YEARS! Wow! I was around in Blogland when she took over but surely it was yesterday...?! I am enjoying a little free time at the moment so I immediately tipped out my Snippets Box and prepared to join in with the celebrations! 

 

We have been asked to include a photo of the snippets we used for this challenge and here are mine above. I made a collage style 'welcome home' card with them:

 

I started with the background snippet. This was an offcut from a piece that had been stamped with Stampin' Up's Hardwood background stamp. I taped pieces of coordinating washi tape on one side of it for a bit of extra interest. The leaves were a practice run of a Greetery die I bought last year and then *hangs head* have never used since. I tore the leaves into sections and glued them to the background. 

Next I die cut the little house from the tiny white snippet using an X Cut die. I taped some yyellow washi tape over the middle of the tiny wood effect strip of DSP then glued the house over it so the washi 'illuminated' the windows. I added the gem-embellished heart (found at the bottom of the Snippets Box) and popped the whole thing up on the background using dimensional pads. Finally, the sentiments were added.

Apologies for the appalling photos - light levels are very low :/

CHALLENGES

I'm heading over to The Snippets Playground with this card and a large cake piped with 'congratulations on eleven snippety years' in pink icing! I'm also nipping over to Darnell's NBUS Challenge as the Side of Greens die can now officially be removed from the Never Before Used Schtuff box!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Yes, January is dull and dreary, but if you're a dog...

 

 

... there's still plenty of squirrel hunting fun to be had!

Although I have a feeling the squirrels were all blowing raspberries and cat-calling the 'hunters'!!

Sending hugs,

Home is where the heart is

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and time for another Tic Toe Toe challenge board bursting with inspiration! The board is in the capable hands of Joanne this week and it came at a great time for me :)

 

I chose the top row Heart/House/Die Cut and made a card for my youngest son who, having graduated, has moved into a new house with a group of good friends he was lucky enough to meet in his first few weeks of uni. 

 

The medallion was made by layering up stitched circles in various colours, the central one edged with a Lawn Fawn cloud border die. The resulting background was topped with a die cut house from X Cut which was cut twice more from snippets of coloured card so that I could inlayy the windows and the little heart.

I cut a panel with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and stamped a sentiment from The Greetery's PreText Sentiments and WPlus9's New Home, leaving enough space to glue the medallion between them. To link the green part to the bold black words, I used a fascia image stamp from New Home - and then capered about feeling very pleased with myself!!

So, now it's your turn to get creative with Joanne's board - so many options! Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site and admire the sample the team has made to inspire you. When you are ready to share your own creation, you can use the Linky Tool you'll find at the bottom of the post. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies challenge; I'm also joining in at the Die Cuts and/or Stencils challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Perhaps I should send my son a nice rug for his new home. How about this one I found just lying around the house...

 

Oh, wait!

Sending hugs,

Precious Love

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Happy Saturday to you and welcome to a brand new challenge at Addicted to CAS! My talented teamie Raga has chosen the cue word for us this time and it's a timely one with Valentine's Day around the corner:

 

Of course you can use hearts on any kind of card, so the world is your oyster! I have gone for the kind of card you could give at any time of the year to show your love and appreciation.

 

I started this card with a beautiful sentiment from The Colorado Co's Big and Bold Get Well, stamping it in pink ink. I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder so that it became waterproof and then splodged a load of diluted blue ink over it and blotted with kitchen paper. When it was dry I cut a label shape out of it, using a die from The Works, and attached it to a card base.

Meanwhile, I cut some gold foil hearts using dies and punches and enjoyed decorating them. The largest one was run through an embossing folder I picked up in a Hobbycraft sale last weekend - 50p well spent I reckon! It was embellished with a clear gem. I punched a few pink hearts and stacked them up under the punched heart to add subtle detail. The tiny heart embosses as it cuts :)  Finally, all the hearts were glued in place around the sentiment.

So now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Addicted to CAS challenge site to check out the beautiful designs my talented teamies have made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so that you can share your own creation with us when you're ready. Have fun - but remember to keep your design nice and clean and simple!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Happy Little Stampers Watercolour Challenge where Anything Goes; I'm  also joining in at CASology where the cue card is Affection.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'll leave you with a picture sent from my very own precious daughter* captioned "Me as a child when you used to tell me to tidy my room!"

*May not be an ACTUAL photo of my daughter!!

Sending hugs,

Floating up with birthday wishes

Hello, crafting friends!

Happy Thursday and welcome to a large helping of fabulous inspiration courtesy of the latest Tic Tac Toe Challenge! Here's this week's board:

I could have gone with any of the rows OR columns this week but in the end I opted for the left-hand column Stencil//Any Color Ink/Birthdayy. I did borrow the balloon idea as well because I really wanted to give my new Balloon Bash stencil from Uniko a whirl!

I started by stencilling the round balloon on a card panel using pink and green inks and used a grey pencil to doodle in some strings and a white pencil to add some 'shine'. The panel was then trimmed with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle. 

I added a die cut birthday sentiment from Avery Elle's A Tag For All and embellished with tiny die cut hearts from the Dinky Die House by X Cut. The panel was attached to a grey card base.

I had so much fun making this card and now it's your turn! You'll find lots of gorgeous inspiration from the rest of the X Team at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge site. You'll also find the Linky Tool so that you can link up your own creation. The winner will have the opportunity to guest with us :)

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; I'm also playing along with Time Out Challenge where they want to see coloured card bases with an optional twist of adding embellishments - I hope my die cut hearts count :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It just happens to be International Dog Day today *laughs gently*. Of course it is International Dog Day EVERY day in our house and my beautiful girl knows it :)

We have taken a selfie to mark the occasion and we may have a rousing game of 'Hunt the Dried Sprat' in the garden later!

Sending hugs,

Thinking about chocolate

Hello, crafting friends!

I've been thinking about chocolate a lot in the last week. No change there, you might be thinking (and you'd be right!) but this chocolate pondering was more because there are a couple of challenges with a chocolate theme!

Hmmm. Chocolate. Not my first choice when deciding on a colour! And if my thoughts strayed to actual chocolate, well who can blame me?! To make my chocolates, I used the diamond shape from Spellbinder's Optical Illusion Geo dies. I varied the card stock to make dark, milk and white chocolates and decorated them with various stamps from my stash and a tiny die cut heart.

I needed somewhere to display my chocolates so I masked off the edges of a card panel and blended chocolate milk colour ink up from the bottom to a fade. Once the mask was removed, the chocolates were arranged on the panel and those that were hanging off the edge were trimmed. I finished with an appropriate sentiment put together from a couple of sets.

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in at Less is More's 10th birthday challenge where the colour Chocolate is the theme; Since I used dies to make my chocolates, I'm also linking up with Happy Little Stampers Die challenge where Anything Goes; I'm also linking up with The Dream Factory, a new-to-me challenge which uses films to inspire crafters; this month's movie is Chocolat.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Back in 2011, I remember being so excited about a new challenge that was dedicated to CAS, my natural style of card making. Like many other crafters around the world, I became a fully-fledged LiMette and looked forward to the new challenges posted each Saturday! It's lovely to see Chrissie and Mandi return to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of their 'baby'. They both really engaged with their followers, making a point of visiting every single entrant to the challenge. That made it seem like a club where everyone knew each other but, as the challenge was extremely popular, it must have been a massive  workload. Of course Less is More is a fortnightly challenge now and has a much larger team of talented designers to share the load. I love that some of them were LiMettes right from the start :) Happy birthday Less is More!! *clinks glass*

Sending hugs,