Sunday Snippets - 'Clarity Treescape'

Did you remember to change your clocks overnight - over here it's one hour back - ie 'Fall - back'. Easy way to remember it!

The October Rudolph Days challenge is well under way and my snippets card this week is a Christmas one so that I can play along:

I used:

- white square 5.75" x 5.75" card blank, side opening, tent style

- a snippet of satin effect silver matt mirror card - die cut with a NBUS die by Clarity called 'Treescape Aperture'

- then cut the frame around the die cut trees using a Heffy Doodle die from their 'Stitched Squares' set of dies - sadly now discontinued as they closed down

- added a square snippet of deep purple-ish blue matt mirror card to the back of the trees die cut panel, covering both the top and bottom parts of the scene, using a glue pen 

- next, die cut the snow bank part of the 'Treescape' from an A4 sheet of very pretty sparkly white card stock that arrived here a day or two ago - thank you again to a lovely friend!

- glued the relevant pieces of the snowy bank into the apertures 

- die cut a sentiment using the Tonic Studios 'Peace Strip' double die set (actual sentiment only) and snippets of the deep blue card, twice. Glued them one on top of the other and then snipped the 'tails' to suit and glued it in place at the bottom right of the card

- added an IO little die cut 'cardinal' for a pop of extra colour - and also to hide a slight blip in the die cutting!

- finally, used thin sticky strips to raise the Treescape panel for dimension and stuck it in place - all done! 

Sorry, the snippets disappeared into the bin before I thought to take a photo! 

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #67 HERE - the Clarity 'Treescape' die is NBUS

Allsorts Week #804 HERE under the 'Anything Goes' theme

And, after all that, I almost forgot - October's Rudolph Days Challenge - HERE!

Dudley Pupdate: This coming week is Halloween of course and we're all prepared. Dudley has his little spooky neckerchief chosen in readiness. One thing I'm worried about is that he's become quite reactive to outside noises - people smile when they see who's been doing the 'welcome barking', but, if it becomes too much then I can see us cutting things short, once the little ones have done the rounds. Which will leave us with a whole load of candy, which neither of us really eat. Maybe I'll just make up cello bags of treats and lob them from an upstairs window ....... or leave them with Sarn in the Playground stash of goodies!

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE.  

Hope to see you on the swings - weather and Halloween trick or treat callers permitting!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - a Valentine card for Len

Here's my snippets card for this week:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank - side opening 

- a piece of the same white card, cut using the largest cutting die from Penny Black's set of dies called 'zig-zag stackers'

- then used a NBUS 'Bunch of Hearts' die I've had for ages, bought from Positively Papercraft but no longer stocked. However, there are lots of unbranded dies just the same to be found online 

- used the same die, to die cut the bunch of hearts from the centre of the white panel to leave apertures and set it aside 

- used the same die and a snippet of Tonic 'Red Velvet' pearlescent card  to cut the bunch of hearts again 

- next step was to add a piece of Woodware double sided adhesive sheet to the back of the white panel apertures, flip it over and then, one at a time, insert the single 'heart flowers' before then running a small brayer over the panel to ensure they were adhered properly into the apertures

- trimmed another snippet of the 'Red Velvet' card to leave a narrow border around the white panel and glued them together using Collall All Purpose gluer

- added the sentiment across the 'Bunch of Hearts'. It came from a 'ready to peel and stick' (hardly used) used set of 'Words' sticker sentiments by Clarity - I did back it with a little strip of card to add some lif,t before using a glue pen to stick it in place

- next, I used very narrow double sided foam tape to stick around all four sides of the back of the completed front panel

- used a glue stick to allow some movement room and then adhered the completed panel onto the card blank 

- final touch, I used some teeny 'Red Velvet' snippets to die cut a few little hearts. The die was a 'freebie' included with an order not so long ago; and I used the little hearts on the envelope instead of a stamp!

A fun card to make and, although I stuck to red for the bouquet, it would be a great way to use up several different coloured snippet strips to create a bouquet of different coloured flowers!

I'd like to enter this card into a couple of challenges:

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #58 - HERE - the 'Bunch of Hearts' die I used is NBUS

- Double D Challenge 'Heartfelt' - HERE.

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley has settled down beautifully since Len came home from hospital and, if anything, is now less anxious when 'his Dad' leaves the house. I can almost hear his little doggie mind thinking 'I survived for three whole days once before just with Mama and didn't lack for food and love, so I can survive now, just so long as Dad eventually comes home!'! 

Len is making progress and so far it's all positive. He had the first of his local GP blood tests for kidney function on Monday and on Friday the results came back clear - cause for celebration here. So no more weekly blood tests after all - hooray! He's still eating plain and simple food, albeit gradually becoming more adventurous. I think things such as Chilli con Carne might be off the menu for a while though!

Remember, there's a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE. Hope to see you On the swings!

Love as always, Dudley and me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #386

What a miserable week for weather here in deepest Hampshire. One minute it was too hot and now it's too wet. We British are never happy with our weather I fear.

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments about the future of the Playground. Many of you made very good points, which sort of reassured me to keep going as I am. And we had a jump in the number of entries to challenge 385 as well, hooray. There won't be a switch to Instagram or Facebook if I can help it - it's probably just me but I find it an option I don't wish to embrace. I did giggle when one friend kindly suggested in an email that perhaps I could shorten my posts - nope, ain't gonna happen. Luckily I learned to touch type in some 'spare' lessons in the 6th Form at school and basically can fly along when I'm writing a post, So, what you read is often just me talking through my fingers (I HEARD that snigger!).

Good old blogger continues to evolve - at last they've now made the labels options easier to work with on the new interface - but this is 'end user' testing of something that should have been thoroughly tested prior to release. I guess we get it for free so should be grateful - and in fairness it does seem to be evolving with our issues being resolved.

Anyhow, here's my snippets card for this fortnight. I was really stumped for a prize that wouldn't take ages making a 'sample' card. And was also a bit shocked at the fact I've been unconsciously letting the Playground toy box run low as well. I didn't have time for a very complicated card with masking, colouring etc so in the end, I opted for a card using a recent snippets strips technique - and when it was finished I cocked my head on one side and realised it's by no means as 'random' as it should be. The strip widths ought to vary more - oopsie. And, I need to put a fresh blade and/or channel mat in my trimmer as the cutting is a bit rough looking (picked up by the camera needless to say). No time to make another one though so here it is: 

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

 

- snippet of pink card - SU 'Primrose' - as a backing for the strips, left bigger than I wanted as there's trimming to do at the end of the process 

- snippets of monochrome paper from a really ancient Papermania Capsule Collection 'Mono' paper pad - dating back to my very early days of card making

- I then trimmed a load of angled strips from the snippets - sadly making them too uniform (OCD strikes again!)

- then used a glue pen to adhere them to the piece of pink card - almost finished when I realised it was very uniform, sigh

- another snippet of the same pink card, trimmed to just quarter of an inch on two sides smaller than the white card blank (ie. it measures 4.75" square)

 

- then trimmed the striped panel down to 4.5" on both the top and side measurements

- glued the striped panel to the pink one and then glued that to the card front (all using Collall All Purpose glue as it's so moveable)

- used a snippet strip of the pink card to adhere a white on black sentiment to - from the Clarity Stamps 'Words Sticker' set of quite unusual sentiment strips 

 

- trimmed it at the ends, added thin strips of sticky pads and popped it onto the card front - finished in the shake of a lamb's tail

 

And, here's the prize for this fortnight - a smallish one for a change but also an interesting one if you like fairly 'to the point' sentiments:

 

Clarity Stamps 'Words Sticker Collection' - 460 stickers, 8 sheets with half in white and half black.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 19th September. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

As I used this particular set of Clarity sentiment stickers for the first time, it means I can join in with Darnell's NBUS #18 challenge HERE! To be honest though, if you decide to buy any, I do think the combined general and Christmas sentiments set is more versatile.

 

Latest news of Dudley - he's becoming a little tinker! His last trip out into the garden for a 'wee' is around 10:30 to 11:00 pm, before we 'batten down the hatches' for the night here. We may still be awake, but the house is ostensibly closed down - and he knows that ......... unless it was urgent. However, the little tinker has put the jigsaw together and worked out that he often has a sneaky treat when he comes in from the garden after doing 'the late evening biz'. Need I say more? The other night he did the usual and came in - then just TWO hours later was on the bed, and then lying on top of Len, wanting to 'go out' at almost 2am in the morning for goodness sakes! We didn't dare risk not letting him out in case of an accident - but the little monkey only did a tiny dribble then came indoors and pointedly stood where the treats are kept! Naughty, naughty ☺.

On the subject of dogs, in the UK right now there's a really worrying spate of dog thefts going on. I won't go into all the detail but a scarcity of dogs for would be owners to buy due to COVID, along with breeders asking up to three times as much for dogs now, makes it a bit of a lucrative market. Our back garden is now like Fort Knox - plus, although we'd have rarely done it previously, Dudley is never allowed out into the garden now without one or other of us being there at the same time. Dogs have even been stolen with their litters of puppies and some of the cases are utterly heartbreaking. We're pretty sure that Dudley would kick up a real stink if we had an intruder in the garden, when he was indoors let alone outside, but it's a risk we can't take. What a world!

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground #368 - Prize F

Oh well, another day of heavy rain here on Boxing Day, which meant that Len's planned 'fun shoot' archery morning was postponed until Saturday - or perhaps the morning of New Year's Day. He's a bit like a guy with cabin fever right now. It isn't even dry enough to take Dudley out for a walk - he just shoots out into the back garden, does what he needs to and races straight back in when it's such rotten weather (of course I'm referring to Dudley!).

I have an important message for Andre M who has said yes to some of the prizes on offer - do remember that you have to add a card into Mr Linky. You can use Blogger if you have a blog, although I can't see one against your name. Or, Instagram or Flickr. The draw is only open to people who enter a card, or similar, using snippets into Mr Linky which appeared on 22nd December.

Anyhow, here's today's snippets card and prize:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of Tim Holtz 'Sparkle' card which I'd already washed with alcohol inks some while ago

- stamped the beautiful Nellie's Choice 'Christmas Silhouette' (a gift from Shaz in Oz) onto the snippet, using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink (little warning here, they don't work too well together - the water based Memento ink takes forever to dry on top of an alcohol ink surface and is also a little 'patchy'. Another time I'll try Stayzon or perhaps heat emboss the image. We live and learn :)

- then die cut the image using a die from Spellbinder's 'Wonky Rectangles' set of nesting dies - and also die cut a snippet of white fun foam using a one size smaller die from the same set

- as usual, I ran a ball ended embossing tool around the die cut image whilst it was still in the die to create the 'frame effect'

- backed the image panel with the fun foam I'd already die cut, using Collall All Purpose glues then glued the image to the card front

- finally, added a sentiment from Clarity Stamp's 'Christmas & Celebrations' word sticker collection

So glad I finally managed to make a Nativity card for this challenge - as I previously said, it was originally meant to be made in time for Christmas Eve.

And today's prize is a Nellie's Choice 'Christmas Silhouette' stamp, kindly sent all the way from Oz by the lovely Shaz in Oz, a Spellbinder's 'Wonky Rectangles' set of nesting dies plus a pack of Clarity Stamp's 'Christmas & Celebrations' word stickers. Half the stickers are black on white and half are white on black - plus only half of the total number of stickers are Christmas 'specific' - the rest are a lovely mixture of general ones.

At the end of all of the celebrations I'll do a massive draw session for all the prizes using the one Mr Linky - which is on the main snippets post HERE along with details of exactly how to join in - so you do need to have entered one snippets make over on that post during this fortnight to be in with a chance :) Maximum of one entry please - to keep things fair for those who may not have time to craft. Mr Linky closes at 11am on Saturday 4th January so you do need to have added a snippets make by then to be eligible for the draw.

Just leave a comment on this post if you would like the chance to win today's prize.

The gammon/ham in Coca Cola got cooked - with help from Len to turn it over in the huge stockpot I was simmering it in. Yummy as usual!

Still struggling here with the shoulder, but each day I find I can lift my arm easily over my head - and more to the point hold it there as well. Showering and hair washing is almost back to normal, albeit not pain free, compared to a week ago .......... when even using a Faith deodorant stick was like a contortionist going through their routine!

Love from Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Rudolph Days - October 2019

And it's another Rudolph Days challenge over at ScrappyMo's - where did the past month disappear to then? Time certainly flies these days.

Here's my offering:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square black card blank, ordered from Amazon UK and made by Craft UK Limited

- then cut an aperture in the front of the card using Clarity's 'Christmas Santa Aperture' die

- then backed the aperture with a piece of white card which was covered on one side with medium weight double sided adhesive sticky film (made by Woodware) which I place facing the front - once I removed that second layer of protective film and also protected it with the peeled of piece of waxed paper whilst I was working

- then cut the die once again, from SU's 'Real Red' card stock this time

- popped seven of the red pieces in place, as shown on the above card

- then sprinkled iridescent glitter (cheap and from a local shop but Glamour Dust would work well) over the aperture, whisking away the excess with an Avon blusher brush (bought solely for the purpose of crafting)

- next I backed the inside front panel of the card with a very slightly smaller piece of black card to neaten up the inside - using red line tape for a secure fix

- finally, added the sentiment strips using another Clarity product - wonderful stickers from the 'Clarity Christmas & Celebrations' set

- finished - or was I?

Nope, I'll never learn - I made 12 all the same and almost lost the will to live.
One of the trickiest cards to 'batch bake' for sure!

Wish you could see the sparkle, but when I turned the card to catch the light I lost the sentiment printing, sigh.

A little tip, once you add the red insert die cuts, try to 'nudge' the black outlines against the red insert to avoid a bit of white showing. A little point but worth trying to remember - she says, too late! And anyhow, who uses a magnifying glass to check out their Christmas cards?!

Edit: Thanks to Kath for a great idea - when adding inset die cut pieces to a white background with the image outline part in black - just run a black pen around the inside of the aperture you're going to fill! 

By the way, this is a direct result of seeing a blog post very recently (literally a couple of days after our Cornwall holiday) on Barbara Gray's Clarity Stamps blog - she has lots of photos of the process, which will probably make more sense than all my words.

I have to say though, I did have some issues with the die itself - Santa's face has a lot of little pieces that should drop out as waste - they did but only after I added extra shims to that part of the die and even poked a bit with a craft knife, in addition to the metal shim I was already using anyhow.

It didn't matter on the red die cuts, as the outer part of the die cut fine and the pieces I wanted to use were also bigger of course - although I still needed the metal shim for my Cuttlebug.

Just a little warning if you do decide to dive in - but not enough to put you off as it's such a fun and rather funky die.I suspect that my Cuttlebug might be a tad out in the calibration to be honest.

I got the die and the sentiments stickers on a special Clarity Stamps offer BTW. 8 A5 sheets four are black on white and four are white on black. And, half of them are for Christmas and the others are for general use - bargain!

I think they might well last me for the rest of my days :).

Merry Christmas - it's looming whether we like it or not!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #351

Time for another new challenge fortnight in the Snippets Playground. Am writing this on the day before the challenge goes live - and it's damp and windy here. Let's hope we haven't had our Summer already - we've had some glorious days recently, at least the children were off school on holiday to make the most of it.

First of all an apology, I might have rectified things by the time this publishes, but with one thing and another I just haven't managed to keep up with commenting on entries for the challenge that just closed. I'll be there ASAP I promise!

And here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of green card for the 'frame'

- a snippet of white card for the image panel (some challenges I tend to use just a couple of larger snippets -  depending on what the prize is and whether it lends itself to a variety of smaller snippets or not). A snippet is still a snippet!

- stamped the rockery onto the white panel, using a stamp from the fairly new Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set and a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- then used one of the re-usable masks to cover the rockery before using the lizzy stamp to stamp the flowers and foliage. The masks made by Clarity are brilliant, wish more companies did that

- coloured the whole image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending fluid

- only then did I trim the panel down into a square before adding the sentiment using a stamp from the Hero Arts 'Messages' set of sentiment stamps and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink (and the Misti of course!). The set of sentiment stamps is dated 2007 - and sadly no longer available (I did try!)

- then trimmed the snippet of green card (chosen so I could match some of the foliage to it) to just slightly larger than the image panel

- glued both panels onto the card front - all done!

As so often happens - the colours are so much more vivid in real life - especially the bright (almost neon) orange, sigh.

I love Clarity stamps and this set is so lovely to stamp as well as colour. It came with the Clarity perspex mounts (one for each of the two stamps) - which I did use - but the Misti or any perspex block would have worked just as well. Plus, the mounts/handles take up a lot of extra storage space - the stamps are the usual clear cling material (great quality and very well made I should add!) and really I think that Clarity could save work, postage and costs by selling their stamps without accompanying mounts - just my opinion of course. Their products are still fabulous!

And of course, the prize this fortnight is this:

A Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set. Now, I do of course also have the two mounts which came with the stamp set, as shown in the photo, and they're also part of the prize. But, if you win and are happy not to have them sent then that's just fine. It's easier and cheaper postage for me (the difference between a large letter and a small parcel) - but as they came with the stamps it's only fair to give you the option. I think my own ones will end up in the 'donate or throw out' pile of stuff when I do my intended blitz of the craft room!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 11th May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone ☺

And finally, a few photos of Dudley for your enjoyment taken just minutes apart the day after his 2nd part of being groomed (so only taken on Tuesday or possibly Wednesday. They do show how he can look so puppy-like one minute - and rather elegant the next! Captions as dictated by Dudley:

Aw come on Daddy. I'm doing my 'please come and play' pose here!

Just to prove that there's still a lot of peach on my ears and down my back (aka saddle). And I'm trying the 'look a bit mournful' approach now to see if anyone will play

Me - being a real Havanese and doing my 'regal' look! Puppy one minute and a real 'poser' the next. And I'm so good when Mama fixes my top knot - I lie very still with my chin on my paws now and rarely move during the whole process. To be honest, it makes life much easier to get it over and done with rather than putting up a fight - but that's just between us!

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me -

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #324

Well hello there once again! It looks like Spring really is on the way - and the rhubarb is growing like crazy in the garden. It's a good job we both like the stuff and it does freeze quite well. A little tip, lightly stewed rhubarb, with a little bit of sugar if you like, makes a fabulous alternative to apple sauce with pork - IMHO.

Anyhow, onto my snippets card and this time I only have one quite large snippet as a deep pink 'frame' because I wanted to let the two stamp sets do most of the work. And large snippets are really fine in the Playground but obviously any examples and ideas of ways to use up sizes right down to tiddy-widdly snippets are always most welcome.

Here's my card:

This time, taking note of one sweet Playmate who really isn't into die cutting, I used only stamps this time.

I used:

- 5" x 5" white card blank

- piece of deep pink card, very likely SU, as the 'frame' which was trimmed very slightly and put to one side for now

- a whole (gasp!) sheet of paper from the Prima 'Firefly' collection, cut down to size 

- I was really wary about using the patterned paper I used next and did a couple of test strips - first to see how the ink/stamping worked out and also would it be problem gluing it to the the background as sometimes glue can show through on porous paper, but they were fine after I'd used the Misti to make sure the solid stamping was fully covered (always the bane of my life before the Misti came along)

- I laid out the image stamp and the sentiment using the Misti, as already said, and stamped them in place onto the patterned paper using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and both stamps from the Clarity 'You Hung The Moon' set

- then I looked at the other lovely set of stamps waiting on the desk for a first outing - it's the Whimsy FaDoodles 2' set.

- so many lovely doodles to choose from so I picked one stamp 'lines and kisses/hugs'-  to 'ground' the little set of ladders on as they did look a bit as if they were levitating. And then a corner stamp of doodled dangly hearts for the corner above the sentiment

- again, set them in place and stamped with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- and all that was left to do was to layer the image panel onto the deep pink snippet of card and then adhere it to the card front

Compared to last week's snippets card, this was so quick and easy - the part that needed most concentration was positioning the stamps correctly!

The paper pack I used ('Firefly' by Prima) is really gorgeous. Some of the papers actually look very much like Distress Oxide backgrounds.I've had the pack for ages so am unsure if it's even still available.

I've loved the Clarity pair of stamps from the first time I saw them needless to say and Faye's designs were snapped up by Whimsy (her second FaDoodles set BTW) and of course I had to buy those as well. I so envy those of you who add freehand doodles to your work but, to be truthful, I shy away from it lest (as would be very likely) I spoil a card right at the very end stage. And I totally love these stamps! Dies to Die For in the UK usually have them in stock BTW :)

So, here's this week's Snippets Playground prize - and for a change it's purely stamps, for those of you who perhaps give a sigh and thought 'Oh no, not more dies!'. Sorry, there will be dies coming along for sure in the future though:

It's a Clarity 'You Hung The Moon' stamp set, as well as a Whimsy 'FaDoodles 2' set of stamps - just like the ones I used on my card for today.

I'm making this one single prize girls - the sets work so well together and I think you will agree too, plus it saves me working out who wants what and possibly posting a split prize of course. Just take another look at the variety of doodles stamps - just so many for every style and occasion, love them!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 28th April. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.
Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you're wanting to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' - just in case you're playing only for fun.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Be sure to call back next week to see the winner(s) of last fortnight's MFT 'Hog Heaven' stamp set plus the MFT 'Rectangle Peek-a-boo' window die, plus (hopefully) a Guest Designer and fortnightly picks of course.

Love from Parsnip - who is now into gardening, always up to something!! Our lovely DIL sent us a beautiful card from Germany for Easter, which comes with some nasturtium seeds encapsulated in a circle of thin fleece ready to pop into a plant pot. They came with the matching card and such a lovely idea to market cards with matching seeds as well.

I spotted a great make in the Playground doing something similar with packets of seeds just very recently! Anyhow, Parsnip got me to translate the German 'destructions' and is all ready to send me out to buy a little bag of compost, a new small hanging pot as we have a lot of (sadly neglected due to the back problems) hooks and hangers in place around here in the Playground. AND he also wants a bear sized gardening apron as mine is too'grown-up sized' - for goodness sakes, now he really IS taking the Mickey!!

And love of course from me,

Magnetic Bookmarks revisited

It's about 18 months since I last made magnetic bookmarks, but a recent meeting with some bloggy friends meant I wanted to think of something hand made to take along with me as it's tradition to exchange 'little somethings'. So I opted for a 'little something' useful:

I used:

- SU 'Smoky Slate' card stock - after stamping and trimming them, the bookmarks ended up at approx. 1.75" x 5" , when they were folded in half from top to bottom
 
- stamps used are from the Clarity 'Letter Box' set for the names, along with the matching masks to cover up the lettering when doing the floral stamping - and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- once the letter boxes had been stamped then covered with the matching masks I used a stamp from KanBan's 'Stamp 06' set and the following dye inks, all made by Memento, 'Rhubarb Stalk', 'Teal Zeal' and 'Cottage Ivy'

 - the word 'friend' was then stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from Winnie & Walter's 'The Big, the Bold and the Happy' stamp set

- tiny little butterfly stickers

- then I laminated them, my laminator is just a cheapo one from Lidl btw

- trimmed the excess lamination from the sides and ends and rounded each corner with XCut corner rounder punch then made sure the folds were as tight as possible by using the Hoogie Borad and firmly re-embossing the fold lines

- then just added the pairs of magnets, I bought mine from Abel Magnets but can't find them on their website any longer :(

Then, with nothing else to do (that is soooo not true), I made matching holders just to make them look more like a little gift although they certainly won't be robust enough to use much :

 Closed

 And open

They're pretty self-explanatory - and I just invented and measured them as I went along :) The bow was punched with the SU 'Bow Builder' punch and I used lovely thin self-adhesive Papermania 'Magnetic Clasps' to hold the little flap closed.

Di
x 

Playing with stencils again

This time, instead of using embossing paste (got some Sparkle Medium on order so thank to all of you who suggested I ought to try that!) - I used ink pads:

I used:

-  5" x 5" black card blank

- piece of white card stock, just brushed over with VersaColor 'Narcissus' ink pad, using a Clarity stencil brush

- Clarity 'Bird table' stencil (the solid piece that had been cut out to form the stencil so it could be used as a mask) first before laying a sunburst stencil by Stamposaurus - bought at Newbury ArtStamps show last month - over the top. Then added SU's 'Daffodil Delight' stampin' pad for the rays of the sun with the stencil brush

- after the stencil and the bird table mask had been removed I was left with a very pale lemon bird table, backed by the sunburst - so I just popped the bird table stencil itself onto the bird table image and brushed over with Memento 'London Fog' to make it grey

- after removing the the bird table stencil, I decided the very pale lemon centre of the sun wasn't working for me so I die cut a mask using a round Spellbinders die. Then replaced the bird table mask so that the grey 'London Fog' ink was protected, popped the die cut round aperture on top and then added more 'Daffodil Delight' to fill in the centre of the sun - ah, that was better

- then, using Memento's 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and Clarity Stamps 'English Garden Elements' stamps I created a little scene

- the sentiment is by Kaisercraft from the 'Friendship Sentiments' set, stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- trimmed the image down and then backed it using SU's 'Daffodil Delight' and 'Smoky Slate' card before mounting onto the black card blank

Not long ago I was enough lucky to win some lovely blog candy over at Maggie's - and the Bird Table stencil and the SU 'Daffodil Delight' ink pad were part of the prize. And what was such fun and so very thoughtful was that I'd actually bought the Clarity English Garden Elements stamp set (plus a bird table stamp) from Maggie at the WOYWW crop. So she knew exactly what would make up such a lovely and so complimentary prize! Thanks again Maggie!

I really enjoyed this first venture into layering up stencils - it did need a bit of planning about what order to do things in and also to make sure the right bits of the background were protected, but it gave the little grey cells a workout!

Di
x

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 135

Wow, what a scorcher of a week in the Playground (and we had 71 entries, wahoo!!) - Parsnip has taken to wearing a knotted handkerchief on his head to ward off the sun when he nips out to refill the lemonade pitchers, which he kindly left under the tree house for you :)

So, with the sun belting down what did I do? Yup, made a Christmas card for my snippets card this week:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- from the snippets folder, a variety of plain blue card stock (mostly SU I expect) - the more turquoise piece was used to cover most of the card front

- the image was stamped onto a snippet of white card, using Clarity Stamps 'Large We 3 Kings' clear stamp and Ranger 'Jet Black' archival ink. I then covered the image with double sided sticky film, peeled off the top layer and sprinkled Cosmic Shimmer ''Diamond Sprinkles' over the whole image (the photo almost picked it up!)

- then I used one of the plastic templates from the 'Stamps Away Patch Work template, set one' to draw the outlines on darker snippets for the strips of blue card. The template is also perfect for actually re-positioning the cut outs of course, I just used some slivers of removable tape to keep it in place when I was sticking the strips of darker card down. I'd already edged those strips using a silver 'Sakura 5mm Calligrapher pen'

- at that point I popped the assembled and glittered '3 Kings' image onto the card using thin sticky pads to add some dimension and sat gawping at what was a very plain card indeed. I'd veered away from using any patterned snippets but the result was just too stark, sigh

- so, out came the Christmas peel offs - which have almost been thrown out on several occasions. All I added was some sparkly dots down either side strip (Anita's 'Glitterations') then strips of silver holly top and bottom from Anita's Dimensions 'Holly' stickers. The lovely thing about these stickers is that bits of them (most of the holly leaves themselves) aren't adhesive so they can be flicked up to add dimension

- final touch, little clear crystal gems on the holly 'berries' - as well as one in the centre of the Star of Bethlehem' on the stamped image

I'd like to enter this into the current challenge over at Winter Wonderland, which is 'On the move'. I know this often makes people think of skating, ski-ing and such, but we often forget the two really important journeys of Christmas - Mary and Joseph and then the Three Kings.

Gosh it's another scorcher as I'm typing here so I think this could be a quick canter through the weekly 'picks'.

I thought this was such a lovely Christmas card, soft and very pretty - made by Maarit.

Stunning work here by Hazel, and a real touch of ingenuity - who would have guessed that the beautifully filigree panel is actually a votive wrap, popped onto a snippet of gold card. Full marks Hazel for thinking outside the box!

Viv made this totally amazing graduation card - I love all the detail and it's such a clever design!

Kitty made this fantastic 'New Home' card for her 'Honey' with a lovely story behind it. Loads of snippets used here - right down to some torn cardboard from one of the packing boxes. We all wish you loads of luck and happiness in your new home Kitty - do please still come and play!

I love the clean and crisp look of this card, made by Pat. White, brown and sunflower shades - perfect!

I love this card made by Sandy J - right down to the checked snippet just like a rug or towel we'd have taken to the beach :)

Karen P is always pushing the boundaries and trying new techniques, as well as using up snippets of course. What really caught my eye here is the 'Impressionist painting' look that Karen captured by stamping the image in grey before colouring it. I keep forgetting about that tip and it worked brilliantly here!

Eve caught me a bit with this last minute card, I wondered if I was off on a surprise holiday! Eve freely linked to where she got this idea from - isn't it a fabulous card? A design to remember for the future!

So, that was a quick canter, which actually took me longer than planned needless to say - Len is out all day today but I need to be downstairs looking innocent when he gets home as am supposed to be limiting time spent at the keyboard :)

We had two new playmates join us this week - wahoo!!

First of all, Brenda in IN came to play with this great card. Super idea to pop the face in the window - it reminds me a bit of when our Queen photo bombed a selfie just this week at the Commonwealth Games :)

Now, a little plea - right now Brenda doesn't have many visitors or followers as she's quite new to this malarky. It would be great if some of you could visit - and even nicer if anyone can come up with a solution to Brenda having problems when she tries to upload photos to her blog and gets the message that they're too large. Anyone able to help by hopping over with some advice please?

And right before the gates closed, Lucy W arrived with this absolutely gorgeous card. I love how the colouring perfectly matches the paper, loads of lovely detail.

What I read on Lucy'sLucy's profile moved me deeply:

Introduction

My names Lucy I'm 24 from West Sussex (UK) and I have Severe ME and am bedridden. I'm not able to do much but love cardmaking!

Bragging rights

I live in a dark quiet room too poorly for visitors. I do card making for short periods throughout the day in between naps/rests and it keeps me focused and happy as I love it so much!

I don't know about you girls, but I truly didn't see one teeny ounce of self-pity from Lucy. That made me stop and think about how so many of you have health issues and just battle on - taking pleasure in making cards and creating beautiful work. Bless you all my lovely blogging friends - got me almost in tears here :(

OK, let's move on and it's time to see who Mr Random picked to win the MFT 'Notebook Edge' die and the LOTV 'Here comes Annabel' Art Pad - and our winner is:

Jules

 

Oh well done to Jules - I'm sure most of you know that Jules started off the Snippets Challenge and always joins in our weekly fun. I've peeked back though your blog Jules and I already knew you like LOTV images (even though I see you normally colour your own maybe these will be good for some quick cards for the cards for sale box?) AND, that you have in the past used shorthand notebook paper with the torn edge in some designs - flippin' enterprising gal :) So, I hope you likey your prize - I'll post it later in the week!

Oh wow, I got a shock at how many of you entered at least three cards over the last couple of week, and thereby qualified for the draw for one of the three Penny Black 'Soft Wings' stamps on offer. I counted 16 of you, so you had just under a one in five chance. I numbered the order in which you'd qualified and then ran the Random number generator, which came up with these three winners:

Bonnie, Shaz in Oz and Sandra H

Well done girls, I'm sure I have all your addresses so will post the stamps this coming week!

I do so wish I had another dozen or so fluttering around here so that everyone could be a winner :( Having said that, I suspect I was pretty lucky to even get my hands on three of those stamps and they only arrived here on Friday - be still my thumping heart!

This coming week's prize is of course linked to my own snippets card:

It's a Clarity stamp called 'We 3 Kings - large', the same as the one I used today, along with a pot of Cosmic Shimmer 'Diamond Sprinkles'. The stamped image is 70mm x 78mm. If you've never used Clarity stamps before, this one comes already mounted onto its own perspex 'handle'. Also, although the image comes stained blue it's a good idea to clean the blue from the stamp using something like nail polish remover if you intend to use something like a clear Versamark embossing pad so that you don't stain the pad. As I know Maggie and others will agree, Clarity stamps do produce really crisp and clear images - I love them!

As usual, the snippets challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 2nd August and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be the winner of the prize. And of course, if you're only interested in one or other of the items, then feel free to say so as well.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Have a great week!

Di (and a hot and sticky wave from Parsnip)
x