In the Snippets Playground

I'm very excited, because today Di is revealing the first ever guest designer in the Snippets Playground and she's given ME the honour of the role. Today is the "half term" post in the new two-weekly format, when the winners of the previous challenge are announced, and now the guest designer revealed, so I'm delighted to be the first of many. I believe Parsnip is sulking because he wasn't chosen - I'll have to look out in the playground later as I'm sure he'll be trying to play tricks on me.

Here is my card for you:

The dies I used are called Magnificent Christmas (but I left out the Santa hats), by Yvonne Creations.  The owls and branches are cut from snippets, of course, and the border is a scrap left from a sheet of 12 x 12 that has made numerous cards. It had a scallop border all the way round, so I cut a strip with border and background from one side and then added a strip from another edge of the sheet. Instead of backing the owls in another colour or piecing in the breasts and beaks, I coloured them in with fine markers. The sentiment is stamped using the very useful set that comes with the current issue of Making Cards magazine.

I hope to get round and visit lots of your entries - there is still plenty time to join in here and I must warn you that as long as I'm wearing my Visitor's Badge there is to be no running in the corridors! So why not have a rummage round among all your snippets, trimmings and offcuts and see just what you can create from them?

Chloe Stems again

It seems like an age since I used my beloved Chloe Stems die, but they've had an outing today in honour of Less is More's 6th birthday challenge, where they have provided us with a colour wheel and want to see a card that uses  three adjacent colours.

I chose the yellow, yellow-green and bright green sections and teamed them with a die cut stitched oval and a simple sentiment stamped using one of the very useful stamps in this month's Making Cards magazine.

Another Valentine's Card

I think I'd better get myself a few boyfriends, as I've made several Valentines Day cards this year! Apart from the one I've actually made for Mark, which obviously I'm not sharing yet as he reads this (oops, better delete that bit about the boyfriends....) this will be my last for this year, so I'm sharing it with several challenges.

The heart stamp is a very old magazine freebie - I think it came from Craft Stamper and it must be at least 10 years old. I stamped it three times in red and embossed with clear powder, then added black squiggles between the hearts and cut around the edges of the whole border - not too close as I didn't want to crack the embossing.

The sentiment is another magazine freebie from about 2 years ago, cut and matted using Gummiapan stitched ovals dies. The dies for the flower and leaves are from my stash - judging by the colour of the metal I'm guessing the flower is a Marianne die and the leaves Spellbinders.

I am sharing this with

Mod Squad - Hearts and Flowers
Sweet Stampin - Love is in the air
Retro Rubber- Cross my heart
 











Cardz 4 Galz - Love is in the air
Creative With Stamps - Valentine 


AAA Cards  - Shape your love


Use Your Stuff - Love is in the Air

Goldfinch on a thistle

Did any of my UK friends join in the RSPCA Big Birdwatch the weekend before last? We took part and it was very noticeable how all the interesting birds we regularly see stayed away from the garden during our hour of counting. But we DID see a couple of Goldfinches, the bird which is the subject of the inspiration photo this week at CRAFT challenge

As soon as I saw this photo, it reminded me of something I'd seen before, but I couldn't place where. I've been racking my brains for days, and then woke up at 4am this morning with the answer - it reminds me a lot of the beautiful goldfinch on a thistle image on Joanna Sheen's Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady CD-rom set. I just had to get up and get printing!

I've combined the image with some coordinating papers from the CD, a stamped sentiment using an Oak House Studio stamp, chosen in honour of today being "International send a friend a card day" (there's a day for everything, isn't there?) and lots of distressing.

Love You at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's a week until Valentine's Day, and  that means many of us are trying to think of a suitably male card for our other halves, so at Cardz 4 Guyz this week we thought we'd help out by making the theme Love You.

My card uses hearts cut with a Gummiapan die, on a black background, because I always think the red/black/white combo is great for guy cards. The gingham bands above and below are some peculiar stuff that isn't really ribbon and isn't really paper, and was sold as washi tape, but it isn't washi tape and isn't even self adhesive. It's just..... peculiar. But it's nice and bold and just what I wanted here!

I am sharing this with
Dies R Us - hearts 
Craft Rocket Challenge - It's a Love thing 
Uniko Studions - anything goes with an optional twist of Love

Sparkling Snowflakes

This card happened by accident - I was rummaging around in my bag of ribbons for one of those elusive scraps that you just know are somewhere, when something fell on the floor and landed at my feet. It was this piece of ribbon, still in its packaging, and I'd forgotten all about it. Well, since it was begging to be used, it would have been rude not to, wouldn't it?

The sparkly silver snowflakes are cut from Cricut vinyl - I think it's meant for making iron on motifs for textiles, but I used it by die cutting in the Grand Calibur (it's quite tough and takes several passes)  then using my heat gun to apply it to the card. It comes out much thinner and flatter than a normal die cut, almost as if it's melted into the card, and yet has an amazing amount of sparkle, far more than I could ever capture in a photo! The stamped tags  are made with an NBUS Funstamps stamp.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Gals Corner - add some sparkle
CHNC - Add some Ribbon
CHNC Extra - February
Jingle Belles - Let the flakes fall where they may
   

Man's best friend

As most of you know, I'm a cat lover, not a dog lover, but I know lots of people wouldn't be without their beloved dogs and this card is dedicated to dog people everywhere.

The image is a Little Claire's stamp, coloured with Promarkers and cut with Gummiapan Stitched Ovals dies, and the sentiment stamp was a magazine freebie last year.

I am sharing this with
Stamping Sensations - Animal Magic
Alphabet Challenge - Spots or dots
Just Us Girls - Dogs