It’s NEARLY Rudolph Day!

Hi there!

It’s Rudolph Day tomorrow . . . but as I often post on a Wednesday, my penguin ATC is a day early! 

Instead, I’m entering this ATC into one of my favourite challenges - TAG ALONG & ATCs - where they want to see you ADD SOME TEXT to your tag, ATC or bookmark. 

My ATC has text stamped faintly in the background and the word “penguin” in the orange/green bit of the image.

ATC

Details:

• Snippets of white and SU Island Indigo to create the ATC base 
• MFT Stitched Snowflakes for the two smaller flakes; unknown make for the largest snowflake.
• Script stamp (stamped in SU Pool Party ink) is from the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous set THMM123.
• Penguin is by AALL & Create - Set #604

March Rudolph Day - Heart Baubles

Hi there!

I was chuffed to bits to be the lucky winner of a STAMPING SENSATIONS challenge at the end of last year and received this lovely Christmas baubles stamp as part of my prize. Couldn't wait to play with it, so here's the first card, but I have a feeling there will be many more in different colour ways and maybe some decoupage! 

A6 sized card

Materials:

• Sentiment by Inkylicious - originally part of the Winter Snow Pines (large) stamp set.
• Cling Heart Ornaments stamp by Stampendous.

February Rudolph Day - Christmas Gonk

Hi there!

It's "Rudolph Day” for us crafters, so I'm sharing one of the festive cards I made earlier this year, ready for the coming December! 

 A6 sized card

Materials:

• Torn paper masks for snow drifts.
• Gonk by unknown make
• PaperArtsy snowflake stencil
• Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide ink, plus SU Night of Navy ink for the sentiment.
• Creative Expressions snow stencil
• Posca Pens scribbled onto a non-stick sheet and picked up with a waterbrush to colour the gonk.
• White snippet used to stamp the gonk on. It was then coloured, cut out and glued to the card front. 

January Rudolph Day - Christmas Penguin

Hi there!

Okay, so Rudolph Day was yesterday . . . but you have until the end of the month to join in with the challenge HERE.

On this card, I used a torn piece of paper with a blender brush and light blue ink to create the snowscape. Then I brushed the same blue ink through a few stencils. The penguin is a snippet that I coloured and cut out a little while back, and the "Christmas" word and "25th" stamps are from a new stamp set I acquired from Hobby Art, who recently stopped trading. As a final touch I added Washi tape to the left hand edge. 

C6 sized card

MATERIALS:

• Funky Fossil Washi Tape at the left hand edge.
• "Christmas" word and "25th" by Hobby Art from their "Christmas Post" stamp set. I coloured the sentiment in with blue Tombow marker pens.
• Geometric Flowers stencil by Funky Fossil and an unknown make for the swirly stencil.
• Torn paper used as a mask to create the snowscape with light blue ink and a brush.
• AALL & Create Penguin from set #604, stamped onto a white SNIPPET and coloured in with watercolour pencils. The penguin was cut out and glued to the card front.

Sunday Snippets in Red and Green

Hi Playmates!

Miss Di is in charge of the new SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND challenge for the next fortnight - and I must say the Playground is looking VERY festive. Everything has been decorated and there’s a huge Christmas tree in the Assembly Hall. 

Rehearsals for the Nativity Play are going well with all you little (ahem!) angels running amok. It’s going to be the usual mayhem with myself, Di and Dudley running around like headless chickens, but it is a lot of fun!

For my homework this week, I made a festive card with plenty of red and green on it so that I could enter the current WE LOVE STAMPING CHALLENGE using their theme.

The cream card measures 5" square

Materials:

• Background stamping = Numerous grunge stamps by Kaiserkraft, Studio Light, plus splatters fromSU’s  Gorgeous Grunge set, stamped onto a white snippet.
• Focal point stamping =The postmark stamp is from the Hobby Art Christmas Post CS068D set. I stamped it on the panel and again onto another snippet so that I could cut it out and stick it on with foam pads. I inked the postmark and panel edges with whatever orange Distress Oxide ink was left on the brush. 
• Die Cutting: Winter foliage from gel print snippets (Hidden Leaves dies by Sizzix Code 664581).
• The bird die (unbranded set from TEMU) was cut from the last remaining red snippets of card I could find.

Green gelli plate snippets & the last couple 
of red snippets I managed to squeeze the birds out of!

I also made an ATC while I had the above snippets out on my desk. Managed to cut x 2.5" x 3.5” piece out of the dark green gel print to mount the bird panel on. I stencilled the white snippet (not shown in the pic) first, adding some dark brown splatters, then stamped the sentiment before glueing the foliage and bird in place. 

ATC

I would like to enter the ATC into the DECEMBER TAG ALONG & ATC CHALLENGE where the theme is RED & GREEN (but there’s also an anything goes option).

Materials:

• Heffy Doodle “Numicon” stencil used on the white panel with light green ink.
• SU splatter stamp from “Gorgeous Grunge” used with dark brown ink.
• Crafty Roo “Happy Christmas” sentiment stamped in VFC Spruce ink.
• Dark green gel print snippet shown in the photo trimmed to 2.5” x 3.5” - used for the main panel mount.
• Green foliage die from the Hidden Leaves set by Sizzix (Code 664581) - cut from a gel print snippet.
• Red bird (unbranded die set bought from Temu) cut from red snippets of card.

Remember there are EXTRA PRIZES to be won in the December challenges at the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND, so why not come over to play? 

Christmas Snippets!

Hi Lovely Reader!

Thanks for dropping by at this busy time of year.

As previously mentioned, I have started making next year's Christmas cards, so I stamped up a few white card snippets and coloured them in. Then I cut them out and set about making some festive cards. 

Stamped up snippets.

Coloured and cut out images.

Cards made with a few of the snippets.
I still have the remaining images to use up.

I was going to enter one of the red and green gonk cards into the We Love Stamping December Challenge . . . until I realised that I had no idea of the gonk stamp details (a requirement for copyright purposes). I thought the set might have been by Lisa Horton for Creative Expressions, but it's several years old and I cannot locate it anywhere, so that's that plan scuppered!

Sunday Snippets - another Christmas Candle!

Hi Playmates!

I have published RESULTS from the previous challenge, so please hop over to the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND to admire the top picks and discover which lucky playmate won the prize. There's still nearly a week left to play in the current challenge if you haven't already done so. Remember to look at the Noticeboard at the bottom of the Playground blog post.

For my homework this week, I made another hand-drawn candle card!

As mentioned last week . . . . I was inspired to draw the candle after seeing Tina Cox’s designs at Clarity Stamp.

5.5” x 3.5” card

White snippet that I scribbled some red Tombow pen on in order to
die cut some berry shapes (I used the larger 3 berries!) 

White snippet that I scraped my VFC Spruce
ink pad on so that I could stamp and cut
out the holly leaves in a dark green.

I stamped the holly leaves first, then drew the candle.
(You can still see my pencil marks on the flame!)

Details:

• Magnolia holly leaves stamped 3 times onto a white snippet for the main panel, and again onto a further white snippet that I had scraped a VFC Spruce green ink pad across. I then cut out the leaves and adhered them to the panel with foam pads. 
• Hand-drawn candle, coloured with a mixture of Tombow pens and Distress Inks.
• Berry dies - probably Sizzix(?) which came as part of a foliage set.
• The Merry Christmas sentiment comes from a PaperArtsy JOFY set of stamps.
• Main image mounted onto a red snippet of card.
• The originally A6 sized card was cut down to give an even border around the main panel.

Sunday Snippets - a Christmas Candle

Hi Playmates!

There's a new challenge to play along with over at the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND hosted by Miss Di for the next fortnight.

For my homework I was messing about in Art Class and drew a small candle on a snippet of white card. I quite liked it - so I mounted it onto a black snippet of card after rounding all the corners with a punch. I was inspired to draw the candle having seen Tina Cox’s designs for Clarity Stamp. (However, I figured I could draw a candle myself and save £20!)

It was still quite a small image due to the size of the snippet I picked, so I reached for a long strip of white card (a snippet left from making my own card blanks). The strip measured 2.5" x 11.5", so I scored it at 4", 8" & 9¾" to make a zigzag card base.

Side view to show the card shape.

A face-on shot!

After making the card shape, I stencilled over it and glued the candle to the front panel. Then added the Merry Christmas sentiment.

Materials:

• Hand drawn candle, coloured with Tombow pens.
• Retired sentiment by Clearly Besotted*
• Stencils: "Dotty Circles" (magazine cover gift); "Bubbles" Dinky Stencil TC005 by That's Crafty.
• Snippets - ALL the pieces of card used for the card.

*EDITED to say I originally stated that Clearly Besotted were no longer trading but this is not the case. I’ve checked and the owner, Stephanie, says her little business is fully operational. 

Sunday Snippets - 31st Aug

Hi Playmates!

There's a new challenge to play along with over at the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND hosted by Miss Di for the next fortnight. Di is feeling better than last week, but still has some healing to do. 

I was asked to make 6 gift boxes for a friend to use at Christmas. Below is one of the decorated boxes (details on how to make it are HERE - just scroll down to Chocolate Bar Box).

I decorated 2 of the boxes using the same 12" x 12" piece of designer paper, then used the left over snippets of that paper to make the birthday card shown below (with a matching envelope). 

5" square card & envelope with matching snippets used
from the scraps of paper left over from making the box.

The buff coloured card mount and sentiment were die cut
from cereal packaging.

Card Details: 

• Snippets of DSP (unknown brand).
• Poppy Stamps die: "Happy Birthday Poe Script" (cut from snippets of the Bran Flakes packaging).
• Snippets of packaging for the mount.

Sunday Snippets!

Hi Playmates!

I know Christmas is over . . . but I've already made a start on cards for 2025's festive season. That's because, these days, I prefer to make them in the winter months while I'm more 'in the mood'!

Card measures 4.75" x 4.75"

Details:

• Heffy Doodle Stitched Square dies used to cut the main image and the mount.
• White snippet of card for the main panel.
• Snippet of SU 'Certainly Celery' card for the mount.
• Very old 'Seasons Greetings' stamp - probably by Stampendous, coloured with green and orange Tombow marker pens.

Playground Round-up:

Didn't we have a lot of fun at the Playground Christmas Party?! A few too many imbibers of the spiked Playground Punch and hidden hooch saw a long and raucous Conga led by Miss Di and chased by Dudley Dog! Lots of frantic dancing to the music too - we sure know how to strut our funky stuff sho' nuff! I'm assuming you've all got over your hangovers now!

I have published RESULTS from the previous challenge, so please hop over to the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND to admire the top picks and discover which FOUR LUCKY PLAYMATES won prizes. There's still nearly a week left to play in Di's current challenge if you haven't already done so.

Sunday Snippets - it's party time!

Hi Playmates!

There's a new challenge to play along with over at the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND hosted by Miss Di for the next fortnight, where, once again, there will be FOUR lucky prize winners picked out at random at the end of it. Results will be posted on 12th January 2025.

I made a festive gift wallet for my homework and put a voucher inside, but it also fits a bar of chocolate (just saying!). 

Gift wallet (fits chocolate bar!)

My snippets

This is the template I made and used for the gift wallet - just in case anyone needs one!

Snippets Playground Round up!

The Playground Christmas party is being held in the school hall on Christmas Eve. Thanks to all the playmates who have been taking it in turns to make long paper chains and blow up balloons to decorate the hall. 

Di and I have been busy putting out tables and chairs and making sure there are plenty of twinkling lights about the place - plus we dragged in a huge Christmas tree and decorated it. The dinner ladies have been busy making party food and drink - including a massive bowl of punch (which I might just have to "spice up" a little)! Dudley is going to be DJ for the night and Di says she'll be leading a Conga at some point! All are welcome to enjoy the festivities, so let's eat, drink and be merry!

As this is likely to be my last post before Christmas, I wish all my blog readers, old and new, a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR. 

Sunday Snippets - Tag You're It!

Hi Playmates!

In my satchel this week, I have some cheese and biscuits to go with the mulled wine that's helping to keep us warm and happy up in the treehouse!

For my homework, I made various Christmas tags from snippets of card and paper, and I'm sharing a couple of my favourites with you today. 

Both tags were made entirely from snippets of white card and torn bits of patterned paper - with a little stencilling, stamping and die-cut snowflakes to decorate.

Christmas Tags

Paper Snippets

So, why not take a look at your snippets pile, pull a few bits out and see what you can make? Then come over to play in the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND. At the end of Challenge #495 there will be FOUR lucky prize winners drawn at random and the results will be posted on 29th December.

ALLSORTS CHALLENGE 784

It's Saturday morning and time for another ALLSORTS CHALLENGE where I am delighted to be their Guest Designer this week. 

This week's theme is FLOWERS GALORE (or you can, of course, choose the Anything Goes option). 

I think you'll agree that this pop up box card has flowers galore! 

A pretty boxful of flowers for someone's birthday.

Folds flat for posting.

The die cut snippets,
plus the final versions coloured and glued together.

Materials:

• Decorative papers from Craft O'Clock's Warm Breeze pad to decorate the pop up box flaps etc.
• Martha Stewart edge punch used on 3 of the box flaps.
• Tim Holtz Modern Floristry dies by Sizzix to fill the inside of the card.
• White and green snippets of card for die cutting. The die cuts were subsequently brushed with a variety of dye inks to colour them. I used the negative pieces to reinsert the flowers for ease of holding them in place while brushing with ink.
• The sentiment uses long-retired oval punches and birthday words, all by Stampin' Up!

I hope you will come and join in at the Allsorts Challenge. There is a lovely prize to be won.

Snowy Snippets!

Hi Playmates!

I'm always happy when I'm using up snippets! Here, I've used a gelli print snippet, as well as some SU Pool Party card. Hmm, just looking at this photo makes me think I need to run off and add a gem in the centre of that snowflake . . . best go and do that before I forget!

Showing the Pool Party snippet I used for the snowflake.

Di has published RESULTS from her previous challenge, so please hop over to the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND to admire the top picks and discover who won the prize. 

There's still time to add your name to the cast list of the Nativity Play - details on the Snippets Playground post - some major parts are still vacant!

NB: Di's next Playground Challenge - starting on Christmas Eve - will have a theme of ANYTHING BUT CHRISTMAS! So please enter any snippets card you like, as long as it has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas! Non-compliant entries won't be eligible for the draw and may be deleted - and you really don't want to miss the chance of her prize - trust me!

MORE Christmas in July at the Snippets Playground!

Hi Playmates

It's Sunday morning and time for a new challenge over at the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND with yours truly in charge for the next fortnight. Please remember there is a CHRISTMAS THEME for this particular Playground challenge.

Just to prove that bunnies aren't only for Easter - I have a card using the popular "bunny" die which was kindly gifted to me by a good friend (thanks, you know who you are). 

5½ square base card

The snippets I used. It didn't matter that
the kraft card (which is actually packaging)
wasn't quite big enough for the die as I only
wanted the insert bits!

The details:

1. First, I added the grungy Christmas stamp direct to the base card, a little over to the right hand side. (The stamp is from Aall & Create set #371 'Deep Focus'. Nothing to do with Christmas really!)
2. Next I die cut all the snippets and watercoloured the bunny with Distress Oxide inks.
3. I glued the presents pile together on the card front (snipping off the top bow first along with the innards of the top box) then drew the top present stripes in then added colour by watercolouring them with Distress Inks. 
4. The bunny was then seated on top of the pile! He has some foam pads under the main body and head, but his ears and feet have been glued down.
5. Added grounding beneath the presents.
6. Finally, I stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black. The sentiment is from Colorado Crafts Big & Bold Warmest Wishes set.

Grumpy Penguin Christmas Cards

Hi Friends

Sorry, but I have a bit of a Christmas fest going on in this blog post, so you'd best grab a nice mug of hot chocolate and settle in!

These Christmas cards were made with the wonderful Katzelkraft "Grumpy Penguins" stamp set. 

I'm entering the single card (below) to the CHRISTMAS CRAFT CREATIONS challenge where they have a snippets theme going on this month. However, if you look further down this post, there are even MORE penguin cards using up those ever-increasing snippets!

A6 card for the CCC Challenge with the penguin snippet added,
together with snowflake snippets.

To create my cards, I first gathered together a few of my MANY white snippet strips (left over from cutting my own card bases). Then I stamped a load of penguins on them.

White snippets ready for colouring & fussy cutting

All coloured and cut out ready to go on cards.

Once that was done, I made a few inky backgrounds then glued the penguins and snowflakes on top.

Only the penguins are snippets on this trio of cards.

A6 card showing penguins & snowflake snippets.

Had LOADS of fun making these, and I still have a few penguins left to add to more cards when the mood is upon me!

Holly Card for 2 Challenges

Hi Friends

I know it seems like a long time since Christmas, but I've made a Christmas card from snippets - which I'm going to enter into 2 challenges.

5" square card - Aall & Create stamp, Magnolia Holly stamp
& Sizzix berry die (part of a foliage set).
The sentiment is by Inkylicious.

Stamped up white snippet - I'd already
started cutting out the Magnolia Holly leaves
before remembering to take a photo!

All cut-out and ready to stick to cards.

Small pink snippet for the berries.

I made 4 cards all very similar to the one pictured, with just variations in the layout. That's 4 ready for this coming Christmas! Yippee! 

Challenges entered:

• Christmas Craft Creations Challenge (Snippets theme)
• Mo's Rudolph Day Challenge (Christmas theme) 

MERRY CHRISTMAS one and all

I wish you a VERY Merry Christmas 
and a Happy New Year.

Your cyber friendship means the world to me and I thank you for all your visits and comments. 

Sunday Snippets!

Hi Playmates!

In my satchel I have a White on White (WoW) Christmas card for my Snippets Playground homework. I'm hoping for extra Brownie points for using the Stampin' Up! "Softly Falling" embossing folder that Miss Di is giving away as part of her challenge prize. Hoping for an A+ for setting a good example!

So . . . I'm skipping over to the Snippets Playground to hand this in. Why not use up some of your snippets and join in too? We're a friendly bunch and there's usually someone around to lead you astray (ahem, mainly ME!).

The Playground Christmas tree is due to be decorated shortly. Dudley, Di and I have been busy stringing up fairy lights all over the place and the Treehouse is twinkling inside and out. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! A Grand Switch On is planned for 1st December - be there or be square!!!!

My snippets homework.

Snippets picked out to use + embossing folder
with the snippet I embossed just before taking
the photo!

Remember to emboss the envelope flap for that extra
little touch while the EF is out on your desk!

I learnt TWO lessons while making this card! The first was that if you intend to die cut something that's dry embossed - do it BEFORE you do the dry embossing! Why? Well, if you do it AFTER embossing, the embossing will be flattened when you do the die cutting! Then you end up spending 10 flipping minutes trying to get the blasted flattened dots to line back up with those inside the embossing folder so you can put it BACK through your machine again to plump it all up!

The second lesson is that if you're trying to save money on your heating bill and are wearing fingerless gloves to keep warm while you craft . . . take them off before using adhesive! 

Why? Well TINY little bits of wool miraculously shed and start sticking to foam pads and the like! You then have to spend time pulling them off, because NOBODY wants a woolly, hairy card do they?!

So there you have it: die cut first, dry emboss afterwards and take off your woolly gloves before using adhesive (or turn the heating on so you don't need gloves in the first place! LOL!).

Happy days!

Sunday Snippets

Hi Playmates

Guess what? A new fortnight of fun has started over at the SNIPPETS PLAYGROUND where I'm back in charge and there's still a Christmas theme going on! Expect plenty of Summertime Cocktails - and if you want a recipe - just hop on over to the Playground to find one!

For today's homework, I took inspiration from Carol L's post HERE and got out my SU trees stamp set and co-ordingating punch.

Here's my snippets homework:

Snippets of white card, stamped and punched out.
For the smaller triangles, I didn't insert the punch
as far into the tree image as I did for the whole tree.

So why not grab some of your festive snippets, create a little project and enter your own piece of homework? There's a lovely bundle of Christmas prizes on offer to one lucky winner.