Flying over to the Snippets Playground.

When I saw that the challenge on Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas blog this week was 'Spread your wings' I knew just what I would do.

At Christmas I received two tiny square cards, each depicting a Christmas owl, and I saved them to alter and recycle. So I cut out the two images and added a bit of glitter to brighten them up.

Then I raided my Christmas snippets box and found some strips of paper left over from when I did some Iris folding a year ago! I paired them up and interwove them to make two small basket-weave panels. I framed one with bright red card and the other with green glitter card, both salvaged from Christmas cards. I glued one owl to each panel.

For the backgrounds I used a new stamp from Impression Obsessions. It is one of their 'Cover-a-Card stamps. They are six inches square, stamp beautifully, and I love them. I bought my first one when I saw them being demonstrated at the Ally Pally show that my sister took me to, a few years ago now, and I have been hankering after this holly one ever since. So I am glad I have found a UK stockist now. And I was amazed at how many new ones they have released. I can see me going there again! 

For the card on the left, I stamped it in versafine ink and heat embossed it with gold powder. This doesn't really show in the photo except above the image. The other one is stamped with memento bamboo shoots ink.

I edged the first card with strips again salvaged from an old card, and for the second I used the same piece of green glitter card. (There is hole in it behind the holly paper where I cut the image frame out).

The sentiments were cut with a Britannia die, again using snippets of the red, and green-glitter cards.

So these will be flying into Pixie's Snippets Playground, on their way to Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge.

'Spread your wings, Come fly with me...'

Chooks - Playing with snippets

This is one of those cards that is more about the fun of making it than the end result.

I have no idea of how I did it, but early last week I pulled a muscle or something, in my back, so I couldn't do a lot of my usual 'stuff', and I spent a lot of time just sitting with a hot mud-pack strapped to me. (A random buy at Lidle's a few months ago which turned out to be really comforting and helpful). One good thing that came from it is that the most comfortable chair for me turned out to be the high-back office chair in my craft room! So I have had time to just play and I decided to try something with my silhoulette cameo machine, that has been on my 'to try' list for ages, but I always seem to be too busy. I wanted to have a go at layering vinyl cuts. That doesn't mean putting one layer on top of another, but rather to cut a shape from the centre of something, and replace it exactly with the same shape in a different colour.

If I had been sensible - which I am not -  I would have chosen a fairly large, simple shape to start with. Instead I used a file of a tiny chicken with an inset heart. (Five tiny chickens actually. This is just one of them). The rectangle it is on, measures 2cm x 3½cm !

One of my Wednesday sewing group friends does beautiful 'folk-art' quilting, and she recently made a kitchen banner featuring cute little chooks. I borrowed her pattern thinking I might downsize one for a card one day, but, although I copied them, I had never used them. So first I scanned them in and traced them to make the cutting lines. Then I downsized them so that they would fit along a DL card, and started to cut them. Everything had been magnified on the screen and I hadn't realised just how small they actually were until I came to cut them. I had to separate each chicken into his component parts, and cut them individually, so I found my folder of vinyl snippets. (Yes I have enough of them to make a new snippets folder!).  I only needed tiny pieces about one centimeter square to cut each heart, and 2cm square for each body. Then I used the corners of each of these squares to cut the combs, feet and beaks in contrasting colours. 

I weeded the bodies, (lifted out the spare, unwanted areas), without taking them off the backing paper, and added the hearts, beaks, feet, combs etc while they were there. I set them aside while I thought about what I could do with them.

From my paper snippets boxes I found little pieces of paper to cut fish-tail flags, and used transfer tape to lift each complete chicken and position it on a flag. It was very fiddly, and some of the beaks were not very willing to let go of the transfer tape, but I got there in the end. I then found a piece of suitable DP from a magazine I think, to cover the base card. I couldn't find one that really showed all the flags very clearly, so to get around that I matted each flag onto dark brown card, leaving a very narrow border. I made a hanging line with baker's twine, and glued each flag to it.

Finally I used my Britannia alphabet die, in all capital letters, and some more tiny snippets of the vinyl, to cut the greeting, and stuck this along the lower edge. And here is the completed card.

 As I said, it was a lot of work but I enjoyed trying it. I have a brother-in-law who is 90 in a week or two. I might find a gold number 9 and 0 to stick on it and send it to him. You probably think it is an odd design for such an occasion, but what do you put on a card for a ninety year old?! If it makes him smile, then it will have done all it needs to.

In the meantime, I will link it up in Pixie's Snippets Playground, because I sure used up some tiny pieces of both vinyl and paper to make it.

Flutterby - Butterfly

My sister Jean is probably the only one who will immediately recognise the title of this post as it relates to some 'fairy' cereals bowls we had as children.

I promised myself that I would make a few more cards that were not for specific birthdays etc this year, to build up a small stock for last minute needs, but sometimes it is hard to get started. So when I found myself with a little time to spare last night, I looked for a challenge to give me inspiration, and sure enough, the new Butterfly Challenge was up. This week they want us to use at least one of each of the three 'B's - butterflies, buttons and bows. So here is what I made.

I have been having a tidy up over the past few weeks and lurking in the back of my embossing folders holder, I found two Cuttlebug cut and emboss folders. Although I really like these, they have been very under-used, so I chose the one with a circular aperture and found a snippet of lime green paper to cut/emboss it. 
I wanted a good contrast and searching through my card I found this piece of bright pink pearl with a matt black reverse, that was just large enough to make an A6 base card with a small strip left over. It is not a card I would choose and I think it came in  a cheap bulk pack. I once had a lady visit me for some basic guidance on using her silhouette machine, and she loved it, so I gave most of it to her, but this used sheet must have been overlooked. I glued the embossed frame onto the card and then used some ribbon to go around it. I often attach ribbon using double sided tape, and it wasn't until I picked the card up later that I realised the tape was wider than the ribbon - doh! -  so I had a sticky edge along each side of it. My eye-sight is not good right now and I hadn't seen this. So I rummaged through my glitter drawer and found a fine pink glitter which I poured over the ribbon and shook it off again, leaving quite a pretty glittery edge along each side. More by luck than judgement, I had actually stuck the ribbon fairly centrally on the tape! I tied a bow and added it to the ribbon with a glue dot. 

I then made one of my 'wet-method' flowers. I hadn't done this for ages. They are a little bit bulky for cards to post Internationally, but fine for local ones, and I do like them. I stamped several flowers from the Everything Eleanor SU set, and cut them with the matching punch. I then did the same with some of the Heartfelt Creations delicate Asters set of stamps and dies, all using the Memento rose bud ink pad. Starting with the smallest, I fed them onto a tiny central brad, spritzing each layer with water, and scrunching it up. When they were all on, I opened the brad to hold them together and gently unfurled the petals. I dried it a bit with my heat-gun, because I am impatient!, and then left it on a pad of kitchen roll to dry completely over night. This morning I glued the now dry flower to the centre of the frame, and added a black button over the tiny brad, for the centre.

With my little strip of left-over pink card, I cut two butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch, reversed them to show the black side, glued them over the rest of the pink card, and cut them out. I glued these to the top of the frame.

I have left a space at the lower edge to add a sentiment when I know what the card is going to be used for.

So now I shall link this up to the Butterfly Challenge 2, and also to Pixie's Snippets Playground.

CASING my own card for Rudolph Day

Last week I made a card for one of my sisters' birthday. I have had lots of nice comments on it, so thank you if you were one of my visitors, and thank you too to Di for featuring it in this weeks Snippets Playground picks. (Sorry if I haven't managed to visit you back. Blogger has been really difficult all weekend,  either refusing to open your posts although I could see the thumbnails, or not letting me comment. It even stole some photos from my post on my other blog, but it did return them the next day!)

Anyway, I was quite happy with the way my card had turned out, so I decided to use a similar style for some Christmas cards. 

As with the birthday card, I used an embossed background, white on white this time, a white embossed mat, a frame with only the sentiment inside it, and the main feature in the lower left corner with a smaller one to balance it in the upper right corner.

I used a variety of red snippets to cut the Nellie Snellen frame and the poinsettias which are Marianne dies. I again used accent beads, dyed yellow with butterscotch alcohol ink for the flower centres, but they looked a bit dull against the red, so I added a little yellow stickles for some sparkle. Then I picked some green snippets to cut the fir branches, again a Marianne die, and the holly. I can't remember what make that die is. I usually know by the colour but this one is yellow (?). Three flat-backed red pearls made the holly berries, and the sentiment is a Hot-off-the-press stamp.

As Sarn wants to see two 'makes' for her challenge, I set about making a second card, again using a similar format, but this time I used a rectangular card - the one above is a 15cm square though it doesn't look like it in the photo. I thought "cameras never lie"!

This time I used a plain white background and a larger mat. I chose a snippet of pale aqua paper and stamped it with a lovely background stamp and versamark ink.  This is one of my oldest stamps by Creative Expressions, and I have used it so much. I heat embossed it with white cosmic shimmer detail powder. The frame is cut with two dies from a new set of sizzix framelets called fancy labels. For once they do fit inside one another properly to cut a frame, which pleases me no end, as I don't have to cut round the outside of the die like I usually do. I used some thin holographic paper for it. I bought a big box of this from QVC many, many years ago, and I use it frequently, but there is still enough to last me a lifetime! 

For the image I used a Chocolate Baroque robin stamp. Because he was facing the opposite way from what I wanted, I stamped him and scanned him into the computer, flipped the image and printed it out four times, in case I decided to decoupage it. I coloured it with copic markers, and fussy cut it. It was a case of a sharp knife and some tiny snips to get around some of the leaves, but I think it was worth it. For the balance in the top corner I cut three snowflakes with more Marianne dies, using the left over pieces of the white, silver and aqua papers, glued them together and put a clear gem in the centre. The sentiment is the same one used on the previous card, on the centre die from a large spellbinders set, which I lightly inked through the die before I removed it. I frosted the ivy leaves and the top of the logs with some ice crystal stickles because I do like a bit of sparkle!

I decided against decoupaging the robin corner as it didn't really need another layer, so I was left with three more robins printed. I thought , rather than waste them, I would make some more of these cards, so I now have a set of four to add to my collection. I have about twenty five made so far which isn't all that many, but it is a lot more than I had at this time last year.

I used up a nice lot of snippets making these cards, so as well as linking them to Rudolph Day over on Sarn's blog, Stamping for Pleasure, I shall also take them over to Pixie's Snippets Challenge and see what is going on in the Playground today.

Just in time...I hope!

One of my sisters has a birthday next weekend, and I should have posted her card yesterday at the latest, but last night I was still adding the finishing touches, so it went to the Post office this morning. It might just get there in time.

Although I don't watch Create and Craft on TV, I do follow Sue Wilson's blog, and she often features the dies she has demonstrated on the program. Just recently she has teamed up with Joanna Sheen to do a video of a specific card, and all the materials and equipment used can be bought from Joanna's online shop. I particularly liked one she did a few weeks ago, and as I love daisy type flowers I sent for the Heartfelt Creations set of aster stamps and matching dies. I used most of the techniques shown by Sue in the video, but my card ended up quite different from hers.

I prepared a white 15cm square card, and then stamped and cut several of the flowers using an Adirondak peach bellini ink pad, and some leaves using Memento bamboo shoots. I coloured some size two accent beads with mountain rose and snow cap alcohol inks, and when they were dry I glued some to the centre of each flower. (I used two die-cuts  for each of my flowers ). I sorted through my pink/orange offcuts and found a small piece of card that matched the flower centres. It was only just big enough. In fact the white trellis across the lower edge is hiding a join in the pink card. The pink is stamped and clear embossed with a tiny flower background stamp. It hardly shows in the photo, but it does add another layer of interest. I found a small piece of pink patterned paper that toned well with the background and cut a fancy frame, (a Nellie Snellen die I think). From the centre cut out, I cut two corners from the same die set to hold the sentiment. I used some white off cuts to cut a mat for the frame and the trellis which is a lovely Memory box die. The mat was embossed with a folder from Crafts-too, (Thank you Di), and the sentiment is an old Elusive Images stamp.

When I had assembled it all I didn't think it was quite balanced so I used a Joy die to cut out a butterfly and inked it through the die with the same pad as the flowers. I used a pen to colour the body and added some stickles gold ice, and tiny orange pearls for a bit of bling.

I shall enter this in  Pixie's Snippets Playground week 112, where I understand the playmates are considering constructing an ark!

I shall also link it to the new Butterfly Challenge which you can find out about HERE. The first challenge is to use at least one flower and one butterfly on your card.

I don't do cute!

Well I don't do cute very often anyway. It's not that I don't like cute images - I see loads that I like when I am browsing blogs, but I have very few recipients of my cards that 'cute' is really suitable for, and I don't make cards to sell. But once in a while it nice to have a go, so here is what I made this week.

I bought a few stamps in the LOTV sale last month, and one of them was this cute bunny sailing down in an acorn cup. I coloured the image with copics and cut it out with a sizzix label die. I then routed through my snippets boxes and found the end of a blue/brown striped paper that I really like, and some computer printed blue crackle paper, and used these to create a background. I then found a little piece of pale brown that matched the stripes, and cut round the outside of the die to make a mat for the image. I used a piece of dark green card to cut a leafy corner, (I have forgotten what make this die is), and the last of the blue crackle bits to cut out some flowers using a cottage cutz die. The sentiment is an old Elusive images stamp. Although I have a huge selection of it, I couldn't find any ribbon the right colour, so I used a couple of ink pads to add colour to some white seam binding, and tied a bow for the top corner. Some tiny blue pearls in the centre of the flowers finished it off.

I shall be linking this one up to Pixie's Snippets Playground Week 111.

Welcome Little Man!

We now have two little boys called Isaac in the extended Perry clan. My great-grandson who is two and a half already(!) is called Isaac, and at 3.am today, our niece gave birth to Isaac Flynn. Flynn is his middle name not his family name, and it shows his links to his Irish roots. We managed to find and meet up with family members of both his great-grandparents when we visited Ireland last year. Incidentally, his arrival makes Chris and I great-uncle and aunt, at least 52 times! I have actually lost count but I know that is about right. Aren't families wonderful!

A couple of weeks ago I briefly showed the card I had made in readiness for his arrival on my other blog, but now it is in the post, en route for UK, I will show it properly.

This is my favourite baby image, and it is a Sugar-Nellie digi-stamp called Bambino. I coloured him with copic markers and used water to tear out a small 'blanket' from pale blue mulberry paper. The background is a triple layered paper that I made in photoshop from a digi-scrapbook kit. I printed it several times so I could decoupage the flowers. I used puff-paint for the bobbles on the hat. The sentiment was computer generated and cut with a sizzix die, and I finished it with some pearls for the flower centres, and some new card candy that I had bought that day.

Welcome to the world little man!

Something a little bit different

My youngest son has a birthday coming up this month and while I was thinking what I would put on a card for him, I saw this, and it immediately made me think of him.

Ben is the son who writes and sings his own songs, and he can portray a lot of emotion in them. I have seen adults moved to tears by one or two of his songs. So this was perfect for him. I saw it on a Silhouette Facebook page where a kind lady called Merrie Huntley-Burruss posted the cutting file for us to use. (I can't say for sure whether she designed it but I am assuming she did). So I was going to try cutting it with paper for his card, when in a flash of inspiration I decided to try something a bit different.

I chose a sheet of paper from my stash in bright yellows and oranges with gold highlights, and used this inside a clear clip frame. Next I opened the cutting file in my Silhouette software and resized it to fit the frame. I made a musical border top and bottom from individual note files, and cut it all out in black vinyl.

It cut well and the notes were easy to 'weed'. As you can see, I have some scrap paper ready to put the unwanted sticky bits on. The main image caused me rather more problems as it is very difficult to see the cut lines, and some of the script is very fine. but while I was doing it I suddenly realised that it would be better to stick it to the inside of the glass than to the paper, as I could then move it if I made a mistake. 

To do this I needed to cut a mirror image of everything so I had another go. It was even harder to weed reversed as nothing looked right, but I got there in the end. I used transfer paper to lift the whole cut from the vinyl backing paper, and re-position it on the glass. Then I had to rub it down really hard to make sure it was well stuck all over. Here it is on the glass. It has some kitchen roll under it so I could see what I was doing.

Finally I assembled it all so now it is ready to send. 

I have put it back into the polystyrene base that the frame was in when I bought it, and wrapped it in plenty of bubble wrap, and, fingers crossed', it will arrive in one piece. Ben is on holiday on his actual birthday so I will be posting this to arrive as soon as he gets back. I guess if I had been making this for a girl, I might have put it in a 'proper' frame, and prettied it up with flowers and butterflies, but I think plain and simple is the better approach for Ben.