Sunday Scraps & Snippets

 Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all having an enjoyable Sunday. This post is my way of  trying to get back into posting regularly - or at least a bit more than I have been doing over the last six or so months! It is also intended to give me the nudge I need to get me crafting in the way I did before all the bad stuff that's happened this year ... I won't dwell on it beyond saying it's been no picnic for any of us. 

To say I've done very little crafting is no exaggeration. No sewing, knitting, crochet, and not even gardening - indeed, the garden has become completely overgrown and wild looking. The only consolation is that the wildlife is enjoying it ... we've birds, squirrels, field mice and even our very own hedgehog. 

Scrapbooking has, for reasons I can't think off, been the only thing I've been able to concentrate on. Here's the two last pages made.

Both were made from scraps and old stash because I'm trying to use up as much as possible before I have a good clear out. There's nothing new on these pages - even the photos were taken years ago - and I can't remember what year the embellishments date back too. The yellow and white striped squares on the 'Bedtime' page were made using scraps of paper and sticky transparent squares that are a Docraft product. Hoarded because I couldn't find a reason to use them. The pretty patterned paper on 'New Arrival' is from the Little Sprout collection by Fancy Pants Designs which came inside a scrapbook magazine a long, long time ago - possibly 2009. Even the new arrival isn't so new anymore - he started school this year!

I'm going to submit 'Bedtime', because it's made almost entirely of scraps of patterned paper, to Di's challenge: Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #390. 

So that's my first Sunday Scrap post in a very long time and, what's more, I intend to be back posting again soon. I need to get back into the old routine. 

Hope you are all well and that you have a great week ahead. 

Sunday Snippets - Oh Christmas Tree

Afternoon Everyone,

I hope you are all having a good day today. It's not been bad here - cold but bright - for a change. I have been busy making this scrapbook page showing our Christmas tree in all it's glory.

It's an artificial tree that comes out year after year to deck the living-room.  I've finally been able to use the huge die-cut tree from Pretty My Page - I only bought it last year so not bad going for me. Some of the embellishments are very much older, e.g. I've had the tree trim along the bottom edge for more than 20 years! Ditto the peppermint candy circles.

We have another, much smaller, tree in the hall, It's also artificial and even older than the one in pictured. There's also a couple of live trees in the garden. One is pot-grown and spends most of the year tucked away out of sight in the back garden but, at this time of the year, gets all decked up and takes pride of place by the front doorstep.

Last Christmas it did start life here at Casa Worthington covered with a generous dusting of fake snow. Now, one year later, our Scottish weather and a year's growth, there's no trace of the snow so we've decked it out with red baubles.

Now that the need for Christmas cards has eased, I've been finding more time to make scrapbook pages, like the one above, for my Christmas album. This is good - it's enjoyable, stress-busting and the memories are being preserved for years to come - what's not to like? Well, it's this. All this scrapping is creating ... scraps! Lots of them. I'm looking at the growing pile as I type. So, I've used up some in this tag.

I know it's only one little tag, but every little bit helps. A blue label from my local stationery shop, scraps of paper (Simple Stories 'Winter Wonderland' collection), a die-cut greeting (Tonic) and holly leaves (Tattered Lace), some ribbon, twine and red dew drops and I have a pretty label to put on a package.

I'm submitting the tag to Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #367

And that's me done for today. Though, I may just spend a little time to make another tag or two to use up a few more of those pesky snippets.

Take care and have a very good evening.

Sunday Snippets - December Tag

Evening Everyone,

Two posts in one day!!! Just got to take the opportunity when I find I have the time! Especially as, today, I have a snippet make for Di's challenge - Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #366.

This tag was inspired by Karen Letchworth, of 'My Cup Runneth Over', currently guest designer on Pixie's Crafty Workshop. It's a lovely way of using up scraps of paper leftover from other projects.

Scraps like these leftover from two scrapbook pages I made recently. Of course, any scraps left over would be ideal for Karen's tag design.

In this photo you can see most of the other supplies used in the making of the tag. The sheet of month rub-ons I've had quite a few years and yet the December still worked a treat. The square shaped punch makes creating the fish tails on the pennants easier than other ways I battled with in the past. You can see how it's done on this previous post here.

This was a really fun little make and one that I intend to repeat every time I'm down to just a handful of scraps leftover from other bigger projects. Hope you've been as inspired by Karen as I have. She's a very talented crafter and her blog is full of inspiration, especially on how to use our leftover scraps and snippets.

Take care and have a great week ahead.

Sunday Snippet Card - Autumn Birthday

Hello Everyone,

And happy Sunday to you too. I hope you are having a wonderful day. It's been perfect crafting weather here, dull, miserable and rainy, and I've been happily creating another layout for my son's 50th album. It's getting nearer completion but still a way to go. In the meantime, I have a little birthday card to share with you.

It's made from scraps from the bits and bobs box - I swear that box is really a Tardis!

Supplies used:
- a white card base measuring 5x7 inches
- scraps of white and green cardstock for topper and greeting
- a scrap of green ink spritzed masterboard - a leftover from an earlier project
- stamps: 'Variostamp Leaves' from Folia Bringmann; 'Autum Harvest' stamp set from For the Love of Stamps by Hunkydory
- inks: various green ink pads from my stash including Versafine 'Olympia Green' and Memento 'Tuxedo Black'
- pens; Promarkers in greens, browns, orange and yellow for colouring the autumn harvest image
- glitter glue: yellow, cinnamon and platinum Stickles to decorate the pumpkin and cones in the image

The 'Birthday wishes' stamp was originally all one stamp but, as I wanted the words to be separate, I snipped it in half, then stamped the two words on two very tiny scraps of white cardstock. They can still be stamped together if needed - no irreparable damage done.

That's it for this Sunday. Take care everyone and enjoy the rest of the day.

Snippet Sunday - Cards for Men

Hello everyone,

Recently, two men in my life celebrated birthdays. They're both in their eighties so the usual themes of football, fast cars, beer and hill-climbing no longer apply. Here's what I came up with.

Card #1

Card #2

The backgrounds were found in the bits and bobs box - leftovers from a couple of previous makes. The bright blue one was quite obviously made from spray inks but, if I remember correctly, the more subtle colours of the second were made by using the technique of squishing garden flowers onto card using a die-cutting machine. Not that I can remember the flowers used - I tried out the technique a good few years ago.

Supplies used:
- white A6 card bases
- the found background pieces
- scraps of hessian and turquoise glitter paper from the  American Crafts' mixed media pad from the 'Dear Lizzy New Day' collection for card #1
- Kraft cardstock for card #2
- scraps of white card for the toppers and greeting circles - both cards
- stamps; wading birds from 'Wetlands' by Stampin' Up! - card #1; ears of corn from 'Autumn Harvest' by Hunkydory - card #2; greeting from 'Special Occasion Stamps' - a gift from a 2013 issue of Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine - both cards
- inks - Ranger's Archival 'Jet Black' - both cards
- pens - Memento Dual Markers in 'Cantaloupe', 'Dandelion', 'Rich Cocoa' & 'Potter's Clay' for card #2

- tools - die-cutting machine and a set of Docrafts' Spiro Circles dies for matting toppers on both cards

As you can see, the design is super simple, using very little in the way of supplies - and most of them from the snippet box too.

I'm submitting a card to Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #361. It makes a change for Di for it not to be a Christmas card, which is what I seem to be making most of the time these days.

I trust you have had a lovely weekend. We certainly have had a sunny one here. Well, it was until today - it's been dreich and  damp from overnight rain, but the garden needed it so I'm not complaining.

Take care and enjoy what's left of today.

Sunday Scraps - Layouts 4&5/2019 - Ailsa Craig & That's My Hat

Hello Everyone

This is a scheduled post because I'm taking a holiday from crafting for a few days. I thought, in my absence, I'd share a couple of layouts that were made earlier in the year.

This page was made using just a few scraps of leftover patterned papers on a background of plain pink cardstock. The photos are of Ailsa Craig, the tiny uninhabited island, uninhabited but for birds and seals, that lies just off our shores. It's where all the stone used in the making of curling stones is quarried. 

Another page made with leftover scraps but this time the background is patterned paper. The photo of my granddaughter after she'd pinched my rain hat was taken a few years ago. She had her 16th birthday this week and I suspect she wouldn't be seen dead in that hat now!

That's it for today but I'm planning to schedule another post for tomorrow.

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend.

Christmas Card Club - Card 8/2019 - Christmas Scene

Happy Sunday Everyone,

My, but these fortnights come round so quickly, do they not, and it's time for another Christmas Card Club Challenge. This week the theme, Winter/Christmas Scene, has been chosen by our lovely, and very talented cardmaker, Shaz, Silverwolf Cards,

Because I've been so involved in the MTS Cyber Crop this weekend, I didn't even think about this challenge until this morning! So it had to be another quick and easy one ... this is fast becoming my default setting ... and luckily I remembered this Christmas Scene die set - a freebie with a magazine a year or so ago.

Supplies used:
- a white 5½" square card base from Docraft's Papermania
- scraps of aqua and white cardstock
- green glitter card from Dear Lizzy's New Day Mixed Media Pad
- the Christmas Scene die set

To make the card, all I did was use the three parts of the die set to cut each layer, the scalloped piece in the aqua card, the green glitter layer with the stitch effect die and the topper in white card. I used my Cuttlebug die-cutting machine to cut it all out and though I had no problem with the two background layers the topper wasn't so easy. The first attempt was with fairly thick cardstock didn't cut well at all, despite passing it through the machine several times, so I tried with thinner card with more success. Something to bear in mind next time I use this die set.

I'm also submitting this card to the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippet Playground - Challenge #350 - two very nice snippets of cardstock were used in the making of my card.

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - CHNC #433 - where anything goes as long as it's Christmas themed.

Right, I better get back to the cyber crop challenges now though I hope to pop over to see all the other CCC cards at some point today or, if I'm being realistic, tomorrow. For you to see them sooner just click on the links listed on the sidebar on the right.

Enjoy what's left of Sunday everyone.

Snippet Snippets Card 01/2019 - Thank You

Hello and Happy Sunday,

Some of you will know from Facebook that I had an appointment with my dentist this week to have a back molar checked out. I won't go into the gory details - suffice to say after removal of the offending tooth I had to go to the Maxillofacial department in hospital for further treatment. I'm now missing a  a piece of my jawbone and there's a wee hole through to my sinus but that will heal in time. No permanent damage done and I'm recovering nicely now but it's been a tough few days. Of course, no crafting whatsoever has been done since. And with my husband due to have an operation on Wednesday I don't foresee being able to craft much at all for quite a while. However, all is not lost. I have a few 'Blue Peter' projects completed but not posted - standbys to be shared so I won't be completely absent from blogland. Starting with this thank you card.

This was my contribution to the January challenge for UKPC which was to make a 'thank you' card.

Supplies used:

- A6 white card blank used landscape format
- a piece of shaving foam patterned card for topper base - colours used red and gold shimmer sprays
- stamps - Rare Earth Spring stamp set - free with Issue 130 from Papercrafter
- embossing powders American Crafts Zing opaque Rose and Wow Magenta Twinkle
- ink pads - Versamark, Memories Black
- ProMarkers in shades of green, pink, yellow, lavender and peach
cardstock - scraps of white for stamping flowers and butterfly; deep pink card for greeting
die - Docrafts Mini Sentiment 'Thank You'
- adhesives - DS tape, Glue Gel
- tools - decoupage scissors, small die-cutting machine

Here's two close-ups showing the dimension created with the stamped and cut out flowers and the embossed butterfly.

I really enjoy stamping, colouring and cutting out the images - very therapeutic. And it was also very satisfying to use up the piece of shaving foam treated card - and it smelled gorgeous too!

I'm submitting the card to Pixie's Snippets Playground - a lot of snippets went into the making of those flowers.

Thanks for visiting - it's much appreciated. I hope eventually to be able to get back to my desk and do some new craft projects, when the EM and I are both much better, but in the meantime I'll keep posting projects in true 'here's one I made earlier' style periodically till then.

Have a wonderful week.

Sunday Snippets & The Last of the Christmas Cards for 2018

Hello Everyone,

Well, that's Christmas 2018 over and done with and I hope that it was a good one for you. We enjoyed a quiet day together, cooking a very tasty lunch, exchanging presents, messaging/telephoning distant family and friends, and watching TV. A perfect day and, after the EM's most recent hospital episode, one for which I'm eternally grateful.

Needless to say there's been nothing done in the craft space for several days, but I do have a few last minute cards to share - the last for this year. Because it doesn't matter how organised I think I am, or how carefully I put together the list of cards to be made, there's always a few short. I try! Every year I try!

Anyway, here they are.

This is a real snippet make - definitely one for Pixie's Snippet Playground Challenge 342. The topper was made from a scrap of gold card embossed with a folder from the Winter Botanicals set by Sizzix and decorated with tiny green gems. It's backed on to a snippet of bright green card to create an insert for the dark green pre-cut card base. Gold sequins decorate two corners.

The next two were made from decoupage kits bought many moons ago - several years ago actually - from Docrafts Henbury Lane Poinsettia Collection Pack. 

It's amazing how much there is in one of these packs - and it's not finished yet! The gorgeous poinsettia patterned paper in the background was one I'd been treasuring but I finally let go. Well, it was just too perfect with those delightful toppers.

One of the reasons - goodness, the only reason - why I was making cards up to the last minute this year is because I left it too late to start! But all should be well for Christmas 2019 because I intend making at least one card a week from the first week in January. Not exactly a resolution, I don't make resolutions, more a challenge! I've done it in years past. I can do it again!

That's it for now. I'm off to give my desk a bit of a tidy up before starting on the next project.

Take care everyone and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Sunday Snippets with Winter Botanicals

Hello Everyone ...

... and happy Sunday too. It's another beautiful day for us - dry and sunny with just a wee bit of a chill in the air. Perfect for autumn.

I'm still beavering away at the Christmas cards - needs must! Today, I have a set of four featuring a very pretty embossed topper using one of the folders from Winter Botanicals from Sizzix - a set of four.

This is one of the smaller folders which is just the right size to create a topper. Some time ago - many months ago in fact - I had a wee embossing session with scraps of card that were stashed away in my snippet box. When I dug out the four I've used here I thought they needed a bit of colour so I painted them using Winsor & Newton watercolours. Once dry I matted each topper on to a layer of red card - more scraps from the snippet box - before fixing them with dimensional adhesive to the card base which I'd already decorated with red gingham ribbon and a greeting. 

Here's a shot of some of the supplies used. The greeting is from the Forest Magic stamp set. The flowers and buds were embellished with Dovecraft's black enamel and yellow Stickles.

I've used a selection of cardstock to emboss on - watercolour, smooth white, satin - actually whatever came to hand at the time. Interestingly, the paint behaved differently on the various finishes but I rather liked that - the cards are all the same but different.

As it's Sunday and I've used snippets of card - even the red card used for matting is from different sources - I'm popping over to Pixie's Snippet's Playground  to submit these cards to Di's Challenge #339.

Scrappy Sunday - December Stag

Hello Everyone,

Hope you've had a good week. It's been an eventful one for us. Wednesday morning brought an unexpected call from the hospital asking if the EM could make it in that afternoon. He was being admitted to have his pacemaker fitted the following day, Thursday. He's been on the waiting list for some time now so he was there on time as requested. All went fine and he came home Friday morning. Although he is a bit bruised and sore and he has to behave himself for a few weeks I can see a difference already ... three days and he's zipping around like Speedy Gonzales - soon there will be no stopping him now!

Given the above, I've not been crafting but, in true Blue Peter fashion, I do have this card I made earlier.

Apart from the 5" square white card base everything else used was from these leftovers from making scrap pages.

One of the pieces of striped patterned paper was trimmed to create the banner and the two squares were cut from the red and brown papers.

The scalloped circle, the antler's head and the month were cut out using these dies. The circle is from a set from The Works and the stag's head is a Tattered Lace die.

The design was inspired by this sketch from Julee Tilman on Mojo Monday Card Sketch Challenge. Sadly, Julee is no longer running the challenge but the blog is still accessible ... it's so worth checking out for the many sketches and inspiration there.

I'm submitting the card to Di's challenge over at Pixie's Snippet Playground where we can now follow the adventures of the playground's newest playmate, Dudley. Seems he is giving Parsnip a run for his money! 

Have a wonderful week everyone,

Sunday Snippet Card - Golden Leaves

Afternoon Everyone,

It's been a while since I popped over to the playground at Pixie's Crafty Workshop. I've been so busy with the summer scrapping challenge I've been participating in that there's been very little time for cardmaking, but here's one I made with a background made from leftover watercolour paint.

Rather than mop up the paint, such a waste, it was brushed on to a scrap of white card and put aside for later. Later usually takes months but on this occasion it only took a week or so - something of a record for me - before I decided to make this card with it.

Supplies used:
- one white 5¼" square card blank
- sheet of lavender patterned paper from a very old 6x6 pad - the Prima Londonderry Collection from 2011
- the scrap of white cardstock
- yellow paint mixed up from my Winsor & Newton set
- Penny Black Golden Leaves stamp 
- Personal Impressions Happy Birthday stamp
- Whispers Archival Rio Purple ink pad
-  three tiny lavender coloured enamel dots

It's a very simple design but I like it. That's one of my all-time favourite wood-mounted stamps and I really like the font used for the birthday greeting - it's not unlike my own handwriting.

I've just mopped more leftovers on a scrap of white card - this time it's blue ink - so I might just have to make another snippet card very soon.

Hope you are enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend and have a great evening.

Sunday Scraps and a Snippet Make

Afternoon All,

I sincerely hope you are having a better Sunday than we are here - it's grey, it's raining and it's soggy out! All the more reason to stay in and craft, methinks.

I'm still participating in Mind The Scrap's Summer Challenge, and this week the 5 requirements are making it a real stinker! I've having to do a lot of head scratching to come up with a plan for my pages. However, here's four from the previous week.

Chipmunk Kisses

I know it looks more like a rat, and the thought of kissing a rat makes me shudder, but it's a chipmunk ... only marginally more kissable in my book but my great-granddaughter clearly thinks differently. This is a blonde chipmunk called Luna. I got to use a lot of old stash up on this page, including some beautiful die-cut trim kindly sent to me by Maureen - ScrappyMo of Scraps of Life - many moons ago.

Swingtime

Love this photo of my little great-grandson, Brodie. He has the sweetest smile ever. I finally found a reason to use those footballs which were fussy cut from paper that Maureen also included in the same parcel as the trims used in the page above.

Arriving at the Irish Ball

This lovely photo is of my daughter, Juli, and her husband, Graeme, all dressed up for the ball which was held in honour of and to raise funds for their friend, Gerry Hughes - the first deaf person to sail round the world. That was a few years ago  - he's now retired and writing a book about his experiences. Juli loved that dress, and recalls with pride that it was a size 6! I, on the other hand, remember that the slippery fabric was difficult to shorten - Juli, like me, is somewhat vertically challenged.

Happy

Another lovely photo, this time of my oldest grandson, William, and his fiancee, Heather, enjoying a holiday in Salou. This design was lifted from a layout I spotted on another Facebook group. Cutting out all those triangles from scraps and snippets of paper was a bit time consuming, as was placing them around the photo but worth the effort I think.

And finally, a real snippet make.

It was my daughter's birthday recently and I had the paper to wrap her present but not a matching gift card so I had a look in my snippet basket and found the perfect spotty scrap. All I had to do was cut it to size, trim the 'shoulders', add the stamped image and staple on a scrap of ribbon ...

... et voila! One matching label. The stamp is a Docraft Papermania Typography Stamp 'Daughter'.

It's been a while but I'm taking a trip to Pixie's Playground to submit this snippet make today.

It's nothing special but it does show that it pays to hang on to all the little snippets because you never know when they might come in useful.

That's me for today. It's back to the challenge now - got to figure out what to make next.

Take care and have a lovely Sunday - whatever the weather.

Scrappy Sunday - Two Floral Cards

Hello Everyone

Happy Sunday to you all - I hope you've had a lovely weekend. Bloglovin' tells me I have a few new followers - welcome! I appreciate your interest and hope that you enjoy what you see here. Today I've been playing with inks and paints on scraps of cardstock and, because I hate to waste anything, I've created a couple of cards with my efforts.

Card No. 1 - the base for this card is the result of testing out a mist - Mister Huey's Heirloom Blue - on a scrap of white cardstock to see if it was the right colour for a scrapbook layout I'm in the middle of making. It wasn't but I liked the effect so thought it would make a good background for some stamping.

How I made the card:

1. The misted card was trimmed down to a 5" square to create a topper to fit a black card base from my stash.

2. More experimenting, this time with stamping using the Poppy Field flower from Rubbernecker.  I wanted to try out whether it is possible to stamp using Vicki Boutin's Mixed Media paint, Sugared Strawberry, so, using a paintbrush, I covered the surface of the stamp, misted it with water, and then stamped - it worked a treat.

3. After the paint had dried the outline was stamped using a Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad. 

4. The topper was then layered on to a patterned paper, from Wild Studio Rose's Spring Fling 6x6 paper pack - an old one leftover from way back when I was on the DT for Handy Hippo -  which was then adhered to the card base.

5. Confession time here - I did stamp a sentiment directly on to the background but then realised that it was a bit skew-whiff. Not to worry. I just stamped it again on a snippet of the white misted cardstock, layered it on to a scrap of the patterned paper and stuck over the mistake - only you will ever know because I've told you!

6. For the final touch I added a few pink sequins.

I'd like to submit this card to Pixie's Snippet Playground where, as always, the requirement is that we use up as many snippets in our projects as possible.

Card No. 2 was made in much the same way using another scrap of which cardstock previously spattered with Spectrum Noir' black Aquatint ink. This time I managed to stamp the sentiment perfectly straight. The white card base used measures 5" x 7" and instead of sequins I used tiny black 'pearls' made by Craft For Occasions.

Blimey! It's only just still Sunday ... I started writing the post hours ago but got distracted by a programme on TV about two of my favourite tennis players, Federer and Nadal, and then Poldark.

And now it's time I went to bed. Take care and have a great week.