Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 195

Well, we made it through the week - dearest Sarn jumped in on Monday to say she would look after the Playground for me, I did decline her kind offer but how sweet was that then? AND, she did hop round you all, in front of me during the week to comment - just in case I was tottering along like an old biddy - bless :)

Writing this on Saturday morning, and for the first time in over a week I can feel the teensiest improvement in the old back. It's the nature of it that it travels around different areas - almost as if when I protect one sore set of muscles it then moves onto another area. Nasty piece of work if you ask me!

Anyhow, let's do a quick canter this week - first of all here's my snippets card:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- a smaller snippet of red satin mirri card for the largest frame, glued onto the card front using Collall All Purpose glue

- a whole sheet of pale green snowflake patterned paper from Wild Rose Studio's 'Annabelle's Christmas' paper pack

- a snippet of almost plain green paper from the LOTV 'Classic Christmas' paper pad, with the back covered with some 'Stick-It adhesive sheet. This was then die cut using a Sizzix card front die called 'Peace, Love, Joy' 

- after removing the backing from the die cut I popped it onto the centre of the sheet of pale green snowflake patterned paper and trimmed along each edge

- layered the 'message piece' onto the red satin mirri card, again using Collall glue for some wiggle time

- backed another snippet of red satin mirri card with 'Stick-It' adhesive sheet and die cut the letters 'J-O-Y' (the letter dies come in with the die set) then popped them onto the word JOY - after running a red Whispers pen (which doesn't bleed like a Pro Marker would of course) round the edges - I hate white bits where they shouldn't be :)

- something was missing so I walked away for a while, had a think and eventually came back and die cut a single snowflake using a die from the Whimsy 'Layered Snowflake' set, covered it with clear Wink of Stella and once dry popped it in the middle of the letter 'O' using a small piece of thin sticky pad

- added a snowflake diamante embellishment on top - just the snowflake and bling made all the difference (IMHO) - but, you could also use the letters 'J-O-Y' alone or with a snowflake on (say) a plain white snowflake background, I think that could look very elegant

So, that's my snippets card for today, and it fits nicely in with the current challenge over at 'Merry Monday #171' which is 'Sentiment in the Spotlight'. I think I covered the Merry Monday brief - n'est ce pas?

And now onto this week's picks - sheesh, a lot of entries and also many of you were keen on the Tim Holtz prize on offer. Who knew? I truly thought I was 'tail end Charlie' with those birds, once again!

Carol L always features on my weekly list of possible picks at least once, usually more times. I chose this entry as it's a perfect Christmas card - using the wonderful Arboscello Tree die by Memory Box and just so pleasing to the eye. Love it!

I certainly went WOW when I spotted this absolutely gorgeous WOW card, made by Viv. Just perfection and so, so beautiful - welcome back Viv! Viv has been travelling round the country in her role as Vice-President of England Bowls for what seems like ages now - we missed you chick!

I'm sure that many of you know that Bonnie is on the DT for 'Merry Monday' - one of my favourite challenges. And this is the latest DT card she brought to show us. Now, I thought it was all one stamp that Bonnie had used - but not so! That little beauty was made by careful selection and positioning of a variety of Christmas sentiment stamps. So clever and one I bet a few of us would love to CASE! Slightly sick grin here, Bonnie has a Misti Stamp Positioner - am totally green around the gills with envy. I do so wish someone in the UK would stock them - right now the postage and also the risk of paying duty is quite off-putting, such a shame!

And here's another Christmas card, made by Annie. And certainly one I'd love to CASE as well. I just adore the idea of die cutting the bauble from the front of the card and then popping a snippet of sparkly card or paper behind the aperture! Great idea and so effective too!

I love this card, made by Lynn, using snippets of white card and transforming them into this real beauty! What's interesting too is that the shades of white vary - but of course when you create wonderful stamped and inked backgrounds it really doesn't matter, so don't throw those slightly off-white snippets out girls!

Kate hopped in with this stunning card - some beautiful die cutting, wonderful flowers too! What really made me smile was that Kate used a snippet of wallpaper sample on the card. Such a great idea - I'll be off to Homebase as soon as am more mobile :) Tee, hee - and able enough to beat a hasty retreat with an armful of wallpaper samples!

Oh I do so love this card, made by Laurie! The die is a Cheery Lynn one called 'Witch's Laundry' and it's such a fun die - a perfect way to use up snippets too! I'm sitting on my hands here but bet that one of these will fall into my shopping basket over at Maddy Lisa's before the day is through!

So, that was this week's picks - I managed a few more than I'd expected, and now it's time to welcome two new Playmates to the Playground:

Chris S brought us a gorgeous snowflake Christmas tag to see - I love all the blues and it looks so Nordic, just beautiful Chris!

Donna nipped in with this great card - the film strip die is a perfect way to personalise cards I think! Donna also has a trick for stopping tent style cards from splaying out (and looking like a ballerina doing the splits!) - she kindly sent me instructions but I haven't cracked it yet - to be honest I think I was doped up on painkillers when I had a play, so must try again!

Welcome to both of you - and it would be lovely to see you in the Playground again! I take it the girlies shared their choklit and also showed you where the illicit whisky still is hidden - they think I don't know! Ha, nothing gets past Parsnip and me when we're in full 'ferreting and searching' mode :)

So, with a little drum roll, it's time to pick the winner of some or all of the Tim Holtz 'Bird Crazy' stamps and dies - plus the Accessories stamps set. Oh how I wish I had more of this bumper prize to offer - in all there were 38 of you longing for the whole bundle and a further five of you would have loved just part of the prize. And, the first person to pop out of Mr Random had indeed said a huge 'yes please' to the whole bundle:

Liz

It's over 30 weeks since Liz last won a Playground prize, and most weeks she comes to play, often three times like this week, which is brilliant! Plus, Liz is also often a weekly pick - here's an example from this week's entries, just fabulous:

So I know you'll all be delighted for Liz - I'm sure she'll be back soon with some fun cards using the stamps and dies! Psst, I still have your snail mail address Liz and will post your prize ASAP this coming week!

This coming week's prize is another 'no brainer' of course. It's a Sizzix card front die called 'Peace, Love, Joy', just like I used on my snippets card. I've also got a packet of A5 'Stick-It's sheets as part of the prize. This is such a detailed die to stick down and I do think the Stick-It sheets are a bit of a life saver.

I thought it was time to throw a Christmas prize into the pot now and then - Autumn is on the way and quite a few of you are thinking about making Christmas cards already.

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 26th September. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Do say if you only want one or other part of the prize (the die set or the 'Stick-It' sheets), but both are up for grabs as one prize of course. And please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

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 :)

Di and of course, Parsnip!
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