Pixie's Snippets Playground - Weeks 208 and 209 and Prize A

Hi there and a warm welcome to the Snippets Playground. Little Parsnip is behind the bike shed dishing out mince pies, cookies, egg nog and mulled wine! I decided that if you can't beat 'em you may as well join 'em and have appointed Parsnip as our Christmas Waiter for the week. Do please help yourself - and do please also let me know if you notice him disappearing into the bushes for a secret swig now and then!

I ventured to the craft room (literally for less than an hour whilst Len was out at archery) to make this snippets card:

I used:

- white Centura pearlescent card stock, scored, cut and folded into a 4" x 6" card blank

- a layer of dark blue 'snowflake patterned' backing card from the snippets I keep in the Christmas card and paper box

- a snippet of white Centura pearlescent card, die cut using a Memory Box 'Curved Merry Christmas' die then trimmed to size and added onto the snowflake layer

- the little penguin was stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from a Jane's Doodles set called 'Winter Wishes'. He was coloured using Whispers markers and trimmed up to the edge of the outline before I added a paper pieced scarf (used a little snippet of almost plain red paper from the LOTV 'Classic Christmas' paper pad)

- at that point I thought the dark blue showing behind the die cut word Christmas was a bit dull so I die cut the word again using a snippet of SU 'Real Red' card and popped it in place - ah, much brighter :)

- added three red gems in the bottom left hand corner and a smaller gem as the dot above the letter 'i'

- finally out came the clear Wink of Stella brush pen to cover the penguin's scarf and also the red die cut 'Christmas' word - I took a risk doing the word after it was in situ but thankfully didn't wobble over the edges, phew
 
The die I used is yet another variation on a few other Memory Box dies, and what I really love is that it has the lovely curve which is just right for sitting a little Christmas animal or snowman in.

Let's move straight onto the weekly picks etc. as there are a few different things happening in the Playground over the coming two weeks and I need to explain what'll be going on - a lot of information to take in so hope you think it's gonna be fun!

This amazing scene created by Pat totally bowled me over! And those of you who also visited for a closer look thought exactly the same. The detail is just amazing and this is worthy of being framed (as Bonnie suggested!). Just wonderful!

LOVE this card, made by Brenda. Super paper piecing and the dimension is gorgeous. The background was created using the 'acrylic block, inked with water based ink and then spritzed before stamping' technique - something I'd forgotten all about, so one to try again here!

Gosh, I seem to be on a roll picking blues this week! Lynn (Linby) brought this really beautiful card to share with us - loads of snippets used and I really love the idea of the image in a bauble. Draws the eye beautifully as a stunning focal point.

Bit of a gasp here when I saw this amazing tag, made by Diane H. It's just perfect in every single detail - and it's silver so I did move slightly away from the blues :) I would just LOVE to find this tag, complete with the darling jingle bells, on a parcel from Santa.

Oooops, blue again! I love this wall hanging made by Ileana - if you look closely you'll see that there are loads of wonderful little snippets in this gorgeous creation. I love it!

And blue again, but I just HAD to show you this really clever make, brought to share with us by Liz. Isn't the snowman terrific?! A really great way to use up snippets, and if you hop over to Liz's blog post you'll find really good instructions and measurements telling you how to make this 'happy chappy' :)

And, there's absolutely NO way this wouldn't be a pick for this week - made by Jane J. I totally adore this wonderful card and, not only did Jane share it with us in the Playground, but it's in print in the latest edition of 'Craft Stamper' magazine. Wahoo - go Jane! I can see Parsnip offering to be your agent at this rate :)

So girls, that's my picks for this week - as always so hard to choose and so many wonderful ideas. My advice is to try and find time to visit as many playmates as possible and see for yourself just how clever they all are!

And, we have one new playmate this week:

Michelle (Lancaster) of 'Laughing Ducks' - what a great name for a blog! - brought us this really lovely Christmas card. A wonderful and beautifully coloured image Michelle plus I love all the pretty blue LOTV snippets you used. Great result!

Hope you come back to play again soon :)

Let's do the prize draw now for the Penny Black 'Caroling duck' wood mounted stamp plus a Die-namics MFT 'JOY photo card frame' die - and our winner is:

x

 
Right, so this is what's going to be going on with the Snippets Playground over the festivities. Some of you already know that I had such fun plans for the Playground over this coming fortnight, before I was struck down in my tracks, sigh. Not only is it Christmas and New Year (aka Holidays) - it's also a whole four years since I took over the Playground, so time to celebrate big time!

Having thought it through, whilst lying here hoping for some meds to finally work, I decided that things will go ahead almost as planned as my hands and brain are still in good working order - so far at least! The exception is that I'm not going to list all the prizes here just yet and very possibly won't be able to make a fresh card to showcase each prize - you heard right there - I did say each prize, there are a LOT of them ....... and this is how it will work.

Firstly, the Playground Mr Linky which is below will run for two weeks and closing time will be 11am on Saturday 2nd January and this post is where to add any entries - with a maximum of three entries - over the fortnight. We've done this before and it eases the load on me and also gives you two weeks to play (if you want to of course!) as no doubt the run up to Christmas plus the Christmas and New Year festivities themselves will be busy for you. Some of you will be busier than others I know, and for those of you who do find some quiet time to craft it's a chance for you to play along for some rather nice prizes too. It also means I can clear the Playground toy box out of Christmas themed (and maybe some other) prizes - the lid won't even close right now :)

So that I don't swamp and confuse you with a load of prizes to choose from in this post, I'll be posting at intervals over the coming couple of weeks and adding more prizes of varying sizes into the pot as we progress through the holiday. To be honest, I'm still planning how to fit them all in as well :)

If you see a prize you'd like to be in the 'pot' for then please leave a 'Yes please' (or similar) comment in the same post where I show you the prize. For me, that's going to be a lot less confusing than me having lots of little lists here and there - especially as there are so many prizes coming up!  It will mean that if you would like to be in with a chance of every prize, then you need to comment on each one as it comes up - and please don't leave it right until the end and nip through all the prize posts adding 'Yes please' to each in one fell swoop. Remember, they will show up serially on my dashboard if you do that so I will notice and wouldn't feel that it's in the true spirit of the Playground. So, if you want to play then do try to pop in over the festivities to see what's on offer :)

Edit: Also, just saying here 'count me in for all prizes that are offered' doesn't count I'm afraid and will mean you don't go into the draw at all - other people are taking the time and trouble to check out the individual posts and prizes and leave comments so it wouldn't be fair to them.  

As I already said, there will only be the one Mr Linky for all entries - which is at the end of this post of course. I'll remind you where to go to link each time I post a new prize on the blog. Also, I'll run the prize draw using this Mr Linky as a basis for the random number generator and will then look at the relevant post to find out who said yes to the particular prize I'm running the random generator for. As there will be a good few prizes (for example, I have six of one particular prize which will appear in one post - got a bit carried away there!) - I think the odds of winning something could be in your favour! Plus, the prizes aren't 'First, Second, Third' etc - some are higher in value than others for sure though - so if your name pops out again you could very well end up winning more than one prize.

I hope this is clear girls? Remember, my Christmas is going to be very different this year and I'm pacing things as best I can. This is the best solution I can think of and with luck and fair play it could work out fine!

Let's start with today's prize, which is:

A Memory Box 'Curved Merry Christmas' die and a Lawn Fawn 'Happy Holidays' stamp set. The penguin is similar, albeit a tad smaller, to the one I used today.

I hope I've explained how the coming two weeks will work in the Playground? Please just say if it's left you confused.

The Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 2nd January 2106. 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 prizes. Remember, there's the prize today and others will appear over the next two weeks so keep your eyes peeled.

Do say in this post if you only want one or other part of the prize today (the stamp or the die) but both are up for grabs as one prize of course and will only be split if the first name out only wants one or other of the items, in which case I'll do a second draw for the other part of the prize. And please also remember to 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 :) 

Latest in the 'foot saga' - finished the latest course of steroids and from Friday the doc now has me on a pretty high dose of NSAIDS to continue the inflammation reduction, plus painkillers still - and also pills to protect the stomach 'cos of being on anti-inflammatories for a few weeks now (not that I was having problems).

On Friday night at long last (after weeks!) I had a full and almost pain free night's sleep (10pm to 7am) - something tells me I needed a really long sleep there! :) Fingers are firmly crossed for increasing mobility (whilst being sensible) in the run up to Christmas. Almost scared to say too much too soon so let's just leave it there. 

Edit: I waited until Hettie (Sam) had confirmed that I could say here that, very sadly, her lovely Mum passed away on Friday. I know that you'll all want to join in with sending Sam your love and thoughts at such a sad time.

Di
x