Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 263 and 264

Well, that's the first week of 2017 flown by already! And, we have another 'two week' challenge in the Snippets Playground this next fortnight.

Here's the/our snippets card for this week - and in fact it's not my card at all! It was made by Janice HERE and I loved it so much it was an instant choice as a weekly pick. I also wanted to offer what Janice used as a prize. I was also very cheeky and asked Janice if I could use her card to showcase the goodies - she kindly agreed and so here it is:

Isn't it fabulous?! A perfect example of CAS and also so elegant. To see what Janice used to make her card please be sure to hop over to her blog! I really couldn't think of a better card design to showcase our prize(s) this time round - big hint there!

Now for a peek at my picks from the past week:

Absolutely brilliant New Year card, made by Trina! And, for extra fun, the clock itself is on a 'wobble spring' - great idea! You can see it 'in action'on a video clip over at Trina's blog too :)

Isn't this a great get well card, made by Barb? And super paper piecing as well, a perfect way to use up little patterned snippets of paper!

Lesley brought this 18th Birthday card to share - and it's one of the cleverest spinner cards I've ever seen. You really should go and peek at the little video clip showing it in action - such fun!

Helen has been a busy little bee - she used loads of snippets making this calendar for her Mum. Such a great idea - and each month has a different Penny Black image as the focal point. The calendar blank came from Papermill Direct (link over on Helen's blog) - as well as a peek at each month. I am so hoping to make one or two later on this year for 2018!

It's really great to see Viv managing to find some free time to play. I absolutely love this card, so fresh and clean - makes me think of Summer!

What a brilliant card from Jane W, the toucan is absolutely splendid and the punched Monstera leaves are a wonderful foil! And I love how the colours in the 'frame' are such a great reflection of the colours in the toucan as well. And a perfect sentiment as well!

And here we have such a lovely card, made by Janis. So evocative of days spent on the beach, carefully making sandcastles and then waiting for the tide to come in and fill our carefully dug out moats :) Happy days! And the netting is so clever - Janis pinched some surgical gauze squares from hubby's vet supplies :)

I really love this beautiful floral card - made by April. Such soft and gentle colours and great use of snippets too. Certainly makes one think of Spring - which won't really be too far off - I hope!

As always, I could carry on with more picks - but time is extra-precious right now. Goodness know how I found time to write this post to be honest.

We had 54 Playmates playing along this last week - with two new little friends joining us:

What a fabulous card from Christine Alexander! So stylish and the inlaid pieces are gorgeous! I think there's a link with our Loll - doing my Miss Marple bit again :)

Love this card too, made by Anna of 'Karasiowa' - a beautiful vintage piece, using loads of snippets and so very tactile as well.

Hope you come back soon to play along with us :)

This coming week's prize is, as usual, linked to a snippets card - not mine, it's Janice's card:

It's the Marianne Design Creatables - Shoe die (LR0291) and the Docrafts - Xcut Embossing Folder - Wicker. Both items are on order (the embossing folder has just arrived here in fact!) so I had to 'borrow' these images for now! You get a better idea of the finished effect if you look at Janice's card (above) of course.

The toy box is actually looking a little bit empty right now after all the Christmas prizes have flown off - but in a lot of ways that's a good thing. Fresh start and all that - although I DO still have some wonderful prizes that have been donated, yet to give away, some have been here for a loooong time as well! After that I might move away from the 'showcase the prize idea' as this craft room can't take much more!  But my plan is to still offer prizes, although perhaps not every single week - but these are just vague ideas at the moment. To be honest it's come close to me locking the Playground gates for good more than once over the last 12 months - but in the absence of anyone wanting to totally take it over I'm soldiering on for as long as possible. I was advised that a DT (Design Team) is like 'herding cats' so really don't want to even think about going down that road. I have really appreciated the times that some of you have stepped in to take over the commenting and weekly picks for me so please never feel that your efforts didn't make a massive difference!

Prize draw time now and our winner of the Lil' Inker 'Filled Christmas Trees' stamp set and pair of matching dies is:

Jane (Willis)

Well done Jane! I know you play along really regularly and am so pleased your number popped up! Can you please drop me an email with your address in and I'll post your prize off as soon as possible. My email address is on the right hand side bar. 

And here's the confession - I'm going on 'teachers training' later this week so that was what all the panic and running round was after New Year. Right now I'm still scurrying round but feeling more in control having decided that some things will just have to 'slide'. In all the rush though I managed to overdo things with this ole back of mine so have been snuggled up to the heat pad for a couple of days. I think the heat pad will be coming with me!

So, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks this time and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 21st January. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

A maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of this fortnight's prize. You might wish to play for one or other of the items and if so please say in your comment and if you win then I'd do a second draw for the other part of the prize. I think they work so well together though. 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 :)

Have a lovely week! I'll be watching and hopefully commenting from elsewhere. Love from Parsnip (poor baby, he'll be in charge of the Playground aka 'Home Alone' ) - and of course me,