Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #360

Mixed week, some nights almost too hot to sleep and now it's dropped in temperature a bit. To be honest we're very grateful - and no doubt Dudley is as well. That little chap took to sleeping in the downstairs loo/bathroom at times. He'd obviously worked out the coolest spots in the house.

Good news on the gout front. The latest blood test showed the uric acid level to be just in the clear zone. To be on the safe side the dose is being upped one step further. I've had a few slight twinges to be honest, but that's to be expected as the crystals disperse from the joints in my feet and ankles........... and a quick gobble down of a couple of Colchicine pills knocked it on the head. Long may the good news last say I! For a while it felt as if every flipping blog post was gloomy on the health front - and that's not why you come here to play.

Plus, the new washing machine is brilliant - although I still have to refer to the instruction booklet at times. Sometimes appliances really are too clever and offer too much for their own good.
 
And here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, tent style

- almost a whole sheet of 'bokeh' style paper for the background, from the fabulous Carta Bella 'Beach Day' paper pack, trimmed to the exact size of the card front

- snippet of lime green (for the edge of the striped snippet) - both found in the back of the pad in an envelope pocket where I always store snippets

- layered the lime green topped by the striped strip using a small tape runner and set it to one side

- pulled out a selection of little snippets from the same paper pad and set to making the little gift bags using a snippet of black card for the handles. I used a super little die set by MFT (seems to now be discontinued, although I bet stockists might well still have them in their clearance) - called 'Gift Bags'

- I needed to make the little bags first so I could plan where to stamp the sentiment - I made the bags up using a teensy bit of very narrow red line tape to adhere the handles to the backs. On a couple of the bags I also added a handle dropping downwards and added a little bit of glue using a Zig glue pen to hold it down against the bag itself

- then I could check for the sentiment placement/spacing and of course used the Misti and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink along with a Happy Birthday stamp from MFT's 'Brushstroke Expressions' set of sentiment stamps

 - ready to assemble the card now so added the striped band to the background using a tape runner - letting the strip overhang on one side (I left it too long deliberately) so I could trim it right at the edge from the back of the sheet which ensures a nice straight line

- then glued the background sheet, now with striped strip and sentiment already done, onto the card front

- added the little gift bags using glue for a couple at the back and thin sticky pads for the two at the front - finished!

The card is more vibrant in real life, with very rich tones - sigh. It's a good idea to use little snippets from the same paper pad when using this die set as they would probably all complement one another nicely. And, I reckon the same design would be good to make Christmas cards as well - the bags could be cut from patterned paper (the pattern needs to be quite small), plain colours or even metallic or pearlised papers. Or even create your own using Distress inks or alcohol inks. Lots of potential - and of course you can switch the orientation of the bags around as you wish too! My card is similar to one I found on line, needless to say 😉

So, the prize this fortnight is:

An MFT 'Gift Bags' set of dies and an MFT 'Brushstroke Expressions' set of sentiment stamps. Both items make up the one prize BTW, I don't want to split them. Our postage seems to have rocketed for posting abroad and I'd rather not have to face possibly two lots of overseas postage for one single challenge as you never can tell what the Random Number selector will pick.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 14th September. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day. 

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

We've been removing more of the barriers to allow Dudley to roam more freely round the house when we aren't watching him. Fingers crossed that he really is totally toilet trained, has been for quite some time now, and isn't interested in chewing things indoors that he shouldn't. The garden is a different matter entirely - he loves to dig and also find stones and twigs to play with.

I managed to take a quick photo of him in between writing this yesterday (Saturday), lying in one of his favourite places now that the barrier across the top of the stairs has been taken away. He has a good view of the front door from his vantage point, across the first step down - where he also has a good chance of making you fall over him!:

Ha, he also has an appointment at the groomers on Friday (that came round quick) to look forward to, tee, hee! Not sure why I'm laughing, I have an appointment with the dentist on Monday - just the hygienist, but even that gives me the shudders.

Edit - sorry, I totally forgot to add Mr Linky. He's up and running now! Thanks for the heads up Val - have linked you in!

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,