Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #418 - Christmas Draw - Prize N

Merry Christmas everyone! If you manage to pop into the Playground today, I hope someone else is watching over the hot stove for you!

Here's the 14th prize in the 'Snippets Playground Celebration' prize draw: 

And a closer look at the little family ...... aw. Ha, I spotted that 'Daddy Meerkat' had a tiny white fleck on his nose. It was from the rubber tipped 'picker upper' I used for the tiny pieces - so I wiped his nose for him after I'd published this photo ☺

I used:

- 5.5" x 5.5" off white card blank with one side scored in half and folded to make the basis of an easel card

- trimmed a 5.5" x 5.5" off white piece of card for the upright card front, set to one side for now

- selected the most probable piece of scenic background card I wanted to use - from the well loved Kanban Christmas Wobblers backgrounds pack

- die cut all the little pieces for the family of three meerkats from loads of snippets of card (picking out the red and blue of the presents on the scenic design). The die cutting took a while needless to say (perfect for my Altenew mini die cutting machine) and I found that the best approach was to just take one die off the backing card at a time as there is definite logic to how the pieces are laid out on the die set images piece of card

- then glued the pieces together and reinforced some of the joins on the back using teeny pieces of sellotape

- at that point I had three little meerkats assembled, still with no eyes or snouts so they really lacked character - looked a bit spooky to be honest

- checked the background card scene I wanted to use and the little family fitted in just fine - success

- trimmed the background scene down to 5.25 x 5.25 round then glued it onto the previously cut upright panel for the easel card 

- used the top portion of a second piece of the same background card to cover the flat portion of the easel card - 5.25" x 5.25" again

- marked some pale shadowing onto the positions where the meerkats would stand then added the meerkats to the upright scene on the easel card 'front' - using a glue pen for the adults and thin sticky pad pieces for the little one 

- die cut the teeny eyes and snouts and popped them onto the little faces - and the card immediately came to life, what a difference!

- added a pre-made sentiment die cut complete with red ribbon tie (many years old, left from a pack of three) to the top left corner - at an angle as no way did I want to spoil the scene by having the sentiment just slightly 'on the wonk'

- stuck the card front onto the folded base using red line tape

- added a strip of card from the very top of one of the pieces of scenic card to the base, using thick and pretty big sticky pads then stuck it in place to act as a 'stop' when the card is propped open

- topped that with another present image - left from the second piece of scenic card I used - fussy cut and stuck down using small piece of thin sticky pads

- and that was it, finished - I'll write my message on the pale blue piece of base card at the front BTW then it will look more balanced

This Christmas card was made for Len, from me, as we both love Meerkats and when Dudley is up on his hind legs having a bit of a nose around, he does remind us of these adorable creatures. I'm sure it was a Playmate I spotted using this sweet set of dies and needless to say they were sourced and bought in double quick time! Huge fun to play with and although there's a lot of dies in the set, in fact it was fairly easy to find which piece is which for the different meerkat - once I worked out the 'hints' on the backing which holds all the different dies. Perfect for anyone who loves die cutting and it uses lots of little snippets too.

The prize, but of course, is a Marianne Design set of dies called 'Eline's Meercats' (sic), just like the one I used for my card.

All the rules can be found on the post for Sunday 12th December 2021, along with Mr Linky for your single entry. I do suggest that you read the rules thoroughly - particularly about the theme for this Grand Draw Challenge.

Just leave a comment on this post you're currently looking at, if you would like the chance to win today's prize.

I'm entering this card into Jo's Christmas Kickstart Challenge #57, where the current them is 'If it's Christmassy'. And why don't you come and play too - get a head start on next Christmas ☺ Ho, ho, ho I hear!! 

Hope you are having a wonderful day, wherever you are - and that Santa was kind to you! Cheers - mine's a long cool glass of dry Martini and lemonade please.

Love from Dudley and of course me,