Pixie's Snippets Playground Weeks 313 and 314 - Prize D

Today's prize is two items for stamping - one image and one set of sentiments. As I'm in a massive rush here I've copied and pasted a previous Christmas card I made using the same image ages ago (almost four years in fact!):

I used:

- 6" x 6" white scalloped edge card blank

- House Mouse 'Mistletoe Moment' stamped using SU's 'Smoky Slate' and coloured with Polychromos Pencils and Sansodor blending solution. The colours are much stronger IRL - dratted camera again! I added a couple of little self adhesive pearls to the mistletoe

- all papers are from LOTV's 'Woodland Wishes' Christmas paper pad, the green pieces are snippets

- the sentiment is an Elzybells one (no longer trading sadly), stamped using SU's 'Rich Razzleberry' then die cut using a Spellbinders banner die. I just did the green backing layer by using the die as a guide and drawing round the outside before hand cutting it - and again, used snippets to back/frame the small panels

- white Josy Rose nail heads

Such a shame that the sentiment is no longer available as it suits the image so well  - although of course you could always generate one using your PC/printer.

However, here is today's prize:

I managed to find exactly the same little House Mouse image, although it's now cling mounted rather than wood mounted like my original one is. And it's now called 'Mistletoe Mice' rather than 'Mistletoe Moment'.

And, instead of the 'Happy Kiss-mas' sentiment which is no longer available, I'm including an Inkylicious stamp set with four sentiments in called ''Seasons Greetings'. I've offered an almost identical stamp set previously - although Inkylicious have since slightly reduced the size of the stamps as well as increasing the sentiments from three to four. The extra one is 'Let it Snow' - such a useful one as well. More of the same set of sentiments will appear (singly as add-ons to make up a prize) as the coming week goes by - they're a real 'go to' item in my Christmas crafting goodies!

I was trying to keep these 'combined bundles' but have decided that if a job's worth doing then it's doing well so I'm OK with splitting prizes. The House Mouse image is just adorable and will appeal to those of you who I just know from your beautiful cards love anything that is House Mouse! :)

At the end of all of the celebrations I'll do a massive draw session for all the prizes using the one Mr Linky - which is on the main snippets post HERE - so you do need to have entered one snippets make over on that post during this fortnight to be in with a chance :) Maximum of one entry please - to keep things fair for those who may not have time to craft - Mr Linky closes at 11am on Saturday 6th January.

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 246

It's tipping it down with rain here as I type this on Saturday morning. In fact Len just arrived back home early from archery - where rain most definitely stopped play! We're certainly on the cusp of Autumn, with a few hot days thrown in here and there just to confuse things. I guess a few of you have noticed how HUGE the spiders are in the UK this year? One shot across the craft room the other evening and I truly didn't know whether to saddle it up and go for a ride or just run and hide. I did neither in fact, but am sure it's still lurking under the desk somewhere watching with its big beady eyes - shudder.

Earlier in the week I finally found a little bit of time to do some colouring for today's snippets card, and I bet if I hunted round in the Playground enough I just might find a little mouse doing exactly this:

I used:

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

- a snippet of white card stock onto which I stamped the little House Mouse image using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a House Mouse cling stamp called 'Rain Flower'

- coloured the image using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and set it aside 

- used a snippet of yellow card to die cut the stitch lines and then trimmed the piece of card to the same size as the card front

- then selected two circular dies from the Tonic Studio's 'Circle Layering' set and used the smaller one of the two to die cut an aperture into the piece of yellow card

- then die cut the image using the larger of the two circle dies

- next, die cut the green ring to go around the aperture using both of the circle dies, one inside the other 

- glued the green circular band onto the aperture and then glued the image in place behind the aperture

- glued the whole piece of yellow card, now backed with the image, onto the card front

- stamped the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from the Kaisercraft 'True Friendship' set of stamps 

- punched out the sentiment using SU's 'Decorative Label' punch and glued it below the image- final touch, added touches of Glossy Accents to the raindrops 

The set of sentiments stamps is advertised as having four sentiments - it took me a couple of minutes to realise that, during production, two of them hadn't been separated. A quick chop with the scissors soon sorted that one out though :)

The yellow card is a beautiful daffodil yellow, but it looks a bit washed out due to the bright sunlight when I took the photo, sigh. And it's too dull today to try for a better photo.

I'd like to enter this into the September/current Penny Black and More challenge, where the theme is 'Use a sentiment' - and your image must be stamped (unless it's a PB Stickeroo) - although you can use stamps other than Penny Black. Happy dance here as Mr Random picked my number from the August entries as one of the winners! Thanks Brenda and Co. - it's tickled me to win a prize all for me :)

I'd also like to enter this into the current challenge over at House Mouse and Friends #225 'Make a Splash' - anything with water is fine BTW!

Time for a peek at this week's picks:

As soon as I read Jules' post I knew we had our first pick of the week. First of all, as always, it's a fabulous snippets card - and secondly, and very importantly, Jules has shared her paper piecing secrets with a step by step tutorial! Over time I've picked up Jules' paper piecing tricks, often in a very kind response to one of my comments, and I really do encourage you to pop over and be enlightened!

I always emphasise that snippets really can be leftovers of anything crafty - and Lynn (Linby) took us to new heights this week with some amazing fused glass snippets on this beautiful necklace! You really should nip over for a read of her post - there's other fabulous work there too.

We have crafters on here who do hide their lights under a bushel. This gorgeous card was brought to share with us by Pat and her colouring is amazing! The background was 'smooshed' and those glorious poppies were coloured using Lyra Aqua Markers. Absolutely lovely Pat!

And here's another example of really perfect colouring, this was made by Wanda using a digi stamp. And loads of snippets too - I love it! I usually just plonk a single charm onto a card, perhaps dangling from a bow or such. I do like the lovely little selection of embellishments Wanda used here to add such interest.

And this beauty is Meena's very first try at colouring using Polychromos pencils. I think she's a natural for sure! Love the colours and the shading is just perfection! I love my Polychromos pencils, used them on today's snippets card in fact, but shading like this totally eludes me!

I chose this card, made by Heather, as a great example of another way to use up a real variety of snippets in a very clever way. Heather has given us the measurements for those scraps, based on an American A2 sized card (4.25" x 5.5"). The squares of pretty paper had their opposite corners rounded to add that extra interest - neat trick!

And for my final 'peek at the picks' - here's a really lovely card using a clever technique, brought to us by April. It's a fun way to produce stunning cards - as April says it's great for snippet zapping as you just need a double sided piece of patterned paper measuring 10" x 5". April has kindly added the link back to where she found a card made using this technique - and there's a link in that linked post to a great video tutorial! I certainly want to try this idea ASAP :)

So those are my six seven picks for this week girls. I was thrilled this week to find a couple of entries using 'That Folder' which was a recent Playground prize and I do encourage you to have a little hop about if you find the time. As ever, not an easy job choosing the picks - I tried to point you to some inspiring talent, some techniques and tips - and of course some great ways to use up snippets! 

We had one new Playmate last week:

Lavina arrived with a fabulous card to share - just look at those exploding flowers! I've made a couple of cards using a Hunkydory kit to create this same effect and have to admit I almost lost the will to live. These are lovely and I suspect have been created right from scratch as well, sheesh!

Welcome Lavina - hope to see you playing along again really soon :)

And it's prize draw time, for the Spellbinders 'Pop-Up' 'Happy Days' set of dies. Sadly, there could only be one winner and it's:

Meg

 

Well done Meg, I think you'll be really pleased with the set and look forward to seeing what you make with it! It was actually third try lucky here as the first two numbers that came up belonged to Playmates who were just playing for fun this week. 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.

Here's this coming week's prize:

It's stamps this time, the same as the ones I used on my snippets card - House Mouse cling 'Rain Flower' and the Kaisercraft 'True Friendship' set of four sentiments.

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 17th September. 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 the prize. You can opt for either the House Mouse stamp or the sentiments stamps if you wish, just say so in a comment and if you win then I'll do a further draw for the other part of the prize. But, both are up as one prize if that's what you would like! 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 :)

And here's another celebration heads up for you, our Playmate Carole, of Craftylicious Creations is celebrating her 100th post with a super giveaway:

To help Carole celebrate, and also be in with a chance to win, hop on over to her blog and see what you have to do to play along. Please note, these are Carole's prize over on her blog - the Playground prize this week are the stamps, like I used on my snippets card today.

Have a lovely week - big hug from Parsnip and of course me!

A little bit of decoupage

I really love House Mouse images, they're usually very detailed and just so cute. But, mostly don't have the time, comfort or patience to sit and do lots of really detailed colouring in these days - a shame as I do have this wood mounted stamp tucked away and it's a beauty! However, a little rummage through some tucked away goodies and I ended up with this card:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" square white card blank

- a piece of sandy/gold toned paper embossed with little silver snowflakes from Craftwork Cards 'Frosty Christmas' paper pack, trimmed to slightly smaller than the card front and glued in place

-  found the sweet House Mouse image in a hidden Really Useful Box, already decoupaged some years ago when I had time to fiddle on snipping and layering decoupage, originally bought from Joanna Sheen. My (smaller) stamp that it's based on is called 'Christmas Tale'

- layered the image onto a snippet of pink card and trimmed it to just slightly bigger than the image panel before gluing it onto the card front

- in the cello bag where the decoupaged image was carefully stored I also found the matching sentiment. Popped it onto a little piece of the same pink card then die cut it using a Spellbinders 'Nested Pennant' die and glued it in place on the card front

Undecided what to add next, I left the card overnight - and the next morning decided not to fiddle on with it any more as the image is already doing more than enough work, IMHO :)

Di
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Rudolph Days - March 2016

And it's time for Rudolph Days once again over at Scrappy Mo's. You have from today until the end of the month to enter - so what are you waiting for? As always, Mo has a lovely prize on offer - and this is what I made as my entry this month:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" square slightly off-white card blank (the white in the image panel is also slightly off-white, hence the choice of card blank

- a piece of Christmas green plain paper, which came free with a magazine years ago, it just happened to go with the greens in the image pretty well

- I found the sweet House Mouse image in a hidden Really Useful Box, already decoupaged some years ago when I had time to fiddle on snipping and layering decoupage, originally bought from Joanna Sheen - can't recall which set it was but would expect it's on the CD she stocks

- layered the image onto the piece of plain green paper and trimmed it to just slightly bigger than the image panel before sticking it onto the card front

- in the cello bag where the decoupaged image was carefully stored I also found the matching sentiment, already cut ready just to stick in place. I popped it across the top of the card, mostly to hide a little bit of a crinkle in the glossy paper that the decoupage was printed on

- then just added a few red self-adhesive pearls on top of the printed holly berries

Job done, in double quick time! So glad I opened that Really Useful Box to see what was lurking within.

This card is also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #273 (Cute or Anything Goes this week) as well as Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for March 2016 (always Anything Goes).

That's 40 cards in the box for Christmas - but I'm lagging a bit behind as my target was 12 per month beginning in December, eight more to make before the end of March. It's all down to time lost at the desk when I couldn't sit for very long - and to be honest, a bit of apathy on my part :( I can see some 'batch baking' ahead!

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 220

Yay, and another week just whizzed past! Really mixed weather here in the Playground too, everything from high winds, rain, hailstones, snow (just a few flakes) and then misty mornings followed by a good bit of sunshine.

Here's my snippets card for this week, based on a design I saw on the internet, although I can't trace who originally made it:

I used:

- 4" x 5.75" white card blank, opening on the short side for a change

- snippet of mossy green Core'dinations card stock for the backing layer, I used the non-textured side for the front

- snippet of SU's 'Real Red' card stock, topped with a snippet of Echo Park's 'Hello Summer' spotted paper

- the image is by House Mouse called 'Jelly Bean Nap', stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and coloured in using Pro Markers

- die cut the image with a Spellbinders 'Labels Eight' die and backed it with a snippet of SU's 'Marina Mist' (created by drawing round the outer edge of the die and fussy cutting round the shape)

- wrapped a snippet of brownish ribbon round the layers of coloured/patterned card before gluing them to the card front

- topped it off with the layered image then added a bow, using the glue gun

The image was such fun to colour, I chose the snippet of spotty paper before touching the Pro Markers in order to pick out the same colours. The card was originally made as a 6" x 6" size but the end result had way too much of the mossy green card above and below the right hand end of the image panel. Went over various ideas to fill the space, none of which would have been right. So, in the end I lopped off the top and bottom of the card instead :)

Onto the weekly 'peek at the picks':

I love this card, made by Chris. Such a wonderful background topped with the trellis - and those butterflies are just fabulous!

Love, love this card - made by Maura. Wonderful background here too topped with the lovely blossom and that sweet bird, it just oozes Springtime to me.

Carol brought this card to show, and it uses several snippets of course. The little touches which really caught my eye are that wonderful strip of embossed hearts (one to remember!) - plus how clever to pick out the three hearts on the little snail in that cute image and then echo them in the hearts strip. It's all in the detail! :)

This fabulous card was brought to show by Brenda - just prior to a little trip to the theatre for a date with a surgeon :( Hope you're recovering well Brenda! LOVE the bronze, butterfly and buttons on this beautifully made card and of course one of Brenda's trademark bows - everything about it is just so perfect.

As you know, I'm trying to keep time spent at the desk down a bit so will be trying to stick with three or so picks - this week it's actually five picks and this final one just rocked me on my heels!

A few of you have already been over to Cara's blog to comment and it would be just fabulous if more of you went to have a peek. Of course you can then enlarge the image for a closer look as well - and then you'll see that every single element in this row of flowers has been individually paper pieced! A huge double-wow from me for patience Cara - it's gorgeous!

We had no new Playmates this week, although with 63 entries the Playground was still busy of course. I heard more chinking of glasses so goodness knows what Sarn's celebrating now!

Time for the prize draw here now. We had the LOTV 'Heartfelt' paper pad, LOTV 'Bunnies' Art Pad and a set of Spellbinders Labels Eighteen dies as the prize(s) if you recall. And our winner is also, purely by coincidence, one of of my picks this week:

Craftychris

I've checked back in my little black book and also this blog Chris, and am sure this is your first prize win in the Playground - yay! Can you please drop me an email with your postal address and I'll send your prize off as soon as possible this coming week. My email address is on the right hand sidebar BTW.

Now here's this coming week's prize(s) - a two-parter.

Linked to today's snippets card - it's a House Mouse 'Jelly Bean Nap' stamp, just like I used today. Plus, a lovely set of dies kindly donated by Barb, called 'Frames and Tags - Refined Rectangular Frame' - Sizes: 102mm x 64mm (Frame) & 59mm x 23mm (Tag) - made by Creative Expressions and designed by Sue Wilson. Thanks so much Barb - someone is going to love these really pretty dies!

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 19th March. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

A maximum of ONE entry (just to remind you!) and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. If you only want to play for either the House Mouse stamp or the really great die set then just say so in a comment - if your number comes up then I'll do a further draw for the remaining part(s) of the prize. But, both items are up as one complete prize if you so wish of course. 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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You 'Cane' Light the Way

I remember rootling through a 'Hobby Lobby' bargain bin with the lovely Kay in Santa Fe, over 18 months ago now, and her coming up trumps with a House Mouse stamp, tucked right away at the bottom of the bin. Kay squealed that it was shouting for me to buy it so I let it jump straight into the shopping trolley (cart) without any hesitation :) And this week I used it for the very first time, slap my wrists for waiting so long:

 I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- House Mouse stamp 'You Cane Light The Way', coloured with Polychromos pencils then die cut with a Nesties circle die, plus a tickle of Glossy Accents on the light bulbs

- popped the image onto a doily die cut from SU's 'Always Artichoke' card stock using Cheery Lynn's 'French Pastry' die

- backing papers are LOTV's 'Woodland Wishes' with SU's Always Artichoke' card stock for matting

- the corners were die cut using a Whimsy corner dieand Josy Rose nail heads added

- sentiment is by Craftwork Cards, popped onto an oval of SU's 'Always Artichoke' 

I tend to hesitate when I look at my House Mouse stamps 'cos of all the small detail but using Polychromos pencils made this like a walk in the park - or should that be a walk along a tightrope. Those pencils really are a joy to use - so much so, I made two the same!

This card is for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge 'Let it shine' as well as Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra 'Anything goes'.

Another two for the stock of 2014 Christmas cards - now reached 54, yay!

Di
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Christmas Love

This week's theme over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas challenge is 'Christmas Love' and I knew just the stamp I wanted to use:

This poor little stamp hasn't been used since before I started off this blog - shame on me!

I wanted to follow a sketch and found this great one over at Sunday Sketch and Stamp, so I'm also entering my card into that challenge.

 

I used:

- 6" x 6" white scalloped edge card blank

- House Mouse 'Mistletoe Moment' stamped using SU's 'Smoky Slate' and coloured with Polychromos Pencils and Sansodor blending solution. The colours are much stronger IRL - dratted camera again! I added a couple of little self adhesive pearls to the mistletoe

- all papers are from LOTV's 'Woodland Wishes' Christmas paper pad

- the sentiment is an Elzybells one (no longer trading sadly), stamped using SU's 'Rich Razzleberry' then die cut using a Spellbinders banner die. I just did the green backing layer by using the die as a guide and drawing round the outside before hand cutting it

- white Josy Rose nail heads

I'd also like to enter this into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra, where it's always 'anything goes'. 

And, the current challenge over at House-Mouse and Friends is to use amethyst, white plus one other colour - green in my case. I know that some beige has crept into the main backing paper  (but the meeces are browns too aren't they) so hopefully the amethyst and green are strong enough. If not then do please tell me, ladies over at HM, and feel free to delete my entry - leaving me squeaking with embarrassment :)

Reminds me - did I ever tell you the tale of Fudge the field mouse? He lived with us one Winter, no kidding!

Di

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Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 92

Happy Sunday everyone! At 59 we didn't quite reach the magic number 60 in the Playground last week, that'd be a first for us - but each week does see more and more of you coming to play, which is really great. I hope it shows that the Playground is a happy place to be :)

Here's my snippets card for this week - appropriate given the nip in the air these past few days:

I used:

- 8" x 8" square white card blank

- stamped image is from the House Mouse 'Autumn Leaves' set by Joanna Sheen, stamped in Sepia and then coloured with Whispers pens and layered onto a snippet of orange card

- the 'patchwork' backing is what started this card off, I found three little snippet strips of Autumn leaves paper and just chopped them into squares then layered onto more plain orange card (all the plain orange pieces used on this card were snippets but my card swatch tells me it's SU's 'Pumpkin Pie')

- the brown backing card wasn't a snippet, it's by SU and is called 'Baked Brown Sugar' from their 2013-2015 In Color range. Looks rather like Kraft card to me :)

- then I still had some 'Pumpkin Pie' snippets, plus some big blank areas, so I added corners which were die cut using Joy! Crafts 6002/0135. To be honest I'd have called this die a nice name such as 'lattice corner' - and I bet it'll be great on white on white cards. I was very lucky to win this from Caz back in May - check out her first snippets Playground card a teeny bit further down this post, it's fabulous!

That's my snippets make, not one I'm overly happy with but I'm still gonna be cheeky and enter it over at House Mouse and Friends where the current theme is 'Monochrome' .

Onto this week's 'picks', difficult as ever of course. I think first of all we should welcome some new playmates:

I can't believe it's taken me so long to arm twist encourage the lovely Caz to come and join us in the Playground! We've followed one another since almost forever and it was only this last week it dawned on me that she hadn't ventured into the Playground!  And what an entrance she made - oh my goodness, I totally adore this beautiful Christmas card - so, so rich and elegant.

Brenda L scampered (grin) into the Playground for the first time with this lovely little poochie card. When you tie in the sentiment to the sweet little image sitting there with his lead - aaaw. And over on Brenda's blog there's a lovely photo of her own Jack Russell, who can also come and play if he likes :)

And our third new playmate is Jenny L, who brought this absolutely stunning Christmas card - I think that deep rich red and gold are perfect for Christmas and what a serene image! Welcome Jenny, lovely to have you along.

Onto just a few other picks:

I chose this card, made by Irene, for all the little snippets she used - and all the different embossing. Such a fabulous result - a lovely Wedding card indeed.

Cornelia made this card, using paint colour swatches for the banner! What a fantastic idea - anyone in danger or running out of snippets, just hit your local hardware store :)

Our Sam used LOADS of snippets on this 80th Birthday card, so beautifully too. Do look closely, there's so much care and detail - as always with Sam's makes.

And there was no way I could leave out this divine card. made by Debs. All those glorious butterflies made from snippets, love it!

As always, each and every single snippets make is a total winner in my eyes - to check them out if you haven't done so already THIS is the link.

The normal weekly draw first - and the winner of the Woodware 'Noel' stamp is:

23 of of you girlies made at least three cards in total over the past couple of weeks to be in with a chance of winning of Ryn's 'Rising Bubbles' stamp - and the winner is:

Sarah (Sazzle Dazzle)

Well done Sarah - I'll post the stamp to you ASAP. Can you just drop me an email with your snail mail address in please? I think I still have it but would hate to post Ryn's stamp off to the wrong person!

Commiserations to everyone else - I do know that a few of you were really so keen to have this stamp, and I only wish I had another 22 to give away!

OK, so what's on offer this coming week then? Yup, there is a little hint in my snippets card - it's a bag full of Autumn leaves swept up from the Playground, snort! Would I be so mean? It's these little beauties:

It's two sets of two (in fact more) unmounted rubber House Mouse stamps making a single prize - I was lucky and found them over at Joanna Sheen's bargain shelf in her online store :) Thought they might be really tricky to colour but considering I did my snippets card today in such a rush they really aren't as hard as they look. With more time and care I'd have made a better job of the colouring, but that was purely lack of time on my part.

The Playground will run as usual this week with the gates closing at 11am UK time on Saturday 5th October. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be the winner of the prize this week, as shown above.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

One final question girls, Mary H referred to the Playground as Pixie's Playground and it struck me that Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground is a real mouthful to both say and also type when you want to play along. Which option would you prefer - Snippets Playground, Pixie's Snippets or Pixie's Playground? I truly don't mind but do feel it would make life just a bit easier and save a few seconds for you all when posting if we shorten the name. I think it might be nice to keep Playground in the name perhaps. Other options are welcome too of course - it's your Playground after all! If you're happy to leave it as is then I'll 'go with the flow' as they say.

Have a lovely week!

Di (and a wave from Parsnip)
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