Pixies Snippets Playground - Weeks 317/318 - results

I'll be honest and tell you that this post took me FOUR goes to write. I kept getting rogue HTML scattered throughout. I'm no quitter - but this almost had me in tears of total frustration. I'm almost sure it came from 3rd party code such as the Flickr photo I loaded directly (never do that again!) or possibly the Random number gizmo - but oh boy, did it cause havoc! And, as I was juggling four versions at once trying to salvage what I could, we did have one rogue publishing happen - but it was minimal in any case - and if you're trying to juggle a barrel load of wet fish then am sure you know where I was. Hopefully it's all sorted out now though.

Onto happier things and this week we have a lovely lady as our Guest Designer - an immensely clever crafter and also such a lovely person. In fact, she's representative of all of you as each one of you is very special and also very talented. The Playground is such a source of great ideas - as well as lots of fun and frolics of course! Ha, but even little Parsnip went and hid when I was struggling trying to sort this post out - bless him. He sidled up with a little smile and said 'Don't cry Miss Di - I still love you to the moon and back'. Little perisher is probably wanting to share in any Valentine's Day choccies I might have this coming week :)

Jane, of Jane's Journal, has been on my list as a future Guest Designer for ages and I'm delighted we finally managed to find a mutually suitable date.

And, being Jane, we have not one but two fabulous cards - look below but do be sure to hop over to Jane's for the details of how she made them. Her blog is an absolute delight - HERE.

And now, here's Jane herself - brandishing what looks like one very refreshing (as well as large) G&T whilst on holiday last year. Crumbs, that's a very happy girlie!

And here's what Jane wrote when I asked for a bit about herself. There's a lot more to be found over on her blog if you'd like more details about the companies she designs for etc.:

"I have been crafting since I could hold a pencil and made scrapbooks with embellishments as a child before the term "scrap booking" was even heard of. My Mum introduced me to card making over 20 years ago and I also saw a stamped image being embossed using gold embossing powder around that time at a craft fair. I was hooked by the magic. I still own my very first stamps.

My paper crafting journey took a huge leap forward about 5 years ago when I discovered mixed media and leaving behind my patterned papers (I do occasionally pull them out) I found huge satisfaction in creating my own inky backgrounds. Not just for cards but for tags/journals etc. I often make my own journals/pages to record special events and holidays and I am known for making "Moments" for my physical Jane's Journals (yes they really do exist). 

I was also lucky enough to attend a workshop last year with none other than Tim Holtz who is my creative idol. I adore his work and I have learnt so much from him over the years. His distress inks and oxides are my go to products nearly every time I make anything. He really is as kind and lovely as he appears on his videos. He is the Professor of all things inky in my books.

2 years ago, after working for 34 years as an NHS specialist musculoskeletal physiotherapist, I decided to take early retirement to explore the possibility of a new challenge; a "career" in papercrafting. I first joined the Design team for Country View Challenges. At the same time a new vintage Tea Rooms called Dotty's opened in Carshalton High Street, walking distance to my home. I met the owner Rebecca to show her some of my cards and she signed me up on the spot to sell my cards there. I have since sold hundreds of my one of a kind handmade cards.

I'm also on two other design teams and am lucky enough to have had several pieces of my work published and also shown on Create and Craft TV.

Since I retired I have never been so busy and combined with all my crafting work I am blessed to have 2 gorgeous grandchildren, Daisy 4 and Jack nearly 1 who we try to see as much as possible despite the hour and half journey up and down the A3 to Southampton.

Thanks so much Di for inviting me to guest design for you, it is the very least I can do. You are such a kind, generous crafter and friend and I would like to thank you for everything you do here. You have made this such a friendly, kind challenge spot and I always love visiting here. I would like to take this chance to apologize to my fellow playmates that I often don't get time to comment on their blogs but I do visit and admire all your lovely work".

I happen to know from an email the other day that Jane has actually made over 600 cards for Dotty's Tea Rooms! Thanks so much for being our Guest Designer Jane - and also for your very kinds words about the Playground and (blush) yours truly - which you insisted I left in :)

Time now for the fortnightly picks and I want to start off with a very special Gold Star:

Some, but not all of you, will already know that our Playmate Andreas's wonderful Dad (Doug) recently passed away. I've featured some of Doug's knitting work here before and this is a pair of very snazzy leg warmers he made for Andrea (KandA) last Summer - using up snippets of yarn. Doug was 96 and an absolute treasure - so I thought it would be appropriate if, as this is his 'last hurrah' in the Snippets Playground, we gave him a Gold Star - with our love and thanks for being privileged to take peeks into his life and hobbies.

Please feel free to take the Gold Star for your blog Andrea (right hand side bar here). Hopefully it will be a reminder of happier times and also our affection for your lovely Dad.

We had some good giggles on her post over this brilliant card, made by Alison C. Alison was 'super-selfcritical' about this card - yet all we commenters loved it! Lots of really great paper piecing as well as the freestyle tree and presents. I just love it as a really great example of using snippets and coming up with a delightful result. And those little spindly legs with the boots totally crack me up! Alison was so critical of this adorable card that I bet she needs to lie down at being a weekly pick!

I'm a huge fan of card-in-a-box cards - and (CraftDee) Donna shared this real stunner with us. Do hop over to her blog for a closer look if you haven't already been for a 'sticky beak nosy'. Not only is the box card just so perfect - but that little BBQ was made by Donna as well. Great idea - and the BBQ lid even opens up! And Donna is not short of some clever ideas so I suggest you take a look around while you're visiting.

And last, but not least, Sindhu made this amazing calendar. It's just so very pretty, uses loads of snippets of course - and the detail is amazing. You really must pop over to see the close-up photos - absolutely beautiful. I just wish I could produce such a beautifully co-ordinated work of art.

Phew, that was so tough - my initial list of possible picks had 11 names on. And that was purely chosen from all of your entries as a route to having three picks! Your work is always gorgeous girls and it gets harder to choose at the end of each challenge! My list for the current challenge is already huge - but, for my own sanity and also this back (which has been playing up a bit in the cold, damp weather here) I do need to be sensible.

We had four new faces this time around!

Sharon H

Karen Finkle

Gill P

Suzanne H

Welcome to the Playground girls, and such fabulous entries too - it's always fun to see some new faces playing along with us. I hope you come back again soon and also that our Playmates will hop over the say 'Hello' and perhaps add themselves as followers. We're a happy little bunch as I'm sure you'll soon find out.

We had a total of 63 entries including our four new little Playmates. So, we're still climbing back up in numbers - slowly but surely! As I'm putting the finishing touches to this we have 43 entries for the current challenge - with almost a week left to run.

Prize draw time now and our winner of the MFT 'Sushi Date' stamp set, kindly donated by Tara of Seven Hills Crafts, is:

April

 

Well done April! I just looked back at your comment and see that you're a fan of sushi as well as pandas, so no doubt you'll be doing a Happy Dance. Would you believe that the first three names to come out of the Random Selector gizmo were people who were just playing for fun, which meant I had to run it again of course - so I reckon it really was serendipity!

This time I can post your prize straight off early this coming week as I know exactly where to find your address, it's obvious that you were really keen to win the prize and I know you haven't moved recently either.

But, I will usually ask for your addresses girls if you win - I just happen to have April's address very handy.

On the subject of sushi - what a surprise I had on Thursday when I nipped into our local Sainsbury's for a few bits and pieces (such as fresh fruit) that I just don't trust to our weekly delivery from them. Just guess what was in the process of being stocked ready for opening day - a very swish 'Sushi Gourmet' bar offering a takeaway service! All black, glass and shiny chrome/steel with a single chef just starting to prepare Shitake mushrooms so it seems that you may be able to watch them actually making the sushi. It seems to be a new enterprise opening up in various supermarkets with sushi made fresh in situ - good for them!

Keep those snippets entries coming, you still have a week left to play HERE for Challenge #319! The prize is the 'Lil Inkers 'Love You More Than Words' die plus a pack of XCut adhesive glitter paper in luscious colours.

Just to whet your appetite a bit, I have some really great (IMHO) prizes coming along. The Playground Toybox is looking so healthy and, as I try to do, we have some quite new and innovative products that I wanted to try out - and then of course bought the same for the Toybox! Other than that, my lips are sealed - and I'm off to search for some duct tape to cover 'blabbermouth Parsnip's' mouth!

Love from the little white peril Parsnip - and of course me,

Blogging problems

Ooopsie, I accidentally published the 3rd rewrite of the Snippets Playground post for this coming Sunday! Luckily I spotted it immediately and changed the date pronto. What a palaver I've been going through trying to sort out a load of rogue HTML - which reappeared as fast as I deleted it!

Sorry to publish accidentally - I was in such a tizz I forgot my own golden rule - always put the publication date and time in before setting to and writing a post!

Friday and the weekend beckons! Have fun - I will, now that things seem to be finally sorted out!

Butterly card ready to fly

I made a pretty quick card -just the colour cornflower - along with a flight of butterflies ready to flutter away:

I used:

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

- snippet of my version of cornflower blue card (it's actually SU's 'Marina Mist' now that I've checked against the swatch - but cornflowers do come in different shades of blue and this is one of the lighter shades - tee, hee)

- I trimmed the snippet of blue card to just a bit bigger than I wanted the panel of butterflies to be. Then pencilled around it on the front of the card so that I'd keep the die cuts about quarter of an inch inside the pencil lines - to allow for sticking the blue panel on place later on

- then used the Misti to stamp the Birthday sentiment onto the card front, using a little SU 'Marina Mist' ink pad and a stamp which came with the All Occasions 'That Folder' set

- next die cut four solid butterfly shapes into the card front - overlapping them slightly - as well as keeping them quarter of an inch inside the penciled 'frame area'. I used the Memory Box 'Isabella' die for this

- die cut four white butterflies using the matching Memory Box 'Pippi' die, which is all open and lacy

- onto now assembly time, I used red line tape to adhere the blue panel to the back part of the card front - and little snippets of red line tape to make sure all the 'pointy and therefore likely to lift up' bits of the die cut front apertures would be held securely in place as well

- then added a slightly smaller panel of white card to the whole of the inside of the card front - to cover up the blue panel inside the card

- added a slick of clear Wink of Stella to the bodies/feelers of the butterflies

- popped the bodies and feeler sections onto the lacy butterflies, then added them over the blue backed die cut apertures on the card front, overlapping as seemed best, using Collall glue and a fine liner bottle ....... then called it done!

One slight 'blip' to my eagle eyed scrutiny is that I can only just tell there's a darker panel across the inside/centre of the card if I hold it up to the light - and it was also a bit touch and go as to whether I'd end up with a slight ridge on the card front around that area as well. These are very minor points, but another time I would use 300gsm card rather than what I think is 250gsm. I know, Little Miss Picky here!

I'd spotted this sort of card with solid cut-outs and then matching lacy butterflies over the coloured apertures not so long ago and thought it such a pretty idea.

I was going to say that you need both the solid and also the matching lacy/open dies for this design - but thinking about it - of course you don't! You would use an open lacy die to cut across the card itself as I did with the solid one which would still give you the line of apertures in any case. Although you would still then need to die cut more complete butterflies to add to the backed apertures if you overlapped them.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #319

I've gone with the majority of you and from now on the fortnightly challenges will be numbered as challenges rather than two-week numbering. To be honest it was confusing me here when I did the in between weekly post in the fortnightly challenge! Two numbers was harder to handle somehow. So, challenges will still run on a fortnightly basis - and we can still celebrate special milestones I'm sure.

My snippets card for this fortnight was made with Len in mind - although I've since come up with a different idea! That's what happens when you make cards too long in advance, as well as Mr Mojo having made a return visit or three!

I spotted the die I used on this card over at the Seven Hills Craft blog and thought it was perfect for either Valentine's Day, Anniversaries or 'just because'. It looks such a simple card but Dumbo here decided that it would be even better to inlay the words - hey, ho, kept me busy for almost an entire day:

I used:

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

- a snippet of red glitter paper from an XCut 'Darks' pack of Adhesive Glitter sheets - which I adhered onto a snippet of card stock (I used SU 'Smoky Slate' but it doesn't matter as it was just to lift the die cut words so they would be flush with the main grey panel once I'd finished)

- then I die cut the red glitter words using the Lil'Inkers 'Love You More Than Words' die and set them to one side. As Lynne in NI picked up, I always pop little pieces into a plastic lid when I'm working to stop them from escaping. Mine just so happens to be a clear lid from one of those small double layer boxes of Ferrero Rocher choccies (my very favourite - yummy)

-  next I worked out the size I wanted a SU 'Smoky Slate' (aka grey!) panel to be and trimmed it to size - another snippet gone

- while I was using the trimmer I cut a narrow snippet strip of the XCut red Glitter paper across the middle (and positioned it on the card front so that just a little strip would peep from underneath the top and bottom of the Smoky Slate panel (this is a real cost saver when using precious card or paper for backing purposes. Saves on making a full square or rectangular mat and still gives a pop of contrast (in this case I could have used the centre of a square of the glitter card of course to cut the die and then used the outside 'frame for matting

- die cut the words again from the grey card and removed the die cut very carefully from the die itself as I wanted to use a lot of pieces to fill in between the red glitter words. Most of the teeny grey pieces that are in the centre of total loops stayed in place in the die cut thankfully 

- at this point I really began to doubt my sanity at even thinking of inlaying such a fiddly die but I'd started so was determined to finish

- took the grey panel and added a smaller piece of medium sticky  sheet to the back then set to adding the red glitter die cut words into the apertures - that part was quite good fun 

- then it was time to add all the teeny little grey infill pieces, which took ages! The easiest way is to position the grey die cut bit by bit on top of the red glitter one and gently poke out the tiny infills. You then feel them lock down into place

- then ran the (by now) grey and red glitter panel through the Cuttlebug using embossing plates and an unopened embossing folder (for thickness) just to make sure everything was firmly pressed down

- final step, at last, was to adhere the grey panel on top of the two red glitter strips. I wasn't totally sure about what would happen if glue didn't hold the top and bottom firmly or even worse squeezed out onto the red glitter layer

- I could have taken the time to experiment with some tiny scraps from the waste bin but that possibility of 'glue ooze' was still bugging me so I tried another of my little tricks - which worked like a charm!

- I flipped the grey panel face down on the desk, and left the adhesive sheet backing behind the die cuts in place as that stuff is so unforgiving if you get things wrong when placing layers together - hence my love of wet glue or Stick-It sheets

- then I ran a strip of red line tape across the top and the bottom of the panel, leaving the protective red plastic in place

- next filled in the rest of the back of the panel with Collall All Purpose Glue before flipping it back over and carefully positioning it, centred between those red strips

- then straight away I gently lifted corners at one side of the top and bottom of the grey panel, slipped my very pointed tweezers in and peeled away the red line tape covering so that the sticky could adhere to the red glitter paper. Perfect!

I do often use a similar trick with red line tape so it wasn't a totally idea to be honest, more of a way to avoid any messy glue ooze. Normally that can be removed with a glue eraser or even the sand eraser but I just wasn't sure how it would work on glitter - plus it's stuck there like a limpet now with no chance of peeling back!

To be honest, I made a rod for my own back by inlaying the die cut - even though the results were so worthwhile. I could have just stuck the die cut straight onto the grey panel by cutting the heart shaped words straight from the adhesive glitter paper without even backing them with card as well as eliminating all that fussy poking out of teensy little pieces. The glitter paper holds its shape really well even when die cut finely - unlike the way that peel offs tend to distort. Also, and this may have been a trigger for me doing an inlay - the die cuts in two pieces. If you look closely you'll spot that the words 'you than' come out separately to the rest, But, on hindsight I don't think that's enough of an issue to make me spend such a long time messing around inlaying this particular die cut in future :)

So, here's this week's Snippets Playground prize:

It's a Lil'Inkers 'Love You More Than Words' die and also a pack of 10 sheets of that luscious XCut Self Adhesive glitter paper - both the same as I used for my card of course. The glitter papers are red, lime green, cerise, purple and a beautiful peacock blue - and totally non-shedding as well.

There is a caveat on the prize, which will apply from now on. Both items form the one prize and I won't be splitting future prizes unless I decide that it's really got to be an option, which is extremely unlikely. These babies go together - of course, if you win you can always pass what you might not want onto a friend once the package arrives with you. So you play for the complete prize and I post off just one package to the winner. It also means I only need to keep one list of prize players with no options of course - keeping this as slick as possible girls!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 17th February. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and 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're wanting to be in the draw 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' - just in case you're playing only for fun. Thanks!

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 :)

Be sure to call back next week to see a really lovely Guest Designer, my picks of last fortnight's entries and also the winner of the MFT 'Sushi Date' set of stamps.

Love from Parsnip and of course from me,

Less is More Challenge #363 - OLC Cute

First of all, it appears that Blogger has been fixed and embedded comments (the default setting) is working fine again without those long delays. I've reverted back to that rather than the pop up box which I didn't find as good in some ways - mainly embedded comments gives me, as well as others, the option to reply to comments within the comment facility. I've done this because I often find follow-on comments and don't want to stop that happening but will keep an eye on things just in case I need to flip back to a pop-up.

How happy I am that Less is More has switched to being a fortnightly challenge - I really do need thinking time for challenges, plus I generally only post on here a couple of times a week (possibly three if necessary) and of course one of those is always taken up with the Snippets Playground.

So, this fortnight's theme over at Less is More is the dreaded one layer plus 'Cute'. And this is my entry:

I used:

- 4" x 5.5" card blank, made using Strathmore Mixed Media Vellum Surface 300gsm paper (which of course gives you a nice sturdy card to work on)

- the Misti and a little penguin from the Jane's Doodles 'Winter Wishes' stamp set plus a sentiment from the Inkylicious 'Seasons Greetings' stamp set

- I measured out the card area using the Misti graph paper to get exactly the placement I wanted and then put the stamps in place and picked them up on the Misti lid

- did a practice run on the graph paper then put the card blank in place and stamped the image and sentiment at the same time. I was lucky that both stamps are exactly the same thickness despite being different brands - mostly it does work out OK but now and then the stamps will differ in thickness (ask me how I know this!)

- I used Ranger 'Black Archival' ink to stamp BTW - it's perfect for water based colouring mediums (I hear there's now a 'hybrid' ink pad made by MFT so that's something I aim to add into an on line order sometimes soon)

- so now I had one card with the outline penguin and sentiment - all ready to roll - so removed the card from the Misti

- the next step was to pop a Post-It note over the penguin which was stamped on the grid paper and then stamp the penguin again (there's a bit about the Post-It notes below this 'I used' bit of my blog post

- then fussy cut around the penguin and placed it on top of the penguin on the card as a mask

- out came the Ziggies and I did a very rough background using a couple of shades of blue and a water brush - somehow, the shape evolved into a bit of a domed shaker, not that I set out to do that!

- added a touch of grey/blue shadow underneath the penguin and quickly dried it using the heat gun

- then coloured the little penguin, again using my Ziggies

- final touch is 'White Opal' Liquid Pearls, dotted hither and thither to depict snow

One thing I learned whilst making this card is to do the 'flick to flatten' technique to get rid of any 'Hershey pointed tips' on the white dots of Liquid Pearls.

Another thing is those Post-It notes I mentioned. They're sticky all over the back (apart from a strip which is left clear at one edge with rounded corners to make removal and separating them easier). Jennifer McGuire uses them a LOT for masking and I'd been hunting on line for them in the UK for ages. I finally found some on Amazon UK a few weeks ago - hooray! They're known as 'Super Sticky Full Adhesive' and I bought the 50.8mm size. I instantly lost a few pads to my 'in-house critic'as for normal use they're much better than the single stripe of sticky style. Then, when working on this card, I found that 2" x 2" or so size could be cutting it a bit fine for bigger images - so I've just ordered more in 76mm x76mm size which is approx. 3" x 3" of course - link to Amazon UK is HERE. I've used various ways of masking images and this seems to be the cheapest and (for me) most accurate. My attempts at using masking fluid weren't as successful for small chaps like this penguin :)

But, a little word of slight warning. I almost came a cropper when doing the blue Ziggie background using a waterbrush! The colour from the bright pink Post-It made a bid for freedom - I had to make sure I worked towards the mask rather than away from it and Little Master Penguin does have a faint pink 'halo' in parts! Having said that, I was sloshing a fair amount of water around and, for the most part, will be using the Post-Its to create layers of stamped images. I do have some masking film which I'm sooo mean with as it cost a lot of money at the time!

And finally, just to finish off this marathon post, I was working away in the craft room ready to add the little white Liquid Pearls dots and Len glanced in on his way to the bathroom. There was a shout of 'Good grief, that's like a whole chemist's shop you've got there on your desk. And I dread to think what else is hidden in those cupboards!' Oooopsie:

I really can't imagine what he means, a girl needs choices, snigger 😀

Removing 'toppers' from shop bought cards

I mentioned in my Snippets blog post earlier today about how I remove toppers from shop bought Christmas cards when I want to use them for up cycling.

The face-down idea struck a chord with a few of you so I'm really happy if it's of use. Parsnip just nudged me to say there's another bit to the trick I didn't mention - although it's not always necessary.

Before flipping the card front with topper attached face down, it can be a help if you trim around the topper area, leaving enough card to grab with your fingers easily of course. About an inch all round works well. It sometimes helps you to keep the topper firmly pinned to the desk whilst you're peeling the (now smaller than before) remaining backing layer away from the sticky pads.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Weeks 315 and 316 - results

Well, things are on a much more even keel now and, apart from no Guest Designer (purely down to me being too busy to sort one out), we're back into the swing of our fortnightly Snippets Results Sunday post.

However, I couldn't let the post go without showing a snippets card to start off with, so I made one :) At the beginning of January I rummaged through the shop bought Christmas cards we'd been sent and then kept some aside for potential 'up cycling'. So I used part of one of them for my snippets card.

It's also for Scrappy Mo's Rudolph Days Challenge, which runs from 25th to the end of each month:

I used:

- 6" x 6" creamy white card blank

- snippet of Christmas red card stock as the 'frame', trimmed a bit and then glued in place

- piece of patterned paper from the 'All is Bright' paper pad made by My Minds Eye, trimmed to smaller than the red layer and glued on top

- the Christmas card that I 'cannibalised or up cycled' had a sparkled snow globe shaped topper, stuck on the front of the card with sticky pads. One useful tip about removing toppers like these is to sneak up on them from behind! In other word, place the card front face down and then carefully prise the card away from the topper - much less likely to damage or crease the topper if you're holding it down firmly on a flat surface (ask me how I know - from years ago when I wrecked a few promising 'toppers')

- then I picked off the residue of the sticky pads from the back of the globe topper and replaced them with fresh ones

- measured from the centre of the patterned paper layer using a ruler and lightly drew guidelines to help when placing the topper

- carefully added the topper to the card front and then finished off each corner with a shiny red Josy Rose hot fix nail head

Showed it to Len and he said 'Wow, that looks just like one you would buy in a shop' - my snort of laughter and then his closer look at the topper gave the game away a bit :) Waste not, want not I always say!

Time now for the fortnightly picks and, as always, so difficult to choose:

Lia brought this really beautiful card to share with us - look closely and you'll see the centre panel is actually cross stitch! So pretty and the way the rest of her card has been designed to perfectly echo the stitched panel is utterly gorgeous - love it!

I wonder just how many of us began our card making journey by making little cross stitch panels into cards - I know I did, but my panels were just very plain as all the work and enthusiasm had gone into the stitching :)

This is a super card, made by Sharon F over at Higgledy-Piggledy ( I love that blog name and it's much like my craft room right now, which is well overdue for a really good blitz and clean). The scalloped doily effect lends itself perfectly to our 'English tea time' and the idea of the hearts being poured from the teapot is just so clever! Great split sentiment as well :)

And last but by no means least is our lovely Kathleen with a brilliant idea for a card for a football loving boy (or man for that matter). Love the cupcake idea and the paper piecing goes perfectly. Kath used stickers for the boots and footballs (boots and balls just didn't sound polite!) but I bet you could find suitable stamps or even images on line to play around with. One to remember!

We had three new Playmates this fortnight - the most we've had for a while:

Katrina (aka CornishKat)

Nonni

Pam Sebring

Welcome to the Playground girls - it's always fun to see some new faces playing along with us. I hope you came back again soon and also that our Playmates will hop over the say 'Hello' and perhaps add themselves as followers. We're a happy little bunch as I'm sure you'll soon find out.

We had a total of 59 entries including our three new little Playmates! So, we've taken a bit of an upwards turn - yay!

Prize draw time now and our winners of the Lawn Fawn 'Shammies' (two were on offer) are:

Pat

Lynne in NI

Lynne's 'yes please' comment did make me giggle - she finished off by admitting 'I'm a dirty beast who never cleans her stamps'' :) No excuse now girls!

I still need your addresses, with full name at the top of your address so I can copy and paste please. I know that some of you do wonder why I always ask for your address when you're a winner and you may think 'But she already knows my address anyhow').

Answer - it's confirmation that I've got the right person, that you still want the prize and also that your address is the same. I will keep on asking, even if it's a bit of a nuisance - plus it makes life easier for me as I don't need to hunt in a few places for your address (a small price to pay for a prize I hope?). I don't want to make more work for any of us but have had a few near misses with unexpected address changes, as well as a couple of changes of mind about the prize even.

Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail - much of it won't, but you never know. Email address is on RH sidebar as always. If I hear quick enough I'll pop these in the post when I'm out tomorrow or Tuesday.

Keep those snippets entries coming, you still have a week left to play HERE for weeks 317/318 remember! The prize is MFT's 'Sushi Date' stamp set, kindly donated by Tara of Seven Hills Crafts.

One last thought, as this is your Playground, I need opinions and I can't emphasise that enough! For a long time I did weekly challenges numbered as such.

Now it's fortnightly with two weeks (eg. 315 and 316). Is this confusing you at all? If so then I can flip back to when we switched to fortnightly and from that point calculate (still fortnightly) future challenges numbered as a single challenge spread over two weeks. eg. this coming week (really a fortnight) would be Challenge #319 rather than 319/320. And the following challenge would be Challenge #320 then the next one, two weeks later, would be Challenge #321. Hope that makes sense? We would lose track of the weeks I've been running the Playground - but that's not the main issue. It has to be what you would like :) Let me know please.

Love from the little white peril Parsnip - and of course me,