Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #380 - results

 

Still having a mixture of heat and also rain here - quite a nice balance really. Len is signed up to an on line weather radar system and can time Dudley's walks almost to the very minute, in between showers. Very useful when the weather is so changeable.

Now our microwave is playing up - so we have a new one arriving on Monday. Thank goodness for on line ordering plus companies who take your old appliance away for recycling/disposal.

Let's move straight into this fortnight's picks:

What a great card this is, made by Janice - such a perfect way to use up snippets strips and a very clever secret to the technique. It's one I want to try for sure - and if you hop over to Janice's blog HERE, she has a link for you to see just how it's done. It's a YouTube video and you need to skip to about 20 minutes from the start, and although it's quite a long section of the video it's well worth watching. Thanks for this Janice - I rather think we might have a few similar cards popping up in the Playground as the black lines are such a great twist!

Sue, of Zouave Cards, brought this card to share with us. Two very similar ones in fact - for twin boys. I have a feeling that I may have had a 'pick' a good while ago using this idea and Sue herself acknowledged that it's been around for a while as an idea - but it's such a super one to be reminded of - and of course a smashing way to use up some brightly coloured snippets! Love those dear little feet as well.

I love this card, made by Kitty. All the snippets used for this fabulous rainbow of butterflies are die cut from saved scraps of alcohol ink backgrounds. What a stunning result against the crisp white panel and the embossed background. Absolutely lovely work Kitty!

And last, but by no means least, I had to share a fourth card with you - made by Jane W. I think Jane always comes up with some really fun ideas for her cards, and this is no exception - certainly raised a smile here. UK gals will recognise a good old Jammy Dodger biscuit - there's been many a fight over tins of mixed sweet biscuits at Christmas time as it's often one of the sought after favourites! This looks so realistic - right down to the glistening 'jam' centre - not to mention a bite missing. So realistic and very clever work Jane!

So, that's my picks and I do hope they've given you some inspiration for ways in which you can use up some of your own snippets. 

We had 52 entries in total, and no new Playmates this time.

Now for the prize draw, which is for a Clearly Besotted 'Best Balloons' set of stamps and a matching 'Best Balloons' set of dies.  And the winner is:

Suzanne H

Congratulations Suzanne! I'm practically sure that this is your first win in the Playground - so double congratulations! Please send me your address, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll do my best to post your prize later this coming week. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #381 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a 'Deco Roses' image stamp and a set of 'Deco Sentiments' - both by Woodware.

AND, there's been a load of interest in this particular Woodware prize, so I hunted around, found the same stamps on another on line website ..... and snapped up two more of each one. Which means you now have a total of three chances to be a winner - but you're still only allowed to enter one snippets make in the challenge of course!

Managed to post off the Shammy prizes this past week, two UK (which might well have arrived by now) and Janis's one to the USA. And have also got my head round Royal Mail's 'Click  and Drop' service for overseas - and may even use it for UK prizes if the need arises. As Kath says, it's so easy ......... when you know how - plus, during the current crisis, you actually get a week's grace to post your letter/package. Normally it's by close of business the following working day. How good to see some common sense and recognition that folk  may still want to limit their outings.

UK restrictions are being eased once again, and this one is quite a big step forward with the opening of pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants amongst the list. I think this is potentially a 'tipping point' if folk don't adhere to the social distancing rules - but of course we have to move forward in order to return to some form of 'new normality'. Needless to say - we won't be rushing to join in. The scenes on our, South Coast in particular, beaches were so irresponsible during the recent hot weather. I really felt for the people who live in these places and only hope the sun worshippers didn't take the virus with them to share it out. We'll know more as time passes and things are gradually eased. I most certainly won't be contemplating travelling in a germ ridden tube with wings on it for the foreseeable future - masks or no masks! Nor, as a friend so rightly said, in a 'floating petri dish' :)

Our hairdressers will be opening up again, as of yesterday (Saturday) I think, but to be honest I'm not unduly worried about booking an appointment there either. Having Dudley groomed was the most important thing on our list and so long as I trim my fringe every now and then, the rest is doing OK. Mostly as I don't have my hair coloured or layered I suspect. That would probably be a whole different ball game. Something to be said for having a dead straight bob - even if I end up looking like Cousin IT eventually!

Love from Parsnip, a happy wave and woof from Dudley - and of course hugs as always from me. Stay safe - and keep on crafting.

Hope & Chances charity kit - June 2020

I loved June's 'Hope and Chances' charity kit on first sight - partly for the design, but also as it's sold for profits to go to Hedgehog Rescue! Sorry folks, it's sold out - but here's my very slightly tweaked version:

I followed the instructions almost to the letter. Although the 'window box' can be 3-D, I did chop the sides, which made it stand proud, right down - as a given option, to lie flat for posting. Perhaps it should have been left folded and the recipient could have opened it out - duh! My Ziggy green on the ivy die cut might be brighter than Christine's .......... and I also ended up with an additional flower in my kit (waste not, want not). Oh, and I 'Stella Winked' the ivy as well as the flowers. Apart from all that, it's the same - snigger.

Many thanks to all who left comments about the no-line 'fade out' ink. It's clear that I need to be patient, use softer watercolours (which I had sort of concluded) and also concentrate more on shading. Don't hold your breath though - it sometimes takes me a while to get over a disappointment and have another try!

Rudolph Days Challenge - June 2020

I started making a batch of cards well in time for ScrappyMo's Rudolph Days Challenge - and then got sidetracked. If I just make the one card then I won't feel the urge to finish off the other nine in the batch - so that little project is on hold for now. Maybe by the end of July they'll be done ☺

But, I never miss joining in this fun monthly challenge and suddenly had the idea of looking through a box of received Christmas cards which I like to try and up cycle. And this is the result - very quick and easy, but at least I get to play along:

I used:

- an off white card blank, trimmed to 5.5" x 4.25"

- a shop bought Christmas card, from which I die cut the part of the woodland scene I wanted to use, with a Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' die

- added a piece of X-Cut red self-adhesive glittery paper to a snippet of white card and trimmed it to just slightly bigger than the image panel

- glued the image panel to the red glitter panel and then glued it onto the card front

- the card had a couple of red dots printed on it, so twinkled those up with red Stickles, and added a third one to follow the 'rule of threes'

- and the deer didn't have an eye so I added one using black Stickles

- I always add Stickles using a really fine paint brush, kept just for the purpose. Less chance of overdoing it I find!

The reason I chose a red 'frame' is because all the sparkly gold card and paper I have wasn't the right shade - plus I knew I could twinkle up the red dots to pull it together. Who knew there could be so many variations of gold sparkly paper?!

In real life this card sparkles beautifully, but as is often the case, the camera doesn't want to pick that up as well as I'd like.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #381

Oh my goodness, I'm typing this on Friday - almost melting in the heat. Rain is forecast and let's hope it comes soon! It's been way too hot to even think about baking cakes and scones. We've got umpteen fans whirring away day and night, sadly UK houses aren't fitted with air-con as our climate is usually much less extreme. And Dudley has a towel, run under cold water and then wrung out to lie on - which he loves. The tiled floors, usually his place to cool down, all feel warm and even his cool mat isn't coping!

Here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of white card trimmed to 5" x 3.75", onto which I stamped the vase and roses image plus the sentiment using a small Misti and VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink. The vase stamp is Woodware's 'Deco Roses' and the sentiment is from Woodware's 'Deco Sayings' set of sentiment stamps

- then removed the sentiment from the Misti lid and used four different snippets of coloured paper to stamp the vase and roses onto each one

- and this is the point at which I truly thought I had heatstroke and had lost the plot altogether as I then carefully paper pieced over the whole image using fussy cut pieces from the stamped coloured paper

- once that was all done I then used another piece of white card and covered it with double sided medium weight adhesive sheet and carefully covered it with a piece of the deep pink paper so I had some 'body' to play with

- trimmed the deep rose piece to 5.25" x 4" and glued it to the card front before glueing the image panel on top - using Collall glue

 

Just in case anyone thinks I cheated and just coloured the image - here's some small pieces of the leftover paper:

Despite it being fiddly, and it taking quite a while it was a fun card to make. Always add the glue (using a glue pen) to the main image by the way - the lovely Jules told me that tip many, many moons ago!

Woodware stamps often lend themselves well to paper piecing - although I could have coloured it much faster using Pro markers. So, it's not something I'd do frequently with plain paper when markers would work instead. I just thought that even slightly patterned paper would detract from the simplicity of the Art Deco look and had my heart set on paper piecing.

Len thought I'd coloured it until he felt the image - so that's why I added the little pieces of paper to this post. By then, the leftovers from the fussy cutting were in the recycling bin, which is a shame as they would have been a great illustration of what a numpty I can be in terms of setting the bar high - but I did find a few more snippets to prove the point.

In fact, I did a bit of a boo-boo when adding the blue vase to the image and didn't have a rose stem properly lined up with the line on the vase (OCD again!), so I cut out another leaf to hide it.

And bless Len, he remarked 'it has a sort of Art Deco look to it' when he'd inspected the card ☺

And needless to say, here's the prize for this fortnight:

Bad photo but I only just noticed and don't want to do it over again. It's a 'Deco Roses' image stamp and a set of 'Deco Sentiments' - both by Woodware. Both very recent purchases - I thought it was time for a less 'cute' prize!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 11th July. 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're so glad that Dudley had his full grooming session before this current heatwave. He still has a full brush and comb each day, even though his coat is shorter - but thankfully not shaven down to the skin. I figure it's important to keep up the regime regardless so that he's used to it. He still ain't too thrilled and seems to know when we're nearing 4pm each afternoon. His balancing on his haunches is totally perfect these days - but then so are my bagpipe tactics!

Speaking of dog's toys - I wrote about Stinky Monkey the other week and how much Dudley loves him. Someone I follow on Instagram has a real dilemma. She lives in Germany and has the sweetest little girl Havanese called Bella - and Bella adores a particular toy made by Beeztees like this:

It's like a flat 'Knuffie' comfort toy with a dog's head, floppy ears and legs. Marion has searched high and low for a replacement - luckily she does have the one above as a spare but, much like 'Stinky Monkey' it will be loved to death before too long. This is a really long shot as a few of us have been searching on line with no luck. We found 5 in Malta but they won't post to Germany, the UK or even Italy. The Netherlands looked like a good lead but that came to nothing - so now I'm appealing to you. Take a look at Bella as a little puppy - she was so much like Dudley in this photo:

As I say - it's such a long shot. I believe some have been located in the USA but the suppliers won't post overseas either. If you manage to find one, or even more than one - can you please let me know. I'll very happily pay the cost of purchase and post and packaging. Bella is such a little darling and so like our Dudley - it would be amazing if we could hit lucky! I suspect it's no longer manufactured but perhaps a shop - on line or even a local store - might have some. It's at least worth a try!

I haven't posted off the 'shammy' prizes as yet - to be honest it's been way too hot to venture out in the car, so far, this week. I'll pop a quick post on here when they've been safely posted.

And, as I used new stamps for the very first time, it means I can join in with Darnell's NBUS #15 challenge HERE - once again!

Really sorry that my commenting has been very slow in the Playground - huge apologies. Blame the heat! x

One final thing, am wondering if anyone has tried an 'Ink on 3 - Fadeout ink pad' yet? It's supposed to be a marvellous innovation for 'no line colouring'. I wasted used an afternoon playing with a newly delivered Fadeout pad and various stamps, with the correct sort of card, to make my Rudolph Days card. Perhaps the images were too intricate as I chose a set of SU little Christmas mouse stamps with really fine detail but so far the jury is most definitely out. And ruminating! The best results were from using Zig pens, followed by Pro markers, Distress Inks were not good and am ready to throw my DI markers out to be honest as they never were much good and the ends have frayed, come on Tim, you can do better than that - and so far my Polychromos pencils are a waste of time. Perhaps they need to be water colour pencils. My efforts are too embarrassing to show, let alone use for cards - but I suspect that well watered down Zigs or good old watercolour palettes - and floral images could work well. Even though they say Copics etc. will work well. So it was a lesson at least. Some images really DO need the outline definition as well - regardless.

If anyone really is interested, I will, rather reluctantly but it may help, do a post showing my results - at least with undiluted Zigs and Pro markers so you can see the outcome. And be warned before you jump in.

So now, on Sunday, thanks to wasting time on that flipping ink pad, I'll be in a panic....... making my entry for June's Rudolph Days Challenge over at ScrappyMo's! Quick, come and play!

Stay safe my lovely friends.

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