Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #335

What a week it's been! First of all I've been trying really hard to rest this shoulder, so serious crafting hasn't been 'on the cards'. I tried cutting a die cut using the Cuttlebug earlier in the week and it was just too painful - OK the die was a cheap and complicated one but even so. It's getting better slowly, so long as I don't do anything to 'pull' it again which takes me a step backwards - easier said than done!

And, middle of this last week I had yet another birthday. It was quiet but a lovely day just the same - and HUGE thanks to all you brilliant people who sent cards, gifts and also emails and Facebook messages. I feel so blessed to have such a caring group of friends - mwah! xx

SO, with all that's been going on I don't have a new snippets card for you I'm afraid but there is a prize (in fact, two the same!) if you scroll down this post.

And, a LOT of time has also been spent with Len - sorting out things ready for a new family member who will join us a week on Thursday. Believe me, this little chap is causing quite an upheaval here - plus enough stuff to set up a pet shop!

Meet Dudley (also known as the 'Cool Dude' according to Len, due to his calm and very laid back attitude to life ........so far of course!):

He's a Havanese puppy (born on 22nd July) and the most adorable little fluff ball ever! A few of you do already know he's coming to live with us but this is his first appearance on 'social media' - grin.

This means that life will be rather different for us no doubt and, to be honest, it will do me the world of good to not be ensconced at the desk either crafting or blogging for hours at a time, as so often happens. I think it's the root cause of this shoulder problem really.

I'll carry on crafting when time (and Dudley) allow - and most certainly the Snippets Playground will continue! As I said, the main reason for no card this fortnight is purely as I'm trying to get fit for all those Dudley cuddles ...... and the other things that I know only too well come with a young puppy!! Eeeeep!

However, I recently managed to buy two more identical dies which were a very popular prize a little while ago - it's taken ages for them to be back in stock:

• 

I used it HERE on a card if you want to see it in action! It looked like this - and it's about to wing its way to Len's youngest great-nephew Joe this coming week:

It's the MFT 'Wish' die and so versatile, I'm just sorry I couldn't make another card for this post using it. And, I can't lay my hands on any more of that great 'Marble' background stamp right now either. So, it's just the die itself this time - but with two chances.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 29th September. 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(s). Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw. There are two on offer!

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you're wanting 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 playing only for fun - otherwise I ignore you on my little list.

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 :)

Love from Parsnip (currently muttering to himself and building barricades against puppy intrusion!) and of course from me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge # 333 - results

It's beginning to look as if Autumn is just around the corner here. The temperatures are still up and down like a yo-yo but at times there's a little Autumn freshness in the air. It's my favourite season and brings back many happy childhood memories of the delights of hunting for conkers, shuffling through crisp piles of fallen leaves - and the promise of evenings in front of a warm fire (when we weren't living in hot countries).

Once again, no Guest Designer and no trip down Memory Lane with one of my old cards. I've overdone things a bit here catching up with household stuff and now have a right shoulder that sounds like a packet of broken biscuits with lots of crunching, and it hurts too! So let's just get straight on with the picks for this fortnight as am sure some of it also stems from using the keyboard and mouse a bit too much.

Let's get straight on with the fortnightly 'picks':

This lovely card was made by Becca and is such a brilliant idea! A real snippets buster with a rainbow of the words 'happy' and then the single Birthday at the bottom right - great idea!

I've chosen to show you the inside of this terrific underwater 'tunnel' card, made by Heather. You can see the outside over on her blog post HERE - and no doubt one 6 year old little lady will be absolutely thrilled when she opens her card - love it!

I really love this card, made by Bonnie for a recent Less is More Challenge. It's really pretty and of course uses snippets beautifully. But it's the tip that really stopped me in my tracks - to line up the small squares perfectly, Bonnie popped them onto one large square of white card before adding them to the card front.  What a great idea!

And we had two new Playmates joining us this time:

Donna Flowers

Donna Barrow

Welcome to the Snippets Playground ladies (both named Donna as well)   - hope to see you again soon!

So that was two new Playmates this time round - and we had a total of 53 entries - same as last time.

Now it's prize draw time, and our winner of the MFT 'Birthday Candles' and 'Party' dies is:

Valerija

Oh how lovely! Yet again it's someone who plays regularly and also is due for a win  Many congratulations Valerija - I'm sure you will have lots of fun using your prize, especially as I've seen that you do make quite a lot of cards for young children.

Do please send me your address, with full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. I don't keep addresses of previous winners, even if they might be in my private address list - if that makes sense! It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course, not that I doubt it really! I'll post your prize once I hear from you. 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 #334 - just check back a bit and you'll easily find it. The prize is a Lawn Fawn 'Upon a Star' set of stamps - totally adorable as well!

I'll be hopping around commenting in little bursts in an effort to let this shoulder settle down.

Hope you all have a lovely week ahead, and little Parsnip sends his love too!

Birthday card for Kai

Kai is our much loved honorary daughter - and also the Mum of Mia and Livi (Len's granddaughters). She recently had a Birthday and Len suggested I ought to have an owl on the card I was planning to make for her. Huh, she adores owls and of course I'd taken my best owl stamps to give to her when we had the card making spree in Germany fairly recently.

Then, I remembered the brilliant Stampin' Up 'Owl' punch! Good ole SU to the rescue :)

The card I made is very much based on an old one I found on Pinterest - needless to say I can't find the link again. Anyhow, hats off to whoever designed this card originally, it's such a simple design but I do think it's very effective - this is my version:

I used:

- 5" x 5" off-white card  blank, side opening

- snippet of blue card which was die cut using one of The Works 'Stitched Squares' dies

- snippet of green card, die cut using a very old die by Marianne Creatables 'LR0120' (one of those with the release foam) in dating back to when I very first got a Cuttlebug) - and put to one side

- snippets of brown, beige, cream and black card to punch out the various elements of the owl so I could look at him and decide on the size of the moon to position the sentiment (as you do) - then popped into a deep plastic lid to keep them safe whilst I made up the owl, using a glue pen

- the moon came next and I used a square of cream card in the Misti to stamp the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and a stamp from the LOTV 'General Greetings - Small' set of stamps (still an old favourite!). Often it's easier to stamp a sentiment and then die cut afterwards rather than the other way round - err, and I really meant to use a dark brown for the sentiment but hey-ho - my hands were ahead of the brain!

- used a die from the Tonic Studios 'Circle Layering' set to die cut the moon

- so now all the elements were done and first of all I glued the blue background to the card front, using Collall All Purpose Glue

- then laid it all out and glued the leafy branch in place using a fine glue pen (I'd already trimmed quite a few curls and whirls from the branch before I was happy)

- next came the moon, making sure the sentiment was as level as possible - glued in place using Collall All Purpose Glue again

-then it was the turn of Kai's favourite - the owl. I added it to the branch using thin sticky pads just to add a bit of dimension

- Len peeked in the craft room just as I finished and said it was lovely (his idea of course) and suggested maybe I ought to add a heart! So funny, the punch has a little heart as one of the elements so I punched one from a tiny snippet of red card and added it with a glue pen - and it made a real difference having the little pop of red

Got top marks from Mister Len - whoop, whoop! Or should that really be hoot, hoot?! And Kai loved it too :)

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #334

Well, it's September already and the kiddies are about to return to school here in our neck of the woods. Ha, next thing the shops will be stocking Halloween goodies, followed rapidly by Christmas stuff!

Here's my snippets card for this week - made in a bit of a rush during the week when something suddenly cropped up to sort of wipe out any spare time on Saturday (yesterday) which would leave little or no time for this post let alone the card I hadn't yet made! Anyhow, here goes with the card:

I used:

- 6" x 4" (A6 in the UK) white card blank, side opening

- snippets of white, green, Neenah 'Desert Storm' and slightly shimmery dark blue card which I fiddled about with trying to work out the right proportions for the card but then decided I needed the images to get it 'right' in my head

- stamped the little fox and rabbit onto white card using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and stamps from the adorable Lawn Fawn 'Upon a Star' set of stamps and then coloured them in using Pro markers (love these little critters, so fast and easy to colour!)

- fussy cut around the fox and rabbit - what I love about this set is that it has nice thick lines so fussy cutting is more forgiving right up to the lines. Then, for an extra finish I ran a black Whispers pen around the edges

- now I could work out the proportions more easily so I cut the blue, green and white panels to fit onto the backing of Neenah 'Desert Storm card - one above the other with an overlap and put them to one side, after running a dark blue Whispers pen around the four sides of the blue card to hide the white core

- next stamped the sentiment onto the white panel using the Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad again and a couple of stars at the same time - all from the same 'Upon a Star' set of stamps

- then stamped the sky with constellations, the shooting star and single stars, using a Delicata 'Silvery Shimmer' ink pad and more stamps from the 'Upon a Star' set onto the blue card and allowed it time to thoroughly dry as it's a very juicy pad and also the card isn't absorbent

- time to assemble the card by gluing the 'night sky' panel to the 'Desert Storm' layer first of all

- then just used scissors to cut a bit of a wavy edge along the top of the green layer and glued that in place, followed by the white sentiment layer

- filled in the two stars on the sentiment panel using a silver Signo pen  

- time to add those little critters, which I popped in place with thin sticky pads - and called it a wrap!

Needless to say, I used the Misti throughout all the stamping, although I added the single stars to the night sky using a tiny single star from the stamp set and a clear acrylic stamp 'peg' (bit like a 3" or so long solid cylinder which you pop the little stamp onto one end of and then can see though the top of the cylinder for reasonable alignment)

Another time - given more time - I think I'd try heat embossing the night sky - but it works OK as it is. Interestingly, some Lawn Fawn samples I've seen on line also used slightly shimmery dark blue for the sky, and their straightforward stamping with silver ink was no better than mine - perhaps I'm just too hard on myself, sigh. This is such a sweet set of stamps by Lawn Fawn, I hankered after it for ages and eventually bought it the other week when I met up with Mrs A at the Copics Class. The mix of sentiments is just lovely - and there's even a heart shaped constellation if you want to go really romantic!

There IS a set of matching dies but I didn't bother with them as I don't think they're at all necessary. The little critters (you get the size I used and then a smaller fox and a smaller rabbit) are so very easy to fussy cut - whether you leave a white border or cut right up against the outline as I did. And, I just didn't see the point of die cutting the constellations - that would have meant extra outlines around them which I feel would detract from the overall effect, even if they were stamped in silver ink onto scraps of the same blue card.

And of course, here's this week's Snippets Playground prize:

It's your own Lawn Fawn 'Upon a Star' set of stamps. I try to mix stamps and dies around from one challenge to another as I know some of you prefer one or the other - although many like me are happy with either I guess!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 15th September. 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 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 - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I ignore you on my little list.

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 :)

Thank goodness we both seem to have shaken off the Summer colds etc. at last - and about time too I say.

Love from Parsnip and of course from me,

Rudolph Days - August 2018

Crumbs, Rudolph Day came around quick, after the previous one being at the beginning of August! Quick, hop over to ScrappyMo's HERE if you want to join in!

My mojo is still off on his Summer holidays and I was stumped for ideas. It's not for the want of Christmas card making stuff to use - just a totally blank mind!

The Playground toy box is quite healthy ready for the annual Christmas/New Year prize draw but I want to try and avoid making (or at least publishing) any snippets cards using my own duplicates as that's all part of the fun - I hope! I have a feeling I will be making some Christmas cards and perhaps publishing them ahead of time but not saying if the items I've used are going to be on offer until we hit Christmas and New Year time in the Playground - me bad!

In the end I rootled through my box of shop bought Christmas cards we've been sent in recent years - saved with up cycling in mind. And I came across a card with three sweet little painted robins wearing hats and a scarf on (bless them) - and I ended up CASE-ing one of my own cards of September 2016 so there's more than a touch of déjà vu here!

I was only saying in an email to a blogging friend at the weekend how I never seem to use a lot of stuff more than once - and then I go and almost replicate a previous card, how weird is that then? In fairness, I made three cards last time as I chopped up a card with nine little robins on - just made the one card this time though:

I used:

- 4" x 5.75" off white card blank, tent style. Pure and really crisp white wouldn't have looked right against the snowy backgrounds and luckily I had some card blank with the slightest tinge of 'creaminess' - which of course the camera has bleached anyhow!

- one triple window die from the Just Rite Frame Set 'Three in a Row' to die cut the apertures in the card front

- using the Misti I aligned a stamp from the triple stamp Inkylicious 'Seasons Greetings' sentiments set and inked it up using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and stamped it in place

- then cut one spare aperture from a snippet of card and trimmed it to about an eighth of an inch bigger than the aperture on the card front on all sides to use as a template as the three little robins were all perched along a branch on the original card and also very close together

- used the template to draw a pencil frame around each robin and then just snipped them out using scissors

- backed each aperture with red line tape and I added all the red line tape around the apertures for each single square before starting to add the images from behind (by eyeballing from the front of course) and then just peeled off as much backing as was needed as I went
 
- backed the inside of the card with a slightly smaller piece of the same off white shade of card stock using red line tape - finished!

Drat though, the original card was printed on high gloss paper and try as I might I just couldn't take a photo without some bounce-back of light!

It didn't take all that long to make and, with luck, I'll return to that box of cards to up cycle again - like a couple of dozen times at least as am woefully behind on my Christmas cards target!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge # 332 - results

It's cooler here right now and quite refreshing to be honest. I feel sorry for those who've been looking forward to August Bank Holiday though. Having said that, any holiday break is good!

No Guest Designer and no trip down Memory Lane with one of my old cards once again. Life seems to be so busy right now that card making and general blogging have taken a bit of a back seat. The Playground continues to be top priority of course, no matter what else might fall by the wayside in terms of crafty stuff!

So let's just get straight on with the picks for this fortnight.

First of all, we have a *Gold Star pick*:

This stunning 'exploding box' for a new baby was made by Hazel (KBrandy4). What a fabulous snippet buster, as well as being so beautifully designed and made. Just look at the little baby's shoe in the centre - squeal! I LOVE this! Please take your Gold Star Hazel (Right Hand Side Bar) as a token of being this fortnight's shining star pick- I just bet the recipients were absolutely bowled over!

I make no apologies at all for picking this marvellous card (plus matching items which you can see if you follow the link to Carol L's blog). Carol is a really regular player as well as a brilliant crafter and I fall in love with almost every single one of her makes and often feature her work as it's so inspirational - look at the patterns on the different panels for example. They say it's the little details that make a card and this is a perfect example of using snippets to achieve that.

Oh how I love this card, made by our own sweet Brenda L. Wonderful use of snippets and the colours go so well together too - I've always loved the combination of shades of blue and brown. Brenda is one very talented lady and I do urge you to hop over and check her blog out.

This is such a fabulous card, made by Vinita. So pretty with some wonderful die cutting - and look at those adorable little ladybirds! So cute. I haven't really seen any ladybirds this Summer - and not that many butterflies come to think of it.

And I just have to show another 'pick':

This adorable card was made by a young lady (aged just eight) named Remi - a lovely scene and how clever to slot the mermaid, merman and the narwhal into the scalloped cuts like that!  It's really great Remi!

And we had one new Playmate joining us as well this time:

Nandini

Welcome to the Snippets Playground Nandini - hope to see you again soon!

So that was one new Playmate this time round - and we had a total of 53 entries, we're bobbing along nicely given that you're only allowed one entry. And I know it's always 'anything goes' using one or more snippets, which also helps. That's how Jules ran the Playground and I've always been quite happy to run a relaxed challenge and will continue to do so. Obviously I look for clever ideas and ways to use snippets, and that's where the 'picks' come in.

Now it's prize draw time, and our winner of the Your Next Stamps 'Scratch Pad' set of stamps is:

Kath of 'Handmade by Kath'

 

This was a hugely popular prize  so very well done Kath! I'm sure you'll have great fun using it and hope you're doing a Happy Dance right now. Kath is one of our most regular players and looking back I don't think she's had a win for quite some time (I didn't count her sand eraser win approx. eight months ago as about 20 or so of you won those) - so this was certainly due.

AND, as an extra surprise, I managed on Friday to find one, sadly just one, extra set of the 'Scratch Pad stamps' in stock in the UK! It won't arrive here until next week, after the Bank Holiday, but I was really tickled to find it! So, let's run the random number  generator again and spread the love a little further:

Jane W

Oh how lovely! Once again it's someone who plays regularly and also is due for a win (and I see Jane said that if she didn't win then she would have to go out and buy the set anyhow). Many congratulations Jane - well deserved and I'm sure you too will have a lot of fun using this set. I hope this is the closest that cats will get to Mark's lovely veggie beds etc.!

Do please send me your addresses girls, with full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. I don't keep addresses of previous winners, even if they might be in my private address list - if that makes sense! It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course, not that I doubt it really! I'll post your prize(s) once I hear from you. 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 #333 - just check back a bit and you'll easily find it. The prize is a MFT 'Birthday Candles' set of dies and a MFT 'Party' die as well

Hope you all have a lovely week ahead, and little Parsnip sends his love too!

Thursday Tasters - Summer Herb and Ham Hock Frittatas

When I started this blog off, I often used to post new recipes I'd recently tried, or old family favourites. Not posted a recipe for ages, even though I do keep trying out new ideas when the mood is right.

On Tuesday afternoon I made these for our early evening light supper:

Summer Herb and Ham Hock Frittatas:

In truth, they're really picnic food. I made six as per the recipe in a muffin tin and they were just the right amount for the two of us with fresh on the vine tomatoes from the Isle of Wight (thanks Ocado, the best I've tasted for a long time!) and a garnish of parsley.

Ingredients:

Olive oil for greasing or muffin paper cases

4 large eggs, beaten

1 small garlic clove, grated (chopped very finely as I did or put through a garlic press would also work fine - and I used two garlic cloves BTW)

Handful of basil, finely chopped

Handful of chives, finely chopped

Handful of parsley, finely chopped

90g (or more if the packet is a bit bigger, don't worry too much about a few extra grammes) ham hock, which should have been diced/shredded before packaging

Handful of grated cheddar or parmesan (optional)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190 degree C/ 170 degrees fan/gas 5 and grease 6 holes of a muffin tin, or use paper cases

Beat the eggs in a large bowl or big measuring jug (makes it easier to pour into the muffin tin/case later on!)

Add the garlic, chopped herbs, ham hock and cheese if using (and why wouldn't you - I adore a bit of cheese!?)

Season with salt (I omitted the salt) and pepper and mix well

Divide the mixture between the muffin holes evenly

Bake for 12 minutes, until the fritatatas are set and golden

Take out of the oven and leave to cool slightly before removing them from the tin

Once cool, store in a plastic container in the fridge until you're ready to hit the road (or eat them right away as we did!)

My lessons learned are:

This is a really delicious recipe and we both loved the results, especially in terms of flavour. I took  them out of the oven when they were nicely set and fully cooked but didn't want to risk them going too brown or burning - so they did look a bit pale, very much as an omelette would I guess.

I used muffin baking cases (I have enough muffin cases to last forever!) hoping it would make life easier. Peeling the cases off when the frittatas were still warm wasn't a great move so I would suggest leaving the frittatas in cases if you want them for a picnic but bake them directly in the muffin tins without cases if to be eaten right away whilst still warm/hot.

And, if you're going to eat them right away then why even bother making muffin tin sized ones? Another time, and we did love them so it will be on my list for a repeat performance, I'd do something differently.

I'd up the number of eggs to six and then just make one delicious omelette to halve and share. Yummy!