Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 153

Oh how very, very fortunate - my snippets card this week fits right in with the current Merry Monday challenge which is 'Red, green and white':

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- a snippet of white card, embossed with the Tim Holtz 'Texture Fades - Bricked' embossing folder

- another white snippet to die cut the door using the Spellbinders 'Edwardian Door' die, backed with acetate to look like glazing and then a little snippet of red, green and white striped paper behind that

- snippets of green and red card to die cut a Spellbinders 'Holly Wreath', which I then cut down to make a swag for the door and finished off with little red pearly gems for the berries

- last of all, a Josy Rose nail head for the door handle

I didn't add anything in the way of a sentiment and even resisted adding the number 25 above or to one side of the door - I think the card is pretty self-explanatory :)

Oh boy though, I did have huge problems taking a photo of this card - think I trotted round every available place in the house!  What's above is the best I could manage.

OK, straight onto this week's picks - and I find each week gets tougher to choose:

Sam cracked me up with a couple of similar cards - featuring a bicycle-riding cow with chooks as passengers. The mind boggles - great cards, such fun and loads of snippets used too! In c fact, later on in the week Sam reappeared with some gorgeous Christmas cards featuring a really beautiful deer stamp - so do check those out as well!

This Christmas tree card, made by Glennis, really leapt out at me. What a wonderful way to use snippets - absolutely fabulous!

And on the subject of using up little snippets, Irene is a true master (or should that be mistress?) at making 'inchies' cards - really inspirational inchies cards to be seen over on Irene's blog. Plus some stunning scenic photographs as well! In fact, I just edited this as Irene has only yesterday set up another blog, purely for her photos - which you can visit HERE. I can get a dose of my beloved North East England whenever I want now :)

I know, that's actually four, because at almost the last minute Jean added a card plus two ATCs which I absolutely had to include in this week's picks. Yes, they use snippets really well - but it's the colouring that totally has to be seen in closeup for yourselves over at Jean's blog.

So, now onto the prize draw for the two stamps on offer last week - and the winner is:

Sam

Oh well done Sam! It's 34 weeks since your name was last chosen by Mr Random so this one is well  due! I have your address and will post the stamps off to you just as soon as possible this coming week. Is that a Happy Dance I can see coming from Wales?

This coming week's prize is probably kinda obvious as well:

Yup, it's some of the tools to make your own Edwardian door - both of the Spellbinders dies in fact. The door die is from me (the door will actually open which is so neat) and the holly wreath die was very kindly donated by Mo - mwah, thank you Mo!

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 6th December and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say 'Yes please' (or similar) in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. As always, if you're only interested in one or other of the items making up the prize, just say so and if you win then I'll do a further draw for whatever it is you don't want. But, please do go for both if that's what you'd like of course.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

We'll really be into December by then and, although it would be lovely if you can still come and play, I do understand that real life might well get in the way - it might be exactly the same here!

Baby Spike the hedgie is still visiting some nights (caught on CCTV) but not eating from the food dish - he/she is very small and we can't judge 'visiting times' to scoop the little critter up and take it to the local rescue centre so we're just having to stand by a bit helplessly right now.

Di (and the usual happy wave from Parsnip of course)
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Craftwork Cards Notebook

A while ago I bought a big set of papers and toppers by Craftwork Cards, called the 'Kitsch Collection'. Have used some for cards but then my eye fell on them plus one of the notebooks I recently bought to decorate - and this was the result:

I used:

- A6 sized, lined, paper mache note book - details of supplier are below

- papers from Craftwork Cards ''Kitsch Collection'

- owl topper from the same collection - and a patchwork flower one on the back cover

- Papermania dome stickers for the word 'Notes' and also the name of the recipient (the Mama of our two little grand daughters)

- snippets of pink spotty ribbon just knotted around the spirals

The notebooks came from eBay HERE.

A little birdie did kindly tell me somewhere else you can buy them, but I haven't had a chance to check that out as yet.

Wednesday was a lovely day out, we trolled up to London for a retirement 'do'. It was fabulous catching up with so many friends/ex-colleagues - but, despite coughing up to travel First Class, it was soooooo good to think we don't have to do that round trip every day any longer :)

Di
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Less Is More - Jingle all the way

The current challenge over at Less Is More is 'Jingle all the way' - but you don't have to use bells, it can be anything Christmassy. So I opted for a contemporary Christmas tree:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- a NBUS (slap my wrists!) stamp by Rubber Stampede called 'Skinny Tree', stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and coloured with Whispers pens. Then added touches of clear Wink of Stella to the star, baubles and flower pot - just a shame it doesn't show up in the photo :(

- and the sentiment is a favourite stamp of mine, called 'Merry Christmas' from Woodware's Francois  Collection. Stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and then a little bit of tickling with a black Whispers pen to link the sentiment to the ribbon swirl. Why? Just because, that's why!

I managed to catch up with Playground commenting yesterday afternoon, yay! Today we're off to London for the day so mind you all behave in the Playground - pretty please, and Parsnip is on lookout duty.

Di
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Rudolph Day - November 2014

Today is Sarn's final Rudolph Day Challenge, where we have to make not just one but two cards:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blanks

- backing paper from Wild Rose Studio's 'Annabelle's Christmas' paper pack

- white sparkly ribbon from my ribbon box

- printed panels to match the paper backing, just die cut with a Spellbinders die

- sentiments by Craftwork Cards

Quick and easy cards today - thank goodness for papers with matching toppers :)

I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to Sarn for all her hard work! It's been such fun playing along, as well as getting a head start on Christmas cards. The very first time I played along with Rudolph Day was back in July 2011- that shook me I must admit!

I expect most of you will also know that the lovely Scrappy Mo is taking the Rudolph Challenge over from Sarn, so it will continue after Christmas - yay!

I'd also like to add these cards into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge, where the current theme is 'Getting Ready For Christmas' (posting cards and dressing the tree is a most important/essential part of pre-Christmas activities) - as well as Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra, where it's always 'Anything Goes'.

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 152

Oooer, I'm gonna be SUCH a cheat this week! Due to being busy all week and then missing in action on Friday (a girlie day out) I just haven't had any time to make a snippets card. So, I'm going to show couple of cards I've previously shown instead:

 

Quite a few snippets went into this card, made a couple of years ago for the little grand daughters in Germany and first shown here.

And this little fella was first shown here - the red frame was a snippet I'm sure. What I can't understand is that I only seem to have ever used the adorable Penny Black hedgie stamp once (albeit duplicated to make a further three at the same time). Bad girl :(

Apologies as I suspect some of you have seen these before but it's all leading to this coming week's prize of course :)

Straight onto this week's pick first - and crumbs, we had 83 entries altogether! The Spellbinders die certainly had a few of you making the maximum of three cards/entries as well. And the little show of hands saying 'Yes please' was 33!

It was more difficult than ever to just pick three OK, I picked four, makes, but I daren't start adding more and more to the picks - time is so much at a premium right now. So here are some entries from my long list of picks:

Brenda B came up with a lovely new term - 'punchlings'. And such a great way to use up snippets to make these lovely 3-D baubles don't you think? Added bonus - they fold flat for posting too!

I just had to show you this really clever idea for using up vinyl snippets, brought to us by Brenda L to dress up soap dispenser bottles. Brenda used her Cricut but of course you could use punches and/or dies just as easily.

And this is another fabulous idea, made by Sandra - great storage for pens and pencils! I did giggle a bit as the round pots are empty gravy granule pots - and I had visions of huge vats of gravy being consumed in order to save the empty pots :)

And while we're going for dimensional snippets makes - how about Snowman Soup, as made by Eve? What a fun gift :)

And we have one new playmate this week, called Karen Ladd. Karen posts her cards on Flickr and I had to sign up to a Yahoo account to be able to comment, and also I can't work out how to showcase Karen's cards (she entered three times already this week) - but you can see them in last week's thumbnails at numbers 44, 45 and 59.

Onto the bit you've been waiting for - the draw for last week's prize of the Spellbinders 'Picture Perfect' die set plus the pack of five sheets of Stick-It self adhesive sheets. And now for a little drum roll - our winner is:

Brenda L

Brenda first came to play with us in September 2013 (hah, back in August this year I mistakenly thought it was her first time to play with us - and she was way too sweet to correct me!). Anyhow, after playing for well over a year, this is Brenda's first prize win and I'm sure you'll all be delighted for her! All the more so as her beloved husband has been facing some rotten times healthwise, and of course Brenda is walking beside him hand in hand on that journey. So, can you please drop me an email Brenda with your address and I'll get to the Post Office as soon as my little legs will carry me!

And how I wished I had a whole box full of those dies to give away girls. 

And onto this coming week's prize, it's stamps exactly the same as the ones I'd used on my cards at the top of this post. Belles and Whistles 'Star of Bethlehem' and Penny Black's 'Little Angel' stamp.

 

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 29th November and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say 'Yes please' (or similar) in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. As always, if you're only interested in one or other of the items making up the prize, just say so and if you win then I'll do a further draw for whatever it is you don't want. But, do go for both if that's what you'd like of course.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

We seem to be hurtling towards Christmas at a frightening rate now - and Winter has come with a vengeance for some of you.

Spike has gone into hibernation, just about 10 days ago now. BUT, the CCTV has picked up a very small hedgehog tootling round the garden during the night all on its lonesome and it's ignoring the food as well. It's certainly is far too small to survive hibernation as I'm sure it'll be under the minimum weight of 600 grammes. Sadly, unless the little critter comes out during daylight there's not a lot we can do to help. Watch this space!

Di (and the usual happy wave from Parsnip of course)
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Merry Monday - Christmas Bells

The current challenge over at Merry Monday is 'Christmas Bells', I don't have a load of bells in either stamp or die form - apart from one particular die that I love, and this was the result:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank, tent style

- snippets of green, gold mirri and red satin mirri card

- the holly die is a very recent gift from a lovely bloggy friend, made by Die-namites and called 'Elegant Holly'. I love the swirls on this die - great for suspending things from. Just added a few Josy Rose nail heads for the holly berries

- the bells were die cut using a Memory Box die called 'Bells Are Ringing' and snippets of gold and satin red mirri card

- all the die cuts were backed with Stick-It double sided adhesive before being cut

- the sentiment is a peel off

- three little peel off stars from the sentiment sheet to finish off

The light was dreadful when I took this photo, so I had to turn the card at a slight angle to pick up a little bit of sunshine and to prove that all the gold really does shine :)

Di
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Less is More - More Than One Tree

The current challenge over at Less is More is 'More Than One Tree', and over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge it's 'Go Green'- either colours or upcycling (I went for colours). And this card is also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for November, which is always 'Anything Goes':

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- Memory Box die called 'Pine Border Outline, and snippets of gold mirri card (already backed with Stick-It self adhesive sheet) run through the Cuttlebug

- the same die once again and three different snippets of green card, also already backed with Stick-It self adhesive sheet then run through the Cuttlebug

- the next part was really like doing a jigsaw, just mixing the greens and popping them into the spaces in the gold die cut which was adhered to the card first of course, some of those tiny pieces were mighty fiddly! Of course, as there are three greens I managed to make three cards in total just by swopping the different shades around

- then I fell back on something I very rarely use - peel offs - for the sentiment and also the gold outline star

- after all these years since I began using peel offs, it wasn't until yesterday I worked out such an easy way to handle them. Normally I'd just peel them of the backing sheet and an intricate sentiment would often end up a bit distorted, no matter how long I allowed it to 'relax back into shape'. But this time I gently eased the bottom of the sentiment from the backing sheet by sort of rolling it away whilst supporting it along the length of a long pokey tool before just easing the whole sentiment away - works a treat! A fine knitting needle would be an alternative to use

When setting up to make these cards I got carried away and now have, sat sitting on my desk, the makings of a further three cards. It depends just how much self-punishment I feel up to though!

Di
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By request - after a tortuous journey

A few of you wanted to see what the full end result was of the six weeks of tortuous en-suite shower room refitting. What was supposed to be a two week re-fit ran into a full six weeks - a lovely result but what a looooong haul to get there. I did a full test run yesterday morning and all seems to be well - brilliant in fact. And no damp patches on the ceiling below either (one of my biggest fears) - thank goodness!

This was at the end of day one as they started work - just a partial view of our bedroom, full of stuff ready for the job. It would appear that the bathroom company lack their own storage space don't you think?

And six weeks later - tah, dah! At last :) The shower all ready to rock and roll.

And the view from the shower.

Tons of wall and floor cupboards for storage (10 cupboards in total) - yay, no more sprays and bottles of cleaning stuff cluttering the place up. Even the narrow cupboard to the side of the toilet will house the loo brush and bottle of cleaner nicely. And there's plenty of room inside the top cupboards for all the toiletries anyone could wish for.

As the window is on the side of the house and not overlooked I think the only window dressing will be something like a white orchid plant - artificial, given my lack of green fingers!

Dual fuel (central heating/electric) towel rail so no damp towels in the Summer. Am such a wimp!

Taken from our bedroom, with the flash accidentally turned on - but at least it hides yours truly holding the camera! The mosaic border tiles fascinate me, some are stone, some are Mother of Pearl and some are light brown glass - a really lovely combination. But, as I've been saying - what a ride it's been!

Now there's the bedroom to tackle of course. The wallpaper border is finally all off so that's a good start!

Hope I didn't bore you - after a grim few weeks there's a little dog wagging two tails here (that would be me of course!). And Len is delighted to have the main bathroom all to himself again I'm sure :) Thankfully that was all refitted when we doubled the size of it during the extension build about five years ago - no way could either of us face this lot again - for a while at least! Never say never of course.

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 151

It was touch and go whether there would be a snippets card from me this week - although the Playground would still have gone ahead as usual. However, by Friday morning I'd caught up with snippets commenting and managed to make this card whilst waiting for the bathroom fitters to arrive:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- a snippet of matt silver card, embossed using the lovely Darice folder called 'Snowflake Background' then cut slightly smaller than the card front

- next came the fun bit - using a Spellbinders Holiday die set called 'Picture Perfect'. The set comes with four dies - a large plain frame, the large tree and outline village 'scene', as well as two small dies with a little house, trees and a tiny light bulb (as you would find on Christmas tree lights)

- I used just the two large dies, firstly by die cutting the solid blue background using the frame die from a snippet of pale blue pearlescent card stock - and that snippet only just fitted in the die

- then I had to plan/think the next step right through before die cutting the 'scene' and frame. Took one square snippet of white Centura pearlescent card stock just a bit bigger than the plain frame die and covered the reverse with Stick-It adhesive sheet because the scene die is so intricate. Then flipped the white Centura card over and first popped a piece of wax paper over the card with the more waxy side facing uppermost. Next popped the frame die onto the wax paper covered card face down of course and just sat the 'scene' die inside - secured them in place with removable adhesive tape and then ran everything, all layered together, through the Cuttlebug

- success - the die cut popped out of the die easily and it was just a matter of making sure all the windows in the houses etc. were clear before peeling off the backing from the Stick-It adhesive backing and then lining up and carefully adhering the white scene complete with its integral frame to the already cut blue background

- after assembling the silver embossed snowflake background and the scene onto the card out came the 'bow maker' and two snippets of white ribbon (white with sparkly edged satin and plain white organza) to tie a double layered bow. Pushed a sparkly blue gem brad through the centre of the bow then just glued the bow onto the card using glue gun

To be honest, I really cribbed this design and colours from the illustration on the Spellbinders packaging as that's what totally sold the die to me in the first place :)

Onto this week's picks:

I picked this card, made by Neets, as it's a perfect example of how you only need three small snippets to make a really stunning card.Of course having an eye for design is imperative as well :)

On the other hand, Kath used quite a few snippets brilliantly here, in various sizes when she made this great card for a young 'chap' :) Love it Kath - inspiration for those of us who struggle with cards for boys!

This week I'd earmarked two possible picks from one of our playmates and this was my final choice - a darling and so cosy Christmas card - made by Sue J.

And, this week I upped the number of picks to four as this Christmas card, made by Lucy, struck me as absolutely perfect and I couldn't leave any of the other three out either :)

We  had no new playmates this week - but some of you played along for the first time in a while, which is lovely to see. Our lovely Jules is 'missing in action' but I checked and she's absolutely fine, just very, very busy.

The winner of last week's prize of the Kanban 'Let's Do Lunch' stamp set is:

Pat

Well done Pat! I just checked and it's 22 weeks since you last won so it was time your lucky number came up :) I still have your address and will pop your prize in the post ASAP. Let's hope it doesn't take as long to arrive as the last one did - I think that package walked to you!

Some of you might wonder why I run Mr Random using the full number of entries (52) rather than (say) the seven of you who said 'Yes please' this week. Easy really - some of you playing for the prize might have entered more than once and it's the fairest way I can think to give you that extra chance.

And I bet you girls already guessed what this coming week's prize is? Tee, hee:

Yup, it's a Spellbinders Holiday 'Picture Perfect' die set, exactly like the one I used today. And, as the 'scene' die is very intricate, I'll also include an A4 sized pack of 5 adhesive sheets of Stick-It for you to play with. Looking at the die it's reminiscent of some of the Memory Box village dies but I do like the fact that it already comes with the swirly tree and the frame.

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 22nd November and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say 'Yes please' (or similar) in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. As always, if you're only interested in one or other of the items making up the prize, just say so and if you win then I'll do a further draw for whatever it is you don't want. But, do go for both if that's what you'd like of course.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Over the coming weeks we're probably going to have a few Christmas themed prizes - I have some lovely goodies lined up! Of course your snippets makes don't have to be Christmas themed though!

Let's just whisper this - when I get up this morning it'll be a test drive of the refitted shower room. If you see spouts of water and hear anguished screams from Hampshire then you'll know there's more snagging work to be done! Fingers crossed but am not holding my breath :)

Just a little peek :)

    
Di (and the usual happy wave from Parsnip of course)
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Stickeroos and gift tags

I recently succumbed and bought Stampin' Up's Scalloped Gift Tag punch.

The other day, with only an hour spare to play, I was flicking through my Penny Black Christmas Stickeroos and realised I had loads of half used sheets. Some with small images and others with larger images that were unlikely to ever be used. Bingo - an idea!

I used:

- white card strips, 2" wide x 4" long

- with some of the strips I punched the tag shape first and then added some small stickers - there's one tag like that in each of the above photos - and then rounded off the bottom corners

- and the other strips I just covered the whole front with all or part of a Stickeroo and trimmed away any excess with a sharp pair of scissors (do this from the back, and preferably with non-stick scissors), before punching the tag shapes and rounding the bottom corners

- last thing, just some matching metallic cord threaded thorough the top of the tags

And as a result, a total of 20 Christmas tags, made in under an hour :)

Even if you don't have a tag shaped punch, these could have been made with just the top corners cut across and then a hole pinched for the cord, or ribbon of course. In fact, some of these might find their way onto cards - in which case I'd probably change the cord for some pretty ribbon.

Di
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Me vewy bad girl

HUGE apologies playmates - I've slipped behind with my snippets commenting again. In between struggling on sanding down walls and still feeling under the weather after the flu shot (Len too, which is reassuring) - time is just slipping as the day goes by, probably as everything seems to take twice as long as it normally would do :(

Maybe we need a good dose of this:

Or possibly this sort of tonic might be better:

 

'Ere though, that's a teeny bottle of gin for sure :)

I'll catch up ASAP!

Di
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A first notebook

I spotted some really lovely spiral bound notebooks that Rusty had recently decorated, over on her blog. If you scroll down her blog (or search on 'notepad') there of lots of little beauties, many of them personalised and such fun too. This was my first play:

I used:

- A6 sized, lined, paper mache note book - details of supplier are below

- papers from Papermania's 'Elegance' paper pack

- various stickers plus an edging strip from Papermania's 'Elegance' Designer Stickers pack (am sure Sam gave me this very slightly used pack at the WOYWW crop back in the Summer - mwah!)

- snippets of narrow black and gold lurex ribbon just knotted around the spirals

The notebooks came from eBay HERE. Really fast service, and at a cost of just less than £2 each (which included postage within the UK), really good value for a sturdy little item. They also have more sizes, as well as the book edge bound style. Nice little stocking fillers :)

Oh go on - someone tell me where you can buy them cheaper then :( If you need me I'll be sanding down some walls - just shout!

Di
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The 'Frozen' craze - part 2

Recently I posted a card on here that I made for one of the little grand daughters in Germany. She was absolutely thrilled with 'Frozen' Elsa!

So, I sort of followed 'Frozen' again when Livi, Mia's younger sister's Birthday came round, and wondered maybe I ought to use an image of Anna?!

Then I thought that Olaf would appeal more. Thus, Olaf took centre stage for Livi's Birthday card:

I used:

- 8" x 8" square white card blank

- snow scene backing card is by Kanban called 'Artscapes - Winter Dale'

- Olaf was such fun to make, he comes as a printout you can download from here - you do have to snip all the pieces out then you can assemble him however you wish :) I printed him onto glossy photo paper

- at that point I fished out some acetate, which has a falling snow pattern all over it, and adhered it to the backing card using double sided adhesive sheet - that added a protective layer over Olaf in case of little fingers peeling him apart :)

- next I tied white organza ribbon round one edge and stuck the image panel to the card blank

- the bow was just a snippet of white spotted organza ribbon with a snowflake charm added using some green shiny cord

- the number 5 was (again) from Sarn, stuck onto a circle of snow blue card punched from the leftover backing card

- Livi's name was spelt out using Craftwork Cards letters, which had been stuck onto 1" squares of sky blue card - punched from more of the leftover backing card

- the sentiment is LOTV from their 'General Greetings - small' set, stamped using SU's 'Marina Mist' ink pad then die cut using a 'Speech Bubble' die made by XCut

- and lastly, two fir trees - die cut using Marianne's LR0136 die then embossed using Cuttlebug's 'Snowflakes' folder before being brushed with Wink of Stella (which doesn't show in the photo of course :) In fact, the overall shine of the acetate doesn't show either - which could be a good thing 'cos then maybe you wouldn't see the image on here :)

Edit - if you follow the link for Olaf, do scroll down to find the image itself. Other tabs may have opened so make sure you're on the actual Olaf image one.

Di
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