Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 175 and 176

And it's now May in the Playground! Don't time fly when you're having fun?

Len's Uncle Charlie passed away recently and this is the card I made to send to his family:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- green backing card from the snippets folder

- Penny Black 'Poppy Poem' stamp, stamped using black Archival ink and coloured with Tim Holtz Distress inks ('festive berries', 'forest moss' and 'gathered twigs') plus the very fine end of a matching green Whispers marker. I just touched the distress markers here and there on the petals, buds and leaves then dragged the colour out using a water brush. Added a tickle of light grey Pro marker as shadow/grounding

- the sentiment was stamped using SU's 'Thinking of You' sentiment from their 'Sincere Salutations' set and black Archival ink

Although the 'Sincere Salutations' sentiments set is discontinued, and has been for some time,  SU's 'Wetlands' set (still available) has three sentiment stamps in it, which are of similar fonts (scroll and block capitals).

Given Uncle Charlie's Armed Forces background, which included years as a Prisoner of War in Poland, the poppy seemed so appropriate. He had a long (94 years), full and interesting life for sure!

Onto this week's picks now:

Kate was first into the Playground last week, and went straight onto my list of possible picks. I do whittle the list down a bit later in the week, but this gorgeous bauble card so deserves to remain a pick! I've had to sit on my hands to resist buying the stamp and co-ordinating die!

I truly think this is one of the very best male cards I've seen for a long time, brought to us by Eve (who is currently recovering from pneumonia!). The dogtooth paper is such a perfect background.

Kath almost caught me out here with this beautiful card - the background is DP, I thought Kath had stamped it until I read the list of materials properly. I wish there were more gorgeous papers like this one to be had!

Sarah (Craft Nerd) showed us a few cards in one blog post, with the most darling Easter scenes. What absolutely stunned me was the intricacy and smallness of the details she added - especially the fabulous little flowers. The flowers on this card actually have a micro bead in their centres - now that really IS working small! Do please hop over to look at the close-ups!

I just love this scene that Lynn (Linby) created! And, some of the die cutting was actually done using an old brochure - very imaginative and a great success too.

I totally adore this card, made by Carol L. Of course, it's pink for a start, uses those lovely stitched dies and the background is so beautifully water coloured. But, it's how Carol used the Memory Box 'Prim Poppy' die that really makes this card stand out for me - firstly using striped paper but also splitting up two die cuts and arranging them so well.

So those are my picks, I hope you like them and that they give you some inspiration. I do try to give everyone a little turn to be a weekly pick, but sometimes there are perhaps more appearances by some playmates - and that's because it would be a shame to leave them out :)

And, we have three new playmates this week:

Firstly, Joan W hopped in with this lovely Christmas card - using one of my all time favourite images. So pretty!

And then Joanne arrived, immediately after, waving this gorgeous sunshine card - I love the design and such a great sentiment too!

And, much later in the week, Kikka Cards brought this adorable trio to share - so cute!

Welcome to you all, and I hope you come back to play with us again!

Straight onto the draw for last week's prize of the Cuttlebug 'Pinking Stitch' embossing folder and the Joanna Sheen Signature 'Daffodils' die. Gosh this was a popular prize, one of you really wanted just the embossing folder and 27 of you would have loved both parts of the prize. And, drum roll, the winner is:

Carol L

Well done Carol, it's quite ironic really as you use your dies and embossing folders so beautifully, plus once again (purely coincidence) a pick of the week got chosen by Mr Random too! I do have an address for you from a previous win, but can you please confirm that it's right? (di_wray@hotmail.com)
 
So here's this coming week's prize, which isn't connected to my snippets card for once. There are two chances to win a Sheena Douglass 'Simply Sweet' stamp set. Those of you who are familiar with Sheena's 'Paint Fusion' technique will know that the general idea is that you stamp the 'bones' of an image and then add the extra detail using brushwork techniques. The sets come with stamps, full instructions and a laminated practice sheet. A chance to get arty without having to start right from scratch :)

This time, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 16th May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

I'm sorry to mess folk about but we need to be away for Uncle Charlie's funeral for a couple of days at the end of this coming week as it's at the other end of the UK to where we live. That means I won't have time to do the write-up on Saturday as I usually do, and will have comment catching up to do as well. So it seems best to let this current challenge run over two weeks instead of just the one.

I'm leaving Parsnip in charge and he has my mobile number on speed dial! And Sarn will have her prefect's hat on - I hope :)

Maximum of three entries (over the two week period) and please say 'Yes please' (or similar) in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. As I already pointed out, there are two of these Sheena Douglass stamp sets to be won (both the same) so there will be two winners.

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 :)


Di, and of course, Parsnip!
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