Pixie's Snippets Playground - Weeks 178 and 179

I did mention last week that I'm away for five days over next weekend, at a school reunion to be exact. There's usually about 200 or so of us there, although of course we have our own special smaller groups of friends within that number. There will be a lot of chatter, making merry, dancing, eating, quaffing a little wine - and not a lot of sleep or spare time to blog. So, once again this is a two week run for the Playground - but watch out next Sunday (31st May) for a scheduled update with a little extra prize of course.

My snippets card for this week really stretched the word 'snippet' and only the black 'frame' is a snippet. The little scene started off at about A5 size but I kept trimming the thing down once it was finished and it ended up at 3" square :) Tee, hee.

I used:

- 4" x 4" square white card blank

- a snippet of black card for the 'frame'

- the scene was created using first of all Adirondack inks and 'Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tools'. The moon was masked with a circle punched using a SU punch and a Post-it note during the process of blending the sunset

- the hills were blended using Adirondack inks again along with a plastic Inkylicious 'Mountain Valley' stencil, which is just under 12" long. I usually just tear my own from paper but find this really good - and easy to clean

- the fairy is Lavinia's 'Flower Fairy', stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- then I just added some toadstools and little edges of foliage using a mix of small stamps that were to hand/within quick reach

I didn't add any sparkle or Wink of Stella, quite like the simplicity of the matt stamping against the matt background. And I know fine well that other playmates do these backgrounds sooooooo much better, but it was fun anyhow :)

Right, straight onto the weekly picks, or my weekly headache! I love every single entry and would love to pick you all each week - but I guess that then defeats the object - plus you can always browse through last week's thumbnails of course.

I picked this card, made by Nessa, as I think it's absolutely perfect! A fabulous design, wonderful colours, great use of snippets and beautifully made. Just stunning.

And here's another card which totally blew me away - made by Greta - and just so soft, pretty and well designed.

This card went straight onto my 'picks of the week' list, and I just hopped back to pick up the image and link over at Loll's. Did giggle when I spotted a comment left by Darnell that the girls in the Playground would swoon - we did, we did! How clever of Loll to shape and layer up the hibiscus for beautiful dimension!

I just love the CAS look of this beautiful card as well, made by Lindsey! So fresh and a perfect way to use up little snippets too.

This beautiful card was made by Mo - I just love all the detail and how well all the elements interact. Right down to the scrap of cheesecloth, which caused Mo grief along the way but behaved in the end! :)

And we have four new playmates this week too:

I've searched back through the Playground and think this could be the first time Little Mr P has entered/come to play with us. Lovely card - the frog is such a cutie- and for the funny tale about his entrepreneurial skills do hop over to Mo's (she's his proud Grandma) for a giggle :)

Hazel of My Card Attic brought two cards to show, having been encouraged by our lovely playmate Mary H. One is above and for the other one do please hop over to Hazel's for a peek. Absolutely beautiful! 

Monika brought this card all the way from Germany - love the image and I just bet that Kathy K will adore the purples :)  Monika posed the question, do I post prizes abroad. I most certainly do - if it's a prize then it has to be ready to travel wherever it has to :)

And finally Annie hopped in with this absolutely gorgeous card. I just spent time earlier browsing back through Annie's blog admiring her beautiful colouring and the cards she makes. A very talented lady!

So a huge welcome to our new playmates, it would be lovely if you remember to come back and play whenever you use a snippet :)

Straight onto the prize draw from last week now, the Spellbinders die cutting set called 'A-2 Fancy Ribbon Threader'. And our winner is:

Jenny L

Congratulations Jenny! I've checked back and it's a good few months since you last were picked by Mr Random - but I do still have your address and will post your prize off to you this coming week!

And that brings us to the main prize this fortnight:

It's a Lavinia 'Flower Fairy' stamp, a pack of Ranger 'Mini Ink Blending Tools' and also (not so easy to see at the bottom of the photo), an Inkylicious 'Mountain Valley' stencil as I used on my card (even though I chopped a lot of the card down :) You can see more about this really cool product HERE - what I like about it is that you can use it four different ways.

Some of you, Hettie in particular 'cos she won an identical stamp plus a stencil, will remember that I offered the same Lavinia 'Flower Fairy' stamp here in July 2013. I just totally forgot I'd offered one previously when I was putting together the template and blending tools as a prize and ordered a 'Flower Fairy' stamp as well. But, of course, you can opt for some and not all of the prize if you wish!

The Snippets Challenge will run for TWO weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 6th June. The gates 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 there are three items, you might only be interested in one or two of them. If so, then do say so in a comment and I'd do a second/third draw for the other item(s) if you win - but, all three items are up for grabs as one prize.

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 :)
 
Do remember that it's Rudolph Day tomorrow over at Scrappy Mo's!  It runs until the end of the month and is a great way to get a little head start on those Christmas cards.

Di, and of course, Parsnip!
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