Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 188

Oh. My. Goodness!! What a busy week in the Playground last week, mostly due to the Less is More GD spot. We had LOADS of new playmates plus lots of you 'regular scallywags' played along with LIM and the Playground. I was almost snowed under at times - so you need to get a cup of your favourite beverage (mine's a peppermint tea please), make yourself comfy and if you're brave enough - read on!

First of all, before I show you this week's snippets make, I have to explain a little experiment as one of our Playmates has kindly offered to help out with the Playground this coming week - so can you please say a big 'Hello' to Eve:

Hello playmates!

My name is Eve and I live in beautiful Devon UK. I am married and have two grown up sons. Over the years I have tried lots of crafts including: macramé, embroidery, knitting (my tension was always too tight!), patchwork and saltdough (loved that and will take it up again one day!). Then a couple of years ago I started making cards – this is where the fun began! I started a blog called ‘The Purple Paper Puncher’ in an attempt to use all of my crafty stash rather than buy things and hide them in a cupboard (out of the site of my dear hubby sshh!!) It turns out that the complete opposite happened and my crafty stash grew at an alarming rate – oops! 

In the early part of last year I signed on as a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and started another blog called ‘Eve Marie Makes’ (Marie is my middle name) and the rest they say is history. But the one thing that I have found is that crafting is my therapy – if only it was prescribed on the NHS!!

Di is having a well-earned break this week as she works so hard behind the scenes so I am honoured to be her Prefect!

I'm sure lots of you already 'know' Eve through her blogs, but do please hop over and say Hello. The help from Eve was totally her idea as she sensed I maybe would welcome a helping hand. Ha! I almost bit that offered hand right off!

We're trying a change, for just this one week for now, and this is what will be different. Firstly, Eve will do the commenting, although I'm such a sticky beak I'll most likely still hop around entries to take a peek :) Next, Eve is going to pick out the week's 'Picks' as well as keeping a note of new Playmates.

Not only that, Eve has very kindly made this week's snippets card for here as well as donating the prize!

My role will be to lounge in a corner of the Playground eating a box of chocolates respond to any cries for help with linking etc. so I'll still check out your comments, keep a note (as usual) of who would like to be in with a chance of winning the weekly  prize - and also do the weekly write-up as well as the prize draw next Saturday as usual. I'm hoping it will be much easier though during the week with Eve providing me with the picks and new Playmates as well as looking after the actual commenting over on your blogs. It's an experiment - and I do hope you'll be kind to Eve, I've been working on a Prefect's badge for her!!

And now here's this week's lovely snippets card, made by Eve - so pretty:

Eve posted the actual card to me, which is why I popped my own watermark on - just to be sure to protect the image. For information on how Eve actually made the card, do hop over to her blog(s) - the links are in her little 'bio' above. Even the inside of the card is beautifully stamped and I do know that the Stampin' Up stamp set is called 'Painted Petals' of course :)

OK, let look at this past week's picks now - and there were so many beautiful entries that I really, really, really struggled to whittle the list down to manageable proportions. I truly think this is about the very best week for fabulous entries - you all never cease to amaze me!

So, yesterday I was sitting staring forlornly at the looooong list of likely picks, wondering how to possibly whittle them down and still be as fair as possible, given the length of this post. So, I decided to pick entries which had used a (snippets based) technique or idea which some of you might want to try out:

Pat brought us this card to show - and I adore the idea of cutting the 'almost circle' in the front piece and then stamping on the bottom layer. Pat always explains how she makes her cards so do hop over to find out how this was done. I did comment that if I'd tried it there would have had to be pencil guidelines for fear of me stamping in the far corner!

I know that I frequently pick cards made by Liz (and a few other folk), and it's usually because they have a brilliant idea that's too good not to share. This card above is a case in point, lots of pretty snippets, punched using what I think is a 1" Woodware House punch (busy trying to finalise buying buy one of those plus one as a future prize once I finish this post - but do beware ladies if you can't wait for the chance and go looking. Amazon UK are selling them at more than double the price I've found elsewhere - on The Stamp Hut HERE - so do your homework first!). Then the houses were beautifully popped along a wavy line just like a meandering street - and finished off with a perfectly placed sentiment. Love it!!

I chose Andrea's card because it's absolutely beautiful of course, but also because of her neat little trick of using the embossing folder at an angle. Something I've never thought to do but it's gonna make me look at my embossing folders in a whole new light. It makes for a really elegant card IMHO.

I recently showed a card, made by Carol, which used snippets to create a mosaic effect. And now, Carol's taken it a fantastic step further - I did squeal when I saw this idea. The mosaic was built up on a sticky background and then, once the pieces were in place, Carol sprinkled gold embossing powder over and heated it to create the 'infill/grouting' - how clever is that for an idea then? What a way to use snippets!

And this is my last pick of the week, it's almost 5pm on Saturday afternoon and I've been working on this post for hours now - despite doing the skeleton of it ahead of time.

BUT, I really wanted you to see this brilliant card above, which I am sooooo going to CASE! Our Playmate (and Prefect for this coming week) Eve made it and there are some great ideas/techniques. You should hop over to Eve's for a full explanation but it involved inking up an embossing folder for the brick background and then embossing some card for the flower trough (using a wood/bark embossing folder) and I'm sure I see the SU 'Word Window' punch being at each end piece of the trough. Clever stuff!

Plus, we had a flurry an avalanche of new Playmates, as I mentioned earlier in this post:

Jane, who plays here regularly, and her grand daughter Lara had been making Minions - aren't they cute?! I see a little crafter in the making there Lara :)

I encouraged Carol G to come and play after seeing her brilliant snippets card over at Less is More. The snippets are leftovers from a 'fallout' after doing some die cutting! Great idea too.

I also encouraged Lynne in NI to come and play - she only went and made 30 of these absolutely darling baby announcement cards - having 'chosen a simple design easy to replicate'!

Theresa (Pace) hopped in to show us a few really lovely cards with balloons on - love how the balloons match the paper!

Lilian, who I worked out is a pal of Kathy K's, nipped in for a quick go on the slide and to show us this gorgeous snippets card - really pretty and I love the idea of the bakers twine threaded through the ribbon.

Gail also hopped over from Less is More - I love this card and the way the dramatic balloon(cut from a snippet of Brushos card) really pops against the simple background.

Linda (Crafty Distraction) also hopped over from Less is More with this gorgeous card - beautiful design! Really elegant too.

Maxine was another new Playmate this week,  with a lovely card and such a beautiful sentiment - and there's a second card to see if you hop over to say Hello.

Next was Helen, with a really lovely selection of Christmas cards. Great use of snippets and I was interested to learn that Helen used to join in with the snippets fun when Jules was running it- over three and a half years ago! I can see that Helen could have some snippet busting to do :)

Pauline (Cotnob) whizzed in with a smashing 'I've Moved' card and a great technique. Look at the die cut house that Pauline used - done by sticking snippet strips onto copy paper and then die cutting - how neat is that for an idea?

And finally, this card was made by Taunya - such a lovely die, and see the little birdie in the tree. So cute!

So those are our new Playmates - all 11 of them and it's getting crowded in the Playground, maybe we need to dig a bigger duck pond as well as installing a few more swings :)

Now the draw for the winner of last week's prize of the clouds stencil, hot air balloon die and the Stick-It sheets - and the winner is:

 Lynn  (Lynn's Crafty Corner)

It's absolutely ages since Lynn last won a prize, well over two years in fact. I do have an address for you Lynn but can you either drop me an email or add a comment below to confirm that you haven't moved house since then (April 2013 if my notebook is correct). Thanks!

And I bet you girlies have already guessed what this week's prize is:

Kindly donated by Eve it's a Stampin' Up set called 'Painted Petals', just like she used for her snippets make today. I love these 'layering' stamps - all the more so as they are clear photopolymer and really easy to use. Plus, I'll also send you today's snippets card, made by Eve!

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 8th August. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Do remember that you should also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

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 :)

Remember that Eve is helping me out this week and will be doing the commenting and also choosing the weekly picks - of course I'll be keeping a little eye open in case I'm needed too :)

Finally, I'm sure a good few of you will have seen this post over at Lynn's Blog (Creative Crafts by Lynn). Basically, Lynn's husband had a stroke a week ago and her post said that she would be back whenever she can - to date no comments have been released by Lynn for publication so it seems that this isn't going to be a quick return by her. I know you'll all join me in sending love, positive thoughts and prayers - for Lynn's husband Jim and also for our playmate at this worrying time.

Di and of course, Parsnip! And, of course, not forgetting Eve!!!!!
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