Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 196

We're officially into Autumn now - and galloping towards 'you know when' at a rate of knots. Do remember that it's still Rudolph Day over at ScrappyMo's - until Wednesday 30th September, and of course you can combine your Rudolph Day card with a snippets one :)

Let's get cracking and first of all here's my snippets card, told you Autumn was in the air:

I used:

- A5 white card blank, tent style

- the image is a stamp by Marianne Design 'Don and Daisy - DDS3324', stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and coloured using Pro Markers then die cut using a Spellbinders Nestie 'Labels 18' die

- then took a snippet of Neenah 'Desert Storm' plain card stock and drew round the outside of the die before fussy cutting to create a narrow frame for the image - and glued the image to it

- using a little strip of the patterned paper I backed it with Stick-It adhesive sheet and die cut the word 'friend' using a Winnie and Walter die called 'In A Word: Friend Cutaway'

- more snippets of Neenah 'Desert Storm' card plus a whole (gasp, shock, horror) sheet of patterned paper from Papermania's Capsule Collection 'Sunshine' paper pack to form the main background of the card

- to cover the front of the card I did some quick maths then layered an oblong of the patterned paper onto Neenah 'Desert Storm card - leaving a narrow border right round

- guillotined the top part of the background according to my calculations and adhered it to the top of the card front

- next, added the die cut word 'friend' - leaving the bottom of the card totally blank at this point

- once the die cut 'friend' was in place, I could tell whether the bottom piece of the background was going to meet the bottom of 'friend' nicely and still leave a white border at the bottom of the card. Bingo! It worked fine so I glued the bottom panel in place

- had my calculations been slightly adrift, by leaving the bottom panel until last I could have made an adjustment by either trimming a bit off the patterned panel if it was too large, or taking a little bit off the bottom of the card blank itself  if the panel was on the small side

- finally, I added the image panel to the top part of the card using Collall All Purpose glue for some 'wiggle room'

I do so love this stamp - Len says my hair looks like that when I wake up in the mornings! And the 'friend' die is going to be fun to use, cut in plain card it would look great, it could also be used for the camouflage technique - and of course would be super combined with stamped words too.

And now onto this week's picks - sheesh, a lot of entries and also many of you were keen on the Sizzix die/Stick-It sheets on offer. Here we go:

Oh how I love all the detail on this fabulous easel card, made by Jenny L. It's super Jenny!!

Still with purple, Kitty brought us this amazing Halloween card - get the expression on that cat's face :)

Eve is on a roll at the moment with beautiful black and white cards, accented with gold foiling and embossing. I picked this one as a lovely example to share with you.

I just love this card, made by Linby. Fabulous use of snippets and a perfect sentiment. This little lady reminds me a bit of Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas film, only without the stitching on her face. It's the eyes I think!

You know that feeling when you see a handmade card or something else on a blog - and it stops you in your tracks? Well, I literally screeched to a halt when I spotted this amazing card made by Donna - gosh it's fabulous and it's all made using dies, a stencil, a stamp and snippets. I LOVE, love, love this!!

I chose this card, made by Janis, as it's a great example of how to use up neon coloured snippets - it sure brightened up the day here!

This is such a pretty tag that Ileana skipped with in to show us - who wouldn't feel better if they received this?

Yay! Cornelia came to play a couple of times this week - first of all bringing us this fabulous card to share. It was published in Craft Stamper magazine and I'm not surprised. The great news is that Cornelia is well on the mend after the retina repairs - but for now she's gonna be sitting out playing on the seesaw, just like me!

Now, we're not just about cards in the Snippets Playground, and this week two fabulous canvases caught my eye:

This first one was made by Brenda (Floral Fantasies), and I think it's just absolutely gorgeous. And loads of you who visited her also thought the same - there's a great explanation of how Brenda made this beauty on her blog as well.

And finally, here's another canvas - this time made by Jane J. She used a technique I'd never come across before called 'Slashed Canvas' - it's amazing! I've read the steps a few times on Jane's blog and now have a good idea about how it was done. Would love to try it and I wonder if anyone else dares have a go, another great way to use snippets!

We had one new Playmate and, bless her little cotton socks, she's our youngest crafter in the Playground ever! Aged 22 months! When I spotted what Daisy Jane had made I asked Jane J (her Nanna) to link her into the Playground so you could all see a crafter in the making - take a look at what the little poppet made:

The conkers were from a 'conker hunt' with Nanna - and to prove that Daisy is already adept with stamps and pens, here she is working (Nanna did the grown up writing of course!):

So cute!! And starting off really young too.

So, with a little drum roll, it's time to pick the winner of the Sizzix 'card front die' called 'Peace, Love, Joy' and/or the Stick-It adhesive sheets:

Donna 

I was delighted to see Donna's number come up (the first two runs of the Random number generator picked two Playmates who had already declined the chance to win so it was third time lucky for Donna!). And not only that, you'll have seen that Donna's fabulous scenic card blew my socks off this week - and you know what? She truly doesn't realise just how good she is.

Donna came to play for the first time the week before last and has only been blogging since February - so this is a fairly quick win, and very well deserved. To date she has just 17 followers - I just bet (and very much hope) a few more of you will hop over and start to follow her after seeing her work! Can you please let me have your snail mail address Donna, and I'll post your prize off this week (di_wray@hotmail.com).

This coming week's prize isn't difficult to guess:

It's a Winnie and Walter 'In a Word: Friend Cutaway' die and a Marianne 'Don and Daisy - DDS3324' stamp, just like the ones I used on my snippets card today.

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 3rd October. 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 say if you only want one or other part of the prize (the die or the stamp), but both are up for grabs as one prize of course. And please 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 :)

Progress with the back is slow but it's steadily improving - bit by bit we'll get there!

Di and of course, Parsnip!
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