Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 225

We've had much better weather lately - wonderful sunshine! Yay! The birdies are busily pinching bits from the garden for their nest building and that's always a welcome sign that Spring is on the way. Having said all that, it did throw it down with rain most of Friday :(

My snippets card today is a really quick and easy one, I spotted the original design over on Bev's blog. Bev is the owner of Uniko, I love her stamps and dies and this is what I made:

I used:

- 4" x 6" white card blank, tent style

- a snippet of yellow card, split across the centre and glued onto the card front to leave a white panel showing

- snippets of orange and green card onto which I stamped a gerbera flower and a leaf using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and stamps from Uniko's 'Pure Florals: Gerbera' clear stamp set. I love that with this set comes with outlines of the leaves and flowers as I used here as well as solids (which you can ink up of course and then the outlines are left clear to show the backing card you used)

- next I fussy cut round the flower head and the leaf, then used a black Whispers brush marker to run round the outside edge where I might have trimmed a bit too close. Don't do this with a Pro marker though as it will most probably 'bleed'

 - next I worked out where I wanted the sentiment to sit and, using the Misti, lined up and stamped both parts of the sentiment from the set. I did a little practice on a piece of paper to be 100% sure I had it straight :)

- then glued the leaf and flower head in place and called it done

I do have the matching dies for this stamp set, but for this particular card I wanted to trim close to the edge of the flower and leaf rather than leave a white border round the edge. It's therapeutic and quite easy to fussy cut round these images and I rarely use the dies.

Let's move straight onto this week's peek at the picks:

Val brought this lovely card to share with us. In fact, our Kathleen had also used this same stamp recently (Week 222) and it too was worthy of being a pick. I love how Val paper pieced this really funky flower and then used the same papers for the backing layers. It's another of the fabulous Woodware stamps that are so popular right now, they really are coming out with some wonderful designs!

I chose this card, made by Helen, as it's so fresh, cute and CAS. It's also a perfect example that even one small snippet (the cupcake case) is enough to get to come and play in the Playground :)

On the other hand, lots of pretty snippets are welcome as well :) This is such a pretty card with so many layers and beautiful details, made by Lia, I especially love the tag which can be pulled out!

Jane J scampered in waving this stunning card -  published in the current issues of Craft Stamper magazine. I think it's fabulous - to see just how Jane set about making this card, do hop over to her blog - all the info. is there!

And here's another lovely example of lots of detailed layers, made by Alice.  Lots of lovely die cutting and I just love how the sweet little Gorjuss Girl is peeping out of the frame :)

Oh boy, you're in for a real treat if you hop over to Sonia's blog to take a closer look at this mini book! Not only is it absolutely beautiful with plenty of snippets used - but there are THE most detailed instructions on how to make your own! Plus, a terrific video of her daughter showing how to make the pockets for the book from one single sheet of 12" x 12" patterned paper. I'm certainly raring to have a go at making one!

I hopped back to CAS when I picked this lovely card, made by Charlotte. Such a clever sentiment and it just shows how snippets plus some simple stamping can make a great card!

Ha, then I hopped back to lots of detail and plenty of layers and snippets used - with this gorgeous card made by Anne F. You must admit, I do vary my picks a bit - it's probably 'cos I've never really settled down to making one particular style of card. Not due to talent/versatility - just 'cos I can't make my mind up most of the time! Love this baby card - and what a fabulous doily die that is. I tried hard to resist temptation but one will be appearing as a Playground prize at some point in the future - along with the corner die, which is available at a vastly reduced price (with extremely reasonable postage from Canada to the UK)  here.

Wow, I got a bit carried away there and showed eight picks. Mostly as I'd written a lot of this post during the week and was sitting here waiting for 11am on Saturday morning so I could do the prize draw before pressing publish.

We had two new Playmates this week:

I  love this fabulous flowery card, made by Martha - wonderful colours and such terrific stamping.

And Maria F (I've kept the letter F as we've have other Marias playing) hopped in with this fabulous card. Such a clever technique, those of us who have commented did wonder if Maria had carefully added little white spots over the coloured ones by carefully gluing little circles of vellum or similar in place. Not so - it's embossing paste, and such a great idea!

Sending a huge and happy 'Hello' to our new Playmates - hope to see you back again!

Time now for the prize draw for the Lawn Fawn 'Hedgehugs' stamps and matching dies and the winner is:

Alice (ScrAPamondo)

 

I'm so pleased to finally see Alice's entry chosen by Mr Random as a winner. She's been playing most weeks since February last year and is often in our Peek at the Picks (this week again in fact!) so it was about time for her first win!

Can you please email me your address Alice (my email address is on my sidebar to the right) and I'll make sure your little 'hedgehugs' are wrapped up all cosy and posted to you ASAP.

Now for this coming week's prize, as if you hadn't guessed:

It's a stamp set the same as the one I used today. The flowers are lovely and bold and the sentiments combine beautifully. I bet you could try out the technique that Martha, one of our new Playmates, used with this set!

I didn't get the matching dies to offer as part of the prize though. As I said, I rarely use mine and am not totally convinced I did the right thing when I bought my own set a good while ago.

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 23rd April. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

A maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. 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 :)

Hope you have a lovely week and I look forward to seeing you in the Playground - here's hoping for more sunshine. Parsnip is impatiently waiting to climb into his dungarees and do a bit of painting. I've warned him to leave wet paint notices wherever he's been working - no guarantees though so there will be rags and turps/paint remover at the side of the gate for you to clean yourself up after playing!

Di and, of course, Parsnip
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