Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 226

Hi there - another new week in the Snippets Playground! Without any further waffle, let's get straight on.

My snippets card today is THE most unashamed CASE ever - and it's a Christmas card so look away now if you're faint hearted and just think it's too soon for Christmas cards!

The story of this card: back in Week 204 in the Playground, Kim made THIS card, which I had as a weekly pick. Kim got the idea from elsewhere - but what really struck me besides the snowman as seen from above was her totally brilliant use of the swirling embossing folder, not seen that anywhere else for sure! It bugged me for ages and in the end I just had to make it (three the same in fact!) although I did also use a round swirling sentiment 'cos I already had that stamp and then made the arms a little differently (die cut them) and added a hat - but other than that it's a very obvious copy - made with much admiration of Kim's original card. And, at the back of my mind I just know that one of you girlies also did similar as well - please say if you did a 'viewed from above snowman' card and I'll add a link here:

I used:

- 4" x 5.5" white card blank (I almost used white Centura Pearlescent card stock to make the card blank but opted for plain 300gsm white - in the interests of economy :)

- piece of baby blue pearlescent card stock, embossed using a 4.25" x 5.75" folder from the Cuttlebug 'Coolio' set of four folders (an unusually modern set of folders) and trimmed to just slightly smaller than the card front before being glued in place

- white Centura Pearl card snippets, die cut into three circles using dies from the Tonic Studios 'Circle Layering' die set and edged with 'Crystal Ice' Stickles

- layered the bottom two circles onto the card front using Collall All Purpose glue

- next added the arms using ultra sticky tape underneath where the snowman's head would sit, die cut then trimmed from a snippet of brown card using a Memory Box 'Woodland Branch' die

- two little snippet strips of royal blue card had the ends fringes and were then added directly onto the underneath of the snowman's head - which was then backed with a thin sticky pad and added to the snowman's body

- used small and a couple of larger black self-adhesive gems for the mouth, eyes and buttons

- then added an orange carrot nose and black hat - hand cut from teeny little snippets

- the sentiment was stamped onto a snippet of white Centura Pearlescent card stock using 'Jet Black' Ranger Archival ink and a (sadly discontinued) sentiment from Elzybells

- die cut the sentiment using a circle die and glued it onto the card front before adding three small aurora borealis gems - look closely, they are there!

The reason I used black gems instead of my intended punched black dots was 'cos even without those this card is large letter rate. Plus, for posting it'll need a small piece of bubble wrap or similar to protect the snowman if it's posted rather than hand-delivered.

Thanks so much once again for the inspiration Kim!

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

Lots of you have already hopped over and commented on this terrific card, made by Liz - who so often comes up with brilliant ideas. I especially love the 'Pin Art' effect of the threading in opposite corners - took me back a few decades to when I used to sit hammering 'pin head tacks' into material covered board with a paper pattern taped over the material (you tore it away after the pins were in place) to create crochet thread wall art. I made a gold and silver Penny Farthing bicycle on a black velvet background once - what a dust trap but it was a real talking point (the threading, not the dust!).

Next I moved onto making macramé hanging plant pot holders, and hung them all over the place! Added to the cork tiled feature walls (remember those anyone?) it really was a bit of a 70's time capsule. I've often wondered how much the next owners of that house (they still live there all these years later) cursed us when they came to remove them - don't let's go down that road! That's why sticking anything at all to walls apart from kitchen and bathroom tiles is so off my list! We made the mistake of having some decorative wallpaper borders here about 20 years ago now - very much the fashion then but now we're trying to get the very last of the flipping things off it's a total nightmare!

Enough of the rabbiting already - let's move on:

Love these darling Babushka dolls, made by Carole J. Great use of snippets and such a clever idea to have a smaller one tucked inside the other one - really ingenious and lovely paper piecing Carole!

Laurie always comes up with new and innovative ideas for using dies - then shows them here and forces encourages some of us to run off and buy even more dies than we already have or need. Love this card, and what great paper piecing too! A perfect New Home card.

I totally love this Fathers Day card, made by Jackie T. A wonderful nautical design (clever porthole!) and lots of lovely die cutting using up plenty of snippets as well. Brilliant!

I totally went 'Wow' when I saw this beautiful card, made by Glennis. Glennis makes me smile, she make such gorgeous cards and is also a lady of few words. Right now she hasn't got the follower numbers she deserves (IMHO) so I'm asking that perhaps you hop over and add yourself. She will most probably do a (very quiet I'm sure) Happy Dance! This card is so beautiful, perfectly stamped in luscious colours and I just love the sentiment.

White on black is so 'in' right now and always reminds me of those Dymo labelling machines we had years ago. I know they've made a comeback but these days it's all electronics, back then you twiddled a dial round to set one letter in place at a time before squeezing the sides together to make the impression. I used to sit for literally hours (in a kaftan or flared trousers of course) labeling music cassettes, copied from my ex-OH's vast collection of vinyl (he copied and taped, I labeled as instructed, so we could play them in the car or caravan cassette players. Gosh, I do so sound like my Granny!

And here's another example of a really gorgeous card, made by Greta and also using the white embossing on black technique for the sentiment strip - love it! So bright and a real splash of Spring as well.

I could go on for hours here - but there's washing on the line calling to be ironed. I love that smell which seems to permeate the house when the iron is being used on linens and clothes freshly dried outdoors.

Do remember that previous Mr Linkies are always there in previous weekly posts if you get time to go and have a browse, or want to check out an idea you spotted - as always, there are so many fabulous ideas from you all that it's a real headache getting the number of picks down to something manageable.

We had one new Playmate this week:

Lesia entered this gorgeous April Showers card over at Cuttlebug Mania, I spotted that she'd used scraps/snippets and encouraged her to come and join in the fun over here. Such a sweet image and a perfect design.

Sending a huge and a happy 'Hello' to you Lesia - hope to see you back again!

Time now for the prize draw for the Uniko 'Pure Florals: Gerbera' stamp set, and the winner is:

 KandA (Andrea)

Well done Andrea, it's almost six months since your last win and I do still have your address. In fact, I've just had a walkabout break and have packaged your prize already.Will post it this week - hope you have fun using it. It was a popular prize, not surprisingly really - and I did wish I had a few more to offer of course! Uniko's prices are creeping up so please - if you want a stamp set - order it ASAP. Bev keeps her prices as low as possible I know so just be aware that general costs are rising.

Now for this coming week's prize - a couple of (always new and unused) items, the same as I used for my snippets card:

 It's a four piece set of Cuttlebug embossing folders, called 'Coolio' in  (very modern and different with two dies sized 5" x 7" and the other two at 4.25" x 4.75", it also includes the design I used for my snippets card above of course) - plus, a Memory Box 'Woodland Branch' die.

Now, you don't need to make a snowman card of course - the folders are pretty funky and would be especially good for male cards I think - I can see robots for example! Plus, the 'Woodland Branch' die has umpteen uses besides snowmans' arms :) I've seen birds perched on it, baubles dangled from it, a cluster in a die cut vase with just a few small flowers (very Oriental!) - and many other ways of course. The vase can be cut from a bauble die BTW :) Sold you on them?

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 30th 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. If you only want to play for either the embossing folders or the branch die, just say so in your comment and if you win then I'll do a further draw for the other item. 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.

Parsnip is was strutting round here - like a flipping peacock. Whilst on line browsing for something altogether different I found a really sweet little teddy bear die and of course had to have it for the little cards I make to enclose with Playground prizes. It's Parsnip to a tee - and he went all silly when he saw it on the desk here. As I always do, it was then popped into one of the files holding magnetic sheets in sturdy pouches and a note kept of the name at the front of the file before being put into my sliding wall of shelves.

During the early hours of Wednesday morning I heard scrabbling round in the craft room and a lot of huffing and puffing. I crept out of bed and tip-toed to take a peek and there was Parsnip, in his light blue stripy PJs, up to no good as usual! He was struggling to lift the Cuttlebug across the desk and start die cutting 'multiple Parsnips'! Ambition - to make an army and rule the craft world apparently! Goodness knows how he didn't kill himself - which he might well have if he'd got to the stage of heaving the relevant file of dies down from a shelf. I recited Elf and Safety Regs to him then tucked him firmly back in bed - threatening to tie him down with a rope through his PJ sleeves. He snivelled, wiped his little button nose on his sleeve, gross -  and said he's gonna tell you all how mean I am! If he does then I'll be posting a photo of him in his PJs on here in retaliation!

Good grief, my life is now ruled by a small white fluffy bear? 

Di and, of course, Parsnip
x