Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 230

We've had some lovely weather this week and the Playground is full of activity with birdies nesting and Spike visiting each night to play football with his feeding bowl :) Having said that, today (Saturday as I write this) is just a tad wet!

Let's go straight to my snippets cards for today - note the use of plural! First card:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- snippets of patterned paper from LOTV's 'Country Gent' paper pad, die cut using a square Spellbinders die (approx. one and three eights of an inch across) - four squares from each snippet

- then they were glued in place onto the front of the card blank. By a stroke of luck my calculations were right and they fitted perfectly but the contingency plan was that I started gluing the squares in the top left corner and worked across and down towards open edges. That way, if the spacing ended up with too much white at the right hand side or along the bottom, I could give the card blank a swift trim

- next I stamped the image using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and a Little Claire stamp called 'We Six Dogs'. Coloured the image using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending fluid - I chose the papers first deliberately so I could try to match the pooches up :)

- die cut the image using a Lil'Inkers 'Stitched Rectangle' die and popped it onto a plain brown snippet from the same LOTV paper pad then glued it onto the card front

I'd like to enter this card into the current challenge over at Cardz 4 Guyz #120 where the current theme is 'Man's Best Friend'.

My second snippets card is for cat lovers:

I used:
- 4.25" x 5.5" white card blank

- snippet of white card, embossed using SU's 'Square Lattice' embossing folder, trimmed to slightly smaller than the card front and glued in place with Collall all purpose glue

- the image was stamped using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and a Little Claire stamp called 'Hello Cats'. Coloured the image using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending fluid then just trimmed it all round

- popped the image onto a snippet of light turquoise card (same colour as the balloons) then glued it onto the card front

Time for this week's 'peek at the picks':

Alice made this absolutely fabulous vintage styled 'jar' which will hold a packet of chocolates - using so many wonderful elements, including what I picked up as a tumble dryer sheet for the rose leaves! I can see from the comments left since I first popped this on my list of picks that many of you also love it - what a clever crafter!

Mo hopped over with this really sunny card - it's so pretty and I love it. Really great idea to wrap the organza ribbon across the image. And I also picked up that the plain yellow mat behind the white stamped image layer provided all the yellow flowers and the scalloped circle behind the sentiment. Impressive way to get the most out of one piece of card where the gaps would be hidden anyhow!

Do remember that it's Rudolph Days over at Mo's, starting on Wednesday until the end of the month!

This is such a sweet baby card, and another example of loads of pretty elements being perfectly added to compliment the really cute and beautifully coloured image - made by Karen P.

Brenda always makes such fabulous cards, and this is no exception is it? It really is like looking into fairyland :) 

Gosh, I totally adore this card, made by Heather. Lots of tips and hints over at Heather's blog about the making of this beauty as well! I did get the 'wibble-wobbles' when I read that Heather used her craft knife to cut out the centre of the frame - lil' ole me and knives don't get on, let alone super sharp craft knives!

Just had to include this terrific card, made by Sue S! It's such a great design and the 'pièce de résistance' is the fabulous 'pleated skirt fold'. As Sue says, there are plenty of tutorials to be found on line and I'm certainly gonna have a go!

This is my last pick of the week, made by Meena. It's a mixed media canvas and the detail is just stunning! So many techniques and different layers - the dress alone is an absolute work of art, constructed totally with 'bits and bobs'. It's all the more impressive as Meena is unable to sit at a regular desk and craft, yet she produces amazing work! I wonder in my comment how long it took her - four days was the reply. To be honest, I'd take more like four weeks and am so aware of all the love and effort that went into this canvas. Meena, you get a big gold star this week!

Guess what, we had no new Playmates this week - although 56 of you came to play, which is pretty amazing! I love that you return to play and also that you are so kind and supportive to one another as well.

Now for the prize draw, for the really popular 'Eline's Elephant' die set and the 'New Baby' word dies. And the winner is:

Lesley G

 

Well done Lesley! It's almost six months since your last win so this was about due I think! I still have your snail mail address and will post the dies off to you this coming week :)

This coming week's prize is made up of a little selection of stamps - it's the Little Claire's Designs 'We Six Dogs' and 'Hello Cats' stamps, the same as I used for my snippets card:

Plus, an absolutely gorgeous Anna Griffin 'Flora Collection' stamp set, kindly donated by Mary Anne - thank you again! The set even has a beautiful poppy in it :)

Now, those of you who use Little Claire's Designs stamps will know that they don't go overboard on fancy packaging, but the stamps really are excellent quality. And interestingly, I could be wrong, but having bought these some while ago for the toy box they are larger than the 'dinkie' size they now produce. I think they reduced the stamp sizes in December 2015 and these cuties have been here longer than that :)  Anyhow, as I didn't have my own Anna Griffin set to use for my snippets make this week, I thought I'd add the Little Claire's 'critters' in as well. You are very welcome to play for all three stamp sets as one prize if your number is drawn - the choice is yours.
  
The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 28th May. 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 one or two of the stamp sets, just say so in your comment and if you win then I'll do a further draw for the other item(s). 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 :)

Wishing you all a lovely week, with more sunshine, and I hope to see you in the Playground. I read on line earlier today (Saturday) that the UK is due to have a three month long heatwave from June to August. Hotter than the scorcher of 1976 apparently - I was peeping out of my pram back then and thought it was a bit on the warm side, wink. But, IF the weather folk are right (which I doubt anyhow) - can you imagine how we'll fare over here? We are so not geared up for extreme temperatures! I'd better break the news to Heath Robinson and see what mad cooling systems/schemes he can dream up :) 

Di and, of course, Parsnip
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