Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 247

Good grief, from really hot and humid, we then had horrendous thunder storms on Thursday night over a lot of the UK. The air was much fresher yesterday and today (Saturday) it's positively Autumnal! Bit of a plummet in the temperatures overnight and it's not terribly warm even as today wears on.

Mind you, that might mean a few Christmas cards appearing in the Snippets Playground? :) I read somewhere during this past week that it's only 100 sleeps until Christmas arrives. OK, I bet you truly did so not want to hear that!

Let's move straight onto my snippets make for today - and the camera lies yet again, the 'pink' paper is actually peach in real life:

I used:

- DL white card blank

- I then made a lightly larger panel than the front of the card using thin white card and covered it with a snippet of peach dotty paper from Prima's 'Fairy Rhymes' paper pad which was then topped and tailed with snippets of a cream dotty paper I found in the snippets folder

- at that point I trimmed the whole piece of card down to fit the front of the DL card - so much easier than fiddling on trying to make sure the layers were exactly lined up onto the card front

- glued the whole panel in place on the card front

- used another cream snippet from the same patterned paper pad and stamped the flower using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a 2006 Penny Black stamp called 'dotted petals'

- then die cut the image panel using a die from the Spellbinders 'Labels Ten' set (I first spotted Carol L using these dies and thought they were such a lovely and very useful shape), and ran a ball tool around the edge before removing from the die

- stamped the flower head onto a snippet of the peach dotty paper and fussy cut around the outline before running a black Whispers marker around the edge (from experience a long while ago, don't use a Pro marker as it will most likely bleed and spoil the crisp black outline you're looking for)

- glued the flower head onto the cream panel and coloured the leaves using a green Whispers Marker before adding a tickle of Signo 'Gold Sparkle' to the stamens

- using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from the Paper Smooches 'Sentiment Sampler' set, I stamped the word 'thanks' onto the die cut panel

- finally glued the panel in place on the front of the card

Hindsight being 20/20 vision, perhaps I should have used a less 'bold' stamp with the delicate flower - but as you might guess, I wanted to use certain items to make this Sunday snippets card. It's been in my mind for a while, and the duplicate goodies have also been waiting in the Toy Box for a while too! Jules really kicked me into action with her lovely post about paper piecing (featured as one of last week's picks) as the stamp lends itself so well to that technique. I just checked back through the blog here and it's almost five years since I bought this Penny Black stamp from a lovely friend (pre-loved). And, shame on me, this is only the second time I've used it!

Time for a peek at this week's picks:

I picked this card, made by Lynne in NI, for a few reasons. Love the image, great colouring and use of snippets too. And the thing that pulls the whole card together is that lovely striped butterfly - clever idea to introduce just a little piece of the patterned paper into the main image panel.

Carole hopped into the Playground waving this fabulous card, which immediately went onto my 'tips and ideas' list. Quite apart from being a really beautiful and very feminine design - I just love the wavy die cut lace edge to the side of the card. Instant impact! I've spotted a few cards using this sort of 'vertical wave' idea, either flat part way across a card or down one edge and it's so eye catching!

I totally adore this wonderful and very magical looking card, made by Karen P. So much beautiful detail - the more you look the more you see. It's a bit like looking into fairy land - and great use of loads of snippets too!

I know that a few of you lovely Playmates have brought really beautiful cards made using 'That Folder', which was a prize won by a few of you recently. I just have to let you see this card, made by Jenny L using her embossing folder. Isn't it stunning? Monochrome at its very best!

Some people say in comments that they really don't know how I manage to choose the weekly picks - given my way I'd feature every single entry! I'm sitting here so conscious of the lovely makes I don't have the time to show you and do encourage you to get a cup of tea, coffee or whatever, and take the time to have a hop around each week's entries. There's so much talent and variety in this challenge!

Here's a great idea, from Barb. The basis of this really rich looking man's card is an image cut from a magazine! How clever is that then? And, I also love the embossed panel on the left hand side of the card - Barb made that by embossing a scrap of silver mirri card, giving it a good sanding and then rubbing a black Stazon ink pad over it! Two great ideas on one card :)

Yippee, we have a Christmas card! And a very special one too as it's a 'slider/spinner' card - made by Suzy (Ike). Really beautiful colouring of the mouse and also loads of snippets used at the same time - such a fun card :)

Shaz in Oz came to play again this week, I'm so pleased to see that slowly she's returning to blogging and feeling better as time goes by. I love this card and really do suggest you nip over the Shaz's blog for a closer look - the gold and red are just incredible! Always so difficult to take photos of gold/silver and certain colours, unless you're at a weird angle!

I absolutely adore this card, made by Francesca! So much pretty detail, a cute image and beautifully thought out and balanced - as well as loads of snippets used of course! A good while ago I attempted to make cards of a similar ilk and basically had to accept that they were out of my league!

I've saved this card, made by Jane W,  to the last as it sums up Autumn so perfectly! And we're fast heading into the 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' here for sure. I love those toadstools and the addition of the beautiful Autumn coloured leaves down one side is brilliant!

I'm stopping at nine picks - more than I usually have time for. Right now there's a basket of ironing calling my name so I'd best move along!

We had no new Playmates last week - but the turnout of 53 of you playing in the Playground is really great! Makes it all worthwhile :)

And it's prize draw time, for the  stamps on offer - House Mouse cling 'Rain Flower' and the Kaisercraft 'True Friendship' set of four sentiments.

And our winner is:

Elly

Well done Elly! I see that it's just over two years since you first came to play and this is only your second win - so I expect it's 'happy dance' time :)

Can you please drop me an email with your address in and I'll post your prize off as soon as possible! My email address is on the right hand side bar.

Here's this coming week's prize - bit of a bumper selection too:

From left to right we have: Spellbinders Labels Ten set of dies, Penny Black ''dotted petals' stamp (I was thrilled to find this available new on line to offer!) - and a final set of sentiments stamps from Tara of Seven Hills Crafts - one of my favourite Paper Smooches sets called 'Sentiment Sampler'. We actually had a sentiments stamp set the same back in February as part of a prize, which Jean won.

All of these items will make up one prize if the winner wants that. Otherwise, you can select one or two of the items only - in which case I'd do additional draws for whatever is left. But I do need to know in advance please.

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 24th September. 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 - either all of it or just one or two items. 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 :)
 

Have a lovely week!

and, of course, Parsnip
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