Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 254

Hi there! For those of you who saw my post of yesterday, yes, it's been a long week in terms of not being able to get fully comfortable - but I think there might just be a glimmer of light ahead. The joy of respite, if only for a short while, is wonderful and I'm very thankful for any positive signs. The little dog in the photo I posted here is 100% like the little Bichon Frise looks like when having a bath. All dark eyes with a huge black button nose, and under that white puffball there's quite a small and skinny little pooch when it's wet!

Let's move on to my snippets make for this week:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" square white card blank

- snippet of white card stock, backed with Stick-It self adhesive sheet and then die cut using Apple Blossom's 'Woodland Scene' die

- snippet of deep blue pearlescent card onto which I layered the white die cut and the 'snowflake' cut outs before trimming it around the edges as a 'frame'

- then added the sentiment using Delicata 'Silvery Shimmer' ink pad (it's so luscious I don't see any need to emboss it like I normally would do with some metallic ink pads) and a stamp from the Paper Smooches sentiments set called 'Christmas Sampler'. For this I used the Misti and an acetate grid - more details are underneath this little list of steps

- glued the panel to the card front and added teeny, very flat, sparkly 'gems' to the centre of each snowflake

- final touch, which doesn't show up in the photos of course, I added lines of clear Wink of Stella down the tree trunks

A couple of things about this card:

First of all, the die I used was bought online back in July - and I felt a bit cheated when it then appeared to be a free gift with Die Cutting Essentials magazine in September. But, from what I can see online, the freebie die is actually a bit smaller then the one I bought (mine is 5" x 5") and it also has a few stars cut out as well as the snowflakes - so it's not absolutely identical! I see that the die I have is no longer available, which is a shame as it's a real beauty.

And, when stamping the sentiment, I used an acetate grid I'd printed from the Internet to help with placing the sentiment absolutely straight. Misti does have a free printable grid on their website but it's only the size of a USA A2 card, similar to our UK A6 size - so I had a little hunt and found freely available grids online. Mine came from here and, once trimmed, it covers almost the whole of the standard sized Misti's stamping area. You do need to print onto the slightly rough side of printable acetate BTW. Plus, do be aware that even if you adjust the print setting by ticking/unticking 'Ignore scaling and shrink to page width' there will still be a gnats whisker's difference either way if you hold a ruler up against the squares. For me it doesn't matter, and as yet, I haven't come across a way to replicate 100% perfectly quarter inch grid squares. Of course, a well known stamping store in the USA does sell the acetate grids on line as well!

Now for the weekly peek at the picks:

What a great card, made by Kim. And, what's even more inspiring is that she made her own stamp for the swirly background! I won't tell you how but I bet it's something you'll want to try out - go over to Kim's and take a peek.

And here's another really fun card you might want to try out for yourself as well! Made by Barb, it's a slider card - perfect for all ages really, but especially so for kiddies. Slider cards have made a comeback lately and are certainly on my 'to do' list :)

I think you might very well want to keep this fabulous, fresh looking pop up Halloween card in mind for next year girls! Made by Liz and I think it's really great way to use up lots of snippets.

And another Halloween make, brought to the Playground by Kitty to share with us. It's a shaker tag and what a brilliant design - the eyelash ribbon is a lovely finishing touch!

Aren't these butterflies absolutely gorgeous? This card was made by Cathy R using 'Finnabair art alchemy opal magic paint' and nosy me had to go and Google it of course. My first thoughts were that the paint would be very much like Twinkling H2O's but in fact the little pots contain liquid acrylic paint all ready to use (unlike Twinkles which are hard little blocks of mica enhanced colour that you apply using water once you mix up a nice little sludge). Another great idea to help you spend your pennies :)

Isn't this a fun card? Made by Lynn (Linby) and what an impact. A very neat little trick which somehow 'completes' the card is how Lynn used some of the waste from the 'splat' die cuts to fill in a few small areas of the word die. Clever little sausage!

And how about this for a clever design for a Wedding Anniversary card, made by Pat? Love the sheer drama of the black, white and red - and using the little hearts left as 'waste' from the die cut gives the impression of confetti, IMHO :)

I really love this card, made by Megan! Am always a fan of easel cards and as for the brilliant image - that glass of wine looks a perfect size to me for sure!

And last, but by no means least - Erika hopped in to play again, with this great card. I love the design and such a perfect way to use up strips of snippets as well!

We had no new Playmates last week - and not quite as many of you came to play (47 in total). I have a strong feeling that folk have suddenly realised that the countdown to Christmas has begun, now that we're into November, and there could well bit a bit of frenzied work going on! Visions of little fingers flying, scissors, stamps and dies being flung around - and a lot of muttering as well.

Prize draw time now and our winner of the Paper Smooches 'Mirror Blocks' stamps and the Lawn Fawn 'Love You Tons' of stamps is:

 Kathy K 

Well done Kathy, and about time too! I've scouted right back through blog posts and can't find exactly how long it is since you first began to play with us. At least three years initially by my reckoning, and certainly weekly for a while now! Can it be true that this is your very first win? I think that may well be the case as you often play for fun Kathy - am just so pleased that you finally got to win a prize!   

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. 

This coming week's prize is:

But of course, it's an Apple Blossom 'Woodland Scene' die that I bought at the same time as mine back in July - and a Paper Smooches 'Christmas Sampler' sentiments stamp set. I do love the variety of fonts in these sets.

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 12th November. 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. Once again, I think both items work really well as a pair so they are one prize, but if you have a burning desire for just the die or the stamps set then please feel free to say and if your name pops out then I'll do a second draw for the item you don't want. 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 a big hug from Parsnip of course - he's got his ear defenders ready for the inevitable fireworks tonight, I'm writing this on Saturday of course :)