Pink and Blue Seasons Greetings

I love pink and blue on Christmas cards, as a change to the more traditional colours. The other day, at a loss for inspiration for Scrappy Mo's Rudolph Days January Challenge, I came across a NBUS stamp set, and made a little batch of four cards all the same:

I used:

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

- slightly smaller panel of white card so the black card blank formed a border/frame (which isn't very clear on the above photo!), stamped using a Woodware 'Christmas Trees' set (bought in Coventry last Autumn) and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink. The trees and the sentiment are from the same set - and making four all the same was a doddle using the Misti of course

- coloured the trees with Baby Pink and Duck Egg Blue Pro markers

- glued the panel to the front of the card blank

Four cards for the Christmas card box, making a total of 23 in there so far - almost on target for my 12 per month - yippee! With more time and enthusiasm it would be such fun to paper piece this design!

I'd also like to enter this over at Darnell's latest NBUS Challenge #10, bad me didn't go for the option of using some bubble wrap for making a background - but it looks fabulous over at Darnell's!

And, Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge and Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for January as well.

I'm really struggling here - can someone please send back my mojo if they spot it wandering about looking lost!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 263 and 264 - results

So pleased you dropped in, do remember that Mr Linky for weeks 265 and 266 is HERE and it runs for a further week since we switched to fortnightly challenges.

Some of you have have already said you would like to have a go at being a Guest Designer (GD) - also to be known as a 'Parsnip's Prefect', suggested by a certain scallywag - and I thank you so much for that. I'm thinking that it would be good to feature a GD (using snippets with flair/aplomb/inspiration) on this bi-weekly post in future so we'll kick that one off in two weeks time as I didn't want to rush anyone.

Please, please remember - this is a fun challenge. Never be afraid to put your hand up and say 'I'd like a go Miss'. We don't 'judge' one another in any way and I truthfully don't know of any other challenge with such a happy band of Playmates. In fact, I do know of some which come very close - but, to me, there is a beating heart in this Playground - and it's not just mine/Parsnip's. It's a whole load of little pitter patters of hearts, snuffles and snapping of knicker elastic as tisssues are removed from knicker legs - yup, I did that one as a kid too!!  Plus scuffles, paper rustling and sharing of sweeties plus tinkling bottles of course!!

For this post I've picked someone deserving of a Gold Star who used snippets really effectively (and using up snippets is the whole point of you coming here, although the way snippets breed I suspect it's a losing battle!). I need a snippets Gold Star badge - help! This won't necessarily be a fortnightly thing, but pretty often there is one entry that just leaps out at me as being extra-special - and this is the one from Weeks 263/264:

Made by Heather - and there are other great ideas over in the same blog post so do go and take a peek please!

Now for our peek at the other picks:

Val made this fabulous new home card - using just part of the Christmas Shadowbox die set she won in the Playground not so long ago - as well as using lots of snippets to create the adorable little die cuts.

I love this scene, created by Lia. Plenty of snippets used for all the little elements too! See the little faces peeping out of the carriage windows as well? :)

I've chosen this super card, made by Carole D, because of course it uses up a white snippet for stamping the flower - and also because I think the cutaway semi circle for the flower to nestle in is such a great idea! Carole made two others in different colours for the flowers at the same time BTW.

I was going to stick with three picks but had to include this one, made by Jackie (Paddington Fan). So much impact and a really great way to use up little snippets as well. This is one idea to keep in mind for those tricky cards for fellas!

That's my picks - as always a very hard choice! We had 71 Playmates joining in this past fortnight - with two new little friends joining us:

Camille

Alpna

Welcome girls! Hope you came back and play with us again :)

Prize draw time now and our winner of the Marianne Design Creatables - Shoe die (LR0291) and the Docrafts - Xcut Embossing Folder - Wicker is:

Tina (Treebug)

Well done Tina! 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.

Well, that was a bit easier for me. Not the rush to do the post immediately the gates closed, not as many picks I'm afraid as that was adding a fair bit of time to the work doing a write-up each week, and as suggested by Sarn I haven't delved back through old posts and my own records to work out when the prize winner last had a win. I've also not spent lots of time chewing over how recently I might have featured someone chosen as a weekly pick. It's great to spread the love but in terms of back checking 'who featured as a pick when' it was unmanageable so without resorting to random 
selection I've just gone with what I feel is right.

Talking of random selection - guess whose number was actually first out of the pot for the prize? Janice - she who actually made the card which started it all off - couldn't make it up could you! Do the Lottery kiddo :)

Keep those snippets entries coming, you still have a week left to play remember!

Love from the little white peril and me

A couple of challenges today

It seems like ages since I joined in with Less is More where the current challenge of 'New Beginnings' really appealed to me. So many 'new' themes to play with - in the end I went with 'new baby' and this is the card I made:

I used:

- 4.0" x 5.25" white card blank, tent style

- panel of smaller white card stock, die cut using a die from the Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set

- then die cut the apertures for the waves using a Memory Box 'Breezy Waves' die and backed the apertures with medium strength double sided adhesive sheet

- die cut the waves again from a snippet of pale blue card and then inlaid them into the wave apertures

- using the Misti, I then stamped the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from the Simon Says Stamps set called 'Handwritten Borders'. I had to mask off the right hand end of the sentiment area on the card so that it balanced out - it worked too!

- glued the panel onto the card front using Collall All Purpose glue

- die cut the adorable little set of Mama duck plus her three offspring from a snippet of yellow card, backed with Stick-It double sided adhesive sheet and stuck them in place. The die set is NBUS and is a Joanne Sheen Signature set called 'Toy ducks'

- the 'adult' eyes which come in the little die set are massive so I used a smaller eye die cut from a teeny snippet of black card (meant for a baby duck) for Mama duck and just gently added dots to the babies eye areas using a black fine line marker

My in-house critic pointed out that the little duckies might be good for Easter cards - there's a thought.

It's also Darnell's NBUS #9 Challenge right now - and it's a first outing for the little duck dies.

I could have wept as I originally made another card specifically for Darnell's challenge and then at the very last knockings realised that whereas it very carefully covered the optional parts (CASE and camouflage) I hadn't used anything new/unused (NBUS)! The air was just a little bit blue here :) You'll see the card at some point and then will know why I was so upset - one of my better efforts, ain't it always the way though.

Cuttlebug Mania Challenge - 'I am crafting'

Time for another Cuttlebug Mania Challenge and the theme this time is 'I am crafting'.

You might have to put your thinking cap on, although I actually had THE perfect stamp set - totally unused as well as being a good few years old - shame on me. And - this theme wasn't my choice either so it's pure coincidence which stamp set I used!

Some ideas are sewing, knitting, carpentry, painting - and I bet you can think of many others as well. You do have to use a manual die cutting/embossing machine for Cuttlebug Mania entries (it doesn't need to be a Cuttlebug but it must be manual, not electronic). And, you can't mix the two, it must be all manual please. Then make your entry, link into the challenge, link to the challenge in your own blog post and and make sure that you also say what products you used for any die cutting/embossing.

Details of our sponsor can be found over on the Cuttlebug Mania Challenge blog.

So this is my card:

I used:

- 4.25" x 5.5" white card blank

- snippet of SU 'Wisteria Wonder' card as the backing layer, glued onto the card front

- snippet of white card, embossed using the Taylored Expressions 'Twirls and Swirls' embossing folder and then trimmed to just slightly smaller than the 'Wisteria Wonder' layer. Then glued on top of the card front

- the stamp is from a very old fabulous set made by the now discontinued Elzybells called 'Stamp & scrap'. It really is perfect for a crafter/stamper/scrapper to use and goodness knows why I've had it forever without even using one single stamp - sheer madness!!  I hate to brandish Elzybells stamps when they are out of production though - sorry!

- then I coloured the image using Whispers markers - ahem, and in the process she did end up with a rather fetching sun tan! Added a sentiment from the set and just decided to go for it anyhow rather than start again - it could be me after our Portugal break, although I doubt it very much!

- die cut the image using an oval Nesties and then used another snippet of SU 'Wisteria Wonder' card to die cut the 'frame using a real favourite Spellbinders die of mine, I love the gentle scallops - layered the image onto the scalloped piece and glued it in place.

 Job done - and then I ran off to do some ironing.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 265 and 266

We're baaaaack, safe and sound and fully refreshed for the rest of the Winter. Had clear blue skies and sunshine all the way - until it clouded over on Thursday morning, just  before we left for the flight back home. How lucky was that then?! This is to prove we weren't just sitting in front of the fire at home - not good enough to be a post card but hopefully good enough to show part of the Old Town of Albufeira and one of the fabulous wide beaches :

And here's my snippets card for this fortnight - thankfully I found time to make it before we zoomed off on holiday:

I used:

- 4.25" x 5.5" white card blank

- snippet of deep pink card from the snippets folder trimmed to an eighth of an inch all round less than the card front

- at the same time I die cut an oval out of the pink card (a neat way of gutting it as I wanted to use some of the pink card for the camper van)

- glued the panel in place on the card front then die cut another oval from white card and popped that into the place I'd 'gutted'. As the next layer was to be paper rather than card it made sense to level the surface off :)

- added a snippet of Pink Petticoat's 'Wild Blossoms' collection paper on top of the deep pink layer. Love this paper pad as it really is so 'retro'

- then stamped the sentiment onto a snippet of white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and stamps from the fabulous and very quirky Avery Elle 'Handwritten Notes' stamp set

- I had huge fun making the 'camper van' using snippets of pink, grey and blue card along with a Sizzix die set called 'Let's Travel'

- added a tickle of clear 'Wink of Stella' to all the 'glass'

- die cut the white panel from a snippet, using a Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' die and glued it onto the card front

- used a pale grey Pro marker to 'ground' where the van would sit

- glued the camper van onto the panel and called it done!

One tip - the die set comes in four pieces. I die cut an additional 'full' back panel in grey to sit behind the pale pink panel. First I stuck the front bumper in place onto the pale pink panel and then I trimmed the pale pink tyres off before adding the grey panel behind. Pink tyres just did not look right to me - the way it was shown on the packet!

I'm entering this into Darnell's current NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) challenge #8 - by the skin of my teeth. I haven't had time to go with the possible themes so hope this is OK?!

As I explained last Sunday, I'm keeping my picks back for a week to make life easier for me - the same with the Random draw for the prize.

This coming fortnight's prize is:

A Sizzix 'Let's Travel' die set (see those pink tyres?!) plus an Avery Elle 'Handwritten Notes' sentiments stamp set. Not the best of photos I'm afraid though. To see the sentiments properly try looking HERE. If you run the mouse over the image then the words become quite clear - great fun to play with and they do stamp absolutely beautifully in real life as well!

The Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks from now on (as I explained a week ago) and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 4th February. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's still a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. I will split the prize if anyone has a burning desire for just one of the items but truly think it would make a good pairing. 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 :)

Important note: if you would like to be a Snippets Guest Designer at some point in the future then please put GD after your name when you link up your entry. If you're too shy to do it publicly, then email me putting GD in the subject line - my email addy is on the RH sidebar. Mind you, I hope the Playground is such a happy and friendly place that no-one will feel shy at openly coming forward.

Be sure to call back next week to see the winner of last fortnight's prize (the shoe die and embossing folder) and my picks from the past two weeks as well!

And can I please finish with one really important and massive observation. Today as I type and finish this (already partly written) post, I cannot even begin to explain the feeling of relief and lack of (self inflicted!!) pressure. The Playground gates have closed, Parsnip is out there in the frost sweeping up and looking for empties (snigger, and wanting a hot chocolate drink when he comes in!). We have 71 entries (hooray for loyalty!) and I can actually breathe properly. I now have a whole week to write up the picks and do the draw for the prize (EF and shoe die) - this is how life really should be, I promise you! :) Thank you all so much for your love and support - MWAH!!

Speaking of bears, we flew with BA on holiday and on the return flight the lady (not a kid either!) sitting in front of Len had the most well loved ancient teddy bear with her. He got to visit the cockpit and all the crew signed a BA post card for him as well as his bear passport! 'Mr Martin', the bear, was very laid back about it all and sat demurely throughout the flight - at one point his paw flopped back between the seats onto Len's knee............ and Len didn't dare move! Snort :)

Have a lovely week! Cold here innit!!??!! Big hugs from Parsnip, who is was out of the sulks already and seemed to have an extra spring in his step which is why I sent him out into the Playground, and of course me..........

And please, don't tell 'himself' about Martin the Bear!

What can I say?

Here's a HUGE 'Thank You' for all the very supportive comments you left on Sunday's blog post about the future of the Snippets Playground.

I was overwhelmed by the understanding - and also the delight that the Playground will continue. Of course it will continue until such times as I truly am unable to carry on. And I hope that's a looooooog way off :)

I've updated the 'rules' - on their separate page above to reflect the fortnightly time scales etc.

A couple of things are still a bit up in the air, such as how we choose/operate the Guest Designer spot - which I really think is a great idea (thank you to Jane J especially for first suggesting it). And also, Andrea's idea of a 'Gold Star' now and then is a really great one! I have some thoughts about how to make that even more fun needless to say ('Kiss Chase' three times around the Playground with Parsnip?).

I also love how you came across as welcoming more time to visit one another during a challenge fortnight. Andrea's really helpful suggestion to keep my number of picks down is one I'll have difficulty with until I'm really sure that people who deserve recognition are all being visited :) So - that's one you can all help with?! It would help me immensely to cut down the number of picks - but I don't want this Playground to lose it's heart and soul so no doubt 'motor mouth' here will still rabbit on too much!

The future of the Snippets Playground

Thank you so much for your input about ways in which to ease things a bit for me, yet still keep the Playground running. I can't tell you how helpful your ideas have been - and one thing I did pick up is that there would be some very sad people if the Playground closes. Not least Parsnip and myself! So first of all, let me most emphatically assure you that whilst it's in any way possible I'll carry on with the Playground. I can't afford Parsnip's redundancy cheque in any case - he's already muttering about being worth his weight in gold here :)

Having weighed up Parsnip plus suggestions and options, this is what I propose:

- the Playground will now run for two weeks at a time, rather than the old weekly challenges

- for the minute we'll stick with just one entry per person per fortnight. I know that some of you welcome the fortnightly idea to have more time to join in (and indeed I had picked up that a few challenges had moved to fortnightly so thank you for pointing that out girls) yet some of you could probably make several snippets cards. But, whilst we still have prizes it seems fair to say just one entry and keep a level playing field - and it also eases my commenting and choosing picks of course, which is part of the objective! Of course, it might lift the bar a bit as you have more time to think up inspiring ways to use up those snippets - and I hope that we have some more great ideas in store from you :)

- challenges will begin every other Sunday at the usual times (00:00 GMT) and close at 11am on the next but one Saturday - same times of day as now

- my new Sunday Snippets post after the closing of a challenge will contain a fresh Mr Linky, my own snippets card and details of the prize to be won during the coming fortnight

- on the interim Sunday I'll post the name of the winner of the prize for the challenge which closed a week before - as well as a selection of 'picks'. The reason for this is to try and ease the mad rush I have each Saturday morning - even though I always try to at least have an outline post ready I still only add the final list of picks as well as doing the draw at the last minute once the Playground gates close. This sort of 'leap frog' arrangement will give me a whole week after the gates close to finalise and write up the picks as well as doing the Random number draw at my own pace. In truth, I've always avoided this idea as I really wanted to keep things on the 'boil' and totally current - but, it's taking its toll on my health as well as tying me to the laptop each Saturday, so I hope you can see why I'm making this change. I truly would love to be able to go out to archery with Len on a sunny Saturday morning - if only to walk around the local village and some very impressive historical ruins (ha, NOT the archers!!)

- I really like the suggestion of us having a Guest Designer now and then as well - who would have a snippets 'make' (remember it doesn't need to be a card) showcased in place of the card I would usually make on the day that the new Mr Linky appears! What would be fun is if we could mainly focus on innovative ways to use up snippets, although that's not a total requirement it's good to have new ideas and inspiration. I know that lately I've been lacking in new ideas myself so would really welcome this. We have a few ways to choose Guest Designers of course so I'm open to suggestions about this one! Volunteers, picked from folk (say) adding GD after their name when entering (I could use random selection for this which might be some added fun) - and of course I would allow plenty of time before a GD 'make' was required! I am sooooo off the thought of any pressure and certainly have no intention of putting pressure on any of you girlies.

It was so interesting to see how many of you came up with a lot of these ideas or similar and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your sweet words. The Playground WILL live to fight another day, I promise you!

Perhaps you might want to leave a comment on my proposals below?

I hope this made sense - shout if it doesn't!

And thanks also for the good wishes about my 'teacher training' venture as well. That expression was a euphemism for 'holiday' and right now Len and I are in sunny Portugal. Blue skies, sunshine and pleasantly warm - can't knock it. But, the little white furry snoop is keeping me up to date of course!

I'm trying hard to comment but am having issues with my baby laptop so currently am having to resort to my notepad - which is much more tedious of course. Plus, Dumbo has forgotten her FlickR log in details and a couple of other useful things. So I might be playing catch-up at some point - like when we get home!

18th Birthday card for Edward

One of Len's great-nephews just celebrated his 18th Birthday and this is the card I made for him:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- navy blue card cut slightly smaller than the card front and glued in place

- a whole sheet (shock, horror) of card from the DCWV 'Juniper Berry' stack, cut slightly smaller than the navy layer and then glued to the card front

- stamped the main elements of the image onto a piece of white card stock using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and the Woodware '18th Birthday' stamp set - and of course the Misti!

- then stamped the number 18 onto a snippet of greeny/blue card from the same patterned paper stack

- carefully fussy cut the number 18 out and glued it onto the white stamped image - making sure I ran a black Whispers marker round the edge of the fussy cutting first, this hides any little white bits that might otherwise show up :)

- trimmed the image panel to required size, backed it with navy card and glued it to the centre of the card front

I'm hoping to get my money's worth out of this stamp as Edward is followed by three more young men who will be turning 18 within a couple of years. Plan ahead! :)

Cuttlebug Mania - Winter Wonderland

Gosh I really had to race to make this card ready for the new Cuttlebug Mania Challenge, where the theme is 'Winter Wonderland' - that can be Winter nature, snow, ice, Winter sports and so on.

You do have to use a manual die cutting/embossing machine for Cuttlebug Mania entries (it doesn't need to be a Cuttlebug but it must be manual, not electronic). And, you can't mix the two, it must be all manual please. Then make your entry, link into the challenge, link to the challenge in your own blog post and and make sure that you also say what products you used for any die cutting/embossing.

Details of our sponsor can be found over on the Cuttlebug Mania Challenge blog.

 

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- then found I had an already stamped image using a House Mouse stamp called, appropriately enough, Joyous Noel. What tickled me when I bought this stamp ages ago are his little skates - paper clips! 

- then coloured the image using Whispers markers, mostly for speed and the very fine point they have at one end

- the backing paper is a snippet, in real life it's a delicate ice blue with silvery edging- from my Christmas papers box

- then I used Spellbinders Labels 8 dies to cut the image and a Core'dinations magenta coloured card backing/frame then just added some Anita's Christmas Dimensions stickers (peel offs, shame on me!), and Glossy Accents to the bell that the mouse is gaily waving :)

Normally I would make a thinner frame by drawing round the edge of the die I used for cutting the image, but this card just called for a little more of the cheerful magenta colour! Still giggling about those paper clips :)

Thank you so much for the input and lovely comments about the Playground. I have almost decided on the way forward - it will be a bit different and hopefully easier for me to keep on running it almost alone (with Parsnip!) but we'll still have our lovely Playground, yay! Tune in on Sunday for my thoughts.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 263 and 264

Well, that's the first week of 2017 flown by already! And, we have another 'two week' challenge in the Snippets Playground this next fortnight.

Here's the/our snippets card for this week - and in fact it's not my card at all! It was made by Janice HERE and I loved it so much it was an instant choice as a weekly pick. I also wanted to offer what Janice used as a prize. I was also very cheeky and asked Janice if I could use her card to showcase the goodies - she kindly agreed and so here it is:

Isn't it fabulous?! A perfect example of CAS and also so elegant. To see what Janice used to make her card please be sure to hop over to her blog! I really couldn't think of a better card design to showcase our prize(s) this time round - big hint there!

Now for a peek at my picks from the past week:

Absolutely brilliant New Year card, made by Trina! And, for extra fun, the clock itself is on a 'wobble spring' - great idea! You can see it 'in action'on a video clip over at Trina's blog too :)

Isn't this a great get well card, made by Barb? And super paper piecing as well, a perfect way to use up little patterned snippets of paper!

Lesley brought this 18th Birthday card to share - and it's one of the cleverest spinner cards I've ever seen. You really should go and peek at the little video clip showing it in action - such fun!

Helen has been a busy little bee - she used loads of snippets making this calendar for her Mum. Such a great idea - and each month has a different Penny Black image as the focal point. The calendar blank came from Papermill Direct (link over on Helen's blog) - as well as a peek at each month. I am so hoping to make one or two later on this year for 2018!

It's really great to see Viv managing to find some free time to play. I absolutely love this card, so fresh and clean - makes me think of Summer!

What a brilliant card from Jane W, the toucan is absolutely splendid and the punched Monstera leaves are a wonderful foil! And I love how the colours in the 'frame' are such a great reflection of the colours in the toucan as well. And a perfect sentiment as well!

And here we have such a lovely card, made by Janis. So evocative of days spent on the beach, carefully making sandcastles and then waiting for the tide to come in and fill our carefully dug out moats :) Happy days! And the netting is so clever - Janis pinched some surgical gauze squares from hubby's vet supplies :)

I really love this beautiful floral card - made by April. Such soft and gentle colours and great use of snippets too. Certainly makes one think of Spring - which won't really be too far off - I hope!

As always, I could carry on with more picks - but time is extra-precious right now. Goodness know how I found time to write this post to be honest.

We had 54 Playmates playing along this last week - with two new little friends joining us:

What a fabulous card from Christine Alexander! So stylish and the inlaid pieces are gorgeous! I think there's a link with our Loll - doing my Miss Marple bit again :)

Love this card too, made by Anna of 'Karasiowa' - a beautiful vintage piece, using loads of snippets and so very tactile as well.

Hope you come back soon to play along with us :)

This coming week's prize is, as usual, linked to a snippets card - not mine, it's Janice's card:

It's the Marianne Design Creatables - Shoe die (LR0291) and the Docrafts - Xcut Embossing Folder - Wicker. Both items are on order (the embossing folder has just arrived here in fact!) so I had to 'borrow' these images for now! You get a better idea of the finished effect if you look at Janice's card (above) of course.

The toy box is actually looking a little bit empty right now after all the Christmas prizes have flown off - but in a lot of ways that's a good thing. Fresh start and all that - although I DO still have some wonderful prizes that have been donated, yet to give away, some have been here for a loooong time as well! After that I might move away from the 'showcase the prize idea' as this craft room can't take much more!  But my plan is to still offer prizes, although perhaps not every single week - but these are just vague ideas at the moment. To be honest it's come close to me locking the Playground gates for good more than once over the last 12 months - but in the absence of anyone wanting to totally take it over I'm soldiering on for as long as possible. I was advised that a DT (Design Team) is like 'herding cats' so really don't want to even think about going down that road. I have really appreciated the times that some of you have stepped in to take over the commenting and weekly picks for me so please never feel that your efforts didn't make a massive difference!

Prize draw time now and our winner of the Lil' Inker 'Filled Christmas Trees' stamp set and pair of matching dies is:

Jane (Willis)

Well done Jane! I know you play along really regularly and am so pleased your number popped up! 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. 

And here's the confession - I'm going on 'teachers training' later this week so that was what all the panic and running round was after New Year. Right now I'm still scurrying round but feeling more in control having decided that some things will just have to 'slide'. In all the rush though I managed to overdo things with this ole back of mine so have been snuggled up to the heat pad for a couple of days. I think the heat pad will be coming with me!

So, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks this time and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 21st January. 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 this fortnight's prize. You might wish to play for one or other of the items and if so please say in your comment and if you win then I'd do a second draw for the other part of the prize. I think they work so well together though. 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! I'll be watching and hopefully commenting from elsewhere. Love from Parsnip (poor baby, he'll be in charge of the Playground aka 'Home Alone' ) - and of course me,

1st Birthday card for Jack

One of our little neighbours just celebrated his 1st Birthday. After all the Christmas cards I made for the Playground Celebrations, I just sat and stared into space for ages with no idea what to make for him - in the end I came up with this:

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank

- piece of pale blue pearlescent card just slightly smaller than the card front, glued in place

- patterned paper from the LOTV 'Bear Necessities' paper pad, trimmed a bit smaller than the blue backing card and glued in place

- the image is from the LOTV 'Babies' Art Pad, die cut with a Tonic Studio's circular die and then layered onto a scalloped circle of pale blue pearlescent card

- then I backed snippets of chocolate brown and pale blue pearlescent card with Stick-It adhesive sheet

- from the brown card I die cut the sentiment and the '1st' using a Presscut 'Happy Birthday' die and numbers and letters from the Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' and the Tattered Lace 'Alphabet - Anniversary Classic' dies

- and from the pale blue pearlescent card I die cut the letters to spell out Jack's name

- positioned the letters and numbers where I thought they looked best and then stuck them in place - burnishing to make sure they say put

- finally I glued the assembled image topper in place and called it done!

Some of you might have picked up that I was struggling with my much loved pink Cuttlebug here in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Thankfully, Santa brought me a new one (I'll get used to the retro shape and bright green in time - although the folding handle is a revelation, great idea!). I used the new CB for this card and was astonished at just how easy die cutting can be - I'd obviously forgotten as my old CB became old and cranky (sounds like me!) with much less pressure, meaning I had to fiddle around adding shims for a decent cut!

Wahoo, happy dance here! And Santa did consult me beforehand - rather than waste the little stock of cutting plates I have as spares I decided to stick with a Cuttlebug. Takes up less space than some of the other models as well - but one day I'll have a bigger one as well, maybe :) Just need to clear some space and move a few things around.

Many thanks to the prize winners for sending me your addresses so promptly! All prizes apart from Kitty's were posted off yesterday - I think Kitty is having computer problems so will just have to wait until I hear from her. I have a slight feeling she did move house so am not going to risk sending her prize to the wrong address :) 

Pixie's Snippets Playground Weeks 260/261 Celebration - Prize Results

At last, it's time for the prize draw which so many of you entered over Christmas. A HUGE thank you to everyone who played along - and I only wish every single one of you could be a winner.

There were 16 different numbers to draw for the prizes, and you'll have to take my word for the Mr Random results. In order to show just one actual gizmo result on here I have to do a screen shot, copy that into the clip board, then drop it into a piece of software (I use GIMP) edit the image to pick out just the result box before copying it into the blog post. Times 16 would take me far too long as am sure you'll understand!

Here we go!

Prize A - Cheery Lynn 'Winters Neighbourhood Border' die, Impressions Obsession 'Evergreen Tree' dies, Lawn Fawn 'Winter Bunny' stamp and matching die, MFT 'Surf and Turf' slider die set and two packets of the super little 'Spin and Slide Discs'

#33 Liz

Prize B - Creative Expressions 'Let It Snow' die

#45 Kath

Prize C - Crafts-Too 'Let It Snow' embossing folder (6 to be won)

#18 Jackie T
#52 Trina
#61 Kitty
#48 Sandy
#55 Glennis
#16 Karen L

Prize D - Crafts-Too 'Merry Christmas' embossing folder and an Xcut 'Christmas Tree' die

#6

Prize E -  Creative Expressions 'Christmas Shadow Box' die set

#2 Val

Prize F - Small Bauble 1 stencil and a Small Winter Cabin stamp set from Inkylicious, plus a white Sakura Jelly Roll pen

#10 Jane (Jane's Journal)

Prize G - Penny Black slapstick 'Sweet Snowman' stamp plus Uniko 'Stunning Snowflakes' stamp set

#41 Linby

Prize H - Clearly Besotted 'Rockin' Robin' stamps set plus matching dies

#7 Chris (Smith)

Prize I - Habico 'Christmas 4' stamp set (3 to be won)

#43 Pat
#8 Lynne in NI
#40 Sue T

As I already said above, I do so wish you could all have won a prize! It was interesting that quite genuinely, no-one won two prizes. Sometimes that Random number thingy spooks me a bit!

So all I need now please is your addresses so I can post the goodies off to you ASAP, for reasons which will become clearer in a week or so. Just drop me an email (my address is on the RHS sidebar) with your address and can you please also put your full name in the address to save me some time. Please also confirm that I haven't got in a muddle and you really do want the prize you won. It'll make sure I don't make any errors. If you put WINNER in the email subject line then I'll be able to spot them quickly too.

You'll understand soon why I'm running round like a scalded cat here BTW! :)

Thanks girls - and a huge thank you to everyone for joining in the fun! 

Love from Parsnip, and of course me!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 262

Happy New Year! Let's hope 2017 is a much better year for many of us - personally I'm glad to see the back of 2016. It's not been the finest of vintages for sure.

And, the mahoosive 'Five-years of the Playground' celebrations have finally drawn to a close. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments and a load of fabulous entries as well!

First, let's look at my snippets card for today - which is a Christmas card as I still had one really nice prize left over:

To prove that I really did make three almost the same and to show what just green and gold looks like for the trees themselves

I used:

- 4" x 5.25" white card blank

- snippets of matt gold card, with a touch of sparkle embedded, bought at Coventry when Kim and I were up there back in September/October. Trimmed the card to just a bit smaller than the front of the card blank and glued it in place

- snippets of white card stock, die cut using a Lil' Inker 'Stitched Rectangle' die and then embossed using a really old Sizzix die called 'Dots' - looks like falling snow to me!

- the trees were huge fun to make - and I made three at the same time - gotta love the Misti :) 

- I used a great stamp set called 'Filled Christmas Trees', made by Lil' Inkers (don't the trees remind you a bit of peg stamp designs, without all the hard work)

- first I stamped the trees using Brilliance 'Pearlescent Ivy' ink onto snippets of white card and then added the little tubs using Brilliance 'Pearlescent Chocolate' ink

- next added the words in the spaces left on the stamped images, using Brilliance 'Pearlescent Poppy' ink

- then I coloured the trees mostly using a gold Gel pen - picking out various elements and also adding some gold to the words. I didn't use my Signa gold pen, although I love it I do find it can be too 'blobby' for very fine detail and will totally cover any lines/veins within a leaf for example

- on the 'Joyful' card I also used Whispers pens in green and red (that's my favourite card of the three!) as they have really fine nibs at one end

- then die cut the trees using the larger of the two dies from the Lil' Inker co-ordinating set and just popped them onto the card front using thin sticky pads

I love, love, love this set of stamps and dies! My first thought was to make one long card with a row of three of these trees on it - but, I had smallish white and gold snippets to use up and also (being conscious of the time it took to make and colour the trees as it was a first play) I wanted three cards to show for the time spent :)

I bought my stamps and dies from Tara over at Seven Hills Crafts - and am delighted with the versatility of the set. You can keep the trees very simple without any additional colouring and they would still make an impact. You can just stamp the trees or choose to die cut them - and there's even a small sized die if you wish to just use the top part of the tree (above the gap for the sentiment). They would make fabulous gift tags of course - and in fact I think that just using one or other of the dies with plain or patterned card would look great for some simple tags. Imagine these trees stamped and embossed in white on Kraft card for example? The list goes on and so many possibilities - top marks to Lil' Inker!

Sales pitch over :)

Now for a peek at my picks from the past two weeks - you amazed me by finding time to join in, although I did spot a couple of people shouted out for prizes and then didn't actually enter anything into Mr Linky. That's fine though, I take Mr Linky as the main man when selecting prize winners anyhow.

Love the clean and crisp look of this card, made by Janice. And yes, we did have a good few Christmas cards as entries this past fortnight! :)

White on white, with a touch of silver. Beautiful card made by Maura!

Karen L made these fabulous Christmas scenes - love them!

What a lovely card this is, made by Wanda. I love the stamping in white onto coloured card for those flowers!

What a delightful baby card, brought to the Playground to share by Liz. I love these shadow box dies sets - this one is just so cute!

Linby shared this fabulous selection of gift tags - and also made me giggle. Apparently her hubby thought she intended to chop up old Christmas cards to make them into tags - I wonder how many of us started our crafting journey doing things like that?

Isn't this THE most amazing pop up box card?! Made by Kathleen and just perfect - it really does look like a bouquet of fabulous flowers.

Such a lovely Christmas wreath, made by Vinita. Wonderful shades of blue and there are lots of photos covering the whole making process over on her blog too.

I love this cute little dragon to pieces! Judy (PJ) made this gorgeous stepper card and aren't the colours in the snippets papers just so perfect with her wonderful colouring? Cute, cute and more cute!

Elizabeth made these Christmas baubles, using snippets of fabric and pretty trimmings beautifully! As I always say, remember that a snippet doesn't have to be card or paper :)

Isn't this the sweetest New Year card?! Made by Nina and I just love how the 0 in 2017 is made by using the bottom snowman in this wonderful balancing act :)

As always, I could carry on with more picks - but time is precious right now.

We had 72 Playmates joining in over the past two weeks - with two new little friends joining us:

First was Chantal, with this lovely box, hiding sweet treats!

And then Marjeta, with a super New Year card.

Hope you both come back soon to play along with us :)

I have pages of notes about who would like to win what from this previous fortnight and I need more time to do the prize draw - 16 prizes in total! Give me a day or two and I'll be sure to publish the results as soon as possible. I'll be asking you to send your snail mail addresses to me right away as I need to get the packages posted ASAP.

This coming week's prize is quite obviously (from the way I've been tooting the trumpet about it!) the fabulous Lil' Inker 'Filled Christmas Trees' stamp set and also the pair of matching dies:

I'm sure you'll agree it needs to be a single prize, it would be a shame to split up such a perfect pairing!

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 7th January. 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 this week's 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 :)

Have a lovely week! Love from Parsnip and of course me,