Sunday 9 April 2017

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 273 and 274 - results

Again, we're halfway through the fortnightly challenge in the Snippets Playground and it's time for our Guest Designer, some 'picks' of the fortnight and of course the prize draw.

Hedgie update - we know for sure that at least two hedgies are feeding each night, they move around so fast it can be hard when checking out CCTV footage but a few times we've spotted two of them feeding together. Aw, so cute :)

Let's begin with our Guest Designer for this fortnight, and it's Helen of 'Helen's Craft Haven', who made this lovely Easter gift bag - it's absolutely delightful and the sweet image is just so perfectly echoed in the sentiment of 'Have a cracking day this Easter time':
Isn't it fabulous?! Such a great idea, wonderful use of snippets and I totally love the image plus super sentiment! I also love how the faux stitching almost convinces you that the bag is made from fabric pieces!

This is what Helen said:

My snippets project is a decorated Easter treat bag (plain bag from Hobbycraft). I raided my My Mind’s Eye ‘Now & Then’ paper pad for snippets...and found lots of thin-ish strips (the kind you get when you trim  a full sheet down), so used those to make my background...distressing the edges & adding some faux stitching. I coloured the bunny image (‘Spring Chick’ by Penny Black) using watercolour pencils, then cut it out using a Nestie die...I cut the scalloped mat for the image from the pink card behind the paper strips. I also used a tiny snippet of patterned paper to paper piece the egg shell...adding a little shading with a pencil. I stamped my sentiment on to a snippet of white card and matted that with a snippet too, then added a couple of co-ordinating paper flowers.

And, here's a photo of our lovely Helen - I detect a mischievous twinkle in her eyes!
Looking back through Helen's blog, there's some fabulous work to be seen - and Helen has been a 'pick' several times in the Playground needless to say.

She started her blog way back in 2008 and way back then Helen's work was already stunning - started off with amazing cards right from the word go. Helen is a real lover of Penny Black stamps and it's such fun to just do a search on 'Penny Black' and see how beautifully she uses their products. Here's one example which might make Helen raise her eyebrows:
I did a little bit of detective work and discovered that Helen was a runner-up in the Penny Black category of the 2011 'Card Maker of the Year' competition with the above
card - yay for Helen! No wonder she's on a few top design teams, with a following of over 500+.

Whilst I was 'furtling around' on the internet (I love that expression Sarn/Sarah!!) I came across something else - which cracked me up! Anyone remember the 'ALS Ice Bucket challenge' a while back? Just go to this link if you want to see Helen being soaked! She'll probably kill me for publishing it - but it does show just what a few searches will turn up on social media and such!

One lovely tradition Helen has is to make a few calendars each year, for close family I think. For UK gals who might want to do the same, the blanks come from Papermill Direct HERE (they only seem to have 2017 calendar blanks at a reduced price at the moment) - it's something I would love to do for 2018 so will be keeping watch on the website.

Thank you Helen for making such a stunning snippets project as our Guest Designer this fortnight! And for emailing to and fro when you were struggling with internet problems as well - what a star!

Remember girls, you can always let me know if you would like to be a Guest Designer - I have a list and would be delighted to add your name.

So, let's move onto my picks from this past fortnight - gold star alert!
 
Now this is a tricky one - Heather already has one gold star in the short time they've been featured here) but this card absolutely leapt out at me as being such a brilliant way to use up snippets! Check out Heather's blog and there are some really good step by step instructions how to do this yourself. Very well deserved second gold star Heather! There's a badge on the RH sidebar if you wish to take it for your blog - no offence if you don't though.
Loads of you know our Kathleen (Kath for short, but as we have two Kath's it's generally Kathleen) - and this card above just made my jaw drop. It's stunning but the next bit will stun you even more - Kath inlaid every single one of those little pink 'fallout' pieces! I read her blog post several times but sure enough - that's what she did 'cos here's the other piece as proof that Kath used to make a second card (without any inlaying I think):
I still stare at the first card shaking my head slightly and thinking what an incredibly determined lot you all are!

I absolutely adore the soft peach tones of this fabulous card, made by Glennis. It really is so elegant, beautifully made and of course used up some white snippets for those lovely flowers!

That's my three picks and once again I focused very much on some interesting ways to use snippets - which hopefully will inspire you.

We had 71 Playmates joining in this past fortnight - one of whom is new to us:
Iona - aka Gail or ionabunny (you choose!)
Welcome 'Little Miss Lotsanames' - who I think we'll call Iona as we do have another Bunny following the blog and she may well come to play soon! Hope you come back and play with us again - looking at the prize draw result I sure hope so!

Prize draw time now and our winner of the the two Inkylicious stamps (A), the Lavinia 'Flower Fairy' stamp (B and the cricket stamp (C) is:
This stunned me - it's only happened once or twice at most that a new Playmate wins straight away on their first visit! Having said that, I guess the odds will be similar whether it's a first visit or not - depending on the number of entries....... it's all the luck of the draw. Well done Iona - 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 a little 'heads up' as published by our lovely Linby on her blog. Carole Matthews is an author who I really like, and she has a new paperback book out called 'Paper Hearts and Summer Kisses'. It's also available on Kindle and I just finished reading it. It's a novel but also based on the real life story of Christine Emberson, a well known UK crafter - and I truly recommend it!


Anyway, keep those snippets entries coming girls, you still have a week left to play HERE remember! Next week is Easter Sunday so I expect you all to be wearing brand new clothes, shoes, white socks, a little hat and white lace gloves. I know that was the tradition when I was a child at least :) Talk about dipping into the past!

Love from the little white peril - and of course from me too







25 comments:

  1. Oooh! you have picked my card - thanks so much Di, and congrats to everyone else too

    ReplyDelete
  2. Totally adorable gift bag by Helen & what a great variety of picks! And congrats to Gail on the win!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fabulous Easter gift bag by Helen and great picks again too this week. Congratulations to Iona on her win. xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. A newsy and interesting post as always and that is a lovely gift bag by the guest designer - off to take a look at her blog right now. Good news about your garden visitors too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow! Helen's makes with snippets are just brilliant and soooo beautiful!
    Fabulous also the other picks! Congrats to the winner!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm loving Helen's makes, that gift bag is so gorgeous. Great pick from the last challenge too.

    Sue xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Miss Di and the lovely Parsnip.
    Congrats to Helen on her GD spot and her work is excellent.
    Love the Easter bag and all the wonderful snippets used.
    Super creations picked for your wonderful featured snippets makes.
    Everyone that enters is sure very creative with their designs that's for sure.
    Thank you for all your hard work involved with this super challenge.
    Lots of crafty love. Jenny L.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fabulous picks and lots of great inspiration from Helen too.
    Kath x

    ReplyDelete
  9. Helen has come up trumps with her pretty gift bag, and congratulations on her GD spot, also great picks again this week and well done to Iona for winning the prize. x

    ReplyDelete
  10. Gosh...you did have a good rummage around the internet to find those!
    Thanks so much for having me as a guest designer - it's been a real pleasure!
    Love the picks from the last challenge - always such wonderful inspiration & congrats to the lucky winner too!
    Helen x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oops...forgot that I would be logged into Blogger under a different name...am currently uploading videos of my music group to our YouTube channel...but I promise that this is me! Ha ha!
      Helen x

      Delete
    2. Ha, for a moment I thought we had a new little Playmate - with a posh name :) Snigger, do I now go and look on YouTube?!

      Hugs

      Di xx

      Delete
  11. What lovely inspiration from your Picks, Di!

    Oh good grief, white lace gloves! That takes me back! Though mine (like my white school socks) were usually 'off-white' ie 'greyish!' I'm glad we don't have all that fuss these days. (Though I still feel a bit awkward going to Church in trousers, even smart trousers! The habits we were taught as kids die hard!)

    love Mags B x

    ReplyDelete
  12. Some brilliant top picks as usual. Remind me not to upset you know I know your stalker abilities! Cara x

    ReplyDelete
  13. Warm congratulations to all the winners, well deserved!

    Love and hugs
    Maarit

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a lovely gift bag from Helen..sooo cute. I'm glad to hear those hedgepigs are coming round Di,I am so jealous. Great pics as always.I have recently got home from Ally Pally..such a great show. Lots of new stash of course! I have enjoyed 2 glasses of Pimm's in the garden..yum.Enjoy the sunshine..what a glorious weekend! Hugs xxx

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Di, wow. Thanks you so much for the lovely shout out. Sorry about my abundance of names. I usually use ionabunny, cos there are many Gail's in blogland, but I have yet to meet another ionabunny LOL. And I am so happy that I was the lucky winner of the lovely prize. Thank you so much and thanks for the fun and inspiration to use my snippets. Hope to join you again soon. Hugz

    ReplyDelete
  16. Well you could have knocked me down with a feather this morning, nearly fell off my chair, thank you so much for picking my entry as one of your picks. The only picks are great too.
    Helen's gift bag is fabulous and I am going to go and tell her .
    We always had our new clothes at Whitsuntide and did the Whit walk round the Village from Church, behind the Banner, that tradition seems to have disappeared too.
    Thank you very much.
    Kath x

    ReplyDelete
  17. Such a pretty gift bag from Helen, one vert clever, crafty lady!
    Super picks this week, and congratulations to Iona, what a great start for her!
    Janice x

    ReplyDelete
  18. Congrats to Iona for her win, as well as the other picks for this week! I love Helen's gift bag with such wonderful detail work! I love all the inspiration I find here whenever I visit :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Fabulous card design on here Di, reconize a few face`s. Thank you for being my latest follower,I`m returning the complement.
    Hugs Pam x

    ReplyDelete
  20. Congrats to Heather on getting another gold star and also to Helen on her GD spot with her fabulous bag. Super picks again this time around and a big Hi and congrats on the win to Iona

    As for the white socks, lace gloves and nice clean clothes, sorry Miss but I had a bit of an accident but honest it wasn't my fault.... the mud just jumped up and splashed me xx

    ReplyDelete
  21. Sorry I'm so late commenting, Di. I've been struggling with seasonal migraines while doing my NBUS commenting. You did a really brilliant writeup and tribute to the very talented and fun Helen and I just love all the gold star winners you highlighted! My goodness, I missed that puzzle of Kath's and must go see it and all these gals up close! I'm very tickled that my friend Gail won on her first visit to the Playground!! Hugs, Darnell

    ReplyDelete
  22. Not long back from my mini holiday in Italy a trial run for my daughters wedding in August so just catching up with blogger .......fabulous array of cards well done all and many congratulations Iona enjoy your win hope you have a fabulous easter weekend take care x

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much if you take the time to comment!

This is a public blog. Those leaving a comment on any post on this blog or entering a piece of artwork into a linky do so in the knowledge that their name and blog link are visible to all who visit this blog and in so doing have published their own personal details and consented to my use of that personal information should they be selected as a winner or to accredit work.