Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 301 and 302 - results

Well! Not sure about you but what a week for weird weather down here in Hampshire, UK. Dry and sunny one minute and blowing a very wet storm the next. We're 'hunkered down indoors' as much as possible!

Let's get straight on with our Guest Designer for this fortnight:

No prizes for guessing - who else in our fabulous group alway pops up with a hamster cradled in her hand? Love this card made by our much loved Darnell!

And I also held the 'real' Hammy in my hand when he came to the UK for a visit last year! He's sweet, very soft but also alert at the same time - Darnell in a nut shell (and I mean it about the nut!) And this is the link to Darnell's post. And here's the happy lady herself:

This is what Darnell wrote - which is a quick summary of her blog:

A site for my handmade cards, accompanied by my photos and written meanderings which are occasionally witty, often tongue-in-cheek, and, rarely, profound. Beginning in June 2013, you'll also see lots of NBUS, which is an acronym I coined for Never-Before-Used Schtuff. Feel free to join in, use the acronym, and use up your NBUS, too! Thanks for coming by! Have a beverage and enjoy!

Do hop over to one of the funniest blogs going as well find out more about the cute snippets card of course!

Huge thanks to my lovely friend Darnell for being our ever-popular and well-loved GD this fortnight and also for being such a loyal Playmate over a good few years now.

Who knew that when we picked up on one another's blogs there would be such a friendship formed - I will never forget the fabby few days in Southampton on the first leg of your UK journey with you and so many other utterly wonderful ladies (what a magical day when we all congregated!) who are too many to name lest I miss one out.

Drum roll now - it's time for the fortnightly picks and, as always, so difficult to choose:

First of all, we have another Gold Star winner! This exploding box is absolutely stunning:

CraftDee Donna made this amazing creation - to see more views and also read just how it was made - do hop over to Donna's blog HERE. Well done Donna and do feel free to take a Gold Star badge from the right hand side bar. Well deserved!

For my three picks I settled on a bit of a theme when I looked through which entries I'd listed as possible picks - I chose shaped cards:

A double 'wow' when I saw this amazing card, made by Jane W. Again. super use of snippets and what a fabulous shape as well. I've never seen this style of 'Step Panel' card before, and thought I'd seen most of them - it's on my 'to do list' for sure! That's also one of the beauties about having the Playground picks - they make a great point of reference when I'm looking for inspiration - often ages down the line!

I just LOVE this bottle shaped card, made by Valerija! What a stunning card (which, if my Google translator can be trusted might be to say Happy 50th Birthday) - and the grape vines are such a clever addition as well!  Love this so much!

I know we recently had a really super retro style caravan/trailer as a pick - but here's another one for you - made by Mo. It's utterly fabulous and is for one of her daughters this coming Christmas. The round shape is perfect with the rounded shape of the caravan and so much lovely detail as well. Brilliant!

We had two new Playmates joining in the fun:

Kathy A

Hannah K

It's lovely to see new faces popping into the Playground, even after almost six years of running the challenge it still makes me happy to see 'newbies' - along with all our previous Playmates of course :)

Prize draw time now and our winner of MFT's 'Bold Stripes' Cover-up die plus MFT's 'Essential Sentiments' set of stamps is:

Heather (Wire Wrapture) 

I know that Heather did once share in a prize and is very often in my fortnightly picks (also has two Gold Stars!), so it's high time she had another win! Can you please drop me an email with your address Heather - then I'll post your prize off to you as soon as possible. If you're quick off the mark I plan to go to our Post Office on Monday and will be able to post your prize staight away. My email address is on the right hand side bar.

It was quite interesting, I had to run Mr Random a few times as the first three names out of the hat were just playing for fun! But, I do think it worked out beautifully in the end.

Keep those snippets entries coming girls, you still have a week left to play HERE for weeks 303/304 remember! The prize is Avery Elle's 'Ribbit Ribbit' stamp set and MFT's 'Rectangle Peek-a-Boo Window' die. I will split the prize if you only want to play for part of it.

Love from the little white peril Parsnip. He came with me to the supermarket this week (riding high in the shopping trolley kiddie seat, so embarrassing - and he also insisted on the harness being buckled up to comply with UK H & S requirements needless to say). His aim was to choose choklits and such for Halloween. I shuddered at the chocolate 'eyeballs' that he wants to thrust into little kiddies unsuspecting hands when they come Trick or Treating. He's a bit of a naughty tinker really - but we still bought them, ha, ha!