Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #336

We almost didn't have a fresh challenge this time, things got so busy preparing for Dudley's arrival and then of course settling him in with us.

I'll add some photos further down this post if I get the chance as I'm 'Home Alone' with him right now (Saturday morning) and really do need eyes in the back of my head despite all the puppy proofing we did. Auntie Sarn sent him a really soft squeaky hedgie toy - which is today's favourite toy but right now he's on my lap as he's all played out. Thankfully Len will take over when he gets back from archery so I can finish typing this post.

It's fair to say we're both quite weary - gotta laugh,we're having to keep slippers well hidden from him and Len keeps his in the bath when he isn't wearing them!

Hooray, Len is home now so I can carry on with this post. And guess what, the little scamp has decided it's now time he had an afternoon snooze! So he's in dreamland and Len is off the hook.

Even in the midst of everything else going on I did realise that I could miss our lovely Maureen's Rudolph Days challenge if I didn't at least get a bit of a wiggle on. This snippets card has nothing at all to do with the prize this time but it does mean I can join in with Mo's challenge - sorry it's not my finest work Mo!

So, here is my snippets card - on which I used a leftover scrap of blue card (SU) and part of a Christmas card from the 'saved to up cycle' box:

 I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- a snippet of blue card from the snippets folder, with just a smidgen trimmed off to make it slightly smaller than the card front, then glued in place

- the front of a Christmas card we were sent a couple of years ago - which already had the outlines of the top part trimmed around, so it's an up cycled card that almost made itself

- all I added was trim the sides slightly and add the sentiment using the Misti, Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a sentiment from the Paper Smooches 'Christmas Sampler' set of stamps before gluing it onto the card front

It's been too 'full on' to get out the Josy Rose Hot Fix rod but I think a single silver star might look just right - where the watermark is on the photo at top left, to embellish the blank area of blue. In fact, once I've got this post scheduled I'll do that right away whilst peace reigns here for a while.

The prize this time is part of a package of goodies that Viv sent to me for the Playground toy box a little while ago:

It's a Cut n Boss 'Classic Collection' set of dies and a Tonic Studios 'Mariposa Petals' die. Please note that I won't split this prize so if you play and want to be in the draw remember that you will receive both items, but of course you can then give one to a friend if you don't want both items! It keeps things easier for me - and also keeps the postage down as well.
 
As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 13th October. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you're wanting to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I ignore you on my little list.

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 :)

I know that I'm a bit behind with commenting on entries for the challenge that has just closed. I'll be there ASAP I promise! And, although am still avoiding using the Cuttlebug, my shoulder is tons better! Just in time as well!   Thank you so much for all the get well soon wishes, it seems to be a fairly common thing amongst us crafter and bloggers!

And also, huge thanks to those of you who sent really lovely cards for the arrival of Dudley - they were waiting for us when we got home with him so it really was perfect timing! I'll be emailing you ASAP to say thank you individually - what a lovely bunch of people you are!

Here he is just a couple of hours after we arrived home with him. First of all he totally crashed out for a sleep and later on chose a rope tug toy as his new friend for the rest of the day. And then, after playing for a while he just fell asleep where he was! Chewing is top priority right now - help!

Flaked out, with absolutely no shame either! He came with his own blanket with smells of his parents and siblings, plus a couple of toys as well

Playing tug

Flaked out once again - it's a hard life - but don't anyone try to take this tug rope away from me!!

Love from Parsnip (always my special furry white bundle), little Dudley and of course from me,

Squeal! Today is Dudley Day!!

We're off to collect little Dudley later on this morning. This was him on Tuesday at the breeder's house, playing hide and seek! He's a real character and there's gonna be some fun (and very busy) times ahead :)

We're so very grateful for all the photos and videos which we've been sent by the breeder - charting the past almost four weeks of waiting for him. And his little nose is getting blacker as the pigment kicks in, but we've always said it could be sky blue pink with purple spots on - so long as he's happy and healthy.

The house and garden have been 'puppy proofed' to within an inch of their lives. This is an example of the upstairs banister railings:

Taking no chances that he sticks his head, followed by his little body, between the white uprights ........... it's a looooong fall onto a tiled hallway. Clever 'Len the Inventor' went and bought a roll of brown clematis netting (after I trawled for hours trying to find the right ready made thing on line) - I think he did a great job using cable ties and ingenuity, and until Dudley is bigger it's some peace of mind (watching that he doesn't decide to chew through it!) for the odd time he will come up, in my arms until he's big enough to manage stairs, to help in my craft room. I suspect that for a while when alone with him I'll be downstairs in any case though. And of course we have puppy gates all over the house - kitchen/hallway, top and bottom of stairs and a spare one to move round as needed.

A friend of Len's did say at archery yesterday that, no matter how well prepared you think you are for a new puppy - there will always be that one thing you've forgotten! Eeeeek - I wonder what he eats?!?! Joke :) x

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge # 334 - results

It's really beginning to look as if Autumn is well on the way. Leaves on the trees are changing to beautiful gold and orange hues and there's that lovely fresh feel of Autumn in the air. As well as some high winds (including some wet and rainy days)  - which isn't as much fun of course! But, I do prefer it to the scorching hot Summer we had - a bit of everything is fine by me!

The shoulder was coming along a treat and then the other day I got silly and overdid things - I know many of you warned me but it's so easy to think 'Just doing THIS surely won't cause a problem, will it?'. Little lesson there I think!

Anyhow, let's get straight on with the fortnightly 'picks':

What a darling card, made by Aileen and using acetate in such a clever way as part of the front of her card. Those little fairies really do look as if they're floating in the air. Love it!

Absolutely fabulous Origami doll card, made by Kathy A. What a brilliant way to use up little snippets of paper and so pretty as well. Hop over to see the other dolls Kathy made.

I think this is such a clever use of snippets by Karen (Ladd). It's a technique that's been around for some time, called Serendipity Squares where you take little snippets of scrap paper or other bits and pieces, glue them onto a backing of card, cut them into squares and then embellish, emboss etc. as you wish. Do hop over to Karen's post and take a peek!

And we had three new Playmates joining us this time:

Mi sitio Scrap

Harriet

Sherry G

Three new Playmates - brilliant stuff! Of course, our lovely regular players are absolutely no less thought of and we've all become good friends over the years.

A huge welcome to the Snippets Playground ladies - hope to see you again soon! Go and visit one another - that's really the key to making the Snippets Playground a happy place to play!

So that was three new Playmates this time round - and we had a total of 69 entries - wahoo, a really good turnout!

Now it's prize draw time, and our winner of the Lawn Fawn 'Upon a Star' stamp set is ............... Wait for it though, this was a wildly popular prize and loads of you so badly wanted to win that I thought it would be a really sweet way to celebrate the impending arrival of Dudley this coming week. The little images of the bunny and the fox are almost as cute as he is!

So, I ordered two more on Friday, making THREE in total to be won. Do bear in mind though that, although they will be coming to me from the UK, I can't see them arriving for a few days yet, so my trip to the Post Office will hinge on when the other two sets get here and I can post all three off in one go.

So, here are our three winners:

Scrappy Mo

Lynne

 
 Helen

Do please send me your addresses, with full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. I don't keep addresses of previous winners, even if they might be in my private address list - if that makes sense! It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course, not that I doubt it really! I'll post your prize once I hear from you AND all three prizes are in my hot sticky little paws as I said earlier. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #335 - just check back a bit and you'll easily find it. The prize is a MFT 'WISH' die - and there are two of them on offer just to increase your chances!

A REMINDER. I am generally smart enough to spot when someone joins us purely for a prize - this challenge is very relaxed BUT I do look for good, and often inspirational, use of 'snippets'. It also helps if you say what your snippet(s) is/are in your blog post.

Obviously I won't normally offer multiples of prizes on the spur of the moment but I think this is a special week ahead so wanted to spread the love a little further.

I'll be hopping around commenting in little bursts although Dudley the Havanese will be coming to live with us from Thursday so all has to be ready for his arrival of course. Who knew a little ball of fluff could mean such disruption! And that's before he gets here! Len has worked so hard puppy proofing the house - and Parsnip is in charge of looking after all the chewable soft toys such as teddies, monkeys and such stuff which up until now have been perched on low shelves, in little nooks, on the fireplace hearth etc. etc. within reach of a curious puppy. It certainly has helped in the drive to go minimal!

Hope you all have a lovely week ahead, and little Parsnip sends his love too!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #335

What a week it's been! First of all I've been trying really hard to rest this shoulder, so serious crafting hasn't been 'on the cards'. I tried cutting a die cut using the Cuttlebug earlier in the week and it was just too painful - OK the die was a cheap and complicated one but even so. It's getting better slowly, so long as I don't do anything to 'pull' it again which takes me a step backwards - easier said than done!

And, middle of this last week I had yet another birthday. It was quiet but a lovely day just the same - and HUGE thanks to all you brilliant people who sent cards, gifts and also emails and Facebook messages. I feel so blessed to have such a caring group of friends - mwah! xx

SO, with all that's been going on I don't have a new snippets card for you I'm afraid but there is a prize (in fact, two the same!) if you scroll down this post.

And, a LOT of time has also been spent with Len - sorting out things ready for a new family member who will join us a week on Thursday. Believe me, this little chap is causing quite an upheaval here - plus enough stuff to set up a pet shop!

Meet Dudley (also known as the 'Cool Dude' according to Len, due to his calm and very laid back attitude to life ........so far of course!):

He's a Havanese puppy (born on 22nd July) and the most adorable little fluff ball ever! A few of you do already know he's coming to live with us but this is his first appearance on 'social media' - grin.

This means that life will be rather different for us no doubt and, to be honest, it will do me the world of good to not be ensconced at the desk either crafting or blogging for hours at a time, as so often happens. I think it's the root cause of this shoulder problem really.

I'll carry on crafting when time (and Dudley) allow - and most certainly the Snippets Playground will continue! As I said, the main reason for no card this fortnight is purely as I'm trying to get fit for all those Dudley cuddles ...... and the other things that I know only too well come with a young puppy!! Eeeeep!

However, I recently managed to buy two more identical dies which were a very popular prize a little while ago - it's taken ages for them to be back in stock:

• 

I used it HERE on a card if you want to see it in action! It looked like this - and it's about to wing its way to Len's youngest great-nephew Joe this coming week:

It's the MFT 'Wish' die and so versatile, I'm just sorry I couldn't make another card for this post using it. And, I can't lay my hands on any more of that great 'Marble' background stamp right now either. So, it's just the die itself this time - but with two chances.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 29th September. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize(s). Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw. There are two on offer!

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you're wanting to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I ignore you on my little list.

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 :)

Love from Parsnip (currently muttering to himself and building barricades against puppy intrusion!) and of course from me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge # 333 - results

It's beginning to look as if Autumn is just around the corner here. The temperatures are still up and down like a yo-yo but at times there's a little Autumn freshness in the air. It's my favourite season and brings back many happy childhood memories of the delights of hunting for conkers, shuffling through crisp piles of fallen leaves - and the promise of evenings in front of a warm fire (when we weren't living in hot countries).

Once again, no Guest Designer and no trip down Memory Lane with one of my old cards. I've overdone things a bit here catching up with household stuff and now have a right shoulder that sounds like a packet of broken biscuits with lots of crunching, and it hurts too! So let's just get straight on with the picks for this fortnight as am sure some of it also stems from using the keyboard and mouse a bit too much.

Let's get straight on with the fortnightly 'picks':

This lovely card was made by Becca and is such a brilliant idea! A real snippets buster with a rainbow of the words 'happy' and then the single Birthday at the bottom right - great idea!

I've chosen to show you the inside of this terrific underwater 'tunnel' card, made by Heather. You can see the outside over on her blog post HERE - and no doubt one 6 year old little lady will be absolutely thrilled when she opens her card - love it!

I really love this card, made by Bonnie for a recent Less is More Challenge. It's really pretty and of course uses snippets beautifully. But it's the tip that really stopped me in my tracks - to line up the small squares perfectly, Bonnie popped them onto one large square of white card before adding them to the card front.  What a great idea!

And we had two new Playmates joining us this time:

Donna Flowers

Donna Barrow

Welcome to the Snippets Playground ladies (both named Donna as well)   - hope to see you again soon!

So that was two new Playmates this time round - and we had a total of 53 entries - same as last time.

Now it's prize draw time, and our winner of the MFT 'Birthday Candles' and 'Party' dies is:

Valerija

Oh how lovely! Yet again it's someone who plays regularly and also is due for a win  Many congratulations Valerija - I'm sure you will have lots of fun using your prize, especially as I've seen that you do make quite a lot of cards for young children.

Do please send me your address, with full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. I don't keep addresses of previous winners, even if they might be in my private address list - if that makes sense! It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course, not that I doubt it really! I'll post your prize once I hear from you. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #334 - just check back a bit and you'll easily find it. The prize is a Lawn Fawn 'Upon a Star' set of stamps - totally adorable as well!

I'll be hopping around commenting in little bursts in an effort to let this shoulder settle down.

Hope you all have a lovely week ahead, and little Parsnip sends his love too!

Birthday card for Kai

Kai is our much loved honorary daughter - and also the Mum of Mia and Livi (Len's granddaughters). She recently had a Birthday and Len suggested I ought to have an owl on the card I was planning to make for her. Huh, she adores owls and of course I'd taken my best owl stamps to give to her when we had the card making spree in Germany fairly recently.

Then, I remembered the brilliant Stampin' Up 'Owl' punch! Good ole SU to the rescue :)

The card I made is very much based on an old one I found on Pinterest - needless to say I can't find the link again. Anyhow, hats off to whoever designed this card originally, it's such a simple design but I do think it's very effective - this is my version:

I used:

- 5" x 5" off-white card  blank, side opening

- snippet of blue card which was die cut using one of The Works 'Stitched Squares' dies

- snippet of green card, die cut using a very old die by Marianne Creatables 'LR0120' (one of those with the release foam) in dating back to when I very first got a Cuttlebug) - and put to one side

- snippets of brown, beige, cream and black card to punch out the various elements of the owl so I could look at him and decide on the size of the moon to position the sentiment (as you do) - then popped into a deep plastic lid to keep them safe whilst I made up the owl, using a glue pen

- the moon came next and I used a square of cream card in the Misti to stamp the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and a stamp from the LOTV 'General Greetings - Small' set of stamps (still an old favourite!). Often it's easier to stamp a sentiment and then die cut afterwards rather than the other way round - err, and I really meant to use a dark brown for the sentiment but hey-ho - my hands were ahead of the brain!

- used a die from the Tonic Studios 'Circle Layering' set to die cut the moon

- so now all the elements were done and first of all I glued the blue background to the card front, using Collall All Purpose Glue

- then laid it all out and glued the leafy branch in place using a fine glue pen (I'd already trimmed quite a few curls and whirls from the branch before I was happy)

- next came the moon, making sure the sentiment was as level as possible - glued in place using Collall All Purpose Glue again

-then it was the turn of Kai's favourite - the owl. I added it to the branch using thin sticky pads just to add a bit of dimension

- Len peeked in the craft room just as I finished and said it was lovely (his idea of course) and suggested maybe I ought to add a heart! So funny, the punch has a little heart as one of the elements so I punched one from a tiny snippet of red card and added it with a glue pen - and it made a real difference having the little pop of red

Got top marks from Mister Len - whoop, whoop! Or should that really be hoot, hoot?! And Kai loved it too :)