Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge 342 - and Prize A

Hi there and a warm welcome to the Christmas Snippets Playground. It's time to celebrate both the Christmas and New Year Holiday - plus, it's seven whole years on January 1st since I took the Snippets Playground over from the lovely Jules! I never thought it would still be going strong after all this time - so even more reason to celebrate with the Christmas/New Year draw!

Warning - this is a long post as it sets out how the draw will work in a lot of detail!

This is my snippets card for today:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- snippets of dark red slightly shimmery card stock for backing panels/frames plus a piece of white card stock for the larger white layer

- snippet of white card trimmed to 4" x 4" to fit the larger one of the two Gina K 'Wreath Builder' templates

- then, using the Misti and the Gina K template in a similar fashion to how I did it in THIS post, where I used my own home made template, I stamped a wreath using various Brilliance Pearlescent Dewdrop ink pads (even included a really tiny bit of gold) and a variety of stamps from two stamp sets by Inkylicious ('Mini Branches' and 'Mini Flowers') 

- then I stamped the sentiment using one of the green ink pads I'd used for the wreath and a stamp from Whimsy's 'Country Christmas' set of sentiment stamps.Coloured in the holly berries and also added some gold to the little stars before punching it out using SU's 'Extra Large Oval' punch

- now I had all the bits stamped I could just assemble the card using Collall All Purpose glue. I ran a deep red Whispers brush pen around the two red layers before adding them to the card to hide the white 'core' and a gold calligraphy marker around the two white layers as well as the oval sentiment - just to add a little bit of shimmer but not too much

- I backed the image panel with white fun foam and also added the oval sentiment using a thick foam pad - to add more dimension - finished!

In keeping with the sentiment and the twiggy stamps I used on the wreath I wanted to keep this card looking a little bit 'Country' so I resisted the urge to add a few Josy Rose 'Matt Gold' star shaped nail heads to the wreath.

So, here we have Prize A of the Christmas/New Year annual giveaway - and it's a bit of a bumper one to start us off:

Ooopsie, I also did a selfie reflected in the packaging!

On offer for the next two weeks is a Gina K 'Wreath Builder' template set, two Inkylicious stamp sets ('Mini Branches' and 'Mini Flowers') - and a Whimsy stamps 'Country Christmas' sentiments stamp set. The Whimsy set is on red foam backed rubber and stamps like a dream! And the sentiments themselves are such fun I think - a little bit different.

A little while ago I discovered a UK on line shop stocking the Gina K templates on their own/without being in a set with stamps, so it was a no-brainer really. Making your own template is fun and does save a lot of money but credit where it's due and I felt it was right to buy the real thing when it was obtainable very reasonably.

Anyhow, as in recent years, this is what's going to be going on with the Snippets Playground over the Christmas and New Year (aka Holidays) festivities.

As usual, the Playground Mr Linky which is below will run for two weeks and closing time will be 11am on Saturday 5th January 2018 and this post you are looking at right now is where to add any entries - with a maximum of one entry - over the fortnight. Loads of dithering here once again about whether to allow more entries but I want to keep things as level as possible plus I think you'll be busy enough with friends and family. One entry means you're in the draw - and the more prizes you say you'd like to win in the comments in each 'additional prize' post does increase your winning chances of course. You have two weeks to play (if you want to of course!) as no doubt the Christmas and New Year festivities themselves will be busy for you. Some of you will be busier than others I know and, for those of you who do find some quiet time to craft, it's a chance for you to play along for some rather nice prizes too. It also means I can clear the Playground toy box out of Christmas themed prizes.

So that I don't swamp and confuse you with a load of prizes to choose from in this post, I'll be posting at intervals (most, if not all days) over the coming couple of weeks like I did last year and adding more prizes of varying sizes into the pot as we progress through the holiday.

If you see a prize you'd like to be in the 'pot' for then please leave a 'Yes please' (or similar) comment in the same post where I show you the prize. AND, don't be shy about wanting each prize as it appears - that way you'll have more chances of winning something. So for today's prize, leave a comment below. For me, that's going to be a lot less confusing than me having lots of little lists here and there - especially as there are so many prizes coming up!  It will mean that if you would like to be in with a chance of every prize, then you need to comment on each one as it comes up - and please don't leave it right until the end and nip through all the prize posts adding 'Yes please' to each in one fell swoop. Remember, they will show up serially on my dashboard if you do that so I will notice and wouldn't feel that it's in the true spirit of the Playground. So, if you want to play then do try to pop in over the festivities plus the first week in January to see what's on offer :)

Also, just saying here on this post 'count me in for all prizes that are offered' doesn't count I'm afraid and will mean you don't go into the draw at all - other people are taking the time and trouble to check out the individual posts and prizes and leave comments so it wouldn't be fair to them. Again, this worked fine last year.

As I already said, there will only be the one Mr Linky for all entries - which is at the end of this post of course. I'll remind you where to go to link each time I post a new prize on the blog. Also, I'll run the prize draw using this Mr Linky as a basis for the random number generator and will then look at the relevant post on my blog to find out who said yes to the particular prize I'm running the random generator for.

I hope I've explained how the coming two weeks will work in the Playground? Please just say if it's left you confused.

The Christmas and New Year Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 5th January 2019. There will be a new Mr Linky on Sunday 6th January 2019. The picks and also the results of the multiple raffle/prize draw will appear one week later on Sunday 13th January.

Maximum of one entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Remember, there's the prize today and others will appear over the next two weeks so keep your eyes peeled.

Do say in this post if you want today's prize. And, as it worked so well throughout the year, I won't be splitting any of the prize bundles. As the fortnight progresses you'll become aware that at the end of all this I will have a LOT of packages to post!! The packaging let alone the postage is going to be a considerable task/cost for me in January after the draw results are published. So, do feel free to play along for a prize if you really only want part of it and then spread the love by gifting what you might not want to a friend at your end of the line - I don't mind if you do that, although I've tried to select the stuff in the bundles to compliment one another. And please also remember to link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Now, this is important girls, you can leap in throughout the whole giveaway and say 'yes please' to as many prizes as you like .... even if you haven't already made and entered your snippets make into Mr Linky at that point in time.

Your 'yes please' will certainly be in the pot when it comes to the grand draw, so long as you've entered into Mr Linky by the point at which is closes. At the end of this I'll be using today's Mr Linky as the focus for the random choices so please feel free to squeal with delight at as many prizes as you wish and say some 'yes pleases' on the way through the festive season - just remember to add just one snippets make into Mr Linky below to be in with a chance. 

Oh, and a few of the smaller prizes on offer will have three chances to win as I bought three of the same item a few times! 

Also, I think it's only fair that the way I do the draw is from A onwards. If your name comes out again later on and you've already won a prize then I just re-run the RN generator. I've thought long and hard about this and possibly also written about it before. Much as I like the RN generator there is a kind of biased good chance of repetition because of how the algorithm works. For instance, our UK Premium Bonds worked on sounds years ago and some sounds in any location will pop up regularly. Plus, although it ramps up the postage for me, I really do want as many happy dances as possible from winners! Any strong objections and I'm happy to listen but this is meant to be about spreading the love remember :)

Please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone.

Sorry this is so wordy but I didn't want to leave any issue not covered!

Merry Christmas from Parsnip, Dudley and yours truly. The 'boys' are so excited about the imminent arrival of Santa - fun times ahead I can see :) Parsnip has asked for a smart new apron and chef's hat (he's been watching too many TV cookery programmes!) and Dudley truly doesn't much care so long as it can be played with, licked to death, chewed or eaten!

And here's the first photo we've managed to take of Dudley recently actually with his mouth open in that wry little smile that's developing (thanks Len!) - so a very special Merry Christmas from Dudley - and the doorstop doggie in Len's study, known as Woody and under close watch as Dudley has his beady eye on him as a chewing companion!

NB - at the moment it appears that thumbnails aren't showing up on Mr Linky below, either on my post here or within the relevant Mr Linky widget which only I can get to. They've also disappeared from older challenges on here as well! PLUS, I also checked a couple of other people's challenges and they are also affected. I've raised a ticket with Mr Linky as I think the problem is at their end - especially as older Mr Linkys are also affected. We can carry on and do still link your relevant images as I reckon with a tweak of  some code by the Mr Linky boffins they will all suddenly pop back up as thumbnails - but I thought I should mention it in case anyone is wondering!