Rudolph Days - April 2019

ScrappyMo's Rudolph Days Challenge is one event I won't miss - it helps to boost my very small (for me) supply of cards for Christmas 2019 for a start! And Maureen is such a sweet lady you really should join in if you don't do so already! I can still see me buying a lot of cards this year - and having come to terms with that - do feel less stressed about targets etc. Amazing what we put ourselves through isn't it?!

This is what I made - hopefully 'simple but effective':

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, side opening

- a 'ready made up' topper, which was included in an order from Tracey at 'Dies To Die For' some while ago. Am not sure that my recent orders have included little 'freebies' - but this one from an old(ish) order has been on my desk for quite some time, patiently waiting to be used

- backed the topper with a scalloped circle, using a snippet of matching red card and a scalloped edged die by Spellbinders, then glued both layers together

- time to look at the card blank and, though I wanted to keep it simple, it was too plain. So, I used my Scor-pal to run tram lines down the right hand side and across the bottom of the card front

- then stamped the sentiment using a stamp from Uniko's 'Most Wonderful' set of sentiment stamps and my usual Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad - and the Misti of course. I did need two stampings for the intensity I wanted, so thank goodness for the Misti!!

- finally  just added the little topper using thin sticky pads. The pads are so thin that, although they add dimension, they also post as a normal letter rate card! Mine are usually made by Sellotape and I buy them online

So that's my total now up to 27 cards made for Christmas 2019.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #351

Time for another new challenge fortnight in the Snippets Playground. Am writing this on the day before the challenge goes live - and it's damp and windy here. Let's hope we haven't had our Summer already - we've had some glorious days recently, at least the children were off school on holiday to make the most of it.

First of all an apology, I might have rectified things by the time this publishes, but with one thing and another I just haven't managed to keep up with commenting on entries for the challenge that just closed. I'll be there ASAP I promise!

And here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

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

- a snippet of green card for the 'frame'

- a snippet of white card for the image panel (some challenges I tend to use just a couple of larger snippets -  depending on what the prize is and whether it lends itself to a variety of smaller snippets or not). A snippet is still a snippet!

- stamped the rockery onto the white panel, using a stamp from the fairly new Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set and a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- then used one of the re-usable masks to cover the rockery before using the lizzy stamp to stamp the flowers and foliage. The masks made by Clarity are brilliant, wish more companies did that

- coloured the whole image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending fluid

- only then did I trim the panel down into a square before adding the sentiment using a stamp from the Hero Arts 'Messages' set of sentiment stamps and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink (and the Misti of course!). The set of sentiment stamps is dated 2007 - and sadly no longer available (I did try!)

- then trimmed the snippet of green card (chosen so I could match some of the foliage to it) to just slightly larger than the image panel

- glued both panels onto the card front - all done!

As so often happens - the colours are so much more vivid in real life - especially the bright (almost neon) orange, sigh.

I love Clarity stamps and this set is so lovely to stamp as well as colour. It came with the Clarity perspex mounts (one for each of the two stamps) - which I did use - but the Misti or any perspex block would have worked just as well. Plus, the mounts/handles take up a lot of extra storage space - the stamps are the usual clear cling material (great quality and very well made I should add!) and really I think that Clarity could save work, postage and costs by selling their stamps without accompanying mounts - just my opinion of course. Their products are still fabulous!

And of course, the prize this fortnight is this:

A Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set. Now, I do of course also have the two mounts which came with the stamp set, as shown in the photo, and they're also part of the prize. But, if you win and are happy not to have them sent then that's just fine. It's easier and cheaper postage for me (the difference between a large letter and a small parcel) - but as they came with the stamps it's only fair to give you the option. I think my own ones will end up in the 'donate or throw out' pile of stuff when I do my intended blitz of the craft room!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 11th May. 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 want 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 don't add you to 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 ☺

And finally, a few photos of Dudley for your enjoyment taken just minutes apart the day after his 2nd part of being groomed (so only taken on Tuesday or possibly Wednesday. They do show how he can look so puppy-like one minute - and rather elegant the next! Captions as dictated by Dudley:

Aw come on Daddy. I'm doing my 'please come and play' pose here!

Just to prove that there's still a lot of peach on my ears and down my back (aka saddle). And I'm trying the 'look a bit mournful' approach now to see if anyone will play

Me - being a real Havanese and doing my 'regal' look! Puppy one minute and a real 'poser' the next. And I'm so good when Mama fixes my top knot - I lie very still with my chin on my paws now and rarely move during the whole process. To be honest, it makes life much easier to get it over and done with rather than putting up a fight - but that's just between us!

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me -

Easter cards - 2019

It's been a long haul recently as you no doubt know (sigh) and making Easter cards wasn't the easiest of things to do. I have loads of Easter goodies but somehow felt a huge lack of enthusiasm. Possibly, it's because I only make very few Easter cards anyhow, but I came up with a fairly simple design which I used to make four very similar cards - only one of which you need to see:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" off white card blank - chosen as the image has a soft look about it and I thought pure white would be too harsh 

- Penny Black 'Oh Spring' Stickeroos - popped onto snippets of white card and then trimmed down to suit (daffodils on all four that I made). To be honest these are among my very least favourite Stickeroos ever in terms of usable images - so I only picked a few out

- snippet of SU 'Old Olive' card which was die cut using a really pretty label die by Marianne Creatables (LR0154) - bought many years ago

- at that point added the sentiment using my favourite Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink  and a 'Happy Easter' sentiment from Stamping All Day. They have a lovely variety of sweet sentiments - HERE.

- then just stuck the image panel onto the label and added a lemon ribbon tie (using thread to pull the ribbon through the hole). Narrower ribbon would have been better but at that point I was on a mission and had no wish to hop around our local Hobbycraft!

- finally, used thin sticky pads (which are great to cut down as you wish) to adhere the label to the front of the card

In the end, these were made with care and love, for sure. And I know I've said it before - but I have a swatch of all my SU card stock, which is how I can put a name to SU snippets!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #349 - results

First of all - Happy Easter everyone! I needed a couple of last minute Easter cards earlier in the week - and rustled them up in about an hour. A record for me.

Don't usually show a card on 'results week' but as I used snippets of green card, here's what I made:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, side opening

- piece of white card stock onto which I stamped the chicken and egg from Stampin' Up's 'Hey, Chick' set plus the 'Easter Wishes' sentiment by Pink Gem designs

- coloured the chicken and egg using Pro markers and also Whispers markers for the very fine bits such as the chick's legs. I do have some Letraset Extra Fine Nibs for Pro markers but was in a hurry!

- a snippet of SU 'Certainly Celery' card stock - trimmed to just slightly bigger than the stitched rectangle

- then glued the layers onto a card front - all done!

I really like the quirkiness of this SU set of stamps - always makes me smile.

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

I do so love this adorable little Easter gift bag, made by Kath! Such a great way to use snippets on the cute bunny and other decorations - someone will be thrilled with this for sure!

This absolutely had to be one of my picks! I totally love the design, great way to use up snippets. And the image is just wonderful - DO hop over to Meghan's blog and you'll see a perfect, absolutely matching, photo there of Meghan's niece and nephew. Brilliant! And, as always, such fabulous colouring of the image too.

I really love this card, made by Glennis. Such a pretty background and the flower is stunning! I know the flower was stamped onto a snippet of white card - I bet most of us have loads of little white snippets we can't bear to throw away! And the final touch of the washi tape and heart is just perfect!

No new Playmates this time, although we had a total of 58 entries - yay!

Now it's prize draw time, and our winner of the MFT 'Stitched Diagonal Cover Up' die and the Impression Obsession 'Thanks' die is: 

Liz (Cavill)

Well done Liz! I think you'll get a good bit of use out of the cover-up die especially. Please send me your address, with your 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. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and 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 #350 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a Clearly Besotted 'Panda Planner' set of stamps, plus a £15 gift voucher (which was kindly donated by Clearly Besotted).

Dudley's hair trim session on Wednesday turned out to be a bit of a saga. The place is a bit off the beaten track on the outskirts on Winchester - I drove whilst Len had Dudley on his lap -  doing the usual yodeling act (Dudley, not Len!). And the stupid Sat. Nav decided to play silly games and I/we got hopelessly lost - going round in circles. I knew that, once I spotted the main street of Winchester with the iconic statue of King Alfred, that we were in trouble! Who knew there were so many steep hills and narrow lanes around the City itself. Eventually we did find the place and left Dudley with his Auntie Steph ..... whilst we recovered in a nearby Costa Coffee. As I suspected, he needed a fair bit of work on those matts and the upshot is that we're taking him back for 'Round Two' on Monday morning! So far it's possible that he won't have a puppy cut just yet - but if it means double sessions then it's not fair on Dudley really so we'll see what happens. We're only being charged for one session - but I still have to do that awful 'hunt the groomer' thing all over again!

I haven't managed to take a photo of him since Thursday afternoon's outing, in fact he looks very much the same (as Steph spent the time working on the matts). But, I did spot that some of you wanted to see his starfish impression so managed to do a quick shot of him before the grooming trip:

To be honest, it's not a brilliant photo - I've had better chances since but didn't have the camera to hand. This is one of Dudley's favourite places to lie, totally flat on his tummy and cool down - on a bathroom floor with his nose just resting on the landing carpet - so his nose is at the bottom of this photo, hidden by his top knot flopping forward. Legs splayed out behind him and often forming a real starfish with all paws spreadeagled wide apart.

He weighed 6.2 kg the other day, so is certainly stabilised at what might well be his fully grown weight.

Other Dudley news is that he met a sweet little 'Princess' on his walk just before we headed off to Winchester. From Len's description, she might be a little Shih Tzu. She's lives quite locally, called Tilly and is just 14 weeks old. We'd been wondering about Dudley being so shy with other dogs (male and female) and hoping it was just a puppy thing - having your puppy hide behind your legs is obviously not what you want. But, no such problems with Tilly - it apparently was mutual love at first sight. With both dogs dancing around playing and then whining when it was time to carry on their separate ways! That's our boy!! x

As always, Parsnip and Dudley send their love, and so do I of course!

Golden Wedding Wishes - but a bit late!

A really special blogger friend just celebrated 50 years of marriage - well done to both you and your lovely hubby. HUGE congratulations! This lady is often my most truthful and yet funniest critic, we've been lucky enough to meet up and she was absolutely what I would have expected - in the best way possible!

I've kept her name anon. (as she is quite a private person) - otherwise I'd be up there tooting about it from the rooftop! How lovely to share in their special celebrations with this card - photographed slightly from the side to stop the glare:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" off white card blank, side opening

- slightly smaller layer of gold mirri card

- then a smaller again layer of Centura white pearl card (which is off white in fact, hence the card blank not being bright white) embossed using an X-Cuts 'Polka Hearts' embossing folder. To be fair, I trimmed the embossed layer to exactly where I wanted it after doing the embossing, so the hearts lined up and was just so lucky that it was as I wanted so I didn't need to trim the gold layer or the card blank down - which I often do, to make sure things are symmetrical! OCD - or even 'CDO' strikes again!

- then I dug into my precious X-Cut snippets of self adhesive gold paper and die cut two Marianne hearts using the 'LR0129' set of dies - possibly one of the first set of dies I ever bought and so rarely used (bad me as it's gorgeous!)

- next die cut the numbers 5 and 0 from a snippet of the same adhesive paper using a Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' set of dies

- and finally, with yet another snippet of X-Cut self adhesive gold paper, die cut the sentiment 'celebrate' - by Paper Smooches from their 'Birthday Words' set

- then it was just a matter of placing everything where I'd planned it to go. Apart from one minor detail - do NOT use fairly thin adhesive plain foil on an embossed background! But, with the help of careful positioning and also some glue so I didn't need to press down too firmly - we got there in the end! Just please don't pick at it :)

I seem to have a real rush on right now, needing to make special cards. It's good as it focuses the mind immensely!

BUT, Dumbo here got the date totally wrong. The card was made, written and all ready to post when I spotted that I was going to be almost a week late! Instead of Wednesday 17th, the big day was Friday 12th April.   

So it's a belated Happy Anniversary - K & C!! xx And a woof from Dudley :)

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #350

Easter is almost here! The local kiddies have already been off school for a week now. Mixed weather for them so far but the past couple of days have been gloriously sunny and quite warm.

Dudley didn't have his trim as planned on Thursday (although I finally had my own hair trimmed etc. on Tuesday - at last!). But, Dudley's 'Auntie Steph' has moved to another branch and that leaves the local groomers without anyone qualified to do a scissor trim at the moment - so we're off down to Winchester on Thursday with 'a no doubt yodeling his head off' Dudley to see Auntie Steph for a trim. Recently the little chap has started to develop mats of hair where his harness rubs. We're doing out best to keep on top of them but it's a lot of extra work and probably not all that comfortable for Dudley - although we're both very gentle when working on him. So he might come home with a puppy cut of sorts - but certainly not shaved which is the only option at the local branch right now! Watch this space for more news after the visit :)

And here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, tent style to make a step further on that bit easier

- a snippet of Kate Knight's 'Totally Tropical' paper, which was free with a magazine ages ago. I was reminded that I still had some snippets of this gorgeous paper when Sandra H entered a card into the Playground just recently

- a snippet of blue card to add to the strip of patterned paper - later on

- snippets of bright pink, blue and green card - which do match the patterned paper better than in the photo needless to say

- onto those snippets I stamped a selection of nine sweet little pandas from the Clearly Besotted 'Panda Planner' set of stamps. Three pandas for each colour, stamped using the Misti and a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- then used my SU 1" square punch to punch out the little images into squares

- gently did some pencil lines on the card front and adhered the nine squares using a tape runner - then rubbed out the pencil lines

- at that point I could see just how much room I had left at top and bottom of the card and trimmed down the patterned paper into two strips, leaving overhangs at either side

- popped them onto strips of the blue card using the tape runner

- final touch was to flip the card front over and, from the back, trim off the excess from the strips at the sides of the card

I do so love this sweet little set of panda stamps, some very clever touches in the designs if you look closely (eg. the panda holding the heart has hearts in his eyes) - and there are actually 12 stamps in the set to choose from. So, you could make a lovely little planner with a different panda for each month! I didn't add a sentiment as my box of 'ready finished cards' is sadly very low on general cards.

And of course, the prize this fortnight is this:

It's a set of stamps, same as the ones I used, made by Clearly Besotted called 'Panda Planner'. AND, there's more as well!! I bought these stamps whilst laid up and scouting round for nice bargains for the Playground toy box. There was a little hiccup with one of the Clearly Besotted orders and they were so quick to put things right. During our email exchanges I mentioned that the reason I buy two of so many of their products is for the Playground - purely as it can trip sellers up when I order two of things. And guess what - ping - back came another email with a gift card code for £15 worth of Clearly Besotted goodies to offer to you girls as a prize. So - rather than adding something else to this little stamp set from the toy box - the prize now is the stamp set AND £15 worth of Clearly Besotted goodies for you to choose for yourself! I might even enter as well this time, snigger :)

How great was that then, such a lovely gesture. I would like to offer both parts of the prize as one complete prize - betcha all love those dear little pandas anyhow! So you would receive the panda stamps directly from me and I would also forward the Clearly Besotted email onto you for you to use at your leisure - I've checked and there's no time limit on the validity of the gift card code.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 27th April. 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 don't add you to 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'm still having a few leftover aches and pains after the dreaded gout - but nothing like it was and each day generally brings a step forward - so to speak, basically it's probably the long term arthritis having a moan!

And, as Dudley is having what might be more of a trim than usual - I took a few photos on Thursday late afternoon when we were in the garden with him:

This is the routine - which I look forward to each evening. First of all, a couple of treats from Mama. It's the big brown eyes they can't resist :)

And then, doing my impression of a baby polar bear - and dancing as well - for treats from Daddy too. I can dance on my two back legs perfectly - a throw back to the days of my ancestors being street entertainers

No harm in lying here looking soulful in the hope of more treats is there? What? You're gonna wash my face when I get back indoors? I'll have you know, I worked hard to get it this grubby!

OK, point taken. Not too many treats at once - so now I'll just curl up and have forty winks. BTW, I know it looks just like a fluffy rug but it really is me - head with peachy ears nearest the camera and tail at the far end. It's my 'isn't he tiny and doesn't he look cute' look!

 

It's true, Dudley does look tiny when he's curled up asleep - on the other hand he looks just the opposite when splayed out on a cool tiled floor like a starfash! And yes, he really does feel as soft and silky as he looks. Len says he's a great accessory for a chap out walking with him - all the ladies stop to coo and make a fuss, of Dudley of course!

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me - 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #348 - results

As so many of you say, the weeks seem to just fly past right now - no sooner have I written one Playground post it seems to be time for another one! Keeps me out of mischief though:)

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

I really love these pretty Easter cards, made by Heidi. The stamp she used is lovely and totally lends itself to paper piecing to use up a few snippets. Great Spring colours as well!

 

It's never too soon to make Christmas cards and this one is just stunning! Helen brought it to share - and I think it's so elegant. Snippets of gold, and also a snippet of kraft card for the stag - absolutely gorgeous design!

Robyn made this fabulous card and the freshness, as well as that wonderful fuchsia, just called out to me! You must go and read how Robyn made the card - there are a few very neat tricks there such as colouring onto the stamp with water colour pencils (something I've never thought of doing, markers yes but not pencils). And the way Robyn added the sentiment circle is also very clever.

I just love the Playground for new ideas  and techniques to try out! 

Let's also welcome two new playmates as well:

Chandini (and our first set of twins in the Playground as well!)

Kate (Cards a la Kate)

Hi there girls, so glad you came to play and we do hope you come back again soon!

So, we had two (three really) new playmates this time and a total of 67 entries. I'm so happy that numbers are really healthy - and of course that you're using up some of those dreaded snippets!

Now it's prize draw time, and our winner of the Clearly Besotted 'Hoppy Easter, set of stamps and matching dies is:

Janice (Rohde)

I'm pretty sure that Janice is a big fan of 'Clearly Besotted', so this should make her smile a lot when she finds out! Please send me your address Janice, with your 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. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and 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 and I'll post the prize off to you ASAP this coming week.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #349 - you can find it HERE. The prize is an MFT 'Stitched Diagonal Cover Up die' and an Impression Obsession 'Thanks' die.

And, a few people have commented that they wouldn't attempt to line the stripes up as I did on my 'sample snippets card' for challenge #349. The thing is, that's exactly why I lay in bed pondering just how it could be done to always work without fail. And, by following my little instructions below that card - I promise you it WILL always work. Basically you're cutting the sentiment die in exactly the right place, every single time! In a way, it's a bit like cutting a sentiment into a patterned piece of paper to make a 'camouflage' card. And those always line up perfectly don't they?

Afraid there's no new photo of Dudley this time round. He's booked in for a grooming session on Thursday so I'll try to take a photo - once he's back home looking all freshly bathed and groomed.

The hedgies are still visiting each night, and somehow they've avoided being around when Dudley goes out for night time toilet trips - amazing really, but no doubt it'll happen as time goes on.

And lastly, I'm almost back to how I was before the dreaded gout - hooray! My GP has agreed that I need to go onto preventative medication, after giving things a further month to totally settle down. Phew - although it isn't infallible, it's the best option there is.

As always, Parsnip and Dudley send their love, and so do I of course!