Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #354

Time for a new challenge! Let's get straight on with it. This is my snippets card:

I used:

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

- a snippet of 'lightly patterned in grey paper' I found tucked inside the back of a much loved Teresa Collins 'Sweet Afternoon' paper pad. In fact, the papers are double sided and this was the reverse of one sheet that I'd used a bit of - I just trimmed it slightly to be a smidgen smaller than the card front

- then a snippet of white card and a lovely set of stamps by Concord & 9th called 'Lily'

- I used the Misti and first of all put my snippet of white card to the left hand corner to stamp the lily itself with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink - just did it once as I was coming back later

- most importantly, I left the lily stamp on the lid of the Misti whilst I carried on with the rest of the stamping (just protected the base of the Misti with a snippet of scrap paper to avoid stamping directly onto the platform again with the lily stamp for now)

- then, I moved the stamped lily across to the right hand corner and placed the centre portion of the lily in place, picked it up with the lid and stamped it using SU's 'Daffodil Delight' ink

- added a few spots using another little stamp in the set and SU's Pumpkin Pie' ink (and a small clear acrylic block so I could move from place to place easily)

- time to move the image panel back across to the left hand side and re-stamp the black outline of the lily so that it comes up clearly on top of the coloured stamping

- added the sentiment - using black ink again and also a piece of ink jet printable clear acetate with a grid printed onto it - which is invaluable for aligning sentiments! Put the image panel onto the Misti tucked into one corner and pop the acetate grid lined piece on top of that, also tucked into the corner. Then add the sentiment stamps using the lines to get them straight, pick them up with the lid as usual, remove the acetate and do your stamping onto the card itself. I always do a test run anyhow (OCD strikes again!) and of course I had the piece of paper I'd used to protect the base, with a perfect lily (albeit faint) stamped so I could check the final look

- had a bit of fun finding a 'stitched circle' die - from a set by The Works - of the right size. In the end I decided to go with a die cut with one straight edge and I do like it! Die cut the image first and then trimmed it using a guillotine for the one straight edge

- glued the image panel onto the piece of patterned paper first to make sure it was nicely at the very edge and then glued the whole panel onto the card front - using Collall All Purpose glue

Although I was sort of forced down the route of trimming one part of the circle to be straight - I'll be doing it again for sure. It's for a friend who returned home from the school reunion last weekend and her Mum died the following day. She knew it was imminent but as she's really the cornerstone of our reunions (Secretary and chief 'gopher') she went ahead with her role at the reunion but zipped away first thing on the Sunday to get back to see her Mum, for what turned out to be one last visit. She didn't tell a soul what was going on either, bless her.

The prize this fortnight is:

Ha, caught on camera once again she says noticing the reflection! The prize doesn't include me - it's a Concord & 9th 'Lily' set of stamps and a set of The Works 'Stitched Circles' dies. The stamp set comes with a couple more sentiment stamps so it doesn't have to be used as a 'Thinking of you' card. For speed, and also to keep a CAS look, I didn't colour the whole of the iris in but it certainly lends itself to nice watercolouring or similar.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 22nd June. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, 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.

Work on the outside of the house is ongoing - but the results are just astonishingly good. No cutting of corners and total perfection. So, it's worth the slight upheaval for longer than we thought - just to know everything is spot on. And this is a guy working entirely on his own as well - quite amazing. Rain stopped play on Friday, although in any case there was one final delivery to arrive so it's just as well. The delivery did arrive - but not until 4pm in the afternoon as we were the last delivery of the day on their schedule, which would have been too late in the day - that certainly was serendipity.

There's been a few tales coming back from last weekend about reunion happenings - a few folk had to cancel last minute for one reason or another (including me of course), our President had to miss the Saturday evening dinner dance as her husband became unwell and they went home, and there were some self inflicted injuries. One sprained ankle, one leg broken in three places (larking around by the swimming pool) and one chap regained consciousness after the Saturday evening dinner dance with a whacking big gash in his head (needed seven stitches, so not tiny) - and he had absolutely no recollection of what had happened! Mind you - let's say that all of the injured, which were of the male variety, had been worshiping at 'the altar known as the hotel bar' all day! And no doubt there were a few hangovers in any case. Sigh - these aren't kids either!

I'm doing OK but now have swollen feet and ankles due to a 'rebound' action from being taken off the diuretics suddenly. It's a typical reaction apparently so just have to be patient for a week or two.

No new photos of Dudley this week, although right now he's looking snowy white and fluffy. Len took him for a walk in that dreadful rain on Friday and the poor little fellow was soaking wet when he got home, looked like a very dirty drowned rat. In fact, he was apparently quite frightened as Len took a detour to post some letters for me - but Dudley knows his usual route and wanted to come right back home 'toot sweet'. Time for an immediate warmish bath - which in fact he coped really well with - and he soon looked pristine again. It's so nice when he accepts that some things are done for his own good.He slept like a baby after it was all over.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip (who is overseeing progress and handing up hammers and such to our 'roofing man'), Dudley (on general guard duty) and of course me,