Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge 368 - 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 eight whole years on January 1st since I took the Snippets Playground over from the lovely Jules!

First of all I have to add a bit of a disclaimer. On Wednesday evening (having finished doing all the Christmas decorations luckily) just before bed, Dudley and I were playing chase around in our bedroom - a nightly ritual I confess - whilst Len was 'closing the house down for the night'. I managed to get my feet tangled up whilst avoiding the little fella who was frolicking around them, reached out for the bed and sort of missed. It wasn't quite a straight fall onto the floor but in the process I managed to do something to my left shoulder. Absolutely not Dudley's fault in any way - wrong place at wrong time, but you know what - he ran and hid in the bathroom when I squealed in pain/tried not to throw up. Poor little sausage, first thing had to be a one-armed cuddle to reassure him I was OK!

It's been extremely painful but thankfully there's already less pain and more mobility, added to which I'm right handed, phew. It did however impact on some of my plans for making samples and doing posts for the Grand Christmas Draw - not to mention other jobs around the house I had lined up as I've been pacing myself more slowly the past three days in the hope that things will improve better if I don't go being silly. Some of you may well have noticed I sort of disappeared from email and social media whilst it was so very sore. But, there is some improvement, thankfully, and I'll do my very best to stick to the plans for the publishing of prizes during the Grand Draw - although I may have to move some things around as I still have samples to make which would be better done after Christmas Day when there's more time. It will mess up the distribution and subjects of prizes a bit but we can live with that.

Plus, I managed to take a good few photos on Saturday (yesterday) when panic was setting in - and they're not all the quality I would like. The fact that it's been raining for days on end here and we have the lights on indoors most of the time isn't helping with photos I'm afraid. IS ANYONE IN THE UK BUILDING AN ARK YET? I know that Len will help with last minute 'necessary cleaning', flip the Christmas tablecloth over the dining table for me and also reach up as well as do any heavy lifting (thank goodness we're not having Emu as a Christmas roast!) - and the rest will have to wait, just so long as Christmas itself is saved. Enough of the excuses - positive thoughts only here from now on as it could have been a lot worse! And hopefully no long term damage, phew.

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

First of all, this is my snippets card for today:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- snippet of silver mirri card  trimmed to 5.75" x 5.75" for the first layer and a  snippet of white pearlescent card trimmed to 5.5" x 5.5" for the second layer. Both glued onto the card front

- a snippet of LOTV snowflake paper from the 'Frosty Christmas' paper pad, trimmed to 5" x 5" and set aside for the moment

- a further snippet of white pearlescent card - from which the two angels were die cut using an Impression Obsession 'Angels' set of dies

- then placed the angel die cuts onto the piece of snowflake backing paper and sort of juggled then about to work out where to place the next die I needed to use

- having done that, used the background die from the Tonic Studios 'Peace Strip' double die set to create a gap approximately an inch from the bottom of the piece of snowflake paper

- glued the two pieces of snowflake paper onto the card front, making sure the top and bottom straight edges were the same distance from the edge of the white layer as the side edges were. This was much easier than it sounds as Tonic Studios thoughtfully designed the background strip die to leave exactly a quarter of an inch gap

- backed a snippet of deep blue shimmery card with 'Stick'It' sheet and die cut the word 'Peace'. Gently placed it into white gap I'd created and snipped the ends off so they just finished where the sides of the silver panels ended and carefully rubbed over the sentiment using the back of my Teflon folder/scorer to make sure it adhered well

- finally, added the two die cut angels where I wonted them to go - finished!
 

It's only fair to say that this was much easier to make than to explain! I mentioned a Teflon folder/scorer. I got mine a while ago  and whilst not cheap I particularly love that it doesn't get the little nicks in that plastic ones seem to acquire over time. The one I have has quite a fat pointed end so I generally use another scorer for actually scoring fold lines in card. But, for folding and rubbing down your folds, as well as gently rubbing over die cuts as I did with the 'peace' sentiment strip die cut - it's brilliant!

So, here we have Prize A of the Christmas/New Year annual giveaway -

On offer for the next two weeks is an Impression Obsession 'Angels' die set plus a Tonic Studios 'Peace Strip' double die set.

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 4th January 2020 and this post you are looking at right now is where to add any entries - with a maximum of just one entry - over the fortnight. 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 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. That, with luck, might be quite frequently!

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 and a couple of days after New Year's Eve to see what's on offer :) Of course I'm well aware that people have family commitments and can't necessarily comment every day so I will be as reasonable as possible. I just don't want anyone swooping in at the last minute and saying yes to each prize in one visit.

Also, just saying here on this post 'count me in for all prizes that are offered' also 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 if you haven't already added your one card. Also, I'll use this Mr Linky as a basis for who entered a snippets make and goes into the draw.

I hope I've explained how the coming two weeks will work in the Playground? Please just say if it's left you confused and I hope it doesn't seem too draconian. My main priority is for everyone to play fair and hopefully be in with a chance of winning something they would like.

The Christmas and New Year Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 4th January 2020. There will be a new Mr Linky on Sunday 5th January 2020. The picks and also the results of the multiple raffle/prize draw will appear one week later on Sunday 12th January - with the proviso that I find the time to do it, otherwise me just might have to move the results slightly or even leave out the picks for once. But I'm a stubborn old mare and with luck will stick to the original plan.

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. This I don't mind at all - I love the Playground and each one of you is someone I consider to be a friend. So, do feel free to play along for a prize, even if you really only want part of it and then you can 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 - and also I'd love you to be a follower of mine if you aren't already, that would be a lovely gesture.

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 on the list for whatever prizes you would like to win when it comes to the grand draw, so long as you've entered into Mr Linky by the point at which it closes. At the end of this I'll be using today's Mr Linky to add all entrants names into the draw 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 prizes. At the moment that means there's a good few chances to win a prize, so long as you follow the usual routine/rules.

Also, I think it's only fair that the way I do the draw is from A onwards, regardless of value or number of prizes for that day. This year I won't be using the Random number generator - we'll get Dudley to stick his paw into a dish with all the entry names/numbers on slips of paper instead. That means that if you win a prize your slip is then removed from the pot and least I'm not messing about re-running the random number generator if your number comes out again - and of course, as the draw goes on the remaining numbers will have slightly better odds of being winners and no-one will win twice. You'll have to trust me to be impartial, which I always am, but this way will work better for such a big prize draw, I'm sure you'll agree. And, as always, I will post to anywhere you may happen to live.

Please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's always 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!Do please ask if anything isn't clear.

Merry Christmas from Parsnip, Dudley and yours truly,