Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #372 - results

 

Crumbs, that week went fast! Possibly as I've been out and about a bit, making sure prescriptions and meds are up to date, a planned hair chop - and even ventured to our local Sainsbury's. Talk about pillaged shelves and panic buying. Much of it is pure greed with people then selling stuff on eBay at outrageous prices - apparently now including baby formula and nappies. It astounds me just how low people will stoop to make a profit at the expense of others in times like these.

Apparently many supermarkets look as if they've been ransacked. What really cut me up earlier today was reading that that some selfish p*g with a trolley filled with packets of dried pasta in a supermarket actually refused to allow an elderly lady to have just ONE of his precious packets. I hope he chokes on it. And a couple  were apparently observed in a local supermarket to us with one trolley apiece, grabbing what they could and yelling at customers to 'grab what you can, the Government won't help at all'. I despair.

Our local care homes are also descending on our supermarkets and stripping the place of what they can find, mostly toilet rolls - without much sharing either. Their commercial providers aren't delivering apparently. I care about the elderly, we're probably classed as almost there, not that anyone has actually bothered to check if we're OK, nor will they even if we keel over - but I do hate folk possibly cheating the elderly out of what we all owe our older generation. We never wanted our kids to feel beholden to us - but a bit of decency and kindness would be very acceptable. Our latest, via text, news this afternoon is that our local surgeries group will only be doing telephone consultations from now until this blows over, apart from real emergencies. Lord help us if we truly are an emergency is all I say, sigh.

Rant over!

Oh, and also posted off the prizes from the past two challenges (370 and 371) at last. Plus, we have better weather forecast for this coming week - with luck Spring is on the way!

Let's move straight into this fortnight's picks:

This is a well deserved *Gold Star* entry from Carol G. Plenty of snippets, a wonderful fold, House Mouse and brilliant colouring - top marks Carol. Do feel free to take your Gold Star badge from the side bar to display on your own blog.

 

I love this idea on the card Janis brought to share with us. Loads of lovely snippets used - a really cute kitty, and just look at what you can do with a small piece from a large heart shaped doily. Great idea!  

Interactive cards are really popular right now - and Marianne shared this really clever card with us - to see the 'interaction' do hop over to her blog. A great way to use up some lovely bright snippets as well!  

Heather wowed us with this really great snippets card, using snippets all from the same paper pack. I love how they co-ordinate so well - and paper piecing the mugs to tie the whole design together is a great idea! 

Every little scrap has a part to play eventually if you save them in your paper pad. I save mine like this: 

And here's the link to my post, way back in 2014 which explains why, and how I ended up with this solution. Six years later and it still works absolutely fine for me.

I just couldn't reduce my short list any further so we have an extra pick this week. Em made this absolutely beautiful card (the embroidered butterfly is snipped from a snippet) - and I adore the gold and white on black. The 'spirograph' twine pattern reminded me so much of some big 'pin art' pictures I made back in the 70's. A really lovely card Em!

One new Playmate this time:

Kelly of 'Sandcastle Stamper'

We had 48 entries in total, including Kelly's lovely card above.

Now for the prize draw, which is for a set of Clearly Besotted 'Chirpy Chicks' stamps with matching dies. Plus, a little Happy Easter stamp by 'Stamping All Day':

 Charlotte (Lady Joyful)

Well done Charlotte - someone else who doesn't seem to have had a win for ages (January 2019 I think) - wahoo! Please send me your address, with your full name at the top as well for speed, ease and, 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 #373 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a Paper Artsy ' Squiggly Mini 25' kitty stamp - and I have five of these to give away.

Dudley is doing great, if anything he's actually better than he ever was with his daily brush and combing sessions. He looks a bit resigned at first but is standing so much more patiently and is much less skittish about having his feet, tail and ears groomed. It's taken me weeks but it's so good to see him not only back to how he used to be but even better and much more accepting. A bit like 'Whatever you do Mama, it can't be as bad as the experience that nasty lady put me through'.

Sometimes he's still a bit 'off' about having his lovely plumed tail played with, but it still needs a daily brush and comb so there's no escaping. He tries to chase his tail to put me off and I've had to resort to sometimes tucking him under my left arm like a set of bagpipes - with his head to the back of me and his tail and rear end at the front. His rendition of 'Scotland the Brave' is coming along really well 😁

I hope you're all keeping well in the current situation - we're living in strange times for sure.

At least the hedgehogs are properly stirring - we had two of them at the feeding station earlier this week. One waiting patiently behind the other one for his turn to 'dig into dinner'. And they're both like little footballs as well - very healthy to say they're just woken from hibernating over the Winter months.

Love from Parsnip and Dudley - plus a couple of 'fist bumps' from me,

Butterfly Birthday

Had to make a card in a bit of a rush for a friend's Birthday so decided to dig out a NBUS stamp set, then whipped this card up:

I used:

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

- piece of Core-dinations purple card, cut to 4.75" square and glued onto the card front

- piece of white card stock, cut to 4.5" square

- used stamps from Woodware's NBUS 'Mosaic Butterfly Round' set of stamps, the Misti and a Ranger 'Black Archival' ink pad to stamp the large butterfly mosaic stamp and a sentiment (the set comes with a choice of five sentiments) first of all

- then positioned a corner stamp from the same set of stamps and stamped all four corners, turning the square piece of card by 90 degrees each time - hooray for the Misti!

- coloured the image panel using my long-neglected Zig brush pens - straight onto the card so the colours are rather bright ☺

- glued the panel onto the layer of purple card - finished!

Another time using the Zigs, I really must have a play at diluting the colours and try to use them more 'artistically' with some blending. Need to watch some You Tube videos first - as well as allow more time! 

This stamp set would be great to use on acetate as a clear window, coloured with Pro markers and set into a big circular aperture.

It wasn't until the card was finished, I realised I could have changed the colours I used, in order to enter Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge. Sometimes I think my single brain cell goes on strike!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #373

We've actually had sunshine here with no rain, for at least two days this past fortnight. Happy dancing here - especially from Dudley who hates going out in the rain and getting his paws wet!

Here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

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

- snippet of SU's 'Dapper Denim' card stock, trimmed to an eighth of an inch all round smaller than the card front and glued it on top

- snippet of plain white card and a couple of floral snippets from a Me To You, Tatty Teddy (ancient!) 'Spring Chic' set of papers, probably one of the first paper pads I ever bought

- trimmed the white card to a little bit bigger than the card front so I could work with it more easily then stuck the couple of floral snippets on, with a diagonal line separating the two from one corner to another. They're the same design with the background colours different (one cream and one pink) so the difference is quite subtle

- trimmed the floral panel to an eighth of an inch all round smaller than the 'Dapper Denim' frame, and glued it on top

- the image was good fun to do. First I stamped the cat and sentiment onto a snippet of white card stock, using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a PaperArtsy 'Squiggly Mini 25' stamp 

- then coloured the cat using pink and turquoise Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending solution, matching as best I could to the floral paper background  

- trimmed the image down and popped it onto a slightly larger rectangle of 'Dapper Denim' before gluing it onto the card front - finished!

The stamp actually had a sweet little paw print just above the cat's head but I snipped that off as it looked a bit weird to me, even if it was meant to be a kitty thought bubble - and the little paw would be so cute stamped a few times onto the card's envelope or even elsewhere on the card front. The cat is a purrfect size for an ATC of course, and doesn't even need to be coloured - I just fancied using colours that aren't your usual kitty colours as the image is quite funky!

BTW, how I always know exactly what colour any plain SU snippets I'm using are 'cos I made up a swatch of all the SU card I have, many moons ago, and have added to it whenever I've bought new colours (albeit not bought any for ages now) 😀

And here's the prize for this fortnight:

It's not one but FIVE chances to win a Paper Artsy ' Squiggly Mini 25' stamp. I've got five of these brand new (not chopped apart as I did with mine, I leave that decision to the winners) cuties on offer as they aren't expensive, we have lots of cat lovers in the Playground and I'm quite conscious that I don't often have kitty themed snippets prizes. Plus it's a little celebration that Dudley is so much better. Ha - I raided his piggy bank 😀

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 21st March. 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 only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

Our news here:

I had to go to the hospital eye clinic during the week (long story) and for now am all in the clear on all fronts with eye issues, even a cataract alert isn't causing concern. Whoopee! Mind you, whilst I was waiting for the pupil dilation drops to work in the hospital waiting room, a man gave one single cough and it was like a bunch of meerkats on high Coronavirus alert!

Earlier in the week some eedjit strolled into one of the practices in - despite what seems to be daily text reminders from them not to do that. The waiting room cleared and the reception area was closed down and then sanitised - as well as the fleeing patients being tracked down and contacted.

We had our usual Sainsbury's delivery on Thursday and apparently they are already geared up to delivering to homes with Coronavirus/Covid-19, or those in self-isolation and potentially undiagnosed. Basically, 'unload groceries on the doorstep, ring the bell and then run ..................fast'. It's not really funny I know but we do seem to be whipping up a real storm of fear, as well as panic buying, here in the UK.

Dudley is doing really well - his rash patches have cleared up and he's been so good when we needed (morning and evening) to swab the patches with saline solution, dab it dry and then apply and rub in the gel on several places - mostly on his tummy. He's such a happy little soul and just lies on his back on our bed to be administered to when we say the magic 'roly poly' words!

His latest thing is that the other evening Len was talking to me and purely said the name 'Arnie'. Arnie is his little doggie friend from over the way and Dudley began hopping about with anticipation, giving it a few woofs of excitement! Its obviously lodged somewhere in his memory that Arnie is his friend who has a go at 'hare boxing' when they meet and lots of waggy tails. 

And to finish with:

Len often relaxes on a sofa with his feet up in the evening to watch TV, and Dudley seems to know he's the most comfy spot to lie on and have a snooze! I took this really quickly the other evening, up until then he'd been totally asleep with his paw holding his favourite toy - but he did briefly open his sleepy eyes when I sneaked up with the camera. His dear little nose goes a bit brown in Winter, Bichons are the same I found years ago. And, there's a tale to his toy. 

He is known as 'Stinky Monkey the Fourth' and he's fairly new, since this infection flared up and we ditched or washed everything we could. But 'Stinky Monkey', and this is the fourth one we've sneakily substituted since he arrived with us, is very special - he's Dudley's most, most loved toy in the whole wide world. He is his comfort blanket and he sucks his face until it's deformed and quite gross to be honest, and has even chewed an ear off a couple of his predecessors.

It always chokes me up a bit to think that, when he came to us in September 2018, his 'luggage' was a starter pack of puppy food, a few favourite treats, a little tennis ball, his cuddly fleece puppy blanket - and 'Stinky Monkey the First'. He had lots of other stuff here to welcome him, including goodies from his Auntie SaRn - but it was the little bag he brought when he left his doggie parents with all his worldly possessions in that was so sad. He's made up for it since though!

Hope you all manage to steer clear of Coronavirus/Covid-19 and that you find time to come and play this week. I'm a little behind on commenting at the moment but will catch up ASAP.

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #371 - results

 

And it's March already! With rain, rain and yet more rain! It's actually sunny as I'm typing this on Saturday afternoon - but it's gonna be short lived according to the weather radar map.

Let's move straight into this fortnight's picks:

I totally adore this gorgeous bird house, made by our lovely Jules. What a delight it is, a 'Jules special' - and a super way to use up lots of pretty snippets too! See if you can spot the heart :)

Here's a really delightful Birthday baby card, made by Liz. The grey and yellow go together so beautifully and the dear little elephant die that Liz used, with the flower cut-out on his his 'rear end' is so cute!

And we're back to birds with this adorable card, brought to share with us by Vicky. I especially love the softness of the colours and design  - as well as having a peep at some of Vicky's snippets hoard!
 
So, that's my picks and I do hope they've given you some inspiration for ways in which you can use up some of your own snippets. I could have added more picks quite easily, but we're waiting for a Sainsbury's delivery anytime now so I'd better finish off!

We had 51 entries and no new Playmates this time.

Now for the prize draw, which is for a Lil'inkers die called 'Boxed Up Thanks'. And the winner is:

Shaz in Oz

Well done dear and very loyal Shaz! First win for a while I think - over a year if I'm right. I know I already have your address but can you please send it to remind me to package and post your prize. 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.

And, here's another shout out to Emma who won the Clearly Besotted 'Simply Succulent' set of stamps and dies in Challenge #370. Can you please claim your prize and send me your address. I know that a few of you follow Emma - if any of you are in touch with her can you please give her a little nudge - her blog has been quiet for a couple of weeks or more now so I do hope she's OK. It might be internet issues as I do know she'd been having problems recently.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #372 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a set of Clearly Besotted 'Chirpy Chicks' stamps with matching dies. Plus, a little Happy Easter stamp by 'Stamping All Day'.

On the Dudley front, he's been to see his favourite vet again, sigh. Rash like areas, some looking very angry and sore, from his grooming session appeared - most likely from teeny little nicks (one is on the scar from his operation which really proves the point) and very probably from the use of improperly cleaned clippers. Also, as we thought, his nails hadn't been trimmed (well, there had been an attempt to do two of them, probably abandoned when we unexpectedly arrived back to find him trussed up and howling) so the vet did those for him at the same time. I do so wish we had legislation in this country to prevent any Tom, Dick or Harry from setting themselves up as a groomer with no controls in place. That's our vet's opinion as well, also totally horrified at Dudley's experience needless to say.

I managed to take a very blurred photo of him just before I hoofed it into the kitchen to begin our evening meal on Saturday. I had 'Stinky Monkey the 4th' in one hand and the camera in the other and of course Dudley wouldn't keep still. He's all head in this shot and moving about, but it's ages since I posted one of him on here - the serious look is him working out how to get at his latest Stinky Monkey toy! :

Love from Parsnip our sweet little bear mascot, a happy wave from Dudley (the gel is already beginning to clear the patches up thank goodness, two small ones on an ear have totally gone in just two days) - and of course hugs as always from me,