Rudolph Days April 2020

Well, that came around fast - it's another monthly Rudolph Days challenge over at Scrappy Mo's - and I'm squeaking in at the last minute, it closes today! I made a set of four very similar cards, using a NBUS (never been used schtuff) set of stamps and dies, plus another NBUS die for the sentiment.

That means I can also join in with Darnell's NBUS challenge #13 once again. And, I'm long overdue to join in with Craftyhazelnut's Christmas challenge so am also linking over there. Hi Hazel, remember me?

These are the cards I made, the same idea for each of them but reversed as the llamas are facing different ways:

I used:

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

- stamped four llamas using the image stamps from the NBUS MFT 'Happy Llamadays' set of stamps as well as four sentiments from the set (I stuck to 'Fleece Navidad' as it tickles me so much - geddit? Real wool brings me out in a rash!) - using Memento's 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and of course the Misti

- coloured the four llamas using Pro markers and die cut them using the matching set of dies

- die cut the sentiments using another NBUS die from the Frantic Stamper 'Stitched Fishtail Banners' set - the dies are 'solid rather than frames with an aperture'  if that makes sense. That's easily got round if you've already stamped your sentiment - just die cut a template from a scrap of card, position that over the sentiment then sit the die into the template aperture (a little wiggle of it will let you know when it's sitting properly) and then run through your machine. I do also use small pieces of removable tape to hold the template in place and then the die itself (OCD once again!)

- backing paper is ancient, from a 12" x 12" sheet called 'Blue Texture with Stars' made by Craft Creations Ltd - long before I found out about 6" x 6" paper pads. Having looked online I'm not even sure they're still trading in the same way, let alone producing gorgeous papers like they used to - such a shame. Interestedly though, I did track down some of Craft Creations original papers to a shop in the USA!

- die cut the backing paper using a die from the Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set of dies

- the snowy hillside was made by cutting 6" x 2" strips of white card and then die cutting the top edge using a wavy die from a Spellbinders 'Curved Borders' set of dies - I need a decent stitched wavy die, the closest one in the set I used is sort of 'dots' which wouldn't sit too well with the other stitched edges (IMHO)

- to make sure they perfectly fitted the bottom of the starry sky die cut layer - and for continuity of the stitched effect - I then used the bottom part of the same Lil' Inkers stitched rectangle die to trim away about half an inch from the bottom of the white 'hillsides' and also the excess from each side at the same time

- used a glue pen to glue the white hillside panel in place at the bottom of the starry sky rectangle

- then used the same Zig glue pen to add the sentiment to each card

- next glued the llamas in place, same pen again

- finally, glued the panels to the card fronts using Collall All purpose glue - four Christmas cards finished!

As I so often do, the inclusion of all four versions is really mostly for my own record. I do think the last llama has the look of an astonished Dudley about his face ☺ x

I'd been eyeing up llama stamps for quite a while and was delighted when this set of Christmas llama stamps and matching dies popped up on a de-cluttering forum on Facebook a week or two ago. Got them, quarantined the package before opening and am so, so pleased with them. They're brand new and never been opened, for just over half what they cost to buy from suppliers right now. I do love a bargain!

The cards were great fun to make and for the first time in ages I really felt as if that lost mojo could well be on the way back - hooray!

Up until now, my focus has been very much on struggling to get grocery delivery slots and also doing some home baking - crafting has been less to the fore. On Monday I baked bread, for the first time in years right from scratch rather than a (naughty me) packet mix. To my amazement I managed to get Canadian very strong bread flour as well as dried yeast from Ocado - so I baked Stottie Cakes - a traditional Northumbrian flat bread - which I'd always shied away from attempting. And, even if I say it myself, they were exactly as I'd hoped - I found the recipe whilst searching on line for 'fadge' (a bread that doesn't use yeast) which I'll also give a try whilst on the baking 'roll'. And the secret ingredient in the Stottie cake bread dough is a tiny amount of white pepper - who knew? My shoulder suffered a bit from 10 minutes kneading plus a good bit of clearing up - but, so, so worth it! Even better than sausage rolls Jane W - I kid you not!

Many, many years ago, when sitting my GCE Domestic Science mock practical exam a few months prior to the 'real' exams, the brief was to cook a Cottage Pie (plus carrots or cabbage as a vegetable I think), and bake a loaf of bread in the allotted time. Come the actual exam it was 'make a Cottage Pie' (so the teacher had hit the nail on the head there in the 'mocks' )...........and no bread at all! I read the brief several times, and turned the sheet of paper over a few times as well to make sure I wasn't dreaming, wearing my school uniform mini skirt, rolled up at the waist - as we did in those days. No bread needed (see what I just wrote there - needed, kneaded). There was almost time to sit, file and polish my nails! And maybe even do a pedicure as well!

Having said all that about food, we might need cranes to lift us out of our sofas when this is all over, snigger. I swear my clothes are shrinking in the wash already. 

 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #375 - results

 

The sun has got his hat on 'Hip-hip-hip hooray' - washing is out to dry (Saturday as I'm typing this post), we have a grocery delivery arriving late this afternoon and all is pootling along fine in the Playground here. How about you? I hope everyone is well and coping with this long lockdown slog.

The unsettling part is that more people are ignoring the 'rules of the game' and taking several outings a day, not watching social distancing as much as they were - and there seems to be a growing feeling of 'Enough - now I'm gonna break out'. All I can say is that it will be on their own heads if they do! There also seems to be a bit of an attitude of 'it only affects the elderly'. Don't they watch TV or listen to the news at all? The Darwin Awards keep springing to mind - this statement sums up the criteria for being given a Darwin award perfectly 'They contrive to eliminate themselves from the gene pool in such an extraordinarily idiotic manner, that their action ensures the long-term survival of our species, which now contains one less idiot'. But, the difference is of course that they're also affecting others by potentially spreading the virus. 

The converse of course is just how many people (on top of the NHS, carers, emergency services, supermarket workers etc.) are pitching in to help out - for no financial gain. So there are two sides to the coin - and it's much healthier to focus on the good rather than the bad side. 

Rant over - oooer, I do feel better for that ☺

Let's move straight into this fortnight's picks - which all struck me as so appropriate given the current situation - smiles, hugs.......... and an outright hoot of laughter at the last one:

 

Meghan made this beautiful card - who could fail to smile at the wonderful colour combinations and all those snippets used! I love it. 

No apologies from me for choosing another card made by Carol L! Carol always uses snippets so imaginatively and the frame on this one is actually the leftovers from making a herring bone technique panel for a different card. Waste not want not - and herringbone is such a great way to use up little strips of snippets as well.

I just burst out laughing when I spotted this brilliant card, made by Nicky for her hubby's Birthday. You absolutely must hop over to read Nicky's blog post and find out the remainder of the sentiment inside her card - I cracked up even more. And, what impact those three snippety strips add to the card, as well as that hilarious bird!

One new Playmate this time:

Angie (Cimbacreativefun)

We had 52 entries in total, including Angie's lovely and very dimensional card above. Welcome to the Playground Angie - come back again soon!

Now for the prize draw, which is for Concord & 9th's 'Woven Plaid Background' stamp set plus a Woodware 'Celebrating You' set of sentiment stamps:

 Kathy Asper

Well done Kathy - I'm sure it's absolutely ages since you had a win! So pleased for you. 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. 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.

I've already said, during this lockdown I'm keeping well away from the Post Office, in fact well away from even venturing out at all so even UK prizes are building up a bit here. All in good time though - I keep very careful notes and you will receive your prizes just as soon as it's deemed OK to post them off to you.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #376 - you can find it HERE. The prize is Pink & Main's double die set called 'Hugs'  and the set of complementing sentiments called 'Hugs Needed'.

Dudley is still doing really well. He absolutely floored us one evening this past week though - needless to say I wasn't quick enough to take a photo of him. Cutting a long story short, he adores a marrowbone, which has been filled with some sort of chicken gunge - he'll spend hours licking at one, although they're a fairly rare treat. Len came up with the bright idea of scalding the one he'd licked to death and then once it had dried out again, filling it with a particular chickeny dog food that he won't eat. We have three unused packets of the stuff, it's the same consistency - so it seemed a good idea at the time!

When Len produced the filled bone from behind his back, Dudley was up on his hind paws in a shot, tail wagging.  Then he hopped onto the sofa Len was sitting on for a closer inspection. A couple of sniffs as Len offered the bone to him and he looked plain horrified. 'Come on' said Len ' try it'.Whereupon Dudley promptly and very pointedly turned his back and sat on the sofa with his face up against the sofa back. And he wouldn't budge! We totally cracked up and still have a chuckle when we visualise the whole scene - talk about making your distaste known! 

It's been a while since Dudley was weighed - it was a regular thing for him to hop onto the stand on scales in the local Pet Shop or our Vet's. We did think of one of us getting on the bathroom scales, with and then without him in our arms and then working out the difference. However, Len came up with the idea of using our luggage scales instead - so earlier, just before his walk, here's Dudley suffering the indignity of being suspended by his harness from said scales:

I have to say, he was totally uncomplaining and just hug there like a bag of shopping being weighed in a Far East market! And his weight is quite stable we were pleased to see. Despite his antics during grooming sessions, his patent dislike of 'the bone' - which was disposed of, and he was given a new one we had tucked away - Dudley is the sweetest and most patient little dog about so many things. He just dangled there quite happily!

 
The hedgies are out and about still, Dudley charged down the garden at one the other night, then screeched to a halt and just peered at it. And the hedgie stared right back at him.

Last but not least - remember it's April's Rudolph Days challenge over at ScrappyMo's HERE. You have until the end of the month to join in. There's gonna be a bit of frantic card making going on here!

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

Our very own rainbow

The other evening whilst we were watching TV, Dudley pricked his ears up and gave a few barks. Then, we heard the letterbox being opened and a lot of effort being put into posting something to us. Next, the doorbell rang and we heard little feet scampering away. And this is what we found:

It's our very own A4 sized rainbow to put in the window! I think it's country wide that children out on their walks are playing 'spot the rainbow' or similar. Children are making these to show there is hope and that everything will be OK.

The little girl next door, called Gabriella, isn't yet seven and she coloured this for us. How sweet is that?

The piece of paper was badly crumpled from the effort of posting so the following day I carefully ironed it between a couple of sheets of paper, adhered it to a piece of card, popped it into a document holder and then stuck it to the inside of one of the front bedroom windows.

There was a note, also crumpled, which I also ironed as flat as I could:

It says - literally:

'To Len dy and duley hope you are oll OK and hope you have a lovely day here is a rainbow for you since you have not got one oredy love from your nabers Gabriella and Teddy'. 

I know, I know - I did shed a few tears. Teddy is their adorable Shih Tzu by the way. Often it's the little gifts from the heart that mean more than so much else.

What to do? I messaged her Mum and she liked my suggestion so I stamped quite a few images for her to colour and also added a packet of unused crayons and quite a few plain and twinkly felt tipped pens. Apparently Gabriella fell upon the sparkly felt tipped pens and began colouring right away!

My next batch of images for Gabriella (and now one of her brothers) to colour is already under way - along with some using pigment ink which can be water coloured as a change. Keeps me out of mischief :)

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #376

Hi again! Where did that last week disappear to? And, from news here on Friday it looks as if we have a good few weeks more of lockdown to cope with in the UK - currently to be reviewed on 7th May. To be honest, I'd rather we didn't get let out too soon. Once the lid is lifted on Pandora's box, you can't just slap it back on and there's no telling what might happen if our exit from lockdown is done too early ........... or not done in careful stages.

However, I'm finding it really tough to settle down to anything connected with crafting, even commenting on the Playground is falling behind all the time - I'm very sorry about that and will give myself a jolly good shake and try to knuckle down. Cooking and baking seem to be top priority for now - I'm trying ideas I would never have really entertained at the moment. When we can get fresh fruit and vegetables then they are top priority to be enjoyed whilst at their best. It's an interesting process, not one I would have chosen given the circumstances, but now I look at an ingredient and its potential rather differently than I did a month ago for sure.

Here's my snippets card for this fortnight, and it's meant for each and every one of you to think of as having been made especially with you in mind:

I used:

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

- all snippets of patterned paper were found tucked safely in the back of LOTV's NitWit Collection 'Perfect Pair' paper pad, such a pretty pad with shades of green and pink, and touches of white. Still a shame LOTV discontinued their papers, sigh

- firstly I die cut the big 'hugs' word and the 'shadow' using both dies from Pink & Main's 'Hugs' set of dies - and pink and green snippets

- glued them together using a Zig glue pen and set them aside for now 

- then trimmed a bigger green LOTV patterned snippet for the backing and glued it onto the card front

- snippet of plain white card which I die cut using a die from Lil'Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set of dies

- checked the placement of the large 'hugs' die cut piece and positioned the sentiment stamps using the Misti

- did a test stamp onto a scrap of paper and then stamped the sentiment words, which are from Pink and Main's 'Hugs Needed' set of sentiments stamps, which perfectly complements the 'hugs' die - using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- next I glued the 'hugs' die cut onto the white panel and added it to the card front which had the green patterned layer already in place

- almost there, final touch was the addition of three black self-adhesive domes to fill out the blank area to the bottom left of the card

I loved making this card, despite almost needing a 'KITA' to get me going in the first place! I chose pretty but I bet it would look great in strong blues for instance - or white black and red, for Valentine's Day perhaps.

Shame on me for not using them sooner - but it does mean I can enter this card into our lovely Darnell's NBUS Challenge HERE. I do encourage you to join in if you haven't done so already - now is an ideal time to crack open some Never Before Used Schtuff and this current challenge runs to the end of April. Hopefully followed by more - if only to encourage us to USE and not just HOARD!

And here is the prize for this fortnight - you didn't think I would have left you out of my shopping spree did you? It's this:

Pink & Main's pair of die cutting and stamping goodies, exactly the same as I used today for my card. The double die set called 'Hugs' and the set of complementing sentiments called 'Hugs Needed'. The big 'hugs' sentiment stamp can be stamped in any colour of course and, if you wish, then die cut using the scrolling word die from the die set. I really love the small font sentiments to go with the word 'hugs' - they've been so well thought out.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 2nd May. 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.

So, another week of isolation stretches ahead of us, here in the UK at least. I've finally managed to get hold of SR flour to do some more baking,  wouldn't you just know it though - we got no eggs in Thursday's grocery delivery (how, why?).

We can cope, but I'll certainly be giving someone the 'stink eye' if he decides to have boiled eggs for breakfast! I neeeeed the ones I still have for my baking therapy right now!

So far Dudley has avoided the dreaded hair cut (I got a bit frightened when I read on a Havanese FB Forum how easily you can hurt a dog with clippers). His coat is staying mat free thankfully, although the daily brush and comb is always a bit of a battle of wills. His latest trick is to almost prance on the spot as I'm doing his front legs and paws - a bit like a Lipizzaner horse!

I found lots of video footage of performing Lipizanners on You Tube. Amongst them is this very short gem, dating back to around 1946, in black and white - it illustrates what I was trying to describe about Dudley's 'groom time prancing' perfectly! Look for the guy on his own at about 30 seconds into the clip :)

Stay safe my lovely friends.

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #374 - results

 

First of all - Happy Easter everyone. Despite us all being in lock down, I hope you have a pleasant weekend. Meetings with friends and family can wait until this is all over - and they will be all the more special as a result I hope.

Numbers of cases as well as deaths have been rising at a frightening rate - all we can do is follow what our Government and health advisors tell us to do, and not do. And just hope things will improve before too long.

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

Jane W really dived into her snippets - and came up with these two stunning cards. Wonderful colours and so pretty - love them! And the sparkly gold is luscious.

It often happens that both our Janes are 'picks' in the same challenge - it makes me smile as I'm never really aware of it until I go through my list of possible picks to whittle them down as I'm doing right now. A lovely card made by Jane J - and even the colours are very similar to Jane W's entry! Love the sentiment as well, it really is so perfect for these times.

Out of the blue our postie delivered a lovely ATC from SaRn this morning. If you can get to a post box within walking distance (sadly I can't), or include it in an essential trip out - a card, note or ATC, right out of the blue, is a lovely gesture and will brighten someone's day more than you can imagine! Thank you SaRn!

I chose this card, made by Lia, firstly as it's so pretty and uses lots of snippets - but also as it is just perfect for Spring and Easter. 'Back in the day' as they say - I sometimes made similar cards with lots of pretty silk flowers arranged  to 'frame' an image. They're a delight to make and so worth all the effort.

And finally, we have a fourth card as a pick this week - for several reasons:

Firstly, I really love that the maker of this card did it to celebrate my 10th blog anniversary. Next, I adore the card itself with the adorable party penguin of course and it uses plenty of snippets. And thirdly, if you read how Inkami made her card you'll probably want to try making a similar one, we all have cute critter stamps and I love how he's balancing on the sparkly word 'HAPPY'. I know Inkami's real name but haven't asked her if I can use it on here - so I'll just say this 'Thank you sweet friend'. x

Wow, that was  tough this time round - so many wonderful makes from all of you.

We had 55 entries for the challenge - and many of you really wanted to win the prize of MFT 'Happy Hippos' stamps and matching dies. And the winner is:

Pam Sebring

Well done Pam, I'm sure this is your very first win and am so pleased for you as you played for a long time before adding your name into the draw on the snippets blog. All good things come to those who wait and it's a lovely prize! Please send me your address with your full name at the top as well for speed, ease and also as confirmation that you still would like the prize of course, and I'll package up 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.

I still have prizes here ready to post and I will post them as soon as I can legally take a trip to a post box. The emphasis is very much on 'essential travel only' here and a few people have been challenged in our area when the police have spotted them out and about. Mind you, this past week two eedjits were caught heading towards the Lake District here in England - with a canoe on top of their car - just a teensy little give away clue there I think :) You will all receive your prizes eventually - I promise!

There's still almost another week to run on Challenge #375 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a Concord & 9th's 'Woven Plaid Background' stamp set plus a Woodware 'Celebrating You' set of sentiment stamps.

I'm still holding back with the doggie clippers, although have lightly scissor trimmed Dudley's paws and around his face and eyes for now. He's just had his (drops down the back of his neck and shoulders) monthly flea prevention treatment so we have to wait a few days until the 'wrestling match in the bath' can take place. Followed by whatever I feel brave enough to do next.

We've had some lovely weather this past week - and Dudley absolutely adores it. He's constantly in and out of the house - sometimes for 'zoomies' round the garden - and quite often just to doze in the shade for a while. Or to idly watch our resident collared doves as they mooch around underneath the bird feeders looking for spilt seed. Dudley just lies flat on his tummy with his head propped up on his paws, quietly watching with interest. He has zero interest in chasing them, it's just curiosity.

Spike, plus a smaller hedgie, are now visiting regularly - won't be long now until 'love is in the air'.

Stay safe girls - and wherever possible, stay at home.

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #375

Hi there folks - here's hoping everyone is safe and managing to cope in the current lock down all over the World.  It's been OK here, we're managing to get on line grocery orders fulfilled and thankfully Dudley has only ever needed one walk per day. The rest of his exercise has always been plenty of playtime in the house or garden when he wants it.

It seems that the worst of the panic buying is over, although I did have a wry smile at a photo someone posted on Facebook - bare shelves in the home hair colouring section of a supermarket!

Speaking of hair, I still haven't clipped Dudley - a few of you have been wondering. It's going to be a two-person job and meanwhile I'm keeping his face trimmed until the inevitable - which will be soon I imagine lest it grows too long. 

In general people around here are keeping to the self-isolation 'rules'. But, you always get exceptions of course. I really don't know which part of ONE exercise per day they don't understand ........ and this is only the end of the second week. However, it seems there is no cure for stupid and I guess it's no good stressing over those with intentions of being prime candidates for the Darwin award - so long as they don't infect others along the way, which unfortunately is very possible.

I became quite concerned about our lovely Alice of ScrAPamondo in Italy - she hadn't posted since mid-February. However, I had a lovely long email from her this morning (Saturday) letting me know that all is well. She's a teacher as most of you will know and has been even busier than when the schools were open - with on line school work. She may have already emailed some of you but I just wanted to update you as Italy is having such a tough time right now. We all send our love to you Alice - and also to Kate in Spain who's in the thick of it as well, she's also fine thank goodness.

OK, enough about Coronavirus, it is what it is and hopefully we'll get through this in one piece!

Here's my snippets card for this fortnight, a bit of a different one for me - and it also includes a matching envelope, which is totally different for me:

I used:

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

- snippet of green striped paper (by SU) from the snippets folder, slightly trimmed to cover the card front leaving a narrow margin of white - then glued in place

- snippet of plain white card and the large stamp from Concord & 9th's 'Woven Plaid Background' stamp set - stamped using SU's 'Tangelo Twist' ink pad and a Misti

- trimmed the stamped panel to quarter of an inch smaller all round than the green layer and glued it in place

- stamped 'Hello You' onto a snippet of white card, using a stamp from Woodware's 'Celebrating You' set of stamps and Memento 'Tuxedo Black ink

- punched the sentiment out using SU's 'Decorative Label' punch then popped it onto the card front using thin sticky pads

- the envelope is a USA branded one (bought through Amazon) to fit USA A2 cards. It has a straight flap at the back, rather than our more usual UK 'pointed' flaps

- so I used the second stamp in the Woodware set, which is a 1" wide strip and the same 'Tangelo Twist' ink to stamp a border across the envelope flap edge. Little tip, I was using the Misti and to stamp with the envelope closed I just popped a scrap of paper underneath the flap before stamping - so that the plaid pattern was right up to the edge and any slight overhang didn't impinge on the rest of the back of the envelope

- then spotted a narrow strip of the green striped paper lying on the desk and added that across the flap, trimmed it down from the back - and called the job done!

Excuse the slightly washed out colours - the black is a really solid jet black in real life. I took the photo in sunshine here!

I loved making this card and matching envelope - and it was quick as well as easy. I must confess to spoiling my first attempt at stamping the large plaid panel for the card front. I stamped it once then as a couple of spots were a bit pale/spotty (operator error totally) I re-inked the stamp and added more ink, far too much, then applied too much pressure when stamping as well. The resulting plaid pattern was quite thick and I'd begun to lose the fine white lines in the pattern. So, I flipped the snippet of card over and re-stamped on the back - totally successfully.

I might make a run of them to include with prizes, if my mojo ever properly returns. And of course, they would be great for Christmas - how about a black or grey plaid background topped with a die cut poinsettia for example? And you can also use the 1" wide strip stamp to add a lovely edge down the spine side of a card as another idea. This is yet another stamp set I've had for ages, along with the sentiment set - totally unused.

Which means I can enter this into a challenge which the lovely Darnell used to run and has resurrected, with the help of our sweet friend Loll - yup, it's 'the return of NBUS' where you can join in to play along right HERE. I always quietly mourned the closing down of NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) as it really encouraged me to rummage through the 'holding' box I pop my new goodies into and to use them much sooner than I would otherwise have done. However, be warned, it also facilitated/encouraged me to buy even more new stuff after seeing all the entries!

I know that a good few of you are already playing along already. Of course a lot of people seem to have taken the opportunity to tidy and or re-organise their craft stuff or are producing more beautiful makes than ever - but I certainly fall into neither category and am very grateful for the kick start!

And here is the prize for this fortnight:

Concord & 9th's 'Woven Plaid Background' stamp set plus a Woodware 'Celebrating You' set of sentiment stamps (which includes a cute little heart image as well).

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 18th April. 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.

I'm still struggling with commenting as punctually as I ought to in the Playground at the moment, plus I owe many of you emails. Huge apologies and I'll be there ASAP, I promise! It's as if my 'get up and go' has 'got up and gone'- which is not good at all.

Instead of crafting I've turned to doing more elaborate meals a lot of the time and some baking as well. Crafting would be better for the waist line though :)

Stay safe my lovely friends.

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

Hope & Chances kit card

Anyone here remember Hope & Chances, run by Christine Emberson? She's now closed her on line shop (before the current situation arose) but is continuing to sell monthly kits to raise money for charity. Here's the link to her blog page telling you more about the kits.

This is the card I made using the kit for March 2020. It comes with everything you need, including a card blank and envelope if the project is a card. All components are already trimmed and die cut (Christine was a Spellbinder Ambassador for a long while). Plus you get comprehensive, illustrated instructions as well. All you need is some form of glue, double sided adhesive tape and - sometimes - sticky pads:

Really it's self explanatory so I won't go into detail about how I glued and stuck it together :) Ha - although I lost one of the smaller black dots for the rear lights - and a sheet of black peel off dots sent to me by a lovely friend came to the rescue! Pretty isn't it - all the kits are rather special. April's kit will be available from Sunday 5th April.