This is one monthly challenge I'd really hate to miss - it's Rudolph Days over at ScrappyMo's. And here's my entry. Made in double quick time as it's September's Hope and Chances charity kit:
It's self-explanatory really. The kit came with absolutely everything included, apart from glue and thin sticky pads!
Just realised I still haven't made up August's kit yet - it got buried under a pile of stuff on my desk, and only surfaced last week when I had a good tidy up!
Gosh, we seem to be plummeting into Autumn at a rate of knots. The nights are drawing in, it's much cooler and the central heating is kicking in now and then.
We're into the second wave of COVID here in the UK with tightened up restrictions once again. Some areas are worse hit than others and the daily infection rate is rising alarmingly, to the point that the daily figures are higher now than they were at the peak way back in April. Granted more places are open again and it was always going to be much more tricky to come out of lock down than it was to go into it, but this is almost frighteningly like a runaway train. However, we have to just get on with it and act wisely - if everyone did that, it could well be a different story, but there's no cure for stupid unfortunately. Rant over!
The hedgies will be hibernating before too long at this rate - and the big hedgie once again managed to take over one of the feeding stations as a potential place to hibernate. At least it wasn't such a shock to find it this time! So things have been rearranged yet again as he really should be making a nest of leaves or similar ready for Winter. Not hunkering down on what will be very cold paving slabs.
Let's dive straight in with my picks from the previous challenge:
Meghan always makes fabulous cards and I chose this entry for two reasons. Firstly I love the background strips using up plenty of snippets, and secondly the image is just perfect for the Playgound! And there's actually a third reason ............what crafter wouldn't be totally delighted to receive this lovely card - it's purrfect!
I adore this Christmas snow globe card, made by Trina. It's so realistic and Trina has detailed how she made it very clearly in her blog post. Such patience to add all the little snowflake dots and I love the fact that the streaked blue background inside the globe really adds to the look of it having just been shaken.
Karen Letchworth came to play with us and brought this wonderful card to share. I just love the soft vintage feel that Karen achieved, mostly using a range of products from Paper Sweeties (a USA based company). That pretty pink had me sighing, it's so lovely combined with the brown and cream.
We also had one new Playmate:
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We had 44 entries, including one new Playmate. I'm becoming more aware that folk are finding this whole pandemic situation pretty demoralising - with the knock on effect being lack of interest in hobbies such as crafting. I can't change the situation - but I can encourage you to dig out your snippets then come and play!
Now for the prize draw, which is a Clarity Stamp 'Word sticker collection'.
And the winner is:
Congratulations Jane, you've had a couple of wins here recently - make sure you buy a lottery ticket! Please send me your address, even if you know that I know it already, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll do my best to post your prize ASAP this coming week. 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 another week to run on Challenge #387 HERE. The prize is a My Favourite Things (MFT) die called 'Stitched Ric Rac' and a Hunkydory Moonstone Combo sentiment die and stamps set called 'Essential Words - Celebrate'.
Also, it's September's Rudolph Days Challenge over at ScrappyMo's HERE. Running until Wednesday 30th December - I'm working on my entry right now and will join in ASAP!
Dudley is proving to be quite the ladies man, on Friday my Avon lady called and he would quite happily have trotted after her . Someone needs to tell him about social distancing!
Mind you, he's in for a surprise/shock on Wednesday as it's time for him to go and be fully groomed. Here we go again, dragging one stubborn pooch along the shiny flooring whilst he silently pleads with anyone watching to come and rescue him! His lead is always attached to a harness and never his collar BTW, in case anyone is thinking it's cruel! If he doesn't want to be picked up he seems to manage to almost glue himself to the spot đ so the only option is to slide him along the floor. Such a little tinker at times!
Love from Parsnip, a happy 'high-five' and woof from Dudley - and of course hugs as always from me. Stay safe, wear those masks - and keep on crafting.
Not very often you see a frog (a juggling one at that) on a mono-cycle! I recently thought I'd make a fun Birthday card for Joe, one of Len's great nephews, and this is the result:
I used:
- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank
- slightly smaller (5.25" x 4") piece of plain green card stock - glued onto the card front
- then a very slightly smaller piece of white card which I set to one side for the moment
- stamped a 'cycling frog' onto a snippet of white card - using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from a (pre-loved but NBUS by the first owner and yours truly) set of Stampin' Up 'So Hoppy Together' stamps
- coloured the image using Pro Markers and then trimmed it down before mounting onto another piece of the same plain green card
- I'd already chosen the striped paper from an ancient Capsule Collection pad by Papermania (called Verde) and carefully matched the plain green card as well as the Promarkers to the greens (NB once again the camera lies and his tummy is the same lime green as one of the paper stripes!!)
- from the striped paper, die cut a flag using one of MFT's 'Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax' dies
- at that point I could work out where to place the sentiment, using the Misti and also just placing the image panel in place without adhering it
- then stamped the sentiment using a stamp from Clearly Besotted's 'Say What?' set of sentiments, the Misti and Memento's 'Tuxedo Black' ink onto the piece of white card I'd set aside earlier
- adhered the fishtail die cut and then the image panel onto the white panel
- glued the white panel onto the green panel
- final touch - added Josy Rose Hot Nailheads so the frog was now a 'juggling frog on a mono-cycle' (try saying that fast three times), plus three more nail heads just scattered here and there on the card front
Finished!
I'd like to add this into Darnell's current NBUS Challenge #18 as it was a first outing for the frog stamp.
What a palaver this week just gone, sorting out Feedburner which sends emails out to those folk who've subscribed to this 'ere blog - after it just stopped sending them. It's now been amended and is working properly - phew. I do recommend that any of you with very wordy blogs such as mine (photos and media don't count) have a think about the fact that when you reach 512Kb - Feedburner can't cope if you've left the limit of posts which it scans to the 'default setting'- which is your whole blog. You don't get a warning - it just stops sending emails. For any techno-averse people - don't fret over it as your blog will still remain safe. For anyone who might feel happy digging around inside Feedburner (which is also Google product so need I say more) - if you drop me an email with Feedburner in the header then I'll happily help you out with a few pointers.
I see Blogger has been playing around with the new interface yet again - this time they've changed the icon which appears when you click on an image to change it's size. Previously it was the pencil icon - now they've added a little image icon. The pencil icon is now used to change a link if your image has one. Someone certainly 'designed these changes on the fly and on the back of a fag packet' as we used to say in the olden days!
Anyhow, here's my snippets card for this fortnight. Once again I needed to make a fairly simple card to showcase our prize for this time round - and here it is:
- then from the same set I used a sentiment stamp to add the words 'your birthday' underneath the die cut 'Celebrate' - used Versafine's Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad
- finally glued the white panel to the card front and called it done!
I just double checked and the word Celebrate is absolutely straight - the very large letter C draws the eye downwards at the left hand end, but it's an optical illusion. When I added the large die cut word I even drew a fine pencil line to be sure it would be straight!
Love the ric rac die - first spotted on one of your lovely blogs and a super way to use up snippets for quick and easy cards.
And, here's the prize for this fortnight:
It's a My Favourite Things (MFT) die called 'Stitched Ric Rac' and a Hunkydory Moonstone Combo set called 'Essential Words - Celebrate'. Loads of different words to stamp to go with the huge (five inches wide) 'Celebrate'.
As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 3rd October. 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.
On the subject of hedgehogs, and other wildlife as well - do remember that if/when you dispose of a mask with your waste please be sure to cut the elastic loops. They will end up in landfill (unless you burn them) and could so easily harm or kill wildlife.
The card folds flat and when opened out stands at about 6" long and 6" high. I took one photo trying to show the inside view but it's a bit blurred - although it does give even more of an insight into the beautiful detail and thought that's gone into making the 'hut':
In recent times they've made a comeback and quite a few enterprising people are buying newly built ones, still sticking to the same principles, albeit some even have washroom facilities on board, to rent out as holiday homes. I've been following one such owner on Instagram and it's fascinating to see how neat and compact a shepherd's hut can be. And Len, when he ordered the card, had absolutely no idea that I even knew about them let alone was fascinated. So it's a double delight of course! Sadly, they're fully built prior to delivery - what a fun summer house one would make. But our back garden is fully enclosed and the only option would be to hire a gigantic crane to lift it into place. Edit - oooer, I just found a company who will build one for you on site. I wonder....................?
Has anyone else been having problems with followers who subscribed to email notifications of new posts NOT being notified?
I know of two of my followers who had/have this problem. For one of them I literally went through the list of subscribers and found that she was signed up and enabled just the same as others on the list so there doesn't seem to be any reason for her not to get emails when I publish a new post.
Obviously I can't go through the whole list deleting folk who tell me they're having issues and then getting them to sign up again. I've raised the issue with Blogger and am wondering is it's connected with the switch to the new interface (which I've been using for a while now).
Anyone got any thoughts?
Edit: I think I might have resolved it by going into Feedburner and limiting the size of the 'feed'! Watch this space.
And here we go once again, heading backwards with COVID restrictions due to the selfishness of others. Until we have a vaccine I have a horrible feeling that this show will run and run - sigh. We even have an outbreak in our local Sainsbury's supermarket, apparently the staff there have almost been waiting for it to happen.
Len and I are scheduled to have our annual 'normal' flu jabs this coming week. The surgery team seem very organised but it remains to be seen how well the arrangements (a 'marquee/tent' in the staff car park of our local GPs surgery!) are adhered to. I went to collect a repeat prescription from our local chemist the other day and almost had to tell someone waiting outside, behind me, to keep further away. They weren't wearing a mask either - I despair.
And now here are my picks for the previous challenge.
And let's begin with a *Gold Star* pick. I think, having seen all the detail in close-up, that this is really worthy of a *Gold Star* - please feel free to help yourself to the badge from the RH sidebar Diane:
What a wonderful bouquet in a teacup this is! It's a while since Diane H
came to play and I'm so happy she brought this to share with us. If you
hop over to Diane's blog post you'll find a photo which illustrates just
how intricate the flowers are - absolutely lovely!
No apologies from me for the fact that Jules is a pick again, her work is always so lovely and she uses snippets so well to layer up her cards. Of course, Jules was the original Snippets Queen and holder of the Playground keys - a lot of years ago now. Needless to say I adore this card - pink is my absolute favourite colour too!
And more pink - this time from Pat who teamed it with lilac. Such a pretty card and I love how the snippety hearts look so much like a flower - very pretty. Some very delicate brayer work as well - mine often looks as if I've been rolling out tough pastry with a heavy pair of hands!
Childhood memory coming up! When we lived in Malta (army brat here) there were odd occasions when my Dad would be on duty on a Saturday evening to allow the younger and more junior guys to go out for some fun in Valletta. Saturday afternoon was Mum's designated weekly baking day and she used to like to walk down to the barracks and take him some of her freshly baked goodies. I was just four years old when we came back to England but from a very early age loved to help Mum with her baking sessions - so I started to always bake a 'special jam tart for Daddy'. I promise you, that pastry took a right hammering, sometimes it ended up on the floor in between being rolled and squashed about for ages. I always went with Mum to take deliver Dad's freshly baked goodies for his evening snack - and needless to say that 'special jam tart' was carried very carefully in the 'boot' of my much loved tricycle. Apparently, I used to stand beside him and watch closely as he struggled to eat every single morsel of baked, dry, grey pastry with a filling of jam - apparently trying to keep a smile on his face! At the same time I repeatedly asked him if it was nice ☺ when in fact it tasted almost as bad as it looked.
I adore this cute card, made by Katrina. James Bear is such a sweetie and I love how Katrina has matched colouring James so perfectly with the snippets of patterned paper. I actually thought it was paper piecing before reading what Katrina had written in her blog post.
We had 50 entries, and no new Playmates - so lovely to see numbers looking healthier again. Still a bit low in the current challenge (#386) but I know that many folk are struggling with the new blogger interface. I'm no expert but if you have any queries about the interface then please feel free to drop me an email.
Now for the prize draw, which is a Memory Box 'Cream Puff Heart' die and a set of Avery Elle 'And then' sentiment stamps.
And the winner is:
Congratulations Becca!! Delighted to see your name pop out - good ole Mr Random was rooting for you! Please send me your address, even if you know that I know it already, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll do my best to post your prize ASAP this coming week. 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 another week to run on Challenge #386 HERE. The prize is a Clarity Stamp 'Word sticker collection'.
Yesterday was my Birthday - very low key but enjoyable. Huge thanks for all your lovely cards and Birthday wishes. I've already thanked a lot of you but need a day or so to get round to everyone. Len (and Dudley) made a fuss of me and a lovely friend surprised me by arriving with a card and beautiful planter filled with deep pink cyclamen plants for our patio table. Dudley fell totally in love with her, to the point he would have happily gone home with her - the little traitor!
However, he'd already redeemed himself with this special Birthday card:
Love from Parsnip, a happy 'high-five' and woof from Dudley - and of course hugs as always from me. Stay safe, wear those masks - and keep on crafting.
What a miserable week for weather here in deepest Hampshire. One minute it was too hot and now it's too wet. We British are never happy with our weather I fear.
Thank you so much for all the lovely comments about the future of the Playground. Many of you made very good points, which sort of reassured me to keep going as I am. And we had a jump in the number of entries to challenge 385 as well, hooray. There won't be a switch to Instagram or Facebook if I can help it - it's probably just me but I find it an option I don't wish to embrace. I did giggle when one friend kindly suggested in an email that perhaps I could shorten my posts - nope, ain't gonna happen. Luckily I learned to touch type in some 'spare' lessons in the 6th Form at school and basically can fly along when I'm writing a post, So, what you read is often just me talking through my fingers (I HEARD that snigger!).
Good old blogger continues to evolve - at last they've now made the labels options easier to work with on the new interface - but this is 'end user' testing of something that should have been thoroughly tested prior to release. I guess we get it for free so should be grateful - and in fairness it does seem to be evolving with our issues being resolved.
Anyhow, here's my snippets card for this fortnight. I was really stumped for a prize that wouldn't take ages making a 'sample' card. And was also a bit shocked at the fact I've been unconsciously letting the Playground toy box run low as well. I didn't have time for a very complicated card with masking, colouring etc so in the end, I opted for a card using a recent snippets strips technique - and when it was finished I cocked my head on one side and realised it's by no means as 'random' as it should be. The strip widths ought to vary more - oopsie. And, I need to put a fresh blade and/or channel mat in my trimmer as the cutting is a bit rough looking (picked up by the camera needless to say). No time to make another one though so here it is:
