Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #394 - results

Hello again! We had endless rain after the snow came and went so fast, although the past couple of days have been sunny - with the vague promise of Spring. And speaking of promise, Len is all booked up ready to go for his first COVID vaccination on Tuesday to the big sports hall at a (an?) hotel not too far away from us. Whoop, whoop! He's a couple of years older than me, so with luck my turn will be here before too long.

Let's get this show on the road after our lovely Jane was the Guest Designer and also donated the prize for Challenge 394. Huge thanks Jane and also a big hug for all your diligent commenting.

First of all, the picks:

Karen (Letchworth)  is becoming a regular pick on here - and I couldn't let this card not be a pick! I really love it and am constantly amazed how Karen, and so many of you manage to combine layers of different papers (and snippets) so beautifully!  And as for 'staging cards - you're lucky if I manage to take a photo that's not 'on the wonky side'!! 

I asked Jane if she had any picks she would like me to include - and Karen's card above was her absolute favourite! So it's a double thumbs up from the two of us Karen. That makes me feel I must be doing something right. ☺

Love this card made by Suzanne - another example of how perfectly snippets of patterned paper can be combined to made a stunning card. And that dear little bird is such fun!

And last but by no means least, a card using lots of snippets, made by Sandy. I love the sharp contrast of the colours - gorgeous.

That's my picks from Challenge 394 in the Playground, we had 47 entries which is pretty good going so soon after Christmas etc. We did have one potential new playmate but I'm sorry to say that the snippets challenge was her 13th challenge with the one card and reluctantly I stuck with the rule of 10 challenges in total and deleted it. Man, I hate doing that - it hurts but it's only fair.

Now for the prize draw, which is a 'Hunkydory For the Love of Stamps 'set called 'Retro Mix Tape', kindly donated by Jane. And the winner is:

Suzanne H

Congratulations Suzanne! It's six months since you had your very first win and I know that you played fairly right through the Grand Draw without winning a prize so it was lovely to see your name pop straight out!  I always double check that I did note down a yes please correctly on my little check list and your comment on my blog post led me to see what you'd written on Jane's blog - so I'm even more sure now that Mr Linky is psychic! Make that card for your hubby and a trip down Memory Lane! And hooray - also a pick this time round!!

Speaking of Memory Lane' - this comment from Jane really made me smile:

I've had a fun couple of weeks and am sad it is almost over - I've loved reading on here and on my own blog about all the memories the tape image brought back, and just before the playground gates clang closed I thought I'd share one of my own.

Sunday afternoons, listening to Pick of the Pops on the radio/cassette system, with a tape in the drawer and your finger hovering over the start/stop button so that you got every note of every track in the Top 20 without any of the talking in between. Go on, tell me none of you did that - and I won't believe you! 

Guilty as charged Jane! ☺

Please send me your address, even if you know that I know it already, with your full name at the top as well so it can be can be copied and pasted for speed and ease. This time, your prize will be sent directly to you by Jane so I'll forward your email onto her. It's also 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.

Remember folks, there's still almost one more week to run on the current challenge #395 HERE.The prize is a Stamping Bella stamp and matching die called 'Oddball with Martini', the image and sentiment really amuse me!

All Grand Draw prizes (apart from one which I'm holding back for Franka as agreed) are addressed are all ready to post and some are on a time limit posting date so I need to get a wiggle on. It's not been helped by our dubious honour of having a Care Home with 22 UK Care Home deaths right next door to my 'isolated' posting box. It seems to be the worst Care Home disaster in the UK and fills me with such sadness. I used to take my excess cards in there for the residents to use - for free. Just took a shoe box 'gussied up' with some fancy paper and a note saying 'help yourself' on the front. Right now the press are like locusts so am staying away and might have to venture further to post off everything. In one go I hope!

Last weekend we had almost 4" of snow in one huge drop. Dudley was wary and I was pottering around so probably missed the best bits to catch on video. But, I finally got Len to take a very short video of the little scamp in action, Sound up if you wish - you can hear him panting as he does 'zoomies' and us chatting a bit so don't bother unless you're interested - needless to say he does a crouched 'wee' in the middle of the excitement:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIPz3F4UgrE

Then, after rolling round in the snow and probably hedgie poo left from the Summer in hidden places, Dudley needed bath and shower using a new/different doggy shampoo and he's like a ball of pure white fluff with pale peachy ears right now. How could a sweet smelling dog turn so stinky almost overnight? We don't even have skunks or foxes in the garden. Gotta be the hedgies! Sheesh! Right now he smells so fresh, Havanese aren't a smelly or oily breed of dog, in fact they smell sweet and nice generally so it did take us by surprise. Pegs on noses for a while until he got his bath - sheesh!

 

The Grand Draw prizes are all wrapped etc. and ready just to pop into the 'secluded post box' in a day or two.

Love from Parsnip, the usual happy 'high-five' and woof, from a once more very clean and sweet smelling, Dudley

Hope and Chances Charity Kit - December 2020

I loved the Hope and Chances Charity kit for December although the 'Thank you' sentiment wasn't right for me to be honest but I knew I could change that. The kits were sold in aid of 'Last Chance Animal Rescue', which of course tugged at my heartstrings right away.

This is the card I made from the kit:

I made the card exactly to Christine's instructions, apart from a couple of tweaks. I added Clear Wink of Stella to the flowers and leaves before popping them onto the card. An idea I got from our lovely Kath B a while ago. Then found a snippet of white card, the whitest I could find here to match and stamped the sentiment using a very old FunStamps wood mounted stamp and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink. Then die cut the sentiment into a square, exactly the same size as the one that came with the kit - and ran a silver Calligraphy pen around the edges for a little extra definition.I love the idea of creating a 'dropped shadow' by splitting a silver die cut exactly like the white one and offsetting it behind the white one.

And yes, the camera has picked up a bit of a ripple on the square silver backing layer. I think the silver card should have been thicker, although in real life it's not too noticeable. I'm just happy to help Christine's fund raising and also have a card kit to play with each month!

I'm entering this card into ScrappyMo's 'Rudolph Days' Challenge for January HERE. It runs from the 25th to the end of each month and is a great way to add to your Christmas cards (what do you mean - already?).

That brings my card count for Christmas 2021 up to 17 already.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #395

First of all, many thanks to those of you who have already signed up to be Guest Designers, have very generously sent prizes for Ruby's Memory Challenge - and also those of you who played along with Challenge 394 where Jane was our Guest Designer. The cassette tape certainly brought back a few memories! The Guest Designer list is still open and any new and unwanted items for Ruby's Challenge are also always very welcome.

This fortnight it's my turn to be my own Guest Designer (snigger) and I aim to do this for every other challenge - interspersed with Guest Designer fortnights as well as Ruby's Memory Challenge. 

The basic Snippets Playground rules are just the same so we should move seamlessly from one type of challenge to another and back again without you really noticing much different.

So here's my snippets card for this fortnight and it's one that I've been itching to make for a little while now:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" black card blank, tent style

 

- snippet of white card onto which I stamped the main image using Memento 'Tuxedo Black'  and the Misti. The stamp is from the Stamping Bella 'Oddball with Martini' set

- then coloured the image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and a Derwent blending pencil

- die cut the image using the matching die 

- stamped the sentiment using the other stamp in the same set, again using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and another snippet of white card

- snipped the sentiment into pieces (following a design on the Stamping Bella Blog where there are lots of ideas, I just chose one which would fit nicely onto the snippet of patterned paper I wanted to use up)

- slightly trimmed a snippet of gold spotted paper which was tucked into the back of my Studio Calico's 'Snippet Collection' paper pad and glued it onto the card front

- added a little bit of grey shadow to where the 'Oddball' was going to stand, to 'ground her' slightly  and then glued her in place 

 

- followed by the snipped up sentiment words, which I just did fairly roughly - and called it done!

   

I made the card with a friend's Birthday firmly in mind but, due to keeping well hunkered down here, it didn't get written and posted - hope you had a lovely day my friend! x

 

Here's a photo of the prize for this fortnight:

It's a 'Stamping Bella 'Oddball with Martini' stamp set plus the matching die to cut out the main image. The sentiment doesn't need to be snipped up of course and you could stamp the 'Oddball' straight onto a plain card front without using the die. Lots of options!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 6th February. 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.

 

Please also remember that I only allow a total of nine other challenges, which makes 10 in total, when you enter a snippets make into the Playground. From now on I will delete entries which break this 'rule'. I'm a soft touch and have been as lenient as possible up until now so please don't forget - else your entry will just disappear in a puff of smoke with no reminder.

 

The results of the Grand Draw were published last Sunday (17th January) and thank you to all of you who have claimed your prizes and sent me your address.

I'll put a post on here when they've been posted as that's easier for me than emailing you all separately. Perhaps more than one post as they will probably go off to UK winners first then Overseas winners shortly afterwards - as and when I feel it's OK to venture out. Don't fret, I won't do anything daft (or let's say dafter than usual!). I'm watching things very closely here - our local area is now above the national average infection rate for this wretched virus. Sigh.

Dudley's latest role in life seems to be 'care giver'. The other morning I was sat in bed about to get my lazy rear end into gear and suddenly had a terrific sneezing bout right out of the blue. Dudley literally leapt up onto the bed and almost wrapped his paws round me whilst nuzzling me, whining and looking very anxious. Dudley was the one whining, not me - gonna buy him a nurses outfit I think! Betcha don't get fluffy hugs and nuzzles on the NHS!

I'd like to enter this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #22 HERE. I resisted entering all the snippets samples I made for the Grand Draw, which would have been nine NBUS entries in total!  Darnell only went and broke a bone in her back fairly recently (ouch!) - get well soon Darnell and much love from all of us in the Playground.

 

Stay safe and be kind. Right now some of our lovely Playmates, as well as Darnell, need our love and thoughts more than ever. Please remember, we all care about one another in the Playground and if one of us hurts then we all hurt for you.

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

 

Pixies Snippets Playground - Challenge #393 - Picks and 2020 Grand Draw results

Further down this post you will find the results of the Christmas/New Year Grand Giveaway challenge.

First of all, let's go right ahead with the picks from the three weeks the challenge ran for and first of all we have a *Gold Star* pick:

 

Jane W made a truly stunning card using plenty of snippets and it's quite breathtaking! The urn itself is gorgeous and the flowers and greenery just amazing! Worthy of a *Gold Star* - if you would like the badge for your blog Jane then just take it from my RH side bar.

The other picks (four as I just couldn't whittle it down to three) are:

April had a great idea for using up snippets with her Stampin' Up 'Word Window' punch! Very clever and so effective as well.

Such a soft and pretty card, made by Alison C. Plenty of snippets and a real delight! The colours and design are just perfect.

I LOVE this Christmas card, made by Lynne R. It's a perfect combination of snippets of different papers and tree sizes - one to try for sure. 

And last but by no means least, is such a lovely monochrome card made by Inkami. The strips are a super way to use up snippets and of course the sentiment is just so perfect! Love it!

We had one new Playmate:

Nancy J (Inkblocks)

What an appropriate card for the Playground! Welcome Nancy - please come back and play with us again.

Over the three weeks we had had a total of 67 entries. Those of you who came to play brought some wonderful makes as usual! And, I reached the magic 500 followers on my sidebar as well! I only recently realised that a lot more people also follow by email - it's all quite humbling to be honest.

The odds were quite good to win a prize - as always, I so wish everyone could be a winner though! Some people are previous Grand Draw winners and that's purely the luck of the draw. 

Prize draw time (BIG drum roll) and once again I used little slips of paper to make life even easier so you have to trust me that it was 100% fair. It makes life much easier when doing a big draw like this. 

And so my friends, here's the list of 21 lucky winners:

Prize A - Uniko 'Rustic Wreath' stamp set - times 3

Heather Mills

Becca Yahrling

Paperpapier (Heaney)               

Prize B - Lil'Inker 'Merry & Bright' Christmas die - times 3

Karen Ladd

Lesley G

Val

Prize C - Woodware 'Peaceful Night' stamp set - times 3

April

Karen Finkle (Kampin' Karen)

Sue (Morris)

Prize D - Colarado Craft Company 'Christmas Presents' stamp set

Inkami (Franka)

Prize E - Hero Arts 'Cut Out Season' die - times 3

Pam Sebring

Lynne R

Maxine

Prize F - Bumper prize - MFT 'Stacked Merry' die plus 'MFT 'Joyous         Holidays' stamp set and matching dies

Kathy Asper

Prize G - Colarado Craft Company 'Christmas Tree Cat' stamp set

Glennis

Prize H - Uniko 'Simply Said Blocks - Christmas' stamp set - times 3

Liz (Cavill)

SaRn

Kate L

Prize I - Clearly Besotted 'Christmas Hoot' stamp set - times 3 

Kath (B)

Kathy K

Shannon (SHartl)

I hope there are a few Happy Dances going on right now! As I already said above, I really, really wish everyone could have won a prize - as I always feel after doing a big draw like this. I've added a link to each name in case winners need to pinch themselves - the names are 100% correct (and I double checked your comments so please don't change your minds!) plus I hope I got all the links right!

With us in another lock down and only essential trips being allowed, I might not get your prizes posted straight away. I'll be using Click and Drop to avoid the Post Office and that in itself takes time to populate and print out all the labels. My car was booked in for its first service on this coming Tuesday and, after much angst and worrying to myself, I've even postponed that for a while having been assured that the manufacturer is allowing leeway whilst the Pandemic is on. Having got this far I most certainly don't want to run any risks for either Len or myself.

I do need addresses for ALL winners please (with your full name as well please) so I can do some quick copy/pasting then print off the addresses easily. This still applies if you know fine well I already have your address - am trying to make this as easy for me as possible. Who knows, I may take the car for a small 'tootle' or two to my local mahoosive post box - which everyone else seems to have now found! The local cops seem to be watching the motorways for obvious distance drivers - so if I stick to local country roads, sit bolt upright and peer over the steering wheel like a dear little old lady, I might be fine!

Just add the subject 'Holiday Giveaway' in an email and send it to my addy which is on the right hand sidebar. And can you please do it as soon as possible so that I can at least begin the packaging and addressing process - rather than do it piecemeal.

Sorry if I've seemed a bit 'whiny' here. So, so many of you play absolutely perfectly and fairly - you know who you are and I love you for it. But to the others, please don't make life harder than it needs to be. I wish in future draws I could do as ScrappyMo does and limit Grand Draw entries to regular players - in fact, I may even do that if I run the whole show again this next Christmas ........... so this is a little 'heads up'!

Keep those snippets entries coming folks, you still have a week left to play HERE for Challenge #394 where we have Jane W as our lovely guest designer! The prize is a Hunkydory ''Retro Music' set of stamps. 

This has been a marathon post to write so I hope no-one fell asleep along the way ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz. 

After the hot water fiasco, it's absolute bliss to be back to 'normal' here. I felt a bit like Mitzi Gaynor in 'South Pacific' ............ 'warbling' away as I washed my hair under the shower right away. Psst - Rosanno Brazzi was looking after Dudley to give me some 'me time'.

Dudley is still gently placing his toys on top of me when I'm asleep - it's now a nightly routine for him I think. 

Love from Parsnip, Dudley Dog - and of course me,

Three cheers for hot water!

We have lift off! Who knew a £3 sensor could cause so much angst. Fingers crossed it's well and truly sorted out.

Little update

First of all, we've been almost without hot water since Sunday and totally without it since yesterday. So don't sniff your screen right now!

This afternoon, feeling totally demoralised by local rising COVID numbers and also the blatancy of a girlfriend over the way - rocking up for a cosy night with her boyfriend and his family. Not in their bubble as the boyfriend's widowed Aunt is in their family bubble and girlfriend lives with a large family miles away from hereso don't get me going down that road please. Our NHS staff are keeling over and dying! Whether we watch the news or not - it IS out there and happening.

Anyhow, this afternoon I did the Grand Prize Draw and have just finished double checking that the names on the slips do want the prizes they said yes for. And they did!

Sadly, I had to eliminate some names before I even did the draw due to 'bulk yes comments'. I said I would and I did in fairness to others. I did keep in some who let me know why. Some people, who did play well within the rules for only one prize, popped out right away and it wouldn't be fair to mess around and ignore them. And some people played within the rules and limits for all of them  and didn't win a bean - so it's a real mixed pot of results :) 

Come back on Sunday and find out the results. Naturally I wish you could all have won of course - that's one of the penalties I have to cope with when doing a Grand Draw and wanting you all to be winners I guess.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #394

Those of you who've been reading my posts during the Grand Draw will know that I'm introducing a couple of extra ways of running the Snippets Challenge. One will be a Guest Designer fortnight where they will provide the prize and also make a sample using their own duplicate of the prize - much as I did each time. 

The basic Snippets Playground rules are just the same so, to you the players, the only difference will be that I will be showing a snippets item (usually a card of course) made by a GD rather than myself and also it will be a pointer to a prize very kindly donated by themselves. I won't write up how the snippets card or item was made and if you wish to know more there will be a link to the Guest Designer's blog. In fact, it would be lovely if you could make a point of hopping over to their blog post via the link as they will be very kindly spending time making the sample as well as providing the prize. Of course I will have my own fortnights interspersed which will run as they always did although the Guest Designer challenge will be a huge help to me. The numbering will still run consecutively and in time we should move seamlessly from one type of challenge to another and back again without you really noticing.

BTW I haven't forgotten that we will also have a Ruby's Memory Challenge at intervals. One coming soon!

But for now let's start off with our Guest Designer's card:  

Any guesses who our Guest Designer is? A clue, she lives not so far from me - has a quirky sense of humour and is partial to any sort of snarky sentiment to liven up her cards and make you smile.

It's our lovely Jane Willis! And to find out how she made her card (possibly) just follow THIS LINK.

Here's a photo of the stamp set on offer from Jane:

It's a 'Hunkydory For the Love of Stamps 'set called 'Retro Mix Tape'. Absolutely perfect for a card to be sent to anyone from that era. Which doesn't seem all that long ago to some of us, sigh, groan.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 23rd January. 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.

 

Please also remember that I only allow a total of nine other challenges, which makes 10 in total, when you enter a snippets make into the Playground. From now on I will deltet entries which break this 'rule'.

 

The results of the Grand Draw will be published on here on Sunday 17th January - with luck and a following breeze! 

 

Having just written the much briefer challenge part of this post, as well as not having to make a 'sample' - I can already see how much less time it takes and for that I'm hugely grateful to Jane and all of you other lovely people who have stepped forward to help out, both in the future as well as in the past. Mwah!

 

Speaking of following breezes, it's been really cold here this past week although thankfully no more snow after the sprinkling we had a couple of weeks ago. Dudley is growing a lovely long silky white coat to keep him warm ....... but it's also keeping me busy grooming him. He's still finding new hiding places when it's grooming time so we'll be varying that from now on.

 

The past couple of mornings I've woken up with Dudley very firmly ensconced with his back right against me keeping us both warm and cosy ............ and, I kid you not, his very favourite toys carefully laid in a line on top of me so they aren't far away from him! Lucky for him I generally don't move around much in my sleep once I'm snuggled up and comfortable. Otherwise I could imagine him having a right old grumble during the night and carefully doing some further organisation of his beloved toys!

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

 

Stay safe and be kind.

 

Pixie's Snippets Playground #393 - Prize I

Here's the ninth  and final prize in the 'Snippets Playground Celebration' prize draw (huge little sigh of relief here):  

I used:

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

- snippet of white card for four squared frame, which I die cut using JustRite's'Set of Four in a Frame' die set - which I've had for years and this is its first outing, shame on me!

- I then cut a snippet of Whimsy's ''Blurry Flurries paper to fit behind the 'windows, which I then backed with another snippet of white card

- then stamped the owls onto another snippet of white card, using a Clearly Besotted 'Christmas Hoot' set of stamps and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- coloured the images using Faber-Castel Polychromos pencils then fussy cut them using a very small pair of Fiskars scissors 

- before going any further, I stamped the sentiment, using another stamp from the same set and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and also the 'window frame as a guide to positioning the sentiment

- then glued the 'frames panel' on place

- added the owls so they're standing on the dotted outline of the frames, using thin sticky pads, and called it done!

Phew, the final card for the challenge - made in the nick of time. I happened to have the Whimsy snippet of paper lying on my desk but just plain coloured card would have been another option as the owls do fill out the squares. I did eyeball positioning the 'frame panel' but, as suggested by Shaz in Oz when I was whining about my Uniko tree being 'on the wonk', I actually DO have a T square here bought years ago - which I'm generally in too much of a rush to use even though it's in a drawer right beside me! Believe it or not, it's the second one I purchased. The first one was out of alignment and it was a well known brand - so much for precision tools. Once I got the new one I offered the original one to Len - who rightly commented that it would be as much use as a chocolate fireguard!

I do love this set of Clearly Besotted stamps, sadly it doesn't have matching dies but the owls are really easy to cut round. I also  think it would be fabulous for making Christmas gift tags. It has a few other sentiments, including  the rather cheesy 'Owl I want for Christmas is you'.

And of course today's prize is this:

It's the Clearly Besotted 'Christmas Hoot' set of stamps, the same as I used today, and once again you have three chances to win a set!

At the end of all of the celebrations I'll do a massive draw session for all the prizes (21 in total if you include the multiples with three chances) using the one Mr Linky - which is on the main snippets post HERE along with details of exactly how to join in - so you do need to have entered one snippets make over on that post during the three weeks that the challenge runs for to be in with a chance :) Maximum of one entry please - to keep things fair for those who may not have time to craft. Mr Linky closes at 11am on Saturday 9th January so you do need to have added a snippets make by then to be eligible for the draw.

Just leave a comment on this post if you would like the chance to win today's prize.

So we're at the end of the prizes now, although you will still have until 11am on Saturday to add your ONE entry to Mr Linky and also to comment on any prizes you would like to win ................ where I haven't yet turned off commenting yet. Sadly I had to do that due to a rush of consecutive comments from a few people - which is exactly what I didn't want to happen. My faith has been rocked and I don't know what will happen this coming Christmas.This final prize will show who's actually checking the Challenge out regularly I suspect ☺

On Sunday we have a Guest Designer with a snippets card featuring the prize they've donated to the challenge - and we'll be back to a new challenge every fortnight. 

The results from this Grand Draw will be published on Sunday 17th January. And, although I've been closely watching comments and keeping very meaningful notes, I admit to being woefully behind on commenting on your entries. I aim to put that right sharpish!

So far this new lock down seems no different to us - Dudley is cosy and we're staying safe. Hope you are too! Apparently panic buying has reared up again and the toilet roll bandits are out and about! 

Dudley, the little monkey, has a new trick, he finds a new hiding place as evening approaches and time for his daily groom looms up. How he knows is beyond me as the grooming basket isn't in place and life is just the same as usual until it's 'that time of day' - but he certainly knows! 

He's getting quite inventive with the hiding part and yesterday we were really worried he'd managed to get out of the back garden as he was nowhere to be found - and there was absolute silence despite us calling all around the house and garden. It would be impossible for him to 'do a runner' from the back garden, unless he managed to get a set of ladders out, but everything goes through your mind. I eventually found him, pressed absolutely flat lying along the far side of a coffee table, hidden by the lower solid wood shelf. Just a pair of dark brown eyes were peeping at me above said shelf. So hard not to laugh and a huge relief as well. The little scamp actually showed me his teeth when I bent down to pick him up - so I bared mine right back at him! Nicely of course but I do hope the message got home!

Love from Parsnip, Dudley the Dodger - and of course me,

Update on the Grand Draw

Just a quick reminder that the Grand Draw has one more prize left to come in a day or two. Been very busy here running round doing errands etc. getting ready for full lock down Version 3 at midnight, just as this publishes.

I've cut off future comments on all this Christmas's Grand Draw prizes which go back to 2020, apart from the bumper prize which published on New Year's Eve, and that only has a couple of days grace left. And I will keep turning off comments once a prize has been up on offer for a week. If I do ever do this again, something I say each year, that's how the Grand Draw will operate in future to keep things fair.

Watch out for the final prize - if I manage that for Thursday then you will only have just under two and a half days to comment.

On a really positive note, which God knows we need right now, we have a lovely flurry of Guest Designers as well as our first 'Ruby's Memory Challenge' coming up very soon. And some very generously donated prizes - but remember - it's snippets we need from you, first and foremost!! Good times ahead ☺

Stay safe and keep wearing those masks please.

Pixie's Snippets Playground #393 - Prize H

Here's the eighth prize in the 'Snippets Playground Celebration' prize draw:  

I used:

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

- snippet of white card for the background, about the same size as the card front, put to one side for now

- another snippet of white card onto which I stamped various sentiments from Uniko's 'Simply Said Blocks - Christmas' set of stamps - following the idea Bev showed for using the stamps in her shop HERE

- to stamp the sentiments I used the following Brilliance Teardrop ink pads, from the top downover:  Purple, Poppy, Sky Blue, and Thyme (this is for my own future reference when I find time to make a batch of several of these cards in one go)

- for the tree trunk I used the wrong side of one of the sentiments to stamp a solid block of 'Coffee Bean' Brilliance ink

- then cut out all the sentiments by hand (for the HAPPY I stamped the HAPPY CHRISTMAS' and then trimmed it down to the HAPPY). I trimmed that piece first so I would know how much to trim from each side of the other sentiments

- once I had the strips trimmed and also a piece snipped down for the trunk, I glued them in place onto the snippet of white card I put to one side earlier, using a Zig glue pen

- hunted around for a small star shaped punch, to no avail. So I used a peel off star with its border to top off the 'Christmas Tree' (never get rid of your peel offs!)

- then using my trimmer I just eyeballed at first then trimmed the panel down until I had even spacing all around it when it was measured up against the card front 

-  it needed 'something' else and at first I thought of adding a narrow 'frame' of gold card, then had a lightbulb moment and remembered my Sakura Callipgraphy pens so used a gold one to run along all four edges of the panel

- it still looked a bit 'flat' when placed on the card so I backed the panel with white fun foam and glued it in place using Collall All Purpose glue

- finished, and in fact a really simple card to make - perfect for batch baking!

I can see, having taken the photo in absolutely dire light, that there's a shadow down the left side of the panel where it's raised on fun foam. And also the tree is a bit a 'on the wonk' as I just eyeballed it - and am now sure I must have an eye that's also also 'on the wonk'!! Even allowing for the fact that the whole card is a bit askew in the photo, I should have at least measured when adding the green strip (built the tree from the bottom up). However, I just measured the thing and it's only 1mm out but to me it really does show. Hey though, it all adds to the hand made look - and that's my excuse 😆

I do love this set of sentiments and can see me using them a lot with Memento Tuxedo Black ink - there's even a HAPPY NEW YEAR stamp in the set. And they're a breeze to trim around - I used quite big scissors to cut the length in one clean cut and then smaller scissors for the short sides. A nice little job to (dare I even say it right now) take away on holiday. Anyone remember what a holiday is? Some sheets of stamped sentiments and a pair of sharp scissors and away you go!

And of course today's prize is this:

It's the Uniko Simply Said Blocks Christmas' set of stamps, the same as I used today, and once again you three chances to win a set!

At the end of all of the celebrations I'll do a massive draw session for all the prizes using the one Mr Linky - which is on the main snippets post HERE along with details of exactly how to join in - so you do need to have entered one snippets make over on that post during the three weeks that the challenge runs for to be in with a chance :) Maximum of one entry please - to keep things fair for those who may not have time to craft. Mr Linky closes at 11am on Saturday 9th January so you do need to have added a snippets make by then to be eligible for the draw.

Do please take time to read 'the rules' on the post in the above link. No-one has found them confusing, as yet, but they really do cover a lot of ground and are worth reading. 

 
Just leave a comment on this post if you would like the chance to win today's prize.

Almost at the end of the prizes now, although you will still have until 11am on Saturday to add your ONE entry to Mr Linky and also to comment on any prizes you would like to win. But remember, please don't rush in and do them all at once - I will spot that right away.

No additional news from here since two days ago - one day is much like another and we're both having difficulty at times remembering what day of the week it is! Thankfully, Dudley knows no different except that the route for his walks has changed to avoid the areas that everyone seems to head for when they go out for exercise.

Love from Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground #393 - Prize G

Happy New Year everyone! Here's hoping that 2021 is a better year than 2020 was. 

Here's the seventh prize in the 'Snippets Playground Celebration' prize draw - NOT my own image:

Right away I want to say that time was really against me and so I 'borrowed' this image from the Seven Hills Craft blog. The card was made by the lovely Tara, who along with her husband Rick owns Seven Hills Crafts. And I buy loads of my goodies from Seven Hills - including today's prize so I hope it's fine with Tara to use her image. It's a UK based online store and certainly is the best outlet stocking USA made goodies, which are so hard to find over here. Tara and Rick keep a close eye on what's new on the scene and I love to shop there!

I love this card made by Tara (my guess is that it's A5 sized as the tree stamp is a lovely, generous size) and certainly intend to use my own set to make some cards for cat loving friends ready for Christmas 2021. The stamp set is a Colarado Craft Company one called 'Christmas Tree Cat' and it's another design by Anita Jeram, as I hinted at the other day with the doggie cards I made.

And of course today's prize is:

The stamp set I just mentioned! Only one of these is on offer and it would be great if it goes to a cat lover but I can never guarantee that and I wouldn't rig the results either. So, if you're a bit 'meh' about cats - why not step back from saying 'yes' for this prize?

At the end of all of the celebrations I'll do a massive draw session for all the prizes using the one Mr Linky - which is on the main snippets post HERE along with details of exactly how to join in - so you do need to have entered one snippets make over on that post during the three weeks that the challenge runs for to be in with a chance :) Maximum of one entry please - to keep things fair for those who may not have time to craft. Mr Linky closes at 11am on Saturday 9th January so you do need to have added a snippets make by then to be eligible for the draw.

Do please take time to read 'the rules' on the post in the above link. No-one has found them confusing, as yet, but they really do cover a lot of ground and are worth reading.

Just leave a comment on this post if you would like the chance to win today's prize.

There are still a couple more prizes to come, possibly multiples at that, so do keep on checking! 

NEWS

I've  had a lovely email back from Lynne in NI who recently lost their gorgeous dog Ruby. Bless them, they are devastated, as one would expect although we have her blessing for my idea of a 'Ruby's Memory Challenge' now and then, and I've already had some lovely donations offered as prizes or to go towards making up a prize bundle. Each 'Ruby's Memory Challenge' we have I will donate what I would have spent on prizes (usually around £20 although sometimes more) to a charity that Lynne chooses. In that way we can all feel that there is something positive to come out of the challenge and Ruby's memory.

Also, a couple of you have given me another idea how to ring the changes a little bit now and then. Two dear Playmates (so far) will be donating a prize to our usual challenge slot and they will be making the sample card for me to show as well as donating a brand new prize which they used in the sample. I love the idea - for me it takes some pressure off and you will need to follow my link to the person's blog(s) to check out how it was made. Any linking to Mr Linky will still be here as usual and of course I will still be here doing my usual nattering on bit- so you don't get out of it that easily. We're trying it for the challenge which begins on 10th January and who it is will be a closely guarded secret until then and after our second mystery guest we'll take it from there, I want to 'puff' more life into the Playground to stop it from going stale but at the same time don't want to confuse things! We will always be about snippets and fun!

Love from Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,