Rudolph Days Challenge - July 2021

Wow, what a scramble to make a card for this month's Rudolph Days Challenge over at Scrappy Mo's!

With so little time spare I did a quick rummage through what few saved shop bought card fronts to upcycle were left after my massive 'cull' - and came up with this:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" square white card blank

- slightly smaller snippet of gold mirri card, glued onto card front

- slightly smaller again piece of patterned paper from LOTV's 'Woodland Wishes' Christmas papers pad - glued in place

- the front of an oblong card, trimmed down to a square and then mounted onto a backing of gold mirri card - another snippet bites the dust!

- then glued the image panel onto the card front and called it done

In real life the colours are a bit stronger - camera and sunshine!

Used the gold mirri card to 'frame' the layers' as the image and sentiment are
foiled in gold, to 'pull' the whole card together.

It seems like a bit of a cheat, but I'm just not up to stamping and die cutting right now - my in-house critic really likes the end result and I rather like it as well, even if I say so myself!

Still keeping a tally of how many Christmas cards I've made but have accepted that I can no longer thrash myself half to death trying like crazy to produce absolutely loads. And you know what, having made that decision I do feel much happier for it.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #408 - Ruby's Memory

Hello again - thanks for calling by! It's time for another snippets challenge dedicated to dear sweet Ruby's Memory, in aid of the centre who originally rescued her, and this is our fifth one.

The prize for this challenge has been kindly offered by Brenda (Lawrence) - she still has the prize in the USA and will post it directly to the winner, no matter where they live. I've 'borrowed' an image from the supplier's website - and your ears may well prick up when I mention the magic words Gina K:

It's the really beautiful 'Peaceful Roses Mini' stamp set by Gina K. To see some gorgeous samples, please hop over to Gina's website HERE. 

Brenda is recovering from a nasty knee injury right now but we have a few weeks to go until the draw and one of her sons might post the prize if she can't.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 7th August. 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. And I won't be splitting the prize of course.

 

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.

 

Dudley had a quiet but very happy 3rd Birthday on Thursday. He did get an especially great card from his 'God Mum - who know who you are' which warranted three dabs of his nose, high praise from the little guy! He already has so many toys, only some of which are his firm favourites, and I almost didn't buy him a new toy. But, miraculously a 'honking duck' arrived courtesy of Amazon in the nick of time on Wednesday and, after hesitancy at first, he really loves it. He had a bath yesterday and is like a ball of white fluff right now.

It's been almost unbearably hot this past week and I've badly neglected commenting on Challenge #407. Apologies - I'll be there as soon as possible.

Don't forget, Scrappy Mo's Rudolph Days Challenge begins today and runs until the end of July HERE.

 

The hedgies are thriving as well as eating us out of house and home. Last night one was rolled onto it's back and lying flat - idly giving its tummy a really good scratch - we weren't quick enough to take a photo but it's certainly something we've never seen before. They seem to be particularly relaxed and almost tame this year. Dudley just looks at them but never disturbs them.

And last, but not least, a photo of Dudley taken sitting on one of his favourite 'lookout' spots by Len last week. Nope, he hasn't taken up smoking - it's a small chew, which he tends just to 'tinker' with, although he insists on a brand new one each day. None of this 'sneaking a barely touched one back into the packet' and offering it again the following day. The little monkey always knows if we try that trick! 😂

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #406 - results

Still very hot here and Dudley is alternating between lying cooling off in the back garden, sitting or lying indoors in front of a fan or- wedged between the loo and a tiled wall in our downstairs cloakroom.That's his favourite spot to be - quite unnerving if you hop up to nip to the loo in the evening and he idly turns round to see who the 'trespasser' is!

We have a proper little family of hedgies coming to feed every night. Too late for us to be around to take a photo but Len has caught them coming and going on CCTV. Two adults, Mama and Papa we think, and three teeny little ones!

We're headed into the lifting of most restrictions - even with rising cases of COVID. I know we have to move forward, but stopping compulsory social distancing as well as mask wearing seems potentially like 'throwing the baby out with the bath water'. I only hope I'm just being pessimistic - fingers crossed.

First of all, the picks:

I really love this 'mix of contemporary and more traditional' card - made by Jane W. Wonderful design and colours  - love the lemons and greens with the luscious turquoise.

Everyone loves a rainbow and of course they're great for using up little snippets = such a lovely scene - made and shared with us by Janis.

And as well as rainbows, paper piecing is a great technique to use up lots of little snippets. This card was made by Carol G and I love it! Very clever to also paper piece the sweet little bear.

That's my picks from Challenge 406 in the Playground and I've stuck to the three picks limit although whittling down the list of possibles wasn't easy. We jumped up to 46 entries - wahoo - and no new Playmates.

Now for the prize draw which is a Honey Bee 'Team Tie Dye' set of papers plus a Whimsy 'Big Hugs' set of dies - from me. Another popular prize. And the winner is:

Liz

Congratulations Liz! Been a little while since you had a Playground win and I'm sure you'll make some lovely cards with your prize. It's super for fast cards or even more complicated designs - will look forward to seeing the results.

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. 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.

For anyone who is disappointed not to be a prize winner this time around (over 75% of you played for the prize), stay tuned in as I do have a fairly 'similar but slightly different' prize lined up for the future. So good for making quick and easy cards!

Remember folks, there's still almost one more week to run on the current Challenge 407 which you can find HERE. The prize is a Leonie Pujol 'In a Spin' die plus a great set of alphabet stamps in both upper and lower case and a few additional sentiments  - kindly donated by Katrina. And also a popular prize as well!

Dudley's gum is back to normal after his little adventure with that piece of cable covering - phew. He's a little tinker when anyone comes to our front door, he certainly can bark for England. We have a solution when grocery deliveries are expected - just a shame we're not fast enough when it's the postie or Amazon. Len keeps an eye on one of his laptops watching, for the grocery van's arrival to be caught on our front driveway CCTV. That gives us time to whisk Dudley up, pop him into my craft room with me and place one of the removable barriers across the open doorway. This is how he lies during the deliveries, mostly very quiet - apart from some slightly cross doggy grumbling. 

n

Sorry it's a rear view - Dudley is very fluffy right now and his b*m looks big- and that's his beautiful plume of a tail curled out at the bottom of the photo BTW. Sometimes I need to double check which end is which! His newest Stinky Monkey is beside him, purely as Len dropped it there - so far Dudley will pick him up then change his mind about a good washing and licking session. We had to give him the previous one back as he was pining. So there are two in tandem and hopefully the day will come when he just might switch over the the newest one.

Those moveable barriers are brilliant for puppies and small dog breeds. The legs will turn to just lie flat and, so long as they're against a door or stairway with the legs open at ninety degrees, they're so useful. We actually have five placed in 'easy to grab' strategic points around the house - plus the all important opening gate across the kitchen doorway. Portable enough to take on a UK holiday just lain flat in the car boot.

Sadly I wasn't quick enough to catch Dudley's huffing, puffing, sighing and groaning on a movie clip. It's so hard to keep a straight face whilst he expresses his disappointment at being deprived of behaving like a 'crazy barking whirling dervish'! 

Stay cool if you can - and also safe!

Love from Parsnip, myself and the usual happy 'high-five' and woof from Dudley.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #407

Welcome to a new Snippets Playground Challenge.  It's been warm and humid here - with some rain thrown in, just to keep us on our toes! 

World Cup tension around where we live has been palpable - enough bunting and flags for a Royal Jubilee! I wonder if they will do the same for the Jubilee - I hope so. The final match is on Sunday evening and amazingly we reached the final. 

Let's just see who can throw themselves on the ground, roll around faking pain waiting for a penalty and then miraculously hop onto their feet when their team scores a goal anyhow. What a farce. One of the funniest quotes I read recently - no team mentioned - but it doesn't surprise me. 'Good grief - he just slapped him in the mooey!' I had to look up mooey (face) and from then on have cried laughing at the expression.

And for this challenge we have another lovely Guest Designer. This time it's Katrina (Bufton), one of our UK Playmates:

Katrina will tell you all about how she made her lovely card when you hop over to her blog, link above. I really love this sea themed card - such a fun play on words for the sentiment and lots of snippets used. I also really think the design is terrific (reminds me of bubbles or little portholes), plus and a big plus, see the super die cut circles? The die is a Leonie Pujol design called 'In a Spin' and the sample card that Leonie chose for the packaging, shown below, was made by Katrina! I would be so thrilled if my work was deemed good enough for product packaging - or even magazine publication. I did once or twice have cards published on a magazine 'readers page' but that's the extent of it for my crafting fame.

The prize this fortnight, VERY kindly donated by Katrina, is made up of two items:

It's that terrific Leonie Pujol 'In a Spin' die - with Katrina's card on the packaging and it's absolutely perfect for using up snippets. Plus a great set of alphabet stamps in both upper and lower case and a few additional sentiments included in the set too.

What a super prize, thanks so much Katrina!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 24th July. 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.

 

I finally braved the car dealership and took my car in for its first service. It all went very smoothly (with so few miles on the clock I should hope so!) and they are obviously observing all the current COVID protection regulations - which was reassuring. Thankfully the manufacturer relaxed the time limits on servicing which allowed me to wait until I felt more secure. 

 

Not that I'll be whipping off my mask with gay abandon later on this month when things here in England are planned to change quite dramatically. Just not convinced that leaving social distancing and mask wearing to 'the judgement of individuals' is totally safe yet with infection rates still rising - and total 'eedjits' romping around the country.

Dudley was responsible himself for some rapidly thumping hearts here earlier in the week. On Monday I was playing with him and, as I regularly do, took the opportunity to take a peek at his teeth and gums. I do try to brush them even though he puts up such a fight and up until then they were looking pearly white and very healthy. However, what I saw was a bit like something out of a horror movie - his upper right canine tooth was brownish black right from the gum to almost two thirds of the way down. I called Len and we both had a good look and a gentle feel. It was like a very thick layer of tartar had rapidly descended right down and around the whole tooth. Oh dear, looking like a trip to the vet. Len took him out for a walk whilst I frantically Googled about dog's tooth issues. After the melanoma issue about 20 months ago, both of us were silently thinking it might be something sinister growing very rapidly.

 

Anyhow, after the walk Len hopped Dudley up onto a garden table to brush the inevitable grass seed from his coat and especially his face (nose into everything) and took the opportunity to take another look at the tooth issue. He gently felt the 'brownish black thing' again and it was slightly moveable - so he carefully ran his fingernail along the gum line - and bingo, with a gentle wiggle - off popped this:

The photo is of the offending item, sitting on my glass cutting mat and those lines are at quarter inch intervals to show the size. Turned out to be a piece of the outer covering from some domestic wiring cable that Dudley had decided might be interesting and fun to chew! Unfortunately, 'it' had other plans and he got it wedged firmly around his right canine tooth - to the point it was actually pushed right up under the gum line, probably as he ate and very likely as he chewed and mouthed his beloved Stinky Monkey. 

 

How he hadn't been showing any signs of something amiss is beyond us as his gum even bled a little as Len popped it off. I'm sure that one of us would have been pretty stressed and in discomfort - but even with his issues like separation anxiety and fighting the dreaded grooming sessions - basically Dudley is very laid back when it comes to health issues, he's a tough little guy deep down. Day by day it's become less red around the gum line but what a little pickle he is and we may never know where it came from. I think I know as we recently had some careless builders working high up, a lot of feet from and above us, They used to flip bent nails over into our back garden, daily collected by Len and flipped back over the fence. 

 

The main thing is that Dudley is fine, the gum is practically back to normal and it didn't turn infectious. And I quickly replaced his old Stinky Monkey with a new one when he wasn't looking ☺ So far, he hasn't totally rejected the new monkey but neither has he launched into the usual licking and sucking frenzy with it. He isn't looking for the previous one either - perhaps another milestone in his growing up journey? Almost three year old now - where did the time go?

 

Our heart beats? Almost as normal as they could be, with Dudley Dog around to keep us on our toes!

Stay safe and be kind.

 

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #405 - results

Happy Independence Day to all our Playmates across the pond in the USA!

Steaming hot right now - wise little Dudley has learned to take up position in front of a fan in our bedroom. For UK bloggers, his coat streams out just like the dog in that hilarious Automobile Association advert! 

First of all, the picks:

Isn't this a brilliant card?! I adore the sweet little scene that Linby created from so many lovely snippets. The real icing on the cake is the fabulous embossing folder created 'room' background! So clever and all so perfectly positioned as well. Do hop over to Lynn's blog as there's a lovely story behind this card.

I picked this delightful card, made by Greta, as it's so lovely and a joy to look at. Every single thing about it is gorgeous - plenty of snippets used, wonderful colour combination and what a design, including the rounded corners. I really love it!

And last but not least, how about this brilliant card - made by Inkami (Franka), who is so talented. It's an easel card, as if the shirt itself isn't enough of a work of art! Lots of snippets used and what a wonderful idea for those of us who struggle with 'male' cards. All the dimensions and how to make this great card can be found over on Inkami's blog. Clever lady!

That's my picks from Challenge 405 in the Playground and I've stuck to the three picks limit. We had 36 entries and no new Playmates.

Now for the prize draw which is a Crafter's Companion stamp set called 'Hello Summer', a Crafter's Companion set of two dies called 'Summer Afternoon' to compliment the set of stamps, a Waltzing Matilda 2" x 2" doily die called 'Tiny Doily' and a set of two stamps by Creative Expressions called 'Apple Blossom Spray'. Prizes kindly donated for Ruby's Memory  Challenge by Val and Viv. And the winner is:

Jane W

Congratulations Jane! Been a little while since you had a Playground win and I'm sure you'll make some lovely cards with your prize. I think you had in your comments about being a tea lover, so this win seems very appropriate.

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. 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.

My car is in for service on Tuesday and if I've heard from you in time I'll post your prize when I'm doing the runaround taking the car to and from the dealers.

Remember folks, there's still almost one more week to run on the current Challenge 406 which you can find HERE. The prize is a Honey Bee 'Team Tie Dye' set of papers plus a Whimsy 'Big Hugs' set of dies. A lot of interest in this lovely prize already - and I'm not surprised. Do join in with some snippets inspiration please.

Challenge #405 was in aid of Ruby's Memory and I just sent off a further donation to USPCA, the rescue charity who saved Ruby and gave her the chance of the wonderful life she had with Lynne and Greg.

Dudley has totally lost interest in the old Stinky Monkeys that I washed ages ago. However, he is so very sharp and has spotted that there are four, I don't take chances, brand new ones in a set of 'Dudley's stuff' storage drawers in the garage. It's a tall plastic unit with crystal clear drawers - and Dumbo here (ie. me) stored the 'new monkey stock' in the bottom drawer. He's only noticed them fairly recently but of course now, when he goes to the garage, following Len like a shadow, he Dudley) stands with his nose pressed against the drawer front. He will be three years old on 22nd July, but I doubt if he (or we) can wait until then to 'secretly' give him a new one and dispose of his absolutely 'humming' current one.

His 'spinning' act for a treat after his midday walk is coming along nicely - he's up to sometimes five total turns, accompanied with a little 'woof' at each turn! He also has a new game at bedtime which we 'hoomans' imaginatively call 'The Game'. When it's bedtime he bounds upstairs, sometimes carrying his beloved monkey and other times leaving it for one of us to gingerly carry up by the tail. Then, he jumps up onto our bed, helped by a strategically placed foot stool, with tail wagging and a huge grin on his face, waiting for his bedtime treat - at 1% fat they're not naughty and are his absolute favourite. Then it's hide and seek time whilst we flip it between us or tuck it out of sight. He then sets off hunting just like a truffle hound and he always finds it in the end of course. - sometimes with a little bit of help rather than keep him hunting for too long.

Love from Parsnip, myself and the usual happy 'high-five' and woof from Dudley.