Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #411 - results

As I said last week, Autumn is certainly on the way here and temperatures are dropping slowly, but steadily. And more Christmas cards are appearing in the Playground as well. I'm just so pleased I resolved not to kill myself by making dozens of them this year. However, I will still be sending hand made cards to my crafting friends, close family and a few other close friends.

We had some really beautiful floral entries into Challenge #411 and Sarn (my brilliant Head Prefect and also Head Mischief Maker) and I picked several mutual favourites which happened to have a floral theme, I've stayed with that for all of our picks. Several of your cards were also entered into the Allsorts Challenge blog in memory of our much missed friend Kath - so it seems extra fitting for some of them to feature here. I know that Brenda of Allsorts was delighted at the love and care people put into their entries. Kath certainly was, and always will be, a much loved lady.

Sarn and I both absolutely agreed that one entry in particular was worthy of a 'Gold Star':

We both think that Vinita's card is absolutely glorious! Such vibrant colours, all individually water coloured so perfectly - using lots of scraps of white card, and then colouring them. Just stunning. Do feel free to collect a *Gold Star* badge from the RH sidebar Vinita for your own blog, if you so wish of course.

 

 

This card really is so lovely, made by Lynne and beautifully paper pieced. Such wonderful colours and really a stunning card. The gorgeous 'frame' uses a set of dies by Clearly Besotted - such a clever idea. Hint, watch this space girls!

 

Vicky always makes her wonderful cards look almost effortlessly elegant, but it's a real skill - and this card is a perfect illustration of that. Just a little detail such as adding a blue centre to the flower to pull the card together is a perfect finishing touch. 

 

Now, this image might look like a flower - but just peek a bit closer. It's a 'lion flower'! The sweet little guy has the face of a teddy with the tail and the mane of a lion.☺ The mane reminds me so much of a multi-coloured flower and I was fooled at first - what an adorable card!  Made by Lynne in NI (Ruby's Mum) - who always produces such gorgeous cards.

And here's one I kept up my sleeve when SaRn and I were discussing our mutual picks:

Yay! It's a snippets card, made for Kath's Allsorts Challenge, by our own Head Prefect - SaRn of Stamping for Pleasure! It's absolutely gorgeous and Kath would have loved it so, so much Sarn. Perfection!

 

I've already thanked Sarn last week on here, but you have no idea how much she helped out after my 'tumbling act'. It was a huge relief to have her immediately phone me as soon as she knew and then step in and take over the reins whilst I got over the whole event. Mind you, I did follow on behind her commenting, later on so I could see all the entries properly, and make up my own list of picks - and some of the mischief plotting that was going on did make me chortle at times! Many thanks once again Sarn, that was a real lesson in life!

 

And finally, we had one new Playmate joining us for the first time:

Let's welcome Denise (Bryant) - with this fabulous Halloween card. You totally 'get' what the snippets challenge is all about Denise, lovely work!

That's our picks from Challenge #411 and we had 44 entries (going back up again - hooray!) in total.

Now for the prize draw, which is a bumper selection of Halloween goodies - jointly donated by Heather Mills and myself. Many thanks once again Heather! And the winner is:

Greta

 

Congratulations Greta! It seems like ages since you last won a prize - and I'll do my best to make sure this arrives in time for you to have a little play before Halloween. ☺

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 a good prompt for me and 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 #412 which you can find HERE. The prize is an Altenew 'Poured Acrylic' paper pack and a Lawn Fawn 'Giant Happy Birthday to You' die.

Challenge #411 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. That means, thanks to your generous prize donations, and the addition of Gift Aid tax relief onto my donations in lieu of buying prizes, we've raised £150 for USPCA so far - and still plenty more prizes to go as well! 

The September Rudolph Days challenge started on 25th and runs until the end of the month - over at ScrappyMo's HERE.

We had our flu vaccinations on Thursday - I won't bore you with details of the queuing fiasco but let's say the organisation left a lot to be desired. Next year, if the organisation looks to be basically inviting folk to 'join in a scrum' then we'll book into a local pharmacy (in the UK for example, Boots and Lloyds offer the service) with properly timed 20 minute appointments. Not everyone knows you can do this and that all the NHS conditions still apply (such as free jabs for certain age group and conditions) and they also notify your GP after you have your jab.

 

And, drum roll - tomorrow is 27th September, exactly three years from the day we collected Dudley and our lives changed forever. Happy 'Gotcha Day' sweet boy and thank you for all the love and joy you brought with you - gosh, you look so very tiny there:

 

Photo was taken very soon after we got Dudley back home on his 'gotcha day' - not a very long journey but he was bewildered, stressed and exhausted. So he did what puppies do best, curled up in his new bed with a blanket 'scented with his Mum and siblings aroma' that the breeder thoughtfully gave to all the puppies .................. and had a 'snoozelet', before even thinking about exploring his new home! We both remember it so well, Len ended up sleeping most of the night downstairs on a sofa - with a very homesick little puppy on his chest, covered in the soothing blanket - listening to his 'new Dad's' heart beating.

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