Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #360

Mixed week, some nights almost too hot to sleep and now it's dropped in temperature a bit. To be honest we're very grateful - and no doubt Dudley is as well. That little chap took to sleeping in the downstairs loo/bathroom at times. He'd obviously worked out the coolest spots in the house.

Good news on the gout front. The latest blood test showed the uric acid level to be just in the clear zone. To be on the safe side the dose is being upped one step further. I've had a few slight twinges to be honest, but that's to be expected as the crystals disperse from the joints in my feet and ankles........... and a quick gobble down of a couple of Colchicine pills knocked it on the head. Long may the good news last say I! For a while it felt as if every flipping blog post was gloomy on the health front - and that's not why you come here to play.

Plus, the new washing machine is brilliant - although I still have to refer to the instruction booklet at times. Sometimes appliances really are too clever and offer too much for their own good.
 
And here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

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

- almost a whole sheet of 'bokeh' style paper for the background, from the fabulous Carta Bella 'Beach Day' paper pack, trimmed to the exact size of the card front

- snippet of lime green (for the edge of the striped snippet) - both found in the back of the pad in an envelope pocket where I always store snippets

- layered the lime green topped by the striped strip using a small tape runner and set it to one side

- pulled out a selection of little snippets from the same paper pad and set to making the little gift bags using a snippet of black card for the handles. I used a super little die set by MFT (seems to now be discontinued, although I bet stockists might well still have them in their clearance) - called 'Gift Bags'

- I needed to make the little bags first so I could plan where to stamp the sentiment - I made the bags up using a teensy bit of very narrow red line tape to adhere the handles to the backs. On a couple of the bags I also added a handle dropping downwards and added a little bit of glue using a Zig glue pen to hold it down against the bag itself

- then I could check for the sentiment placement/spacing and of course used the Misti and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink along with a Happy Birthday stamp from MFT's 'Brushstroke Expressions' set of sentiment stamps

 - ready to assemble the card now so added the striped band to the background using a tape runner - letting the strip overhang on one side (I left it too long deliberately) so I could trim it right at the edge from the back of the sheet which ensures a nice straight line

- then glued the background sheet, now with striped strip and sentiment already done, onto the card front

- added the little gift bags using glue for a couple at the back and thin sticky pads for the two at the front - finished!

The card is more vibrant in real life, with very rich tones - sigh. It's a good idea to use little snippets from the same paper pad when using this die set as they would probably all complement one another nicely. And, I reckon the same design would be good to make Christmas cards as well - the bags could be cut from patterned paper (the pattern needs to be quite small), plain colours or even metallic or pearlised papers. Or even create your own using Distress inks or alcohol inks. Lots of potential - and of course you can switch the orientation of the bags around as you wish too! My card is similar to one I found on line, needless to say 😉

So, the prize this fortnight is:

An MFT 'Gift Bags' set of dies and an MFT 'Brushstroke Expressions' set of sentiment stamps. Both items make up the one prize BTW, I don't want to split them. Our postage seems to have rocketed for posting abroad and I'd rather not have to face possibly two lots of overseas postage for one single challenge as you never can tell what the Random Number selector will pick.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 14th September. 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.

We've been removing more of the barriers to allow Dudley to roam more freely round the house when we aren't watching him. Fingers crossed that he really is totally toilet trained, has been for quite some time now, and isn't interested in chewing things indoors that he shouldn't. The garden is a different matter entirely - he loves to dig and also find stones and twigs to play with.

I managed to take a quick photo of him in between writing this yesterday (Saturday), lying in one of his favourite places now that the barrier across the top of the stairs has been taken away. He has a good view of the front door from his vantage point, across the first step down - where he also has a good chance of making you fall over him!:

Ha, he also has an appointment at the groomers on Friday (that came round quick) to look forward to, tee, hee! Not sure why I'm laughing, I have an appointment with the dentist on Monday - just the hygienist, but even that gives me the shudders.

Edit - sorry, I totally forgot to add Mr Linky. He's up and running now! Thanks for the heads up Val - have linked you in!

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #358

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who commented about my quandry whether or not to order from Simon Says Stamp! I did end up placing a small order, needless to say the postage is sky high, so it remains to be seen what transpires once it reaches the UK! Fingers crossed.

It's still hot down here in Hampshire, but thankfully we're not having the rain problems and flooding that some others parts of the UK are contending with.

I needed a Birthday card for a good friend last weekend and so I also made it my snippets card ahead of the usual panic here - me not totally stupid.

And therefore, here's my snippets card for this coming fortnight:

I used:

- 4" x 4"square white card blank, side opening

- snippets of peach coloured card which I used as 'frames' for the main image panel and also the sentiment - I try to choose the coloured card before then looking for matching/toning colours for coloring in the backgrounds and images

- another snippet of white card onto which I stenciled a background using Altenew's 'Feeling Dotty' stencil and 'Tumbled Glass' Distress Ink - applied using a Clarity stencil brush

- piece of white card, also a snippet, onto which I stamped the adorable Newton's Nook 'Dainty Daisies' plus a sentiment from the same set (I chose one suitable for a Birthday but I do love the other sentiment which is 'Thanks a bunch!'). And of course I used Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and the Misti

- then coloured the 'daisies' image using Pro markers before die cutting the bunch using a die from the Newton's Nook co-ordinating set, I did find it best to use another snippet of card to cut a template to ensure the placing of quite a detailed die

- I had set out to make a USA A2 sized card but then realised that the balance was going to be all wrong - would have been better to have the daisies within an oval or rectangular frame in the centre perhaps for that card size

- so I cut everything back to go onto the now reduced in size card blank and glued the peach frame and image background panel in place, before trimming and adding the sentiment to another peach frame

- that meant I could sit and sort of juggle things around a bit until I was as happy as I'd ever be

- then glued the bunch of daisies in place and popped the sentiment to the bottom left

- final touch - a rootle through my huge box of gems and other similar (rarely used these days) embellishments and found some lime green sparkly but almost clear 'domes' which I popped in place

- as always, I added an insert although I usually leave those blank but this time I added 'Happy Birthday Wishes' using a stamp from a pre-loved SU set called Avant-Garden (this is really for my own record as it took me ages to find a small enough sentiment that went with the font of the sentiment on the front of the card)

So, it ended up as a much smaller card than I originally envisaged - but, victim of my own OCD really, I like (as far as possible) to only use goodies on my fortnightly snippets card which form part of the prize. Otherwise, I really do think those daises would be in a pretty die cut frame (of which I have a good selection) or aperture - and the sentiment would have also been die cut using an elongated pennant/flag or some such die, IF I could find one absolutely the right size, which is rare when I'm sticking to using a specific sentiment.

There are loads of ideas out there for how to use this lovely 'Dainty Daisies set' - quite a lot don't even need the die cutting and some are such vibrant and quite funky colours. I think the set is a fairly recent release (2019) and I just bet I spotted it on one of your blogs (or Seven Hills blogspot which is fabulous but so tempting) and ran off to buy them.

The prize this fortnight is:

Of course it's a Newton's Nook 'Dainty Daisies' set of stamps with matching dies, plus an Altenew 'Feeling Dotty' stencil.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 17th 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 we do have a few photos of Dudley this week - in the garden one evening, having one of his favourite times of the day, which always includes a little 'treat' or two of course. He still hasn't opened up his Birthday cake shaped treat though, it's being saved for after this coming Tuesday when he gets home from having a 'shampoo, set and manicure' at our local grooming salon. He'll need so little trimming that, for now, he's going to the local branch. That makes life much easier for us not having to trek to Winchester as I can take him on his own and then either come back home for an hour or nip round Sainsbury's just over the road from the grooming place.

Anyhow - here's the little chap, especially for you:

OK Mama - I'm ready to perform, get that camera clicking!

I can 'dance for my Daddy' for treats anytime!

But just got told to 'sit' and wait

Then,when I give my paw, I get the treat :) Sometimes I'm gentle and other times I just slap my paw like a high five and think 'get on with it!'

And this is my toy box - a few of the toys are strewn around elsewhere - but you can see Benjamin Bear who came to live with me on my Birthday - and of course my beloved 'Stinky Monkey - Mark 2'. I'm working hard on him 'cos one day he was suddenly all fresh and new for some reason!

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #356

Oh boy - it's still hot down here in Hampshire! We really could do with just a little bit of rain to clear the air as it's so humid and heavy right now.

Anyhow here's my snippets card for this coming week:

I used

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

- snippet of slightly smaller piece of light blue card, an eighth of an inch smaller on each side

- backed the light blue card with white fun foam, again cut a bit smaller than the blue card, and adhered it to the card front using Collall All Purpose Glue - just to lift it up a little bit

- then rummaged through the snippets folder for some scraps and die cut the clouds using white card and MFT's 'Cloud' Trio' set of dies

- then die cut the kites, lines, tails and little stabilising 'bows' from snippets of red, green, yellow, red and white and carefully popped them into an upturned lid I keep on the desk - through (bitter) experience. I used a lovely die set made by Impression Obsessions called 'Kite' - what else?! 

- then added the lines and clouds to the background using a glue pen - allowing some parts to hang over the edge - which I then snipped off from the back to be sure of a straight and clean cut

- still building the scene - I then added the main part of each kite - using thin snippets of sticky pad to add dimension, then added the little bows using a glue pen (this time I didn't use the 'sectioned' part of the die cutting set but that would be fun to try (say) using pretty patterned papers for a girls card)

- next I needed a few words so I used an MFT set of 'Label Maker Sentiment' stamps and the Misti with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink for stamping. The Misti comes in so handy when stamping very solid stamps like these as I find, even with a newish ink pad, it does take more than one go to get a nice clean black finish

- then I just carefully fussy cut the words, you can actually buy a set  of matching MFT dies but I truly think they would be more trouble than they're worth - a nice sharp pair of medium sized scissors and decent light and they were done in no time at all

- then used red line sticky tape to adhere the words where I wanted them - all done!   

I couldn't find the MFT word stamps in the UK (I've had mine for a while now), but Uniko do some lovely sets - I have one which a sweet crafter bought for me a while ago and, like all Uniko products, it's great! I didn't use my Uniko set on the card as my blank spaces weren't right, next time I'll plan ahead more! Thanks again Sue! x

The prize this fortnight is:

An Impression Obsession 'Kite' set of dies and a 'Your Next Stamp' set of two 'Cloud' dies. Again, I couldn't find the MFT 'Cloud Trio' set of dies for the prize but the Your Next Stamp set is every bit as good IMHO. And I used two cloud sizes almost identical to the prize ones when I made my card. As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 20th 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 playing only for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

Dudley will be one year old on 22nd July and I'd forgotten just how much joy a doggie would bring to us - and how much work as well! He's so enchanting, you can't help but love him even when he's being a little pickle! Much to my quiet delight I took him for a walk during the week whilst Len was out - he behaved beautifully (after getting over the shock that after some months it was Mama taking him out!). We did about three quarters of a mile on one of his favourite routes, which might not sound much to many of you but was a huge step forward for yours truly.

On the subject of Dudley, we took him to the groomers on Thursday as his adult coat had begun to 'blow' over the past few weeks (basically changing from puppy coat to adult coat which generally begins at around one year old, and can take up to six months) so keeping on top of his tangles was almost impossible. Within half an hour of a full groom at home, making sure he was free of tangles, they came straight back. Basically, it wasn't a good situation for Dudley - deep mats can cause health problems and are also quite painful either to be removed or even before they're removed as they can cut off the blood supply. So, right now, Dudley looks like a little shorn sheep with a lovely plume of a tail and his wonderful long silky ears left untouched. His dear little face looks just as it did as a puppy - although of course the top knot has gone. I always thought he would look cute with a teddy bear/puppy cut - and no doubt he will .... as soon as it grows back just a bit! As for Dudley, he's absolutely fine needless to say, and also much cooler! Although, I think he feels it's just a bit undignified to have his 'crown jewels' exposed as they are at the moment - so he's taken to wearing dark glasses when he goes out for a walk. 

Here he is, taken yesterday, waiting at the top of the stairs for Len to return from archery:

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

Male Birthday card for 20th Birthday

It was Len's great-nephew's 20th Birthday recently, and I went through the usual gnashing of teeth trying to think of what sort of card to make. His Facebook page didn't give much away so I resorted to opening up a few Really Useful Boxes and peering hopefully inside them. And then, I spotted a load of 'Scrabble' pieces - produced especially for crafting. And that's what kicked it all off - here's the result:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square Kraft card blank, side opening

- a sheet of paper from the Paper Cellar 'Mens' paper pad, just slightly trimmed to leave a little border. I like the open topped cars in the pattern

- 'Scrabble' letters to spell out Brad's name. They're make of thin (balsa?) wood and I found them in Hobbycraft, under their own label, a good while ago

- the letters came with some double sided sticky circles on the back but I carefully removed those and used Collall All Purpose glue to glue the pieces in position

- finished off by adding a 'Craftwork Cards' sentiment, again bought ages ago. As often happened with these sentiments the circle had been cut just slightly 'off' leaving a fine white border in places, so I carefully trimmed right round to even things up

- then ran a black marker around the edge before adding the sentiment to the card using thin sticky pads

For being totally without inspiration at first, I'm glad this worked out as it did - and it got a thumbs up from my 'in-house critic' too!

Vroom, vroom!

A little (not so little now) neighbour, called Taylor, is ten tomorrow. It's safe to post this card I made for him, as he doesn't know about the blog:

I used:

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

- a snippet of SU's 'Smoky Slate' card stock, trimmed to slightly smaller than the card front and glued in place

- next layer is a snippet of white card stock - embossed using a Cuttlebug 'Diamond Plate' EF (the closest I had to tyre tracks) and trimmed to a teeny bit smaller than the 'Smoky Slate' layer - then glued in place

- next, out came the Misti and a Stampin' Up set of stamps called 'Rev Up the Fun', and this card is made totally using stamps from that set. Taylor's Dad has a motorbike and he loves to go for a little spin on it all togged up, sitting behind his Dad

- I stamped the bike onto a snippet of white card using Memento 'Danube Blue' - I'm a bit careful/mean and only buy colours like this in the 'Dewdrop' size if I rarely use them. The Misti is so useful to get a totally crisp image

- then, using the Misti again, I stamped the 'exhaust fumes'- checking for position with a snippet of scrap card, and SU's 'Smoky Slate' ink pad before doing the real thing

- whilst at it, still using the Misti, I also stamped a couple of the tyre tracks stamps - again with SU's 'Smoky Slate'

- more stamping - the sentiment onto a white snippet - using SU's 'Real Red'

- with the stamping all done I just used scissors to trim down the 'tyre tracks' and set them aside - I'd usually use the trimmer but scissors worked fine as I had a strong line to follow

- mounted the trimmed image onto a snippet of SU's 'Real Red' card stock, and did the same with the sentiment - only I switched and used SU's 'Smoky Slate' for that element

- added the 'tyre tracks' onto the card front using red line tape

- then added the sentiment and the image panels using thin sticky pads

All done!

Sorry if I haven't visited the Playground entries as promptly as I should - bit busy here but will be there ASAP! 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #351

Time for another new challenge fortnight in the Snippets Playground. Am writing this on the day before the challenge goes live - and it's damp and windy here. Let's hope we haven't had our Summer already - we've had some glorious days recently, at least the children were off school on holiday to make the most of it.

First of all an apology, I might have rectified things by the time this publishes, but with one thing and another I just haven't managed to keep up with commenting on entries for the challenge that just closed. I'll be there ASAP I promise!

And here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of green card for the 'frame'

- a snippet of white card for the image panel (some challenges I tend to use just a couple of larger snippets -  depending on what the prize is and whether it lends itself to a variety of smaller snippets or not). A snippet is still a snippet!

- stamped the rockery onto the white panel, using a stamp from the fairly new Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set and a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- then used one of the re-usable masks to cover the rockery before using the lizzy stamp to stamp the flowers and foliage. The masks made by Clarity are brilliant, wish more companies did that

- coloured the whole image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending fluid

- only then did I trim the panel down into a square before adding the sentiment using a stamp from the Hero Arts 'Messages' set of sentiment stamps and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink (and the Misti of course!). The set of sentiment stamps is dated 2007 - and sadly no longer available (I did try!)

- then trimmed the snippet of green card (chosen so I could match some of the foliage to it) to just slightly larger than the image panel

- glued both panels onto the card front - all done!

As so often happens - the colours are so much more vivid in real life - especially the bright (almost neon) orange, sigh.

I love Clarity stamps and this set is so lovely to stamp as well as colour. It came with the Clarity perspex mounts (one for each of the two stamps) - which I did use - but the Misti or any perspex block would have worked just as well. Plus, the mounts/handles take up a lot of extra storage space - the stamps are the usual clear cling material (great quality and very well made I should add!) and really I think that Clarity could save work, postage and costs by selling their stamps without accompanying mounts - just my opinion of course. Their products are still fabulous!

And of course, the prize this fortnight is this:

A Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set. Now, I do of course also have the two mounts which came with the stamp set, as shown in the photo, and they're also part of the prize. But, if you win and are happy not to have them sent then that's just fine. It's easier and cheaper postage for me (the difference between a large letter and a small parcel) - but as they came with the stamps it's only fair to give you the option. I think my own ones will end up in the 'donate or throw out' pile of stuff when I do my intended blitz of the craft room!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 11th May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and 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 playing only for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone ☺

And finally, a few photos of Dudley for your enjoyment taken just minutes apart the day after his 2nd part of being groomed (so only taken on Tuesday or possibly Wednesday. They do show how he can look so puppy-like one minute - and rather elegant the next! Captions as dictated by Dudley:

Aw come on Daddy. I'm doing my 'please come and play' pose here!

Just to prove that there's still a lot of peach on my ears and down my back (aka saddle). And I'm trying the 'look a bit mournful' approach now to see if anyone will play

Me - being a real Havanese and doing my 'regal' look! Puppy one minute and a real 'poser' the next. And I'm so good when Mama fixes my top knot - I lie very still with my chin on my paws now and rarely move during the whole process. To be honest, it makes life much easier to get it over and done with rather than putting up a fight - but that's just between us!

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

Hooray for Penny Black Stickeroos!

Mid-afternoon on Monday I realised it's a friend's Birthday later in the week and Len would be passing a post box on Tuesday so he could post it for me. Huh, we both looked right through the box of made up miscellaneous cards here and not a single one was suitable! That's a lesson - must try and make a few to have as standbys.

Whilst being laid up I've been browsing on line a lot and came across a really pretty sheet of Penny Black Stickeroos I'd not seen before - and thankfully the packet had arrived and was sitting there on my desk, certainly saved my bacon!

This is the card I made straight away at top speed, using just one of the stickers - the sheet has four large ones  a really lovely pink stem of flowers, three with beautiful poppies and two other small ones - one is poppies and the other a butterfly), dated 2016 so not all that old as I'd thought PB stopped making them a while ago:

I used:

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

- piece of the same shade of off-white card onto which I stuck the Stickeroo (from the 'touched by love' sheet) before then trimming it down to the size I wanted. You get no second chances with Stickeroos if you make a mistake!

- then backed the image panel with some pretty pink card and glued it onto the card front

- the sentiment was stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink onto a leftover snippet of the off-white card then trimmed down and backed with a small piece of the pink card. The sentiment stamp is from a set I use when I want a small font - it contains 22 different sentiments, made by Personal Impressions, called 'Everyday Words Happy Birthday', designed by Lindsay Mason. Not sure if it's still available to buy as I've had mine for many years - but it's a good all-rounder as it covers a lot more than just Birthdays

Then I wrote the card, stuck a stamp on and breathed a huge sigh of relief - before toddling off to rest up a bit more.

Birthday card for three year old Jack

This is as much for my records as anything as it was so simple to make and (shock, horror) I used a kit! I needed it right at the end of the Grand Draw marathon and was so happy to find I had this kit to hand:

Not much to tell about how I made it - the A5 kit card is (I think) Hunkydory from a Craft event I went to a little while ago. It comes with the design printed back and front plus a nicely co-ordinating insert - and of course the topper with (how lucky) three soldiers on.

Then all I did was to hand cut the banner strip from a snippet of black card and glue it in place. Finally added Jack's name using die cut red letters and popped the number 3 (gold peel off) onto the busby of the middle one of the three soldiers!

Sorry to be a bit slow on commenting on both this latest challenge and also the previous Grand Draw one!

I'm still here, but running around trying to make up for lost time. Took Dudley to the Vet today for more of his prescription monthly worming pills ........... plus a three-monthly flea/tick tablet as he's nearing six months old. He now weighs 5.5kg ☺

I have no problems with the worming tablets - he's been on them for a couple of months now, loves them and they don't cause a reaction either! But am not happy with the flea/tick tablet he has been prescribed. We both feel so uneasy with supposed (possible but devastating) side effects of this particular tablet that we may well not give it to him but look at some less aggressive treatments. Dudley is 'flea free' but we thought it best to prevent rather than have to cure. Anyone here heard of or used 'Bravecto' - that's what he's been prescribed? Come on my doggie friends - help me!!

Love from us all and a woof from Dudley(who looked great for his outing after little Parsnip spent ages bustling around grooming him beforehand - bless my little white bear, who is proving to be a very good 'nanny'),

Birthday card for Joshua

One of our young neighbours celebrated his 10th Birthday earlier this monthly and I whipped up a card, CASE-ing a wonderful snippets card that was one of my fortnightly picks back in July - made by Nicky and you can see her original HERE. Do take a look as you'll see just how fab. it looks made on a black background.

I loved the drama of the black backing card that Nicky used but went for white in the end - just felt that Josh isn't old enough for black background cards as yet:

I used:

- 5" x 3.75" white card blank, side opening, an odd size I know but I made it to fit the stitched panel I was using next!

- a ready die cut rectangle of card which I found in my white snippets box - it had been die cut using a Lil'Inkers' 'Stitched Rectangles' die

- before going any further I stamped the word 'Birthday' onto the bottom right hand corner of the card  using a stamp which I'd chopped apart (it came with 'That Folder' as a magazine freebie some time ago) Sadly, the stamp isn't decent quality and I was glad to have the Misti to stamp it multiple times - basically the stamp has deteriorated over time, despite being stored away from light and heat and even after being washed it's practically lost its 'stick' and also doesn't stamp very well. Shame, but it owes me nothing anyhow

- then I found five snippets of plain brightly coloured card and die cut the letters for the word HAPPY from them - using dies from the First Edition 'Alphabet Sans Serif' set of upper case dies

- next it was time to cut the strips below which the letters would be stuck and it's a good job I checked each I die cut letter for width first as both the A and the Y are wider than the other letters I used

- cut the strips to the widths of each letter and then cut them to lengths of 2.5" and 2.25" and glued them onto the stitched rectangle using Collall all-purpose glue. The easiest way to do this was to find the centre of the panel, mark it with a soft pencil and work outwards - and it was very lucky that each side of the row of strips contained a wider one - which meant that the strips lined up correctly at each edge of the panel - hooray!!

- then used a Zig glue pen to add the letters to the bottom of the matching strips of card - finished!

Thank you so much for this great idea Nicky - I was really delighted with the result and certainly will use the same technique again. Nicky used her Scan 'n Cut but I had some reasonably chunky letter dies here which meant I could still have a go.

In previous years I've taken a lot of time and trouble working out suitable themes for the kiddies who live around us, adding their ages and names to each Birthday card as well. I know they were appreciated but as the kiddies grow up it gets harder to find a 'theme' and we aren't in each others pockets so really I don't know their latest 'likes' most of the time. In future I'll make more generic cards for them - plus, it takes a lot less of my time, which is still at a premium here. Funny how a little bundle of white fluff called Dudley totally makes you stop and realise that some of the smaller details in life are not really important enough to spend oodles of time over.

Happy Birthday Livi!

Last week was Livi's 9th Birthday - where did the years go?

Livi recently started guitar lessons, and apparently loves it. So, in a mad panic I made this card for her in 40 minutes or so - which is a minor miracle for me as I'm a very slow crafter:

I used:

- 7" x 5" white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of beige card from the snippets folder, with just a small amount trimmed off to make it slightly smaller than the card front, then glued in place

- then I selected the other snippets I wanted to use so I could match the colouring of the image as much as possible - the image is pre-coloured and Len found it for free on the internet (my hero!)

- printed then trimmed the image and backed it with a plain square of mid-brown card 

- die cut the sentiment from another snippet of card, this time tan coloured using the Die Versions Corner Concepts 'Happy Birthday' die and added it to the top left corner of the image panel using glue

- next I did the number 9 using The Works '10 Piece Numbered Candles' set of dies to cut out the candle number in mid-brown and also in tan, which I snipped and added on top of the flame    

- die cut LIVI from mid-brown card using dies from the First Edition 'Alphabet Sans Serif' set of upper case dies

- now I had the sizes of everything I added the image panel as well as the age die cut and LIVI to the card front

- final touch using some of the leftover snippets, a few stars here and there, die cut using MFT's 'Stars' dies

- the number, letters and stars were all cut from snippets which had been backed with Stick-It adhesive sheet

Livi is not a girl for pretty things, so although the image is a little bit on the 'punk' side I'm sure she will like it over the other options Len found. I used a few similar elements to those I used for Mia's card the other week - they do compare notes :)

Then had to dash to the Post Office with it, along with Lia's prize from the other fortnight.

We were right - Livi's Mum says she adores her card! So relieved.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #338

And so we change the clocks at 2am on Sunday morning, shortly after this is posted on the blog, but I just bet that Dudley won't let us have a longer sleep! Weekends are always a bit of an early start for us as Len goes to archery both Saturday and Sunday mornings - but before we had Dudley I could stay snugly tucked up in bed. Now it's a case of getting him outside pronto as soon as the signs are there!

It was Len's Birthday a couple of weeks ago and making a card for him was possibly not gonna happen as Dudley was still taking up a lot of time. Thankfully I did manage to make Len a card a couple of days beforehand, which luckily also doubles up as my snippets card.

So, here is my snippets card - on which I used a snippet of card I'd been playing around with ages ago using aqua shades of Altenew inks and some home made iridescent spray, a snippet of blue backing card and snippets of white card:

I used:

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

- a snippet of deep teal blue card from the snippets folder,  trimmed to make it slightly smaller than the card front, then glued in place

- a piece of white card which I found had already been die cut (yay!) using a die from the Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set of dies, onto which I stamped the sentiment from the Lawn Fawn 'Year Five - Otterly Birthday' set of stamps - using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink. Hooray for the Misti, although these stamps really do stamp perfectly every time

- glued the white panel on top of the deep teal one on the card front

- a piece of Tim Holtz Watercolour card which had been swiped ages ago with all four ink pads from the Altenew 'Sweet Dreams set and then lightly sprayed with home made iridescent spray (more details of this are below!). I really had no idea what to do with it at the time so just popped it in with my blue snippets to wait its turn

- Lawn Fawn 'Year Five - Otterly Birthday' stamp set again, from which I stamped the sweet little otter and parcel onto a white snippet of card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- coloured both images using Pro markers

- used the matching dies to die cut the otter and parcel (you could do this without the dies easily but I bought the pair as a 'deal'). As usual I die cut templates so I could place the aperture over the images, and then position the dies properly - always worth that little bit of extra time, even when really pushed!

- die cut a circle from the Altenew slightly sparkly snippet using a Spellbinders circle die - would have preferred to have a circular aperture on the card front but again, not enough time

- whilst I had the Cuttlebug in front of me I also die cut a white cloud using the smallest die from the MFT 'Cloud Trio' set of dies and a smallish balloon from the darkest spot on my Altenew snippet - using a die from the Poppy Stamps set of seven 'Celebration Balloons' dies (this is a fabulous set of dies, sadly not able to get hold of it to add into this week's prize as it's not around in the UK and overseas postage to here is silly money)

- then it was just a case of adding the elements to the card front - glued the circle in place, popped the otter on with glue as I wanted him flat, then added the cloud (to adhere it I used a snip from a thin sticky pad for dimension)

- I really would have liked to carefully cut the otter's paw before adding him to the card front so that he would be really 'holding' the parcel - but didn't want to risk ruining a card with so little time to spare, next time perhaps

- the balloon was a little tricky. I used a tiny piece of silver embroidery thread (six strands) and attached it to the back of the balloon (having realised I needed to knot either end to prevent it from splitting apart) - using a teeny piece of thin sticky pad and then popped the balloon onto the edge of the circle

- to prevent the strands of thread from springing apart down the length of the 'balloon string' I gently twisted them before attaching the other end to the otter's tummy with a little piece of thin sticky pad and then popped the Birthday parcel on top

- final touch, three little sequins to add something to the background using Glossy Accents as a glue - and we were done, hooray!

Little story - skip if you're only here for cards! I've had this stamp and matching die set for ages, always with a Birthday card for Len in mind. We used to go to Thailand each Autumn and there was a beautiful hotel we stayed at on the very south of the island of Phuket where they had a rescued sea otter called Kee. She was adorable - we visited her each day and she used to have a late afternoon stroll along the beach (complete with harness and lead) when most of the sunbathers had packed up for the day. Sadly, she wouldn't have survived had she been released back into the wild as she was just an orphaned pup when a local fisherman found her. Len and I were never ones for stretching out in the sun all day but we were taking the opportunity to have some quiet time on the shoreline as the sun was going down when Kee trotted along with her keeper late one afternoon. I was taking some video footage of the beautiful surroundings whilst Len splashed around in the warm shallows. And then, Kee's keeper (whom we'd befriended) asked if Len was scared of her - when he said 'no' the keeper unclipped her lead and she scampered straight into the sea for a few minutes play with Len! It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen and we were lucky enough that I filmed it. Of course Len was totally enchanted and it's a memory that will stay with us always - not just on film, you really had to be there to feel the magic. She was keen on catching Len's toes though and otters have such strong teeth you certainly don't want a pedicure from them! Sometimes I see little Dudley's face peeping over the side of his bed at me and he looks so much like a baby seal - or even a baby otter. So - that's why this stamp set really called to me for this year's card for Len!

And I mentioned the iridescent solution I sprayed the Altenew panel with. Way back in March, Gail of Ionabunny and I had quite an exchange of emails. She'd made her own iridescent spray and was happy to share some extra tips with me. Eventually I got it right by using a Ranger Mini Mister and the teeniest bit of Windsor and Newton 'Iridescent Medium'. It was trial and error - my first attempt totally clogged up the nozzle of one Mister - note to self, this stuff does NOT work undiluted!And my second attempt wasn't much better, but third time lucky. Thanks so much Gail - great way to make up your own clear Wink of Stella or similar and one bottle will go for miles and miles - to the moon and back probably! My advice would be to literally start off with just a cocktail stick dipped into the medium to add to the water in the Mister - Gail's tip, not mine but it certainly works! Last I heard, Gail was going to try it out in an empty Wink of Stella pen - which would be great as you would then have both spread with the spray from the Mister and precision with the WOS brush.

The prize this time is very much connected to this week's snippets card:

It's (of course!) a Lawn Fawn 'Year Five - Otterly Birthday' stamp set - with the matching dies. Obviously I won't split this prize so if you play and want to be in the draw remember that you will receive both items, makes sense to me as they are a pair.
  
As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 10th November. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and 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're wanting 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 playing only for fun - otherwise I ignore you on my little list.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

No photo of Dudley today, he's been a real livewire this past week and it's almost impossible to get him to stay still for long - and there are only so many sleeping puppy photos you can take.

Love from Parsnip (always my special furry white bundle - he and Dudley are making friends, slowly! He's learned to say 'Nooooo' in a firm voice), little Dudley who truly is such a pickle and of course from me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #337

Phew, what a struggle it is to do any crafting at all with one manic Dudley puppy, however, I really HAD to make a card for Mia's Birthday to send to Germany so I used the opportunity to combine this week's snippets make at the same time - hooray!

Mia is now into elves and such, but the elves and fairies she likes are more quirky and fantasy styled rather than too pretty-pretty. So, my LOTV Art Pad ready coloured images weren't gonna fit the bill ........ sadly, as they are such a time saver. However, I found a stamp I bought absolutely ages ago and only ever used once (almost six years ago for her sister Livi's 3rd Birthday in fact!) - which would take some stronger colours to give it some 'oomph'.

So, here is my snippets card, made in 'fits and starts' with one eye on the little monster even though Len was at home (he had things to catch up on so we shared the puppy sitting):

I used:

- 7" x 5" white card blank, tent style

- a snippet of SU blue spotted card from the snippets folder, with just a small amount trimmed off to make it slightly smaller than the card front, then glued in place

- then I selected the other snippets I wanted to use so I could match the colouring in of the image as much as possible

- stamped the image using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a Joanna Sheen 'Enchanted' grey rubber stamp

- then coloured the image with Pro markers before adding some clear 'Wink of Stella' to the wings and the little 'beads' in her hair

- trimmed the image and backed it with a plain square of primrose pink card on top of a square which had been die cut from a snippet of blue card using a die from The Works 'stitched square' set of dies

- backed snippets of the pink and blue card with Stick-It ready for some die cutting

- the sentiment was die cut using a die from the Paper Smooches 'Birthday Words' set of dies. I bought this little die set plus one for the toy box absolutely ages ago and this was its first outing. I remembered a tip that am sure Jules put on her blog a good while ago about using this die - and I think Jennifer McGuire used it as a technique recently as well. Basically, the letters all fall out of the 'Happy Birthday' die separately so you're faced with aligning them onto your piece of work. I die cut a small rectangle of vellum using the same die, taped that onto the top right hand corner of the card and then stuck each letter down in place inside the apertures - perfectly aligned and of course I could see through the vellum to position it

- next I did the age square using The Works '10 Piece Numbered Candles' set of dies to cut out the candle numbers in blue and also in pink, which I snipped and added on top of the flames    

- popped the numbers onto a snippet of white card which had been die cut into a circle and then layered it onto a square of pink card (it looked too stark otherwise)

- die cut MIA from pink card using dies from the First Edition 'Alphabet Sans Serif' set of upper case dies

- added the age panel with MIA in between and then the image panel to the left - finished!

Then had to dash to the Post Office with it, along with the WISH die prizes from the other fortnight.

The prize this time is a couple of items the same as I used on my snippets card today - excuse poor photo:

It's a Paper Smooches 'Birthday Words' die set (comprising 'celebrate', 'cheers' and 'Happy Birthday') plus The Works ' 10 Piece Numbered Candles' set of dies. Only one of the Paper Smooches sentiments isn't all joined up letters btw - and of course it was the one I wanted to use! Please note that I won't split this prize so if you play and want to be in the draw remember that you will receive both items, but of course you can then give one to a friend if you don't want both items! It keeps things easier for me - and also keeps the postage down as well.
 
As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 27th October. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and 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're wanting 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' comment on my blog post itself - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

And to finish off - you can see Dudley in action last Sunday afternoon, over on YouTube. We've had to lay cardboard down to protect some new carpet (bad planning there but we had been searching for a fairly locally bred Havanese puppy for almost three years!) and I cleared away the covering of puppy pads to give him a free run :) Some of you will have seen the movie clip on my Facebook page, but if not then just click on the link below - and do turn your sound on, I still have a chuckle when I see it:

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

And immediately after that?

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzonk

Love from Parsnip (always my special furry white bundle), little Dudley and of course from me,

Birthday card for Kai

Kai is our much loved honorary daughter - and also the Mum of Mia and Livi (Len's granddaughters). She recently had a Birthday and Len suggested I ought to have an owl on the card I was planning to make for her. Huh, she adores owls and of course I'd taken my best owl stamps to give to her when we had the card making spree in Germany fairly recently.

Then, I remembered the brilliant Stampin' Up 'Owl' punch! Good ole SU to the rescue :)

The card I made is very much based on an old one I found on Pinterest - needless to say I can't find the link again. Anyhow, hats off to whoever designed this card originally, it's such a simple design but I do think it's very effective - this is my version:

I used:

- 5" x 5" off-white card  blank, side opening

- snippet of blue card which was die cut using one of The Works 'Stitched Squares' dies

- snippet of green card, die cut using a very old die by Marianne Creatables 'LR0120' (one of those with the release foam) in dating back to when I very first got a Cuttlebug) - and put to one side

- snippets of brown, beige, cream and black card to punch out the various elements of the owl so I could look at him and decide on the size of the moon to position the sentiment (as you do) - then popped into a deep plastic lid to keep them safe whilst I made up the owl, using a glue pen

- the moon came next and I used a square of cream card in the Misti to stamp the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and a stamp from the LOTV 'General Greetings - Small' set of stamps (still an old favourite!). Often it's easier to stamp a sentiment and then die cut afterwards rather than the other way round - err, and I really meant to use a dark brown for the sentiment but hey-ho - my hands were ahead of the brain!

- used a die from the Tonic Studios 'Circle Layering' set to die cut the moon

- so now all the elements were done and first of all I glued the blue background to the card front, using Collall All Purpose Glue

- then laid it all out and glued the leafy branch in place using a fine glue pen (I'd already trimmed quite a few curls and whirls from the branch before I was happy)

- next came the moon, making sure the sentiment was as level as possible - glued in place using Collall All Purpose Glue again

-then it was the turn of Kai's favourite - the owl. I added it to the branch using thin sticky pads just to add a bit of dimension

- Len peeked in the craft room just as I finished and said it was lovely (his idea of course) and suggested maybe I ought to add a heart! So funny, the punch has a little heart as one of the elements so I punched one from a tiny snippet of red card and added it with a glue pen - and it made a real difference having the little pop of red

Got top marks from Mister Len - whoop, whoop! Or should that really be hoot, hoot?! And Kai loved it too :)

Stitched Butterfly card

First of all, I've been a bit late commenting on Playground entries but right now have caught up. Hooray :)

My card for today is made especially for Mrs A's Butterfly Challenge #101:

And this is the 'wheel' we had to choose our elements from - I stuck to just the butterfly and the colour Mint Green, and I checked our mint plant just to be sure - otherwise it's Moss Green anyhow, so THERE! :) Main thing is I managed to play, just for fun:

I used:

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

- the image was stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a wood mounted Funstamps stamp called 'Stitched Butterfly' -  onto a snippet of white card

- then I coloured the patchwork design using Pro Markers and trimmed around the edge

- just to finish the patchwork panel off I ran the side of the thick nib of a black Whispers pen right around the edges. Warning, don't ever try this trick with Pro markers as they bleed of course - a lesson learned many years ago

- die cut a white panel using the Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangle' set of dies

- stamped the sentiment, which I thought was nice and 'rustic' in keeping with the patchwork design, using the Misti and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink as always and the Stampendous 'Happy Messages' set of stamps

- mounted that onto a very slightly larger (snippet) of mauve card

- then added them onto the card front and there it was - done!

Coo, hot here innit!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #328

Phew, time for yet another challenge in the Snippets Playground, and this time it's a much smaller prize than the previous fortnight's. Still a 'good 'un' though I think!

Here's my snippets card for this week - made for Bradley (Len's great-nephew) when he had a Birthday yesterday. I used a brown snippet for the backing plus a white snippet to stamp the 'block' design onto, so they aren't small snippets but still came from my snippets/scraps folder which means I can play along - snort:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4" white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of white card onto which I stamped the image using an Altenew 'Galactic Stream' ink pad and a fabulous and very bold stamp from Uniko called 'Block Party Birthday'

- then backed the panel with a piece of slightly bigger brown card from the snippets folder

- glued the image and its backing to the card front and called it done!

I've had the stamp in the Playground toy box (along with my own identical stamp of course) for months now. I needed to make a card quickly and this came to the rescue - male cards really do give me issues. Mind you, this would also make a great girly card of course - and my next try will be white on black which I bet could look very impressive! I've also seen it with parts coloured in and that really looks super, great for kids perhaps? That one grabs me the most for variation for sure. Possibilities, possibilities!

Here's some of the lowdown on my 'adventures' whilst making this card. I started off with my one and only full set of four Altenew ('Sweet Dreams') ink pads and the intention of making the card graduate in shades (ombre). But time was against me and when I hit issues (despite covering parts up with paper as I went) I just reverted to a single colour - the darkest one in the set - using the Misti of course.

I love Uniko stamps (and in fact have a gift voucher in front of me that a lovely blogger friend sent me earlier this year - still to spend, wahoo!). But, like many polymer stamps, they seem to have a sort of icky and almost oily film on them when new, which makes the ink quite patchy if you don't clean them before using them for a first time. It's possibly ink dependent as well (am sure Kathy K once put me on the right track) but I think the secret is to perhaps wash them in soapy water, rinse and let them dry naturally - but of course, I was in a rush wasn't I?!

Anyhow, I got there in the end - but Dumbo hadn't thought about the pad being 'dye' ink had she?! So, I ended up with blue finger tips 'cos I was using a sponge to apply the ink to the stamp. Just behind me, on a cupboard shelf there's a huge pack of disposable gloves, but of course it was too late when I realised. And I mean DEEP blue hands!

I love brown and teal together so the brown backing card was an easy choice when it jumped up out of the snippets folder!

And here's this week's Snippets Playground prize - no surprise at all:

It's a Uniko 'Block Party Birthday' stamp of course - and I do generally buy Uniko stamps in DVD sized cases for easy storage, like I did with this one.

Sadly I can't get hold of a single Altenew ink pad the same as the one I used as it's a really lovely colour - so this time we have a smaller prize than we've had lately. It's still one I think you really would have fun with if you read the options for use I mused upon above here. It was a fluke that Tara from Seven Hills Crafts had the single pink stamps she sent me - all UK companies seem to just stock them in sets.

And of course, I hope numbers will still be up as (with luck) you come to play for the fun as much as anything!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 23rd June. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and 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're wanting 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 - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I ignore you on my little list..

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Be sure to call back next week to see the winner of last fortnight's bumper of Concord & 9th 'Everyday Tintables', a Concord & 9th 'Fabulous Phrases set of five dies and an Altenew 'Puffy Pink' ink pad.

The hedgies contine to vist - Len (so sweet) has been saying they're 'fighting' a bit. Ha! Just wait until the patter of little prickles :) Perhaps I need to tell him about the birds and the bees! In fact, we had three of them prancing around the garden the other night! So funny, despite two feeding stations, they were patiently queued up waiting for their turn at the main one. We caught it on CCTV but were fast asleep ourselves at the time.

And then, on Friday evening Len went out late to check the hedgies and there, right in the centre of the garden, sat a smallish hedgie. As Len approached, it looked up at him so trustingly with such a sweet little face and made no attempt to curl up or run away. An enchanting moment to treasure - and of course he didn't have the camera to hand, sigh. But - sometimes it's what goes into our memories that is more important - although I would have loved a photo to share with you of course.

And we have another visitor but one that would be really hard to capture on camera. For a couple of years now we've thought we had a little wren living in the honeysuckle-clad arbour at the end of the PG/garden. These evenings it's becoming more bold and what a delight to see as we sit watching the comings and goings before dinner. But, wrens are very shy and also very fast as well so only time will tell.

And, the little blue tits fledged and flew away when we weren't around. They were totally ready to go earlier in the week and it's really odd having their little nest box so silent.

Happy days!

Love from Parsnip and of course from me,