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! 

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'),

One for my records, for Taylor

I always keep a post of cards that Len designs, and then I make up, for our little neighbours.

This one is for a young chap who still has his heart set on being a policeman when he grows up:

Not much work on my part, although the star shaped badge was printed separately and had to be fussy cut then added to the card front.

Card for Luke

This is just a reminder for me - for the record. Len, as he often does now, helped me out by pulling together the image and wording:

He figured that most little boys will still be keen on Super Heroes so he designed this, using free Clip Art, in the space of about 15 minutes at the very most.

All I had to do was to resize it a bit in GIMP, trim it to suit, round the corners, add the blue backing layer and then glue it to a 5" x 7" card blank.

Quick and easy, especially when cards for chaps of any age are always such a struggle for yours truly!

Hope everyone is keeping safe and warm in the extreme weather conditions we're having in the UK just now!

Birthday card for a 2 year old

One of our little neighbours (Jack) just celebrated his 2nd Birthday. As I was up to my eyes with the Snippets Giveaway, Len came to the rescue and pulled together a picture for me to use - and this is the end result:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- slightly smaller square of yellow card, from the snippets folder, glued onto the card front

- then the trimmed image panel, glued on top of the yellow layer

- finishing touch - a thick coating of Glossy Accents on the cherry

Thank you Len! Saved my bacon once again.

All the Snippets Playground prizes (apart from one) have now been posted. Am still waiting to hear from one winner - 'Hello, anyone there Maxine?!'. 

Little guitar player

Stuck for ideas for a Birthday card for a neighbour's little boy, I asked my in-house critic and his immediate response surprised me. Apparently, he'd noticed Josh, with his little spindly legs, trotting to and from school with a guitar slung over his back now and then!

That was a good enough starting point and this is what I ended up with:

I used:

- 6" square white card

- a second card the same, sliced in half across the spine

- scored the main folded card right across the centre and folded it to act as the 'prop' for the easel

- two identical pieces of designer papers from the Studio Calico 'Snippets Collection' paper pad (how appropriate is that then?), trimmed down, backed with deep blue card and glued onto the inside of the easel, as well as onto what would be the 'standing up front piece of card' 
 
- then stuck the easel front onto the folded section of the base card using red line tape 

- I downloaded the digital image from LOTV - it's called 'Playing Guitar' and die cut it using a die from the Lil'Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set  

- backed the image panel using a snippet of deep blue (SU's 'Midnight Muse' btw) card stock and glued it in place on the card front

- then die cut the letters for Josh's name and age from more of the deep blue card which was backed with Stick It adhesive sheet and glued them in place - using my usual trusty sets of dies 

- used the Misti to stamp the sentiment onto a snippet of white card, using Memento 'Danube Blue' ink and a stamp from the Penny Black 'Special Thoughts' sentiment set

- then die cut the sentiment using another die from the Lil'Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set of dies and backed it with a frame cut from a further little piece of deep blue card

- fixed the sentiment panel in place using thick sticky pads to act as a 'prop'

One finished card - and it was made well ahead of time for a change as well!

Rushed card for a chap!

Good grief - I suddenly realised it was one of Len's great nephew's Birthdays coming up and made this on Sunday in one heck of a hurry I can tell you:

I used:

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

- snippet of black card as a frame

- snippet of white card, die cut using a die from the Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set 

- stamps from a pre-loved SU set called 'Sky is the Limit', stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- glued the layers together and popped them onto the card front

- ack! Noticed a faint black smudge at one wing tip but had no time to make another card so I die cut Joe's name using Tattered Lace 'Alphabet' dies and glued the letters over the smudge!

A case of 'more haste, less speed' as my Mum used to say but at least it will arrive in time :)

Entering this into the current Less is More challenge #346 'Take Flight', even though it's not really imaginative enough. Still, it got me out of a pickle plus, it's too long since I joined in any challenges - watch out Mrs A - butterflies might be next!

Max and Charlie are six and four

The dear little boys who live next door to us have Birthdays just a month apart. This post is really as much for my own records so I can look back and try not to repeat the same cards from one year to the other.

Having said that, my in house critic did the image panels for me on his computer and all I had to do was to print them out, cut and glue some card backing as 'frames'. Such a huge help - thanks Len!

Max and Charlie are still very much into playing at being builders and they spend hours happily moving stones and soil around their garden. It's so lovely to see children actually playing and using their imaginations - what cracks me up is the 'Beep, beep, beep' sound piping over the fence whenever one of them is reversing one of their many builder's vehicles!

Both cards are 5" x 7", tent style:

Apart from using the guillotine, the only cutting I did was the little 'age' rosettes, which had even been thoughtfully duplicated by Len underneath the image so I could pop one on top of the finished card with a little piece of thin sticky pad :)

And, MANY thanks to those of you who jumped straight in and offered to be a Playground Guest Designer. It's times like this you realise just what a great bunch our Playmates all are! I wonder, would Len take a turn perhaps? :)

Designer Len strikes again!

This post is mostly for my own use, to remind me of what we did for Taylor's 8th Birthday card. Yup, it sure was we,  as Len totally pulled all the elements together  to make up this little scene:

I used:

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

- the image panel created by Len from free sources on the internet (didn't dare mention that the cop is wearing a USA uniform though), just printed onto white card stock and trimmed down

- piece of red card stock to form a narrow frame around the image, then glued image onto it before adding the whole panel to the card front

Right now, Taylor (a neighbour's little boy) is mad about anything to do with the police. Len has given him some bits and bobs from his time working with our UK Metropolitan Police up in London. And he even bought him a proper police whistle not so long ago - not sure how happy Taylor's Daddy was with that bright idea I must admit :)

Skateboarding Ninja

One of our little neighbours is five years old later on  this week and Len came to the rescue again, when I was fretting over what on earth I should do for his card. He found a great little image on line (Luke is into his scooter, does try to skateboard and also likes Ninjas) - and this is what I made:

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank

- piece of red card stock from the snippets folder, with the top edge die cut using the super-useful Memory Box 'Grand Happy Birthday' die

- trimmed the red panel to size and glued it to the card front

- filled in the white parts of the sentiment by die cutting more letters with the Memory Box die plus white card backed with Stick-It then inlaying them, it just gives a slightly more professional look (IMHO)

- added the '5th' using a Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' die and Tattered Lace 'Alphabet' dies

- glued the image panel in place to suit the vertical space I had

- last touch was to add the name 'Luke', die cut using Tattered Lace 'Alphabet' dies

And that was it - done. Only took me about three hours, and I'm not kidding!

1st Birthday card for Jack

One of our little neighbours just celebrated his 1st Birthday. After all the Christmas cards I made for the Playground Celebrations, I just sat and stared into space for ages with no idea what to make for him - in the end I came up with this:

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank

- piece of pale blue pearlescent card just slightly smaller than the card front, glued in place

- patterned paper from the LOTV 'Bear Necessities' paper pad, trimmed a bit smaller than the blue backing card and glued in place

- the image is from the LOTV 'Babies' Art Pad, die cut with a Tonic Studio's circular die and then layered onto a scalloped circle of pale blue pearlescent card

- then I backed snippets of chocolate brown and pale blue pearlescent card with Stick-It adhesive sheet

- from the brown card I die cut the sentiment and the '1st' using a Presscut 'Happy Birthday' die and numbers and letters from the Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' and the Tattered Lace 'Alphabet - Anniversary Classic' dies

- and from the pale blue pearlescent card I die cut the letters to spell out Jack's name

- positioned the letters and numbers where I thought they looked best and then stuck them in place - burnishing to make sure they say put

- finally I glued the assembled image topper in place and called it done!

Some of you might have picked up that I was struggling with my much loved pink Cuttlebug here in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Thankfully, Santa brought me a new one (I'll get used to the retro shape and bright green in time - although the folding handle is a revelation, great idea!). I used the new CB for this card and was astonished at just how easy die cutting can be - I'd obviously forgotten as my old CB became old and cranky (sounds like me!) with much less pressure, meaning I had to fiddle around adding shims for a decent cut!

Wahoo, happy dance here! And Santa did consult me beforehand - rather than waste the little stock of cutting plates I have as spares I decided to stick with a Cuttlebug. Takes up less space than some of the other models as well - but one day I'll have a bigger one as well, maybe :) Just need to clear some space and move a few things around.

Many thanks to the prize winners for sending me your addresses so promptly! All prizes apart from Kitty's were posted off yesterday - I think Kitty is having computer problems so will just have to wait until I hear from her. I have a slight feeling she did move house so am not going to risk sending her prize to the wrong address :) 

Missing in action!

I do have a card to share today but wanted to make my apologies for being missing in action for a couple of days. On Sunday a lovely friend arrived unannounced bearing a card and gifts - it was such a delight to spend time catching up and putting the World to rights, and it kept me away from the laptop. Then yesterday was my Birthday and I have to first of all say a HUGE thank you for all the cards, gifts and many, many Facebook wishes.

I will get back to each and every one of you I promise - I was quite humbled by the numbers, and glad I'd dusted the lounge and made space (albeit unwittingly) for an avalanche of beautiful cards. Len took me out for lunch yesterday (Monday) and after that he insisted that I should just play for a while and then cosy up in front of the TV - so I obeyed him for once!

That means I haven't been commenting on the Snippets Playground since the gates opened this week - but I'll be back down to Earth shortly and normal service will be resumed. xx

Another one of our little neighbours recently celebrated his third Birthday. He's called Charlies and is Max's little brother and those kids spend hours and hours playing together in the back garden, digging in a spare piece of border soil that's been left for them as a 'construction site'. Moving the soil from A to B in lorries and dumper trucks features large in their activities :) I've never known two children so happy in their own little world and it's a real delight to hear their little voices chattering about the logistics of soil and grass clippings transportation :)

The other day Len was pottering in the garden sorting out the nightly chaos those messy hedgehogs leave behind, a little someone over the tall fence could obviously hear the occasional clatter too. Then this little voice piped up 'Hello Len' :) I heard it indoors and had to laugh at Max and Len having a little conversation - totally invisible to one another! 

Charlie's card had to reflect what he likes and gets up to of course - this is what I came up with - playing in dirt:

I used: 

- 300 gsm white card stock, die cut using my Presscut 'Step Card Cutting' die set, then the embossed lines were scored again with a scoring tool and the card folded into shape

- the image (so like little Charlie playing!) is a free Clipart one from the Internet (details at the end of this post) which was already coloured so I just went over the whole background with some light blue chalk and added a white die cut cloud (used MFT's 'Cloud Trio' die set) before setting it aside

- the Polaroid frame was pretty easy - first I printed the right sized sentiment onto white card and then used a Lil' Inker 'Instant Camera' die to cut around it (easiest way to do this as it's a solid die is to first cut a template and use the aperture to find the right position before inserting the die into the aperture, taping it lightly in place and then die cutting)

- trimmed the image and glued it behind the aperture

- the spotted background pieces were cut from one piece of 6" x 6" Dovecraft Back to Basics 'Bright Spark' paper, using another sheet I cut a matching liner for the inside of the card - then they were glued in place

- glued the image and frame to the card front

- added the number 3 - die cut from a little snippet of deep burgundy card using a Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' die - finally added a plain white panel inside on top of the spotty paper liner - die cut using a Lil'Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' die

Here's the link to My Cute Graphics where I found the image. There are tons of images there and I do recommend a visit! 

Happy Birthday Super Hero

A couple of weeks ago I realised that a little neighbour's 7th Birthday wasn't too far off, so my in-house critic asked his Dad what his favourite 'things of the moment' were. Last year it was Spiderman, which was a challenge in itself - this year it's the Avengers film! Talk about a challenge and a half - one of those times you wish you never asked a question :(

Anyhow, I poodled around the internet looking for free downloads and, after truly spending almost a full day on it, this is the card I ended up with. The image governed the card from the word go and there was an awful lot of compromising along the way. Not least as the in-house critic kept on throwing in suggestions:

I used:

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

- backing layer of silver card stock, trimmed to just slightly less than the size of the card front and glued in place

- then a slightly smaller layer of SU's 'Raspberry Ripple' card, trimmed to slightly smaller than the silver layer and glued in place

- the image was trimmed and mounted onto a backing of silver card - then kept to one side as I fiddle-faddled around with the rest of the card

- using snippets of silver card, backed with Stick-It adhesive sheet I cut the letters for the 'Taylor' panel using the Tattered Lace 'Anniversary - Classic' set of dies

- then the words were constructed onto a snippet of 'Raspberry Ripple' card and backed with a snippet of silver card. Tip for positioning letters when you don't want to risk using faint pencil lines, especially when the card itself is dark anyhow - use a strip of removable tape as a guide. I use the almost clear stuff but it's good enough to still see where you're going - and I've learnt the hard way over time to always press it onto whatever trousers or top I'm wearing first, just to get rid of any excess sticky - even removable tape can rip some card stock :(

- die cut the 'Happy Birthday' from silver card, again backed with Stick-It, using a new die by Paper Smooches called 'Birthday Words'

- then cut a number seven using a left over snippet of sticky backed silver card

- glued everything in place and just felt there were some gaps to fill so out came the box of confetti and sequins and I just added three silver stars to finish off

Almost went into total meltdown when I realised that the two stars on the 'Taylor' panel were just slightly out of alignment with one another and I'd stuck them in place using Glossy Accents so absolutely no hope of re-positioning them :( Isn't it always the way, if you're gonna do a boo-boo then you'll do it right at the last knockings! I know it's just a fraction, but it might as well have been a mile at that point in what had been a looooooooooong day!

The Paper Smooches 'Birthday Words' die set was 'enabled' by Jules when she used it on a card the other week. She used it 'inlaid' - which I actually think is more effective but I'm not unhappy with the way I used it. It comes with the Happy Birthday words plus two other celebratory words - and of course when I nipped off to buy one set, a second one fell into the basket for the Playground toy box so watch this space at some point in the future :)

Jane W made a really interesting point recently. With dies becoming more and more intricate we're almost creating our own peel offs when we back card with adhesive sheet and then cut fiddly dies. It look like Little Claire have twigged this and apparently they've got some really great peel offs in stock - who knows, perhaps peel offs are due to return into favour. Hop over to Jane's to see what I mean - HERE.

As it's another very important 7th Birthday this week, I'd like to enter this into the current 7th Birthday celebratory challenge over at Allsorts. Well done to Brenda and the team for all your hard work and wonderful inspiration!

And - I'm pleased to report that little Taylor was delighted with his card! He must have wonky eyes like me :)

Di 
x

Football fan's card

Phew, this is a last of a little run of male cards I'm pleased to say - I always struggle and am much happier making pretty things :)

This card was for a little neighbour's 7th Birthday, yesterday. He's mad about football (aka soccer elsewhere) and follows his Daddy in being an Arsenal supporter:

I used:

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

- slightly smaller black border panel

- made the football by using SU's 'Honeycomb' embossing folder and white card as well as some black card. Snipped a few hexagons from the embossed black card and added them onto the white embossed card before running it through the Cuttlebug with a circular die (one from the Tonic Studio's set I keep banging on about)

- then I cut a couple of strips of Kanban 'Green Grass' patterned card and snipped the top edges to look a bit like blades of grass

- cut a panel of Kanban's 'Blue Sky' patterned card just a bit smaller than the black panel

- stuck one layer of the grass strip about 1" from the bottom of the sky panel, added the football and then added the other grass strip over the bottom part of the football so it went right to the bottom of the sky panel. I know, I possibly wasted some sky precious patterned card but it made the whole thing much more robust

- as usual, I'd left a bit of an overhang when adding the grass strips so trimmed each layer as I went, back to the edge of the sky backing card

- next added the black panel behind the sky, grass and football panel then stuck it onto the card blank front

- all that was left was to add the wording using peel off stickers for ease - some are silver ones coloured with a yellow Peel Off marker pen

- almost came unstuck next, I wanted to add Arsenal's current badge/logo. Found and resized an image and then the printer kept screaming it had a paper jam when I was doing a test print. Called the in-house support team who was also stumped, poking here there and everywhere in the printer with no sign of a paper jam. And, for some reason as we were giving up and ready to try it on another printer I just idly lifted the entire printer up to peek underneath - and there was the jammed piece of paper. Just think, if we'd given up and ordered a new printer - the asses ears would have been waving high here when we discovered the jam as the printer was moved to make way for a new one! Moral of the story? Leave no stone (or printer) unturned :)

- having resolved the printer issue (and having had help from in-house support team to bring the logo to a more true red as by this time I was almost running round the walls here), printed it on matt photo card and trimmed round the shield. That left the white cut edges of the card which I just ran a gold calligraphy pen round before adding said shield to the card with a thin sticky pad - phew

Making that last bit took longer than the rest of the card! And I did giggle - when he first saw the card almost finished Len remarked 'Like it. You're really on the ball kiddo with that one'. Then there was silence before we both cackled at the unintentional pun! Nut case.................who also sends his huge thanks for all your lovely Birthday wishes the other week!

By the way, I did spot this idea for the ball in a few places on line. Another use for that SU embossing folder!

Di
x

Minions Birthday card

I've wanted to make a 'Minions' Birthday card for ages now, using the Stampin' Up Owl punch. Recently I got the chance to make one for one of Len's little relatives - and they really are such fun to make, if a little fiddly!

This is so NOT my idea by any means, there are loads of Minions cards out there and we've had some fun ones in the Playground for sure. THIS is where I found some clear and easy to follow instructions using the SU owl punch (which was my mission!), along with photos of the stages. And this was the resulting card 'wot I made' - with huge thanks to Trisha for the really clear instructions:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- a snippet of dark blue paper as a frame

- a panel of white card

- snippet of yellow card, die cut using a Memory Box 'Grand Happy Birthday' die then backed the lower part with a snippet of dark blue paper

- only at that point did I stick the yellow sentiment layer, with lower part backed with the dark blue paper, to the panel of white card and trim it down to sit on top of the dark blue frame leaving a narrow border right round

- the cheeky little Minions were made by following the instructions here (as mentioned earlier) and using snippets of yellow, black and dark blue card - plus some large googly eyes

- die cut the letters for Joe's name using a snippet of dark blue card and a Tattered Lace 'Anniversary - Classic Alphabet' die

- then just popped the little Minions in place using thin sticky pads

I used some words I'd seen whilst looking for the Minions tutorial, just printed them on the insert .................. 'Sending you Minions of Birthday Wishes'.

Snigger :)

Di
x

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 191

Another little neighbour had his 2nd birthday during this past week - it's Max's little brother Charlie this time. I'd asked his Mum what Charlie liked, having made the excavator card the other week for Max, and amongst Charlie's favourites things are trains - so a train it was! And this is my snippets card for the week, every single scrap of card came from the snippets folder too:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- a (large) snippet of SU's 'Real Red' card stock

- snippet of 'cloudy sky' backing card, made by Kanban and bought ages ago, stuck over the 'Real Red' layer

- snippet of SU 'Mossy Meadow' card stock, die cut using a Memory Box 'Landscape Border' die, trimmed down to fit and then stuck over the 'cloudy sky' backing card

- snippet of SU 'Certainly Celery' card stock, die cut using a Spellbinders 'A2 Curved Borders One' die, trimmed down to fit and then stuck over the 'Mossy Meadow' layer

- snippets of red and blue card stock and Memory Box 'Tiny Village' die set, which was a present from ScrappyMo,  added these to the hillsides

- a snippets strip of dark brown card stock to sit the train on

- snippet of SU 'Real Red', die cut using a Cheery Lynn 'Choo Choo' train die - which was then stuck along the top edge of the brown strip. I was quite concerned that the die cut might not be too easy to remove from the die itself - but it worked like a dream without any need for waxed paper and all the little windows etc. popped out beautifully 

- also die cut more of the 'Landscape Border' just to fill in here and there on the 'Certainly Celery' Layer, along with a further little house

- printed 'Happy Birthday Charlie' onto white card stock and just drew and then fussy cut a 'puff of steam' around it

- drew and fussy cut another 'puff of steam' and topped it with a '2' which was die cut from a snippet of SU 'Real Red' card stock using a Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' die

- drew and fussy cut one more small puff of steam - then stuck all three onto the card using thin pieces of sticky pads

And moving swiftly onto this week's picks:

This was immediately going to be a pick of the week, brought to the Playground by Lynn (Jimlynn). A brilliant card, such a cleverly made scene (get the crab's eyes!) - and I love how the darling bear (possibly Parsnip with a suntan!) 'planted' his surf board in the sand :)

But, even just as important is that fact that our much loved Playmate Lynn found the time to make and blog this card. I posted here a little while back that Jim (Lynn's husband) had a stroke and I know that so many of you pitched in to send cards, keep Jim and Lynn in your thoughts and prayers. Well folks, Jim is coming along nicely - certainly out of hospital and I think also home from rehab. Your positive thoughts are still needed please - and even though Lynn is obviously shorter on free time right now to blog hop and comment in return - I bet she'd appreciate a little hello from you. AND, if you do hop over - please peek at this card too - I loved it straight away, but then rolled round laughing at the irony of the sentiment combined with the 'little blue bird of happiness' - I've never seen such a perturbed/disturbed expression on a bird! :) Lynn's sense of humour is still the tops!

Isn't this a fabulously rich and beautiful card? Made by Greta and I just think it's gorgeous - wonderful gold stamping on the brayered background. Perfection - there's just something so luxurious about it!

Sue J hopped into the Playground three times this week, each time with a potential pick of the week - but I stuck to my original choice in the end. Plenty of snippets and little details such as the 'poinsettias' being made from the alternate background papers really added to this already lovely card - and of course that LOTV image is one of my all-time favourites. I always giggle over the wee angel's dingly, dangly socks hanging from her feet :) Sue is someone else who's been in the wars, now almost recovered from what sounds like spectacular acrobatics over Woody, one of her pooches :(

The next couple of cards were brought to us by Playmates who are regular picks of the week - but there's absolutely no way I want you to miss these makes!

Laurie blew me away with this card, everything about it is just so 'right'. See how the backing paper goes so well with the snippets tree? It's in the Merry Monday challenge link ups too and must be a winner for sure!

Pat is another one of our regular picks, and there was just no way this fantastic Golden Wedding Anniversary card wasn't going to be shown here.The front of the card is acetate, a super idea - and Pat carefully backed the heart etc. so that it looked perfect from the inside as well!

Minions really are taking the World by storm right now - and Mary Anne brought us this really great little chap to show - so clever! I keep thinking I should knuckle down and make a Minions card - there are lots of tutorials out there to follow :)

This is such a pretty card, made by April. I love the colours and also the jaunty placement of the top layer. I did grin, April apparently 'pinched' some snippets from a friend for the flowers - I've offered to post her a box full of mine if she likes :)

I just love this card, made by Jean! So wonderful how the colours of the background ribbon and the orange layer are perfectly matched to the colouring of the image and that gorgeous butterfly. Which, has some clever touches added by Jean - nip over and read about the antennae!

Time is zipping by (writing this on Saturday morning), a very generous neighbour who goes fishing called by with some fish for us and I ended up standing chatting to him for quite a while! My fish pie is on the menu this week now - if I remember I'll jot down the way I make it, take a photo and post it on here sometime soon. It's ages since I posted a recipe on the blog! Too busy cooking up a storm with snippets I suspect :)

Best press on with our three new Playmates now, and two of them are the grand children of our Playmates - start 'em young:

These really cute cards were made by ScrAPamondo's nine year old niece - aren't they just adorable? I love the patchwork look to those owls :) And I found out that the little crafter is called Aurora - what a beautiful name!

Nate, who is the grand son of Karen (Hasheck) made this terrific Minion card (told you they're popular!) for his - as yet unborn - new cousin. So talented of Nate to make the card in such a clever shape too! I think, but am not 100% sure, that it's also Karen's first trip into the Playground - hope to see you again soon Karen!

Jenni hopped in waving this totally stunning card - another entry which literally brought me up with a start this week! It's just perfection isn't it?! And you truly have to hop over to Jenni's and read her funny comment after her hubby asked what sort of person would she send a card to with the lifesaver sentiment on. I giggled for ages over it! And, whilst there, do check out her cards - some wonderful inspiration to be found - so we hope you'll be back to play with us regularly Jenni!

Now for the prize draw, the Woodware 'Jigsaw' and 'House' punches if you remember, and I do so wish I had loads of them to give away as many of you thought they would be such fun to win. But, with only one winner, this is who popped out of the Randon Number Generator:

Helen

 

And it just shows how random Mr Random is - Helen only began playing with us at the beginning of August (although she did play when Jules was running the snippets challenge) so a nice quick win there kid! Can you please drop me an email with your address and I'll post the punches off to you this week (di_wray@hotmail.com).

And this coming week's prize is:

Yup, it's linked to my snippets card (as is the case when I can manage it) and this time it's a couple of dies the same as I used for little Charlie's card, a Cheery Lynn 'Choo Choo' train die and also a Memory Box 'Modern Landscape' die (which is so, so useful for many cards - fabulous for Christmas backgrounds of course!).

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 29th August. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Also, if you already have one of the dies or aren't really interested in winning both of them but still would like to play for just the one - please say so and if your number is picked as the winner then I'll do a second draw for the other die.

However, the prize IS for both items unless I'm told otherwise in a comment. Do remember that you should also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

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 do remember, it's Rudolph Day this week - starts on Tuesday 25th and runs to the end of the month - over at ScrappyMo's, and there's a lovely Memory Box 'Stitched Holly Leaves' die as a prize. I'll be playing as usual - why not combine a snippets card with a Christmas card for Rudolph Day (whisper, after this one there's only three more until the real thing!).

Di and of course, Parsnip!
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Weeks 181 and 182

Well over two years ago, Bonnie brought a really terrific Spiderman 'punch art' card to the Snippets Playground. We have a little neighbour who is a huge fan of Spiderman (copyrighted to Marvel), so this card (almost a pure CASE of Bonnie's card) was a must for his Birthday recently:

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank

- loads of snippets of white, dark blue, royal blue and red card

- first I made the background by adding dark blue card to the card front and drawing a web using a fine white 'Signo' pen

- then I embossed a piece of curved white card using a Tim Holtz 'Cobwebs' embossing folder and added that to the lower half of the card

- to find out how Spiderman himself is made/punched I suggest you check out Bonnie's link which she kindly added to her blog post, the instructions are very detailed and easy to follow. Basically it was an assortment of SU punches to create our hero, although I had to wing it a bit and do a bit of freehand cutting as I don't have every punch that was used. Used the same Tim Holtz 'Cobwebs' embossing folder to emboss the red pieces of card once they'd been punched/cut

- the sentiment was computer produced and punched using SU's 'Modern Label' punch

- then die cut the number 6 from red card using a Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' die and mounted it onto a series of offset circles and punched a little hole in one edge for the line of web, which is just a length of iridescent cord

Thanks for the inspiration Bonnie! And, bless him, Taylor loved his card. In fact he was wearing his Spiderman T-shirt (minus his mask) when Len popped round to give him the card :)

Straight onto this week's picks now:

My first pick this week was brought to the Playground by Annie, such a brilliant and economical idea for unmounted stamp storage - and great for using up those white snippets we all seem to accumulate!

I just love this beautiful layered card, made by Andrea - it's so pretty and the background papers are just perfect with the dual coloured roses.

Isn't this a great card?! Perfect for a guitar lover or player, I know Len would be tickled pink if I made him a card like this one, which was made by Pat.

Mary Anne skipped in with this wonderful card, showing such a great scene - and I do love the sentiment :)
I'm calling a halt there, even though there are so many makes I'd love to show.  But, I would like to introduce a new Playmate to you:

Maura came to play more than once this week and this was her first entry - just beautiful isn't it!

Welcome Maura and I hope you'll come back to play with us often!

And now it's time to choose a winner of the Die-namics MFT 'Quilt Square Cover-Up' die. Once again, a prize where I truly wished I had more than one to offer:

Pippa

Well done Pippa, it's ages since you last won in the Playground so this was well due! I don't have your address so could you please let me have it and I'll post your prize off ASAP this week. di_wray@hotmail.com

And here's this coming week's prize, not remotely connected to my own snippets make:

It's a Joanna Sheen set of three unmounted House Mouse stamps called 'Love Chocolate Heart'. Cute or what? And, I have two of these on offer - both exactly the same.

This time, the Snippets Challenge will once again run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 27th June. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

I'm sorry to mess folk about but I can't see me managing to do the Playground write-up on Saturday so feel it's best to let it run for a couple of weeks, which does seem to have worked fine recently. I hope this won't be a regular event though.

Maximum of three entries (over the two week period) and please say 'Yes please' (or similar) in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize.

I'll add some runner up prizes next Sunday (21st June) too. All prizes will be available to win with entries made over the coming two weeks.

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

Di, and of course, Parsnip!
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