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 - results

And Summer has returned! Coo, but it's hot once again. Which is great news for the 'workers' as long Bank holiday weekends are really precious when you're working full or even part time, and to have sunshine as well is a huge bonus here in the UK as we're known for many Bank Holiday weekends being total washouts!

Let's get straight on with Playground business starting with this fortnight's picks:

I love this pretty card, made by Viv. Wonderful design and super die cutting using up snippets - and the background is amazing! It's all done with paper towels which Viv keeps after mopping up as she crafts. Hop over to here to read all about it.

Brenda L came to play with us, after being AWOL for a little while. And just look as the terrific mini album she made! Again, I really do recommend that you nip over to Brenda's to see the whole thing - one photo here can't do it justice.

And Nicky hopped in with this really sweet 'Taggy Blanky' she'd made for a friend's new baby to match the wonderful quilt she also made. What a great way to use up little snippets of ribbon. I bought one of these at a local craft fayre when Mia was just a baby and she loved it - all the different textures and colours kept her fascinated for ages.

We also had one new Playmate:

Beverly Sizemore

We had 64 entries, including Beverly our new Playmate this time. 64 is a cracking total - all the more when I only allow folk one entry per challenge. Mind you - the prize was a really attractive one as well :)

Time now for the prize draw which is for a Newton's Nook 'Dainty Daisies' set of stamps with matching dies, plus an Altenew 'Feeling Dotty' stencil, and the winner is:

Maxine

Well done Maxine, the early bird catches the worm according to the Random number generator! Please send me your address, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll post your prize once I hear from you. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #359 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a Sugar Pea 'Letter Board Messages' set of dies and a Lawn Fawn 'Scripty Hello' die .

It's been a bit of a busy week, so I'm a little bit behind on commenting on the current challenge. Not a lot behind, but just so you know I will be there ASAP!

No photos of Dudley this time. He's still looking for mischief needless to say - such a little scamp! He managed to stick his face into some hedgie poo yesterday - I spotted something on his face and went to brush it off and ended up with 'the stinkies' on my hand. Shudder. Thankfully we were in the garden at the time so I could make a run indoors for tissues, the cleansing anti-bacterial gel followed by a scrubbing brush (that was just for me - it left Dudley's face totally cleanly) - whilst Len sat and laughed at my shrieks of horror. And I swear that little dog gave a naughty grin!

Love from Parsnip, Dudley - and of course me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #359

We've had a few days of rain here - desperately needed but the drop in temperature was a bit of a shock!

It's been a fun week - I'd forecast to at least a couple of friends that I had an instinctive feeling that our washing machine was nearing retirement - and sure enough, it sighed and just stopped working last Sunday. After a major false start with one supplier a new machine arrived from AO as promised yesterday (Friday) and is working away as I type this.

Let's dive  straight into my snippets card for this fortnight, and a little warning that one of the dies I used isn't forming part of the prize this time round:

I used:

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

- a snippet of baby blue pearlescent card, which I die cut using the main Sugar Pea 'Letter Board Messages' die 

- a snippet of white card, die cut using a die from the Avery Elle 'Postage Stamp Elle-ments' set of dies and then fixed to the card front using red line tape before I then added the letter board panel which is a perfect fit, also using red line tape (the main die cuts slits right through the card so any glue would have seeped through to the front)

- snippets of white card, backed with Stick-It and then the required letters were die cut for the 'letter board' part of the message and popped into an upturned plastic lid for safekeeping for after I'd finished the die cutting and also trying out the spacing

- a snippet of X-Cut adhesive backed silver sparkle card, popped onto a snippet of white card and then backed with Stick-It adhesive sheet before die cutting the word 'hello' using Lawn  Fawn's 'Scripty Hello' die

 - die cut the word 'hello' again from Stick-It backed white card and layered the sparkly silver die cut on top

- then added the letters plus the word hello to the card front

- finishing touch, a few white/iridescent sequins

It's only fair to say that I spotted this design, or very similar, when Googling ways to use the Sugar Pea set of dies - you get the main message board panel plus the plain alphabet. The ways you can use this particular die set seem to be endless - black background with different coloured letters, add a flower with a plain message instead of the way I used it, perfect for back to school cards - and of course you can make up umpteen messages! The 'Scripty Hello' is a lovely die as well, a dream to use. And the die set that's missing from the prize is the Avery Elle 'Postage Stamp' set - although I mostly try to just use what makes up the fortnightly prize, this card really cried out for a frame but my pension will only stretch so far :) Plus it was actually a prize about two years ago - you don't really need fancy frames of course.

So, the prize this fortnight is:

Of course it's a Sugar Pea 'Letter Board Messages' set of dies and a Lawn Fawn 'Scripty Hello' die - both items make up the one prize BTW, I don't want to split them.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 31st 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.

No photos of Dudley this time. He's just the same as always - full of fun and very entertaining! And always so curious about absolutely everything too.

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #357 - results

Thankfully it's been a bit cooler this week - and today (Saturday) we have high winds and rain. One extreme to the other - although to be honest we're certainly ready for some rain as well as enjoying the drop in temperature.

Let's get straight on with Playground business starting with this fortnight's picks:

 

What great use of snippets, love this Christmas card made by Sandy. That die is fabulous and it was interesting to read over on Sandy's post how she managed to get those papers just right!

Linda made this brilliant pop-up card - makes me want to lick the screen! I just love the surprise inside the card, and you can see how many snippets must have been used as well. Love it!

Love, love, love the clean and fresh look of this elegant card, made by Laurie! I'm on a roll myself right now with fresh looking cards and this one really ticks all the boxes. Such a lovely die, I had to sit on my hands to stop myself from buying it!

And, I just realised we've had themes of Christmas, Summer and Spring in the picks - so I'm adding another pick that really caught my eye - and it's an Autumn themed one:

And this card was made by Donna. I love the scene with those spooky bats - and the added twine is a super touch. I know that Donna so wanted to win the 'Puppy Love' prize - but Mr Random thought differently. So I hope this makes up a bit for that Donna! x

We had 54 entries, and no new Playmates this time. 54 is a really healthy total and makes me very happy - thank you!

Time now for the prize draw which is for a Clearly Besotted 'Puppy Love' set of stamps with matching dies, and the winner is:

 Brigitte

Well done Brigitte and I'm almost sure this is your first win. Happy dance for you! Please send me your address, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll post your prize once I hear from you. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

I plan to go to the Post Office on Tuesday afternoon if I have your address by then :) 

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #358 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a Newton's Nook 'Dainty Daisies' set of stamps with matching dies, plus an Altenew 'Feeling Dotty' stencil.

It's been a bit of a busy week, but I'm managing to keep up with commenting in the Playground, whoop, whoop!

Dudley had his 'spa' treatment and looked adorable when I went to collect him. He's under the desk here right now, having 40 winks so no photos this week).

I lied, he just woke up when I was writing further up this post and wandered off to see Len - who took some photos! Here's a couple - you'll see that his coat is growing back nicely - although he won't need another full trim for a couple of months or so.

Len took a few photos but these are my favourites. I love him in the first one, lying on his side taking everything in (those eyes!) - and the second one shows how his coat is growing back, with a smile and those beautiful eyes once again.

I plan to keep his head and face trimmed a little bit myself so we don't need to revert to doing a top knot again. Mind you - we have a packet of almost 1000 tiny white latex doggie top knot bands! He won't keep still enough for me to tackle all of him though - I'll leave that for the professionals to keep him in a puppy cut.

One final point. 'Our' Kath of 'Handmade by Kath' has come up with a great idea. On the first Wednesday of the month, for a while at least, she will be posing some questions about our crafting. This time it's all about card blanks and it's so interesting to stop and reflect on why we buy or make our card blanks, size, colour and weight preferences etc. Kath is offering a little thank you for someone each month who takes the time to comment. My only observation is that if you decide to join in, please play fair and don't do so just for the chance of a prize. I found reading the comments very interesting - and it should provide quite a few of us with food for thought!

Love from 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 - results

What a week! We've almost melted here, by day and night, despite having six fans running strategically placed around the house - basically they've just pushed the hot air around a bit most of the time.Dudley has coped in his own little way - we have a cool mat for him and he tends to seek out tiled floors to lie on a lot of the time. We've been sorely tempted to join him! Today is Saturday and thankfully the temperature has dropped a bit.

More about the little chap later, but let's first do the real Playground business starting with this fortnight's picks, and there are four as I really couldn't whittle it down to three:

I absolutely love this card, made by Elizabeth! It's so elegant and everything is so beautifully placed and balanced. The baubles are snippets of alcohol ink pieces - so rich with the gold. Plus, I fell in love with the sentiment die and just had to run off and buy one, which I used on my Rudolph Days card - published on Thursday. Do hop over to Elizabeth's blog for a look at the inside of the card!

I know, another Christmas card - in this heat! I just love how Jackie T used strips of snippets for the background and how cleverly she used the sentiment die as well. Reflecting it in the sweet little reindeer she added. Jackie, and a couple of others of you won this NOEL Antlers die at Christmas here in the Playground - so here's a great idea for a way to use it!

Mary Anne had been missing in action for a while but I'm so glad she's back again playing with us. What a great card and another super way to use up snippets. It's called the starburst or sunburst technique and is so satisfying to do. The basic part of it is to slice strips/rectangles of paper diagonally so you can build up the background - and the Mary Anne's placement and balance is just so perfect! Topping it with the flowers and a sentiment panel is a great idea too!

Andrea (aka KandA) came to play with this great card. I loved it at first sight - and then I realised just what she'd done! The front gnome is set into an aperture in the front of the card - and his pals are lined up inside, waiting to surprise you when you flip the card open! It's not for me to show but for you to go and see, very clever work, HERE!  

We also had a new Playmate:

Lucy Patrick - and what a wonderfully Summery card as well!

We had 52 entries, including Lucy - brilliant!

Time now for the prize draw which is for an Impression Obsession 'Kite' set of dies and a 'Your Next Stamp' set of two 'Cloud' dies, and the winner is:

Claire

Well done Claire! I know it's about two years since you very first came to play with us - and a quick check tells me that this just might be your very first win? So sorry it's been a long wait! I blame the random number thingy! Please send me your address, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll post your prize once I hear from you. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #357 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a Clearly Besotted 'Puppy Love' set of stamps with matching dies.

First of all, with the heat I haven't been too good at commenting on your entries for Challenge 357, but will catch up ASAP. I've been watching comments for anyone having linking problems though and have sorted a couple out.

Of course, it was Dudley's 1st Birthday on Monday gone - although I doubt if he realised it was anything special. Apart from his pressies and cards - plus another lovely pressie and card from his favourite Auntie SaRn (who is equally as bonkers as we are!). One of his pressies from us is a floppy 'dog toy' bear called 'Benjamin Bear' - and Benjamin has really long legs and arms and is actually rather large for a little chap like Dudley - but he adores him! So funny to see him carrying Benjamin around the house then lovingly giving him a good wash.

I did manage to take some photos during the week - the 'other' dog in three of them is actually a door stop that Dudley isn't allowed to play with but now and then he stops and has a little chat with 'Woody' - named by Len!

 

Ooopsie, got caught showing interest in a pooch that's out of bounds!

I'm only here to ask if you're also finding it hot Woody - but you don't reply. See if the 'hoomans' buy that one!

I rest my case M'lud - he was hot and so I gave his ears a good wash, and now he's cooler and less likely to cause trouble

And after all that licking and washing of a rather unresponsive dog - I lay down on some tiles to cool off - who cares if a 'hooman' needing a wee has to step over me - I'm bushed, and fed up with this heat!

We also bought Dudley a 'doggie treat' Birthday cake - as yet unopened as he had a bit of a tummy upset on Tuesday after we gave him his worming and flea treatments. Not had that happen previously so it might just have been the hot weather. I'll take a photo of him with 'the cake' when we open it up - but if I do that now, he'll want some for sure!

Me, Di, had a docs appointment on Tuesday and the preventative meds are already doing their job and after four weeks had brought the uric acid levels down really dramatically, to almost half what they were. So, am now on an increased dose to reduce it further - taking it slowly and hoping that by increasing the dose gradually it will help to avert any major flares. How I long for a Marmite toastie - but they seem to be off limits for now, it's been months on end!

Love from Parsnip, Dudley - and of course me,