Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 92

Happy Sunday everyone! At 59 we didn't quite reach the magic number 60 in the Playground last week, that'd be a first for us - but each week does see more and more of you coming to play, which is really great. I hope it shows that the Playground is a happy place to be :)

Here's my snippets card for this week - appropriate given the nip in the air these past few days:

I used:

- 8" x 8" square white card blank

- stamped image is from the House Mouse 'Autumn Leaves' set by Joanna Sheen, stamped in Sepia and then coloured with Whispers pens and layered onto a snippet of orange card

- the 'patchwork' backing is what started this card off, I found three little snippet strips of Autumn leaves paper and just chopped them into squares then layered onto more plain orange card (all the plain orange pieces used on this card were snippets but my card swatch tells me it's SU's 'Pumpkin Pie')

- the brown backing card wasn't a snippet, it's by SU and is called 'Baked Brown Sugar' from their 2013-2015 In Color range. Looks rather like Kraft card to me :)

- then I still had some 'Pumpkin Pie' snippets, plus some big blank areas, so I added corners which were die cut using Joy! Crafts 6002/0135. To be honest I'd have called this die a nice name such as 'lattice corner' - and I bet it'll be great on white on white cards. I was very lucky to win this from Caz back in May - check out her first snippets Playground card a teeny bit further down this post, it's fabulous!

That's my snippets make, not one I'm overly happy with but I'm still gonna be cheeky and enter it over at House Mouse and Friends where the current theme is 'Monochrome' .

Onto this week's 'picks', difficult as ever of course. I think first of all we should welcome some new playmates:

I can't believe it's taken me so long to arm twist encourage the lovely Caz to come and join us in the Playground! We've followed one another since almost forever and it was only this last week it dawned on me that she hadn't ventured into the Playground!  And what an entrance she made - oh my goodness, I totally adore this beautiful Christmas card - so, so rich and elegant.

Brenda L scampered (grin) into the Playground for the first time with this lovely little poochie card. When you tie in the sentiment to the sweet little image sitting there with his lead - aaaw. And over on Brenda's blog there's a lovely photo of her own Jack Russell, who can also come and play if he likes :)

And our third new playmate is Jenny L, who brought this absolutely stunning Christmas card - I think that deep rich red and gold are perfect for Christmas and what a serene image! Welcome Jenny, lovely to have you along.

Onto just a few other picks:

I chose this card, made by Irene, for all the little snippets she used - and all the different embossing. Such a fabulous result - a lovely Wedding card indeed.

Cornelia made this card, using paint colour swatches for the banner! What a fantastic idea - anyone in danger or running out of snippets, just hit your local hardware store :)

Our Sam used LOADS of snippets on this 80th Birthday card, so beautifully too. Do look closely, there's so much care and detail - as always with Sam's makes.

And there was no way I could leave out this divine card. made by Debs. All those glorious butterflies made from snippets, love it!

As always, each and every single snippets make is a total winner in my eyes - to check them out if you haven't done so already THIS is the link.

The normal weekly draw first - and the winner of the Woodware 'Noel' stamp is:

23 of of you girlies made at least three cards in total over the past couple of weeks to be in with a chance of winning of Ryn's 'Rising Bubbles' stamp - and the winner is:

Sarah (Sazzle Dazzle)

Well done Sarah - I'll post the stamp to you ASAP. Can you just drop me an email with your snail mail address in please? I think I still have it but would hate to post Ryn's stamp off to the wrong person!

Commiserations to everyone else - I do know that a few of you were really so keen to have this stamp, and I only wish I had another 22 to give away!

OK, so what's on offer this coming week then? Yup, there is a little hint in my snippets card - it's a bag full of Autumn leaves swept up from the Playground, snort! Would I be so mean? It's these little beauties:

It's two sets of two (in fact more) unmounted rubber House Mouse stamps making a single prize - I was lucky and found them over at Joanna Sheen's bargain shelf in her online store :) Thought they might be really tricky to colour but considering I did my snippets card today in such a rush they really aren't as hard as they look. With more time and care I'd have made a better job of the colouring, but that was purely lack of time on my part.

The Playground will run as usual this week with the gates closing at 11am UK time on Saturday 5th October. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be the winner of the prize this week, as shown above.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

One final question girls, Mary H referred to the Playground as Pixie's Playground and it struck me that Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground is a real mouthful to both say and also type when you want to play along. Which option would you prefer - Snippets Playground, Pixie's Snippets or Pixie's Playground? I truly don't mind but do feel it would make life just a bit easier and save a few seconds for you all when posting if we shorten the name. I think it might be nice to keep Playground in the name perhaps. Other options are welcome too of course - it's your Playground after all! If you're happy to leave it as is then I'll 'go with the flow' as they say.

Have a lovely week!

Di (and a wave from Parsnip)
x

Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 90

Wow, we're up to week 90 in the Playground - and I bet it won't be long until we reach the magic 100.

Here's my snippets card for this week:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- white card embossed with Crafts-Too's 'Snowflake Banner' embossing folder

- Memory Box die called' 'Bells Are Ringing' and lots of snippets. I made three the same using lovely soft silk effect red mirri card and gold self-adhesive sparkly film - just popping the gold pieces into the inside cut out parts of the bells. That left me with gold sparkly 'outer' parts for another three bells. For those I did some playing round, one using the red silk mirri card - OK, OK, I confess - the red mirri pieces had already been scooped into the waste bin here and I could only rescue enough to make one complete pair of bells :) But, more snippets rummaging in the folder which is bursting at the seams and I found some little pieces of clear self-adhesive sparkly film in red and clear. The one above is my favourite, I think the bells look better with the 'frame/outer' part in thicker card

Also, and this is quite important, a bit like peel offs, the self adhesive 'frames' can end up just a smidgen stretched so that it can be tricky making sure the inner gaps are covered properly. My future rule will be firm card for the outer with either the sparkly or possibly contrasting firm card for the inner parts. Still with me? I thought not :(

These are the others so you can see what I mean about the different effects you can get using this lovely die:

I think this last one would be great, without the snowflakes of course, on a Wedding card too.

As I was about to take the photos I realised I'd missed out the sparkly little 'clanger' on the left bell on the card above. Perhaps a fortunate error, 'cos no waaaaay was I gonna get everything out again and die cut one so I just used a Sakura glue pen and some Glamour Dust to fill the area. And that led onto thinking that you can do the same instead of using the glitter film, either by adding glue and sprinkling glitter or even (if you feel up to the work) die cutting double sided self-adhesive sticky sheet for the 'inserts' and then adding whatever sparkle you wish.

Phew, for some small cards that was a very long and rambling explanation but I ended up with six cards to show for it.

So, onto this week's picks, tricky-woo as ever to choose:

Amazing card from Cathy R - I love it and how clever to use the 'daisy edge' border for the window dressing. Love the 'flicking' tail too :)

Apart from snippets, Kimbo's card used the 'faux silk' technique on the image panel - certainly one to try out and a stunning result!

Two beautiful cards from Viv, and I've shown both of them as it shows so well why you should never throw a negative away once you're die cut a shape. Snort, I'm guilty of doing that but these cards made me vow to change my ways. Reading more closely I think that Viv did cut the die a second time but the principle is there!

Elizabeth brought this really classy and elegant card to show, all white is so perfect for Christmas!

Crumbs, every card shown here so far has been white/blue so let's look for some different colours - how about this?

 

I really giggled when I saw this happy card, brought to the Playground by Lynn H :) And THEN I spotted some follow up comments -  no, no, no - we are NOT having a baby pig to play with in the Playground!

And Debs squeezed, in literally with minutes to spare, as I was typing this - with this lovely card. I adore how the flowers all pick up the colours of the image and papers!

We also have KathyK playing with us now - do please hop over and say Hello. Kathy makes fabulous cards and much more besides - I hope you come back to play again!

OK, so onto the draw now and the winner is:

ScrappyMo

 

Wahoo, well done Mo - and I didn't have to do re-draws this week. ICan you please drop me an email with your address in, to save me from searching here - thanks!

And onto this week's prize, as if you haven't already guessed:

Yup, it's the die I used in today's cards - 'Bells Are Ringing' by Memory Box.

Plus, a lovely set of Christmas stamps by Inkadinkado called 'Christmas Silhouettes'. I can just see these stamped and embossed.

AND, it's been six weeks since we had a Ryn Tanaka  stamp on offer:

It's called 'Rising Bubbles' and it's one of those two week things like last time. All you have to do to be 'in it to win it' is to make a total of THREE snippets entries over this week and next - so that might be three in one week, two one week plus one in the other, it's up to you. Of course you can still make a maximum of three entries in one week which would also count. I haven't used my own stamp as yet but can see loads of different things to use this lovely stamp for. I'm offering it now while there is still time for the winner to have some fun before the mad rush of card making before Christmas :)

The Playground will run as usual this week with the gates closing at 11am UK time on Saturday 21st September. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be the winner of the prize this week, as shown above. It might be an idea to also say if you're trying for the 'Rising Bubbles' stamp - sometimes I have to second-guess.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

It's very rare that I have a card all ready for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - but this week I do 'cos the theme is 'cut it out', either by hand, using a die or punch. I think you already gathered I used a die :) Coo, being ahead of the game I might be tempted to have another go with something different. And it's also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra which is always 'anything goes'.

Di (and a wave from Parsnip)
x

Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 84

Oh wow - we had 57 entries this week, great going girls!

My snippets card this week is based on a very simple but I think clever idea - shown here on You Tube by Helen Allen. It's the second of the two ideas for using up little snippets of ribbon Helen shows in the video - great for using up those little pieces that I find are always left over after wrapping ribbon round a card/making a bow:

 I used:

- A6 white card stock

- a snippet of green card from the snippets folder, it's SU's 'Lucky Limeade' with the corners punched using a Woodware notched corner punch

- an assortment of little ribbon snippets from the little box I throw them into - just a couple of inches in length is enough to play with. I picked out same width ones but that's not necessary of course, plus my card has a real mix of colours on, different shades of pink or any other colour would look good though

- sentiment is by Inca 'Dot Birthday', stamped with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink, corners punched with the notched corner punch and layered onto another snippet of card, black this time

Helen just added the card strip of ribbons to her lovely card, I covered mine with a scrap of black and white gingham ribbon. One thing to emphasise if you do try this is to use ultra strong DST throughout - ask me how I know :)

Here are my picks for this week, and it just gets harder and harder.

Just two snippets, the fabulous Memory Box 'Modern Landscape' die - bingo, one perfect New Home card made by Sarn.

A wonderful lavender themed card and bookmark, made by Elizabeth. It's beautiful and I love the dragonflies. Elizabeth also made the backing paper using the shaving foam trick - and there's a link on her blog posting.

Bonnie made this breathtakingly beautiful Christmas card - I love it!

And Mary H made this totally gorgeous card using the negative left over from die cutting a flourish.It's fabulous and another way to use dies without wasting what's left over.

Sigh, I could go on forever picking cards to show - so many beautiful ones, you can hop over and check them out here.

Onto the winner of the two Simply Gorjuss Girls stamps, plus the stamen punch - and it's:

Glennis

That's so funny - the first few names drawn by the random number thingy had declined (probably on account of being scared to colour the fawn - grin), and then out came Glennis who had squeezed into the Playground right at the end of playtime! I've been and peeked through some of the posts on your blog and there's some lovely colouring there so I hope you like this prize Glennis! Can you please let me have your snail mail address - my email is di_wray@hotmail.com

It's the second week for the Raindrops stamp, quite a few of you have already qualified for the draw I see. If you haven't, then you only need to make a total of three entries over the two week period to be in with a chance.

And this week's prize is....................a bag stuffed with ribbon snippets :) Come baaaaack, I was kidding!

These stamps are 3" in height

Each wing is 4" high x 3" wide

It's a couple of lovely big and bold stamp sets, donated by Sandra H, and I think they would be such fun to colour in - although they would also look very striking just as they are. I haven't tried Zentangling out yet but there's something about these stamps that reminds me I ought to! Thank you Sandra!

The Playground will run as usual this week with the gates closing at 11am UK time on Saturday 10th August. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be a winner of the stamp sets shown above. Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

Enjoy your week and hope to see you in the Playground. Remember that next Sunday the winner of Ryn's Raindrops stamp will be revealed - good luck,

Just realised that this is my 1000th blog post since starting this blog in March 2010. In truth over time a few posts have been deleted so it's really more than 1,000, the deleted ones were some which were being targetted by spammers until I hit on the idea of not allowing anonymous comments - that fettled the little perishers, snigger.

Di
x

Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 83

Tell me what you see on my snippets card for this week - yup, another Ryn Tanaka stamp, this one is 'Raindrops':

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- snippets of pink and lemon card from the snippets folder, snippets of patterned paper (flowered and spotted) plus a 6" square whole sheet of flowered paper for the background

- the image is a Gorjuss clear stamp from a set called called 'Puddles of Love', coloured with Pro Markers. I've had it unused for absolutely ages! Then I paper pieced the umbrella, mackintosh and little wellies - oh, and the little piece of her dress peeking from underneath the mackintosh, die cut the image and popped it onto a backing of pink card before stamping some raindrops with Ryn's 'Raindrops' stamp. I know, the raindrops are quite big compared to her - but she's just a little Gorjuss girl :),

- sentiment is Craftwork Cards, popped ont an oval punched using SU's 'Oval' punch

- corners were die cut from spotty paper using Whimsy's 'Shapeology Collection - Corner Set' and then I added Josy Rose black nail heads

- foliage was die cut from little snippets using Cheery Lynn Designs 'Mini Fanciful Flourish - B1175'

- flowers were die cut from teeny tiny snippets using Joy!'s 'Flowers set - 6002.0024', two or three layers depending on the flower size, which were then flicked up and the centre stamen added. That was punched using Floral Punch Craft Leone Em's 'Small Stamen II punch'. It's a quite small and detailed punch so I just coloured some paper using a black Pro Marker and after it had dried properly the stamens punched out fine - it won't work on card though, ask me how I know :)

The picks for this week were as difficult as ever, I hope you like my choices and the reasons why:

This card, made by Kim, just HAD to be included - serious attack of the giggles here when I spotted it! After a week of petitions about 'saving the tree house' because I'd proposed that the trampoline would have to go there it seems so appropriate. Love the goat trying it out - and the tree house is quite safe, I filled in the duck pond and put the trampoline there instead :)

I love this card, made by Glennis - bright, eye catching and such a great way to use up snippets. It really does sum up Summer perfectly.

Amanda brought this brilliant 'exploding box' to show - so much work (and snippets!) must have gone into it, terrific idea and so well thought out.

How about this then? A fabulous folded shirt, made from a single piece of paper is the perfect topper for this great card - love the background too. Our Carol hopped into the Playground waving this - so clever. I've made the little shirts in the past and it's all done with clever folding - here's a link to a YouTube tutorial if you want to try. Perfect for those oh so difficult male cards.

And here's a totally stunning card, made by Viv! It's a real beauty and the pram is made using die cut circles - another one to try. I love how the pink lace and little rosebuds finishes it off so well.

A big welcome to a new Playmate as well - that's Sue J of 'Olliesmam'. Be kind to Sue girls, hopping over to say 'Hi' would be nice too.

Remember, you can still go to last week's links here and have a hop around.

OK, so who won last week's prize of the Penny Black stamp 'Strawberry Jam'? Chosen by the Random Number thingy it's:

Liz

Can you please send me your snail mail address (di_wray@hotmail.com) Liz - and very well done!

So, this coming week's prize:

It's two Simply Gorjuss stamps, as shown plus a little stamen punch the same as the one I used on my card. Linby sent me the 'Girl on a Swing' (only been inked once) absolutely ages ago for the Playground and I've added a new stamp called 'The Fawn'. I'll be perfectly honest and say that it's the colouring of the fawn that scares me so that's why I'm giving it away, I know me limitations! But can't you see the little girl dressed in red and then the image used with a snowy background for a Christmas card?

That reminds me, many of you have been sweet enough to send prizes for the Playground, for which I do thank you very much. Please don't fret if I don't offer them straight away - they are safely tucked in the Playground toy box and listed in a notebook so they will appear for sure. But, you must never, ever, feel that you ought to send anything, the toy box is very full and there are enough prizes there to take us into 2014! If you just carry on playing and enjoying yourselves that's enough to make me happy.

But, someone else decided to send us a Playground prize - when I was ordering something for the future from the lovely Ryn Tanaka, she noticed that I hadn't ordered two of the Raindrop stamps and (bless) included one for you girls as a prize! How totally sweet is that then?

So, this is one of those two week things like last time. All you have to do to be 'in it to win it' is to make a total of THREE snippets entries over this week and next - so that might be three in one week, two one week plus one in the other, it's up to you. Of course you can still make a maximum of three entries in one week which would also count. Then, it'll be the sunhat draw and I DO only have one stamp to give away, courtesy of Ryn.

The Playground will run as usual this week with the gates closing at 11am UK time on Saturday 3rd August. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be a winner of this week's prize which is the Gorjuss girls stamps and the stamens punch, shown above. Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

Enjoy your week and hope to see you in the Playground!

Di
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