Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #364 - results

Still the fireworks go off at random times around here, usually nothing like as bad as I whined about last weekend, thankfully. And Dudley doesn't seem to be too bothered by them after all - when they're further away.

It's been another mixed week, a lot of rainfall, with some hedgehog rescuing here. More about that further down this post.

First of all, let's get going with this fortnight's picks:

What a brilliant card, made by Carol L. I love the design and absolutely tons of snippets used as well! A lovely example of picking three colours from a pile of snippets and coming up with a very striking card.

Jane (of Jane's Journal) brought a wonderful Autumn wreath to share with us. It's gorgeous and a super way to use up lots of snippets. The leaves are made from the printed pages of an old book BTW, with a lot more work to make them look this pretty!

Here's another Christmas card, this time made by Eemeli, using lots of little snippets. I recognise some of the papers from quite some time ago - a lovely card indeed!

And we had three new Playmates this time:

Gail (I Like Paper)

Lynn McAuley

Adry

Do please hop over to welcome our new Playmates and comment on their beautiful work.

So, that's my picks, and our new Playmates from Challenge 364, and I do hope they've given you some inspiration for ways in which you can use up some of those snippets.

We had 59 entries and three new Playmates this time round. Whoop, whoop!

Time now for the prize draw, which is for the Memory Box 'Budding Tree' die and a Memory Box 'Mini Butterflies' die. And the winner is:

Janis in ID

Well done Janis! I'm sure it's absolutely ages since you won one of the fortnightly prizes - so this is certainly due. 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 #365 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a SWALK 'Friendship' stamp (which is grey unbacked rubber) and a Gemini 'Stitch Edge Circle' set of dies. And do remember that we still have our Guest Designer Karen's wonderful snippets make and very generous give away - over on her blog HERE. And, Karen will be joining me again for the next November Snippets Challenge, next Sunday (24th November). I can't wait to see what she's made to share this time.

Long story cut short, we (Len really) rescued two little hedgies during the week. Out during the day time - which is always a worrying sign that they need help.

Here they are the following day, after their temporary home (large clear plastic crate) had been cleaned out, ready for me to take them to a local animal rescue place in a pretty village just 10 minutes drive away from us: 

The little one nearest to you is curled into a ball and covered, slightly, in bits of the newspaper they shredded up even more during their overnight stay. They really had made one heck of a mess of the crate, putting it nicely - poop everywhere, food all eaten and water almost drunk - must have been quite a party :) It got so bad that, even though we had doors closed, we eventually had to pop the crate into our garage for the night, out of Dudley's hearing - he was going Havanese-ape!

A couple more photos:

This is the braver one, woofling and trying to explore to find a way out. Many years ago we had a hedgie that we'd rescued manage to escape from a more shallow box that Len was holding - whilst I was driving along country lanes to a much further away animal rescue sanctuary and now we're very careful. They really can climb!

And here's a closer look at the little one that was curled into a ball. If you look just above the little shred of newspaper stuck to his prickles at the left of the image, just follow up slightly and there's his little dark snout peeping out, with his darker eye patches on either side. His eyes were also open but the camera didn't pick that detail up.

There are over 130 hedgehogs being looked after at the rescue place - mostly from late litters. And a plethora of wildlife ranging from squirrels, ducks, geese, birds, hedgies of course - you name it, Rita will take it in and look after it until it's well enough to be released. One truly amazing lady for sure! It's run purely by her with some help from her daughter with no funding, apart from donations.

And, the following evening under cover of darkness, the CCTV picked up a third hedgie that's even smaller, coming to feed. It's proving more elusive to catch but we live in hope. By the way, the two hedgies we managed to rescue are both little girls - important - as they continue to raise future hedgie generations of course!

So, that's been the excitement for this week. No photos of Dudley - a friend and I went out for lunch during the week and it was the first time she'd met Dudley. She was absolutely enchanted by him - he certainly wins the ladies over!

Love from Parsnip, a wave from Dudley - and of course hugs as always from me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #350 - results

Ha, one of the joys of retirement - I totally forgot that this is a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK! Running behind and lots of other stuff going on so let's get rolling with the fortnightly picks:

No new Playmates this time, although we had a total of 55 entries!

As always, it's so hard to pick just three of your lovely entries - but here goes anyhow:

This is such a perfect twisted easel Easter card, made by Jackie T. I love all the Easter colours and so many lovely layers as well!  Everything is so perfectly lined up and the little bunnies are a very sweet touch. Gorgeous work Jackie.

Then we jump ahead to Christmas - and this totally fabulous card, brought to share with us by Susan B. I think the embossed (paste) brick background is a beautiful piece of work on which to show off the wreath. Which is just wonderful - all punched from little snippets of green and some white card. And the sentiment fits so perfectly as well. Love it! 

And my final pick is a very clever 'treat holder' made in the shape of a dress by 'The Creative Twins'. It's so pretty and I also think you can work out how to make your own from the photos and really clear instructions added by the twins. Thanks girls!
Now it's prize draw time, and our winner of the Clearly Besotted 'Panda Planner' set of stamps, plus a £15 gift voucher (which was kindly donated by Clearly Besotted) is :

Lynne (Lynne's Craft Haven)

Congratulations Lynne! 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 #351 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set (which does have two perspex stamp mounts as well if you really want them.

No new photos of Dudley I'm afraid - but his adventures continue to amuse us - Len taught him how to put his paw up for treats (in fact he's so taken with it that he'll do a right paw 'high five' anytime!) - so cute :) Need to take a photo when I get a chance!

And, he has finally met the hedgie! That was too funny - he did an absolute double take - looking from Art the garden hedgie ornament to the real one and sort of shaking his head in disbelief! Then, he was in his penned in area and hedgie was safely outside, he began to bounce around and crouch with his tail wagging. 'Come and play' he seemed to be saying! No growling or barking either.

Len couldn't get a photo of them both together (obviously) - but this is Spike taken whilst Dudley was beseeching him to play:

As always, Parsnip and Dudley send their love, and so do I of course!

Stand in line/ form an orderly queue please

No card today - life is very busy right now and other things are taking the place of crafting, sigh.

But, I've written a lot here lately about the hedgehogs - and Len has done his very best to capture them on camera for you. His quest will continue for sure.

Recently I wrote about them forming an 'orderly queue/line' and am sure some of you perhaps thought I was 'over-egging the pudding'. I don't blame you at all but what comes next, captured on camera, proves that we're not totally barking mad.

THIS popped up on the overnight CCTV between Monday and Tuesday:

I'm sorry that it's horribly hazy - it's due to the CCTV plus me cropping it so you can see them, All three in a line, one at the bowl feeding and two behind, the one nearest the camera was gonna have a bit of a wait I think!

Bit like the Harrods Sales really :)

 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge # 326 - results

Oh boy, it's very warm and humid here right now. The sort of weather that we long for during the Winter and then wonder just why when it's hard to even craft without sticky paws - and that's before we even go near the glue!

Running late this time round so I'll dive right in with our new Guest Designer, and this time round it's Sandy of 'Stamping Writer'! And this is a really fun card that Sandy made to share:

Here's what Sandy wrote about her card:

I'm delighted to be contributing to the Playground. 

This scene card is all snippets, aside from the base. It started with a 4-inch by 5 ¼-inch blue snippet. I cut three snippets of green patterned paper using the curved Whimsy Stitched Edge die, then arranged them on top of each other to create the “hills,” trimming off the edges to fit. The clouds are white snippets cut with Whimsy Stitched Clouds die.  The sheep are from a set by The Alley Way (which is sadly out of business) called With Wondering Awe. They were stamped with Memento Black ink, colored with pencils, and fussy-cut. The sentiment (from The Alley Way set More Than Words) was stamped in the same black ink. Once the scene was all assembled, it was placed on a top-fold A-2 card.

Oh I do think this is a brilliant card, just amazing how a such great scene can be created with a few snippets - as well as a lot of imagination of course!

And a few words about Sandy herself:

I live in the southeastern U.S. with my husband, and our son lives about two hours away, where he is working on his university degree.  I work as a freelance writer, producing content for various websites and print clients (so feel free to contact me if your business needs some writing done😉). I’ve always loved crafting – I believe I got hooked when my kindergarten teacher handed out tea towels and taught us how to do a basic cross stitch. I discovered stamping and card making when my son was a baby, erroneously believing I had stumbled upon a “hobby I can keep in a shoe box.” (Oh, how innocent I was then!) I got more involved in the hobby as the Internet allowed me to find and connect with other stampers. I also enjoy reading, traveling, and outdoor activities such as camping, biking and hiking.

I wonder just how many of our own Primary School teachers were responsible for 'kick starting' our interest in one form or another of crafting? My own Mum had been to art college and was a really good artist - I used to love to sit and watch her sketching and colouring when I was young. I reckon she'd be like a kid in a sweet shop if she was still here and let loose in my craft room - ha, but I'm equally sure she would make me keep it tidier :)

No photo of Sandy to share - but at the end of this post there's a little photo from Len for you all :)

Thanks so much for being our Guest Designer Sandy - we're delighted you could take on the role for this fortnight. And Parsnip is more than willing to have me send him over to the US to join you on a camping trip! In fact, some days I'd even pay you to have him for a month or so!

Now, we do have a *Gold Star* this week, and it's a lady whose work does feature on here quite often. I'm sure this will blow your little socks off girls and you'll agree 100% that this is so worthy of a Gold Star:

 

Alice of Scrap & C made these absolutely fabulous tea bag dispensers, cups and mugs, totally from cards (including tons of snippets of course) for a shop window display! How very clever and there's tons of fascinating photos of the whole process over on Alice's blog - I do recommend you hop over for a closer look.

And now for the other three picks - a general mix of entries that caught my eye and made me smile over the fortnight:

What a fun card, made by Lynn of 'Creative Crafts' by Lynn. This is Rambo - their much loved dachshund :) Lovely card Lynn!

Jane W brought this card to share with us - great use of snippets and a perfect sentiment! Such a cleverly made scene as well.

I just love this baby card, made by Carol D to celebrate the birth of a new baby grand daughter. Little elephants are just so perfect for baby cards aren't they? There's a gorgeous photo of the baby (Chloe) over on Carol's blog - being mindful of GDPR issues I'm not adding any photos into the blog other than your entries folks!

And we had one new Playmate joining in the fun this time:

Glittertastic

A huge welcome to the Snippets Playground! Love this card - just perfect for a chap and great use of snippets too.

So that was a total of 68 entries this fortnight - folk were queuing up to use the Playground duck pond to cool off in! Rather them than me - the ducks had just vacated it :)

Prize draw time now and what a popular prize as well. Our winner of the Waffle Flower 'Succulents' stamp set with matching dies is:

Carol G

 

 

Well done Carol! It's hard to tell after so long running the Playground, but I have a slight feeling that this might just be your first prize win - although I know your work has featured in the 'picks' a few times. Well done, whether or not it's a first win - you'll have something (especially the discontinued matching dies) that took one heck of a lot of tracking down! I reckon the stamps will be rare as hen's teeth as well.

Do please send me your address, with full name at the top so I can copy and paste - for speed and ease. I'll be off to the Post Office ASAP this coming week 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 #327 HERE. The prize is a a bumper bundle of Concord & 9th 'Everyday Tintables', a Concord & 9th 'Fabulous Phrases set of five dies and an Altenew 'Puffy Pink' ink pad.

And, as I mentioned above, here's a photo of Spike, taken by Len on Wednesday around midnight just this past week:

One of Len's best shots - Spike actually has his eyes open and you can see his cute little paws as well. So sweet!

Hope you have a lovely week ahead, whatever you have planned.

Love from the little white peril Parsnip, and of course me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge # 325 - results

Royal Wedding Day today! The sun is shining for the happy couple down here in the South of the UK and Windsor is such a lovely place for the wedding.

Let's get straight on with the post - I'm typing this on Saturday morning and the TV in my craft room is calling to be turned on so I can watch events - so this will be quite a quick post!

First of all, we have a new Guest Designer, but most certainly not a new crafter! It's Susan Renshaw of 'Calling All Crafters' who is our Guest Designer this fortnight. Susan has been playing along with us for a while now:

And here's what Susan wrote about her card:

Once again I went with the mosaic idea but this time paper piecing into a die from STAMPLorations. All the card pieces are from my scrap bank apart from the cream card base which is a 5 by 7 inch. I added a strip of ribbon with a tiny scrap tied around it and the wooden butterfly embellishments. More details will be on my blog…

If you remember, Susan was one of our picks last time with the brilliant mosaic pelican card!

Bless her - the GD card above was her third idea, bit of a perfectionist like so many of us. I'm stunned by the amount of paper piecing - just fabulous!

And here's Susan to say hello to you:

Isn't it wonderful how happy you Playmates are - all the more so when crafting of course!

And a little bit of information about Susan as well:

I am a retired teacher, a mother of 4 and grandmother of 3 – my grandson with be 18 this month but my granddaughters are younger. I currently live in the UK, Derbyshire, living round the corner from my elderly parents to whom I give a great deal of support. Over the last 20 years, I have been an expat, living in Australia, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and India. My three sons and their families still live in Australia but my daughter is a teacher and lives near Cambridge. My husband still works – he was in Egypt for much of last year and is now in Abu Dhabi again. Rather than living overseas, I now just take the opportunity to visit him when I can. I have been a crafter all my life, turning my hand to quilting, embroidery, crochet and more. I became more interested in papercrafting when I was living in Abu Dhabi and this is my current passion. I make cards but also enjoy making ATCs and playing with mixed media. I think I use my Big Shot every day but I also enjoy stamping. I am not a great colourer! …My style is my own ranging from conventional to more ‘off the wall’. You will see from my blog that I am on a number of DTs. I like to take part in ATC and other craft swaps and I also enjoy attending crafty retreats whenever I can. The photo is from a recent Craft retreat with UK Stampers Network.

So, a very busy lady and a very dedicated crafter - with a fair old bit of globe trotting under her belt as well.

Thanks so much for being our Guest Designer Susan - we're delighted you could take on the role for this fortnight. And Parsnip is offering his services to carry your baggage next time you visit your husband in some exotic country! You gotta admit - that little bear always has an eye on the main chance! 😀

And now for the fortnight's picks - this time I've gone for some ideas you might want to try for yourselves:

Alice whizzed in early on in the challenge with this lovely Christmas card. I love it, but what else was in the post really caught my imagination and I hope it will interest you as well:

This is only one of many photos on Alice's blog post - which you can find HERE. Basically, Alice uses snippets to maintain a stock of ready die cut shapes and stores them in pockets in binders as shown above. It's really such a great idea - if you have the time to do this I'm sure it would save loads of fiddling round when working on a project. I'm a 'cut as I go' gal - but I really can see loads of merit in Alice's idea!

Liz is always coming up with great ideas for card shapes, and this time she showed us a real corker! A great card to begin for a lovely lady named Kitty who is 103 years young and still an avid supporter of Bristol Rovers Football Club. And the extra twist is the shape itself. The basic shape is known as the 'Impossible Card Fold' - the effect is very much like an easel card but the card blank is cut (very cleverly) from a single sheet of card!

I immediately Googled it and found a very good tutorial which I followed to the letter. And blow me, some of the measurements for the layers of paper to add to the card weren't correct! By all means look at the link. but do be aware that the finished article will look a bit off balance - you can actually see that on at least one of the end results on the video, the margins on either side aren't even - and really makes my teeth itch!

And here's my half finished attempt before I decided to leave it alone and go no further so you can see what I mean - I did try to use a paint tool to draw an arrow or two to point to the offending area, with no luck:

Can you see that the right hand side upside down L shape layers of the orange and patterned paper don't have an even border around them? There's a wider margin of white card on the lower right part and also the upper left part of the card? Such a shame and also a waste of some pretty paper as well, sigh. Little Miss Picky strikes again!

So, I suggest you just look at the basic card blank cutting part of the video I linked (which is very clearly explained) and work out your own sizes if you add layers of paper - Liz had done that very successfully with her card. There are tons of tutorials to be found - but the Royal Wedding is calling to me and I'm typing as fast as I can here!

 

Trina P brought us this great card - and another idea to try out from a very talented Playmate! I've shown a couple of photos above so that you can get the overall idea. It's known as an 'in and out card' - I first spotted this die cut aperture idea over on Jennifer McGuire's blog. Trina has helpfully included the link over on her blog post so you can hop over there for more about this card at the same time.

And we had three new Playmates joining in the fun this time:

Sammi

Darshana

Fiona

A huge welcome to you all and these are really lovely cards, all featuring butterflies as well! Do please hop over to say hello to our new Playmates.

So that was three new Playmates this fortnight and 58 entries. That's really good going considering you can only play once each fortnight.

Prize draw time now and what a popular prize as well. Our winner of the MFT 'Marbled Background' stamp and also the MFT 'Wish' die is:

  Trina P

 

Well done Trina! That's a double whammy this fortnight, being one of our 'picks' as well as the prizewinner :) Bet you're doing a Happy Dance right now!

Do please send me your address, with full name at the top so I can copy and paste - for speed and ease. I'll be off to the Post Office ASAP this coming week 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 #326 HERE. The prize is a Waffle Flower 'Succulents' stamp set with matching dies.

And, as promised - here's a better photo of Spike the hedgehog at his feeding station. Bearing in mind that it was taken in the dark, with just an outdoor light for illumination, and you have to be very fast - I think Len did us proud! I did think he had taken two photos but it's only the one for now:

He's just had a drink from the little bowl of water that's out of shot (hence the wet patches from underneath his chin) - and is about to nudge the feeding dish lid up to get at his food. No doubt Len will be out there again trying to get more photos - but generally we just leave the hedgies to feed in peace and peek at them from a window in the kitchen.

I do hope you're having great weather right now - I'm just about to settle down to watch the Royal Wedding properly.

Love from the little white peril Parsnip, who is sat here with his flag ready to wave it at the TV whenever required - and of course me,