Sunday Snippets - 'Art Deco - take two'

I really liked the Altenew card I made previously in an 'Art Deco' style - so when Altenew then brought out a set of 'Art Deco' frame dies, I was pushing my way to the front of the queue, of course:

I die cut the black flower outline using the fall out from cutting the frame

I used:

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

- a snippet of Tonic satin effect 'Black Velvet' card, literally just a tad larger than the size of the card front

- die cut it using Altenew's 'Deco Cover' die set  (three dies in the set BTW) - the largest one fits the USA A2 size perfectly. I used the satin effect 'Black Velvet' card to do this step and struggled a LOT. The usual issue of intricate dies cuts not wanting to leave the die itself was problem but I used waxed paper and that really helped a lot. Then the card itself wanted to keep 'peeling' its layers even as I gently worked with it. In future I think a perfectly plain and black all through card would work best with this particular naughty die! To be fair, it's the first Tonic card stock item I've ever found to be difficult - and thinking back, the same one on more than one occasion as well!

- once done, and  after lie down in a darkened room, I then glued the frame to the card front using a glue pen

- next came the flower - using a die by Altenew called 'Streamlined Sprig' and first I die cut the outer lines of the flower sprig, using the fallout from cutting the Art Deco frame - worked really fine just using my baby Altenew die cutting machine

- backed the flower heads and the leaf using little mauve and green snippets of shaded paper I found in the back of my much loved Lawn Fawn 'Watercolor Wishes' paper pad - I never throw a scrap of that paper out, so useful!

- then I could play with the Misti and the assembled 'sprig topper' to work out the right place to stamp the sentiment - using a piece of square printed clear acetate for alignment before doing a test  stamp onto the acetate to check, and then stamping a stamp from Woodware's 'Deco Sayings' onto the card itself (also used VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink). All inking was easily wiped off the Misti and the acetate with a Lawn Fawn Shammy  BTW

- finally, I then glued the flower sprig in place and called it a wrap!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 73 - HERE. The Altenew 'Deco Cover' set of dies were out for a first play

Allsorts Challenge #820 - HERE. The current challenge is 'Spring Flowers' but I doubt if these are any season really - so am entering under 'Anything Goes' 

Dudley Pupdate: This week Dudley (on Monday morning) was sick after spending time sucking his beloved Honka, sure sign it needs to be changed. Len just grabbed old Honka and marched off with him, Honks, to the bin. Monday is collection day so no second chances there - poor old Honks! And then he came back with ..... yes, another duplicate fresh Honka from Mama's store in the garage and plonked it in front of Dudley - no arguments allowed. Talk about 'tough love'. Dudley was almost sat in shock - me too kiddo! Dudley and I were just looking at one another for a while.

But how odd, an hour or so later, the postie called with a delivery - and Dudley always runs for his precious Honka before he goes into meltdown. He was so distraught that he grabbed new Honka without even thinking .................... and they've been best friends ever since!  Hmm?!

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #502 are now published HERE.

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - we have glorious sunshine right now and need help with putting up a gazebo or two, to protect those little freckled faces! Dudley, on his little stilts, will be at the ready for you to pay attention to his 'barked' directions. 

As if! That always reminds me of the indignant image of a sweet little white puppy, with the caption 'Today I barked at the postman ................... then he laughed'!  Oh, and already - Dudley's hair is growing back at a rate of knots! Hooray!!

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets and Celebrating 12 years of the Playground!

There's a new Challenge being run by Sarn, over in the Snippets Playground HERE. We're celebrating 12 years since I took over running the Snippets Playground from our lovely Jules. And there are two bumper prizes to be won - the theme for the two week long challenge is still snippets of course, along with 'Celebration'. Of course we'll revert to our usual 'just need to use and say which snippets' afterwards but it's such a lovely couple of prizes I'm sure you'll want to join in!

It's also two years since this 'New Snippets Playground' blog opened with the lovely design created for us by Loll. AND, most importantly, after Sarn worked for some time behind the scenes it was a delight to officially welcomed her as my partner in crime in March of 2022! I can't begin to thank her enough for her unwavering support every single step of the way and I couldn't wish for a better co-owner of our Playground - thank you my lovely friend!

 

OK, enough of the 'soppy stuff' although every single word came from my heart. Let's move onto my snippets card -  I actually made a set of four - to include when sending out prizes to celebrating winners of the challenges run by me:

The snippets, left from stamping then fussy cutting, the paper piecing elements

I used:

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

- I used some almost full sheets of patterned paper - details below - to add a layer measuring 5.25" x 4" onto the card front as a background for the image panel and glued it in place

- used a selection of snippets pulled out of the halved envelopes I glue into the back of paper pads and packs so I can keep patterned snippets fairly easily with the original designs. The packs are both made by Dovecraft called 'Back to Basics' and 'Back to Basics II' and are ancient!

- then used some smooth white card to stamp the image and bubble sentiment, using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink. The snail image and actual speech bubble surround stamps are from Woodware's 'Happy Snail' stamp set - and the 'huge congrats' sentiment is from a Clearly Besotted sentiments set called 'Speaking out' - bought not too long ago on clearance 

- used the Misti to stamp the snail image onto a small snippet of white paper - held in place using a sticky sheet and then, one at a time I placed snippets of the desired papers over the relevant pieces of the image and then stamped the image onto the snippet - by far the best way I know to position stamps for paper piecing images 

- fussy cut the different pieces, edged them using a black Tombow brush marker and used a glue pen to adhere them onto the main snail image images. I always try to add the glue to the main image and then lay the fussy cut patterned paper on top as I find there's less chance of spoilage

- die cut the image panel using a much loved Lil'Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' die

- then added two 'goggly eyes' - which I very recently bought from Amazon. They're self-adhesive, come in a huge selection of sizes in a divided plastic case - AND, even include some eyes with coloured 'lids' and also some with coloured lids and the sweetest eye lashes. Bargain really!

- added thin strips of sticky foam tape around the back edges of the image panel, swiped them with a glue stick for a bit of wiggle room - then stuck the panel onto the card front

- final touch, used a glue pen to add a leftover green snippet strip across the envelope flap , trimmed either side - and called it a wrap!

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #58 HERE. The two stamp sets - and the googly eyes were all having their first outing.

I showed Len the little batch of cards and he said 'Just perfect for kids, although how many do you know?'.  Once Dudley and I stopped holding one another up to control our hysteria, I managed to blurt out 'Only the Snippets Playground, full of them!'. 

Dudley Pupdate:  With perfect timing, our hot water side of the central heater boiler went 'kaput' the other day - and it's driven Dudley almost crazy! He hates unexpected visitors at the best of times, but engineers three days running almost had him climbing up the walls - we weren't far behind him I admit! We're convinced he thinks they're out to murder us or, even worse, steal Honka Duck! 

He has his annual vet check up due in February and I'll be asking for advice about his anxiety. We don't want a 'doped up' dog but something that can safely and gently calm him down would be a help. Mind you - that was sort of spooky - my mobile phone had a stream of messages coming in and on Thursday morning, when another came in, he retreated to the other end of the room and just stared at the phone. Almost as if he just knew it was the reminder from our vet to book him an appointment! 😰 I admit, we did chuckle at the timing!

With love from Dudley and myself, 

Sunday snippets and 16th Birthday card

Last month, Grand daughter Mia reached the milestone of age 16. It's so hard to believe that the sweet baby we both cradled in our arms is now almost a young woman. How time flies!

Mia is a very 'girlie' young lady so it was right up my street to set to and make what I hope turned out as a modern yet feminine card for her special day:

Waste from the pink and silver snippets

I used:

- 7" x 7" white scalloped card blank - these have been languishing in a box for years

- a layer of Tonic pearlescent  'Luna Silver' card

- a lightly smaller layer of plain pink card from a pack of various shades of pink card by Creative World of Craft - called 'Endless Love'n 

- stamped the flower onto a snippet of white card - using a NBUS Woodware Bubble Bloom 'Clarissa' stamp and a VersaFine Clair 'Shady Lane' ink pad  

- coloured the leaves using a Polychromos pencil

- found some snippets of pink paper in various shades tucked into the back of a Lawn Fawn 'Watercolor Wishes' paper pad

- die cut a selection of pink circles, using Woodware's 'Bubble Craft' die. This is the small original version, they now also have a large sized one which I used for the 'Bubble Robin' card HERE 

- glued the pink circles onto the stamped image using a glue pen

- trimmed the image panel and backed it with a frame of Tonic 'Luna Silver' card before gluing it onto the card front

- die cut the sentiment twice using snippets of 'Luna Silver' card, layered them together and glued them to the card front. The sentiment die is unbranded but I have since realised the resemblance to a branded die

- final touch was a little blue butterfly from Katy Sue's fabulous 'A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies' pack of no less than 332 printed and die cut butterflies - tickled with clear Wink of Stella and stuck in place using a small piece of extra strong red line tape

The butterflies are going to be so handy for adding speedy little finishing touches to cards - clever idea Katy Sue! One side of the two A4 sheets is paler than the reverse of the same image - double clever idea!

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenge:

Darnell's NBUS #55 HERE. The Woodware stamp, 'bubbles' die, sentiment die and also the pack of those butterflies were all NBUS. I can't thank Darnell enough for her encouragement to focus on using up NBUS goodies. Now, if only she could influence the terrible drive to buy more stuff we all have - she'd be on a winner!

Dudley Pupdate: He got lucky and was 'excused boots' this week, thereby avoiding a bath as it was time to apply his monthly flea prevention drops to the back of his neck. Mind you, he wasn't happy about the full grooming session I did beforehand judging by his 'boxing hare' impressions! It's an agility workout ...... for both of us! 

He was so funny on Wednesday just before I set off for a hair trim - he brought Honka Duck for a play in an attempt to distract me. Poor Honka was flipped here and there whilst Dudley then crouched as if to say 'C'mon, it's fun - join in with the game Mama!'.  Tempting as it was, I tootled off to the hairdresser with his plaintive cries ringing in my ears. 

Sarn and I were having a 'Playground Team Meeting' phone chat recently, whilst Dudley joined in with his 'play with me, nobody loves me' whines from underneath my desk. Sarn could hear the little concert going on so she can vouch for the fact that this ain't no made up stuff - basically, we have a Velcro dog going by the name of Dudley!! And I wouldn't change a single whisker.

There's a new Challenge over at The Snippets Playground HERE - do come and play! 

Love from both of us,

Sunday Snippets and a new Challenge #462

Challenge 462 is now up and running over on the Snippets Playground folks! 

As there's been a little bit of a nip in the air lately, I'm ramping up Christmas card production and made this one, using some snippets:

You'll have to trust me that I used some cream snippets, left from cutting the card blank and image panel - as well as a snippet of Tonic's 'Scarlet Organza' mirri card.

I used:

- 6.25" x 3.25" cream 'mini slimline' card blank

- a very slightly smaller layer trimmed from a snippet of Tonic 'Scarlet Organza' mirri card and glued onto the card front

- the image panel was die cut from a snippet of cream card stock, using a die from Lawn Fawn's stitched border 'Large Mini Slimline Stackables' set of dies  

- stamped the stack of robins and sentiment onto the image panel using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink and a NBUS set of Woodware 'Bubble Robin' stack stamps

- then stamped the individual 'part images' onto snippets of the same cream card

- coloured the robins on the image panel as well as the robin 'part images' on the snippets - using Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending solution - at this point it was important to colour far enough beyond the stamped 'part image' as it would be die cut using a circular 'bubble' die

- die cut the part images using Woodware's 'Big Bubble' die - made a few mistakes but I'd cut spares and basically my mind wasn't fully on the card at the time

- once I had four images cut into 'bubbles' - I backed them with 'bubbles' of the same size to make a total of three layers to add dimension. An alternative is to 'round' the circle from the back using a foam pad and a large ball embossing tool - either would work fine IMHO

- glued the 'bubbles' onto the images on the image panel using a glue pen and 'wham!' - it sort of sprang into life

- glued the image panel on top of the already adhered mirri card layer and there it was - all done!

Along the way, I did question why Jane Gill designed the 'part image' stamps and didn't just rely on using the outlined images of the robins. But, they would never have lined up perfectly I expect and I'm converted to her way of thinking! Clever lady and I always love her designs. I made two at the same time of course.

  

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #54. The Woodware stamp set and the 'Big Bubble' die were having a first outing. 

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley has been in the wars, poor little guy. He managed to remove one of his (front) dew claws in a rather traumatic fashion. We had one almost sleepless night with him - severely shocked (as we were too). Of course it bled at first and I can't imagine how much it must have hurt him. Len found the offending claw and thankfully, it was a clean removal job he'd done on himself and after loads of cuddles and more than his share of treats, as well as the aforementioned almost sleepless night with him - he's practically back to normal now. We did have the 'poor paw' scenario for a while - which was heartbreaking to see. 

Ha - then I returned home from having some blood tests and he ran to greet me and forgot to hold up his 'sore paw'! Err, hello Dudley - did you forget something? 😉 For now he's only out in our own back garden - away from any dirt he might choose to investigate. As he hates his front paws being touched at the best of times, I can only monitor progress by taking photos, when he's dozing on his back .......... and it's healing really well. 

Love from myself and Dudley (aka 'Sore Paw, Need Sympathy, Dudders' right now) - as always. Life is never dull with him around for sure!

Paper piecing once again!

OK, who opened the rain floodgates? Non-stop rain here for what seems like weeks and no end in sight. I know that the UK isn't the only country suffering - all I can advise is to move your snippets upstairs ...... out of harm's way - and keep life jackets close beside you. It would be funny, if it wasn't so serious for a lot of people!

My post for the picks and winner of Challenge # 444 can be found HERE in the Playground.

Meanwhile, I made a snippets card to give us some hope of Spring and Summer to come:

And these were my snippets:

This was a second try at stamping onto patterned paper - I lost the first stamped images on different papers by placing my trust purely in the Misti bar magnet. Then, when I went to stamp again due to a first weak stamping - wham! The wretched paper moved and I ended with a blurred stamped flower image. Lesson there is only trust a corner and the magnet(s) - not just one side and the magnet bar. So, I raced ahead and promptly forgot to take a piccie of my newly chosen snippets - until they'd been stamped on. BTW, when stamping a sentiment which will be trimmed I always stamp at least one spare in case of any 'cutting wobbles'. ☺

I used:

- 5.25" x 4" white card blank, tent fold

- stamped the flower image onto a snippet of white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a NBUS stamp set by Woodware, called 'Bold Blooms - Vivian'

- to add the leaves to the flower image I used a piece of acetate over the stamped flower to position the two leaf stamps and stamped onto the acetate first - got it right first time - then removed the acetate, leaving the flower panel in place, re-inked the stamps and stamped onto the stem of the flower

- stamped the sentiment from the same set onto a snippet of white card

- next I botched stamped the flower head and the leaves onto snippets of patterned paper (found in the back of a Honey Bee paper pad called 'Team Tie Dye' - one of my favourite paper pads)

- fussy cut the flower bloom and the leaves using small Fiskars embroidery scissors, which are kept purely for paper

- ran the side of the brush end of a black Tombow marker around all the edges patterned fussy cut edges then glued them onto the main image using a Zig glue pen

- trimmed the image to size and mounted it onto a snippet  piece of black card to give a narrow border

- glued the image panel onto the front of the card

- covered the sentiment with a piece of clear adhesive film before trimming away the edges to leave a shiny sentiment strip - much easier than faffing around doing clear embossing when it's only one small item and it really shines beautifully in real life

 - added the sentiment strip to the card front using very narrow foam strips to raise it for some dimension

- final touch, three Memory Box clear self-adhesive 'Fairy Drops'

At one point I almost gave up on this card, especially when the Misti also played up - my fault entirely - glad I soldiered on though.

I have another card to make shortly, and in fact bought the clear adhesive film for that (if my idea works) but it's absolutely super for adding a glossy look to sentiments - yay, hopefully a double win situation!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #46 - the stamp set was having a first outing, also the clear self adhesive film

Allsorts Challenge #711 - the theme is 'A/G with the option of Winter Blues' - I chose anything goes  

We Love Stamping - the theme is 'Favourite Colours' and I adore pink and cream together

Dudley Pupdate - nothing much to report, with the wet and gloomy weather he's not keen on venturing too far. He did meet a friend's new Corgi puppy during the week - but I can't see Arnie being replaced as his 'Bestie' anytime soon! If ever.

Just before bedtime, he always has one of his favourite 'calcium bone wrapped in dried 'chicken' treats'. This evening, Saturday, Len was in bed watching a film and I was across the landing just catching up on some internet browsing and beginning to close down for the night. All of a sudden, I glanced down at Dudley and saw a very cross little face glaring right back at me. He's so sweet and loving that it's a really rare occurrence for him to be upset with us - then we realised - he hadn't had his evening treat! Treat given and all is well again! Little monkey!

 

Snowman in a Jar

When I spotted that the current Challenge#64 over at Christmas Kickstart was 'Show Us Your Snowfolk - out came my NBUS basket - with a Woodware stamp set fairly quivering in excitement to at last be coming out to play. And this is the card I ended up making:

I used:

- A6 white card blank, side opening

- covered almost all the front of the card with paper from the LOTV 'Frosty Christmas' paper pad, die cut using the largest die from the Heffy Doodles 'A6 Stitched Rectangles' set of dies

- to be fair, I had already worked out all the colours etc. I wanted to use, before choosing the backing paper for the card front

- then I set to making the snowman in a jar using a NBUS Woodware 'Snow Jar' set of stamps

- used Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink to stamp the jar main image of the set three times - twice onto plain white card, then the sky portion onto paper from Sticker Kitten's 'Celestial' paper pack

- then trimmed the main jar as a whole, ran a black Whispers brush pen right round the cut edges and set it aside

- next trimmed the 'sky background' from the 'Celestial' paper, ran a black Whispers  brush pen right around the cut edges and set it aside

- then did the same with the second full stamping onto white card - this time trimming all along and around the snowman - again running around the edges with black pen

- coloured the snowman's carrot, hat and the robin (plus a little separate robin from the same stamp set) using Polychromos pencils

- to assemble I used a medium glue pen and adhered the snowy blue sky onto the main jar panel then coloured the stamped 'snowflakes' using a white gel pen

- then glued the snowman and hillside part of the scene, all one piece, onto the 'sky' layer - wallop, it suddenly sprang into life!

- now I had the jar panel all ready, and having left the screw portion of the neck clear, I could add a length of black and white gingham ribbon with a little knot at the front - used red line tape across the back of the neck to secure it

- added the 'Snowman in a Jar' to the front of the card using thin stick pads to add dimension

-  popped the extra robin I'd cut and coloured earlier so that it sits on the rim of the jar, used a tiny piece of red line tape and a sliver of thin sticky pad

- whilst stamping right at the beginning, I'd also stamped both sentiment strips which came as part of the set and trimmed them using scissors  

- added the sentiment strips using the same medium glue pen

- final touch, a few subtle tickles of clear 'Wink of Stella' on the tree, hat brim and pom pom, here and there on the snowy hillside and a touch on each snowball - none of which show up on the photo but that's nothing new, sigh

- finished!

And, of course I made two at the same time.☺

I'd also like to enter this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #40 HERE. The 'Snow Jar' stamp set was having a first outing.

Decoupage rescue!

The other day, whilst doing a bit of craft room sorting out, I came across some Dufex decoupage pieces - which I'd assembled eons ago and then carefully stored in clear cellophane bags. So my snippets card for this fortnight's Snippets Playground challenge (just started over HERE) was pretty easy to rustle up:

I used:

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

- the Dufex foiled 'honeysuckle' decoupage was assembled ages ago - probably bought as part of an A4 sheet at a craft fayre

- used a Penny Black set of dies called 'zig-zag stackers' to cut a panel from a snippet of white linen card, the same I used for as the main card body

- then stamped the sentiment directly onto the image panel. Used the Misti, Memento 'London Fog' ink and a Woodware 'Deco Sayings' sentiment stamp

- glued the die cut panel onto the card front 

- glued the Dufex topper onto the die cut panel

- added three iridescent gems from a shaker pack called 'Snowdrops' from Lucy's Little Things  range of crystal shaker card fillings - done!

It's hard to capture the beautiful foil of Dufex - every bit of the image is shimmery foil. I'm not totally sure whether they're still in business to be honest. A quick online search has thrown up a few smaller UK places still stocking Dufex decoupage and other images though.

It's been a busy week here for various reasons so apologies for the fact that my snippets card only used some leftover white linen card as my snippet to die cut the layer with the pretty zig-zag edge. But, it was a snippet I promise!

I'm still absolutely loving the Gemini Junior - with the still unbent pale green plates. All these years and I never even thought to have a dedicated space for die cutting stuff. So much easier!

Dudley is still up to his antics and the other day he went missing - again. Len had been in and out of the garage and the door into it from the utility room was propped open. When I peeped round the corner - there was Dudley, up on his hind legs in the garage, having a jolly good try at opening a drawer in a storage unit ...... where he knows his favourite treats are kept! When I wagged my finger at him (whilst trying not to laugh) he then pretended he'd been doing nothing - talk about looking guilty! I think he's likely to be checking out weight lifting courses to improve his upper body strength behind our backs!

 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #415

Hello again! If you live in one of the affected countries, did you remember to change your clocks last night. In the UK we change them at 2am on the last Sunday in October - which technically, when this post appears, is actually still two hours away. For us it's 'Fall back' by an hour.

Anyhow, here's my snippets card for this challenge - and please don't be misled into thinking it points to the prize, as it doesn't:

I used:

- DL white card

- snippets of black,grey, white, and three greens

- used a NBUS set of dies from Simon Says Stamp called 'Geometric - Squares' to die cut two 'triple nested squares with a diagonal slice across them which makes them into two triangles per die cut' from each of the colours plus an additional two die cuts from the olive green and the grey (I know, it threw me as well! But the middle colours on the triangles are double in number to the inner and outer shapes). Lost? Don't worry, this is more to remind me in future!

- then die cut eight plain squares using the same set of dies and white card, covered on one side with 'Stick-it adhesive sheet

- ready to roll!

- taking one triangle at a time I added the coloured die cut pieces - working inward in dark to light on four triangles and light to dark on the other four triangles. First set with green and the other set with black, grey and white

- now I had eight triangles to play with

- but first of all I stamped the sentiment using a Woodware 'Double Birthdays' stamp and a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' inkpad - plus the Misti of course

- then drew a pencil line down the centre of the card as a guide to keeping the die cuts straight and positioned them using a glue pen

- finished!

To my horror' the squares still ran off to one side but I needed to get the card finished for Len to post - just hope his great nephew Ben is more interested in the contents than measuring my 'blooper'! 

I've hunted around some of your blogs as I'm sure one of you lovely Playmates 'enabled' me to rush off and buy this set of dies in the first place ☺

It was fun trying out a new set of dies (so useful for male cards) and the possibilities are endless - with more time to play. I didn't even have the time  to straighten the panel - just by trimming right round it and then adding it onto a fresh card blank. Loads of different dies to mix and match when time isn't running against you. If you stare at the card, it gives the optical illusion that some green patterned paper has been folded over the monochrome ones - purely because of the white portion of a couple of the squares blending in with the white card front - certainly not an expected result but quite quirky.

So, here's the prize for this challenge:

And a close-up of the back of the packet:

Gorgeous isn't it? It's a Penny Black slapstick/cling stamp called 'full of glee', kindly donated to the toy box by Darnell - thanks so much Darnell for this and all the other lovely prizes you included for us.

I do still have some 'duplicates' of prizes and will be using those to show samples at intervals in the future. But, as they are used up, I'll be switching and my snippets card at the start of a new challenge most likely won't reflect the prize. Prizes will still be new and still every bit as good - but I really have so much of my own unused stuff here that I can't keep on buying duplicates of prizes just to show how they can be used. Running out of storage space here!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 13th November. 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.

 

Please also remember that I only allow a total of nine other challenges, which makes 10 in total, when you enter a snippets make into the Playground.

 

Finally, a tale about Dudley. When we have a grocery delivery (not been to a supermarket since March 2020) Dudley knows what's going on when Len gets out the large plastic boxes and his rubber gloves (still so careful here) ready to transfer the order. The other day 'Dudders' was 'hyper' and squealing with delight as soon as he saw the boxes appear. It was over an hour before the delivery was due so he had a long wait. Anyhow, the delivery arrived and Dudley kicked off doing his 'yodel', as he usually does. Next thing we knew, he took one of his beloved toys ('Honker Duck' which is like a Mallard and honks rather than squeaks) - from upstairs, raced back down to the front door - and carefully placed it at the delivery guy's feet. The delivery guy was visibly moved and we were both pretty astounded as Dudley has never that to done that with anyone other than us!

 

Stay safe and be kind. 

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #404

Hello again! At last - we have lovely sunny and warm weather here in the South of England! AND, it's a Bank Holiday as well - it normally rains over Bank Holidays. so the sunshine is a wonderful bonus.

Time for another snippets challenge and also another lovely Guest Designer. This time it's Susan B, all the way from Canada! And we have not one but two really sweet sample cards:

Susan will tell you all about how she made her lovely cards when you hop over to her blog, link above, and I do so love the pretty blues that Susan chose for her cards.

Here's the prize from Susan for this fortnight - images taken from the internet due to camera glare:  

The prize, VERY kindly donated by Susan, is a Hero Arts 'Knitting' stamp set and matching Hero Arts 'Knitting Frame Cuts'. Please be aware that the sentiment 'Sweater Weather' on the little girl card isn't part of the prize.What a great prize - especially with the surge in knitting during the past' year and a bit'. AND, it's pussy cats too. Thanks so much Susan!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 12th June. 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.

 

Please also remember that I only allow a total of nine other challenges, which makes 10 in total, when you enter a snippets make into the Playground.

 

My hair appointment earlier this week went off very smoothly with all the protective measures in place. I still didn't feel 100% comfortable despite that, but perhaps that's not a bad thing for the time being. Things are somewhat in the balance and we're all hoping the Indian variant of COVID doesn't go absolutely wild.

 

Today, Saturday, we bathed Dudley. Well, he's put in the bath with no water in and we just switch over to the shower mixer. Lesson learned from a good while ago when he was in a partly filled bath and made a bid for freedom ...... it was like a tidal wave! The little monkey managed to sit up doing his 'boxing hare' impression - which gave Len a great opportunity to wash his tummy with ease. He's like a lovely sweet smelling white ball of fluff now - currently sleeping off the experience under my desk ☺

Stay safe and be kind.

 

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #401

Hello again! Glad you could drop into the Snippets Playground. Once again, we've had a week of mixed weather and more snow flurries interspersed with some lovely sunshine.

Time for another snippets challenge:

It takes a certain kind of mindset to painstakingly tear up small snippets of paper and then even more painstakingly layer them back together to create a pink 'decoupatch' style background to show off the floral bouquet!

Here's a photo of the prize for this fortnight:

 

A super stamp set made by Woodware, designed by Jane Gill, and called 'Bold Blooms - Isabella'. I love it and also think the sentiment is so perfect for a host of occasions.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 1st May. 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.

 

Please also remember that I only allow a total of nine other challenges, which makes 10 in total, when you enter a snippets make into the Playground.

 

Dudley loves his walks - once he has his harness on and accepts that there's no way he's not going for one! We have a routine when he gets back home - he always has a particular doggy treat that's his very favourite. Just this past week or two he's learned a new trick whereby if you hold the treat above him and sweep your arm round in a circular motion - he does a joyful 360 degree spin around on the spot! He's done three consecutive spins for one treat so far ☺ Today the spins, next week Crufts agility! I suspect not - he has too much of a mind of his own.

The other day Len brought a tray with mugs of coffee on up from the kitchen and deposited it on a furniture unit. When we looked, there was Dudley up on his hind legs - casually leaning with one front paw against the side of the unit whilst his other front paw hung limply in front of him - he really did look like a foppish 'dandy' from the Regency era! Of course he was just checking there wasn't a treat on the tray - it looked so funny but I couldn't grab my camera in time to take a photo. Priceless though.

This coming week, Len is going for his second Pfizer COVID vaccination, I follow him a week later. Here's hoping he fares better than he did first time round, my reaction wasn't good but nowhere near as bad as his.

We watched the funeral of HRH Prince Philip on Saturday, on TV. Very moving and our Queen looked so tiny and alone. Dudley couldn't understand why I spent a lot of the afternoon in tears - bless his little heart. Extra cuddles had to be given :)

What a lot of entries from people joining in the 400th celebrations - even a good few who haven't played for some while - great stuff!

Stay safe and be kind.

 

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground #393 - Prize C

One more sleep to go as it's now Christmas Eve! If it isn't sorted out by now - then we just have to make do and mend!Although it seems as if many people will be eating turkey until Easter due to the last minute restrictions!

Here's the third prize in the 'Snippets Playground Celebration' prize draw - and I thought it would be good to remind ourselves of what Christmas is truly all about:

I used:

- a tall slim white card blank card measuring 4" x 8.25", side opening
 
- snippet of silver mirri card 

- snippet of lilac coloured paper leftover from a magazine giveaway many years ago - for speed and to save me actually making a pastel background using inks

- backed the paper with a piece of white card to give it rigidity - using a left over piece of Woodware double sided adhesive sheet - medium weight

- trimmed the piece of patterned paper/card now - to fit the stamp I was going to use

- did some checks with a little scrap of the patterned mauve paper to see if it would take a stamp OK and not bleed - hooray, it was fine!

- then, using the Misti, I stamped the image using a Woodware 'Peaceful Night' stamp with attached sentiment, using Versafine 'Clair' black ink

- added some touches to the star, windows and the stable using a Signo silver pen, again after checking on a scrap of the mauve paper

- all that was left was to glue the image panel onto the silver 'frame' and then glue that to the card front - all done!

The light is so bad here that the lovely silver mirri card and also the sparkly silver bits I added with the Signo pen don't show up really, stiil I think you can imagine it. ☺

This was a super fast card to make and it would be really great to make a 'batch bake' using it. I wanted this stamp for quite a while and it's so perfect for Christmas. It was a last minute purchase and I'm delighted with it. There is an additional sentiment stamp and I think I'll use that to stamp onto the insert. The wording is 'May peace be your blessing this Christmas'. My snippets weren't as small as 'Card B' the other day but they're still snippets. Given more time I really would love to make this card again, colouring it with soft shades - it's  joy to use and stamps perfectly.

And of course today's prize is this:

It's the Woodware 'Peaceful Night' set of two stamps, the same as I used of course. Once again I did buy three for the toy box,  once I'd finally planned out all the prizes and could see a bit of an imbalance with many cute prizes yet few reminding us of just why Christmas is celebrated. You have three chances to win this lovely stamp set! Thanks Liz for spotting my 'oopsie error - it IS a stamp set and not a die.

At the end of all of the celebrations I'll do a massive draw session for all the prizes using the one Mr Linky - which is on the main snippets post HERE along with details of exactly how to join in - so you do need to have entered one snippets make over on that post during the three weeks that the challenge runs for to be in with a chance :) Maximum of one entry please - to keep things fair for those who may not have time to craft. Mr Linky closes at 11am on Saturday 9th January so you do need to have added a snippets make by then to be eligible for the draw.

Just leave a comment on this post if you would like the chance to win today's prize.

Today is always a bit of 'last minute' HELP ME here! My plan is to run round like a headless chicken, make sure things to defrost are out of the freezer and in a cool place, flick a duster over and do last checks and at least set the table and put out the Christmas crackers! Oh, and pop our personal gifts into gift bags amidst all that - then put my feet up and sigh with relief - I hope!

Keep tuning in - I've been trying to get some video of Dudley but to no avail (the little tinker just knows and won't co-operate!), but he might well pop up tomorrow in a photo to say hello. I need to put the picks and prize draw for Challenge 392 back a little bit and there might be a little quiet spell on here whilst we enjoy a couple of days relaxing over Christmas itself - depending on how things go! I know you won't mind - but I will do what I can!

Sleep well, listen for dancing hooves on the roof and of course, this year more than ever, perhaps remember love, kindness for our fellow creatures, human or otherwise and most of all - hope for the future.

Love from Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Dudley made a Father's Day card!

Well, I did really - but Dudley watched me very closely and gave it his 'nose dab' of approval every now and then:

I used:

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

- piece of yellow paper from Lawn Fawn's 'Really Rainbow' paper pad, trimmed to 5.25" x 4", glued onto the card front

- snippet of white card, cut to 5" x 3.75" and set aside for now

- snippet of the Lawn Fawn yellow paper, stamped using a shirt stamp from Woodware's 'His Birthday' set of stamps and fussy cut

- then used a striped snippet from the same paper pad to stamp the tie, fussy cut it and glue onto the shirt front

- found another snippet in the same paper pad, this time red with a faint stripe - which I die cut using a Creative Dies 'Wonky Square' die - not that the faux stitching shows up too well in the photo

- checked where I wanted the image piece to go before stamping the sentiment using a Misti, Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and two different stamps. The 'You're so Special' is from the Hero Arts 'Truly Appreciated' sentiments set and the word 'Dad' came from the Woodware 'His Birthday' set of stamps

- glued the white panel on top of the yellow one

- adhered the red striped panel in place then added the shirt and tie to it

- finally .......... let Dudley blow a kiss into the card after I wrote it for him

Len loved it!

And the Woodware stamp set is yet another NBUS item, so I'm entering this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #15. It's a great encouragement to break open something unused for sure!

Butterfly Birthday

Had to make a card in a bit of a rush for a friend's Birthday so decided to dig out a NBUS stamp set, then whipped this card up:

I used:

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

- piece of Core-dinations purple card, cut to 4.75" square and glued onto the card front

- piece of white card stock, cut to 4.5" square

- used stamps from Woodware's NBUS 'Mosaic Butterfly Round' set of stamps, the Misti and a Ranger 'Black Archival' ink pad to stamp the large butterfly mosaic stamp and a sentiment (the set comes with a choice of five sentiments) first of all

- then positioned a corner stamp from the same set of stamps and stamped all four corners, turning the square piece of card by 90 degrees each time - hooray for the Misti!

- coloured the image panel using my long-neglected Zig brush pens - straight onto the card so the colours are rather bright ☺

- glued the panel onto the layer of purple card - finished!

Another time using the Zigs, I really must have a play at diluting the colours and try to use them more 'artistically' with some blending. Need to watch some You Tube videos first - as well as allow more time! 

This stamp set would be great to use on acetate as a clear window, coloured with Pro markers and set into a big circular aperture.

18th Birthday card for Ben

One of Len's Great-Nephews celebrated his 18th Birthday recently, and finally I remembered to re-use a stamp I'd bought a while ago for such Birthdays. This is the card I made:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- a piece of patterned paper, white spots on black, from the Altenew 'Essential Black and White' paper pack, cut slightly smaller than the card front and glued in place

- stamped the main elements of the image onto a piece of white card stock using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and the Woodware '18th Birthday' stamp set - and of course the Misti!

- then stamped the number 18 onto a piece of diagonally striped black and white paper from the same patterned paper pack

- carefully fussy cut the number 18 out and glued it onto the white stamped image - making sure I ran a black Whispers marker round the edge of the fussy cutting first, this hides any little white bits that might otherwise show up :)

- trimmed the image panel to required size and glued it to the centre of the card front

The Altenew paper pack is very stylish and lends itself nicely to cards such as this one.

Little tip when you need to fussy cut any apertures - which I had to do on the number eight, top and bottom. Use a hand punch to punch one or more holes in the aperture first. It makes fussy cutting so much easier and you don't run the risk of ruining the stamped image by trying to poke the end of a pair of sharp scissors through to get started.

Happy Birthday Len!

Today it's Len's Birthday, not 'a milestone one' but he's clocking up the mileage as they say - albeit just two years ahead of me anyhow :)

Again, the day after we came home from Cornwall, I locked myself in the craft room in a flat panic when I should have been 'doing wash loads'. I made a card for Len from me (see Sunday's Snippets post), a card for Mia in Germany and also this card - from little Dudley to his 'Dad' for his Birthday:

I used:

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

- then stamped the image and words onto a piece of white card using a really cute Woodware set of stamps called 'Puppy Boots', the Misti and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- thankfully, with Dudley being mostly white, I just needed to colour his boots/wellies with blue Pro markers to match the blue card I'd chosen to use for the 'frame' layer - along with a little touch of champagne/peach colour for his ears

- next followed a fair old bit of careful trimming down of the image to keep it as centred as possible

- a piece of blue card for the 'frame' cut to size and glued in place onto the card front

- topped the frame with the image panel and there we were - all done!

You might think the pooch is a bit skinny looking compared to Dudley - but when he's wet he doesn't look all that different to the image - apart from the wellies!

I did add an insert, along the lines of 'Next time remember to get me some wellies too'. A reference to the image, which turned out to be SO apt, and the fact that Len was fine trotting around our little Cornish garden in front of the cottage in his wellies - but poor ole Dudley had to be toweled, rubbed and wiped dry most of the time. The morning dew, and what spasmodic rain we had, meant that 'rarely' did he escape a 'good ole toweling down'! Often it was before he was even allowed to poke his nose inside the cottage, poor little scrap. He's so funny, at one point he truly did look like the 'ET image in the bicycle', with his head wrapped in a towel.

But, as I said already, he totally loved the different outlook and the sheep, the sheep! We did laugh one evening when we knew he was indoors with us but we couldn't find him - and there wasn't that far to search either. So we left him and were on the sofa, idly chatting with the TV on after dinner. Eventually the floor length curtains began to move as this little lump shuffled along. He was behind the curtains, against the huge floor length window/doors - looking longingly at the field where the small flock of sheep were. Either that or he was stargazing?