Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 82

Sorry about the Playground gates catching some of you out yet agaaaain :( I'm going to close the gates at 11am in future on Saturdays to avoid the way I seem to be mixing up Friday midnight and Saturday noon. Mr Linky is a tad confusing on that issue - in my defence - although I'm typing this whilst sitting in the shade on the naughty step.

Despite the raging heat in the Playground, we had 40 entries this week - wahoo! It's so lovely to see you all playing and also supporting one another - we do have a lovely little band of playmates I'm sure you'll agree. Even if I stoooopidly mentioned trampoline and within half an hour it almost went viral - sigh, OK, so long as you don't lift the goat onto it just to see how high he can jump :)

Anyhow, enough frivolity - although hopefully my snippets card for this week will raise a smile:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white scalloped card, from Craftwork Cards

- Penny Black stamp called 'Strawberry Jam', coloured with Pro Markers and the sky is coloured with chalk - plus some Glossy Accents on the strawberries. Die cut with Nesties Labels Eight and mounted onto a green backing

- the plain green card is SU's 'Gumball Green' from the snippets folder

- patterned backing papers are snippets from a pack that came free with Quick Cards Made Easy magazine last Summer - by Raspberry Road Designs and called' Summer Goodness'. I like the way the checked paper looks a bit like it belongs on top of a jar of strawberry jam and of course the strawberry design paper seemed perfick :) Raspberry Road do still have this set of designs to download here BTW

- the corners (Whimsy Shapeology Collection - Corner Set) and bits of foliage (Cheery Lynn Designs - Bird on a Branch) came from more green snippets

- the cloud was die cut from a white snippet using MFT 'Cloud Trio - the smallest cloud in the set). I initially used Pinflair silicon glue and the cloud turned all greasy looking. Thankfully spotted it in time, whipped it off, die cut another one, shaped it a bit, ran a grey marker round the edge and used sticky pads instead - disaster averted!

- sentiment (from Whimsical Designs, Whimsical Fun - Vol. 1)was stamped using SU's 'Real Red' onto a snippet of white card, die cut using the smallest Nesties Labels Eight die - I think this is almost my very favourite die set for cutting out images - and it was also popped onto a hand cut backing

- a snippet of white satin ribbon, wrapped round the whole backing before adhering it to the card, a bow tied on top and then a delicious enamelled strawberry charm added with red and green cord tied in a bow


- a couple of white Josy Rose nail heads on top of the corner dies

Bit of a marathon make for me! I'd like to enter this card into the following challenge:

Penny Black and More - July - dies and punches

OK, so this weeks little 'picks' spot:

  

I picked this card, made by Liz, because of the simplicity and great use of snippets - it's a gorgeous Baby card.

 

Sam took the prize for flowers this week - stunning! And that's our little imp looking stunning in the wedding dress, bet she had jeans on underneath though!

And how about this fabulous card, made by Bonnie? I love it all but it's the straw boater (hat to our USA friends) plus the handbag (purse to our USA friends) that are both so, so clever. An idea to pinch dontcha think?

Mary H brought this fabulous card - do go and read how it was made. I was having the vapours at the thought of Creme Brulee heat guns being the next 'weapon of choice' in the Playground - we've had enough trouble with water gun fights this past week.

And last, but by no means least - Darnell bounced in with one of those cards that makes you gasp and think, why didn't I think of that? It's based on a delicious pair of shoes - I kid you not!

As ever, I wish I could show you all the beautiful things people made this past week - if you haven't already done so then do look at the thumbnail links in last Sunday's post - there really are some stunners to be seen! I think you're all so talented and a source of so much inspiration - thank you for playing so nicely.

OK, drum roll now - here's the winner of last week's prize, the mask and Lavinia Fairy stamp. This is live as I always get to this point and then run away to use the Random Number thingy so it's a surprise to me as well.

OMG, OMG!! This almost made me fall off my chair, first out was Carol L who had declined the prize, then our lovely Sarn who already has the stamp...........and just guess who popped up next?! It's someone who totally adores Lavinia stamps, is one of the Playground imps and I just KNOW she'll be almost wetting herself with excitement at winning. Sheesh, I'm almost crying with excitement here too - I do so love it when someone who really desperately would love to win a particular prize hits lucky. It's:

SAM!!

 

Crumbs, I think I can hear squeals in the distance :)

And this coming week's prize is not surprisingly this:

Yup, it's that oh so sweet Penny Black stamp called 'Strawberry Jam', same as the one I used today.

The Playground will run as usual this week with the gates closing at 11am UK time on Saturday 27th July. 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, 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.

Have a fun filled week - and watch out for unexpected jets of water!

Di
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Playground problems AGAIN!

So sorry, the Playground gates slammed shut 12 hours early :( And to make it worse, I was out partying and didn't do a last minute peek before I went to bed.

BUT, the gates are open again until noon UK time today.

As this is the second time recently I've made the same mistake - in future weeks the gates will close at 11am on a Saturday, so it's just an hour earlier but at least there won't be any mistakes I hope. It's the ams and pms and twelve o'clocks wot's causing the problems!

And, as I write the snippets post on a Saturday morning it would also mean I won't be sitting waiting until noon before doing the prize draw. Whoopee, means I get to begin doing household things an hour earlier - oh deep, deep joy :(

'Goodbye Saturday noon - hellooooooooooo Saturday 11am!'

Di
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Little red car

Well, it's more like a deep pink really:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- SU backing card - 'Primrose Petals'

- image is LOTV, bought in April at Ally Pally, it's ready coloured and is from their 'Vintage Boys' Art Pad, die cut using a Nesties Eight die and I did the usual trick with the 'Primrose Petals' layer behind the image

- backing paper is from Paper Cellar's 'Mens' paper pad. I spotted Sandra H using a different sheet from the pad on Monday and realised just how perfect the papers are for 'chaps cards' so thank you for the inspiration Sandra! Crumbs, ordered from Top Toppers and it arrived in double quick time, beautifully packed with DO NOT BEND written clearly on. They will certainly have my business anytime! I stuck the image on at an angle so that the cars on the backing paper wouldn't be totally hidden :)

- sentiment is from Craftwork Cards, backed with a Primrose Petals oval, punched with SU's 'Large Oval' punch

- a white Josy Rose nail head in each corner to finish off

The jury is still out here - I can't decide whether or not to add a tickle of glossy accents to the headlights and perhaps the windscreen. My in-house critic says it's fine as it is - so I've left it for now :)

Edit: I ought to have said something else about the pink card stock I used on Wednesday - despite being such a massive bargain, the thickness and quality is second to none. I honestly reckon they're the thickest cards I have - and believe me there's enough card stock here to open a shop myself!

I just checked the Craft Show leaflet we got at Newbury and the company was Anna Marie Designs - prices are higher online as we were sure they wanted to sell off their stock as the Sunday wore on. But if you do buy from them I think you'll be really pleased with the weight of the card they use and the quality of them as well! And I'm not on commission either.

Di
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Mad dogs and Englishwomen......

don't go out in the midday sun, instead they sit in a craft room with a fan blowing hot air round the room, making Christmas cards:

But, I didn't want to miss my weekly entry for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge, which is 'Trees'. I did then have to trot round the house to find a spot to take the photo - who would have thought that a holographic image and some embossing would be so darn 'ornery' to photograph! And of course this card is also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for July, where it's always 'Anything Goes'.

I used:

- A6 cream card stock

- the same cream card to emboss a backing using a Quickutz folder - bought before I had the sense to write the names on in permanent marker :(

- image is by Kanban - another bargain from Newbury - from their 'Golden Christmas Trees' set. I made two card the same (yay!) and found that one was badly die cut with one side a bit 'off' so I just used a circular die to create a properly positioned circle from both toppers to keep them the same (bit of OCD there)

- that also meant I could then draw round the outside of the die onto the reverse of the red backing card to then cut a slightly larger circle, and the same backing card was also used behind the embossed layer. Shame to cover it all up really as it's 'red satin mirri card' and has a lovely soft sheen rather than 'in your face' brightness. Also made by Kanban and rare as hen's teeth I'm afraid

- four brushed gold Josy Rose nail heads to finish off

And that's a total of 49 Christmas cards all finished and packed away. Plus, the topper sheet has enough of those gold die cuts left to make a further four cards - two with matching sentiments - which will be done ASAP. Bargain! 

 
Di
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Just chill!

The other day I had reason to go right through my House Mouse stamps and, shame on me, I found a few I've never ever threatened with an ink pad before :( This particular one I used in the card below always scared me a bit but once I got going it was great fun to colour:

And a closer view to see if the sparkle and glossy accents shows up:

Harrumph, not really :(

I used:

- 6" x 6" (almost) square card stock in primrose pink, I pushed the boat out and used two cards in total to make an easel card plus the backing for the image and the little strips across the card

- image is from the House Mouse 'Chill out' unmounted rubber set, along with the sentiment and the extra lemons - there's another image in the set too, available from Joanna Sheen. Image coloured with Pro Markers and tickled with 'Cotton Candy' (pink on the flower) and 'Crystal Ice' Stickles on the glass. The flesh of the lemons and also parts of the glass were tickled with Glossy Accents. Image was die cut using a Nesties 'Wonky Square' die and, as usual, the primrose pink backing was made by drawing round the outside of the die and hand cutting it

- the lemon patterned paper is by 'Back to Basics'

- yellow sparkly 'domes' have been here for years - I think they came from QVC ages ago

- sentiment was stamped and then coloured over with a 'Lemon' Pro Marker before being die cut using a Spellbinders pennant die, little flower on the pennant was punched from a snippet of primrose pink using one of SU's 'Itty Bitty' punches

- by that point I was so hot and tired my brain was frying and I stuck the sentiment - sadly very firmly - in the wrong place, leaving a big gap above it :( Tried allsorts of ideas but ended up tying a bow using some pretty pink edged lace - which originally came from the local haberdashery store

Then I shouted 'Move over' at the mouse and jumped into the glass as well!

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

House Mouse and Friends, Challenge 149 - add some sparkle

Joanna Sheen - Citrus Colours - that would be the lemon then :)

Cuttlebug Mania - Fun in the Sun - I hope this qualifies OK with a bit of poetic licence 'cos it's just how many of us in the UK would love to be right now. Having fun and chilling out in the sun - in something lovely and cool.

And there are celebrations over at Cuttlebug Mania - in fact I counted seven comments already left by your Snippets Playmates congratulating the team on reaching 100 followers :) It's almost like a Playground outing over there!

I think this challenge will grow and grow so why not take a peek? It isn't limited just to Cuttlebugs by the way - you can use any manual die cutting/embossing machine.

Di
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Supporting the Playground

I wanted to make some little cards to include with the 'Lattice' Embossing Folders when I sent them to the Playground winners - but they had to be quick. Then I thought of the image I used today - which says it all really 'cos without you Playmates being so supportive of one another and coming regularly to play, there just wouldn't even be a Playground:

It's just a small card size - just over 3.5" x 2.5". I chopped down some DL cards which arrived here with one corner crumpled (dontcha just love it when things are badly packaged) and got two little ones out of each DL card.

I recently had to return a big package of 12" x 12" Core'dinations card stock - it arrived just in a big padded envelope (a box would have been much more suitable) with no additional heavy weight card to protect it, and not even the words 'Please do not bend' written on the flipping thing. Our own postman (who knows I buy a lot of craft goodies and is always careful) was on his hols so his enterprising replacement only folded the very fat package in half to squeeze it through the letter box here! To be honest I suspect it hadn't travelled well anyhow, but that sure was the last straw for it - he must have really forced the thing through the letterbox too :(

Anyhow, back to the card.

I used:

- white card stock already folded

- a die from the 'Rounded Banner' set by MFT Die-namics, placed so it didn't cut off the folded edge. These are super dies - and once again it was my bad influence Amanda who 'forced' me to buy them :)

- stamp from SU's 'For the Birds' set, coloured with Whispers pens so there was no bleeding through the card

Those little SU birdie stamps are super fast to use as well 'cos the sentiment is part of the same stamp.

I'm entering this into the current Less Is More challenge where you have to use a shape other than a square or rectangle - plus it's 'one layer'.

Di
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I've been away......

....but didn't tell you in case anarchy broke out in the Playground :)

Is anarchy a spotty and itchy disease, freckles or wot then?

Just to say I'll catch up on emails and commenting in the already busy Playground once I catch my breath.............but part of the little trip did involve me finally handing over the school newsletter printing and distribution job at long last! Yay, Happy Dance :)

Di
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Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 81

Bit of a change for me with this week's snippets card:

I used:

- 6" x 6" cream card stock

- pale green card background, a snippet, which has washed out in the bright light here when I took the photo! Trust me, it really is a pretty pistachio green

- Creative Expressions 5.5" square mask for the 'grasses' - snigger, looking white and not pale green :), daubed all over using Adirondack 'Cloudy Blue'. I did debate about using a spray or two rather than 'daubing' but bottled out in the end. Perhaps next time

- I masked off the 'sun' whilst doing the 'sky' and then used the piece of card left from die cutting the disc for the sun to cover the rest of the card whilst sponging the sun through the circle with Adirondack 'Salmon' ink

- all stamps used are by Lavinia - the fairy is called 'Flower Fairy'. I guess the others are called something like 'Toadstools' and 'Stardust' :) - all stamped using Memento 'Gray Flannel' ink pad

- peach card from the snippets folder for the backing layer

- butterflies die cut from another peach snippet using SU's 'Beautiful Wings' Embosslit

- sentiment is SU from the 'A Word for You' set, stamped onto a snippet of pale green card using Memento 'Gray Flannel' ink pad and punched with SU's 'Modern Label' punch

- little diamantes here and there

- tickles of Stickles on the fairy wings 'Frosted Lace' and on the stardust ... appropriately enough called 'Stardust'

Despite the current heatwave the Playground has been very busy this week - lots of freckled little girls running to and fro in wet swimsuits :)

So here are just a few 'picks':

This gorgeous, and very grownup card was made by our youngest playmate - Little Miss C who is 7 in October, Didn't she make a lovely job of the cutting? Just don't trim your fringe like I did once Little Miss C! Hope you can come back and play again with us and show us more of your very clever card making.

Darnell made this stunning card, using Ryn's Water Droplets stamp - it's simply brilliant!

We had a few other really beautiful Droplets cards too - so I do hope you take the time to look at last week's Mr Linky and pay some visits to your playmates.

This brilliant poppy card was made by Linby. I particularly love the way the poppies have been set into the main die - very clever idea and one to try for sure!

Sam brought some fantastic mini books along to show - do check her post out and there's so much beautiful detail to drool over. Mind you don't dribble your ice cream over them though :)

And Kimbo brought this card to show - with some good instructions on how to make those stunning flowers. I love it - they look just like delicate glass!

That's just a quick run through as it's so hot here today (Saturday as I type) I need to run and wash all the floors so they dry in double quick time before Len returns from archery.

OK, prizes now - first of all there's the usual weekly prize, the Little Claire stamp plus those Twinkling H2Os. And the winner is:

Kim

Well done Kim - can you please drop me an email reminding me of your address, ta!

And now onto those 'Lattice' embossing folders, the nearest thing to 'Tied Together' in my 'umble opinion.

We had quite a flurry and over the two weeks there were 11 playmates who entered a total of three times or more. Out came the sun hat (once I rescued it from the parrot who was using it as a sunshade) but it had chewed a big hole in it so I numbered the eligible names and used the Random number generator thingy again, and the winners are:

Amanda, Liz and Sarah

Well done girls, can you also please drop me an email with your address in - it makes life easier for me even if you've been a previous winner. di_wray@hotmail.com

Crumbs, I think that might be all UK winners this time. Purely the luck of the draw I hasten to add. And I only wish I'd had 11 to give away :(

And yet again, this coming week's prize is connected to my snippets card for today:

It's that Creative Expressions 'Grass' mask like wot I used - kindly donated by Kimbo (Kim) (such a bad influence 'cos of course I went and bought one for myself to play with). Plus there's a Lavinia 'Flower Fairy' stamp, bought specially at Newbury to go with the mask. No toadstools and stardust stamps though I'm afraid :(

One snippet of nice news is that Maggie C hopes to be coming back to play with us soon - yay - that'll be great! I think it's just as soon as she manages to eject the workmen from the house :)

The Playground will run as usual this week with the gates closing at noon UK time on Saturday 20th July. 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, 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.

Di
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I learned a new trick on Sunday at Newbury

Nope, not 'double rope skipping', how to wriggle in under the Playground fence or even where the wine cache is hidden. It was how to make backgrounds like this:

It's just a very quick play I had the other day and needs a bit of practise for consistency. Any ideas how it's done?

Give up? It's so easy, when you know how:

Got it now?

Take one alcohol ink pen (Copics, Pro Marker etc), find a Bic or similar ballpoint pen and remove the top stopper, pop out the ink barrel and you're left with a clear tube. Len had to drill the top stopper out of this pen, in the old days they used to just pop out but I bet Elf an' Safety have decreed they must be glued in!

Then just clear a bit of space, grab suitable card/paper, put the narrower end of the pen tube really close to the fat nib of the marker pen - and blow down the tube :) I don't mean a dainty little 'wuff' either,  put it into your mouth and 'gie it a good bla' as they would say in Scotland. The harder you blow the heavier the 'ink spattering' is. Fun huh? Of course you can buy cans of aerosol air to achieve the same but it's a cheap and easy tip. Apparently it doesn't work well with a straw - I think you need the narrower end to get enough air pressure against the nib.


Di
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So fast I almost met myself coming back!

A really quick and easy card:

I used:

- A6 white card stock

- a snippet of striped paper, chopped in two

- ready die cut oval image from Craftwork Cards, coloured with Whisper pens and popped onto the scalloped oval which is also from Craftwork Cards - in fact I think it came with the images

Then I went for a rest after all the exertion!

Di
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Festive Friends - in July

Recently I hopped over to FoilPlay to stock up on Kanban's red 'Silk Mirri card'  - greedy little pig, I think I bought up all of their stock. It's absolutely beautiful card with a soft sheen to it and not as 'in your face' as pure mirri card. Anyhow, of course a few other things found their way into my basket - including some Kanban 'Festive Friends' toppers:

I used:

- 6" x 6" cream card stock

- gold mirri card

- dark blue pearlescent thick paper, bought at Newbury

- a topper from Kanban's 'Festive Friends - Blue' sheet

- couple of pieces of cream and gold ribbon, rescued from a gift bag and carefully ironed after Christmas. One piece was wrapped round the backing card and the other was just tied into a knot, trimmed and then topped with a gold cord bow. As advised by our lovely Jules, I always thread the cord through the knot using a 'bodkin' (big blunt needle). Then, after tying the cord bow I pop a little piece of double sided extra strong tape under the main knot or bow in the wide ribbon to hold it in place

So quick and easy, plus there are another three similar toppers still to use on the sheet - I feel a little factory production line session coming on :) LOVE the expressions on their faces!

This card is for Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra for July.

Di
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You're a star!

On Sunday, at Newbury, I found loads of stands selling toppers at six A4 sheets for £5 - instead of around £1.69 each.........bargain :) So, I duly trotted round selecting three (or even six) each at a few stalls, and quite a lot of the sheets were Kanban ones. I fell in love with the 'Simply Fabulous' sets at the very first stand I encountered and this card used one of the toppers:

Neeldess to say, it was really tricky to photograph though!

I used:

- 5" x 7" black card stock, trimmed down from 7" square as I figured the embossed backing card would go further - am such a meanie at times

- topper by Kanban from the 'Simply Fabulous - Burlesque Blush' sheet

- ready embossed deep pinky red and very luscious card is also by Kanban - a snip at 50p an A4 sheet I thought

- ha, and then I found that the matching sentiments sheet I'd bought was largely badly foiled (some you win and some you lose) so a quick rummage through other sentiment toppers turned up the plain gold one I used - aptly with the sentiment 'You're a star' as she really does look such a Diva

- three black stones in each corner - job done!

LOVE her huge and totally OTT bow.

Di
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Pooh and Piglet at Christmas

The current challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is to make a Christmas card suitable for a child. And this card is also going into Hazel's Christmas Challenge Extra for July.

Quick rootle through the 'cards to upcycle' box and I found a cute image of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet on a card:

I used:

- 4.5" x 4.5" square cream card stock

- image die cut from a lovely card from last Christmas

- mauvy-pink card from the snippets folder for backings

- patterned paper is from a 'Milton' Christmas paper pad - just 'cos the colours matched

- sentiment is by Britannia Dies, die cut from the mauvy-pink and placed (badly) onto a strip of cream card. Serves me right for not drawing a fine line first, or using a strip of removable tape as a line, sigh :(

It's a fairly well kept secret that Len's pet name for me is 'Piglet' - and I have loads of Piglet soft toys in every size going, as well as Piglet mugs and night wear :)

How did the pet name come about? I'm not sure really, it's been so long that I forget how - but I know that Piglet is a bit vertically challenged (check), obviously loves pink (check), is a bit round (cheeky!) -and also 'Despite the fact that he is a "Very Small Animal" of a generally timid disposition, he tries to be brave and on occasion conquers his fears'. And I've had to conquer quite a few fears in my time believe me.

Crumbs though, I must have been barking mad to sit making a Christmas card yesterday in the scorching heat here! Perhaps Piglet is also a bit lacking in the common sense department...............'ere, I BET that's the main reason for the pet name! Llleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenn - come here this minute!

Di
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'Yesterday - all my troubles seemed so far away'

As sung by the Beatles of course! And the whole day at Newbury Art Show really pulled me up from recent sad times. Lots of lovely bargains to be had.

And last week I was stunned to receive a package out of the blue through the post from Hunkydory, I'd only gone and won a load of goodies from Quick Cards Made Easy magazine :)

It was everything from their 'Shimmering Watercolours' range, tons of card stock, toppers, inserts, ribbons - and even a load of sticky pads - the list is too long to go through.

So, I just made this little card:

The surprise is when you open it up:

It just explodes with flowers! Not brilliantly made and I've since done some trimming but I was like a kid with a new toy wanting to try the technique out :)

And the card I'd sent into QCME? It was this 'snippets' Bargello one from Week 64 in the Playground:

 

Just goes to show, if you don't enter then you're not in with a chance.

Di

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Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 80

Sorry about the Playground gates slamming shut 12 hours early yesterday - my fault entirely :( If you got caught out, please feel free to back link.

Here's today's snippets card:

I used:

- 7" x 5" white card stock

- green backing card from the snippets folder and white snippets for stamping onto

- patterned paper is a recent 'freebie' 'Lilly Bimble' acquisition from Quick Cards Made Easy magazine

- stamped image by Little Clair Designs 'Butterfly Blossom' coloured with Pro Markers and then tickled with Twinkling H2Os from the Iridescent set. Although I have most of the H2O pots, this set is so versatile for adding shimmer to already coloured images. An extra couple of butterflies were stamped and coloured to pop on top with little snippets of sticky pads and pearls were added to the flower centres

- die cut the image and backed it with another snippet of green card, cut after drawing round the outside of the same die and hand cutting it

- sentiment is from Whimsy Stamps' 'Friendship Ticket Sentiments' set, stamped in Brilliance 'Pearlescent Blue' and mounted onto green backing - which truly is centred in real life!

This is a closer view so you can see the H2O shimmer - maybe:

Not a lot of snippets used really - and I think the image would have looked better on a white embossed background rather than patterned paper, sigh. 

So, this week in the Playground - lots of lovely makes as always, and I've just picked a few to show you:

Lynn (Linby) brought this stunning lavender and lace card to show - and wahoo, it also won a place in the top five over at 'Allsorts' challenge, well done and totally deserved Lynn!

A perfect card for someone who is just about to become a 'school inspector' - made by Sarah of Sazzle Dazzle. The inside is great too - Sarah does some brilliant work and is a loyal little Playmate so it would be lovely if you could hop over to say 'Hello'.

Irene stepped out of her comfort zone to make this beautiful collage card - isn't it pretty? As always, beautifully made - I should know 'cos I have had cards from Irene and they really are perfection.

 

Cathy R made this wonderful 'sand and shells' card - I love it, the background is amaaaaazing!

Annie (Wipso) stunned lots of people by venturing into paper craft - her first love is sewing. She made an album to hold ATCs - flipping brilliant Annie!

Sue brought this really clever card to show - great use of snippets and I love how the one pair of specs stands out from the others - genius!

A quick whip through this week girls, but to check out what great snippets makes everyone else brought to the Playground just go here.

Last week's prize of the two sets of dies, 'Chevron Stripes' and 'Cloud Trio' by MFT, was won by:

CATHY R

Well done Cathy, can you please send me your snail mail address (di_wray@hotmail.com) and they'll be in the post to you ASAP. This did make me smile 'cos Cathy and Maureen (Maudieroff) are sisters - and I did spot that Maureen wanted the dies too. I can see some 'sisterly sharing' going on - play nicely girls!

And this week's prize is, as often is the case, connected to my snippets card:

It's a stamp the same as I used (which has tons of possibilities - I followed the same colour scheme as shown on the packaging, being a bit lazy) plus a set of six of the Petite Pots of Iridescent Twinkling H2Os in the following colours: Iridescent Violet, Iridescent Gold, Iridescent Blue, Iridescent Red, Iridescent Green and Oyster. I know that a few of you already use H2Os, but this set is a great starting point for H2O 'virgins' - and you might even want to replenish your stocks :)

Remember that it's the second week of the draw for the 'Lattice' folder - just enter three cards in total over the two week period to be in the draw, there are three to be won.

The Playground will run as usual this week with the gates closing at noon UK time on Saturday 13th July. 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, shown above.

Mr Linky is below - hope you can come and play this week. The paddling pool is out and has warmed up nicely in the sunshine (but please get out if you need the rest room)! The diving board into the duck pond has been removed until the baby ducklings are bigger and can paddle/fly smartly out of the way :) The goat has been divested of my (now ruined) best party dress, the donkey is recovering from the shock of being used for show jumping trials and all is well - for now!

Di
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Oops!

Not sure how that happened but Mr Linky slammed the Playground gates shut 12 hours early at midnight here instead of noon today. Probably me getting 'am and pm' mixed up :(

Now open again until noon UK time and if you did miss linking 'cos of the technical hitch then you can do so now or even when the new week begins at midnight UK time. We do allow leeway in the Playground so a teensy bit of back linking is OK - it's not a dictatorship, ha, more like mayhem if you ask me.

Sorreeeeeee!

Di
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Friday Feast - Di's Prawn Stir Fry

We both love stir fries, but recently, Len began to 'crumble' a bit about me using ready prepared sauces in sachets or jars to make the process super fast. So I've been experimenting by making up my own, just generally grabbing stuff and having a play whilst tasting as I go and no two have been the same but Monday evening I did manage to write down a list of ingredients and quantities for one version:

Di's Prawn Stir Fry

360g raw king prawns - shelled
5-600g mixed stir fry vegetables, less is fine, we just like lots of veggies!

Sauce:

1 long red chilli pepper
Piece of fresh ginger - size about 2" x 1"
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon plum sauce
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon light soy sauce (or dark if that's all you have but it's stronger in flavour so you might want to reduce the quantity a little)
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 semi-rounded tablespoon tomato puree
1 tablespoon warm water

De seed the chilli and peel the ginger. Either chop very finely or blitz in a small food processor (mine is made by Kenwood and is really dinky and so easy to clean).

Add all the rest of the sauce ingredients and either blitz again or stir well.

In a wok or large frying pan stir fry the prawns in a little oil (I use light olive oil and no more than a tablespoon, if that) until pink.

Add the vegetables and stir fry for 3-4 minutes.

Add the sauce and heat through thoroughly whilst moving around the wok continuously.

Serve with boiled or steamed rice - and prawn crackers if you want to be naughty :)

A finely chopped clove of garlic is a nice addition to the sauce - and am sure there are tons of options to try out, so watch this space. And if you can't get hold of uncooked prawns then defrosted frozen cooked ones work fine, just don't overcook them as they might go tough.

Enjoy!

Di
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All wrapped up

One weekly challenge I try hard not to miss is Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge, which currently is 'All wrapped up' and even with a busy week here did manage to whip up an entry:

I used:

- A6 white card stock

- pink pearlescent card from the snippets folder

- image from a Christmas card, the penguins were originally on a red background (not a good look!) so I trimmed round them and then layered them with sticky pads onto a snippet of Kanban 'snowy scene' background card

- Craftwork Cards sentiment popped onto a punched piece of pink card - I used SU's 'Modern Label' die

Super fast card! It's also for Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra for July and as I don't intend to be online whilst away I'll link it later today when I get back home. BIG note will be left on the desk here to remind me :)

Ha, ha - looking at this card again - them penguins could almost be line dancing :)

Di
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Sympathy card

Sympathy cards are so difficult and I do seem to have been making my share lately. This is a design I've used before and it seemed to work well so I went back to it: 

I used:

- 6" x 6" square cream linen card stock

- K & Company background, layered onto brown Core'dinations card

- Penny Black 'Hello Sunshine' stamp and Brilliance 'Coffee Bean' ink pad

- sentiment is a Hobbycraft stamp I've had for ages, again stamped using 'Coffee Bean'

- organza ribbon bow in toning brown - from the ribbon box

Skipping WOYWW yet again this week as am away for the next couple of days, in connection with the card above - sigh.

Please play nicely in the Playground - I found the goat all togged up in my best party frock on Monday! Here's part of an email exchange that day, that just 'happened' to fall into my shaking hands:

I knewd I should ave disposed of that wine bottle and not took a photo of it. The ducks wos appy enough when we/dey wos  havin a sup of it. How'd I know theyd qwack up. 
I was trying to dress wun of up like Mrs Puddle Duck but I got a bit side tracked by a chookin with a mouse on its ead   and the goat somehow got in the way.   I borrowed next doors Chiwawa and the sheeps is back with the farmer ooooo says he is gonna sue cos they all have bites on dere legs. Who is Sue?
You never mentioned  the pig. On second thoughts your best not to. 
It wos a right good mini Glastonbury. Think we might do it agin next year.  Apparently we are allowed to have one 4 yrs running and then we ave to give all the animals a rest or summick.

I leave you to guess who wrote that little missive :) Err, pig - WHAT pig is that!!?? 

Di
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Birthday Girl

Today is my little friend's Birthday - not so little any longer as Abi has grown into a tall, beautiful and elegant young woman. Where did the years go, I remember her as a small child! Last week was her school Prom, she starts college in September, and she wore a beautiful pistachio green dress with some sparkly detail. Her long blonde hair is now a pretty urchin cut which suits her so well. And that's where I began with this card for her - I love Saturated Canary images but the long flowing hair on lots of them terrifies me when colouring. Then I remembered 'Blanche' with her hair in a similar style to Abi so I ran over to Saturated Canary and downloaded her:

I used:

- 8" x 8" square white scalloped card (Craftwork Cards)

- pink backing card with corners rounded

- green backing card, cut in half and then run through the Cuttlebug using the embossing folder called 'Lattice' by Crafts-Too. There are three of these on offer over in the Snippets Playground :) The join was hidden with moss green satin ribbon.

- 'Blanche' image by Saturated Canary, coloured with Pro Markers, die cut using a Spellbinders 'Floral Oval' and then 'glitzed up' with 'Lime Ice' Stickles

- I made the roses (took forever!) using Spellbinders 'Rose Creations' dies, two shades of pink card with the edges tickled with pink ink pads, pearls popped into the centres and Glossy Accents as dewdrops. The leaves were die cut from a snippet of green card using the same die set and then veins were hand embossed

- sentiment is from SU's 'Perfect Punches' sentiments set, stamped using VersaMagic 'Pink Petunia' chalk ink, punched using SU's 'Extra Large Oval' and popped onto another oval which was die cut using another die from Spellbinders 'Floral Ovals' set 

- next came the bow, for that I used moss green silk ribbon

- and the finishing touch, wait for it, 79 little white pearls on the embossed background, I know that 'cos there are 21 left in the packet of 100 I started out with :)

- of course there had to be a box made too

- then................................ I went to lie down in a darkened room

Happy Birthday Abi - hope you have a wonderful day young lady!

Edit: After a little kick in the rear end,  I'm entering this into the following challenges:

That Craft Place - flowers

Creative Moments - flowers

Dream Valley - make your own flowers or embellishments

A Little Bit Crafty - use dies

Created With Love - For the Girls

Fashionista - Wedding or Birthday

Sigh, I couldn't find a challenge for using the biggest number of pearls :(

Di
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