Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 229

We've had a mixed bag of weather here - although the latter end of the week was warm and sunny in the Playground. It's certainly not time yet to totally discard warmer clothes though!

This is my snippets card for the week, still on a 'cute' run:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" off-white card blank

- snippet of SU's 'Smoky Slate' card stock for the first layer, topped with an 'eighth of an inch all round' smaller square of off-white card stock

- then a snippet of pink patterned card was added, again cut to an 'eighth of an inch smaller all round' than the off-white layer. I love this patterned card, it's been in the snippets folder for ages and the time was finally right to use it

- next I used snippets of SU's 'Smoky Slate' plus tiny snippets of pink, blue and black to die cut the baby elephant and the flowers - using a die set I've been itching to use by Marianne Collectables called 'Eline's Elephant'. I gently edged the body pieces using a finger dauber plus a cotton wool bud for the fiddly parts and a Memento 'London Fog' ink pad

- punched the leaves using a Martha Stewart foliage punch and assembled the little elephant straight onto the card front before adding the flowers/foliage. The Woodware Ultra Fine Tipped glue applicator containing Collall glue was invaluable!

- even used the applicator on the very fine die cut sentiment - which was cut from a snippet of SU's 'Smoky Slate' using a 'New baby' die by Craft Essentials

- finally added self adhesive pearls to the flower centres and then three down the top right hand corner

I totally LOVE this little elephant die set, it's so sweet. It also comes with a decent sized balloon die (1" x 0.75") as part of the set, which would be great to use either with the elephant or on other cards. And of course it's not just for baby cards! Can you tell I'm trying to sell you on this die set? Tee, hee :)

I'd like to enter this card into Happy Little Stampers May Anything Goes With Dies challenge.

Time for this week's 'peek at the picks'  and this has been one of the very hardest weeks ever to choose just a few from all your fabulous snippets makes. I had a very long list of possibles and in the end I closed my eyes and stabbed at the list with my pen!

What a stunning bunch of flowers Eve created using snippets! A lovely card and it's so perfect against the white brick wall background too.

I really love this beach scene, made by Lia. It has such a dimensional look to it, even when you take into account that it's a sort of easel card shape/style. Look how those waves draw you away from the shore for example. Love it! And it was published in Dutch craft magazine recently and also featured on the cover. I do a happy dance when any of you end up in print :)

one current challenge is 'recycle and/or ruby red. And I wanted wanted to show you the fabulous card that Kath made using cardboard from a croissant box! Isn't it gorgeous?!

I loved this card, made by Renata as soon as it popped up in the Mr Linky thumbnails. And was blown away when I hopped over to take a closer look. First of all, Renata drew and coloured the poppy herself - without a stamp. She hand wrote the sentiment perfectly and then she did one last thing that I'm still stunned over. See those circles, they were cut by hand without the use of a die! Amazing!!

I've seen quite a few similar cards to this one, made by Theresa - at least the idea of the bride and groom hearts part. Isn't it clever - it's been on my list of things to try for ages? Certainly a brilliant idea for a Wedding card, love it!

A huge double WOW from me when I hopped over to comment on this beautiful butterfly card, made by Lindsey. Every little piece of the coloured card was painstakingly inlaid into the white butterfly die cut - so pretty, and so worthwhile too!

Gosh that was really tough to just have six picks (which is actually double the three I always say I'll show here) and in the interests of still limiting time sat sitting at the desk here I'll stop right there. As always, last week's thumbnails are still there for you to go and have a nose around!

We have one new Playmate this week:

Jacky P came to play with us for the first time, after peeping over the fence for a while now apparently. Needless to say I adore this sweet card (we had the same stamps and dies as a prize recently) - and I do hope you'll hop over to say 'Hello' to Jacky. She also loves bears, so Parsnip is lining up for a cuddle next time she visits! :)

Welcome Jacky and we hope to see you again soon.

Now for the prize draw, for the Penny Black 'gifts for you' stamp plus the sentiment stamp by Inkylicious called 'Some Moments'. And the winner is:

Janes Journal

 

Jane does fabulous artwork and journaling. Her 'Moments' which sum up special occasions and events in her life are always so beautifully thought out and made with great skill. So I think the sentiment stamp especially, which says 'Some moments are worth holding in your heart forever' is just perfect for Jane  - and no doubt the little PB mouse will put in an appearance at some point in the future :)

It's been almost seven and a half months since Jane last won, so this prize was well due as well. I still have your address Jane and will post your prize off this week!

This coming week's prize is made up of a couple of items, the same as I used for my snippets card:

You guessed! It's a couple of die sets, the same as I used today (Marianne Collectables 'Eline's Elephant' and Craft Essentials' 'New baby')

 
The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 21st May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

A maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. If you only want to play for either of the sets of dies, just say so in your comment and if you win then I'll do a further draw for the other item. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Hope you all have a lovely week, hopefully with more sunshine, and I look forward to seeing you in the Playground.

Di and, of course, Parsnip
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Inlaid die card - for a friend

The story behind this card begins with the lovely Tracey from 'Dies to Die For'. A small order arrived here last week and, as always, Tracey had enclosed some die cuts. Two of them were obviously made to team up together so I left them on the desk within view until inspiration struck.

I knew I wanted to enter Happy Little Stampers May CAS challenge, where the theme is 'inlaid die cutting' and then also spotted that the theme over at AAA Cards Game #64 is also 'inlaid dies'! Both challenges are looking for Clean and Simple designs so I hope my card is deemed CAS enough - the ornate edging on the craft card oval could be my undoing, but I had fun anyway. To hedge my bets, I'm also entering this into the new Happy Little Stampers May Anything Goes With Dies challenge:

I used:

- 4" x 6" kraft card blank, tent style

- next I played with the die cuts sent by Tracey, the scrolled kraft one was the reason I picked a kraft card blank

- after trying various dies for size I settled on the very simple 'In a Word: Friend Cutaway' die by Winnie and Walter die, positioned it on the white oval and die cut it - keeping the small pieces which fell out for later. I only had one shot at this of course so there was a good bit of measuring and use of removable tape involved

- then glued the white oval onto the fancy edged kraft oval 

- next I die cut the word friend again, this time using a snippet of pink card from the Teresa Collins 'Sweet Afternoon' designer pad (which I'd backed with a piece of Stick It adhesive sheet)

- removed the adhesive backing sheet and put the pink die cut into the aperture then filled in any gaps with the saved white die cut 'fallout' (the Woodware Ultra Fine Tipped glue applicator containing Collall glue worked like a dream - I can't believe it took me so long to buy these!)

- now I had the 'bones' of the card I realised that my plan to just have a white main background straight onto the kraft card needed the edge defining so I cut a piece of slightly smaller pink card from the same designer pad and glued it in place

- then embossed a piece of white card using the Couture Creations 'Compassionate' embossing folder, trimmed it just just a little smaller than the pink layer and added it to the card

- I'd been keeping a close eye on measurements and was so pleased that the scrolled oval fitted exactly - so I glued it in place and called done

Writing this post has taken longer than it took to make the card - although Tracey did give me a good kick start! And what fun to enter three challenges at once, not often I manage to do that!

Di 
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Happy Little Stampers May Christmas Challenge - 'Gift'

The current Christmas challenge over at Happy Little Stampers is 'Gift' - a lovely theme, although I really had to do some serious searching through my stamps for a Christmas image with a gift/gifts on. This is the result:

I used:

- 4.25" x 6" white card blank

- pale blue backing card behind the image and the patterned paper layer

- patterned card panel from LOTV's 'Twas the Night' paper pad with a couple of strips of a striped pattern from the same pad just wrapped across opposite corners to break the card up a bit

- the image was stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a Stampendous stamp called 'Snow Angels', then coloured using a mixture of Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and a Whisper marker to strengthen the red of her coat

- tickles of clear Wink of Stella on the wings and hat trimmings

- then it was die cut using a Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' die and layered onto a little piece of pale blue card 

I'd also like to enter this into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge 280 (under the 'Anything Goes' option) as well as Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for May (always 'Anything Goes'). 

Di
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Cuttlebug Mania Challenge - 'May Flowers'

Time for another fortnightly challenge over at Cuttlebug Mania - and this time the theme is 'May Flowers' (ie. have one or more flowers on your card).

You do have to use a manual die cutting/embossing machine for Cuttlebug Mania entries (it doesn't need to be a Cuttlebug but it must be manual, not electronic). And, you can't mix the two, it must be all manual please. Then make your entry, link into the challenge, link to the challenge in your own blog post and and make sure that you also say what products you used for any die cutting/embossing.

Details of our sponsor can be found over on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog and this is the card I made:

I used:

- 5.5" x 5.5" square pink card blank 

- piece of white card, embossed using a 6" x 6" Embossalicious Die'Sire folder called 'Swirl Corner' and trimmed to just slightly smaller than the card front 

- the next step was to add the sentiment, using the Stampendous 'Happy Messages' set, having worked out the placement of the rose and leaves just by using the metal dies as a guide. As I was using the Misti it meant I could draw a faint pencil line onto the piece of embossed card as a guide for the two part sentiment - when you use the Misti you place the stamps face down onto the card stock where you want them to end up and fold the lid onto the card with stamps on - the lid then picks them up ready to ink and stamp. Then I inked up the stamps using a Delicata 'Silvery Shimmer' ink pad and stamped onto a spare piece of paper to double check that the alignment was right. It was, so I popped the embossed panel back in place, after rubbing out the fine pencil line, and re-inked then stamped the sentiment

- glued the embossed panel to the card front

- a lovely friend had sent me a surprise package the other week and I couldn't wait to use one of the die sets she enclosed - it's by Ultimate Crafts and is from the Magnolia Lane Collection, called 'Rose Cutting. Thank you so much once again :)

- the die set is in three parts, a solid shape for the body of the rose and two 'skeleton' dies for the rose detail and the leaves. I didn't want the rose background to be just one shade of pink so first of all I used Tim Holtz Distress Markers (Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry), a perpex block for picking the colour up from and a waterbrush to wash right over a snippet of Crafters Companion Watercolour Card. Then using the 'Picked Raspberry' I scribbled more colour onto the perspex block and picked it up with the water brush to add swirls of the deeper pink onto the piece of card - ending up with this:

- it only needed to be 'rough and ready' (and perhaps a tad rude?) as a lot would be hidden by the 'skeleton' shape. Once it was dry I die cut the solid piece of the rose and found a snippet of card the same as the pink card front, backed it with Stick-It, die cut the skeleton detail for the rose and popped it in place

- found a snippet of green card stock, backed it with Stick-It then die cut the skeleton leaf spray and added it to the embossed panel

- added the rose itself using thin sticky pads

- final touch, five pearlescent sequins, glued in place using Glossy Accents

We'd love to see you over at Cuttlebug Mania, it's a great theme with plenty of scope! Come and play :)

Di
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Woah there!

We just spotted how busy the Playground has been, despite our 'Summer' yesterday. We were out playing most of the day so will hop round to you all ASAP to take a peek at your entries and comment! Bear with us - Parsnip just made me write that last bit!

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 228

Well, it's certainly a lot warmer and very sunny in the Playground and no doubt the swimsuits will be out before too long. Lots of you seem to have caught bugs etc. lately - let's hope this sunshine soon chases them away!

The image on my snippets card today is cute, cute, cute - using one of my very favourite Penny Black mouse stamps:

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank

- snippet of white card, Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and Penny Black's 'gifts for you' stamp

- previously I've always coloured the daisy edges pink but fancied using mauve/purple so I picked out snippets of SU's 'Perfect Plum card stock and matched them to a daisy patterned snippet of paper tucked inside the back of a Daisy and Dandelion 'Picnic Patch' paper pad

- only then did I colour the image to match, using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending solution. Then added a tickle of Wink of Stella to the bee's wings and the flower head/petals

- die cut the image using a Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangle' and backed it with a slightly larger plain rectangle of SU's 'Perfect Plum'

- the sentiment was stamped onto a snippet of white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a sentiment by Inkylicious called 'Some Moments' which I thought went so well with the sweet image

- then I punched a snippet strip of SU's 'Perfect Plum' card along both edges using Martha Stewart's 'Daisy Dot' punch, making sure the pattern lined up top and bottom

- trimmed the sentiment strip to size then trimmed the sides off the purple puncheddaisy edged strip and stuck them together

- used another snippet of 'Perfect Plum' to back the panel of the daisy paper I chose first off

- then I just stuck everything in place using Collall glue

My recent little win over at The Craft Barn means I finally have some Woodware Ultra Fine Tipped glue applicators. I've decanted some Glossy Accents into one and Collall glue into another - LOVE them. Although you have to take great care to store them upright as am sure the pin which you use to 'seal' the opening at the tip could easily pop out.

I'd like to enter this card into this month's Penny Black and More challenge for May - where it's 'Anything Goes'.

Let's move straight onto this week's 'peek at the picks':

This brilliant card was made by Carol L - fabulous design and such a great way to use up little snippets in the 'honeycomb'. This is such a terrific embossing folder and Carol used it perfectly - topped with the lovely butterfly.

Our Founder and talented friend Jules hopped in with this fabulous card - following one of her own sketches. I love it and a great use of loads of snippets too.

Jules has been such a busy bee this past week, carrying out her resolution to blog a card each day - with a different theme for each day of the week as well. Loads of great ideas over there so I do suggest you take a good peek :)

What a sweet shaker card this is - made by Cara. Such a lovely design and another great use of snippets too. These little 'super heroes' are brilliant - so far I've resisted buying the set though!

Lynne in NI called by for a play on the swings and to show us this terrific card. It's just a perfect get well card isn't it - and of course the striped banner snippet just makes it 'pop' perfectly.

I love this card, made by Susan (Eden Land). It's been a while since Susan last came to play with us - and she stormed back in with this beauty! Wonderful image and all those lovely flowers and butterflies were cut from snippets - and the sparky wings are gorgeous.

This is one of Jane J's 'Moments' and the story behind this gorgeous creation is about 'hooch'! Not far from the Playground, there's a place called Laverstoke Mill, which is where Bombay Sapphire Gin is distilled - it comes in glorious blue bottles. Jane summed up her day so perfectly with the brickwork, bottles, blues, plants and of course the beautiful dragonfly.

Just six picks this week, mostly as the sun is shining in the Playground and it seems a good day to soak up a few rays out there. As always though, I really recommend that you try to peek at a few entries on last week's Mr Linky - there's always a ton of inspiration there!

Now for the prize draw, for the set of MFT Chevron dies and the Kaisercraft 'True Friendship' stamps set. And the winner is:

Tina Z

Congratulations! Tina first joined us in the Playground in November last year and this is her first win :) Can you please email me your address Tina (address is on my right hand side bar) - and I'll post your prize off to you this week.

This coming week's prize is made up of a couple of items, the same as I used for my snippets card:

You guessed! It's the same Penny Black (wooden) 'gifts for you' stamp plus the sentiment stamp by Inkylicious called 'Some Moments' - both are new and unused of course.

 
The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 14th May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

A maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. If you only want to play for either of the stamps, just say so in your comment and if you win then I'll do a further draw for the other item. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Hope you have a lovely week and I look forward to seeing you in the Playground.

Di and, of course, Parsnip
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Merry Monday #203 - Ombre and Glitter

Crumbs, this week's challenge over at Merry Monday is a real brain teaser - combine Ombre (basically graduating shades of the same colour)  and Glitter.  I truly was almost beaten then got out my SU mini ink pads and rubbed four shades of the yellow spectrum across a piece of blank card - and then sat and gawped at it for ages. I was just about to throw it away when I thought to flick through the file of Christmas dies and one popped out as an idea - this was the end result:

I used:

- 4.25" x 5.5" cream (not that it looks very cream) card blank

- snippet of white card stock with SU shades of yellow rubbed across, graduating from light to dark

- piece of X-Cut copper coloured adhesive backed glitter sheet from the 'Metallics' pack, die cut using a Marianne Creatables bauble die (LR0183)

- then I die cut a piece of 'ombre' card from the coloured snippet using a circle die - but still had to hand to trim right round it a teensy bit before adding the die cut bauble to it.

- threaded a piece of gold cord through the little hanger on the bauble die and added it to a snippet of cream card, which had been die cut using a Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangle' die

- added a rectangle of copper glitter paper, plus the panel with the bauble on to the card front - offset

- finally, added a die cut 'noel' for which I'd used a snippet of the bronze glitter paper and a Memory Box die called 'Noel Snowflake' although I snipped the snowflake off :)

Another one for the Christmas card box. Production is on target - so long as I make 10 more by the end of May! Sigh - looks like it'll be batch baking mode :(

Di
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Hawaii Five-O Birthday

It was a new one on me when I came across folk referring to 50th Birthdays as Hawaiian, as in 'Hawaii Five-O' :) It tickled me so much that when a pal of mine had her 50th Birthday recently, I just couldn't get the idea out of my head.

This turned out to be one of those great ideas that takes forever to measure, fiddle around with and make, but dogged stupidity determination kept me going - and this was the result- the best I could do:

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank, tent style (in fact, I had to cut the card blank marginally larger so that the white border would be there, as well as the die cut 'Happy Birthday' fitting properly as it's probably better suited to a 6" width card)

- the image is a Stampendous cling stamp called 'Hula Kiddo', stamped with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and then the word 'aloha' stamped using a Denami Design stamp (no name) and Memento Brilliance' Sky Blue' ink (me not daft, did all the stamping first before colouring!)

- coloured the image using Pro markers, plus a Whispers pen for the fine lines of the grass skirt - then set aside it whilst I fiddle faddled around with the main body of the card front

- I'd already chosen the plain and patterned card/paper before colouring the image so I could match the colours so the next step was to work on the 'Happy Birthday' panel

- first I die cut the 'Happy Birthday' using the Memory Box 'Grand Happy Birthday' die and a snippet of yellow card (SU's 'So Saffron'), which was backed with Stick It adhesive sheet

- next stuck the 'Happy Birthday' onto a snippet of SU's 'Marina Mist' card and then trimmed the top and bottom of the panel to suit

- I remembered seeing Kath inlaying the 'lower line' letters in a Christmas card the other week and thought it gave a really nice finish so I backed a little snippet of the blue card with Stick It and die cut the word 'birthday' again so I could copy her :)

- then, using leftover sticky backed snippets of the backed yellow card, I die cut '50th' using Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' and Tattered Lace 'Alphabet' dies and added it to the card

- next, very carefully, trimmed the greeting panel at either end along with the patterned paper, which is from Bo Bunny's 'Barefoot and Bliss' paper pad, to exactly the same width and glued them to the front of the card blank

- went and had a lie down due to the stress

- the image layer almost had me stumped earlier on in the process when trying out the bits and bobs to see if they would work. I tried every single die set I possess to get the best match and also to leave a decent amount of the floral backing paper visible. Lots of whistling and looking at the ceiling for inspiration - in the end I plumped just to trim the image into a rectangle then layer it onto slightly bigger pieces of yellow and blue card

- went and had a lie down due to the stress

- glued image panel to card front

- rummaged through a box of flowers and found absolutely what I wanted, a lime green flower (with the writing already on it, cool) through which I poked a brad - then glued the flower in place using hot glue gun. Burnt finger in process :(

- went and had a lie down due to the stress

- took envelope for 5" x 7" card out of the (one of many) envelope boxes and thought, let's try this for size to be sure. Card did go into envelope, but refused to come back out without ripping envelope apart - whaaaaaaaaat?!

- card had to be sent with instruction to 'rip envelope open' as once in that little perisher wasn't gonna come out without a fight

- had a final lie down, due to the stress

Pssssst, I was out and about most of yesterday so if I haven't nipped over to check out your Playground entry yet I'll be there soon!

Di
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Less is More - Week 274 - Designer Paper in a CAS Style

Lovely challenge over at Less is More this week, especially for those of us with snippets of designer paper to use up!

'Designer paper in a CAS style' is a little more tricky than you might think if you intend to paper piece. You need an image large enough to make a statement, but not too large in case it swamps all that important 'white' space. Initially my card was going to be roughly A6 sized but once I'd paper pieced the image there would have been a lot less white space than I wanted - so this is how I got round it:

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank, tent style

- a piece of white card stock onto which I stamped the Penny Black 'pin-striped' image using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- pink and green snippets from the Tatty Teddy Me to You 'Spring Chic' paper pad onto which I stamped the flowers and leaves before fussy cutting them out

- used a Whispers marker in the same shade of green to colour the flower tems on the main image

- then paper pieced the leaves and flower heads in place using a glue pen. Always add the glue to the main image, not to the fiddly paper pieces - it's much easier and ensures good cover with no risk of wrinkling your paper pieces. I got that tip from Jules years ago :)

- that's when I realised I needed the larger card blank so I die cut the image panel using a Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangle' die and glued it in place on the card front - leaving even amounts of space at the top and sides and a bigger space at the bottom for the sentiment

- added the sentiment using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and a stamp from the Hero Arts 'Messages' set - and once again the Misti was invaluable

Finito!

Edit: Sam (Whisper) suggested I link this card into the May challenge over at Penny Black and More, where it's currently 'Anything Goes'. I'm linking, but do feel a bit guilty as this is such a simple rendition compared to the amazing DT cards - albeit using a fabulous PB Stamp :)

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 227

Happy May Day folks! Did anyone rush out to wash their face in the early morning dew then? Legend has it that it 'would prevent freckles, sunburn and wrinkles. It could prevent headaches, and even walking barefoot through the dew would ease bunions and callouses as well as preventing corns!' Could be a good idea to just cut out the messing around and race out totally naked at sunrise to roll around in the stuff!? It's a Bank Holiday here in the UK so a nice extended weekend for lots of you - here's hoping the sunshine we had yesterday continues.

Enough about May Day - although I'm a little bit surprised that no-one has erected a May Pole in the Playground and sent Parsnip like a monkey up to the top to fasten the ribbons in place - rather than do it the easy way when it's lying on the ground of course.

My snippets card today is really CAS and was great fun to make:

I used:

- 4" x 5.75"white card blank

- another piece of white card for the front, with rows of chevrons die cut down either side using MFT's 'Peek-a-boo Chevrons' die. I did this in two stages, die cut the left hand side using one long chevrons die first of all

- then calculated roughly how I wanted the right hand side chevrons to be placed before stamping the sentiment using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and a stamp from Kaisercraft's 'True Friendship' set

- die cut the right hand side chevrons using a mix of the smaller dies in the set

- backed the panel with medium weight double sided adhesive sheet so that the sticky was behind the open cuts waiting for the infill die cuts

- using snippets of black, purple and orange I die cut just three long rows of chevrons and stuck them into the front panel die cuts - really therapeutic I found

- took a chance and peeled off just a little bit of the sticky backing paper along the top of the panel so I could line it up nicely on the card front. Usually I use glue as my eyes certainly don't see things straight and invariably things end up wonky. But, just having a little bit of the backing sticky exposed allowed me to carefully line up the top of the panel centrally and also the right distance from the top of the card. Once happy I just pressed it into place and peeled off the rest of the backing, smoothing it onto the card as I went - worked a treat!

I've had the chevron dies for ages and been mulling over how to best use them. I didn't think that flowers or a swirly sentiment would look quite right with the crispness of the chevrons - then I came across the lovely Kaisercraft set of sentiments.

Let's move straight onto this week's 'peek at the picks', and it's a quick canter as I'm typing this in between household chores and the possibility of more of the dreaded ironing. I just emptied the basket the other day and another load hopped in when I turned my back!

I think this card, made by Megan, is just so, so pretty! A perfect design and really pleasing on the eye. Love the flowers and that butterfly is a beauty - and I was also reminded me of my own neglected washi tape. Too much stuff and not enough time here!

Kathy K literally flew right into the Playground with this fabulous male card. Stunning background (Kathy excels at those) and the whole image has such a sense of movement. I really love this card!

I know, I do try to spread the weekly picks around you, but I just had to include this card made by Liz - who does feature here quite a bit. It was for her DT spot on Mo's Rudolph Days Challenge and a good few of you have already hopped over to admire this brilliant step card - isn't it great?

Sadly you're too late to enter this months challenge but I do recommend that you get ready for next month over at Mo's (25th to the end of the month, always anything goes so long as it's Christmas). Watch out here for a die set the same as Liz used - it will be on offer at some point in the future. I need help, I just can't help myself :(

I was delighted to find that Sue (Olliesmam) had hopped into the Playground this week after a bit of an absence. We missed you Sue - and what a fabulous card you brought to share! The attention to detail is wonderful and such a bright and happy card too.

Ha! Would that teatime in the Playground was conducted with as much decorum :)

It was also great to see Gail back playing with us this week after a little absence. I picked this card because it's another fabulous male card, love the neutral shades Gail has chosen. And, right now Gail is crafting in a caravan whilst helping to look after a caravan site. That's dedication for you :)

And final pick - the irrepressible Judy (aka PJ) scampered into the Playground with this lovely card. It's so fresh and a great way to use up little snippets of white paper for stamping. Sure looks very Spring-like to me.

We have one new Playmate this week, and what a sweetie she is. We were her very first challenge entry after about five years blogging!

And what a first entry too! A huge welcome to Theresa from all of us - I love this card, fabulous design, wonderful colours and the texture is terrific. Plus use of snippets of course:) Also, Theresa (based in the USA) is having a 'downsizing' clear out of craft goodies, mostly stamp sets I think, so I do suggest you pop over to say hello as well as take a peek at what's on offer.

Hope to see you playing along with us again Theresa - do beware of bad influences though, I already discovered that you've been invited to 'partake of some refreshments' by at least one scallywag! And I don't mean tea and scones either, sigh.

Now for the prize draw, for the set of four Cuttlebug 'Coolio' embossing folders and the Memory Box 'Woodland Branch' die. And the winner is:

Jenny H

Well done Jenny! I do have your address here, will need to take a trip to the local Post Office sometime this week to post your package off to Oz :)

And this coming week's prize is made up of a couple of items, the same as I used for my snippets card:

Yup, it's a set of 'Peek-a-boo Chevron' dies, made by MFT, and a Kaisercrafts 4 x sentiments stamp set called' True Friendship' (some really nice wording there too).

 
The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 7th May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

A maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. If you only want to play for either the die or the sentiments stamps, just say so in your comment and if you win then I'll do a further draw for the other item. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Hope you have a lovely week and I look forward to seeing you in the Playground.

Di and, of course, Parsnip (a 'Pickle' as one sweet commenter said last week!)
x