Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 285 and 286 - results

Hi there. Once again it's time for the fortnightly round up of  the Playground, which includes some 'picks' of the fortnight and of course the prize draw.

What, no Guest Designer I hear you cry? Absolutely right - but we do have a celebration anyhow. Today is this lovely lady's Birthday:

Happy Birthday dearest Darnell - from all of us in the Snippets Playground - and no doubt many other bloggers far and wide will be wishing you the very bestest of days too!

Some of you already know that Darnell recently had surgery and is still recovering - so no swinging from the Playground's rope ladders for her just yet!

Darnell is every bit as delightful in real life as her photo suggests - this time last year she was busily packing her spotted hankie for her 'epic tour' of the UK - which many of us will never quite recover from :)

So, dear friend - we send you our love, friendship and sincere wishes for a marvellous Birthday. Psst, mine's a Gray Goose Gin and Tonic or soda please - with the lemon squeezed over it ...... including the pips! Darnell will relate to this little tale - our hotel in Southampton last year certainly wouldn't win any prizes for making relatively straightforward drinks to order!

Now for my picks from this past fortnight - the usual difficulty in whittling a very long list down to three picks - tough call as always:

Loads of you loved and commented on two similar cards that Liz posted on her blog and the jury was divided on which one was a favourite. This is mine, I love the design of course - and the clever way that Liz used snippets of perfect rainbow colours, in the correct sequence, really made this into a very special card.

I love this card, made by Janice! Such a clever design and great use of snippets as well. I really like how the subtle die cut numbers on the same coloured background just totally draw the eye in and it's a card that can be adapted to suit quite easily for a boy or girl.

What a fabulous crowd of paper pieced cats! Cara brought this to share with us and I was immediately struck by all the work that must have gone into the making of this cute little scene! It really shows that all of us must have stamps which would lend themselves to paper piecing ..... and using up more of those little snippets that positively breed when we're not looking.

That's my three picks - I do hope they will inspire you as well girls. Of course we had loads of fabulous ways to use up snippets and I really had to be very firm with myself and not add in at least three more cards from the short list.  I highly recommend that you grab a cup of coffee and spend some time visiting blogs - the thumbnails with links are always there for you to look back over.

49 of you joined in this past fortnight, I could see the numbers almost stand still as we went through our mini heatwave! And, right at the last minute, we also have one new Playmate:

Welcome to the Snippets Playground Becca, and I do hope you return to play again soon.

Prize draw time now and our winner of the Spellbinders 'Borderabilities A2 - Curved Borders One' set and Clearly Besotted 'Baby Shower II' set of stamps with little matching dies is:

Greta

 

Well done Greta - can you please drop me an email with your address in and I'll post your prize off as soon as possible. My email address is on the right hand side bar.

Keep those snippets entries coming girls, you still have a week left to play HERE remember! And the prize is a Crafters Companion 'Baby Bamboo' stamp set (kindly donated by Val ), a set of The Works 'Stitched Squares' dies and a Bow-Easy bow maker. I will split the prize if you only want to play for part of it.

Love from the little white peril - and of course from me too

Crazy Bird get well card ...........

..........for our own dear Crazy Bird, Miss Darnell!

Lots of you will already know that Darnell wrote on her blog that she was having an operation last Tuesday. It's all gone well and she's no longer in fear of her 'baby basket' making a bid for freedom - as she so neatly described it!

As soon as I knew the date of her 'theatre appearance' I made Darnell a get well card and it has arrived in California already:

I used:

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

- a piece of white card stock, embossed using a Cuttlebug 'Pinking Stitch' folder and trimmed to the same size as the card front

- snippet of white card stock for stamping the image and little extras on

- then I set to using the fabulous Tim Holtz 'Bird Crazy' stamp set as well as the Tim Holtz 'Crazy Things' stamp set. First I stamped the images I wanted onto the white snippet and then coloured them using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending solution

- next I die cut the Crazy Bird using the matching thinlets die set, and fussy cut the 'Crazy Things' hat and bunch of flowers

- at this point I knew where I wanted the bird to sit in relation to the sentiment I planned to add so I did a little grey stripe on the front panelusing a Promarker and covered it with clear Wink of Stella

- next I stamped 'Get Well' using the Misti, Memento 'Tuxedo Black ink and a stamp from the Paper Smooches 'Sentiment Sampler' set

- next assembled the bird by cutting along it's wing to tuck the bunch of flowers in place and also cut along the back part of the hat so it sits properly on the birdie's head - used red line tape to fix things in place

- as the red line tape was already out I used it to add to the back of the assembled image and then stuck it onto the card front

- resisted the urge to add some turquoise sparkly sequins but did ad some little tickles of clear Wink of Stella to the flowers (hat and bouquet)

- finally, when the card was ready to be put safely to one side, I added 'Glossy Accents' to the eyes  

I do have to smile at the birdie (as they say) it almost seems to be looking up to check that nothing's gonna fall on its head from above! :)

Here's hoping that Darnell is soon back to her usual bouncy self!
 

Rudolph Days - June 2017

Here's my Christmas card for the June Rudolph Days challenge over at ScrappyMo's - phew, managing to join in part way through rather than a last minute sprint.

For various reasons, crafting time wasn't on my side so I resorted to a scrabble through our box of received Christmas cards for one to 'up cycle' - and this was the end result:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- image from a card received a couple of years ago, chopped down quite radically to fit the card front as well as leave space for a sentiment below

- used a Woodware 'Fancy Corner' punch to add interest to the image

- mounted the image onto a slightly larger piece of deep red card stock, using Collall glue

- stamped the sentiment straight onto the card blank using the Misti for alignment and to ensure a good clear stamping - plus Memento 'Gray Flannel' ink and a sentiment from the Inkylicious 'Seasons Greetings' set

- then glued the image panel in place and stepped away

The image is beautifully 'flittered' in real life (that's how it came) - but as per usual, impossible to pick up in a photo - sigh. Ha, and it looks as if the camera can't even take a straight photo either :)

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 287 and 288

Oh it's been a fun time here in Hampshire! At one point we had six fans running in the house when the heatwave was at its height! Phew - I love Summer, sunshine and hot weather but even that almost had me beat!

Anyhow, here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

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

- image from the Crafters Companion 'Baby Bamboo' stamp set and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink - this adorable stamp set was a gift from Val some time ago, and it's a real joy to use!

- I also stamped 'Wish upon a star...' from the same set - plus the letters for the word 'BABY' much further up on the piece of white card I was using

- then coloured the image and word 'BABY' using Promarkers

- used a die from the brilliant The Works 'Stitched Squares' set of dies to cut out the image with its sentiment

- then glued the image onto a snippet of blue card

- had already picked out a couple of patterned snippet strips for colour matching so they were trimmed and glued to the top and the bottom of the card. They were tucked in the back of a lovely paper pad which came free with QCME magazine ages ago (called 'Let's Fly'). As always, I left some overhang at either side of the strips and then trimmed them down from the back so they were flush with the card front

- then glued the image panel to the card front

- added a tickle of clear Wink of Stella to the small stars

- cut out the 'BABY' letters and fixed them to the image panel using little thin sticky pad pieces - finished!

I loved using this sweet set of stamps - all we need now is for someone to have a baby! And, of course the stitched square dies are such fun to use - there are eight in the set and the largest one is an impressive 'almost' 4.5" across!

As is often the case, no need to really spell out what this fortnight's prize is made up of:

It's a Crafters Companion 'Baby Bamboo' stamp set (Val kindly sent me a set for the toy box as well as mine!) - plus from me there's a set of The Works 'Stitched Squares' dies. The stamp set is made of unmounted rubber but is easy peasy to snip into relevant pieces and I adhere mine onto the Misti by swiping a stripe or two of removable glue runner across the back of the stamp when setting it in place. It easily wipes off the rubber and the Misti with a baby wipe. Plus, I found this in the toy box as well - a Bow-Easy bow maker:

Mine is lurking somewhere safe but I thought it was time to offer this one - such a useful piece of kit for those of you who love to add bows to your work! It beats using the prongs of a fork for the teensy bows, as I used to :)

I will split the stamps, dies and the bow maker if you only wish to play for one or two parts of the prize - but feel free to play for it all as a single bundle :)

The Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks from now on and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 8th July. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's still a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. The prize is all three items together as a single prize, unless you really do only want to try for a 'split' - in which case I'd do a further draw for the other item(s). 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're wanting to be in the draw 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' just in case you're playing only for fun. Thanks!

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 :)

Be sure to call back next week to see the winner of last fortnight's prize (the Clearly Besotted 'elephant stamps and dies' and the Spellbinders Borderabilities dies) plus my picks from the past two weeks.

Once again, it's the monthly Rudolph Days challenge over at ScrappyMo's. Time to make a Christmas card girls!

Love from Parsnip and of course from me,

Merry Monday #253 - Bears

Such a cute theme over at 'Merry Monday' this week - 'Bears'! As I used the image from an up cycled Christmas card we were sent a couple of years ago, this is a 'one off'. Meaning my monthly target for 12 Christmas cards per month beginning in December has really slipped for June - but in the current heatwave, even I'm finding it hard to feel Christmassy! And that's quite an admission from one who can normally howl Christmas carols at the drop of a hat :)

Anyhow, this is what I came up with:

I used:

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

- piece of apricot Core-dinations card stock (chosen to pick out the apricot ribbon on the little bear's parcel) - which was die cut using the MFT 'JOY photo card frame' 

- then I placed the frame how I wanted it to be over the image and popped the piece of waste from the centre in place. Holding it down firmly I then carefully removed the die cut frame and used low tack tape to hold the waste panel over the image (you could just pop a little bit of low tack sticky runner on the back of the waste panel before dropping it in place of course)

- then carefully cut around the image, just about three sixteenths of an inch away from the piece of die cut waste which was covering it, and took the piece of waste away

- that gave me enough room to add very narrow red line tape around the back of the die cut frame and then carefully pop it over the image panel

- glued the framed panel in place and left it at that

Of course, another way would have been to just lightly run a pencil line around the frame inner as a guide - but OCD was lurking here!

The card came with the gold stars already glittered, extra bonus. The colours are really non-traditional and, the white card blank I used is actually very slightly 'off-white'. I love really crisp, very white cards but I bought these on line and was quite disappointed when they arrived a while ago. But, they do have a use as a lot of commercially produced Christmas cards are printed on slightly off-white card - which makes for a good match when up cycling!

Still think it's hard to beat Hobbycraft if you want to buy bright white card blanks - and their 'own brand' 300gsm own card stock is also great for making your own blanks too. Of course, my favourite Samuel Taylor also do brilliant white card stock in various weights as well - it's usually best to buy at craft shows for good deals though.

Birthday card for Uncle Frank

This is my quick card for today, very clean and simple:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- a snippet of white card onto which I stamped the old fashioned gramophone and sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and stamps from a 'pre-loved' SU 'Timeless Talk' set - gosh the Misti was so useful for the solid black stamping!

- then added a layer of black card to the card front, using Colall All Purpose glue, leaving a narrow white border all around

- next die cut an aperture for the image using the largest die from the MFT 'Peek-a-boo Wonky Windows' set of dies and a piece of red card from the snippets folder, which I'd trimmed down to just slightly smaller than the black layer of card

- then ran the die cut piece of red card through the Cuttlebug again, using a Couture Creations embossing folder called 'Scattered Notes'

- laid the red card on top of the image panel and gently drew a pencil line around the inside of the aperture 

- then hand cut around the image - a good quarter of an inch outside the pencil line so I could add red line tape to the edge of the image and stick it behind the aperture (having first rubbed out the pencil lines)

- then just glued the red panel to the card front and decided to leave it as it was

My card was made for my 'Uncle Frank's' recent Birthday, who along with his late wife Alice was my guardian when my parents left me at boarding school in Germany. This was so that, in case of emergency (medical or otherwise), they could step in and sign documents on behalf of my parents, who were back in the UK. No emails back then - in fact a telephone was a rarity!

It also meant that I could go and stay with them at half term and that's why I chose the stamps I used for the card - to remind Frank of something he did to amuse me all those years ago. Alice and Frank didn't have any children of their own so my 'long weekends' must have been a bit of a nightmare in some ways. Their music tastes for instance were sensible and I was your typical teenager of course! But, to entertain me, I clearly recall Frank playing some of his precious records at 45rpm instead of the old 33rpm - just so we could listen to what sounded like 'The Chipmunks' - or someone singing who'd been on laughing gas! Happy days! And we still laugh about it too :)

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 283 and 284 - results

Hello again! Time for the fortnightly round up of  the Playground which includes our latest Guest Designer, some 'picks' of the fortnight and of course the prize draw.

As our Guest Designer this fortnight we have a lovely lady who did need a teensy bit of coaxing - our Val of 'Aquarius Blog' is so delightfully modest!

This is the snippets card that Val made:

Isn't it absolutely gorgeous? Love the background Val made, using the credit card technique which is very popular right now and the whole card is so, so pretty. This is what Val said about her card and herself - but please hop over to her blog HERE to say hello and find out a bit more:

I spotted a tutorial on Karen’s blog (http://snippets-karen.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/swipe-your-credit-card.html) showing an interesting technique for using Distress Oxide inks and an old credit card. I was sent in the direction of this tutorial from Loll’s blog. I coloured a fair sized piece of white card using this technique and I’ve used a left over snippet of it  behind the window on my card and used various snippets of white Centura pearl card for the layers, corners and of course the blossom.  Some time ago I acquired a supply of Centura card in the A3 size, originally for making boxes and of course this has left me with some quite sizeable snippets to use as well as the inevitable small bits which I can never bear to throw away. 

I suppose I’ve been making cards for about 15 years or so and thinking about it has made me realise just how much the equipment and availability of materials has moved on since then.  My first die cutting machine was an original Sizzix which was tiny, red and worked on a sort of press/lever method and the dies were very simple shapes, quite small too. Any more intricate cutting was of necessity done with scissors – and patience!! We are so fortunate now to have so many resources at our fingertips to be able to produce professional results.  I really enjoy the challenge of working with what I have, combining colours and techniques to produce unique cards – I doubt I’ve ever made the same card more than once and would just hate to work on bulk production.  I’ve been blogging for some years but not sure quite how many – probably about eight. I’m always on the lookout for different techniques to try and of course blogland is a great source of inspiration as well as putting the ‘buy now’ temptation in front of us all.

Thank you so much Val for agreeing to be our Guest Designer this fortnight. Val enters the Snippets Challenge every single time and her work is always such a delight.

These are my picks from this past fortnight - the usual difficulty in whittling a very long list down to three picks - tough call as always:

Just take a look at the snippets background on this adorable card girls! It absolutely blew me away - and so many of you commented how much you also loved the very clever technique of piecing snippets and then filling in the gaps with heat embossed EP. So creative, and just what we've come to expect from Carol L too - And, worthy of her second Gold Star I'm sure you all agree!

My next two picks are a bit similar and I couldn't have one without the other - both are lovely and are a perfect reminder that Summer is finally here, with a vengeance here in the South of England as well:

Viv made this fabulous gift as a thank you for some people who kindly lent them the use of their static caravan down on the South Coast. It meant that Viv and her hubby could relax for a couple of days during a year of travelling so much as Bowls England President. How lovely to even include shells collected from the nearby beach!

And Tina also made a beautiful beach scene - I love the inclusion of the hessian 'mat' and the deck chair. You feel as if you want to tuck your skirt into your knickers and go for a paddle!

It's absolutely beautiful weather here as I'm typing this - let's hope that it's lovely and sunny when it publishes on Sunday. No doubt UK will go silly and everyone will be running around in little vest tops and shorts - and that's just the menfolk!

That's my three picks - I do hope they will inspire you as well girls. Of course we had loads of fabulous ways to use up snippets, so I do recommend that you grab a cup of coffee (or iced tea even!) and spend some time visiting blogs - the thumbnails with links are always there for you to look back over.

61 of you joined in this past fortnight - with one new Playmate:

What a fabulous card, made by Maria of 'Ivy Leaf Crafts'.

Welcome to the Snippets Playground Maria, and I do hope you return to play again soon.

Prize draw time now and our winner of the W Plus 9 'Doodle Buds' stamps set and the Avery Elle 'Postage Elle-Ments' die set is:

Karen Ladd

 

Well done Karen - can you please drop me an email with your address in and I'll post your prize off as soon as possible. My email address is on the right hand side bar.

Keep those snippets entries coming girls, you still have a week left to play HERE remember! And the prize is a Spellbinders Spellbinders 'Borderabilities A2 - Curved Borders One' set and Clearly Besotted 'Baby Shower II' set of stamps with little matching dies. I will split the prize if you only want to play for the elephants or the border dies.

Love from the little white peril - and of course from me too

Less is More Challenge #332 - one layer- Sweet Things

Hooray, I found time to make a card for the latest Less is More challenge - it's one layer, 'sweet things'. And this is what I made:

And to prove the shimmer and gloss:

I used:

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

- Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from the Penny Black 'loads of love' set

- the sentiment was stamped at the same time, using the Misti and the same black ink plus a stamp by Whimsical Designs from the 'Whimsical Fun - Vol. 1' set 

- coloured the image using Pro markers and added a tickle of grey to 'ground' the mouse

- added shimmer to the icing using clear Wink of Stella and then some Glossy Accents to shine up the red heart

That was it - done very quickly.

I'd also like to enter this into the current challenge over at Penny Black and More for June where they're celebrating their 7th Birthday with 'Anything Goes'. Many congratulations ladies - and especially to Brenda who works so hard running several challenges.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 285 and 286

Well, the school reunion is over for another two years! And the back held out, yay! We all loved the venue and location so much that there's a whisper we might even return there in 2019 for our next reunion. That would be a first as we've always moved around the country - a bit like the old quip about only going back a second time to apologise :)

As always, a huge thank you to everyone who came to play this past fortnight - loads of gorgeous entries. And a really massive thank you to Megan for her sterling work commenting as well. It was such a help - huge hugs from me Megan!

This is my quite plain and simple snippets card for the coming fortnight - I made it before skipping away for the long weekend so kept it easy peasy:

I used:

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

- snippet of white card stock, trimmed to just slightly smaller than the card front

- snippet of green card, die cut using one of the dies from the Spellbinders 'Borderabilities A2 - Curved Borders One' set. A set I'd kept forgetting I even had! 

- glued the curved green die cut piece to the bottom of the card allowing the side edges to overhang - then just snipped those flush with the side of the piece of white card from the back which ensures a straight cut

- then found snippets of mauve, turquoise and pink card onto which I stamped little elephants, with separate ears in a contrasting pattern - using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and the Clearly Besotted 'Baby Shower II' set of stamps

- then used the matching set of Clearly Besotted dies to cut out the elephants and their ears - following the 'cut a template for positioning of a die' method I often mention - and set them aside for a minute

- then stamped the 'Jumbo hugs' message on the front panel using one of the two sentiments in the stamp set and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- fixed the panel to the card front with a sandwich of white fun foam in between

- finally added the three little elephants along the green border using pieces of thin sticky pads, and added their ears using little snippets of sticky pad

The Clearly Besotted stamp set is a fairly recent acquisition - at last their store has re-opened after Stephanie took time out. To be honest I suspect she was plain exhausted - but I'm so glad they're up and running again with her sister at the helm. They have lots of new stock, sadly for us it's selling out fast too but these little elephants just called for me to buy them :) The set is perfect for baby shower cards but I think the 'Jumbo hugs' sentiment I used is nice and versatile - plus elephants can so easily be mixed and matched with other sentiment stamps. And of course the ears could have been contrasting colours - but this was my first play plus I was in a bit of a hurry so I didn't go too mad!

As I said, I've badly neglected the Borderabilities dies - shame on me! A lot of people use them vertically down cards and the results can be fabulous.

As is often the case, no need to really spell out what this fortnight's prize is made up of:

The prize is the Spellbinders Spellbinders 'Borderabilities A2 - Curved Borders One' set and Clearly Besotted 'Baby Shower II' set of stamps with little matching dies. I will split the Spellbinders and Clearly Besotted parts of the prize in two if you only wish to play for one or the other.

I bought my own set of the Borderabilities dies ages ago and am sure that Spellbinders dies are now more competitively priced than they used to be - certainly the place I just bought this set from was doing good prices :)

The Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks from now on and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 24th June. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's still a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. The prize is both items together as a single prize, unless you really do only want to try for a 'split' - in which case I'd 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.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you're wanting to be in the draw 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' just in case you're playing only for fun. Thanks!

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 :)

Be sure to call back next week to see the winner of last fortnight's prize (the Avery Elle dies and the W Plus 9 Doodlebuds stamps) plus my picks from the past two weeks - as well as another lovely guest designer too!

Love from Parsnip and of course from me,

More Christmas cards

I whipped up a further four Christmas cards, all the same, to keep up with the self-imposed target of 12 per month from the beginning of December through to the end of November. I'm now halfway there and managing to keep up - so far!

This is what I made:

I used:

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

- piece of deep red satin mirri card, cut to the same size as the card front and then glued in place

- piece of plain white card, cut down to 4" x 5.5" so that a band of the red layer would show at the bottom of the white panel (bit hard to spot in the photo but it's there I promise)

- then die cut the 'Merry Christmas' using a NBUS Memory Box die called 'Fancy Merry Christmas Channel'

- next die cut the reindeer using Stick-It backed gold shiny mirri card and a Cheery Lyn 'Santa's Sleigh and Reindeer' die

- peeled off the Stick-It backing from the reindeer and positioned them so that only the reindeer were on the card with the sleigh hanging off the edge. I then trimmed the sleigh itself off the side of the card - leaving just the reindeer 'cantering or flying' across the top of the word panel

- glued the whole white panel onto the red card front and called it done

Shame on me, I bought this word die months ago and had forgotten all about it! I had spied a card very similar to this one on some Memory Box adverts for the word die. It had sparkly snow added underneath the word 'Christmas', using what looked like white Flower Soft. I had the materials but skipped that bit as it seemed just a bit too fussy to me. Ditto with adding a red gem to the leading reindeer's nose - my red gems aren't tiny enough and Rudolph would look like he had a red traffic light as a nose :)

We will miss you .................

As I already said in a previous post, one of our 'partners in crime' (Moira) couldn't make our school reunion - this is the card I sent off to her so it would arrive when the event kicked off. And we did miss her very much needless to say:

I used:

- 4" x 6" cream card blank (I reverted to our A6 measurement as, according to the image panel, plus sentiment, it actually looked more balanced)

- a Penny Black Stickeroo from the 'romance of flowers' sheet - adhered to a snippet of card and then die cut using a Spellbinders oval die - ran a ball ended tool around the edge before removing the image from the die itself

- from the same Stickeroo sheet I then added a separate butterfly sticker

- die cut a backing layer using SU's Wisteria Wonder' card and a shallow scalloped Spellbinders die, again ran a ball ended tool around the outer 'grooves' then glued the image to the backing panel

- the sentiment was stamped, using the Misti, VersaFine 'Vintage Sepia' ink and a sentiment from the Penny Black set called 'special thoughts'

- glued the image panel in place and left it at that - used cream and managed four layers, if you count the addition of the butterfly!

I got back home safely yesterday but do need time to catch up on the Snippets Playground girls! In my absence, Megan stepped forward as our current Guest Designer and offered to make sure she commented on your entries. Bless her heart, I've just begun hopping around your entries and she's been true to her word - thank you so much Megan! What a star.

BTW, I had the colly wobbles about my vastly improved back holding up over the weekend - what with longish car drives, luggage humping, strange bed, clambering about on boats etc. But, so far, all is good! Of course, it might just have helped that this was also the first time I didn't get up on the table and do a can-can followed by a quick swing from a chandelier after the formal Saturday Dinner :)

When I get time I'll pop some photos on a blog post with a couple of tales from recent events - believe me, there are some things at these reunion weekends you really couldn't make up!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 281 and 282 - results

Hello again! Time for the fortnightly round up of  the Playground which includes our latest Guest Designer, some 'picks' of the fortnight and of course the prize draw.

As this publishes I should be playing at my old School Reunion in Stratford Upon Avon - not sure about dancing on the tables this time though! Len and Parsnip are 'home alone' and probably having a great time without me :)

We have another Guest Designer this fortnight, and it's Megan of 'My Merry Card Corner'. We have not one, but two, snippets cards from her:

Wow - two really gorgeous cards from Megan - and showing some great ways to use up snippets of course! Love the fresh look of these cards, perfectly designed and made and the colours are so lovely. Aren't the dies stunning as well - just read what Megan has to say about the cards and the dies below:

I have been trying to have a clean up of my desk and make use of the large volume of snippety bits currently holding a take over bid of my desk top, I found this strip of paper and decided to make two cards to use it up, I dug around in my box of snippets for some co-ordinating card to layer the bits on and came up with these two designs, I have also been trying out some of the super cheap dies I have bought online from China and I will not be accepting any responsibility for enabling any of you!!!! 

Something Megan says that's so true - snippets do make a bid to take over the place! 

Megan is a much more elusive creature than many of you are - despite really searching I can't find much out about her ..... so she shall remain a 'lady of mystery'. I do know that she's been blogging since January 2015, has quite a few wins for her designs, lives in Australia - and that's about it! No profile photo either. But, she's one very talented lady and I do think you should hop over to her blog for a closer look - and perhaps add yourself as a follower at the same time?

Let's move onto my picks from this past fortnight - tough call as always! I say that every fortnight and it's so, so true! To be honest, each one of this fortnight's picks is worthy of a Gold Star, so ladies do feel free to pick up your badge from the RH sidebar!

 

Vinita made this fabulous Mothers Day card - as I said on her blog, it's jaw-droppingly gorgeous! What a wonderful Mothers Day card - and so much fabulous detail as well. The huge pink rose she made for the front is stunning - and there's lots of detail about the whole process over on Vinita's blog too.

Diane H made this marvellous window scene - if you look closely there's even a little cat peeping out of the window! So cute and I do like the modern feel of this card.

And finally, Sonia made this stunning garden shed! Again. she has loads of information about the process over on her blog - the attention to detail is utterly amazing isn't it! I squealed at the darling little hedgies of course :)

That's my three picks - I do hope they will inspire you as well girls. They're extremely detailed pieces of work, that's the 'theme' I homed in on this fortnight. Of course we had loads of fabulous ways to use up snippets, so I do recommend that you grab a cup of coffee and spend some time visiting blogs - the thumbnails with links are always there for you to look back over.

59 of you joined in this past fortnight - with one new Playmate:

What a fabulous card, made by Claire of 'String Bows'.

Welcome to the Snippets Playground and I do hope you return to play again soon.

Prize draw time now and our winner of the MFT 'Chevron Edger' pair of dies and a set of Waffle Flower 'Flora Cat' stamps is:

April
 

Well done April - can you please drop me an email with your address in and I'll post your prize off as soon as possible once I return from my 'jollies'! As you're such a cat lover I think you'll be extra pleased with Mr Random! My email address is on the right hand side bar.

Keep those snippets entries coming girls, you still have a week left to play HERE remember! And the prize is a W Plus 9 'Doodle Buds' stamps set and the Avery Elle 'Postage Elle-Ments' die set.

Love from the little white peril - and of course from me too

Quick LOTV Birthday card for a chap

Needed a card in a rush for a chap the other day so out came the LOTV Art Pads for a quick rootle - and this was the result:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- dark blue snippet of card, trimmed to slightly smaller than the card front, glued in place

- white layer of card, again slightly smaller than the dark blue layer, embossed using an XCut 'Wicker' folder and glued in place

- image from the discontinued LOTV 'Vintage Boys' Art Pad, die cut using a Tonic Studio plain circle die - and I ran a ball ended embossing tool round the back of the die cut before removing it from the die, just to give it a bit of a border

- before I glued the dark blue piece of card to the card front, I'd gutted it by die cutting a circle using a 'Stitched Circle' die from a set by The Works

- added the dark blue stitched circle to the back of the image and glued it onto the card front

- the sentiment is by Craftwork Cards, already printed and die cut (told you I was in a hurry) - which I backed with a small stitched dark blue circle using another die from The Works set

- glued the sentiment partly onto the circle - finished!

This card is so like the fresh cards that Kath Buckle makes - here. I love her style and am really pleased how this turned out!

The stitched dies are brilliant - all thanks to my friend SaRn pointing us in the direction of The Works. At £6 per set of eight stitched dies you really can't go wrong - they also do a square set, err, which also happened to fall into my shopping basket (plus the same for the Playground toy box of course)! The stitching doesn't show up very well in the photo against the dark blue, but in real life it adds 'that certain something' to the card :) Thanks SaRn for being such a great enabler!