Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #332

Here we are again, ready for another fresh Snippets Challenge - anything goes so long as you use one or more 'snippets/scraps'.

Least said about the continuing heatwave the better really - but we'll surely pay for it later on in the year due to cattle needing their Winter feed already and the lack of rainfall also affecting crops.

My snippets card for this week is still here on my desk as it really makes me smile. In fairness, I'd seen this idea with the torn top pieces a good while ago - and my  memory was jolted when I spotted a very similar set of stamps and also a sample card. The stamps were at the Dies to Die For pop-up shop the other week and maybe that's where I spotted the sample card, or it could have been on line last week when I was browsing. Anyhow, here's my snippets card - and I defy you not to smile:

I used:

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

- a snippet of pink card from the snippets folder, which was almost the right size but I held off trimming it right down until I'd made the image panel

- a snippet of white card, bigger than I would need for the eventual size

- stamped the cat, claw scratches and also the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and stamps from the delightful Your Next Stamp 'Scratch Pad' set of stamps

- next coloured in the cat using Faber'Castell Polychromos pencils - matching the pink on the cat to the snippet of pink card I'd chosen

- then had to do a bit of measuring and working out how big I wanted the image panel to be - trimmed it to size and also trimmed the snippet of pink card to form a frame

- heart in mouth lest I wrecked the thing, it was time to do the little 'rips'. I used a water brush to just moisten a couple of lines down the card, above the claw marks and carefully tore down the lines before folding each side back - took me back to my mulberry paper tearing days!

- then just glued the layers together onto the card front and called it done

- am still thinking about whether or not to add glossy accents to the cat's eyes - am leaving it as it is for now

Oh what fun this stamp set is and this particular card isn't the only fun design of course. It was so quick and easy to make, with minimal colouring needed, and purrfect for a cat lover of course. Or anyone needing a bit of a laugh or cheering up. When you turn the card upside down, the expression on the cat's face is priceless!

AND, it qualifies for the current Less Is More Challenge #377, which is 'Pets' - yippee, I love to play over there :) There might be a bit too much on the card, but I hope not as I still see plenty of white space and it really was such a joy to make. A few stamps, little bit of colouring. a couple of rips/tears and some layering. Oddly enough, one of the DT has a card using the torn paper idea - I made this last week well before the new challenge appeared though.

And of course, here's this week's Snippets Playground prize:

It's a Your Next Stamp 'Scratch Pad' set of stamps, same as mine. We had a doggie set of stamps recently so I figured it was time for some feline friends to take centre stage and also be a prize.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 18th August. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you're wanting to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I ignore you on my little list.

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 fortnight's picks and the winner of the MFT 'Cross Stitch Tag' die set. Not as many entries so far this fortnight but who can blame people with the heat, holidays and also cross stitch isn't everyone's idea of spending time crafting. But it's lovely to see so many people still entering just for fun.

Hedgies are still doing fine it seems (still eating and drinking every night) and the other wildlife here is much the same as ever. The birds are very grateful for fresh supplies of water twice a day - thankfully we had a bit of rain about a week ago which filled up the water butts. That will keep the bird baths going for a while. One hint, blackbirds absolutely adore apple cores - but better than that, they go crazy over an apple cut in half and laid face up on the grass (I buy the 'less than perfect' ones from Ocado. I think it's the juicy fruit pulp they love. Some evenings we'll go out to sit in the garden and there will be a blackbird pointedly kicking around the empty shells of both halves of an apple - waiting for fresh supplies! Perhaps they're secret cider drinkers ☺☺☺

Love from Parsnip and of course from me,

Rudolph Days - July 2018

I know, it's now August, but Mo has had to delay the July Rudolph Days Challenge - so it should now run from 1st to 7th August.

And it gave me some much needed time to come up with my entry this time around. Tracey of Dies to Die For was at a Copics event with a 'pop-up shop' - so it really would have been very rude not to buy something of course :)

Amongst my (ahem) haul there was a lovely little set of stamps with various sentiments, some Christmas gifts/parcels and three sweet little deer. So, not being one to do things the easy way, I stamped eight of each of the three deer and the same with the little Christmas parcels. I then happily coloured them whenever the mood was right. And then it was time to cut them all out - sheesh, I KNEW I ought to have bought the matching dies. In fairness Tracey didn't have any left so I took a close look at the dies on line as well as some die cut images on cards, which I found as examples on line. Ha, I can do that 'she said'. So far I've cut out all the little (18 that I stamped and 24  coloured)parcels and just ten of the deer as they really are a bit tricky-wool. I still have slight reservations about images which are die cut leaving a white border right round - it's almost the 'norm.' now and all I can think is that it allows for a little bit of 'play' when you're doing the die cutting.

So, I used one design of deer and one design of gift/parcel to make my entry for Mo's challenge - times eight of course, in an attempt to boost my flagging Christmas card target for this year:

I used:

- 5" x 5" white card blanks, side opening

- in fairness, as I said, the little deer and parcel were both already coloured and cut out. I'd used Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a couple of stamps from The Greeting Farm's 'Dashing' stamp set - and the Misti of course! Do be aware that MFT have stamps and matching dies also called 'Dashing' so if you like my little fella be careful to order the right one from the right company!

- I'd then coloured the little deer with Pro markers, as well as the parcel. I also added a few little white dots to his back (using a Signo white pen) just to add some interest as I hadn't done any fancy shading and it broke up the expanse of his back (as well as looking cute of course). Also added clear Wink of Stella to the fur and bobble on his little hat for a little bit of glisten

- so there I was, with a little deer and a Christmas gift/parcel and absolutely no idea what to do next - so I walked away and had a think for a day or two

- ping! Then it just hit me - he needed to be framed (obviously) with some form of background, so this is what I did

- die cut a Lil' Inker 'Instant Camera' frame from white card stock then stamped the sentiment 'Jingle all the way' using the Misti, Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and one of the sentiments from the 'Dashing' stamp set

- I backed the aperture in the frame with a snippet of pale blue patterned paper I found tucked in the back of the LOTV 'Frosty Christmas' paper pad. I found six in fact, obviously left from a previous play, and also a further two with snowflakes on (I do prefer the little trees though for this particular card). Backing this frame can be a bit tricky and I find that the very narrow red line tape works a treat if you're careful as it's unforgiving if you make a mistake

- for sturdiness I then backed the area of the aperture behind the paper using the waste fall out from when I die cut the frames (again with red line tape) - an extra step but it certainly makes for a much better finish (IMHO) as you end up with a nice solid little topper for your card

- added the Christmas gift and the little deer onto the blue background using a glue pen

- then cut a square of white card stock just about quarter of an inch smaller all round than the card front, using a die from The Works 'Stitched Squares' set of dies 

- embossed it using a Darice 'Snowflake Background' embossing folder

- glued the embossed panel to the card front

- finally added the little framed scene at a jaunty angle to the card front, using thin sticky pads

And, it's still slim enough to post at our standard letter rate - result!

And now to carry on with the other 16 little deer and 16 parcels - sometimes I start things and really don't think it through just how long it'll take. But, I won't be beaten - even if it's a couple of weeks until I tackle them!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge # 330 - results

Having struggled to do much commenting or blogging all week, now there's a bit of a scramble on here to say the least! It's been just like being in a sauna, with no respite, down here in Hampshire. We've had six fans running on full the whole time - but to be honest they just seemed to be pushing hot air around. It's a little bit cooler today (Saturday) with a refreshing breeze - and we even had a few pitter patters of rain later on yesterday, although the thunderstorms have given us a miss for now - unlike in some areas of the country.

In the absence of a guest designer, I thought I'd give you a laugh and show you some of my early card creations now and again.

My very first attempt at paper piecing - way back in May 2010, here if you want a closer look. At the same time I made another card almost the same, using pink of course. I still have this stamp set (I hope!) and it's overdue for an outing! Just laughed here, I didn't get one single comment - the blog was only a couple of months old at the time :)

Let's do a very quick scamper around my picks for this fortnight, no particular theme - just entries which caught my eye:

This is such a great idea - brought to share by Sandy. It's not dissimilar to a card in my last lot of picks where letters 'dangled' from strips of card. This time, the negative card from the bauble die cut is cut into a strip and placed above the die cut itself - so clever! Really great idea for quick Chriatmas cards with a difference and an idea I'm likely to pinch!

I chose this card, made by Charlotte as it's so bright and cheerful - and such a lovely design of course! Charlotte has a video over on her blog if you'd like to see how she made it! Citrus colours really are so perfect for Summer cards - and the little bird totally tones in with his background of course :) 

And finally, I picked out this card, made by Gail (Ionabunny) as it brought a huge smile to my face. I love the simplicity of Gail's design and the giraffe wearing his Santa hat is just adorable! And the red sparkle is so festive - great card and such fun as well.

So that's just three picks from a host of fabulous entries. Some entries are really detailed and some very CAS - but every single one is worth checking out I promise you!Why not have a browse if you haven't done so already.

No new Playmates this time round and 56 of you came to play! I'm hoping that we'll have a few more entries than we have at the moment for the current challenge as that stitched tag prize is such fun - and you certainly don't need to be a master seamstress either! But, it's holiday time and also many people are suffering from high temperatures - and not just in the UK.

Prize draw time now and our winner of the Art Impression 'Doggy Kisses' stamp set is:

Carol L

Well done to Carol, it's a while since her last win although she's often up there with the fortnightly picks. What's extra nice is when I double checked Carol's comment it turns out she had at least one dachshund in the past - I call that serendipity (AND the fact that Darnell's name came out twice before Carol's popped up on the third run of the Random number thingy - Darnell wasn't playing for the prize so I had to re-run the gizmo).

Do please send me your address Carol, with full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste - for speed and ease. I don't keep addresses of previous winners, even if they might be in my private address list - if that makes sense! It's also cofirmation that you still would like the prize of course, not that I doubt it really! I'll be off to the Post Office once I hear from you. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Speaking of prizes, one prize I sent to Canada has finally arrived there - TWO whole months later! Phew - relief as I don't seem to be able to replicate the goodies at the moment.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #331 - just check back a bit and you'll easily find it. The prize is an MFT 'Cross Stitch Label' die set - and if you don't have any threads of your own, and you're the winner, I'll be happy to enclose a little selection of ready wound bobbins!

Hope you have a lovely week ahead, and that you come and play - if you haven't done so already!

Love from the little white peril Parsnip - who has emerged from the duck pond at last! So now we have a little green bear .......... he forgot about the algae didn't he .......... and he stinks! Someone's going in the bath tub later on, sssssshhhhhh :)

I spy with my little eye

When we were over in Germany we took a trip down to The Lake, which is known as Constance/Konstanz, for a lovely family evening meal with our DIL's fabulous and so young at heart parents, right beside the water's edge.

The lake is such a calm and beautiful place and very special to me as, aged just 15 or so, I went camping down there for two whole weeks with my own parents when we lived in Germany. In fact, it rained every day that we camped out (bar three days at the very most) and I do recall my Dad trying to sleep in his sleeping bag holding an umbrella over him as one of the zips had developed a dripping point! AND, he'd snickered when my Mum packed the umbrella in the first place! But, it stayed really nice for our visit the other week.

NOT my photo - but just perfect view of what we saw as the sun went down

After the meal there was time for walks and to watch the sunset and then it was time for our little family to drive back 'home' with two sleepy girls and also trying to keep our much loved daughter in law, who was driving, wide awake. Soooo, we began a game of I Spy - not easy in a moving car but we managed.

The rounds went on and on - with the adults more often than not giving their turns to each of the little girls, Mia and Livi ..... as you do with little ones playing along.

Round and round we went and Len and I seemed to be mind readers at guessing one another's 'spy item' - spooky or what?!

So, this time round Len guessed my word at once (bear in mind these little ones are bi-lingual so it wasn't always easy for them as English is their second language but they did brilliantly) - and so the baton passed to him.

Before Len could even nominate one of the girls, a little voice beside him (Livi) piped up and very definitely said 'I spy with Len's little eye - something beginning with .....). 

Needlesss to say we all cracked up and Grandad Len was scuppered! She totally stole his turn - in such an enchanting way :) Kids, they really are so cute and also wise. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. :)

No card from me right now - with this heat you really gotta be joking'!!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #331

Here we are again, ready for another fresh Snippets Challenge - anything goes so long as you use one or more 'snippets/scraps'.

There's been little let-up in the current heatwave - although we did have one heavy downpour a week ago and boy was it welcome. Hosepipe bans come into force shortly for many UK folk - not us just yet but we'll surely follow if this continues. We've always been believers in using rain water as much as possible as we live on chalk for starters - a couple of big water butts collect rain water flow from the house and, so cute, Len's guttering (using cable trunking enclosure plastic lengths) they just open up into halves then attach along each side of the shed roof and feed into buckets with the help and guidance of cable ties. Len has all sorts of Heath Robinson things set up here - sometimes I despair - and then a lot of the time I find it so amazing to be able to look at a potential problem as he does and find a way around it. Let's forget that he once made a food blender using a Black and Decker power drill - cabbage on ceiling - so NOT a good look. Before my time with him I'm happy to report! Meanwhile, let's just make the most of our weather!

My make this time round isn't a card - which is really unusual for me! In fairness, it may end up ON a card, at an angle and with a sentiment perhaps, but for now I'm leaving it as a tag in its own right. There's a lot of words about the making and what I discovered through research and trial and error - feel free to skip it if you wish:

I used:

- snippets of card from the snippets folder in kraft, green and red, no full pieces of card, ribbon or twine were harmed in the making of this tag :) 

- using the MFT 'Cross Stitch Tag' set of dies I cut a tag from kraft card with the holes in first of all. You use two dies for this but it's easy to hold them in place with washi tape or similar. MFT recommend that you use a metal plate underneath the die but my Cuttlebug wasn't playing ball and seemed in danger of flying apart so I just ran the paired dies through a few times with folded paper shims on top of the plates - and then poked out each little hole. There's no real way to avoid this from what I've seen - and it's quite therapeutic once you get into a rhythm. I did use waxed paper between the die and the card which ensured that it just dropped out of the die

- then die cut the other parts I needed - a full tag without holes from kraft card, the green top for the tag and the little ring thing which goes around the tag slit - from red card. Put them to one side for safe keeping in a little plastic lid kept for the purpose, it's one of those deep lids from a large tub of cotton buds and ideal for this!

- the pattern I wanted to use is on the MFT website HERE - along with quite a few others. Some are much more simple with a lot less stitching but I always go for the long route!

 - next I got out my cross stitch threads, almost untouched for many years, and matched up the red and green and also picked out a bobbin of white - all Anchor as it happens, purely coincidence. When I was really into cross stitch I always wound embroidery skeins onto flat cardboard 'bobbins' so they were kept untangled and also fitted into special partitioned boxes where you can see the range of colours at a glance. I must have been keen - I have three large boxes with every colour under the sun!

- and then spent quite a while actually sewing the sleigh - I used all six strands of the thread btw rather than split it, those holes are quite big. My guess, as I'm slow and picky and the image is quite solid, is a couple of hours or more. So not something to do if you're in a real hurry - ideal to do in front of the TV if football is on for example

- once the image was stitched - making sure that all crosses were all formed the same way,  just as you would when doing stitching on Aida fabric or linen - it was time to assemble the tag, and that was super fast and easy!

-  just backed the stitched tag with the additional kraft tag (this hides the back of your work and gives somewhere to write on if you just use it as a gift tag!) using narrow red line tape around the edges - glue would ooze through obviously

- then stuck the green top of the tag in place, using red line tape again and added the red 'ring' around the tag slit using a glue pen

- finally,  found one lonely snippet of white ribbon waiting patiently to be used, threaded it through the tag slit and tied it using a snippet of brown twine saved from a brown old fashioned label. Trimmed the ends of the ribbon and the twine to suit and that was it - done!

Here's some additional stuff I found out along the way. You can just draw the crosses onto the die cut tag - but I (personally) can't see it looking as effective without the tactile element- and there are lots of lovely patterns to be found, not only on the MFT website. Check out Pinterest for example or just small cross stitch patterns in general, on line, for ideas. My tag is an unashamed copy of one that MFT use to promote this die set :)

A hint I read is to pre-colour in the design, by drawing crosses using pens matched to your chosen threads (like the suggestion to not use threads) - and then stitch over it to ensure full coverage. I did start off this way and thought 'This really is a mug's game - I'm doing twice the work here' so I switched straight to using the thread and, because it's six strands thick, it covers perfectly anyhow. Also, I made a couple of (I corrected them - so don't check!) sewing mistakes along the way and of course you can't really unpick a Pro marker marker cross can you!
 
MFT also make a plain cross stitch rectangle die, and perhaps others - but it would be so easy to cut out the punched tag and just slice across the top. I might try that one next - maybe in an aperture - although there are some lovely and very effective patterns specifically for this die set. There's room to stamp a smallish sentiment on the green top part of the tag as well. Crumbs, anyone would think I worked for MFT. Sales pitch over!

Without you needing to guess, here's this week's Snippets Playground prize:

Yup, it's an  MFT 'Cross Stitch Tag' die set for the randomly selected winner - and of course, you can omit the cross stitch part if you really must and just make tags to stamp on by not using the 'holes part' of the die - choices, choices :) I'm so excited to have this 'find' to share with you as a prize - I really love it!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 4th August. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you're wanting to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I ignore you on my little list.

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 fortnight's picks and the winner of the Art Impressions 'Doggy Kisses' set of stamps.

Hedgies are doing fine btw - eating for the UK it seems! No pitter patter of tiny paws yet - but Len is only reporting one or two hedgies each night. I'm keeping quiet but I think there could be at least one Mum in the undergrowth nearby with a little brood of new prickles waiting to descend on us. - he hasn't thought of that one as yet!

Love from Parsnip (on his prayer mat right now whimpering for rain - silly bear, he thinks we'll ALL be showering together with the birds and even Spike and friends if water restrictions come in!) and of course from me,

Allsorts Challenge - Weeks 476/477 - Flowers all over

The current challenge over at Allsorts (one of my very favourite challenges) is 'Flowers all over' - and it's running for two weeks this time round.

I had a NBUS stamp bought some while ago - and this was the perfect opportunity:

I used:

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

- very slightly smaller snippet of mid-olive green card to form a frame for the image

- piece of white card stock onto which I stamped the image using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a Taylored Expressions stamp called 'Bloomin' Background'. I used the Misti but in truth the panel stamped beautifully first time - possibly as it's red rubber mounted onto clingy foam, and I used a fresh ink pad as well

- then stamped the sentiment, using the same black ink and a stamp from the Penny Black 'Special Thoughts' set. The beauty of this image panel is that it comes with the plain oval, edged with a stitched effect - all ready for your own sentiment

- and now it was time to sit and do some colouring. I used Pro markers and followed the colours shown on the stamp packet image for this first play

- time to assemble the card - which involved a bit of careful trimming. The image panel is actually 5.75" x 4.5", so you can just trim it down on all sides to suit your needs

- then glued the green panel onto the card front, followed by the image panel (which I'd backed with fun foam for some dimension)

- final touch, three self-adhesive red pearls - which I darkened to match using the same deep red pen as I used when colouring the image

One card, all ready for the challenge. I just love this stamp! And I think the sentiment is so appropriate for the lovely Brenda who tirelessly runs more than just the Allsorts challenge - along with her talented DT of course.

I took the photo of the card lying on the desk (the card, not me!) but even so, the narrow green 'frame' layer still sort of disappears at the bottom - trust me, it's even, all the way round!

I'll be honest and say that right now crafting is a bit of a struggle for me - my heart just isn't in it like it used to be. Hopefully that will change toot sweet and I'll be firing on all cylinders again. The Playground is safe, as well as top priority, and if I manage to do more than that then it's a bonus right now.

Maybe I need to just stamp out a few images and spend time colouring them :) OR, do a bit more of something different, using my own duplicate of the next Playground prize - taps nose and winks knowingly. Come back on Sunday and all will be revealed, snigger.

.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge # 329 - results

Having struggled to do much blogging all week, now it's a rush on Saturday to write this post so please bear with me if it's a bit of a gallop!

First of all, we agreed that for now we'd skip the Guest Designer slot on the results post - but I'm already making an exception! We recently spent some time in Southern Germany visiting our little grand daughters and family. We had a great time and the weather was glorious - hot, but not as stifling as we've been having here in the UK. We had a fabulous family BBQ, a trip down to Lake Constance for a lovely evening meal, some (not me!) mowed a lot of grass and we also just relaxed, with this lovely view:

 

And we crafted! Not quite so relaxing :)

We took an extra wheelie case on the plane (thank goodness for generous Business Class allowances) - packed full of craft stuff and gifts for the little ones. So hard to think what would be best to start kiddies off on their crafting journey but they (aged 10 and 8) were desperate to have a go at card making. So I dug out loads of card blanks, plain card ready cut for stamping, stickers, rub-ons, an assortment of stamps, little pointed scissors for trimming images, some templates to draw around, my old Fiskars stamping platform with the sponge feet, ordinary perspex stamping blocks, small tape runners, DST and sticky pads etc. plus new coloured markers and pencils for both the girls. And of course a couple of black ink pads. That was one thing I got absolutely right, I wanted to take Memento 'Tuxedo Black' pads and at the last minute bought some of the small 'tear drop' shaped ones instead of the normal large sized pads. MUCH easier for little hands to cope with - as well as less chance of ink everywhere!

Anyhow, here's some shots of them working away:

Mia - colouring an image

Livi (Olivia) seeing just how many stamps she can fit onto a card front :)

This cracked me up - the girls were fascinated to hear about the Playground and to learn about using snippets. Whilst I was taking a break in the sun, Len suggested to Livi that she could use their fancy edged scissors and make a snippets card. This was the result - one brand new packet of their own coloured lightweight card, with a strip carefully cut from each differently coloured sheet - which made them snippets! Great logic there kid :)

And at the same time, Mia went for more a delicate look, being two years older. This was a gold peel off sticker which she popped onto white card and coloured using her new marker pens. Then, having seen me do it with something else, she carefully trimmed around the outline without any prompting and mounted it onto a blue background (snippet) which she made by drawing around the outer scalloped edge of a Fiskars template I'd taken for them - and even got those corners just right when the template was about 13" x 9" in size!

So never underestimate what kiddies will come up with - and both those cards were made whilst I was outside chatting to their Mama.

The question that really rocked me came from Livi. She'd stamped a cute little penguin then came to me and asked how she could stamp the penguin again, but this time the other way around so it would be two penguins facing one another. 'There must be a way' she said, 'and I bet you know'. Of course she was thinking of 'mirror image stamping' - and luckily I could show her a rough and ready way to do it using a perspex block to pick up the inked image from the stamp and then transferring it onto her card. Amazing though - it's not that long ago that I revisited the technique and did it properly on the blog! And here was a little girl just beginning to try stamping coming up with the idea, phew.

Anyhow, we do have more photos - but most importantly a lot of happy memories of precious time spent together :) I always say, it's quality and not necessarily quantity - which is just as well given they don't exactly live a stone's throw away.

Let's do a very quick scamper around my picks for this fortnight, no particular theme - just entries which caught my eye:

Sharon F makes some beautiful cards, using up loads of snippets. This one really caught my eye - see the Tim Holtz 'pen nib' which forms the body of the butterfly? What a lovely finishing touch!

Oh how this card made me smile! Carol L brought it to share and I just love those reindeer - especially Rudolph with that sparkly red nose and cheesy grin! Great use of snippets and super colour combination too.

 

What a fabulous idea this is - and it was Nicky who scampered in waving this great card to show us. Anyone with a Scan and Cut machine OR a set of quite chunky alphabet dies can make this card! I have some similar dies and will certainly be trying this one - so clever to just butt up the letters at the bottom of matching coloured strips. Love it - and perfect use of snippets of course.

And here's one new Playmate:

Diny

Do please hop over to say 'Hello' to Diny!

So it was one new Playmate this time round and we had really great total of 58 entries - I think the prize was a real attraction to many, as well as the fun of the Playground.

Prize draw time now and our winner of the Sizzix 'Flowers #6' stamp and die set (thanks again Viv!), a Memory Box 'Sketchbook Imagine' die and the sweet little set of four hearts dies is:

Janice

Well done to Janice, it's a while since her last win and then it was just a sand eraser when I offered 20 or so of them, if my records are right :)

Do please send me your address Janice, with full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste - for speed and ease. I don't keep addresses of previous winners, even if they might be in my private address list - if that makes sense! I'll be off to the Post Office once I hear from you. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #330 - just check back a bit and you'll easily find it. The prize is an Art Impression 'Doggy Kisses' stamp set.

Hope you have a lovely week ahead, and that you come and play - if you haven't done so already!

Love from the little white peril Parsnip, who was delighted at the heavy rain we had (briefly) yesterday afternoon,

Less Is More - Challenge #375 - Olive and Tangerine

The current challenge over at Less Is More is 'Olive and Tangerine' - two colours which I love to see together.

Here's my card, hoping it's CAS enough as I strayed from white as the base of the card for a change, so the aperture would stand out more:

And this is the LIM cue card:

Of course, the current bright sunshine washed the colour out of my card quite a bit, in real life that tangerine coloured background card and the bird are both really vivid!

I used:

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

- stamped the image onto white card using Memento 'tuxedo Black' ink plus a bird and a branch from the Stampin' Up 'Bird Banter' set. Little tip - it was so worthwhile masking off the bird's tail before stamping the branch - a small detail but it does make a difference IMHO

- then coloured the image using Pro markers (using olive and also picking up the same shade of tangerine card I'd found in the snippets folder) and set the coloured image to one side

- trimmed the piece of tangerine coloured card to just slightly smaller than the card front

- used a die from the MFT 'Wonky Peek-a-boo Windows' set to cut an aperture in the tangerine card

- then used the Misti and a sheet of 'home printed acetate grid' to line up and stamp the sentiment stamp on the tangerine card - using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink again

- to make sure the white image panel was properly aligned in the aperture I lightly drew a pencil line around it, using the inside of the aperture die and trimmed right round to just over quarter of an inch outside the pencil lines, before rubbing them off

- stuck quarter inch wide red line tape around the back of the aperture, right up to the edge

- took the trimmed down image panel and checked it for alignment before attaching one edge to the back of the aperture using low tack tape

- that allowed me to gently peel off the other three sides, one at a time, whilst knowing that the image hadn't moved at all, then removed the low tack tape and adhered the last side. The main reason for this is because I wanted a firmly stuck down edge without the risk of glue seepage - and it works a treat if you use the tip of taping one edge in place (leaving the red line tape unpeeled of course) so you can work on the other three sides, one at a time

- final step was to glue the whole panel to the card blank

As happens so often here, there was almost a disaster when I was making this card. At the stage where I rubbed out the pencil lines around the image I managed to slightly crumple the coloured image panel in one corner! It was only slight but still would mean a lot of time lost (I'm a slow crafter). I did kick myself for grabbing some much thinner white card stock than I usually use for stamping - it was extra smooth and I just fancied trying it again. However, all was not lost 'cos I backed the panel with more white card using some double sided adhesive sheet (medium weight) and made sure I rubbed it firmly down using my Teflon folder tool, which totally flattened it out again. Phew, saved!

I did giggle later on in the day when Len spotted the finished card on my desk and said he liked it - then he quietly asked if I realised that the aperture was wonky! ☺☺☺

It's ages since I played along with Less is More and I loved making this card. I just hope it's Less is More enough, if that makes sense! As I said earlier, the aperture really needed a contrast but of course I'm dithering about it now. 

Hedgehog update: In this heat we've been leaving the kitchen door open a lot of the time when at home, to get any through breeze that might come along. Late the other evening, Len called to me to get into the kitchen as fast as possible - but I was too late to see what he'd just seen. The hedgie's feeding stations are close to the back door and when Len went to close the door - there was little 'Miss Sweet Face', the prettiest hedgie in the group, standing halfway between the feeding station and the open door looking up very quizzically as if to say 'Dare I venture in for a look around?'. It all happened so fast that I had no chance of scampering there in time - and in fact little Miss Sweet Face ran off behind the garden shed when she heard Len call me.

Happy days! And anyone with a Summer cold has my sincere sympathy!!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #330

It's time for a new Snippets fortnight - and the theme is just the same as usual - anything goes so long as you use one or more 'snippets/scraps'. Simples!

I'm totally caught up with commenting on the challenge which just closed - phew! I lagged behind a few times I know.

And the reason was our break in Germany. Even though we had wi-fi all the time there just didn't seem to be any spare moments to catch up - which is a good thing of course! The weather was glorious - and then we returned home to more of what we left behind when we flew off to Germany. Despite five fans running at full blast - they just seem to be pushing hot air around at the moment :)

My snippets card this time isn't quite as bright as the last fortnight's was - but it's still colourful:

I used:

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

- stamps from the Art Impressions 'Doggy Kisses' set

- first of all I found the striped snippets, and the pieces of backing paper - all from the Studio Calico 'Snippets' Collection paper pads I have here (and each one was a snippet as well. I keep little snippets in the back of each paper pad, popped into a sealed envelope which has been cut in half to form a pockets then stuck onto the inside of the backing card

- next stamped the little dog and the sentiment onto a snippet of white card using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' inkpad

- coloured the image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and added some green 'grass' to ground the pooch

- trimmed the image to the size I wanted and backed it with a red snippet of paper

- then glued a band of striped paper to a slightly wider band of golden yellow paper before gluing it to the card front

- I deliberately left some overhang at top and bottom, which I trimmed off from the back (that gives you the line of the card itself to follow) just using sharp scissors

- then glued the image panel in place

- finishing touch, three little black paw prints using another stamp from the same stamp set - and the Misti of course!

To be honest, I was so behind after our holiday that I really wasn't sure I'd manage to make a snippets card at all - but I'm so glad I did! The stamp set is just such fun and really lovely to use - I can see it being super-useful for Get Well cards :)

Len just spotted the finished card on my desk and had a good chuckle. We spent some time on a few of the days in Germany with me showing the little grand daughters the rudiments of card making - and their Mama joined in too. I'd taken a load of stuff, including some stamps and also new colouring pencils and markers for them. So a lot of time was spent stamping and then colouring images - and Len's comment just now was 'The girls would be proud of you'! Little smile here :)

I'll write a bit more and show some of their work shortly. Kids amaze me with their ability to pick ideas up and then push themselves further and further - and it helps that their Mum is naturally artistic of course. We had a lot of fun and laughter for sure.

Without you needing to guess, here's this week's Snippets Playground prize:

Yup, it's an Art Impressions 'Doggy Kisses' set of stamps of your very own for the randomly selected winner - and I do think the sentiments are brilliant, along with the fun pooches.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 21st July. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry and please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you're wanting to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I ignore you on my little list.

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 fortnight's picks and the winner of the Sizzix 'Flowers #6' stamp and die set, Memory Box 'Sketchbook Imagine' die and a set of four hearts die.

Love from Parsnip and of course from me,

I'm baaaaaack!

Just a quick post to say that we're back from a lovely break in Southern Germany. I did try to keep up with commenting now and then but, as you can imagine, it was a busy time.

And, in between many other things going on, this is the view I had on Sunday whilst relaxing and watching the Red Kites flying around searching for any small pickings on the ground. Two parents and two young ones - an amazing sight but I never caught them on camera, sigh.es. We get them here at home too but I've never seen them with youngsters.

No card from me this Wednesday - still recovering from long, but so worthwhile, journeys to get there and back! And we have two new little snippets playmates - I took a load of card making stuff for the little girls. Watch this space!