Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #340 - results

Oh my gosh, time is galloping past and it's midday on Saturday and I haven't even started to write this post! I usually try to at least have the bones of Sunday Snippets posts in place during the middle of the week - but every single minute seems to be taken up right now. Thankfully all Christmas cards are on their way, including the ones I hand deliver - so that's a big job out of the way. We have a lot of non-perishables here for Christmas and the freezer is likely to burst if I try to squeeze anything else into it! One more grocery delivery due from Ocado this coming week and then I truly hope it's literally just a few very last minute fresh fruits and vegetables and at least we can forget about the outside world for a few days.

Dudley is coming along just great and those missing four front teeth popped straight through within three days! They look just like little pearls :)

Anyhow, time is precious so let's get straight on with the fortnight's picks. In keeping with the Feative Season I've chosen thee Christmas cards to highlight as my 'picks'. Every entry is always so lovely and it's certainly never easy to choose just three - but here you go:

I think this card, made by Kath B, is just so elegant! Wonderful leaping deer and the mix of shiny red and sparkly white snowflakes are perfect against the beautiful background. And the red bow and swirl on the deer - gorgeous! A good few snippets used here too!

Karen Ladd entered with this really pretty Christmas card - using a Flickr account. I can't always get to grips with copying images from Flickr and this is the best I can do - any bigger and it goes all blurred. Love the way Karen picked out the colours from the backing layer for that lovely bauble. Great use of snippets as well.

Alice of Scrapamondo really used some gorgeous snippets for this great Christmas card. i absolutely love the end result - lots of layers and combinations yet the overall effect isn't fussy or too busy - the sign of a good crafter!

No new Playmates this time and we had a total of 48 entries. Numbers seem to be down with a week to go on the current challenge - my bet is that I'm not the only one running round like a headless chicken! 

Now it's prize draw time, and our winner of the Stamping Bella 'sweaty chicks' set of stamps is:

Em (Fairley)

I know it's a year since Em won in the Playground - when I was giving away the big batch of sand erasers - so this is certainly due! Do please send me your address Em, with full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll post your prize 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.

If you send your email quickly Em I'll nip out to a post box and send your prize straight off as I have a supply of UK stamps - so no need to queue at the Post Office. And, it might well mean you get your prize in time for Christmas as well!

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #341 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a bundle of goodies the same as those I used to make a Wedding card recently - an Xcut 6" x 6" 'Polka Hearts' embossing folder, The Works 'Swirl Heart' die and a Creative Expressions 'Congratulations' die.

No photo of Dudley today - he's either zonked out asleep or running riot here! I'll try to make sure there's one ASAP - promise! He adores his walks and now knows what's coming as soon as there's any hint of his sweet little harness making an appearance. Len took him out yesterday in beautiful sunshine whilst I was busy doing other stuff and he said he was leaping around like a little Spring lamb. We won't let him off the lead as yet, at least until he's older and more sensible, but I did order a run-out/retractable lead yesterday (thanks to Amazon Prime it's already here) - and that's going to be such fun to see. More freedom to run and play yet still safe. Both of us have used them with previous dogs and feel the time is right to give it a try. Where Dudley generally walks is very quiet during the week - paths for humans and plenty of trees and grass either side. So funny, twice he's brought a twig/stick home - looking very pleased with himself! And, he still hasn't cottoned on that walks are also for toilet needs - he keeps it in until he's back home and then asks to go straight out onto the penned in patio! No doubt in time he'll get the idea! We've had a couple of chewing casualties this past week - certainly have to keep your eyes peeled. One was in the space of time it took me to brush my teeth on Wednesday morning! But, things can be replaced - little Dudley is irreplaceable and such a delight.

Do check in next Sunday to find out about the Annual Christmas and New Year draw! Lots of prizes to be won over the two weeks of the challenge which begins on Sunday 23rd December!

Hope you all have a lovely week ahead, and little Parsnip sends his love. He's  now fussing around over wrapping Dudley's Christmas parcels and what should go into a puppy's stocking! Dudley sends his love too! Woof!

All I want for Christmas....

.... is my two four front teeth! A message from Dudley.

My baby teeth are coming out and new ones are ready to take their place - so far it's the four top front ones - bang on schedule for a Havanese! And just  two days later the new ones right in the middle are peeping through.

Sooooooooo, this is my vewy serious doggie world question - will I still be able to eat/chow down some chopped up chicken/turkey on Christmas Day?

OR, do I place an order for 'minced/blended/suck it through a straw please' in advance of the big event? Decisions, decisions, sigh.

NB The above image came from the Internet and it's drawn by Kim Niles. I hope I didn't break copyright in any way by adding it here. You can buy her images on canvas etc. through Fine Art America HERE - after Christmas I intend to buy one for us as it really is little Dudley down to the last detail!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #341

The photo of my snippets card for today isn't very good I'm afraid. We had days on end of really dull and overcast weather with rain thrown in for good measure, then I was at the point where I really needed to take a photo before delivering this card to be taken to the wedding from Len and I by a friend of the bride. So what did we get when I rushed to take the photo? Blinding sunshine and bouncing light all over the place! Sigh - these things are sent to try us!

Anyhow, here's my snippets card for today and the inspiration for it came from an Anniversary card made by our Janice HERE. This is my version, which I made as an easel card:

I used:

- 6" square easel card made using white card stock

- snippets of silver mirri card for the heart and sentiment and snippets of sparkly silver card for all the borders. I went for more sparkle as it's an
'almost Christmas' wedding and I know that the bride has chosen Christmas music for the church blessing and no doubt there will be other festive and sparkly touches

- snippets of White Pearlescent card for the embossed layers and the background to the heart and the sentiment

- first of all I cut and folded the easel card pieces but at this point kept it un-assembled

- then cut the two sparkly borders for the front and the flat part of the card and glued them in place

- topped those with a background layer of white pearlescent card which was embossed using XCut's 'Polka Hearts' embossing folder - there had been a fair old bit of measuring up and careful trimming beforehand I can tell you!

- then die cut the heart from Stick-It backed silver mirri card using a gorgeous die from The Works called 'Swirl Heart' - I also die cut the smaller centre heart from white pearlescent card to add into the centre and bring it all the the same level

- adhered the heart to a snippet of white pearlescent card and trimmed it down to size before backing it with a border of sparkly silver card

- then die cut and assembled the sentiment strip (which acts as a 'stop' to hold the card upright) using another lovely die, so kindly given to me earlier this year by a very sweet friend (you know who you are!) - the die is called 'Congratulations' and is made by Creative Expressions

- the next step was to fix the easel card together using red line tape

- and then I added the image panel and the sentiment panel using reasonably thick sticky pads - and popped a pair of linked Wedding rings into the centre of the heart - hooray for peel offs!

- finished, phew!

The card took me almost two days to make, I kept being distracted by little Dudley and made a few mistakes along the way which meant I had to re-do bits. For instance, embossing one piece of pearlescent card on the reverse (shame it wasn't double sided pearl but there you go!) - silly little mistakes as I wasn't really concentrating. In real life the card looks very special though and I'm well pleased with it, I made up a box for it as well. I really dithered about personalising it with the bride and groom's names - but in the end opted for keeping it less cluttered.

The prize, as usual, is totally connected to this week's snippets card:

It's an Xcut 6" x 6" 'Polka Hearts' embossing folder, a The Works 'Swirl Heart' die and a Creative Expressions 'Congratulations' die. I do so love The Works dies - considering they're pretty inexpensive they cut beautifully, come out of the dies with ease and are well made and robust.

A nice bumper bundle and I won't split this prize at all. As I always say, if you win and really don't want everything (although they go together so well) then feel free to give anything away to a fellow crafter at your end.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 22nd December. 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 itself - 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 :)

In two weeks time we'll all be in panic mode I expect getting ready for Christmas! But, do try and find time during the following fortnight to make and link a snippets make into the Mr Linky which will publish on 23rd December as most (if not all) days I'll be adding prizes into the pot for the Grand Christmas/New Year Draw! You will need to comment on any post showing the prize for that day if you wish to be added into the draw for that particular prize. One overall comment saying 'all prizes' won't cut it I'm afraid. Neither will racing through all the posts right at the end commenting on all the prizes be very fair - and it will show up on my dashboard. I know we're all going to be busy so I will allow some leeway of course.

I'm finishing this off on Saturday morning (ie. yesterday). It's been a fun week for Dudley and tonight will be a real test as I'm going to the Archery Club Christmas Quiz evening with Len. To be honest I'd rather stay at home but we do need to see if Dudley can cope with an evening in his indoor pen - along with bed, food, water and toys of course. Plus the radio will be left on for him to 'sing' along to! In fact, his sounds vary immensely and he almost yodels at times. I feel so bad that we have to try this but Len has rigged up an indoor CCTV camera so we can monitor him from where we'll be. And who knows, it may go well.


Yesterday (Friday) for example was a case in point. I got myself into a real tizz as Friday got closer and Dudley was being left alone at the groomers. He trotted into the main store quite nicely but was hesitant when we went into the 'grooming parlour' and he positively backed into a corner with his paws firmly dug in when he needed to be handed over to the girls! However, one worrying hour later I returned to collect him and guess what? He'd been an absolute angel throughout - hardly a murmur from him and the girls had fallen in love with him of course. In fact, the little scamp just gave me a glance and carried on licking the girl who brought him to be handed back. So much for a frantic little dog scrabbling to get back to 'Mum'! In loads of ways it's really heartening that he's not as fazed by these things as we thought he might be. And, he looks (and smells) utterly fabulous! He's fast asleep right now and with this evening in mind it isn't fair to disturb him to take a photo. Just think very white and fluffy with a coat that feels like spun silk :)

Hope you all have a lovely week/fortnight. And remember, if it doesn't get done before Christmas, things will still carry on so try not to get into panic mode with preparations. She says - being the world's worst! I actually have a list which lists all my to-do lists here!

Love from Parsnip and myself, and of course a 'woof' from Dudley ☺

Edit: Dudley coped amazingly well! He looked as if he was doing well on camera when we spied on him from the quiz venue. He was 'all of a quiver' when Len went into the house whilst I parked my car  - whether it was excitement at seeing Len or he'd been a bit stressed as the evening wore on we're unsure, but to be honest that little chap is proving to be tougher than we thought. Lots of play time and snuggles and he's absolutely fine!!

Six more Christmas cards

I know, I'm a right pain driving up the tally of Christmas cards I've made this year - am so close to the target I set myself that Little Miss Stubborn doesn't want to give up just yet.

I made six cards, all exactly the same last week, during those miserable rainy days we had - I can see little fuzzy bits around the die cut sentiment in the slightly wonky photo, but it's so hard to grab any daylight just now that I had to settle for the best I could manage. Have just whisked those fuzzy bits away with a fairly stiff paintbrush:

 

I used:

- 4" x 4" white card blanks - I find Hobbycraft's A4 300gsm card is really great for making card blanks - it doesn't 'split' like some bought card blanks do when you fold them

- 3.75" x 3.75" square of dark blue pearlescent card for the background

- 3.75" wide strip (snippet) of white pearlescent card, backed with Stick-It and then die cut using the adorable Your Next Die 'Winter Scene Border' die

- fixed the die cut to the very bottom of the dark blue card background - at this point not stuck onto the card front in case I needed to trim a bit off the sides. I didn't in fact but best to play safe plus it's always easier to handle elements before the card is assembled'

- then die cut the sentiment using more of the white pearlescent card backed with Stick-It and Impression Obsession's 'Seasons Greetings' die. I'll be quite honest and say that it was a bit of a so-and-so' to remove all the waste from the die cut but so worth it - I put it down to me using Stick-It adhesive sheet and another time may well try using Collall All Purpose glue in a fine line bottle, or even a fine glue pen as Stick-It sheet just loves to play awkward on really intricate die cuts

- to position the die cut sentiment I used a strip of clear removable tape across the front of the blue panel for an alignment guide and popped the die cut sentiment in place before removing the piece of tape ready for the next card in the production line

- then ran the whole panel through the Cuttlebug using the CB embossing plates plus an embossing folder as 'packing' - the result looks as if the sentiment and little scenic strip are inlaid and there's no way those die cuts are gonna peel off

- glued the panel onto the card front and then stared at the card for ages

- asked Len, who agreed with me that something was missing - so I added three Josy Rose shiny silver star shaped hot-fix nail heads and was finally happy with the result

I'm really happy the way the border along the bottom breaks up a plain card and the fabulous big die cut sentiment works well with it rather than being on its own (IMHO).

I think this may be the last year I make cards for quite a few people though. Obviously crafting friends will always receive hand made cards, as will family and close friends. But, it's becoming more of a chore than a pleasure given the number of cards we send and receive - especially as Dudley does need quite a lot of attention. Plus, a few friends are going 'electronic' and some others even use free sample Christmas cards they've been sent by charities. I know it's the thought but this gal is gonna start thinking a bit more about priorities!

Took Dudley out for his first solo drive with me yesterday just to our local dentist to deliver a Wedding card and then straight back home. He was wearing his little 'walkies' harness and hooked up to the seat belt slot on the front passenger seat beside me. Did you know that Havanese can almost 'yodel' when stressed? In between heavy panting - poor little sausage! Was it my driving I wonder? However, he's back to his normal naughty self again!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #339 - results

Oh boy, it's been so wet here this past week - but Dudley doesn't mind the rain too much thankfully. And, he's even finding the vigorous towel 'drying off session' when we get back indoors to be fun as well. At first the little tinker was growling but we've moved on from that stage and he revels in it, just wait until the Puppy Pampering Spa session lined up for Friday! I have to go away and leave him for an hour and although the girls seem really lovely it's the first time he'll be in the hands of strangers without either Len or myself being there. Gulp.

Anyhow, let's get straight on with the fortnightly picks.

The challenge coincided with the 100th Anniversary since Armistice Day which ended the First World War - and not surprisingly we had a few entries using the Memory Box 'Prim Poppy die. In quite different ways though - here they are as a reminder:

Shaz in Oz made this beautiful card - what a lovely background as well, such an unusual embossing folder.

Kath B inlaid her die cuts on this card and came up with a great way to insert those little white cut out pieces - I always manage to lose one or two along the way despite keeping them in a little plastic lid whilst working.

 

Viv used the same poppy die to create her lovely card - I just love the shadow effect. To find out how Viv did it hop on over to her blog - very clever and one to try out for sure.

Still on the theme of poppies, here's a different die set:

Linby made a beautiful batch of poppy ATCs and very kindly sent one to me - they're even lovelier in real life. I have my Dad's military medals from his Army career, they're in a big. flat, padded wooden cigar box along with matching 'miniatures' for dress occasions. My Grandad's World War One medals are in there as well (Pip, Squeak and Wilfred). I intend to pop the ATC in the box with the medals as it seems absolutely the right place to keep a special momento of the recent anniversary. Thank you again Lynn!

I'd love to add more picks but am short of time - as always now. It's a struggle getting round to Playgroun entries but I am picking away at it when there's time! And of course am also trying to make a few cards to showcase our Christmas/New Year Draw prize. All in between the usual pre-Christmas preparations

No new Playmates this time but again we had a total of 51 entries. We do keep bobbing around that total - which is heartening. I've said before that I have a number in mind and if we drop below it then the Playground gates will close - but we have some way to go yet!

Now it's prize draw time, and our winner of the Stamping Bella 'Straight Up Floral' set of stamps and the Impression Obsession 'Thoughts' die is:

Emma T

Well done Emma - I'm sure this is a first win for you. And it's a double whammy this time as you're also one of my picks!

Do please send me your address, with full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll post your prize 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 #340 - just check back a bit and you'll easily find it. The prize is a Stamping Bella 'sweaty chicks' set of stamps - really cute and amusing too.

And speaking of cute and amusing, Dudley has a new special place where he likes to lie - on a little faux sheepskin doggy mat - on a table right beside Len's desk where he can keep an eye on him! Not sure who's watching who though. Havanese are known to be climbers who love to lie or sit in high places - he loves to do a tightrope walk along the back of one of the sofas here, under strict supervision as it's a long way for a little pup to fall!

Just look at those big brown eyes - he's a real heart breaker when he gazes at you! Right now he's lying in a doggy bed in my craft room doorway with his head hanging over the side, fast asleep.

The brightly coloured monkey arrived here with him from the lovely Cherie who owns his parents, along with a paw printed fleecy blanket and a little tennis ball. Monkey is his really beloved toy he always goes to when it's time for a nap and it's never far away from him, often dangling from Dudley's mouth by the tail - I've had to repair it once so now Monkey looks like he's had plastic surgery on his chin!He would be devastated if anything happened to Monkey - so needless to say I tracked down and bought a standby one which is hidden away just in case it's needed at some point. Of course it won't have that 'puppy whiff' from being chewed but better than nothing I hope.

Edit after seeing Scrapamondo's concerned comment: Monkey's eyes are just embroidered with a little bit of black and white thread although they might look shiny in the photo they are not plastic, just very realistic embroidery. And I check all of Dudleys toys over daily - plus he only has dog friendly toys with no parts that can be chewed off. But thanks for your concern Alice x

Hope you all have a lovely week ahead, and little Parsnip sends his love. He's been surfing the internet today for more Christmas presents for Dudley - I'm just a bit worried about the miniature saddle as I think Parsnip has ideas about being 'Bear John Wayne! - and Dudley sends his love too! Woof!