Pixies Snippets Playground - Week 94

Well, no reports of major incidents in the Playground - despite my really sneaking suspicion that summick might be 'brewing'. Wine or beer brewing in the playhouse perhaps? Big sigh - remember that Parsnip is under-age! I did catch a little whisper after I mentioned the Full Moon Parties over here - any 'mooning' in the Playground and there will be big trouble!!

I made my snippets card quite quickly before leaving for hols - another time I wouldn't trim the right hand side of the die cut piece so close to the letter 's'. But, it was a minor miracle I managed to make a few cards in advance at all:

I used:

- a white card blank, approx. 6" wide x 5" high by the time I trimmed a bit off the bottom :)

- a snippet of SU 'Real Red' card stock, die cut using the fabulous Memory Box 'Grand Merry Christmas' die. I've had this die for a while now and it was its first outing - love it to pieces!

- a small bunch of little silk poinsettias twisted together

- small snippet of red ribbon saddle stitched down either edge

So onto some cards from this past week in the Playground - a hard choice as always.

I picked this card, made by Kath, as a) I love the simplicity and elegance and b) to show that even white snippets should always be kept. I have tons of them at home and they are so useful, either left white or with the edges trimmed to size and run round with a Pro Marker to make a matching mat for a card rather than use up coloured card/ for those occasions when you just don't have a decent card match.

Now this card made by Maudiroff (Maureen) is really clever - it works like magic and you truly ought to see those veins disappear :)

Mary Mac brought this terrific Halloween card to show, plenty of snippets used too.

Super card by Carol L, a great idea to stamp the sentiments into the hexagons plus I really like how the image sort of tucks into the backing mat, rather like an old fashioned photo album used to work.

And a very big welcome to Laura who joined us for the first time with this great way to use up snippets - love the co-ordination and hope you come back to play with us often Laura!

Afraid it's another quick scamper this week - I need to finish and schedule this before scampering off to the hotel pool bar for Happy Hour - which they have three times a day in two hour stints! Why not just cut the prices all day?:(

But first the weekly prize draw and our winner of the 'moldable stamps' is:

Hazel

Well done Hazel. Can you please drop me an email reminding me of your address and they will be in the post as soon as possible once I return home. I think you'll have lots of fun playing with these!

And this week's prize is a duplicate of something I only just got round to using myself and it's part of today's card. My guess is that, as there are a lot of similar cards around right now, a few of you might already have this brilliant die - but perhaps not:

 

We still have a slight temporary change to Playground closing time due to the time difference where I'm away playing. The Playground gates will close at 2am UK time on Saturday 19th October. The gates will open again at midnight UK time as usual. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be the winner of the prize this week, as shown above.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

Have a lovely week!

Di (and a wave from Parsnip, who is still keeping his beady eyes on you)

Would you like a little peek..........

............... at the view from here?

I took this at one end of our mahooooosive balcony - more like an outdoor room really with plenty of teak furniture, a day bed large enough for three folk to lie on end to end and even a ceiling fan. The island to the far left on the horizon is Koh Phangan where they hold the legendary Full Moon Parties and the next one is due on 19th October.

Think I'll just have an early night with a mug of cocoa cocktail or two and give it a miss though! 

Di
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Relax

The eagle (or Pixie) has landed and by  the time this posts we should be just about awake after arriving at our destination mid-morning yesterday. And this is how I hope to spend the day (forget the bikini though - don't want to frighten the local population into running for the hills!):

I used:

- A6 cream card blank

-image by Mo Manning from Stamping Bella called 'Little Umbrella', coloured with Pro Markers and it also comes with the sentiment. Die cut and layered onto a piece of blue card which I hand cut by tracing round the die then wielding me little scissors. The birdies were just hand drawn after I'd done the clouds using a template, small duster brush and TH 'Tumbled Glass' 

- all SU backing card is 'Marina Mist' - any mist here and I wants me money back.

- patterned paper is from Echo Park's 'Hello Summer' paper pad and 
just a tickle of Glossy Accents on the sunspecs and parts of the cocktail glass.


Di
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Someone had a disappointment :(

Whilst sorting out stuff for this teacher training malarky, I heard some shuffling, drawers being quietly opened and closed, rustling and then a hopeful sigh:

Parsnip had only pinched my floppy sunhat, a spare pair of sunspecs, an old passport (as if that would get him anywhere!) and even helped himself to a bit of foreign 'spending money' :(

Now, I know that Sam takes Fergus on all her travels, but Parsip is about three times his size, so I had to sit down and have a quiet little chat with him. I explained that he had a very important job to do back here, looking after the Playground keys and also keeping an eye open for any mischief.

Once the tears dried up he looked at me and said rather challengingly 'OK Miss, so where's the keys then?'.

Ha, little did he know that I DO have keys for the Playground, given to me by Jules in January 2012 when I took the Playground over.

Talk about sounding like Gollum, last I saw of him he was whispering 'My Precioussssss' over and over again :)

So you've been warned, Parsnip will be on the prowl :) And there's nothing worse than a power crazed bear!

"Au revoir, mes enfants! À bientôt!"
 
Di
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Pixies Snippets Playground - Week 93

My snippets card for this week literally came about when I stumbled across a little cello bag containing an image, sentiment and snippets all ready for a Christmas card that I didn't get round to making last year:

I used:

 - 6" x 6" square white card blank

- papers from the cello bag, one large snippet for the background and four smaller ones as a sort of diamond patchwork. I think the papers are 'Nitwits' and originally came free with a magazine

- the wreath is by Penny Black called 'Adornment'. No idea what colour I used to stamp it, ha, just checked my stamp colour swatches and it's Brilliance 'Pearlescent Crimson'

- the sentiment is by Craftwork Cards, a circular one which fits nicely in the centre of the wreath

- a few clear sparkly gems to finish off

A huge sigh here at managing to make such a quick card for today too :)

A quick scamper through my picks of the week:

Love this card by Bonnie - so fresh and just perfect for Christmas!

This card by Jenny L is absolutely adorable - perfect for a newborn baby girl!

This just blew me away - and there's a secret when you pull the flowers up too. Made by Sam along with other similar ones - do go and see.

Sorry it's such a quick race through this week girls - I loved each and every one of your snippets makes.

And now for the prize draw, those really cute House Mouse stamps. And the winner is:

Amanda

Well done Amanda! I managed to find your snail mail address and the stamps are already on their way - I posted them yesterday afternoon after the Playground closed and I ran Mr Random. Almost met myself coming back! You didn't actually say whether or not you really wanted them but having looked through your blog I did spot at least one House Mouse stamp being used, and these will be a doddle for you with your super colouring skills :)

Our Playground prize this week has nothing whatsoever to do with my snippets card - here's a hint though:

Elizabeth made this fabulous card for the Playground this week, along with several others, using new and very exciting toys :) See the background of the sentiment? It was made using these:

Elizabeth explains it all so well over on her blog so do go and peek. Basically you heat the moldable stamps and then can make your own reverse image stamps using all sort of things, buttons. nuts and bolts - the list goes on!

We have a packet of these as this week's prize - yay!

The 'stamps' are re-usable, just reheat for them to return to their original shape  so you can have hours of fun. They are as light as a feather so I'll happily post to anywhere - but as I'll be away they wouldn't be posted until after I return home of course.

A slight temporary change to Playground closing times due to the time difference too. The Playground gates will close at 2am UK time on Saturday 12th October. That gives me a fighting chance of writing up the Playground during the day in between cocktails) in time for the gates opening again at midnight as usual. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be the winner of the prize this week, as shown above.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

One final thing girls, thank you all so much for your input about what we should call the Playground in future. It came across that we ought to drop the 'Crafty' for sure. I was happy with Snippets Playground and am fully supportive of us never dropping 'Snippets', but was also very touched by how many of you wanted a reference to Pixie to remain.

So how about this as the best compromise I've picked up from all your comments? If you want to use the full name of Pixie's Snippets Playground then that's fine, for ease you may want to shorten it to the Snippets Playground or even PSP as some people very cleverly suggested. After all, we all know that LIM is the Less is More challenge - today the Playground, tomorrow we conquer the world girls! Cue music from the St. Trinians films :)

Have a lovely week!

Di (and a wave from Parsnip)
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A little set of floral cards..............

........made to tuck in with the Snippets Playground prizes:

 I used:

- small DL white card blanks

- lots of snippets of card and paper

- rub on flowers which I stumbled across whilst sorting out goodies to send to the Care Home where my step-mum lives, for their weekly card making sessions. Oh boy, I got these AGES ago from QVC and the pad hadn't even been opened - seven different A5 sheets with each one having a load of the same flower in different sizes and they really are lovely - sort of raised epoxy. I went on the hunt to find some as a Playground prize and sadly the company has gone into liquidation - they're designed by Tracy Hollins, called 'The Elegance Collection Textured Floral Rub-ons', made by 'Creata'. If you ever do stumble across any on eBay or wherever, I promise you wouldn't be in the least bit disappointed

- sentiments were stamped using a stamp from my much loved Stampendous 'Happy Messages' set and different ink pads to tone with the cards. SU punches were used to punch out the sentiments and the backing layers

To show you how lovely the rub-ons are:

Love, love, love them and can see me having a little go at trying out one on a laminated bookmark sometime soon.

Sorry for showing something no longer available - such a shame too :(

Nessa has already seen one of these in real life as it went along with her snippets prize and she even showed it on her blog, but this is the first time I've written about them so I'm joining in  her new challenge called Fabulous Floral 5th. All you have to do is to have a flower on your card - and we all do that at some point I know for sure!

Di
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Christmas Card - use three main colours

The current challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is to use three main colours. Despite being busy, this is one challenge I really try not to miss and so I used, red, green and some gold-ish colours plus white which is OK either as an additional colour or as one of the three:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- image from LOTV's 'Christmas Angels' Art Pad - already coloured of course! Die cut with a Nesties oval and then layered onto a Nesties scalloped oval

- SU 'Real Red' plain card for backings

- patterned papers from LOTV's 'Classic Christmas' paper pad

- sentiment is LOTV from the 'Christmas Grungy Messages' set, stamped onto a snippet of white card using 'Real Red'

- the lovely red 'ribbled' ribbon was a find in Marlborough the other week, tied in a bow and a couple of little gold bells added, tied with gold cord

- Josy Rose white nail heads

I really love quite a lot of LOTV's recent Christmas Art Pads and their Christmas papers are beautiful too. Thanks to some very dear friends who gifted me some really generous gift vouchers I was able to indulge a bit more recently and  also have a return visit planned for later in the month - wahoo!

Of course, it's also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for October, which is always 'Anything Goes'.

That's me for today, hair cut (always a traumatic experience!) then back to work - whoooooosh!

Di
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The Playground

Just to say I've fallen behind with commenting on your lovely snippets Playground makes - I'll catch up ASAP but hope you understand that, one week before going 8,000 6,000 miles on 'teachers training', it's a teeny bit bit stressful to learn that your accommodation has been cancelled :( WHAT?!?!?!?!?!!?

We are sorted out now, and very probably for the better, but I sure could kick some a*se here!!! That's not me (I wish) and it's not poor Len's rear end either :)




Sigh, WHY do we do it - the UK seems much less hassle.

Edit: It's actaully just over 6,000 miles although the time difference is 7 hours and the journey door to door will only take us 22 hours. So that's OK then :( 

Di
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Less is More - sketch time

Over at Less is More this week, it's sketch time. A really CAS sketch and I did enjoy making this super-fast card:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- rub-on transfers from a lovely set by Kaisercraft called 'The Lake House'. This was in the lovely prize I won from Caz back in May.  The rose, once transferred,  was die cut using a circle die and I then held the same die on the actual card front and paper pricked right round it - ha, making sure that I already knew where the sentiment would overlap the holes 'cos 'sho nuff' they didn't quite have the right spacing once I got to the joining up point. I then just stuck the circle with the rose on onto the card and it's spot-on even despite the lying little toad of a camera :( I just worked out why, it's 'cos the raised embossed bit on the circle on the left hand side has caught the light making it look as if it's the very edge

- the sentiment is another rub on from the same set, just punched using SU's 'Modern Label' punch

- the final bit, which you can't see, I backed the inside of the card front with white card to cover the pin pricks :)

This is the sketch over at LIM if you fancy having a go as well:

Sorry I haven't been commenting on the Playground etc. today - bit of a 'blip' (understatement of the year!) in 'teacher's training arrangements' sort of shot the day apart - I think it's all sorted out now and will get round to you asap - mwah!

Di
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Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 92

Happy Sunday everyone! At 59 we didn't quite reach the magic number 60 in the Playground last week, that'd be a first for us - but each week does see more and more of you coming to play, which is really great. I hope it shows that the Playground is a happy place to be :)

Here's my snippets card for this week - appropriate given the nip in the air these past few days:

I used:

- 8" x 8" square white card blank

- stamped image is from the House Mouse 'Autumn Leaves' set by Joanna Sheen, stamped in Sepia and then coloured with Whispers pens and layered onto a snippet of orange card

- the 'patchwork' backing is what started this card off, I found three little snippet strips of Autumn leaves paper and just chopped them into squares then layered onto more plain orange card (all the plain orange pieces used on this card were snippets but my card swatch tells me it's SU's 'Pumpkin Pie')

- the brown backing card wasn't a snippet, it's by SU and is called 'Baked Brown Sugar' from their 2013-2015 In Color range. Looks rather like Kraft card to me :)

- then I still had some 'Pumpkin Pie' snippets, plus some big blank areas, so I added corners which were die cut using Joy! Crafts 6002/0135. To be honest I'd have called this die a nice name such as 'lattice corner' - and I bet it'll be great on white on white cards. I was very lucky to win this from Caz back in May - check out her first snippets Playground card a teeny bit further down this post, it's fabulous!

That's my snippets make, not one I'm overly happy with but I'm still gonna be cheeky and enter it over at House Mouse and Friends where the current theme is 'Monochrome' .

Onto this week's 'picks', difficult as ever of course. I think first of all we should welcome some new playmates:

I can't believe it's taken me so long to arm twist encourage the lovely Caz to come and join us in the Playground! We've followed one another since almost forever and it was only this last week it dawned on me that she hadn't ventured into the Playground!  And what an entrance she made - oh my goodness, I totally adore this beautiful Christmas card - so, so rich and elegant.

Brenda L scampered (grin) into the Playground for the first time with this lovely little poochie card. When you tie in the sentiment to the sweet little image sitting there with his lead - aaaw. And over on Brenda's blog there's a lovely photo of her own Jack Russell, who can also come and play if he likes :)

And our third new playmate is Jenny L, who brought this absolutely stunning Christmas card - I think that deep rich red and gold are perfect for Christmas and what a serene image! Welcome Jenny, lovely to have you along.

Onto just a few other picks:

I chose this card, made by Irene, for all the little snippets she used - and all the different embossing. Such a fabulous result - a lovely Wedding card indeed.

Cornelia made this card, using paint colour swatches for the banner! What a fantastic idea - anyone in danger or running out of snippets, just hit your local hardware store :)

Our Sam used LOADS of snippets on this 80th Birthday card, so beautifully too. Do look closely, there's so much care and detail - as always with Sam's makes.

And there was no way I could leave out this divine card. made by Debs. All those glorious butterflies made from snippets, love it!

As always, each and every single snippets make is a total winner in my eyes - to check them out if you haven't done so already THIS is the link.

The normal weekly draw first - and the winner of the Woodware 'Noel' stamp is:

23 of of you girlies made at least three cards in total over the past couple of weeks to be in with a chance of winning of Ryn's 'Rising Bubbles' stamp - and the winner is:

Sarah (Sazzle Dazzle)

Well done Sarah - I'll post the stamp to you ASAP. Can you just drop me an email with your snail mail address in please? I think I still have it but would hate to post Ryn's stamp off to the wrong person!

Commiserations to everyone else - I do know that a few of you were really so keen to have this stamp, and I only wish I had another 22 to give away!

OK, so what's on offer this coming week then? Yup, there is a little hint in my snippets card - it's a bag full of Autumn leaves swept up from the Playground, snort! Would I be so mean? It's these little beauties:

It's two sets of two (in fact more) unmounted rubber House Mouse stamps making a single prize - I was lucky and found them over at Joanna Sheen's bargain shelf in her online store :) Thought they might be really tricky to colour but considering I did my snippets card today in such a rush they really aren't as hard as they look. With more time and care I'd have made a better job of the colouring, but that was purely lack of time on my part.

The Playground will run as usual this week with the gates closing at 11am UK time on Saturday 5th October. Maximum of three entries and please say 'No thank you' in a comment if you wish to still play but not be the winner of the prize this week, as shown above.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, I can sort it out for you quite quickly and am always happy to do so.

One final question girls, Mary H referred to the Playground as Pixie's Playground and it struck me that Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground is a real mouthful to both say and also type when you want to play along. Which option would you prefer - Snippets Playground, Pixie's Snippets or Pixie's Playground? I truly don't mind but do feel it would make life just a bit easier and save a few seconds for you all when posting if we shorten the name. I think it might be nice to keep Playground in the name perhaps. Other options are welcome too of course - it's your Playground after all! If you're happy to leave it as is then I'll 'go with the flow' as they say.

Have a lovely week!

Di (and a wave from Parsnip)
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Saturday Supper - Lemon and Thyme Chicken

Still really busy here and not doing much card making but I thought you might like a tasty recipe to try:

Lemon and Thyme Chicken:

Serves 4

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
8 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
10 small shallots, peeled
8 garlic cloves, unpeeled
15g fresh thyme, roughly chopped
2 small lemons, 1 sliced, 1 juiced
250ml white wine

Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a shallow saucepan. Season the chicken and shallots and, working in batches, fry the chicken until brown, then add the shallots. Add more oil as you go.

Place the browned chicken and shallots back in the pan and add the garlic, thyme, lemon slices and juice and white wine. Bring to the boil then simmer for 5 minutes.

Transfer to the oven and cook for 35 minutes or until the chicken is golden, cooked through and no pink meat remains.

I made this the other evening and altered nothing, for once. Served it with new potatoes and fresh asparagus - very tasty, with a hint of North Africa about it. 

Normally I shy away from chicken thighs but have to say they're a much moister cut of chicken for this dish so I obeyed the recipe :) And, there's half of the result in the freezer for another day too.

Enjoy your Saturday, I can't believe how full the Playground has been this week and am faced with the weekly worry of which 'show and tells' to feature when I do the write-up this morning. Grin, maybe I'll just close my eyes, go to Mr Linky and stick a pin in the screen a few times :)

Di

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A third Frugal Christmas card

Here's another entry for Nessa's Frugal Christmas challenge, where you should create a Christmas card using 'non-Christmas' goodies - although Christmas sentiments and backing paper/card are allowed:

I used:

- 4" x 4" square white card blank

- snippet of 'snowflake' backing card

- snippet of white sparkly mulberry paper, torn and layered  to resemble drifted snow

- snowman made using two buttons, a little snippet of bakers twine and two teeny snippets of black card for his hat :)

- sentiment is from LOTV 'Christmas Grungy Messages', stamped onto a snippet of white card using 'Real Red'

I'd spotted this snowman idea in Quick Cards Made Easy magazine this month - but had no idea how much sorting through the button boxes it would take to find two compatible buttons. But it was fun reminiscing - I even still have the huge orange buttons from a Mary Quant trouser suit, and that sure dates me!

I had a really concerned email from a lovely bloggy pal the other evening, wondering if all was OK as I hadn't posted anything that day. Things are busy here right now with some 'teacher training' coming up - so posts may well not appear on a daily basis. As my pal and I both observed, why do we go into a frenzy of cleaning before these things?

BUT, the Playground will continue as usual, although I may have to 'tweak' opening and closing times in a couple of weeks and you'll be kept up to date about any slight changes for sure.

Di
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Rudolph Day September 2013

This is my offering for Rudolph Day, run by my lovely buddy Sarn over HERE:

I used:

- 4" x 4" square cream card blank

- backing paper from a pack I bought in New Mexico by The Paper Studio called 'Cozy Little Christmas', cut carefully to make sure there are four squares running each way of course with the four middle ones hidden, OCD strike again!

- square of cream card

- snippet of green toning patterned card

- Scrabble letters from a free download here - in real life they do look like wood but the light here was dreadful for taking photos so they now look pink-tinged. The sheet of letters, which I just printed onto card (another time I might cover them with Glossy Accents), happily had three of each of the letters N,O,E and L - so I made three cards the same while I was at it :)

I've seen this idea in Blogland in a few places, but it was Helen over at It's All Fiddle Fart who recently reminded me in this post. Thanks Helen!

It's also for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for September, where it's always anything goes.


Di
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