Rudolph Days Challenge - August 2020

There's still time to enter into ScrappyMo's Rudolph Days challenge for August - it closes at the end of the month, 31st August.

Here's my Rudolph Days entry - I went overboard with the fiddly stuff once again, when will I learn to do quick and easy? And also, making three of these cards the same, although wise in some ways as it was like a factory production line, seemed to take forever - I had little scraps of offcuts stuck all over the place as well:

I used:

- white DL card (following the current trend for long and skinny cards)

- silver mirri card, trimmed slightly smaller than the card front and glued in place using Collall All Purpose glue, then set to one side whilst I made the top layer of the card

- baby blue pearlescent card, trimmed slightly smaller than the silver layer

- snippets of white, black, red and brown card for the snowman (plus white card which I coloured with an orange Zig brush pen to use for the nose just so I could get the right shade of orange)

- backed the white card with Stick-It and die cut the snowman using Tonic's 'Joyful' Snowman' die

- then adhered the snowman onto the baby blue piece of card

- die cut his 'extras' all from snippets of Stick-It backed card - brown for the arms, orange for the 'carrot nose', black for the top hat (plus the buttons and eyes) and red for the scarf

- adhered all the finishing 'extras' in place and gave the snowman a touch of pale pink Zig on one cheek

- then from the leftover pieces from die cutting the main body of the snowman, punched five 'snowballs' for him to juggle - using a Stampin' Up 'Itty Bitty round punch' and adhered them in place

- die cut the sentiment using Stick-It backed silver mirri card and a Sue Wilson Festive Mini Expressions die called 'Christmas Wishes'

- added the sentiment underneath the snowman

- glued the finished blue panel onto the silver layer - which was already glued to the card front

Finito!

The snowman die was released for Christmas 2016 but he is 'new and unused' to me and therefore NBUS - here I come with another entry for Darnell's NBUS #17 challenge.

And, finally I remembered to enter this into Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #504 as well! 

I already have a good few snowman stamps as well as dies but couldn't resist this brand new unopened little guy fairly recently on a 'craft de-cluttering' Facebook group ............ at £5 including postage. He still sells at £12 or so online so I bagged a bargain - even if I didn't desperately need him!

That brings my total of 2020 Christmas cards now made up to 45. Gonna have to get a wiggle on if I want to catch up a bit - some simpler designs could be a plan. However, no-one questioned the additional shop bought ones I sent out last year :)

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #385

Hooray, Dudley has returned to snuggling up with us during the night. It's a mix of cooler weather and also most likely the fact that he had a hair cut so is feeling generally cooler!

Nothing exciting to report from this end, each day is very similar with the odd 'absolutely necessary' outing thrown in. The most stressful outings were on Thursday, following Len to the car dealer/garage as they aren't currently collecting cars for servicing, bringing him home and then doing the same process in reverse later on in the day. The driving itself was fine - it was the 'pesky passenger' in the back of my car, safely in his booster seat, causing the mayhem that was the real issue! Who knew that a fairly little dog could make such a variety of sounds, chuffing like a steam train, yodeling for England - and almost imitating a chattering parrot in between. All done at full volume and it mattered not whether Len was in the car with me or not. The one time Dudley IS quiet is when I zip along at high speed - but at roundabouts, traffic lights and in built up areas where I poodle along he lets rip! He's always the same and it's doubtful if he'll ever grow out of it to be honest - little tinker. Later we discovered that the car's Sat Nav software hadn't been updated as it should have been, as part of the service (grump, grump), so we have to go through the whole garage 'to and fro' process once again on Monday - happy days!

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

I used:

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

 

- snippet of white card as a plain backing for the heart, which I die cut using a Memory Box die called 'Cupid Heart' 

- another snippet of white card, die cut using a Memory Box 'Cream Puff Heart' die - in fact I die cut two of these in the end, just why is a bit further down

- snippet of 'pink roses' card from a Wild Rose Studio 'Butterfly Garden' paper pad which came free with 'Quick Cards Made Easy' magazine' ages ago - die cut using the same Memory Box 'Cream Puff Heart' die

- at that point I glued the 'cream puff heart' white frame onto the white plain heart

- then I added the pink roses top part of the heart - in the process damaging part of the white frame, due to sticky paws, sigh

- rather than begin all over, I die cut the second 'frame' from white card (I did mention above that I cut two and that's why!) and glued it in place - success!

 

- the sentiment almost tripped me up as well. I had a set of love sentiment stamps by Avery Elle called 'And then' - and so wanted to use one for this card - in the white space on the heart. Only one would fit - sideways!

 

- however, I stamped the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and the Misti - and phew, it worked

- I had kept some of the little teardrop shapes from cutting the white 'cream puff' hearts and I added one into each aperture - which was already white but I wanted to build up another layer

- then cut snippety strips of black card and topped them with strips of more of the pink rose snippets before adding them to just a smidgen away from the top and bottom of the card front, with an overhang

- snipped the overhangs off from the back of the card - one reason I'd opted to make a tent style was to get a nice clean cut along the edge at this stage

- added the assembled heart at a jaunty angle, using thin sticky pads

- final touch, glued a few iridescent sequins in place

I did learn a few things along the way whilst assembling the heart. Most importantly, make sure your paws aren't sticky. The other thing is that I die cut the plain white heart using a Memory Box 'Cupid Heart' die - because I already had it from years ago (2014 to be exact). I can't find it here in the UK to buy, but I could easily have drawn around the outside of the 'Cream Puff Heart' die and fussy cut it instead, making sure I was a very tiny bit inside the heart shaped guideline I'd drawn. The 'cream puff heart' actually looks very nice just left open with no infilling to be honest.

And of course, here's the prize for this fortnight:

It's a Memory Box 'Cream Puff Heart' die and an Avery Elle 'And then' set of sentiment stamps. Lots of lovely and quite unusual sentiments in this set.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 5th September. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, 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 want 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 only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

As I used the 'Cream Puff Heart' die and also the Avery Elle set of sentiment stamps for the first time, it means I can join in with Darnell's NBUS #17 challenge HERE! 

And, remember it's August's Rudolph Days Challenge over at ScrappyMo's - running from Tuesday 25th to the end of the month.

Stay safe my lovely friends.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Rainbow 'Hello'

I love how many rainbow products are around for card making just now, and what lovely results people are producing. I think a lot of it was kicked off by the hope that shines from a rainbow after the rain - much as we're all hoping will happen with COVID before too long.

I fell in love with a set of edging dies made by Whimsy, then just had to have their 'Rainbows' paper pack to make this card:

I used:

- 5.25" x 4" white card blank, side opening

- piece of patterned paper from Whimsy's 'Rainbows' paper pack which I die cut using a die from Lil' Inker's 'Stitched Rectangles' set of dies

- then used a snippet of white card to die cut the 'rainbow' word curve - it comes  in a set of two dies by Whimsy called 'Rainbow Word Border dies'. The other die has the word 'color' on it - USA spelling

- after that I placed the 'hello' word die I wanted to use onto the curved piece of white card, to make sure I left enough space - then die cut the bottom edge and sides using the same Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangle' die

- held the curved piece of white card in place on the bottom of the 'rainbow' rectangle with low tack tape and then die cut the word 'hello' through both layers, using a 'Large Hello' die made by Frantic Stamper. That way I could be 100% sure that everything would line up nicely

- flipped the curved piece of white card over and covered the aperture left after the die cutting with sellotape

- then slotted the white die cut 'hello' in place onto the sticky side of the sellotape before adding the rainbow coloured 'hello' on top - using a glue pen

- I'd remembered to keep the little 'fall out pieces' of white card from the word 'hello' so I popped those in place

- then added the dot above the word 'rainbow' before adhering the white curved piece of card to the rainbow backing

- backed the whole thing with some white fun foam and glued it onto the card front

Finished! The rainbow paper pack is absolutely gorgeous, even though I was so desperate to get my hands on it I ordered it from Simon Says Stamp as it was nowhere to be found here in the UK and who knows when stockists will have stuff available these days.

Lining up the word 'hello' to match up with the 'rainbow' stripes properly added a little bit of work but I think well worth it. I can see me repeating this design a few times as it's so cheerful!

I'm entering this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #17 as much of what I used was unused. Both of the dies and of course the paper pack were NBUS.

Dudley is fully recovered from his grooming session, he woke up as bright as a button on Sunday morning. And, as it's cooler now, he's sleeping upstairs a lot more at night time.

Fun and games here after the heavy rains we had last week.. First of all there was the flooding but then something must have burst in the sewage system and the flood waters changed somewhat. Some poor people had a river of the nasty stuff flowing through their gardens. Being selfish, I was so thankful we were OK and not in the direction of the flow!  

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #383 - results

 

What a week of yet more scorching weather - followed by some much longed for rain! Which brought, unsurprisingly, some flooding - thankfully I'd got home by the time one of our local lanes was hit hard on Thursday. Dudley has taken to sleeping in the downstairs loo at night, even though we have damp towels for him on the tiled bathroom floors upstairs! He looks so funny - he wiggles himself in between the pedestal and the tiled piece of wall beside it - with his tummy on the tiled floor. So both sides are cool as is his undercarriage - and his nose is up against the tiles at the back of the loo.  That dog's not totally daft! It still makes me sad that he's taken to doing this and just hope he ventures out when the temperatures drop down again! 

On Thursday I had a dental check up - hygienist the week previously then check up the next - both went well with no issues but very stringent processes in place of course.

 

Let's move straight into this fortnight's picks:

I picked this card by Emma as it's quite amazing! Must be the longest concertina card I've ever seen, wonderful way to use up snippets - and of course beautifully made as well. I love it! 

 

Oh how I love this card, made by Chandini - our lovely twin sisters. It's absolutely lovely - and such a neat trick to tone down the bold stripes with a layer of vellum so that they don't detract from the glorious flowers. I always forget about using vellum - it's such a versatile medium too

 

And Kathy A reminded me about a technique I haven't played with for ages - iris folding! Perfect for little snippetty strips ............ and doesn't that cornet look inviting. Gorgeous work! 

 

Gosh, it gets harder each time to whittle down the fortnightly 'picks' - but this time, due to being busy on Saturday/tomorrow, I've had to limit myself whilst writing this!

 

We had one new Playmate as well: 

Jessica Knuteson

 

 

 

So, that's my picks and I do hope they've given you some inspiration for ways in which you can use up some of your own snippets. 

We had 52 entries in total, and one new Playmate this time:

Now for the prize draw, which is for a 'Lawn Fawn Say 'What? Pets' set of stamps and matching dies as well as a Lawn Fawn 'Critter Chatter - Pets' set of stamps - and the winner is:

April

Congratulations April - you'll love this prize for sure!  Please send me your address, even if you know that I know it already, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll do my best to post your prize ASAP this coming week. 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 #384 - you can find it HERE. Bit of a bumper prize again this time -  a Sweet Dixie set of 'Daisies' dies from Viv - and a Joanna Sheen 'Diamond Lattice' stencil plus a set of Clarity Stamps 'Christmas and Congratulations' sentiment stickers from me.

As I type, on Friday, I'm behind with commenting - basically it's been much too hot to sit at the laptop for very long. Tomorrow, Saturday, it's time for another trip to the groomers for Dudley Dog - no doubt he'll shame me and plonk himself down at the front door and refuse to budge! I must look so daft dragging a dog along their shiny (thankfully!) floor all the way to the grooming salon at the back. As Dudley has his lead attached to a harness not his collar it has been known for him to turn round as he's sliding along, which means he's probably pleading with people to save him as he goes past!

His latest trick today was to play 'bridesmaid' as I was walking downstairs in a mid calf length loose 'tie dye' dress bought on holiday a few years ago - purely for coolness. The dress was trailing on the stairs and the little tinker had the hem in his mouth as he followed me down! I do not want another trip up like before Christmas - that shoulder is only now beginning to feel anywhere near normal again. The delights of having a Dudley Dog eh?

Update: Dudley came home from our sweet groomers looking gorgeous but, as always, stressed out. He slept in Len's arms, in the evening sun, for ages in the garden and only really began returning to his usual 'tornado self' just after this post went live!

Love from Parsnip, a happy wave and rather weary woof from Dudley - and of course hugs as always from me. Stay safe, wear those masks - and keep on crafting.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #384

I've ventured out twice this week - dentist on Monday for a regular (albeit delayed by a few months due to COVID) hygienist appointment and then back out on Tuesday to collect a repeat prescription for strong painkillers. They'll last me for ages I hope but it's good to have them handy just in case.

 

It's still extremely hot and humid here - we had a sprinkling of rain during the night on Wednesday but not enough to write home about. In fact, it's so hot that Dudley is sleeping downstairs a lot during the night where it's generally cooler and there are plenty of tiled floors to choose from. Now and then he scampers upstairs to check on us and have a quick cuddle - before trotting off again. He has a full grooming session booked for next Saturday and will no doubt be glad to be rid of some of his coat.

Let's get straight on - here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, side opening on the short side

- piece of white card, onto which I stencilled a trellis background using soft cosmetic brushes, Tim Holtz 'Broken China' Distress ink pad and Joanna Sheen's 'Diamond Lattice' stencil

- die cut the trellis piece using a die from Lil' Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set of dies and put it to one side

- then I took a dive into the snippets folder for little pieces of green, two shades of pink and also a snippet of black card

- used my much loved Altenew mini die cutting machine to cut a selection of leaves, fronds and flowers - using every die in Sweet Dixie's 'Daisies' set of dies

- glued the foliage and flowers, with black stamen centres, onto the lattice piece of card - using a Zig glue pen

- then glued the panel to the card front, using Colall All Purpose glue

- added a black and white sentiment  sticker from the super-useful Clarity set of sentiment stickers called 'Christmas and Celebrations'

- final touch, a medium sized diamanté gem in the centre of each 'daisy' - finished!

I went to town making this card and double layered the daisies, not really necessary but it was my first play with the set of dies. I later spotted an example of a really elegant card on the 'net which used black and shiny gold for the die cutting - very dramatic.

Our lovely Viv included a set of these dies in a package she sent for the Playground toy box absolutely ages ago - so of course I bought myself a set to make this card! A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do after all. This is the last offering from that lovely package - thanks Viv! I still have a lovely die that Jackie T sent, waiting it's turn - I keep a little notebook and do know it's ages since Jackie sent it. It will appear ASAP I promise Jackie!

And of course, here's the prize for this fortnight:

It's a Sweet Dixie set of 'Daisies' die from Viv - and a Joanna Sheen 'Diamond Lattice' stencil plus a set of Clarity Stamps 'Christmas and Congratulations' sentiment stickers from me. And, as usual - I don't split Playground prizes up although you're welcome to play and give anything you might not want to another crafter where you live.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 22nd August. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, 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 want 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 only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

As I used the dies and stencil for the first time, it means I can join in with Darnell's NBUS #17 challenge HERE!

All prizes were posted on Monday - so I'm totally up to date.

Stay safe my lovely friends.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #382 - results

 

Oh boy, on Friday we had the third hottest day down here since UK weather records began. The three of us were almost steaming, despite fans etc. going full belt. Little Dudley slept most of Friday night downstairs in the tiled hall where it's probably the coolest place in the house. We almost joined him! He happily lies on a damp towel on his lookout table beside Len's desk during the day time with a small fan blowing on him - but at night he likes to do his own thing.

As you will no doubt know, we're at a bit of a tipping point with COVID numbers rising back up - and some places back in lockdown. Judging from the gatherings we've been seeing around this area - it's not really surprising. No such thing as social distancing on a few people's radar any longer, if it was ever really there in the first place. It seems there's no cure for stupid in many cases.

Let's move straight into this fortnight's picks:

Jenny H brought this lovely card to share with us - I adore the use of so many snippets to create a vintage looking stitched patchwork background - and also on the tailor's dummy. Brilliant!

This beautiful card, made by Val, immediately jumped out at me! A good few snippets used and also what fabulous, almost 'no-line'  colouring - I love it so much. It reminded me very much of a pretty blue party dress I had as a child ☺

What a stunning card this is - such a pretty underwater scene, created by Jackie T, using absolutely loads of snippets! It's so pretty and I adore the Brushos background. When we first went to Thailand, well over 20+ years ago now, the coral was amazing and this card really reminds me of those times.

And, here's a fourth one for you as I can't whittle my list of possibles down to three. Alice (Scrapamondo) made this wonderful card - and just look at how many teeny, tiny snippets she used for those flowers! I think that Alice keeps a stash of ready punched flowers and such on standby, made from little snippets. I know others of you do and it's such a great tip.

So, that's my picks and I do hope they've given you some inspiration for ways in which you can use up some of your own snippets. 

We had 43 entries in total, and no new Playmates this time.

Now for the prize draw, which is for a Spellbinders 'Optical Illusion Kaleidoscope' set of dies - and the winner is:

Vicky H

Congratulations Vicky - I'm delighted for you and look forward to seeing what you make using your prize!  Please send me your address, even if you know that I know it already, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll do my best to post your prize ASAP this coming week. 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 #383 - you can find it HERE. Bit of a bumper prize -  a 'Lawn Fawn Say 'What? Pets' set of stamps and matching dies as well as a Lawn Fawn 'Critter Chatter: Pets' set of stamps.

I did manage to package up prizes from Challenge #381, then we got hit by the heatwave and to be honest I was really fighting to keep cool - so the thought of venturing out in the car got put to one side!

I have to go out on Monday - routine dental appointment and a couple of other things - so I'll post off the Woodware stamp sets whilst I'm out and about.

Finally, we went out for our late afternoon sit in the garden earlier than usual today. A WW11 Spitfire did a flyover in honour of our NHS hospitals - delighted we saw it but not quick enough with the camera! Here's a photo taken by someone else nearby, quicker on the button than yours truly - 'Thank U NHS' is painted on the underside of the wings, and yes, I did well up with tears!

Our 'sit out' generally culminates in cuddles for Dudley from Len - and here they are, with Len well covered up against the pesky mossies that love him so much!

Are you sure there's no treats left on the garden table Dad?

OK, no treats left - so I'll just watch to see if the Spitfire flies over again!

Love from Parsnip, a happy wave and woof from Dudley - and of course hugs as always from me. Stay safe, wear those masks - and keep on crafting.

Rudolph Days Challenge - July 2020 and NBUS #16 Challenge

At long last, I managed to finish off the batch of 10 very Christmas similar cards I've been working on intermittently for a few weeks. I knew from the outset what I was aiming for - but soon learned that there were umpteen steps (times 10 of course) to get there!

Here are three of the resulting cards:

For each card I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank

- a piece of white card approximately the same size as the card front, which I covered with double sided adhesive sheet and then covered that with paper from Crafters Delight pads called 'Starry Night' and also 'Watercolour Galaxy', by Leska Hamaty. Bought from Amazon UK HERE - and there's a huge selection to choose from including plaid and many, many other designs.

- I needed to back the papers with card as they are fairly thin and I also wanted to die cut them using a 'Stitched Rectangle' die by Lil' Inkers

- then cut some strips of white card, approximately 2" x 5.5" - which were then die cut along one long edge using a Lawn Fawn 'Stitched Hillside Borders' die

- die cut the sides and bottom using the same stitched rectangle die I'd used for the main panel. Two reasons, to get a perfect match in width and also to continue the stitched edge right around the finished panel

- next stamped the sentiment plus a little heart, using stamps from Lawn Fawn's 'Winter Skies' set of stamps, Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a mini Misti

- glued the 'hillside' onto the bottom of the main panel, then glued it to the card front and put it one side for now

- stamped the flying Santa and his reindeer plus an assortment of trees and 'critters' onto white card

- coloured the trees and 'critters' using Pro markers (carefully selected to pick out elements of the sky background where possible) before then die cutting them, and the flying Santa(s), using dies to match the 'Winter Skies' set of stamps

- however, the fun part was coming - I sat and played for ages arranging the little scenes onto the card fronts - then glued them all into place - and went to lie down in a darkened room to recover

What a marathon and I did almost lost the will to live along the way - it seemed endless! But, I'm quietly pleased with the results and didn't drop any major 'boo boo's' along the way. Finding those backing papers was a dream, they're gorgeous!

I'm entering into July's Rudolph Days challenge over at Scrappy Mo's.

And entering into Darnell's NBUS challenge #16 as the papers, stamps & dies plus the hillside dies were having a first outing.

Phew, just squeaked into both challenges at the last minute!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #383

Hot and humid week here - and Dudley has spent a lot of time in front of various fans - looking like he was going to take off!

It was his Birthday on Wednesday - low-key as he's generally a laid back kinda guy, but still a fun day. He had some cards, as many zoomies as the heat would allow and lots of cuddles - doesn't take much to keep our pup happy!

Many thanks to all you lovely people who left good wishes on his Birthday post HERE.

Anyhow, here's my snippets card for this fortnight - and it's young Dudley's Birthday card, from Len and myself:

I used:

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

- a background piece of paper from Whimsy's 'Rainbows' paper pack. I wanted this pack so much for another reason that I ended up recently having it sent from the Simon Says Stamp in the USA. My current passion is rainbows and it's a super pack of double sided paper!

- then, before  I matched the background if I'm honest, I chose a couple of  matching plainish yellow snippets from Lawn Fawn's 'Really Rainbow' paper pack, another paper pack that I love

- next I broke out the pack of sentiments stamps and there was almost enough to overwhelm me - but I had a plan

- took one piece of yellow snippet and used  stamps from Lawn Fawn's 'Critter Chatter Pets' set of sentiment stamps to stamp rows of words, using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink across the piece. To be fair, it wasn't as easy as I hoped but got there in the end

- now I had a black words on yellow stamped background (remember, I'm often in a hurry here so my horizontal spacing could have been better IMHO) - but the words butt nicely against one another across where you're stamping thanks to the straight and equally spaced side  edges to each stamp

- then trimmed the full sheet of Whimsy 'Rainbows' paper down to 5.25" x 4" so it would sit nicely on the white card blank

- I wanted a large 'speech bubble' die to create an aperture but didn't have one and suddenly thought I could create my own without shelling out for a die I would rarely use by die cutting an oval using a Spellbinders die into the 'rainbow' sheet and then just snipping a 'v shaped notch' - easy peasy and works a treat!

- adhered the backing to the speech bubble aperture using a glue pen

- then stamped the little dog, coloured and die cut him using a die from the adorable Lawn Fawn 'Say What? Pets' set of stamps - using Pro markers for the very soft colouring

- stamped the sentiment strip onto a snippet strip of the same plainish yellow paper from the Lawn Fawn 'Really Rainbow' pack, trimmed it top and bottom then adhered to the patterned 'speech bubble' rectangle, with some overhang

- trimmed either side of the strip to fit and then added the whole panel to the card front

 - added the little die cut dog, just sitting on the sentiment strip

- final touch - added a peel off in silver and gold holographic design for Dudley's age - 2!

Bit washed out looking in the photo but in real life it's very vibrant and the black stamping is a real solid black, this bright sunshine is so unforgiving. A fun card to make and to be honest I was spoilt for choice with all the sentiments plus a dog, cat and birdie just in the 'Say What? Pets' set - let alone the other sentiments set of stamps!

And needless to say, here's the prize for this fortnight:

It's a little bit special to celebrate Dudley's Birthday and a nice prize to use for pet owner cards. It's the 'Lawn Fawn Say 'What? Pets' set of stamps and matching dies as well as the Lawn Fawn 'Critter Chatter: Pets' set of stamps - same as the ones I used for Dudley's card. The sets are suitable for dogs, cats and birds - and there are even a few fish sentiments in the 'Critter Chatter' set of stamps.

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

It's a maximum of ONE entry, 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 want 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 only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

As I used two sets of stamps, a set of dies - and also the Whimsy 'Rainbows' paper pack for the first time, it means I can join in with Darnell's NBUS #16 challenge HERE!

It's July's Rudolph Days challenge over at ScrappyMo's don't forget - runs from 25th to the end of the month.

Apologies, I haven't posted off the winners 'Art Deco stamps' prizes yet from challenge #381. I forgot I needed to order A5 hard backed envelopes from Amazon - they're here now but still in quarantine. I'll post early next week! 

And, we have a photo from Dudley's 2nd Birthday! It was taken by one of the CCTV cameras, so the quality isn't brilliant - but here's the little guy anyhow - just lying on the frizzled grass, sniffing the fresh air - having had a good poke around the garden, hence the mucky mouth ☺:

Stay safe my lovely friends.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Dudley is two years old today!

Happy Birthday to our darling boy!

Taken the day we first met him aged about 6 weeks, with his Mum, Dad and siblings. Our lives have never been the same since we fell in love with this precious little bundle.

Hope & Chances Charity kit - July 2020

I managed to get hold of July's charity paper craft kit from Hope & Chances. Apparently they flew out of the door so you do have to be quick! The easiest route is via the link above, which is Christine's blog - and her card kit posts goes live at 6:30 am UK time on the first Sunday of the month.

This is the finished card:

The kit came with everything (ready prepared), apart from the white pearls, glue and and sticky pads.

Oh, and I coloured the leaves and flowers using Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads (Peeled Paint and Fossilised Amber) - as a first real outing for my lovely blending brushes. I bought the brushes back in January and, they're really for cosmetics (loads of you had them so I followed suit needless to say) but up until now had just tinkered with them to see how they work - which I'm sure means I can link this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #16.

This is the link to the brushes I bought, although there are some very similar sets available at decent prices.

Christine always writes really clear instructions for her kits and I love how this kit had additional gold die cuts included to add as 'drop shadows' behind the white die cuts. The backing paper is by Anna Griffin and is absolutely gorgeous!

I showed the end result to Len and he immediately said 'how professional' - followed by 'ha, it's one of the charity kits isn't it'. No fooling him then!