Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 143

It's been a funny week for weather in the Playground, sometimes really quite hot and sunny yet at other times dank and misty. Autumn is on the way - and Spike thinks so too as he's visibly slowing down with less visits, and also he's eating less and less. Hibernation is beckoning him and the other little hedgies who pop in from time to time.

Anyhow, here's my snippets card for this week - and for a change the forthcoming this next week prize is totally unrelated. I was playing with Brushos the other day just using them as watercolours - and this was the result:

I used:

- an 8" x 8" card blank, cut down to make a tent style A6 sized card - and part of what was chopped off will now make two little 4" square cards as well

- a snippet of white watercolour card (Crafters Companion), Penny Black's 'Letters and flowers stamp and Ranger 'Jet Black' archival ink for stamping

- Brushos for the water colouring (a mix of turquoise and ultramarine plus emerald green and leaf green)

- the main image was die cut using a Spellbinders 'Resplendent Rectangles' die

- the image was then mounted onto a snippet of SU 'Wild Wasabi' backing which had been cut with the next size up Spellbinders 'Resplendent Rectangles' die

One thing worth mentioning about these dies, they really are fabulous but are very intricate so waxed paper or some similar method of releasing the card from the die is a must. I was in a bit of a rush and skipped that step, not a wise move!

So, let's have a quick skip through this week's picks:

I do try to spread the weekly picks around, but just had to include Val for two weeks running - isn't that the sweetest little robin? Made using the quilling technique and as if that wasn't enough - the holly leaves are also quilled! Wonderful and so intricate too.

Right, most of us know about Brushos now and loads of you have bought them and are playing - have you thought about using them with shaving foam as Sue did? What a fabulous background - I love this card!

 

And here's another technique - 'cracked ice' from Jean. There's a really good and detailed explanation over on Jean's blog if you fancy having a try - stunning results!

I do so love it when playmates come to show what they made with their Playground winnings - Bonnie won this sentiment stamp a while back, and didn't she use it perfectly?!

I know that lots of you have already seen and commented on this beautiful card, made by Carol L - so pretty and I think anyone would feel better if they received such a gorgeous make.

Making cards for men is something I always struggle with so this card, made by Kim, really leapt out at me. And that wonderful map background is actually stamped (must be one huge stamp for sure!).

And here's someone else using their Playground prize, gosh what a fabulous way to use the burlap background stamp Maarit - I absolutely think this deserves to be a winner over at Less is More!

So that was a pretty fast scamper through the picks, as always though, each entry was fabulous girls!

And let's welcome a new playmate:

Isn't this just super? Apparently it's the very first time that Carole has entered a challenge but surely it won't be the last?! Hi Carole, lovely to see you here and let's hope you come and play again really soon!

And, the winner of the three little stamps from last week is:

Sarah (Sazzle Dazzle)

Congratulations Sarah, I'll pop your stamps into the post this week, I still have your address from your last win, which I think was about a year ago.

And the prize for this coming week is:

As I said at the beginning of this post, totally unrelated to my snippets card for once, it's a selection of Papermania Christmas goodies, kindly donated by Viv. There's an Urban Stamps set, four little pots of glitter and a packet of felt ribbon - just the thing for getting you going on those Christmas cards :)

As usual, the Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 27th September and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

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. As always, if you only fancy one or two parts of the prize then just say and I would do further draw(s) if your name pops out.

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 :)

Have a great week!
 
Di (and the usual happy wave from Parsnip of course)
x

Using a favourite stamp and Brushos

I absolutely love Penny Black's 'Hello sunshine' stamp and also wanted to play at using Brushos as watercolours instead of 'sprinkle and spritz' for a change - although that technique gives such amazing results.

This was the result of just tapping the teeniest bits of Brusho colours into a watercolour palette and adding water before painting using a very fine brush:

I used:

- A6 off-white card blank
 
-white watercolour card (Crafters Companion), Penny Black's 'Hello sunshine 'stamp and Ranger 'Jet Black' archival ink for stamping

- Brushos for the water colouring (lemon, yellow, orange, brown and leaf green)

- the green backing card is SU's 'Mossy Meadow'

- the main image was die cut using a Spellbinder Labels Eight die then the sentiment was stamped using a teeny stamp from a (sadly discontinued) set by Elzybells and SU's 'Mossy Meadow' ink pad

- the image was then mounted onto a SU 'Hello Honey' backing which had been cut with a Spellbinders Decorative Labels Eight die

The more observant amongst you might twig that I've been using new card and ink pads from SU's In Color 2014-2016 collection. I love, love, love them!

I haven't been playing much lately for various reasons - but will be doing the Playground as usual for Sunday! Make sure you tune in :)

Di
x

Sending you lots of hugs

I made this card for someone very special who is in need of some hugs:

I used:

- 4" x 4" square white card blank

- a snippet of white card, stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and a stamp which came free with Craft Stamper magazine a while back. The image was coloured with Pro Markers and the flower centres were dotted with a silver marker pen

- the sentiment comes from a lovely set called 'Truly Appreciated', made by Hero Arts - which was enclosed with a lovely Birthday card from a dear friend (thank you and mwah!). Again, it was stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- after trimming the white piece of card down I just ran a Sakura Silver Calligrapher pen around the edges

- the purple backing card was another snippet - SU's 'Perfect Plum'

It's a sweet little stamp and is so much Charles Rennie and Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh's Art Nouveau style.

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 142

First of all, a HUGE thank you for all your Birthday wishes, cards and gifts! It was a lovely day from start to finish :)

And straight into my snippets card:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card blank

- image and sentiment are from the Unity Stamp Itty Bitty set called 'Bouncy Blue'. I stamped the baby buggy using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' and coloured it using Whispers pens. The sentiment was stamped by colouring the stamp with the same blue Whispers pen and 'huffing' on it before stamping

- the turquoise card (SU's 'Tempting Turquoise' came from the snippets folder and the pale blue, plus the little snippets, are from Me To You's 'Spring Chic' paper pad

- the hexagons were die cut using Spellbinders hexagon dies - although I did the turquoise mat by drawing round the outside of the die I'd used to cut the image with and then cut it by hand

It had to be a super-fast make when we got back home from  a celebratory lunch on Friday!

This week's picks are:

What a fun card, made by Hazel - and the paw-print binding is a great touch!

I love this wedding card, made by Sam - tons of lovely die cuts too. I'm sure I saw a whisper somewhere yesterday that it's a very special Wedding Anniversary this weekend for Sam and her Simon - congratulations!

A really super 'screens' card made by Brenda - those adorable dresses and bags are fabulous snippets busters!

Who wouldn't love to be sent a Christmas card as beautiful as this one, made by Val. Just perfect.

Hazel (kbrandy4) made this stunning Christmas card - I love the idea of having an acetate front (you can just see it if you look closely enough) with a smaller image on so you can see the paper on the inside of the card.

Oh I did giggle at this super little snippets make, brought to share by Elizabeth. She's an Amigurumi penguin (named Priscilla!), crocheted using snippets of wool. So cute!

Lynn is one of our Playground jokers - and this week she came up with a real lulu of a card :) Tee, hee.

We had one new playmate this week, which was quieter than it has been recently - possibly due to the schools returning.

Can you please welcome Craft Nerd (aka Sarah) to the Playground. Hope you come back to play with us often Sarah!

The winner of last week's prize (the Woodware 'Tweet Birds' stamp set) is:

Lucy

Well done Lucy! Can you please drop me an email (di_wray@hotmail.com) with your address and I'll post the stamp set off to you this coming week.

And here's this coming week's prize:

It's a stamp set the same as the one I used today (Unity Itty Bitty 'Bouncy Blue'), another one the same as the one I used on Friday's card here (Unity Itty Bitty 'Happy Happy Happy') - plus a great Studio G stamp set called 'It's Your Birthday' - which was kindly donated by Cornelia. So a cute selection - just right for those smaller cards too.

As usual, the Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 20th September and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

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. As always, if you only fancy one or two parts of the prize then just say and I would do further draw(s) if your name pops out.

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 :)

Have a great week!
 
Di (and the usual happy wave from Parsnip of course)
x

Is it a butterfly, a bug, a bee or a teddy with wings?

Either way, it's a stamp that makes me giggle - and so I inked it up for the first time for the NBUS challenge:

Darnell's 'NBUS Challenge #2' - to celebrate over 600 followers. Way to go Darnell and so generous too! There are five $25 vouchers to be won but I'm just playing for fun as I was really lucky and won the first time Darnell did this challenge. I used my winnings to buy some Spellbinders dies - which will pop up on here soon.

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank

- papers from the MME 'Sunshine' paper pad. I die cut the hexagon (using a Spellbinders Nestie) out of the centre of the turquoise backing paper and the mustard coloured papers are snippets which were tucked into the back of the same pad

- the image and sentiment were stamped in Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink using  the Unity Itty Bitty set called 'Happy Happy Happy'

- then I coloured the image  using Pro Markers - sigh, and went over the edge so had to carefully fussy cut round him, and then I added some Clear Wink of Stella to the black markings on his wings

- the sentiment was punched out using a Hobbycraft Label punch and a small hole punch, before I added more Wink of Stella to the large 'Happy' word

- almost forgot, a strip of self adhesive ribbon to hide the join in the mustard papers, plus some domed 'sparkly' thingies - one on the label and three in one corner

Oh, and a stamp set the same as this one is one of three parts to next week's Snippets Playground prize too :)

We'll be out celebrating my Birthday today - but Parsnip is watching the Playground like a hawk, so no mischief please!

Di
x

A touch of sunshine

I literally had about 10 minutes craft play the other day (if you don't include drying time) and rustled this up:

I used:

- a snippet of SU's 'Daffodil Delight' card stock to make the small card blank (it's about 3.75" square)

- black backing card, die cut using a Spellbinders square die

- a snippet of water colour card, sprinkled with little touches of lemon, yellow and orange Brushos, then lightly misted with water and left to dry

- a cone flower stamp which came free with Craft Stamper magazine, stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad - then I die cut the whole Brusho'd square, again using a Spellbinders square die

- three black round glossy Josy Rose nail heads

Job done :)

Di
x

Less is More- Week 188 - Colour Challenge

For this month's colour challenge over at Less is More it's

CHOCOLATE MINT

For a couple of days I thought that was it for me, inspiration had gone for a looooong walk, sigh.

Then, yesterday morning, I stumbled across a pre-printed sentiment - out of which this card was born washed out piccie but I weren't up to doing a whole repeat routine, sorry:

I used:

- Hunkydory slightly 'flittered' mint coloured card stock, just folded into A6

- plain chocolate satin ribbon, topped with narrower chocolate/white spotted organza ribbon

- the sentiment that started it all off - made by Craftwork Cards (many years old now!) and it just about sums up my view on dark 'chocklit'

- five Craftwork cards Candi dots in different shades of chocolate :) You can take the creamy white one if you like - me no likey dose ones - ack, bleurgh!

Di
x

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 141

And we're into September - already so soon. There are few few 'lurgies' doing the rounds and we've not been exempt here so I'll keep this quite short and sweet. First of all, here's my snippets card - a sooper-dooper fast make:

I used:

- A6 Kraft card blank

- robin and holly stamps from the Woodware 'Tweet Birds' set (in fact these little guys could be coloured differently to make little blue tits or such), stamped onto a snippet of white card and coloured with Pro Markers

- then cut with such a useful die from the Spellbinders 'Resplendent Rectangles' set and a little red gem added as the holly berry

- sentiment was stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black' using a stamp from the Personal Impressions 'Many Greetings' set

- the background papers are snippets from LOTV's 'Classic Christmas' paper pad

The current challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is 'Do you hear what I hear' and, as I love to hear our local robin singing, this card fits the bill - oops, unintentional pun there! Of course I'm also entering this into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for September, where it's always 'Anything goes'.

So let's run through this week's picks, as always such a difficult choice from all your beautiful work girls:

I love this fun card made by KT Fit Kitty - such a bright and cheerful splash of Summer!

And at the opposite end of the seasons - what a super Christmas card made by Sandra H!

I think this is such a lovely card, and the vellum flowers are breathtaking - made by Cathy R. And how clever to back one of them with solid card too - it just makes the composition perfect!

A trip to Sally's is a 'must' this week girls! The snippets are the image backings - and even more exciting is that Sally has videos showing you just how to create scenes like the one on this beautiful card above.

Isn't this such an adorable card - made by Ileana? Such a great idea to paper piece the birdies using a page from an old book - plus Ileana designed and handmade the little bird houses herself.

I really love this set of little note cards made by AJ - what a super way to use up little snippets :)

And I totally adore this beautiful card, made by Kate. Tons of snippets used and it's just so, so beautiful!

And, we have three new playmates as well:

Veronica brought us this lovely Christmas tree card.

This little sweetie-pie bearing flowers was made by Kathy T.

And Christi brought us this cute card, partying cats complete with little snippety hats! :)

What fun - our three new playmates all arrived almost one after another during the week. I'm always curious how peeps find the Playground - it would be great if you could pop over to say hello to them :)

The winner of last week's prize of the JustRite 'Burlap Background' stamp is:

MAARIT

Maarit has been playing with us regularly in the Playground since March and this is her first win, so well done Maarit! Just shows, the number 13 can be lucky :) Can you please send me your home address and I'll post the stamp to you as soon as possible (di_wray@hotmail.com).

And this coming week's prize is:

Yup, it's a Woodware 'Tweet Birds' stamp set, just like the one I used today. There are nine little birdies for you to play with, plus a couple of sentiments and two holly sprigs. The birds are about 1.25" in size.

As usual, the Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 13th September and will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

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.

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 :)

And a big PS from me - I don't know how, but some of you know I have a Birthday later this week. A few cards already arrived - but being like a kid I quickly peeked and then popped them back into their envelopes to appreciate properly on 'the day'.  Thank you so much and I'll be in touch once I legitimately look at them - it's really so very kind of you - err, please remember I pay our postman's tip at Christmas based on volume of deliveries :) Sooooooooooooo, just raise a glass wherever you are and take a big slurp for me - that will do nicely.

And, I actually went to bed this afternoon - Saturday - to read and then sleep for a few hours. That is just soooo out of the normal frame as I never, ever, just crash during the day however I feel, sigh. Len is currently heating me up some soup with nicely buttered (OK Flora'd if you really must!) and cut into dinky pieces of bread - bless him :).

I'm OK but am worried that our lovely friend Elizabeth is down with something similar so do please go and give her hugs. And also Karen has been having a rough ride lately, so she could do with some love as well.

Di (and the usual happy wave from Parsnip of course)
x

The winner of Joanna Sheen's Voucher to celebrate 300 followers is..............

........................ a really lovely lady who quietly and quite loyally follows me, makes beautiful cards, plays nicely in the Snippets  Playground and always with such inspiring detail about her work. The only rather big problem is that she has never yet accepted my offer to carry her bags when she goes to visit her equally lovely sister (Kate) in Spain - and we would, all three of us have a blast, plus I know how to make my own bed each morning, sigh.

Each morning at boarding school, UK Forces one in Germany a lot of years ago, we had to totally strip our beds right down to the mattress, fold the bedding neatly on top (Army style!), do our allotted chores which were done on a rota (empty waste bin, shake bedside mats outside (a dressing gown was useful to protect school uniform from said dust!), dust surfaces and dressing table/drawer units, tidy inside wardrobes and drawers etc., sweep parquet floor, and then open all the windows wide (yep, in snow as well) before trotting off demurely from one building to another to be fed breakfast.

On our return we then had to do the reverse and make the beds up again and leave the 'dorm' spick and span'. If your drawers (snigger) weren't tidy enough then, whilst you were at lessons in the morning, Matron used to tip them out onto your bed and you lost precious 'room points' that term - sigh. Been there and got the T-shirt more than once.

You know what - I do blame Frau Haberkost (our lovely but formidable German Matron) for a lot of my rebellious ways in that I hate housework and order at times, until she hops onto my shoulder and nags me!!

BUT, it had a load of good points too 'cos as an only kid I learned to be with others (many of whom are my most, MOST loved friends to this day), I had a pretty stable and also 'bracing' environment from 13 to 18 years old .............and it was co-ed!! Yay - boys!! :) Oh - and of course a settled schooling which gave us the best chance as UK Forces kids of having a stable education at one single school :)

And did I already say there were boys? Snigger - I just deleted a whole paragraph here :)

ANYHOW - after all the rambling, I do hope you will all be as pleased as me to know that the winner of the £30 Joanna Sheen voucher is:

JEAN 

Well done Jean - can you please let me have your snail mail address and I'll pop the voucher in the post ASAP (di_wray@hotmail.com).

My love and thanks to everyone who joined in - as always I wish I had a voucher for all of you.

When we hit 400 then there will be another draw - until then, do come and play in the Snippets Playground where it's such fun, and I'm always truly happy to see a bit of 'mussed up' stuff after so many years of being a 'tidy bunny'.

Love

Di
xx

300 followers celebration

Wahoo, after bobbing up and down like a little cork for what seemed to be ages - for now I seem to have stabilised at 300+ followers.

So, as promised, here's a little celebration. Not as huge as some I've seen but then we do have weekly Playground prizes which dips into my pocket money too :)

It's a Joanna Sheen voucher to the value of £30. What's good about Joanna Sheen is that they send post free - to the UK and also overseas - you get to spend the whole voucher on goodies. Plus, JS always has such a wide choice so you'd be bound to find something nice :)

All you need to do to be in with a chance is to leave a comment saying you'd like to be included. Simple as that - oh, and of course make sure you're following me :)

This will be a sticky post until I do the draw on Friday 5th September.

Di
x

A look back in time

The current challenge over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is 'People matter' - in other words use one or more people on your card. And of course it's always 'Anything Goes' over at Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra.

Out came the box of last year's Christmas cards to upcycle and there was a card too sweet to chop about but what was more eye catching - I hate to say it - but I'm almost sure I remember Christmas cards with similar images being the 'norm' when I was a kid. Ha, and this one was labelled 'Vintage Christmas' on the back - which puts me right in my place - sigh :(

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank

- green paper to cover the whole card front from a magazine 'freebie' paper pack, topped with striped paper from the same pack

- the already glittered image, trimmed carefully to keep the gold glittered edging

- dark green ribbon from my ribbon box, wrapped around the card spine and tied in a bow.

I've mentioned this little trick before, I do usually stick ribbons across the front only of cards with the ends hidden behind a layer of card either on the front or even on the inside of the card itself. On the rare occasion I tie a ribbon right around the spine of a card I always tie the bow on the very edge of my card - the right hand edge in this case. This gives you some 'purchase' and allows the ribbon to be nice and firm around the card (ie, without any 'droop'). Then all you need to do is to gently wiggle the ribbon with the ready tied bow into position/bow - if it's really tight then gently 'bow' the card to give some slackness so you can move the ribbon.

Di
x

Less is More - I do like to be beside the seaside

That's the current challenge over at Less is More - where our lovely playmate Darnell is Guest Designer this week!

I steered clear of seaside scenes as, for me, one of the delights of the seaside is looking for pretty shells - and this embossing folder had never had an outing either:

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank

- a snippet of pale blue, slightly linen printed paper, which I embossed with the fabulous Spellbinders 3D-M-Bossabilities 'Shell Beauty' folder. Before doing the embossing I inked right over the 'indented' side of the folder using Memento's 'London Fog' ink pad and that's what makes the embossing stand out so well of course

- I then adhered the embossed paper to a piece of spare white card before trimming it do size - this was to give the rigidity needed to wrap the gold cord around it later on

- one layer of gold mirri card and, one layer of dark blue pearlised card were added to the white card blank

- a snippet of gold cord was wrapped twice around the embossed panel - which was then stuck onto the card blank

- the gold coloured shell charm was tied on, in a bow, with another small piece of gold cord 

The charm came from a bracelet in Primark's sale a few years ago - I think there were three or four gold and pearl charms on the bracelet - bought specifically to cannibalise for the charms :) At the same time I found a great silver coloured one with a small Eiffel Tower and other Parisian things on - I think there was even a tiny little poodle :) So don't overlook 'el cheapo' stores where you could find jewellery to chop apart for card making etc.

I didn't add a sentiment or anything else - partly for fear of over egging the pudding when it's meant to be a less is more card, but also because I couldn't bear to cover up any of the gorgeous embossing :)

Di
x

Christmas wreath

Oh dear, I made a card for last week's Merry Monday challenge, put it to one side and then totally forgot about it until it was too late :( The challenge was to use a wreath on your card.

However, there are a couple of other challenges that this card suits (yahoo!) - so all isn't lost after all. First, there's the return of Cuttlebug Mania after the Summer break - and the theme is embossing, I embossed the background and also the holly wreath after it had been die cut. And secondly, the current challenge over at the Holly Jolly Christmas challenge is to use one, two or all of the letters from the word RED - I used R - red card stock, E - embossing and D - diecutting/diamantes:

I used:

- A6 white card blank

- silver holographic backing card

- white card, embossed using Cuttlebug's 'Holly with Berries' folder

- Spellbinders 'Holly Wreath' die and a snippet of green card plus a snippet of  red card for the little bow

- the sentiment was stamped in silver using a stamp from the Personal Impressions 'Many Greetings' set and then punched out using one of SU's circle punches

- popped the sentiment circle into the centre of the card and then added the wreath and bow - I'd liberally covered the wreath with clear Wink of Stella beforehand

- final touch, lots of very small diamante gems - got those at a craft show (Newbury or the NEC), lovely and flat so ideal for posting


Di
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