Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #414 - Ruby's Memory

Hello again - thanks for calling by! It's time for another snippets challenge dedicated to sweet Ruby's Memory, in aid of the centre who originally rescued her, and this is our seventh one.

The prize for this challenge has been kindly offered by Kathy Asper - who is also in the spotlight as a guest designer for this fortnight as well. First. lets take a peek at the three lovely cards Kathy made:

 

I love all three of these cards - each one showing how well snippets work on die cuts for Christmas cards. To find out how Kathy made them, do hop over to her blog HERE.

 

And, Kathy has generously donated two sets of dies - both make up a single prize which won't be split. The prize will also be posted directly to the winner by Kathy:

 

The prize is an Echo Park 'Candy Cane Christmas' set of dies plus a Neat & Tangled 'Medallion Flower Builder' set of dies. Just perfect to play with before Christmas!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 30th October. 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. And I won't be splitting the prize of course.

 

Please also remember that I only allow a total of nine other challenges, which makes 10 in total, when you enter a snippets make into the Playground.

 

Dudley has been in disgrace here, for only as long as it took for his sweet little face to melt our hearts. So, all of one minute probably. Len was cutting the grass in the back garden and Dudley spotted a neighbouring cat lurking underneath a bush on Dudley's patch no less! He made one frantic dash, the cat soared over the tall fence like a rocket and Dudley returned with his head hung low absolutely covered in sticky seed heads, bits of grass cuttings and also muddy paws.

 

'I only wanted to introduce myself' he moaned - as he was brushed to within an inch of his life and then had his paws and tummy given a good wash. 

 

A few of you will have already seen this as I posted it on Facebook - once we stopped laughing (discretely of course). One of our neighbours commented and asked was it one of theirs (it was). She saw the funny side when I said that Dudley only really saw the tail end properly. ☺ 

However, Dudley redeemed himself in the early hours of Friday morning when he was out in the garden for a final toilet trip before bedtime. He suddenly stopped mooching around and alerted Len to this little creature underneath the arbour:

A baby hedgehog, being held in Len's cupped 'gardening gloved' hands and probably the size of an orange. Light as a feather as well, so we need to watch out for it and, if it returns to feed again, weigh it in case it needs to be taken to a local hedgehog rescue place. I know it seems a shame to take a hedgehog away from its Mum and possibly its siblings. However, it's already fairly independent and without expert help it just wouldn't survive hibernation if it weighs under 500 grammes. Watch this space and let's all hope for the best.

Thank you from Len for all your Birthday wishes! And yup, he did love his Birthday card I made for him, posted on here on Friday 15th October.

Lots of love from Dudley Dog and of course me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #387

What a palaver this week just gone, sorting out Feedburner which sends emails out to those folk who've subscribed to this 'ere blog - after it just stopped sending them. It's now been amended and is working properly - phew. I do recommend that any of you with very wordy blogs such as mine (photos and media don't count) have a think about the fact that when you reach 512Kb - Feedburner can't cope if you've left the limit of posts which it scans to the 'default setting'- which is your whole blog. You don't get a warning - it just stops sending emails. For any techno-averse people - don't fret over it as your blog will still remain safe. For anyone who might feel happy digging around inside Feedburner (which is also Google product so need I say more) - if you drop me an email with Feedburner in the header then I'll happily help you out with a few pointers.

I see Blogger has been playing around with the new interface yet again - this time they've changed the icon which appears when you click on an image to change it's size. Previously it was the pencil icon - now they've added a little image icon. The pencil icon is now used to change a link if your image has one. Someone certainly 'designed these changes on the fly and on the back of a fag packet' as we used to say in the olden days!

Anyhow, here's my snippets card for this fortnight. Once again I needed to make a fairly simple card to showcase our prize for this time round - and here it is:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" square white card blank

 

- a piece of the same white card, trimmed to 5.5" x 5,5"

- longish narrow snippets of mauve, blue and pink card from the snippets folder

 

- from each snippet I die cut two lengths of 'ric rac' using MFT's 'Stitched Ric Rac' die

 

- then glued them across the top and bottom of the white panel, using a Zig glue pen

  

- die cut the word 'Celebrate' from a snippet of black card using the lovely Hunkydory Moonstone Combo set called 'Essential Words - Celebrate' and glued it in place

- then from the same set I used a sentiment stamp to add the words 'your birthday' underneath the die cut 'Celebrate' - used Versafine's Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad 

- finally glued the white panel to the card front and called it done!

I just double checked and the word Celebrate is absolutely straight - the very large letter C draws the eye downwards at the left hand end, but it's an optical illusion. When I added the large die cut word I even drew a fine pencil line to be sure it would be straight! 

Love the ric rac die - first spotted on one of your lovely blogs and a super way to use up snippets for quick and easy cards.

And, here's the prize for this fortnight:

It's a My Favourite Things (MFT) die called 'Stitched Ric Rac' and a Hunkydory Moonstone Combo set called 'Essential Words - Celebrate'. Loads of different words to stamp to go with the huge (five inches wide) 'Celebrate'.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 3rd October. 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 MFT die as well as the sentiments set for the very first time it means I can join in with Darnell's NBUS #18 challenge HERE! 

 

I did wonder if this challenge might need to be delayed - both Len and I felt pretty grim after our flu jabs on Thursday and it was such an effort just to crawl out of bed at first. However, Len was worse than me (for once) so I just bashed on and hoped this would publish as planned. It's Saturday as I'm typing and am finally feeling lots better - so strange that we both felt unwell, along with very sore arms. We had to take Dudley with us and one stayed with him in my car whilst the other one went for their jab then we swopped. Oh boy, did Dudley let rip! He panted, yammered and yodelled all the way there and he only shut up when I joined in the chorus making similar sounds! Thank goodness the roof wasn't open - we'd literally have seemed barking mad! The only time he did go quiet was when Len went in for his jab, after I'd returned to the car, he'd apparently continued his performance all the while I was away. 

 

We had some fun earlier on in the week. Len always replenishes the hedgehog's food and water later on in the afternoon and all of a sudden he shot up to my craft room looking pretty shocked, waving his arms and saying there was a hedgie sitting inside the feeding station fast asleep. So off I trotted with him and sure enough - there was a huge hedgie actually sitting on the dish of dried food having a good snooze. We have to protect the hedgie food from the local cat population and due to so many hedgies visiting Len had used a second feeding set-up which is an upturned washing up bowl with an entrance cut out. The daft hedgie had obviously squeezed it's way in but couldn't turn round to get back out! We took a good look at the'prickly football' and it was no worse for it's extended visit so Len put it into the front garden underneath the hedgie friendly undergrowth where we suspect it probably lives. I managed to take a photo and although it wasn't going to unfurl again and pose nicely, you can see it's jet black beady eyes. You can see how huge it is as Len is holding it wearing really massive heavy duty gardening gloves. The little patch of white at the bottom right of the photo is Dudley - nosy as usual:

On the subject of hedgehogs, and other wildlife as well - do remember that if/when you dispose of a mask with your waste please be sure to cut the elastic loops. They will end up in landfill (unless you burn them) and could so easily harm or kill wildlife.

And last but not least, I promised some photos of the lovely laser cut shepherd's hut card I had from Len. I do encourage you to have a look on the website he ordered it from - the detail is incredible and although we love to make our own cards - who wouldn't be delighted with a card from 'Paper D'Art'. BTW, it's a British company, based in the beautiful Cotswolds, with a massive range of gorgeous cards.

The card folds flat and when opened out stands at about 6" long and 6" high. I took one photo trying to show the inside view but it's a bit blurred - although it does give even more of an insight into the beautiful detail and thought that's gone into making the 'hut':

 

Shepherd's huts are quintessentially English (they were very much based in the South Downs and in this part of England) and their origins go back centuries. Basically, particularly during the lambing season, the shepherds hut could be relocated as necessary and provided shelter for the shepherd to be close to his flock. It would have had space for a pot belly stove, intended for basic cooking and warmth, a bed and sitting area. There was usually a corner cupboard for bare essentials and veterinary medicines. The bed would often accommodate space underneath for unwell or orphaned lambs. 

In recent times they've made a comeback and quite a few enterprising people are buying newly built ones, still sticking to the same principles, albeit some even have washroom facilities on board, to rent out as holiday homes. I've been following one such owner on Instagram and it's fascinating to see how neat and compact a shepherd's hut can be. And Len, when he ordered the card, had absolutely no idea that I even knew about them let alone was fascinated. So it's a double delight of course! Sadly, they're fully built prior to delivery - what a fun summer house one would make. But our back garden is fully enclosed and the only option would be to hire a gigantic crane to lift it into place. Edit - oooer, I just found a company who will build one for you on site. I wonder....................?

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #364 - results

Still the fireworks go off at random times around here, usually nothing like as bad as I whined about last weekend, thankfully. And Dudley doesn't seem to be too bothered by them after all - when they're further away.

It's been another mixed week, a lot of rainfall, with some hedgehog rescuing here. More about that further down this post.

First of all, let's get going with this fortnight's picks:

What a brilliant card, made by Carol L. I love the design and absolutely tons of snippets used as well! A lovely example of picking three colours from a pile of snippets and coming up with a very striking card.

Jane (of Jane's Journal) brought a wonderful Autumn wreath to share with us. It's gorgeous and a super way to use up lots of snippets. The leaves are made from the printed pages of an old book BTW, with a lot more work to make them look this pretty!

Here's another Christmas card, this time made by Eemeli, using lots of little snippets. I recognise some of the papers from quite some time ago - a lovely card indeed!

And we had three new Playmates this time:

Gail (I Like Paper)

Lynn McAuley

Adry

Do please hop over to welcome our new Playmates and comment on their beautiful work.

So, that's my picks, and our new Playmates from Challenge 364, and I do hope they've given you some inspiration for ways in which you can use up some of those snippets.

We had 59 entries and three new Playmates this time round. Whoop, whoop!

Time now for the prize draw, which is for the Memory Box 'Budding Tree' die and a Memory Box 'Mini Butterflies' die. And the winner is:

Janis in ID

Well done Janis! I'm sure it's absolutely ages since you won one of the fortnightly prizes - so this is certainly due. Please send me your address, with your 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 #365 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a SWALK 'Friendship' stamp (which is grey unbacked rubber) and a Gemini 'Stitch Edge Circle' set of dies. And do remember that we still have our Guest Designer Karen's wonderful snippets make and very generous give away - over on her blog HERE. And, Karen will be joining me again for the next November Snippets Challenge, next Sunday (24th November). I can't wait to see what she's made to share this time.

Long story cut short, we (Len really) rescued two little hedgies during the week. Out during the day time - which is always a worrying sign that they need help.

Here they are the following day, after their temporary home (large clear plastic crate) had been cleaned out, ready for me to take them to a local animal rescue place in a pretty village just 10 minutes drive away from us: 

The little one nearest to you is curled into a ball and covered, slightly, in bits of the newspaper they shredded up even more during their overnight stay. They really had made one heck of a mess of the crate, putting it nicely - poop everywhere, food all eaten and water almost drunk - must have been quite a party :) It got so bad that, even though we had doors closed, we eventually had to pop the crate into our garage for the night, out of Dudley's hearing - he was going Havanese-ape!

A couple more photos:

This is the braver one, woofling and trying to explore to find a way out. Many years ago we had a hedgie that we'd rescued manage to escape from a more shallow box that Len was holding - whilst I was driving along country lanes to a much further away animal rescue sanctuary and now we're very careful. They really can climb!

And here's a closer look at the little one that was curled into a ball. If you look just above the little shred of newspaper stuck to his prickles at the left of the image, just follow up slightly and there's his little dark snout peeping out, with his darker eye patches on either side. His eyes were also open but the camera didn't pick that detail up.

There are over 130 hedgehogs being looked after at the rescue place - mostly from late litters. And a plethora of wildlife ranging from squirrels, ducks, geese, birds, hedgies of course - you name it, Rita will take it in and look after it until it's well enough to be released. One truly amazing lady for sure! It's run purely by her with some help from her daughter with no funding, apart from donations.

And, the following evening under cover of darkness, the CCTV picked up a third hedgie that's even smaller, coming to feed. It's proving more elusive to catch but we live in hope. By the way, the two hedgies we managed to rescue are both little girls - important - as they continue to raise future hedgie generations of course!

So, that's been the excitement for this week. No photos of Dudley - a friend and I went out for lunch during the week and it was the first time she'd met Dudley. She was absolutely enchanted by him - he certainly wins the ladies over!

Love from Parsnip, a wave from Dudley - and of course hugs as always from me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #350 - results

Ha, one of the joys of retirement - I totally forgot that this is a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK! Running behind and lots of other stuff going on so let's get rolling with the fortnightly picks:

No new Playmates this time, although we had a total of 55 entries!

As always, it's so hard to pick just three of your lovely entries - but here goes anyhow:

This is such a perfect twisted easel Easter card, made by Jackie T. I love all the Easter colours and so many lovely layers as well!  Everything is so perfectly lined up and the little bunnies are a very sweet touch. Gorgeous work Jackie.

Then we jump ahead to Christmas - and this totally fabulous card, brought to share with us by Susan B. I think the embossed (paste) brick background is a beautiful piece of work on which to show off the wreath. Which is just wonderful - all punched from little snippets of green and some white card. And the sentiment fits so perfectly as well. Love it! 

And my final pick is a very clever 'treat holder' made in the shape of a dress by 'The Creative Twins'. It's so pretty and I also think you can work out how to make your own from the photos and really clear instructions added by the twins. Thanks girls!
Now it's prize draw time, and our winner of the Clearly Besotted 'Panda Planner' set of stamps, plus a £15 gift voucher (which was kindly donated by Clearly Besotted) is :

Lynne (Lynne's Craft Haven)

Congratulations Lynne! Please send me your address, with your 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 #351 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a Clarity Stamp 'Lizzy & Rockery + masks set (which does have two perspex stamp mounts as well if you really want them.

No new photos of Dudley I'm afraid - but his adventures continue to amuse us - Len taught him how to put his paw up for treats (in fact he's so taken with it that he'll do a right paw 'high five' anytime!) - so cute :) Need to take a photo when I get a chance!

And, he has finally met the hedgie! That was too funny - he did an absolute double take - looking from Art the garden hedgie ornament to the real one and sort of shaking his head in disbelief! Then, he was in his penned in area and hedgie was safely outside, he began to bounce around and crouch with his tail wagging. 'Come and play' he seemed to be saying! No growling or barking either.

Len couldn't get a photo of them both together (obviously) - but this is Spike taken whilst Dudley was beseeching him to play:

As always, Parsnip and Dudley send their love, and so do I of course!

Stand in line/ form an orderly queue please

No card today - life is very busy right now and other things are taking the place of crafting, sigh.

But, I've written a lot here lately about the hedgehogs - and Len has done his very best to capture them on camera for you. His quest will continue for sure.

Recently I wrote about them forming an 'orderly queue/line' and am sure some of you perhaps thought I was 'over-egging the pudding'. I don't blame you at all but what comes next, captured on camera, proves that we're not totally barking mad.

THIS popped up on the overnight CCTV between Monday and Tuesday:

I'm sorry that it's horribly hazy - it's due to the CCTV plus me cropping it so you can see them, All three in a line, one at the bowl feeding and two behind, the one nearest the camera was gonna have a bit of a wait I think!

Bit like the Harrods Sales really :)

 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge # 326 - results

Oh boy, it's very warm and humid here right now. The sort of weather that we long for during the Winter and then wonder just why when it's hard to even craft without sticky paws - and that's before we even go near the glue!

Running late this time round so I'll dive right in with our new Guest Designer, and this time round it's Sandy of 'Stamping Writer'! And this is a really fun card that Sandy made to share:

Here's what Sandy wrote about her card:

I'm delighted to be contributing to the Playground. 

This scene card is all snippets, aside from the base. It started with a 4-inch by 5 ¼-inch blue snippet. I cut three snippets of green patterned paper using the curved Whimsy Stitched Edge die, then arranged them on top of each other to create the “hills,” trimming off the edges to fit. The clouds are white snippets cut with Whimsy Stitched Clouds die.  The sheep are from a set by The Alley Way (which is sadly out of business) called With Wondering Awe. They were stamped with Memento Black ink, colored with pencils, and fussy-cut. The sentiment (from The Alley Way set More Than Words) was stamped in the same black ink. Once the scene was all assembled, it was placed on a top-fold A-2 card.

Oh I do think this is a brilliant card, just amazing how a such great scene can be created with a few snippets - as well as a lot of imagination of course!

And a few words about Sandy herself:

I live in the southeastern U.S. with my husband, and our son lives about two hours away, where he is working on his university degree.  I work as a freelance writer, producing content for various websites and print clients (so feel free to contact me if your business needs some writing done😉). I’ve always loved crafting – I believe I got hooked when my kindergarten teacher handed out tea towels and taught us how to do a basic cross stitch. I discovered stamping and card making when my son was a baby, erroneously believing I had stumbled upon a “hobby I can keep in a shoe box.” (Oh, how innocent I was then!) I got more involved in the hobby as the Internet allowed me to find and connect with other stampers. I also enjoy reading, traveling, and outdoor activities such as camping, biking and hiking.

I wonder just how many of our own Primary School teachers were responsible for 'kick starting' our interest in one form or another of crafting? My own Mum had been to art college and was a really good artist - I used to love to sit and watch her sketching and colouring when I was young. I reckon she'd be like a kid in a sweet shop if she was still here and let loose in my craft room - ha, but I'm equally sure she would make me keep it tidier :)

No photo of Sandy to share - but at the end of this post there's a little photo from Len for you all :)

Thanks so much for being our Guest Designer Sandy - we're delighted you could take on the role for this fortnight. And Parsnip is more than willing to have me send him over to the US to join you on a camping trip! In fact, some days I'd even pay you to have him for a month or so!

Now, we do have a *Gold Star* this week, and it's a lady whose work does feature on here quite often. I'm sure this will blow your little socks off girls and you'll agree 100% that this is so worthy of a Gold Star:

 

Alice of Scrap & C made these absolutely fabulous tea bag dispensers, cups and mugs, totally from cards (including tons of snippets of course) for a shop window display! How very clever and there's tons of fascinating photos of the whole process over on Alice's blog - I do recommend you hop over for a closer look.

And now for the other three picks - a general mix of entries that caught my eye and made me smile over the fortnight:

What a fun card, made by Lynn of 'Creative Crafts' by Lynn. This is Rambo - their much loved dachshund :) Lovely card Lynn!

Jane W brought this card to share with us - great use of snippets and a perfect sentiment! Such a cleverly made scene as well.

I just love this baby card, made by Carol D to celebrate the birth of a new baby grand daughter. Little elephants are just so perfect for baby cards aren't they? There's a gorgeous photo of the baby (Chloe) over on Carol's blog - being mindful of GDPR issues I'm not adding any photos into the blog other than your entries folks!

And we had one new Playmate joining in the fun this time:

Glittertastic

A huge welcome to the Snippets Playground! Love this card - just perfect for a chap and great use of snippets too.

So that was a total of 68 entries this fortnight - folk were queuing up to use the Playground duck pond to cool off in! Rather them than me - the ducks had just vacated it :)

Prize draw time now and what a popular prize as well. Our winner of the Waffle Flower 'Succulents' stamp set with matching dies is:

Carol G

 

 

Well done Carol! It's hard to tell after so long running the Playground, but I have a slight feeling that this might just be your first prize win - although I know your work has featured in the 'picks' a few times. Well done, whether or not it's a first win - you'll have something (especially the discontinued matching dies) that took one heck of a lot of tracking down! I reckon the stamps will be rare as hen's teeth as well.

Do please send me your address, with full name at the top so I can copy and paste - for speed and ease. I'll be off to the Post Office ASAP this coming week 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 #327 HERE. The prize is a a bumper bundle of Concord & 9th 'Everyday Tintables', a Concord & 9th 'Fabulous Phrases set of five dies and an Altenew 'Puffy Pink' ink pad.

And, as I mentioned above, here's a photo of Spike, taken by Len on Wednesday around midnight just this past week:

One of Len's best shots - Spike actually has his eyes open and you can see his cute little paws as well. So sweet!

Hope you have a lovely week ahead, whatever you have planned.

Love from the little white peril Parsnip, and of course me,