Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #374

I just looked back at my post for the challenge which closed on Saturday - so hard to believe what has happened in the space of just two weeks. It's like a war zone in all the shops around here apparently and people are racing round in a 'red mist of stock-piling madness'.

We can only hope that eventually they have no more space to store stuff. To date Morrisons supermarkets have  decided against specified early morning opening hours for those over 70 and NHS and care workers - because their staff are terrified of the rabid shoppers who will undoubtedly try to cheat their way in, still grab more than their allocation and then proceed to fight with the check out operator. Whatever next - this World has gone crazy.

True example that my friend witnessed on Friday - one guy with five huge pizzas was told he could only have three (still too many IMHO). His belligerent reply? 'They're all different flavours'. The mentality is from one extreme to the other - either people are helping where they can - or they're almost shouting from the lifeboats 'Haul the ladder up, I'm all right Jack'.

Rant over!
 
Here's my snippets card for this fortnight, a nice cheerful one to brighten things up a bit:

I used:

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

- piece of diagonally striped paper from Lawn Fawn's 'Really Rainbow' paper pack, trimmed to teeny bit smaller all around than the card front and glued on top

- snippets of plain white card and a selection of stamps from MFT's 'Happy Hippos', stamped with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink using a Misti

- coloured the images with Pro markers, picking out colours from the striped paper background

- die cut the images and then worked out what size white back panel I could use and still have a good sized border of stripes 

- trimmed the white panel to size, leaving half an inch all round which would show the striped border

- worked out where to stamp the sentiment and did just that, using one of the many sentiments from the same set of stamps, the Misti and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- added the trimmed white card rectangle to the card front, using Collall All Purpose glue as I'd done with the striped background

- added the little die cut elements using a Zig glue pen

-  drew some fine black lines on either side of the 'tweety pie' bird to give him some movement

- finished off by adding three turquoise sequins, using Glossy Accents

My snippets this week are all white card (the main panel and also the stamped and die cut images) - but that still counts of course. I've had this stamp and die set for absolutely ages, since November 2017, unused. It's been waiting for a special occasion and on Wednesday (25th March) it will be exactly 10 years since I did my very first post on this blog. What a fun time it's been and I never realised how many wonderful friends I would make on my 10 year journey. Friendships that I treasure so much. In the current climate I don't expect to be venturing anywhere near a Post Office but wanted to still celebrate. When I bought my own 'Happy Hippos' I also bought a duplicate set for the toy box - cost me almost £35 at the time (gulp) and worthy of being a celebrations prize!

And here it is - the prize for this fortnight:

The MFT 'Happy Hippos' stamps and matching dies sets. There are so many stamps and dies to play with in so many ways - it's such a fun set and that's possibly why I've hoarded it for so long! Very likely not easily available now in shops. Given more time I'd have used some DI and a cloud template to make the white background into a pale blue cloudy sky - and perhaps had the big hippo floating aloft on his own with his balloons and just a little bird, with the same sentiment. Tons (no pun intended) of ways to use them!

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 4th April. 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.

No photo of Dudley this time but a slightly amusing tale, now that I know it ended well. Len came back from walking Dudley on Saturday (today as I was typing this) looking quite shaken - my first thought was that perhaps someone hadn't kept their prescribed 'social distance'. But nope - the palms of his hands were scraped - he didn't show me until he'd given them a good scrub and put some healing gel on. Other than that, and the loss of his dignity, everything else seems to be fine.

Apparently, just as he was picking up a Dudley 'calling card' he tripped and the inside out bag he was holding to collect the poop in meant that his hand inside that bag, and the other hand one, slid along the gravel where he (Dudley) had decided to leave his calling card. So, the 'icky still hot off the press poop' spread a bit like icing and poor Len was mortified. Thankfully, Dudley was the only witness and he didn't have his camera with him.

Once I knew Len was OK I then totally cracked up just thinking what a vision it must have been. Then my tears started and it was a full five minutes before I could gasp out what was tickling my 'amuse core' so much. Thank goodness you didn't do a 'face plant' was all I could gasp - before going back to holding my sides and wailing with laughter. Me evil, me very evil! But also very relieved I hasten to add as the outcome could have been a lot worse. The laughter was actually quite well received and Len joined in - because right now we need whatever laughter we can find. Dudley didn't get the joke needless to say :)

Hope you all manage to steer clear of Coronavirus/Covid-19, it's ramping up here in the South of England and we're in one of the country's hot spots in Hampshire.

Do remember that Wednesday 25th (all things being equal) will be the beginning of ScrappyMo's Rudolph Days Challenge for March!

I'm badly behind with commenting at the moment, it's taking hours to find a delivery slot for groceries and even then, you wait for up to two hours in a virtual queue - and can be unexpectedly thrown out. Thank goodness for windows on PCs etc. so you can flip from one to another!  I'll catch up ASAP with comments and just leave you with this rather sad thought, although it did prompt a wry smile from us both:

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

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #356

Oh boy - it's still hot down here in Hampshire! We really could do with just a little bit of rain to clear the air as it's so humid and heavy right now.

Anyhow here's my snippets card for this coming week:

I used

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

- snippet of slightly smaller piece of light blue card, an eighth of an inch smaller on each side

- backed the light blue card with white fun foam, again cut a bit smaller than the blue card, and adhered it to the card front using Collall All Purpose Glue - just to lift it up a little bit

- then rummaged through the snippets folder for some scraps and die cut the clouds using white card and MFT's 'Cloud' Trio' set of dies

- then die cut the kites, lines, tails and little stabilising 'bows' from snippets of red, green, yellow, red and white and carefully popped them into an upturned lid I keep on the desk - through (bitter) experience. I used a lovely die set made by Impression Obsessions called 'Kite' - what else?! 

- then added the lines and clouds to the background using a glue pen - allowing some parts to hang over the edge - which I then snipped off from the back to be sure of a straight and clean cut

- still building the scene - I then added the main part of each kite - using thin snippets of sticky pad to add dimension, then added the little bows using a glue pen (this time I didn't use the 'sectioned' part of the die cutting set but that would be fun to try (say) using pretty patterned papers for a girls card)

- next I needed a few words so I used an MFT set of 'Label Maker Sentiment' stamps and the Misti with Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink for stamping. The Misti comes in so handy when stamping very solid stamps like these as I find, even with a newish ink pad, it does take more than one go to get a nice clean black finish

- then I just carefully fussy cut the words, you can actually buy a set  of matching MFT dies but I truly think they would be more trouble than they're worth - a nice sharp pair of medium sized scissors and decent light and they were done in no time at all

- then used red line sticky tape to adhere the words where I wanted them - all done!   

I couldn't find the MFT word stamps in the UK (I've had mine for a while now), but Uniko do some lovely sets - I have one which a sweet crafter bought for me a while ago and, like all Uniko products, it's great! I didn't use my Uniko set on the card as my blank spaces weren't right, next time I'll plan ahead more! Thanks again Sue! x

The prize this fortnight is:

An Impression Obsession 'Kite' set of dies and a 'Your Next Stamp' set of two 'Cloud' dies. Again, I couldn't find the MFT 'Cloud Trio' set of dies for the prize but the Your Next Stamp set is every bit as good IMHO. And I used two cloud sizes almost identical to the prize ones when I made my card. As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 20th July. 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 playing only for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

Dudley will be one year old on 22nd July and I'd forgotten just how much joy a doggie would bring to us - and how much work as well! He's so enchanting, you can't help but love him even when he's being a little pickle! Much to my quiet delight I took him for a walk during the week whilst Len was out - he behaved beautifully (after getting over the shock that after some months it was Mama taking him out!). We did about three quarters of a mile on one of his favourite routes, which might not sound much to many of you but was a huge step forward for yours truly.

On the subject of Dudley, we took him to the groomers on Thursday as his adult coat had begun to 'blow' over the past few weeks (basically changing from puppy coat to adult coat which generally begins at around one year old, and can take up to six months) so keeping on top of his tangles was almost impossible. Within half an hour of a full groom at home, making sure he was free of tangles, they came straight back. Basically, it wasn't a good situation for Dudley - deep mats can cause health problems and are also quite painful either to be removed or even before they're removed as they can cut off the blood supply. So, right now, Dudley looks like a little shorn sheep with a lovely plume of a tail and his wonderful long silky ears left untouched. His dear little face looks just as it did as a puppy - although of course the top knot has gone. I always thought he would look cute with a teddy bear/puppy cut - and no doubt he will .... as soon as it grows back just a bit! As for Dudley, he's absolutely fine needless to say, and also much cooler! Although, I think he feels it's just a bit undignified to have his 'crown jewels' exposed as they are at the moment - so he's taken to wearing dark glasses when he goes out for a walk. 

Here he is, taken yesterday, waiting at the top of the stairs for Len to return from archery:

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

Cross stitch Christmas card

Recently I was thinking about what crafts I could do easily that are small and easy to take on holiday. Knitting and cross stitch have been past favourites. And then I spotted a tag that I made last July and wrote about HERE (an MFT 'Cross Stitch Tag' die set the same as I'd used was a Snippets prize as well). It's worth taking a peek at the post if you didn't see it first time round - there are some tips on using the die set. However, coming up to a whole year later, the finished tag was still on the desk waiting to be used on a card, shame on me. So this is what I ended up with:

I used:

- A6 (UK size) white card blank, tent style

- a piece of slightly smaller patterned 'Merry Christmas' paper from the LOTV 'Krafty Christmas' paper pad - just glued onto the card front

- and then my ready made tag glued on top - finished!

In truth, this was so fast it's almost embarrassing to write a post about it - but I like to keep a record of each card I make ☺

Next job is to make up a little box with some die cut cross stitch blanks, patterns, the relevant embroidery floss, couple of needles and a small pair of scissors ready to grab whenever I feel the urge - a great way to make some Christmas toppers.

Santa's Elves

I totally fell in love with the MFT 'Santa's Elves images on a very sweet friend's blog. Next thing I knew, she'd stamped and die cut a little bunch for me to play with. You know who you are my friend, and many thinks again! But of course, now they're on my very long 'wish list' :)

I made six cards in total, two of each design:

I used:

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

- black, very slightly sparkled, card (looks a bit like the dark sky out in the wilds far away from light pollution when it's just filled with swathes of twinkling stars) - die cut using a Spellbinders die from the 'Wonky Rectangles' set. As usual I then ran a ball ended tool around the ready cut die whilst it sat in the die itself to add the little inner raised edge

- the little images, which I spent a very happy afternoon colouring with Pro markers

- my friend had also thoughtfully included some stamped sentiments and I used the elf themed ones, just trimmed them down and then backed with a slightly larger snippet of SU's 'Real Red' card stock

- and all I had to do on Bank Holiday Monday was sit and assemble the cards, and I was extra lazy and just used a small tape runner so I hope they hold together OK! Another six for the box

Such adorable images and you can mix and match to your heart's content. I must say that this is one of those stamp sets where the matching dies are likely to be so helpful - I certainly wouldn't fancy fussy cutting some of the intricate detail!

Sitting here in a heatwave, thankfully with a fan belting away, it was a bit surreal making Christmas cards I must confess.

And I'm also a bit behind with Playground commenting - blame the sunshine!

Rudolph Days - March 2017

Running in at the last minute for March's Rudolph Days over at ScrappyMo's - huff, puff!

I've long admired a particular set of MFT Christmas stamps and matching dies - and finally succumbed to temptation. This is their first outing:

I used:

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

- layer of red card stock, slightly smaller than the card front, glued in place

- piece of white card stock, embossed using SU's 'Elegant Dots' folder, trimmed down, bottom corners curved using We Are Memory Keepers 'corner chomper' and glued in place

- the flags were die cut using MFT's 'Stitched Fishtail Flag STAX' dies and snippets of black, red and white card

- stamped the dancing Santa using a stamp from MFT's 'Jingle All the Way' set of stamps and coloured it using Pro markers, clear Wink of Stella on the hat trimmings and Signo silver on Santa's belt buckle

- die cut the Santa using a matching die and set him aside

- at this point I could be sure of the length needed for the layer of flags so I then trimmed them across what would be the tops

- stamped the cheeky greeting onto the white layer using a stamp from the same set and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- glued the layers of flags together and then glued them to the front of the card

- finally, popped Santa onto the strip of flags using thin sticky pads - after adding the layers of flags I already knew it was thick enough to be a Large letter anyhow, plus the extra dimension seems to make Santa 'pop' a bit

My card (in fact I made four identical ones!) is a CASE of a card made by Julie Dinn of the MFT Design Team, back in November 2014. I had no idea the stamps had been around that long to be honest - as usual, I'm late to the party! Julie's blog is so worth looking at by the way - one very talented lady!