It's Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarty time in the Playground!

The Snippets Playground, where we are encouraged to make use of all those odds and ends of leftover card and paper, has been running for eight years now, and it is seven years since the lovely Di, of Pixie's Crafty Workshop, took over as headmistress, so Darnell has organised a blog-hop linky party - you can join in here - to thank Di (and Parsnip, of course) for all the hard work and generosity.

I wasn't there at the start of the Playground, in fact I hadn't even started this blog when the gates opened, but not long after I started blogging, I'd used a lot of scraps on a card and someone suggested to me that I should join in. I did - and was overwhelmed by the warm welcome from Di and from many of the regular players. It has to be the friendliest challenge in the Blogosphere. Since first dipping my toe into the water I think I have only missed playing along a couple of times - once when my Mum was in hospital and the other time when I was in hospital. I find hospitals don't take too kindly to having the wards cluttered up with paper, glue and glitter!

Di and I soon found out that we have a lot in common - we live not far apart, both of us have travelled the world as members of military families, and both of us have grandchildren living overseas. Meeting Di, Darnell and lots of other lovely bloggers in Southampton in 2016 was a real highlight of my blogging "career".

And what kind of a party would it be if it didn't involve gin? I've seen Parsnip disappearing behind the bike sheds with a green bottle and a couple of lemons clutched in his paws! So here's my card to celebrate.

The stamp I've used is a brand new one from Crafters Companion - I knew I had to have it as soon as the pre-release announcement came out and I stalked the postman every day until release day! The Gin O'clock ribbon was a gift from Linby of Crafty Linby who shares my love of all things gin related. All the pieces of coloured card are, of course, from my snippets box and the dewdrop gems are from a very, very old QVC kit that I bought about 20 years ago.