Sunday Snippets - Sympathy cards

Not so long ago I had the heartbreaking task of making a Sympathy card for the widow of a much loved neighbour - we four have been friends for over 30 years, which is quite some time. I really struggled with our own grief and decided earlier this week that it isn't impersonal to have a few Sympathy cards to hand after all. And so I made a set of three cards - all following similar processes, just with different images and card sizes/orientations:

Here's the three I made!

I used:

- 4.75" x 4.75" plain white card blank, side opening, The other two cards are USA A2 size, in different orientations, both side opening as well

- the images are all from the Penny Black Stickeroos sheet called 'Timeless', stuck onto snippets of  card ages ago and this time they were trimmed right to the edge before running a black TomBow brush pen around all four sides

- fun time next! Linby aka our Lynn, got me fired up to try out some new sentiments - ready stamped and die cut. The best part is that the sentiment itself can be foiled, in my case I used my laminator and spent a couple of hours doing a whole batch of them to have on standby. The sentiment pieces are by Julie Hickey from the 'Assorted Sentiments #2 Die Cut Foilables' set (116 in the set!). I did push the boat out and bought 'WOW' Fab foil in Glitter Gold and Silver. I do not recommend the glitter gold as the end results can look rather 'bitty' due to the different tones of gold - just my opinion though - you might love it, as I thought I would! In fairness, I do have some reservations - one or two of the sentiment pieces were badly printed, some quality control issues there perhaps plus some other minor things. Overall, I'm very pleased and huge thanks to Lynn for once again being an enabler! Needless to say, both the silver foiling and the silver mirror card look black in the above photos! Usual story

- so, I foiled some appropriate sentiments in silver and just glued them onto the images - it DOES make sense to foil a batch of sentiments in one go - unless your laminator is sitting there ready and waiting, 24/7of course

- then glued the images onto slightly larger snippets of white card before backing them with slightly larger snippets of silver mirror card

- all that was left was to add each image panel onto the relevant card blank, using narrow sticky foam strips ...... finished!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges: 

- Allsorts Challenge # 819 HERE -  under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #72 HERE - the Julie Hickey Foilables sentiments and also the 'WOW' Fab Foil were out to have a first play  

Dudley Pupdate: Excitement here - mid-week could see Dudley on a real pupdate here with his beloved Tilly. Tilly's Mum Kim is possibly bringing her round for a pupdate and, earlier on Friday afternoon I was talking to him, as per usual and said 'Do you know that Tilly is coming around for a pupdate?' I kid you not - at that point he'd been sitting quietly beside me doing quality control on the dicing of his fresh veggies as part of his evening meal - but he literally stood up, raised his ears and stared straight down our garden as if to say, 'I KNOW where she lives and sleeps Mama, we already have a direct line!' He sure cracks me up! Whatever else, the week also holds a clip, bath and annual vet visit for Dudley! Little does he know as yet. 👀

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #501 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.

Do come and play with us in the Playground - the Spring clean-up has been completed (Sarn is a slave driver when the wind is behind her sails but it looks wonderful) and everything is ready to roll! It's the second week of Challenge #502, so do please come and  and play if you haven't already done so. 

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - 'Wonky' Christmas tree

It's a Christmas Snippets card from me today - using a NBUS stamp set that cost me all of £1, along with some snippets of my most treasured LOTV papers :

I used:

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

- snippet of textured 'black velvet' card. measuring 5.25" x 4" - set aside for now

- snippet of the same white card as the card blank, measuring 5" x 3.75" - onto which I stamped the image and sentiments using stamps from an un-named Crafty Roo set bought ages ago - along with a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad  

- faffed around for ages thinking the images hadn't stamped correctly - until I realised that the sentiments are deliberately meant to look sort of shaded and broken. Also, there were a couple of stray dots of ink on the card around the tree - caught me again! It's part of the design so I just held the stamp up to the light and added the missing ones in, using a Stabilo black fine line pen

- once happy with the main panel, I set to with a selection of small snippets from LOTV's 'Krafty Christmas' paper pad to stamp a variety of layers for the paper piecing stage

- started at the bottom by trimming a piece at a time, running a black TomBow brush marker round the edge and then glueing it in place with a Zig glue pen until the tree was completed 

- then glued the black velvet card backing and the image panel together

- finally, added the whole panel to the card front using thin strips of foam tape - done!

I've 'earmarked' the card for a male friend come Christmas as it does have a more masculine look to it due to the colours I used.

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges

- Allsorts Challenge #819 HERE under the 'Anything Goes' theme. 

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #72 HERE - the Crafty Roo stamp set was having a first outing 

- Christmas Kickstart Challenge #96 HERE - 'Not the norm' - not red, gold or green but non-traditional colours

Dudley Pupdate: Our neighbour and good friend Kim called by the other afternoon on her way home from walking Tilly, the sweetest corgi ever! Dudley dashed out to say hello and then Tilly batted her eyelashes at him ........ one closer look by Dudley and suddenly true love landed! 💓🐶💓 They had so much fun playing at zoomies on the front lawn - we could have started up our own wind farm as their tail were wagging hard enough to almost drop off! They've met previously of course, but somehow this meeting seemed to be 'the one' for him, as well as Tilly! So cute! 

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Hope to see you on the swings - Sarn and I are waiting for you to come and play as well - we've been having some sunnier days recently and are looking for volunteers to join in with the general Spring tidy sessions! Can't afford to pay you but Dudley is happy to offer his services as a cuddly toy!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - Large Iris card

I was sent some happy mail recently by a lovely friend, many thanks again - you know who you are! I wanted to dive in and use one of the stamps right away - fetch your sunshades folks if things are a bit too bright for you:

 

I used:

- 7" x 5" 'Pale Ivory' linen card blank, side opening

- a snippet of 'Pale Ivory' linen card measuring 3.75" x 5.75" for the embossed background - which I embossed using a NBUS Penny Black embossing folder called 'noted'

- a snippet of 'black velvet' card stock to back the embossed layer as a frame, measuring 4" x 6" - then glued both layers together and set them to one side

- used the iris stamp from the newly gifted Oakwood 'Joys of Spring - Snowdrop and Iris' set of stamps plus a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad to stamp the entire flower and stem onto another snippet of 'Pale Ivory' linen card and carefully trimmed right around the image using small scissors

- then used the same stamp to pick out three distinct parts (main part of the flower, deeper centre and the green stem) using the same 'Nocturne' ink pad and a single sheet of paper from the Honey Bee Stamps 'Team Tie Dye' paper pad 

- ran a black TomBow brush pen right around all the pieces, patterned ones as well as the plain one

- trimmed the flower and stem parts and glued them onto the previously stamped image using a glue pen

- glued the completed flower onto the backing layer of 'black border with embossed script' - and once again the camera plays tricks, the embossing is really clear in real life!

- then, used a pre-lettered and ready die cut sentiment from a Lou Collins Epheremera 'Words and Letters' pack of sheets, NBUS as well - gently coloured it using a soft brush and swipe of Distress Oxide 'crackling campfire' onto the Tonic glass mat that I always work on. Spritzed the Distress 'swipe' with water to tone down the density before picking it up with the soft brush and gently colouring the sentiment

- the iris stem obviously stood proud of the embossed layer so I used small pieces of thin foam tqpe pads to build a 'bridge over the stem' on the back of the sentiment before then popping it onto the card

- finally, added the finished panel to the card blank using thin foam tape strips - finished!

Normally I stamp straight onto a panel or the card front when paper piecing - but figured out that the embossing was going to cause issues if I didn't add the flower as one entity with a flat backing ......... and I wanted to use the embossing folder, so there! It did add to the process - didn't think that one through beforehand though.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 72 - HERE. The flower stamp, embossing folder plus the pre-printed and die cut sentiment were all waiting for an outing - a happy trio 

Allsorts Challenge #818 - HERE  The current challenge is CAS but I think I'd better add this in under 'Anything Goes' as it is pretty much in your face!

Dudley Pupdate: This afternoon, Saturday, Dudley pulled such a cute trick before he went into the back garden to help Len with replenishing the bird seed etc. The hedgies are already stirring and coming looking for food, so that means extra work keeping them clean and fed/watered. Dudley stood right at the top of the stairs really to go outside, and all you could see was Honka Duck in Dudley's mouth - with a pair of bright eyes peering over the top. Len and I were talking about something else at the same time as Dudley was waiting and it was just as if he was at Wimbledon! Duck in mouth and head swivelling from side to side as he looked up at us! Just a little vignette - but a really sweet moment, sometimes small things can be the most precious.

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #500 are now published HERE.  

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - we're back to our usual routine after so many mystery prizes and special giveaways.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - Sympathy card

It's been a tough week, and I'm badly behind with commenting on Challenge 500 - I'll be with you ASAP! What a fabulous turnout - huge thanks for all your entries and really lovely comments! Here's my snippets card:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" linen 'Pale Ivory' card blank, side opening

- a layer of the same 'Pale Ivory' card (a snippet), die cut using a Spellbinders die from their 'Venise Lace' set of rectangle dies - shame on me, a first outing for them as I filed them into a magnetic storage folder and just kept bypassing them! They are pretty subtle

- stamped the 'With Sympathy' onto the bottom left hand corner of the card, using VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink and a stamp from 'Clearly Besotted's' 'Say What?' stamp set - sadly CB are no longer trading

- then used a die set by Charlie & Paulchen called 'Rambling Rose' or similar to cut the main stem and leaves, the pot and flowers - all from Papermilldirect card swatches ..... which I think count as snippets as well!

- much like Gummiapan, with some careful trimming, the main die really lent itself to then die cutting just the plant pot, carefully trimming some snips along the top and adding it to the pale green main die cut using a glue pen

- added the main stem with pot in situ to the front panel using Stix2 Micro Dots - perfect for such an intricate die cut

- added a sprinkling of die cut flowers, from a pink pearlescent sample - glued in place using a glue pen. I didn't add tiny pearls to the flower centres to keep it simpler

- final touch was to add the panel to the card front using very narrow foam tape for a bit of a 'lift'

I remembered to take a photo of my snippets as well! One tip IF you do think it's a neat way to get your paws on a very wide selection of cards samples, not free though - they are a generous size at 4.5" x 3". However, the company name and card/colour details are on the front of the samples. Many of the samples are double sided so you can just use the reverse, but the single sided pearlised is printed on the front which is limiting and a few of the glitter cards samples as well. They were sitting in a basket here and I knew I wasn't in the market for buying even more card just now so it's a fun way to use a few of them up. Don't hold your breath - at over 290 samples, it could take a while! 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #818 HERE - under the 'Anything Goes' Option.

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 72 HERE - both the Charlie & Paulchen and the Spellbinders sets of dies came out to play for the first time 

Dudley Pupdate: We're having some sunnier days right now and, unusually for him, Dudley has been pretty excited whenever it's time for walkies. Usually, he looks on walks as 'OK', but a bit of a nuisance as Honky can't go along too! Perhaps, when I go along on the Purple Peril with the 'boys' we should pop Honky in the wee basket thing on the front of the scooter for Dudley's reassurance! Crazy or what? Friday was a particularly lovely day and I was about to send out a search party as Len and he were away for so long! I would have made them a packed lunch ............ had I known in advance! When it was time for bed, Dudley was already sprawled on his back across our bed giving it the big Zzzzzzzz's - almost impossible to wake him uo enough to gently lift or move him over!!  

We have a new Challenge #501 being run by our lovely Sarn over HERE. As always, Sarn has a lovely selection of items in the themed prize bundle! And no doubt, there will be delicious goodies on offer in the treehouse! 

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Rudolph Day - February 2025

And once again, I used a lovely embossed panel, in rich deep green, sent to me by a USA dear friend to protect her card to me in the post:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" silk weave linen 'Pale Ivory' card, tent style

- snippet of Tonic 'Inca Gold' mirror card to cover the whole front and glued it in place

- trimmed the green embossed panel to just slightly smaller than the gold layer and also glued that in place

- then die cut the main sentiment feature using an unbranded die from Amazon - no name, but I can always send the link by checking my past orders of course. Just ask.

 

- die cut the sentiment stamp in Tonic mirror ' Inca Gold' and then the letter inserts from a snippet of the same linen 'Pale Ivory' - and the three berries were cut from a teeny snippet of Tonic 'Scarlet Organza' card

- used a glue pen to adhere the sentiment die parts to the embossed dark green layer - worked really well despite a question mark over my head here - and finished!

This card is for February 2025's Rudolph Challenge HERE - almost finished so be quick, it's a short month!

Len stopped by later to have a look and, typical man, said - 'Bit late aren't you?' - meaning late for Christmas not long gone! At least he liked it but just where does he think the 90+ hand made cards appear from each Christmas? No, surely not the Pixies!! 😏

Sunday Snippets - Slimline 'Happy Birthday' card

The idea for this snippets card has been bubbling away for a little while here - and finally it came to fruition, as my offering for our 'Celebration' Challenge in the Snippets Playground:

A big round of applause - remembered the snippets!

I used:

- 6.25" x 3.25" Silkweave Linen 'Pale Ivory' mini slimline card blank

- using a Just Rite 'Three in a Row' set of cutting dies, the back complete layer for the panel (fully hidden in my version) was die cut using a snippet of the same Pale Ivory linen card and then topped with two layered triple-frame Pale Ivory die cuts to form the row of apertures

- next, die cut three Tonic pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' squares, using the main triple frame die again

- then, I reached for the lovely craft gift that this was built for - a row of three very pretty square stickers from a lovely friend in the Netherlands, a beautiful set of 3D stickers made by Zeeman Products. They're SO pretty with some lovely sparkle - watch out for some Easter cards!

- stuck three little square floral sparkly stickers to the pearlescent gold squares then glued them into the apertures

- added the whole triple panel to the card front using narrow foam tape

- die cut the Gummiapan 'HB2U' sentiment twice from a teeny snippet of green card, layered them together then glued them to the card front, using a fine glue pen - finito!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

- Allsorts Challenge # 817 HERE -  under 'Anything Goes'

Dudley Pupdate: Lately, Dudley has been showing off his 'touch you with my paw' skills, when he wants something. One of the sweetest is when I'm reaching down to give him his dinner each evening, he dabs my hand with his cold, damp nose and then taps my arm twice with his left paw - like a ritual. It never fails to make Len crumble! And it's ME who's the waitress! The other thing is his habit of always being close enough that you need to very be careful not to trip over him when you want to move around. Much like a pigeon, he has an uncanny knack of moving to exactly the place you're aiming to move to, back and forth until we're dizzy, much like a pigeon wandering in the road does when you're approaching in a car. So, another name for him is now 'Little Pigeon'! Len already calls him 'Little One' and it's so endearing to hear.

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #499 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.

Do come and play with us in the Snippets Playground - it's the second week of our 500th Challenge Celebration with two mystery prizes. Dudley is itching to dry the swings and see saw down in readiness each morning and Sarn will no doubt have goodies to share - so please come and play if you haven't already done so. We're thrilled with all the lovely comments you've been leaving - 500 Challenges certainly is a milestone!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - A Valentine card from Dudley!

Being totally loopy here I followed, which makes me doubly loopy, Dudley's 'morse code woofed request to make a Valentine card from him - to Len! I had the perfect little set of stamps and dies, pleading to be used once again and this is the result:

I used:

- DL sized white card blank, tent style

- a sltightly smaller piece of the same card as the card blank, and then die cut the three square apertures using Just Rite's Frame Set 'Three in a Row'

- backed the frame piece with a snippet of light blue card, using red line tape

- glued the whole piece onto the card blank using Collall All purpose glue 

- next onto the dear little 'Dudley' puppies - using a set of stamps and matchng dies by Clearly Besotted called 'Puppy Love'. I still feel very sad that Clearly Besotted just faded away as it did, their products were such a joy and this particular set is probably my most loved and used one - I wonder why?

- stamped the three little puppies and a couple of sentiments onto snippets of white card and gently coloured their ears, paws and tails a little with a pale peach Polychromos pencil before die cutting the puppies and hand cutting the sentiments

- next I punched out a few small hearts using the same SU mini heart punch that I used for Len's card from me - and another snippet of the same Tonic pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card to have a little play before positioning the puppies into the frames

- added the puppies into the frames using thin sticky pads. followed by the punched hearts and two sentiments - using a glue pen

- final touch was to die cut a row of hearts from another snippet of the 'Red Velvet' card and just use a glue pen to add it underneath the puppies in their frames above. I used Positively Papercraft's 'Two Piece Heart set'. And speaking of Positively Papercraft. Ann seems to have given up her own Positively Paper Craft online shop and has teamed up with one of the UK shopping channels - I loved how she had such a good eye for different dies to many of the run of the mill ones and her prices were extremely good, so that's another loss it seems. 

As I had to make this card in secret, with Len likely to see what I was up to - I got rid of the snippets as I went along so as not to leave any clues!

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenge:

- Allsorts Challenge #817 HERE under the 'Anything Goes' theme. The main theme is 'Shades of Blue', which I hope to add a second card to during the challenge

Dudley Pupdate: I did have a few happy smiles when making this card as the three 'puppy poses' are our Dudley down to a 'T'! 

From left to right they are: 'Hello there, I smell food and am looking hopeful'. Middle one is 'Oh well, that didn't work, so am going into full pleading, begging and how cute am I then mode' and the final one on the right is 'You mean I have to actually wait until you finish eating to see if there's a little morsel left? Sigh.' Later .......... 'Am still in pose three in the puppy begging book and my tummy is now quite flat - get a move on!'. Len really laughed when he saw the card on Friday - no explanation needed!

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE. It's yet another special one to celebrate our 500th challenge in The Snippets Playground! There is a mandatory theme if you wish to play and be a pick and/or be in with a chance of winning one of two mystery prizes, each to contain five items. The theme is 'Celebration'. 

Hope to see you on the swings - Sarn and I are waiting for you to come and play as well as join in our celebrations!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - A Valentine card from me

I decided to get cracking and make a Valentine card for Len - I still have to make the one 'from Dudley Dog to Len' though, I know - crazy as ever:

I used:

- 5.25" x 4.25" black card blank, side opening (the card blank is .25" less in height than a true USA A2 card to accomodate the final size of the hearts panel BTW!)

- a snippet of white linen card for the background to trim once the next few steps had been done

- a piece of the same black card stock as the card blank - I do chop up matching bought cards to match the main card where necessary - even black comes in goodness knows how many shades!

- I used an unbranded die (I know, glutton for punishment) to die cut one edge of the black piece of card - the die cuts beautifully. hooray! The die is from Amazon called 'Hearts Border'  - happy to send the link to anyone as I'm as sure as I can be that it's not a copy

- then I could trim the top and bottom edges of the hearts edged piece of black card and ensure it balanced with the dimensions of the main card blank by trimming the left side down to suit 

- I could also trim the white layer to leave a border - so in effect I worked backwards a bit and had to also trim approx. .25" from the top of the black card blank. I ended up with a card size that's balanced to suit the top layer of hearts - it's a trick I often use

- next, glued the white layer onto the card blank then added the black die cut layer

- for the patterned hearts I used snippets from Altenews 'Black and White' paper pack and a glue pen

- then dug out a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card and die cut the little 'With Love' sentiment twice, using a dear little die from a Die'sire set of dies called 'TeaTime Sentiments' and layered them 

- used a SU mini punch to punch out a few hearts from another snippet of the 'Red Velvet' card before having a play around for positioning and then gluing them and the sentiment in place - finished!

The leftover snippets were so tiny, just little scraps and were whisked into the bin as I was working in 'secret' and Len was around. I swept a soft brush over the card after the photo was taken to remove those tiny specks of white - blow me, they're actually in the card stock itself and with the naked eye are practically invisible! Always makes me smile that the camera will pick up what you don't even know is there and yet it stubbornly witll ignore very obvious spakle and shine much of the time!  

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 71 - HERE The 'Hearts Border' die was having a first outing

Allsorts Challenge #816 - HERE The theme is Romance and/or Music. Nice one ladies!

Dudley Pupdate: Last Sunday morning we watched something extra on TV before getting out of bed. Right at the end of the programme, suddenly a pair of front paws appeared beside me practically tapping on the bed with impatience. I looked straight down at Dudley, he literally locked eyes with me and then very deliberately looked over at the digital clock on a unit at the other end of our bedroom! Len saw it as it happened as well, so I'm not losing the plot here! Basically, time was creeping beyond his after breakfast treat time and he was dropping a not too subtle hint! Or was it coincidence? Watch this space. 

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #498 are now published HERE.  

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - numbers are looking good and we might end up with queues for the trampoline that has mysteriously appeared!

Also, Challenge #500 starts next Sunday  and there is a mandatory 'Celebration' theme to comply with if you wish to enter the 'picks and/or the prize draw'. Sarn says there WILL be cocktails. Mine's a Mojito please!

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Beautiful!'

I wish I could say that I spent a few hours stencilling and stamping ......... using a variety of my languishing Distress inks to produce the background for my snippets card - but then I would grow a nose just like Pinnochio! Read further down to find out  more:

I used:

- A6 linen 'Pale Ivory' card blank, side opening

- the 'cheats' layer is actually a sheet from an A & C pack of A6 double sided design papers! They do several sets, and some of the backs have ATC sized 'grungy' stamping. I chose Set #7 'Papyrus' for a first play as the colours are more muted than some other sets.Trimmed slightly to measure quarter of an inch less than the card blank on all sides

- then stamped the flower onto the front panel using VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink and a stamp from Crafty Roo - bought in a clearance sale a little while ago for the massive sum of £1, sadly there's no name or reference number on the packet but I imagine that's a moot point as Kym' s stock absolutely flew out of the door in the clearance!

- at the same time, I also stamped another flower exactly the same, as well as one of the sentiments which also came in the pack, using the same ink - onto snippets of linen 'Pale Ivory' card

- I had already selected a piece of card for the plain backing layer and so went with Zig Brush pens to colour in the flower head and centre, plus the leaves - stamped onto the linen effect card - all ready for some fussy cutting

- glued the fussy cut parts of the flower and leaves onto the image panel

- glued the image panel onto the plain 'beige' piece of card and then added the 'framed' panel to the card front using very narrow foam tape for a bit of a 'lift'

- finally, trimmed the stamped sentiment and backed it with a snippet of card left over from backing the image - and then glued it in place. finished!

I found the designs to be pretty similar in the pack but well worth playing with if you would like to dip a toe into 'grungy backgrounds'. 

I've just ordered a warm grey TomBow brush pen from Amazon, hindsight tells me that black for any touching up arounf the fussy cut edges doesn't cut it if you actually stamped in grey! To be fair, in real life it's much less obvious - how fickle is the camera eh? The colours are less washed out in real life, but I'm fiddling around with my desk lamp and its many angles and functions here.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #816 HERE - under the Anything Goes' Option. I LOVE the main theme which is 'Romance and/or Music. Perhaps I can make another card to join in - ANY help with kick starting inspiration here is alwaays welcome, right now I'm in a real 'slump'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 71 HERE

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley had a trim during the week - one hour session only but Len did a lot in that time and he looks good. Mind you, they were both exhausted from the 'fisticuffs' session that Dudley put Len through! My turn later today as he needs a thorough brush and comb, I did mention to Dudley that a b.a.t.h was in the offing before long. He totally ignored my hint and tapped me with his paw for a tummy rub! His annual vet's appointment is due very soon so I think we'll save that for sometime a few days beforehand.

We have a new Challenge #499 being run by our lovely Sarn over HERE. As always, Sarn has a lovely selection of items in the prize bundle to be won. AND, news of our' 500 Challenges' Anniversary as well! However did that happen?

Love from myself and Dudley, 

January Christmas Kickstart - phew, just in time!

I really thought I might have to miss Jo's Christmas Kickstart Challenge - HERE. The theme is 'Bring the Baubles'. My entry is very last minute and with a couple of scares along the way - here it is, YAY!

I used:

- 4.75" x 4.75" square white card blank, side opening

- a piece of ready embossed white card, another one sent by a friend to protect the front of her Christmas card to us - trimmed to approx. 3.75" square

- backed the pretty embossed white panel with a snippet of Tonic mirror 'Inca Gold' card, trimmed to leave just a very narrow frame - used Collall All Purpose glue - a huge favourite with me

- the fun (not!) part was die cutting the bauble itself - it's actually the same 3D-Sizzix Embosslits die as Jo is offering at the prize this month, but you have just over 24 hours until the challenge closes. It's a gorgeous die which cuts and embosses at the same time - called 'Ornament - No. 66505' .. and this was its first outing

- I don't have a Big Shot or similar so I Googled both Cuttlebug and Gemini Embosslits Plate Sandwiches. And that's when the fun began as I could only find a Gemini 'Plate Sandwich'! 

- the Gemini sandwich went into the machine - then got stuck fast! Something I'd feared would happen when emailing a friend about doubts

- thankfully, after my attempts failed - Len galloped to the rescue and gently retrieved the plates and the Embosslit! Visions of a totally 'kaput' machine here - immediately die cut a simple die as a tester and no lasting damage - phew

- so, I left well alone until earlier today, Thursday, one day before close of play over at the challenge, bit too close for my liking

- eventually, I stumbled across a site purporting to have ALL plate combinations for the Cuttlebug - so I dutifully got the Cuttlebug and plates set up - no luck with the suggested 'sandwich'! 

- in desperation, I actually used just plates A, the 3-D Embosslit and card with just one plate B - success!! I could have added a card shim but why chance your luck!?

- die cut a futher bauble using a snippet of white card, using the same die for additional rigidity and glued it onto the back of the gold bauble 

- popped a simple knotted small red satin bow onto the bauble - Collall glue again

- added the bauble onto the panel front using thin sticky pads

- then added the whole panel to the card front using very narrow foam tape for even more dimension

Done! And, I'vr slipped a piece of paper into the Embosslit packet with the plates for the Cuttlebug clearly itemised!

Having thought further about it, I have a feeling that the plate sandwiches I found were most likely 'pre' the days of 3-D dies and possibly referred to plain 2-D Embosslits, which I've never encountered at all but would likely explain the difficulties I stumbled across? Stumble? More like fell into ......... totally headlong!! One to watch out for it seems.

One big lesson is to rely on a hand cranked machine if in any doubt! And then, don't give up on  trial and error - with you in full command!

As well as Christmas Kickstart, I'd also like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #70 - also about to finish! HERE.

I'm off for an early night in bed here - to fully recover!!

Sunday Snippets - Christmas card, also for Rudolph Days

Recently, I was browsing through dies on Amazon and came across a really lovely Christmas sentiment die set. The background is solid and then you cut the top outline layer and add it - thereby making a pretty stunning statement - err, so the theory goes. Possibly one of the very worst die sets I've ever struggled with. The main thing that kept me going was because I also wanted to use a second die cut on the card, using a lovely 'tall gift'  set of a stamp and matching die. Here's the end result:

I used:

- DL white card blank, tent style

- selected some smaller snippets - Tonic pearlised 'Red Velvet' and Tonic mirror 'Inca Gold' ready for the 'fun and games' to come with the sentiment die set. At this point I was blissfully unaware of what lay ahead of course, sigh

- used a snippet of the same white card stock to stamp the Gummiapan 'tall gift' and coloured it using a Polychromos pencil and Sansodor blending solution - a sort of rustic red and a perfect match to the sentiment snippet (more so in real life). Coloured the spots on the image using a Signo sparkly gold pen and let it have time to dry

- then cut a template for 100% accurate alignment before die cutting the 'gift box' - both the stamp and the matching die were a gift from a  very kind friend, I love it, thank you so much once again. In fact, the design of the die meant I didn't really need a template for accurate cutting - more kudos to Gummiapan!

- so, there was the gift all ready - now to make up the sentiment ........hollow laughter here!

- the sentiment dies are unbranded (needless to say) and I first die cut the solid red layer - immediately having my first misgivings as the card didn't want to part company with the die for love nor money. Eventually, having cut a second attempt, I did manage to end up with a perfect red solid sentiment layer

- naturally, it had to get worse! Next was the very outline narrow layer, which I initially die cut using a snippet of Tonic pearlised 'Majestic Gold'. That was practically a wrestling match to remove the die cut and it basically came out in pieces 

- so, I turned to my snippets of Tonic mirror 'Inca Gold' card and tried again. Once again, the same problem

- at that point I was ready to have a total rethink but, an old trick from early days of die cutting popped into my head - waxed paper!! 

- put the waxed paper over the die itself, wax side facing onto the die put more 'Inca Gold' snippet of card face down on top and had another try. Hoo flippin' ray!! It didn't pop straight out without a little bit of encouragement - but the old trick worked! Practially ran around the garden doing zoomies of relief.

- thankfully, adding the outline to the solid background layer using medium and fine nibbed glue pens went well - I was half expecting there to be a mismatch to be honest!

- die cut a further piece of the white card using a die by Creative Craft Products from their Slimline and DL Nestabilities range, called 'DL Stitched Straight Edge' die set - I used the second largest die in the set

- backed it with a snippet of Tonic mirror 'Inca Gold' card, just to show a narrow border, then glued that to the card front

- glued the sentiment onto the card front and then added the dear little gift. For the gift I used a snipped up thin sticky pad for a little dimension

- final step, added three sparkly gold sequins to break up the remaining white space a little 

What a marathon!!  All I can think of it that the metal used by the manufacturer isn't one which easily releases it's 'captive'!!! It's highly unlikely I would ever use the die set again - life is too short to sit peeling grapes for the fun of it. I just wish I knew, if indeed it even is a copy as I'd never seen it before, who made or makes the original design as that itself is very nice. Does anyone know?

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

- Allsorts Challenge # 815 HERE -  under 'Anything Goes'

- Rudolph Days Challenge HERE - anything goes, but obviously must be Christmas themed

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 70 HERE

Dudley Pupdate: It's been an uneventful week, unless you count 'Storm Eowyn', which thankfully didn't hit us personally. Those who were hit have our every sympathy, wind is so unforgiving and some of the TV footage was terrifying. During the storm I was sorely tempted to put Dudley's harness on him and attach a lead when he nipped out for a little wee in the back garden during the worst of it. Almost as if he waits as long as he can keep his legs crossed ........... then wakes us up for an emergancy trip outside Mind you, he's so nosy it's equally possible he wanted to see just what was going on out there. We had someone here about ten days ago doing a small household fix with Dudley inspecting every move he made, at one point I expected him to appear wearing blue overalls carrying a little toolbox to join in!

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #497 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Do come and play with us in the Snippets Playground - Dudley is waiting to join in with a game of 'Kiss Chase' as suggested by one wag (pun intended!). Be aware though, he charges for cuddles and there's a 100% mark-up on 'nose boops'!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - 'Love is in the Air'

My snippets card today echoes the 'theme' of our latest Snippets Challenge - 'Love is in the Air':

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" white card blank, side opening

- a smaller piece of the same card as the card blank, to be sure of 'matching shades of white', die cut using a die from Heffy Doodle's 'Stiched Squares' set of dies - sadly discontinued. The stitched edge panel measures approx. 4.75" x 4.75"

- die cut the word 'love' twice from a snippet of Lawn Fawn 'Watercolor Wishes' ombre paper - using a Memory Box die called 'Love Airy Script' then glued one on top of the other

- at that point I could place the word 'love' to see exactly where I wanted to place the next die to be used

- then used the unbranded 'Lacy Heart' die on the stitched panel to cut those pretty hearts

- added a further snippet of Lawn Fawn 'Watercolor Wishes' paper to the back of the panel, sticking it in place using sticky tape

- glued the die cut word 'love' in place

- final step was to adhere the finished panel image onto the card front, using narrow self- adhesive foam strips

NB. I did die cut a few additional hearts from the leftover snippets, using the hearts die - but they looked messy to me when I tried them so I left the card very clean and simple

A good few of the leftovers from the snippets I used are shown in the photo below the actual card.

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #70 HERE  - the Memory Box 'love' and also the unbranded hearts dies are having a first outing - having been waiting patiently in the wings for ages!

- Allsorts Challenge #815 HERE under the 'Anything Goes' theme

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley truly is a little tinker! We don't allow him to take 'indoors' toys into the garden - mostly because they are likely to end up on our bed later on and we're not too keen on whatever might be on them! He has balls and weather proof toys for the back garden and a new 'Stinky Monkey' who lives in the cabin. So, the boundaries have always been set - but I don't think Dudley got the memo - or, if he did, he threw it away in disgust!! 

Once again, this past week, he tried to take 'Honka Duck' out into the garden. I heard Len telling him very firmly to drop Honka before he would let him into the back garden. Which he reluctantly did. But, the moment Len turned his back to get water for the birds - the little four-legged rascal nipped behind him, back into the house and grabbed Honka from the kitchen to take him for a jaunt around the garden! I sometimes wonder if Dudley wakes up with a plan for the day ............ on how to keep us on our tippy toes!

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE.   

Hope to see you on the swings - I have no doubt that Sarn will have something extra warming in her satchel this week. I hear that she's been eyeing up little microwaves and could be doing a trade in warmed sausage or cheese and onion rolls. The other day Dudley snitched that an electrician has been installing a couple of electricity sockets in the treehouse which sort of confirms my suspicions! She fibbed earlier when I asked what the track of soil was right across the playground. She told me it was a mole ............. AND, what's worse, Dumbo here believed her!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - 'Word Christmas Tree'

I had another dig around in the sweet little handmade folder of snippety toppers sent to me by a blogging friend over a year ago - and decided to use a 'word' Christmas tree die cut for my snippets card this week:

I used:

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

- a snippet of Tonic gold mirror card (Inca Gold), literally trimmed just a tiny amount and set to one side

- a lovely piece of embossed white card - sent to me by another friend to protect the front of her Christmas card to us - such a lovely idea. Again, trimmed by just a little bit - then glued onto the gold backing card

- as I was putting the die cut gold Christmas tree onto embossed card, I wanted to double layer it - but of course I don't have the identical die here. However, what did I find in the packet of goodies but a second tree, die cut in plain red, what a result!

- so I glued the gold tree onto the red tree and then glued it onto the gold edged white embossed panel

- finally, added the whole front panel onto the card blank, using narrow strips of foam tape 

The leftover snippets were so tiny, just little strips and not really 'photo-worthy'.

Dudley Pupdate: We finally had some snow here. Just a little bit at first and Dudley wasn't very impressed. But, a few days later there was enough for him to get really excited and do his 'snow zoomies'. And he loves the part when he comes back into the house all damp aand gets a good going over with a towel! That seems to be all part of the fun - playing 'fight the towel'!

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #496 are now published HERE.  Four more lucky winners of the mystery prize bundles.

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground, we're celebrating 13 years since I originally took over the Snippets Playground from the lovely Jules  - and there's a prize voucher to be won too!

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx