Sunday Snippets - 'Delivering Joy Sleigh'

I fell in love with another Spellbinders set of dies recently when a Playmate over in the Snippets Playground (Kate) entered a really lovely sleigh card into Challenge 494 and was one of my picks. I discovered the set at a discounted price and the rest is history! 18 dies in total in the set by the way and this is my take, sticking very closely to the photo on the packet for a first play - more so as I found all the pieces of snippets lurking in a basket on my desk:

I used:

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

- a piece of cream card at one eighth of an inch smaller all round, with a gold Calligraphy pen run around the edge for a really fine line then set aside 

- a piece of white card (snippet) embossed using a Gina K 'Holiday Flora' folder, trimmed to one eighth of an inch smaller all round than the cream layer then glued onto the cream layer - then both were set aside

- next came some serious die cutting, using a variety of coloured snippets and also a snippet of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' card to die cut the sleigh and contents

- then assembled all the little elements - without losing a single die, yay!

- assembled the pile of presents, using clear tape on the back and stuck them into the sleigh

- then added the twinkled foliage and poinsettia plus the sweet little label and there it was, all ready to add to the card front, using thin sticky pads - finished!

I found this set of dies to be an absolute joy to work with, after finding issues with a couple of Spellbinders sets I used recently, it went together like a dream. There are some clever ideas in the design, such as grooves are impressed into the parcels as you die cut them, to make lining up the crossways ribbon a breeze. Top marks to Spellbinders from me and I'll certainly be having more plays with the set in the near future.

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

- Allsorts Challenge # 812/3 HERE -  the theme is 'Use your dies'

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

- Christmas Kickstart Challenge HERE - 'If it's Christmassy link it up!' 

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 69 - HERE

Dudley Pupdate: Oh boy, was Dudley in doggie heaven on Christmas Day - he was hopping around the kitchen in anticipation of some little extras with his normal dinner - and we didn't disappoint him of course. He adores little pigs in blankets, nicely cut up for him, most of all - mind you, he did leave the cut up sprouts I'd added, wishful thinking on my part! The bit about his Christmas present from Santa he loved best of all was ................... the wrapping paper. 😉 By bedtime he was exhausted and zonked straight out on our bed, on his back, for a long sleep, before we'd even brushed our teeth.

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #495 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Do come and play with us in the Snippets Playground - it's the final week of our December mystery bundles giveaway challenges. 

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - almost Christmas Day!

My Snippets card today uses a cute unbranded die set, that Dudley bought for my Birthday back in September ...... with his very own pocket money from car washing on stilts at weekends  (just checking if you truly read this!). 

This is my Christmas card to you all:

I used:

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

- the dear little unbranded die set, featuring either a Christmas Gnome or at a stretch, Santa himself - let's refer to him as Santa here!

- selection of little snippets of card, to firstly die cut and assemble the 'Santa', sticking the parts together with glue pens and a teeny snippet of sticky tape on the back of the black lantern to pop the little flame coloured 'inners' in place. So fiddly and thank goodness for a pick-up tool by We R Stampers, rarely needed in the many years I've had it, but priceless when it does come to the rescue

- one assembled Santa, after I gave him eyes with a fine liner pen - but what to put him on, as a background? A further rummage in my easily reachable snippets basket threw up pieces of card in plain white, snippet of patterned snowy sky background (kept from making a recent card) and a scrap of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' pearlescent card

- first of all I glued the hand curved by 'moi' snippet of white card to the snowy background for later use and set it to one side

- then glued both background pieces as a single panel to a thinnish piece of white card for stability

- took a snippet of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' pearlescent card and die cut the outer part of the frame, the set of dies I used is Penny Black's 'framed' - gorgeous albeit fiddly! 

-next was the tricky part - I put the double gold frame, with it's wide apertures over the background piece of card(s) and carefully drew a cutting line along the centre of the empty parts of the frame itself then trimmed along those lines. This was so that the background wouldn't poke out beyond the frame on any side. NB, easier to plonk it straight onto a plain piece of card IMHO! 

- glued the panel to the back of the frame then glued the die cut white inner parts of the frame in place

- added a 5.5" x 5.5" white panel to the card front. using Collall glue as usual

- then added the framed image onto the the card front using narrow self- adhesive foam strips - which made it so much more robust and 'together'!

- final touch - my favouriite Merry Christmas die cut, double layered, in Tonic 'Majestic Gold' 

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

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #69 HERE

 - Allsorts Week #812/3 HERE under the 'Use your Dies 'theme'

Dudley Pupdate: The magic in Dudley's eyes is so beautiful to see. He sat and watched, utterly enchanted, as Len and I decorated our twinkling Christmas tree. He's getting the vibes and is ready for his Santa hat any day now. Happy times indeed.

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground. It's our second challenge for December/Christmas with four bumper mystery prizes to be won.   

Love as always from Dudley Dog and me - and a Very Merry Christmas to one and all! 🎄🎅🎄🎅

Sunday Snippets - Decoupage 'Chee-wow-ah'!

I made this card for one of my best friends from boarding school, way back in the early days of the Beatles! She has a dear little Chihuahua - a real cutie called Patch! Now and then, as Dudley was outgrowing things like his puppy carrier and his baby harness etc., it was so nice to send them to Angie: 

I used: 

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

- a decoupage sheet by Hunkydory which was ready cut. I just trimmed off the little 'pips' holding the images to the sheet and layered then up using snipped up thin sticky pads. 

- added a layer of Tonic mirror card in 'inca Gold' to the front of the card blank - it was a snippet and only needed a teeny bit of trimming

- then I took a really precious snippet of the absolutely last piece of a Christmas paper design by LOTV in the 'Merry Christmas' pad (sob!) and trimmed just a little from the edges. That pad was much loved and so very versatile

- then glued the dear little decoupage pooch image onto the Christmas words panel - all done using Collall All Purpose glue

- final touch, added the little circular sentiment from the decoupage sheet onto the bottom right corner of the card, using a sticky pad, and called it done! 

The leftover snippets were so tiny, just little strips and I binned them without thinking to take a photo.

Dudley Pupdate: Poor little guy still has some straggly hair since his trim, so is scheduled for another session with Len. He'll be doing the Egyptian 'Sand Dance' all over the grooming table! Never mind Dudley ........ Santa tells me has something in his sack just for you! No doubt it will be loved, kissed and well licked then added to the pile as he returns to his 'True Love' - Honka! To be fair, he does return to each one of his 'babies' to give them a cuddle and a wash ............. in turn. 

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #494 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground, we've moved onto mince pies and Christmas punch now - yay! Just scroll down from my results post - over in the Playground.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Special Delivery'

My snippets cards this time are heading off to Germany very shortly. We transfer funds to Kai, Mum of our two teenage English/German Grandaughters and she pops it in cash form into a card each for the girls. I usually send unsealed but already written cards from us for her to use as it seems a little more personal. Trust me - it's much easier all round and the girls have the fun of money to spend after the festivities. So, I made each of the girls a card and envelope:

I used:

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

- the stamped image was in a Gummiapan (UK Meissen) sale a year or so ago, no name but to me he's 'Skating Reindeer'. I bought three very similar different reindeer images and they too also come with matching dies, they cost me very little and one is still to make an appearance on here!

- stamped the image onto the reverse of a Tim Holtx piece of Mixed Media card, using a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- coloured the image using Arteza Watercolour pencils and a small brush and water for blending Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils and Sansodor blending solution and then die cut it - using the matching die. I made a little jig of the image for best placement - always best to pay safe after spening precious time colouring an image!

- next, took a background 'snowy hillside with frozen pond' piece of card from the KanBan 'Christmas Wobblers' backgrounds pack and die cut it using a 5.5" x 5.5" Heffy Doodle 'Stitched Squares' die - now that I knew where the skating deer should be positioned

- glued the scene panel onto the card front which left a nice white outside border

- added the white 'snippets' sentiment, already made in two layers, using my favourite Tonic Christmas sentiments die - using a  glue pen

- the final touch on the card is the reindeer in action! The mixed media card was quite robust so I just added him to the scene using thin sticky pads and the usual glue stick trick whilst placing him

- made two whilst at it of course! Finished .......... Part One!

- Part Two - the 6" x 6" envelope needed something adding to make it a little more special - initially I thought about putting the German yellow post box onto the card scene itself - with a card in the reindeer's mouth as if he was on the way to posting it. Wasn't going to work though by any stretch of the imagination! Sigh

- so, I used the German post box idea on the envelope instead. The box itself with the 'extras' are all part of a delightful Charlie & Paulchen set of small dies - called 'Weihnachts Post' (Christmas Post) - bought not long after I discovered the delights of teeny tiny dies.

- used snippets of yellow card to cut the vertical sentiment strip and the actual post box plus leftover snippets of TH Mixed Media card for the envelope and the embossed panel on the little door - showing collection times, which I edged with a border of Tombow Black brush pen. Then used a glue pen to add the 'collection times' and also the envelope to the post box. The letter box itself opens to tuck things inside - cute! Glued both the sentiment strip and the post box onto the envelope

- finally, finally, die cut the sentiment 'Special Delivery' using an unbranded die and a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card and glued that to the envelope front as well, leaving blank space above to write in the name of the recipient

I'd like to enter this card into:

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #69 - the reindeer as well as the post box dies were having a first outing!

Also Allsorts Challenge #810 - where the theme is 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas' or, 'Anything Goes'

Dudley Pupdate: a neighbour is having some indoor house alterations carried out and Dudley has generally coped well with the noises drifting over our garden .......... until the other day. We quickly realised that he was padding to and fro from the back to the front of the house upstairs and was evidently very anxious. He was terrified by an imtermittent sound and it took us a while to figure it out. Eventually it emerged that one of the numerous guys working indoors at our neighbours house was nipping outside to use a nail gun to assemble some woodwork. So it sounded like a faint shotgun such as we would hear during the hunting season around here - but much closer, for want of a better description. This is a pooch who is unfazed by storms, fireworks and thunder and lightning. But - take him out in a car OR get out of bed to get ready for the day and there's a real pantomime! He does keep us on our toes!

Speaking of Dudley, a couple of people mentioned it would be nice to see his new haircut. Instead, for now, I have a 'Spot the Dudley' photo - taken during this last week on our bed, in his favourite safe place where he'd literally built a circle of his most loved toys to act as his 'look out' spot with a bit of meditation thrown in:

I find it a rather sad photo, it's the pink around his eyes - which comes with being a fairly newly trimmed white Havanese. Aw, one of his ears was flipped back - they're like little pink shells inside. BTW, he literally gathers all the toy circle with his mouth and paws, no human intervention at all! And his chin is resting on Honka's neck .............. needless to say!

We have a new Challenge #495 being run by our lovely Sarn over HERE! AND, it's the first of our December/Christmas Challenges with more than one bumper prize bundle per challenge - go and take a look! Then get your snippets out.

Goodness knows what the latest storm Darragh has done to the Playground decorations ... just don't try to fix them back up with a nail gun, otherwise Dudley will go into total meltdown!

Love from myself and Dudley, 

For Brenda - 'A Winter Story'

I already entered over at Allsorts but really wanted to have a second entry with a Poinsettia theme. Brenda did almost throw down the gauntlet when I mentioned it, and I'll always try to take it up - so this is for Brenda. After almost burning the midnight oil here - it's done - ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz:

I used:

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

- all papers are from the Stamps by Me' 'A Winter Story' kit - from last Christmas I should add, unused until now. There are various paper packs in 6, 8 and 12 inches square, plus printed A4 vellum. Some embellishments are also included and that's mostly the 6" pack I used today

- the 12" x 12" square pack of papers is plain on the reverse and, whilst too large a pattern on the front for my personal preference, the reverse using the same colour pallette is a perfect foil to pick up colours in all of the smaller patterned papers for framing purposes. Happy dance here when I realised that! 

- picked out the card front paper from the 6" square paper pack then found the perfect green for the 'frame' piece I had in mind from the 12" paper pack (reverse)

- die cut the sentiment circle from the 6" pack once again - using a Heffy Doodle 'Double Stitched Circles' die and pt it to one side

- 'fussy cut' a poinsettias embellishment from the 6" square 'A Winter Tale' paper pack, used a large ball ended rounding tool and a foam mat to round it a bit for dimension. Then 'shimmered' it using clear 'Wink of Stella'

- used the biggest die in the Heffy Doodles 'Double Stitched Squares' die set to cut the patterned paper to suit. To make it more 'lifted' I backed some plain 250 gsm white card with double sided 'Stick It' sheet bafore adding it to the reverse of the patterned sheet - before I die cut it 

- glued the green 'frame layer' to the card front then added the stitched edge wreath square of patterned paper - both using Collall All Purpose glue

- then popped the sentiment onto the front of the card, followed by the two poinsettias down below the robin. Used thin sticky pads for the sentiment and double layered thin sticky pads for the poinsettias

- final step once the topper parts were in place - added touches of clear 'Wink of Stella' shimmer to the purple berries in the wreath and one bauble in the sentiment. None of which I could captture in photos of course!

Naturally, I would like to enter this card into the current Allsorts Challenge, which is HERE - 'Winter Flowers and Fauna'.

Also, Darnell's NBUS Challenge #69 for December HERE - the 'A Winter Story' kit was having a first playtime!

Well, this was my first real toe-dipping into the wider world of predesigned and printed collections of papers, embellishments etc. Interesting and a different slant on making a card - once you choose the items to use, it's easy- ish!

Sunday Snippets - two cards in under an hour

My two identical snippets cards today were made in literally under an hour, on Friday just gone. That's a miracle for me as I'm a slow crafter at the best of times! My starting point was a couple of Penny Black Stickeroos that I'd already popped onto some gold pearlescent snippets. In the end I trimmed the gold off altogether, leaving just the images and taking it from there, although I did add a gold layer behind the image in any case later on. Basically, it's probably easier to pop Penny Black Stickeroos onto plain white card, trim to the edge when you need them and then work from there. Trying to trim totally even borders when a Stickeroo is on a snippet piece of card, which isn't even straight edged, is tricky-woo!! And none of my dies came near to helping me either. Anyhow, this is the end result:

I used:

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

- a piece of green backing paper, which is covered in little pine tree branches and snowflakes, from the Honey Bee 'Make It Merry' paper pad - trimmed to just an eighth of an inch smaller all round than the card blank itself. I LOVE this paper pad!!

- glued the 'Make it Merry' background paper to the card front using Collall glue

- after trimming the Penny Black Stickeroo, from the 'Woodland Splendor' set, back down to the image itself, I then cut a properly measured snippet of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' pearlescent card to form a narrow border around the image piece and glued them together

- the Stickeroo came with the word 'noel' as part of the design, thus I didn't need an additional sentiment on the front of the card, yay, a time saver!

- final step was to add the whole panel to the card front, using narrow strips of thin foam tape, at an angle for a change, which does seem to show off more of the lovely patterned paper - finished!

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

- Allsorts Challenge # 809 - HERE -  the theme is 'Winter Flowers & Fauna'. I don't have actual flowers but from Brenda's wording she seems to imply that trees and greenery are fine - othrwise it's the 'Anything Goes' theme!

Dudley Pupdate: The moment of truth finally arrived and Len trimmed Dudley on Thursday, before he turned into a little Yeti! But, someone pinched our ball of fluffy white fur and left a tiny puppy in his place! Still got the same smile and beautiful eyes - and he insists that he really IS Dudley! He looks very small and also vulnerable right now. So cute.

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #493 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Do come and play with us in the Snippets Playground - Sarn and I are gearing up ready for the Christmas celebrations. She's Little Miss Organised and I'm more like Little Miss Scatty! I did spot her dragging a load of Christmas decorations, for inside as well as ouside, behind her in the Playground during the week. I kept my head down and stayed indoors keeping warm and dry, sorting through the Toy Box for our forthcoming bumper challenges. Sshh, I say no more! However, Dudley can be bribed to spill the beans for treats ...... no doubt!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Rudolph Days - November 2024

My card today is almost 'white on white' - with some white sparkle card and also some silver sparkle card as well:

I used:

- 5.75" x 4" white card blank, tent fold

- die cut the aperture with row of houses etc. using a piece of white card, the same as the card blank - then embossed it . The NBUS die is an unbranded one from Amazon, bought ages ago, and not showing the best embossed detail in the photo - there's a snowman and a sleigh to the left hand side, you can see it much more clearly in real life, sigh

- die cut the outer border of the image rectangle to size, using a die from Heffy Doodles A6 set of 'stitched Rectangle' dies, sadly no longer in business

- cut a snippet of white glitter card to fit behind the image die cut panel and just held it there without attaching it so I could see what it would look like

- the next step was to trim away a rather odd looking 'lump' in the snow right in the centre of the image panel - it almost looked like a snow covered grit holder that our UK Councils provide to quieter roads so that you can 'do it yourself'

- filled the now gaping patch of snowy bank by die cutting a pair of Christmas trees using a Charlie & Paulchen little die from a sweet set of small Christmas dies - designed to work with their Christmas Market dies etc. and using very narrow red line tape to adhere them to the reverse of the image panel. In my mind I think the residents of the two houses pute those there just for the Christmas festivities ....they're still arguing about whether to have lights on them!

- at the same time, die cut the sentiment and some stars, using the original row of houses set and a snippet of silver sparkle card and glued them in place

- then carefully added the white glitter card behind the die cut image - using red line tape AND  a few slicks of glue stick 'just in case' - another Chrissie Stokes tip. As it happened the alignment was spot on, yay! 

- I felt that the border of the stitched edge needed just that 'something' between it and the card outside edge so I added a rectangle of the same white card to the card blank - just one eighth of an inch narrower all round, and that too is almost invisible in the photo! Come on sunshine - give me a break!

- finally, added the whole image panel to the front of the card using very narrow foam strips - done!! 

I would like to add this card to the following challenges:

Rudolph Days for November 2024 - HERE

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #68 - HERE - the row of houses die was having its first outing 

I do often make a duplicate or even more of Christmas cards.  In this case I was SO glad it was only the one! Not the friendliest of cutting dies and I almost had to beat it into submission!!

Sunday Snippets - 'Three Kings'

My snippets card today uses a lovely stamp that I spotted over on Liz's blog HERE. I sat on my hands for about half an hour before ordering one for myself! It's such a distinct stamp that I had to take care not to make a direct copy of Liz's card:

I used:

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

- patterned paper from the Whimsy Stamps Slimline paper pack called 'Champagne', I used the centre portion with the rays of light emanating upwards

- stamped the image using Lavinia's 'Wise Men' stamp and a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- trimmed the image, cutting just inside the stamped outline

- hunted for ages looking for a suitable die to make a stitched edge 'frame' for the image

- success eventually so I used a snippet of Tonic 'Inca Gold' mirror card and a die from the MFT 'Stitched Fishtail Flag STAX' set of dies which was perfect for the height of the piece I wanted but way too wide. I used the old trick of die cutting onto a wider piece of card, about half an inch wider than the final result would be using the straight stitched sides and then flipped the die around the opposite way. Jiggled the die into the top and bottom 'die cut stitches' by feel to the exact width I wanted and then die cut the remaining end so that all four sides had stitching. Much easier to show than explain and when you've done the trick just once, it's a great standby to have to really customise when you don't have the perfect sized die! 

- then glued the image onto the gold panel before attaching it to the card front using narrow self- adhesive foam strips .... and the glue stick trick of course!

- then die cut two sentiment strips from another snippet of 'Inca Gold' mirror card, using the Tonic Studios 'Peace Strip' double die set (actual sentiment only), layerd them using a glue pen then glued the sentiment strip in place across the card front

- me not daft, I'd made the card tent style so that I could cleanly snip off the excess length from either side of the sentiment strip, with a sharp pair of scissors

- finished, and yup, I did make two as the paper pack had two sheets of each design

Sorry, the snippets were all shiny gold, and the desk light just bounced back so I haven't used the photo I took. It's so dull here these days that taking photos isn't particularly easy.

Little tip, stamps with very solid parts, no matter how often I use a stamping platform to re-ink, can still have some teeny stubborn white spots. Also, re-ink and re-stamp too often and you risk  some of the fine detail becoming 'clumpy-looking'. The spots are tiny, but I know they're there and my solution is a Tombow double ended black brush pen.  Just a light touch with the brush end and they disappear!

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

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #68 HERE - the Lavinia 'Three Kings' stamp is NBUS

 - Allsorts Week #808 HERE under the 'Anything Goes' theme

 - and, Christmas Kickstart HERE where the theme is  'Wise Men Three'

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is like a walking bundle of fluff at the moment - he's due to have a trim. I'm hoping there isn't a little round foottball lurking underneath all the hair! Len has let him off for now as it's turned very cold over the past few days. Dudley's life with his new Honka is going really well and he's making a nice double groove along Honka's back to get decent 'purchase' when he's carrying him around the house.  I always smile when he appears with Honka held sideways in his mouth and just two bright happy eyes looking at you over the top. 

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

Hope to see you on the swings - wrap up warm, it's cold, wet and windy outside. I'm donating a Chiminea  for you to gather round whilst consuming some of Sarn's latest offering of hot goodies!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - 'Decoupage Pooch'

I made this card for a local friend who has a French Bulldog - a cutie called Teddy. I couldn't find a Frenchie so had to settle for a pug. Close enough IMHO, at least I tried! 

An idea of the many layers!

I used: 

- 5" x 5" square white card blank, side opening

- a decoupage sheet by Hunkydory which was ready cut. I just trimmed off the little 'pips' holding the images to the sheet and layered then up using snipped up thin sticky pads. Including the base layer image it's eight layers high in places - so I made a box for it as well!

- then I took a piece of blue tartan paper from a Craft Consortium's Essential Papers 'Tartan' pad and trimmed it down so that the decoupage image had a background, but not too big to be overwhelmed

- my snippet is a slightly larger piece of Tonic satin effect 'Scarlet Organza' satin mirror card - pulled out from the packet which sits in a much used card stack slot  alongside where I work on my desk

- glued the blue tartan card onto the red mirror card, then glued them both onto the card front 

- then glued the dear little decoupage pooch image onto the tartan panel - all done using Collall All Purpose glue

- final touch, added the little circular 'Santa's Little Helper' sentiment from the decoupage sheet onto the bottom right corner of the image panel, using a thick Hunkydory sticky pad, and called it done! 

I'd like to enter this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #68 HERE as the decoupage sheet is NBUS - it also has a different pooch on it for another friend - me not totally daft!

And, I'd like to enter it into the current Allsorts Challenge #807 HERE, under the 'Anything Goes' option. 

Dudley Pupdate: Earlier this week, Dudley was sick again - twice. And it clicked that once again Honka  was the cause, same as last time we went through it due to being a well licked, chomped on and loved favourite companion. The new Honka had been around for four or so weeks and had an occasional bit of attention but not enough to fully take over. However, Len, immediately and unseen, hid old Honka in the shed until Dudley moved onto the new one and we braced ourselves for the fallout. 

There were some heartbreaking moments when an arrival at the door, usually a delivery, sent Dudley running, literally crying and looking frantically from room to room for old Honka. However, the breakthrough actually came on Wednesday of this week just gone when I was going out. As I headed for the front door Dudley went ballistic AND grabbed the new Honka, loved him to pieces (don't ask, just imagine) AND began to seriously cuddle him. From that moment on he's absolutely been in love with new Honka! We keep saying we should do it sooner, but how soon is soon? 

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #492 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground, it's getting colder here so no doubt hot chocolate will be available. Just scroll down from my results post - over in the Playground.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Lest we Forget

Sunday Snippets - Spellbinders 'JOY'

My snippets card this time uses a Spellbinders set of dies called 'Joy' (S4-1012) that has been patiently waiting for at least a year to have a first outing. I kept looking at it and putting it back as I knew it would be a challenge and a half:

I used:

- 5.75" x 4" white card blank, side opening

- die cut the main JOY part first to get a handle on what size background area would work. I used a snippets of Tonic pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' card

- then die cut a Tonic satin mirror 'Black Velvet' rectangle using a die from the Heffy Doodle set of A6 stitched rectangle dies - shame they closed shop as their stuff is/was lovely

- then used a snippet of the same 'Majestic Gold' card to back the black panel and glued them together

- next came the really fiddly part! I die cut all the additional bits from snippets found in the back of an ancient paper pad by Hot Off The Press called 'ForeverChristmas Cards' so that I could closely echo the image on the die set itself and also keep everything nicely toned together. As the snippet were paper, I backed them using some 'Stick It' double sided sheet and a 200gsm piece of white card

- used my baby Altenew die cutting machine to die cut the red poinsettias, green holly leaves, gold centres for the poinsettias and the striped (using paper from the same pack, yay!) inserts for the word JOY

- used a glue pen to add the poinsettias, gold centres and holly leaves onto the main die cut then glued it onto the panel front using two glue pens in different sizes for ease and speed (I did it that way as I would have splodged onto the black background if the image was already in place! I know myself too well)

- at that point I added the striped JOY pieces to the gold die cut. I later realised that I could have die cut the letters into the main gold part then inset the striped letters - but they look fine as they are, IMHO

- added the completed panel to the card front, using thin sticky strips 

- finally, dug out the last of my stash of Mai Flowers small adhesive pearls and added some teeny ones to the tips of some of the firtree bits

- went and had a lie down in a darkened room with a wet flannel over my face

I made two cards the same and have enough snippets in the pad to make a third one. However, this is one of those die sets that I might only ever use the once. I don't know what it is about Spellbinder dies but I've found the same with others in their more intricate sets. Sometimes, no matter HOW hard you faff around, the little pieces you pop on (the poinsettias are particularly bad) just won't line up onto the main die cut. Turning them round and round just made me dizzy until my head hurt. How hard can it be to actually do some precision design and production work? I found the same with their beautiful Christmas Reindeer set a few weeks ago. Sizzix dies can be very complicated, but I always feel that the alignment is really precise so it's worth the pain. Grrrr. Hops down from soap box, sorry to be a 'Moaning Minnie'!

I'd like to enter this card into:

Darnell's NBUS Challenge#68 - the Spellbinders 'JOY' set of dies was having a first outing, at long last!

Also Allsorts Challenge 806 - where the theme is 'Christmas'

I'm so happy that Allsorts will be a fortnightly challenge from December 20th. It's one of my favourite challenges and this gives me more time to make an entry to fit their chosen theme - although one can still enter under 'Anything goes'

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley continues to find and settle into some of the smallest spaces around the house. We now refer to the shower room off our bedroom as 'Dudley's Office' without thinking twice about it. I'll start charging him rent if I find him setting up a desk and laptop in there - small business or not - pun sort of intended! During the early hours of Thursday morning Len was woken up by someone beside the bed on his hind legs with his paws on the bed, ready to tap him awake. Seeing the anxious little face, he knew something was afoot and they both shot downstairs into the garden, where Dudley was promptly sick. Bless his little heart for asking to go out!! Bad me, I slept soundly though it all! He was absolutely fine when it was 'get up, it's a new day' time so we have no idea what that was about. 

We have a new Challenge #493 being run by our lovely Sarn over HERE! Do please come and play - no doubt there will still be some gooodies left over from the Halloween 'trick or treating' haul in the tree house! When I saw Sarn trundling a wheel barrow full of Halloween treats I did wonder however we'd ever get though them all. So far, they're going down just fine and dandy!

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - 'Merry Merry' Christmas cards

My snippets card(s) today use some Penny Black Stickeroos that I'd already popped onto some gold pearlescent snippets. In the end I trimmed the gold off altogether, leaving just the images - and I made four cards in total, two of each design/image:

I used:

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

- a piece of green backing paper, which is covered in little pine tree branches, from the Honey Bee 'Make It Merry' paper pad - trimmed to just an eighth of an inch smaller all round than the card itself

- glued the background paper to the caerd front using Collall glue

- then die cut the corner sentiment using a NBUS die (found on eBay recently) called 'Merry Merry' from the Corner Concepts range by Die-Versions - I think the whole range is now discontinued, sigh. The card I used came from a whole bundle of snippets, tucked into a Tonic packet of pearlescent card called 'Red Velvet' 

- glued the sentiment onto the top left corner of the Penny Black Stickeroo image (both designs came from the 'Woodland Splendor' sheets - somehow I had two sheets!

 

- final step was to add the whole panel to the card front, using narrow strips of thin foam tape - finished!

NB The cards and images are exactly rectangular - I just wasn't positioned centrally to take the photos so they appear to taper off a bit at the right hand end!

I'd like to enter the first card, with the birdie on, into the following challenges:

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #68 - HERE -  the 'Merry Merry' die was having a first outing

- Allsorts Challenge #805- HERE -  the theme is 'Magic of the Season' ie. Christmas 

Dudley Pupdate: We had quite a change of direction  on Halloween this year! Although we had everything ready - we actually left our hallway in darkness and just lurked! Len was remotely operating all the lights etc. IF anyone did decide to call. However,  not one single person came to the door. It might seem a lot of trouble for nothing but it actually achieved the aim, which was to see if people would bypass houses that weren't decorated, something that is always publicised around here as being the polite thing to do. In recent years the kids have been getting older (and greedier) and we decided to see if we call time on what was becoming much less fun than it used to be. So, little Dudley was fed earlier than usual that evening, much to his delight. His world seems to revolve around food and cuddles - oddly enough, he really has to be coaxed out for walkies. Other dogs I've known used to go scatty just at the sight of their lead!

Remember, the results from Challenge #491 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Do come and play with us in the Snippets Playground - the Tree House is loaded with leftover Halloween goodies! Some of the spooky eyeballs have popping candy in - not tried one of those yet!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - 'Clarity Treescape'

Did you remember to change your clocks overnight - over here it's one hour back - ie 'Fall - back'. Easy way to remember it!

The October Rudolph Days challenge is well under way and my snippets card this week is a Christmas one so that I can play along:

I used:

- white square 5.75" x 5.75" card blank, side opening, tent style

- a snippet of satin effect silver matt mirror card - die cut with a NBUS die by Clarity called 'Treescape Aperture'

- then cut the frame around the die cut trees using a Heffy Doodle die from their 'Stitched Squares' set of dies - sadly now discontinued as they closed down

- added a square snippet of deep purple-ish blue matt mirror card to the back of the trees die cut panel, covering both the top and bottom parts of the scene, using a glue pen 

- next, die cut the snow bank part of the 'Treescape' from an A4 sheet of very pretty sparkly white card stock that arrived here a day or two ago - thank you again to a lovely friend!

- glued the relevant pieces of the snowy bank into the apertures 

- die cut a sentiment using the Tonic Studios 'Peace Strip' double die set (actual sentiment only) and snippets of the deep blue card, twice. Glued them one on top of the other and then snipped the 'tails' to suit and glued it in place at the bottom right of the card

- added an IO little die cut 'cardinal' for a pop of extra colour - and also to hide a slight blip in the die cutting!

- finally, used thin sticky strips to raise the Treescape panel for dimension and stuck it in place - all done! 

Sorry, the snippets disappeared into the bin before I thought to take a photo! 

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

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #67 HERE - the Clarity 'Treescape' die is NBUS

Allsorts Week #804 HERE under the 'Anything Goes' theme

And, after all that, I almost forgot - October's Rudolph Days Challenge - HERE!

Dudley Pupdate: This coming week is Halloween of course and we're all prepared. Dudley has his little spooky neckerchief chosen in readiness. One thing I'm worried about is that he's become quite reactive to outside noises - people smile when they see who's been doing the 'welcome barking', but, if it becomes too much then I can see us cutting things short, once the little ones have done the rounds. Which will leave us with a whole load of candy, which neither of us really eat. Maybe I'll just make up cello bags of treats and lob them from an upstairs window ....... or leave them with Sarn in the Playground stash of goodies!

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

Hope to see you on the swings - weather and Halloween trick or treat callers permitting!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me