Sunday Snippets - 'noel'

My snippets card today was super easy to make - I let the patterned paper do much of the work:

Yay! I remembered to take a photo of my snippets!

I used: 

- 5.5" x 4" dark green card blank, side opening. I made the card blank using Hunkydory 'Garden Treasures' card which comes in a 24 sheet pack of three sheets of eight colours, white on the reverse and just perfect for making card blanks

- then I returned to my current favourite Christmas paper pack, bought from Amazon, and trimmed a piece of the patterned paper down to 5.25" x 3.75" and glued it onto the card front

- like a squirrel I keep all snippets of vellum and card wherever possible inside their original packs - so I dug out a snippet of vellum and a snippet of Tonic Pearlescent 'Red velvet' card for the very simple sentiment

- die cut the outline and the word 'noel' using vellum and red card, glued the 'noel' to the vellum outline then glued the assembled sentiment onto the card front. The die set is a Technique Tuesday one - aptly called 'Noel'

- finished!

I really love how an outline of vellum on strongly patterned paper instantly softens the background and allows a sentiment to really stand out!

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

Allsorts Challenge #836 HERE - the theme is 'Christmas cards' this time, or anything goes of course!

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #80 HERE - the sentiment dies were having a first outing

Dudley Pupdate: Len gave Dudley a really thorough grooming the other day and, for now, he looks too gorgeous to have a full trim, apart from the essential areas of course. He's been in such a fun and bouncy mood today - a bit early for Spring, young man! Mind you, we did have lovely sunshine after days of rain so that will have brought joy to his little heart for sure! He hates the rain with a passion!

We have a new Challenge #519 being run by our lovely Sarn, over HERE. I think it will be the aftermath of the Bonfire Night celebrations - pretty sure there's some mini marshmallows left over for hot chocolate drinkers!

For us in the UK it's our Annual Remembrance Service and two minutes silence at 11am today. 'Lest we forget'.

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - Dandy Day

My snippets card today was inspired by a small snippet of paper in the basket beside me, with a marbled pattern of greens with gold tracery - most likely by Crafter's Companion. I immediately 'saw' the outline of a hill and this little card came into being:

I used: 

- A6 white oval aperture card blank, tent style, made by Craft UK

- a snippet of pale blue pearlescent card, again from the snippets basket plus the green marbled snippet, trimmed along the gold outline of the hill

- glued the green hill to the blue snippet then glued the whole background panel to the folded in part of the aperture card front and glued that together as well

- used a white snippet of card to die cut the little mouse, dandelion clock, little floating seed heads and a heart, using dies from the really cute Lawn Fawn 'Dandy Day' Flip Flop stamp set - I also used VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' for the stamping

- next I stamped the 'Thinking of You' sentiment to the card front, from the same set of stamps, also using the same black ink pad - held my breath a bit but the Misti didn't let me down!

- coloured in the mouse and the stem plus centre flower head of the dandelion - I love how the little mouse has his lips pursed as he blows! A tiny detail but it's there

- die cut the little stamped elements using the matching set of dies - I played really safe and die cut little 'jigs' for the tricky little elements to nestle around the images with the dies dropped in. A bit painstaking but worth it for tiny pieces to line the dies up properly 

- then glued the mouse, dandelion, seed heads and a little heart in place using a glue pen 

- finished!

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

- Allsorts Challenge #835 HERE - I'm playing under 'Anything goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #80 HERE. The Lawn Fawn 'Dandy Day' stamps and dies were having a first outing

Whilst Darnell is in our minds, I had a 'Round Robin' update email from her the other day. After a huge setback with a very nasty and deep pressure sore, which required surgery, Kevin is at last off intravenous anti-biotics and is at home with Head Nurse Darnell and Nellie his beloved Coton pooch. 

They have a good care package and routine going and finally, he is able to begin concentrating on physical and occupational therapy to get things moving again. But still with the surgery from the pressure sore under close scrutiny. As always, Darnell is very positive but I sense that she's probably almost 'running on fumes' at times as so much is gong on.

Dudley Pupdate: We went off to the local pharmacy for our Autumn vaccinations the other day - and of course Dudley yodelled for England! As soon as he's out of the car he's fine - just as if someone flicked a switch! Neither of us reacted badly to the vaccinations - our ear drums are still recovering though. 

The results from Sarn's Challenge #517 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

The week has been fun, building a bonfire for Guy Fawkes Night - Sarn's bright idea of course, she does keep me on my toes! I suspect there will be baked potatoes in the embers afterwards ........ yummy!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - The Northern Lights

My snippets card this week was inspired by a Birthday card from Lesley G for Len's Birthday last week! I immediately thought of The Northern Lights, not realising at the time that she had used Northern Lights SU DSP (yikes!) so it was more of a CASE than I realised! Many thanks for the inspiration Lesley:

 

And this one too!

I used: 

- A6 white oval aperture card blank, side opening, made by Craft UK

- a book of Northern Lights Scrapbook papers, unbranded, from which I cut out the back panel for the scene

- used an unbranded Christmas trees die set to cut three different treetops using snippets of plain black card and glued them onto the Northern Lights paper where they would just show at the bottom left of the oval aperture

- glued the 'scene' to the folded in part of the aperture card front

- then used narow strips of foam tape to go around the inside of the card aperture and also along all four sides before folding the two front pieces of the card together - to add dimension and depth

- used a precut sticky sentiment from Clarity's 'Christmas Words and Celebrations' set. (Sadly no longer sold by Clarity, which surprises me as it's so useful for occasions other than Christmas). Added a snippet of white card plus a couple of tiny strips of narrow foam tape to the back part of the sentiment whiich would sit inside the lower aperture  - plus some glue pen on the right hand end which would sit on the top of the card front - to make sure it sat level. OCD strikes again!

- finished!

These cards were great fun and I have a further eight with slight variations lined up to make in the evening whilst listening to podcasts on my laptop. Once into the swing of making them they're very therapeutic and not too demanding on my vastly improved right 'paw'!

I'd like to enter the top card into the folowing challenges:

- Rudolph Days October Challenge HERE

- Allsorts Challenge #835 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #79 HERE - my NBUS items were the Christmas Trees dies and the book of Northern Lights paper

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

Dudley Pupdate: The other day, our neighbour Kim called by for a quick word with Len at the front door, along with her dog Tilly. Dudley was in ecstasy of course and was super-keen to 'pester' Tilly. For which he did get gently 'mouthed' by Tilly as she sat resolutely on her rear end!

Anyhow, off they trotted leaving Dudley quite bereft, until later on in the afternoon Len was in the front garden fixing something and he suddenly noticed Dudley out on the front driveway wandering around where Tilly had been. Dudley never, ever wanders out of the front door - up until now of course! The little monkey had managed to nose the quite heavy, almost closed, front door open and potentially go off in search of his sweetheart! 

I think he was just about to jump on his skateboard and head off round to Tilly's abode! Lesson learned there for Len - never, ever, leave the front door even the slightest bit ajar - especially if Dudley is in search of luuurve! Me? I'm always too paranoid to risk leaving the door even a teeny bit open for 'the paw of Dudley' ..... ever!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - Christmas Pyramage

I recalled the 'pyramage technique' I used quite a few years ago - thanks to Gail's lovely DT Christmas card over at Allsorts current challenge, which is to use traditional Christmas colours. I made three cards at the same time:

The unbranded and brilliant quality papers are all from the same pack (Amazon) which I love as they have a bit of a contemporary twist yet stay close to tradional designs. If your heart yearns for a pack, just drop me an email and I'll send you the link.

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blanks, the taller rectangular one is side opening and the oblong ones are side opening 

- snippets of Tonic pearlised 'Red Velvet' card - dug out of the original packet where whole sheets are also kept - eaiere than flicking through a basket when you need a few snippets all the same in one go!

- I used a Waffle Flower set of dies called 'A2 Layers' - 17 dies in the set! Just picked out six dies to create what seemd like nice spacing for three layers of the background red and three image layers

** I also bought the 'additional'matching set of dies at the same time and using those would give even narrower bands of red. One could argue that I really needed the additional set like a hole in the head - BUT, they were in a closing down sale about a year ago!

- die cut three backing panels from snippets of 'Red Velvet' - and set them aside

- for each backing panel, I'd also picked out three dies just one size smaller from the die set and so I used removable tape to adhere a couple of edges of unbranded Christmas backing backing paper together and ran them through the Gemini using the A2 sized largest die

- put the largest piece of die cut paper aside then carefully positioned the middle sized die on the two sheets and die cut that

- as before, I put one sheet to the side and then used the smallest rectangle die to position and cut the very top layer of the patterned paper

- next part was easy, just glued the patterned papers to the relevant backing card die cut snippets and then I had three framed layers

- those framed layers were adhered to the card front - using Collall All Purpose Glue. Last week I tried an alternative glue out of interest and it ended up in the bin! 

- final touch was a sentiment from the Clarity 'Christmas Words and Celebrations' set of adhesive stickers - two went across the centres of the oblong cards and the third one went on the lower right hand side of the middle layer. Finished!

I wonder who spotted my 'Sprouting Asses Ears' moment of realisation? If not - then what I did was to use three sheets of patterned paper, when, had I used just one sheet I could have cut all three layers from it and the end result would have been the same. In my defence, and after kicking my own rear end, I actually just know that handling what would essentially be wide 'frames' of paper would be trickier than solid pieces for the bottom and middle layers.   So, I'll stick with that plan for papers like these.

So, that's three more cards for the box and I have the paper pack in front of me right now ready to make more pyramage cards - and possibly some fractured cards too. Such fun!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #834 - HERE. The theme is 'Traditional Christmas Colours'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #79 - HERE. The Christmas paper pack and the Waffle Flower A2 dies were having their first outing.

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley was in his element on Wednesday when it was Len's big Birthday! He loves to nose dab everything with his approval and the merest rustle of tissue paper send him off into total raptures! Not to tear it up as he did as a puppy, just to sniff and paw it in an attempt to help with unwrapping! I deliberately used extra when wrapping gifts as I know how much Dudley loves it! It was a lovely day and many thanks again for your good wishes as well some lovely cards for Len. How very kind crafters are.

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #516 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Silly Snowmen'

I want to join in with this month's 'Kickstart Christmas' challenge and fished out a favourite stamp set plus a Whimsy paper pack to make life easier so I could focus on making a total of six Christmas cards, and these are the result: 

I used: 

- four DL cards and two 5.5" x 4" white card blanks, tent opening

- first of all I chose six (two of each of three designs) of background papers from Whimsy's Slimline 'Frozen' paper pack

- stamped the three snowmen twice onto somesnippets of thin white card, to make it easier to use scissors, using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink

- then coloured the images using polychromos pencils to tone with the chosen backgrounds I'd picked for each snowman 

- hand trimmed the snowmen and set them to one side

- at this point I knew I was pushing my luck with the still healing hand so just put everything to one side until the next day

- on the next day I found a couple of snippets of toning Tonic 'Amethyst ' satin mirror card and trimmed them so that they framed the, trimmed at one side, slightly less wide than it started out. scenic view paper for the skating snowman

- did the same with some 'Silver Damask' card for the sledging snowman background paper. slightly trimmed at one side again

- then trimmed the remaining two card blanks down to 5.5" x 4" and did the same with more 'Silver Damask' card and the two matching scenic papers -  which was just a long snowy bank from the tree right across the card so I chopped a chunk off. It would have worked for a little family of Christmas figures but the snowman was going to look too lonely! 

- glued the backing card and then the matching scenes onto the six white card blank fronts

- used a glue pen to add the snowmen in their selected positions on the card fronts

- only added a favourite white die cut sentiment one of the card designs - the sledging snowman ones. Thought the other two designs were busy enough and didn't need a sentiment 

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

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #103 HERE - the theme is 'Snow Alert!'

Allsorts Challenge #834 HERE - under the 'Anything Goes' option as my colours are far from traditional red. green and gold!

Dudley Pupdate: It felt good to be crafting again, within some limitations. My handmade Christmas card numbers are actually quite healthy but I'm mindful that it's silly to overdo things as you pay for it the following day! Dudley is less worried about Len and myself - which is a good thing and allows him to focus on being a fluffy bundle of mischief who never seems to grow up! Today, Saturday, a lady called at the house doing a Mori Poll on radio listening habits and Dudley's early warning barks kicked in. At first she thought we had a Rotweiler! Turned out she'd been badly bitten by a dog years and was rather nervous ago so Dudley just lay at the top of the stairs gazing down at her at the front door and looking like a little angel ......... after his opening whirling Dervish display!

We have a new Challenge #517 being run by our lovely Sarn, over HERE. Do come and play - we have some lovely Playmates and Sarn serves up some brilliant refreshments. I heard her muttering about Pumpkin Pie recipes for Halloween the other day! 

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - Woodland Critters

My snippets card today was inspired by the current challenge over at Allsorts - which is 'Woodland Critters'. I needed something that could be made quickly as it's been a busy week here - and this is the very simple result:

I used:

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

- a couple of snippets of white Mixed Media card by Strathmore - I keep every single scrap of that stuff as it's not cheap

- then washed over the bigger snippet in blue and green watercolours as well as the smaller snippet in a mix of watercolours to create 'bunny brown' and put them to one side to completely dry whilst I trotted off to do other things elsewhere

- once back to the craft desk I trimmed a 5.5" x 5.5" Core-dinations orange card layer using an unbranded 'Tree Circle Frame' die. Because of the intricate design, I popped a piece of waxed paper in between the die and the card when doing the die cutting for easy release and, as always, it worked a treat! 

- then die cut the 'woodland critters' using a pair of Gummiapan 'hare' dies and just dotted their eyes using a black fine line pen

- I worked out where the hares/bunnies should be placed on the blue and green backing card I'd watercoloured earlier and glued them in place

- then ran very narrow already cut strips of foam tape around the aperture and popped the cut to size backing in place

- used the same narrow strips to then go around each side of the back of the orange panel before adhering it to the card front 

- left the card without a sentiment for now, it could be used next Easter even

The very narrow tape strips I use are another find on Amazon UK and I use them a lot and they are so flexible. The beauty of the narrowness is that you don't need to faff around snipping little cuts to go round a curve - shout if you would like the link.

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

- Allsorts Challenge #833 HERE - the current challenge is ' Woodland Critters' and if my card doesn't qualify then  it's 'Anything goes'!

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #79 HERE. The dies were all having a first outing

Whilst Darnell is in our minds, many of you will already know that Kevin, her rather gorgeous husband who possibly keeps a portrait in his attic, was in a very serious motorcycle accident at the beginning of September. To be honest, it's miracle he survived and his recovery will take some while. If you wish to know Darnell's email or snail mail address then just drop me an email - right now our love and support is so important to one of our most loved, and talented, blogging buddies!

More on health issues, for me, just a couple of fingers and a thumb are still taking time to recover so long as I don't do anything to overstretch things, else I pay for it for a few days then have to pick up and carry on where I left off. I expect that Pat our playmate will totally understand this.

Len's hernia surgery went well and he's back home, same day too! It's a relief for it to be sorted out and now he can move on - and perhaps even take up the pommel horse again. I think not, as the 15th of this month sees a milestone Birthday for him and he's already hung up his fetching gymnastic leotards! He gets very few Birthday cards at the best of times, like many men so Dudley and I are cooking up a way to send him extras! Ha, I am SO tempted to download an image of someone on a pommel horse and a witty comment! Suggestions welcome!!

Dudley Pupdate: It's been a tough week for Dudley as he always knows when things are 'due' or different - especially on Thursday when Len was away from early morning until 5pm having surgery and then recovering from the anaesthetic etc. before escaping for home. Dudley wouldn't even touch his brekkies so I had to hand feed him. He hunted the house and garden frequently looking for his 'bestie' and meanwhile either cuddled up to me or just lay at the top of the staircase, miserably watching the front door. That's a Havanese for you, apparently he's exactly the same when I go out - but this was a longer than usual excursion in a little dog's mind!

On a bright note, just a couple of days before Len went for his op. he clipped a couple of long shot CCTV images of Dudley - surveying the area of the garden where 'Willow the Killer' cat can be found!

I added both photos as is shows Dudley on the 'move' - looking towards the far side of the house. Probably at a pigeon on the far fence - 'How very DARE they - have they no respect for my Havanese Homestead boundaries?'. Nope Dudley, pigeons don't care much at all what you think little one! x

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #515 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.

All I hope for here is a peaceful week and plenty of healing time for Len. And, loads of cuddles for Dudders of course.

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - Christmas tree, from Dudley

Dudley, clever little chap that he is, popped a couple of dies in with his recent Birthday card to me - and this card uses one of them:

I used: 

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

- an unbranded Christmas tree die, it's BIG, but so perfect on a 7" x 5" card. I die cut it, plus two others, from large pieces of Tonic pearlescent 'Navy Dazzle' card

- glued the navy tree outline piece to the card blank - having first found a die for the 'star' so I could position it with similar space above and below

- die cut the 'star' using a die from a set of snowflake dies bought from The Works a good while ago - and a snippet of silver mirror card from my 'on desk' snippets basket - then glued it to the top of the tree

- at this point, I actually had three identical card blanks, each with a tree and snowflake on - the number three was important to my plan

- then used the tree die again to die cut into a precious sheet of LOTV 'Frosty' paper - carefully hoarding the leftovers of course

- it happened to be the snowflake patterned paper so I glued the top piece into the top gap in the tree and worked my way down, gluing the right piece into every third gap. So long as I kept count it was much easier than die cutting three differently patterned sheets then playing with all the pieces out of the die - that was a disaster begging to happen knowing my luck!

 - did the same with the other two sheets - of course, the final one was a doddle!

- added the fallout of the pots to the bottom of the tree then popped a silve die cut bow on, from an unbranded set of small assorted bow dies

- lastly, out came the Josy Rose Hot Fix Nailheads and I added a sprinkling of silver star nailheads towards the top of the card where it looked a bit bare

- three more cards towards Christmas - yay!

These cards were great fun to make and three different papers seemed to be just the right balance IHMO. Bonus - I later found a packet of more LOTV Frosty papers squirrelled away! 

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

- Rudolph Days August Challenge HERE 

- Allsorts Challenge #833 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #78 HERE - the Christmas Tree is a NBUS die

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

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is delighted to know that the slow progress with my hand here gets him out of being groomed - bit by bit it's improving but still annoyingly slow. Len is having surgery on Thursday so that will mean two of us not running on full power, happy days! Earlier this week I suddenly realised that Dudley had been missing for over an hour, right through us eating our evening meal and for a good while after - and he's never far away if there's food around! Searched the house high and low and my gut told me he'd been locked outside in the back garden. Eventually, Len checked and there he was, sitting quietly on the back lawn gazing at the back door - quiet as a mouse. Not one little woof even to let us know where he was!  He dashed straight to me for a cuddle and his fur was like cold silk - but he's fine and bounced right back. Yesterday was Dudley's 'Gotcha Day' - 7 years since he came home with us to live. And of course he had an extra treat or two! Photo taken just before we picked him up from the breeder:

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - Autumn Leaves

This card was totally made from scratch - despite my sore paw - which does mean that there is steady albeit slow progress, yay! Hence my choice of sentiment on this card:

I used:

- 5" x 5" brown card blank, side opening

- snippet of Tonic 'Ivory White Weave Textured' card, die cut using an unbranded square 'torn edge' die. BTW, it's very cream in real life and nicely textured. At 216gsm it's too lightweight for a card blank really but perfect for backgrounds and so on  

- die cut a couple of unbranded 'Fragmented Leaves' from a snippet of shaded card found in my snippets basket

- tied the leaves together using a little scrap of twine that was peeking at me from a little pot on my desk and then adhered to the torn edge panel. The knot tying bit was the trickiest part of all!

- added a Clarity sentiment sticker 

- finally, adhered the completed panel to the card front using thin sticky foam strips - done!

The card I used for the card blank is from a Hunkydory pack of card called 'Garden Treasures'. It's  white backed and perfect for card blanks - I managed the scoring fine and also cutting it and that made me extra happy.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #832 - HERE. The theme is 'Trees, Leaves and Plants - chosen by our Val

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #76 - HERE. The 'torn edge' frame die was having its first outing!

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is super-alert at the moment whenever I move an inch - even to the point that if I so much as even just cough, he squeals, grabs Honka Duck ............ and races off to tell Len if he's elsewhere! Len now knows that the arrival at speed of Dudley with Honks means I might even have blown my nose!

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #514 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - quick Christmas card

Still recovering here so took another dive into the snippets basket on my desk and came up with a stamped and coloured baby deer image, a pre-cut and scored card, a panel of white card which was already die-cut using a pretty outline die and some snippets of green and muted gold card. This the result: 

I used: 

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

- added a pre-cut white card panel just slightly smaller - die-cut using a Penny Black set of dies called 'zig-zag stackers', found in my snippets basket!

- trimmed the image which I'd coloured using Pro Markers eons ago - the stamped image was sent to me by a blogging friend so I don't know the manufacturer but it has the look of Lawn Fawn perhaps?

- then backed the image using trimmed snippets of Tonic Pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' card and (possibly SU 'Certainly Celery') green found in the snippets basket

- used my Altenew mini die cutting machine to die cut my favourite Christmas sentiment (sadly discontinued) twice, from another snippet of 'Majestic Gold' card - double layered

- then adhered the image and the sentiment in place- used thin sticky pads for the image panel and a glue pen for the sentiment

Dudley Pupdate: it was my Birthday during the week - and Dudley was in ecstasy with packages and cards being opened whilst I was still in bed. Of course, everything had to have his critical eye cast over it - along with a nose bop of approval. Thank you so much for all of your lovely cards - it's a bit like Christmas here! We've also had a few heavy downpours and at times Dudley's been playing the 'towel-down drying game' with Len. Once released, he does zoomies around downstairs and then races upstairs like a little 'pocket rocketI' to find Honka and tell him all about it! 

Progress is slow but sure on recovery after my tumbling act' back in mid-August and every day brings another step forward. Using the mini die cutting machine is one example - being extremely right handed is a bit of a drawback when it's been injured so I was delighted to find I could use it comfortably once again!

We have a new Challenge #515 being run by our lovely Sarn, over HERE. I'm still taking it easy in the Staff Room under strict instructions from Sarn - but that doesn't mean I don't have my little undercover 'spy in a white fluffy coat' reporting back to me! I just wish he wouldn't insist on wearing a pair of my sunglasses in the hope of disguising who he really is as he saunters around!

Love from myself and Dudley, 

 

Sunday Snippets - Van Gogh washi tape

Still struggling here but, as luck would have it, I found a panel of 'Van Gogh' washi tape strips already made up onto a snippet of card - languishing in a basket on my desk, yay!

I used:

- 6.25" x 3.25" slimline card blank, tent style

- a snippet of white card which I'd covered in strips of 'Van Gogh's World' washi tape a good while ago. They came from the IEBEE company, based in China, in a set of 36 tapes

- trimmed the washi panel to 5.25" x 2.25"

- a snippet of Tonic satin mirror 'Soft Amethyst' card in my snippets basket - what a stroke of luck

- then trimmed said snippet down and added it as a 'frame' to the back of the scenic panel

- at that point I knew how much room there was to play with on the front of the card blank and so added seven embossed lines down the left hand side, so that I could add the scenic panel offset to one side. Thanks again Darnell for the technique!

- added the whole completed scenic panel to the card base using thin foam tape pads - and a glue stick swiped over the pads to allow some 'wriggle room' when setting it in place

- finally, added a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment to the bottom right hand side of the card - thankfully already snipped up in the packet of Creative Expressions 'Wordies Birthday Sentiments' 

A simple offering but, being unable to do quite a few of the things we take for granted when crafting, it made me happy to get this far! For example, on the domestic front am still drinking using a straw as I can't properly hold a mug or cup by the handle - YET!

If you squint at the scene you can almost see countryside in the front, lavender fields behind a barrier of lush tripocal trees - and then hills beyond with the sun setting over them! Told you, SQUINT!

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

- Allsorts Challenge #831 HERE - the current challenge is 'Birthdays'

Dudley Pupdate: The takeover of the shower room off our bedroom continues - it's Dudley's 'safe and quiet place' as well as his office. Yesterday, given the drop in temperatures here, I switched on the heated towel rail a little while before having a shower and closed the door so that the room would heat up a bit. The upshot was Dudley lying like a sheepskin rug with his nose pressed against the door in protest against being denied entry. I was hard pressed not to chuckle at the regular glares I was given over his shoulder! When I emerged after my shower he was practically leaning against a wardrobe tapping his claws!

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #513 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.

It looks rather like Autumn is on the way - but all the more reason to find time to play with your snippets. No doubt Sarn will be running tasting sessions for her Halloween cocktails and nibbles! And nope - no bonfires allowed Missy! Bobbing for apples is permitted though.

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - Santa Claus

I'm baaaack! Am still recovering but every day brings an improvement in movement, less swelling and pain plus the spectacular bruising is fading nicely. I can type reasonably well at last and even managed to use a guillotine for my snippets card by leaning on the blade with my left hand - tricky but do-able!

My snippets card for this week was made using an already assembled decoupage Santa, a matching sentiment, a snippet/surround of red satin mirror card and a white card blank: 

I used: 

- 7" x 5" white linen card blank, side opening

- an already assembled decoupage 'Santa Claus' image by Katy Sue - it's the last of the ones I assembled last Christmas

- trimmed a snippet of Tonic satin mirror card ('Scarlet Organza') and glued it to the back of the decoupaged image 

- added the ready trimmed sentiment to the top right hand corner of the image panel - once again with Katy Sue decoupage there are a couple of extras included which are small matching Santas for the back of the card plus the envelope

- finally added the image panel to the card front using glue - finished!

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

- Rudolph Days August Challenge HERE

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

Dudley Pupdate: I'm still not out of the woods here and Dudley is a constant companion, if not beside me then mostly in his little office - aka the shower room off our bedroom! I think we need to set up a 'hot desking' rota! 

Hope to see you on the swings in the Snippets Playground! I'm gonna sit in the corner just watching and will be wearing a Mr Blobby suit for protection............. just in case of any further tumbles!!

Very fetching, innit?! 

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - missing in action

Hi folks

A very short post from me this week - and sadly, no snippets card either. Sarn has sorted out my results post over in the Snippets playground - huge thanks Sarn. xx

I hope to be back playing as soon as possible, as soon as I'm more recovered from a fall. Right hand in particular being out of action is a slight drawback ....... understatement of the year!

Dudley is fine and is never far from my side needless to say!

With love, from Dudley and myself

xxx

Sunday Snippets - Polar bear family

It's been far too hot to spend time crafting in my little 'oven' - so this card was a bit of a last minute make! Sorry, the light bounced and sort of bleached the image:

Inside the card with sentiment - plus a little image at the front for the envelope

I used: 

- 7" x 5" white card blank, side opening chopped down from a 8" x 8" white card blank

- the decoupaged image of a Mama polar bear and two her little ones is by Katy Sue and was already assembled last Christmas then put aside

- dug through my snippets and found a piece of Tonic 'Navy Dazzle' card just the right size. The pale blue card, also Tonic, is from a whole sheet called 'Blue Cashmere' - both are pearlescent card by the way

- just glued the image onto the trimmed pale blue and navy layers and then onto the card front - simples!

- I wanted the card front to speak for itself with no sentiment, so I glued a sentiment strip from the same decoupage set across the inside of the card

- there's one little square image on the second photo and that will be added to the envelope when I'm writing Christmas cards later in the year

I love these Katy Sue decoupage sheets - they're fun to assemble and cards can then be as simple or elaborate as you wish to make them. Only one snippet from me this time folks!

Because this card is so simple I wasn't going to add it into any challenges - but at the last minute decided to share it after all:

Allsorts Challenge #830 HERE - 'B is for............ bears, branches and berries' 

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #77 HERE- the Katy Sue image is unique - you only get one of each design in the assorted pack I bought!

Dudley Pupdate: We have a much happier little Dudley now that the temperature has reduced here - sighs of relief all round really. He's been a little trouper and has done his best to keep cool - happily accepting regular sprays of cool water. His favourite spot, as I've previously written here, is our shower room - cool tiles are his idea of bliss! Recently, I've noticed that our bedcovers become rumpled after I've left the bed looking neat - and the other morning I caught the culprit in the act. Dudley, very carefully hooking a paw underneath the top sheet to flip that and the thin fleece to one side - so that he can make a nice cool comfy nest for himself! Little monkey.

No wonder this amused Len and myself today - Saturday. It came from a friend:

So very true and I would know a Havanese happy smile anywhere!

We have a new Challenge #513 being run by our lovely Sarn, over HERE. Hopefully, the little spell of cooler weather might entice many of you to use your snippets then .come and play.

Love from myself and Dudley,