Sunday Snippets - red nosed baby reindeer!

This started off as a single card for Sunday Snippets - I've subsequently used up the remainder of the pack of tri-fold aperture cards and made a further nine of the same design to add to the box of 2025 Christmas cards:

I used:

- 5.5" x 5.5" Papermania White Tri-fold aperture card blank

- snippet of Tonic pearlised 'Blue Cashmere' card which I stuck behind the aperture

- then assembled the card by flipping one inner part behind the aperture part and gluing it in place. Hint, when opening up these card blanks it does pay to mark a little cross on the section which will be glued to the back of the card front panel. There is a tiny difference in measurements between the inner fold and what ends up as the back of the card - thankfully I remembered that from using Tri-fold cards previously!

- then die cut the reindeer using a snippet of light brown card and a (NBUS) unbranded reindeer die 

- I realised that the die leaves holes in the little reindeer for its eye and also the spots on its back - and pale blue would just look silly! So, I sat and covered the panel of spots from behind with a teeny snippet of white paper - also did the same for the eye using the rest of the snippet, coloured black with a Tom Bow brush pen

- popped an enamel dot onto the reindeer's nose - Marianne 'Duotone Red' also NBUS

- then die cut a snowflake using a die from 'The Works' and a snippet of white sparkly card 

- at the point I glued the snowflake and the reindeer onto the pale blue panel

- stamped using a Uniko set of Christmas sentiments called 'Simply Said Blocks - Christmas' using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' black ink - then covered the uncut ;Merry & Bright' sentiment with self adhesive 'laminating film' to add some shine .... which doesn't show up in the photo needless to say, sigh

- trimmed the sentiment down and ran a black tombow pen around the edge before gluing it in place

What attracted me to the inexpensive little die in the first place is the HUGE nose - without a word of a lie, the red enamel dot only just covers the die cut nose! I think it's quite cute - stand well back if the little guy sneezes though!

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #75 - HERE. The reindeer die and the red enamel dots were NBUS items

Allsorts Challenge #826 - HERE. Under 'Anything Goes'

Rudolph Days June Challenge - HERE 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #99 - HERE. The theme is 'Christmas Critters' 

Dudley Pupdate: After the debacle four weeks ago, Peter, the stairlift engineer had to return about an issue that had popped up. Len had grimly told me that Dudley would be 'behind bars' for the whole visit and indeed he was! We have moveable barriers and we noticed that Dudley was much calmer behind one. He was pretty calm and almost resigned to no repeat 'performance down Peter's leg', although he did sigh very loudly several times! 😧 

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #508 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down. Even higher temperatures are forecast in the Playground  but Sarn is all geared up for that with plentiful cold drinks and ice lollies, plus we've topped on sunlotion.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Butterflies'

My snippets card for today was made in next to no time, plus I used three never been used (NBUS) items: 

I used: 

- 5.5" x 4.45" white card blank, side opening

- die cut and assembled the butterflies, using a snippet of paper from Altenew's 'Enchanting Washes' paper pack and some small black snippets for the bodies. The die I used is by Memory Box, called 'Exquisite Butterflies' - then set them aside for the now

- next  used a snippet of white card and Penny Black's 'Row of Stitches' cutting die to make the band to go across the card. The die doesn't cut right through the card but does add a very pretty pattern

- trimmed the upper and lower parts of the band then edged along them using a gold calligraphy pen for definition - and then trimmed the band, with heart in mouth, to fit widthways perfectly - result!

- before gluing everthing to the card front I used the die cuts to work out just where to stamp the sentiment

 - then, using a Misti, I stamped the sentiment, from a set of stamps by Hunkydory called 'Butterfly Wishes' and a Memento teardrop ink pad called 'Danube Blue'

- the final step was to glue the band and then the butterflies in place - finished! 

Sorry, what few snippets were left did end up in the bin.

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

Allsorts Challenge #826 HERE - my entry is under the 'Anything Goes' option but the new theme for the current challenge is 'Seaside' - how appropriate, given the current heatwave! 

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #75 HERE- everything on my card was NBUS - the butterfly dies, the Penny Black stitching die (the dies have been waiting for quite a while) and the set of Hunkydory stamps!

Dudley Pupdate: As can be expected, Dudley is really feeling the heat and trails from one spot to another in the house until he then moves to a different place in the hope of being cooler. The coolest place is just inside the kitchen door leading into the garden once the sun has moved around a bit, so he's in the shade but can catch any breeze - but he just hasn't fully worked that one out yet.

We have a new Challenge #509 being run by our lovely Sarn, over HERE. I've had a chuckle at her account of our Playground Antics this past week. The slide and the paddling pool combination are a great success - you have to go and read all about it for yourself though. Have a lovely week and remember to drink plenty of water! We watched Dudley gulp almost a full bowl of fresh water down on Friday afternoon - and he'd been doing nothing out of the ordinary to create such a thirst. The pavements are too hot for his little paws during the day but he's never been a dog to get super excited about walkies at the best of times!

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets 'Amazing'

One of the great joys of crafting is to share ideas, swop stuff - and sometimes there's 'Extra Happy Mail' as well! I was recently gifted a Craft Addiction set of square slatted dies by a lovely friend and this is my first result - love them!

I used:

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

- snippet of the same card stock, die cut with three nested slatted square dies in one go, from Craft Addiction

- a snippet of pink card, die cut using the outer die from the nested cut used above to form an equally sized outer square

- glued the pink square and the white slatted square together using Collall All Purpose Glue 

- glued the slatted square panel just above the centre of the card - to make the sentiment look more 'balanced'

- then added the decoupaged grey and silver rose (Kan Ban and I've had it sitting here ready assembled for ages) using snipped up thin foam pads

- finally - added the sentiment using more snipped up thin foam pads and a Pinkfresh ready foiled sentiment 

Managed to capture some of the lovely silver foil shine on the sentiment although the rose decoupage fine foiling doesn't show too well, sigh. I have future and more ambitious plans for the slatted squares - watch this space!

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

- Allsorts Challenge # 825 HERE - under 'What makes you happy' - flowers in my case!

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #75 HERE - the beautiful set of slatted square dies was having a first outing 

Dudley Pupdate: It's hot here and Dudley is very restless, moving from one cool place to another. Houses in the UK don't come with air con. so we rely on umpteen fans around the house - which do help somewhat but aren't a patch on a proper cooling system. Shame he doesn't like water as I would love to treat him to a doggie paddling pool! Plus a little stripey Edwardian style knitted bathing suit - complete with shoulder straps - and perhaps a straw boater hat to complete the look! 😀

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #507 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.

Do come and play with us in the Playground - plenty of cold drinks and ice lollies are available - it's HOT here right - now as I already said!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - 'Bulrushes'

I wanted to make a special thank you card and it was the ideal opportunity to give a NBUS set of dies a first outing: 

I used: 

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

- snippet of unbranded black velvet effect card stock (very tactile) to die cut the main image of bulrushes within a frame plus a sideways butterfly, using a NBUS unbranded set set. For ease I backed the framed bulrushes die cut with Stick-It double sided sticky paper before cutting it

- then trimmed a whole sheet of paper from Lawn Fawn's 'Watercolor Wishes'  so that it would form a 'sunset' background - I just trimmed it so that it would sit along the middle of the frame sides 

- adhered the backing paper to the bulrushes, very slowly as it was a 'one chance only' situation - it worked fine!

- glued card front panel onto the card blank

- die cut a sideways butterfly from some of the leftover centre of the background panel and set it to one side

- die cut the 'Thank you' sentiment twice from snippets of white card and layered them together

- then added the butterfly and sentiment to the card front using a glue pen and called it 'done'

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

- Allsorts Challenge #825 HERE Making cards for friends 'makes me happy'! 

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #75 HERE The set of dies is NBUS of course

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

Dudley Pupdate: It's been an uneventful week with Dudley so far. He's done the usual 'shouting' at the post man and any delivery people of course!

Hope to see you on the swings - the weather hasn't been too kind to us lately here so be sure to at least bring dry pants if you're gonna play on the slide, seesaw and swings!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

xxxxx

Sunday Snippets - Daisy Stem 'hello'

I wanted a set of elongated hexagon dies for ages - and finally got my hot sticky paws on a really nice set - which I used on my Sunday Snippets card below:

I used:

- A6 white card blank, side opening

- snippets of Tonic satin mirror 'Black Velvet' card, Tonic Mirror 'inca Gold' card - and a snippet of orange patterned paper from DCWV's 'Mariposa' paper stack (I hoard that paper stack like a flippin' squirrel!)

- then die cut three layers using dies from the delightful Hunkydory Moonstone range 'Straight Edged Nesting Dies - Extended Hexagon' set of dies and set them aside

- then die cut the daisy using a snippet of the same white card stock as the card blank for the flower head and a further snippet of 'Inca Gold' for the stem and outline of the daisy - using the two-die set of Memory Box dies called 'Single Daisy Stem'. What's so nice about this particular daisy die set is that it's so easy to just glue the outline onto the complete die cut daisy head, using a glue pen

- die cut the sentiment using a snippet of leftover 'Black Velvet' card and a die from a dear little Sizzix Thinlets set of dies I won very recently over at Christmas Kickstart, called 'Winter Wishes' - I cut the sentiment word 'hello' twice and layered it for dimension

- assembly time! I used Collall All Purpose glue for the layers and a glue pen for the sentiment and the daisy. The photo more or less speaks for itself. I did also use a favourite trick to add the completed panel to the card front, using very narrow foam tape - it adds dimension - but not extra postage!

Ha, so flushed with such a speedy make, I forgot to take a photo of my snippets! Detention?

I can see this set of dies being great with Penny Black Christmas Masterpieces - need to make a template and have a little play as I have a ton of them to use up.

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #74 - HERE.   All of the die sets were out for a first play

Allsorts Challenge #824 - HERE. Still time to join in the 'Anything Goes' 16th Birthday Celebrations girls! Some lovely prizes on offer too - go for it!

Dudley Pupdate: Oh goodness, where to begin?! Dudley has blotted his copy book BIG time here - probably his worst 'naughty boy' moment ever! 

Earlier this week we had the annual service visit from the stair lift company. We've got to know Peter the engineer and he gets on, minds his own business and always does a good job. Lots of crawling up and down the stairs, checking things ............ this is important to know as it does leave one vulnerable!

As per usual, Dudley wanted to be into what was going on so Len was watching him like a hawk. And then ........ an unscheduled delivery arrived - needing a signature. Len offered to pop a portable gate up to keep Dudley out of the way but Peter said just to go ahead. And SO ........................ Len took his eye off the ball, AKA Dudley! 

On 'stress overload' Dudley, with TWO interlopers to worry about, made a grab for a 'love hug' with his mate Peter's leg as he was kneeling on the stairs, got carried away and then widdled (warm and wet as Peter wryly described it) down Peter's trouser leg! OMG! SHOCK and HORROR here of course. It all happened in the space of a minute or two - ha, no photo folks! 

Thankfully Peter was pretty laid back about it. We did offer to pay for a new pair of trousers, but then he pointed to the hole in one knee and tried not to smile too much - NOT an excuse for Dudley's performance though! Oh, the shame of it!

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #506 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down. The more the merrier - just roll your trouser legs up if Dudley's around!!! 

Oddly enough, Dudley STILL crouches and widdles like a puppy or a female - and he will be seven years old/young in July! He's confused - and so are we most of the time!

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx