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 #515 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,