Sunday Snippets - 'Red Cardinal'

My snippets card was made using a lovely little 'Red Cardinal' in the snow die set for the first time:

I used: 

- 5.5" x 4.5" white card blank - side opening. It's not a true A2 size as I needed more width due to the size of the background die. It just fits into an A2 envelope, failing which an A6 envelope is even better!

- die cut the snowy background using a trimmed down snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Blue Cashmere' card and an unbranded die set from Amazon. Unsurprisingly, it's now sold out!

- before doing the die cutting I adhered 'Stick It' sheet to the reverse of the piece of blue card, so it just was stuck straight onto the card front - and amazingly it behaved and went on straight 

- then die cut the branch and one 'Red Cardinal' - the set comes with another two of the birds in smaller sizes but one looked just enough. I used snippets of pearlised black and also red card

- at that point I could stamp the sentiment using the Misti as I knew the position where the branch would go. Used a Uniko stamp from the 'Christmas Wishes' sentiments stamp set along with a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- next step was to glue the branch onto the card front using a glue pen - it's actually quite cleverly designed as the cut end of the branch is on a slant so that it follows the line of the 'snowflakes'

- and the final touch - added the Red Cardinal using lttle snippets of thin sticky pad. Yup, I even save those in the packet with the full sized pads!

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

- Allsorts Challenge #837 HERE.  - The theme is 'Focal Sentiment' and looking at the lovely DT cards my entry might qualify, otherwise it would be 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #80 HERE. The set of Uniko sentiments and the set of dies were both having a first outing

- and  of course, this month's Rudolph Days Challenge HERE.

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley had the third and final part of his trim done by Len - and very dapper he looks too! Plus, as a bonus, today he behaved calmly enough to have his claws trimmed by Len on his own, usually a two-person job! I daren't speak too soon but perhaps he's getting more used to it - it's only taken seven years! 

The results from Sarn's Challenge #519 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets 'Build-A-Reindeer'

Xcut do come up with some great die sets - and this 'Build-A-Reindeer' one is no exception: 

Leftover snippets!

I used: 

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

- piece of snowflake patterned paper from a LOTV paper pad, trimmed to 7" x 5" and glued onto the card front

- a snippet of green corrugated paper trimmed to 5.5" x 4" - given to me by a friend some time ago

- a whole bunch of plain and mirror card snippets from my 'snippets easy to grab basket' plus some Papermill Direct snippets from their swatches

- spent a happy time die cutting all the component parts for the reindeer using the Xcut 'Build-A-Reindeer' set of dies and gluing them onto the green corrugated background - I added the shiny baubles using teeny pieces of thin sticky pad

- backed the green panel using a piece of Tonic mirror card, 'Firestone Red', cut to just an eighth of an inch larger all round than the green layer

- then used narow strips of foam tape to raise the whole panel a bit before adhering it to the card front

- no sentiment needed really so I called it a wrap!

There was one part that did flummox me a bit - the set comes with just one each of the antler inner and outer parts, rather than a pair - and of course they weren't going to look right, both facing the same way. After some thought I recalled Jennifer McGuire showing how to make mirror image die cuts but couldn't remember just how, so I Googled 'Mirror image die cuts' on You Tube and there was the answer. Filmed by another crafter and it's so simple I could have kicked myself! Just die cut the pieces as usual, BUT, then run them back through your die cutting machine without the dies, sandwiched between scrap card. I used two layers of card, both above and below the four die cut pieces and it worked like a dream to flatten them!

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

- Christmas Kickstart Challenge #104 HERE - 'Just Add Antlers'

- Allsorts Challenge #837 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #80 HERE - my NBUS item is the Xcut Build-A-Reindeer set of dies

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

Dudley Pupdate: The little monkey was quietly watching Len in the front garden the other afternoon and along came Tilly with our friend Kim, on the way home after a walk. Without a 'by your leave' Dudley decided to jump ship and follow Tilly home! Luckily, Len realised in time and he was brought back home, sharpish! Kim lives at the end of our back garden down a long driveway so at least there were no roads to be crossed! He certainly is a trier for sure. 😓

To be honest, I'm quite astonished he would relish being seen in public as he'd just had Part One of a serious trim and looked rather like he'd had a run in with a lawn mower. He can only take an hour and a quarter-long trimming session at a time, and Len's much the same to be honest. It's back-breaking work, even using a proper grooming table. He's now had Part Two with one more to go. He always ends up looking beautiful, just takes time and patience to get there. And of course, already he looks tiny - there's a little dog, with big ambitions, hiding under all that silky hair!! 

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - 'Santa Dudley'!

A dear friend sent me a stamp a little while ago, saying it reminded her of Dudley and so it fell into her online shopping basket!  And how right she is, he is indeed very much like Dudley and I made this card using it as my snippets card for this week:

And the leftover snippets!

I used:

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

- a backgound snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' card, trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and glued onto the card front before being set aside for later

- then trimmed a piece of the same white card as used for the card blank down to 5" x 3.75" ready for Dudley's lookalike

- stamped the Dudley onto the bottom of the card using a VersaFine 'Morning Mist' ink pad and the adorable unbranded and gifted stamp, plus coloured his nose using a black fineline pen rather than leave it grey

- then stamped the coat area of the dog onto a snippet of plain red paper from a LOTV discontinued paper pad and also part of the area onto a snippet of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' card

- fussy cut the doggie coat and the gold fastening from the stamped snippets and paper pieced/glued them onto the image

- then worked out where the sentiment would fit and used VersaFine 'Nocturne' ink and a discontinued Clearly Besotted 'Say  What?' stamp to stamp a little sentiment directly onto the card front

- the hat was next, and I used another snippet of the same LOTV paper as the coat, plus a snippet of sparkly white card to die cut three little dies for the Santa hat using a NBUS Gummiapan 'Santa Hat' die set - I think it's the large sized one!

- glued those in place then glued the image panel on top of the gold panel - and called it done!

Naturally, the camera was mucking around with the sparkly white fur trims on the hat in the photo! Please just squint and imagine the dimension and shimmer I can see in real life! I had to perch the Santa hat quite jauntily and high up on 'Dudley's head' ...... so that at least one of his eyes was showing. This card is destined for 'Tilly the Corgi' who lives sort of behind us/next door - I keep telling him he's punching above his weight but he just won't listen!  

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

Allsorts Challenge #836 - HERE. The theme is ' Christmas Cards'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #80 - HERE. The unbranded  'Dudley' stamp and the Gummiapan 'Santa Hat' die were having their first outing

Dudley Pupdate: Once again, the weather hasn't been to Dudley's liking for much of the week. We did have one day when our usual guy came to trim all the front bushes and trees plus some still standing after we went 'easy care gardening' at the back of the house. Naturally, Dudley was almost past himself 'shouting' at John to 'Go away there's nothing worth stealing here' for almost four hours. Joined by Tilly also shouting from their lounge window at one point when John was trimming the honeysuckles winding around our arbour - just within her line of sight!! 

Thankfully it was all done days days before the usual signal that Honka Duck was causing Dudley to be sick. So, we did the ritual of taking and hiding old Honka ready for his journey to the great duck pond in the sky. And swiftly popping 'Honka 11th' in his place. I will never, ever get used to the initial look of utter loss and despair when Dudley realises that old Homks has gone - even though there's a brand new one placed exactly where he last dropped the old one before making a dash for the back door. However. he's already adjusting within 24 hours and has given new Honks a bit of a welcome licking session already - thankfully!

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #518 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. Bring your wellies and even waterwings - we've had rain almost non-stop recently!

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

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,