Sunday Snippets - 'Magnolia'

A very special friend had a Birthday last month - and this is the card I made for her: 

I used:

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

- snippet of the same white card stock as well as a snippet of Tonic's mirror 'Inca Gold' card stock to die cut the outer frame using a pair of dies by Maximim Crafts HERE. I love the effect of these dies - instant elegance .......  IMHO of course 

- glued the white frame on top of the gold frame - thereby giving two narrow gold edges to the white frame and then glued it onto the card front

- then die cut the parts for the magnolia - using an unbranded die set called 'Magnolia Curved Branch' and snippets of pink and green ombre papers from Lawn Fawn's 'Watercolor Wishes' ombre paper pad - and again I used some white die cut card apertures to help to position where to die cut the pink flowers

- glued the curved branch, assembled magnolia flowers and additional leaves onto the card front

- added a few touches of gold pen to the magnolia flowers

- the sentiment is actually pre-folied in gold and already die cut - made by Pinkfresh - and I added it to the card front using a couple of pieces of thin sticky pad

- the final touch was a few Memory Box self adhesive clear 'Fairy Drops'

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

- Allsorts Challenge #823  'Anything goes' HERE 

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #74 HERE - the Magnolia Branch die set was having a first outing 

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

Dudley Pupdate: It's been a better week with Len's jaw problems this week, although I did get in touch with the surgery for an extension of the antibiotics as he's not quite out of the woods yet. I do think that just five days of treatment was a bit optimistic - particularly as the usual course is 7 or 10 days - and am hopeful that this repeat course wlll really knock it on the head. When Len went to collect them, Dudley literally put his head onto Honka Duck and cried like a baby. One day I'll take a short video of him in action - heartbreaking. I kept telling him that 'Dad' hadn't run away, but he was too busy being a drama queen to actually take any notice - bless his little paws.

However, Dudley is at least much less worried about Len's health than he was this time last week, and I find that reassuring as well. As I'm typing this he's flat on his back - on MY side of the bed well into the land of nod! Dudley of course - not Len! The 'patient'/'impatient' is sitting in bed watching the evening news on 'Tee Vee'.

Hope to see you on the swings - come and play with us, it's always fun! The weather has been less warm that it was this time last week but it heating up again - doubtless Sarn will be supplying hot/cold drinks to suit!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

xxxxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Butterflies'

On Day 7 of the Gummiapan Easter Calendar, one of the lovely dies in the packet was a very pretty butterfly - and so I made this card:

I used:

- 4.75" x 4.75"  white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of the same white card stock, which I die cut using a 4.5" square die from a 'Stitched Squares' set of dies from 'The Works'. I don't think they sell dies any longer - which is a shame as they were great value for money

- then die cut the circular shape into the panel using Altenew's 'Window Sphere' die 

- next, glued a snippet of 'shades of mauve' paper from Lawn Fawn's 'Watercolor Wishes' ombre paper pad behind the 'Eclipse aperture - using a glue pen right around the circle

- time for the Gummiapan butterflies, which I die cut from a snippet of paper from the Honey Bee 'Team Tie Dye' paper pad and coloured the body with a black Tombow pen

- gently curved the wings a bit and then added the butterflies to the 'Eclipse window' using small pieces of thin foam sticky pads

- the silver foiled sentiment was just added using a glue pen - the ready made sentiment is from a pack by Pinkfresh Studio

 

- final touch was to add the whole front panel onto the card blank, using narrow foam tape to 'lift' the whole thing

Hooray, I took a photo of my snippets - and a TIP, you'll see the butterfly cut into a snippet of white card. It's an invaluable way of positioning solid dies onto most stamped images things,as well as patterned paper where you want to pick out particular areas.

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #74 - HERE. The butterfly die was out for its first flutter!

Allsorts Challenge #822 - HERE. The current challenge is 'Inspired by a Song' - and my song is 'Love is Like a Butterfly' sung by Dolly Parton 

Dudley Pupdate: It's been quite a week here and after several sleepless nights all round I finally got Len to agree that he should see a GP. On Wednesday I was sitting at 8am ready for the surgery to open, phone in hand as he could barely speak by then. After being triaged 'remotely by my description of his symptoms' he actually had a face to face appointment at the surgery at 11:30am - and came home with a course of antibiotics - but with no clear diagnosis. He took just two of the 20 doses in the full course and by 10pm we had the beginnings of a miracle as the excruciating pain had almost gone - incredible!  Progress is slower than that immediate improvement but so far it's going in the right direction. Still days to go on the course of pills and I do have a contact for my own needs at the surgery who would raise a repeat prescription request  for Len if needed. Just five days of treatment is a bit optimistic IMHO - particularly as the usual course is 7 or 10 days.

Thank you all for your well wishes last week - so very kind. Dudley has barely left Len's side during all of this needless to say. 

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #502 are now published HERE.

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - we've had glorious weather for a few days now and of course she's been up to no good. Nothing new there then - once a scamp always a scamp, meant in the nicest possible way! To think that I thought a prefect's badge and finally being my partner in crime sharing the Playground would calm things down. 😰 

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Poinsettia Star

Here's another item out for its first use:

I used:

- 4.75" x 4.75" square card blank, side opening 

- a piece of the same white card, die cut using a 4.5" square die from a 'Stitched Squares' set of dies from 'The Works' a good while ago, and still a favourite of mine

- used my NBUS die set by Creative Expressions called 'Festive Collection - Poinsettia Star' to cut an aperture into the 'stitched' piece of card using just one of the three dies

- backed the aperture with a square of Tonic satin effect mirror card called 'Scarlet Organza' - I found it easiest to use a glue pen and run it around the back of the star shape itself, with a little extra dot in the centre of the poinsettias - and also the same glue pen run right around the edges of the red satin mirror card, before putting the two layers together

- then added the stitched panel to the card front using narrow foam tape strips

- the sentiment is from a much loved Uniko set of Christmas sentiments called 'Simply Said Blocks - Christmas' - stamped using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' black ink

- then covered the uncut stamped sentiment with self adhesive 'laminating film' to add some shine, before trimming it down and running a black Tombow brush pen around the edges

- added the sentiment to the card front using very narrow red line tape

- finished!

Sorry for the rubbish photo - taken late yesterday evening in a rush. The Scarlet Organza isn't the least bit pink in real life - it's a vibrant rich red!

I was originally going to try the clear nail polish trick on the sentiment but I was running late, as well as unsure if it would work on a stamped image, so I bottled out and opted for the clear sticky laminate instead

On a roll here, I made four the same to boost our 2025 Christmas card numbers! 

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

- Christmas Kickstart #97 HERE - 'Positively Poinsettias' 

- Rudolph Days April 2025 HERE

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #73 HERE - the poinsettia die set was having it's first outing 

Phew - almost missed the end of April deadlines for all three challenges! Squeaked in by a gnat's whisker - story of my life really!

Hugs

Di xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Dragonfly'

I signed up for Gummiapan's Easter Calendar and what fun it was opening a packet each day before and over Easter weekend. Day 7 revealed a gorgeous dragonfly along with two other dies - and so today's 'Dragonfly' card took flight: 

I used: 

- DL white card blank, side opening

- a Tonic Pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' snippet, trimmed to leave an eigth of an inch on all sides - and set aside for now

- one side of another white DL card blank, die cut using a NBUS die from Phil Martin's Slender Collection called 'Eyelets'

- then die cut the inner part of that panel using an unbranded die I've had for well over a year called 'Christmas Bubble' and glued it to the pearlescent gold layer

- next it was the turn of the patiently waiting dragonfly die so I found a snippet of white card to die cut the whole dragonfly in one go - a useful step as I used it later on

- next, I pulled out the much loved Honey Bee 'Team Tie Dye' paper pad - and in the back where I keep leftover snippets in a little pocket - I found a snippet of mottled green/blue paper, yay!

- used the aperture left from cutting out the plain white dragonfly to find the best spot on the snippet of green/blue paper - and then die cut the dragon fly and set it aside after, trimming off the feelers and the tail portion - right up to the body level, ouch!

- then I snipped the white dragonfly die cut down to just body and feelers, all intact and coloured them using really ancient Whispers markers - still going strong as well! I used brown for the body and black for the eyes and feelers 

- the wings needed something before being added to the dragonfly body/tail etc. - but I truly didn't feel like pulling out clear embossing powder etc. plus the faff of the heat gun just for one small item

- and so I crossed my fingers and experimented on a little snippet of the green/blue paper using clear nail polish ................ with success! So, I then used the same clear nail polish to coat the dragonfly wings for some lovely shine and shimmer and did a happy dance. THAT is my BIG tip for today, it certainly works fine on small areas - I imagine larger areas would deserve the effort of being fully clear heat embossed!!!

- once the wings had dried I then added the body feelers and tail part using a glue pen

- then added the completed dragonfly to the die cut 'bubbles' feature

- popped a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment, ready foiled and die cut by 'Pinkfresh' underneath the die cut bubbles before adding a few die cut 'Majestic Gold' spots and dots made using a snippet of card and the same 'bubbles' die

- finally, added the whole panel to the card blank using very narrow foam strips - and called it done!

Kudos to our lovely Glennis over in NZ for the idea to use a dragonfly with the bubble die - many thanks once again for the inspiration! I abandoned my original dragonfly die I had in mind in favour of the Gummiapan one.

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

Allsorts Challenge #822 HERE - EDIT:  Brenda and Val both pointed out that 'Come Fly With Me' sung by Frank Sinatra was very apt for their theme of 'Inspired by a Song'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #73 HERE- all the dies I used were having a first outing

Dudley Pupdate: A mixed week here. Len and I had our Covid vaccinations over a week ago - both of us felt it was a little vicious for some reason. I'm now fine but Len has been unwell for just over a week now with neuralgia affecting one side of his jaw along with flu like symptoms. Today's research by yours truly shows that it can be a rare side effect of vaccination - great huh!. The worst part for him is that he can barely open his mouth to eat - and there are only so many ways to dress up a can of soup! We've progressed to adding some small cooked macaroni to tomato soup and now a little bit of well chopped cooked chicken and mashed up croquette, in chicken soup this evening - Saturday. Progress but very slow and painfull for Len.

I do think that slowly he is improving but of course it means that we have to make a decision about future Covid vaccinations, when the time comes. Little nurse Dudley has been doing a sterling job - barely letting Len out of his sight and cuddling up against him whenever possible to give comfort. I swear that little guy wears an invisible nurse's uniform! 

We have a new Challenge #505 being run by our lovely Sarn, over HERE. The weather forecast is supposedly set for a mini heatwave this coming week - be sure to bring a towel at the very least as the paddling pools will be out (and a cossie ............. skinny dipping isn't allowed). I'm sure that Sarn will be serving some refreshing cold drinks up in the treehouse. If you don't want to climb the ladder - just shout your order up and she will lower it down in a basket for you. 'Room service anyone?'

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - 'Easter'

Happy Easter everyone! Naturally, my snippets card had to be an Easter one, albeit a very simple design:

I used:

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

- all the card I used for the die cutting came from one of the Papermilldirect card swatches I wrote about recently

- used an unbranded die set and three different shades of card swatch to die cut the 'Chook Family' 

- then die cut the unbranded 'Happy Easter' sentiment, using a green swatch sample, before double layering it

- trimmed a snippet of the white linen card to a square just big enough to line up the chicken family

- at that point I knew a little 'frame' was needed and so I cut one using a snippet of Tonic 'Soft Amethyst' satin mirror card

- to add something different I rounded two opposing corners on both the white panel and the soft amethyst one, using a small X-Cut 'corner rounder' punch

- glued the two front panel layers together and then added the chickens using thin sticky foam pads and a glue pen to add the sentiment - the wings of the chickens can be flipped up again once the card is taken out of the envelope

- added the front panel onto the card front using narrow foam tape

- finished!

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

- Allsorts Challenge # 821 HERE -  under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #73 HERE - all of the dies I used were out to have a first play  

Dudley Pupdate: to be honest, it's been a pretty normal week here with Dudley. He and I had our regular 'Clash of the Titans' yesterday when I groomed him then applied anti-flea treatment. It's funny how he gets the 'vibes' immediately beforehand and sidles off to keep his distance. We went to the local pharmacy on Tuesday for Covid boosters and, as we had Dudley, we took it in turns to go in whilst the other one of us stayed with 'trouble' in the car. He loves to have the window down and made sure that he said woofed 'hello' to every unsuspecting shopper who had the audacity to return their shopping trolley to the collection point  ............ right next to Dudley!

His coat and ears are growing really well - he's not far from looking like a proper Havanese once again.

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #503 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.

Do come and play with us in the Playground - there's an Easter Egg Hunt under way. Dudley will be kept well away from anything chocolate as always. We do keep a packet of doggie choccie drops to hand as an occasional treat ...................... for the rare times we indulge in eating the human version! 

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

 /) /)

 (-.-)

0_(")(")

A little memory of the lovely Bernie - a dear friend in Blogland, gone too soon. She used to sign off with this bunny at Easter, and I've done the same ever since she died, back in 2013. Not forgotten.

Sunday Snippets - 'Eclipse Heart' card

It's time for a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground - my turn to run the show. 

I absolutely love using cutting dies where the design is strips of card cut out from a basic shape, which forms more or less the focal point of a card - be it heart, circle, square, hexagon and so on. Perfect for the Eclipse Technique as well as a background shape - and here is my card: 

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" silkweave linen white card blank, side opening

- snippet of the same white linen card, die cut using a Presscut 3.75" square die 

- then die cut the heart into the white square (using a NBUS heart die by Craft Addiction) and backed it with a snippet of white softly sparkled card, so pretty in real life,  - sent to me by a lovely friend - then set it aside

- next I die cut the butterfly using Memory box dies and snippets of Tonic 'Inca Gold' card and the same white linen card as used for the rest of the card. The solid gold butterfly layer and the butterfly's body were cut using an 'Isabella' die and the white top portion was cut using a 'Pippi' die   

- stuck the butterfly parts together and set it aside

- then die cut the sentiment using a Heffy Doodle 'Hello Shadow' die, just the actual sentiment without the matching shadow die, a snippet of 'Inca Gold' card plus more of the white card as a backing to double layer it  

- glued the sentiment layers together

- at that point I had enough of the card pieces to see how it would look assembled and immediately felt that it needed a 'frame' around the front panel so I grabbed another snippet of 'Inca Gold' card and die cut it with a 4" x 4" square die by Presscut - from the same set

- time for the final assembly, glued the heart panel onto the gold panel 'frame' then added it to the card front using narrow foam tape

- popped the butterfly onto the heart using very narrow red line tape and then added the sentiment, using a glue pen

- finished!

I really enjoyed making this card, looks like Mr Mojo might even be loitering here after his holiday! I mentioned 'Craft Addiction', a UK company, who make and sell some lovely dies and Christine Stokes (aka Chrissie of YouTube) sent loads of us in a flurry to snap up their expanding range of 'Eclipse' dies. THIS is the link to their website. A lot are out of stock but they do have a pre-order (pay up front) option. And they're working as fast as they can so your wait shouldn't be long. When I last looked, the pre-order drop down payment gizmo wasn't working on all die sets but they are aware and some 'tweaking' needs to be done. They deserve a chance girls - great dies AND their prices are very fair as well.

Do hop over to the new Snippets challenge, link below, I have a duplicate of my Craft Addiction heart dies set as part of the prize!

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

- Allsorts Challenge #821  'Anything goes' HERE 

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #73 HERE - the Craft Addiction heart die was having a first outing 

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is certainly a ladies man and not just other pooches it seems. We had a young lady Amazon driver deliver something earlier in the week and Dudley was all set to kick off - until he heard her sweet voice as Len opened the front door. Dudley screeched to a halt, dropped Honka Duck and went all 'gooey eyed'. 💓 Of course he was made a fuss off - and it was mutual. He was almost asking to become an Amazon driver after she drove off! During this warm spell Len has just left the back door open if he's out in the garden so that Dudley can come and go as he likes. And, as I guessed, he managed to get Honka outside before he was spotted. In fact he dropped Honks and went hunting around the garden doing his usual  checks that nothing is out of place! Then, once satisfied, he gently picked up Honks in his mouth and brought him indoors. Duty done!

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE. There's also information about an important change to where we will ship prizes to from now on. 

Hope to see you on the swings - come and play with us, it's always fun!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - 'Art Deco - take two'

I really liked the Altenew card I made previously in an 'Art Deco' style - so when Altenew then brought out a set of 'Art Deco' frame dies, I was pushing my way to the front of the queue, of course:

I die cut the black flower outline using the fall out from cutting the frame

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25"  white linen card blank, tent style

- a snippet of Tonic satin effect 'Black Velvet' card, literally just a tad larger than the size of the card front

- die cut it using Altenew's 'Deco Cover' die set  (three dies in the set BTW) - the largest one fits the USA A2 size perfectly. I used the satin effect 'Black Velvet' card to do this step and struggled a LOT. The usual issue of intricate dies cuts not wanting to leave the die itself was problem but I used waxed paper and that really helped a lot. Then the card itself wanted to keep 'peeling' its layers even as I gently worked with it. In future I think a perfectly plain and black all through card would work best with this particular naughty die! To be fair, it's the first Tonic card stock item I've ever found to be difficult - and thinking back, the same one on more than one occasion as well!

- once done, and  after lie down in a darkened room, I then glued the frame to the card front using a glue pen

- next came the flower - using a die by Altenew called 'Streamlined Sprig' and first I die cut the outer lines of the flower sprig, using the fallout from cutting the Art Deco frame - worked really fine just using my baby Altenew die cutting machine

- backed the flower heads and the leaf using little mauve and green snippets of shaded paper I found in the back of my much loved Lawn Fawn 'Watercolor Wishes' paper pad - I never throw a scrap of that paper out, so useful!

- then I could play with the Misti and the assembled 'sprig topper' to work out the right place to stamp the sentiment - using a piece of square printed clear acetate for alignment before doing a test  stamp onto the acetate to check, and then stamping a stamp from Woodware's 'Deco Sayings' onto the card itself (also used VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink). All inking was easily wiped off the Misti and the acetate with a Lawn Fawn Shammy  BTW

- finally, I then glued the flower sprig in place and called it a wrap!

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 73 - HERE. The Altenew 'Deco Cover' set of dies were out for a first play

Allsorts Challenge #820 - HERE. The current challenge is 'Spring Flowers' but I doubt if these are any season really - so am entering under 'Anything Goes' 

Dudley Pupdate: This week Dudley (on Monday morning) was sick after spending time sucking his beloved Honka, sure sign it needs to be changed. Len just grabbed old Honka and marched off with him, Honks, to the bin. Monday is collection day so no second chances there - poor old Honks! And then he came back with ..... yes, another duplicate fresh Honka from Mama's store in the garage and plonked it in front of Dudley - no arguments allowed. Talk about 'tough love'. Dudley was almost sat in shock - me too kiddo! Dudley and I were just looking at one another for a while.

But how odd, an hour or so later, the postie called with a delivery - and Dudley always runs for his precious Honka before he goes into meltdown. He was so distraught that he grabbed new Honka without even thinking .................... and they've been best friends ever since!  Hmm?!

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #502 are now published HERE.

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - we have glorious sunshine right now and need help with putting up a gazebo or two, to protect those little freckled faces! Dudley, on his little stilts, will be at the ready for you to pay attention to his 'barked' directions. 

As if! That always reminds me of the indignant image of a sweet little white puppy, with the caption 'Today I barked at the postman ................... then he laughed'!  Oh, and already - Dudley's hair is growing back at a rate of knots! Hooray!!

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'O' Little Town'

I've had the 'double sided die' I used today for at least three years - a present from Santa. It's always looked far too complicated - until I took the time earlier this week to watch a video on how to use it - then away I went, and it's actually pretty easy as the die does most of the work:

I used: 

- 8'25" x 4.25" white card blank, side opening (meaning it's .25" wider than a standard DL card - purely to leave a little space at either side of the image panel) - and the envelope will still just fit - yay!

- die cut the double sided die - Gemini's 'O' Little Town' in one pass using a snippet of Tonic satin effect 'Black Velvet' card for the main layer and a piece of Tonic satin effect 'Soft Amethyst' card for the other die cut layer - both pieces of card had been backed with 'Stick-it' pieces

- cut a further piece of card, just slightly smaller than the main black die cut, from Tonic pearlescent 'Blue Cashmere' card

- then layered it all together - easy peasy, with a bit of care

- next, I die cut the sentiment from snippets of the black and amethyst card - using a two part die set by Reverse Confetti called 'Layered Peace', glued together using a glue pen

- finally, added the image panel to the card front using very narrow foam tape for a bit of a 'lift'

and just glued the sentiment underneath, using a glue pen. Finished!

If you're tempted by the double sided dies, made by Crafters Companion, they are used in the electiric die cutting Gemini machines, using a pair of the special pale green plates - with a clear plate at the bottom and another clear one on the very top of the sandwich. I have no idea if they are in any way compatible with other die cutting machines - much less what the sandwich plates would be! I've said previously that I actually use my green plates all the time for any normal die cutting in the Gemini - they certainly have helped to prevent warping and saved me a lot of angst.

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

Allsorts Challenge #820 HERE - under the 'Anything Goes' Option

Rudolph Days Challenge for March 2025 HERE

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #72 HERE - the double sided die was having a first outing - and not before time either! Both the Amethyst and the Cashmere card packs were new to me, new colours in the range I'd never tried before.e 

And, a cheeky second entry into Christmas Kickstart #96 over HERE, where the theme is a Christmas colour palette that's 'not the norm' ..... I think this one fits the bill nicely!

Dudley Pupdate: Been a funny and very busy week here for Dudley. Len is the proud owner of yet another set of dog grooming clippers (we could set up a shop here with the ones he doesn't like). Thankfully, these have been declared the best ever - but I suspect that, as of Monday, Dudley would differ on that one - and his upset Mama most certainly would differ! I now have a really 'newborn lamb with a bark' as a pet - he's been shorn, including his beautiful long ears! Granted they were very prone to becomiong matted but the solution is a bit drastic to say the least! I keep whispering to Dudley that it will all soon grow back, and indeed it will. And he will look just like any self-respecting Havanese ought to!

Wednesday saw our friend and close neighbour Kim come round with Tilly the Corgi for a Pupdate with Dudley. The weather was SO kind to us and we sat in the garden in beautiful sunshine having tea and bikkies whilst the dogs played together. In the end, Dudley went to Len for a cuddle when it all became too much - we're talking at least two plus hours of running around. It's only since Len clipped him right down that it's come back to me how fine boned he is. He slept like a little log that night! We do plan to do it all over again very soon.

Then, Dudley's grand finale of the week, on Friday, was his annual trip to the vet for his MOT and innoculation. He came through with flying colours and perfect teeth (always a huge relief here) and Emily the vet is his new best human friend. She's one of the few vets we've met who really know a lot about the breed as well as their natures - and she loved him, and Dudley loved her too! 

We have a new Challenge #503 being run by our lovely Sarn, over HERE. No doubt, there will be delicious goodies on offer in the treehouse, Sarn is now asking for a chalk board for 'today's specials'!! WHAT is she plotting, I ask myself? Soup and a roll from the microwave are one thing - but a whole menu is quite worrying! Mark my words - it'll be a dishwasher next!!

Finally, do remember that for many of us, UK in particular, the clocks have gone forward by an hour. One hour less to sleep - sigh. 

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - Sympathy cards

Not so long ago I had the heartbreaking task of making a Sympathy card for the widow of a much loved neighbour - we four have been friends for over 30 years, which is quite some time. I really struggled with our own grief and decided earlier this week that it isn't impersonal to have a few Sympathy cards to hand after all. And so I made a set of three cards - all following similar processes, just with different images and card sizes/orientations:

Here's the three I made!

I used:

- 4.75" x 4.75" plain white card blank, side opening, The other two cards are USA A2 size, in different orientations, both side opening as well

- the images are all from the Penny Black Stickeroos sheet called 'Timeless', stuck onto snippets of  card ages ago and this time they were trimmed right to the edge before running a black TomBow brush pen around all four sides

- fun time next! Linby aka our Lynn, got me fired up to try out some new sentiments - ready stamped and die cut. The best part is that the sentiment itself can be foiled, in my case I used my laminator and spent a couple of hours doing a whole batch of them to have on standby. The sentiment pieces are by Julie Hickey from the 'Assorted Sentiments #2 Die Cut Foilables' set (116 in the set!). I did push the boat out and bought 'WOW' Fab foil in Glitter Gold and Silver. I do not recommend the glitter gold as the end results can look rather 'bitty' due to the different tones of gold - just my opinion though - you might love it, as I thought I would! In fairness, I do have some reservations - one or two of the sentiment pieces were badly printed, some quality control issues there perhaps plus some other minor things. Overall, I'm very pleased and huge thanks to Lynn for once again being an enabler! Needless to say, both the silver foiling and the silver mirror card look black in the above photos! Usual story

- so, I foiled some appropriate sentiments in silver and just glued them onto the images - it DOES make sense to foil a batch of sentiments in one go - unless your laminator is sitting there ready and waiting, 24/7of course

- then glued the images onto slightly larger snippets of white card before backing them with slightly larger snippets of silver mirror card

- all that was left was to add each image panel onto the relevant card blank, using narrow sticky foam strips ...... finished!

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

- Allsorts Challenge # 819 HERE -  under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #72 HERE - the Julie Hickey Foilables sentiments and also the 'WOW' Fab Foil were out to have a first play  

Dudley Pupdate: Excitement here - mid-week could see Dudley on a real pupdate here with his beloved Tilly. Tilly's Mum Kim is possibly bringing her round for a pupdate and, earlier on Friday afternoon I was talking to him, as per usual and said 'Do you know that Tilly is coming around for a pupdate?' I kid you not - at that point he'd been sitting quietly beside me doing quality control on the dicing of his fresh veggies as part of his evening meal - but he literally stood up, raised his ears and stared straight down our garden as if to say, 'I KNOW where she lives and sleeps Mama, we already have a direct line!' He sure cracks me up! Whatever else, the week also holds a clip, bath and annual vet visit for Dudley! Little does he know as yet. 👀

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #501 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.

Do come and play with us in the Playground - the Spring clean-up has been completed (Sarn is a slave driver when the wind is behind her sails but it looks wonderful) and everything is ready to roll! It's the second week of Challenge #502, so do please come and  and play if you haven't already done so. 

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - 'Wonky' Christmas tree

It's a Christmas Snippets card from me today - using a NBUS stamp set that cost me all of £1, along with some snippets of my most treasured LOTV papers :

I used:

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

- snippet of textured 'black velvet' card. measuring 5.25" x 4" - set aside for now

- snippet of the same white card as the card blank, measuring 5" x 3.75" - onto which I stamped the image and sentiments using stamps from an un-named Crafty Roo set bought ages ago - along with a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad  

- faffed around for ages thinking the images hadn't stamped correctly - until I realised that the sentiments are deliberately meant to look sort of shaded and broken. Also, there were a couple of stray dots of ink on the card around the tree - caught me again! It's part of the design so I just held the stamp up to the light and added the missing ones in, using a Stabilo black fine line pen

- once happy with the main panel, I set to with a selection of small snippets from LOTV's 'Krafty Christmas' paper pad to stamp a variety of layers for the paper piecing stage

- started at the bottom by trimming a piece at a time, running a black TomBow brush marker round the edge and then glueing it in place with a Zig glue pen until the tree was completed 

- then glued the black velvet card backing and the image panel together

- finally, added the whole panel to the card front using thin strips of foam tape - done!

I've 'earmarked' the card for a male friend come Christmas as it does have a more masculine look to it due to the colours I used.

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

- Allsorts Challenge #819 HERE under the 'Anything Goes' theme. 

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #72 HERE - the Crafty Roo stamp set was having a first outing 

- Christmas Kickstart Challenge #96 HERE - 'Not the norm' - not red, gold or green but non-traditional colours

Dudley Pupdate: Our neighbour and good friend Kim called by the other afternoon on her way home from walking Tilly, the sweetest corgi ever! Dudley dashed out to say hello and then Tilly batted her eyelashes at him ........ one closer look by Dudley and suddenly true love landed! 💓🐶💓 They had so much fun playing at zoomies on the front lawn - we could have started up our own wind farm as their tail were wagging hard enough to almost drop off! They've met previously of course, but somehow this meeting seemed to be 'the one' for him, as well as Tilly! So cute! 

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

Hope to see you on the swings - Sarn and I are waiting for you to come and play as well - we've been having some sunnier days recently and are looking for volunteers to join in with the general Spring tidy sessions! Can't afford to pay you but Dudley is happy to offer his services as a cuddly toy!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - Large Iris card

I was sent some happy mail recently by a lovely friend, many thanks again - you know who you are! I wanted to dive in and use one of the stamps right away - fetch your sunshades folks if things are a bit too bright for you:

 

I used:

- 7" x 5" 'Pale Ivory' linen card blank, side opening

- a snippet of 'Pale Ivory' linen card measuring 3.75" x 5.75" for the embossed background - which I embossed using a NBUS Penny Black embossing folder called 'noted'

- a snippet of 'black velvet' card stock to back the embossed layer as a frame, measuring 4" x 6" - then glued both layers together and set them to one side

- used the iris stamp from the newly gifted Oakwood 'Joys of Spring - Snowdrop and Iris' set of stamps plus a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad to stamp the entire flower and stem onto another snippet of 'Pale Ivory' linen card and carefully trimmed right around the image using small scissors

- then used the same stamp to pick out three distinct parts (main part of the flower, deeper centre and the green stem) using the same 'Nocturne' ink pad and a single sheet of paper from the Honey Bee Stamps 'Team Tie Dye' paper pad 

- ran a black TomBow brush pen right around all the pieces, patterned ones as well as the plain one

- trimmed the flower and stem parts and glued them onto the previously stamped image using a glue pen

- glued the completed flower onto the backing layer of 'black border with embossed script' - and once again the camera plays tricks, the embossing is really clear in real life!

- then, used a pre-lettered and ready die cut sentiment from a Lou Collins Epheremera 'Words and Letters' pack of sheets, NBUS as well - gently coloured it using a soft brush and swipe of Distress Oxide 'crackling campfire' onto the Tonic glass mat that I always work on. Spritzed the Distress 'swipe' with water to tone down the density before picking it up with the soft brush and gently colouring the sentiment

- the iris stem obviously stood proud of the embossed layer so I used small pieces of thin foam tqpe pads to build a 'bridge over the stem' on the back of the sentiment before then popping it onto the card

- finally, added the finished panel to the card blank using thin foam tape strips - finished!

Normally I stamp straight onto a panel or the card front when paper piecing - but figured out that the embossing was going to cause issues if I didn't add the flower as one entity with a flat backing ......... and I wanted to use the embossing folder, so there! It did add to the process - didn't think that one through beforehand though.

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 72 - HERE. The flower stamp, embossing folder plus the pre-printed and die cut sentiment were all waiting for an outing - a happy trio 

Allsorts Challenge #818 - HERE  The current challenge is CAS but I think I'd better add this in under 'Anything Goes' as it is pretty much in your face!

Dudley Pupdate: This afternoon, Saturday, Dudley pulled such a cute trick before he went into the back garden to help Len with replenishing the bird seed etc. The hedgies are already stirring and coming looking for food, so that means extra work keeping them clean and fed/watered. Dudley stood right at the top of the stairs really to go outside, and all you could see was Honka Duck in Dudley's mouth - with a pair of bright eyes peering over the top. Len and I were talking about something else at the same time as Dudley was waiting and it was just as if he was at Wimbledon! Duck in mouth and head swivelling from side to side as he looked up at us! Just a little vignette - but a really sweet moment, sometimes small things can be the most precious.

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #500 are now published HERE.  

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - we're back to our usual routine after so many mystery prizes and special giveaways.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - Sympathy card

It's been a tough week, and I'm badly behind with commenting on Challenge 500 - I'll be with you ASAP! What a fabulous turnout - huge thanks for all your entries and really lovely comments! Here's my snippets card:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" linen 'Pale Ivory' card blank, side opening

- a layer of the same 'Pale Ivory' card (a snippet), die cut using a Spellbinders die from their 'Venise Lace' set of rectangle dies - shame on me, a first outing for them as I filed them into a magnetic storage folder and just kept bypassing them! They are pretty subtle

- stamped the 'With Sympathy' onto the bottom left hand corner of the card, using VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink and a stamp from 'Clearly Besotted's' 'Say What?' stamp set - sadly CB are no longer trading

- then used a die set by Charlie & Paulchen called 'Rambling Rose' or similar to cut the main stem and leaves, the pot and flowers - all from Papermilldirect card swatches ..... which I think count as snippets as well!

- much like Gummiapan, with some careful trimming, the main die really lent itself to then die cutting just the plant pot, carefully trimming some snips along the top and adding it to the pale green main die cut using a glue pen

- added the main stem with pot in situ to the front panel using Stix2 Micro Dots - perfect for such an intricate die cut

- added a sprinkling of die cut flowers, from a pink pearlescent sample - glued in place using a glue pen. I didn't add tiny pearls to the flower centres to keep it simpler

- final touch was to add the panel to the card front using very narrow foam tape for a bit of a 'lift'

I remembered to take a photo of my snippets as well! One tip IF you do think it's a neat way to get your paws on a very wide selection of cards samples, not free though - they are a generous size at 4.5" x 3". However, the company name and card/colour details are on the front of the samples. Many of the samples are double sided so you can just use the reverse, but the single sided pearlised is printed on the front which is limiting and a few of the glitter cards samples as well. They were sitting in a basket here and I knew I wasn't in the market for buying even more card just now so it's a fun way to use a few of them up. Don't hold your breath - at over 290 samples, it could take a while! 

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #818 HERE - under the 'Anything Goes' Option.

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 72 HERE - both the Charlie & Paulchen and the Spellbinders sets of dies came out to play for the first time 

Dudley Pupdate: We're having some sunnier days right now and, unusually for him, Dudley has been pretty excited whenever it's time for walkies. Usually, he looks on walks as 'OK', but a bit of a nuisance as Honky can't go along too! Perhaps, when I go along on the Purple Peril with the 'boys' we should pop Honky in the wee basket thing on the front of the scooter for Dudley's reassurance! Crazy or what? Friday was a particularly lovely day and I was about to send out a search party as Len and he were away for so long! I would have made them a packed lunch ............ had I known in advance! When it was time for bed, Dudley was already sprawled on his back across our bed giving it the big Zzzzzzzz's - almost impossible to wake him uo enough to gently lift or move him over!!  

We have a new Challenge #501 being run by our lovely Sarn over HERE. As always, Sarn has a lovely selection of items in the themed prize bundle! And no doubt, there will be delicious goodies on offer in the treehouse! 

Love from myself and Dudley,