Wednesday, 27 September 2023
Christmas decoupage and some challenges!
Sunday, 24 September 2023
Sunday Snippets and a thank you card
A close-up of the sentiment - my camera didn't capture the gorgeous shine of the embossing too well on the main image |
The snippets I used for the leaves and the sentiment |
Love, as always, from myself and Dudley
Sunday, 17 September 2023
Sunday Snippets and a bunch of Christmas robins
Sorry, no photos of snippets - they're the scraps of pearlescent gold card that I used for the sentiment die cuts |
Friday, 15 September 2023
Christmas cards and the 'Fractured Card' technique
Sunday, 10 September 2023
Sunday Snippets and a fun Birthday card
The snippets - I also added a snippet of black as the card evolved |
Dudley Pupdate: So much for me mentioning last Sunday that we'd had a bit of a nip in the air - this past week has been like Hades here! Not only red hot but also very humid - to the point that my reading specs have steamed up at times! Dudley hasn't been coping at all well with the heat and is constantly on the move trying to find places to keep cool. He's up at around 3am, panting and wanting to be out in the garden - not that it's much cooler there to be honest. But, having a little snuffle around with the huge family of hedgies we're currently feeding does seem to distract him a bit. His paw is doing great - thank you for all the 'virtual' waves and cuddles you sent to him!
There's still one week of the current challenge left to run! Make a card and come and play - there's a chance to win a nice prize if you join in the draw! See you on the swings!
Love, as always, from myself and Dudley,
Sunday, 3 September 2023
Sunday Snippets and a new Challenge #462
Friday, 1 September 2023
Sunday, 27 August 2023
Sunday Snippets and Rudolph Days August 2023
I scrabbled around in my box of 'best' white card and found a ton of snippets, which I thought would look more interesting as 'leftovers' from some of the die cutting than just plain white snippets |
Love, as always, from myself and Dudley (aka 'The Boxing Ring Scamp/Champ'!),
Sunday, 20 August 2023
Sunday Snippets and the 'Fractured Card' technique
Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Christmas Kickstart Challenge #77 - 'Just Elfin' Around' - Reminder
Jumping in with a reminder that we're halfway through the current Christmas Kickstart Challenge with Jo's reminder post HERE . It's one of my favourite challenges and always a pleasure to join in with the fun. The current theme is 'Just Elfin' Around'' - ie. one or more elves on a Christmas card of course!
I made two very similar cards, just switched the colours around a bit:
I used:
- A6 size white card blank, tent style
- image from MFT's 'Christmas sELFies' stamp set, stamped using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink
- coloured the image using Polychromos pencils plus a little tickle of clear 'Wink of Stella' on the ornament as well as the jaunty little bell on the elf's hat (he's my absolute favourite in the whole set of stamps to be honest!)
- the backing papers are from what's left of two well loved LOTV Christmas paper pads, die cut with a die by Heffy Doodle from their 'Stitched A6 rectangles' set
- so, I die cut the aperture around the image using the perfectly fitting MFT 'Selfie Square' die on top - into the stitched edge piece of white card, thereby releasing the image ............. and sat pondering my next move for ages as this was 'recovery from potential disaster' time!
- then a little light came on and I taped the white card (removable tape!) complete with aperture on top of the patterned paper and nestled the 'Selfie Square' die into the aperture then die cut it. Bingo, they lined up - success!
- I now had two matching 'frames' which I glued together then glued them onto the card front before losing the plot
- and all that was left was to pop the waste square of patterned paper onto the back of the die cut image to even up the levels, and glue them into the aperture!
- sorry that was so convoluted but I needed to write it here for my own future reference as a way of only die cutting one layer at a time to end up with this card - I needed a lie down afterwards! And Dudley cuddled up for 40 Winks as well!
Many thanks once again to Jo for inviting me to be a Guest Designer over at the Christmas Kickstart Challenge and I'd really love it if you would come along and join in with the challenge - this is the LINK to the Challenge post itself. It's still open until the end of the month, so you have plenty of time to come and play - we need more of you!!.
Sunday, 13 August 2023
Sunday Snippets and a 'less than boring' dress!
These are my snippets, only thought to take a photo when they had been stamped onto. But, perhaps it gives you an idea of the basics of paper piecing - and also how my indecisive mind works! |
Dudley Pupdate: Rhetorical question - when you have a poo - do you run around in circles doing 'zoomies' to celebrate? Hmm, thought not! That's fine - just wondering, that's all.
That was a question from Dudley, by the way! Did I even need to say that?
And then of course, later on, you gobble down your evening meal in double quick time just in case it gets stolen by the 'doggy dinner thieves' before crashing out - partly on the landing and also blocking the exit from Mama's craft room! Having managed to already mess up the freshly cleaned carpets throughout the house just for good measure. It's all in a day's work for a canine security guard!
I gave him a 'Modesty Watermark'! Just in case he sues me for publishing very personal piccies. He slept soundly and very deeply like that for quite a while, even with me moving around and taking piccies and wot-not. To me, that's when he looks so very vulnerable and yet contented, with a full tummy. 'Forget any intruders - I'm having a snoozelet'! And of course, Honka Duck Mark II is, as always, close by!
There's still one week of the current challenge left to run! Make a card and come and play - there's a chance to win a nice prize if you join in the draw! See you on the swings!
Love, as always, from myself and Dudley,
Sunday, 6 August 2023
Sunday Snippets and a little bit of snarky
Tuesday, 1 August 2023
Christmas Kickstart Challenge #77 - 'Elves'
I'm back as Dotty Jo's guest designer for the month of August - over at the Christmas Kickstart Challenge - HERE! As always, it's a joy to be asked and I do love sticking to a theme - especially when it's a Christmas one.
This time, it's 'Elves' and I had the perfect set of dies, waiting in one of my NBUS baskets for its first outing! Perfick timing.
This is the result:
- A6 white card blank, side opening
- a snippet of white card, embossed using the Crafts-Too 'Merry Christmas' embossing folder - then trimmed to leave an eighth of an inch margin around all sides
- glued the embossed panel onto the card front
- die cut the 'elf' from two layers of black card and glued them together for stability - the dies on the card are all from the Sizzix Tim Holtz 'Santa's Helper' set of dies
- glued the elf at his jaunty angle onto the card front - using a glue pen
- then the fun began! I sat with a pile of red, green and gold snippets, my mini Altenew die cutting machine - and almost went crazy working out 'which die did what' to make the Christmas presents but I succeeded in the end. The trick, at least it works for me, is to cut and assemble ONE present at a time - it takes longer but is a lot less confusing - and also to add a further layer of card behind the main part for both stability and dimension
- glued the presents and their ribbons together individually as I progressed until I had them all lined up in front of me ready to roll. At that point I discovered I was missing the fully assembled flat shaped present - it was like a man-hunt in here. I'd just swept the little scraps into the waste bin so had to up-end that for a search. Then, I suddenly wondered if I'd accidentally cleared it away with the tiny scraps of unused double sided sticky pads I'd been working with to prepare the presents for sticking onto the card front - and there it was leering at me through the poly bagl Big sigh of relief here
- so the final steps were to add the presents to the front of the card then glue the huge bow onto the top present - using two snippets of thin foam pads on top of one another to bring the level of the top of the bow up to the same as the present box itself
Many thanks to Jo for inviting me to be a Guest Designer over at the Christmas Kickstart Challenge and I'd really love it if you would come along and join in with the challenge - this is the LINK. It's open until the end of the month so you have plenty of time.
Sunday, 30 July 2023
Sunday Snippets and Rudolph Days July 2023
There's still one week of the current Snippets Challenge to go, hope to see you in the Playground soon if you haven't played already. It's the final week of 'Christmas in July' with some nice bundles of Christmas themed prizes. Make a card and come and play - one less to make for Christmas - and a chance to win a nice prize if you join in the draw!
Love, as always, from myself and Dudley,