Sunday Snippets - Little Ducklings!

My snippets make today is actually two cards, same design featuring different images and sentiments: 

I used:

- A6 off-white Papermania Tri Fold Window Photo Aperture card- snippets of pale ivory card, snippets of 150 gsm vellum and snippets of double sided - sticky paper. I chose pale ivory card to blend better with the off-white card blank

- I had a set of cute little duckling stickers from Temu, so I used a couple of those for the cards. Next I do plan to die cut some of my own aperture layers but for now I'm still taking it steady in the craft room

- first the little duckling sticker was adhered onto a piece of vellum then backed the vellum with double sided sticky paper, flipped the image over, peeled off the protective backing and popped a piece of pale ivory card onto the sticky. This gave a solid backing adhered to the image sitting on top of vellum - using vellum is still the best backing for these stickers. They are meant for adhering to glass, plain pottery mugs and such - but when you peel off the sticky surround on paper you also wreck the card surrounding the image!  Just a heads up - be sure to look for something like UV DTF Stickers if you don't want stickers with clear surrounds. There are some lovely ones but the UV DTF Stickers are the most realistic IMHO'

- used red line extra sticky tape to adhere the image behind the aperture and also to adhere the folded front panel over the image piece of the card

- then, with heart in mouth, I stamped the sentiments using VersaFine Clair ink 'Nocturne' and a 'Speedy Recovery' sentiment stamps from a Hunkydory 'For the Love of Stamps' set called Bees and Butterflies. Plus a general 'Lovely Day' stamp from Penny Black's 'Super Day' stamp se.; The Penny Black sentiments are so much finer - but needs must when you need a particular occasion's sentiment!

- the finishing touch was a few deep  red enamelled dots beside the sentiment

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #858 - HERE - under 'Sympathy/Thinking of You/Get Well' - I was so determined to join in with the theme!

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #90 HERE- the little duckling stickers were out to play for the first time

Dudley Pupdate: We lost Dudley the other afternoon! Len hunted and we both called for ages, Then, we finally spotted him having a good snooze on the floor - stretched along one side of the bed - blending in very nicely with the bedding! He must have been having a little chuckle at our expense I'm sure. He's pretty good at playing possum when he doesn't want to be disturbed!

The results and winner of Challenge #540 can be found HERE .

Sarn's current challenge is halfway through over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post. Autumn is on the way so it won't be long before pumpkin carving time and jacket potatoes!

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - Christmas Angel

Happy Snippets Sunday, and it's another Christmas card from me today as I'm trying to catch up a bit:

I used:

-  a Craft UK 'A6 3 fold white oval aperture' card blank 

- snippets of white card, whole sheets of 150 gsm vellum and also whole sheets of double sided sticky papers

- I had a set of Christmas Angel stickers from Temu and so I made a run of six almost identical cards, only the sticker images vary slightly

- first the Christmas Angel sticker was adhered onto a piece of vellum.  Trial and error had previously proved that vellum is much more forgiving than card if you need to peel off the clear protecting layer of some stickers and it just lifts card the surrounding card, ask me how I know! And I did try various ideas but came back to vellum being the best solution

- then backed the vellum with double sided sticky paper, flipped the image over, peeled off the protective backing and popped a piece of white card onto the sticky. This gave a solid white backing adhered to the image sitting on top of vellum 

- used red line extra sticky tape to adhere the image behind the aperture and also to adhere the folded front panel over the image piece of the card  

- the finishing touch was a few stars added from an Anita's outline sticker sheet - called 'Rose gold sparkling stars'. Very delicate and pretty stickers too.

-finished!

I'd like to enter the following Challenges:

Allsorts #858 HERE - under 'Anything Goes' - the main theme of the challenge is an empathetic one of 'Sympathy/Get Well/ Thinking of You'. As so often is the case, I do hope to make a card to fit the actual theme theme in the coming two weeks

Darnell's NBUS Challenge September 2026 - HERE  - the stickers are from a Temu craft haul 

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley now snoozes quite easily on our car excursions. But we're still working on his manners when folk visit us!

A friend from my working days came over on Friday for an afternoon picnic in the cabin, before Summer ends - and Dudley thought it was a splendid idea! A new potential girlfriend!! Len had to bar him out in the garden with a movable barrier - but he remained there sighing and looking hopeful of the chance to be allowed in to eye up said friend plus our picnic! The whole event was punctuated by a little white fluffy drama queen resorting to poking his nose through each of the barrier bars, pacing to and fro, to and fro!! Dudley - not Len!! 

Many thanks for your Birthday cards and kind wishes for today (Saturday) - I appreciated every single one! 

Sarn has opened up Challenge #541 in the Snippets Playground HERE. I love her snippets card and there's a very nice prize bundle to be won as well! See you on the swings!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - 'Christmas Wreath'

I made a couple of identical Christmas cards the other day - and here's one of them:

I used:

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

- added a 3.75" x 3.75" square of paper from the Honey Bee 'Make it Merry' paper pad

- for the wreath I used a NBUS set of dies by Memory Box called 'Bountiful Wreath' which I die cut from snippets of dark green card for the back layer Then cut some fresh sheets of paper from the Crafters Companion 'Ink Drops - Organic' paper pad - all gorgeous shades of green, shot through with touches of gold coloured ink. They did add some variation but the papers from that range are mostly best suited to backgrounds

- after gluing the two wreath die cuts together for stability, and gluing it to the card front, it needed more dimension. So out of the packet came a single die with two little leaf sprigs of the same ilk as the main wreath. I die cut the double sprigs from four different little snippets I found lurking stored in the back of the paper pack

- then added four of the sprigs around the main wreath - I'd tickled the sprigs with clear Wink of Stella before gluing them on, for a touch of sparkle

- popped eight Marianne 'Duotone Red' enamel dots onto the wreath and it, in turn,  popped into life!

- final touch, a Craftwork Cards pre-printed Christmas Sentiment was added to the centre of the wreath using a large sticky pad

For the first time in months, and certainly not since I hurt my arm whist attempting a triple flip along the upstairs landing here and falling badly, I used my Cuttlebug for much of the die cutting! Happy days indeed.

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

- Allsorts Challenge #857 - HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #90 HERE - the NBUS 'Bountiful Wreath' was pre-loved and unopened. Very few examples seem to pop up when doing a search on Google but I suspect it's at least six years old

The results from Sarn's Challenge #537 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Dudley Pupdate: this little tale is from a few weeks ago now in one of the scorching heatwaves. Len dropped me off at our dentist, just for a routine appointment - then he came back later on to collect me. It gives the car a reasonable run and helps with getting Dudley used to the car. When he came back to collect me he drove into a spot right beside the front door and reception - I was waiting outside catching a few rays as they say! 

So, this car quietly glides past the wide open reception area window and there is Dudley, riding shotgun in the back, happy as can be to see me, hidden from reception's sight, with his  paws up looking out of the one third partially open rear passenger but well harnessed so still very safe. One of the receptionists came flying out of the dental surgery then burst out laughing. She'd been sitting working at the reception desk and had glanced up to see a white fluffy face and two little white paws glide past her window almost at human height - what's more she could see that the dog was smiling! She truly thought she was losing the plot and raced out ............. to be confronted by Dudley! Hard to imagine but so funny in real life! 

There's still a week left in my current Snippets Challenge if you haven't already joined in!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - 'Merry & Bright'

I overheard someone pronouncing that it's 17 weeks until Christmas whilst out and about on Friday. "Don't panic Di, don't panic" - runs around the walls screaming!! 

 

Anyhow, here's my Snippets card for today, and it so happens it's a Christmas card - pre-planned I promise:

I used:

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

- a host of different coloured card snippets, some from card swatches still, all die cut twice using MFT's Dynamics set of dies called 'Merry & Bright - all the Trimmings' - then glued together to make each letter and trimming double layered. Very intensive work as the sentiment is a single die - took me the best part of a whole evening using an Altenew  'Blossom' machine and lots of careful positioning of card pieces for each individual letter and trimming

- snippet of blue card for the framing layer, trimmed to 5.25" x 4" then glued onto the card front

- snippet of unbranded silver sparkle card, trimmed to 5" x 3.75"

- die cut the outline of the sentiment into the silver sparkle card, using the large lettering die - carefully making sure to keep the silver fallout from letters such as capital B to reinsert later

- flipped the silver sentiment panel over and covered the back of the die cut area with strips of sellotape

- turned the sentiment panel back over and one by one popped in the double layered letters, then the single infill pieces, into the waiting sticky apertures. That's where the double layering proved to be really worthwhile as the letters proud of the silver sparkle and add some dimension

- added the silver sparkle panel with lettering onto the blue panel using very narrow foam strips, sadly slightly on the 'wonk' and of course exaggerated by the wretched camera!

- final touch was to add the little trimmings such as the two hats, orange part of the candle flame and of course Rudolph's nose!

- finished! That left me with the same cut out letters in sparkly silver which I'll use on a different and much faster card!

It's so good to be able to make a card with plenty of die cutting - but perhaps I overstretched in the fiddle-faddle aspects.

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

Rudolph Days August Challenge - HERE

Allsorts Challenge #857 - HERE

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #89 - HERE

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

Dudley Pupdate: It finally rained! Hooray! The first real downpour was overnight. Dudley was only half awake when he waited at the back door for his pre-breakfast tinkle - he hopped onto the grass and without thinking flopped onto his tummy, expecting to hear morning birdsong in the sunshine to gently wake him up properly. Instead he got a very wet tummy and after the essentials made a bolt into the lounge where he could rub all over the carpet and his favourite rug to dry off! No wonder he looked so ruffled when he came bounding back up to leap onto the bed beside me!  An indignant Havanese is such a funny sight  to wake up to!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - 'Pink & Main' leaves

My snippets make today is actually two cards, same design featuring different colours: 

I used:

- 5" x 5" black card blank side opening

- a sheet of paper from a Stamps By Me 'Creative Watercolours' paper pack - I chose primarily pinks as well as primarily blues for the two leaf sprays

- die cut the solid part of the leaf spray using a die from Pink & Main's 'Leafy Dies 1'

- a snippet of white card from which I die cut the white leaf spray outline using the second die from pink & Main's 'Leafy Dies 1'

- glued the leaf outline onto the solid portion using a glue pen - fiddly!

- glued the leaf spray to the card front

- next came the silver sentiment, which came from my little stock of ready-foiled Julie Hickey assorted sentiments which I foiled months ago

- final touch was a sprinkling of tiny white pearls as the plain black background was too stark .... IMHO

- finished!

I'd like to enter the following challenge:

Allsorts Challenge #856 - HERE - under 'Anything Goes' 

Dudley Pupdate: We're still on a schedule of regular car outings here and Friday was a landmark! On the way back home I glanced around and Dudley was curled up having a little snooze on the back seat behind us - finally he feels relaxed enough to drop his guard and just close his eyes for a while. Yay! 

The results and winner of Challenge #538 can be found HERE .

Sarn's current challenge is halfway through over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post.  The paddling pool is still open, although by and large the temperatures have been much more bearable the past couple of days. thankfully. 

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - Candy cane Christmas

Happy Snippets Sunday, from an absolutely roasting hot Hampshire. Somehow, in all the unrelenting heat, I thought about Christmas for my card today:

I used:

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

- deep blue snippet of Creative Expressions' 'Deep Blue' card, slightly trimmed to 5.25" x 4" then glued onto the card front

- snippets of white card from the snippets basket along with coloured snippets from the Papermill Swatches that I still cant bear to part with - two greens, two reds and a maroon!  Yup, maroon - not brown I promise!

- spent a happy time die cutting the pieces for the decorated candy cane using my little Altenew die cutting machine and a set of Crafter's Companion dies called 'Retro Christmas - Candy cane and foliage'. A pre-loved item bought from Facebook

- assembled the candy cane and foliage using a glue pen then added the bow using very narrow red line tape

- then, using a small unbranded NBUS stamp from a good friend, I stamped the 'Special friend' Christmas sentiment using Clair Nocturne, then die cut it using a little label die, which was another gift! 

- just stuck the label into the assembled bow using very narrow red line tape

-- final step was to add snipped pieces of thin sticky pad for dimension to the back of the assembled candy cane, bow and stamped label, then gently press it in place on the card front 

- finished!

I'm entering the following challenges: 

Allsorts #856 HERE - 'Embossing or dry heat- or 'Anything Goes' , which is where I'm entering this card. I did dry emboss a background using the Gemini originally but the embossing wasn't sharp enough to use and I was wilting in the heat  .... so cut my losses and opted for the plain deep blue!

Darnell's NBUS Challenge August 2026 - HERE  - all the dies, from two sets, plus the label stamp for the sentiment came from my stash of NBUS goodies! 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #113 - HERE - the theme is 'Friendship'

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is such a wise little chap! He lies just inside the shower room door off our bedroom - cannily catching a nice down draft from the bedroom air-con unit. We'll be on bread and jam when the electricity bill comes in, and that's on just one appliance - so it has its down side. If you see Dudley sidling around the Playground offering to help out with any odd jobs then it's because he doesn't fancy living on jam sandwiches!

Him taking up residence in the shower room to cool off at various times of the day and night is 'fun' when I need to use the toilet. He now knows the trigger word for 'please vacate your spot for a short time' It's 'Pigeon'!! 

Born from Len's observation that, like most pigeons, when approached he always seems to move in any direction other than OUT of the way! Which is uncannily accurate! So I can be found during the night whispering 'Please move PIGEON' as I approach the shower room! And, I kid you not - it works, but he's NOW taken to very pointedly sitting outside the room, almost rolling his eyes, just waiting for me to get the heck out of his cool place so he can lie down again!  

Sarn has opened up Challenge #539 in the Snippets Playground HERE. A brilliant and fun prize bundle to be won too. See you in the paddling pool! There could be a long queue/line!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - 'Beware of Dog' ATC

I made a super-fast ATC, using snippets and a NBUS stamp I've had for years:

I used:

- a snippet of black card trimmed to 3.5" x 2.5" for the ATC base

- trimmed a snippet of patterned card from the 'All & Create A6 #7' pack of Design papers to a smidgen smaller than the black ATC card

- stamped the dog and sentiment in one go onto the patterned card - using a small Misti platform and a little bit of mystery to sort of align it properly. The ink-pad is Clair's 'Nocturne' of course - could have done with more inkings but my arm was telling me off. The stamp is by Katlzekraft - called 'Dog 03 - Mimi 031'

- glued the two layers together 

- finished off by adhering three toning SU domed sticky back gems in the top left- hand corner

I do love this stamp and sentiment. Steve, our lovely postman saw Dudley on the stairs barking at him the other morning and wryly remarked with a chuckle 'Oh NO, it's that terrifying wild dog again!'  Hard to keep a straight face with a ball of protective white fluff kicking up a fuss, with his duck beside him!

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

- Tag-along (and ATC's) August Challenge HERE - under 'Anything Goes'' 

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #89 HERE - the Katzelkraft stamp is having a first outingl

The results from Sarn's Challenge #537 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Dudley Pupdate: apart from car outings. playing endlessly in and out of the back garden whilst it's so hot and the doors are left open - Dudley is facing a new challenge. 

Recently I spotted that Dudley would sometimes stop just before using the low tapestry stool to jump onto our bed. Having watched for a while we agreed that he might benefit from a set of steps as our bed is quite high. So, we now have a gently sloping set of soft material covered foam stairs by the bed - and he's loving the training. For now we're not risking them at night but they are there during the day and the little monkey has worked out that little pieces of treats are used to coax him up and down each step. He CAN and also is able to do it. But, oh boy - he's deliberately making the most of extra treat nibbles right now! 

There's still a week left in my current Snippets Challenge if you haven't already joined in!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - a Snoopy 'Hello'

I finally made a Sunday Snippets card, as well as part writing this week's new Snippets challenge. Huge thanks to Sarn for setting up the important basics of the challenge post for me - such a helpful little Prefect - in fact that should be spelt Perfect. Hot on the heels of my battered arm, my laptop is finally recovering from a spell in Laptop Hospital.

 

Anyhow, here's my Snippets card for today:

I used:

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

- my wonderful little helper Prefect had sent me an envelope the other week stuffed with some stamped Snoopy images and stitched die cut backgrounds in case I got stuck. All using snippets, what a lifesaver!

- I picked a Snoopy image and coloured the lettering using a blue Sakura Gelly Roll Gloss pen - in real life the blue is the same shade as the sentiment and a layer of the daisy - camera once again.

- glued the image onto a matt silver die cut square

- added  the image layer onto the card front using very narrow foam tape strips for a bit of 'lift'

- then used some of the spare snippets that Sarn had thoughtfully enclosed to die cut a double layered blue and silver daisy, pop a pearl in the centre then glued it onto the top left corner of the image panel. Used a die set by Joy! called 'Daisy die set'

- used a Heffy Doodle 'hello' die to cut the word twice from a snippet of the blue card then added it to the bottom right hand corner of the card

It's so good to be able to make a card - Sarn hates me going on but she's truly one of the best!

No challenges for me this time.

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

Dudley Pupdate: We had a couple of young lady visitors one day during the week - and of course Dudley absolutely charmed them at first sight. 

Ha! And that was his chance for a full on display with Honka Duck  .......................... as if he was auditioning for the lead role in a steamy s*x movie! Oh, the shame of it!  - he was removed, along with his acting partner, forthwith by Len and they both spent the rest of the visit behind a portable barrier across an archway into our lounge - both peering soulfully through the bars at us  - as quiet as little meeces! It's SO hard not to giggle when Dudley is being a little scamp!

Our trips out with him continue regularly and he's SO well behaved now that perhaps a bit of 'auditioning' is allowed now and then! 

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - Christmas Owl Tag

My snippets make today is a Christmas tag - another quick and easy make. It's also my entry for the current Rudolph Days challenge:

I used:

- a snippet of Stamperia's  'Owl House' paper pad that was lying right at hand in a basket on my desk, along with a set of tag dies I'd planned to use some weeks ago

- a snippet of white card 

- die cut both snippets using an MFT die from the 'Treat Tag' set of dies

- glued the two die cut tags together for rigidity

- used a couple of brown ribbon snippets, secured with a snippet of narrower grey ribbon through the top of the tag

- finished!

Still working my way through the lovely Stamperia 'Owl House' paper pad. And more sheets left to play with.

I'd like to enter the following challenges:

Rudolph Days July Challenge - HERE

Tag Along and ATC's Challenge - HERE

Dudley Pupdate: We had a fun time celebrating Dudley's Birthday during the week. His cards and gifts  were solemnly sniffed then given his nose-dab of approval by His Lordship! He woke up bright and early just revving up for the day to begin - as if he knew it was special! His bandana looks SO cute ........... but it's been too hot to subject him to wearing it for very long. When and IF things cool down then I'll try to take a photo of him wearing it. He does love his cold water spray bottle spritzes right now - very tempting to join him as well!

The arm is a 'work in progress' with little milestones passed on the road to recovery almost daily. I'm sure your very kind good wishes are a huge help! Thank you so much.

Sarn has very kindly written up and published the results of Challenge #536 for me HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post.  The paddling pool is still open, despite hosepipe bans down here in England. Remember, there's always the chance of a little bit of magic in the Snippets Playground!

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - I'm baaaack!!

Happy Snippets Sunday, from a still very hot Hampshire. I 'dipped a toe into the water' yesterday and made a pretty simple snippets Birthday card for Dudley's 8th Birthday this Wednesday:

I used:

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

- tan/orange snippet plus a peach snippet, just trimmed using a guillotine rather than hauling dies out of their files

- the white snippet for the image is 4.25" x 4.25"

- the image was stamped using a Woodware Jane Gill 'Fuzzie Friends - Parker Puppy' stamp and Clair Nocturne ink

- a few tickles with Polychromos pencils and wrote the letter D on the pooch's dog tag (tag is gold IRL)

- then glued all the layers onto the card front

- finally added a copper (looks gold in the photo) foiled huge number 8 peeloff (from Hobbycraft eons ago) - and called it done! 

- by total luck, all items, apart from the white card blank, were on my desk already. Even the peeloff numbers were in a basket waiting to be stored away.

No challenges for me this time, I know when I've used this arm enough for one day.

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley continues to be even happier and more settled when out in the car, which is so encouraging. He will be eight years old on Wednesday - still young in Havanese potential longevity and still such a puppy at heart. When he's hoping for something, a treat, a stray piece of sausage at Christmas - and bliss, a little taste of cheese ANYTIME  - he sits exactly the same as the pup on the card! Sort of 'his most appealing and hopeful stance'.

Today he once again decided it would be nice to snuggle up against me and then bury his head right down into the outside of a thigh like a little ostrich. At one point I half expected a little handstand from him. He stays like that until you've given him loads of hugs and cuddles - and back scritches.  For some reason that seems to be his way of showing and asking for affection at the moment - which is lovely ........ unless you're sitting on the side of the bed in your undies trying to finish getting dressed at the time, Lucky he didn't end up wearing some of my clothes! 

One of Dudley's Birthday presents from me is a bandana - to go with a load he already has. It has the slogan 'Mama's Bodyguard', and a pawprint on - too cute. Somewhat ironic seeing as he would probably offer an intruder a sausage or some cheese! 

Sarn has opened up Challenge #537 in the Snippets Playground HERE. Another great prize bundle too. Sarn has been such a help the past few weeks, I can't say it often enough but she does worry about her 'street cred' if i overdo it!.

See you on the swings! A nice fresh cool breeze would be so welcome right now. Lucky folk who live really near to the sea - I envy you!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - all dressed for the heat wave!

It's a reshowing of a card I made back in July 2012 - 14 years ago almost to the day. Just right for the temperatures we're melting under:

I do love the way the little Hula Kiddo's hips are working away :) A bit like me trying to get my balance at times! It's another card that I had a load of fun making way back then - those little striped flip flops are just sooo cute.

I used:

 - 6" x 6" square cream card stock

- Stampendous cling stamp called 'Hula Kiddo', coloured with Pro Markers, including the background (I even tried to match the hibiscus flowers to the backing paper, although I've never seen a blue hibiscus in real life) 

- plain backing card from the snippets folder and the papers are snippets from the Bo Bunny 'Barefoot and Bliss' paper pack 

- a snippet of yellow self adhesive ribbon from the ribbon box. Confession, I added it as the finished card looked out of balance - the horizontal strip of paper and the image were placed too low by yours truly

- orange/yellow flower came from a friend and the brad was my own. Those dinky and totally adorable little flip flops are buttons, in a pack of five pairs from Hobbycraft, but I've spotted them on e-Bay as well - just with the shanks snipped off the back and stuck on using the glue gun.

This card was made so long ago that I imagine few, if any, of the products are even available now! But I didn't want to pay the extortionate rates that Dudley decided he should charge me for writing another blog post! So here I am, winging it as they say!

Dudley Pupdate: Speaking of himself, although he doesn't like a bath or even the sight of a paddling pool - he does have an Achilles Heel we've discovered! He loves being sprayed with a hand held spray of cool water and now goes so far, in this blistering heat, to let it be known that it's time for another good spray down in the garden before he retires to the shower room to cool right down. His usual flowing silky hair is very curly, as if he needs a decent blow dry. 

My arm is improving, albeit too slowly for impatient me! Thank you so much for your lovely wishes and cards. Dudley's 8th Birthday is looming, on 22nd July, the same day as a good friend and close neighbour will be 60. It's a target to aim for, having a go at making two cards - they might be simple but it would be a start back into doing a bit of crafting. 

As always, I'm SO grateful for Sarn's massively helpful support.  I just turn a blind eye to the mischief and mayhem! A small price to pay.

Love from Dudley Dog and myself, 

 

Sunday Snippets - Dudley calling

Helloo peeps!  It's Dudley Dog, just to let you know that Mom is still on the mend. She can type slowly and it's improving - but mouse work is tricky. And crafting is out for the moment

Meanwhile, my wonderful Auntie Sarn is running the show over in the Playground - AND she has treats for me too, I just know it! Happy Days for me I think, double rations!

Lots of love and woofs

Dudley xxx

And, a weak wave from  - I'll be back ASAP! 

Sunday Snippets - 'faux patchwork'

My snippets card for today is not new, far from it. It's the very first card I showed when taking the Snippets Playground over from Jules - way back in January 2012! 

I guess lots of you will know the patchwork trick Just cut a square of background paper and then a couple of strips of contrasting paper the same length as the background but only one third of the width of the background. Then stick them down in a cross centrally over the background square and cover with an image, sentiment or whatever. Thern I added some 'faux stitching'.

I used:

- 4" x 4" square white linen card

- all papers came from the snippets folder (the patterned ones are scraps of First Edition 'Sweet Owl' papers)

- sentiment from the Hero Arts 'Live Life' sentiments set - stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate

- flowers punched from snippets with Josy Rose nail heads in the centre

- faux stitching using a very fine Whispers brown marker

After a busy week with medical appointments it was already likely that I wouldn't have time to make a new snippets card. Just to make absolutely sure, I had a fall on Friday and whacked my right arm. It's badly bruised so crafting is out of the question right now - sigh.

Sunday Snippets - brilliant Eclipse technique

Happy Snippets Sunday, from a blisteringly hot Hampshire. I am SO excited about a 'new to me' technique for creating Eclipse cards using a stamping platform. I'll add some links below to tutorials and here's my 'first attempt' card:

Voila!

Slightly 'side on' shot to see the raised parts more clearly!

I used:

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

- a backing snippet of plain black card, cut to 5" x 4"

- the image layer of white card ended up at a whisker under the size of the back layer - I was juggling a bit as the card evolved

- stamped the image using Clair 'Nocturne' ink and the main stamp from SU's 'Postage Due' stamp set, a set I've never used despite having it since goodness knows when!

- at this point two things are absolutely vital - do not move the just stamped image from your platform of choice - and do not remove the stamp from its position on the lid of your stamping platform!  Put it out of harm's way for now!!

- next I cut 18 x quarter inch strips of card from a couple of the same card stock white snippets - they breed here!  BIG tip, decide the length you want them to be beforehand and trim your card to height before slicing into strips. My strips were quarter of an inch wide and 3" tall

- then sit................. idly watching the World Cup football or similar ..................whilst glueing those strips together - three strips at a time - leaving you with six 3-layer strips

- I also made a three layer 'spacing strip' about 4" in length and .5" wide. It might work for you but I ended up just eyeballing as it was very fiddly to manage. If you eyeball - work from both outside edges inwards - little tip there! 

- next step is to adhere those three layer strips as you wish across the stamped image, still sitting safely in the platform - unless you used a corner for positioning. I do that so could pop the image layer back into the exact same place later on - which always helps if you don't have a sticky mat in your platform

- once the layers are glued in place - it's 'Show Time!'

- however you get there, the base image with its white strips MUST be in exactly the same position as when the initial stamping was done

- then you ink up the original stamp which is still in situ on the platform lid and lower it back onto the image, press and BINGO! For me it was truly a 'Wow' moment as the image sprang into 3-D life! Obviously you ink as many times as you see fit

- finished! 

I truly think this is a real game changer! I used my strips offset, one placed up and one down across the base image - but you can use any shape you like - discs, squares - whatever! I've given the detailed measurements in my step by step above - but they're really for my own use as much as anything as I do plan to make more of the same card - perhaps using a different colour ink pad. Sepia, Green and Maroon are three that spring to mind. 

I first came across the technique the other day on 'Jenn's Crafty Makes' (Facebook) HERE.  Jenn found the technique HERE on YouTube, only posted a couple of weeks ago. It's a long video by 'Heidi - The Yorkshire Crafter' - 46 minutes or so. So, I suggest you watch Jenn's video first - that probably is enough to get you going. It's concise and straight to the point. Both crafters are worth keeping an eye on as they keep pushing the boundaries and coming up with fresh ideas.

I'd like to enter these cards into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #852 HERE under 'Anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 87 HERE - the SU stamp set is out for a play for the very first time - shame on me!

Dudley Pupdate: We've been out and about in Len's car a fair bit recently - and it seems that, at last, Dudley is more resigned to his fate. Obviously the more frequent journeys are making it more 'normal' for him!

He stiill 'chunters and grumbles', but the yodelling has all but ceased. He'll be eight in July so it's taken us a while to get him this far! 

Sarn has opened up Challenge #534 in the Snippets Playground HERE. Another great prize too!

See you on the swings! The temperature is set to soar mid-week so bring your cossie!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,