Rudolph Days - April 2026

Alomose missed the date but I am, with a quickly made card for the April Rudolph Days Challenge HERE:

I used:

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

- the image is carefully selected ** from an 8" x 8" Stamperia paper pad called 'The Owl's House', trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and glued onto the card front

- the 'labels' sentiment is from a Clarity set of self-adhesive Christmas sentiments - just popped onto the bottom right hand corner

** The sheet of paper that I used is double sided and with some careful measurement I managed to get two images and one piece of backing paper out of the same sheet - two from the front and one from the reverse, I do like a challenge! Watch this space for the other two yet to come.

Quick and easy - phew!

Sunday Snippets - Have a Beautiful Birthday

To be fair, the Beautiful Birthday has already been and gone, but I wanted to share the card I recently made for a very special friend - and I used snippets of course:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" purple card blank, using  a sheet from the HunkyDory 'Garden Treasures' card pack, side opening

- a piece of 'white brick wall' patterned paper from the 'Brick Wall Texture' pack - brand unknown, from Amazon - trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and set aside

- a snippet of purple card, leftover from making the card blank, which I die cut using a Craft Addiction's set of dies called 'Slatted Arch'

- piece of white card, also a snippet, onto which I stamped the adorable Newton's Nook 'Dainty Daisies' using Clair 'Nocturne' ink

- then coloured the 'daisies' image using Polychromos pencils before die cutting the bunch using a co-ordinating die 

- that meant I could sit and sort of juggle the flowers and arch around a bit until I was happy where the sentiment would go with it

- stamped the sentiment onto the bottom left of the card using Clair 'Nocturne' ink again and a NBUS stamp from Penny Black's 'super day' stamp set

- then glued the brick wall panel onto the card front, along with the die cut arch

- then adhered the bunch of daisies in place using thin snippets of foam sticky pad 

- finished! 

I'd like to enter this card into:

Allsorts Challenge #848 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 85 HERE - the set of slatted arch dies are my NBUS items

Dudley Pupdate: With warmer weather the past few days, Dudley is beginning head to cool, tiled, floors to lie on. By this time, late on a Saturday evening, he's usually cuddled up on our bed. Looks like a warm night ahead as he seems to be sprawled in the tiled hallway. Clever little guy! Doubtless with Honka Duck keeping him company.

Sarn has opened up Challenge #531 in the Snippets Playground HERE . See you on the swings! I think I heard mutterings about needing a new paddling pool earlier today!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - Have a great day

My snippets card for this week is very simple:

I used: 

- 4" x 4" Silkweave 'pale ivory linen' card snippet 

- the image is a Penny Black Stickeroo, from their 'Gentle Blooms' sheet

- backed the image with a black square - trimmed down from a snippet

- glued the image panel onto the card front 

- added a simple sentiment from a Clarity Assorted Sentiments set of stickers

- quick and easy! 

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

- Allsorts Challenge #847 HERE  - under 'In the Garden'

Dudley Pupdate: The other day I had a routine dental appointment so Len took me there, and later collected me - with Dudley riding shotgun 'harnessed and secured' in the back of the car. He 'sang' all the way there and for Len 'exclusively' when returning home, and even did an encore when coming back later to collect me. Opening the back windows a few inches does help him as he's such a curious little guy and also loves to be able to smell and feel the fresh air rushing past.

However, on the way back home, after hugs and licky greetings, he just flopped down and dozed off. Happy in the knowledge that his 'tribe' were together again and we were heading back to his favourite place!  

The results from Sarn's Challenge #529 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. Three perfect picks and one lucky prize winner - what's not to like?

Love from Dudley and yours truly

Sunday Snippets - Penguin line-up

This month's Challenge over at Christmas Kickstart is 'Brimming with Style', ie. add a hat - and here's my offering, as well as my Sunday Snippets card for this week:

I used:

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

- trimmed a snippet of Creative Expressions 'Deep Blue' card very slightly down to 5.25" x 4" and glued it onto the card blank front

- trimmed a snippet of white card down to 5" x 3.75" and embossed it using a NBUS Altenew 3D 'Ribbon Waves' folder

- glued the embossed panel on top of the blue one - I deliberately used the 'wrong' side of the panel as it seemed to resemble drifting snow more than the 'right side' does. Either way up, it's a gorgeous folder!

- the baby penguins, hats and sentiment were stamped onto snippets of white card, using a stamp set by Clearly Besotted' called 'Penguin Parade'

- coloured the penguins and hats using Polychromos pencils before fussy cutting them

- also trimmed the sentiment to size

- added the hats to the penguins

- finally, glued the penguins onto the card front and the sentiment was glued to the top lefthand corner

Whilst everything was out on my desk I made a second card exactly the same.

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

- Christmas Kickstart #109 HERE - 'Brimming with Style'

- Allsorts Challenge #847 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #85 HERE - the Altenew 'Ribbon Waves' embossing folder is NBUS

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE. It was lovely to see entry numbers climbing back up again in Sarn's recent challenge! Yay!

Dudley Pupdate: Wednesday was Dudley's annual booster vaccination(s) and also a full check-up. Apart from the usual operatic arias whilst in the car going there, he behaved perfectly. Not a single woof, despite several other dogs being in the waiting area at the same time. And, he behaved beautifully for Emily the vet. He also got a clean bill of health with everything getting full marks. Happy dance indeed.

However, he was unusually quiet in the car on the journey back home and wasn't even very interested in his tea later on - both of which are not normal! After that he just flopped on our bed, with his sad eyes peeping over his front paws, looking so sorry for himself, as well as somewhat bewildered.  It's that 'every three years vaccine, distemper, parvo and a couple of others' that hits him every time he has it. Heartbreaking that we can't explain it to him. However, the following morning he was back to being much the same as usual with no sign of any after effects. 

And, this morning he was ready to create a total riot whilst we were having a cuppa in bed - leaping up and down like a Spring lamb all over the bed with his 'come and play' posture that dogs display.  Eyes sparkling with mischief and ready to take on the world! What a difference a couple of days makes.

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - Feathers

Happy Easter everyone - I hope the sun shines for you and that perhaps you even got a new Easter bonnet! Here's my snippets card for today:

I used:

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

- a snippet of pearlescent Tonic 'Majestic Gold' card, trimmed to 5.25" x 4", then glued to the card front

- a snippet of chocolate brown card, trimmed to 5" x 3.75" and glued onto the gold layer on the card front 

- a snippet of white card onto which I stamped a feather stamp from SU's 'Four Feathers' stamp set. Did it three times using three different Memento Dew Drop dye ink pads - 'Desert Sand', 'Toffee Crunch' and 'Peanut Brittle'

- then die cut the three feathers using a die from the matching set 

- sentiment next and I used a Heffy Doodle 'hello' die to cut the word twice from a snippet of the same brown card as the background

- then gued both words together before mounting the 'hello'  mounted it onto the 'shadow' layer - die cut from a snippet of plain vellum 

- glued the sentiment in place in the bottom right-hand corner

- then glued the feathers in place - little tip - glue the top and bottom ones first so that the centre one can be evenly placed in between them. I also alternated the direction of the feather tips and quills for added interest

- finished!

I'd like to enter the following challenge: 

Allsorts Challenge #846 - HERE.  Under 'Anything Goes'

Dudley Pupdate: It's been another quiet week for Dudley in terms of adventures. The cabin doors have been open on a few of the sunny days we've had recently - and he always hops in to say hello to one of his little monkey toys which sits on a chair doing guard duty!

Never mind, he has a real treat coming on Wednesday afternoon - not that he'll be at all impressed. It's time for Dudley's annual check-up as well as a couple of booster jabs. One is only every three years and that one seems to take him one degree under. But, he's a healthy little bundle of fluff and will usually be right as rain the following morning.

The results of Challenge #528 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.

Remembering our lovely crafting friend Bernie and her cute Easter Bunny sign-off:

 /) /)

 (-.-)

0_(")(")

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets -Through the window

First of all, did you remember to change your clocks to leap forward by an hour, if that applies to where you live? If not, then I hope you enjoyed a bit of extra sleep rather then losing an hour in one fell swoop as most of us felt impelled to do! 

My snippets card for today used a very clever set of dies that Linby (Lynn) has used a few times - but which was sold out whenever I tried to get my sticky little paws on them! I succeeded eventually but it took about three or more months. However, here's the result of a first outing:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" white square card blank

- the Maximum Crafts 'Picture Window Easy Frame' comes as a pair of dies. One outer, and one inner. The outer one has the thicker outlines to the frame and the inner one is smaller and fits beautifully on to of the outer frame

- I die cut a snippet of Tonic Pearlescent 'Majestic Gold', using the 'chunkier' outer frame die and set it to one side

- then die cut the 'finer' inner frame from a snippet of the white same card as the card blank. Admission here, ever trimmed down a card blank and at the final cut, sliced through the 'spine' by accident? Hence, I do have quite a few saved mis-cut panels, aka snippets in my 'box of daft mistakes'

- then glued the 'white layer frame' onto the gold one and then the whole frame onto the card blank

- the final die cut was to use the chunkier die and, as I was actually making two cards the same, I cut through two identical patterned paper scenes in one go from an Amazon paper pack called 'Glacie' which features general Winter scenes but only the one design actually has a log cabin in the centre. I do have ideas for the other papers, never fear. It was a lucky break when I found the log cabin one whilst browsing a couple of days ago!

- with hindsight, I could just have laid/glued the patterned paper behind the frame, but die cutting is more accurate and also fun to see the card come alive!

Like Linby, I can see so many uses for this Picture Window die set. I feel a play with some much loved snippets coming on! I didn't add a sentiment, die cut a couple and decided against it and left it as is rather than spoil the pretty scene. I'll be sure to add a special Christmas sentiment inside - this year I'm doing them as I go. Hollow laugh!

I'd like to enter this card into:

Allsorts Challenge #846 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 84 HERE - the paper pack and the set of window dies are my NBUS items

Rudolph Days Challenge - March 2026 - HERE 

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is such a little chancer! I carefully slipped out of bed very early the other morning for a quick trip to the loo and made a point of really pulling up the duvet right up to pillow level to keep him away. Did it work? Not a chance, I came out of the en-suite in super fast time, to the sight of Honka Duck languishing on my pillow - and a wagging tail and wiggly bum sticking out of the top of the duvet as Dudley happily explored the warrmth and no doubt human scent of where I'd just vacated. The look on his face when I lifted the duvet and whispered 'Hello Dudley'. He seemed to drop his jaw at being rumbled, grabbed Honks and flew off the end of the bed like a little pocket rocket! 

It never lasts though as needless to say, when I woke up later on at 'ups time' he was lying like a little angel with his back pressed against mine. He never bears a grudge that's for sure!

Sarn has opened up Challenge #529 in the Snippets Playground HERE . See you in the Playground!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

 

Sunday Snippets - 'Hello Spring!

We've finally had a few days of lovely sunshine here - and Spring is in the air! Fingers crossed it lasts. Meanwhile it set me off making a bright and cheerful card as my snippets make:

I used: 

- 4" x 4" sunshine yellow card blank, made using a snippet of HunkyDory card - side opening. The camera lied and changed the bright yellow card base to lemon, whilst leaving the other colours as they are in real life!

- the image is a Penny Black Stickeroo, from their 'Gentle Blooms' sheet

- backed the image with a black square - trimmed down from a snippet

- glued the image panel onto the card front 

- added a simple sentiment from a Clarity Assorted Sentiments set of stickers

- quick and easy! 

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

- Allsorts Challenge #845 HERE  - under 'Anything Goes'

Dudley Pupdate: It's been a week of bouncing about doing zoomies for Dudley - amazing what a tonic some sunshine is! Mind you, he's awake with the larks with the earlier sunrises but tends to quietly occupy himself by grooming Honka Duck like a fastidious Mother!

The results from Sarn's Challenge #527 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.  

It's way too soon for the paddling pool but Dudley has been earning some pocket money washing down the swings and see-saw!

Love from Dudley and yours truly

Sunday Snippets - Out of the Woods

This month's Challenge over at Christmas Kickstart is 'Out of the Woods' - and here's is my offereng,, as well as my Sunday Snippets card for this week:

I used:

- A6 white card blank - side opening

- trimmed a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Majestic Gold card down to just slightly smaller than the card blank

- trimmed an image page from the utterly gorgeous Stamperia 'The Owl's House' 8" x 8" paper pad, down to slightly smaller than the pearlescent gold layer

- glued the image panel onto the pearlescent gold panel

- adhered the image layer to the card blank - using very narrow foam strips

- finishing touch, added a white die cut sentiment from my little dish of die cut sentiments. I'd used white snippets for a double layer and my very favourite Tonic 'Merry Christmas' die - sadly discontinued

- finito!

I stumbled across the 'Owl's House' paper pad on this blog - thanks for the inspiration Ellie!

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

- Christmas Kickstart #108 HERE - 'Out of the Woods'

- Allsorts Challenge #845 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 84 HERE - 'Owl's House' paper pad

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

Dudley Pupdate: The Havanese are such a breed of sunshine, velcro, love, panic, lunacy and calm - all mixed together. Certainly never a dull moment. Now and then Dudley has a crazy 10 minutes racing around and around the ground floor of our house, using it as a race track.He loves to skid down the tiled hallway and basically can get over excited in the process. 

We had one such evening early this past week and right at the end he decided to race up the stairs to me in my craft room as a 'finale'. Same as when he was a puppy and escaped from upstairs, he lost his footing and went tumbling back downstairs. On both this and the previous occcasion Len happened to be at the bottom of the stairs and caught him - in a pretty impressive rugby tackle. Dudley certainly has no sense of danger when he's fired up with doggie adrenaline! I'd call it 'totally loopy' to be honest!  

The subject of being unable to comment on our embedded comments has raised it's head again, after a long silence, with a good blogging friend having problems. She comments from her laptop, I've tried and she has too (obviously) to work out what setting(s) might be causing problems. We're both stumped and any input would be gratefully received! She uses Chrome as her browser, as I do. I might even send Dudley round to give you an all-over lick and towel-down - if that's your price for spilling the beans! Any suggestions?

Love as always, Dudley 'the bouncing ball' - and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - Out of my comfort zone!

I decided to use some Aall & Create goodies for my snippets card today and ended up well away from my love of CAS cards, to say the least:

I used:

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

- a snippet of mustard coloured card. trimmed to 5.25" x 4", glued to the card front

- an A6 Aall & Create ready printed background from set #7

- trimmed the background card to 5" x 3.75" 

- stamped a further image onto the printed A&C, using stamp #981 and a 'Coffee Bean' Dewdrop Brilliance ink pad

- used the same stamp and inkpad to stamp again, this time onto a snippet of the same cream card as the card blank

- the central piece of the design is a really lovely leaf, which I then fussy cut, possibly that took the longest to be honest!

- coloured the butterflies' wings using mustard and also teal Prismacolor pencils - to pick up colours in the background and also the base mustard card 'frame'

- glued/paper pieced the finished leaf on top of the leaf design I'd stamped onto the card front 

- finally, glued the completed patterned layer onto the mustard card layer on the card front - and called it done!

I'd like to enter the following challenges: 

Allsorts Challenge #844 - HERE.  Under 'Anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #84 - HERE. It's the Aall & Create 'leaf' stamp

Dudley Pupdate: I tend to write Dudley's Pupdate on the day before the post goes live, and sure enough he obliged me with a couple of insights into his day. First of all, I woke up at 5am on Saturday needing a quick trip to the loo. Trying to quietly slip out of bed I was bounced on by an ecstatic Dudley who'd been lying between Len and I. He jumped around giving me licks and doggie cuddles as I struggled to get out of bed without  making too much noise. Len woke up anyhow - 'cos I got the giggles! All I could see was an imaginary  'speech bubble' above Dudley's head saying this: 'Mum, oh Mum, I'm so happy to see you! Lick, lick. You've been asleep and I missed you soooo very much when you were on a 'dream safari'!! Good grief - I was right next to him!

Then, later on in the day it poured down with rain and what happened makes me wonder if he reads my blog! Remember Len holding an umbrella over him in the rain a few weeks ago? Not so this time - he strolled out a bit like John Wayne. And then, unlike John Wayne I expect, slowly proceeded to carry out his mission(s) - totally ignoring the downpour! Naturally he came in like a drowned rat and needed a brisk towel rubbing down - who knows, perhaps he's well into the joy of a brisk towel down!

This next bit is a bit 'apropos of nothing' really, but it does have a Dudley link. Late into the evening I often just browse around various platforms on the internet, as well as YouTube of course. It beats the real world events right now! And something popped up on Instagram! It's AI but is based on a real little dog in Japan and I immediately thought of Dudley ....... after a few dancing classes. If you do click on the link, you don't need an IG account, it's perfectly safe and might make you smile - I cried with laughter watching it the first time the other evening - it's the cheeky little knee bend towards the end that really cracks me up!  

You should turn the sound up - usually bottom right in the video box, and also ignore the dubbed cackles - not mine:Teddy Dancing.

I hope it makes you smile - we all need that right now! x

The results of Challenge #526 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post.

Love from myself and Dudley, who is busy practising the 'knee bend' from that video clip! 😏

Sunday Snippets - 'BIG Hugs'

Happy 1st March folks - White Rabbits!

My snippets card for today was super fast to make, I wish I could say I made the pretty background, but then my nose would grow like Pinnochio's:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" white square card blank

- glued a 5.75" x 5.75" layer of Creative Expressions' Foundation Card in 'Deep Blue' (such a gorgeous colour!) to cover the whole front of the card

- then trimmed a sheet of designer paper from a Stamps by Me 'Creative Watercolours' paper pack down to 5.5" x 5.5" and glued that onto the blue card front

- lastly the sentiment - for which I used snippets of plain vellum along with Tonic satin mirror card in 'Soft Amethyst'. The pair of dies is by Memory Box, called 'BIG Hugs' of course!

I so love this NBUS paper pad and have had it for simply ages - found it the other day languishing in a basket of snippets .... no doubt feeling like Billy No-Mates! 

I'd like to enter this card into:

Allsorts Challenge #844 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 72 HERE - the paper pack is my NBUS item

Dudley Pupdate: a couple of lovely sunny days here really have made Dudley's week. Courting pigeons are his favourite target in the garden, purely to say 'Hello, I'm Dudley. Can I play your dancing and bowing game too please?'. Of course, they're off like a shot, leaving him wondering what he said wrong!

He scared us on Thursday morning when he misjudged his flying leap onto our bed, via a low footstool placed permanently at the end of the bed as his 'springboard'. He did a perfect backflip back off the bed and landed on a heap on the floor! Thankfully totally unscathed but it was a heart-stopping sight. 

Sarn has opened up Challenge #527 in the Snippets Playground HERE .

Do come and play with us in the Playground - this last challenge was a bit thin on the ground, although it did pick up during the second week.Many thanks to those of you who commented on my post last Sunday - much appreciated!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Rudolph Days - February 2026

Short month 'tis February - so here I am with a 'short on all sides' card for the February Rudolph Days Challenge HERE:

I used:

- 4" x 4" square linen white card blank, side opening. Just used a scrap but the back side of the card is at least the same shade as the front

- the image is upcycled from a Christmas card we received this year, trimmed down to 3.5" x 3.5"

- covered the whole front of the card with a layer of Amazon 'Stella Weds' dark green card (perfect for Christmas cards, IMHO)

- then glued the image panel onto a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' card, slitghtly trimmed down to just a gnat's whisker larger than the image panel

- finally, added the framed image panel to the green card front using very narrow foam strips, and called it 'done'

Quick and easy - phew!

 

Sunday Snippets - 'When Santa got stuck up the chimney'

The current challenge over Christmas Kickstart is such a great theme  - 'A Christmas Sing-along'! My immediate thought was 'Driving home for Christmas' by Chris Rea, but Linby had already entered a super card with that as her song choice. Sooo, I came up with this card instead:

Most of my leftover snippets, some got lost in the tidying up!

I used:

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

- making the main feature of the card - Santa - was my next step as all the other placements depended on how he turned out in terms of size

- I used red, white, green and also flesh coloured snippets. The flesh colour was a Papermill Direct swatch sample. The die set was an Amazon buy last Autumn - unbranded with just 'Christmas Santa' on the packet

- die cut all 14 pieces and assembled them using a glue pen - also added a touch of pink Polychromos pencil  and a little Tombow pale grey here and there as I went 

- Santa's eyes were coloured using a deep blue Gelly Roll Glaze pen

- a snippet of Tonic iridescent  'Firestone Red' mirror card, trimmed to one sixteenth of an inch smaller all round than the card blank

- a piece of paper from an Amazon unbranded paper pack called 'Moonlit Reverie' - it has a slightly vintage look about it - trimmed to one eighth of an inch smaller all round than the red mirror layer 

- then took a sheet of brick patterned paper from another Amazon paper pack called 'Brick Wall Texture' and trimmed a 'chimney' measuring 2" wide x 1.5" high 

- glued the 'brick chimney' onto the moonlit sky paper then glued them onto the red mirror card layer

- glued the bones of the image layer to the card front

- used teeny red mirror snippets to die cut my favourite Tonic (discontinued) Christmas sentiment twice, layered them together then glued to the top left hand corner

- final step was to use thin sticky pads to glue Santa in place  - stuck in the chinmey!

I had intended using a small 'Ho, Ho, Ho' die for the sentiment but, given Santa's predicament I doubt if he'd have been chuckling out any 'Ho's right at that time! 

The song 'When Santa got stuck up the chimney' was very popular in the mid-70's. But, being somewhat vintage, I remember my Dad singing it to me when I was little and apparently it was first out in 1953!

I ended up with two cards the same - which was a bonus, given all the faffing around making up the Santas!

And now, drumroll! Take a bow Len! I originally intended to have Santa resting and looking out of a frame or a die cut circle and was half prepared to go down that route when Len spotted a Santa all made up and immediately said 'he needs to be partway out of a chimney'. Bingo! Many thanks for that inspiration, you clever chap.

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

- Allsorts Challenge #843 HERE  - under 'Anything Goes'

- Christmas Kickstart #107 HERE - 'A Christmas Sing-Along'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #83 HERE - my NBUS items are the moonlit sky paper pack, plus the brick wall paper pad and the Santa die, both of which I've had a for a while

Dudley Pupdate: Recently, I remembered how good Schwartz Slow cooker mixes are - I'd used them in the past with much success plus we still had a selection of packets here. So, with some encouragement Len had a go using one for the first time a couple of weeks ago and on Thursday just gone he did a repeat performance - Beef Stew in Ale (he used Guinness, as I used to do). The Schwartz slow cooker mixes are almost all 'dump and go' - needing no pre-frying of anything. The 'Chicken in red wine' mix needs some bacon frying but if we use that one then this time I'd just add some snipped up pre-cooked bacon rashers from the supermarket! Just chuck it all in the slow cooker, turn it on and leave it! After about an hour, delicious smells were already wafting in the kitchen. 

Dudley promptly abandoned his sentry duties AND Honka Duck entirely, raced down the stairs and posted himself, sitting slap bang in front of the worktop where the slow cooker was doing its stuff with his nose twitching for ages! At times he would get up onto his hind legs like a white fluffy meerkat, but it's well out of reach - very funny to see. He was so intent on remaining at his 'guard the slow cooker' assignment - he even missed the post arriving! 

The results from Sarn's Challenge #525 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.  

One last thing, Sarn has jokingly dubbed it 'skive-itis', but it is very noticeable how entry numbers are very low. It's been sliding for a while and I'm wondering what's wrong. Would you prefer a 'theme' each fortnight? Are you happy with 'Anything Goes'? Are we running out of steam? Let us know, by email if you prefer.

Love from Dudley and yours truly

Sunday Snippets - 2026 Valentine's Day!

My snippets card for today is a Valentine's Day card - from Dudley and myself to Len:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank - side opening

- trimmed a snippet of Tonic mirror 'Red Organza' card down to 4.5" x 4.5"

- trimmed a snippet of white card down to 4.25" x 4.25" and glued it to the front of the piece of 'Red Organza' card

- next embossed a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Luna Silver' card using a NBUS folder  by Arriettycraft called 'Hearts'

- trimmed the hearts embossed card down to 3.5" x 3.5" then cut across it diagonally using a guillotine

- glued the triangles to the top left and bottom right corners of the white layer of card. The card design sort of evolved as I went along, otherwise I'd have glued the triangles to the white layer before backing it with the red (easier to line up) . However, a blind man on a galloping horse wouldn't notice!

- then die cut the sentiment twice using another couple of snippets of the 'Red Organza' card and layered them together

- glued the sentiment onto the front panel and added five little hearts - die cut from teensy snippets using the same sentiment die, which is by Impression Obsession called 'Love'. I really like how the letter 'o' is depicted by a heart - another die that's on my long list of favourites!

- finally, the whole panel was adhered to the front of the card blank, using narrow foam strips - finished!

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

- Allsorts Challenge 843 HERE - under ''Embossing'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #83 HERE - my NBUS item is the hearts embossing folder

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

Dudley Pupdate: It's been a mostly damp, but uneventful, week here for Dudley. At least he hasn't refused point blank to go into the garden in the rain - clever little guy seems to know when there's a break in the weather! Saturday, yesterday was a gloriously sunny day and Dudley was delighted - zoomies galore!

It was also Valentine's Day of course, and the card from Dudley (below) was such a lovely surprise, so sweet:

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - for someone special

I recently bought a fabulous John Next Door 'pre-loved' 'Shaded Ivy' stamp and matching die. Here it is in use below:

I used:

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

- itching to try out the John Next Door stamp and die set, I picked out a snippet of Vaessen cardstock (love their products, available on Amazon!) in 'textured green' and used the reverse side of the card as the pattern/texture is 'softer' when stamping

- then used the *JND133 'Shaded Ivy' stamp and a Misti to stamp all the leaves in one go as it's a single stamp - the ink pad I used was VerseFine Clair 'Shady Lane'

- then die cut the ivy using the matching die - and that's where the magic happened. Two of the opposite corners have a triangle built into the stamp and the die has two opposing corners cut across for alignment! Therefore, the die can be perfectly  lined up with the stamped image, EVERY time! And then - you get a perfect cut of several pieces of inked and die cut ivy, in varying sizes with tow branches of ivy and plenty of different sized leaves, all at once - sheer genius!

- then I used two Papermill Direct 'Powder Pink Pearl' card from single and double sided swatches/snippets to die cut the Daisy-like flower heads - using a very old (one of my very first!) and favourite die set by Joy! called 'Daisy die set'

- used Nuvo glue to stick the flower layers together, gave the upper petals a flick and then glued them together before adding a large white pearl - from  Amazon of course-  and setting them aside

- next came a 5" x 5" white panel of the same cardstock as I had the die cut pieces to play around with by this point

- added double embossed lines around the outer edge to take away the plainess 

- backed the white panel with a very slightly larger snippet of Tonic mirror 'Inca Gold' card 

- then glued the whole panel to the card front

- next step was to juggle the pieces of die cuts around on the top layer of the card to work out just where the embellishents AND the sentiment would go 

- and then the plan just suddenly fell into place so, I stamped the sentiment! Onto the bottom right of the card front - using a well-loved stamp from Hero Arts 'Live Life' stamp set and the Clair 'Shady Lane' ink pad once again

-- next steps were to adhere the delightful ivy to the top left corner and add the pink daisies -  used teeny pieces of  slim sticky pads for the daisies! 

- almost there. I used a few blue hued butterflies from the Katy Sue set of 'Kaleidoscope of Butterflies'. Literally hundreds of double sided and already die cut little butterfly embellishments - after I'd tickled them with clear 'Wink of Stella'. Glued them in place with Nuvo glue and added some small ivy leaves at the bottom left hand corner

- finished!

* I totally adore the 'Shaded Ivy' stamp and co-ordinating die plate but, despite massively prolonged searches on your behalf, it seems that only the stamp is available - and even then it's extremely rare. For me it's a real 'winner' as a set . 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #842- HERE.  Under 'Anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #83 - HERE. It's the gorgeous John Next Door 'Shaded Ivy' stamps and dies of course!

Dudley Pupdate: The weather here has been awful lately, we had one lovely sunny day this week but heavy rain the rest of the time. Mid-morning yesterday, Dudley must have been desperate for a wee so Len opened the back door for him ................ at which the little guy screeched to a halt, looked out at the downpour, rolled his eyes until you could see the whites and raced to hide in the lounge. Undeterred, Len chased him round the downstairs of the house a few times and finally back into the kitchen. He'd invoked 'Toilet Emergency Plan B' and this was what a CCTV camera in the conservatory picked up:

I almost cried laughing as Len donned body warmer and wellies, then grabbed our biggest umbrella to hold over Dudley ................... whilst he followed the call of nature. 😂 You don't have to be crazy to live here - but it helps!

The results of Challenge #524 are now published HERE. SO hard to just pick three entries.

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx