Rudolph Days - September 2022

Time for another Rudolph Days challenge over at ScrappyMo's HERE. I made four really quick Christmas cards - two of each design and the first one is my Rudolph Days entry:

I used:

- 8.5" x 3.5" slimline white card blanks, tent style. I made my own card blanks using a UK size A4 sheet of heavy weight (300gsm) white card. Our A4 is only 8.25" wide so I had to make them 'down the length' of the sheet of card, meaning more waster/more snippets for ATCs perhaps

- next stamped the sentiments using stamps from Penny Black's 'Yuletide Wishes' set of sentiment stamps - and a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad - onto the chosen images

- topped the card fronts with the Whimsy Stamps image papers - from the 'SurReally Cool Christmas' set of Slimline papers, using Collall All Purpose Glue

- super fast - four cards done!

Yesterday was Dudley's 'Gotcha Day' - four years since he joined us here. And he still manages to surprise us! Little does he know that plans are afoot to sneakily replace Honka Duck with a new one, today if possible. Followed by a bath/shower tomorrow - he's gonna be pretty fed up I can see! ☺

Today is all about you

I did a quick scrabble around some snippets and toppers lying on my desk - and made this card in double quick time:

I used:

- mini slimline card, made from a large snippet of white card

- snippet of SU 'Wisteria Wonder' very slightly trimmed to fit the card front whilst leaving a narrow border, corners rounded then glued in place

- the floral topper was made up by yours truly ages ago and fairly recently rediscovered in a cello bag ...........hiding in a box of 'bits and bobs' - added using a chunky glue pen

- the sentiment is from a NBUS purchase of a Pinkfresh Studio packet of foiled sentiments - again, added using a chunky glue pen

- finishing touch - three 'raindrop' gems by 'Lucy's Little Things. I used Glossy Accents to adhere them - that stuff is SO unforgiving if it squidges at all, normal, but strong, glue for me in future!

The floral topper was part of a sheet of pop out die cuts ready just to layer up - possibly made by Kan Ban - but I can't be sure.

The set of sentiments is a mix of gold and silver sentiments on white backgrounds. Half gold script and half are silver script. Many are on die cut shapes, like the one I used for my card, and that's mainly why I bought the packet (for speed and ease) - although, others are on rectangles with foiled frames. I have to say that the wording on many of them isn't terribly inspiring to be honest (almost too 'funky', save your pennies!).

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #42 HERE. The sentiments were having a first outing. 

AND, the Results of Challenge #436 are now over in the Snippets Playground.

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley, like most dogs, sometimes dreams when he's asleep. Usually a whimper or two and his little legs do a quick workout. But a couple of times he's really shaken us with a single, really forlorn and heartrending, howl whilst asleep. The first time it happened, months ago, we sprang out of bed convinced something terrible had happened. The other evening we were watching a TV programme about a 'lone wolf' and its plaintive howl was exactly the same as Dudley's. Sure tugs at the heartstrings - and reminds one that of course dogs are descended from wolves. Certainly, when Dudley dives into his evening meal I can totally relate to that one! He's fussy about what he eats so it took us a while to figure that out when he was a puppy but he's like a little vacuum cleaner now. And of course, he can hear the rustle of a cheese wrapper from the other end of the house!

Happy Birthday Joe, at 17

Len's great-nephew (he has four of them) has just turned 17. I almost forgot his Birthday, which was on the day of our Queen's funeral, and in fact had even forgotten I made and asked Len to post this card in the 10 days of public mourning. However, goodness knows how, it turns out I did remember to take a photo, which I found on my camera just the other day:

I used:

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

- a piece of dark blue shimmery card, found lying on my desk in 'the pile' waiting to be popped into the snippets folder. Trimmed to an eighth of an inch smaller than the card base all round then stuck onto the card front

- then I dug out a new paper pad from one of my NBUS baskets on a shelf behind where I sit to craft (for me it's the best way to ensure I use new things and don't just file them away to be forgotten)

- the paper pad is really gorgeous and was bought with the red tartan in mind for some Christmas cards I have planned - however, this blue tartan/plaid was perfect for my needs

- the paper pad is called 'Tartan' , made by Craft Consortium, a UK Company - the darker colours are so perfect for male cards

- trimmed the tartan paper from all sides to look as balanced as possible and then added a three quarters of an inch or so strip of plain dark blue shimmery card in place across the card - before trimming the sides off

- glued the tartan panel to the front of the card, with the outer dark blue framing it

- then stamped a sentiment using an ancient Lili of the Valley stamp and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink - I could have dug around the ink pads for a Navy Blue but I was basically almost running on 'empty' at that point in time

- I'd used a scrap of white card the same as the card base to stamp the sentiment on and then punched it out using a SU round punch - one and one eighth of an inch in diameter I think- and stuck it in place using a piece of very thin sticky pad

One super fast and simple card - made thanks to a video of very similar 'male cards' I'd spotted online, but can't find again, as so often happens.

So there we go - almost back in the saddle, I hope!

Hello again!

Sarn and I are popping back up from the Period of National Mourning, after the loss of our beloved Queen, Elizabeth the Second. Nip over to The Snippets Playground to see what the new challenge #437 has in store!

I have no card to offer as time here in Great Britain has almost stood still with shock initially, for 10 days, much of it in painful silence, watching TV and grieving for our Queen. 

But, on the upside - Sarn did use yesterday to clean the Playhouse, oil the swings and sort out the stuff we both just dropped, 10 or so days ago, ran off and left. I got sent to the wholesalers for even more Autumn cocktail ingredients - with orders to look for Halloween decorations! UK isn't too hot on Halloween, help! And little Dudley has been stoically sweeping up Autumn leaves and basically giving the place a good polish! Anyone for a highly polished slide ride courtesy of an over keen Havi - wheeeee!? 10 pence a go - as charged by the little gangster! So, I think we're surfacing and at some point very soon things will return to the old mayhem! HMTQ wouldn't want us to carry on grieving - but to remember her with joy and love - for sure!

Do come and join us HERE!

Four Penny Black 'Masterpiece' cards

It's Sarn's turn to post today and it's the results of Challenge #435 over in the Snippets Playground, HERE.

For my snippets card(s), I had a flick through the numerous sets of Penny Black Christmas 'Masterpieces'  here and pulled out four Winter cottage scenes to play with:

I used: 

- 5.5" x 4.25" card blanks, made using white linen card (same texture as the little images) bought from The Paperbox. Two are long side opening and two are short side opening

- the images needed slightly trimming to fit behind four already die cut frames, also using the white linen card. These were left from when I die cut a whole bunch of frames using a die by MFT called 'Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frame' - I love the frames but they really need care when fixing an image behind as they're very narrow with not much room to play 

- glued the images to the inside back of the frames, using a glue pen

- then flicked through the 'impending cr*palanche' on my desk and pulled out a few snippets that were waiting to be filed in my bulging snippets expanding filing folder. Every single one was on my desk. which shows the chaos I'm currently working in!

- trimmed four of the larger snippets to cover almost all of each card front, leaving just a narrow border and glued them in place

- then used my Altenew mini die cutting machine and the sentiment die I've used so much lately (Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas' ) to cut four sentiments using more varied snippets, and glued them in place using a glue pen

- glued the framed 'Masterpieces' in place, using Collall All Purpose glue, as usual for large pieces

- the only snippets I can easily name are the green ones, they were tucked inside a pack of Altenew 'Forest Glades' card which is such a lovely shade of green. Still on my desk from its last use, sigh

- another four for the box of 2022 Christmas cards!

The two images with the green backing card came from the 'pinecones and peace' set, the image with the black backing card is from the 'home for christmas' set - and the image with the shimmery deep blue backing card is from the 'snowfall serenity' set.

Penny Black really are onto a seller here, certainly where I'm concerned. Buddly Crafts had three new sets of Christmas designs in when I was over there just the other day, looking for something else - and yup, they did sort of fall into my basket!

I'd like to enter the first card into the current Christmas Kickstart Challenge #66 HERE. The theme is 'Home for the Holidays'. I wasn't cheeky enough to write three posts to 'bag' three entries into Jo's fun challenge - which  means I need to have a bit of a think and a hunt through my stamps and dies!

Thursday was a dark day for our whole Nation, countries of the Commonwealth and a lot of the rest of the World when our beloved Queen Elizabeth 2nd died. From knowing she was very unwell, and fearing the worst earlier that day, to the final confirmation of her death so many of us almost held our breath, lest a puff of air would make a difference. She was utterly true to her vows when she became our Queen - right until the end. The rainbows over both Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace just prior to the Queen's death being announced seem to almost have been a sign from her that in the end, all will be well. RIP after a such a long and very varied reign your Majesty. I do believe that King Charles will do his utmost to honour the legacy left by his beloved Mama and will rule wisely and kindly. Long live the King.

 

RIP, our beloved Queen Elizabeth the Second

Pink daisy for a friend

It's time for a new Challenge (#436) over at the Snippets Playground HERE. My turn to host and give Sarn a bit of a break.

For various reasons my snippets card was made fairly quickly - using bits and pieces within easy reach - late into the week just gone, so it ain't gonna win any prizes - but it's rather sweet:

 

The end result is the first image, and the snippets I grabbed to work with are just above here.

I used:

- 6.25" x 3.25" mini slimline sized white card blank, tent style

- a couple of snippets of the same white card were lying abandoned on my desk and the Lawn Fawn 'Watercolor Wishes' pad, with the envelope of snippets inside the back cover, was literally within arms reach - so I collected those I wnted to use together

-the card background was made using trimmed down blue for the sky and green for the grass - all from the Lawn Fawn paper pad - I just hand cut a sort of 'gentle wave' across the piece of green paper to make it look a little more natural then glued both papers onto the card front

- used my Altenew mini die cutting machine (oh, how I truly love this little baby!) to die cut the daisy from plain white card and coloured snippets of paper - all using Lawn Fawn's adorable 'Delightful Daisy' set of two dies. It's such a simple die design but I love it!

- used a glue pen to adhere the 'skeleton outline' of the daisy onto the solid white die cut background piece

- then carefully added all the coloured pieces, using a glue pen, to fill in the skeleton outline 

- time to add a sentiment and I had an old favourite in mind from the Stampendous 'Happy Messages' set of sentiment stamps - which I stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- already knew where the daisy die cut was to sit - so just glued it in place using a glue pen

The set of daisy dies is having a first outing, so I'm adding it into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #42 - HERE.

A Dudley tale - he's done it for ages now, but it's one of his first routines of the day. It's the same every time, a little gallop, a spring onto a low footstool at the bottom of the bed , a launch and then the 'thump' of him landing on the bed when I stir in the morning. Eeek, followed by as good a wash as he can manage to give any exposed part of me as I wake up. It's certainly the fastest way to get one sitting up .......... fighting a crazy smiling licking Havanese full of joy wanting to kickstart aother day of fun and frolics - or should that be frolicks perhaps?!

Remember to come and play in the Snippets Playground Snippets Playground, please tell us what you use and post your entry - over on our new challenge HERE!

With love from Dudley Dog and me,