Tumbling numbers Birthday card

Today's card is my snippets card for our new Challenge over at The Snippets Playground HERE.

I made it for Len's Great-Nephew, Ben, whose Birthday is actually on Halloween (every year too, ☺) - so I used Halloween colours in keeping with our optional Playground theme of Autumn/Halloween. 

I must stress that this card is an absolute CASE of a card that won Nicky a Gold Star HERE back in November 2018. I notice that our lovely Nicky hasn't posted anything on her blog since July so, if you're looking in Nicky, do think about coming for a little play, you are missed. Many thanks for the inspiration from several of your past entries!

 

I used:

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

- all snippets were already on my desk, the black card is good quality watercolour card, left from some I was playing with

- cut a deep purple backing layer and a slightly smaller black one for the main panel and set them aside

- die cut the numbers from deep purple and neon orange using a die set of 'candle numbers' from The Works. I trimmed the flame off the top of each die cut, to keep the card as masculine as possible 

- then die cut the 'Birthday Wishes' sentiment using another snippet of deep purple and an Impression Obsession 'Birthday Top Edgers' die

- glued the purple 'tumbling numbers' to the piece of already trimmed to size black card, leaving some of them overlapping the left hand edge

- then glued the sentiment in place, followed by the orange 21

- flipped the panel over and trimmed off the overlaps from the back

- glued the black panel to the deep purple surround then glued that onto the card front

- finished!

I just popped over the The Works' website to see what dies they might be selling right now. I knew the candle numbers - which were their own M&C brand - had long been discontinued. I was sorry to see that they no longer sell any dies under the M&C name - such a shame. That set of candle numbers only cost me £4 - and I also hit lucky with a few other die sets back in 2017/18. All of them were super value and are excellent cutters, sigh. There ARE a smattering of the dies (the actual brand to look for is M&C) on eBay - I ought to know as I just whipped in and bought a couple of brand new sets for the Playground Toy box, yay! Needless to say at slightly inflated prices but still jolly good value, particularly when you take free postage into account. However, the eBay M&C pickings are pretty thin on the ground now.

So, it's a new Snippets Challenge - Halloween is almost here - go and check out the theme! 

Tomorrow (Monday) is Halloween itself and, after a couple of years of abstinence, we're going to 'set up shop' for trick or treaters.

Dudley 'Pupdate': Dudley speaking - well, what can I say? The week has been very wet and I hate wet paws so have had to be (yet again) physically lifted up and dumped out into the garden a few times. One or other of my 'hoomans' then stays on guard beside the door making sure I do what I've been put out to do. Something called 'Halloween' is on the horizon and the 'pawrents' have been wafting around trying on silly outfits, messing around and planning things for Monday evening. Ha, little do they know that I intend to bark and howl at every single person coming to do 'trick or treat' here - until I have a cuddle of course. Mama has given me a choice of TWO different Halloween bandanas - I like them both so will be doing costume changes throughout the whole evening - leaving the pawrents exhausted and vowing to never, ever to do it again! Snigger! x

Finally, did you remember to change your clocks?

With love from Di and Dudley,

 

Rudolph Days Challenge October 2022

It's the latest Rudolph Days Challenge, over at ScrappyMo's - and here's my entry:

I used:

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

- a very slightly smaller panel of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' pearlescent card

- then a slightly smaller again layer of patterned paper by Magnolia called 'A Christmas Story - Angels Calling'

- then die cut the holly sprig from a snippet of white card using Penny Black's 'Holly and Berry Branch' die - also die cut the berries area from a snippet of red card

- dug out what ended up as five lightish green small sized stamp pads - from SU and also Tsukineko then used a couple of small makeup blending brushes to colour the leaves

- coloured the 'twig' part of the die cut as well as the very parts where the leaves join the twig with a brown Zig marker and coloured the berries with a red Zig marker

- carefully fussy cut around the red die cut berries and glued that piece on top of the main die - it was a perfect match so really I hadn't needed to colour the berries, that was done in case I slipped up at all with the fussy cutting

- then glued the holly and berry die cut onto the card front

- added a Memory Box 'Christmas Fairy Dewdrops' embellishment to each holly berry

- die cut the sentiment using Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas' die, one from a snippet of Majestic Gold card and the top layer from another snippet of the same red card I'd used for the berries. Then glued them together, before giving the finished sentiment a coating of clear Wink of Stella and giving it a short time to dry

- glued the sentiment in place using a glue pen - finished

Love how those berries shine in a muted way! There's some 'light bounce back' in the centres - but in real life it's not there). I fished the lovely 6" x 6" sheet of Magnolia patterned paper out of a box I rummaged around in about a week ago for the green and gold backing paper for the poinsettia cards I made. The contents date back to around 2008! There might be one or two sheets of the same paper still lurking in there for duplicates - but I know it's long been discontinued, sigh, a shame as it's such a gentle and soft pattern which makes a nice Christmas background without overly dominating the card. My quest is to try to checkpoint myself and see if there are more pieces of the same patterned paper to be used for duplicates - especially now that it's been made once. Always makes re-iterations simpler.

It was a first outing for the Memory Box dewdrops, as well as the Penny Black holly die, so I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #43.

 

Poinsettias for Christmas

The current Challenge #67 over at Christmas Kickstart has a lovely theme - 'Poinsettias and Posies'. I finally found time to make a couple of cards, exactly the same, as my entry. Here's one of them:

I used:

- a white DL card, tent fold - which actually ended up at 8.25" x 3.75" to look more balanced

- dug out a couple of identical pieces of very old patterned paper by Craft Creations called 'old Christmas Wording on Green Texture' and trimmed them down to 8" x 3.25"

- die cut three apertures from the paper using a NBUS MFT 'Slimline Stitched Square Trio' die - and put the centre square's waste to one side for later use

- then glued the patterned paper onto a piece of Tonic 'Inca Gold' Mirror card

- using snippets of white card I die cut three squares using the MFT die and inset two of them in the outer apertures

- ran a gold Calligraphy pen around the edge of the square of white card waste I'd set aside a couple of steps back and glued it and the 'set aside' patterned centre square's waste together, then added it onto the centre aperture using 2mm thick large sticky pads. The gold edge was really so that, from the side, the edges of the square wouldn't look stark white - and it works well. I initially had tried just having it flush to the rest of the card front but raising it on foam pads really made such a difference

- in fairness, I made the poinsettias right at the start of making the card as i wasn't sure if the aperture's would be the right size etc.

- to make the poinsettias I used the NBUS dies in the Sizzix dies by Tim Holtz called 'Seasonal Sketch' - and snippets of Tonic ''Red Velvet' pearlescent and 'Inca Gold' Mirror card

- then glued the slightly offset gold layers on top of the red ones, before finally adding them to the card front

- finished - another two for the box!

The patterned paper that I used is so lovely in real life (I also have some in deep blue as well as in rich deep red) - the 'information strip as most 12" x  12" papers  do bear, shows that the design goes back to 2008! And that was in the days when I bought a lot of my stuff from Craft Creations. You chose from either a paper catalogue or a very clunky online 'shop' - and then submitted your order on a paper order form, which you posted off with a cheque for the relevant amount. It all seems rather pre-historic now. ☺ 

One lesson I learnt is that the 'stitched edge' to the three apertures doesn't show up well on dark quite heavily patterned paper. However, the die will be really great on plain paper and card of course - plus it guarantees that all three squares are lined up properly!

I'd also like to enter my card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #43. The poinsettia dies and also the MFT 'Slimline Stitched Square Trio' die had their first outing.

No news to report from Dudley. Right now he's cuddled up on our bed with Honka Duck (still the same old duck, bad mistake to let him see the old one after we'd hidden it and given him a new one). With all this wet weather, which he hates, it's not been easy shoe-horning him out into the garden to go toilet - just before bed in particular. He seems to have magnets built into his paws and rear end and you just can't budge him! Len has had to physically lift him outside - whereupon he then wees for England (Dudley not Len!) - which shows that he would have been pestering to go out in the early hours of the morning - little tinker!  

A little message for those to whom I promised to send decorative flowers and such during my proposed 'sort out' session. Basically I hit a mobility problem as well as a nasty leg infection so they are still on hold, for now. Don't give up - I will get there, I have your addresses and .... I need the space!

There's a new post over in The Snippets playground, with the results of Challenge #438 - HERE.

Happy Birthday to Len!

Yesterday was Len's Birthday - and Dudley commissioned a card for his beloved 'Dad' from me:

I used:

- DL white card blank, side opening

- snippet of black card, trimmed to a bit smaller than the card front and glued in place

- another snippet, this time of white card, trimmed to a bit smaller than the black layer

- then dug out my Altenew 'Poured Acrylic' paper pack and cut into a whole new sheet! Basically to add one and a half inch bands across the top and bottom of the white panel

- die cut the Creative Expressions 'Mini Woof' using a turquoise snippet from the patterned piece of the 'Poured Acrylic' paper - so I could check the alignment of everything

- then used Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink to stamp the fun sentiment ('Don't worry, I ate all the candles so nobody will know your age!') and the adorable pooch onto the white panel - his ears, eyelids and the pads of his paws were coloured pale peach using a Polychromos pencil. However the light when I took the photo has almost faded them - but they're there, trust me!

- stamped the pooch's bandana onto a tiny scrap of the turquoise part of 'Poured Acrylic' paper, fussy cut it and ran a new black 'Tombow Brush Pen' around the edges to hide any potential white edges from showing. After over 15 years of use, my black Whispers brush pen finally dried up/ran out of ink - it was the most used of the set of 36 markers and owed me nothing

- glued the turquoise bandana in place onto the pooch (now looking very much like Dudley in trouble!) using a glue pen

- glued the die cut 'woof' onto the image panel - and thought that was it finished

- however, the 'white space' was too stark with a mainly white dog - so I used a small paw print stamp by 'Fun stamps' and black ink to add some extra interest

- now it was finished!

I went bonkers with the little paw print stamp on the envelope, a gift tag, the inside of the card under Dudley's 'signature', and even on the back of the card besides the words 'Commissioned by Dudley'!

I'd like to enter this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #43 HERE' The NBUS is the Penny Black stamps set - oh, and the little 'Woof!' die as well!

And, this card also qualifies for this week's Allsorts Challenge #698 over HERE - hooray! So many weeks I just don't get the chance to join in, so it's great when the week's Allsorts theme works in my favour! The theme is 'Add a sentiment'- and I think the cute little sentiment voicing the pooch's 'don't blame me' trip fits the bill very well!    

Len loved his card from Dudley - and, even though I cheated and bought a ready made laser cut 'sailing schooner 3D card' from me (time was not on my side) - he was really pleased with that too. A few other lovely cards and of course pressies from Dudley and myself - a happy day! Nice evening meal - worked well.

The week has been busy with bits and bobs so we only managed one excursion on Tuesday with the 'Purple Peril' - which some of you rightly guessed is a wonderful purple mobility scooter! The feeling of freedom is incredible.

Thursday was my COVID vaccination day, in town. I was lucky and had both the COVID as well as the flu vaccination - one in each arm. Yay! So far so good - a bit tender but nothing to be concerned about.

Dudley was there outside the 'Health Hub' in the shopping Mall and he waited with Len whilst I disappeared to be 'dealt with'. He was SO good - he just watched everything going on round about him and kept close to his Buddy Len. Dudley is such a curious dog - always interested in what's going on and I think the outing to somewhere totally new and quite busy really stimulated him. Without even trying, he really charmed loads of people as well. It's only recently that 'non-assistance' dogs have been allowed into the shopping Mall, we didn't see anything untoward so there's a chance that the move won't be reversed. Obviously not all shops will allow them inside but for us it's a great step forward.

Sarn (and I) work hard to make Playground a fun place - and, to that end Sarn has opened up a new Snippets Playground challenge HERE. 

Also a little heads up that in two weeks time so NOT just yet girls. I'll be hosting a new challenge on 30th October. We don't often have 'themes' but we will be looking for Autumn, Halloween and/or the associated colours in your entries for the challenge that opens 30th October ................. not just yet, I'm just giving you some advance warning so you can plan ahead! It's not mandatory but would be fun we think!

With love, from Di and Dudley

What a week!

So busy, so much going on - and I suggest you just hop on over the Snippets Playground to see the results of the previous challenge. Like Sarn, I'm really delighted to see that our playmate Suzanne H has set up a blog so she can still come and play with us! Go Suzanne! Just shout if you do ever need help.

We, please note the use of we, met Arnie a couple of times this week whilst out walking Dudley. Arnie is 'Dudley's Bestie' in the whole wide world and the adoration and hugs for one another between those two dogs is incredible! Those doggie hugs are so special to see. For me, having  having finally properly met Arnie close up, he really is so very adorable - his tail is like a little black propeller! He was a rescue dog and I just cannot get my head around how that came about - he fell on 'all four paws' certainly with such a sweet family! When we're out and I'm over the enchantment of just smiling and gazing at them, on their hind legs and hugging, I'll take a photo for you to see on here.

We've had days worth of no hot water, as well as other home plumbing issues this past week, so no snippets card got made. British Gas Home Care stinks! Their administration and also their almost non existent telephone service is diabolical to say the least.

And, after such a long time, literally years, I've been out and about with Len and Dudley, as a family this week - on woodland walks and to such lovely places I never realised were even within such close walking reach from our house. No car journey needed to reach them - amazing and magical!

I leave you to guess just how I went on those very happy and beautiful 'walks' with my boys - and what absolute freedom and joy doing that has brought back into my life.

Answers on a postcard! And for the very few friends who do know - don't squeal until the reveal!

Happy 'Purple Peril' Bunny here!

 

Forever Friends teddy card

Having a little rummage turned up the makings for two identical Christmas cards. I found two Forever Friends Christmas teddy tags along with some snippets of red patterned paper - stored together in a cello bag, I'd obviously paired the image and the snippets at some point - and this is what I made:

I used:

- mini slimline white card blank, side opening

- piece of slightly smaller white card

- the snippets of red patterned paper, trimmed and added as borders to the top and bottom on the panel of white card

- then stamped the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from Clearly Besotted's 'Simply Said Christmas' set of sentiment stamps

- glued the panel to the card front

- added the bear tag using thin sticky pads, thankfully it didn't have a hole punched for twine. I vaguely recall it coming with a roll of matching Christmas paper many years ago

- then die cut a few snowflakes using a Penny Black 'Snow Family' die to die cut a selection of flakes from the leftover card used for the card blank, then tickled them with Clear Wink of Stella on a scrap of paper and left them to dry

- finishing touch was to add a scattering of the snowflakes using a glue pen

Two more cards for the box!

Len had his COVID booster earlier in the week, he felt one degree under for the following day but it only lasted for 24 hours and was nothing like he's reacted previously. Mine was booked for today (Sunday) but is now postponed until the middle of October. 

Dudley Pupdate: We managed to swap Dudley's old Honka Duck for a new one, then Len, in a daft moment, showed him the old one. So right now Dudley has both of the ducks - and the new one is decidedly neglected whilst he never lets his old favourite out of his sight! So, I'll have to wait until he's asleep and hide the old one again! On Thursday he had a bath/shower and all three of us had a good soaking, perhaps revenge for the duck swop?! 

There's a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE. Hope you manage to join in!