Sunday Snippets and Rudolph Days July 2023

The buses all came along at once lately and so my snippets card for today will cover a few challenges. It uses snippets, so most importantly is right for the final week of our Playground 'Christmas in July' Challenge which Sarn is running over HERE.  And this is my snippets card:

And the snippets I used:

Very simple, just plain card snippets in white (mostly off cuts from making card blanks), and smaller pieces of green and peach card. The camera lied about the peach card - as usual! I also cut into a whole piece of 6 x 6 designer paper for the background - slap my wrists:

I used:

- 5.25" x 4" white card blank, side opening - don't ask me how, I got the measurements smaller than the USA A2 card size I was aiming for, probably thinking about other stuff .... or losing the plot!

- a sheet of backing paper from Whimsy Stamp's 'Blurry Flurries' paper pack, cut down to the same size as the card front

- then, to check for size and spacing, I die cut the 'MFT 'Peaceful Dove' from snippets of plain white card for later - two layers for the body and wings

- knowing the size of the dove, I could position my MFT 'Peace' word die onto the paper for the card front and run it though the Gemini

- backed the PEACE aperture in the patterned paper with double sided sticky paper, protected the sticky bits on the front that were exposed by covering them with the peel off paper from one side of the 'sticky - using easy peel tape for extra adhesion - and then set them aside 

- die cut two further 'Peace' sentiment dies from plain white card which I layered up onto the letters which were the fallout from cutting into the pretty backing paper, using a glue pen

- then stuck them into the sticky backed apertures to create a 3-layer inset for each nicely spaced letter, with the saved pieces from the middle of the letters P and A then popped in place

- glued the front panel to the card front

- time to assemble the doves! I added the beak to the top layer of the body and then coated it and the two wings with Clear 'Wink of Stella' for a nice shimmer

- next added the back and then the front wings to the body of the dove - using red line extra sticky tape

- then had a fun time adding the die cut double layered olive branch to the dove's beak before adhering the assembled birdie to the card front

- final touches, one tiny silver sparkly gem in the centre of the star and another tiny silver sparkly gem coloured with black Pro marker for the dove's eye 

It's a shame the subtle shimmer from the clear Wink of Stella on the body and wings of the dove can't be picked up by the camera - trust me, I tried! And of course, I made two cards exactly the same in tandem - me not totally daft!

I'm entering this card into three challenges - go me!

Rudolph Days for July - HERE 

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #52 HERE.  The Peace and the Dove dies were both NBUS.

Allsorts Challenge #739/740 HERE where the theme is 'Anything but square' and it runs for two weeks

The results of The Snippets Challenge # 458 are over on the Snippets Playground blog HERE. 

Dudley Pupdate: It's been a bit of a mixed week here for weather so at times Dudley has needed a gentle push to nip out in the rain to 'spend a penny'. Otherwise we're sure he'd cross his legs for as long as possible as he hates getting wet. News of other animal antics - we still have a huge family of hedgehogs visiting each night - they live under the shrubbery in the front garden and come to eat in the back garden - we had a gap left at the bottom of the garden gate especially for them. Dudley can lie and peek out but he can't wriggle right out. 

There's still one week of the current Snippets Challenge to go, hope to see you in the Playground soon if you haven't played already. It's the final week of 'Christmas in July' with some nice bundles of Christmas themed prizes. Make a card and come and play - one less to make for Christmas - and a chance to win a nice prize if you join in the draw!

Love, as always, from myself and Dudley,

Sunday Snippets and another Memory Box cabin or house

I love the dies made by Memory Box which depict a house/cabin complete with smoke rising from the chimney and this is what I made with my latest one:

Sorry, no photo of the snippets I used - which are the plain white card for the scalloped layer and the 'Night Sky' backing paper.

I used:

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

- snippet of white card, die cut using the largest die from the Taylored Expressions'Petite Scallop Rectangle Stacklets' set of dies

- then die cut the cabin into the scalloped layer, using a Memory Box 'Cabin Collage' die

- used a snippet of 'Night Sky' scrapbook paper which was tucked in the back of a book of papers bought ages ago which is so useful for 'space' themed cards as well as night skies - no manufacturer's name on it though. Just drew round the portion I wanted to use so that a 'star' appeared in the top left portion of the 'sky'

- then cut it out using scissors and glued it behind the image using a couple of glue pens (needed a very fine nib for some of the cabin detail)

- for the sentiment I used a stamp from Colarado Craft Company's Anita Jeram 'Merry Little Christmas' stamp set and a Memento 'Paris Dusk' small ink pad. I went right through my ink pad swatches before stumbling on such a perfect colour match - squeal!

- glued the image panel to the front of the card blank

- final touch was a tiny, very flat, silver sparkly 'gem', in the middle of the main star

And I made four of them the same - trying to really build up my stock of cards for this coming Christmas don'tcha know. 😉

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #52 HERE. The Memory Box die was my NBUS this time.

We now have our second 'Christmas in July' Challenge, run by Sarn, over in the Snippets Playground HERE - with a lovely prize made up of several goodies. Including, a Memory Box 'Snowy Cabin' die just like the one I used HERE. And no doubt 'someone' will be dispensing Christmas Cocktails liberally in the tree house. 

Dudley Pupdate: we celebrated Dudley's 5th Birthday on Saturday (yesterday). This is how tiny he was the very first time we met him, back in 2018:

He's cupped in Len's hands and we were almost scared to handle him as he was such a little guy. Smallest in the litter, a bit bullied by his siblings and he stole our hearts straight away. He seemed to have such a direct gaze as if he was the one doing the weighing up!

And, this was him with Len, just the other week in our back garden. Looking at the two photos, it's quite striking how he still has a lot of his puppy like facial expression. Although he's certainly a bit too big to cup in one's hands!

Love from Dudley - and of course me,  

Allsorts Challenge Week 737

Lately, the majority of my cards have been made for the Snippets Playground - however, I took a little bit of time out to whip up a swift entry for the current challenge over at Allsorts - HERE. There's a mood board or you can opt for 'Anything Goes':

The poppy at the bottom of the mood board caught my eye so this card was inspired by the shape and colour of the flower head - otherwise it's 'anything goes':

I used:

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

- whilst I would LOVE to say that I coloured the background myself, it's a cheat - comes from an Altenew paper pad called 'Enchanting Washes'

- I picked where I wanted to stamp the image and used a double set of AALL & Create's stamps called 'Nature's Angels', along with a VerfsaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad and the Misti

- then die cut the stamped piece using an unbranded die with pretty lace-like scalloped edges

- glued the die cut image panel onto the card front - then added three Memory Box clear 'raindrop' gems as a finishing touch, quick and easy!

Although it was just a gentle dip of the toe into the water - I absolutely love how AALL & Create stamps are so full of interest and variety - ALL in the one stamp!  Dumbo here really had no idea just how much they cram into a single stamp. They stamp beautifully - and of course our Brenda over, at Allsorts and her own blog Floral Fantasies, is a true expert in using, as well as mixing up, these products. It'll be a while before I create my own backgrounds and also add extra touches - but for now I'm happy to still have the slightly CAS fresh look about my results. Those who know me well will be well aware that my teeth begin to itch once crafting begins to get 'messy'. Shame, as I do miss out on a lot but there you are - that's just me. 

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #52 HERE. Paper pad, stamp and also the set of pretty scalloped edge dies were all having a first outing.

Sunday Snippets - Christmas wrapping paper snippet

My Sunday Snippets card came about when I was looking through the front section in my huge, bulging and vastly expanded 'concertina' snippets folder. That pocket is where I pop any patterned snippets that don't store in the back of a paper pad. And lookie here - I found a snippet of left over Christmas wrapping paper, from years ago (excuse the dark shadow along the bottom edge of the card):

I used:

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

- a brown wrapping paper with a holly pattern all over it - just big enough to cover the front of an A2 card

- for stability I stuck the piece of paper onto a snippet of double sided adhesive sheet and then stuck that onto a snippet of white card

- trimmed the holly panel down to 5.5" x 4.25" and glued it to the front of the card blank

- then worked out what size of panel needed for the sentiment and trimmed a snippet of white card to suit - and to add interest used a ball ended scoring tool and a score board to add a single line right around the sentiment panel

- used a NBUS stamp and die set called 'Merry Christmas' by Gemini to stamp the word 'merry' onto a snippet of white card before die cutting it using the matching die which is part of the set, using a VersaFine Clair ''Nocturne' ink pad for the stamping

- then I could finalise the spacing and stamp the word 'Christmas' onto the sentiment panel

- die cut two more layers for the word 'merry' and layered them up using a glue pen before then gluing the 'merry' onto the sentiment panel 

- backed the panel with a very slightly bigger rectangle of Tonic 'Red Velvet' pearlescent card - trimmed from a snippet then glued it onto the card front 

- it looked a bit sparse to me so I added three matt gold sequins from the 'Champagne' shaker mix by Lucy's Little Things

Only finding the one snippet big enough to cover a single card front was a bit disappointing as I would like to have make more the same. But it's a good reason to dig through the umpteen paper pads I have here! Although, in a drawer somewhere in here I do have a few sheets of patterned wrapping paper - great for backgrounds, but none of them are Christmas ones I'll bet!

By the way, the same set of sentiment stamps and die that I used for the card (donated to the Toybox by Linby but I had to run out and buy my own as I loved them so much) are part of the current prize - over at the Snippets Playground.

  

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #52 HERE. Sentiment stamps and die set was having its first outing.

Sarn has posted the results of Challenge #457 over in the Snippets Playground HERE. As always, we had some really great entries - and numbers were really good considering the hot weather lately. Do go and look - one pick in particular has Dudley pondering about starting up a 'fan club'!

Dudley Pupdate: We've been doing quite a lot of de-cluttering lately and have been giving a good few unwanted household things away on websites such as Freecycle and Freegle. Mind you, I swear it's multiplying here as we go! The arrival of more strangers was testing for Dudley at first, but we've noticed that as time goes on he's less anxious and more accepting of visitors, settling down very quickly. Needless to say - he always goes to investigate anyone coming to the house - with Honka Duck Mark II firmly in his mouth - sideways. It always totally disarms people and earns him at least a stroke and usually moves onto a cuddle and some fussing. His sweet little face has got to be one of the best ice-breakers ever! Every single person without fail has left with a smile on their face and usually a little wave at Dudley!

There's still one week of the current Snippets Challenge to go, hope to see you in the Playground soon if you haven't played already. It's Christmas in July with some nice bundles of Christmas themed prizes. Including, as I already said, a sentiment stamp and die set the same as the one I used today. Make a card and come and play - one less to make for Christmas - and a chance to win a nice prize if you join in the draw!

Love, as always, from myself and Dudley,

Sunday Snippets - Sparkle and Shine for Christmas

Time for a new Snippets challenge HERE - the theme is 'Christmas in July'  and to enter you must make something that adheres to the Christmas theme and also uses one or more identified snippets. Sarn and I have two consecutive challenges with the 'Christmas in July' theme - and also two sets of Christmas goodies as prizes, one per challenge, to be won in plenty of time for your Christmas crafting!

Here's my Christmas snippets card:

And my snippets:

I used:

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

- piece of white card, die cut using the biggest die from a Taylored Expressions set of dies called 'Petite Scallop Rectangle Stacklets' then set to one side

- die cut the top layers of the tree lights using snippets of paper found in the front pocket of my expanding snippets file, which I covered with shiny sticky backed clear film first. Die cut the underneath layers from a snippet of white sparkly card. The dies are from Lawn Fawn's 'String of Lights' set

- then die cut the 'strings' and the light 'caps' using  more dies from the 'String of Lights' set and a snippet of silver card

- glued the top layers of the lights onto the sparkly layers and topped them with the silver light 'caps'  

- at that point I could lay the die cuts temporarily in place to position the two sentiment stamps using the Misti

- stamped both sentiments (which are from the Woodware 'Christmas Sparkle' stamp set) onto the scalloped panel, using a VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink pad 

- used a very fine glue pen to glue the 'strings' in place, trimming any overhang from the top edge

- added the lights using thin sticky pads and Chrissie's trick of rubbing some glue stick over the sticky side before positioning them onto the card to allow a little bit of 'wiggle' if necessary

- then glued the completed card front panel onto the card blank 

- and, of course I made two cards exactly the same!

The light bulbs are really shiny in real life - that laminate sticky film worked a treat!

This card is for Darnell's NBUS Challenge #52 over HERE. My NBUS was the Lawn Fawn 'String of Lights' and the Taylored Expressions 'Scalloped Rectangles' sets of dies. Also the Woodware set of sentiment stamps. If you like the sentiments I used - hop over to this fortnight's challenge in the Playground - there's a set as part of the prize!

Pupdate: Dudley exceeded his record for finding mischief the other day. I was idly stroking him and felt something sticky around a shoulder and up one side of his face. When I looked - it was yucky black and also it ponged. He has a habit of running his shoulder and the side of his face along the 'easy care grass' in the back garden - and somehow he'd chose exactly where a pigeon had pooped! **  Gross - it took two of us to thoroughly clean it off and he was lucky we were busy doing other things or else he'd have been in the bath! Give him his due though - he did sit perfectly still whilst we worked on him, he's usually a wriggling little bundle. Other than that, Dudley's life is complete - he's totally in love with his new Honka Duck and all is well in his doggie world. Later this month he will celebrate being five years old! 

** Don't ask me how I know the smell of pigeon poop. I just do, from bitter experience which I might write in a Tuesday Tale sometime soon - not written one of those for ages!

Love from Dudley - and of course me, 

Sunday Snippets - CAS Stickeroo

I rustled up a super-fast card for today and yet again forgot to take a photo of my snippets:

I used:

- a cream slightly textured Anita's card blank measuring 5" x 7", side opening

- then dug out a snippet of SU's 'Wisteria Wonder' card (one of my all-time favourites) onto which I'd already stuck a Penny Black Stickeroo from the 'Pen and Ink' sheet

- trimmed the card around the image to just slightly larger

- then glued a trimmed sentiment from the Creative Expressions Wordies Sentiment Sheets set called 'Birthday' onto one of the offcut snippet strips from the Wisteria Wonder card and trimmed the ends to size

- added snippets of card (two layers) to the back of the image panel and the sentiment

- finally - glued the image panel and the sentiment onto the card front - all done

I actually made a second card which is practically identical using a different image from the same sheet of Stickeroos and slightly different words in the sentiment but everything else is the same.

The results of Challenge #456 are over on the Snippets Blog for you. AND some news about the next couple of challenges too.

Dudley Pupdate: The week began badly with Dudley frantically searching high and low for smelly ole Honka Duck - his little legs were trotting hither and thither from room to room around the house at regular intervals. It was even worse when his 'triggers' occurred such as a delivery, the arrival of post or either of us going out. However, as the week wore on - very gingerly and slowly - Dudley decided that Honka Mark II needed some TLC - and took him under his wing paw. Bit by bit he's settled back down and is a contented little soul once more. Phew!  

We're pretty delighted at the drop in temperature here as it's been unbearably hot at times when the air was so still and humid. Some rain would be very welcome right now! Not least for the farmers and those areas suffering from hosepipe bans.

Have a great week!

Love from myself and Dudley - as always