Sunday Snippets - and a Birthday card

When this publishes, we'll be almost ready to leave 2023 behind and see what 2024 brings with it! New Year's Eve has never been a favourite celebration for either of us and we'll just have some homemade soup for eats, with nibbles to follow as we have a quiet evening and watch the Thames Firework Display on TV. Bliss - with Dudley curled up with us of course.

This coming week, one of our little neighbours will celebrate his 7th Birthday - so I whipped up a quick snippets card for him, which is either a caterpillar or a centipede with invisible legs ....... perhaps it's a 'caterpede'?  😅 

The leftover snippet pieces!

I used:

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

- piece of the same white card, trimmed to 5" x 3.75" and set aside for now

- a piece of rust coloured sparkly card, sent to me by a lovely friend, trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and glued onto the card front

- then glued the 'previously trimmed and set aside' white panel onto the card front and rolled up my sleeves to make the 'critter' and the sentiment strip - using a load of snippets and my mini die cutting machine

- die cut two of each colour of the plain card and glued them on top of one another - using a circle die from Tonic Studio's 'Circle Layering' set of dies

- then die cut the head from a snippet of the sparkly rust coloured card, using a slightly bigger die from the same Tonic Studio's circle set and backed it with a couple of plain white die cut circles

- to finish the head I added a couple of little, straight brown 'antennae' using red line tape to the back of the head, drew in a mouth using a black marker and added the goggly eyes, backed with punched circles of the brown card (using red line tape) so they didn't look too 'lost'!

- then added the 'caterpede' to the white panel on the card front - using thin sticky pads and also glue pen where the pieces overlapped ......... instead of sticky pad. to keep a more evenly raised layer 

- die cut the sentiment from the snippet of rust sparkly card - using an Altenew die from the 'Essential Sentiment Strips' die. Backed the strip with one die cut from plain white card and then backed that with a plain narrow strip of white card to show through the cut out lettering and also make adhering it to the card front easier

- stuck the sentiment in place on the card front using red line tape - with glue stick whisked over it, to allow for a little movement, before pressing it firmly in place

- finally, die cut the number 7 using a 'The Works' die from their 'Numbered Candles' set of dies, backed it with a plain white die cut - then snipped off the flame of the candle. Cruel I know but the set is much more versatile if you're prepared to have a little snip here and there!

- used very narrow red line tape to adhere the number onto the body of the 'caterpede'

- finished!

Sarn has posted the results of Challenge #469 over in the Snippets Playground HERE. As ever, she has some really great choices as 'Picks' - and a lucky prize draw winner too!  

Dudley Pupdate: Before Christmas, we had a stair lift installed here (aka the 'Ski Lift') and I cannot begin to explain how it's made going up and even more so, down, our stairs so easy as opposed to recent times! Dudley is getting much more used to it and is absolutely loving the fact that I'm spending a lot more time going up and down and also spending more time in the lounge (and kitchen!).He loves to race the 'Ski Lift' going up the stairs - and wins every time needless to say!  And of course over Christmas he sat and stared with his huge eyes hoping for teeny scraps whenever we sat at the dining room table to eat - hard to resist but also he needs to hold back a bit! For such a small dog I swear he would eat until he couldn't even move, given the chance!

There's still one week of the current challenge left to run! Remember, it's anything BUT Christmas as the theme! The challenge is below Sarn's results post over in the Playground. Do please make a card and come play with us. There's two chances to win a gift voucher for the online shop of your choice. 

With love from Dudley and myself,

Sunday Snippets - 'Yay!'

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Ho, ho, ho!

My snippets card below was made from some bits and pieces, found in a basket on my desk - the silver panel, the white panel and a cello bag containing the decoupage flower spray and little sparkly butterflies all popped up, shouting to be used! I then also found the white card blank in the same basket/treasure trove! Sorry, I made the card without stopping to take a photo of the snippets:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.0" white card blank, easel style - a non standard size, which was why it was languishing unused!

- snippet of  pearlescent silver card and also one of white card, trimmed slightly to form the image panel then glued in place

- a Dufex decoupaged spray of flowers, made up eons ago, glued onto the panel using a glue pen

- the 'Yay!' sentiment is a pre-made one, silver on white from the PinkFresh 'Foiled Sentiments' pack - a lifesaver! Just glued in place using a glue pen

- three tiny sparkly butterflies which were in the cello bag with the decoupaged flower spray - glued here and there with the wings flicked up for added dimension

Dufex is probably one of the hardest things to photograph - apologies!

There's a new challenge #470 over in the Snippets Playground HERE. The theme is 'Anything BUT Christmas' - which should get you thinking a bit! AND, two special prizes from Sarn and myself!

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley has carefully watched every step of the tree and decorations going up with his usual fascination. The other day I spotted him gazing absolutely memorised at a lounge door covered in beautiful Christmas cards, slowly absorbing every detail - totally in a world of his own. Many of them are the hand made ones sent by good friends and I fully expect to find him hopped up onto my chair in the craft room searching through my basket of snippets!

Anyhow, we've bought him yet another soft toy and some doggie choccy drops from Santa! For Dudley, the real thrill is the rustling of wrapping paper if truth be told!

As usual he'll have his own little white dish of Christmas Dinner with us tomorrow.

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that you find time, after the dust settles, to join in with the new Snippets Challenge.

Lots of love from Dudley and myself,

Sunday snippets and a decoupage Christmas card

A short while ago I made up some Katy Sue decoupage Christmas image panels. Then, after making one card, they were set aside, ready to assemble onto cards to be hand delivered locally. And here's one of them, for neighbours with three boys:

A multitude of sentiments, all made well in advance from snippets to make life easier

I used:

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

- sheets of red and gold mirror card from a Craft Perfect 6" x 6" card pad - die cut using the Maximum Crafts 'SF6 Square Frame' pair of dies then glued in place onto the card front

- then used the red mirror card out fall from one of the dies to fill in the centre panel area and glued it in place - shucks, I originally thought I had a decent sized snippet for future use but it didn't look right without it

- then glued the decoupage square onto the centre of the card - always hard to capture the dimension of several layers, sigh. The black lines that looks rather like a set of jump leads on front of Santa's card are actually shadows cast by some of the edges of layers  

- final touch - a double layered sentiment in white from my huge pile of mini Merry Christmas dies - made in the evenings using snippets and my little Altenew die cutting machine to save time and effort later on. Glued to top left of the card.

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

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #81 where the theme is 'If it's Christmassy, link it up'

Dudley Pupdate: Len did a final trim of little Dudley - both of them can only take a certain length of time in one go and this second one was to whisk away any 'stragglers' from his first session. He looks enchanting and is so ready for his role in the Playground Pantomime Nativity Play! One big hint - if you do get to act with the little perisher - speak to me and I'll give you some scraps from his most loved Pedigree Calcium Bone Wrapped in 'Bacon' treats! He will be at your beck and call I promise! Little dog with an 'always looking for treats' attitude! 

Finally, and very importantly, the results of Challenge #468 are now published HERE. Do please come and play.

Love from both of us,

Di and Dudley (woof OR baa-baa-baa)!

Sunday Snippets and some teeny Christmas cards

There's a new Challenge being run by Sarn, over in the Snippets Playground HERE. We do hope you manage to find time to come and play! It's a busy time for most of us, but a little break to relax and craft often renews those energy cells!

I had a couple of NBUS dies which had been waiting for ages to step out and be used - and this is one of the cards I made:

I used:

- 3.75" x 3.75" square white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of the same white card, which was then die cut using a Penny Black 'snowflake stitch frames' die before being glued onto the card front - leaving a narrow border around the edge

- to add the backing to the tags I would be die cutting a bit later required a bit of pondering here but in the end I adhered the patterned snippet to some 'Stick It' sheet then backed that with some fairly lightweight white card (I made a whole batch of eight at once so in fact if wasn't as fiddly as you might think)

- the snippets of patterned paper came from two of my favourite LOTV paper pads 'Frosty Christmas' and 'Krafty Christmas' - I never ever throw out LOTV snippets!

- then drew around the outline of the tag die before trimming it to just slightly smaller then the outer edge - about .25" all round

- that left me with a tag shaped piece of reinforced LOTV paper on top of which I could then glue the die cut tag with the word 'Joy' across the middle

- then die cut a tag twice, using more white snippets, before gluing them together for dimension. The die is by Poppystamps called 'Joy Tag' - it's been around since 2016 so is most likely discontinued and knowing me I'll have picked it up on clearance!

- finished!

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #57 HERE xxx. The dies I used were both having their first outing.

Also, Christmas Kickstart Challenge #81 HERE - where this the theme is 'If it's Christmassy, link it up'.

Dudley Pupdate:  Len gave Dudley a pretty thorough trim earlier in the week. He looks rather shorn and so small that it's like having a puppy back! 

I've said before that he always does a sand dance around the top of the grooming table to make life more fun/awkward. It's funny to watch but no fun to try and grapple with him and do the trimming at the same time! I think both Len as well as Dudley were exhausted at the end of the session!

The past couple of nights I've found Dudley pressed right up against me so I pop one arm out of the duvet and just cradle him in the crook of my arm holding him close. I don't think he's actually cold, he's just aware that his coat has had a thorough trim! By the time Christmas arrives his coat will have already sprouted beautifully.

With love from Dudley and myself, 

Sunday Snippets and a twinkling star

My snippets card for today is almost a direct steal from Chrissie Stokes over on YouTube - I already had a snippet of silver glitter paper handy and the star shaped die just 'happened' to fall into an online shopping basket! Such a sparkly outcome:

I used:

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

- piece of the same white card, trimmed to 5.25" x 4" then a star shaped aperture die cut using a Creative Expressions die called 'Aurora Star'  

- I then followed Chrissie's method to the letter and flipped the aperture panel over before sticking strips of narrow foam tape to each side of the star points as well as just inside the outer edges of the panel 

- stripped off all the backing from the foam tape then ran a glue stick over all the exposed adhesive surfaces, to allow some 'wiggle room' when doing the next steps

- added the trimmed down piece of non-shed sparkly silver glitter card behind the star itself, flipped the panel over and then adhered it onto the card front - BTW, the silver sparkle card is absolutely pure silver - utterly gorgeous. 

- final touch was a sentiment, die cut from the little piece of leftover silver glitter card as well as from plain white card as a backing layer

- layered the two together and glued the sentiment in place at the bottom right of the card, using a glue pen

- and of course, the die I used for the sentiment is my favourite Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas'. At the moment I keep mine on the top of a small magnetic 'Surprise' box, which sits on my desk to stop me from losing small dies whilst working. Yup, another idea from Chrissie!

- finished!

A couple of things about the card. First of all, huge thanks to Chrissie for all the inspiration (and 'spend enabling'!) over on YouTube. This is the link to her channel - Val, myself, Brenda L, also pretty sure Darnell is .............. and no doubt quite a few of you are - already subscribed (which is free, it's just another term for following). I really loved making today's snippets card and the result is nothing short of stunning IMHO - all thanks to Chrissie and the idea of lifting the star aperture panel away from the main card itself. 

Foam tape - Chrissie uses Stix2 products and her roll of very narrow foam tape is mahoosive when new! I can't do wrestling whilst crafting - but a little search some while ago turned up some really great, very narrow self adhesive foam strips on Amazon. Here's the link if you feel tempted - they will probably last you for years!  

Card bases - I mostly use a stock of Craft UK 5.75" x 5.75" square card blanks to use 'as is' and  for trimming down to USA A2, plus various smaller square card, sizes. Over time, I've found that it's not necessarily the cheapest option - but it works for me as the card is so robust, pre-scored and a decent shade of white. For top layers, where water or alcohol isn't involved in the colouring - I will often use part of another (same range) card blank.The card will take a stamping directly onto it in any ink BTW, so it's really good to hold onto snippet strips. Then you can stamp your sentiment ....... either directly onto the card base - or do it onto the snippet and then die cut or trim down to suit. And of course the white strips are also super for die cutting a second sentiment to reinforce the top layer, coloured or not. I do have a variety of larger sizes from the same range.

Sarn has posted the results of Challenge #467 over in the Snippets Playground HERE. As ever, there are some great choices as 'Picks' - and a lucky prize draw winner too! 

Dudley Pupdate: I'm typing this late on Friday afternoon and, as he so often is, Dudley is curled up underneath my desk ......... doing his best to have a sneaky lick of my feet. Len has begun to put up some of the outdoor Christmas lights - and it's incredible how Dudley almost hops around in excitement when the boxes come down from the loft. It's probably the one place inside the house that he hasn't explored, so he possibly thinks that's where all the 'magical' stuff lives!

There's still one week of the current challenge left to run! Check underneath this post, make a card and come and play with us. I'm sure some of you will still be rushing to make those final Christmas cards so check those snippets! There's a decent chance to win a nice prize if you join in the draw. 

With love from Dudley and myself,

Sunday snippets and a Christmas card with a difference

I wanted a Christmas card to suit a couple of Christmas Challenges - and a stamp set from AALL & Create fitted the bill perfectly:

I used:

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

- snippets of plain lime green card - the larger one was used to create a narrow 'frame' for the patterned paper, which came from a Dovecraft 'Back to Basics Modern' set of Christmas papers  then both were glued onto the card front

- stamped the images onto snippets of plain white smooth card, using stamps from the AALL & Create 'HoliDEE' set of stamps using a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- coloured the images using Polychromos pencils

- die cut the main image panel using a die from the Lil'Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set of dies

- fussy cut the Santa hat and also the sentiment 'cheers' before running a black Tombow marker around the edges of them both

- trimmed another snippet of the lime green card to just slightly larger than the image pane before gluing them both onto the card front

- used a medium nib glue pen to adhere the hat and the sentiment onto the image panel

- finally, a leftover strip of the patterned paper was begging to be used so I glued it across the flap of the envelope and trimmed each side

I really enjoyed playing around with this stamp set, although there's a lot of small detail on the tree - 'Hic!'. 

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

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #80 where the theme is 'It's Christmas, Jim, but not as we know it' - so a bit of a quirky take on Christmas should be fine

November's Rudolph Days Challenge over at ScrappyMo's 

Darnell's NBUS #56 - the stamp set is NBUS

Dudley Pupdate: A bit of a 'wild week' here with the boy! On Monday we jointly bathed him and to be fair, the water was actually pretty clean after all. Then came the wrestling match with him plonked onto my bath sheet clad lap and we patted the worst of the water away between us whilst he lay and peeped out of one end of the burrito wrap. Next came the blow drying session, which Len is stronger to manage. He also had some trimming the next day and then I re-brushed him and applied his anti-flea meds the following day - looking back it was probably too many sessions one after another. However, at every opportunity the little monkey took his chance to really glare, right until you looked at him - at which point he would very pointedly turn his back and lay down - leaving you staring at his tail! Typing this on Thursday and he's been left well alone for today - the air doesn't seems to be vibrating with doggie indignation as much! Although he's curled up well away from me at the moment! Guest bedroom I suspect as he can hide around the far side of the bed! 

A friend has just returned home to San Francisco after being away for a couple of weeks on a business trip to Norway (lucky lady) - and the photos of her Havanese when she returned are hilarious, he's almost bristling with anger at having been left for so long with his 'Dad'. Obviously something in Havi's genes! 

Finally, and very importantly, there's a new Challenge over at The Snippets Playground HERE - do come and play! Sarn and I put a lot of time and effort into running the Playground and it's lovely when you come to join in!

Love from both of us,

Di and 'Dudley de Avenger'!

Ho, ho, ho!

I recently saw Chrissie Stokes over on YouTube using a great 'HoHoHo' die and after a bit of sleuthing, found one the same being sold by Ali Express - as a bonus it actually comes with a second version as well. Then I wanted a die set to cut Santa's face, but in the end cheated and bought some ready made toppers from a lady on Etsy. The thought of all that fiddly assembling for the run of six cards I planned to make was certainly the deciding factor! 

Here's one of the cards:

I used:

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

- piece of Craft Perfect/Tonic 'Inca Gold' Mirror Card - trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and glued onto the card front

- a piece of the same white card embossed using Kaisercraft's 'Holly' embossing folder and trimmed to 5" x 3.75" then glued onto the the gold mirror card layer

- I'd already sat here one evening and made up a whole bunch of the 'HoHoHo' sentiments to use up a load of snippets - layered each one onto the same die cut only in white for additional stability 

- glued a gold 'HoHoHo' sentiment onto the bottom part of the card

- then added a ready made Santa using thin sticky pads, finished!

I made three gold and three silver ones and my sentiments on the whole batch of cards were made using snippets. As always, metallic card is a hard one to capture in a photo. The toppers all have a hole in the design so can also be used as gift tags.

Speaking of metallic card, it's impossible to find more of some of the Craft Perfect/Tonic range of mirror card - anywhere online. Notably 'Inca Gold' and also 'Firestone Red'. They've been on back order for ages now - just hope that Tonic aren't winding down their mirror card range!

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS challenge #56 HERE.

Also, into the current Allsorts Challenge 'Christmas Time' HERE. 

Sunday Snippets - Penny Black Christmas cards

I rustled up a pretty quick batch of Christmas cards, using some Penny Black 'Masterpieces made Easy' toppers, along with their fabulous 'Stick and Shine' stickers and foils:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blanks, all side opening

- die cut the 'frames' from snippet of white card using a die from the Avery Elle 'Postage Stamp' set of dies - cut eight to layer them for more dimension

- glued the frames together and set then aside

- dug out two gold and also two silver mirri card snippets, which I trimmed to fit just underneath where the white frames would sit

- glued the mirri card panels onto the card fronts then glued the white 'postage stamp frames' on top of them

- already had the chosen Penny Black Masterpieces Made Easy images set to one side and I knew that I wanted two to have gold borders of mirri card and the other two to have silver borders

- time for the sentiments to be added and I used some NBUS Penny Black sentiments from their Stick & Shine 'Xmas Classics' set of sentiments - one at a time - then rubbed Penny Black Gold/Silver 'Metallic Foil' over the top as I went

- added a couple of snowflakes to the 'robins' image then rubbed more silver foil on the top

- glued the image panels onto the already assembled cards - done! 

Four more Christmas cards added to the very healthy pile!

The 'Masterpieces' are printed on linen effect card, but the 'Stick and Shine' still worked great. Basically, it's like the old 'rub-ons' we used to love, only you're left with a clear sticky surface ready to adhere the foil. That sticky surface is why I foiled as I went of course, can be tricky to align straight and 'just where you want them' unless you have the right light and never fiddle with them once they touch the card! Ask me how I know this?! But, as always, nigh on impossible to get the gorgeous bright shine to show up well in a photo!

The images came from three different 'Masterpieces made Easy' sets, two from 'Reflections', one from 'Across the Miles' and one from 'Snowy Sensation'.

As it was a first outing for the Stick and Shine sentiments, I'd like to enter this into Darnell's current NBUS Challenge #56 HERE. 

The results of Snippets Challenge #466 are over on the Snippets Playground HERE.

Dudley Pupdate: I was woken up at around 6am the other morning, when it felt as if a little herd of  Mountain Goats with pointed hooves were tripping all over my shin bones - ouch! Yup, it was Dudley on our bed, trying to get up close and personal with me for a cuddle. He got his cuddle but oh boy, that did hurt! How can a small dog exert such pressure through his little legs legs?

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 - make a card, come and play. Look for the post just before this one. 

Love, as always, from Dudley and myself, 

Sunday Snippets and that leafy die set again

It's Remembrance Sunday today, always a rather sombre day as we think about those who gave their lives so that we might live. 

There's a new Challenge being run by Sarn, over in the Snippets Playground HERE. I really love the prize bundle - well worth playing along for a chance to win!

My snippets card was made for a friend's Birthday - hope you had a great day yesterday:

I used:

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

- a piece of silver mirri card, to make a frame die cut, using the larger die from the brilliant Maximum Crafts 'SF6 Square Frame' pair of dies

- then die cut a white frame from a piece of white card, also using the same set of frame dies but this time the smaller one of the pair

- glued the 'frame' die cuts together and then adhered them to the front of the card

- using snippets of white card I then die cut one solid leafy sprig and one 'skeleton' leafy sprig using the Pink and Main 'Leafy Dies #1' set of dies

- keeping the white 'fallout' from the 'skeleton' leaf carefully to one side I then glued the solid and the skeleton white leafy die cuts together - skeleton on the top of course

- then die cut various different parts of the leafy skeleton die using a snippet of mauve 'ombre' paper found in the back of Lawn Fawn's 'Watercolour Wishes' paper pad - sorry I threw the waste away before thinking to take a photo

- added a mix of white and coloured half leaves to the leafy sprig, using a glue pen

- glued the leafy sprig onto the card front

- added a sentiment strip from the very useful Creative Expressions 'Birthday' Wordies sentiment Sheets set. They are pre-printed in black on white and white on black and you DO need to cut them apart as they come in solid sheets - popping a little strip of card onto the back of the sentiment gives it just that little bit of 'lift' 

- final touch was some self-adhesive clear Memory Box 'Fairy Drops'

I absolutely love the frame dies made by Maximum Craft - and Linby, as is often the case, was the Playmate who sent me scurrying off to buy them! They add such a super finishing touch - a very clever idea.

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #56 HERE. The Maximum Crafts frame dies were having their first outing.

Dudley Pupdate: I have to admit that I sneakily smelt his breath after the Playground Bonfire Night Party last Sunday. Not a whiff of 'choklit' or anything 'alkofrolic' I'm pleased to say! Just the lingering smell of peppermint toothpaste - hmmm. Dudley was absolutely brilliant throughout the local firework display here and didn't even flinch, not even at a few more brief bursts on private property. For once there didn't seem to be as many random boxes being set off in people's gardens - hooray! 

The other night, Dudley beat me to bed, as is often the case to be fair. If I say 'Bedtime' then he pops out from underneath my desk automatically, carrying Honka Duck of course! When I followed him a little while later he was sprawled flat on his back, front paws flopped down, fast asleep - right across my side of the bed, not even lying lengthways down the bed to leave some room for me to squeeze in. I just gently stroke him until he moves of his own accord otherwise he gets pretty grumpy. I thought cats were the ones who were meant to rule the home?!

Lastly, I've not mentioned the hedgies for a while - they are all absolutely fine and are gradually going into hibernation - probably sleeping in the bushes and plants in our front garden where there's plenty of shelter for them. Dudley is totally unfazed by them when they are out feeding, drinking their water and having a wander around the back garden. Bringing him up to get used to them from being a puppy has certainly paid off! 

Lest we Forget

I always have my own Father very much on my mind every single Remembrance Day. He joined the British Army aged 15 and spent World War Two over in Europe, helping to recover and repair British Army tanks. He didn't speak about the War much but it had left its mark and he, along with all of our Service men and women, will always have my undying admiration and gratitude.

We can but hope that it wasn't in vain and that, one day, peace will return to the various countries now embroiled in conflict.

Sunday snippets and cards for chaps!

I always struggle to make cards for boys once they're past the very early years - same with grown men. However, I decided to have a go at making a bunch of cards for chaps to have on standby - here are the first results, one of the cards is going to a young neighbour:

I used:

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

- snippets of Tonic Pearlescent card in 'Glazed Chestnut' and 'Majestic Gold' 

- a MFT 'Diagonal Strip Sentiment Cover Up' die was used to cut the backing panel - using the same die on both colours meant I could switch the contrasting colour around by using the 'fallout', which I did carefully keep to one side in the right size order 

- glued the backing panel onto the card fronts and inserted the contrasting strips of card into the apertures - using glue pens

- die cut the word 'Birthday' twice from more snippets of the same colours of card, layered them together then glued them onto the diagonal band across the width of the backing panel. I used the actual word part of a Whimsy Stamps die set called 'Birthday Word and Shadow Die' 

- finished!

Sarn has posted the results of Challenge #465 over in the Snippets Playground HERE.  As ever, there are some great choices from Sarn as 'Picks' - and a lucky prize draw winner too! 

Dudley Pupdate: Halloween - well, where do I begin! We joined in with the 'Trick or Treat' fun and games until rain stopped play at around 8pm. 

The sweetest part of Halloween around here is always early on when the little ones come around, usually singly with their Mums. There were some brilliant costumes and make-up and it was so nice to see the effort that had been made by parents for their kids, as well as a lot of the older kids too! We had a couple of younger ones wearing 'Wednesday Addams' outfits, complete with pigtails. The smallest caller almost made me cry when she, before even taking a treat, shyly handed me a little slip of torn paper on which was written very carefully 'Thank you'.

Dudley was in ecstasy, just lying at the front door in between callers patiently waiting with his nose against the door - his party piece was to then poke his nose and smiling face out when I opened the door a little bit. And of course, he stole the show as always - he wore a Halloween bandana - which was much admired! I overheard more than one group of people saying 'Go to that house, they have a cute little dog'! Afterwards, Dudley slept like a log right through the night - worn out by all the excitement. So did we, come to think of it!

There's still one week of the current challenge left to run! Make a card and come and play - there's a chance to win a nice prize if you join in the draw. See you on the swings!

Remember, remember the Fifth of November! Sarn has been working away making sure there's a veritable feast to be had in the Playground - Bonfire Toffee from Vicky plus Sarn and I will be dishing out soup & rolls, jacket potatoes - and some hot chocolate which I have my suspicions about. For a start, Dudley isn't allowed human chocolate - but if he was, I suspect there might be a little stagger added to his wiggle when he walks. Would that means he would walk with a 'staggle' I wonder? 

Sarn thinks I don't know 'peep' of course! And there's a huge bonfire - extinguishers are at the ready lest a spark sets the tree house alight! I also suspect that Dudley will be wearing a 'Fire Warden' Hi-viz jacket given half a chance!

With love from Dudley and myself,

'Because' by Lil 'Inkers .......

...... this is one of my favourite sentiment dies as it says so much in just one word. I needed a card for someone special so this is what I came up with:

I used:

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

- washi tape from AALL & Create called 'Summertime' - I adhered two strips to a snippet of white card ** and kept it to one side

- then die cut the word 'because' twice, using snippets of green Altenew 'Forest Glades' card stock - sadly I only bought one pack of this card and it's no longer to be found in the UK - such a lovely green as well. The die is discontinued of course since Lil' Inkers closed down a while ago, such a shame as their products were brilliant

- glued both sentiments one on top of the other and then I could work out what to do with the washi tape strip I'd made 

- in the end I settled for backing the washi strip with a snippet of the same Forest Glades card as used for the sentiment and gluing it onto the lower part of the card before then trimming off the side edges 

- glued the sentiment in place, above the washi tape

- added some self-adhesive 'Winter Berries Glossies' by Sweet Huni Designs

- to finish off, I added a single strip of the same washi tape to the envelope

** I do love the latest washi tapes over at AALL & Create. This particular tape does pretty much match when you add another 'off lined' layer on top, so that you can make at least a double height band using it, but not all of them do. Although, there is always some waste if you try the' matching' part so be aware of that !Ask me how I know, sigh.

I'd like to enter this little card into Darnell's current NBUS Challenge # 56 HERE - both the washi tape and the 'Winter Berries Glossies' were having a first outing. 

That's it from me for today - typing this on Halloween Eve, not even 8pm and the heavens have opened - thereby curbing all callers for the rest of the evening! And reeeeeelaaaaaax! 

Sunday snippets and 16th Birthday card

Last month, Grand daughter Mia reached the milestone of age 16. It's so hard to believe that the sweet baby we both cradled in our arms is now almost a young woman. How time flies!

Mia is a very 'girlie' young lady so it was right up my street to set to and make what I hope turned out as a modern yet feminine card for her special day:

Waste from the pink and silver snippets

I used:

- 7" x 7" white scalloped card blank - these have been languishing in a box for years

- a layer of Tonic pearlescent  'Luna Silver' card

- a lightly smaller layer of plain pink card from a pack of various shades of pink card by Creative World of Craft - called 'Endless Love'n 

- stamped the flower onto a snippet of white card - using a NBUS Woodware Bubble Bloom 'Clarissa' stamp and a VersaFine Clair 'Shady Lane' ink pad  

- coloured the leaves using a Polychromos pencil

- found some snippets of pink paper in various shades tucked into the back of a Lawn Fawn 'Watercolor Wishes' paper pad

- die cut a selection of pink circles, using Woodware's 'Bubble Craft' die. This is the small original version, they now also have a large sized one which I used for the 'Bubble Robin' card HERE 

- glued the pink circles onto the stamped image using a glue pen

- trimmed the image panel and backed it with a frame of Tonic 'Luna Silver' card before gluing it onto the card front

- die cut the sentiment twice using snippets of 'Luna Silver' card, layered them together and glued them to the card front. The sentiment die is unbranded but I have since realised the resemblance to a branded die

- final touch was a little blue butterfly from Katy Sue's fabulous 'A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies' pack of no less than 332 printed and die cut butterflies - tickled with clear Wink of Stella and stuck in place using a small piece of extra strong red line tape

The butterflies are going to be so handy for adding speedy little finishing touches to cards - clever idea Katy Sue! One side of the two A4 sheets is paler than the reverse of the same image - double clever idea!

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

Darnell's NBUS #55 HERE. The Woodware stamp, 'bubbles' die, sentiment die and also the pack of those butterflies were all NBUS. I can't thank Darnell enough for her encouragement to focus on using up NBUS goodies. Now, if only she could influence the terrible drive to buy more stuff we all have - she'd be on a winner!

Dudley Pupdate: He got lucky and was 'excused boots' this week, thereby avoiding a bath as it was time to apply his monthly flea prevention drops to the back of his neck. Mind you, he wasn't happy about the full grooming session I did beforehand judging by his 'boxing hare' impressions! It's an agility workout ...... for both of us! 

He was so funny on Wednesday just before I set off for a hair trim - he brought Honka Duck for a play in an attempt to distract me. Poor Honka was flipped here and there whilst Dudley then crouched as if to say 'C'mon, it's fun - join in with the game Mama!'.  Tempting as it was, I tootled off to the hairdresser with his plaintive cries ringing in my ears. 

Sarn and I were having a 'Playground Team Meeting' phone chat recently, whilst Dudley joined in with his 'play with me, nobody loves me' whines from underneath my desk. Sarn could hear the little concert going on so she can vouch for the fact that this ain't no made up stuff - basically, we have a Velcro dog going by the name of Dudley!! And I wouldn't change a single whisker.

There's a new Challenge over at The Snippets Playground HERE - do come and play! 

Love from both of us,

Another card remembering Janis, NBUS and my monthly card for Rudoph Days

A 'triple purpose' card from me today - all challenges are dear to my heart. The Cat Lovers Blog Hop over at Christmas Kickstart to remember sweet Janis who left us earlier this year. Also Scrappy Mo's monthly Rudolph Days Challenge for October 2023 as well as Darnell's current NBUS Challenge. Here's my card:

I used:

- A5 white card blank, side opening

- piece of Tonic pearlescent 'Glazed Chestnut' card, trimmed to slightly smaller than the card blank and glued in place

- a layer of paper from a very depleted, carefully saved, pad of LOTV paper called 'Krafty Christmas', trimmed to slightly smaller than the chestnut frame and glued in place

- then onto the main image, which was stamped onto white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp by the  Colarado Craft Company called 'Christmas Tree Cat'

- die cut the image using a die from Heffy Doodle's A6 set of stitched rectangle dies

- coloured the image using Pro markers, Polychromos pencils and also a sparkly gold Signo pen as well as touches of clear Wink of Stella here and there

- added the sentiment, from the same stamp set, using a VersaFine 'Vintage Sepia' ink pad

- glued the image panel onto a 'frame' of more 'Glazed Chestnut' card and then onto the already layered up card front - finis!

I've had this particular stamp set for absolutely ages, from back in the days when I used to make snippets samples for the Playground Challenge and the very thought of colouring it always terrified me! In the end, I decided to go for it - sink or swim! I most certainly don't think my efforts are anywhere near as wonderful as so many others - but, having had a break from using Pro markers as well as having the courage to also use coloured pencils did make the process flow more easily.

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

Christmas Kickstart - The Cat Lovers Christmas Challenge in memory of our lovely Janis

Rudolph Days - October 2023

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #55 - the stamp set, almost my Nemesis, was having a first outing!

I reckon the fairy will win over the cat and fun and games are on the cards - the little mouse obviously thinks so! 

Sunday Snippets and Len's Birthday card

Having already shared Len's Birthday card from Dudley - here's my own card for Len:

I used:

- 8" x 6"  cream hammered deckle edged card blank, side opening 

- a layer/frame of Tonic's pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' card, topped by a slightly smaller layer of hessian patterned paper from a Stamps by Me 'Winter Story' paper pad

- the snippets on my card are a couple of strips of vellum and some additional pieces of leftover 'Majestic Gold' card that were tucked inside the card packet - I always hang onto the smallest Tonic card scraps as they're really handy for even tiny sentiments

- using Julie Hickey's 'Happy' and 'Birthday' profile die sets I die cut and assembled the sentiment and put it to one side

- then used a delicious NBUS die set by Pink & Main called 'Leafy Dies 1' to die cut the leaves and the top layer of 'veins'. The paper pad I used is also NBUS, made by Craft Consortiu 1m called 'Metal Textures' - some of the 'rusty papers' are perfect for leaves, if you choose carefully which part to use!

 

- I cut two of the 'solid' parts of the leaves for added stability then used a glue pen to stick them together before adding the 'skeleton veins' 

- time to assemble so I just popped the two sentiment words at top and bottom with two sprigs of leaves in between and called it done - I had a single sprig of leaves left over and glued that onto the front of the envelope

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 55. The Leafy dies and the 'Metal Textures' paper pad were having a first outing.

Also, Allsorts Challenge #751 is looking for 'Autumn colours' or 'Anything goes'. So, I'm linking into there as well.

The results of Snippets Challenge #464 are over on the Snippets Playground HERE.

Dudley Pupdate: And we've had yet more rain here, so of course the little bundle of fur has had to be practically carried coaxed out of the house. Amazing how staunch he can be in his 'NO WAY' actions. Can't say I blame him though, it's been pretty cold and damp out there! He's scheduled to have a bath as soon as possible ...... so no doubt he'll be totally delighted! And no doubt Len and I will be totally drenched in revenge!

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 - make a card, come and play. No doubt Sarn will be there, waiting with plenty of hot drinks and dry warm towels, given the current weather! 

Love, as always, from myself and Dudley,