Sunday Snippets - 'Three Kings'

My snippets card today uses a lovely stamp that I spotted over on Liz's blog HERE. I sat on my hands for about half an hour before ordering one for myself! It's such a distinct stamp that I had to take care not to make a direct copy of Liz's card:

I used:

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

- patterned paper from the Whimsy Stamps Slimline paper pack called 'Champagne', I used the centre portion with the rays of light emanating upwards

- stamped the image using Lavinia's 'Wise Men' stamp and a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- trimmed the image, cutting just inside the stamped outline

- hunted for ages looking for a suitable die to make a stitched edge 'frame' for the image

- success eventually so I used a snippet of Tonic 'Inca Gold' mirror card and a die from the MFT 'Stitched Fishtail Flag STAX' set of dies which was perfect for the height of the piece I wanted but way too wide. I used the old trick of die cutting onto a wider piece of card, about half an inch wider than the final result would be using the straight stitched sides and then flipped the die around the opposite way. Jiggled the die into the top and bottom 'die cut stitches' by feel to the exact width I wanted and then die cut the remaining end so that all four sides had stitching. Much easier to show than explain and when you've done the trick just once, it's a great standby to have to really customise when you don't have the perfect sized die! 

- then glued the image onto the gold panel before attaching it to the card front using narrow self- adhesive foam strips .... and the glue stick trick of course!

- then die cut two sentiment strips from another snippet of 'Inca Gold' mirror card, using the Tonic Studios 'Peace Strip' double die set (actual sentiment only), layerd them using a glue pen then glued the sentiment strip in place across the card front

- me not daft, I'd made the card tent style so that I could cleanly snip off the excess length from either side of the sentiment strip, with a sharp pair of scissors

- finished, and yup, I did make two as the paper pack had two sheets of each design

Sorry, the snippets were all shiny gold, and the desk light just bounced back so I haven't used the photo I took. It's so dull here these days that taking photos isn't particularly easy.

Little tip, stamps with very solid parts, no matter how often I use a stamping platform to re-ink, can still have some teeny stubborn white spots. Also, re-ink and re-stamp too often and you risk  some of the fine detail becoming 'clumpy-looking'. The spots are tiny, but I know they're there and my solution is a Tombow double ended black brush pen.  Just a light touch with the brush end and they disappear!

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

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #68 HERE - the Lavinia 'Three Kings' stamp is NBUS

 - Allsorts Week #808 HERE under the 'Anything Goes' theme

 - and, Christmas Kickstart HERE where the theme is  'Wise Men Three'

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is like a walking bundle of fluff at the moment - he's due to have a trim. I'm hoping there isn't a little round foottball lurking underneath all the hair! Len has let him off for now as it's turned very cold over the past few days. Dudley's life with his new Honka is going really well and he's making a nice double groove along Honka's back to get decent 'purchase' when he's carrying him around the house.  I always smile when he appears with Honka held sideways in his mouth and just two bright happy eyes looking at you over the top. 

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

Hope to see you on the swings - wrap up warm, it's cold, wet and windy outside. I'm donating a Chiminea  for you to gather round whilst consuming some of Sarn's latest offering of hot goodies!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me