The Midnight Watch - Havanese Style!

Merry Christmas Eve Playmates - love from Dudley!

This popped up on the Havanese GB Facebook Group. It's the new Christmas header/banner - and I keep seeing our Dudley at the far left of the line - it's really enchanting!

AI created image used with kind and generous permission from Andrea! Crafter and designer of all things Havanese and general 'good egg'!!

Wishing you all a happy Christmas Eve - watch out for the big fat guy on his sleigh folks! One more sleep.

Love from Di and Dudley

xxx

The final package arrived!

Dudley can now settle down as all planned deliveries are done and the final package was delivered by Amazon yesterday. A last minute toy I spotted for Dudley (little did he know) as he was being 'Amazon snapped' ............. whilst shouting at the delivery guy from behind our front door!

Phew - peace reigns again! We're now at the point of saying, 'if it's been forgotten then we'll cope'. Just as we oldies, and our own parents did before now!

Hope you're all surviving out there - not long now until the reindeer set off! They're probably limbering up right now!

Two more sleeps - yay!

Love and hugs from Di and Dudley Dog! 

Sunday Snippets - 'Happy Birthday'

For a change from Christmas cards, my snippets card this week is a Birthday one:

I used: 

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

- snippet of the same white card, trimmed to 5.5" x 4.25" and then run through the Gemini using a pierced edge die from the Spellbinders 'Pierced Rectangles' A2  set of dies. A very kind blogging friend gifted the set to me a little while ago. It's hard to see in the photo but I left the die in place and, from the back, ran a ball-ended embossing tool around the inner edge of the die to raise the centre portion. What a difference it makes (in real life, unless you press your nose against the screen for a closer look!)

- then stamped the background using a VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' inkpad and a Gummiapan 'Happy Birthday text'  stamp I've had for ages, waiting to be used

- next, I stamped the flower onto the card front panel using a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' inkpad - and at the same time stamped it onto a snippet of Strathmore Mixed Media card. The stamp is unnamed and by Crafty Roo

- the 'Strathmore' flower was coloured using a cute unbranded set of 24 metallic watercolour paints - having its first outing

- I added a little green to the lower part of the flower on the actual card front before fussy cutting the leaves and flower head and running a black Tombow pen around the edges

- then paper pieced the flower head and leaves onto the stamped flower on the card front panel using a glue pen

- glued the whole front panel to the card front

- final touch was the addition of five SU purple glossy dots in the bottom left corner - finished! 

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

- Allsorts Challenge #839 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #81 HERE - my three NBUS items are the Gummiapan and Crafty Roo stamps - plus the set of metallic watercolour paints

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE.  It's our second December Prize Draw with mystery prize bundles to be won!

Dudley Pupdate: With Christmas fast approaching Dudley has found plenty to shout bark at - the postman both delivering and collecting post, umpteen delivery drivers, neighbours popping cards through the letterbox and so on. Dudley certainly knows that something's afoot!

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas! 🎅🎄🎄🎄🎄🎅

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - By the sea

I bought a die not so long ago and used it the other day for my snippets card below:

I used:

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

- first thing to tackle was the actual die cutting of the beach huts, which proved to be a mental agility test! 

- die cut the complete row of die cut beach huts in one single strip from a snippet of plain white card and, I confess, looked at them on and off for a whole day in between doing other Christmassy preparations such as finishing off writing Christmas cards

- eventually, given that I wanted to inlay the red and blue pieces, I decided to snip the white die cuts apart and treat each beach hut seperately. That worked for me as I could take it step by step

- drew around the complete row of beach huts dies onto a snippet of white card, backed with a snippet of  Stick-It adhesive sheet

- then very carefully trimmed the outline down to a whisker inside the actual outline cutting line - phew!

- snipped each sticky backed beach hut apart - easier than it sounds I promise, and then peeled off the adhesive side backing before sticking each one onto the reverse of its matching beach hut - sticky side showing through the holes and strips in the design!

- then took snippets of the same red and blue card that I planned to use for the background 'frame' and, one by one, die cut each beach hut all over again. Only this time I carefully placed the coloured die over its matching 'white base' and gently poked the small pieces in place. It wasn't infallible as some tiny pieces needed real encouragement so it took ages, but not one tiny piece escaped!!

- once the huts were complete I set them aside in a little plastic dish for safety - didn't want any disasters after all that work

- used a backgound snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card, trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and glued onto the card front 

- next a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Navy Dazzle' card trimmed very slightly to 5" x 3.75" was glued onto the red layer

- then took a piece of paper from the unbranded 'Sea Wave' pack, sold by Amazon. and  trimmed it down to 4.55" x 3.5", and glued it onto the outline 'frame' on the card front

- the next step was to stamp the sentiment, I used VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink and a NBUS stamp from the lovely Penny Black NBUS 'without limits' set of stamps'

- glued the beach huts in a row along the shoreline and suddenly the card sprang to life!

- final touch was to add three teeny white seagulls, using a Gummiapan die - the end! 

The middle beach hut has a partly cut door which I gently scored at the hinge side and opened, then popped a die cut rectangler in red behind the open door - just for fun. 

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #838 - HERE. The theme is ' New' - or 'Anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #81 - HERE. The unbranded 'Beach huts' die and the Penny Black sentiment stamp set were having their first outing

Dudley Pupdate: We're ahead of ourselves for once here and the Christmas tree is now decorated plus most of the other indoors stuff is done. Len did the outside lights etc. a week or two ago. Indoors we had Christmas music playing to add to the atmosphere and I set to and opened up the tree decorations. At that point I thought Dudley was about to explode with excitement, skipping about almost squeaking in delight! He loves anything sparkly - and the mere rustle of tissue paper sends him off into paroxyms of sheer joy. The lounge is all done and only one or two hours work, if that, remain to pop up some other special decorations.

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #520 are now published HERE . 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post. It's our big Christmas giveaway draw and well worth playing along.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Joy'

I made my snippets card for today in double quick time - about 15 minutes or so- allowing a sheet of designer paper to do most of the work:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank, side opening

- two sheets of designer paper from the 'A Winter Story' pack made by Stamps by Me

- the reverse of one sheet is the same green as the patterned paper - perfect!

- trimmed the plain green paper down to 4.75" square and the patterned paper down to 4.5" square and glued them to the card front

- then used a die from the little Sizzix 'Winter Wishes' set to die cut the word 'Joy' from a teeny snippet of Tonic mirror card in 'Inca Gold'. I won this lovely little set of dies over at Christmas Kickstart a while ago and absolutely love the delicate Joy sentiment - many thanks again Jo! It's extra special as it 's designed to leave imprints of tiny studs on the letters

- glued the sentiment onto the card front, at a jaunty angle for a change. Finished!

No photo of the gold snippet - I disposed of it before engaging brain! The image colours are muted but in reality they're a bit brighter than the camera shows, needless to say.

- Allsorts Challenge #838 HERE - under the 'Anything Goes' option 

- Christmas Kickstart #105 HERE - 'If it's Christmassy, link it up'

Dudley Pupdate: it's been a pretty uneventful week for Dudley. The most exciting things were the car rides when Len took me to the dentist - and surprisingly, Dudley was the quietest he's ever been - usually it's a full-on yodel but this was more like doggie gentle singing! We've popped one of his doggie beds in our bedroom for him, but he only uses it now and then. Much more fun to cuddle up between us on the bed - preferably sideways if he can get away with it!

Sarn has opened up Challenge #521 in the  Snippets Playground HERE.

Do come and play with us in the Playground - Sarn has more information for you about our prizes for the December challenges. We have more prizes per challenge therefore more chances of winning a surprise bundle of goodies! Yay!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - 'Red Cardinal'

My snippets card was made using a lovely little 'Red Cardinal' in the snow die set for the first time:

I used: 

- 5.5" x 4.5" white card blank - side opening. It's not a true A2 size as I needed more width due to the size of the background die. It just fits into an A2 envelope, failing which an A6 envelope is even better!

- die cut the snowy background using a trimmed down snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Blue Cashmere' card and an unbranded die set from Amazon. Unsurprisingly, it's now sold out!

- before doing the die cutting I adhered 'Stick It' sheet to the reverse of the piece of blue card, so it just was stuck straight onto the card front - and amazingly it behaved and went on straight 

- then die cut the branch and one 'Red Cardinal' - the set comes with another two of the birds in smaller sizes but one looked just enough. I used snippets of pearlised black and also red card

- at that point I could stamp the sentiment using the Misti as I knew the position where the branch would go. Used a Uniko stamp from the 'Christmas Wishes' sentiments stamp set along with a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- next step was to glue the branch onto the card front using a glue pen - it's actually quite cleverly designed as the cut end of the branch is on a slant so that it follows the line of the 'snowflakes'

- and the final touch - added the Red Cardinal using lttle snippets of thin sticky pad. Yup, I even save those in the packet with the full sized pads!

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

- Allsorts Challenge #837 HERE.  - The theme is 'Focal Sentiment' and looking at the lovely DT cards my entry might qualify, otherwise it would be 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #80 HERE. The set of Uniko sentiments and the set of dies were both having a first outing

- and  of course, this month's Rudolph Days Challenge HERE.

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley had the third and final part of his trim done by Len - and very dapper he looks too! Plus, as a bonus, today he behaved calmly enough to have his claws trimmed by Len on his own, usually a two-person job! I daren't speak too soon but perhaps he's getting more used to it - it's only taken seven years! 

The results from Sarn's Challenge #519 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets 'Build-A-Reindeer'

Xcut do come up with some great die sets - and this 'Build-A-Reindeer' one is no exception: 

Leftover snippets!

I used: 

- 7" x 5" white card blank, side opening

- piece of snowflake patterned paper from a LOTV paper pad, trimmed to 7" x 5" and glued onto the card front

- a snippet of green corrugated paper trimmed to 5.5" x 4" - given to me by a friend some time ago

- a whole bunch of plain and mirror card snippets from my 'snippets easy to grab basket' plus some Papermill Direct snippets from their swatches

- spent a happy time die cutting all the component parts for the reindeer using the Xcut 'Build-A-Reindeer' set of dies and gluing them onto the green corrugated background - I added the shiny baubles using teeny pieces of thin sticky pad

- backed the green panel using a piece of Tonic mirror card, 'Firestone Red', cut to just an eighth of an inch larger all round than the green layer

- then used narow strips of foam tape to raise the whole panel a bit before adhering it to the card front

- no sentiment needed really so I called it a wrap!

There was one part that did flummox me a bit - the set comes with just one each of the antler inner and outer parts, rather than a pair - and of course they weren't going to look right, both facing the same way. After some thought I recalled Jennifer McGuire showing how to make mirror image die cuts but couldn't remember just how, so I Googled 'Mirror image die cuts' on You Tube and there was the answer. Filmed by another crafter and it's so simple I could have kicked myself! Just die cut the pieces as usual, BUT, then run them back through your die cutting machine without the dies, sandwiched between scrap card. I used two layers of card, both above and below the four die cut pieces and it worked like a dream to flatten them!

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

- Christmas Kickstart Challenge #104 HERE - 'Just Add Antlers'

- Allsorts Challenge #837 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #80 HERE - my NBUS item is the Xcut Build-A-Reindeer set of dies

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

Dudley Pupdate: The little monkey was quietly watching Len in the front garden the other afternoon and along came Tilly with our friend Kim, on the way home after a walk. Without a 'by your leave' Dudley decided to jump ship and follow Tilly home! Luckily, Len realised in time and he was brought back home, sharpish! Kim lives at the end of our back garden down a long driveway so at least there were no roads to be crossed! He certainly is a trier for sure. 😓

To be honest, I'm quite astonished he would relish being seen in public as he'd just had Part One of a serious trim and looked rather like he'd had a run in with a lawn mower. He can only take an hour and a quarter-long trimming session at a time, and Len's much the same to be honest. It's back-breaking work, even using a proper grooming table. He's now had Part Two with one more to go. He always ends up looking beautiful, just takes time and patience to get there. And of course, already he looks tiny - there's a little dog, with big ambitions, hiding under all that silky hair!! 

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - 'Santa Dudley'!

A dear friend sent me a stamp a little while ago, saying it reminded her of Dudley and so it fell into her online shopping basket!  And how right she is, he is indeed very much like Dudley and I made this card using it as my snippets card for this week:

And the leftover snippets!

I used:

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

- a backgound snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' card, trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and glued onto the card front before being set aside for later

- then trimmed a piece of the same white card as used for the card blank down to 5" x 3.75" ready for Dudley's lookalike

- stamped the Dudley onto the bottom of the card using a VersaFine 'Morning Mist' ink pad and the adorable unbranded and gifted stamp, plus coloured his nose using a black fineline pen rather than leave it grey

- then stamped the coat area of the dog onto a snippet of plain red paper from a LOTV discontinued paper pad and also part of the area onto a snippet of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' card

- fussy cut the doggie coat and the gold fastening from the stamped snippets and paper pieced/glued them onto the image

- then worked out where the sentiment would fit and used VersaFine 'Nocturne' ink and a discontinued Clearly Besotted 'Say  What?' stamp to stamp a little sentiment directly onto the card front

- the hat was next, and I used another snippet of the same LOTV paper as the coat, plus a snippet of sparkly white card to die cut three little dies for the Santa hat using a NBUS Gummiapan 'Santa Hat' die set - I think it's the large sized one!

- glued those in place then glued the image panel on top of the gold panel - and called it done!

Naturally, the camera was mucking around with the sparkly white fur trims on the hat in the photo! Please just squint and imagine the dimension and shimmer I can see in real life! I had to perch the Santa hat quite jauntily and high up on 'Dudley's head' ...... so that at least one of his eyes was showing. This card is destined for 'Tilly the Corgi' who lives sort of behind us/next door - I keep telling him he's punching above his weight but he just won't listen!  

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #836 - HERE. The theme is ' Christmas Cards'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #80 - HERE. The unbranded  'Dudley' stamp and the Gummiapan 'Santa Hat' die were having their first outing

Dudley Pupdate: Once again, the weather hasn't been to Dudley's liking for much of the week. We did have one day when our usual guy came to trim all the front bushes and trees plus some still standing after we went 'easy care gardening' at the back of the house. Naturally, Dudley was almost past himself 'shouting' at John to 'Go away there's nothing worth stealing here' for almost four hours. Joined by Tilly also shouting from their lounge window at one point when John was trimming the honeysuckles winding around our arbour - just within her line of sight!! 

Thankfully it was all done days days before the usual signal that Honka Duck was causing Dudley to be sick. So, we did the ritual of taking and hiding old Honka ready for his journey to the great duck pond in the sky. And swiftly popping 'Honka 11th' in his place. I will never, ever get used to the initial look of utter loss and despair when Dudley realises that old Homks has gone - even though there's a brand new one placed exactly where he last dropped the old one before making a dash for the back door. However. he's already adjusting within 24 hours and has given new Honks a bit of a welcome licking session already - thankfully!

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #518 are now published HERE . 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post. Bring your wellies and even waterwings - we've had rain almost non-stop recently!

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'noel'

My snippets card today was super easy to make - I let the patterned paper do much of the work:

Yay! I remembered to take a photo of my snippets!

I used: 

- 5.5" x 4" dark green card blank, side opening. I made the card blank using Hunkydory 'Garden Treasures' card which comes in a 24 sheet pack of three sheets of eight colours, white on the reverse and just perfect for making card blanks

- then I returned to my current favourite Christmas paper pack, bought from Amazon, and trimmed a piece of the patterned paper down to 5.25" x 3.75" and glued it onto the card front

- like a squirrel I keep all snippets of vellum and card wherever possible inside their original packs - so I dug out a snippet of vellum and a snippet of Tonic Pearlescent 'Red velvet' card for the very simple sentiment

- die cut the outline and the word 'noel' using vellum and red card, glued the 'noel' to the vellum outline then glued the assembled sentiment onto the card front. The die set is a Technique Tuesday one - aptly called 'Noel'

- finished!

I really love how an outline of vellum on strongly patterned paper instantly softens the background and allows a sentiment to really stand out!

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

Allsorts Challenge #836 HERE - the theme is 'Christmas cards' this time, or anything goes of course!

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #80 HERE - the sentiment dies were having a first outing

Dudley Pupdate: Len gave Dudley a really thorough grooming the other day and, for now, he looks too gorgeous to have a full trim, apart from the essential areas of course. He's been in such a fun and bouncy mood today - a bit early for Spring, young man! Mind you, we did have lovely sunshine after days of rain so that will have brought joy to his little heart for sure! He hates the rain with a passion!

We have a new Challenge #519 being run by our lovely Sarn, over HERE. I think it will be the aftermath of the Bonfire Night celebrations - pretty sure there's some mini marshmallows left over for hot chocolate drinkers!

For us in the UK it's our Annual Remembrance Service and two minutes silence at 11am today. 'Lest we forget'.

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - Dandy Day

My snippets card today was inspired by a small snippet of paper in the basket beside me, with a marbled pattern of greens with gold tracery - most likely by Crafter's Companion. I immediately 'saw' the outline of a hill and this little card came into being:

I used: 

- A6 white oval aperture card blank, tent style, made by Craft UK

- a snippet of pale blue pearlescent card, again from the snippets basket plus the green marbled snippet, trimmed along the gold outline of the hill

- glued the green hill to the blue snippet then glued the whole background panel to the folded in part of the aperture card front and glued that together as well

- used a white snippet of card to die cut the little mouse, dandelion clock, little floating seed heads and a heart, using dies from the really cute Lawn Fawn 'Dandy Day' Flip Flop stamp set - I also used VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' for the stamping

- next I stamped the 'Thinking of You' sentiment to the card front, from the same set of stamps, also using the same black ink pad - held my breath a bit but the Misti didn't let me down!

- coloured in the mouse and the stem plus centre flower head of the dandelion - I love how the little mouse has his lips pursed as he blows! A tiny detail but it's there

- die cut the little stamped elements using the matching set of dies - I played really safe and die cut little 'jigs' for the tricky little elements to nestle around the images with the dies dropped in. A bit painstaking but worth it for tiny pieces to line the dies up properly 

- then glued the mouse, dandelion, seed heads and a little heart in place using a glue pen 

- finished!

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

- Allsorts Challenge #835 HERE - I'm playing under 'Anything goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #80 HERE. The Lawn Fawn 'Dandy Day' stamps and dies were having a first outing

Whilst Darnell is in our minds, I had a 'Round Robin' update email from her the other day. After a huge setback with a very nasty and deep pressure sore, which required surgery, Kevin is at last off intravenous anti-biotics and is at home with Head Nurse Darnell and Nellie his beloved Coton pooch. 

They have a good care package and routine going and finally, he is able to begin concentrating on physical and occupational therapy to get things moving again. But still with the surgery from the pressure sore under close scrutiny. As always, Darnell is very positive but I sense that she's probably almost 'running on fumes' at times as so much is gong on.

Dudley Pupdate: We went off to the local pharmacy for our Autumn vaccinations the other day - and of course Dudley yodelled for England! As soon as he's out of the car he's fine - just as if someone flicked a switch! Neither of us reacted badly to the vaccinations - our ear drums are still recovering though. 

The results from Sarn's Challenge #517 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

The week has been fun, building a bonfire for Guy Fawkes Night - Sarn's bright idea of course, she does keep me on my toes! I suspect there will be baked potatoes in the embers afterwards ........ yummy!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - Christmas Pyramage

I recalled the 'pyramage technique' I used quite a few years ago - thanks to Gail's lovely DT Christmas card over at Allsorts current challenge, which is to use traditional Christmas colours. I made three cards at the same time:

The unbranded and brilliant quality papers are all from the same pack (Amazon) which I love as they have a bit of a contemporary twist yet stay close to tradional designs. If your heart yearns for a pack, just drop me an email and I'll send you the link.

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blanks, the taller rectangular one is side opening and the oblong ones are side opening 

- snippets of Tonic pearlised 'Red Velvet' card - dug out of the original packet where whole sheets are also kept - eaiere than flicking through a basket when you need a few snippets all the same in one go!

- I used a Waffle Flower set of dies called 'A2 Layers' - 17 dies in the set! Just picked out six dies to create what seemd like nice spacing for three layers of the background red and three image layers

** I also bought the 'additional'matching set of dies at the same time and using those would give even narrower bands of red. One could argue that I really needed the additional set like a hole in the head - BUT, they were in a closing down sale about a year ago!

- die cut three backing panels from snippets of 'Red Velvet' - and set them aside

- for each backing panel, I'd also picked out three dies just one size smaller from the die set and so I used removable tape to adhere a couple of edges of unbranded Christmas backing backing paper together and ran them through the Gemini using the A2 sized largest die

- put the largest piece of die cut paper aside then carefully positioned the middle sized die on the two sheets and die cut that

- as before, I put one sheet to the side and then used the smallest rectangle die to position and cut the very top layer of the patterned paper

- next part was easy, just glued the patterned papers to the relevant backing card die cut snippets and then I had three framed layers

- those framed layers were adhered to the card front - using Collall All Purpose Glue. Last week I tried an alternative glue out of interest and it ended up in the bin! 

- final touch was a sentiment from the Clarity 'Christmas Words and Celebrations' set of adhesive stickers - two went across the centres of the oblong cards and the third one went on the lower right hand side of the middle layer. Finished!

I wonder who spotted my 'Sprouting Asses Ears' moment of realisation? If not - then what I did was to use three sheets of patterned paper, when, had I used just one sheet I could have cut all three layers from it and the end result would have been the same. In my defence, and after kicking my own rear end, I actually just know that handling what would essentially be wide 'frames' of paper would be trickier than solid pieces for the bottom and middle layers.   So, I'll stick with that plan for papers like these.

So, that's three more cards for the box and I have the paper pack in front of me right now ready to make more pyramage cards - and possibly some fractured cards too. Such fun!

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #834 - HERE. The theme is 'Traditional Christmas Colours'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #79 - HERE. The Christmas paper pack and the Waffle Flower A2 dies were having their first outing.

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley was in his element on Wednesday when it was Len's big Birthday! He loves to nose dab everything with his approval and the merest rustle of tissue paper send him off into total raptures! Not to tear it up as he did as a puppy, just to sniff and paw it in an attempt to help with unwrapping! I deliberately used extra when wrapping gifts as I know how much Dudley loves it! It was a lovely day and many thanks again for your good wishes as well some lovely cards for Len. How very kind crafters are.

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #516 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Silly Snowmen'

I want to join in with this month's 'Kickstart Christmas' challenge and fished out a favourite stamp set plus a Whimsy paper pack to make life easier so I could focus on making a total of six Christmas cards, and these are the result: 

I used: 

- four DL cards and two 5.5" x 4" white card blanks, tent opening

- first of all I chose six (two of each of three designs) of background papers from Whimsy's Slimline 'Frozen' paper pack

- stamped the three snowmen twice onto somesnippets of thin white card, to make it easier to use scissors, using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink

- then coloured the images using polychromos pencils to tone with the chosen backgrounds I'd picked for each snowman 

- hand trimmed the snowmen and set them to one side

- at this point I knew I was pushing my luck with the still healing hand so just put everything to one side until the next day

- on the next day I found a couple of snippets of toning Tonic 'Amethyst ' satin mirror card and trimmed them so that they framed the, trimmed at one side, slightly less wide than it started out. scenic view paper for the skating snowman

- did the same with some 'Silver Damask' card for the sledging snowman background paper. slightly trimmed at one side again

- then trimmed the remaining two card blanks down to 5.5" x 4" and did the same with more 'Silver Damask' card and the two matching scenic papers -  which was just a long snowy bank from the tree right across the card so I chopped a chunk off. It would have worked for a little family of Christmas figures but the snowman was going to look too lonely! 

- glued the backing card and then the matching scenes onto the six white card blank fronts

- used a glue pen to add the snowmen in their selected positions on the card fronts

- only added a favourite white die cut sentiment one of the card designs - the sledging snowman ones. Thought the other two designs were busy enough and didn't need a sentiment 

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

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #103 HERE - the theme is 'Snow Alert!'

Allsorts Challenge #834 HERE - under the 'Anything Goes' option as my colours are far from traditional red. green and gold!

Dudley Pupdate: It felt good to be crafting again, within some limitations. My handmade Christmas card numbers are actually quite healthy but I'm mindful that it's silly to overdo things as you pay for it the following day! Dudley is less worried about Len and myself - which is a good thing and allows him to focus on being a fluffy bundle of mischief who never seems to grow up! Today, Saturday, a lady called at the house doing a Mori Poll on radio listening habits and Dudley's early warning barks kicked in. At first she thought we had a Rotweiler! Turned out she'd been badly bitten by a dog years and was rather nervous ago so Dudley just lay at the top of the stairs gazing down at her at the front door and looking like a little angel ......... after his opening whirling Dervish display!

We have a new Challenge #517 being run by our lovely Sarn, over HERE. Do come and play - we have some lovely Playmates and Sarn serves up some brilliant refreshments. I heard her muttering about Pumpkin Pie recipes for Halloween the other day! 

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - Woodland Critters

My snippets card today was inspired by the current challenge over at Allsorts - which is 'Woodland Critters'. I needed something that could be made quickly as it's been a busy week here - and this is the very simple result:

I used:

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

- a couple of snippets of white Mixed Media card by Strathmore - I keep every single scrap of that stuff as it's not cheap

- then washed over the bigger snippet in blue and green watercolours as well as the smaller snippet in a mix of watercolours to create 'bunny brown' and put them to one side to completely dry whilst I trotted off to do other things elsewhere

- once back to the craft desk I trimmed a 5.5" x 5.5" Core-dinations orange card layer using an unbranded 'Tree Circle Frame' die. Because of the intricate design, I popped a piece of waxed paper in between the die and the card when doing the die cutting for easy release and, as always, it worked a treat! 

- then die cut the 'woodland critters' using a pair of Gummiapan 'hare' dies and just dotted their eyes using a black fine line pen

- I worked out where the hares/bunnies should be placed on the blue and green backing card I'd watercoloured earlier and glued them in place

- then ran very narrow already cut strips of foam tape around the aperture and popped the cut to size backing in place

- used the same narrow strips to then go around each side of the back of the orange panel before adhering it to the card front 

- left the card without a sentiment for now, it could be used next Easter even

The very narrow tape strips I use are another find on Amazon UK and I use them a lot and they are so flexible. The beauty of the narrowness is that you don't need to faff around snipping little cuts to go round a curve - shout if you would like the link.

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

- Allsorts Challenge #833 HERE - the current challenge is ' Woodland Critters' and if my card doesn't qualify then  it's 'Anything goes'!

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #79 HERE. The dies were all having a first outing

Whilst Darnell is in our minds, many of you will already know that Kevin, her rather gorgeous husband who possibly keeps a portrait in his attic, was in a very serious motorcycle accident at the beginning of September. To be honest, it's miracle he survived and his recovery will take some while. If you wish to know Darnell's email or snail mail address then just drop me an email - right now our love and support is so important to one of our most loved, and talented, blogging buddies!

More on health issues, for me, just a couple of fingers and a thumb are still taking time to recover so long as I don't do anything to overstretch things, else I pay for it for a few days then have to pick up and carry on where I left off. I expect that Pat our playmate will totally understand this.

Len's hernia surgery went well and he's back home, same day too! It's a relief for it to be sorted out and now he can move on - and perhaps even take up the pommel horse again. I think not, as the 15th of this month sees a milestone Birthday for him and he's already hung up his fetching gymnastic leotards! He gets very few Birthday cards at the best of times, like many men so Dudley and I are cooking up a way to send him extras! Ha, I am SO tempted to download an image of someone on a pommel horse and a witty comment! Suggestions welcome!!

Dudley Pupdate: It's been a tough week for Dudley as he always knows when things are 'due' or different - especially on Thursday when Len was away from early morning until 5pm having surgery and then recovering from the anaesthetic etc. before escaping for home. Dudley wouldn't even touch his brekkies so I had to hand feed him. He hunted the house and garden frequently looking for his 'bestie' and meanwhile either cuddled up to me or just lay at the top of the staircase, miserably watching the front door. That's a Havanese for you, apparently he's exactly the same when I go out - but this was a longer than usual excursion in a little dog's mind!

On a bright note, just a couple of days before Len went for his op. he clipped a couple of long shot CCTV images of Dudley - surveying the area of the garden where 'Willow the Killer' cat can be found!

I added both photos as is shows Dudley on the 'move' - looking towards the far side of the house. Probably at a pigeon on the far fence - 'How very DARE they - have they no respect for my Havanese Homestead boundaries?'. Nope Dudley, pigeons don't care much at all what you think little one! x

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #515 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.

All I hope for here is a peaceful week and plenty of healing time for Len. And, loads of cuddles for Dudders of course.

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,