Sunday Snippets - The Northern Lights

My snippets card this week was inspired by a Birthday card from one of you lovely people for Len's Birthday last week! I immediately thought of The Northern Lights - and this card was born:

 

And this one too!

I used: 

- A6 white oval aperture card blank, side opening, made by Craft UK

- a book of Northern Lights Scrapbook papers, unbranded, from which I cut out the back panel for the scene

- used an unbranded Christmas trees die set to cut three different treetops using snippets of plain black card and glued them onto the Northern Lights paper where they would just show at the bottom left of the oval aperture

- glued the 'scene' to the folded in part of the aperture card front

- then used narow strips of foam tape to go around the inside of the card aperture and also along all four sides before folding the two front pieces of the card together - to add dimension and depth

- used a precut sticky sentiment from Clarity's 'Christmas Words and Celebrations' set. (Sadly no longer sold by Clarity, which surprises me as it's so useful for occasions other than Christmas). Added a snippet of white card plus a couple of tiny strips of narrow foam tape to the back part of the sentiment whiich would sit inside the lower aperture  - plus some glue pen on the right hand end which would sit on the top of the card front - to make sure it sat level. OCD strikes again!

- finished!

These cards were great fun and I have a further eight with slight variations lined up to make in the evening whilst listening to podcasts on my laptop. Once into the swing of making them they're very therapeutic and not too demanding on my vastly improved right 'paw'!

I'd like to enter the top card into the folowing challenges:

- Rudolph Days October Challenge HERE

- Allsorts Challenge #835 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #79 HERE - my NBUS items were the Christmas Trees dies and the book of Northern Lights paper

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

Dudley Pupdate: The other day, our neighbour Kim called by for a quick word with Len at the front door, along with her dog Tilly. Dudley was in ecstasy of course and was super-keen to 'pester' Tilly. For which he did get gently 'mouthed' by Tilly as she sat resolutely on her rear end!

Anyhow, off they trotted leaving Dudley quite bereft, until later on in the afternoon Len was in the front garden fixing something and he suddenly noticed Dudley out on the front driveway wandering around where Tilly had been. Dudley never, ever wanders out of the front door - up until now of course! The little monkey had managed to nose the quite heavy, almost closed, front door open and potentially go off in search of his sweetheart! 

I think he was just about to jump on his skateboard and head off round to Tilly's abode! Lesson learned there for Len - never, ever, leave the front door even the slightest bit ajar - especially if Dudley is in search of luuurve! Me? I'm always too paranoid to risk leaving the door even a teeny bit open for 'the paw of Dudley' ..... ever!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

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,