Rudolph Days - January 2026

Wow, a bit like buses - three consecutive posts come along at once - and this first one is my entry for the current Rudolph Days Challenege HERE: 

I used:

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

- the image is from a CAS Christmas card we were sent this past Christmas - die cut using a die from the Heffy Doodle A6 set of 'Stitched Rectangle' dies

- backed the image rectangle using a snippet of Tonic 'Firestone Red' mirror car, trimmed to leave just a narrow frame arounf the image

- glued the image onto the die cut panel and set it aside

- trimmed a bigger snippet of the Firestone Red card to 6.75" x 4.75" and glued it to the card front

- then trimmed a whole sheet of grey stars patterned paper from the Honey Bee Stamps 'Make it Merry' paper pad down to 6.5" x 4.5" - and glued it onto the front ot the red mirror card layer

- finally, I used thin sticky pads to adhere the image onto the card front - luckily it came with the sentiment as well! I used a slick of glue stick across the sticky pads and can't sing the praises of that tip from Chrisse Stokes enough!

- finished!

Quick and easy - once I realised that the greyish-green tree needed a grey background!

Sunday Snippets - CAS Christmas card

A couple of my USA crafting friends very kindly protect cards they send to me through the post with panels of embossed card - and I hoard them like a squirrel! This card uses one of the latest gifted panels - as they are indeed just that, a gift. A quick rummage through my snippets and a short while later this was the CAS result:

I used: 

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

- a snippet of Tonic pearlised 'Red Velvet' card, very slightly trimmed then glued onto the card blank front

- the deeply embossed deep cream (camera lied again!) panel of Christmas foliage, cones and flowers was trimmed by moi and glued on top of the red layer

- used a NBUS die set for the first time - by John Next Door called 'Bold Wishes - JND558', plus small snippets of Tonic pearlised 'Red Velvet' and pearlised 'Majestic Gold' - to die cut the sentiment and also its shadow background

- glued the gold sentiment onto the red background/shadow using a glue pen

- used Nuvo glue to adhere the sentiment panel to the card front, at bottom right

- finished!

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

- Allsorts Challenge #841 HERE.  - 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #82 HERE - my NBUS item is the John Next Door sentiment and shadow die set

I'm sure that most of you will know, but in case you don't, NBUS stands for 'Never Been Used Schtuff'. You only need to be using an item for the first time to enter. It's run by our friend Darnell - who else would think up a challenge name like that!?

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is beside himself with the dreadfully damp and dull days we're having right now. This weekend it's the Royal Society for Birds (RSPB) 'Big Garden Birdwatch' - and Len rigged up a CCTV camera covering much of our back garden so I could watch indoors for an hour in the warmth. 

I hit lucky with the chosen hour in that it was dry and bright - even threatening to be sunny! Logged a good few birds - to be reported back to the RSPB online. But nothing overly exciting in the great scheme of things ........ unless you count in a rather cute white fluffy four-legged critter that didn't fly. That would be Dudley (but of course) who kept on hopping in and out of the house and definitely didn't care for the pigeons ground feeding on the hanging feeders leftovers one little bit. Basically 'cos they flew away as soon as he bounced over to say 'hi' to them! Poor little 'Billy No Mates'. 😢 And it's almost as if he KNEW I wanted a peaceful, non-zoomies garden so that the smaller birds wouldn't be skittish! 'Nope Mum, not gonna happen on MY watch. This is good FUN!'

The results from Sarn's Challenge #523 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.

Sunday Snippets - Christmas Bells

With the cold and miserable weather we're having right now, I'm still in Christmas card making mode as Summer seems just a hope on the wind. So I dug out some never been used (NBUS) bell dies that I've had for years and years. Bought before I learned the lesson to at least try out new dies before filing them away! And this is the result - which IS such pretty platinum pinks in real life:

 I used: 

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

- used a pad of Craft Perfect 'Moonlight Rose' card for the two backing layers, trimmed to 5" x 5" and 4.75" x 4.75" - 'Rose Platinum' and 'Frosted Silver'. 

- also used snippets in the same colours as above, plus 'Burnished Rose' from the same pad for the bells, bow and sentiment - all of which I cut out in readiness before launching into the actual assembly side of things

- the first thing to be assembled were the two bells, 'Burnished Rose' matt snippets for the main parts then the top 'filigree' layers plus the 'ringers' were die cut from shiny 'Rose Platinum' and then glued together. The die sets, unused and almost forgotten (shame on me!) are by Dee's Distinctively. They're 'Bell Silhouette and ringer' plus 'Bell No.1' and 'Bell No. 2'. If they are even available now, sorry!

- the bow was die cut twice and layered/glued together - using a snippet of 'Frosted Silver' card plus a glorious bow die from an unbranded set of seven different bows, from eBay ages ago

- the sentiment was die cut using a Technique Tuesday die set called 'Say-It-Noel' and used the matt pink for the shadow and the shiny pink card from the snippets pile for the actual word 'Joy' 

- much earlier on in the process, I'd die cut a plain white square mat for the image - using a 4'5' x 4.5" square stitched die by Heffy Doodle

- assembly time - gosh that sounds like the morning call at boarding school! So, I glued the largest background layer of card onto the card front

- then set to on the main panel assembly - starting by gluing the silver and white stitched die cut panels together

- used very narrow foam tape (and the very forgiving glue stick which allows some movement before pressing down hard) to apply to the back of the silver/white panel and gingerly stuck it onto the already adhered shiny rose panel on the card front

- and then, drum roll, time for the bells, bow and sentiment to be added!

- glued the bottom bell to the centre top of the panel. then popped the top bell on - and added the bow - all using snippets of very thin sticky pads to raise them a bit

- finally, glued the sentiment onto the bottom right of the panel and called it 'finished'!

Psst. Once again, no matter what daylight or artificial light I used - the pretty pinks tones of this card didin't wanna play ball!

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

- Christmas Kickstart Challenge #106 HERE - 'Dreaming of a Pink Christmas'

- Allsorts Challenge 841 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #82 HERE - my NBUS items are the 'Bells' dies

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

Dudley Pupdate: A lot of Dudley's past few days have involved 'shouting at shadows'. When the sun sometimes (rare but it happens!) shines into our hall through the front door, the shadows seem to create rainbows and dance for him. Now and then, Len will open the front door to let him know that there's no-one there - might be a villain, either lurking to steal Honka Duck or even kidnap us all! He takes his 'Doggie Duties' very seriously!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - Christmas Gift

'Santa Dudley' looked at my Christmas wish list and chose a die that I've liked for ages as his gift to me - go Dudley! Here it is in use below:

I used:

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

- a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Blue Cashmere' card which only needed a whisker trimmed off, ready to form the main backing element

- then I used some of my precious non-shedding silver glitter card - so kindly donated by a lovely friend - and used Dudley's Christmas gift of an Amazon die to cut what I saw as 'triple ribbons' on the front of a Christmas gift

- glued the silver die cut in place, slightly on the 'wonk' but I did my best! It did need a little bit of trimming once in place but worked fine, IMHO

- then die cut the leaf and shadow using snippets of parchment paper and dark green card along with Penny Black's 'leaf layers' pair of dies then glued them together

- next I used one of my favourite dies - from Sizzix 'Winter Wishes' to die cut the word 'Joy'

- glued the shadowed holly branch and the sentiment, both at angles, in place ........... using a glue pen

- and the final touch was a few SU red Glossy Dots to make the whole thing really 'pop'!

I think the 'ribbons' die would be perfect for a chap's card BTW! 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #840 - HERE.  Under anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #82 - HERE. The unbranded 'Gift ribbons' die as I call it and also the Penny  Black 'leaf layers' set of dies were having their first outing

Dudley Pupdate: Post-Christmas and New Year Celebration time has been a quiet time for Dudley. Catching up on his snoozes. I spotted him earlier this evening curled into a tight cosy little ball in one of his dog beds . So cute - but if I'd tried to take a photo he'd have woken up, so I just tiptoed past. 

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.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - Santa Train

Happy New Year everyone - Dudley and I wish you oodles of health and happiness throughout 2026. I left wealth out many years ago - it helps, but can't buy happiness or real health either!

I made my snippets decoupage card for today for Len - nine layers later I was like a wet dish cloth from the effort and concentration with so many fiddly pieces. But, he loves it, even though he threw the box away, so I gave him a spare one I already had made - just in case he wants to keep it for a while longer:

I used:

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

- Katy Sue's decoupage sheet called 'Santa Train' which I layered using very thin sticky pads

- used snippets of Tonic's pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' and 'Red Velvet' card to make a 'frame' and glued it onto the card front

- glued the assembled Santa Train image onto the gold layer

- final touch, added the words and little hearts and popped the card into a white card box, bought ready to assemble from Amazon - vastly superior to a well known card making company's offering!

Not entering any challenges this time - onto Christmas 2026 card making next!

Here's a peek at the Christmas card that Len gave to me:

It's absolutely stunning, stands at about 4" deep when opened up and is one to keep for sure. I know it's laser cut and pre-printed but the design is a delight too! Ha! Much as I'd love to compete I'll settle for it sitting on my desk right in front of me for the new few days.

Dudley Pupdate: There's a slight possibility of snow here before too long, as we live at about the highest point in Hampshire. Dudley has a very smart fleece lined new 'walkies' jacket as well as one for just romping around the garden without the need for a built in harness or some leg protection - both are red so we don't lose him in any snow drifts. What am I like, thinking back to Northumberland snow depths when that easily happened to my beloved Bichons! Just their coal black noses popping up out of two foot of snow in the fields behind where I lived at the time. Meanwhile, Dudley and I are watching the skies for any white flakes! Len is praying we don't get any!

Sarn has opened up Challenge #523 in the  Snippets Playground HERE.

Do come and play with us in the Playground - for now, we're back to normal - or at least as normal as one could hope for!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,