Thursday, 30 April 2026

Rudolph Days - April 2026

Alomose missed the date but I am, with a quickly made card for the April Rudolph Days Challenge HERE:

I used:

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

- the image is carefully selected ** from an 8" x 8" Stamperia paper pad called 'The Owl's House', trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and glued onto the card front

- the 'labels' sentiment is from a Clarity set of self-adhesive Christmas sentiments - just popped onto the bottom right hand corner

** The sheet of paper that I used is double sided and with some careful measurement I managed to get two images and one piece of backing paper out of the same sheet - two from the front and one from the reverse, I do like a challenge! Watch this space for the other two yet to come.

Quick and easy - phew!




Sunday, 26 April 2026

Sunday Snippets - Have a Beautiful Birthday

To be fair, the Beautiful Birthday has already been and gone, but I wanted to share the card I recently made for a very special friend - and I used snippets of course:


used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" purple card blank, using  a sheet from the HunkyDory 'Garden Treasures' card pack, side opening

- a piece of 'white brick wall' patterned paper from the 'Brick Wall Texture' pack - brand unknown, from Amazon - trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and set aside

- a snippet of purple card, leftover from making the card blank, which I die cut using a Craft Addiction's set of dies called 'Slatted Arch'

- piece of white card, also a snippet, onto which I stamped the adorable Newton's Nook 'Dainty Daisies' using Clair 'Nocturne' ink

- then coloured the 'daisies' image using Polychromos pencils before die cutting the bunch using a co-ordinating die 

- that meant I could sit and sort of juggle the flowers and arch around a bit until I was happy where the sentiment would go with it

- stamped the sentiment onto the bottom left of the card using Clair 'Nocturne' ink again and a NBUS stamp from Penny Black's 'super day' stamp set

- then glued the brick wall panel onto the card front, along with the die cut arch

- then adhered the bunch of daisies in place using thin snippets of foam sticky pad 

- finished! 

I'd like to enter this card into:

Allsorts Challenge #848 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 85 HERE - the set of slatted arch dies are my NBUS items

Dudley Pupdate: With warmer weather the past few days, Dudley is beginning head to cool, tiled, floors to lie on. By this time, late on a Saturday evening, he's usually cuddled up on our bed. Looks like a warm night ahead as he seems to be sprawled in the tiled hallway. Clever little guy! Doubtless with Honka Duck keeping him company.

Sarn has opened up Challenge #531 in the Snippets Playground HERE . See you on the swings! I think I heard mutterings about needing a new paddling pool earlier today!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,




Sunday, 19 April 2026

Sunday Snippets - Have a great day

My snippets card for this week is very simple:


I used: 

- 4" x 4" Silkweave 'pale ivory linen' card snippet 

- the image is a Penny Black Stickeroo, from their 'Gentle Blooms' sheet

- backed the image with a black square - trimmed down from a snippet

- glued the image panel onto the card front 

- added a simple sentiment from a Clarity Assorted Sentiments set of stickers

- quick and easy! 

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

- Allsorts Challenge #847 HERE  - under 'In the Garden'

Dudley Pupdate: The other day I had a routine dental appointment so Len took me there, and later collected me - with Dudley riding shotgun 'harnessed and secured' in the back of the car. He 'sang' all the way there and for Len 'exclusively' when returning home, and even did an encore when coming back later to collect me. Opening the back windows a few inches does help him as he's such a curious little guy and also loves to be able to smell and feel the fresh air rushing past.

However, on the way back home, after hugs and licky greetings, he just flopped down and dozed off. Happy in the knowledge that his 'tribe' were together again and we were heading back to his favourite place!  

The results from Sarn's Challenge #529 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. Three perfect picks and one lucky prize winner - what's not to like?

Love from Dudley and yours truly




Sunday, 12 April 2026

Sunday Snippets - Penguin line-up

This month's Challenge over at Christmas Kickstart is 'Brimming with Style', ie. add a hat - and here's my offering, as well as my Sunday Snippets card for this week:


used:

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

- trimmed a snippet of Creative Expressions 'Deep Blue' card very slightly down to 5.25" x 4" and glued it onto the card blank front

- trimmed a snippet of white card down to 5" x 3.75" and embossed it using a NBUS Altenew 3D 'Ribbon Waves' folder

- glued the embossed panel on top of the blue one - I deliberately used the 'wrong' side of the panel as it seemed to resemble drifting snow more than the 'right side' does. Either way up, it's a gorgeous folder!

- the baby penguins, hats and sentiment were stamped onto snippets of white card, using a stamp set by Clearly Besotted' called 'Penguin Parade'

- coloured the penguins and hats using Polychromos pencils before fussy cutting them

- also trimmed the sentiment to size

- added the hats to the penguins

- finally, glued the penguins onto the card front and the sentiment was glued to the top lefthand corner

Whilst everything was out on my desk I made a second card exactly the same.

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

- Christmas Kickstart #109 HERE - 'Brimming with Style'

- Allsorts Challenge #847 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #85 HERE - the Altenew 'Ribbon Waves' embossing folder is NBUS

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE. It was lovely to see entry numbers climbing back up again in Sarn's recent challenge! Yay!

Dudley Pupdate: Wednesday was Dudley's annual booster vaccination(s) and also a full check-up. Apart from the usual operatic arias whilst in the car going there, he behaved perfectly. Not a single woof, despite several other dogs being in the waiting area at the same time. And, he behaved beautifully for Emily the vet. He also got a clean bill of health with everything getting full marks. Happy dance indeed.

However, he was unusually quiet in the car on the journey back home and wasn't even very interested in his tea later on - both of which are not normal! After that he just flopped on our bed, with his sad eyes peeping over his front paws, looking so sorry for himself, as well as somewhat bewildered.  It's that 'every three years vaccine, distemper, parvo and a couple of others' that hits him every time he has it. Heartbreaking that we can't explain it to him. However, the following morning he was back to being much the same as usual with no sign of any after effects. 

And, this morning he was ready to create a total riot whilst we were having a cuppa in bed - leaping up and down like a Spring lamb all over the bed with his 'come and play' posture that dogs display.  Eyes sparkling with mischief and ready to take on the world! What a difference a couple of days makes.

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,




Sunday, 5 April 2026

Sunday Snippets - Feathers

Happy Easter everyone - I hope the sun shines for you and that perhaps you even got a new Easter bonnet! Here's my snippets card for today:


I used:

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

- a snippet of pearlescent Tonic 'Majestic Gold' card, trimmed to 5.25" x 4", then glued to the card front

- a snippet of chocolate brown card, trimmed to 5" x 3.75" and glued onto the gold layer on the card front 

- a snippet of white card onto which I stamped a feather stamp from SU's 'Four Feathers' stamp set. Did it three times using three different Memento Dew Drop dye ink pads - 'Desert Sand', 'Toffee Crunch' and 'Peanut Brittle'

- then die cut the three feathers using a die from the matching set 

- sentiment next and I used a Heffy Doodle 'hello' die to cut the word twice from a snippet of the same brown card as the background

- then gued both words together before mounting the 'hello'  mounted it onto the 'shadow' layer - die cut from a snippet of plain vellum 

- glued the sentiment in place in the bottom right-hand corner

- then glued the feathers in place - little tip - glue the top and bottom ones first so that the centre one can be evenly placed in between them. I also alternated the direction of the feather tips and quills for added interest

- finished!

I'd like to enter the following challenge: 

Allsorts Challenge #846 - HERE.  Under 'Anything Goes'

Dudley Pupdate: It's been another quiet week for Dudley in terms of adventures. The cabin doors have been open on a few of the sunny days we've had recently - and he always hops in to say hello to one of his little monkey toys which sits on a chair doing guard duty!

Never mind, he has a real treat coming on Wednesday afternoon - not that he'll be at all impressed. It's time for Dudley's annual check-up as well as a couple of booster jabs. One is only every three years and that one seems to take him one degree under. But, he's a healthy little bundle of fluff and will usually be right as rain the following morning.

The results of Challenge #528 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.

Remembering our lovely crafting friend Bernie and her cute Easter Bunny sign-off:

 /) /)
 (-.-)
0_(")(")

Love from myself and Dudley,