Sunday Snippets - Bee You

I bought the dear little Anita Jeram stamp set and outline die for today's snippets card a while ago - sorry, I forgot to take a photo of my snippets:

I used:

- card blank measuring approx. 5.5" x 4", tent style

- a snippet of green Altenew DP from the 'Acrylic Pour' pack, die cut using a die from The Greetery called 'A side of greens'. The paper is actually the reverse of a double sided snippet left from making another card and there's a little bit of variation in the shades of green .... if you press your nose right up against the screen 😉

- used a Uniko background stamp called 'Blocks Linear' and a Stampin' Up mini ink pad (Bashful Blue) to stamp the background

- then used a snippet of the same white card as used for the card blank and stamped the sweet little bee and flower image and all the words using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink and the Colarado Craft Company's Anita Jeram Mini stamp set called 'Bee You'

- coloured the image using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils  and added a touch of clear Wink of Stells to the wings and the eye of the bee

- then die cut the image using the matching die - I also die cut a template to position the die rather than 'wing it' - see what I just said? 

- stamped the words 'Bee' and 'You' at the bottom right of the card - in fact I did that before stamping the Uniko background now I think back!

- hand cut the words 'Bee, happy, kind and brave' and ran a black Tombow pen around the edges for some definition 

- then used little pieces of thin sticky pads to adhere the image and words where I wanted them and called it done

I had such fun using this sweet little set of stamps, although you don't need to use all the words in one go, I did as it sums up the qualities of a busy bee. 

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #51 HERE. Every single stamp and die was having a first outing. Shame on me for sitting on purchases for so long before actually using them!

The results of Challenge #454 are over on the Snippets Blog for you.

Dudley Pupdate: Bit of a heart in mouth moment on Friday with Dudley. He went to jump up onto our bed, using the low footstool that's in place for him at the bottom of the bed - and misjudged. He didn't squeal but when he picked himself up off the floor he was limping.  However, the gift of one of his treats soon sorted that out and we think much of it was actually shock. Interestingly though, so far he hasn't tried to hop up again. We know he's fine though as we checked him over thoroughly and then as I followed him upstairs that lunchtime he bounded up them as normal, he's more cautious about the bed but has since hopped up a few times. Perhaps a set of doggy steps are in order.

Hope you all have a lovely week. I finally had 3" chopped off my hair on Wednesday - when Dudley first saw me, he barked! Appreciation? Or - perhaps as cheeky Len remarked - surprised at the younger version of his 'Mum' who came home from the hairdressers! 

PS - we finalised our Ocado order earlier this afternoon - we have Doggies Pup Icecreams coming for Dudley, when the weather is really warm. Err, they were on a 30% off deal, but don't whisper a word to him!

Love from myself and Dudley - as always

Sunday Snippets and Rudolph Days challenge

I made my snippets card yesterday - talk about cutting things fine! It's for the current Rudolph Days Challenge HERE, as well as for my Sunday Snippets post:

And here are the snippets I started off with:

I used:

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

- snippet of Tonic 'Luna Silver' pearlescent card, die cut using a Penny Black 'zig-zag stackers' die

- snippet of Tonic 'Navy Dazzle' pearlescent card, die cut using a Positively Papercraft die called 'Starry Night Background' (the crescent moon is part of the die cut - I reckon that if you didn't want the moon you could make a 4" square card and chop that part off - or even flip it top to bottom and cover it with a sentiment or perhaps a snowy hillside!)

- snippet of white card, stamped using a Penny Black 'Hedgy Joy' stamp and a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- coloured the hedgy using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils plus a touch of blending solution, just on his hat where the coloured pencil lines were noticeable

- die cut the hedgy using the matching die (I love that Penny Black now have more dies for their lovely stamps) then set him to one side

- next glued the 'snowy hill' to the bottom of the starry panel - the 'hill' was die cut using a die from the Spellbinders 'A2 Curved Borders One'  set of dies

- then glued the starry panel onto the die cut silver layer before gluing them onto the card front

- added a double layered 'crescent moon' into the die using a glue pen - the moon was cut from a snippet of Tonic's ' Majestic Gold' pearlescent card

- added a double layered 'Be Merry' sentiment, using an additional die which comes with the 'Hedgy Joy' outline die and a couple of snippets of Tonic 'Red Velvet' pearlescent card

- finally, I popped the dear little hedgy onto his 'hillside' using thin sticky pads and called it done  

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #50 HERE. The 'Starry Night Background' die and the 'Hedgy Joy' stamp and dies were having their first outing.

We have a new Challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE - with a lovely prize. Sarn is organising skipping or hopscotch - given our current warm weather, she could be skipping solo!

Dudley Pupdate: Just in time for temperatures being 'on the rise' - Len did give Dudley a really good scalping trim as planned. Good grief - we do forget that there's such a small pooch hiding under that beautiful coat! I haven't had the chance to take a photo of him, in any case he's currently wearing a paper bag over his head for fear of being recognised by any of his doggie pals!

Not quite the right coloured fur as Dudley is pure white - but this isn't TOO far off his paper bag disguise!

He looks just like a puppy again and it's evident that he's actually delighted to be in his 'Summer shorts and T-shirt'! Not quite shorts and T-shirt, but you get the drift. Instead of hunting for cool tiled floors he's decided that snuggling up between us during the night is a good place to be. Thank goodness he's not a St. Bernard or similar!

Hope you all have a lovely week. Today, Saturday, is beautiful here. It's sunny and warm, with more forecast for the coming week. It's the local childrens' half-term holiday, as well as another Bank Holiday here in the UK - and believe me, it's unusual to have nice weather for holiday times so let's hope the forecasters got it right!

Love from Dudley - and of course me,  

Sunday Snippets - Brushstroke Butterflies

Here's my Sunday Snippets card:

And here are my snippets of coloured card, all ready to play: 

I used:

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

- white card stock- in fact it's a white card blank chopped in two so that the white is exactly the same shade for the embossed panel

- used X-Cut's 'Wicker' embossing folder and then trimmed the panel down to 5.5" x 5.5"

- adhered thin white foam sheet behind the embossed panel then glued it to the card front

- then, one at a time I die cut the butterflies from coloured snippets and assembled them - using the Sizzix Tim Holtz 'Brushstroke Butterflies' set of dies

- assembling them was a bit of a puzzle, I'd seen Chrissie Stokes saying they were a bit awkward in one of her videos - which is why I took just one butterfly at a time. And even then, I did almost glue one of the top dark green layers on upside down!

- then rootled around in a little pot of ready cut/made sentiments before finding just the thing so that I could work out the layout

- added the three butterflies to the card front using small pieces of thin sticky pads (with glue stick rubbed over to allow some 'wiggle room') - they really seemed to come alive with the extra 'lift' behind them

- finally, backed the sentiment strip with a couple of layers of leftover black snippets of card and added it to the card front - using red line tape, also with a swipe of glue stick for some wiggle room

- curiously, the best layout I found, whilst playing with the butterflies before adhering them to the card front, is practically the same as on the packaging of the die set! And the colours are practically the same too (that was deliberate on my part but not the actual layout - which was a fluke). Just shows,  sometimes it doesn't pay to change what designers will have possibly agonised over for days - especially when time isn't on your side!

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #50 HERE. The 'Brushstroke Butterflies' set of dies  was out for a first play!

Also, it's Allsorts' 14th Birthday right now - so I wanna join in the party where it's 'Anything Goes' - especially if there's some cake! Well done Brenda and your lovely DT.

Sarn has posted the results of Challenge #453 over in the Snippets Playground HERE. As always, we had some really great entries - and a fantastic number of you came to play too! 

Dudley Pupdate: He's feeling the warmer weather a bit and Len plans to give him a trim over this weekend. Ha, he's blissfully unaware as I type this! Now that the weather is improving it's lovely to spend time outside in the garden with him. It's endlessly fascinating to try and tune into his thought process. 'Oh look, a pretty pebble I pinched from the border - what shall I do with it? I know - I'll put it on the grass and roll and wriggle over it on my back - even though it won't be terribly comfortable'.  Ha - THAT particular game doesn't last very long. 

It's Mo's Rudolph Days Challenge beginning on Thursday 25th remember! And there's still one week of the current Snippets Challenge to go. See you in the Playground.

Sunday Snippets and another new technique

This is my snippets card to kick off challenge #454 over in the Snippets Playground. Go HERE to join in the fun!

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" cream hammered card blank - side opening

- used a panel of the same cream hammered card for the top panel and a slightly larger one for the gold 'frame' - Tonic Mirror card 'Inca Gold'  - that gold was a sizeable snippet, but still a snippet!

- dug out another fair sized snippet of 'vintage rose' patterned card then added double sided adhesive paper to the back 

- die cut the strips of rose patterned card, using two dies from a Lil' Inkers 'Slim Stripes' set of dies - taking care to keep them in the right order ready for 're-assembly'

- then, one by one, I stuck the strips on as neatly as possible onto a further snippet of Tonic Mirror 'Inca Gold' card - leaving narrow gaps of the gold mirri to show

- next die cut the sentiment from two layers of white snippet card and one layer of 'Inca Gold' mirri card and glued them together using a glue pen - this would help me with the final positioning of the main elements

- then die cut three circles, using Tonic dies, from the 'strips panel' - one large and two rather smaller than the main circle

- next, die cut two crescent/semi-circles into the largest circle, using the two smaller dies

- added all three circles to the card itself using thin sticky pads - making sure that the upright alignment of the strips of gold mirri was absolutely vertical (I hope!). NB, the mirri strips don't need to be in lines corresponding to the main circle - even I, with borderline OCD would draw the line at that!

- then added the sentiment die cut to the bottom left of the card

- final touch - two leftover strips of the rose patterned card were added to the inside of the card, to echo the outside

For a video explaining it - as well as showing the steps - visit Ann Melvin on YouTube HERE.

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #50 HERE.

Dudley Pupdate -  oh he's a wily little chap and no mistake. It's often a bit of a battle to get him to 'ahem, perform his toilet routine' properly and at regular times. So, we always take turns to watch him when he's out in the back garden. Today Len discovered that he has a 'secret poop place' ..... behind our fairly recently installed log cabin! Had to laugh, all the ongoing encouragement from us 'hoomans' and there he was, secretly smiling, as he'd already left a 💩 or two - hidden out of sight! Dogs do pull you down to their basic level I must admit!

Yesterday afternoon it was sunny here and I was busy at a bedroom window when I spotted Len and Dudley down in the back garden. Dudley was doing absolutely crazy zoomies of pure doggie delight around the garden - an absolute joy to watch!

Love from both of us, Dudley Dog ('The Secret Pooper') and of course me

Sunday Snippets and a new Lattice card idea

I really like the very clever crafter Ann Melvin's YouTube channel and often watch her to pick up new ideas. This is the link to Ann's actual YouTube video showing the technique HERE - she has her own online store called 'Positively Papercraft'  HERE - well worth a visit if you're in the UK. 

And this is what I made:

I used:

- card blank measuring approx. 6" (just under 6" in fact) x 4.25" - cut later to the same size as the finished card front panel

- two absolutely identical pieces of paper from the DCWV 12" paper pad called 'Quince & Blossom'  - I cut the two layers at once to be sure they were lined up and identical - they are foiled and so very pretty

- then 'outline' die cut the pieces together, only  using the outer frame from Ann's 'Positively Papercraft 'Cracked Glass' pair of dies

- then die cut just one of the resulting background pieces again, using the inner lattice part of the 'Cracked Glass' pair of dies

- suddenly realised that the paper would be too floppy for the top layer, so I die cut just the inner part of the panel from a snippet of white card, trimmed it down then added it behind the patterned layer using a glue pen. I had to do it that way as it would have been almost impossible to die cut exactly the same panel using both the dies, the alignment needed to be perfect with no over-hang

- and at that point I pushed it to one side as I'd done four similar panels from the same paper pad and felt they would all 'sag', despite the additional strengthening die cut lattice card layer

- went back to them and layered the other lattice layers onto the backgrounds using narrow foam tape, with glue stick on top for some slide - then pushed them to one side, yet again

- still convinced they would sag - even with the additional thickness of the white card snippet underneath the lattice panel - I fairly gently added a Pink Fresh pre-foiled die cut sentiment to the lower right corner of the card using a glue pen right around the back of the sentiment and being careful not to totally press it down onto the very back layer of patterned paper

- AND, it worked! No sagging to be worried about really

Well, knock me down with a feather - what a really lovely surprise! Love the sentiment itself - so positive. And good for a teen wearing braces on their teeth!

My snippet is well hidden, I used a left over piece of white card to back the lattice layer for added strength.

So, now I need to just make up the other three panels into cards - with a load more confidence than I had! Yay! I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #50 HERE. The Positively Papercraft ' Cracked Glass' die set was having its first outing.

The results of Challenge #452 are over on the Snippets Blog for you.

Dudley Pupdate: A good friend was here the other day and Dudley fell in love with her and wanted to go home with her when she left the house, but we all know he would he would have been squealing before she left our road. He absolutely flung himself at me this morning in affection - then I realised that he thought there might be a second 'morning treat' hidden about my person! Little monkey. Mind you, on reflection, he's the same with both of us where treats are concerned - albeit with just a tad more respect for his 'Dad'!

We watched quite a bit of the Coronation - history in the making. And it rained. 

Hope you all have a lovely week. 

Much love from Di and Dudley Dog

Sunday Snippets and Rudolph Days challenge

I rustled up a snippets card the other day - for the current Rudolph Days Challenge HERE, as well as for my Sunday Snippets post:

And here are the snippets I started off with:

It's a pity the camera hasn't really picked up the sparkle in the stars and dots on the patterned paper

I used:

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

- snippet of red patterned paper from a very old Fizzy Moon paper pad called 'Festive Fun' - it was the very last of the decent designs in the pad so the rest went into the bin! Shock, horror, so ruthless

- the snippet of patterned paper was just big enough for me to die cut it for a background, using dies from the Spellbinders 'Hemstitch Rectangles Venise Lace' set of dies

- glued the die cut background onto the card front

- then used a snippet of iridescent white card to die cut the Poppystamps 'Snowflake Corner Frame' 

- also used the Memory Box 'Joy Posh Script' set of two dies to cut the sentiment - the backing using a snippet of vellum and the top layer using a snippet of the iridescent white card 

- glued the snowflakes frame and the sentiment to the card front

- final touch, added some sparkly diamantes to the centre of each snowflake

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #49 HERE. The 'Snowflake Corner Frame' and the 'Joy' sentiment dies were having their first outing.

We have a new Challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE - with a lovely prize. Sarn is in charge this fortnight - but I'll be keeping a close eye on things in case it becomes too riotous! I know ALL about the contents of her satchel - and it ain't homework in there either!

Dudley Pupdate: It only seems five minutes since I wrote his last news, and nothing much has changed. We did have a mini Tsunami when he had his bath earlier in the week, but that's nothing new. The secret is for me to immediately wrap Dudley up in one of his bath towels like a Burrito and pat as much of the water away as possible before letting him go scatty running around and shaking himself dry.  Then comes the crazy 'break dancing' as he's given a blow dry!

I did laugh on Friday - Len was busy in the back garden whilst we were expecting a delivery. So he told Dudley to 'stay on security guard duty' in his favourite place, at the top of the stairs, to watch the front door. The next time I looked at Dudley he was flat on his back with everything on display (albeit within his fluffy coat I'm glad to say), head to one side, paws flopped half in the air - snoring for England! 💤 So much for listening to instructions! As Len said, typical security guard really. On the other hand - if a leaf dares to rustle past the front door he's up like a shot - so we were in safe hands/paws really. 😃

Hope you all have a lovely week - we're on countdown to the Coronation now. Let's hope the sun shines! Or at the very least, it doesn't rain. However, the British won't let that spoil things - it's in our genes to complain about the weather ..... yet make the best of it when we have to. Today, Saturday, is beautiful here, it's sunny and quite warm.  If we have this next Saturday it would be perfect. 

Birthday card for a special Buddy

I made this card for someone very special:

I used:

- a white DL card

- white card stock for the stencilled panel

- a lovely  iCraft stencil 8527 that I won a while ago over at Allsorts - coloured using TH Distress Oxides and an assortment of 'small detailed' blending brushes rather like pencils with soft ends (bought from Amazon) - they compliment the 'make-up style blending brushes we're mostly using so well

- trimmed the panel down and layered it onto a snippet of yellow card before then gluing it to the card front

- used more yellow card snippets and a VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink pad to stamp the sentiment, using a set of The Greetery stamps called 'Opposites Attrract'

- then die cut the two parts of the sentiment using a The Greetery 'Opposites Attract' die for the word 'happy' and a die from their 'Opposites Attract Script' set of dies

- layered the sentiment die cuts onto two further die cut layers then glued them onto the card front

All done! My first serious venture into stencilling as well. Unlike most sensible folk I did a high dive into the deep end, as per usual, and chose to do something more intricate. ☺ Happy Birthday sweet friend if you happen to pop in and see this post!

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #49 HERE. The stencil, the small sized blending brushes and the sentiment stamps and dies were all out for a first play!

Sarn has posted the results of Challenge #451 over in the Snippets Playground HERE. As always, we had some really great entries - so lovely how those snippets just keep on multiplying.

Dudley Pupdate: Nothing much to report, although he's loving the Springtime walks - once he's been coaxed into his harness and has his collar on. He's a funny little guy, if he just doesn't feel like going for a walk he lies down on his side and sticks one leg up in the air for a tummy tickle instead! The weird thing is that it's the only time he does 'raise his leg' - he still squats like a puppy for a wee!

He currently looks like a ball of fluff - most likely heading for a bath early this coming week, little does he know!

It's Mo's Rudolph Days Challenge beginning on Tuesday 25th remember! And there's still one week of the current Snippets Challenge to go. See you in the Playground.

Bunny is going on holiday

'cos he's tired out and demanding a rest from all this fancy posing stuff - so this is the last card with him on for now. No doubt, he'll pop up again at some point but meanwhile:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" tent style card blank, cut from 'Syntegro White Linen Silkweave' textured card

- assorted sizes of snippets of the same white card for the image panel and all the little die cuts

- cut the following die cuts: the flowery border/grass strip using the Charlie & Paulchen die called 'Flower and grass border', unbranded sitting bunny, window opening panes by The Greetery called 'Fresh Air Window Frame' and finally, all from Gummiapan, a nest and a couple of chicks from the 'rooster, hen and chickens' set plus three eggs from the 'Easter Branches' set

 - once again lots of little die cuts to colour in using Distress Oxide ink pads and a water brush

- then used a large ball ended embossing tool to slightly round/shape the bunny, nest, eggs and chicks to add some dimension

- rubbed some Ranger 'Micro Distress Glaze' onto each of the 'rounded' pieces

- the image panel was trimmed to 5" x 3.75"

- then die cut the window into the image panel using a die from The Greetery 'Fresh Air Window Frame' set and backed it with a snippet of yellow patterned paper (the camera is telling fibs and showing it as almost green!)

 - stuck the flower & grass border onto the front panel using red line tape across the bottom section and a glue pen for the blades of grass

- used a die from The Greetery's 'Brick Layer' set of dies to cut a stencil from 125 microns Mylar and stenciled the brick pattern in one corner of the window, using a mix of Distress Oxide inks on my glass mat, all mixed up with a squirt of water 

- glued the arched open windows in place using a glue pen

- built up the rest of the little scene using some teensy pieces of thin foam pad behind the nest, chicks and bunny. The eggs had already been stuck to the back of the nest using red line tape prior to me touching the Micro Distress Glaze BTW

- adhered the front panel onto the card front, using strips of narrow foam tape to raise it up a bit

- finally, using a pencil, I added the eye and little nose to the bunny's face

Didn't add a sentiment this time, it would have knocked the layout to pot.

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #49 - the floral grassy border, nest and eggs, window and shutters plus the 'brick work' stencil were all having their first outing.

Dudley Pupdate: We've had such a mix of weather this past week - Dudley just loves to roll around on his back on the 'easy maintenance' grass in the back garden when it's sunny. I sat out with him for a while a couple of times and when I was then fussing him and stroking his back Len said - 'you DO know that he's probably been rolling on a worm?' Very nice trick Dudley. Been a few 'zoomies' of course - Spring is in the air even though it's teasing us a bit this year.

Hop, hop, hop - he's back again!

The Easter bunny is back yet again - to wish you all a very Happy Easter:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" tent style card blank, cut from 'Syntegro White Linen Silkweave' textured card

- assorted sizes of snippets of the same white card for the image panel and all the little die cuts (not worth taking a photo)

- cut the following die cuts: grass strip using an MFT die called 'Grassy Fields', unbranded sitting bunny, Charlie & Paulchen 'wheel barrow', plus the following Gummiapan dies: 'small tulips', 'tiny daffodils'  plus a hen and chick from the 'rooster, hen and chickens' set

 - once again lots of little die cuts to colour in using Distress Oxide ink pads and a water brush

- then used a large ball ended embossing tool to slightly round/shape the bunny, barrow, the flower heads, Mama and her chick to add some dimension

- rubbed some Ranger 'Micro Distress Glaze' onto each of the die cut and coloured pieces

- the image panel was die cut using a Lil'Inkers 'Stitched Rectangle' die

- stamped the Easter sentiment into the top right corner of the panel using a stamp from the Clearly Besotted 'Say What?' set of stamps and a VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink pad

- die cut the bottom edge and sides of the grass strip using the same 'stitched rectangle die for continuity - a small detail but worthwhile - then stuck it onto the front panel using red line tape across the bottom section and a glue pen for the blades of grass

- built up the little scene using a glue pen, red line tape, tweezers, pokey tool and some teensy pieces of thin foam pad behind the wheel barrow, bunny, flower heads and  Mama hen plus her baby. The flowers had already been stuck to the back of the wheelbarrow using red line tape

- adhered the front panel onto the card front, using strips of narrow foam tape to raise it up a bit

- finally, using a pencil, I added the eye and little nose to the bunny's face

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #49 - the wheelbarrow, tulips, hen and chick dies were all having their first outing.

At last, after endless driving rain we had some wonderfully sunny and dry days in Hampshire! Hooray, we certainly feel all the better for it. It's good that the decent weather arrived in time for the kiddies Easter break from school as well. 

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is absolutely loving the sunshine - he keeps wanting to go into the garden just to stand and sniff the sweet Spring air, play chase the ball for a while and then do a few celebratory zoomies around the garden! We have our very own Spring lamb! Ahem, although we now know that rain is forecast for the coming week, I spoke too soon. Sigh.

The results of challenge #450 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Remember, Sarn is halfway through her current Snippets challenge - HERE. 

Hope you're having a pleasant Easter - those who gave up chocolate for Lent will be no doubt having a little feast! We just have some of the small 'hard icing coated' Easter eggs to share here (Dudley has his own doggy choccy drops) - ooer, plus an Easter egg which a sweet little friend brought here a a gift, well in advance of the day! IF Len hasn't scoffed it on the quiet of course.

 /) /)
 (-.-)
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It's that Easter Bunny again!

Here's my Sunday snippets card - all using white linen snippets to start off with:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" side opening card blank, cut from 'Syntegro White Linen Silkweave' textured card

- assorted sizes of snippets of the same white card for the image panel and all the little die cuts (not worth taking a photo)

- cut the following die cuts: unbranded sitting bunny with the stool he came with plus the following Gummiapan dies:  a vase from the 'set of vases', three 'Easter branches', and daffodils from the 'tiny daffodils' set of dies. Also, the bow for the bunny - from an unbranded set of seven different bows 

 - so, there I was once again with a lot of little die cuts to colour in - and out came the Distress Oxide ink pads and water brush. Even coloured the little green buds all ready to burst forth!

- after colouring all the pieces, I then used VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink and a small Indigo Blu stamp appropriately called 'Crackle' to add some interest to the stool. In order to be sure to position the stool so that it was all covered in the 'crackle' in one go, I popped the stamp onto my glass mat, then inked it facing up before positioning the ready 'die cut and coloured' stool on top - then pressed down with a large acrylic block - perfect!

- then used a large ball ended embossing tool to slightly round/shape the bunny and his bow tie, along with the vase and the flower heads, just to add some dimension

- rubbed some Ranger 'Micro Distress Glaze' onto each of the die cut and coloured pieces - word of caution, be sure to keep it away from the back of the pieces as you handle them otherwise sticking them down might prove tricky - ask me how I know this

- the image panel started out on a bigger snippet of white linen card - and to 'ground' the image I stenciled what might pass for a rug onto the bottom edge of the panel - using 'Lost Shadow' Distress Oxide and a stencil I'd cut myself using a die from the Memory Box 'Baptisia' set of dies

- stamped the Easter sentiment into the top right corner of the panel using a stamp from the Clearly Besotted 'Say What?' set of stamps and a VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink pad

- glued the front panel onto the card front, using strips of narrow foam tape to raise it up a bit

- built up the little scene using a glue pen, red line tape, tweezers, pokey tool and some teensy pieces of thin foam pad behind the vase, daffodil heads and the bunny. The flowers and Spring branches had already been stuck to the back of the vase using red line tape

- finally, using a pencil, I added the eye and little nose to the bunny's face

Cutting my own stencil was inspired by Chrissie Stokes of course. After a false start with 250 microns Mylar, I switched to 125 microns which cuts like a dream - even coping beautifully with the very tricky die I used on this card. In real life, the colours are stronger than in the photo - and there is a third daffodil hiding somewhere in my craft room - it did a runner just before I assembled the card and I certainly wasn't going to go through the whole process of making a replacement.

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #49 - the stool, bunny bow, vase and Spring contents dies were all having their first outing. Oh, and the 'stencil making' was a first too!

I actually have two more 'Easter Bunny' cards to one side here. One is fully made and 'waiting in the 'wings' - a bit of the die cutting is done for the final one, but having been one degree under for a few days during the week I'll wait and see how things go.

I've been having problems with some of my blog commenting lately - when using Firefox it was often, but not always, only allowing me to comment as 'Anonymous'. I've been into Privacy and security in Firefox on my laptop and have changed a pop-up setting to allow them - it seems that the latest Firefox update made this an option and not the default. It's little things like that lurking to trip us up. So do keep an eye on your browser settings. BTW - Blogger works much better on Chrome (both Google products). Quelle surprise!

Dudley Pupdate: It's been a quieter week than usual here but Dudley has never been far away from my side - keeping watch and offering cuddles of course. 

Dudley is such a joy. His morning 'treat hunt' is so funny. He adores 'calcium bones wrapped in dried chicken by Pawsleys or similar. We're not up at the crack of dawn all/showered washed, dressed and on parade at our age (yay, I actually felt right saying that and not explaining to builders why 8am is not on our radar these days!). 

Once breakfast is over and he's 'ready' for the day, Len makes us a second cuppa - mug of coffee for him and one of peppermint tea for me. And that's when Dudley knows it's 'treat time'. No matter where we conceal or hide it - that boy is on the hunt. The only way we can confuse him is to handle the treat between ourselves - and then he's a bit confused. Hands, smell, WHO? HE always wins - and in pretty short time as well.

Sarn has a new Snippets Challenge up and running in the Snippets Playground! Do have a look at her lovely snippets homework and join in with the fun - HERE. Nice selection in the prize pot as well!

Rudolph Days Challenge - and Snippets Playground Results!

First of all - did you remember to change your clocks. Spring 'forward' by one hour in a lot of countries! 

I found a second piece of card buried on my desk - abandoned after playing without much success with my long-neglected Brushos the other month. After the rather 'flat' looking turquoise blue Brushos result, I dry embossed then sprayed it with Glimmer Mist and added touches of Cadence Silver Gilding Wax here and there ....... before sighing and abandoning it as a lost cause. 

Found it the other day and thought it deserved a second chance. So, here's my Rudolph Days Challenge entry for March over at Scrappy Mo's, and it's also my Sunday Snippets card:

I used all of the snippets, apart from the long blue piece - which looks more purple thanks to the camera

I used:

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

- the turquoise blue Brushos panel, for which I'd used Strathmore Mixed Media card, a Darice 'Snowflake Swirls' embossing folder, Glimmer Mist and some silver gilding wax was trimmed to 5.25" x 4"

- then layered the panel onto a slightly larger snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Navy Dazzle' card 

- ran a silver Calligraphy pen around the edges of the navy card and adhered the whole panel to the card front using strips of very narrow foam tape

- used a snippet of vellum to die cut the back surround for the Memory Box 'Merry Christmas Posh Script' sentiment and set it to one side

- then die cut the top layer of the sentiment using the more detailed die from the same Memory Box set - twice from a snippet of pearlescent white card then glued them together using a glue pen, before attaching the vellum 'profile' layer to the back

- finally, used micro dots to attach the sentiment

I did dither a bit about possibly adding a few self-adhesive little clear sparkly gems but thought it might be too glitzy - plus, there was a very strong chance that the self adhesion on the gems wouldn't like the gilding wax and they would promptly drop off as I found when attaching the finished sentiment to the card front in the final step of making the card!Glue pen didn't work but, for now, micro dots seem to be doing the trick with the sentiment! The more I use them, the more I like them.

I would like to also enter this card into Darnell's latest NBUS Challenge #48 HERE as the silver gilding wax and the Christmas sentiment die were having a first outing.

Must admit, I'm a bit hooked on vellum backed die cut sentiments right now. I lifted the initial scroll of the white letter 'M in Merry' after taking the photo by the way - before storing it away in my growing box of Christmas 2023 cards as I noticed it had made a bid for freedom. ☺

The results of Snippets Playground Challenge #449 can be found HERE - and there is still one week to run on Challenge #450 HERE.

Dudley Pupdate: It's been a busy week and my snippets card was a bit of a rush. Dudley has spent a lot of time dodging the rain and then sleeping under my desk. It seems to be a cosy kennel for him now! He mislaid Honka Duck one morning during the week and the absolute panic on his face was heartbreaking. I spotted Honka out of Dudley's line of view - on our bed - and as soon as I pointed he leapt up to embrace Honka as if he'd just come back from an around World Cruise! 

Speaking of embracing, on Friday morning we missed the chance of an adorable photo of Dudley - fast asleep, lying on his side literally with both front legs wrapped around Honks in such a loving cuddle. But if we'd made a move to grab a phone or camera he would have woken up and the moment would have been lost - so we just made the most of watching him for a while. 

Snowy Kisses

This is my snippets card to kick off challenge #450 in over in the Snippets Playground. Go HERE to join in the fun!

Bad 'lighting engineer' work means the right hand side of the card is a bit washed out - sorry, Dudley is still learning the ropes, wink!

Sizeable snippets, although I didn't use some of the white card or the piece of vellum in the end

I used:

- 6" x 6" white card blank, made using a sheet of Strathmore Mixed Media Vellum Finish card to match the image panel-  side opening

- used a snippet of the Strathmore card for the image panel (I keep every little scrap - it's not cheap stuff!) using a Sweet Dixie stamp called 'Snowy Kisses' and a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad 

- then coloured the image using Arteza Watercolour pencils and a water brush - trying to pick up the background paper colours as much as possible

- added clear 'Wink of Stella' - to the snow on the trees, the snowballs on the ground and also the little poinsettia flower head - so cute!

- die cut the image panel using a 4" square die from Clarity Stamps 'Nested Square Heart Doodle Aperture Frame-Its' set

- stamped the sentiment onto the image panel using a die from Uniko's 'Most Wonderful' set of Christmas sentiments and a Hero Hues 'Granite' ink pad - the Misti was invaluable!

- then slightly trimmed a rather large snippet of holly patterned paper from LOTV's 'Woodland Wishes' paper pad down to 5.75" square and glued it onto the card front

- die cut a snippet of almost plain green paper from the same LOTV paper pad, using a Presscut die from their huge set of square dies. I did this having tried on a totally unusable piece of card first - to make sure both sizes lined up perfectly

- glued the green piece of die cut paper to the back of the image panel to highlight the pretty die cut edging around the image panel, I used a glue pen - two in fact, with different sized nibs for fear of spoiling all the work thus far!

- used very narrow pre-cut strips of double sided foam (from Amazon a while ago and very useful for a little more 'lift' than my much loved thin sticky pads) to stick around the back of the image panel with a few more pieces inside the area to add extra support

- then used Chrissie Stokes' tip, after removing the protection layer from the foam strips, I ran a glue stick over all the exposed 'sticky' to give it some 'wiggle room' rather than immediately setting itself firmly in place

- and that was it, all finished and one more for the 'Christmas Card box' - which is looking fairly healthy already!

Some things I encountered along the way:

- Arteza watercolour pencils are truly great and the more one uses them, the easier and more variable it becomes. I generally apply water colour pencil to the image and then 'draw it away' using a water pen. It's also a good option to pick up the colour with a water pen - directly from the pencil itself and darker colours tend to work best when doing this.

The use of the set of dies came about thanks to a snippets playmate Pat - I'd all but forgotten I have a set of these dies and one of Pat's recent lovely cards prompted me to dig it out for a first outing.The packaging is huge and it didn't fit into a NBUS basket so was languishing to one side. Thanks for that reminder Pat!

As always, my LOTV pads papers are continuing to gradually diminish in size. I had the foresight to buy some in digital form when it was apparent that digital was the route they were taking. I'm not keen on digital papers or images - but needs must when the devil drives!

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #48 - my NBUS is the Sweet Dixie stamp I used for the 'Snowy Kisses' image and the set of Clarity frame dies

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #72  - the theme is 'Wrapped Up For Christmas' and my 'snow people' are wrapped up in their scarves - as well as in one another judging by the carrot noses! Cute! x

Dudley Pupdate - he discovered blueberries during the week. I'd read that dogs rather liked them and so gave him one to try whilst preparing a little dessert for us humans - of fresh blueberries with strawberry kefir yoghurt. Of course, Dudley then ran away with his first one, as he does, to explore and try out his new 'single berry treat' in peace - thankfully on a tiled floor as am sure they will stain both him and anything else they come into contact with! After two return visits to ask for more, the novelty wore off - thankfully! 

As it is, Dudley flings his diced carrots all over the place with wild abandon - mostly as he sifts through his 'veggie dog-bowl' to make sure his much loved diced sweet peppers have all been eaten first. We're not particularly vegetarian but do try to supplement his breakfast of more traditional semi-dry dog foods with evening meals of steamed chicken, other cooked meats - 'preferably grilled steak' says Dudley, the treat of a boiled egg as well as fresh raw and safe veggies at least. 

Fat chance of grilled steak here - the country is in financial meltdown right now and Dudley has to knuckle down ......... and might even need to get a newspaper round at some point. Ha, just try telling HIM that one though! Truth be told - he actually gives SO much more than he ever asks for, just like all dogs do.

Snowy Cabin Christmas cards

Well, my snippets cards are appropriate with all the snowfall most of the UK has had this past week! I made eight cards in one go, over a few days and here are a couple of examples:

I used:

- white A6 card blanks, both side opening and tent style

- then got out my LOTV much loved blue 'Frosty Christmas' and 'Krafty Christmas' paper pads and hauled a load of snippets from the 'halved envelopes' that I pop into the backs of all my paper pads to store snippets

- covered the fronts of all the cards with papers from one or other of the paper pads and, as I expected, most of them were snippets

- die cut the circular scene from a white snippet (I found a load of these whilst looking for the A6 cards) - using a Memory Box 'Snowy Cabin Circle' die

- backed the die cuts with 'snowy' patterned LOTV papers to tone with the background papers I'd added to the card fronts. I die cut them using a Tonic Studios circle die and then glued to the back of the circular scene before reinforcing with a further white card die cut circle

- some parts of the cabin had fully popped out when being die cut, so I added contrasting die cut snippets back into the outline - all still from the same two paper pads 

- coloured the cabin windows (which hadn't popped out - hooray!) with a yellow Polychromos pencil. I would NOT have fancied inlaying those - or even backing the window frames with half inch or less square yellow snippets

- the sentiments were both from a lovely set of NBUS stamps by Creative Expressions called 'Festive Wishes'. Some were stamped onto the 'snow' itself and some were stamped onto circles of white card which had been die cut using a The Works die from a set called 'Circle Stitches'. The inks I used are Brilliance Dewdrop 'Pearlescent Beige' and Hero Hues 'Granite'

- then added all the die cut and sentiment circles onto the card fronts using thin sticky pads

- final touch to the cards with the circular sentiments was to add a few self-adhesive clear Memory Box 'Fairy Drops' to the bottom left corner for a bit of balance

Would I make eight almost the same in one go using the Snowy Cabin die ever again? Probably yes - but I'd simplify the layers/design/process for sure!

One thing I did try for the first time was a tip I picked up from Jennifer McGuire which is to make a 'jig' when stamping repeatedly onto the same die cut shape - for both the cabin circle and the sentiment circle. It's hard to explain without a video but here goes:

- I wanted three sentiments all the same, using the same stamp on the small die cut circles and opted to die cut and then stamp afterwards - for a sentiment on a circle you can do it either way - but I was also facing stamping onto five of the circular scenes later on

- to make the 'jig' I hopped around from one foot to the other and did a merry dance took a piece of spare card (another snippet) and die cut then removed the stitched circle

- popped the spare piece of card with the die cut circular aperture into my small Misti, held it in place with a magnet, then slipped a snippet of copy paper underneath the hole before lining up the 'Cosy Christmas Wishes' sentiment stamp in the aperture, and picking it up with the Misti lid

- for reassurance I then did a test stamp onto the piece of paper - spot on as well!

- then, one by one, I just popped die cut circles into the aperture, re-inked the stamp on the lid, made sure the 'jig' was still seated into the corner (even with a magnet bar I now always double check) and stamped them - one after the other 

Here's the 'jig' set up with a die cut circle in place ready to stamp - using the stamp which is in position on the lid. Another time I would perhaps use a piece of contrasting card when creating the jig but the white obviously did the job:

Flushed with success - I then stamped the sentiments onto the die cut cabin scenes in the same way. Just used the plain die to cut the bigger aperture, popped the complete scene in place, lined the sentiment up where I wanted it and followed the same process as I did for the small circular sentiments. I added a little pencil mark to the outside of the aperture so I could line up the smoke every time to make sure the sentiment was stamped straight.  

I would like to enter the top one of the cards into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #48 as it was a first outing for both the 'Snowy Cabin' die and the 'Festive Wishes' sentiments stamp set. 

Dudley Pupdate: We had 'zoomies' from Dudley around the back garden mid-week, once he got used to 4" of snow. His little legs looked so short, no piccies or video sorry to say -  but he did race around in pure joy, as always.

We did have a laugh earlier this week, decided to try once again to hide the pretty gross (albeit not smelly, thank goodness) 'Honka Duck' ...... when Dudley was totally elsewhere in the house.

I was at my desk in the craft room when he bounded back upstairs - and both of us - Len in his study and me with one eye open for 'the wee beastie' - kept our heads down. Within less than a couple of minutes of him looking for that flipping duck, if that - I spotted Dudley out of the corner of my eye.

AND, I also saw the 'evil Havi look'! He was stood like a statue on a bottom corner of our bed rather like an angry 'moon gazing hare' - literally glaring upwards. At the exact place in a built in wardrobe, where horrible, chewed old Honka, his most loved treasure, was hidden on a high shelf! He truly was absolutely furious and he just KNEW where Honka was! Amazing sense of smell and I think this is one battle we've lost! 

Sometimes I wonder who is the 'boss' here - don't answer that, we already know that it has four legs and a fluffy tail!

Remember that we're halfway through Sarn's Challenge #449 and the latest picks and prize winner are over HERE on the Snippets Playground!

Love, as always, Dudley and yours truly xxx

It started with a swing .......

...... and just grew from there:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" tent style card blank, cut from 'Syntegro White Linen Silkweave' textured card

- assorted sizes of snippets of the same white card for the image panel and all the little die cuts

- the image panel was die cut from a snippet using a Penny Black set of dies called 'zig-zag stackers', then set aside

- out came my 'recently set up' dedicated storage folder for teeny dies and then the fun began!

- I cut, all from white card snippets, the following die cuts: Memory Box 'Woodland Branch' and a standard hanging swing from 'Set of Swings', unbranded sitting bunny (he also came with a stool). Plus the following Gummiapan dies: one bird from 'Seagulls', crocuses from 'Spring Flowers' and the biggest pot from 'Set with Pots' 

- so, there I was with a lot of little die cuts to colour in - and out came the Distress Oxide ink pads and water brush

- spend a lovely, relaxing time just rubbing a little of each colour in turn onto my glass mat and picking it up from there with the waterbrush to colour the die cut. For my own reference, I used: 'Walnut Stain' for the branch, 'Vintage Photo' for the swing, 'Tea Dye' for the bunny, 'Lost Shadow' for the bird, 'Villainous Poison' for the crocus flowers, 'Peeled Paint' for the crocus leaves and stems - and a mixture of 'Fired Brick' and 'Spiced Marmalade' to get a terracotta for the pot

- then used a large ball ended embossing tool to slightly round/shape the bunny, along with the pot and the flowers, just to add some dimension

- rubbed some Ranger 'Micro Distress Glaze' onto each of the die cut and coloured pieces - just using a finger then buffing it with a clean tissue. It doesn't add a shine but it does 'lift' the 'matt' look - if that makes sense

- stamped the sentiment into the lower left corner of the panel using a stamp from the Clearly Besotted 'Say What?' set of stamps and a SU 'Perfect Plum' ink pad cube. Obviously, I'd checked and double checked the layout and positioning of the other little elements  

- then glued the front panel onto the card front, with a layer of thin foam sheet backing to raise it up a bit

- heart in mouth I then built up the little scene using a glue pen, tweezers, pokey tool and some teensy pieces of thin foam pad behind the pot and the bunny. The trickiest part was adding the swing and piece of tree branch to make sure they were in the right place and trimmed as I wanted them

- finally, using a pencil I added the eye and little nose to the bunny's face

Phew - bit of a marathon and I do need practice using Distress Oxides to colour with but it was huge fun! I think this card might go to Germany for the grand daughters and their Mum.

The swing die set that started it all off was a little gift from a friend a while ago - you know who you are - mwah! x

I send very few Easter cards but do have plans for two different designs for a couple of friends from my school days. More 'scene building', more Gummiapan -  and more of the sitting bunny I suspect.

So grateful to Chrissie Stokes for her YouTube videos, I've learned loads since finding found her channel round about Christmas time.

Out of interest, the micro glaze I used to finish off the coloured die cuts could just work on top of Zig pen colouring - I need to have a play. To be honest, I bet good old fashioned petroleum jelly might work in much the same way - at a fraction of the price?!

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #48 - all of the dies, apart from the 'Woodland Branch' and the 'Zig zag' edging die , were having their first outing.

Dudley Pupdate: It's been an exciting week for the little guy, we've had four different lots of people here doing various things - and once he's been introduced, and is certain that stealing Honka Duck isn't the reason for their visit, he thinks it's great fun. A couple of times he thought it might be a nice change to go home with them when they were leaving!

EDIT: Bad me, I just realised five days later that I didn't tell you that our Sarn has a new Snippets Challenge up and running in the Snippets Playground! Do have a look at her lovely card and join in with the fun - HERE. She's got a super prize on offer as well.

 

Rudolph Days Challenge - February 2023

Eek, Mo's February 2023 Rudolph Days Challenge is due to close - so I'm racing in with an upcycled Christmas card:

I used:

- 6.5" x 3.25" white mini slim card blank, tent style

- piece of Tonic 'Scarlet Organza' Tonic satin mirri card, die cut using a die from the Lawn Fawn stitched border 'Mini Slim Stackables' set and glued onto the card front

- I'd already chosen the card to upcycle, so I chopped it down to sit inside the red satin mirri 'frame'

- next I added a silver mirri card sentiment, backed with a white card die cut for dimension - cut using a Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas' die

- then backed the image layer using thin white foam sheet and Collall All Purpose glue

- then glued it onto the red layer and called it done

I do so love the Tonic range of mirri, satin mirri and pearlescent card for Christmas cards. Their variety of red mirri shades is quite extensive and 'Scarlet Organza' is such a perfect match for the red car!

When cutting down the upcycled card I was pretty ruthless and cut off  the top half which was a background scene of a horse and cart, some hills, trees and a few houses in the distance. I like that the focus is now drawn to the tree with the cardinals - as well as the car - and furry passenger! The card is still quite busy but the original was over fussy, IMHO.

And I still have a good selection of 2022 bought card fronts from ones we've been sent, in reserve to play with!