Sunday Snippets - A Partridge

My snippets card today uses an upcycled image and was made in double quick time when the temperature dipped a bit here. It's also my entry for the current Rudolph Days challenge:

I used:

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

- piece of pearlescent red card (snippet) trimmed to 5.5" x 5.5" 

- piece of Inca Gold mirror card (snippet) trimmed to 5.25" x 5.25" and glued onto the red layer

- whole sheet of unbranded Christmas paper (from Amazon) trimmed to 5" x 5" and glued onto the gold layer 

- glued all three layers onto the card front

- final step, added the image plus sentiment panel to the card front using thin foam tape. The image with handily placed sentiment came from an upcycled card from a few years ago - die cut using a 'stitched circle' die from The Works

- finished!

I'd like to enter the following challenge:

Rudolph Days May Challenge - HERE.

I've skipped the Allsorts Challenge as I know how aware Brenda is of possible copyright issues. Happy 17th Birthday ladies!!

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley has spent a few evenings and even the middle of the night just lying on the back garden lawn trying to keep cool and smell the sweet fresh air. He really has taken his time to get used to the 'white beast that might gobble him up' in a corner of our bedroom! We hit so lucky by buying a portable air con unit just the week before the heatwave arrived. Yesterday evening, Friday, he was finally content that it wouldn't eat him and spent the whole evening stretched across the end of our bed - luxuriating right in its flow of chilled air. The look of contentment on his sweet face was something to make anyone smile!

I've published the results of Challenge #532 HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post. She has a super prize on offer!

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - Season's Tweetings

My snippets card for this week is a quick make, another one for the 2026 Christmas card box:

I used: 

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

- a Penny Black Masterpiece 'Birds in Snow' image from one of their Christmas themed sets ('Home for Christmas' to be exact)

- die cut the image using a die from Hunkydory's 'Extended Hexagons' then backed it with a die cut layer using the next size up hexagon die, in pearlescent pale blue - cut from a snippet. For a change I used the die in landscape style

- trimmed a snippet of pearlescent gold card for the back layer on the card

- trimmed a snippet of 'script' paper from LOTV's 'Frosty Christmas' paper pad then adhered a snippet/band of blue 'snowflake' paper from the same pad across the centre and trimmed the edges to size

- glued the gold card and patterned layer onto the card front

- added the image panel to the card front, using thin foam sticky pads 

- glued a snippet strip of the snowflake paper to the back flap of the envelope- finished!

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

- Allsorts Challenge #849 HERE  - under 'Anything Goes'

- Christmas Kickstart Challenge #110 HERE - 'Season's Tweetings'

Dudley Pupdate: Another mixed week weatherwise, but more and more Dudley loves to do a little spot of sunshine worshipping, when it shows up! The other day, when it was time for his brush and comb session, Len took him into the sunny garden first for a wee. The little monkey had spotted the grooming table standing in the hallway - so he promptly lay on his back on the lawn for a snooze! I suspect one eye was slighty open though! Luckily he gave up after a few minutes with a shake and a sigh and headed back indoors to meet his doom. He certainly knows most of the tricks of the trade.    

The results from Sarn's Challenge #531 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Love from Dudley and yours truly

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 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:

I 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 Snippets -Through the window

First of all, did you remember to change your clocks to leap forward by an hour, if that applies to where you live? If not, then I hope you enjoyed a bit of extra sleep rather then losing an hour in one fell swoop as most of us felt impelled to do! 

My snippets card for today used a very clever set of dies that Linby (Lynn) has used a few times - but which was sold out whenever I tried to get my sticky little paws on them! I succeeded eventually but it took about three or more months. However, here's the result of a first outing:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" white square card blank

- the Maximum Crafts 'Picture Window Easy Frame' comes as a pair of dies. One outer, and one inner. The outer one has the thicker outlines to the frame and the inner one is smaller and fits beautifully on to of the outer frame

- I die cut a snippet of Tonic Pearlescent 'Majestic Gold', using the 'chunkier' outer frame die and set it to one side

- then die cut the 'finer' inner frame from a snippet of the white same card as the card blank. Admission here, ever trimmed down a card blank and at the final cut, sliced through the 'spine' by accident? Hence, I do have quite a few saved mis-cut panels, aka snippets in my 'box of daft mistakes'

- then glued the 'white layer frame' onto the gold one and then the whole frame onto the card blank

- the final die cut was to use the chunkier die and, as I was actually making two cards the same, I cut through two identical patterned paper scenes in one go from an Amazon paper pack called 'Glacie' which features general Winter scenes but only the one design actually has a log cabin in the centre. I do have ideas for the other papers, never fear. It was a lucky break when I found the log cabin one whilst browsing a couple of days ago!

- with hindsight, I could just have laid/glued the patterned paper behind the frame, but die cutting is more accurate and also fun to see the card come alive!

Like Linby, I can see so many uses for this Picture Window die set. I feel a play with some much loved snippets coming on! I didn't add a sentiment, die cut a couple and decided against it and left it as is rather than spoil the pretty scene. I'll be sure to add a special Christmas sentiment inside - this year I'm doing them as I go. Hollow laugh!

I'd like to enter this card into:

Allsorts Challenge #846 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 84 HERE - the paper pack and the set of window dies are my NBUS items

Rudolph Days Challenge - March 2026 - HERE 

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is such a little chancer! I carefully slipped out of bed very early the other morning for a quick trip to the loo and made a point of really pulling up the duvet right up to pillow level to keep him away. Did it work? Not a chance, I came out of the en-suite in super fast time, to the sight of Honka Duck languishing on my pillow - and a wagging tail and wiggly bum sticking out of the top of the duvet as Dudley happily explored the warrmth and no doubt human scent of where I'd just vacated. The look on his face when I lifted the duvet and whispered 'Hello Dudley'. He seemed to drop his jaw at being rumbled, grabbed Honks and flew off the end of the bed like a little pocket rocket! 

It never lasts though as needless to say, when I woke up later on at 'ups time' he was lying like a little angel with his back pressed against mine. He never bears a grudge that's for sure!

Sarn has opened up Challenge #529 in the Snippets Playground HERE . See you in the Playground!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

 

Rudolph Days - February 2026

Short month 'tis February - so here I am with a 'short on all sides' card for the February Rudolph Days Challenge HERE:

I used:

- 4" x 4" square linen white card blank, side opening. Just used a scrap but the back side of the card is at least the same shade as the front

- the image is upcycled from a Christmas card we received this year, trimmed down to 3.5" x 3.5"

- covered the whole front of the card with a layer of Amazon 'Stella Weds' dark green card (perfect for Christmas cards, IMHO)

- then glued the image panel onto a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' card, slitghtly trimmed down to just a gnat's whisker larger than the image panel

- finally, added the framed image panel to the green card front using very narrow foam strips, and called it 'done'

Quick and easy - phew!

 

Sunday Snippets - 'When Santa got stuck up the chimney'

The current challenge over Christmas Kickstart is such a great theme  - 'A Christmas Sing-along'! My immediate thought was 'Driving home for Christmas' by Chris Rea, but Linby had already entered a super card with that as her song choice. Sooo, I came up with this card instead:

Most of my leftover snippets, some got lost in the tidying up!

I used:

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

- making the main feature of the card - Santa - was my next step as all the other placements depended on how he turned out in terms of size

- I used red, white, green and also flesh coloured snippets. The flesh colour was a Papermill Direct swatch sample. The die set was an Amazon buy last Autumn - unbranded with just 'Christmas Santa' on the packet

- die cut all 14 pieces and assembled them using a glue pen - also added a touch of pink Polychromos pencil  and a little Tombow pale grey here and there as I went 

- Santa's eyes were coloured using a deep blue Gelly Roll Glaze pen

- a snippet of Tonic iridescent  'Firestone Red' mirror card, trimmed to one sixteenth of an inch smaller all round than the card blank

- a piece of paper from an Amazon unbranded paper pack called 'Moonlit Reverie' - it has a slightly vintage look about it - trimmed to one eighth of an inch smaller all round than the red mirror layer 

- then took a sheet of brick patterned paper from another Amazon paper pack called 'Brick Wall Texture' and trimmed a 'chimney' measuring 2" wide x 1.5" high 

- glued the 'brick chimney' onto the moonlit sky paper then glued them onto the red mirror card layer

- glued the bones of the image layer to the card front

- used teeny red mirror snippets to die cut my favourite Tonic (discontinued) Christmas sentiment twice, layered them together then glued to the top left hand corner

- final step was to use thin sticky pads to glue Santa in place  - stuck in the chinmey!

I had intended using a small 'Ho, Ho, Ho' die for the sentiment but, given Santa's predicament I doubt if he'd have been chuckling out any 'Ho's right at that time! 

The song 'When Santa got stuck up the chimney' was very popular in the mid-70's. But, being somewhat vintage, I remember my Dad singing it to me when I was little and apparently it was first out in 1953!

I ended up with two cards the same - which was a bonus, given all the faffing around making up the Santas!

And now, drumroll! Take a bow Len! I originally intended to have Santa resting and looking out of a frame or a die cut circle and was half prepared to go down that route when Len spotted a Santa all made up and immediately said 'he needs to be partway out of a chimney'. Bingo! Many thanks for that inspiration, you clever chap.

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

- Allsorts Challenge #843 HERE  - under 'Anything Goes'

- Christmas Kickstart #107 HERE - 'A Christmas Sing-Along'

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #83 HERE - my NBUS items are the moonlit sky paper pack, plus the brick wall paper pad and the Santa die, both of which I've had a for a while

Dudley Pupdate: Recently, I remembered how good Schwartz Slow cooker mixes are - I'd used them in the past with much success plus we still had a selection of packets here. So, with some encouragement Len had a go using one for the first time a couple of weeks ago and on Thursday just gone he did a repeat performance - Beef Stew in Ale (he used Guinness, as I used to do). The Schwartz slow cooker mixes are almost all 'dump and go' - needing no pre-frying of anything. The 'Chicken in red wine' mix needs some bacon frying but if we use that one then this time I'd just add some snipped up pre-cooked bacon rashers from the supermarket! Just chuck it all in the slow cooker, turn it on and leave it! After about an hour, delicious smells were already wafting in the kitchen. 

Dudley promptly abandoned his sentry duties AND Honka Duck entirely, raced down the stairs and posted himself, sitting slap bang in front of the worktop where the slow cooker was doing its stuff with his nose twitching for ages! At times he would get up onto his hind legs like a white fluffy meerkat, but it's well out of reach - very funny to see. He was so intent on remaining at his 'guard the slow cooker' assignment - he even missed the post arriving! 

The results from Sarn's Challenge #525 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE.  

One last thing, Sarn has jokingly dubbed it 'skive-itis', but it is very noticeable how entry numbers are very low. It's been sliding for a while and I'm wondering what's wrong. Would you prefer a 'theme' each fortnight? Are you happy with 'Anything Goes'? Are we running out of steam? Let us know, by email if you prefer.

Love from Dudley and yours truly

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 - 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,

Sunday Snippets - Christmas Garland

My snippets card was made using a Katy Sue decoupage kit:

I used: 

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

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

- used Tonic's 'Inca Gold' and 'Scarlet Organza' mirror card to make a 'frame' and glued it onto the card front

- used a snippet of white card which I ran embossed lines around before gluing it to the card front

- glued the assembled Christmas wreath onto the white piece of card

- final touch, added the sentiment and popped the card into a white card box, bought ready to assemble from Amazon

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

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

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

Dudley Pupdate: As always, Dudley loved Christmas - he has to poke his nose into each item as it's being unwrapped! I think that's most of the fun for him. Oh, and a little Christmas dinner of his own course. As usual he left the solitary Brussels sprout I'd added!

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

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

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