Sunday Snippets - Tiny Tag Trio

Here's my snippets card for today! It could well be a row of three bookmarks - although the dies are called 'Tiny Tags'. Duplicates of the tag dies and the sentiment die that I used are part of the prize bundle in our new Snippets Playground challenge:

I used: 

- A6 white card blank, side opening

- snippets of pale green, pink and blue card, which were die cut using dies from the Heffy Doodle' 'Tiny Tag Trio' die set (sadly Heffy Doodle are no longer trading). I cut the tags to three different lengths by usung the same die as I'd used per tag and just moving it a few stitches before carefully cutting off one tag end to suit

- added the ribbon slots using each of the three 'slots' dies which are included in the set

- then thought -'hmm, they're gonna look too plain' and so I dug out a NBUS Stampendous Andy Skinner set of background stamps called 'Industrial' plus VersaFine's Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad. I found the easiest/quickest way to use the stamps, which are thick cling rubber ones, was to lay them flat on my glass mat, face upwards, ink them and then pop the tags on top and then run over them over with a mini brayer - result! 

- then I dug out a selection of snippets of ribbon to thread through the slots and tie with very narrow black ribbon

- next, I die cut the sentiment from a single snippet of black matt card using a Creative Expressions die called 'Be Unique' and glued it in the bottom right hand corner of the card

- finally glued the tags in place - finished!

I carefully saved my snippets then promptly threw them out whilst tidying my desk! Edit! I found them late on Sunday, carefully tucked underneath my new glass cutting mat to ensure they didn't get thrown out - what a Dopey Di I am!

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

- Allsorts Challenge #827 HERE - 'Anything Goes' 

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #76 HERE - all of the dies and the set of stamps were having a first outing

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

Dudley Pupdate: the intensely high temperatures for much of the week here made seeing Dudley amble from one tiled area to another so hard to watch. At one point he totally did a tummy flop whilst following me along the tiled hall and that scared me - but he was up and checking on the progress of me making his evening meal as soon as he heard food prep. sounds! 

Hope to see you on the swings and, for now at least, the scorching hot weather has cooled to a bearable temperature. Apparently the respite won't last but it's certainly very welcome right now!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

xxxxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Eclipse Heart' card

It's time for a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground - my turn to run the show. 

I absolutely love using cutting dies where the design is strips of card cut out from a basic shape, which forms more or less the focal point of a card - be it heart, circle, square, hexagon and so on. Perfect for the Eclipse Technique as well as a background shape - and here is my card: 

I used:

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

- snippet of the same white linen card, die cut using a Presscut 3.75" square die 

- then die cut the heart into the white square (using a NBUS heart die by Craft Addiction) and backed it with a snippet of white softly sparkled card, so pretty in real life,  - sent to me by a lovely friend - then set it aside

- next I die cut the butterfly using Memory box dies and snippets of Tonic 'Inca Gold' card and the same white linen card as used for the rest of the card. The solid gold butterfly layer and the butterfly's body were cut using an 'Isabella' die and the white top portion was cut using a 'Pippi' die   

- stuck the butterfly parts together and set it aside

- then die cut the sentiment using a Heffy Doodle 'Hello Shadow' die, just the actual sentiment without the matching shadow die, a snippet of 'Inca Gold' card plus more of the white card as a backing to double layer it  

- glued the sentiment layers together

- at that point I had enough of the card pieces to see how it would look assembled and immediately felt that it needed a 'frame' around the front panel so I grabbed another snippet of 'Inca Gold' card and die cut it with a 4" x 4" square die by Presscut - from the same set

- time for the final assembly, glued the heart panel onto the gold panel 'frame' then added it to the card front using narrow foam tape

- popped the butterfly onto the heart using very narrow red line tape and then added the sentiment, using a glue pen

- finished!

I really enjoyed making this card, looks like Mr Mojo might even be loitering here after his holiday! I mentioned 'Craft Addiction', a UK company, who make and sell some lovely dies and Christine Stokes (aka Chrissie of YouTube) sent loads of us in a flurry to snap up their expanding range of 'Eclipse' dies. THIS is the link to their website. A lot are out of stock but they do have a pre-order (pay up front) option. And they're working as fast as they can so your wait shouldn't be long. When I last looked, the pre-order drop down payment gizmo wasn't working on all die sets but they are aware and some 'tweaking' needs to be done. They deserve a chance girls - great dies AND their prices are very fair as well.

Do hop over to the new Snippets challenge, link below, I have a duplicate of my Craft Addiction heart dies set as part of the prize!

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

- Allsorts Challenge #821  'Anything goes' HERE 

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #73 HERE - the Craft Addiction heart die was having a first outing 

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is certainly a ladies man and not just other pooches it seems. We had a young lady Amazon driver deliver something earlier in the week and Dudley was all set to kick off - until he heard her sweet voice as Len opened the front door. Dudley screeched to a halt, dropped Honka Duck and went all 'gooey eyed'. 💓 Of course he was made a fuss off - and it was mutual. He was almost asking to become an Amazon driver after she drove off! During this warm spell Len has just left the back door open if he's out in the garden so that Dudley can come and go as he likes. And, as I guessed, he managed to get Honka outside before he was spotted. In fact he dropped Honks and went hunting around the garden doing his usual  checks that nothing is out of place! Then, once satisfied, he gently picked up Honks in his mouth and brought him indoors. Duty done!

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE. There's also information about an important change to where we will ship prizes to from now on. 

Hope to see you on the swings - come and play with us, it's always fun!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - 'Special Delivery'

My snippets cards this time are heading off to Germany very shortly. We transfer funds to Kai, Mum of our two teenage English/German Grandaughters and she pops it in cash form into a card each for the girls. I usually send unsealed but already written cards from us for her to use as it seems a little more personal. Trust me - it's much easier all round and the girls have the fun of money to spend after the festivities. So, I made each of the girls a card and envelope:

I used:

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

- the stamped image was in a Gummiapan (UK Meissen) sale a year or so ago, no name but to me he's 'Skating Reindeer'. I bought three very similar different reindeer images and they too also come with matching dies, they cost me very little and one is still to make an appearance on here!

- stamped the image onto the reverse of a Tim Holtx piece of Mixed Media card, using a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- coloured the image using Arteza Watercolour pencils and a small brush and water for blending and then die cut it - using the matching die. I made a little jig of the image for best placement - always best to pay safe after spending precious time colouring an image!

- next, took a background 'snowy hillside with frozen pond' piece of card from the KanBan 'Christmas Wobblers' backgrounds pack and die cut it using a 5.5" x 5.5" Heffy Doodle 'Stitched Squares' die - now that I knew where the skating deer should be positioned

- glued the scene panel onto the card front which left a nice white outside border

- added the white 'snippets' sentiment, already made in two layers, using my favourite Tonic Christmas sentiments die - using a  glue pen

- the final touch on the card is the reindeer in action! The mixed media card was quite robust so I just added him to the scene using thin sticky pads and the usual glue stick trick whilst placing him

- made two whilst at it of course! Finished .......... Part One!

- Part Two - the 6" x 6" envelope needed something adding to make it a little more special - initially I thought about putting the German yellow post box onto the card scene itself - with a card in the reindeer's mouth as if he was on the way to posting it. Wasn't going to work though by any stretch of the imagination! Sigh

- so, I used the German post box idea on the envelope instead. The box itself with the 'extras' are all part of a delightful Charlie & Paulchen set of small dies - called 'Weihnachts Post' (Christmas Post) - bought not long after I discovered the delights of teeny tiny dies.

- used snippets of yellow card to cut the vertical sentiment strip and the actual post box plus leftover snippets of TH Mixed Media card for the envelope and the embossed panel on the little door - showing collection times, which I edged with a border of Tombow Black brush pen. Then used a glue pen to add the 'collection times' and also the envelope to the post box. The letter box itself opens to tuck things inside - cute! Glued both the sentiment strip and the post box onto the envelope

- finally, finally, die cut the sentiment 'Special Delivery' using an unbranded die and a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card and glued that to the envelope front as well, leaving blank space above to write in the name of the recipient

I'd like to enter this card into:

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #69 - the reindeer as well as the post box dies were having a first outing!

Also Allsorts Challenge #810 - where the theme is 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas' or, 'Anything Goes'

Dudley Pupdate: a neighbour is having some indoor house alterations carried out and Dudley has generally coped well with the noises drifting over our garden .......... until the other day. We quickly realised that he was padding to and fro from the back to the front of the house upstairs and was evidently very anxious. He was terrified by an imtermittent sound and it took us a while to figure it out. Eventually it emerged that one of the numerous guys working indoors at our neighbours house was nipping outside to use a nail gun to assemble some woodwork. So it sounded like a faint shotgun such as we would hear during the hunting season around here - but much closer, for want of a better description. This is a pooch who is unfazed by storms, fireworks and thunder and lightning. But - take him out in a car OR get out of bed to get ready for the day and there's a real pantomime! He does keep us on our toes!

Speaking of Dudley, a couple of people mentioned it would be nice to see his new haircut. Instead, for now, I have a 'Spot the Dudley' photo - taken during this last week on our bed, in his favourite safe place where he'd literally built a circle of his most loved toys to act as his 'look out' spot with a bit of meditation thrown in:

I find it a rather sad photo, it's the pink around his eyes - which comes with being a fairly newly trimmed white Havanese. Aw, one of his ears was flipped back - they're like little pink shells inside. BTW, he literally gathers all the toy circle with his mouth and paws, no human intervention at all! And his chin is resting on Honka's neck .............. needless to say!

We have a new Challenge #495 being run by our lovely Sarn over HERE! AND, it's the first of our December/Christmas Challenges with more than one bumper prize bundle per challenge - go and take a look! Then get your snippets out.

Goodness knows what the latest storm Darragh has done to the Playground decorations ... just don't try to fix them back up with a nail gun, otherwise Dudley will go into total meltdown!

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - 'Decoupage Pooch'

I made this card for a local friend who has a French Bulldog - a cutie called Teddy. I couldn't find a Frenchie so had to settle for a pug. Close enough IMHO, at least I tried! 

An idea of the many layers!

I used: 

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

- a decoupage sheet by Hunkydory which was ready cut. I just trimmed off the little 'pips' holding the images to the sheet and layered then up using snipped up thin sticky pads. Including the base layer image it's eight layers high in places - so I made a box for it as well!

- then I took a piece of blue tartan paper from a Craft Consortium's Essential Papers 'Tartan' pad and trimmed it down so that the decoupage image had a background, but not too big to be overwhelmed

- my snippet is a slightly larger piece of Tonic satin effect 'Scarlet Organza' satin mirror card - pulled out from the packet which sits in a much used card stack slot  alongside where I work on my desk

- glued the blue tartan card onto the red mirror card, then glued them both onto the card front 

- then glued the dear little decoupage pooch image onto the tartan panel - all done using Collall All Purpose glue

- final touch, added the little circular 'Santa's Little Helper' sentiment from the decoupage sheet onto the bottom right corner of the image panel, using a thick Hunkydory sticky pad, and called it done! 

I'd like to enter this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #68 HERE as the decoupage sheet is NBUS - it also has a different pooch on it for another friend - me not totally daft!

And, I'd like to enter it into the current Allsorts Challenge #807 HERE, under the 'Anything Goes' option. 

Dudley Pupdate: Earlier this week, Dudley was sick again - twice. And it clicked that once again Honka  was the cause, same as last time we went through it due to being a well licked, chomped on and loved favourite companion. The new Honka had been around for four or so weeks and had an occasional bit of attention but not enough to fully take over. However, Len, immediately and unseen, hid old Honka in the shed until Dudley moved onto the new one and we braced ourselves for the fallout. 

There were some heartbreaking moments when an arrival at the door, usually a delivery, sent Dudley running, literally crying and looking frantically from room to room for old Honka. However, the breakthrough actually came on Wednesday of this week just gone when I was going out. As I headed for the front door Dudley went ballistic AND grabbed the new Honka, loved him to pieces (don't ask, just imagine) AND began to seriously cuddle him. From that moment on he's absolutely been in love with new Honka! We keep saying we should do it sooner, but how soon is soon? 

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #492 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground, it's getting colder here so no doubt hot chocolate will be available. Just scroll down from my results post - over in the Playground.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - Kitty Claws card

I made this snippets card from literally bits and pieces found easily to hand on my desk, no scrabbling around lifting heavy stuff just yet:

 

I used:

- 5.25" x 4" pale ivory linen card blank, side opening

- a snippet of pale ivory linen card, flipped to the flat reverse and stamped using a Stampendous 'Kitty Claws' stamp and a VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink pad

- the coloured snippets were already selected so I coloured the image using Polychromos pencils to perfectly match the green and rust coloured snippets - not that the camera confirms that of course!

- a snippet of sparkly rust coloured card was trimmed to form a narrow border and glued behind the trimmed image panel

- then a snippet of Tonic 'Inca Gold' iridescent mirror card was trimmed to add a narrow border behind the rust sparkly card layer, and glued in place (I favour Tonic 'Inca Gold' iridescent mirror card these days as it's such a pure colour and not at all garish as some gold mirror card can be) 

- trimmed a snippet of slightly corrugated green card (sent by a lovely blogger from The Netherlands) to just quarter of an inch smaller than the card front, ran a matching green 'Whispers' brush pen around the white edges and put it to one side the dry

- next trimmed another snippet of Tonic 'Inca Gold' card to just a tiny bit bigger than the green layer

- glued the green panel onto the gold one and then glued them onto the card front

- finally, added the small ;framed' image panel onto the card front, using thin sticky foam tape and a glue stick

- didn't add a sentiment - finished!

Apologies, I did use a lot of snippets but the leftovers were generally so tiny I didn't take a photo of them. I did add a touch of clear 'Wink of Stella' to Kitty's pompom after the photo was taken BTW.

I'd like to enter this card into:

May's 'Rudolph Days' Challenge HERE. 

The current 'Show Us Your Pussycats Challenge' HERE  is celebrating the 100th Challenge and remembering dear Ike, founder of the challenge, who left us in 2022.

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #62 HERE, the 'Kitty Claws' stamp was having its first outing

Dudley Pupdate: I've often said what a pickle Dudley is on car journeys - hollering for England non-stop. Earlier on in the week I had a post-op check-up on the first eye, which is progressing well. That exercise entails Len dropping me off, going back home and then doing it in reverse once I phone to let him know I'm ready to leave. Luckily, we don't live too far from the Clinic. So that's four car trips for Dudley per appointment - 24 trips in total by the end of this, if all goes as planned. 

Miracle of miracles, on the final two trips on Wednesday - there was hardly a peep out of Dudley. In fact, once he'd greeted me with his tail wagging like a windmill for the final drive home he curled up in his doggie booster box and went to sleep! We think that Sarn's theory that he's finally learning that whenever we go out in the car he always comes back home is spot-on! 

Sarn has just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE  Hope to see you on the swings - we have mixed weather so bring your shorts .......... as well as your wellies!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me,

Sunday Snippets - THAT postage stamp die set

Spring is really teasing us here - temperatures are rising at times and the sound of lawnmowers drifts across to us - in our easy care revamped garden. Len is a happy guy for sure, and the wildlife still visit as well. But then it rains and blows a 'Hoolie'! 

Very last minute snippets card from me - using one of the currently hugely popular 'postage stamps' set of dies in 'simple mode':

My leftover snippets of the 'Certainly Celery' papers - sob, only a few tiny scraps left now

I used:

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

- first of all I used white card, the same as the card blank, to die cut the main outline of the card topper using an unbranded die 

- then trimmed some plain SU 'Certainly Celery' card for the bottom layer and also some deep purple slightly shimmery paper for the next layer

- glued both those layers onto the card front

- then die cut the snippets of SU's 'Certainly Celery' paper pack, using the dies to match the faux apertures in the main outline

- glued the patterned snippets onto the outline die cut, using a glue pen

- then used the same glue pen to glue the whole outline panel onto the card front

- stamped the sentiment onto a snippet of white card, using a LOTV stamp from their sadly discontinued and still very much loved by yours truly 'General Greetings - Small' set of stamps - using a VersaFine Clair 'Monarch' ink pad (gorgeous colour!)

- used a SU plain small oval punch to punch out the sentiment

- used a snippet of the left over purple glimmer paper to punch out a SU scalloped small oval

- glued the white sentiment onto the purple scalloped oval

- used thin sticky pads to adhere the completed sentiment to the card front 

- added a strip of the patterned paper to the envelope flap and called it finished

I learned a few things along the way. The idea of using papers from the same colour range is better in theory than in practice.  In real life the card does them justice, but on camera and unless you're close up they really are too similar to give it that 'Wow' factor. Tiny backing layers of the purple paper to frame each of the 'Certainly Celery' panels would give more definition - but I thought of that one too late. The way to do that, IMHO, would be to die cut the purple layers for each 'aperture' then do the same with  the patterned paper but also trim a little sliver from the top and one side of those patterned papers to create a narrow margin all round the patterned paper layer. Next time, I might well give that a whirl!

 

I'd like to enter this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #61 HERE - the die set was having its first outing.

Dudley Pupdate: For the past week or so, Dudley has been rather subdued. He's eating fine but he's often in a little dream world of his own. Physically everything is working as normal but we're watching him closely and he will be off to the vet if need be - before he can even say 'I wanna treat for going'!  It could just be that, like us, he's fed up with all the damp weather and longing for Spring to arrive properly.

Having said that - he still put up a jolly good fight on his hind legs when I was grooming him yesterday afternoon. Overall the match was a draw, although I'm sure that Dudley scored a few below the belt hits! What can you do when a little fluffy white face with beautiful eyes plants itself on your 'chest shelf' and silently appeals 'Enough Mama, enough please!'?

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #476 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground! 

Love from myself and Dudley,

Sunday Snippets - HB2U

I recently made a couple of colour swatches using 'Lindy's Magical shakers' - from the 'Tea and Crumpets' shimmery range. I kept the leftover strips as they're too pretty to just ditch. And this is my snippets card using them:

I used:

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

- then die cut a further piece of the same white card using MFT's 'Diagonal Strip Sentiment Cover Up' die and popped the diagonal strips out

- trimmed another piece of the same white card to just a smidgen smaller than the diagonal strip die cut, covered one side with Stick It adhesive paper, peeled off the second backing and carefully adhered it to the back of the diagonal stripes die cut

- that meant I had nine diagonal die cut apertures in the white panel, backed with a nice sticky surface for the next step

- sorted the Lindy's Magical Shaker strips into the order I wanted 

- then used my Cuttlebug to position the strips, mostly one at a time, into the corresponding positions on the back of the die. Die cut them and then popped them into the correct apertures in the die cut white panel

- a lovely friend recently sent me a gorgeous unbranded flora die and I used it to cut a layer of black velvet card then back it with die cut plain black card for stability - all snippets of course. Such a pretty die! 

- die cut 'HB2U' using a Gummiapan die from their fairly recent Mystery Bags offer, again with black velvet card which was then backed with die cut plain black card - all snippets again

- adhered the silhouette die cut and the sentiment across and onto onto the broad white diagonal panel on the card front - using a glue pen

- finally, used very narrow double sided foam tape, with a glue stick, to adhere both the panel onto the front of the card blank

It was a pretty time consuming process but quite rewarding not to have wasted those leftover little strips of Lindy's Magical Shaker samples!

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

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #60 - HERE - some of the 'Magical Shakers', as well as the two dies I used to cut the black velvet card, were having their first outing

Dudley Pupdate: We're all longing for some consistently dry and sunny days here. Meanwhile, Dudley is still snuggling up to us during the night - although I did spot him curled up in his own bed the other night. He seems to like to have a wander around and ring the changes particularly with the night temperatures being quite variable right now. Each day, when I make our bed, I carefully straighten the little fleecy paw printed cover that Dudley has in his bed - it's a good indicator of whether or not he's using the bed as it usually looks as if he's had a wrestling match in there if he has actually slept in it! When he came to us he travelled light with a puppy sized tennis ball, a much loved Monkey toy and his fleece blanket - plus some starter food. All from the breeder to try to help him settle into his new home. It all looked terribly sad looking back. But, he had to go to a new home and we three had chosen one another.

This was within an hour of us arriving back home with the tiny scrap and we, foolishly mistakenly, thought he'd settled in already! Fast forward to during that coming night ............. with Len ending up dozing on a sofa down in the lounge, with Dudley lying on his chest, wrapped in his fleece. so that the heart beat and warmth from Len along with the smell from his doggy Mum 'Dolly' would calm down one inconsolable and almost hysterical Havanese puppy. 

Such a little guy, who Len and I now realise, had a predetermined agenda ........... which meant absolutely NO intention of sleeping alone! EVER! Bless his cotton socks! 

Remember, the results from Challenge #475 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. Hope to see you on the swings for the current challenge too - I fully expect Sarn to be gearing up ready for Easter in a week's time!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets and a 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" square cream hammered card blank - side opening

- 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

Christmas 'Joy and Cheer'

This is my snippets card to kick off challenge #448 in over in the Snippets Playground. Go HERE to join in the fun!

 

It's a bit deceiving as the vellum on top of the mirri card makes it look as if there's some pale pink card as well!

I used:

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

- first of all I wanted to cut and assemble the sentiment in order to confirm that the patterned paper I had in mind would work well - the NBUS die set I used is by Memory Box, called appropriately 'Joy and Cheer'

- die cut the actual sentiment once from white card and once from Tonic 'Rose Platinum' mirri card - both were snippets - then glued the mirri layer onto the white one for rigidity as well as dimension

- then die cut the background profile from a vellum snippet

- popped the mirri sentiment onto the vellum layer - using a glue pen 

- trimmed a piece of Tonic (Rose Platinum) mirri card to 5.5" x 5.5"

- I cut the middle out of the mirri card, in a moment of thrift, using a square die by Presscut measuring about 4.5" x 4.5" so I could save that piece for future use

- glued the mirri card 'frame' onto the card front and leveled out the centre by gluing in a piece of white card, die cut using the same square die to be a perfect fit **

- then trimmed my chosen piece of paper from the Crafter's Companion 'Frosty and Bright' paper pad - down to 5.25" x 5.25" and glued it onto the mirri edged layer

- finally, glued the vellum backed sentiment onto the card front - making sure the glue was only behind the actual lettering. The vellum is 150g so it's heatproof and quite thick but I wasn't taking any risks at that stage!

Whist at it, I made a second card exactly the same - of course. 

** The 'cutting out the centre' of the mirri card wasn't one of my better ideas to be honest. It did make gluing the mirri card frame onto the card front less easy to get straight than if it hadn't had so much of the middle removed, basically as it's not rigid of course. C'est la vie - we live and learn! It's still worth bearing in mind if you're desperately trying to get as much out of a particular piece of paper or card as possible of course. Perhaps I'll have a try at taping the 'filler insert' into the card 'frame' from behind before gluing it to the card front another time.

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #47 - the Memory Box die set was having a first outing, certainly won't be the last though.

Dudley Pupdate - we think he's going through a 'spotty teenager phase' at the moment. Seeing how far he can push the boundaries - until he's forgets himself and still comes for cuddles of course! 

One example of him being a 'rebellious kid with his baseball cap on backwards' was him going on 'hunger strike' two evenings running - purely as he could smell our meal cooking and thought he might join in and have a share! Pizza one night and boeuf bourguignon the next? I don't think so young man. Nice try though!

 

Playing with gilding flakes

In a few of Chrissie's YouTube videos, she uses gilding flakes - and that set me thinking back to when I too used to play with flakes and double sided adhesive sheet - and so, this Christmas card came about:

 

A closer peep at the shiny leaves!

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" Pale Ivory Linen Silkweave card blank (using a sheet of A4 card)  

- then covered a panel of light brown card with a snippet of double sided self-adhesive sheet before applying a coating of Cosmic Shimmer 'Mulled Wine' gilding flakes, gently patting them on at first (you don't need much!) then spreading and buffing them using a piece of 'scoochy foam'

- next, die cut the leaves using an unbranded 'Fragmented Leaves' die bought for me by a special friend - and it's probably my favourite die in the whole world right now!

- the leaves felt slightly sticky after I'd finished, so after having a little think I sprayed them with hairspray and it worked perfectly as a sealant

- more die cutting - a snippet of brown card and a Memory Box 'Woodland Branch' die - which I glued onto the card front using a glue pen

- then die cut the 'JOY' frame onto the card front. It was cut from a snippet of Craft Perfect Pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card using a Die-namics MFT 'JOY photo card frame' die

- stuck the frame onto the card front using very narrow foam strip around the edge (again I used Chrissie's trick of running a glue stick over the sticky surface of the tape before popping it in place onto the background and pressing it down - it's a real game changer!)

- die cut a sweet little bow from the same Red Velvet card, using a Gummiapan 'Rosetta' die

- and finally, popped two leaves and the bow onto the card, to 'hang' from the branch

I made four cards in total - two of the one above and two where I used a pearlised gold 'Joy' frame with the same red bow, leaves and branch, and I like both of them equally.

I'm nothing if not a keen follower of others, possibly too easily influenced for my own good, and Chrissie's videos led me to the Swedish company 'Gummiapan'. Oh my word - their little dies are so detailed and adorable! I hopped over for something else altogether - and the little bows somehow fell into my basket! Their prices are actually very reasonable - so long as you factor in postage and try not to get stung at your end for Customs Duty etc. It was a treat I tell myself and not something I would do every day! 

So - I would like to enter my card into some challenges:

First of all, Charlotte of 'Lady Joyful' runs a super challenge called 'Christmas Craft Creations' - HERE. AND, this month the theme is 'snippets'! Yay! So, I'm entering my snippets card and hope you perhaps will also follow suit. The challenge is open for another couple of weeks and it would be really great if you could steal a march on your 2023 Christmas cards and join in. 

And, of course it's our lovely Mo's Rudolph Days Challenge HERE. This is one challenge I never miss.

Plus, another 'must play along with' challenge - Darnell's NBUS Challenge - HERE. The leaf die set and the little Gummiapan bow dies are both NBUS goodies!