Sunday Snippets - 'Pink & Main' leaves

My snippets make today is actually two cards, same design featuring different colours: 

I used:

- 5" x 5" black card blank side opening

- a sheet of paper from a Stamps By Me 'Creative Watercolours' paper pack - I chose primarily pinks as well as primarily blues for the two leaf sprays

- die cut the solid part of the leaf spray using a die from Pink & Main's 'Leafy Dies 1'

- a snippet of white card from which I die cut the white leaf spray outline using the second die from pink & Main's 'Leafy Dies 1'

- glued the leaf outline onto the solid portion using a glue pen - fiddly!

- glued the leaf spray to the card front

- next came the silver sentiment, which came from my little stock of ready-foiled Julie Hickey assorted sentiments which I foiled months ago

- final touch was a sprinkling of tiny white pearls as the plain black background was too stark .... IMHO

- finished!

I'd like to enter the following challenge:

Allsorts Challenge #856 - HERE - under 'Anything Goes' 

Dudley Pupdate: We're still on a schedule of regular car outings here and Friday was a landmark! On the way back home I glanced around and Dudley was curled up having a little snooze on the back seat behind us - finally he feels relaxed enough to drop his guard and just close his eyes for a while. Yay! 

The results and winner of Challenge #538 can be found HERE .

Sarn's current challenge is halfway through over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post.  The paddling pool is still open, although by and large the temperatures have been much more bearable the past couple of days. thankfully. 

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - I'm baaaack!!

Happy Snippets Sunday, from a still very hot Hampshire. I 'dipped a toe into the water' yesterday and made a pretty simple snippets Birthday card for Dudley's 8th Birthday this Wednesday:

I used:

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

- tan/orange snippet plus a peach snippet, just trimmed using a guillotine rather than hauling dies out of their files

- the white snippet for the image is 4.25" x 4.25"

- the image was stamped using a Woodware Jane Gill 'Fuzzie Friends - Parker Puppy' stamp and Clair Nocturne ink

- a few tickles with Polychromos pencils and wrote the letter D on the pooch's dog tag (tag is gold IRL)

- then glued all the layers onto the card front

- finally added a copper (looks gold in the photo) foiled huge number 8 peeloff (from Hobbycraft eons ago) - and called it done! 

- by total luck, all items, apart from the white card blank, were on my desk already. Even the peeloff numbers were in a basket waiting to be stored away.

No challenges for me this time, I know when I've used this arm enough for one day.

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley continues to be even happier and more settled when out in the car, which is so encouraging. He will be eight years old on Wednesday - still young in Havanese potential longevity and still such a puppy at heart. When he's hoping for something, a treat, a stray piece of sausage at Christmas - and bliss, a little taste of cheese ANYTIME  - he sits exactly the same as the pup on the card! Sort of 'his most appealing and hopeful stance'.

Today he once again decided it would be nice to snuggle up against me and then bury his head right down into the outside of a thigh like a little ostrich. At one point I half expected a little handstand from him. He stays like that until you've given him loads of hugs and cuddles - and back scritches.  For some reason that seems to be his way of showing and asking for affection at the moment - which is lovely ........ unless you're sitting on the side of the bed in your undies trying to finish getting dressed at the time, Lucky he didn't end up wearing some of my clothes! 

One of Dudley's Birthday presents from me is a bandana - to go with a load he already has. It has the slogan 'Mama's Bodyguard', and a pawprint on - too cute. Somewhat ironic seeing as he would probably offer an intruder a sausage or some cheese! 

Sarn has opened up Challenge #537 in the Snippets Playground HERE. Another great prize bundle too. Sarn has been such a help the past few weeks, I can't say it often enough but she does worry about her 'street cred' if i overdo it!.

See you on the swings! A nice fresh cool breeze would be so welcome right now. Lucky folk who live really near to the sea - I envy you!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - Have a Beautiful Birthday

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

I used:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- finished! 

I'd like to enter this card into:

Allsorts Challenge #848 HERE - under 'Anything Goes'

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

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

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

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - for someone special

I recently bought a fabulous John Next Door 'pre-loved' 'Shaded Ivy' stamp and matching die. Here it is in use below:

I used:

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

- itching to try out the John Next Door stamp and die set, I picked out a snippet of Vaessen cardstock (love their products, available on Amazon!) in 'textured green' and used the reverse side of the card as the pattern/texture is 'softer' when stamping

- then used the *JND133 'Shaded Ivy' stamp and a Misti to stamp all the leaves in one go as it's a single stamp - the ink pad I used was VerseFine Clair 'Shady Lane'

- then die cut the ivy using the matching die - and that's where the magic happened. Two of the opposite corners have a triangle built into the stamp and the die has two opposing corners cut across for alignment! Therefore, the die can be perfectly  lined up with the stamped image, EVERY time! And then - you get a perfect cut of several pieces of inked and die cut ivy, in varying sizes with tow branches of ivy and plenty of different sized leaves, all at once - sheer genius!

- then I used two Papermill Direct 'Powder Pink Pearl' card from single and double sided swatches/snippets to die cut the Daisy-like flower heads - using a very old (one of my very first!) and favourite die set by Joy! called 'Daisy die set'

- used Nuvo glue to stick the flower layers together, gave the upper petals a flick and then glued them together before adding a large white pearl - from  Amazon of course-  and setting them aside

- next came a 5" x 5" white panel of the same cardstock as I had the die cut pieces to play around with by this point

- added double embossed lines around the outer edge to take away the plainess 

- backed the white panel with a very slightly larger snippet of Tonic mirror 'Inca Gold' card 

- then glued the whole panel to the card front

- next step was to juggle the pieces of die cuts around on the top layer of the card to work out just where the embellishents AND the sentiment would go 

- and then the plan just suddenly fell into place so, I stamped the sentiment! Onto the bottom right of the card front - using a well-loved stamp from Hero Arts 'Live Life' stamp set and the Clair 'Shady Lane' ink pad once again

-- next steps were to adhere the delightful ivy to the top left corner and add the pink daisies -  used teeny pieces of  slim sticky pads for the daisies! 

- almost there. I used a few blue hued butterflies from the Katy Sue set of 'Kaleidoscope of Butterflies'. Literally hundreds of double sided and already die cut little butterfly embellishments - after I'd tickled them with clear 'Wink of Stella'. Glued them in place with Nuvo glue and added some small ivy leaves at the bottom left hand corner

- finished!

* I totally adore the 'Shaded Ivy' stamp and co-ordinating die plate but, despite massively prolonged searches on your behalf, it seems that only the stamp is available - and even then it's extremely rare. For me it's a real 'winner' as a set . 

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #842- HERE.  Under 'Anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #83 - HERE. It's the gorgeous John Next Door 'Shaded Ivy' stamps and dies of course!

Dudley Pupdate: The weather here has been awful lately, we had one lovely sunny day this week but heavy rain the rest of the time. Mid-morning yesterday, Dudley must have been desperate for a wee so Len opened the back door for him ................ at which the little guy screeched to a halt, looked out at the downpour, rolled his eyes until you could see the whites and raced to hide in the lounge. Undeterred, Len chased him round the downstairs of the house a few times and finally back into the kitchen. He'd invoked 'Toilet Emergency Plan B' and this was what a CCTV camera in the conservatory picked up:

I almost cried laughing as Len donned body warmer and wellies, then grabbed our biggest umbrella to hold over Dudley ................... whilst he followed the call of nature. 😂 You don't have to be crazy to live here - but it helps!

The results of Challenge #524 are now published HERE. SO hard to just pick three entries.

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Happy Birthday'

For a change from Christmas cards, my snippets card this week is a Birthday one:

I used: 

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

- snippet of the same white card, trimmed to 5.5" x 4.25" and then run through the Gemini using a pierced edge die from the Spellbinders 'Pierced Rectangles' A2  set of dies. A very kind blogging friend gifted the set to me a little while ago. It's hard to see in the photo but I left the die in place and, from the back, ran a ball-ended embossing tool around the inner edge of the die to raise the centre portion. What a difference it makes (in real life, unless you press your nose against the screen for a closer look!)

- then stamped the background using a VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' inkpad and a Gummiapan 'Happy Birthday text'  stamp I've had for ages, waiting to be used

- next, I stamped the flower onto the card front panel using a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' inkpad - and at the same time stamped it onto a snippet of Strathmore Mixed Media card. The stamp is unnamed and by Crafty Roo

- the 'Strathmore' flower was coloured using a cute unbranded set of 24 metallic watercolour paints - having its first outing

- I added a little green to the lower part of the flower on the actual card front before fussy cutting the leaves and flower head and running a black Tombow pen around the edges

- then paper pieced the flower head and leaves onto the stamped flower on the card front panel using a glue pen

- glued the whole front panel to the card front

- final touch was the addition of five SU purple glossy dots in the bottom left corner - finished! 

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

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

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #81 HERE - my three NBUS items are the Gummiapan and Crafty Roo stamps - plus the set of metallic watercolour paints

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE.  It's our second December Prize Draw with mystery prize bundles to be won!

Dudley Pupdate: With Christmas fast approaching Dudley has found plenty to shout bark at - the postman both delivering and collecting post, umpteen delivery drivers, neighbours popping cards through the letterbox and so on. Dudley certainly knows that something's afoot!

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas! 🎅🎄🎄🎄🎄🎅

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - By the sea

I bought a die not so long ago and used it the other day for my snippets card below:

I used:

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

- first thing to tackle was the actual die cutting of the beach huts, which proved to be a mental agility test! 

- die cut the complete row of die cut beach huts in one single strip from a snippet of plain white card and, I confess, looked at them on and off for a whole day in between doing other Christmassy preparations such as finishing off writing Christmas cards

- eventually, given that I wanted to inlay the red and blue pieces, I decided to snip the white die cuts apart and treat each beach hut seperately. That worked for me as I could take it step by step

- drew around the complete row of beach huts dies onto a snippet of white card, backed with a snippet of  Stick-It adhesive sheet

- then very carefully trimmed the outline down to a whisker inside the actual outline cutting line - phew!

- snipped each sticky backed beach hut apart - easier than it sounds I promise, and then peeled off the adhesive side backing before sticking each one onto the reverse of its matching beach hut - sticky side showing through the holes and strips in the design!

- then took snippets of the same red and blue card that I planned to use for the background 'frame' and, one by one, die cut each beach hut all over again. Only this time I carefully placed the coloured die over its matching 'white base' and gently poked the small pieces in place. It wasn't infallible as some tiny pieces needed real encouragement so it took ages, but not one tiny piece escaped!!

- once the huts were complete I set them aside in a little plastic dish for safety - didn't want any disasters after all that work

- used a backgound snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card, trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and glued onto the card front 

- next a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Navy Dazzle' card trimmed very slightly to 5" x 3.75" was glued onto the red layer

- then took a piece of paper from the unbranded 'Sea Wave' pack, sold by Amazon. and  trimmed it down to 4.55" x 3.5", and glued it onto the outline 'frame' on the card front

- the next step was to stamp the sentiment, I used VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink and a NBUS stamp from the lovely Penny Black NBUS 'without limits' set of stamps'

- glued the beach huts in a row along the shoreline and suddenly the card sprang to life!

- final touch was to add three teeny white seagulls, using a Gummiapan die - the end! 

The middle beach hut has a partly cut door which I gently scored at the hinge side and opened, then popped a die cut rectangler in red behind the open door - just for fun. 

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #838 - HERE. The theme is ' New' - or 'Anything Goes'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #81 - HERE. The unbranded 'Beach huts' die and the Penny Black sentiment stamp set were having their first outing

Dudley Pupdate: We're ahead of ourselves for once here and the Christmas tree is now decorated plus most of the other indoors stuff is done. Len did the outside lights etc. a week or two ago. Indoors we had Christmas music playing to add to the atmosphere and I set to and opened up the tree decorations. At that point I thought Dudley was about to explode with excitement, skipping about almost squeaking in delight! He loves anything sparkly - and the mere rustle of tissue paper sends him off into paroxyms of sheer joy. The lounge is all done and only one or two hours work, if that, remain to pop up some other special decorations.

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #520 are now published HERE . 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down from the results post. It's our big Christmas giveaway draw and well worth playing along.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Peace Love and Belly Rubs'

We celebrated Dudley's 7th Birthday with him during the week - and this is the card I made from Len and myself for the little pickle:

I used:

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

- snippet of the same brand of white card for the image panel - trimmed to 5" x 3.75"

- stamped the image of puppy and parrot onto the panel using a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad  and coloured it using polychromos pencils before writing a 7! x onto the balloon. The stamp is from a long discontinued SU 'Bella and Friends' stamp set - SO Dudley!

- then die cut the sentiment twice using a NBUS fun die by Poppystamps called (naturally) 'Peace, Love and Belly Rubs' - using a snippet of paper from the Altenew 'Enchanting Washes' paper pack

- when time came to double layer the sentiment, it was going to be very tricky to totally line up the two layers - so I just glued one layer onto the image panel. It's such a detailed die cut but the design thankfully keeps its shape well

- then popped the fallout from the heart shapes in both die cuts above the sentiment

- glued the image panel onto a 5.25" x 4" snippet of plain toning blue card

- finally, added the completed panel to the card blank using narrow foam strips

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #76 - HERE. The sentiment die was havibg its first outing!

Allsorts Challenge #828 - HERE. Under 'Anything Goes'

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley Dog had a lovely Birthday - many thanks for the good wishes, cards and even some doggie treats! As usual he's been keeping us, mostly Len, on our toes. I slept right through the performance but during Friday night Dudley was very restless and eventually climbed on top of Len in bed and stared right into his face. Once shooed away he apparently then insisted on standing on his hind legs beside Len's bedside and tapping at him for attention. He'd just been out into the garden but off they went outside again - just in case. Eventually he settled down - and then this morning Len found one of Dudley's favourite bedtime treats laying on the top of his bedside cabinet. It seems he'd forgotten to give it to Dudley - but that little guy knew fine well it was there waiting for him!!

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #508 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - just scroll down - there's a lovely prize bundle! 

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Magnolia'

A very special friend had a Birthday last month - and this is the card I made for her: 

I used:

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

- snippet of the same white card stock as well as a snippet of Tonic's mirror 'Inca Gold' card stock to die cut the outer frame using a pair of dies by Maximim Crafts HERE. I love the effect of these dies - instant elegance .......  IMHO of course 

- glued the white frame on top of the gold frame - thereby giving two narrow gold edges to the white frame and then glued it onto the card front

- then die cut the parts for the magnolia - using an unbranded die set called 'Magnolia Curved Branch' and snippets of pink and green ombre papers from Lawn Fawn's 'Watercolor Wishes' ombre paper pad - and again I used some white die cut card apertures to help to position where to die cut the pink flowers

- glued the curved branch, assembled magnolia flowers and additional leaves onto the card front

- added a few touches of gold pen to the magnolia flowers

- the sentiment is actually pre-folied in gold and already die cut - made by Pinkfresh - and I added it to the card front using a couple of pieces of thin sticky pad

- the final touch was a few Memory Box self adhesive clear 'Fairy Drops'

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

- Allsorts Challenge #823  'Anything goes' HERE 

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #74 HERE - the Magnolia Branch die set was having a first outing 

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

Dudley Pupdate: It's been a better week with Len's jaw problems this week, although I did get in touch with the surgery for an extension of the antibiotics as he's not quite out of the woods yet. I do think that just five days of treatment was a bit optimistic - particularly as the usual course is 7 or 10 days - and am hopeful that this repeat course wlll really knock it on the head. When Len went to collect them, Dudley literally put his head onto Honka Duck and cried like a baby. One day I'll take a short video of him in action - heartbreaking. I kept telling him that 'Dad' hadn't run away, but he was too busy being a drama queen to actually take any notice - bless his little paws.

However, Dudley is at least much less worried about Len's health than he was this time last week, and I find that reassuring as well. As I'm typing this he's flat on his back - on MY side of the bed well into the land of nod! Dudley of course - not Len! The 'patient'/'impatient' is sitting in bed watching the evening news on 'Tee Vee'.

Hope to see you on the swings - come and play with us, it's always fun! The weather has been less warm that it was this time last week but it heating up again - doubtless Sarn will be supplying hot/cold drinks to suit!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

xxxxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Dragonfly'

I signed up for Gummiapan's Easter Calendar and what fun it was opening a packet each day before and over Easter weekend. Day 7 revealed a gorgeous dragonfly along with two other dies - and so today's 'Dragonfly' card took flight: 

I used: 

- DL white card blank, side opening

- a Tonic Pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' snippet, trimmed to leave an eigth of an inch on all sides - and set aside for now

- one side of another white DL card blank, die cut using a NBUS die from Phil Martin's Slender Collection called 'Eyelets'

- then die cut the inner part of that panel using an unbranded die I've had for well over a year called 'Christmas Bubble' and glued it to the pearlescent gold layer

- next it was the turn of the patiently waiting dragonfly die so I found a snippet of white card to die cut the whole dragonfly in one go - a useful step as I used it later on

- next, I pulled out the much loved Honey Bee 'Team Tie Dye' paper pad - and in the back where I keep leftover snippets in a little pocket - I found a snippet of mottled green/blue paper, yay!

- used the aperture left from cutting out the plain white dragonfly to find the best spot on the snippet of green/blue paper - and then die cut the dragon fly and set it aside after, trimming off the feelers and the tail portion - right up to the body level, ouch!

- then I snipped the white dragonfly die cut down to just body and feelers, all intact and coloured them using really ancient Whispers markers - still going strong as well! I used brown for the body and black for the eyes and feelers 

- the wings needed something before being added to the dragonfly body/tail etc. - but I truly didn't feel like pulling out clear embossing powder etc. plus the faff of the heat gun just for one small item

- and so I crossed my fingers and experimented on a little snippet of the green/blue paper using clear nail polish ................ with success! So, I then used the same clear nail polish to coat the dragonfly wings for some lovely shine and shimmer and did a happy dance. THAT is my BIG tip for today, it certainly works fine on small areas - I imagine larger areas would deserve the effort of being fully clear heat embossed!!!

- once the wings had dried I then added the body feelers and tail part using a glue pen

- then added the completed dragonfly to the die cut 'bubbles' feature

- popped a 'Happy Birthday' sentiment, ready foiled and die cut by 'Pinkfresh' underneath the die cut bubbles before adding a few die cut 'Majestic Gold' spots and dots made using a snippet of card and the same 'bubbles' die

- finally, added the whole panel to the card blank using very narrow foam strips - and called it done!

Kudos to our lovely Glennis over in NZ for the idea to use a dragonfly with the bubble die - many thanks once again for the inspiration! I abandoned my original dragonfly die I had in mind in favour of the Gummiapan one.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge #822 HERE - EDIT:  Brenda and Val both pointed out that 'Come Fly With Me' sung by Frank Sinatra was very apt for their theme of 'Inspired by a Song'

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #73 HERE- all the dies I used were having a first outing

Dudley Pupdate: A mixed week here. Len and I had our Covid vaccinations over a week ago - both of us felt it was a little vicious for some reason. I'm now fine but Len has been unwell for just over a week now with neuralgia affecting one side of his jaw along with flu like symptoms. Today's research by yours truly shows that it can be a rare side effect of vaccination - great huh!. The worst part for him is that he can barely open his mouth to eat - and there are only so many ways to dress up a can of soup! We've progressed to adding some small cooked macaroni to tomato soup and now a little bit of well chopped cooked chicken and mashed up croquette, in chicken soup this evening - Saturday. Progress but very slow and painfull for Len.

I do think that slowly he is improving but of course it means that we have to make a decision about future Covid vaccinations, when the time comes. Little nurse Dudley has been doing a sterling job - barely letting Len out of his sight and cuddling up against him whenever possible to give comfort. I swear that little guy wears an invisible nurse's uniform! 

We have a new Challenge #505 being run by our lovely Sarn, over HERE. The weather forecast is supposedly set for a mini heatwave this coming week - be sure to bring a towel at the very least as the paddling pools will be out (and a cossie ............. skinny dipping isn't allowed). I'm sure that Sarn will be serving some refreshing cold drinks up in the treehouse. If you don't want to climb the ladder - just shout your order up and she will lower it down in a basket for you. 'Room service anyone?'

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - 'Art Deco - take two'

I really liked the Altenew card I made previously in an 'Art Deco' style - so when Altenew then brought out a set of 'Art Deco' frame dies, I was pushing my way to the front of the queue, of course:

I die cut the black flower outline using the fall out from cutting the frame

I used:

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

- a snippet of Tonic satin effect 'Black Velvet' card, literally just a tad larger than the size of the card front

- die cut it using Altenew's 'Deco Cover' die set  (three dies in the set BTW) - the largest one fits the USA A2 size perfectly. I used the satin effect 'Black Velvet' card to do this step and struggled a LOT. The usual issue of intricate dies cuts not wanting to leave the die itself was problem but I used waxed paper and that really helped a lot. Then the card itself wanted to keep 'peeling' its layers even as I gently worked with it. In future I think a perfectly plain and black all through card would work best with this particular naughty die! To be fair, it's the first Tonic card stock item I've ever found to be difficult - and thinking back, the same one on more than one occasion as well!

- once done, and  after lie down in a darkened room, I then glued the frame to the card front using a glue pen

- next came the flower - using a die by Altenew called 'Streamlined Sprig' and first I die cut the outer lines of the flower sprig, using the fallout from cutting the Art Deco frame - worked really fine just using my baby Altenew die cutting machine

- backed the flower heads and the leaf using little mauve and green snippets of shaded paper I found in the back of my much loved Lawn Fawn 'Watercolor Wishes' paper pad - I never throw a scrap of that paper out, so useful!

- then I could play with the Misti and the assembled 'sprig topper' to work out the right place to stamp the sentiment - using a piece of square printed clear acetate for alignment before doing a test  stamp onto the acetate to check, and then stamping a stamp from Woodware's 'Deco Sayings' onto the card itself (also used VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink). All inking was easily wiped off the Misti and the acetate with a Lawn Fawn Shammy  BTW

- finally, I then glued the flower sprig in place and called it a wrap!

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 73 - HERE. The Altenew 'Deco Cover' set of dies were out for a first play

Allsorts Challenge #820 - HERE. The current challenge is 'Spring Flowers' but I doubt if these are any season really - so am entering under 'Anything Goes' 

Dudley Pupdate: This week Dudley (on Monday morning) was sick after spending time sucking his beloved Honka, sure sign it needs to be changed. Len just grabbed old Honka and marched off with him, Honks, to the bin. Monday is collection day so no second chances there - poor old Honks! And then he came back with ..... yes, another duplicate fresh Honka from Mama's store in the garage and plonked it in front of Dudley - no arguments allowed. Talk about 'tough love'. Dudley was almost sat in shock - me too kiddo! Dudley and I were just looking at one another for a while.

But how odd, an hour or so later, the postie called with a delivery - and Dudley always runs for his precious Honka before he goes into meltdown. He was so distraught that he grabbed new Honka without even thinking .................... and they've been best friends ever since!  Hmm?!

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #502 are now published HERE.

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - we have glorious sunshine right now and need help with putting up a gazebo or two, to protect those little freckled faces! Dudley, on his little stilts, will be at the ready for you to pay attention to his 'barked' directions. 

As if! That always reminds me of the indignant image of a sweet little white puppy, with the caption 'Today I barked at the postman ................... then he laughed'!  Oh, and already - Dudley's hair is growing back at a rate of knots! Hooray!!

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - Large Iris card

I was sent some happy mail recently by a lovely friend, many thanks again - you know who you are! I wanted to dive in and use one of the stamps right away - fetch your sunshades folks if things are a bit too bright for you:

 

I used:

- 7" x 5" 'Pale Ivory' linen card blank, side opening

- a snippet of 'Pale Ivory' linen card measuring 3.75" x 5.75" for the embossed background - which I embossed using a NBUS Penny Black embossing folder called 'noted'

- a snippet of 'black velvet' card stock to back the embossed layer as a frame, measuring 4" x 6" - then glued both layers together and set them to one side

- used the iris stamp from the newly gifted Oakwood 'Joys of Spring - Snowdrop and Iris' set of stamps plus a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad to stamp the entire flower and stem onto another snippet of 'Pale Ivory' linen card and carefully trimmed right around the image using small scissors

- then used the same stamp to pick out three distinct parts (main part of the flower, deeper centre and the green stem) using the same 'Nocturne' ink pad and a single sheet of paper from the Honey Bee Stamps 'Team Tie Dye' paper pad 

- ran a black TomBow brush pen right around all the pieces, patterned ones as well as the plain one

- trimmed the flower and stem parts and glued them onto the previously stamped image using a glue pen

- glued the completed flower onto the backing layer of 'black border with embossed script' - and once again the camera plays tricks, the embossing is really clear in real life!

- then, used a pre-lettered and ready die cut sentiment from a Lou Collins Epheremera 'Words and Letters' pack of sheets, NBUS as well - gently coloured it using a soft brush and swipe of Distress Oxide 'crackling campfire' onto the Tonic glass mat that I always work on. Spritzed the Distress 'swipe' with water to tone down the density before picking it up with the soft brush and gently colouring the sentiment

- the iris stem obviously stood proud of the embossed layer so I used small pieces of thin foam tqpe pads to build a 'bridge over the stem' on the back of the sentiment before then popping it onto the card

- finally, added the finished panel to the card blank using thin foam tape strips - finished!

Normally I stamp straight onto a panel or the card front when paper piecing - but figured out that the embossing was going to cause issues if I didn't add the flower as one entity with a flat backing ......... and I wanted to use the embossing folder, so there! It did add to the process - didn't think that one through beforehand though.

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 72 - HERE. The flower stamp, embossing folder plus the pre-printed and die cut sentiment were all waiting for an outing - a happy trio 

Allsorts Challenge #818 - HERE  The current challenge is CAS but I think I'd better add this in under 'Anything Goes' as it is pretty much in your face!

Dudley Pupdate: This afternoon, Saturday, Dudley pulled such a cute trick before he went into the back garden to help Len with replenishing the bird seed etc. The hedgies are already stirring and coming looking for food, so that means extra work keeping them clean and fed/watered. Dudley stood right at the top of the stairs really to go outside, and all you could see was Honka Duck in Dudley's mouth - with a pair of bright eyes peering over the top. Len and I were talking about something else at the same time as Dudley was waiting and it was just as if he was at Wimbledon! Duck in mouth and head swivelling from side to side as he looked up at us! Just a little vignette - but a really sweet moment, sometimes small things can be the most precious.

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #500 are now published HERE.  

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground - we're back to our usual routine after so many mystery prizes and special giveaways.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx