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 - '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

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, 

Rudolph Days Challenge - August 2024

Crumbs, August already - apparently some shops are already stocking their shelves with Christmas goodies, mostly chocklit of course, perleease!!

This is my offering for both the Rudolph Days Challenge and also the Christmas Kickstart Challenge - two Monthly Challenges I try very hard not to miss: - plus two other favourites:

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" pale ivory linen card blank, side opening

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

- stamped the image onto a snippet of pale ivory linen card on the plain reverse for smoother blending, using a VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink pad

- coloured the image using Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils and Sansodor blending solution and then die cut it - using the matching die. I made a little jig of the image for best placement!

- tickled the bauble on the reindeer's antlers using Clear 'Wink of Stella' and put it to one side

- next, took a background 'snowy hillside' piece of card from the KanBan 'Christmas Wobblers' backgrounds pack and die cut it using a 5" x 5" Heffy Doodle 'Stitched Squares' die - now that I knew where the ski-ing deer should be positioned

- next step was to trim a piece of Tonic pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card down to 5.25" x 5.25" square to back the 'scene' panel

- glued the red panel and the scene together and then glued them onto the card blank

- added the sentiment, already made in two layers, in my favourite Tonic Christmas sentiments pot - using a  glue pen

- the final touch is the reindeer in action! I backed him with a blank die cut for stability and then 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.

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

- Rudolph Days Challenge - August 2024

- Christmas Kickstart #89 - Animal Antics

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge #65 - the Gummiapan reindeer stamp and matching die were NBUS

And last but never least:

Allsorts Challenge #795 - Delightful Animals

I thoroughly enjoyed being able to see again properly with my new glasses whilst making these cards. But the very best thing is to be able to pick up a magazine or book with smallish print and be able to read it properly. Bliss!

See you on Sunday for a new Snippets Challenge!

Sunday Snippets - wine anyone?

There's a new Challenge being run by Sarn, over in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

My snippets card for today went through a couple of rethinks, before I ended up making this:

Two small black leftover snippets after die cutting the bottle and glasses, twice

I used:

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

- first of all I die cut a ' wine bottle with wine glasses' outline shape twice, using an unnamed die that's been languishing here for ages waiting to be used, then layered them on top of one another using a Zig glue pen. I used some leftover snippets of black card, squirrelled away from a delivery of Royal Mail postage stamps a couple of Christmases ago! 

- piece of white card onto which I stamped the background words, using Gummiapan's 'wines' background stamp (bought in a sale and now seems to be discontinued) and VersaFine's Clair 'Tulip Red' ink pad

- next, stamped the sentiment using a piece of grid-lined acetate on top of the stamped background to line up the small stamp properly and do some test runs before actually printing onto the card panel - for which I used the 'Carpe Vinum - Seize the Wine' Gummiapan stamp and VersaFine's Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- only then, did I die cut the main panel (using a die from a lovely set by 'The Works' - bought a long while ago for minimal outlay and so useful)

- then used a snippet of silver mirror card - brand unknown - to trim a 'frame' to fit behind the main stamped panel. There was so little left of the piece I used that the slivers went straight into the waste bin

- added the 'wine bottle and glasses die cut' using Stix2 Micro Dots and gently rolled over them with a Tim Holtz small brayer to be sure they were fully adhered

- glued the front panel onto the silver outline using Collall All Purpose glue

- then added the entire front panel onto the card front using thin strips of self-adhesive foam tape - and the glue stick trick

- all finished!

The stamps are lovely, but they're unmounted red rubber - hence the extra things I had to bear in mind and do to line them up properly. Also having to use a glue stick or similar to adhere them to the Misti lid was more messy than clear stamps for sure!

I do love the clever background stamp (in hindsight, a deeper wine red might have been better but I didn't want to lose the impact of the die cut) and the sentiment did make me smile - a lovely play on Carpe Diem (Seize the Day).

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #59 HERE. The 'wine bottle and glasses die' plus both Gummiapan stamps were having a first outing.

Dudley Pupdate: It's been a rough week here with Len becoming more unwell with what initially seemed like a tummy bug. He's now in hospital for at least a couple of days for tests etc. Dudley stayed beside him so much - providing his own special support - he certainly has a little invisible nurse's uniform hidden away! Right now, the little guy is spending most of his time sitting, or lying, at the top of the stairs watching the front door - just waiting for Len to come home. And he even left half his evening meal today, a sign that he's probably pining. 

With love from Dudley and myself, 

Bunny is going on holiday

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

I used:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I used:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 /) /)
 (-.-)
0_(“)(“)

It's that Easter Bunny again!

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

I used:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Playing around with Gummiapan dies

Chrissie Stokes on YouTube is a huge fan of the Swedish company 'Gummiapan' and I can absolutely see why. Their sweet and quirky little dies in particular are SO detailed, very reasonably priced - and postage to the UK is very fair as well.

So, I had a first play the other week and came up with this 'one-off' Christmas card, making up a story as I went along:

I used:

- 5" x 5" square white card blank, cut from Syntego 'White Linen Silkweave' textured card stock, scored, folded and trimmed to size

- then used the flat/plain side of the leftover snippets to make the die cuts for the card of the card - hence no photo of just a bunch of white snippets

- I did cut a piece of the same linen weave card for the image layer, just a bit smaller from another sheet - my middle name isn't Houdini!

- and then the fun began and I used the leftover snippets of white card to die cut a selection of Gummiapan dies - teeny and so sweet as well. I used the following sets, 'Sitting Gnome', 'Fluffy Trees', 'Gift Bags' and 'Lantern with Candles'

- coloured them with my Ziggy Pens and then whined to you lot about how 'flat' the colours looked, even after spraying them with some clear Glimmer Mist

- for the sake of not ruining my work, held off playing any further with coatings and sprays

- the little lantern was a late addition and such fun to make - die cut the lantern and candles from white card, same as all the rest. Coloured the lantern frame with a silver calligraphy pen then decided it would be fun to add some clear acetate (from a snippet of packaging) to look like glass. It looks so good in real life, with the candles stuck in place behind the acetate, using micro dots

- then added all the elements to create a little scene whilst trying to stick to a bit of CAS too

- before sticking things down - using a mix of glue and mini glue dots, I did run some grey Pro marker 'grounding' lines along the bottom of the image panel

- then stuck every little piece into place - even the gift bags are so detailed, one has a teeny lifting handle for goodness sake!

- once everything was in place - I added a spare layered sparkly silver die cut sentiment (another snippet?) that I found in a little pot, left over from my 2022 Christmas card making sessions 

- glued the whole panel onto the card front - finished!

My little story, woven around the card, is that Papa Gnome had been last minute Christmas shopping. Buying his personal gifts for his beloved wife, Mama Gnome. He was well on the way home, but was also really tired from all the other male Gnomes fighting and jostling in a panic just before Christmas. Then he, then spotted a little candle lantern in the woods beckoning to him, beside a tall tree - so he dropped his shopping and immediately leaned back for 40 winks! The gift bags are now leaning against the Gnome's leg! That's the thing with glue dots - they can move around a bit!

This did remind me of many years ago when I worked in Newcastle City Centre and we were rather cruelly made to wait on the 'whims of senior management' but usually did get 'let out' slightly early on Christmas Eve. I loved to walk up the 'main shopping street', all lit with Christmas lights, where the biggest department stores were, to the bus station, past the likes of Fenwicks etc. and quietly smile at the last minute 'male buyers' straight from the pub or an office party. 'Weebling into the stores' .... totally at the mercy of the awaiting and smiling perfume, jewellery and lingerie shop assistants! At that stage they truly didn't care what they spent! Memories!

This past week was kinda busy with this and that, including the optician for me on Tuesday just gone. Absolutely no change, which is really interesting given the cataracts panic button business three years ago by my previous optician. I have total trust in my current practice though - which is a good feeling. If you find a good optician then try to stick with them. Avoid the ones who are there purely to sell their latest frames.

Dudley was 'super-charged' from Monday morning onwards! As soon as we stirred he hopped back up onto the bed, licking, bouncing and generally trying to wake us up - PRONTO! It shows how down he must have felt after the vaccines - it was like having a Jack-in-a-Box in our bedroom!

We've had some warmer days lately so he's had loads of walkies this week and that too has given him some more 'bounce'. Won't be long before it's warm enough for me to go along as well - yay!

Remember that we're halfway through Sarn's Challenge #447 and the latest picks and prize winner are over HERE on the Snippets Playground!

Love, as always, Dudley and yours truly xxx