Tumbling numbers Birthday card

Today's card is my snippets card for our new Challenge over at The Snippets Playground HERE.

I made it for Len's Great-Nephew, Ben, whose Birthday is actually on Halloween (every year too, ☺) - so I used Halloween colours in keeping with our optional Playground theme of Autumn/Halloween. 

I must stress that this card is an absolute CASE of a card that won Nicky a Gold Star HERE back in November 2018. I notice that our lovely Nicky hasn't posted anything on her blog since July so, if you're looking in Nicky, do think about coming for a little play, you are missed. Many thanks for the inspiration from several of your past entries!

 

I used:

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

- all snippets were already on my desk, the black card is good quality watercolour card, left from some I was playing with

- cut a deep purple backing layer and a slightly smaller black one for the main panel and set them aside

- die cut the numbers from deep purple and neon orange using a die set of 'candle numbers' from The Works. I trimmed the flame off the top of each die cut, to keep the card as masculine as possible 

- then die cut the 'Birthday Wishes' sentiment using another snippet of deep purple and an Impression Obsession 'Birthday Top Edgers' die

- glued the purple 'tumbling numbers' to the piece of already trimmed to size black card, leaving some of them overlapping the left hand edge

- then glued the sentiment in place, followed by the orange 21

- flipped the panel over and trimmed off the overlaps from the back

- glued the black panel to the deep purple surround then glued that onto the card front

- finished!

I just popped over the The Works' website to see what dies they might be selling right now. I knew the candle numbers - which were their own M&C brand - had long been discontinued. I was sorry to see that they no longer sell any dies under the M&C name - such a shame. That set of candle numbers only cost me £4 - and I also hit lucky with a few other die sets back in 2017/18. All of them were super value and are excellent cutters, sigh. There ARE a smattering of the dies (the actual brand to look for is M&C) on eBay - I ought to know as I just whipped in and bought a couple of brand new sets for the Playground Toy box, yay! Needless to say at slightly inflated prices but still jolly good value, particularly when you take free postage into account. However, the eBay M&C pickings are pretty thin on the ground now.

So, it's a new Snippets Challenge - Halloween is almost here - go and check out the theme! 

Tomorrow (Monday) is Halloween itself and, after a couple of years of abstinence, we're going to 'set up shop' for trick or treaters.

Dudley 'Pupdate': Dudley speaking - well, what can I say? The week has been very wet and I hate wet paws so have had to be (yet again) physically lifted up and dumped out into the garden a few times. One or other of my 'hoomans' then stays on guard beside the door making sure I do what I've been put out to do. Something called 'Halloween' is on the horizon and the 'pawrents' have been wafting around trying on silly outfits, messing around and planning things for Monday evening. Ha, little do they know that I intend to bark and howl at every single person coming to do 'trick or treat' here - until I have a cuddle of course. Mama has given me a choice of TWO different Halloween bandanas - I like them both so will be doing costume changes throughout the whole evening - leaving the pawrents exhausted and vowing to never, ever to do it again! Snigger! x

Finally, did you remember to change your clocks?

With love from Di and Dudley,

 

Rudolph Days Challenge October 2022

It's the latest Rudolph Days Challenge, over at ScrappyMo's - and here's my entry:

I used:

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

- a very slightly smaller panel of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' pearlescent card

- then a slightly smaller again layer of patterned paper by Magnolia called 'A Christmas Story - Angels Calling'

- then die cut the holly sprig from a snippet of white card using Penny Black's 'Holly and Berry Branch' die - also die cut the berries area from a snippet of red card

- dug out what ended up as five lightish green small sized stamp pads - from SU and also Tsukineko then used a couple of small makeup blending brushes to colour the leaves

- coloured the 'twig' part of the die cut as well as the very parts where the leaves join the twig with a brown Zig marker and coloured the berries with a red Zig marker

- carefully fussy cut around the red die cut berries and glued that piece on top of the main die - it was a perfect match so really I hadn't needed to colour the berries, that was done in case I slipped up at all with the fussy cutting

- then glued the holly and berry die cut onto the card front

- added a Memory Box 'Christmas Fairy Dewdrops' embellishment to each holly berry

- die cut the sentiment using Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas' die, one from a snippet of Majestic Gold card and the top layer from another snippet of the same red card I'd used for the berries. Then glued them together, before giving the finished sentiment a coating of clear Wink of Stella and giving it a short time to dry

- glued the sentiment in place using a glue pen - finished

Love how those berries shine in a muted way! There's some 'light bounce back' in the centres - but in real life it's not there). I fished the lovely 6" x 6" sheet of Magnolia patterned paper out of a box I rummaged around in about a week ago for the green and gold backing paper for the poinsettia cards I made. The contents date back to around 2008! There might be one or two sheets of the same paper still lurking in there for duplicates - but I know it's long been discontinued, sigh, a shame as it's such a gentle and soft pattern which makes a nice Christmas background without overly dominating the card. My quest is to try to checkpoint myself and see if there are more pieces of the same patterned paper to be used for duplicates - especially now that it's been made once. Always makes re-iterations simpler.

It was a first outing for the Memory Box dewdrops, as well as the Penny Black holly die, so I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #43.

 

Poinsettias for Christmas

The current Challenge #67 over at Christmas Kickstart has a lovely theme - 'Poinsettias and Posies'. I finally found time to make a couple of cards, exactly the same, as my entry. Here's one of them:

I used:

- a white DL card, tent fold - which actually ended up at 8.25" x 3.75" to look more balanced

- dug out a couple of identical pieces of very old patterned paper by Craft Creations called 'old Christmas Wording on Green Texture' and trimmed them down to 8" x 3.25"

- die cut three apertures from the paper using a NBUS MFT 'Slimline Stitched Square Trio' die - and put the centre square's waste to one side for later use

- then glued the patterned paper onto a piece of Tonic 'Inca Gold' Mirror card

- using snippets of white card I die cut three squares using the MFT die and inset two of them in the outer apertures

- ran a gold Calligraphy pen around the edge of the square of white card waste I'd set aside a couple of steps back and glued it and the 'set aside' patterned centre square's waste together, then added it onto the centre aperture using 2mm thick large sticky pads. The gold edge was really so that, from the side, the edges of the square wouldn't look stark white - and it works well. I initially had tried just having it flush to the rest of the card front but raising it on foam pads really made such a difference

- in fairness, I made the poinsettias right at the start of making the card as i wasn't sure if the aperture's would be the right size etc.

- to make the poinsettias I used the NBUS dies in the Sizzix dies by Tim Holtz called 'Seasonal Sketch' - and snippets of Tonic ''Red Velvet' pearlescent and 'Inca Gold' Mirror card

- then glued the slightly offset gold layers on top of the red ones, before finally adding them to the card front

- finished - another two for the box!

The patterned paper that I used is so lovely in real life (I also have some in deep blue as well as in rich deep red) - the 'information strip as most 12" x  12" papers  do bear, shows that the design goes back to 2008! And that was in the days when I bought a lot of my stuff from Craft Creations. You chose from either a paper catalogue or a very clunky online 'shop' - and then submitted your order on a paper order form, which you posted off with a cheque for the relevant amount. It all seems rather pre-historic now. ☺ 

One lesson I learnt is that the 'stitched edge' to the three apertures doesn't show up well on dark quite heavily patterned paper. However, the die will be really great on plain paper and card of course - plus it guarantees that all three squares are lined up properly!

I'd also like to enter my card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #43. The poinsettia dies and also the MFT 'Slimline Stitched Square Trio' die had their first outing.

No news to report from Dudley. Right now he's cuddled up on our bed with Honka Duck (still the same old duck, bad mistake to let him see the old one after we'd hidden it and given him a new one). With all this wet weather, which he hates, it's not been easy shoe-horning him out into the garden to go toilet - just before bed in particular. He seems to have magnets built into his paws and rear end and you just can't budge him! Len has had to physically lift him outside - whereupon he then wees for England (Dudley not Len!) - which shows that he would have been pestering to go out in the early hours of the morning - little tinker!  

A little message for those to whom I promised to send decorative flowers and such during my proposed 'sort out' session. Basically I hit a mobility problem as well as a nasty leg infection so they are still on hold, for now. Don't give up - I will get there, I have your addresses and .... I need the space!

There's a new post over in The Snippets playground, with the results of Challenge #438 - HERE.

Happy Birthday to Len!

Yesterday was Len's Birthday - and Dudley commissioned a card for his beloved 'Dad' from me:

I used:

- DL white card blank, side opening

- snippet of black card, trimmed to a bit smaller than the card front and glued in place

- another snippet, this time of white card, trimmed to a bit smaller than the black layer

- then dug out my Altenew 'Poured Acrylic' paper pack and cut into a whole new sheet! Basically to add one and a half inch bands across the top and bottom of the white panel

- die cut the Creative Expressions 'Mini Woof' using a turquoise snippet from the patterned piece of the 'Poured Acrylic' paper - so I could check the alignment of everything

- then used Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink to stamp the fun sentiment ('Don't worry, I ate all the candles so nobody will know your age!') and the adorable pooch onto the white panel - his ears, eyelids and the pads of his paws were coloured pale peach using a Polychromos pencil. However the light when I took the photo has almost faded them - but they're there, trust me!

- stamped the pooch's bandana onto a tiny scrap of the turquoise part of 'Poured Acrylic' paper, fussy cut it and ran a new black 'Tombow Brush Pen' around the edges to hide any potential white edges from showing. After over 15 years of use, my black Whispers brush pen finally dried up/ran out of ink - it was the most used of the set of 36 markers and owed me nothing

- glued the turquoise bandana in place onto the pooch (now looking very much like Dudley in trouble!) using a glue pen

- glued the die cut 'woof' onto the image panel - and thought that was it finished

- however, the 'white space' was too stark with a mainly white dog - so I used a small paw print stamp by 'Fun stamps' and black ink to add some extra interest

- now it was finished!

I went bonkers with the little paw print stamp on the envelope, a gift tag, the inside of the card under Dudley's 'signature', and even on the back of the card besides the words 'Commissioned by Dudley'!

I'd like to enter this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #43 HERE' The NBUS is the Penny Black stamps set - oh, and the little 'Woof!' die as well!

And, this card also qualifies for this week's Allsorts Challenge #698 over HERE - hooray! So many weeks I just don't get the chance to join in, so it's great when the week's Allsorts theme works in my favour! The theme is 'Add a sentiment'- and I think the cute little sentiment voicing the pooch's 'don't blame me' trip fits the bill very well!    

Len loved his card from Dudley - and, even though I cheated and bought a ready made laser cut 'sailing schooner 3D card' from me (time was not on my side) - he was really pleased with that too. A few other lovely cards and of course pressies from Dudley and myself - a happy day! Nice evening meal - worked well.

The week has been busy with bits and bobs so we only managed one excursion on Tuesday with the 'Purple Peril' - which some of you rightly guessed is a wonderful purple mobility scooter! The feeling of freedom is incredible.

Thursday was my COVID vaccination day, in town. I was lucky and had both the COVID as well as the flu vaccination - one in each arm. Yay! So far so good - a bit tender but nothing to be concerned about.

Dudley was there outside the 'Health Hub' in the shopping Mall and he waited with Len whilst I disappeared to be 'dealt with'. He was SO good - he just watched everything going on round about him and kept close to his Buddy Len. Dudley is such a curious dog - always interested in what's going on and I think the outing to somewhere totally new and quite busy really stimulated him. Without even trying, he really charmed loads of people as well. It's only recently that 'non-assistance' dogs have been allowed into the shopping Mall, we didn't see anything untoward so there's a chance that the move won't be reversed. Obviously not all shops will allow them inside but for us it's a great step forward.

Sarn (and I) work hard to make Playground a fun place - and, to that end Sarn has opened up a new Snippets Playground challenge HERE. 

Also a little heads up that in two weeks time so NOT just yet girls. I'll be hosting a new challenge on 30th October. We don't often have 'themes' but we will be looking for Autumn, Halloween and/or the associated colours in your entries for the challenge that opens 30th October ................. not just yet, I'm just giving you some advance warning so you can plan ahead! It's not mandatory but would be fun we think!

With love, from Di and Dudley

What a week!

So busy, so much going on - and I suggest you just hop on over the Snippets Playground to see the results of the previous challenge. Like Sarn, I'm really delighted to see that our playmate Suzanne H has set up a blog so she can still come and play with us! Go Suzanne! Just shout if you do ever need help.

We, please note the use of we, met Arnie a couple of times this week whilst out walking Dudley. Arnie is 'Dudley's Bestie' in the whole wide world and the adoration and hugs for one another between those two dogs is incredible! Those doggie hugs are so special to see. For me, having  having finally properly met Arnie close up, he really is so very adorable - his tail is like a little black propeller! He was a rescue dog and I just cannot get my head around how that came about - he fell on 'all four paws' certainly with such a sweet family! When we're out and I'm over the enchantment of just smiling and gazing at them, on their hind legs and hugging, I'll take a photo for you to see on here.

We've had days worth of no hot water, as well as other home plumbing issues this past week, so no snippets card got made. British Gas Home Care stinks! Their administration and also their almost non existent telephone service is diabolical to say the least.

And, after such a long time, literally years, I've been out and about with Len and Dudley, as a family this week - on woodland walks and to such lovely places I never realised were even within such close walking reach from our house. No car journey needed to reach them - amazing and magical!

I leave you to guess just how I went on those very happy and beautiful 'walks' with my boys - and what absolute freedom and joy doing that has brought back into my life.

Answers on a postcard! And for the very few friends who do know - don't squeal until the reveal!

Happy 'Purple Peril' Bunny here!

 

Forever Friends teddy card

Having a little rummage turned up the makings for two identical Christmas cards. I found two Forever Friends Christmas teddy tags along with some snippets of red patterned paper - stored together in a cello bag, I'd obviously paired the image and the snippets at some point - and this is what I made:

I used:

- mini slimline white card blank, side opening

- piece of slightly smaller white card

- the snippets of red patterned paper, trimmed and added as borders to the top and bottom on the panel of white card

- then stamped the sentiment using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from Clearly Besotted's 'Simply Said Christmas' set of sentiment stamps

- glued the panel to the card front

- added the bear tag using thin sticky pads, thankfully it didn't have a hole punched for twine. I vaguely recall it coming with a roll of matching Christmas paper many years ago

- then die cut a few snowflakes using a Penny Black 'Snow Family' die to die cut a selection of flakes from the leftover card used for the card blank, then tickled them with Clear Wink of Stella on a scrap of paper and left them to dry

- finishing touch was to add a scattering of the snowflakes using a glue pen

Two more cards for the box!

Len had his COVID booster earlier in the week, he felt one degree under for the following day but it only lasted for 24 hours and was nothing like he's reacted previously. Mine was booked for today (Sunday) but is now postponed until the middle of October. 

Dudley Pupdate: We managed to swap Dudley's old Honka Duck for a new one, then Len, in a daft moment, showed him the old one. So right now Dudley has both of the ducks - and the new one is decidedly neglected whilst he never lets his old favourite out of his sight! So, I'll have to wait until he's asleep and hide the old one again! On Thursday he had a bath/shower and all three of us had a good soaking, perhaps revenge for the duck swop?! 

There's a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE. Hope you manage to join in!

Rudolph Days - September 2022

Time for another Rudolph Days challenge over at ScrappyMo's HERE. I made four really quick Christmas cards - two of each design and the first one is my Rudolph Days entry:

I used:

- 8.5" x 3.5" slimline white card blanks, tent style. I made my own card blanks using a UK size A4 sheet of heavy weight (300gsm) white card. Our A4 is only 8.25" wide so I had to make them 'down the length' of the sheet of card, meaning more waster/more snippets for ATCs perhaps

- next stamped the sentiments using stamps from Penny Black's 'Yuletide Wishes' set of sentiment stamps - and a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad - onto the chosen images

- topped the card fronts with the Whimsy Stamps image papers - from the 'SurReally Cool Christmas' set of Slimline papers, using Collall All Purpose Glue

- super fast - four cards done!

Yesterday was Dudley's 'Gotcha Day' - four years since he joined us here. And he still manages to surprise us! Little does he know that plans are afoot to sneakily replace Honka Duck with a new one, today if possible. Followed by a bath/shower tomorrow - he's gonna be pretty fed up I can see! ☺

Today is all about you

I did a quick scrabble around some snippets and toppers lying on my desk - and made this card in double quick time:

I used:

- mini slimline card, made from a large snippet of white card

- snippet of SU 'Wisteria Wonder' very slightly trimmed to fit the card front whilst leaving a narrow border, corners rounded then glued in place

- the floral topper was made up by yours truly ages ago and fairly recently rediscovered in a cello bag ...........hiding in a box of 'bits and bobs' - added using a chunky glue pen

- the sentiment is from a NBUS purchase of a Pinkfresh Studio packet of foiled sentiments - again, added using a chunky glue pen

- finishing touch - three 'raindrop' gems by 'Lucy's Little Things. I used Glossy Accents to adhere them - that stuff is SO unforgiving if it squidges at all, normal, but strong, glue for me in future!

The floral topper was part of a sheet of pop out die cuts ready just to layer up - possibly made by Kan Ban - but I can't be sure.

The set of sentiments is a mix of gold and silver sentiments on white backgrounds. Half gold script and half are silver script. Many are on die cut shapes, like the one I used for my card, and that's mainly why I bought the packet (for speed and ease) - although, others are on rectangles with foiled frames. I have to say that the wording on many of them isn't terribly inspiring to be honest (almost too 'funky', save your pennies!).

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #42 HERE. The sentiments were having a first outing. 

AND, the Results of Challenge #436 are now over in the Snippets Playground.

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley, like most dogs, sometimes dreams when he's asleep. Usually a whimper or two and his little legs do a quick workout. But a couple of times he's really shaken us with a single, really forlorn and heartrending, howl whilst asleep. The first time it happened, months ago, we sprang out of bed convinced something terrible had happened. The other evening we were watching a TV programme about a 'lone wolf' and its plaintive howl was exactly the same as Dudley's. Sure tugs at the heartstrings - and reminds one that of course dogs are descended from wolves. Certainly, when Dudley dives into his evening meal I can totally relate to that one! He's fussy about what he eats so it took us a while to figure that out when he was a puppy but he's like a little vacuum cleaner now. And of course, he can hear the rustle of a cheese wrapper from the other end of the house!

Happy Birthday Joe, at 17

Len's great-nephew (he has four of them) has just turned 17. I almost forgot his Birthday, which was on the day of our Queen's funeral, and in fact had even forgotten I made and asked Len to post this card in the 10 days of public mourning. However, goodness knows how, it turns out I did remember to take a photo, which I found on my camera just the other day:

I used:

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

- a piece of dark blue shimmery card, found lying on my desk in 'the pile' waiting to be popped into the snippets folder. Trimmed to an eighth of an inch smaller than the card base all round then stuck onto the card front

- then I dug out a new paper pad from one of my NBUS baskets on a shelf behind where I sit to craft (for me it's the best way to ensure I use new things and don't just file them away to be forgotten)

- the paper pad is really gorgeous and was bought with the red tartan in mind for some Christmas cards I have planned - however, this blue tartan/plaid was perfect for my needs

- the paper pad is called 'Tartan' , made by Craft Consortium, a UK Company - the darker colours are so perfect for male cards

- trimmed the tartan paper from all sides to look as balanced as possible and then added a three quarters of an inch or so strip of plain dark blue shimmery card in place across the card - before trimming the sides off

- glued the tartan panel to the front of the card, with the outer dark blue framing it

- then stamped a sentiment using an ancient Lili of the Valley stamp and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink - I could have dug around the ink pads for a Navy Blue but I was basically almost running on 'empty' at that point in time

- I'd used a scrap of white card the same as the card base to stamp the sentiment on and then punched it out using a SU round punch - one and one eighth of an inch in diameter I think- and stuck it in place using a piece of very thin sticky pad

One super fast and simple card - made thanks to a video of very similar 'male cards' I'd spotted online, but can't find again, as so often happens.

So there we go - almost back in the saddle, I hope!

Hello again!

Sarn and I are popping back up from the Period of National Mourning, after the loss of our beloved Queen, Elizabeth the Second. Nip over to The Snippets Playground to see what the new challenge #437 has in store!

I have no card to offer as time here in Great Britain has almost stood still with shock initially, for 10 days, much of it in painful silence, watching TV and grieving for our Queen. 

But, on the upside - Sarn did use yesterday to clean the Playhouse, oil the swings and sort out the stuff we both just dropped, 10 or so days ago, ran off and left. I got sent to the wholesalers for even more Autumn cocktail ingredients - with orders to look for Halloween decorations! UK isn't too hot on Halloween, help! And little Dudley has been stoically sweeping up Autumn leaves and basically giving the place a good polish! Anyone for a highly polished slide ride courtesy of an over keen Havi - wheeeee!? 10 pence a go - as charged by the little gangster! So, I think we're surfacing and at some point very soon things will return to the old mayhem! HMTQ wouldn't want us to carry on grieving - but to remember her with joy and love - for sure!

Do come and join us HERE!

Four Penny Black 'Masterpiece' cards

It's Sarn's turn to post today and it's the results of Challenge #435 over in the Snippets Playground, HERE.

For my snippets card(s), I had a flick through the numerous sets of Penny Black Christmas 'Masterpieces'  here and pulled out four Winter cottage scenes to play with:

I used: 

- 5.5" x 4.25" card blanks, made using white linen card (same texture as the little images) bought from The Paperbox. Two are long side opening and two are short side opening

- the images needed slightly trimming to fit behind four already die cut frames, also using the white linen card. These were left from when I die cut a whole bunch of frames using a die by MFT called 'Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frame' - I love the frames but they really need care when fixing an image behind as they're very narrow with not much room to play 

- glued the images to the inside back of the frames, using a glue pen

- then flicked through the 'impending cr*palanche' on my desk and pulled out a few snippets that were waiting to be filed in my bulging snippets expanding filing folder. Every single one was on my desk. which shows the chaos I'm currently working in!

- trimmed four of the larger snippets to cover almost all of each card front, leaving just a narrow border and glued them in place

- then used my Altenew mini die cutting machine and the sentiment die I've used so much lately (Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas' ) to cut four sentiments using more varied snippets, and glued them in place using a glue pen

- glued the framed 'Masterpieces' in place, using Collall All Purpose glue, as usual for large pieces

- the only snippets I can easily name are the green ones, they were tucked inside a pack of Altenew 'Forest Glades' card which is such a lovely shade of green. Still on my desk from its last use, sigh

- another four for the box of 2022 Christmas cards!

The two images with the green backing card came from the 'pinecones and peace' set, the image with the black backing card is from the 'home for christmas' set - and the image with the shimmery deep blue backing card is from the 'snowfall serenity' set.

Penny Black really are onto a seller here, certainly where I'm concerned. Buddly Crafts had three new sets of Christmas designs in when I was over there just the other day, looking for something else - and yup, they did sort of fall into my basket!

I'd like to enter the first card into the current Christmas Kickstart Challenge #66 HERE. The theme is 'Home for the Holidays'. I wasn't cheeky enough to write three posts to 'bag' three entries into Jo's fun challenge - which  means I need to have a bit of a think and a hunt through my stamps and dies!

Thursday was a dark day for our whole Nation, countries of the Commonwealth and a lot of the rest of the World when our beloved Queen Elizabeth 2nd died. From knowing she was very unwell, and fearing the worst earlier that day, to the final confirmation of her death so many of us almost held our breath, lest a puff of air would make a difference. She was utterly true to her vows when she became our Queen - right until the end. The rainbows over both Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace just prior to the Queen's death being announced seem to almost have been a sign from her that in the end, all will be well. RIP after a such a long and very varied reign your Majesty. I do believe that King Charles will do his utmost to honour the legacy left by his beloved Mama and will rule wisely and kindly. Long live the King.

 

RIP, our beloved Queen Elizabeth the Second

Pink daisy for a friend

It's time for a new Challenge (#436) over at the Snippets Playground HERE. My turn to host and give Sarn a bit of a break.

For various reasons my snippets card was made fairly quickly - using bits and pieces within easy reach - late into the week just gone, so it ain't gonna win any prizes - but it's rather sweet:

 

The end result is the first image, and the snippets I grabbed to work with are just above here.

I used:

- 6.25" x 3.25" mini slimline sized white card blank, tent style

- a couple of snippets of the same white card were lying abandoned on my desk and the Lawn Fawn 'Watercolor Wishes' pad, with the envelope of snippets inside the back cover, was literally within arms reach - so I collected those I wnted to use together

-the card background was made using trimmed down blue for the sky and green for the grass - all from the Lawn Fawn paper pad - I just hand cut a sort of 'gentle wave' across the piece of green paper to make it look a little more natural then glued both papers onto the card front

- used my Altenew mini die cutting machine (oh, how I truly love this little baby!) to die cut the daisy from plain white card and coloured snippets of paper - all using Lawn Fawn's adorable 'Delightful Daisy' set of two dies. It's such a simple die design but I love it!

- used a glue pen to adhere the 'skeleton outline' of the daisy onto the solid white die cut background piece

- then carefully added all the coloured pieces, using a glue pen, to fill in the skeleton outline 

- time to add a sentiment and I had an old favourite in mind from the Stampendous 'Happy Messages' set of sentiment stamps - which I stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- already knew where the daisy die cut was to sit - so just glued it in place using a glue pen

The set of daisy dies is having a first outing, so I'm adding it into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #42 - HERE.

A Dudley tale - he's done it for ages now, but it's one of his first routines of the day. It's the same every time, a little gallop, a spring onto a low footstool at the bottom of the bed , a launch and then the 'thump' of him landing on the bed when I stir in the morning. Eeek, followed by as good a wash as he can manage to give any exposed part of me as I wake up. It's certainly the fastest way to get one sitting up .......... fighting a crazy smiling licking Havanese full of joy wanting to kickstart aother day of fun and frolics - or should that be frolicks perhaps?!

Remember to come and play in the Snippets Playground Snippets Playground, please tell us what you use and post your entry - over on our new challenge HERE!

With love from Dudley Dog and me,

'Tis the Season to be jolly .........

Here's my  card for ScrappyMo's Rudolph Days Challenge for August:

I used:

- white DL card blank, tent style

- first of all I coloured the pre-stamped Penny Black 'Snow Family' image using Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending fluid - matching the colouring to the background paper 'scene' I'd selected to use

- die cut the image using Penny Black's 'Snow Family' set of dies and tickled the pale grey fluffy pom poms on their hats using Clear Wink of Stella

- used a piece of SU 'Wisteria Wonder' card for the main backing - die cut using a die from Phill Martin's Slender Collection set called 'Elegant Eyelets' and glued onto the card front

- the background paper is from Whimsy's 'Frozen' Slimline paper pack - LOVE this set of papers so much! Trimmed the paper to nicely sit on top of the die cut backing card - just a sliver from the top and sightly over 3/4" from one side

- stamped a sentiment onto the bottom left of the 'scenic' panel using the Misti, Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a stamp from Clearly Besotted's 'Simply Said Christmas' set of sentiments 

- glued the 'scenic' panel onto the card front so that the 'Wisteria Wonder' layer formed a frame 

- then added the die cut 'Snow Family' using thin sticky pads to add a little dimension (but still keeping it under the limit for standard postage letters) 

- the 'Snow Family' die comes with some lovely snowflake dies and I used the three smallest ones to die cut a selection of flakes from the leftover card that the main image had been stamped onto, then tickled them with Clear Wink of Stella on a scrap of paper and left them to dry

- finishing touch was to add a scattering of said snowflakes using a glue pen to 'lift' the background

In real life the colours are a little more vibrant and of course, just to make life easier when the Christmas panic sets in, I made two exactly the same. Partly as I found two ready stamped images and couldn't bear not to use both of them. I suspect that a sweet friend sent me the stamped images ages ago. Before I bought the same 'pre-loved' stamp several years later ............. then I followed it up with the matching set of dies, probably within the last 12 months or so. Funny what you come across when looking through boxes of stuff you've almost forgotten about. ☺

Another Christmas Challenge that I love is 'Peace on Earth' - it's always 'Anything Goes' but their mood board does have a snowman on it. So I'd like to play along with their current Peace on Earth Challenge #22.   

And, I just found 'Christmas with the Cuties' Challenge #62. Anything cute and Christmas, with an optional theme of 'Frosty the Snowman, was a jolly happy soul'. I just had to join in as my sentiment includes the word 'jolly' - as all snowmen should be! I think it's my first time playing over there - but there's at least one familiar DT name! Hi Sarah. ☺

As both the 'eyelets' DL dies as well as the Penny Black 'Snow Family' die set are NBUS - I'd like to join in with Darnell's NBUS Challenge #41. 

The results of Challenge #434 are over at the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Dudley alternates between being very solemn and then running round like a crazy dog! On Thursday evening Len sneaked up the 'bedtime treat chalk bone' as Dudley was snoozing in the hallway. Swiftly, Len popped it onto my desk and whispered 'Hide it' - and we reckon it truly could have been done in one massive bound from downstairs - there was Dudley beside me waiting, paws up on my desk chair, tongue out with a cheeky smile, literally as I reached out to pick up the treat! He's a total scamp!

Then there are the times he looks at life through the serious end of the telescope and spends time almost meditating with some of his most loved toys, and of course his 'bestie' Honka Duck. On Friday, whilst taking a piccie of today's card by placing it on our bed (hunting for light!), I looked up and Dudley was steadily watching me, from his position surrounded by toys on the bed! Usually he would move, but this time he didn't and I managed a quick and sneaky photo:

I really love this 'spur of the moment' photo of him. Dudley isn't a dog who poses nicely when asked - you have to take 'pot luck'. He has one paw on top of, and protecting 'Honka',peeping from behind him is a cheeky chick toy and beside him are an upside down flying squirrel .......... plus a much loved hedgehog, sent by his much loved 'God-dog Mum' when he arrived here almost four years ago now. Yup, he still has it and uses it as a little pillow often during the night, so cute. Version 2 is on my desk, 'awaiting Mama's surgery' as it's got a  split seam (ouch!), but let's not tell him that!

The thing that really gets me is the depth, wisdom, and even a tinge of sadness in the look in his eyes, talk about 'Let me look right into your soul Mama'!

Or, to look on the bright side, most likely, 'Hey Mama, where you gonna try and hide the next treat?'!! Let me try my pensive look on you - ha!'.

He (Dudley) knows I'm typing about him as he just popped out from under my desk to say 'a big hello, from your Friendly Security Guard'. His timing always cracks me up!

Love from both of us - Dudley and of course me,

A cosy penguin Christmas card

I'm still plodding on, making up the batch of die cuts (I cut them a while ago) into up cycled Christmas cards. I find that when other things become too hot or whatever, it's good therapy not to start off totally afresh. Just take what might have been thrown out with the garbage - and up cycle it, ready to 'ride out again'. The other day I fished out (already culled and popped away) a bunch of shop bought cards fronts saved from previous Christmases - and found plenty more to be going on with after i use the ones already die cut from 2021............. including five or so robin images! What is it with friends and family sending us robin cards? 

Anyhow, today's snippets card (just one snippet of silver mirri card used for two card elements I confess) was in the original batch of dies cuts I've been using lately - and this is the result:

I used: 

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

- a piece of patterned paper from the Crafters Companion 'Frosty and Bright' paper pad - some luscious papers in this pad in shades of pink and turquoise mostly - trimmed to one eighth of an inch smaller all round than the card front

- used the 'inward curved corner' on my small X-cut corner punch on all four corners of the paper and then glued it in place on the card front

- the paper was carefully chosen to go with the penguin's sweater on the saved image - which I'd die cut using a Lil'Inkers 'Side Stitch Rectangle' die

- mounted the penguin panel onto a narrow background border of silver mirri card and set him to one side 'for later' - as our beloved Queen said about her marmalade sandwich!

- then used the rest of the silver mirri card snippet to die cut the greeting using - once again my current favourite - Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas' die, only one layer this time 

- glued the image panel and the sentiment onto the card front and went away for a think

- it needed something in the line of snowflakes or 'summick - but I don't have the strength to use small snowflake dies on thick card (hoped to use a frosted piece saved from the original card front but it was too tough and I didn't have a small enough die)

- in the end I found some small snowflake self-adhesive gems in a very neglected box of Christmas embellishments, so I added two of those and it really did lift the image panel!

And, I did push the snowflake pieces closer to the centres once I saw the photo enlarged above. It's a sweet idea to use different sizes of gems to make up a little embellishment but sometimes the manufacturing accuracy is a little 'off'. So there we have it, one more Christmas card to add to the box for 2022. Photo looks a bit blurred to me, but it was the best of the bunch!

Now, most importantly, do please hop over to the Snippets Playground HERE, where Sarn has kicked off a fresh challenge. Numbers were much lower than usual for the challenge which just closed, but the weather was hot, it's Summer Break time for many etc. etc. so we 'roll with the punches' as they say. Many thanks to those of you who did play along - much appreciated.

Dudley pup date. Hmm, a mixed week with him as he had total 'HH - ie. Havanese Hysterics' when he was in my car to do the 'drop Len's car for service' - bring him home and then do it in reverse about five hours later. Of course he (Dudley!) did the screaming hyena act almost all the time.We've said it's potentially due to us not taking him out for a drive very often - for that read that 'we usually go out singly and leave him at home with the other one of us'. He's only been left 'Home Alone' once and we watched him via CCTV most of the evening! 

We hope that before the Summer is over we'll make the effort to take Dudley out with us for a mid-week pub lunch - with a drive thrown in - to show him that drives can be for fun reasons and not just 'business stuff', the vet or grooming. 

I have a lovely place in mind, in a local village with typical Hampshire thatched roofs, and the pub, which is a converted watermill, welcomes dogs. Yay! On a nice day we could sit outside and also show Dudley the river which flows past the lawns as well as the lake with the ducks and swans. It's a huge sadness sad that the pandemic, which broke when he was still a pup, and our own caution, have curtailed such opportunities. Let's see if we can broaden his horizons - as well as our own! I noticed that Len was happy to not wear a mask when he was at the car dealer's, and he's been to a local supermarket a couple of times now (spending soon to be obsolete old £20 notes) and has done the same. For those of you currently throwing caution to the wind - I envy you, although we're a bit slow catching up! 

Final up cycled robins - for now!

I've come to the end of my pile of robin die cuts, made from the fronts of shop bought cards, sent to us in 2021:

I used:

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

- a sheet of paper from First Edition's 'Gilded Wonder' paper pad, trimmed to just a little less then the card front and glued in place

- hunted high and low for some sort of card, any card, to die cut a sentiment to go with the robin or even the beautifully flittered gold panel on the sheet of paper - zilch!

- in the end I die cut three layers from the same snippet of white card that I cut the card blank from, using my current favourite Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas' die 

- glued the sentiment layers together then added them to the card front - using a glue pen. Top left to make the most of the flittered gold design on the paper

- then added the die cut robin using sticky pads (the robin was die cut a while ago using a die from The Works 'Stitched Circles' set

- hmm, not quite right as there was a blank taupe space top right looking very lonely and out of balance, so I walked away and left it - whilst we bathed Dudley on Monday afternoon in fact

- whilst fighting the 'Dudley tidal wave', I remembered some NBUS self adhesive Memory Box Open Studio 'Christmas Fairy Crystals' sitting in the front of a basket waiting for their first outing. And sure enough, one of the orangey red shades works perfectly with the robin's red breast - so I stuck three onto the top right hand corner

Finished! A super fast card to make - but hunting for the backing paper etc. probably took several times as long as actually making the card.

Fighting Dudley was a slight exaggeration really - I brushed, combed and snipped some bits before his shower/bath. Bless his heart, when I sit at the table in Len's room to groom Dudley, he (Dudley!) snuggles his muzzle with a resigned sigh into my cleavage for comfort! As if to say, 'you win'. And he didn't fight too hard this time during his shower. He was then wrapped up like a wet white burrito on my lap - where we patted him as dry as possible before the manic 'zoomies' began!  

The little Fairy Crystals were having their first outing so I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS#41 Challenge.

Also, entering the current Christmas Kickstart Challenge#65 - 'Never in a Nativity'. My second robin card for this fun challenge! 

And, for the time being, we have a lovely white and very fluffy Havanese called Dudley here! He's working hard on trying to remain chilled, hunting out cool spots on tiled floors around the house etc. Yesterday, Len went round to a neighbours' with some wrongly delivered mail. Whilst there, he played with their - much friendlier than Teddy the Terror - little girlie Shih Tzu. She's adorable, they both are, but Tinkerbelle (named by their little girl, what else) is the more friendly. When Len came home. Dudley went ballistic - 'Sniff, sniff - how DARE you play with another pooch'! I was waving his calcium bone treat at the time - but did he care, as he would usually launch into the real need for his midday treat - NOPE?! Just shows that the smell of a lady dog will beat a treat hands down!

It's so very hot here though and in the UK we aren't geared up for it with air con. and such so we're all struggling.

Anyhow, the results of our previous 'Christmas in July' Snippets Challenge, run by Sarn, can be found HERE.  

Numbers are low on my/our current Snippets Challenge - I can't blame you with the heat that so many of us are trying to cope with! It's a nice prize, so do come and play!

Love from Di and Dudley - no more 'Phantom Piddler' puddles from him, thankfully!

Up cycled 'Santa flying high'

I still have a few due cut images from shop bought cards we were sent for Christmas 2021. The one I used for today's card was from a sizeable 'gently sparkled' card with a sentiment printed on the lower part of the card - mini slimline was my instant thought when deciding how to use the image:

I used:

- 6.25" x 3.25" mini slimline sized white card blank, tent style

- a snippet of silver mirri card, no particular brand, trimmed down to just under the size of the card front and glued in place

- the image had already been die cut couple of weeks or more ago, using a Lawn Fawn stitched border 'Mini Slim Stackables' die - so I glued that on top of the silver backing, leaving just a narrow silver border showing as a 'frame'

- then die cut the sentiment from another snippet of the same silver mirri card using a Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas' die and my ever so useful Altenew mini die cutting machine (for those of you who die cut small pieces whilst watching TV or being with the family in an evening - I can't recommend this sweet little machine enough)

- finally, glued the sentiment onto the card front using a glue pen

Finished, in next to no time at all. And of course the gentle sparkle has to be seen in real life - cameras do try to have it all their own way.

I thought it was a risk chopping so much of the card away and losing most of the 'forest' - but then I might as well have just stuck the card front as a whole onto a card blank!

I'd like to add this card into the Christmas Kickstart Challenge #65. The theme is 'Never in a Nativity'. Somehow, I don't think Santa and his reindeer would have rocked up at the stable bearing gifts. ☺ 

Through the window snippets card

I recently bought a few Stampin' Up goodies and couldn't resist the 'Better Days' set of stamps. I loved the rather versatile and classic look, and to me it instantly shouted 'paper piecing!' (Hello Lesley!!) - even though it does come with some gorgeous stamps to create the stamped hills using inks, a background stamp and also a couple of sentiment stamps.This was my first play with the set - which is perfect for snippets of course!

 

The lovely ombre shaded Lawn Fawn coloured paper snippets, waiting to be 'fussy cut', main image is at top left and also my rough paper  'template for placing snippets' - is at the top right hand side

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25 white card blank, tent style (for a change)

- the rustic brick/stone background was created using a Sizzix Tim Holts rustic brick wall die given to me some years ago, embossed onto white card and then rubbed over with a soft brush and Stampin' Up 'Smoky Slate' ink, just to tone down the white

- trimmed, then glued the brick work panel onto the card front

- the centrepiece 'window' was created by stamping the main image onto a snippet of white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink then fussy cut leaving a narrow border

- whilst the mini-Misti was out, I also selected a few snippets from my usual 'envelope inside the back cover of a pad storage' - from Lawn Fawn's 'Watercolor Wishes' pad, photo of them above, and stamped the relevant parts of the main stamp onto them

- this was made really easy to do by stamping the full image onto a snippet of white printer paper and nestling it into one corner of the Misti then used that to eyeball and position the snippets one after the other to stamp the most relevant parts that I wanted - it worked really well and a great way to save even MORE snippets! A photo is shown above of my pre-fussy-cut snippets. Top left it the main image and the other main image ws on spare paper to use a a guide

- fussy cut all the coloured paper snippets for the sky, sun and three layers of green fields and then ran a black Whispers brush pen around the edges to cover any white edges

- used a glue pen to adhere each piece onto the backing image, always adding the glue to the main image. All these years later I always think of that tip from Jules when paper crafting

- then fussy cut around the 'window' image outline, put that central panel aside and basically went off to bed to dream about the next steps i wanted to take!

- I'd stamped the sentiment whilst doing the other pieces so that was waiting

- before then, I ran a sumptuous gold calligraphy pen edgewise right around the main panel and set it to one side

- then hunted right through my dies and couldn't find a die, even with tweaking, to suit the sentiment - drat!

- so, I careful trimmed the stamped sentiment, also from the SU set, but left plenty of spare white card at either end

- a bit of measuring and some pencil marks and then punched the ends of the sentiment using a 1" SU punch to create the 'tails'

- then ran the same gold calligraphy pen around the whole sentiment strip and we were good to go!

- added the main panel to the card front using thin sticky pads

- then added the sentiment strip, at a jaunty angle, using the same brand of thin sticky pad

At first I hated the result as it just wasn't 'me', and the sentiment still doesn't 'do it and just seems a bit odd, or am I too old to understand?'. BUT, the scene is exactly what I wanted. The rolling fields and the shaded sky were all stamped onto and then fussy cut around pieces of Lawn Fawn's 'Watercolor Wishes' pad, utilising the differences in shade both for the fields and most of all for the sky - with no additional shading added! So, technique won over prettiness I suppose!

And now we come to Dudley's week. Fine - apart from me discovering he'd done a sneaky piddle indoors! I spotted the area with my beady eye and, having a 'nose like a bloodhound check' identified it right away! I doubt if Len is doing sly little piddles, so it had to be Dudders and I know the smell of his wee too! No chastising as he wasn't caught in the act. A dog does a little pee and then moves on, IMHO! Oh Dudley, you scamp! Luckily it was easily sorted out and the repellent de-odouriser spray to get rid of any odour after cleaning in case either of them Dudley makes a return visit, is a godsend! 

My Dad used to tell a tale, supposedly from his childhood, about a teacher in a class, constantly finding little puddles in the classroom, where a child had been 'caught short'. Eventually she addressed the whole class and told them that the culprit needed to own up, in secret, and they and the teacher would then work out how to deal with the problem. No punishment and no worries. So all the children dutifully closed their eyes after the teacher said that when their eyes were closed, the culprit for the puddles had to come and wrote their name of the back of the blackboard which sat on an easel, as they did in the olden days! Everyone closed their eyes - silence. Then after a short while a chair was scraped back from a desk and little feet pattered to the front of the classroom. The seemingly endless sound of chalk squeaking on the back side of the blackboard was heard - and then the little feet pattered back to their desk. Teacher said the kids could all open their eyes but she couldn't resist taking the look for the name that had been so laboriously written on the back of the blackboard. Whereupon she skidded in a fresh puddle and landed flat on her back. As she tried to raise herself up she saw the name of the 'culprit' scrawled on the back of the blackboard ........ 'THE PHANTOM PIDDLER STRIKES AGAIN'.  ☺ The end.

Sometimes this blog is a bit like my life history! Sorry if you only came for the 'how I made the card' bit!

Good grief - I almost forgot to tell you - we're back to any kind of snippets in the Snippets Playground, please tell us what you use and post your entry - over on our new challenge HERE! xx

Another up cycled robin

Yours truly die cut four, possibly more, robin images from the batch of shop bought cards we'd received from family and friends last Christmas - for some reason robins were a popular choice! This is another card I whipped up the other day:

I used:

- white DL card, side opening

- a die cut robin image from one of last year's cards sent to us. The die I used is a Presscut 'Oval Stitch Hole' die then it was set aside

- snippet of Tonic mirror card 'Fire Stone Red', cut to totally fit the front of the card perfectly - had to be - due to the width of the robin oval image to be honest

- piece of DSP from the 12" x 12" pack of Lawn Fawn's 'All the Dots' paper pack bought as a mistake, (remember that 12 x 12 papers images are often much larger than their smaller 6 x 6 friends!), trimmed to just a bit smaller than the red mirror card layer and then the corners given an inward curve using an X-Cut small corner 'double' curve punch

- at that point, I used a snippet of leftover 'dots' paper and flipped it over to the opposite side pattern and then cut a strip for the sentiment - straight across although the pattern itself is very lovely and also diagonal

- glued the striped strip onto the dotted strip and let it dry

- meanwhile I die cut the sentiment using a teeny snippet of 'Fire Stone Red' mirror card and a Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas' die (one of my favourites for small places!)

- then snipped the now dry striped band to the width of the dots paper (from the back as always) and added that panel to the red mirror card card front - using a glue pen

- next just glued the oval 'robin' panel in place and then the die cut sentiment onto the striped strip - using a fine glue pen

It's remarkably easy to order a 12" paper pack by mistake .... if you're in a bit of a hurry - just one wrong click and momentary loss of concentration is all is takes. Sigh. Once the order arrived I realised my stooopid mistake and then rashly ordered the 6" square pack as the pattern on the 12" is certainly a lot larger. My idea was and still is to make some matching envelopes to use up the 12" paper. But it worked well for this DL card IMHO.

Len fell in love with this card, despite my worries that it's perhaps a bit 'over fussy'. The dots from the backing paper being echoed in the image background really caught his eye and he immediately picked up on that point of detail. So my idea worked eh?! 

And hooray, I can enter this card into one of my favourite challenges over at Christmas Kickstart Challenge #65. The theme is 'Never in a Nativity'. So it's snowmen, gnomes, penguins - in fact anything that you wouldn't find in a Nativity scene. You have all of August to go and play! See you there as I want to go back and add more. Robins fall into the 'Never in a Nativity' category - yet there is a touching story about the robin and how it got its red breast.

'The story goes that the Robin felt Christ's agony during the Crucifixion, and went to pull a thorn from His brow. One version says that some of Christ's blood fell upon the birds breast, while another version says that the bird was wounded; both versions agree that the Robin was blessed for the act of heroism'. From the internet.

A very sweet story. We have a resident robin in our back garden - he tolerates a mate during the nesting season but they're generally very territorial and, I've said previously, will fight ferociously to protect 'their patch'.