Sunday Snippets and Rudolph Days July 2023

The buses all came along at once lately and so my snippets card for today will cover a few challenges. It uses snippets, so most importantly is right for the final week of our Playground 'Christmas in July' Challenge which Sarn is running over HERE.  And this is my snippets card:

And the snippets I used:

Very simple, just plain card snippets in white (mostly off cuts from making card blanks), and smaller pieces of green and peach card. The camera lied about the peach card - as usual! I also cut into a whole piece of 6 x 6 designer paper for the background - slap my wrists:

I used:

- 5.25" x 4" white card blank, side opening - don't ask me how, I got the measurements smaller than the USA A2 card size I was aiming for, probably thinking about other stuff .... or losing the plot!

- a sheet of backing paper from Whimsy Stamp's 'Blurry Flurries' paper pack, cut down to the same size as the card front

- then, to check for size and spacing, I die cut the 'MFT 'Peaceful Dove' from snippets of plain white card for later - two layers for the body and wings

- knowing the size of the dove, I could position my MFT 'Peace' word die onto the paper for the card front and run it though the Gemini

- backed the PEACE aperture in the patterned paper with double sided sticky paper, protected the sticky bits on the front that were exposed by covering them with the peel off paper from one side of the 'sticky - using easy peel tape for extra adhesion - and then set them aside 

- die cut two further 'Peace' sentiment dies from plain white card which I layered up onto the letters which were the fallout from cutting into the pretty backing paper, using a glue pen

- then stuck them into the sticky backed apertures to create a 3-layer inset for each nicely spaced letter, with the saved pieces from the middle of the letters P and A then popped in place

- glued the front panel to the card front

- time to assemble the doves! I added the beak to the top layer of the body and then coated it and the two wings with Clear 'Wink of Stella' for a nice shimmer

- next added the back and then the front wings to the body of the dove - using red line extra sticky tape

- then had a fun time adding the die cut double layered olive branch to the dove's beak before adhering the assembled birdie to the card front

- final touches, one tiny silver sparkly gem in the centre of the star and another tiny silver sparkly gem coloured with black Pro marker for the dove's eye 

It's a shame the subtle shimmer from the clear Wink of Stella on the body and wings of the dove can't be picked up by the camera - trust me, I tried! And of course, I made two cards exactly the same in tandem - me not totally daft!

I'm entering this card into three challenges - go me!

Rudolph Days for July - HERE 

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #52 HERE.  The Peace and the Dove dies were both NBUS.

Allsorts Challenge #739/740 HERE where the theme is 'Anything but square' and it runs for two weeks

The results of The Snippets Challenge # 458 are over on the Snippets Playground blog HERE. 

Dudley Pupdate: It's been a bit of a mixed week here for weather so at times Dudley has needed a gentle push to nip out in the rain to 'spend a penny'. Otherwise we're sure he'd cross his legs for as long as possible as he hates getting wet. News of other animal antics - we still have a huge family of hedgehogs visiting each night - they live under the shrubbery in the front garden and come to eat in the back garden - we had a gap left at the bottom of the garden gate especially for them. Dudley can lie and peek out but he can't wriggle right out. 

There's still one week of the current Snippets Challenge to go, hope to see you in the Playground soon if you haven't played already. It's the final week of 'Christmas in July' with some nice bundles of Christmas themed prizes. Make a card and come and play - one less to make for Christmas - and a chance to win a nice prize if you join in the draw!

Love, as always, from myself and Dudley,

Sunday Snippets and another Memory Box cabin or house

I love the dies made by Memory Box which depict a house/cabin complete with smoke rising from the chimney and this is what I made with my latest one:

Sorry, no photo of the snippets I used - which are the plain white card for the scalloped layer and the 'Night Sky' backing paper.

I used:

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

- snippet of white card, die cut using the largest die from the Taylored Expressions'Petite Scallop Rectangle Stacklets' set of dies

- then die cut the cabin into the scalloped layer, using a Memory Box 'Cabin Collage' die

- used a snippet of 'Night Sky' scrapbook paper which was tucked in the back of a book of papers bought ages ago which is so useful for 'space' themed cards as well as night skies - no manufacturer's name on it though. Just drew round the portion I wanted to use so that a 'star' appeared in the top left portion of the 'sky'

- then cut it out using scissors and glued it behind the image using a couple of glue pens (needed a very fine nib for some of the cabin detail)

- for the sentiment I used a stamp from Colarado Craft Company's Anita Jeram 'Merry Little Christmas' stamp set and a Memento 'Paris Dusk' small ink pad. I went right through my ink pad swatches before stumbling on such a perfect colour match - squeal!

- glued the image panel to the front of the card blank

- final touch was a tiny, very flat, silver sparkly 'gem', in the middle of the main star

And I made four of them the same - trying to really build up my stock of cards for this coming Christmas don'tcha know. 😉

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #52 HERE. The Memory Box die was my NBUS this time.

We now have our second 'Christmas in July' Challenge, run by Sarn, over in the Snippets Playground HERE - with a lovely prize made up of several goodies. Including, a Memory Box 'Snowy Cabin' die just like the one I used HERE. And no doubt 'someone' will be dispensing Christmas Cocktails liberally in the tree house. 

Dudley Pupdate: we celebrated Dudley's 5th Birthday on Saturday (yesterday). This is how tiny he was the very first time we met him, back in 2018:

He's cupped in Len's hands and we were almost scared to handle him as he was such a little guy. Smallest in the litter, a bit bullied by his siblings and he stole our hearts straight away. He seemed to have such a direct gaze as if he was the one doing the weighing up!

And, this was him with Len, just the other week in our back garden. Looking at the two photos, it's quite striking how he still has a lot of his puppy like facial expression. Although he's certainly a bit too big to cup in one's hands!

Love from Dudley - and of course me,  

Allsorts Challenge Week 737

Lately, the majority of my cards have been made for the Snippets Playground - however, I took a little bit of time out to whip up a swift entry for the current challenge over at Allsorts - HERE. There's a mood board or you can opt for 'Anything Goes':

The poppy at the bottom of the mood board caught my eye so this card was inspired by the shape and colour of the flower head - otherwise it's 'anything goes':

I used:

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

- whilst I would LOVE to say that I coloured the background myself, it's a cheat - comes from an Altenew paper pad called 'Enchanting Washes'

- I picked where I wanted to stamp the image and used a double set of AALL & Create's stamps called 'Nature's Angels', along with a VerfsaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad and the Misti

- then die cut the stamped piece using an unbranded die with pretty lace-like scalloped edges

- glued the die cut image panel onto the card front - then added three Memory Box clear 'raindrop' gems as a finishing touch, quick and easy!

Although it was just a gentle dip of the toe into the water - I absolutely love how AALL & Create stamps are so full of interest and variety - ALL in the one stamp!  Dumbo here really had no idea just how much they cram into a single stamp. They stamp beautifully - and of course our Brenda over, at Allsorts and her own blog Floral Fantasies, is a true expert in using, as well as mixing up, these products. It'll be a while before I create my own backgrounds and also add extra touches - but for now I'm happy to still have the slightly CAS fresh look about my results. Those who know me well will be well aware that my teeth begin to itch once crafting begins to get 'messy'. Shame, as I do miss out on a lot but there you are - that's just me. 

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #52 HERE. Paper pad, stamp and also the set of pretty scalloped edge dies were all having a first outing.

Sunday Snippets - Christmas wrapping paper snippet

My Sunday Snippets card came about when I was looking through the front section in my huge, bulging and vastly expanded 'concertina' snippets folder. That pocket is where I pop any patterned snippets that don't store in the back of a paper pad. And lookie here - I found a snippet of left over Christmas wrapping paper, from years ago (excuse the dark shadow along the bottom edge of the card):

I used:

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

- a brown wrapping paper with a holly pattern all over it - just big enough to cover the front of an A2 card

- for stability I stuck the piece of paper onto a snippet of double sided adhesive sheet and then stuck that onto a snippet of white card

- trimmed the holly panel down to 5.5" x 4.25" and glued it to the front of the card blank

- then worked out what size of panel needed for the sentiment and trimmed a snippet of white card to suit - and to add interest used a ball ended scoring tool and a score board to add a single line right around the sentiment panel

- used a NBUS stamp and die set called 'Merry Christmas' by Gemini to stamp the word 'merry' onto a snippet of white card before die cutting it using the matching die which is part of the set, using a VersaFine Clair ''Nocturne' ink pad for the stamping

- then I could finalise the spacing and stamp the word 'Christmas' onto the sentiment panel

- die cut two more layers for the word 'merry' and layered them up using a glue pen before then gluing the 'merry' onto the sentiment panel 

- backed the panel with a very slightly bigger rectangle of Tonic 'Red Velvet' pearlescent card - trimmed from a snippet then glued it onto the card front 

- it looked a bit sparse to me so I added three matt gold sequins from the 'Champagne' shaker mix by Lucy's Little Things

Only finding the one snippet big enough to cover a single card front was a bit disappointing as I would like to have make more the same. But it's a good reason to dig through the umpteen paper pads I have here! Although, in a drawer somewhere in here I do have a few sheets of patterned wrapping paper - great for backgrounds, but none of them are Christmas ones I'll bet!

By the way, the same set of sentiment stamps and die that I used for the card (donated to the Toybox by Linby but I had to run out and buy my own as I loved them so much) are part of the current prize - over at the Snippets Playground.

  

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #52 HERE. Sentiment stamps and die set was having its first outing.

Sarn has posted the results of Challenge #457 over in the Snippets Playground HERE. As always, we had some really great entries - and numbers were really good considering the hot weather lately. Do go and look - one pick in particular has Dudley pondering about starting up a 'fan club'!

Dudley Pupdate: We've been doing quite a lot of de-cluttering lately and have been giving a good few unwanted household things away on websites such as Freecycle and Freegle. Mind you, I swear it's multiplying here as we go! The arrival of more strangers was testing for Dudley at first, but we've noticed that as time goes on he's less anxious and more accepting of visitors, settling down very quickly. Needless to say - he always goes to investigate anyone coming to the house - with Honka Duck Mark II firmly in his mouth - sideways. It always totally disarms people and earns him at least a stroke and usually moves onto a cuddle and some fussing. His sweet little face has got to be one of the best ice-breakers ever! Every single person without fail has left with a smile on their face and usually a little wave at Dudley!

There's still one week of the current Snippets Challenge to go, hope to see you in the Playground soon if you haven't played already. It's Christmas in July with some nice bundles of Christmas themed prizes. Including, as I already said, a sentiment stamp and die set the same as the one I used today. Make a card and come and play - one less to make for Christmas - and a chance to win a nice prize if you join in the draw!

Love, as always, from myself and Dudley,

Sunday Snippets - Sparkle and Shine for Christmas

Time for a new Snippets challenge HERE - the theme is 'Christmas in July'  and to enter you must make something that adheres to the Christmas theme and also uses one or more identified snippets. Sarn and I have two consecutive challenges with the 'Christmas in July' theme - and also two sets of Christmas goodies as prizes, one per challenge, to be won in plenty of time for your Christmas crafting!

Here's my Christmas snippets card:

And my snippets:

I used:

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

- piece of white card, die cut using the biggest die from a Taylored Expressions set of dies called 'Petite Scallop Rectangle Stacklets' then set to one side

- die cut the top layers of the tree lights using snippets of paper found in the front pocket of my expanding snippets file, which I covered with shiny sticky backed clear film first. Die cut the underneath layers from a snippet of white sparkly card. The dies are from Lawn Fawn's 'String of Lights' set

- then die cut the 'strings' and the light 'caps' using  more dies from the 'String of Lights' set and a snippet of silver card

- glued the top layers of the lights onto the sparkly layers and topped them with the silver light 'caps'  

- at that point I could lay the die cuts temporarily in place to position the two sentiment stamps using the Misti

- stamped both sentiments (which are from the Woodware 'Christmas Sparkle' stamp set) onto the scalloped panel, using a VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink pad 

- used a very fine glue pen to glue the 'strings' in place, trimming any overhang from the top edge

- added the lights using thin sticky pads and Chrissie's trick of rubbing some glue stick over the sticky side before positioning them onto the card to allow a little bit of 'wiggle' if necessary

- then glued the completed card front panel onto the card blank 

- and, of course I made two cards exactly the same!

The light bulbs are really shiny in real life - that laminate sticky film worked a treat!

This card is for Darnell's NBUS Challenge #52 over HERE. My NBUS was the Lawn Fawn 'String of Lights' and the Taylored Expressions 'Scalloped Rectangles' sets of dies. Also the Woodware set of sentiment stamps. If you like the sentiments I used - hop over to this fortnight's challenge in the Playground - there's a set as part of the prize!

Pupdate: Dudley exceeded his record for finding mischief the other day. I was idly stroking him and felt something sticky around a shoulder and up one side of his face. When I looked - it was yucky black and also it ponged. He has a habit of running his shoulder and the side of his face along the 'easy care grass' in the back garden - and somehow he'd chose exactly where a pigeon had pooped! **  Gross - it took two of us to thoroughly clean it off and he was lucky we were busy doing other things or else he'd have been in the bath! Give him his due though - he did sit perfectly still whilst we worked on him, he's usually a wriggling little bundle. Other than that, Dudley's life is complete - he's totally in love with his new Honka Duck and all is well in his doggie world. Later this month he will celebrate being five years old! 

** Don't ask me how I know the smell of pigeon poop. I just do, from bitter experience which I might write in a Tuesday Tale sometime soon - not written one of those for ages!

Love from Dudley - and of course me, 

Sunday Snippets - CAS Stickeroo

I rustled up a super-fast card for today and yet again forgot to take a photo of my snippets:

I used:

- a cream slightly textured Anita's card blank measuring 5" x 7", side opening

- then dug out a snippet of SU's 'Wisteria Wonder' card (one of my all-time favourites) onto which I'd already stuck a Penny Black Stickeroo from the 'Pen and Ink' sheet

- trimmed the card around the image to just slightly larger

- then glued a trimmed sentiment from the Creative Expressions Wordies Sentiment Sheets set called 'Birthday' onto one of the offcut snippet strips from the Wisteria Wonder card and trimmed the ends to size

- added snippets of card (two layers) to the back of the image panel and the sentiment

- finally - glued the image panel and the sentiment onto the card front - all done

I actually made a second card which is practically identical using a different image from the same sheet of Stickeroos and slightly different words in the sentiment but everything else is the same.

The results of Challenge #456 are over on the Snippets Blog for you. AND some news about the next couple of challenges too.

Dudley Pupdate: The week began badly with Dudley frantically searching high and low for smelly ole Honka Duck - his little legs were trotting hither and thither from room to room around the house at regular intervals. It was even worse when his 'triggers' occurred such as a delivery, the arrival of post or either of us going out. However, as the week wore on - very gingerly and slowly - Dudley decided that Honka Mark II needed some TLC - and took him under his wing paw. Bit by bit he's settled back down and is a contented little soul once more. Phew!  

We're pretty delighted at the drop in temperature here as it's been unbearably hot at times when the air was so still and humid. Some rain would be very welcome right now! Not least for the farmers and those areas suffering from hosepipe bans.

Have a great week!

Love from myself and Dudley - as always

Sunday Snippets and Rudolph Days Challenge

I made my snippets card for the current Rudolph Days Challenge HERE, as well as for my Sunday Snippets post.

The images were already stamped and sent to me by a lovely friend after I commented on her blog how much the stamp reminded me of Dudley. I tend not to publish names of friends who stamp images for me just in case the Copyright Police come knocking at the door - however - you know who you are and a massive thank you once again!  And not just one copy - there were 20 all the same in the envelope!

I used:

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

- have already explained about the adorable Penny Black 'Reindeer Pup' image  - which I coloured using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils then die cut using a die from the Penny Black 'Zigzag Stackers Rectangles' set of dies - I LOVE these dies!

- next I stamped a small sentiment directly onto the image - using my Misti and a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad along with a stamp by Personal Impressions designed by Kirsty Wiseman from a set called 'Many Greetings' - this is possibly my most loved and used Christmas sentiments set of stamps! And I've had it for many, many years

- then took a piece of tartan paper, die cut to a smidgen under the size of the card front - leaving a lovely narrow border. I used the largest plain die from the Spellbinders 'Hemstitch Venise (sic) Lace Rectangles' set of dies and the paper is from Craft Consortium's Essential Papers 'Tartan' pad. The main reason for using the die was to centre the tartan pattern properly - OCD strikes again!

- glued the tartan paper and the completed image panel onto the card front using Collall All Purpose glue - and it was finished!

The images came on white card trimmed to around 4" square - and I'm counting those as my snippets. I have a further 19 images which are about two thirds of the way through a batch baking session - that will boost numbers in the Christmas card box for sure!

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #51 HERE. The 'Penny Black 'Reindeer Pup' images as well as the paper pad were both having a first outing.

We have a new Challenge, run by Sarn, over in the Snippets Playground HERE - with a lovely prize made up of several goodies. 

Dudley Pupdate: The little guy has had yet another haircut - fast on the heels of his previous one, only four weeks ago! I think that Len is possibly a bit 'trimmer and scissor happy' - I'm going to start calling him' Edward Scissorhands'! 

Dudley put up the usual good fight but is now all nicely trimmed (aka scalped!) and even more able to cope with the heat here. He never bears a grudge, no matter how much of a fight he puts up at the time - he's such a sweet natured little pup and always looks so tiny for a couple of weeks. Until the hair grows back with a vengeance!

On the down side of life - Honka Duck had to be removed from Dudley, discretely, and hidden in the garden shed for now, as Dudley was being sick for no apparent reason. Len puts it down to poor manky ole Honka Duck. And I tend to agree as it stopped immediately he could no longer lick and mouth Honka. So right now we have a slightly bemused Dudley not actually 'taking' to the newest version of Honka - which has been within his range for months now! He's slightly bereft, to put it mildly! Watch this space. 😔

Love from Dudley - and of course me,  

Sunday Snippets - dancing in the rain

Here's my Sunday Snippets card:

It's a super quick and simple card this week - not even a photo of the two snippets I used!

I used:

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

- a snippet of black textured card stock for the backing, trimmed to 4.25" square and set aside

- a snippet of blue patterned card stock - found lurking in the front of my snippets concertina file - trimmed down to 4" square

- used a NBUS stamp set that I've had for absolutely ages - called 'Dance in The Rain' by Inkylicious - to stamp the girl and a sentiment onto the blue patterned card, using a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- glued the black layer then the image layer onto the card front

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

I really love the sentiment I used for this card - just a few words, but very wise advice. 

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #51 HERE. The Inkylicious stamp set was having its first outing.

Sarn has posted the results of Challenge #455 over in the Snippets Playground HERE. As always, we had some really great entries - and numbers were good. We're well down in the current challenge but, given the current heat we're all trying to cope with, it isn't surprising!

Dudley Pupdate: First of all, thank you so much for your sweet comments about 'our Boy Dudley' and his photos last week. He's so difficult to catch on camera - basically he looks anywhere but at the flipping lens! Remember he took a tumble the other week when trying to leap onto our bed via a footstool placed there specifically for him? We've noticed that if he has his beloved Honka Duck in his mouth (most likely obscuring his view as he carries it sideways) - now and then (but not every time) he will stop and wait for help to get him and his 'Bestie' up onto the bed. It isn't that he's hurting - he's just got a very good memory and at times we think the memory of his tumble seems to stop him in his tracks. Wise little guy! Other than that - the pavements around here are way too hot for him to go out and about for daytime walkies so he's spending his time happily in the back garden or lying flat on his back indoors ..... in typical 'guard duty' pose!

There's still one week of the current Snippets Challenge to go, hope to see you in the Playground but we fully understand that this heat is deterring many from spending time crafting.

Love, as always, from myself and Dudley,

Sunday Snippets and a new challenge

Challenge #456 is now up and running over on the Snippets Playground folks! I loved Susan S's 'wave' card, which was one of my 'picks' last week. So much so that I set out to make my own for Len's G Nephew Bradley- similar but you really can vary this technique SO much:

My snippets

I used:

- card blank measuring approx. 5.5" x 4.25", tent style

- a snippet of dark brown card, trimmed to 5.25" x 4" and glued in place

- a snippet of white card the same shade as the card base - embossed using a Stampin' Up 'Textures' folder then trimmed to 5" x 3.75" and glued onto the brown layer

- used four circular dies from my Tonic Studios set of round dies, a quarter of an inch graduating down from the largest one I wanted to use - one circle from each of the four colours of dark brown, beige, cream and grey

- cut each circle in half using a trimmer then glued the 'halves' one on top of the other - lining the bottom and one side to the left of the biggest layer at the back (you can vary this for some interesting options!)

 

- die cut the sentiment from dark brown card using a 'Sentiment Strips Die' by Altenew then glued it onto a 3.75" wide strip of beige card to cover where the semi-circles would join up

- added three narrow strips of card to the back of the entire sentiment strip - to lift it to the height of the layered semi-circles and be able to tuck them in place

- then added the sentiment strip across the centre of the card front using strips of thin sticky pad snippets - before then tucking the layered semi-circles underneath the sentiment (just a smidgen), also raising them onto snippets of thin sticky pads

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is none the worse after his tumble last week - he's just as adventurous and full of mischief. In fact, when he's quiet we tend to go hunting for him to check out what he might be up to!  

On Saturday, after his evening meal, we gave him one of his ice creams I bought last week. They're each a mixture of Strawberry, Banana and Apple but to be honest we think he was a bit underwhelmed. We even had to decant it into one of his little bowls before he would venture! I tried a little taste from the actual ice cream tub, it's very much a strawberry flavour and Len is sure that Dudley has turned his nose up at the offerings of a fresh strawberry in the Summer months:

However, it was an opportunity to take a few photos of him having cuddles on Len's lap later on:

This final shot is almost identical to the previous one - I've put it on here as it's the closest I could get to Dudley actually looking at the camera lens!

Love from myself and Dudley - as always

Sunday Snippets - Bee You

I bought the dear little Anita Jeram stamp set and outline die for today's snippets card a while ago - sorry, I forgot to take a photo of my snippets:

I used:

- card blank measuring approx. 5.5" x 4", tent style

- a snippet of green Altenew DP from the 'Acrylic Pour' pack, die cut using a die from The Greetery called 'A side of greens'. The paper is actually the reverse of a double sided snippet left from making another card and there's a little bit of variation in the shades of green .... if you press your nose right up against the screen 😉

- used a Uniko background stamp called 'Blocks Linear' and a Stampin' Up mini ink pad (Bashful Blue) to stamp the background

- then used a snippet of the same white card as used for the card blank and stamped the sweet little bee and flower image and all the words using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink and the Colarado Craft Company's Anita Jeram Mini stamp set called 'Bee You'

- coloured the image using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils  and added a touch of clear Wink of Stells to the wings and the eye of the bee

- then die cut the image using the matching die - I also die cut a template to position the die rather than 'wing it' - see what I just said? 

- stamped the words 'Bee' and 'You' at the bottom right of the card - in fact I did that before stamping the Uniko background now I think back!

- hand cut the words 'Bee, happy, kind and brave' and ran a black Tombow pen around the edges for some definition 

- then used little pieces of thin sticky pads to adhere the image and words where I wanted them and called it done

I had such fun using this sweet little set of stamps, although you don't need to use all the words in one go, I did as it sums up the qualities of a busy bee. 

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #51 HERE. Every single stamp and die was having a first outing. Shame on me for sitting on purchases for so long before actually using them!

The results of Challenge #454 are over on the Snippets Blog for you.

Dudley Pupdate: Bit of a heart in mouth moment on Friday with Dudley. He went to jump up onto our bed, using the low footstool that's in place for him at the bottom of the bed - and misjudged. He didn't squeal but when he picked himself up off the floor he was limping.  However, the gift of one of his treats soon sorted that out and we think much of it was actually shock. Interestingly though, so far he hasn't tried to hop up again. We know he's fine though as we checked him over thoroughly and then as I followed him upstairs that lunchtime he bounded up them as normal, he's more cautious about the bed but has since hopped up a few times. Perhaps a set of doggy steps are in order.

Hope you all have a lovely week. I finally had 3" chopped off my hair on Wednesday - when Dudley first saw me, he barked! Appreciation? Or - perhaps as cheeky Len remarked - surprised at the younger version of his 'Mum' who came home from the hairdressers! 

PS - we finalised our Ocado order earlier this afternoon - we have Doggies Pup Icecreams coming for Dudley, when the weather is really warm. Err, they were on a 30% off deal, but don't whisper a word to him!

Love from myself and Dudley - as always

Sunday Snippets and Rudolph Days challenge

I made my snippets card yesterday - talk about cutting things fine! It's for the current Rudolph Days Challenge HERE, as well as for my Sunday Snippets post:

And here are the snippets I started off with:

I used:

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

- snippet of Tonic 'Luna Silver' pearlescent card, die cut using a Penny Black 'zig-zag stackers' die

- snippet of Tonic 'Navy Dazzle' pearlescent card, die cut using a Positively Papercraft die called 'Starry Night Background' (the crescent moon is part of the die cut - I reckon that if you didn't want the moon you could make a 4" square card and chop that part off - or even flip it top to bottom and cover it with a sentiment or perhaps a snowy hillside!)

- snippet of white card, stamped using a Penny Black 'Hedgy Joy' stamp and a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- coloured the hedgy using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils plus a touch of blending solution, just on his hat where the coloured pencil lines were noticeable

- die cut the hedgy using the matching die (I love that Penny Black now have more dies for their lovely stamps) then set him to one side

- next glued the 'snowy hill' to the bottom of the starry panel - the 'hill' was die cut using a die from the Spellbinders 'A2 Curved Borders One'  set of dies

- then glued the starry panel onto the die cut silver layer before gluing them onto the card front

- added a double layered 'crescent moon' into the die using a glue pen - the moon was cut from a snippet of Tonic's ' Majestic Gold' pearlescent card

- added a double layered 'Be Merry' sentiment, using an additional die which comes with the 'Hedgy Joy' outline die and a couple of snippets of Tonic 'Red Velvet' pearlescent card

- finally, I popped the dear little hedgy onto his 'hillside' using thin sticky pads and called it done  

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #50 HERE. The 'Starry Night Background' die and the 'Hedgy Joy' stamp and dies were having their first outing.

We have a new Challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE - with a lovely prize. Sarn is organising skipping or hopscotch - given our current warm weather, she could be skipping solo!

Dudley Pupdate: Just in time for temperatures being 'on the rise' - Len did give Dudley a really good scalping trim as planned. Good grief - we do forget that there's such a small pooch hiding under that beautiful coat! I haven't had the chance to take a photo of him, in any case he's currently wearing a paper bag over his head for fear of being recognised by any of his doggie pals!

Not quite the right coloured fur as Dudley is pure white - but this isn't TOO far off his paper bag disguise!

He looks just like a puppy again and it's evident that he's actually delighted to be in his 'Summer shorts and T-shirt'! Not quite shorts and T-shirt, but you get the drift. Instead of hunting for cool tiled floors he's decided that snuggling up between us during the night is a good place to be. Thank goodness he's not a St. Bernard or similar!

Hope you all have a lovely week. Today, Saturday, is beautiful here. It's sunny and warm, with more forecast for the coming week. It's the local childrens' half-term holiday, as well as another Bank Holiday here in the UK - and believe me, it's unusual to have nice weather for holiday times so let's hope the forecasters got it right!

Love from Dudley - and of course me,  

Sunday Snippets - Brushstroke Butterflies

Here's my Sunday Snippets card:

And here are my snippets of coloured card, all ready to play: 

I used:

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

- white card stock- in fact it's a white card blank chopped in two so that the white is exactly the same shade for the embossed panel

- used X-Cut's 'Wicker' embossing folder and then trimmed the panel down to 5.5" x 5.5"

- adhered thin white foam sheet behind the embossed panel then glued it to the card front

- then, one at a time I die cut the butterflies from coloured snippets and assembled them - using the Sizzix Tim Holtz 'Brushstroke Butterflies' set of dies

- assembling them was a bit of a puzzle, I'd seen Chrissie Stokes saying they were a bit awkward in one of her videos - which is why I took just one butterfly at a time. And even then, I did almost glue one of the top dark green layers on upside down!

- then rootled around in a little pot of ready cut/made sentiments before finding just the thing so that I could work out the layout

- added the three butterflies to the card front using small pieces of thin sticky pads (with glue stick rubbed over to allow some 'wiggle room') - they really seemed to come alive with the extra 'lift' behind them

- finally, backed the sentiment strip with a couple of layers of leftover black snippets of card and added it to the card front - using red line tape, also with a swipe of glue stick for some wiggle room

- curiously, the best layout I found, whilst playing with the butterflies before adhering them to the card front, is practically the same as on the packaging of the die set! And the colours are practically the same too (that was deliberate on my part but not the actual layout - which was a fluke). Just shows,  sometimes it doesn't pay to change what designers will have possibly agonised over for days - especially when time isn't on your side!

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #50 HERE. The 'Brushstroke Butterflies' set of dies  was out for a first play!

Also, it's Allsorts' 14th Birthday right now - so I wanna join in the party where it's 'Anything Goes' - especially if there's some cake! Well done Brenda and your lovely DT.

Sarn has posted the results of Challenge #453 over in the Snippets Playground HERE. As always, we had some really great entries - and a fantastic number of you came to play too! 

Dudley Pupdate: He's feeling the warmer weather a bit and Len plans to give him a trim over this weekend. Ha, he's blissfully unaware as I type this! Now that the weather is improving it's lovely to spend time outside in the garden with him. It's endlessly fascinating to try and tune into his thought process. 'Oh look, a pretty pebble I pinched from the border - what shall I do with it? I know - I'll put it on the grass and roll and wriggle over it on my back - even though it won't be terribly comfortable'.  Ha - THAT particular game doesn't last very long. 

It's Mo's Rudolph Days Challenge beginning on Thursday 25th remember! And there's still one week of the current Snippets Challenge to go. See you in the Playground.

Sunday Snippets and a new technique

This is my snippets card to kick off challenge #454 over in the Snippets Playground. Go HERE to join in the fun!

I used:

- 5.75" x 5.75" square cream hammered card blank - side opening

- panel of the same cream hammered card for the top panel and a slightly larger one for the gold 'frame' - Tonic Mirror card 'Inca Gold'  - that gold was a sizeable snippet, but still a snippet!

- dug out another fair sized snippet of 'vintage rose' patterned card then added double sided adhesive paper to the back 

- die cut the strips of rose patterned card, using two dies from a Lil' Inkers 'Slim Stripes' set of dies - taking care to keep them in the right order ready for 're-assembly'

- then, one by one, I stuck the strips on as neatly as possible onto a further snippet of Tonic Mirror 'Inca Gold' card - leaving narrow gaps of the gold mirri to show

- next die cut the sentiment from two layers of white snippet card and one layer of 'Inca Gold' mirri card and glued them together using a glue pen - this would help me with the final positioning of the main elements

- then die cut three circles, using Tonic dies, from the 'strips panel' - one large and two rather smaller than the main circle

- next, die cut two crescent/semi-circles into the largest circle, using the two smaller dies

- added all three circles to the card itself using thin sticky pads - making sure that the upright alignment of the strips of gold mirri was absolutely vertical (I hope!). NB, the mirri strips don't need to be in lines corresponding to the main circle - even I, with borderline OCD would draw the line at that!

- then added the sentiment die cut to the bottom left of the card

- final touch - two leftover strips of the rose patterned card were added to the inside of the card, to echo the outside

For a video explaining it - as well as showing the steps - visit Ann Melvin on YouTube HERE.

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #50 HERE.

Dudley Pupdate -  oh he's a wily little chap and no mistake. It's often a bit of a battle to get him to 'ahem, perform his toilet routine' properly and at regular times. So, we always take turns to watch him when he's out in the back garden. Today Len discovered that he has a 'secret poop place' ..... behind our fairly recently installed log cabin! Had to laugh, all the ongoing encouragement from us 'hoomans' and there he was, secretly smiling, as he'd already left a 💩 or two - hidden out of sight! Dogs do pull you down to their basic level I must admit!

Yesterday afternoon it was sunny here and I was busy at a bedroom window when I spotted Len and Dudley down in the back garden. Dudley was doing absolutely crazy zoomies of pure doggie delight around the garden - an absolute joy to watch!

Love from both of us, Dudley Dog ('The Secret Pooper') and of course me

Sunday Snippets and a new Lattice card idea

I really like the very clever crafter Ann Melvin's YouTube channel and often watch her to pick up new ideas. This is the link to Ann's actual YouTube video showing the technique HERE - she has her own online store called 'Positively Papercraft'  HERE - well worth a visit if you're in the UK. 

And this is what I made:

I used:

- card blank measuring approx. 6" (just under 6" in fact) x 4.25" - cut later to the same size as the finished card front panel

- two absolutely identical pieces of paper from the DCWV 12" paper pad called 'Quince & Blossom'  - I cut the two layers at once to be sure they were lined up and identical - they are foiled and so very pretty

- then 'outline' die cut the pieces together, only  using the outer frame from Ann's 'Positively Papercraft 'Cracked Glass' pair of dies

- then die cut just one of the resulting background pieces again, using the inner lattice part of the 'Cracked Glass' pair of dies

- suddenly realised that the paper would be too floppy for the top layer, so I die cut just the inner part of the panel from a snippet of white card, trimmed it down then added it behind the patterned layer using a glue pen. I had to do it that way as it would have been almost impossible to die cut exactly the same panel using both the dies, the alignment needed to be perfect with no over-hang

- and at that point I pushed it to one side as I'd done four similar panels from the same paper pad and felt they would all 'sag', despite the additional strengthening die cut lattice card layer

- went back to them and layered the other lattice layers onto the backgrounds using narrow foam tape, with glue stick on top for some slide - then pushed them to one side, yet again

- still convinced they would sag - even with the additional thickness of the white card snippet underneath the lattice panel - I fairly gently added a Pink Fresh pre-foiled die cut sentiment to the lower right corner of the card using a glue pen right around the back of the sentiment and being careful not to totally press it down onto the very back layer of patterned paper

- AND, it worked! No sagging to be worried about really

Well, knock me down with a feather - what a really lovely surprise! Love the sentiment itself - so positive. And good for a teen wearing braces on their teeth!

My snippet is well hidden, I used a left over piece of white card to back the lattice layer for added strength.

So, now I need to just make up the other three panels into cards - with a load more confidence than I had! Yay! I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #50 HERE. The Positively Papercraft ' Cracked Glass' die set was having its first outing.

The results of Challenge #452 are over on the Snippets Blog for you.

Dudley Pupdate: A good friend was here the other day and Dudley fell in love with her and wanted to go home with her when she left the house, but we all know he would he would have been squealing before she left our road. He absolutely flung himself at me this morning in affection - then I realised that he thought there might be a second 'morning treat' hidden about my person! Little monkey. Mind you, on reflection, he's the same with both of us where treats are concerned - albeit with just a tad more respect for his 'Dad'!

We watched quite a bit of the Coronation - history in the making. And it rained. 

Hope you all have a lovely week. 

Much love from Di and Dudley Dog