January Christmas Kickstart - phew, just in time!

I really thought I might have to miss Jo's Christmas Kickstart Challenge - HERE. The theme is 'Bring the Baubles'. My entry is very last minute and with a couple of scares along the way - here it is, YAY!

I used:

- 4.75" x 4.75" square white card blank, side opening

- a piece of ready embossed white card, another one sent by a friend to protect the front of her Christmas card to us - trimmed to approx. 3.75" square

- backed the pretty embossed white panel with a snippet of Tonic mirror 'Inca Gold' card, trimmed to leave just a very narrow frame - used Collall All Purpose glue - a huge favourite with me

- the fun (not!) part was die cutting the bauble itself - it's actually the same 3D-Sizzix Embosslits die as Jo is offering at the prize this month, but you have just over 24 hours until the challenge closes. It's a gorgeous die which cuts and embosses at the same time - called 'Ornament - No. 66505' .. and this was its first outing

- I don't have a Big Shot or similar so I Googled both Cuttlebug and Gemini Embosslits Plate Sandwiches. And that's when the fun began as I could only find a Gemini 'Plate Sandwich'! 

- the Gemini sandwich went into the machine - then got stuck fast! Something I'd feared would happen when emailing a friend about doubts

- thankfully, after my attempts failed - Len galloped to the rescue and gently retrieved the plates and the Embosslit! Visions of a totally 'kaput' machine here - immediately die cut a simple die as a tester and no lasting damage - phew

- so, I left well alone until earlier today, Thursday, one day before close of play over at the challenge, bit too close for my liking

- eventually, I stumbled across a site purporting to have ALL plate combinations for the Cuttlebug - so I dutifully got the Cuttlebug and plates set up - no luck with the suggested 'sandwich'! 

- in desperation, I actually used just plates A, the 3-D Embosslit and card with just one plate B - success!! I could have added a card shim but why chance your luck!?

- die cut a futher bauble using a snippet of white card, using the same die for additional rigidity and glued it onto the back of the gold bauble 

- popped a simple knotted small red satin bow onto the bauble - Collall glue again

- added the bauble onto the panel front using thin sticky pads

- then added the whole panel to the card front using very narrow foam tape for even more dimension

Done! And, I'vr slipped a piece of paper into the Embosslit packet with the plates for the Cuttlebug clearly itemised!

Having thought further about it, I have a feeling that the plate sandwiches I found were most likely 'pre' the days of 3-D dies and possibly referred to plain 2-D Embosslits, which I've never encountered at all but would likely explain the difficulties I stumbled across? Stumble? More like fell into ......... totally headlong!! One to watch out for it seems.

One big lesson is to rely on a hand cranked machine if in any doubt! And then, don't give up on  trial and error - with you in full command!

As well as Christmas Kickstart, I'd also like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #70 - also about to finish! HERE.

I'm off for an early night in bed here - to fully recover!!

Sunday Snippets - Christmas card, also for Rudolph Days

Recently, I was browsing through dies on Amazon and came across a really lovely Christmas sentiment die set. The background is solid and then you cut the top outline layer and add it - thereby making a pretty stunning statement - err, so the theory goes. Possibly one of the very worst die sets I've ever struggled with. The main thing that kept me going was because I also wanted to use a second die cut on the card, using a lovely 'tall gift'  set of a stamp and matching die. Here's the end result:

I used:

- DL white card blank, tent style

- selected some smaller snippets - Tonic pearlised 'Red Velvet' and Tonic mirror 'Inca Gold' ready for the 'fun and games' to come with the sentiment die set. At this point I was blissfully unaware of what lay ahead of course, sigh

- used a snippet of the same white card stock to stamp the Gummiapan 'tall gift' and coloured it using a Polychromos pencil and Sansodor blending solution - a sort of rustic red and a perfect match to the sentiment snippet (more so in real life). Coloured the spots on the image using a Signo sparkly gold pen and let it have time to dry

- then cut a template for 100% accurate alignment before die cutting the 'gift box' - both the stamp and the matching die were a gift from a  very kind friend, I love it, thank you so much once again. In fact, the design of the die meant I didn't really need a template for accurate cutting - more kudos to Gummiapan!

- so, there was the gift all ready - now to make up the sentiment ........hollow laughter here!

- the sentiment dies are unbranded (needless to say) and I first die cut the solid red layer - immediately having my first misgivings as the card didn't want to part company with the die for love nor money. Eventually, having cut a second attempt, I did manage to end up with a perfect red solid sentiment layer

- naturally, it had to get worse! Next was the very outline narrow layer, which I initially die cut using a snippet of Tonic pearlised 'Majestic Gold'. That was practically a wrestling match to remove the die cut and it basically came out in pieces 

- so, I turned to my snippets of Tonic mirror 'Inca Gold' card and tried again. Once again, the same problem

- at that point I was ready to have a total rethink but, an old trick from early days of die cutting popped into my head - waxed paper!! 

- put the waxed paper over the die itself, wax side facing onto the die put more 'Inca Gold' snippet of card face down on top and had another try. Hoo flippin' ray!! It didn't pop straight out without a little bit of encouragement - but the old trick worked! Practially ran around the garden doing zoomies of relief.

- thankfully, adding the outline to the solid background layer using medium and fine nibbed glue pens went well - I was half expecting there to be a mismatch to be honest!

- die cut a further piece of the white card using a die by Creative Craft Products from their Slimline and DL Nestabilities range, called 'DL Stitched Straight Edge' die set - I used the second largest die in the set

- backed it with a snippet of Tonic mirror 'Inca Gold' card, just to show a narrow border, then glued that to the card front

- glued the sentiment onto the card front and then added the dear little gift. For the gift I used a snipped up thin sticky pad for a little dimension

- final step, added three sparkly gold sequins to break up the remaining white space a little 

What a marathon!!  All I can think of it that the metal used by the manufacturer isn't one which easily releases it's 'captive'!!! It's highly unlikely I would ever use the die set again - life is too short to sit peeling grapes for the fun of it. I just wish I knew, if indeed it even is a copy as I'd never seen it before, who made or makes the original design as that itself is very nice. Does anyone know?

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

- Allsorts Challenge # 815 HERE -  under 'Anything Goes'

- Rudolph Days Challenge HERE - anything goes, but obviously must be Christmas themed

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 70 HERE

Dudley Pupdate: It's been an uneventful week, unless you count 'Storm Eowyn', which thankfully didn't hit us personally. Those who were hit have our every sympathy, wind is so unforgiving and some of the TV footage was terrifying. During the storm I was sorely tempted to put Dudley's harness on him and attach a lead when he nipped out for a little wee in the back garden during the worst of it. Almost as if he waits as long as he can keep his legs crossed ........... then wakes us up for an emergancy trip outside Mind you, he's so nosy it's equally possible he wanted to see just what was going on out there. We had someone here about ten days ago doing a small household fix with Dudley inspecting every move he made, at one point I expected him to appear wearing blue overalls carrying a little toolbox to join in!

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #497 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Do come and play with us in the Snippets Playground - Dudley is waiting to join in with a game of 'Kiss Chase' as suggested by one wag (pun intended!). Be aware though, he charges for cuddles and there's a 100% mark-up on 'nose boops'!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - 'Word Christmas Tree'

I had another dig around in the sweet little handmade folder of snippety toppers sent to me by a blogging friend over a year ago - and decided to use a 'word' Christmas tree die cut for my snippets card this week:

I used:

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

- a snippet of Tonic gold mirror card (Inca Gold), literally trimmed just a tiny amount and set to one side

- a lovely piece of embossed white card - sent to me by another friend to protect the front of her Christmas card to us - such a lovely idea. Again, trimmed by just a little bit - then glued onto the gold backing card

- as I was putting the die cut gold Christmas tree onto embossed card, I wanted to double layer it - but of course I don't have the identical die here. However, what did I find in the packet of goodies but a second tree, die cut in plain red, what a result!

- so I glued the gold tree onto the red tree and then glued it onto the gold edged white embossed panel

- finally, added the whole front panel onto the card blank, using narrow strips of foam tape 

The leftover snippets were so tiny, just little strips and not really 'photo-worthy'.

Dudley Pupdate: We finally had some snow here. Just a little bit at first and Dudley wasn't very impressed. But, a few days later there was enough for him to get really excited and do his 'snow zoomies'. And he loves the part when he comes back into the house all damp aand gets a good going over with a towel! That seems to be all part of the fun - playing 'fight the towel'!

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #496 are now published HERE.  Four more lucky winners of the mystery prize bundles.

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground, we're celebrating 13 years since I originally took over the Snippets Playground from the lovely Jules  - and there's a prize voucher to be won too!

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Three Little Trees'

We're celebrating 13 years  since I took over the Snippets Playground Challenge from Jules of 'Always With a Heart' How time flies when you're having fun and frolics!

I was a bit stumped for inspiration when thinking about my snippets card for today - and whilst musing I reached into one of my baskets of 'bits to use' and came across a lovely folder full of little pockets filled with die cuts and other delightfully card embellishments for Christmas. Sent by  European Playmate it has sat patiently waiting to be used since last Christmas, so I had a rootle and came up with a plan:

I used:

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

- three adorable hand stamped and coloured 'Christmas Tree' shapes sent by my blogging friend, which I glued onto three snippets of Tonic pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' card which I had punched using Stampin' Up's Christmas tree punch

- a snippet of Tonic pearlescent 'Majestic Gold' card as the lower card layer, trimmed slightly and glued onto the card front

- then a further snippet of white card which needed a teeny bit of trimming before having some diagonal lines dry embossed across the bottom right hand corner - using my ScorePal. I scored six lines but with hindsight, another couple would have been better - not that they show very well in the photo needless to say!

- added the three pretty trees using thin sticky pads - first the outer two trees and then the middle one for the best chance at some decently even spacing

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

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley's silky hair is growing fast and at this rate he's likely to need yet another trim before very long. But, with colder weather supposed to be coming this weekend he won't be a shorn lamb just for a while yet. He's had a great Christmas ............... and has probably had too many little tasty treats slipped his way! It's really cold here with snow forecast - Dudley is loving just sniffing the crisp air whenever he's out in the garden

We have a new Challenge #497 being run by our lovely Sarn over HERE AND, it's a special one to celebrate our 13 year Snippets Playground Blogaversary. Nice prize as well!

No more leading a conga line for me as per the Playground Christmas Party report from Sarn last week - leading means you can't see what everyone else is up to! And Sarn, being the ring leader, wasn't going to snitch!

Love from myself and Dudley, 

Sunday Snippets - 'Delivering Joy Sleigh'

I fell in love with another Spellbinders set of dies recently when a Playmate over in the Snippets Playground (Kate) entered a really lovely sleigh card into Challenge 494 and was one of my picks. I discovered the set at a discounted price and the rest is history! 18 dies in total in the set by the way and this is my take, sticking very closely to the photo on the packet for a first play - more so as I found all the pieces of snippets lurking in a basket on my desk:

I used:

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

- a piece of cream card at one eighth of an inch smaller all round, with a gold Calligraphy pen run around the edge for a really fine line then set aside 

- a piece of white card (snippet) embossed using a Gina K 'Holiday Flora' folder, trimmed to one eighth of an inch smaller all round than the cream layer then glued onto the cream layer - then both were set aside

- next came some serious die cutting, using a variety of coloured snippets and also a snippet of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' card to die cut the sleigh and contents

- then assembled all the little elements - without losing a single die, yay!

- assembled the pile of presents, using clear tape on the back and stuck them into the sleigh

- then added the twinkled foliage and poinsettia plus the sweet little label and there it was, all ready to add to the card front, using thin sticky pads - finished!

I found this set of dies to be an absolute joy to work with, after finding issues with a couple of Spellbinders sets I used recently, it went together like a dream. There are some clever ideas in the design, such as grooves are impressed into the parcels as you die cut them, to make lining up the crossways ribbon a breeze. Top marks to Spellbinders from me and I'll certainly be having more plays with the set in the near future.

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

- Allsorts Challenge # 812/3 HERE -  the theme is 'Use your dies'

- Rudolph Days Challenge HERE - anything goes but obviously must be Christmas themed

- Christmas Kickstart Challenge HERE - 'If it's Christmassy link it up!' 

- Darnell's NBUS Challenge # 69 - HERE

Dudley Pupdate: Oh boy, was Dudley in doggie heaven on Christmas Day - he was hopping around the kitchen in anticipation of some little extras with his normal dinner - and we didn't disappoint him of course. He adores little pigs in blankets, nicely cut up for him, most of all - mind you, he did leave the cut up sprouts I'd added, wishful thinking on my part! The bit about his Christmas present from Santa he loved best of all was ................... the wrapping paper. 😉 By bedtime he was exhausted and zonked straight out on our bed, on his back, for a long sleep, before we'd even brushed our teeth.

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #495 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Do come and play with us in the Snippets Playground - it's the final week of our December mystery bundles giveaway challenges. 

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Sunday Snippets - almost Christmas Day!

My Snippets card today uses a cute unbranded die set, that Dudley bought for my Birthday back in September ...... with his very own pocket money from car washing on stilts at weekends  (just checking if you truly read this!). 

This is my Christmas card to you all:

I used:

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

- the dear little unbranded die set, featuring either a Christmas Gnome or at a stretch, Santa himself - let's refer to him as Santa here!

- selection of little snippets of card, to firstly die cut and assemble the 'Santa', sticking the parts together with glue pens and a teeny snippet of sticky tape on the back of the black lantern to pop the little flame coloured 'inners' in place. So fiddly and thank goodness for a pick-up tool by We R Stampers, rarely needed in the many years I've had it, but priceless when it does come to the rescue

- one assembled Santa, after I gave him eyes with a fine liner pen - but what to put him on, as a background? A further rummage in my easily reachable snippets basket threw up pieces of card in plain white, snippet of patterned snowy sky background (kept from making a recent card) and a scrap of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' pearlescent card

- first of all I glued the hand curved by 'moi' snippet of white card to the snowy background for later use and set it to one side

- then glued both background pieces as a single panel to a thinnish piece of white card for stability

- took a snippet of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' pearlescent card and die cut the outer part of the frame, the set of dies I used is Penny Black's 'framed' - gorgeous albeit fiddly! 

-next was the tricky part - I put the double gold frame, with it's wide apertures over the background piece of card(s) and carefully drew a cutting line along the centre of the empty parts of the frame itself then trimmed along those lines. This was so that the background wouldn't poke out beyond the frame on any side. NB, easier to plonk it straight onto a plain piece of card IMHO! 

- glued the panel to the back of the frame then glued the die cut white inner parts of the frame in place

- added a 5.5" x 5.5" white panel to the card front. using Collall glue as usual

- then added the framed image onto the the card front using narrow self- adhesive foam strips - which made it so much more robust and 'together'!

- final touch - my favouriite Merry Christmas die cut, double layered, in Tonic 'Majestic Gold' 

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

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #69 HERE

 - Allsorts Week #812/3 HERE under the 'Use your Dies 'theme'

Dudley Pupdate: The magic in Dudley's eyes is so beautiful to see. He sat and watched, utterly enchanted, as Len and I decorated our twinkling Christmas tree. He's getting the vibes and is ready for his Santa hat any day now. Happy times indeed.

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground. It's our second challenge for December/Christmas with four bumper mystery prizes to be won.   

Love as always from Dudley Dog and me - and a Very Merry Christmas to one and all! 🎄🎅🎄🎅

Sunday Snippets - Decoupage 'Chee-wow-ah'!

I made this card for one of my best friends from boarding school, way back in the early days of the Beatles! She has a dear little Chihuahua - a real cutie called Patch! Now and then, as Dudley was outgrowing things like his puppy carrier and his baby harness etc., it was so nice to send them to Angie: 

I used: 

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

- a decoupage sheet by Hunkydory which was ready cut. I just trimmed off the little 'pips' holding the images to the sheet and layered then up using snipped up thin sticky pads. 

- added a layer of Tonic mirror card in 'inca Gold' to the front of the card blank - it was a snippet and only needed a teeny bit of trimming

- then I took a really precious snippet of the absolutely last piece of a Christmas paper design by LOTV in the 'Merry Christmas' pad (sob!) and trimmed just a little from the edges. That pad was much loved and so very versatile

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

- final touch, added the little circular sentiment from the decoupage sheet onto the bottom right corner of the card, using a sticky pad, and called it done! 

The leftover snippets were so tiny, just little strips and I binned them without thinking to take a photo.

Dudley Pupdate: Poor little guy still has some straggly hair since his trim, so is scheduled for another session with Len. He'll be doing the Egyptian 'Sand Dance' all over the grooming table! Never mind Dudley ........ Santa tells me has something in his sack just for you! No doubt it will be loved, kissed and well licked then added to the pile as he returns to his 'True Love' - Honka! To be fair, he does return to each one of his 'babies' to give them a cuddle and a wash ............. in turn. 

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #494 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground, we've moved onto mince pies and Christmas punch now - yay! Just scroll down from my results post - over in the Playground.

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

For Brenda - 'A Winter Story'

I already entered over at Allsorts but really wanted to have a second entry with a Poinsettia theme. Brenda did almost throw down the gauntlet when I mentioned it, and I'll always try to take it up - so this is for Brenda. After almost burning the midnight oil here - it's done - ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz:

I used:

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

- all papers are from the Stamps by Me' 'A Winter Story' kit - from last Christmas I should add, unused until now. There are various paper packs in 6, 8 and 12 inches square, plus printed A4 vellum. Some embellishments are also included and that's mostly the 6" pack I used today

- the 12" x 12" square pack of papers is plain on the reverse and, whilst too large a pattern on the front for my personal preference, the reverse using the same colour pallette is a perfect foil to pick up colours in all of the smaller patterned papers for framing purposes. Happy dance here when I realised that! 

- picked out the card front paper from the 6" square paper pack then found the perfect green for the 'frame' piece I had in mind from the 12" paper pack (reverse)

- die cut the sentiment circle from the 6" pack once again - using a Heffy Doodle 'Double Stitched Circles' die and pt it to one side

- 'fussy cut' a poinsettias embellishment from the 6" square 'A Winter Tale' paper pack, used a large ball ended rounding tool and a foam mat to round it a bit for dimension. Then 'shimmered' it using clear 'Wink of Stella'

- used the biggest die in the Heffy Doodles 'Double Stitched Squares' die set to cut the patterned paper to suit. To make it more 'lifted' I backed some plain 250 gsm white card with double sided 'Stick It' sheet bafore adding it to the reverse of the patterned sheet - before I die cut it 

- glued the green 'frame layer' to the card front then added the stitched edge wreath square of patterned paper - both using Collall All Purpose glue

- then popped the sentiment onto the front of the card, followed by the two poinsettias down below the robin. Used thin sticky pads for the sentiment and double layered thin sticky pads for the poinsettias

- final step once the topper parts were in place - added touches of clear 'Wink of Stella' shimmer to the purple berries in the wreath and one bauble in the sentiment. None of which I could captture in photos of course!

Naturally, I would like to enter this card into the current Allsorts Challenge, which is HERE - 'Winter Flowers and Fauna'.

Also, Darnell's NBUS Challenge #69 for December HERE - the 'A Winter Story' kit was having a first playtime!

Well, this was my first real toe-dipping into the wider world of predesigned and printed collections of papers, embellishments etc. Interesting and a different slant on making a card - once you choose the items to use, it's easy- ish!

Sunday Snippets - two cards in under an hour

My two identical snippets cards today were made in literally under an hour, on Friday just gone. That's a miracle for me as I'm a slow crafter at the best of times! My starting point was a couple of Penny Black Stickeroos that I'd already popped onto some gold pearlescent snippets. In the end I trimmed the gold off altogether, leaving just the images and taking it from there, although I did add a gold layer behind the image in any case later on. Basically, it's probably easier to pop Penny Black Stickeroos onto plain white card, trim to the edge when you need them and then work from there. Trying to trim totally even borders when a Stickeroo is on a snippet piece of card, which isn't even straight edged, is tricky-woo!! And none of my dies came near to helping me either. Anyhow, this is the end result:

I used:

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

- a piece of green backing paper, which is covered in little pine tree branches and snowflakes, from the Honey Bee 'Make It Merry' paper pad - trimmed to just an eighth of an inch smaller all round than the card blank itself. I LOVE this paper pad!!

- glued the 'Make it Merry' background paper to the card front using Collall glue

- after trimming the Penny Black Stickeroo, from the 'Woodland Splendor' set, back down to the image itself, I then cut a properly measured snippet of Tonic 'Majestic Gold' pearlescent card to form a narrow border around the image piece and glued them together

- the Stickeroo came with the word 'noel' as part of the design, thus I didn't need an additional sentiment on the front of the card, yay, a time saver!

- final step was to add the whole panel to the card front, using narrow strips of thin foam tape, at an angle for a change, which does seem to show off more of the lovely patterned paper - finished!

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

- Allsorts Challenge # 809 - HERE -  the theme is 'Winter Flowers & Fauna'. I don't have actual flowers but from Brenda's wording she seems to imply that trees and greenery are fine - othrwise it's the 'Anything Goes' theme!

Dudley Pupdate: The moment of truth finally arrived and Len trimmed Dudley on Thursday, before he turned into a little Yeti! But, someone pinched our ball of fluffy white fur and left a tiny puppy in his place! Still got the same smile and beautiful eyes - and he insists that he really IS Dudley! He looks very small and also vulnerable right now. So cute.

Remember, the results from Sarn's Challenge #493 are now published in the Snippets Playground HERE. 

Do come and play with us in the Snippets Playground - Sarn and I are gearing up ready for the Christmas celebrations. She's Little Miss Organised and I'm more like Little Miss Scatty! I did spot her dragging a load of Christmas decorations, for inside as well as ouside, behind her in the Playground during the week. I kept my head down and stayed indoors keeping warm and dry, sorting through the Toy Box for our forthcoming bumper challenges. Sshh, I say no more! However, Dudley can be bribed to spill the beans for treats ...... no doubt!

Love as always, Dudley and yours truly,

Rudolph Days - November 2024

My card today is almost 'white on white' - with some white sparkle card and also some silver sparkle card as well:

I used:

- 5.75" x 4" white card blank, tent fold

- die cut the aperture with row of houses etc. using a piece of white card, the same as the card blank - then embossed it . The NBUS die is an unbranded one from Amazon, bought ages ago, and not showing the best embossed detail in the photo - there's a snowman and a sleigh to the left hand side, you can see it much more clearly in real life, sigh

- die cut the outer border of the image rectangle to size, using a die from Heffy Doodles A6 set of 'stitched Rectangle' dies, sadly no longer in business

- cut a snippet of white glitter card to fit behind the image die cut panel and just held it there without attaching it so I could see what it would look like

- the next step was to trim away a rather odd looking 'lump' in the snow right in the centre of the image panel - it almost looked like a snow covered grit holder that our UK Councils provide to quieter roads so that you can 'do it yourself'

- filled the now gaping patch of snowy bank by die cutting a pair of Christmas trees using a Charlie & Paulchen little die from a sweet set of small Christmas dies - designed to work with their Christmas Market dies etc. and using very narrow red line tape to adhere them to the reverse of the image panel. In my mind I think the residents of the two houses pute those there just for the Christmas festivities ....they're still arguing about whether to have lights on them!

- at the same time, die cut the sentiment and some stars, using the original row of houses set and a snippet of silver sparkle card and glued them in place

- then carefully added the white glitter card behind the die cut image - using red line tape AND  a few slicks of glue stick 'just in case' - another Chrissie Stokes tip. As it happened the alignment was spot on, yay! 

- I felt that the border of the stitched edge needed just that 'something' between it and the card outside edge so I added a rectangle of the same white card to the card blank - just one eighth of an inch narrower all round, and that too is almost invisible in the photo! Come on sunshine - give me a break!

- finally, added the whole image panel to the front of the card using very narrow foam strips - done!! 

I would like to add this card to the following challenges:

Rudolph Days for November 2024 - HERE

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #68 - HERE - the row of houses die was having its first outing 

I do often make a duplicate or even more of Christmas cards.  In this case I was SO glad it was only the one! Not the friendliest of cutting dies and I almost had to beat it into submission!!

Sunday Snippets - 'Three Kings'

My snippets card today uses a lovely stamp that I spotted over on Liz's blog HERE. I sat on my hands for about half an hour before ordering one for myself! It's such a distinct stamp that I had to take care not to make a direct copy of Liz's card:

I used:

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

- patterned paper from the Whimsy Stamps Slimline paper pack called 'Champagne', I used the centre portion with the rays of light emanating upwards

- stamped the image using Lavinia's 'Wise Men' stamp and a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad

- trimmed the image, cutting just inside the stamped outline

- hunted for ages looking for a suitable die to make a stitched edge 'frame' for the image

- success eventually so I used a snippet of Tonic 'Inca Gold' mirror card and a die from the MFT 'Stitched Fishtail Flag STAX' set of dies which was perfect for the height of the piece I wanted but way too wide. I used the old trick of die cutting onto a wider piece of card, about half an inch wider than the final result would be using the straight stitched sides and then flipped the die around the opposite way. Jiggled the die into the top and bottom 'die cut stitches' by feel to the exact width I wanted and then die cut the remaining end so that all four sides had stitching. Much easier to show than explain and when you've done the trick just once, it's a great standby to have to really customise when you don't have the perfect sized die! 

- then glued the image onto the gold panel before attaching it to the card front using narrow self- adhesive foam strips .... and the glue stick trick of course!

- then die cut two sentiment strips from another snippet of 'Inca Gold' mirror card, using the Tonic Studios 'Peace Strip' double die set (actual sentiment only), layerd them using a glue pen then glued the sentiment strip in place across the card front

- me not daft, I'd made the card tent style so that I could cleanly snip off the excess length from either side of the sentiment strip, with a sharp pair of scissors

- finished, and yup, I did make two as the paper pack had two sheets of each design

Sorry, the snippets were all shiny gold, and the desk light just bounced back so I haven't used the photo I took. It's so dull here these days that taking photos isn't particularly easy.

Little tip, stamps with very solid parts, no matter how often I use a stamping platform to re-ink, can still have some teeny stubborn white spots. Also, re-ink and re-stamp too often and you risk  some of the fine detail becoming 'clumpy-looking'. The spots are tiny, but I know they're there and my solution is a Tombow double ended black brush pen.  Just a light touch with the brush end and they disappear!

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

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #68 HERE - the Lavinia 'Three Kings' stamp is NBUS

 - Allsorts Week #808 HERE under the 'Anything Goes' theme

 - and, Christmas Kickstart HERE where the theme is  'Wise Men Three'

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley is like a walking bundle of fluff at the moment - he's due to have a trim. I'm hoping there isn't a little round foottball lurking underneath all the hair! Len has let him off for now as it's turned very cold over the past few days. Dudley's life with his new Honka is going really well and he's making a nice double groove along Honka's back to get decent 'purchase' when he's carrying him around the house.  I always smile when he appears with Honka held sideways in his mouth and just two bright happy eyes looking at you over the top. 

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

Hope to see you on the swings - wrap up warm, it's cold, wet and windy outside. I'm donating a Chiminea  for you to gather round whilst consuming some of Sarn's latest offering of hot goodies!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - 'Decoupage Pooch'

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

An idea of the many layers!

I used: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx

Sunday Snippets - 'Clarity Treescape'

Did you remember to change your clocks overnight - over here it's one hour back - ie 'Fall - back'. Easy way to remember it!

The October Rudolph Days challenge is well under way and my snippets card this week is a Christmas one so that I can play along:

I used:

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

- a snippet of satin effect silver matt mirror card - die cut with a NBUS die by Clarity called 'Treescape Aperture'

- then cut the frame around the die cut trees using a Heffy Doodle die from their 'Stitched Squares' set of dies - sadly now discontinued as they closed down

- added a square snippet of deep purple-ish blue matt mirror card to the back of the trees die cut panel, covering both the top and bottom parts of the scene, using a glue pen 

- next, die cut the snow bank part of the 'Treescape' from an A4 sheet of very pretty sparkly white card stock that arrived here a day or two ago - thank you again to a lovely friend!

- glued the relevant pieces of the snowy bank into the apertures 

- die cut a sentiment using the Tonic Studios 'Peace Strip' double die set (actual sentiment only) and snippets of the deep blue card, twice. Glued them one on top of the other and then snipped the 'tails' to suit and glued it in place at the bottom right of the card

- added an IO little die cut 'cardinal' for a pop of extra colour - and also to hide a slight blip in the die cutting!

- finally, used thin sticky strips to raise the Treescape panel for dimension and stuck it in place - all done! 

Sorry, the snippets disappeared into the bin before I thought to take a photo! 

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

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #67 HERE - the Clarity 'Treescape' die is NBUS

Allsorts Week #804 HERE under the 'Anything Goes' theme

And, after all that, I almost forgot - October's Rudolph Days Challenge - HERE!

Dudley Pupdate: This coming week is Halloween of course and we're all prepared. Dudley has his little spooky neckerchief chosen in readiness. One thing I'm worried about is that he's become quite reactive to outside noises - people smile when they see who's been doing the 'welcome barking', but, if it becomes too much then I can see us cutting things short, once the little ones have done the rounds. Which will leave us with a whole load of candy, which neither of us really eat. Maybe I'll just make up cello bags of treats and lob them from an upstairs window ....... or leave them with Sarn in the Playground stash of goodies!

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

Hope to see you on the swings - weather and Halloween trick or treat callers permitting!

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday Snippets - Penny Black 'JOY'

Bit of an odd week, Len's Birthday was on Tuesday - we had a quiet day, but to celebrate, the dishwasher decided to give up the ghost and ping its buttons across the kitchen! Finally - after almost two years of Len and his Heath Robinson fixes, it was beyond redemption - hooray!

For those of you in the UK, we use AO Appliances online store and true to form they arrived on time on Thursday, disconnected the old and connected and tested the new machine. Then tootled off, taking the old one for recycling and all the packaging. So quick and easy - I like it when things actually go to plan as it's a rare thing here and always has been. 

  

I used: 

- 5.5" x 4.25" cream linen blank - tent style

- a teensie bit smaller snippet of Tonic pearlised 'Majestic Gold' card  to form a narrow 'frame' for the hammered cream layer

- 5.25" x 4" snippet of  cream hammered card

- glued the hammered card onto the gold 'frame' and set it and the card blank to one side

- using Tonic snippets of satin mirror card 'Scarlet Organza' I then die cut two of the word 'JOY', using a NBUS Penny Black die called 'immense joy'

- glued both layers of the die cut 'JOY' together for dimension

- die cut the 'O' from a card mounted Penny Black Stickeroo from the 'Berry Delight' sheet - this was quite tricky with little room to play but I managed, with hiccups along the way! 

- added the word 'JOY' and the centre of the 'O' to the cream hammered card panel using a glue pen

- adhered the finished panel to the card front, using narrow foam strips for a bit of 'lift' - and it still can be posted at UK's Standard rate - finished!

I can see fun times ahead using this very big die - it's just right for using Penny Black's 'Masterpieces' ready printed images - and the world is your prawn oyster for going to town with die cut foliage etc. And, not forgetting the many delightful PB Christmas stamps lurking here.

I'd like to enter this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #67 HERE as the Penny Black 'JOY' die was having a first outing.

And, I's like to enter it into the current Allsorts Challenge #803, under the 'Anything Goes' rule. The theme for this week is 'Patterned papers' and as I have a ton of those, despite having culled a lot - I might even try to play a second time! Perhaps, maybe. Why don't you have a go though?

Dudley Pupdate: As happens over time, Dudley has 'loved' his Honka Duck to the point that before long the stuffing will appear so we've duly placed the brand new replacement next to the old Honka whenever possible over the last couple of days - and will do so until the day comes when the swop will be made. Much like the Stinky Monkey toys in his puppy days, it has to be done for Dudley's health and safety. However, the traumatic first few days are tough until he stops searching the house and accepts that 'old' Honka has gone to the big duck pond in the sky ........... so he might as well knuckle down with his replacement. Sigh. 😟

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #490 are now published HERE. 

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

Love from myself and Dudley, xxx