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 - every picture tells a story

I pulled out a snippet of navy blue pearlescent card and a few snippets of 'Pale Ivory' linen effect card to make my snippets card for today:

Very sorry, no photo of the snippets this time - they were rather unexciting and had been disposed of before I thought to take a photo!

I used:

- 5.5" x 4" pale ivory linen effect card blank, tent style

- snippets of the same pale ivory card as well as snippets of Tonic's 'Navy Dazzle' card stock for the remainder of the card

- used a NBUS set of Waffle Flower dies called 'Wooden Frame' to die cut and emboss the main rectangle as well as the oval frame from navy blue card snippets - set those aside for now

- dry embossed a snippet of pale ivory linen effect card using Cuttlebug's 'Script' folder, trimmed it to fit to the back of the navy rectangular frame and adhered it in place, before setting it to one side again

- out came the Misti and I stamped the flower and the bee, using VersaFine Clair 'Morning Mist' ink - on the reverse side of the pale ivory card (no linen effect on the reverse, which is handy). The stamps are from a NBUS set of stamps by Hobby Art, called 'Happiness Blooms'

- then stamped the sentiment in readiness, using the same 'Morning Mist' ink pad and a stamp from the fabulous Funky Fossil 'Making Memories' set of stamps - NBUS and set to be a favourite here - on the reverse side of the pale ivory card again

- die cut the sentiment using the oval frame die from the 'Wooden Frame' set of dies - so that the piece would sit perfectly in the oval frame aperture. I did need to cut a smaller oval by hand to back the piece, for adhesion and stability

- coloured the stamped flower and bee using Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending solution. The bees wings are the palest blue, winked with clear Stella, pretty!

- trimmed the flower and the bee images using tiny Fiskars scissors to leave a narrow white outline 

- at that point I added the rectangular frame to the card front, using thin strips of foam tape and the glue stick trick

- next popped the flower in place, using mini glue dots, to cope with the embossing -  then the bee using a small piece of thin foam pad

- then came the stamped sentiment oval - added using thin strips of foam tape below the rectangular frame and a glue pen for the top portion to keep it all level

- final touch - some tiny Memory Box clear Fairy Drops! I love these!

The card is slightly under USA A2 size as I decided, before assembling it, to trim the A2 card by one quarter inch from one side - glad I did that for better balance!

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

- Darnell's NBUS challenge #62 - HERE . The two stamp sets and the set of frame dies are all NBUS. 

Dudley Pupdate: Arnie is still his doggie bestie! They met up on Wednesday as Arnie was on his way home and Dudley was just setting off for a walk. The non-stop hugging and dancing was such a delight to watch. It went on until they both flopped down on our driveway, totally worn out!  

Mind you, Dudley ended up in Len's bad books on Saturday - little scamp managed to find a hedgie 'calling card' in the back garden and was in ecstasy, rubbing all over it right down one side! Len was pretty cross, didn't take any prisoners and just cut away the offending patch of hair! From a recently shorn Dudley as well! I daren't even take a look. I suspect he (Dudley of course) is headed for a bath ............ anytime now!

Remember, I've just kicked off a new challenge over in the Snippets Playground HERE. Hope to see you on the swings, goodness knows what Sarn has in her satchel this week! If it chinks and sounds like a bottle of hooch - I'm confiscating it! 

Love as always, Dudley Dog and me

Sunday snippets and Christmas 3D embossing

It's the First of October and Autumn is certainly settling in here. The sun is lower in the sky, nights are beginning to draw in and a couple of early mornings the central heating has kicked in.

Time for a new Snippets challenge #464 HERE and this is my Christmas snippets card:

A closer look at the 3D embossing

The snippets I used. Unsure what colour I wanted to use for the sentiment I die cut three different colours - and kept the unused (the red and blue as it turned out) sentiments for another day!

I used:

- DL (UK sized) white card blank - tent style

- piece of white card, embossed using a Nellie's Choice NBUS 3-D embossing folder called 'Snowy Landscape'

- trimmed the embossed piece of card to .25" smaller all round than the white card blank

- trimmed a piece of SU's 'Real Red' card to measure very slightly larger than the embossed panel, ran a silver calligraphy marker around the edge then glued to embossed panel on top of the red one

- glued the red framed embossed panel onto the card front

- the sentiment was die cut using a snippet of Tonic's Pearlescent 'Luna Silver' card and my much loved Tonic Studios 'Mini Moments Merry Christmas' die - twice then layered one on top of the other

-  glued the sentiment to the card front - finished!

I'm very wary of 3-D embossing folders and used my hand cranked Cuttlebug to do the embossing - at least that way one can feel if the pressure is too much rather than risk damaging the Gemini. 

This card is for Darnell's NBUS Challenge #55 over HERE. My NBUS was the embossing folder of course!

Pupdate: Dudley has the most beautiful white plume of a tail which he generally carries rather jauntily curved over his back. Whilst playing with him a week or so ago I could feel that there was some 'clumping' of the plume hairs going on. It then took me two 'de-matting' sessions with a lot of cuddles and love plus even a bit of nursery rhyme reciting to try and distract him! He's a very determined little dog when it comes to certain things he doesn't like - he will resist all the way. He even tried the anguished and pleading looks - which almost broke my heart. The comfort I do have is that I know it wasn't hurting him as he's very quick to squeak - and also, the time spent means he doesn't need to be tackled with scissors or worse still clippers! Basically, the long fine silky hair gets a tiny tangle in it which then grows rather like a seed, gathering up other hairs to try to form a matt - which needs gently teasing apart one little bit at a time. A long and quite stressful job and there were a good few of those pesky 'seeds' to be tackled. Gone are the days when Dudley was small enough for me to tuck underneath my armpit with his head poking out looking behind me so I could get to his tail easily - he used to look rather like a set of small Northumbrian bagpipes! 

I didn't dare mention to Dudley during our 'up close and personal' tail grooming sessions that he's actually got the very beginnings of a 'doggy hum' - which means a bath is on the horizon! Poor little guy - another 'treat' in store! We celebrated his 'Gotcha Day' during the week - five whole years of fun and frolics.

Love from Dudley - and of course me, 

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #77 - 'Elves'

I'm back as Dotty Jo's guest designer for the month of August - over at the Christmas Kickstart Challenge - HERE!  As always, it's a joy to be asked and I do love sticking to a theme - especially when it's a Christmas one.

This time, it's 'Elves' and I had the perfect set of dies, waiting in one of my NBUS baskets for its first outing! Perfick timing.

This is the result:

I used: 

- A6 white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of white card, embossed using the Crafts-Too 'Merry Christmas' embossing folder - then trimmed to leave an eighth of an inch margin around all sides 

- glued the embossed panel onto the card front

- die cut the 'elf' from two layers of black card and glued them together for stability - the dies on the card are all from the Sizzix Tim Holtz 'Santa's Helper' set of dies

- glued the elf at his jaunty angle onto the card front - using a glue pen

- then the fun began! I sat with a pile of red, green and gold snippets, my mini Altenew die cutting machine - and almost went crazy working out 'which die did what' to make the Christmas presents but I succeeded in the end. The trick, at least it works for me, is to cut and assemble ONE present at a time - it takes longer but is a lot less confusing - and also to add a further layer of card behind the main part for both stability and dimension 

- glued the presents and their ribbons together individually as I progressed until I had them all lined up in front of me ready to roll. At that point I discovered I was missing the fully assembled flat shaped present - it was like a man-hunt in here. I'd just swept the little scraps into the waste bin so had to up-end that for a search. Then, I suddenly wondered if I'd accidentally cleared it away with the tiny scraps of unused double sided sticky pads I'd been working with to prepare the presents for sticking onto the card front - and there it was leering at me through the poly bagl Big sigh of relief here

- so the final steps were to add the presents to the front of the card then glue the huge bow onto the top present - using two snippets of thin foam pads on top of one another to bring the level of the top of the bow up to the same as the present box itself

Many thanks to Jo for inviting me to be a Guest Designer over at the Christmas Kickstart Challenge and I'd really love it if you would come along and join in with the challenge - this is the LINK. It's open until the end of the month so you have plenty of time.

I'd also like to enter this card into Darnell's current NBUS #53 challenge for August - HERE. The 'Santa's Helper' set of dies are my NBUS - and they might well remain as 'almost NBUS' for the foreseeable future too! 

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.

Salvaging a Brushos disaster

I decided to have a go at using my long-neglected Brushos the other week. And, as usual, instead of the really pretty mottled results that others achieve - I ended up with a mess of very slightly variegated greens, partly from over-zealously using two shades of green ...... as well as too much water. So, I dumped it to one side and did something totally different. Brushos and I just do not work well together. Am sure I'm just too heavy handed - but c'est la vie as they say.

However, a day or so later I picked up the discarded Brushos panel, peered at it then gave it a few squirts of Glimmer Mist to add a slight sparkle - then suddenly it began to have possibilities - this is what I ended up making:

Bright mirri gold card, with my red top reflected!

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.125" white linen silk weave card blank, tent style (just slightly smaller than USA A2 size) - confession, due to the odd size Brushos panel I ended up with once I cut the grotty edges off!

- the green Brushos panel, for which I'd used Strathmore Mixed Media card and later I'd also sprayed with some ancient clear Glimmer Mist

- ran the panel through my Cuttlebug using a NBUS Gina K embossing folder called 'Holiday Flora' and hope began to rear its head - that is one fabulous folder!

- trimmed the panel and added some gold gilding wax using NBUS Cadence 'Inca Gold' Finger Wax, I need more practice, please be kind - although I used my right ring finger I suspect that a finger sponge would have less 'give' than the pad of my finger!

- then layered the panel onto a slightly larger snippet of Tonic 'Inca Gold' mirri card and glued it onto the card front

- used a snippet of vellum to die cut the back surround for the word 'Christmas' using a NBUS die from Julie Hickey's gorgeous 'Christmas Profile' die set and set it to one side

- then die cut the word 'Christmas' - using the same Julie Hickey die set - twice from a snippet of white card and once from a snippet of 'Inca Gold' card then glued them together using a glue pen, before attaching the vellum 'profile' layer to the back then setting it to one side

- die cut the word 'Merry' using a 'small Merry' die from years ago by Britannia Dies, two from snippets of white card and once from a snippet of 'Inca Gold' mirri card - glued the layers together using Stix2 'Micro Dots'

- then positioned the two parts of the sentiment die cuts where I wanted them, using some very small Stix2 craft dots to adhere the word 'Christmas' and the fine glue pen to adhere the word 'Merry'

And there it was, done! I used quite a few a lot of items from my NBUS (Never Been USed) baskets. I truly don't need to buy anything crafty for the rest of this year, apart from essential and basic items. Ha, define THAT one! ☺

I also used some items like Stix2 tiny glue dots as well as micro dots for the first time. What a revelation (thanks to Chrissie Stokes on her YouTube Channel). The micro dots are a right 'so and so' to get into if I'm honest - I sat for ages trying to separate the two layers. But, SO worth it! And, I was wise and popped a teeny tiny piece of paper in the corner where I'd worked the layers apart to make life easier in future.

I would like to enter this card into Darnell's latest NBUS Challenge HERE - so much NBUS I almost feel ashamed to admit it! The embossing folder, the gilding wax (in fairness my cheapo ones had solidified) and the lovely Christmas word die as well. I guess the tiny glue dots and the micro dots also count!? Man - me needs to put the spending brakes on!

I would also like to enter the Christmas Craft Creations Challenge HERE  The theme is snippets and you still have time to join in!