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 a new Challenge #462

Challenge 462 is now up and running over on the Snippets Playground folks! 

As there's been a little bit of a nip in the air lately, I'm ramping up Christmas card production and made this one, using some snippets:

You'll have to trust me that I used some cream snippets, left from cutting the card blank and image panel - as well as a snippet of Tonic's 'Scarlet Organza' mirri card.

I used:

- 6.25" x 3.25" cream 'mini slimline' card blank

- a very slightly smaller layer trimmed from a snippet of Tonic 'Scarlet Organza' mirri card and glued onto the card front

- the image panel was die cut from a snippet of cream card stock, using a die from Lawn Fawn's stitched border 'Large Mini Slimline Stackables' set of dies  

- stamped the stack of robins and sentiment onto the image panel using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink and a NBUS set of Woodware 'Bubble Robin' stack stamps

- then stamped the individual 'part images' onto snippets of the same cream card

- coloured the robins on the image panel as well as the robin 'part images' on the snippets - using Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending solution - at this point it was important to colour far enough beyond the stamped 'part image' as it would be die cut using a circular 'bubble' die

- die cut the part images using Woodware's 'Big Bubble' die - made a few mistakes but I'd cut spares and basically my mind wasn't fully on the card at the time

- once I had four images cut into 'bubbles' - I backed them with 'bubbles' of the same size to make a total of three layers to add dimension. An alternative is to 'round' the circle from the back using a foam pad and a large ball embossing tool - either would work fine IMHO

- glued the 'bubbles' onto the images on the image panel using a glue pen and 'wham!' - it sort of sprang into life

- glued the image panel on top of the already adhered mirri card layer and there it was - all done!

Along the way, I did question why Jane Gill designed the 'part image' stamps and didn't just rely on using the outlined images of the robins. But, they would never have lined up perfectly I expect and I'm converted to her way of thinking! Clever lady and I always love her designs. I made two at the same time of course.

  

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #54. The Woodware stamp set and the 'Big Bubble' die were having a first outing. 

Dudley Pupdate: Dudley has been in the wars, poor little guy. He managed to remove one of his (front) dew claws in a rather traumatic fashion. We had one almost sleepless night with him - severely shocked (as we were too). Of course it bled at first and I can't imagine how much it must have hurt him. Len found the offending claw and thankfully, it was a clean removal job he'd done on himself and after loads of cuddles and more than his share of treats, as well as the aforementioned almost sleepless night with him - he's practically back to normal now. We did have the 'poor paw' scenario for a while - which was heartbreaking to see. 

Ha - then I returned home from having some blood tests and he ran to greet me and forgot to hold up his 'sore paw'! Err, hello Dudley - did you forget something? 😉 For now he's only out in our own back garden - away from any dirt he might choose to investigate. As he hates his front paws being touched at the best of times, I can only monitor progress by taking photos, when he's dozing on his back .......... and it's healing really well. 

Love from myself and Dudley (aka 'Sore Paw, Need Sympathy, Dudders' right now) - as always. Life is never dull with him around for sure!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #77 - 'Just Elfin' Around' - Reminder

Jumping in with a reminder that we're halfway through the current Christmas Kickstart Challenge with Jo's reminder post HERE . It's one of my favourite challenges and always a pleasure to join in with the fun. The current theme is 'Just Elfin' Around'' - ie. one or more elves on a Christmas card of course!

I made two very similar cards, just switched the colours around a bit:

I used: 

- A6 size white card blank, tent style

- image from MFT's 'Christmas sELFies' stamp set, stamped using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink

- coloured the image using Polychromos pencils plus a little tickle of clear 'Wink of Stella' on the ornament as well as the jaunty little bell on the elf's hat (he's my absolute favourite in the whole set of stamps to be honest!) 

- the backing papers are from what's left of two well loved LOTV Christmas paper pads, die cut with a die by Heffy Doodle from their 'Stitched A6 rectangles' set  

- then die cut a backing layer from the white card which had the image stamped on it, using the same Heffy Doodle die

- things got a little bit 'tricky woo' as it might have been better not to die cut the outline of the backing layer until later on - but no matter, this little ship steamed merrily on, 'toot, toot' on the horn!

- so, I die cut the aperture around the image using the perfectly fitting MFT 'Selfie Square' die on top - into the stitched edge piece of white card, thereby releasing the image ............. and sat pondering my next move for ages as this was 'recovery from potential disaster' time!

- then a little light came on and I taped the white card (removable tape!) complete with aperture on top of the patterned paper and nestled the 'Selfie Square' die into the aperture then die cut it. Bingo, they lined up - success!

- I now had two matching 'frames' which I glued together then glued them onto the card front before losing the plot

- and all that was left was to pop the waste square of patterned paper onto the back of the die cut image to even up the levels, and glue them into the aperture!

- sorry that was so convoluted but I needed to write it here for my own future reference as a way of only die cutting one layer at a time to end up with this card - I needed a lie down afterwards! And Dudley cuddled up for 40 Winks as well!

Many thanks once again 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 to the Challenge post itself. It's still open until the end of the month, so you have plenty of time to come and play - we need more of you!!.

Sunday Snippets and a 'less than boring' dress!

I wanted to use a stamp set that I was sent a while ago by a lovely friend - and this current 'Snippets Sunday' seemed to be the ideal time:

These are my snippets, only thought to take a photo when they had been stamped onto. But, perhaps it gives you an idea of the basics of paper piecing - and also how my indecisive mind works!

I used:

- mini slimline card blank measuring 6" x 3" white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of white card for the image, which I stamped using VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink and the main image and a sentiment at the same time (go me!) from Woodware's 'Little Black Dress' stamp set

- then die cut the image using a die from Lawn Fawn's stitched border 'Large Mini Slimline Stackables' set of dies and kept an off cut for doing 'pencil colour trials' whilst colouring the stand

- grounded the stand and coloured the 'body form' and stand using Polychromos pencils with a little bit of their silver pencil where the top of the body meets the top 'knob'

- then I stamped the outfit, using the same main stamp plus a few snippets, found in the back of some old and treasured LOTV paper pads. I used the Misty but in hindsight think that using an acrylic block would allow for easier eyeballing and positioning when you're trying to pick out pieces on the paper for paper piecing 

- fussy cut the pieces for the dress then glued them in place with a glue pen - finished!

I'd like to enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #53 HERE. The stamp set was having its first outing. 

Sarn has posted the results of Challenge #459 over in the Snippets Playground HERE. As always, we had some really good entries, which always makes life tricky when the picks are done. We mostly pick our own for our own challenges - but now and then a scream for help will go up. And it always amazes me how close we are in our choices of the eventual picks!

Dudley Pupdate: Rhetorical question - when you have a poo - do you run around in circles doing 'zoomies' to celebrate? Hmm, thought not! That's fine - just wondering, that's all. 

That was a question from Dudley, by the way! Did I even need to say that?

And then of course, later on, you gobble down your evening meal in double quick time just in case it gets stolen by the 'doggy dinner thieves' before crashing out - partly on the landing and also blocking the exit from Mama's craft room! Having managed to already mess up the freshly cleaned carpets throughout the house just for good measure. It's all in a day's work for a canine security guard! 

    

I gave him a 'Modesty Watermark'! Just in case he sues me for publishing very personal piccies.  He slept soundly and very deeply like that for quite a while, even with me moving around and taking piccies and wot-not. To me, that's when he looks so very vulnerable and yet contented, with a full tummy. 'Forget any intruders - I'm having a snoozelet'! And of course, Honka Duck Mark II is, as always, close by!

There's still one week of the current challenge left to run! Make a card and come and play - there's a chance to win a nice prize if you join in the draw! See you on the swings!

Love, as always, from myself and Dudley,

Sunday Snippets and a little bit of snarky

I lost most of this post so here is a reconstruction - minus any comments you might have made. Just for the record. These are cards I made for Challenge #460 over at The Snippets Playground:

I didn't end up using ALL of the snippets but these are the ones I started out with.

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

- a 'Dee' stamp from the A & C 'Miss Dee #704' set to stamp the image onto two snippets of white card for the image panels and also onto the green and terracotta snippets - bearing in mind I only needed the middle part of the image (dress and handbag) - using a Versafine Clair 'Nocturne ink pad). All of the patterned snippets were all from the Studio Calico 'Snippets' paper pad - appropriate huh?!

- then stamped the snarky sentiments, using the same ink pad and a 'drive me crazy' sentiment from the 'Dee Says #790' sentiment set. The 'nicer person' sentiment on the second card is from the same set as the image came from. Bit vicious but it did remind me of a particularly unpleasant teacher from my school days! 

- then coloured the images using Polychromos pencils before adding the dresses and handbags - which I switched around 

- trimmed one patterned snippet to a quarter of an imch smaller all round than the card blank and glued it in place. Then had to cut into a fresh sheet to do the same for the other card - but as someone recently commented, we have to cut into fresh sheets to create snippets!

- then die cut the image panels using a die by Heffy Doodle from their 'Stitched A6 rectangles' set 

- spent ages carefully snipping out the dresses and handbags (those were easier!) before gluing them onto the images

- glued the image panels to the card fronts

- the dresses have stamped 'beads' around Dee's neck - so I popped some self-adhesive teeny, tiny pearls in place

- yay, finished!

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #53 

Dudley Pupdate: SORRY folks - that got lost but it's very likely he was into a pickle of one sort or another!

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,  

Snowy Cabin Christmas cards

Well, my snippets cards are appropriate with all the snowfall most of the UK has had this past week! I made eight cards in one go, over a few days and here are a couple of examples:

I used:

- white A6 card blanks, both side opening and tent style

- then got out my LOTV much loved blue 'Frosty Christmas' and 'Krafty Christmas' paper pads and hauled a load of snippets from the 'halved envelopes' that I pop into the backs of all my paper pads to store snippets

- covered the fronts of all the cards with papers from one or other of the paper pads and, as I expected, most of them were snippets

- die cut the circular scene from a white snippet (I found a load of these whilst looking for the A6 cards) - using a Memory Box 'Snowy Cabin Circle' die

- backed the die cuts with 'snowy' patterned LOTV papers to tone with the background papers I'd added to the card fronts. I die cut them using a Tonic Studios circle die and then glued to the back of the circular scene before reinforcing with a further white card die cut circle

- some parts of the cabin had fully popped out when being die cut, so I added contrasting die cut snippets back into the outline - all still from the same two paper pads 

- coloured the cabin windows (which hadn't popped out - hooray!) with a yellow Polychromos pencil. I would NOT have fancied inlaying those - or even backing the window frames with half inch or less square yellow snippets

- the sentiments were both from a lovely set of NBUS stamps by Creative Expressions called 'Festive Wishes'. Some were stamped onto the 'snow' itself and some were stamped onto circles of white card which had been die cut using a The Works die from a set called 'Circle Stitches'. The inks I used are Brilliance Dewdrop 'Pearlescent Beige' and Hero Hues 'Granite'

- then added all the die cut and sentiment circles onto the card fronts using thin sticky pads

- final touch to the cards with the circular sentiments was to add a few self-adhesive clear Memory Box 'Fairy Drops' to the bottom left corner for a bit of balance

Would I make eight almost the same in one go using the Snowy Cabin die ever again? Probably yes - but I'd simplify the layers/design/process for sure!

One thing I did try for the first time was a tip I picked up from Jennifer McGuire which is to make a 'jig' when stamping repeatedly onto the same die cut shape - for both the cabin circle and the sentiment circle. It's hard to explain without a video but here goes:

- I wanted three sentiments all the same, using the same stamp on the small die cut circles and opted to die cut and then stamp afterwards - for a sentiment on a circle you can do it either way - but I was also facing stamping onto five of the circular scenes later on

- to make the 'jig' I hopped around from one foot to the other and did a merry dance took a piece of spare card (another snippet) and die cut then removed the stitched circle

- popped the spare piece of card with the die cut circular aperture into my small Misti, held it in place with a magnet, then slipped a snippet of copy paper underneath the hole before lining up the 'Cosy Christmas Wishes' sentiment stamp in the aperture, and picking it up with the Misti lid

- for reassurance I then did a test stamp onto the piece of paper - spot on as well!

- then, one by one, I just popped die cut circles into the aperture, re-inked the stamp on the lid, made sure the 'jig' was still seated into the corner (even with a magnet bar I now always double check) and stamped them - one after the other 

Here's the 'jig' set up with a die cut circle in place ready to stamp - using the stamp which is in position on the lid. Another time I would perhaps use a piece of contrasting card when creating the jig but the white obviously did the job:

Flushed with success - I then stamped the sentiments onto the die cut cabin scenes in the same way. Just used the plain die to cut the bigger aperture, popped the complete scene in place, lined the sentiment up where I wanted it and followed the same process as I did for the small circular sentiments. I added a little pencil mark to the outside of the aperture so I could line up the smoke every time to make sure the sentiment was stamped straight.  

I would like to enter the top one of the cards into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #48 as it was a first outing for both the 'Snowy Cabin' die and the 'Festive Wishes' sentiments stamp set. 

Dudley Pupdate: We had 'zoomies' from Dudley around the back garden mid-week, once he got used to 4" of snow. His little legs looked so short, no piccies or video sorry to say -  but he did race around in pure joy, as always.

We did have a laugh earlier this week, decided to try once again to hide the pretty gross (albeit not smelly, thank goodness) 'Honka Duck' ...... when Dudley was totally elsewhere in the house.

I was at my desk in the craft room when he bounded back upstairs - and both of us - Len in his study and me with one eye open for 'the wee beastie' - kept our heads down. Within less than a couple of minutes of him looking for that flipping duck, if that - I spotted Dudley out of the corner of my eye.

AND, I also saw the 'evil Havi look'! He was stood like a statue on a bottom corner of our bed rather like an angry 'moon gazing hare' - literally glaring upwards. At the exact place in a built in wardrobe, where horrible, chewed old Honka, his most loved treasure, was hidden on a high shelf! He truly was absolutely furious and he just KNEW where Honka was! Amazing sense of smell and I think this is one battle we've lost! 

Sometimes I wonder who is the 'boss' here - don't answer that, we already know that it has four legs and a fluffy tail!

Remember that we're halfway through Sarn's Challenge #449 and the latest picks and prize winner are over HERE on the Snippets Playground!

Love, as always, Dudley and yours truly xxx

Zen!

A while ago I bought some goodies from AALL & Create - and this is the first outing for one of the sets - it really tickles my sense of humour - as well as the irony of it. It's get in the sentiment by the way - not Bet as Len read it - and he's not even a man for the gee-gees or such!

The snippets, in the end I didn't use the smaller piece of bright pink

I used:

- 5" x 7" white card blank, tent style

- at that point I die cut the bright pink backing piece using a NBUS die from the now discontinued Lil'Inker 'Fringe scalloped squares' set of dies. So unusual and bought when Seven Hills Crafts were selling their Lil Inker dies on reduction due to the closure of Lil'Inkers

- die cut the image panel using a square stitched die from The Works, just the right size to sit nicely inside the 'fringed scallop' edges of the bright pink square 

- stamped the image and wording using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and stamps from the AALL & Create super fun stamp set called 'Om Dee'

- coloured the image using Polychromos pencils - matching the colours to the spots in the snippet of patterned paper I'd chosen to use (it came from the Back to Basics' 'Bright Spark' set of papers)

- added the image panel to the bright pink die cut square using narrow foam tape with some pieces here and there around the inner part as well as right around the edges  NB - little tip about adding foam tape below!

- then trimmed a strip of the spotty patterned paper for either side of the card and glued it in place

- glued the image panel in place, at the same time flicking up the scallops around the pink panel, just using my finger nail

 - finished!

The little tip I used when adhering the foam tape covered image panel to the bright pink backing panel was picked up from Chrissie's YouTube channel. Add the foam tape to your piece or panel as usual but, once you peel off the backing ready to add it to whatever you're sticking it to - just run a glue stick along the pieces of foam tape to allow a little bit of 'wiggle room' when you pop it in place. Works a treat!

Here's a link to Chrissie's channel - 'Christine Stokes' - in case you want to take a peek - I'm sure loads of us remember from the days when she and Mandi ran 'Less is More'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT3Spk7IRl4.  

I stamped a little sentiment, from the same stamp set, on the insert for the card - it amused me almost as much as the main sentiment - 'Hurry up inner Peace, I don't have all day'. 

It reminds me of when a friend and I used to shoot out from the office once a week at lunchtimes and catch the Metro into Newcastle to join in a Yoga class run close to the University. Looking back, as we were working flexible hours we could take a longer lunch break, but it was still stressful. We were practically still changing out of our leotards at the end as we ran down a long flight of steps from the class to a bakery shop! They sold THE most wonderful grated cheese, onion and salad cream/mayo stottie sarnies I've EVER tasted. Then, hopping about trying to keep warm whilst eating said stottie sarnies and waiting for a bus back to the office. Metro there and bus back seemed to work best for some mad reason. Aha, I think no eating of food was allowed on the Metro! So we could eat our lunch on the bus back to work. After that - I was finished for the rest of the afternoon! Rinse, repeat - we did the same all over again the following week.

This is my snippets card to kick off challenge #446 is over in the Snippets Playground. Go HERE  to join in the fun!

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #46 - the never been used items are the stamps set and also the Lil'Inker fringed frames - I LOVE these!

Allsorts Challenge Week 712 'Spots and/or stripes'. It was pure fluke that I chose a snippet of spotted paper for today's card!

Dudley Pupdate - on his recent walks he's been pulling to come back home at every little shortcut he knows, right now it's too cold and icy for me to go along 'for a ride'. 

Dudley is on a trial (by us) of some herbal calming pills. Our hope is/was that he would become less worried when the doorbell rings, a delivery arrives - or even worse, someone arrives to work in the house or garden. Interestingly, the longer jobs soon become part of his routine or acceptance. Even an engineer to service the boiler is accepted once he has been introduced. But the arrival of a grocerydelivery, Amazon order or post unexpectedly really sends him into a worried little heap - and those are the ones we can't totally/precisely time and predict of course.

So - each morning, in his little breakfast dish, for the past week or so - he's has one of those 'beef flavoured' herbal calming pills. They are BIG as well! He needed to be coaxed and fed them at first - and then, bingo, on Thursday morning he was snuffling around and scrunching the last of his little white bowl contents - and yay - he now takes the pills all on his own! Ironic really - they don't make a ha'porth of difference so far as we can tell but at least his 'pill phobia' seems to have gone. Gotta laugh!

The other night, as usual, Dudley snuggled between Len and I when we were in bed - and he (Dudley!) loves to lie sideways! Both of us must have been uncomfortable - I had his face and nose pushed under my arm and Len had the rear end and his amazingly strong hind legs that push when he wants to turn on his back to really 'spread it out and make himself comfortable'. Neither of us said much about the situation - it is what it is really.  I was quietly reading my Kindle and Len was trying to get to sleep. Suddenly - Dudley the 'bed snatcher' decided HE wasn't comfortable after all and launched himself off the bed to curl up on one side of it. 

In an instant - such a teenage kerfuffle of grabbing and sorting of bed clothes went on as we both almost simultaneously gasped ...................'quick, get the duvet and as much of your own side of the bed as you can whilst he's on the floor ...............  to be able to sleep properly!' Need I say more? We slept.

Snowman in a Jar

When I spotted that the current Challenge#64 over at Christmas Kickstart was 'Show Us Your Snowfolk - out came my NBUS basket - with a Woodware stamp set fairly quivering in excitement to at last be coming out to play. And this is the card I ended up making:

I used:

- A6 white card blank, side opening

- covered almost all the front of the card with paper from the LOTV 'Frosty Christmas' paper pad, die cut using the largest die from the Heffy Doodles 'A6 Stitched Rectangles' set of dies

- to be fair, I had already worked out all the colours etc. I wanted to use, before choosing the backing paper for the card front

- then I set to making the snowman in a jar using a NBUS Woodware 'Snow Jar' set of stamps

- used Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink to stamp the jar main image of the set three times - twice onto plain white card, then the sky portion onto paper from Sticker Kitten's 'Celestial' paper pack

- then trimmed the main jar as a whole, ran a black Whispers brush pen right round the cut edges and set it aside

- next trimmed the 'sky background' from the 'Celestial' paper, ran a black Whispers  brush pen right around the cut edges and set it aside

- then did the same with the second full stamping onto white card - this time trimming all along and around the snowman - again running around the edges with black pen

- coloured the snowman's carrot, hat and the robin (plus a little separate robin from the same stamp set) using Polychromos pencils

- to assemble I used a medium glue pen and adhered the snowy blue sky onto the main jar panel then coloured the stamped 'snowflakes' using a white gel pen

- then glued the snowman and hillside part of the scene, all one piece, onto the 'sky' layer - wallop, it suddenly sprang into life!

- now I had the jar panel all ready, and having left the screw portion of the neck clear, I could add a length of black and white gingham ribbon with a little knot at the front - used red line tape across the back of the neck to secure it

- added the 'Snowman in a Jar' to the front of the card using thin stick pads to add dimension

-  popped the extra robin I'd cut and coloured earlier so that it sits on the rim of the jar, used a tiny piece of red line tape and a sliver of thin sticky pad

- whilst stamping right at the beginning, I'd also stamped both sentiment strips which came as part of the set and trimmed them using scissors  

- added the sentiment strips using the same medium glue pen

- final touch, a few subtle tickles of clear 'Wink of Stella' on the tree, hat brim and pom pom, here and there on the snowy hillside and a touch on each snowball - none of which show up on the photo but that's nothing new, sigh

- finished!

And, of course I made two at the same time.☺

I'd also like to enter this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #40 HERE. The 'Snow Jar' stamp set was having a first outing.

Far out!

It's been a week since I posted on here, for various reasons. I began this card hoping to join in with the Allsorts Challenge for a 'girlie' card but didn't finish it in time for the closing deadline. However, I would like to enter it into the current Allsorts Challenge #683, choosing the option of 'Anything Goes':

I used:

- a UK sized DL white card blank - side opening

- a sheet of patterned paper from the wonderful Whimsy Stamps 'Taffy' slimline paper pack which just had a little trimmed from both ends. It's such a psychedelic pack of papers! Or did I just dream that? ☺

- the image is from a lovely (discontinued) stamp set by MFT called 'Far Out', can't even find any images of it on the internet

- stamped the image and sentiments onto pieces/snippets of white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad

- fussy cut the image using tiny embroidery Fiskars scissors, reserved purely for use on paper

- coloured the image using Polychromos pencils - to pick out the background paper colours

- glued the panel of psychedelic paper onto the card front

- then (sigh) decided that the image would be swamped if placed directly onto the vibrant background. So, I die cut a white snippets backing using two dies from the Spellbinders 'Hemstitch Rectangles Venise Lace' set of dies ** then glued the image onto it (a waste of that fussy cutting!)

- snipped up the sentiment words using scissors

- then glued the  image to the panel, image panel to the card front and then the snipped up words

- finished!

Despite the Whimsy slimline papers being a little on the tall and narrow side, they are all so lovely! This pack especially is reminiscent of the days of LSD etc.Not that I ever ventured, a little before my time I promise, but we've all seen enough films about the visual effects of 'dabbling'.

And as so often happens, it's brighter in real life too - the light was streaming onto wherever I tried when I took the above photo.

** The rectangular hemstitched dies I used for the white panel came from my own duplicate set of the Spellbinders die set, forming part of this current challenge's prize. Well worth playing and still plenty of time to hop over and enter!

As the MFT stamps set, the Whimsy papers AND the set of hemstitch dies were having their very fist outing, I'd like to enter my card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #40 HERE.

Dudley 'Pupdate'. A quiet week on the 'trouble' front for Dudley with no news of mischief - either he's hiding it or we're getting used to it! When he was not 100% toilet trained he did sometimes hide a little 'poop' in the dining room, nice choice of room - so nothing would really surprise me. The hedgies are out and about every evening, and they fascinate him - he never touches them but they do get a good sniff! He's four years old later on in July - how did that happen, where did time go? He had a bath yesterday so we all got a good soaking - right now he's really white and fluffy, still with those pretty peach tinged ears. And, they're growing back nicely since Len had to give them a serious trim a while back.

Summertime 'Gnomies'

A gnome isn't just for Christmas and a little rootle through my basket of NBUS goodies turned up a set of non-Christmas gnome stamps with matching dies .... with Summer gnomes on. 

I wanted to create a scene for the current Allsorts Challenge and a further 'rootle' made me check out the Whimsy 'Enchanted Forest' Slimline paper pack that had never been used (bought ages ago, tut, tut!). 

The gnome stamps are quite small, even if you use more than one on a wide card, then 'PING', a little light bulb suddenly flicked on. Who actually said that the background papers HAD to be used for slimline cards? With some inspired juggling about, I would be able to get a mix of two smallish oval/square backgrounds from each sheet - and that's exactly what I did. Some of the papers now have the other half safely tucked inside the packet(s) for future use, thereby stretching the pack contents, meaning more cards can be made. And this can be applied to other papers in Whimsy's Slimline range  - which I did for one card!

Here's what I  ended up making:

I used

- two 4" x 4" white card blanks, and two 5.5" x 4.25" white card blanks - all are side opening

- stamped, then coloured, all four gnomes (using Polychromos pencils) from the 'Your Next Stamp' 'Happy Gnomies' set

- at the same time I also stamped a selection of sentiments using three different sentiments from the 'Happy Gnomies' set and a single sentiment from MFT's 'Itty Bitty Celebrations' set of stamps ('Doing a Happy Dance' - so cute) - using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- die cut all of the gnome images using the matching dies - and my Altenew mini die cutting machine. Even though I'm once again fully kitted out and love all of my die cutting capabilities - that sweet little Altenew machine is so handy!

- then die cut the sentiment strips using two of MFT's 'Itty Bitty Strips' dies as well as the 'gnome with balloons' sentiment - using a Frantic Stamper 'Stitched Fishtail Banners' die

- to assemble the cards, I die cut one design of oval background from the 'Enchanted Forest' paper pack, plus one from an (again unused) Whimsy 'Glorious Sky' Slimline Paper Pack - using a die from Presscut's 'Oval Stitch Hole' set

- then cut two different designs of square backgrounds from the 'Enchanted Forest' paper pack - using a die from Lawn Fawn's 'Outside In Stitched Square Stackables'

- the oval card images were mounted, using glue, onto the 5.5" x 4.25" card blanks, which had already been topped white card, embossed using SU's 'Square Lattice' Textured Impressions folder and then trimmed to slightly smaller than the card front

- the square card images were mounted, using glue, onto the 4" x 4" card blanks - having first been backed with a slightly larger square/frame cut from snippets of Altenew's 'Forest Glades' card stock (one of my current favourites)

- then it was just a matter of adding a gnome image and a sentiment to each card front, using a glue pen - finished!

The planning stage took almost as long as making the cards - even though I actually doubled up on each design and made two the same of each one. That's eight cards on standby, for friends and also some of our neighbourhood kids.

I'd like to enter the 'Hello Friend' card into the current Allsorts Challenge Week #674, where the theme is 'Anything Goes, with the option of Scenic'.

And, I'd like to enter the  same card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #38 for May. My NBUS on this card is the gnome stamp and die set, the Whimsy Slimline 'Enchanted Forest' paper pack plus MFT's 'Itty Bitty Sentiment' die strip.

I had great fun making these cards, it's such a treat to have spare time to make cards 'just because'! Hooray for Sarn jointly running the Snippets Playground!

Ukraine

I've been trying enter to Allsorts Challenge more regularly, and originally intended to do some paper piecing for this current challenge. The other option was hand coloring. Then, right in front of where I swivel round to use the laptop there's a set of open shelves and sitting on there, right in line with my eyes, is the very old wood mounted stamp I used and hand coloured today.

Here's the card I made - the sunflower is Ukraine's national flower:

I used:

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

- piece of the same card stock as the card, embossed using SU's 'Textured Impressions' folder then trimmed to slightly smaller than the card front

- glued the embossed panel onto the card front

- stamped the Penny Black image called 'Hello Sunshine' onto a snippet of white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- coloured the image using Polychromos pencils

- die cut the image using an old but favourite die from the Spellbinders 'Labels Eight' set

- ran a ball-ended tool around the inside of the die cut whilst it was still in the die to create the 'lip'

- removed the die cut from the die and went around the edge of the die cut image using a gold Calligraphy pen. It's a chisel tipped pen and you just use the chisel sideways on - sort of running the edge of the card through the middle of the chisel tip, easier to show than explain!

- added the image panel to the card front, using slightly thicker than usual sticky pads for extra 'lift'

As always, taking a photo of shiny elements on a card is nigh on impossible - the gold edging is just like gold leaf, really pretty and also very shiny!

I'd like to add this card into the current Allsorts Challenge #665.

New challenge open over at the new Snippets Playground!

This is my snippets card:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square kraft card blank

- snippet of approx. 5.25" x 5.25" white card onto which I stamped the image, using stamps from Uniko's 'Floral Vines' stamp and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- added the sentiment, from the same stamp set

- coloured the image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils, using later Summer to Autumn colours to tone in with the kraft card

- die cut four identical pieces to make the 'frame' using white snippets and a die from a brilliant set of dies by Clearly Besotted called 'Frame It Die Collection'

- glued the background image onto the card front 

- then glued the frame pieces in place - see note below

- added three clear 'raindrops' from Lucy's Little Things - using Cosmic Shimmer glue - I recently decided to try the glue again after early failures and found it perfect for attaching little 'doo-dads', as Darnell would say. I should have persevered with the first bottle I had quite a few years ago - and that was SaRn I think who recommended it! Basically I think I snipped too much from the applicator back than - now I just have a bead topped pin stick in the very teeny, tiny hole in the new bottle to keep it airtight

- finished!

The stamping took a fair bit of measuring and lining up with the aid of the Misti as the set comes with just the one floral image which you need to flip the other way round and stamp twice for my chosen design - but when it worked perfectly (with the aid of a grid lined piece of acrylic) I sure was a happy bunny! The real secret is to line up the ends of the lines underneath the 'Floral Vine' stamp - not the centre flower as I was tempted to do.

The frame dies are such a great idea - no doubt I spotted one of you Playmates using them at some point last year - I've had mine for a few months waiting to be used. The set comes with six different lengths of the corner ended dies, certainly in two, perhaps three, different widths/thicknesses but I don't want to unearth my own set again and cut more die cuts to prove it. So, you can make square frames or mix two different lengths of dies to make rectangular frames. Very clever, although it already seems to be discontinued over at Clearly Besotted, sigh. Whisper, other companies also sell similar sets - including Ali Express.

I did have to juggle around a bit with the frame pieces, purely because if anyone can attach stuff on the 'wonk' it's me. So, I flipped the pieces over and attached a narrow strip of sellotape across each corner before adding some glue and then 'going for it'! That allowed me some 'wiggle room'. ☺ And another tip - do check that your chosen frame will work with the size of image you want to use. I almost slipped up on that one early on in the process!

Do hop over to the Snippets Playground and see what this fortnight's prize is if you like this card. And you can also enter just for the fun of it as well!

I'd like to enter my card into Darnell's NBUS February Challenge #35 - HERE.