Sunday Snippets - THAT postage stamp die set

Spring is really teasing us here - temperatures are rising at times and the sound of lawnmowers drifts across to us - in our easy care revamped garden. Len is a happy guy for sure, and the wildlife still visit as well. But then it rains and blows a 'Hoolie'! 

Very last minute snippets card from me - using one of the currently hugely popular 'postage stamps' set of dies in 'simple mode':

My leftover snippets of the 'Certainly Celery' papers - sob, only a few tiny scraps left now

I used:

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

- first of all I used white card, the same as the card blank, to die cut the main outline of the card topper using an unbranded die 

- then trimmed some plain SU 'Certainly Celery' card for the bottom layer and also some deep purple slightly shimmery paper for the next layer

- glued both those layers onto the card front

- then die cut the snippets of SU's 'Certainly Celery' paper pack, using the dies to match the faux apertures in the main outline

- glued the patterned snippets onto the outline die cut, using a glue pen

- then used the same glue pen to glue the whole outline panel onto the card front

- stamped the sentiment onto a snippet of white card, using a LOTV stamp from their sadly discontinued and still very much loved by yours truly 'General Greetings - Small' set of stamps - using a VersaFine Clair 'Monarch' ink pad (gorgeous colour!)

- used a SU plain small oval punch to punch out the sentiment

- used a snippet of the left over purple glimmer paper to punch out a SU scalloped small oval

- glued the white sentiment onto the purple scalloped oval

- used thin sticky pads to adhere the completed sentiment to the card front 

- added a strip of the patterned paper to the envelope flap and called it finished

I learned a few things along the way. The idea of using papers from the same colour range is better in theory than in practice.  In real life the card does them justice, but on camera and unless you're close up they really are too similar to give it that 'Wow' factor. Tiny backing layers of the purple paper to frame each of the 'Certainly Celery' panels would give more definition - but I thought of that one too late. The way to do that, IMHO, would be to die cut the purple layers for each 'aperture' then do the same with  the patterned paper but also trim a little sliver from the top and one side of those patterned papers to create a narrow margin all round the patterned paper layer. Next time, I might well give that a whirl!

 

I'd like to enter this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #61 HERE - the die set was having its first outing.

Dudley Pupdate: For the past week or so, Dudley has been rather subdued. He's eating fine but he's often in a little dream world of his own. Physically everything is working as normal but we're watching him closely and he will be off to the vet if need be - before he can even say 'I wanna treat for going'!  It could just be that, like us, he's fed up with all the damp weather and longing for Spring to arrive properly.

Having said that - he still put up a jolly good fight on his hind legs when I was grooming him yesterday afternoon. Overall the match was a draw, although I'm sure that Dudley scored a few below the belt hits! What can you do when a little fluffy white face with beautiful eyes plants itself on your 'chest shelf' and silently appeals 'Enough Mama, enough please!'?

Very importantly, the results of Challenge #476 are now published HERE. 

Do please come and play in Sarn's current challenge over in the Snippets Playground! 

Love from myself and Dudley,

Sunday Snippets and some teeny Christmas cards

There's a new Challenge being run by Sarn, over in the Snippets Playground HERE. We do hope you manage to find time to come and play! It's a busy time for most of us, but a little break to relax and craft often renews those energy cells!

I had a couple of NBUS dies which had been waiting for ages to step out and be used - and this is one of the cards I made:

I used:

- 3.75" x 3.75" square white card blank, side opening

- a snippet of the same white card, which was then die cut using a Penny Black 'snowflake stitch frames' die before being glued onto the card front - leaving a narrow border around the edge

- to add the backing to the tags I would be die cutting a bit later required a bit of pondering here but in the end I adhered the patterned snippet to some 'Stick It' sheet then backed that with some fairly lightweight white card (I made a whole batch of eight at once so in fact if wasn't as fiddly as you might think)

- the snippets of patterned paper came from two of my favourite LOTV paper pads 'Frosty Christmas' and 'Krafty Christmas' - I never ever throw out LOTV snippets!

- then drew around the outline of the tag die before trimming it to just slightly smaller then the outer edge - about .25" all round

- that left me with a tag shaped piece of reinforced LOTV paper on top of which I could then glue the die cut tag with the word 'Joy' across the middle

- then die cut a tag twice, using more white snippets, before gluing them together for dimension. The die is by Poppystamps called 'Joy Tag' - it's been around since 2016 so is most likely discontinued and knowing me I'll have picked it up on clearance!

- finished!

I'd like to add this card into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #57 HERE xxx. The dies I used were both having their first outing.

Also, Christmas Kickstart Challenge #81 HERE - where this the theme is 'If it's Christmassy, link it up'.

Dudley Pupdate:  Len gave Dudley a pretty thorough trim earlier in the week. He looks rather shorn and so small that it's like having a puppy back! 

I've said before that he always does a sand dance around the top of the grooming table to make life more fun/awkward. It's funny to watch but no fun to try and grapple with him and do the trimming at the same time! I think both Len as well as Dudley were exhausted at the end of the session!

The past couple of nights I've found Dudley pressed right up against me so I pop one arm out of the duvet and just cradle him in the crook of my arm holding him close. I don't think he's actually cold, he's just aware that his coat has had a thorough trim! By the time Christmas arrives his coat will have already sprouted beautifully.

With love from Dudley and myself, 

Snowy Kisses

This is my snippets card to kick off challenge #450 in over in the Snippets Playground. Go HERE to join in the fun!

Bad 'lighting engineer' work means the right hand side of the card is a bit washed out - sorry, Dudley is still learning the ropes, wink!

Sizeable snippets, although I didn't use some of the white card or the piece of vellum in the end

I used:

- 6" x 6" white card blank, made using a sheet of Strathmore Mixed Media Vellum Finish card to match the image panel-  side opening

- used a snippet of the Strathmore card for the image panel (I keep every little scrap - it's not cheap stuff!) using a Sweet Dixie stamp called 'Snowy Kisses' and a VersaFine Clair 'Nocturne' ink pad 

- then coloured the image using Arteza Watercolour pencils and a water brush - trying to pick up the background paper colours as much as possible

- added clear 'Wink of Stella' - to the snow on the trees, the snowballs on the ground and also the little poinsettia flower head - so cute!

- die cut the image panel using a 4" square die from Clarity Stamps 'Nested Square Heart Doodle Aperture Frame-Its' set

- stamped the sentiment onto the image panel using a die from Uniko's 'Most Wonderful' set of Christmas sentiments and a Hero Hues 'Granite' ink pad - the Misti was invaluable!

- then slightly trimmed a rather large snippet of holly patterned paper from LOTV's 'Woodland Wishes' paper pad down to 5.75" square and glued it onto the card front

- die cut a snippet of almost plain green paper from the same LOTV paper pad, using a Presscut die from their huge set of square dies. I did this having tried on a totally unusable piece of card first - to make sure both sizes lined up perfectly

- glued the green piece of die cut paper to the back of the image panel to highlight the pretty die cut edging around the image panel, I used a glue pen - two in fact, with different sized nibs for fear of spoiling all the work thus far!

- used very narrow pre-cut strips of double sided foam (from Amazon a while ago and very useful for a little more 'lift' than my much loved thin sticky pads) to stick around the back of the image panel with a few more pieces inside the area to add extra support

- then used Chrissie Stokes' tip, after removing the protection layer from the foam strips, I ran a glue stick over all the exposed 'sticky' to give it some 'wiggle room' rather than immediately setting itself firmly in place

- and that was it, all finished and one more for the 'Christmas Card box' - which is looking fairly healthy already!

Some things I encountered along the way:

- Arteza watercolour pencils are truly great and the more one uses them, the easier and more variable it becomes. I generally apply water colour pencil to the image and then 'draw it away' using a water pen. It's also a good option to pick up the colour with a water pen - directly from the pencil itself and darker colours tend to work best when doing this.

The use of the set of dies came about thanks to a snippets playmate Pat - I'd all but forgotten I have a set of these dies and one of Pat's recent lovely cards prompted me to dig it out for a first outing.The packaging is huge and it didn't fit into a NBUS basket so was languishing to one side. Thanks for that reminder Pat!

As always, my LOTV pads papers are continuing to gradually diminish in size. I had the foresight to buy some in digital form when it was apparent that digital was the route they were taking. I'm not keen on digital papers or images - but needs must when the devil drives!

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

Darnell's NBUS Challenge #48 - my NBUS is the Sweet Dixie stamp I used for the 'Snowy Kisses' image and the set of Clarity frame dies

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #72  - the theme is 'Wrapped Up For Christmas' and my 'snow people' are wrapped up in their scarves - as well as in one another judging by the carrot noses! Cute! x

Dudley Pupdate - he discovered blueberries during the week. I'd read that dogs rather liked them and so gave him one to try whilst preparing a little dessert for us humans - of fresh blueberries with strawberry kefir yoghurt. Of course, Dudley then ran away with his first one, as he does, to explore and try out his new 'single berry treat' in peace - thankfully on a tiled floor as am sure they will stain both him and anything else they come into contact with! After two return visits to ask for more, the novelty wore off - thankfully! 

As it is, Dudley flings his diced carrots all over the place with wild abandon - mostly as he sifts through his 'veggie dog-bowl' to make sure his much loved diced sweet peppers have all been eaten first. We're not particularly vegetarian but do try to supplement his breakfast of more traditional semi-dry dog foods with evening meals of steamed chicken, other cooked meats - 'preferably grilled steak' says Dudley, the treat of a boiled egg as well as fresh raw and safe veggies at least. 

Fat chance of grilled steak here - the country is in financial meltdown right now and Dudley has to knuckle down ......... and might even need to get a newspaper round at some point. Ha, just try telling HIM that one though! Truth be told - he actually gives SO much more than he ever asks for, just like all dogs do.

Birthday cards for Livi and Josh

I suddenly realised I needed three Birthday cards in a real hurry so LOTV Art Pads came to the rescue for two of them. Both cards are very similar in design, which certainly sped the whole process along:

Livi is still playing football and, even though she now has a really cute pixie cut hairstyle, I thought she'd like this card:

And Josh is at the age where I've previously covered all his interests - perhaps someday he'll take up fishing though:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blanks, side opening (how odd though, they look almost square in the photos)

- images from LOTV Art Pads - 'Annabel' and 'Vintage Boys'

- die cut both images using a die from the Presscut 'Oval Stitch Hole' inner and outer set of dies

- used patterned papers from the Lawn Fawn 'Really Rainbow' paper pad for both cards (Livi's also has a border of pearlescent 'Red Velvet' card), trimmed them and glued in place 

- glued the image ovals in place

- added sentiment ovals (Craftwork Cards) in the top left hand corners at an angle

- finished!

I whipped these cards up in no time, once organised  - time was getting short to post Livi's to Germany and it's amazing what you can do when a timescale is snapping at your heels! I rarely resort to ready made images these days but they can be a real lifesaver. To be fair to myself, it's a bit of a trial lifting things around and hunting for stuff - even though it's pretty well organised - so making cards isn't so easy physically as it used to be. Sigh, comes to us all though and I'd rather be here still, albeit struggling and groaning/creaking at the seams at times. 

Rudolph Days Challenge - October 2021

Mo, over at the Rudolph Days Challenge, is (in addition to her usual lovely prize) giving away an extra prize this month, as a tribute to our lovely friend Kath, who we lost in August of this year. To qualify for a chance to win a great Woodware 'tall and slim' stamp set, you have to use paper piecing on your RD entry. That was one of Kath's favourite techniques and she also loved Woodware stamps. So very fitting Mo - a lovely idea!

I pondered about using my own 'identical to the prize' stamp set but, in the end, the lure of a NBUS and totally unopened stamp set won! Even though I'm not playing for the Woodware stamp, it seemed right to use paper piecing.

And this is the card I made:

I used:

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

- piece of white card stock, onto which I stamped the really huge holly outline and also one of the many sentiments in the same set which is Colarado Craft Company's Big and Bold 'Holly and Berries', using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad plus the Misti

- next, used a few snippets of paper from LOTV's 'Woodland Wishes' Christmas paper pad, onto which I stamped the holly leaves and berries

- inked in the tiny pieces of branch, using a dark brown Whispers pen, no way were they being paper pieced ☺, then fussy cut the three holly leaves and the berries before running a black Whispers pen around the outer edges

- actually adding the fussy cut magenta berries and two plain and one patterned leaves using a glue pen was easy in itself but they did have to go on in a particular order due to some overlapping teensy details as well as a couple of little slivers of white background at the edge of one of the berries

- trimmed, trimmed and trimmed the image panel down until I thought there'd be nothing left of it - it ended up at 5" x 3.75" in the end, just the right proportions for a USA A2 sized card

- then cut into a fresh sheet (shock, horror), of 'almost plain' magenta paper from the same LOTV pad and trimmed down a backing 'frame' just an eighth of an inch bigger than the image, on all sides

- glued the 'frame' layer to the card front and then added the image panel - using Collall All Purpose glue

You can probably tell that with some cards I begin with the image, before deciding on the final card size. Just as well, as I had one problem after another making this card. I even lost the first set of 'stamped berries' to be paper pieced and no end of searching would reveal where they'd hidden. Edit: Needless to say I found the missing set of stamped berries the following day, on the floor behind my chair! I also accidentally tore up a holly leaf whilst searching! Needless to say I'd already packed away the stamps set ink pad, Misti etc - I know - too confident right? In  my defence, I was only being good and tidying up as I went along - but yet another lesson learned.

The card was originally to be a totally different shape (square), and much larger size, but the 'forces' were against me - sigh. However, I will have another bash, possibly for a batch of them - next time using Pro Markers! It has to be one of the trickiest paper pieced cards I've ever made. 

I'm quietly pleased with the fact that it's not 'quite' traditional Christmas green and red and think you could only really get away with that by doing paper piecing.

Kath - I promise you - I battled on down here and, at times, only the love kept me going.

I'd also like to enter this onto Darnell's NBUS #31 Challenge HERE - the stamp set was new and unopened.

Super fast snippets Birthday card

Despite having a perennial 'Birth Dates' book, it's only useful if I remember to check it regularly. Suddenly realised Len's Great Nephew had a Birthday looming and I needed a card for him 'toot sweet'.

A quick scamper around the internet turned up a few ideas and this is my take on one of them:

I used:

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

- snippet of black card stock, trimmed to very slightly smaller than the card fron and glued in place

- snippet of white card stock, trimmed to leave a bit of a bigger black border this time (3.75" x 4") - not glued onto the card front just yet

- snippets of paper which were tucked into the back of LOTV's 'Country Gent' paper pad

- trimmed three different patterns down to 2" wide then trimmed them crosswise keeping the plainer brown piece a bit narrower

- glued the pieces in place, using a Zig glue pen, working from the top and bottom towards just below the middle of the card, where I wanted to place the sentiment

- the sentiment is from Barbara Gray's everyday Word Sticker Collection - just eyeballed sticking that in place

- then dug out my trusty very dinky 'office hole punch' which accidentally fell into my handbag the day I retired and punched three circles from the plainer brown snippet

- stuck those in place - again working from left, right and finally the centre one - finished!

It's always so much easier to place the likes of slips of paper and punched dots by working from the outside towards the centre -  lesson I learned the hard way a long time ago.

Typing this post and taking then editing the photo has taken much longer than it took to make the card - luckily everything just fell into place for once. Bit like the hole punch falling into my handbag really ☺

Ha, Len had a close call when he commented 'oh, it's just like fabric/wallpaper samples'. Soon held his hands up in surrender when he saw my face - a mix of 'gosh, you could be right' and 'gotta death wish honey?'

'Stacked Merry'

I've been catching up on a bit of Christmas card making and tried out a NBUS 'Stacked Merry' die by MFT, from their September 2020 release. I made four cards in a 'batch baking' session - two of each colour way:

I used:

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

- white card from which I die cut the frame - the die is from the Avery Elle 'Postage Stamp Elle-ments' set

- piece of plaid patterned LOTV paper from the 'Classic Christmas' paper pad, trimmed to just an eighth of an inch larger, on all four sides, than the opening in the white frame

- then adhered the LOTV paper to the back of the frame, using very narrow red line tape. The best way to do this is to align the top edge first and adhere it before then carefully removing the backing from the other three sides - if you try to do it in one go the odds are that it won't be straight (or as straight as you can get it!)

- glued the whole panel to the card front

- die cut the MFT 'Stacked Merry' from white card and glued it in place using a Zig glue pen

- die cut holly leaves and berries from plain green and red paper snippets, which were tucked in the back of the same LOTV 'Classic Christmas' paper pad. The die set I used is Poppystamps' 'Stitched Holly Leaves and Berries'

- glued those on place, again using a Zig glue pen

The background could be a little too busy for the leaves and berries to show up very well - but I had fun making them anyhow!

And as the MFT 'Stacked Merry' was having it's first outing, I can enter this into Darnell's NBUS Challenge #19.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #380

The weeks seem to be flying past, and we're into a good routine with grocery deliveries, quarantining all post that arrives here, keeping the car batteries charged with solar chargers (as well as giving them a run out once a week to blow any cobwebs away). And, restrictions continue to be eased, which is a hopeful sign that we'll be back to some 'new kind of normal' before too long. So long as the current demonstrations don't scupper that. I try never to get involved in polititcs and such on here - but it does strike me that some people are just 'ripe for a fight' - whatever the cause or opposing views may be.

I'm all set to bake Len's Mum's 'Boiled Fruit Cake' as well as some more cheese scones this coming week. Self raising flour still isn't easy to find but I hit lucky about three weeks ago - phew.

Here's my snippets card for this fortnight - kinda cute:

I used:

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

- a snippet of cloud patterned paper from LOTV's 'Up, Up and Away' paper pad, trimmed to 5.25" x 4" - bit of luck finding that!

- snippets of white card to make the balloons

- stamped three balloons using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and stamps from Clearly Besotted's set of stamps called 'Best Balloons'

- coloured the balloons using Pro markers

- die cut the balloons using the matching set of 'Best Balloons' dies, by Clearly Besotted

- stamped the sentiment from the 'Best Balloons' stamp set, using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and the Misti. I did a test stamp on a little snippet of the 'cloud' paper first, just in case it bled - but it was fine. My 'gut feeling' was that Clair 'Nocturne' would have been a step too 'juicy'

- placed the die cut balloons where I wanted them to go on the cloud paper layer and positioned the 'strings' in place, one at a time, to stamp them directly onto the paper rather than use the matching dies

- glued the cloud panel to the card front - and yes, I did check with a little snippet in case the glue showed through (OCD once again) - shame I positioned the cloud panel not quite in the centre (OCD once again)

- stuck the balloons in place on top of the 'strings' using small snippets of thin sticky pads

This was another fun card to make - the hardest part was choosing just three balloons from the ten balloon stamps in the set! It's a set that I'm sure is discontinued as, looking at Clearly Besotted's on line shop, it's a much smaller set that pops up now under the name 'Best Balloons' with just six balloons and no matching dies. It's in their sale folks if you're super-keen. I would love to know why the girls who run Clearly Besotted switch horses in the middle of a design. I have a feeling it could be connected with their decision not to sell matching dies for the time being. Which is a shame, but I was lucky and bought my stamps with the matching dies ........ before the stamp set was so reduced in options.

I was slightly stuck choosing a sentiment to be honest as a few are for new babies and it's rare I need cards for newborns. So I used 'Party time' rather than use a stamped sentiment from one of my many sets! Generally I would hunt through my other sentiments for a more suitable sentiment.

And needless to say, here's the prize for this fortnight:

It's a Clearly Besotted 'Best Balloons' set of 18 stamps and a matching 'Best Balloons' set of 12 dies (no dies were included for the sentiments). It's a lovely prize and certainly, for the moment, possibly one of the last times you'll be able to get your little paws on a brand new, unopened CB set of stamps with matching dies. I bought it a year or so ago I think and it's been waiting in the toy box for me to be brave and colour those balloons! 

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 27th June. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

Dudley is still a little pickle - he's taken to digging in the garden and if possible will run indoors with a twig which he then merrily shreds all over the floor! He did that a few minutes ago and, now I've cleaned his mess up, butter wouldn't melt in his mouth - he's on his back on the upstairs landing with all his 'boy bits' on display. Not a care in the World. No photos for now - it's pooch porn!

Dudley is finally sending 'Stinky Monkey the Fourth' to the great monkey cloud in the sky. Basically, Monkey has been sucked and licked almost to death and one ear is now becoming loose (must chop that off ASAP). Len says he'll report me to the RSPCA ..... for cutting an ear off a toy monkey? Sheesh! Amazon literally just arrived as I'm typing with a back up replacement for the new one we'll give him shortly. Yup, we keep at least one totally spare on the back burner all the time. And so far, right from being a wee puppy, Dudley has never questioned how and why he suddenly gets a new and fresh 'Un-stinky Monkey' about every six months or so. Ha, let's hope he doesn't question why he suddenly is taken for a groom in a week's time eh?

I haven't posted off Overseas prizes as yet - but a darling friend did some 'enabling' and I hope to do so shortly. I'll pop a quick post on here when they've been safely posted.

And, as I used a new stamp and die set for the very first time, it means I can join in with Darnell's NBUS #15 challenge HERE - wahoo! You could have knocked me down with a feather duster when my snippets herringbone card popped out as her random pick last time. It did remind me of how lovely it is to be picked - even randomly. A bit like looking through a telescope from the other end when you run challenges :)

Stay safe my lovely friends.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #376

Hi again! Where did that last week disappear to? And, from news here on Friday it looks as if we have a good few weeks more of lockdown to cope with in the UK - currently to be reviewed on 7th May. To be honest, I'd rather we didn't get let out too soon. Once the lid is lifted on Pandora's box, you can't just slap it back on and there's no telling what might happen if our exit from lockdown is done too early ........... or not done in careful stages.

However, I'm finding it really tough to settle down to anything connected with crafting, even commenting on the Playground is falling behind all the time - I'm very sorry about that and will give myself a jolly good shake and try to knuckle down. Cooking and baking seem to be top priority for now - I'm trying ideas I would never have really entertained at the moment. When we can get fresh fruit and vegetables then they are top priority to be enjoyed whilst at their best. It's an interesting process, not one I would have chosen given the circumstances, but now I look at an ingredient and its potential rather differently than I did a month ago for sure.

Here's my snippets card for this fortnight, and it's meant for each and every one of you to think of as having been made especially with you in mind:

I used:

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

- all snippets of patterned paper were found tucked safely in the back of LOTV's NitWit Collection 'Perfect Pair' paper pad, such a pretty pad with shades of green and pink, and touches of white. Still a shame LOTV discontinued their papers, sigh

- firstly I die cut the big 'hugs' word and the 'shadow' using both dies from Pink & Main's 'Hugs' set of dies - and pink and green snippets

- glued them together using a Zig glue pen and set them aside for now 

- then trimmed a bigger green LOTV patterned snippet for the backing and glued it onto the card front

- snippet of plain white card which I die cut using a die from Lil'Inkers 'Stitched Rectangles' set of dies

- checked the placement of the large 'hugs' die cut piece and positioned the sentiment stamps using the Misti

- did a test stamp onto a scrap of paper and then stamped the sentiment words, which are from Pink and Main's 'Hugs Needed' set of sentiments stamps, which perfectly complements the 'hugs' die - using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- next I glued the 'hugs' die cut onto the white panel and added it to the card front which had the green patterned layer already in place

- almost there, final touch was the addition of three black self-adhesive domes to fill out the blank area to the bottom left of the card

I loved making this card, despite almost needing a 'KITA' to get me going in the first place! I chose pretty but I bet it would look great in strong blues for instance - or white black and red, for Valentine's Day perhaps.

Shame on me for not using them sooner - but it does mean I can enter this card into our lovely Darnell's NBUS Challenge HERE. I do encourage you to join in if you haven't done so already - now is an ideal time to crack open some Never Before Used Schtuff and this current challenge runs to the end of April. Hopefully followed by more - if only to encourage us to USE and not just HOARD!

And here is the prize for this fortnight - you didn't think I would have left you out of my shopping spree did you? It's this:

Pink & Main's pair of die cutting and stamping goodies, exactly the same as I used today for my card. The double die set called 'Hugs' and the set of complementing sentiments called 'Hugs Needed'. The big 'hugs' sentiment stamp can be stamped in any colour of course and, if you wish, then die cut using the scrolling word die from the die set. I really love the small font sentiments to go with the word 'hugs' - they've been so well thought out.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 2nd May. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

So, another week of isolation stretches ahead of us, here in the UK at least. I've finally managed to get hold of SR flour to do some more baking,  wouldn't you just know it though - we got no eggs in Thursday's grocery delivery (how, why?).

We can cope, but I'll certainly be giving someone the 'stink eye' if he decides to have boiled eggs for breakfast! I neeeeed the ones I still have for my baking therapy right now!

So far Dudley has avoided the dreaded hair cut (I got a bit frightened when I read on a Havanese FB Forum how easily you can hurt a dog with clippers). His coat is staying mat free thankfully, although the daily brush and comb is always a bit of a battle of wills. His latest trick is to almost prance on the spot as I'm doing his front legs and paws - a bit like a Lipizzaner horse!

I found lots of video footage of performing Lipizanners on You Tube. Amongst them is this very short gem, dating back to around 1946, in black and white - it illustrates what I was trying to describe about Dudley's 'groom time prancing' perfectly! Look for the guy on his own at about 30 seconds into the clip :)

Stay safe my lovely friends.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Mia is 12 years old

It only seems yesterday that Mia was a baby and now she's heading into her 13th year, so is on the verge of being a teenager!

When we came home from Cornwall I had to really get cracking and make her card in time for it to reach Germany. Luckily, I already had a new die waiting to be used - so I kept the card fairly simple:

I used:

- a tall white card blank - approx. 4" x 8"

- piece of shimmery plummy purple thin card stock as the 'frame', which I glued onto the card front

- piece of patterned paper from a LOTV pad called 'Timeless Victorian', trimmed and then glued onto the purple layer

- then adhered two layers of the purple card together using Woodware double sided adhesive sticky paper just to make the die cuts more robust

- die cut the (new to me) Poppystamps 'Large Sugar Plum Faerie' and put it to one side

- then die cut the word WISH using MFT's 'Wish' die

- because I hadn't used really intricate dies they cut well, despite the sticky layer in between the thin pieces of card

- then added the word WISH using a glue pen, followed by the faerie (fairy) minus the wings which are cut separately anyhow

The reason I chose to make the fairy into a ballerina was partly as I'd seen it  elsewhere on a blog, probably one of yours so thank you if it was you! And, Mia is also a very good little ballet dancer.

Edit: I spotted the die on Gail's blog - here's a link to the post that inspired me!

Phew, I hate making cards in a rush but for once nothing went wrong! I deliberately didn't add Mia's name and age, the girls are both growing up and from the age of 10 onwards I try not to add those extra details unless it's a special birthday or occasion.

Happy Birthday Mia, hope you're having a lovely day!

And, we finally have Dudley booked into a new grooming place for next week. His Auntie Stephanie has had to go back to Kent to care for her Mum, and our local branch still doesn't do scissoring. We just might have hit lucky, and his new groomer, called Debbie, already knows and grooms/trims Havanese! I attached photos and she says 'He's a stunning little chap'. Bless him. Way to go Dudley ... my most loved and so sweet little man! After Len of course :) x

Cross stitch Christmas card

Recently I was thinking about what crafts I could do easily that are small and easy to take on holiday. Knitting and cross stitch have been past favourites. And then I spotted a tag that I made last July and wrote about HERE (an MFT 'Cross Stitch Tag' die set the same as I'd used was a Snippets prize as well). It's worth taking a peek at the post if you didn't see it first time round - there are some tips on using the die set. However, coming up to a whole year later, the finished tag was still on the desk waiting to be used on a card, shame on me. So this is what I ended up with:

I used:

- A6 (UK size) white card blank, tent style

- a piece of slightly smaller patterned 'Merry Christmas' paper from the LOTV 'Krafty Christmas' paper pad - just glued onto the card front

- and then my ready made tag glued on top - finished!

In truth, this was so fast it's almost embarrassing to write a post about it - but I like to keep a record of each card I make ☺

Next job is to make up a little box with some die cut cross stitch blanks, patterns, the relevant embroidery floss, couple of needles and a small pair of scissors ready to grab whenever I feel the urge - a great way to make some Christmas toppers.

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #353

Hi again! Hope all of you in the UK are enjoying a very pleasant Bank Holiday weekend - with some sunshine thrown in wherever you are!

This is my snippets card - with a couple of snippets and a little bit of colouring (I told Parsnip not to go sunbathing - snigger!):

I used:

- 4" x 4" square white card blank, side opening

- pulled out Echo Park's 'Hello Summer' paper pad and found a couple of snippets of paper in the back which I used to match the colouring as best I could

- the image and sentiment is from the discontinued LOTV 'Happy Bears' set of stamps, stamped onto a snippet of white card using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and the Misti

- then coloured the image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils

- trimmed the image and backed it with ta very lightly patterned paper snippet

- then trimmed and glued the flowery snippet in place before popping the image panel in place

The card was super-fast to make and I used Polychromos pencils for speed. I sort of prefer Pro markers as they don't show the pencil strokes, although I also quite like the hand coloured look from using pencils as well! If it's good enough for Banksie the artist, then it's good enough for me :)

The stamp set I used, as I said, is discontinued - I bought it (and one for the toy box) absolutely ages ago as it reminded me so much of little Parsnip. In fact, LOTV are going fully digital very soon (15th June) and are selling off their rubber/poly stamp sets at a discount. Thanks Sarn for that 'heads up'! 

The prize this fortnight is this:

I really love this set of stamps by LOTV called 'Happy Bears' and have slapped my wrists for not using it sooner. The sentiments can be used in different ways with the lovely images - sort of tucked in beside the balloons etc.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 8th June. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're playing only for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

Mr Linky is below - please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone ☺

Lots more words next - much of which is a progress update but also for my own records. Skip it if you wish! 

Funny old week really - long story cut short but my BP has really plummeted to the point of being too low and also I discovered that the 'culprit' is a diuretic BP medication I'd been on for about five months when this all kicked off. Ha, it went into overdrive I think - but try getting a doctor to admit to that. However, he's pulled me right off the pills (that alone tells a story) and finally I hope to begin 'goat prevention meds' in a couple of weeks - I have the prescription and just hope the time will be right soon. The gout measurement they use (uric acid) is totally sky high from the blood tests and much higher than any previous readings (like I didn't already know that?). And I should not have needed to go 'spend a penny' five times during the Eurovision Song Contest when we (sad I know!) watched it on TV last weekend.

I think, these days, it's a case of know your own body  and protect yourself as much as possible from the awful meds that are out there. Always double check the leaflets that are in your meds - I firmly believe that because I was too trusting, that trust may have really let me down. My initial attack three years ago was also caused by medication - but you hope that it being in your notes, as well as you reiterating 'no diuretics' to your GP, would count for something, sigh.

Anyhow - the effect is cumulative apparently so now that evil drug needs to dissipate from my system 'toot sweet'!! My fervent hope is that I've found the root cause and things will improve from now on.

We took Dudley to the groomers this week just gone (the day after I'd seen our GP) and the following day (Friday) I was laid up again, but most likely from the lingering inflammation not taking kindly to me wearing (very sensible) shoes and doing just a little bit of walking - rather than a full on gout flare. Literally I did a couple of hundred yards but sure paid for it. However, today (Saturday as I type this) things have eased a fair bit - although have had to cancel the reunion altogether ..... as I suspected might be the case. In many ways it's a relief that the decision has been made for me - I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure' tends to be my motto!

We do have a new photo of Dudley this time round - some of you have seen this on Facebook:

Taken after we got back from the groomers on Thursday so he's looking like a white ball of fluff, so very silky and soft and smelling gorgeous as well. His weight is the same as last time, so it looks as if he's fully grown now (in body, even if not in mind - Dudley will always be a bit of a crazy puppy we think).

The trip to Winchester was better than usual - we gave Dudley some homoeopathic doggie calming drops beforehand and also used his new booster seat for the first time. It's really like a fleece lined box affair which is secured using straps and a mix of the car seat head rest and also the safety belt. So there was Dudley, in his booster seat, secured by his harness for good measure and off we set. I sat in the back beside him and Len was up front playing at being 'chauffeur'. We took Dudley's favourite toy - he came to us with it last September. It's a really cute monkey (and monkey goes absolutely everywhere with him - to the point that he's very grubby and also whiffs a bit from constant chewing and licking, and Len won't even touch 'stinky monkey' now!!). So there we were, merrily tootling along and Dudley started his fretting - not as bad as usual thankfully but enough to make me hold stinky monkey out to him for comfort. So funny, he did his 'grumpy growl' (more than once) as if to say 'Take that thing away from me - can't you see I'm a little bit busy right now, having a panic attack. I can only cope with one thing at a time, you silly woman'!! We did giggle over that one later on - and in fact Dudley was calmer coming back home as well. He even laid down and slightly dozed off a bit ...... knew I shouldn't have given him so many drops :)

We then sat in the garden later on in the afternoon, talking the day over whilst Dudley played out on the lawn (trying to undo all Auntie Steph's hard work!) and we witnessed the sweetest thing ever! We've known that the blue tit nest box above the kitchen window was occupied (as it is most years in Spring/early Summer) and have heard little cheeps recently, as well as the parents flying to and fro to feed their young.We then actually saw a little face pop up at the box hole, whilst the parents called from the far end of the garden. And all of a sudden - out came the tiniest, perfectly formed, blue tit fledgling and off it flew into the honeysuckle covering the arbour.  Literally seconds later, it was followed by another one - and after that the nest went quiet. We think those two might have been the last ones to fly as it was getting a bit late in the day for baby birds to take their first flight. It was pure fluke we saw what we did. And, although my camera was on the garden table there was absolutely no chance to take a photo as it all happened quite quickly whilst we watched in wonder. Needless to say - it's a lovely memory to have in any case and just as precious! Nature is just marvellous isn't it?

Their timing was just so perfect, as we're having work done outside (new soffits etc.) from this coming Wednesday onwards! A bit as if we'd posted them a little letter warning of 'new works ahead' really. Now, thankfully, they won't be disturbed - although we had a pair successfully carry on nesting a few years back when there was scaffolding for the upper house extension and other stuff going on. No doubt Dudley will do a bit of 'woofing' whilst this lot of work is being done though! It was planned so that I would be away for some of the time, making parking for additional vehicles a bit easier, but that didn't happen of course. We'll cope though though - we always do.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip (who is still very much loved and spends a lot of his time making sure that Dudley can't reach him!), Dudley and of course me,

Rudolph Days - July 2018

I know, it's now August, but Mo has had to delay the July Rudolph Days Challenge - so it should now run from 1st to 7th August.

And it gave me some much needed time to come up with my entry this time around. Tracey of Dies to Die For was at a Copics event with a 'pop-up shop' - so it really would have been very rude not to buy something of course :)

Amongst my (ahem) haul there was a lovely little set of stamps with various sentiments, some Christmas gifts/parcels and three sweet little deer. So, not being one to do things the easy way, I stamped eight of each of the three deer and the same with the little Christmas parcels. I then happily coloured them whenever the mood was right. And then it was time to cut them all out - sheesh, I KNEW I ought to have bought the matching dies. In fairness Tracey didn't have any left so I took a close look at the dies on line as well as some die cut images on cards, which I found as examples on line. Ha, I can do that 'she said'. So far I've cut out all the little (18 that I stamped and 24  coloured)parcels and just ten of the deer as they really are a bit tricky-wool. I still have slight reservations about images which are die cut leaving a white border right round - it's almost the 'norm.' now and all I can think is that it allows for a little bit of 'play' when you're doing the die cutting.

So, I used one design of deer and one design of gift/parcel to make my entry for Mo's challenge - times eight of course, in an attempt to boost my flagging Christmas card target for this year:

I used:

- 5" x 5" white card blanks, side opening

- in fairness, as I said, the little deer and parcel were both already coloured and cut out. I'd used Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a couple of stamps from The Greeting Farm's 'Dashing' stamp set - and the Misti of course! Do be aware that MFT have stamps and matching dies also called 'Dashing' so if you like my little fella be careful to order the right one from the right company!

- I'd then coloured the little deer with Pro markers, as well as the parcel. I also added a few little white dots to his back (using a Signo white pen) just to add some interest as I hadn't done any fancy shading and it broke up the expanse of his back (as well as looking cute of course). Also added clear Wink of Stella to the fur and bobble on his little hat for a little bit of glisten

- so there I was, with a little deer and a Christmas gift/parcel and absolutely no idea what to do next - so I walked away and had a think for a day or two

- ping! Then it just hit me - he needed to be framed (obviously) with some form of background, so this is what I did

- die cut a Lil' Inker 'Instant Camera' frame from white card stock then stamped the sentiment 'Jingle all the way' using the Misti, Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and one of the sentiments from the 'Dashing' stamp set

- I backed the aperture in the frame with a snippet of pale blue patterned paper I found tucked in the back of the LOTV 'Frosty Christmas' paper pad. I found six in fact, obviously left from a previous play, and also a further two with snowflakes on (I do prefer the little trees though for this particular card). Backing this frame can be a bit tricky and I find that the very narrow red line tape works a treat if you're careful as it's unforgiving if you make a mistake

- for sturdiness I then backed the area of the aperture behind the paper using the waste fall out from when I die cut the frames (again with red line tape) - an extra step but it certainly makes for a much better finish (IMHO) as you end up with a nice solid little topper for your card

- added the Christmas gift and the little deer onto the blue background using a glue pen

- then cut a square of white card stock just about quarter of an inch smaller all round than the card front, using a die from The Works 'Stitched Squares' set of dies 

- embossed it using a Darice 'Snowflake Background' embossing folder

- glued the embossed panel to the card front

- finally added the little framed scene at a jaunty angle to the card front, using thin sticky pads

And, it's still slim enough to post at our standard letter rate - result!

And now to carry on with the other 16 little deer and 16 parcels - sometimes I start things and really don't think it through just how long it'll take. But, I won't be beaten - even if it's a couple of weeks until I tackle them!

Rudolph Days - May challenge and Crafty Hazelnut's weekly challenge #387

It's time for another instalment of Rudolph Days Challenge - run by Maureen - aka ScrappyMo HERE. The challenge runs every month from the 25th right to the last day of the month.

And, I'd like to join in with Hazel's Christmas Card Challenge #387 - HERE. Hazel is the sweetest lady ever and I feel really guilty that it's been an age since I played along. It's always anything goes nowadays and I used to play really regularly so am delighted to finally join in again! A new challenge each week as well as a lovely prize to be won. At one time entries were up in the hundreds and it would be fabulous if those of you making Christmas cards could link into Hazel's challenge and bring those numbers back up again.

My target of 12 Christmas cards per month was lagging very sadly behind and, in an effort to catch up, I made 12 cards exactly the same. I know, 12 identical ones is about the maximum 'batch bake' for me and I was secretly very glad when they were finished. Maybe I should have scanned a first coloured image - but then that would be cheating a bit .....IMHO. It all started when I found a background card in pale blue which I adore and needed to use (I have tons of it!). And so the card developed from there really.

This is what I made:

I used:

- 4" x 4" square white card blank

- a square of 'Merry Mistletoe' pale blue background card, made ages ago by Kanban and cut to just one eighth of an inch smaller all round than the card itself and then glued to the card front

- stamped the little image onto white card stock using a new 'Hybrid - Black Licorice' ink pad by MFT (more of this below). The stamp is a wood mounted pre-loved Penny Black one called 'Thinking of you' - dated 1999!

- coloured the image using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and a little touch of Sansodor blending solution here and there - making sure I had matched the blue background and the scarf

- then die cut the image using a The Works 'Stitched' Squares' die

- next I stamped 12 little LOTV Christmas labels onto white card stock using a Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink pad and fussy cut round them ( sorry, the stamps are no longer made by LOTV which is such a shame - it remains to be seen but am not sure that their decision to go all digital was a wise one. Again, only my opinion and it would be sad to see them fail in this new change of direction)

- added a round matt red Josy Rose nail head to each 'label' and then adhered them onto the image panels using red line tape - the most secure and also least potentially messy way when you know just where something is to be positioned

- glued the image panel(s) onto the background and sat and looked, feeling something wasn't quite right - it wasn't the lack of clear Wink of Stella as I just felt the image didn't need it so what was wrong?

- asked the opinion of my in-house critic, who had chosen the Christmas Wishes sentiment, and he said - 'he's just gazing up at nothing really'

- bingo! Of course he needed a star to wish upon and so I added a little Josy Rose star shaped silver nail head in what I thought was the little mouse's line of sight - times twelve of course! 

Finished - 12 more for the box!

Back to the MFT hybrid 'Black Licorice' ink pad. The idea is that it works with both water as well as alcohol based colouring mediums and I was really excited to think such a versatile ink pad was now on the market. I was on a 'wait list' for a while and only recently received the ink pad.

However, I have huge reservations and they are: the lid is almost impossible to remove whenever you want to use it (I needed the help of a blade of a pair of scissors each time), the ink pad is overly juicy and liable to 'spread' with too much pressure when you're stamping PLUS the quality of the pad itself isn't anything like as good as the likes of a Memento ink pad. I found there were stray fibres (NOT what you want when inking up an image) - to the extent that one long strand came loose and I peeled it right off one edge of the pad.

My advice is not to fall for the 'hype' and just stick to using two different pads depending on how you intend to colour images. I use Memento for alcohol inks and my Polychromos pencils - and Stazon (with or without embossing powder) for water colouring. We live and learn I guess!

LOTV to the rescue!

My Christmas card target for 2018 had already begun to slip so a while ago I rustled up four cards, all the same, using pre-printed LOTV images to catch up:

I used:

- very old white linen A6 card stock, trimmed down to 4" x 5.5" (partly to be able to balance the trimmed images but mostly as one corner had become very slightly dog-eared)

- a slightly smaller layer of dark green card as the outer 'frame'

- Magnolia 'Sweet Christmas Dreams' patterned paper from the Lingonberry Collection, trimmed to slightly smaller than the dark green layer and then both were glued to the card front

- the LOTV 'toppers' came from one of their Art Pads called 'Penguin Pals', trimmed down to suit then mounted on a slightly bigger piece of white linen card stock

- final thing was to glue the whole image panel onto the card front

These were so easy to make, just a question of rummaging a bit through some boxes and boxes of older craft goodies and then a lot of trimming and gluing. It's a good way to produce cards when you don't feel in the mood to spend ages colouring or die cutting.

My guess is that the images are no longer available from LOTV - unless they're in digital format. The Magnolia backing paper is almost certainly now defunct (it dates back to when I used to order goodies and 12" square sheets of patterned paper from Craft Creations in the early days of my card making). And the white linen card blanks also date back to that era.

The foray into older goodies did prick my conscience and make me realise that very soon I need to have a real purge in here! It's likely to be a huge task so it'll be the 'eating an elephant' approach I suspect - 'just a bit at a time'. 😅