Shoes Card

This stamp is the bigger version of the Stamps by Judith stamp that I posted a few days ago - why do I have two versions of the same stamp? Well, they were on sale, and I am always a sucker for a bargain. I thought in view of her very comfortable shopping shoes, that the sentiment stamp was perfect. Colouring done with copics.
My blog has been on 'automatic pilot' for the past few days, as I have been enjoying a weekend in the Lake District, miles away from any computer. I always enjoy going up there, the scenery is stunning, and looks different whatever time of year you visit. It has always been a favourite haunt and inspiration to artists, poets and writers, and you can see why, it must be wonderful to be able to capture such beauty.

Laugh Often

The Bitten By The Bug design team were asked to use this 'Laugh Often' cut from the Beyond Birthdays cartridge. Not my favourite task, I always find these phrases difficult to use. Then I came up with the idea of making a card that would be nice to send to good friends after spending a weekend with them. The border punches are by Martha Stewart, Flowers are by Poppicraft, The sentiment is from the Cafe set by MFT. The phrase was run through the cuttlebug using everybody's favourite, swiss dots. The tiny copper thingy holding the ribbon is a fastenator brad. Click HERE to see how the rest of the design team interpreted the challenge.

Another Dog............................

I seem to be going dog crazy at the moment, but just love this dog. It's one of those huge stamps that take up the whole of the card, I coloured him in copic markers and added glossy accents to his nose. The woof word is a diecut from 'woof the dog' by Go-kreate, and the sentiment is a clear stamp by MFT.

Funny Female Birthday Card

I don't know who made this stamp, it's one of those mysterious no name stamps that lurk around. I have never used it, then I had a lightbulb moment and decided to make it the focus of the card, and I cut a teensy little coffee mug from Christmas Cheer at 1" to embellish it. The ovals, scallop and plain were cut using my new nesting dies from Go-Kreate

Mothers Day Card for Daring Cardmakers

This week, the dare is to use circles, so I cut this circle card using wildcard, at 5 1/2" - too big to get a matching envelope, but I have some ready made that will fit. The calender circle is a new download from The Cutting Cafe, you can print all the months of the year in circles or squares. Mothering Sunday is on the 22nd March in the UK, I know it's much later in the USA. The letters and parentheses are Thickers by american crafts. Added a huge bow and a paper flower

to jazz it up a little. I do love this aqua colour, it looks great with so many other colours.

Westie Birthday Card for Cute Card Thursday

I have had the animal face stamps from Peachy Keen for some time and only used them a couple of times, so I dug them out and cut the little dog from Animal Kingdom in white at 3 1/2" Her face is peachy keen, the little bone on her collar and the oval sentiment scallops are by

Go-Kreate. Papers are by SEI. The challenge on Cute Card Thursday is an animal card, so this is my offering.

There won't be a shortage of people to send this to, as a family we love Westies. We used to have one called Kirsty, who was a much loved family pet for 16 years. She was always a roamer, if a door was left open she would make a break for freedom. When she was just a puppy, and a bit of an inconvenience to be honest, ( you know the drill, kids want a dog, mum does all the work) she made one of her mad dashes, straight into the path of a car and broke her leg pretty badly. It needed surgery, and the next day we went to visit her at the doggie hospital. She ignored the children, but was so ecstatic to see me that she peed all over the table. Now no other living creature, before or since, has ever been so happy to see me that this happened (I can be quite certain of this), and I fell totally in love with her at that moment, and adored her until the day she died, in my arms, many years later. We still miss her and talk of her often. Boy, do they leave their little pawprints on your heart.

White on White Card

I have wanted to make a totally white card for ages, the problem isn't making the card, but photographing it. I used a cut from Home Accents for the flower, cut at 3", the stem was cut by hand. The butterfly is the gorgeous QuicKutz die that Julie sent me as a gift. I used the cuttlebug swiss dots folder for the background and the bottom layer of the butterfly to give some texture, and added some crystal gems (poundland) to give sparkle.

Get Well Wishes

This card turned into a bit of a marathon. I wanted to use the icon on page 40 of the manual (wildcard) and cut the black lacy sheet at 5". It didn't cut quite big enough to cover my base 5" x5" card, so I scratched my head a bit and put a broad ribbon down the side. It started to look quite pretty, but I really had no idea where I was going with this card. I cut two of the shaped labels from storybook, at 3" in red, and 2 3/4" in white, the sentiment is by Great Impressions.

I had to pretty it up, so I punched three black flowers and added the red gems, the card still didn't work, so I added some red and gold beads strung onto fine gold wire, some tiny gold beads to the centres of the lacy background, and at last it came together. Good grief, I could have decorated the living room in the time it took to create this one!

Penny Black Birthday Card

Got to love this ridiculously indulgent cat and his cute mouse friend in this Penny Black stamp. I added a load of dew drops (by Robins Nest) randomly to look like bubbles. Coloured with Copic markers, I left the design really simple as the stamp is such a busy little image.


It's Pancake Day here in the UK tomorrow - yes it really does exist. The pancakes we eat are similar to the French crepes rather than the more substantial ones in the USA, we eat them with lemon juice and sugar, and jolly delicious they are too. Very more-ish. There are all sorts of ancient customs and traditions as well, some towns have pancake races (no the pancakes don't run, the contestants run holding a pan with a pancake, tossing it as they go). There are probably pancake gluttony contests somewhere as well, now I could be a winner if I entered that one.

Happy Woofday - Birthday card for dog lover

This little chap is another go-kreate die, the papers are by Cloud 9, the letters were cut using the Buckton alphabet also by go-kreate, and the button was punched using Martha Stewarts button punch, I tied a little diecut bone with twine to the centre of the button.

I had called my daughter in law to tell her there may be some photos of Kiki shown on the Create and Craft show - in fact at the very start of the show, the first thing the presenter was leafing through was my word book. Kiki watched it, and spun around to her parents with a look of total disbelief on her face, yes sweetheart, that was you on TV!

Happy Easter Wishes

It's a gorgeous Springlike day here in the midlands today, cool of course, but lovely blue skies and sunshine - the type of day that makes you think that winter may finish soon. This little bird image was a download last Easter from Pink Petticoat. I put some orange stickles here and there so she is quite glittery. The yellow card is embossed with daisies, which don't show in the photo. The spotty paper is called nonsense from We R Memory Keepers.

Decoupage Deco Lady

I have never used these decoupage sheets before, but as a friend printed some for me, I thought I would have a go - thanks Eileen. I used silicone glue to stick all the layers together. The base card is the doily cut from the wildcard cartridge cut in pale lilac, then on shadow in the deeper pink, and the liner cut in black - all layers cut at 5".

Funky Hand On TV Tomorrow

Anice, the lovely designer on Funky Hand has a live TV show on Ideal World tomorrow night, featuring her new Funky Daze CD (the one with the word books, that sold out within minutes last time it was on). She will be doing some demos if you already have the CD, and if not, here's your chance to grab it. Live on Ideal World, 6-7pm Saturday night, be sure to catch it and see all the design team samples as well. One of mine is the PLAY wordbook I did, with photos of Kiki playing with her doll. Those of you not in the UK can see the CD on the Funky Hand website. Good luck Anice!

Springtime Card for Cute Card Thursday

The task this week on Cute Card Thursday challenges is Spring, so I thought of this little gardener Boo bear. The bear, flowers, watering can and trowel are all die cuts from Go-Kreate (stockists listed earlier this week). The black square is embossed with swiss dots, but doesn't show up in the photo.
Not that it feels very springlike yet, still rather cold and damp. I am no gardener, luckily these days we only have a tiny back garden, a patio garden with lots of pots of flowers, I can just about deal with those. We also have a very large oak tree at the end, that is home to what seems to be multi-occupancy families of squirrels, and they love the contents of my pots as well, so I am frequently to be seen dashing out to scare them off. I bought some spray called 'Squirrelgon' and unfortunately they seem to love that as well, just sit on the fence sniffing the air when I spray it around them. Hooligan rodents!

Shopping Card

This cute stamp is by Judith, she looks a bit unkempt after her day looking for bargains, I love the shoes she's wearing! The oval shape and scallops were cut using my new nested shapes from Go-Kreate, papers are Bo Bunny (pink) and Making Memories (black gingham). I have had the saying stamps for ages, but it's back in the USA, so can't tell you who made that.

Just For You - Pink Petticoat

This is a Frillie Millie, pink petticoat image that has now been discontinued, she is coloured with copic markers, papers are by SEI. I like the funky look of this card.

We have been to buy a new laptop so that I can hook it up to my cricut and use design studio. I kept seeing all these fantastic creations, and have had DS for a while, never used it. I am not great on the computer though, so it will be another learning curve. How confusing the whole process of buying a laptop is, all those technical specifications that are like double dutch to me, the young overanxious salesman may as well have been a little green man from Mars for all the sense he was making - although little pound signs were probably flashing before his eyes as he spoke to me..................'Dumbo' he probably thought, and he was right.

Penny Black Challenge

This is the sketch for this week's Penny Black Challenge, you will see that I turned it on it's head...........

The image is one I got in a swap from my Funky Hand team mate Kath, who also happens to be on the design team for the Penny Black challenge site, so lots of PB to play with. Thanks Kath!

When I first made this, I put a black ribbon on the side, it looked so funereal I changed it for the lilac gingham and at least the person receiving it won't be depressed for days. I will probably add a sentiment circle - get well maybe. The stamped image and pale lilac mat were cut using my fabulous nesting frames from Go-Kreate.

Thank You Joan

Look what arrived in the mail, this really sweet card from my online friend Joan. The cup and saucer is made out of fabric which she stitched, and inside the verse reads 'I wish we could sit down together and have a cup of tea, but since we can't, when you have this one, I hope you'll think of me.

Isn't that sweet? Joan lives in Florida, so although we have never met, it's quite within the bounds of possibility that we will one of these days.

Two More Bears

Two more little bears, this time made with the standing bear - Boo to you from Go-Kreate. I have found out that these are stocked in the USA by Scrapping Cottage and Scrapyland and in the UK from Cutting Edge Crafts

For the baby, I used the baby boo dies to cut the nappy (diaper), pin, dummy and rattle and the sentiment is studio G

This one is Fairy Boo, I used one of the cuttlebug border embossing dies to emboss the edge of the card and added some gems to the flowers. A hefty sprinkling of glitter on her wings and wand and she is all glittery and ready to party! The sentiment is again a studio G. I am having a lot of fun from making these cute little bears. Why is it that we find teddy bears so appealing, when the real thing would eat us up given half a chance? Fluffy and cuddly looking I guess, just like a koala bear that will give you a nasty nip if you get too close!

St Patrick's Day Card for DCM

On Daring Cardmakers, this week's dare is to use green on a card, since I had the new download from the Cutting Cafe just begging to be cut in green, I enjoyed doing this one. The papers are a variety that I have had hanging around for ages, the twill ribbon was from the dollar bin at Michaels.