New CD from Polkadoodles

Nikky, the designer from Polkadoodles is previewing a new CD (Candy Doodles) of downloadable papers and images on Create and Craft TV next week. This is a card made quickly from the CD. The strawberries are already coloured, I added some glitter to the pips, then covered the whole lot in glossy accents so that they really do look good enough to eat. I cut away the corner around the large strawberry as well.

My eye test showed that I need new glasses, as I thought, but the chap who did it was lovely and after I explained my phobia about being rushed, took all the time in the world, with me being allowed to change my mind about stuff without feeling pressure. He had a sweet, slightly flirtatious attitude, which is always a bonus at my age!

Dustin Pike Card and Polkadoodles Design Team Call

Here's another design team call for you, Nikky on Polkadoodles is looking for someone to join the existing team - all detail below

Here's another Dustin Pike image, I have been asked to make some children's cards and thought this image would fit the bill

The sentiment is a stamp by Hero Arts, papers are unknown from a huge pile that lurks anonymously in my little crafty cupboard. The 'brads' are card candy from Craftwork cards

We have had some very soggy days in the UK this week, but today the sun is shining, the birds are tweeting, the roses are beautiful and there are big black clouds looming on the horizon, so we better embrace today whilst the sun continues to shine
I am going for my eye test this afternoon, a procedure that always leaves me a bit disorientated. They are so QUICK. 'which is better, the left or the right?' they say, whipping lenses in and out at lightening speed. I need time to think about this, in fact I should probably go and read a few chapters of War and Peace so that I can make up my mind. 'Is the red light brighter, or the green?' they ask, pressing me for an immediate answer. Well now, I think the red one might be a bit brighter, but there again, I am not sure, the green one looks pretty bright as well..........
By now there is definitely an air of impatience creeping into the room, and ever anxious to please I give them the answers I think they want to hear. Which last time resulted in £££ being spent on a pair of specs that I can't really read with.

Wedding Card for BBTB and DT Call

On Bitten by the Bug this week we were asked to use the ring icon from the Mickey and Friends cartridge. I used it, fairly predictably, to make a wedding/engagement card. I cut the ring twice at 4", once in gold cardstock and again in white. I cut the stone shape off the white diecut and glittered it, then stuck it to the gold. I cut away the front half of a square 6 x 6" card and attached panels of paper from the Funky Hand 'I Do' download. The sentiment is also from that download

I threaded the ring with a wide satin ribbon, and added a border punched with Martha Stewart hearts

Design Team Call on Lily-Boo's Boutique

They have a DT call over on Lily-Boo, pop over to see what it's all about
The designs are lovely, very fresh and innovative and the good news is you get to play with them all if you are on the team, so have a go and come and join us.... whilst you are there, pick up a couple of freebie downloads too

This card was done using one of the girl circles, don't you just love her? I printed her out quite big, then cut away the front of the card around her. Coloured in copic markers and I added red liquid pearls for the apples


Such a sunny little card, I like the way this one turned out


So that's it for this morning, have a happy Monday

Cuttlebug Spot Contest

Just look at this for a fabulous prize. I have about as much chance of winning as taking a flight to Mars, getting served quickly in a supermarket or successfully stuffing a bear, but hey, you've got to be in it to win it. So hop on over to the cuttlebug spot, become a follower and link the contest on your blog, just like I have here......

The Cuttlebug Spot

Our next goal is to reach 1,000 followers and what better way to celebrate than to give away a prize worth $1,000! That's right, we're giving away a $1,000 gift certificate to Custom Crops! And if that's not enough, we're going to give away a $50 Custom Crops gift certificate each Friday until we reach our goal!

Dustin Pike Dragon and Cutting Cafe word bubble

A very simple and plain little card for you today, I made it with a boy in mind, so no flowers and bling on this. Regina Easter has come up with another great idea, a download with a series of word bubbles

I used this one to make it look as if the dragon was blowing the words out. Go to the Cutting Cafe to see the download and some DT samples

The image is a Dustin Pike, this weekend he has a sale and is selling all the images he has ever produced for $25 (just under £17) - needless to say I am now £17 poorer but I do like his stuff, especially the dragons, great for boys/men cards, hurry though the sale ends tonight

The image was coloured with copic markers and all the bubbles were given a coat of glossy accents. The three brads are card candy from Craftwork Cards (not brads at all, domed shapes of cardstock that you stick on with silicone glue, I love them as you get huge bags for £1 and in every colour under the sun, which would cost a fortune if they were conventional brads)

Russian Doll for Daring Cardmakers

Those ladies over on Daring Cardmakers certainly know how to set a challenge. This week the dare was to make a card with a Russian theme. Russia? The only thing I know about Russia is Omar Sharif (who isn't Russian at all, he was just pretending), and vodka

Then I remembered the babushkas, I think that is the Russian word for grandmother. Of course I didn't have a babushka stamp so I cut her freehand (took a bit of doing, as I kept getting the sides uneven. Her face is a sissix doll rub-on, and the papers are by K & Co from the Que Sera range
I found some black peel offs for the sentiment, I never use peel offs and didn't know I had these, but I quite like the casual scrawl



So, moving on to other musings about life in general, I am seriously considering making myself a little notice that I can hang around my neck when I am standing in a queue (line). I could make it look pretty, add a few flowers and maybe some gems. What will it say?
WARNING: DO NOT STAND BEHIND THIS WOMAN - DELAYS INEVITABLE
Honestly, it's ridiculous, every queue I join has a problem. The person in front of me has always lost their credit card/run out of money/mislaid their purse at the bottom of some cavernous bag/forgotten that their credit card is out of date/received a very important phone call on their mobile that they have to deal with immediately, regardless of the impatient people behind them
"yes mum, I'm in Sainsbury's, yes, I'm at the checkout, no I forgot the oven cleaner I 'll just run back now, they won't mind. See you in a minute, love you"
LOVE YOU? What sort of fragile relationship has to have constant reassurances of devotion even in a supermarket queue?
Even if, by some miracle, I find a checkout with nobody in front of me and a bored looking person sitting there, as soon as I arrive she is galvanised into action 'won't keep you a minute madam, I just have to change the till roll' or two burly security guards appear, flanking a supermarket employee who then proceed to count all the money in the till with all the accompanying signing of bits of paper .................
So you see, it would be a graceful gesture on my part to make this notice in the interest of the sanity of the general public. I thought maybe black and hot pink with a little bit of bling.......

Get Well Cards for Polkkadoodles - and some news.....

On Polkadoodles this week, the challenge (set by me!) is to use a bug of some sort on your get well card, and to use an alternative to ribbon - string, raffia etc. I cut a random leaf shape out, and nibbled away at it with punches to look as if the bugs have been chomping on it.

I added some string, a couple of lulu ladybirds off the Sugar Birdies CD and dropped blobs of glossy accents here and there. The flower is one of Polkadoodles stampies
I made another one as well, to show that the papers from the CD can make elegant cards as well as funky ones. Here I cut a swirl from the ice blue swirl paper, and cut two butterflies using the cuttlebug cut and emboss butterflies. I printed the kiss paper out in blue onto vellum which I cut with the storybook cartridge

then used two strips of lace by Rusty Pickle to finish it off. The little sentiment is by Hero Arts

and now some news. The design team over on Funky Hand are excited about a new challenge blog we are starting on the 1st August. The challenges will be monthly, and there will be a prize (a beautiful BIG fabulous prize) every month for the lucky winner, plus freebie downloads and all sorts of other fun things. Are you ready to Get Funky?

I have just had a lovely phone chat with my teamie from Funky Hand and Polkadoodles, Kath. We nattered on for over an hour, it was lovely. I could hear the hooligan Buddy barking while we were on the phone, guess what, it was the postie with another craft delivery. Now there's a surprise.....

New Cuttlebug Folders

Here's a look at what the new cuttlebug folders look like when embossed - I embossed them onto black white core cardstock, then rubbed with a nail file to show you the detail. Going clockwise from top left, diamond plate, I think this one will be endlessly useful in the way the swiss dots folder is. Next is the herringbone stripe, which I love, this will be fabulous for men's cards.

Next is Victoria, a very pretty elegant scroll, and lastly fleur de lis

Again from the top, two of the borders from flourish borders, stars (another one that I love) and lastly two of the borders from the pop culture border set
No doubt I will find a use for all of them, but my favourites have to be the stars, herringbone, fleur de lis and diamond. In the borders, the pop culture one will be the most versatile for me

All these (apart from the 2 border sets) are the standard A2 size. Provocraft have bought out some bigger folders for Christmas, they will be 5 x 7 I think, so much more versatile. I bought mine online from Exquisite Crafts, and would recommend them, excellent speedy delivery, and free shipping over £15 (which of course, my order was)

Fairy Fabric Card for the Creative Card Crew

Here's another fabric fairy - this time the image was only partial, but I liked the image of the little boy fairy (what are boy fairies called? Pixies? Elves?) so much, I worked around it and cut it into a square, then snipped away around the top of the image

aren't these flowers fabulous? They are by Prima
and the double ribbon means that this is perfect for this week's creative card crew challenge which is - ribbons

I heard yesterday that the black and white card I did with the snippy flower won the Inspirational Card Sketches challenge last week, so I have some goodies on the way

Yesterday I met up with an online friend Denyze, who only lives just down the road from me and we went and did a bit of crafty shopping at a treasure trove of a place she had found. It was inside a really scruffy indoor market in Erdington, you sort of navigate around stalls full of junk, then there is this really big craft stall selling all the latest products. Needless to say, we browsed around for a couple of hours, before having a bacon butty, it was a really fun day and we have arranged another meet-up next week

All the moaning about the hot weather has worked, it is now at least 20 degrees cooler here, in fact it's freezing cold. Back to the sweaters. Oh, and you will need a brolly too, the English summer rain is back - yesterday it was like a monsoon.

Birdhouse for BBTB and Hot, Hot Hot for Cute Daisy May

On bitten by the bug this week, we were asked to use the house cut from the wildcard cartridge. I knew immediately what I wanted to do, and have to thank Kath, my talented teamie from Funky Hand and Polkadoodle design teams for the idea. Kath made the most fun birdhouse card for Polkadoodles and I thought I could adapt the idea for the cricut house. I cut the house at 7" then ran it through the cuttlebug using the distressed stripes border.

the owl is a stampie from Polkadoodles online store, and the tweet home circles were printed from the sugar birdies CD
I used making memories tiny letter stickers for the word home. Flowers are by prima -- oops I went over the line a bit on his eye, mental note to practice colouring within the lines...........

Cute Daisy May asked us to use only hot colours for our card this week, I picked this image of daisy in her little sundress, she is so sweet and has that look about her that little girls have when they are all dressed up and want to show off their pretty dresses



The label shapes were cut with my go-kreate nesting dies, and the happy birthday sentiment is another download from the new set by the cutting cafe



Don't forget, you don't need to use a cute daisy may image to enter the challenge, just use hot colours and have a go

Birthday Hugs for Penny Black Challenge

I enjoyed doing this one - the challenge on the Penny Black challenge this week was to use red white and blue. I used this sweet little dog stamp that I forgot I had. The scallop squares were cut with the cricut - storybook cartridge, and the glittery red background paper is from the DCWV citrus stack

The dark blue cardstock was white core, so I distressed it at the edges with a nail file. I found the blue button which has been hanging around for ages, and added the ribbon
I inked the edges of the white scallop square in red. I don't know who made the epoxy letter stickers, again, they were hiding in the bottom of a drawer, but I really like them

I hope all my American friends are having a wonderful 4th of July

Polkadoodles Card and a Sneek Peek

Here's my card for the Polkadoodle challenge this week, the DT were asked to use the cherry paper (mine is on the inside of the card) and a hidden element. I cut a cherry card out using the Cricut and Hello Kitty cartridge

a card wouldn't be complete for me without a bit of gingham....................
and here's my hidden element, I cut two extra cherries and attached them with a brad so they swing out to reveal the birthday message

I appeal, beg, plead with you to enter the challenge this week. Why? Because I did the blog post for this week, and if nobody takes up the challenge it will be because I am a rubbish bloggy cheerleader! All you have to do is make a card with fruit on it somewhere, and a hidden element. Lots of ideas on how to do that on the blog
Here's a sneaky peek at one of my cards in Papercraft Inspirations magazine this month. The brief was to make a best friend card using a cute animal. I made this frog out of ovals and circles and think he is quite cute

his legs were drawn freehand, and I punched some circles to add a few spots



I went to the Bear Factory yesterday, those of you without children/grandchildren won't know that this is a shop devoted entirely to stuffed bears, you choose an empty bear, get him stuffed, you can buy clothes for them, and when you carry them home you are given a little box (and an adoption certificate!) that makes it look as if you are taking your cat to the vet.
Anyway, I had bought one for Kiki and Max, so thought I had better get one for the babies, although Max has never taken much of an interest, being far too devoted to his Ellie, and Kiki only recently took an interest after discovering that if she jumped up and down on her bear, my voice came out (plus a bit of stuffing every time) - yes, you buy a little cartridge, go into a little soundproof box and record a message which is sewn inside the bear. So my bear says something like 'night night darling, God bless, I love you', or some such grandmotherly type mush, and my voice sounds incredibly awful on the recording. Back to the present day...........I chose my bears, and took them to one of the sales assistants, who was busy sorting out little football outfits for the bears (honestly!), she glanced up for a nanosecond and said,' I haven't got time to stuff them, you can do it yourself though' - no time! What's more important, giving birth to two new little bears, or hanging up 4" football shirts? So off I wandered with my two sad little empty bears to the stuffing machine, You put the bear over the spout and press a lever with your foot. Sounds easy? I put the first bear on and pressed, wow, does that stuff come out quickly! Soon his body was so inflated, I couldn't get to the legs and arms, so I furtively took some of the stuffing out, there was nowhere to put it, so I sort of stuffed it behind the machine, quite a lot fell on the floor, and quite a lot went all over the black trousers I was wearing. Try again, this time, he looked as if he had sausages for legs, one was much bigger than the other, his arms were mishapen and he developed a hump and a beer gut. More stuffing on the floor, more on me. This went on for quite some time, until I admitted defeat, abandoned my poor deformed teddy, and stalked out of the shop, leaving behind a trail of white wadding material, and looking as if I had been attacked by a large hairy white dog. 'I changed my mind' I said to the football shirt assistant as I sailed past, well it would give her something to do when she had finished playing with the 1" footie boots.

Happy Birthday for Cutting Cafe, Inspirational CS and TPE

Regina over at the Cutting Cafe has just released a new download, and I am going to be using this one such a lot - it's the happy birthday sentiment done in 40 different ways - they are just gorgeous, plenty of space around them when you print as well, so you can cut them with nestabilities etc. Here, I used the happy birthday background printable stamp, then used the sentiment off one of the sheets in the download. I chose this one, because with an almost monotone card, I wanted the lettering to really stand out.

The edges of the panels were punched with Martha Stewart chequerboard border punch

The flower was cut freehand in a very random way - I didn't even draw it in pencil first - out of a K & Co paper, and the edges inked with black. I then cut a circle and sort of snipped almost down to the centre all the way round, then popped a punched black circle in the middle and curled the snippy bits up over a pencil

a close-up of the sentiment, you can see the tiny happy birthday background too....


I was only sent this download a couple of days ago, and couldn't wait to try it, so was delighted to see that on The Pink Elephant this week, the challenge was to use your favourite colours - how could I resist?
I made the card using the sketch on Inspirational Card Sketches, so two challenges in one card here

I have an apology to make, been a bit dozy about putting awards on the blog, lots of very kind people have sent me these, which I really appreciate. I had carefully made a note in the old-fashioned way (paper and pen) of all the names, links etc etc, and was planning to do a post with them all in one place. Now the paper has gone AWOL, and I just haven't got time to trawl through back posts to find them again, it would take a day that I just can't spare. So hugs to everyone who thought of me and abject apologies for not posting them. One of these days I may even start using the computer as my notebook instead of these scraps of paper that keep getting lost - then again, maybe not.

Stylish Lady Birthday Card

I took a very bad photo here, the large scallop circle is actually on a cream linen square card base. This photo makes it look as if the card is circular.

This is a really old stampin up image, but has always been a favourite of mine. She was coloured with a couple of dabs of chalk. All the papers and cardstock on this card are from Craftwork Cards, the sentiment button was white, but I swiped it with a cream ink pad to make it match. The brown gingham ribbon was a gift from a friend who knows my addiction to gingham.

Don't forget to watch Nikky from Polkadoodles on her very first TV debut today, 12 noon on Ideal World TV here in the UK. She promises there will be loads of ideas on projects using the Sugar Birdies CD. Good luck Nikky.

Another scorcher here today, we are so unused to hot sunshine in the UK, and as a race we don't deal well with it. We are in constant moaning mode about the rain/wind/cloud so that when the sun shines we stay in that role - 'It's so hot' you hear people whine as they wilt around, usually doing a zebra impression with angry red stripes of sunburn on pale skin. As a general rule, British women do hot weather with some style, the men, bless them, haven't a clue. You feel an irresistible urge to go to them and say gently 'shorts with white hairy legs teamed with dark socks and scruffy trainers, not a good look', but of course you don't...............