Sunflowers for Daring Cardmakers

Those girls over at Daring Cardmakers certainly know how to set a dare - I love doing their challenges because they almost always make me think outside the box. This week the dare is "Sunflowers"

Plain and simple? Yes, except that after I had dug out some yummy Lime Rickey papers by basic grey, and was set to go, I realised that I had lent my 'walk in my garden' Cricut cartridge to my niece. That has a lovely sunflower on it. So I dug out my life's a beach cartridge and there was ...............a SUN. So what could be better, a sunflower made from the sun. I cut a whole sheet then layered them with silicone glue.....

cut some circles from 'george' for the centre, and sprinkled with dew drops by Robin's Nest

The letter stickers are Alphaminis by papermania
Hope everyone has a great weekend

Halloween - The Cutting Cafe and Lily-Boo

This cute halloween set is going on sale this weekend over at Lily-Boo's boutique, and Regina Easter has loads of great halloween sentiments, including this useful background, all ready to download over on the Cutting Cafe site.

The girl was coloured with copic markers, and the edges of the cards inked with Martha Stewart orange ink. I am going back to the US just at the right time, I have only a tiny bit of my favourite gingham ribbon left

I do love making halloween cards, all that purple, orange and black really appeals to me. The spiders web was cut with the cricut from Paper Dolls at 2"
Far more beautiful than any card I could make, here is my latest picture of Milo with his mummy. Click on the photo to see his beautiful blue eyes. He is 15 weeks old now, and such a sweet little boy, all smiles and contentment. I won't see him now until Christmas, my, he will change in that time. Thank goodness for webcams

Another Pink Gem Stamp Card

Here's another cute Pink Gem stamp image (thanks again Denyze). The embossed background is a card base by papermania - it looks as if the card is red, but I popped it onto a piece of red card to photograph it. The wonky stitching is faux - just ran the card through my machine minus the thread and joined up the dots. Can't wait to get back to my self-threading machine in the US

I stamped onto gingham paper and paper pieced it. There is something about little girls and gingham that always appeals to me..........
I have been incredibly busy with magazine stuff, and am also not running quite on top speed yet, so forgive me if I haven't visited your blog for a while, I promise to do better this week
We went down to London yesterday to see Max and Milo, Max is a whirlwind child, on the go all the time, whilst his little brother (aged 15 weeks) is so chilled, he just lies there in his little chair, beaming every time anyone looks at him, and quietly cooing and burbling away to himself.

Here's a new challenge for you.....

There is a new challenge blog over at Lily-Boo, it's going to be monthly at first, and there is a freebie download of this cute house image for everyone who wants to join in. I printed mine off really big then cut around the front of the card. The winner will get two download sheets as a prize

The challenge is a recipe of 4 brads, 3 flowers and two ribbons

The last thing I want to do is talk about all my recent medical adventures, so why is it that whenever I meet total strangers in shops/coffee shops/etc they always take one look at me and decide that I am the one person in the world they can unburden themselves to. 'Oh yes duck, I'm a martyr to me arthritis' they say mournfully or 'I'm under a psychiatrist now.....'
I also seem to get told loads of tales of very complicated family rifts, a sister-in-law nobody has spoken to for ten years ever since she ran off with her husbands best friends brother-in-law
I nod and smile, murmur platitudes, but do they not see the glazed look in my eyes? Take yesterday........... I was sitting peacefully with my latte, when along came a woman, a total stranger, a person I had never seen before in my life, who paused at my table, and when I gave her an uncertain smile, said in tragic tones

'my dog died yesterday'
WHAAAAT? Was she wandering around town telling everyone this news, or was I singled out as being the person who most needed to know?

Baby Girl Card

A friend of mine let me borrow all her Pink Gem stamps, (thanks Denyze) and I just love this little baby image, I stamped twice, once onto Cloisonne paper by GCD Studios (from Michaels), and once onto white, then paper pieced. The colouring was done with copic markers

I tied a little enamel charm with a safety pin to the bow, and used some real broderie anglaise to edge the card - I always associate this lace with tiny babies and little girls
Isn't she a cutie? The corner rounder is by Marvy, and is a favourite of mine

I think summer has packed up and gone home, not that it ever came to visit us for long this year, today is grey, blustery and downright cold - oh yes, and raining. I can't wait to feel the Florida sun again

Sewing Card

I haven't done any cards for almost two weeks, must be a record for me, and now I am back in production, I have loads of design team and magazine commissions to catch up with that I can't share with you - yet. So here is a quick card I made for a recent issue of Papercraft Inspirations magazine, the brief was to make a card with a sewing theme. I cut up a tape measure for the side border, the scissors are a negative part of a peel-off, and the needle is a real one with a blob of glue on the end so that the recipient doesn't stab themselves

I pleated the paper to look like fabric, and all the little background squares are stitched to look like a quilt. The words 'it seams' were done on the computer, and the little birthday sentiment is by Hero Arts. Be sure to pop over to the Papercraft Inspirations blog, there are always lots of freebie downloads on there
Talking of magazines, my friend and teamie from Funky Hand and Polkadoodles, Kath Stewart, was crowned the winner of the Cardmaker of the Year last year by Simply Cards and Papercraft magazine here in the UK. This months issue has her first published cards, and they are simply gorgeous, be sure to pick up a copy. Way to go Kath, hoping we see lots and lots of your stuff in the future. I dashed (well, hobbled is more accurate) to get the magazine yesterday, and decided to have a coffee and read it in the sunshine. I sat outside Costa, and a woman asked if she could sit at my table. Of course I don't mind, come and sit down and be bored witless by me, I burbled on and on and on, showing her the cards Kath had made, rabbiting on about the craft world. In the end she escaped, saying apologetically "I only came into town to pick up the sunday paper".......poor woman

Did you miss me?

Well what a week I have had. I was just recovering nicely from my surgery, when a insect bite on my calf, which had been done some two weeks before, suddenly started causing problems, my leg swelled like a balloon and turned a nasty shade of maroon. Vast quantities of antibiotics later, and here I am again, a bit battered, a bit bruised, but able to wear a shoe again on my foot which is now a fetching shade of pink................... I thought you might all think I had been abducted by aliens/swept off my feet by George Clooney/got tired of the UK summer weather and emigrated to a remote island on the South Pacific.............

Here's the card I had just finished before the woman-eating monster bug laid me low. The boy was cut with A Child's Year. I wanted to put him against a sky background, so I made this myself................

by sponging around some nestabilities scallop ovals with a sponge and various shades of blue ink

I am really pleased with the way the sky turned out
We went to a wedding yesterday, the daughter of friends, it was lovely, the bride was beautiful, the sun shone, and I managed to get a shoe on my foot. They had a very clever artist wandering around, cutting silhouettes of the guests, he just snipped and cut, and like magic it turned into the person
Here's Mike and me............................


and here's my silhouette. Isn't it good? Love the way he did the feathers on my hat



So there we are folks, it's nice to be back.

More Jingle Jangle Cards

Here are some more of the sample cards I sent off to be waved around on Create and Craft TV, for the launch of the polkadoodles Jingle Jangle Christmas CD. This first one was made with three trees that I cut out freehand from the stripey paper, then dotted with blobs of red liquid pearls. The circles are the pointy nestabilities, all papers from the CD

For the second one, I actually used the cover of one of the shaped word books that are on the CD. The base card was done with the doily cut from wildcard cut on blackout at 6"

Don't you love that fat little robin? I drew the holly leaves freehand and cut them out, using tiny red buttons for the berries

This last one couldn't be simpler, the topper is already printed, doodled and coloured, all ready to go. I matted in black and pop dotted two more little penguins on to look as if they are waddling off the edge





On a happier note than my last post, I am feeling human again, and since I have managed to wash my hair, no longer look like a Penny Black hedgehog. So this will be the last time I will refer to this sad and painful little chapter of my life :) but big thanks to everyone for all your support. I might even be able to sit at my crafty table and produce something today..

Thank you all so much............

First of all, thank you all so much for the lovely stream of get well messages I have had from so many blog friends, they really lifted me up. I am feeling better now, not much better, just let's settle for better....... still lots of ouchies around, but I am taking it easy.

Here are some cards I mailed off to Polkadoodles earlier in the week, for a TV show launching the new Christmas CD called Jingle Jangle Christmas, it's full of such great images, papers, and loads of projects as well, like an advent calender, gingerbread house, recipe cards. The launch is on Create and Craft TV at 9.00 a.m on monday be sure to watch, to see loads of great ideas

The first card is made with paper I printed from the CD, the colour collections are gorgeous, and include a fabulous taupe colour which would go down really well with my trendy London-living offspring, but I love this icy blue colour, the alphas are already to go as well, and I printed out the polar bears then cut around them and stuck them on with pop dots. The snow banks were hand cut randomly from white card and inked in blue

This next one is a double pocket card, which used papers and alphas from the CD...

The funky recipe cards come already printed, or there are blank ones on there to write your own. I tied them all together with a blank key ring

The little lollipops are another page on the CD, as is the beribboned tag, which reads "delicious recipes". I cut the lollies out and covered them with diamond glaze to make them glossy. I thought I would print some of these recipes out and put them in a decorated tin to give as a gift to some of my girlfriends

Scroll down to labels on the sidebar if you want to know how to make a double pocket card, I posted a tutorial a while back. If you like funky, trendy Christmas cards, the CD is available on pre-order now

No Card, just a quick post.....

I went for some minor abdominal surgery yesterday, which turned into a marathon 2 hour ordeal and much more of a job than I (and the doctor) thought, so I am stitched and sore (well, agony would describe it nicely). So no cards today, or maybe tomorrow......... but I'll be back in a couple of days hopefully, good as new

Flowers for Cute Daisy May

On Cute Daisy May this week, the theme is floral fantasy, I couldn't wait to use the bride image and just put some cuttlebug embossed flowers down each side. There is a bit of a glitter thing going on here, but of course it doesn't show up on the photo. I used the fine liner copic clear pen to put some lines of glitter on her dress. I also went around the image in a pale grey marker to make it pop

Gave her a little pearl tiara, and some pearls on her dress.........
and added some pearls to the borders


Why not have a go at the challenge, you don't have to use a cute daisy may image, and each week, the winner gets free downloads

Gone Fishing......again, and Happy Birthday - 2 Boys Cards

Here are the boys, two of the images from a new download from the Lily-Boo Boutique, released today. I printed the boy out twice, then decoupaged the boy and aeroplane to give some dimension

The blue panel is embossed with the distressed stripes folder, running horizontally - the trouble with taking photos is that every little imperfection glares out at you, as in the way I failed to colour within the lines on the boys arm. Fixed it now though, you'll have to take my word for that .....
The little sentiment tag reads 'gone fishing', I added glossy accents to the water and fish. The pointy circles are nestabilities, and the 'brads' are card candy from craftwork cards

Circle Card for Polkadoodles

It's a sketch this week on polkadoodles, I cut the circle card using the cricut wildcard cartridge, then used papers from the truly fabulous candy doodles CD to make the card

got to love this cat.................

lots of inking and foam pads on the flowers
Nikky has just announced that she is bringing out a Christmas CD, I haven't seen it yet but I am sure it will be full of gorgeous papers and images. Pop over there and see Lou's tutorial for a lovely little purse, pick up the sketch and have a go, go on, I dare you...

Just for You

I made this card using Que Sera papers from K & co. I cut the stars from acetate, using george cartridge and edged them with a copper krylon pen

the button is a martha stewart button punch, it has a lovely embossed edge and is really useful if you want a perfectly matching button. The centre flower was cut out and popped up. Oh, I see a bit of fraying ribbon going on here, must fix that. If you run the edge of a ribbon along a glue stick, when the glue is dry it prevents fraying, a trick which I clearly forgot to do here
the little sentiment is by hero arts

We seem to be having a plague of insects here, it has been very very wet for two weeks (it feels like two years), and humidity is high for the UK, so I think all the bugs have been lying around feeling soggy and miserable, saying to each other, what shall we do today, it's a bit wet to go flying around. I know, let's procreate....... and procreate they have. My daughter in law is on holiday in Norfolk, and every time they go out there are MILLIONS of ladybirds flying around. I think the ladybirds would be preferable to the rather grotesque flying ants that decided they liked me yesterday. So there I was, sitting in the sun, having a cappuchino and a browse of the paper, when PLOP, something fell into the coffee, followed by PLOP, PLOP PLOP - soon the coffee was full of these horrible things. They got bored with that and decided that my hair would be a good place to shelter..............ladybird ladybird fly away home (and that applies to you horrible ants as well)

Christening Card

My sister's two little grandsons are being Christened this weekend. She has been staying with me for a few days. 'Have you got a Christening card' she mused as she was browsing through my cards. Yes, I had one, so we needed another for the other child. My new Child's Year cartridge had just arrived, so I cut this sweet image of a little boy kneeling (at 4"), and put a cuttlebug embossed border down the side. The child image was holding a book, but I wanted a bigger book so I cut one of the scalloped card shapes out at 2" to make a tiny book. The 1 1/2" cross was cut from the wedding cartridge, yes, it chewed up the very top of the cross, but by this time it was about 1am and I figured it looked okay

Some of the images on this cartridge are really sweet ........expect to see a lot more on here

Christmas in August

On BBTB this week the team were asked to use accent 13 from accent essentials. This is the perfect snowflake cut. I cut it at various sizes twice, then ran the top layer through the xyron backwards, so that the top surface was sticky, and dumped glitter onto it. The two layers were attached using silicone glue so that they 'pop'

I added lots of gems, as the dare over on Daring Cardmakers this week is Bejewelled Blitz - more on that later..... The card base is a pre-embossed one by papermania
On Cute Daisy May, the challenge this week is also Christmas - help, we haven't seen summer here yet! I chose these sweet little carollers, the papers are by Papermania UK

The flowers are from a bunch that I won from Poppicrafts


Why not have a go at both challenges? For Cute Daisy May, you don't even need a CDM image


So Bejewelled Blitz is a game on Facebook, you have to match gems and eliminate them, simple and addicting. I had never heard of it until Lythan (who is a teamie of mine from Funky Hand) set the challenge on DCM. So although I hate Facebook, I ambled over to see what it was all about. I had to clear my messages (about 20 people I have never heard of in my life want to be friends with me, I say yes, because you can never have too many friends), lots of people wanted to have a drink with me, and I had been sent flowers by six friends (it was very nice of them, but I still don't know who they are). I am now friends with some of my children's friends, it's difficult to accept a virtual flower from a thirty year old who you remember as the kid who dropped his orange juice all over your brand new cream carpet

Time to GET FUNKY

Today sees the launch of a new monthly challenge blog for Funky Hand, called Get Funky, and the whole design team have been very much involved in the setting up of the blog, so we are all excited about it. We are all going to take it in turns to set the challenges, but the first one was set by Anice, the lovely owner of FH, and she came up with this sketch

Here's mine, I used papers called Saturday lie-in from the Funky Daze CD, the papers are a joy to work with because everything coordinates so beautifully

I pleated a piece of paper to give a twist to the ribbon, the border was cut with Martha Stewart lattice arch punch

I cut a flower out freehand, then used that as a template to draw another flower, but cut that one about 1/4" inside the line to make it a bit smaller. The centre circles were punched out of the pattern paper and the top one has some black glitter glue, which doesn't show up in the photo

There is a £20 ($33) gift voucher for Funky Hand for the winner of this challenge, all you need to do is make a card following the sketch using one funky hand product. Haven't got any? No worries - Anice has put a free download of some great papers on the blog, so you can get crafting. Wherever you are, in your little corner of the world, get funky with us, we would love to see a lot of lovely entries, and we will all pop over to your blogs to see what you've been up to. Don't forget, you have a whole month to do this, the next challenge will be on the 1st September - blimey, where did summer go.....