Girlie Card for Polkadoodles

So Nikky, the boss lady over on Polkadoodles, who likes to set a fiendish challenge, asked us to make a girlie card using only the Just for Men CD. Ha, it was easy Nikky, I used the very pretty blue papers and sentiment, added a martha punch border and a bit of ribbon. The flowers are cut from the George cartridge on my cricut

I doodled on them in white, then covered them in glossy accents so they look like black patent leather, oops, missed a bit
I went to the post office yesterday, to mail some parcels and cards to the UK. Normally a visit there is quite an uplifting experience when lovely chatty helpful Jim serves me, but he was not there, so a chap I had never seen before served me. The parcels were no problem, the cards were another matter. "What's in these" he enquired, shaking the envelopes suspiciously, as if he suspected I might have a terrorist or two hidden away in there. "Cards" I replied meekly. "CARDS!" he yelled "HEY BUDDY (or Buster, or Hank or whatever his sidekick was called) LOOK AT THESE, THEY'RE CARDS, KINDA BULKY" "YEAH" yelled Buddy/buster/whatever - "SQUARE TOO, EXTRA FOR THOSE. TRY THE SLOT". I don't know why they were yelling, they were standing right next to each other. So my sweet mailman friend, the one with the phobia about square, bulky envelopes, tried determinedly to shove the envelopes through a little slot thingy, beloved of postal services the world over. Of course, they wouldn't fit. "EXTRA CHARGES" he yelled in a satisfied tone. I pointed out that the envelopes would not actually be going through a slot until they reached the UK, by which time it would be the Royal Mail's problem. "Rules are rules" he shrugged. Yes, and foam pads on handmade cards are foam pads.............................

Funky Hand Christmas and another doorway

Anice has bought out some sweet little digi images over at Funky Hand, the mittens were resized, which I am immensely proud about, out of all proportion to the achievement really, but it's the first time I have ever managed to do this, but Jules, a teamie on the Funky Hand gave me step by step, idiotproof directions, and it worked. Yeah! High five Jules! The papers are from Tis the Season, this year's christmas download. Little letter stickers by Making Memories

I have been fiddling around with the Art Impressions doors and windows stamps again. I printed the brick paper off the Polkadoodles Not for Girls CD. All the little elements are cut out and popped up
the sentiment, stamped inside the little open door says 'it's your birthday - indulge!'
For some reason, these little stamps fascinate me, although they are not really my style. When I have time I have a couple of ideas about what I can do with them......

Talking of time, I have finished my commission, written the text, and they are in the mail. Time to play.........

Golfing Card

I felt like making a bright and cheerful male card, they are often so dreary, the stamp is from an acrylic set by UK designer Clare Curd, paper is from a DCWV stack and the alphas are by DCWV (I think). The sentiment is a bit 'old hat' but it is such a useful one for golf cards

Here's something to make you smile, isn't she just hilarious? I do like a woman with a sense of style.......the stamp is by Art Impressions. the photo is a bit crooked, but that's okay, she looks a bit Brahms and Liszt (American friends, that's cockney rhyming slang, say it aloud a few times and see what rhymes with it.......)
Regina over at the Cutting Cafe has a free download - full of fabulous Christmas sentiments, I will make a couple of cards using them later in the week, in the meantime go HERE to pick up the file, it's available until thursday night

Two little christmas cards....and a DT call

We have a DT call going on over at Polkadoodles, a bit sad really because some of our team have moved to pastures new, Saskia has left to pursue other crafty interests, we will miss her and her fabulous funky style so much, good luck Saskia. In the meantime, Nikky needs FIVE new team members. If you love the Polkadoodles style, would like to get the CD's for free, make cards that will be shown on Create and Craft TV and can join us in our weekly challenges, then run over to Polkadoodles at once to put your name down. You can enter wherever you live.

Just a couple of very quick little christmas cards to share with you today, the papers are all by SEI, one of my favourite brands. The little angel and the noel stamp are $1 wood backed stamps from Michaels. The snowflakes are foam ones in the children's section of the same store, I'm all for cheating when it comes to christmas cards..... a jewel in the centre makes them look quite okay

This little image is from the Penny Black acryclic christmas set, I finally mastered the martha 'round the block' punches, all I had to do was read the instructions, they do look pretty though
Yesterday I escaped to the pool for a break, and just as we got there, we saw the space shuttle streaking across the sky on it's journey to space. It is about the fourth time I have seen a launch, never close up unfortunately, and each time I have been filled with awe at the incredible achievement of the scientists who make this possible. Well done America. That is the last time I will witness this probably, as the space programme has only one more flight before it ends

Snowman for Cute Daisy May

Over on Cute Daisy May this week we were asked to use texture. I used the quickest and easiest option, my cuttlebug and the snow folder. I ran the snowman through the machine after cutting him out and colouring him, and highlighted the 'snow' on his clothes with a white pen

this photo gives you a good look at the snow effect....................
I used my favourite making memories letter stickers for the sentiment. The papers are by mambi

There is a brand new photo of Kiki and Monty on my sidebar, look how that little baby boy is growing - he has hair now! I am going to see such a difference in the two babies when I get home.
I have been working all weekend on a magazine commission - would you believe I have been making Easter cards? Bizzare, no wonder I am so behind with my christmas stuff, I think it's April :) I have just sent an online order for photo printing to walmart for 122 photos, that have to be, somehow, turned into scrapbooks, mini albums and tag books before Christmas day, stupidly I paid extra for one hour printing, so if I want to pop up in my jammies they will be ready. Why did I do that when there isn't the slightest chance I will have time to do anything with them for at least a week? Search me.

Winner of the cutting Cafe little box is........

Penni - have fun Penni, email me and I will send the file to you. Those of you who didn't win, the file for the post-it box set is available for a tiny price over on the Cutting Cafe

A couple more for Creativity magazine

Here's a couple more of the cards that are in this month's Creativity. I was asked to do some new year cards using the freebie bear. For this one, I used some chipboard letters, but decided to use the negatives as well, the bit left over when you peel off the letters.

Another one from the designer challenge article, I did find using the mirri card really hard, and it's a bit of a rubbish photo, but this one looked quite cute. I made some little birds, using buttons for their bodies, and cut a wing shape out of the paper I was given to use. I drew the feet and tails.
A little reminder, don't forget you have until the end of the month to take part in the Autumn Woodland challenge over on the Funky Hand blog, great prize up for grabs there. The Lily=Boo challenge is also monthly, dead easy this month, all you have to do is use the colour purple

I had a birthday card in the mail today from Kiki (it's my birthday in 10 days, so I haven't opened it yet). My daughter in law made me smile, they spent all afternoon making the work of art, Annabel said 'Ma will love this card Kiki' 'No' Kiki replied, very firmly 'I don't think she will like it. I think we will keep it here in my house'. Already reluctant to give away her creations at the age of five. A true artist in the making.

For Polkadoodles and Making- Handmade- Cards

Yes, friday again and Polkadoodles day, this week, it's a sketch, and a lot of very different cards to see from the design team, so pop over and take a look. As usual, there is a prize for the weekly winner.

We used the Not for Girls CD, and this card was so quick to make using the downloads. I printed out the chevron paper, the red alphies and the football topper, a bit of cutting and sticking, a dash or two of doodling, and I was done

the black 'day' letters are my favourite thickers by American Crafts - the felt ones
Here are two more cards from the Flower Train download from Making-Handmade-Cards
I printed out the papers, including a sheet of sentiments, then cut the sentiments freehand into petal shapes. I cut a big green circle with my cricut, and ran it through the cuttlebug (swiss dots), then added a pattern paper circle on top, which I dotted with card candy from Craftwork Cards UK

I'm quite pleased with this one.............




This last one is also from the flower train set, plus the born to shop set. This one is winging it's way across the Atlantic to Alex for her birthday, I thought it complemented the pink and black advent box I made for her rather nicely

I want to mention a rather special blog candy, over on Victoria's blog. Victoria is a teamie of mine on the Lily-Boo DT, and three years ago she lost her first child, a baby boy named Flynn, when he was only two days old. She is making an appeal for handmade cards and gifts to be sold in aid of a charity called SANDS. Please go and read her very eloquent and moving appeal, and support it if you can

On the Paper Trails blog, Sandi Kelly does a feature each week where she 'interviews' someone, this week it's me in the chair, pop over and see what I have to say....................

Post-it Holder from the Cutting Cafe - Win the file.......

Look at this lovely little box from the Cutting Cafe. Regina comes up with the cutest things. It was so easy to do, you just print out onto the cardstock, cut out, fold and stick.

I used papers from Mambi, and stuck a few little gems into the flower centres on the lid

The notes word and the little labels for the post-it notes are aprt of the set
you make a little cover for the post-it pads, and label them. I think this is such a cute little gift idea. Would you like to win the templates? Regina is kindly letting me give one away. Just leave a comment on this post, and I will draw
a winner on saturday morning, you will get the file sent to your email address the same day

The Candy Store

Something new today, these stamps are by Art Impressions, you buy a door, and a window, then there are sets of stamps that go to make up the scene. So on this one, all the candy stuff, the name on the window, the bubble gum machine are from the candy store set. I also got a couple more storefronts. Such a novel idea. I kept the base card plain, just stamped the awning onto some striped paper and at the last minute sewed and inked around the edges.

The lantern and bubble gum machine are popped up with foam pads
I have been busy making a start on my christmas shopping, I love finding things for the children. Kiki's wish list includes a real live big dog, which for practical reasons she will not be getting this year. So I found an interactive dog that obeys voice commands - sit, sleep, roll over etc. It will play tug of war, and rather irritatingly bark along to the tune of 'how much is that doggie in the window'
So I went on Amazon to see if there were any reviews, and to my utter delight there was an indignant review from a woman who had bought one for her child and discovered a hidden feature, not advertised on the box. In her words the puppy 'passes gas' (it then woofs apologetically afterwards) She was really annoyed about this. Personally I think that I would have bought the toy JUST for that feature, and Kiki, who at the age of five has a school playground fascination with jokes about 'bottoms and poo' will love it.

I was chatting to Jenny Dixon, the editor of Papercraft Inspirations yesterday about future commissions, and she whispered that there are some exciting new ideas in the pipeline - more of that at another time. The next issue is out on the 23rd, and the christmas free gift is some acrylic stamps, so be sure to hotfoot it over to Tesco's or Smith's before it sells out like this months did, they didn't even have any left in the office, so my copy didn't arrive and I have had friends trawling the shops trying to get me a copy. I suppose I will see it in Joannes here in the US in December (it's a month late here).

Blog Candy Winners andColoured Core Cardstock for Practical Scrappers

Thank you so much to all of you for joining in the fun in my Best of both worlds blog candy, I wish I could send something to each and every one of you.

The numbers were high, 470 odd comments, a lot of those were from followers too, then the followers, then the email subscribers. Nightmare, but I got it all sorted out, and, drum roll..........................

The USA/Canada winner is

Jessica (Jazzy Jess's Joyful Journey blog)

Congratulations Jessica

email me with your address and I'll get it in the mail to you

For the UK/Europe

the winner of all the Martha Stewart scrumptiousness is

Lisa (Lisa's Craft Garden blog)

Congratulations Lisa, send me an email with your address

now on to todays card.................................

On Practical Scrappers this week, they are focusing on ways to use colour or white core cardstock. I used my favourite whitewash core-dinations and punched the edges with one of Martha Stewarts new 'round the block' punches, then sanded the edges so that the deeper colour shows through. The background paper is also by MS

I rubbed some prima flowers with an embossing pad, and sprinkled it with silver pearl embossing powder, and heat embossed them. I repeated this twice for each flower so that there was a nice thick layer of coating on each flower


The butterflies are a stamp by stampin up which I stamped on vellum, and then coloured the reverse with copic markers which gives a nice diffuse colour. The sentiment is by Hero Arts

Storybook Bird for BBTB and a shadow box for Max

This week on Bitten by the Bug, the team were asked to use this bird from the Storybook cartridge. I cut him small, at 1 1/2" and perched him on a sissix diecut branch. The scallop layer was also from storybook, embossed with a cuttlebug snowflake folder. The paper is from a stack by Mambi

You remember me telling you about my friend Joan, who I met through this blog, coming with her husband to spend the day with us here in Florida? We talked a lot about our grandchildren, and a few days later she sent me these Fire Service uniform badges for our fireman-mad little 2 year old, Max. I wanted to display them in some way, so I bought a 8 x 8 shadow box frame, and mounted the badges. The firestation was cut at 6" using the My Community cartridge. I used Cricut markers first, then cut it out in white, red and blue, then cut various bits out and pieced them together. I covered the windows and fire truck in glossy accents, and the door is popped open with a foam pad. The number plate on the truck reads 'Max 1'. I found the yellow wellies lurking in a drawer, I think they are Jolees stickers. The lettering is red felt American Craft thickers

When Joan left, I gave her the halloween wreath I had made, to give to her little granddaughter Erin, here is a photo of a very pretty little girl looking delighted with her gift. Thank you for the lovely card you made for me Erin xx

I will be drawing the winners of the blog candy later today folks, so check back to see who will be getting the goodies

Shoes from Gypsy and some Christmas Puds

This card, using my favourite of the moment, kraft card, was made using the Christmas rectangles, a new release from Lily-Boo, pop over and take a look, there are the sweetest little fat robins in the set as well. The papers I used are by Mambi, the holly leaves were cut from the paper, so this really was a quick little card to add to my Christmas pile

This next one was made with the first cuts I made with my new Gypsy, the shoes are from Gypsy wanderings, cut at 3". The border punch is one of the new deep border punches by Martha (I use so much of her stuff, that I feel I know the woman well enough now to call her by her first name.................). The sentiment is from the shoe set by MFT stamps

The shoes were 'cuttlebugged' to give them some texture
A lot of you have said that you are waiting for my Gypsy review, and to see what I come up with. I will try to explain where I am coming from with this gadget, and hope it makes sense. I own, but have never used, Design Studio, all my Cricut cards are made by the 'cut and glue' method. To be totally honest, as I don't have time to scrapbook much, and so don't need welded phrases and titles, I have never seen the benefit, or had the time, to spend ages designing, say, a branch with a bird on it, when I can just go ahead and cut the branch and stick the bird on with a glue dot. This method has served me well for the past four years. Another reason for NOT using design studio was lack of space in my crafting areas, I just didn't have the space to conveniently hook up the Cricut to a computer for cutting.

As you know, I live in two places, the UK and Florida, three months in each place, so four times a year, all my cartridges (I have about 35) and all the overlays, and some of the handbooks, get loaded into my hand luggage (I can't check them in, too worried the bags will get lost) and off we all go across the Atlantic again. The gypsy is obviously made for me, just for easy access and storage of cartridges.

However, I am a creature of habit, and at the moment, I am finding the whole thing of design studio (because that's what the gypsy is, a small, portable design studio) a bit of a chore. It is so much easier to load the cartridge and mat into the machine, press cut, and away you go. Instead of which, even for a straightforward cut, you have to manipulate the image on a virtual mat and so on. I need to use it regularly, and I know that this will become second nature to me in a very short time, the catch 22 here being that I am reluctant to upload any cartridges into the machine until I am totally confident that I will get to that 'second nature' stage.

So if you are waiting for 'cut files' of complicated, or even non-complicated design from me, I don't think that will ever happen, I really think that I will just be cutting and glueing in the same old way forever. I quite fancy flipping images to make shaped cards, but that's the height of my ambition...... Those of you who know my work, know that I tend to use the Cricut in conjunction with other mediums, like stamps, rather than as an entity in itself.

Having said all this,( so that you understand how totally non-techy I am), the Gypsy is light, comfortable to hold, I love having access to all the cartridges in one place, and being able to see what is on the cartridges I don't own, so that my next purchase will be much more informed than in the past. I found the whole starting-up installation of the Gypsy sync
programme and the updating of the cricut machine quick, easy and painless. It has a facility to flip the screen for left-handers (me) which is great. The battery life seems good. It will be great not to have to load cartridges and search out the overlays, although the time saved by this will be negated by the time spent on the virtual image before cutting. The screen size is about the size of a nintendo DS screen, and I have been able to cope with that okay. It is small enough to hook up to my Cricut machine without compromising my crafting space. A downside is that I found it impossible to see the screen in bright sunlight, even though I adjusted the settings and brightness.

Will I keep it? I'm pretty sure I will. Would I buy it if I lived in one place and didn't want to design complicated cuts? No. Would I buy it if I still worked and wanted to do some crafting in my lunch hour? Probably. Would I buy it if I went to a lot of crops? Possibly
So, as requested, that's my assessment so far, but please bear in mind that everyone's crafting needs/habits/ambitions are different, so you will have to weigh up the options according to your own needs.

Snow Friends

So Provocraft have come up with another new idea, mini cartridges, and when I saw this one called Snow Friends, I had to get it. Just ten cute snowmen on it, all with adorable little outfits. This one was cut at 3", the paper is Martha Stewart, and the red letters are felt thickers by American Crafts. Love the little bird perching on his twigs........ of course, I had to doodle a little as well

Talking of doodles, today is Polkadoodles new challenge day, pop over and see all the design team's Christmas ornaments, you won't see one from me this week, time and stuff ran away with me, and despite all my good intentions I didn't get one done in time

Two for Making-Handmade-Cards

I was asked to make some sample cards for Making-Handmade-Cards using a new download called Flower Train - the papers are very pretty, in shades of pinks, blues and lilacs. Here I printed off the blue contact sheet and punched 1 1/2" squares which I stuck in a grid pattern onto a white panel. I stitched around the panel onto a blue base card

Cut a sissix branch out of white, inked the edges with colorbok cats eye chalk ink and dotted some gems onto it, and attached that to a script embossed panel. The birthday sentiment is a stamp by stampin up


Used the lilac colourway on this one, with a very sassy image download from the Born to Shop collection

The side border is one of the new Martha Stewart deep borders called trellis arch


She was coloured with copic markers

I added a velvety flower by Prima to finish off

No gypsy report yet, except to say that I have it up and running which was a lot simpler than I thought, but now I learn that there is an update which everyone is very excited about, can't figure out why since I have no idea what I am doing, all I know is that sometime today I have to hook it up to the computer again and hope that it is as easy as the first time

Three Ribbons for Practical Scrappers

Just sharing with you one of the latest photos I have of Max and Milo, aren't they adorable in their matching PJ's? Look at the way Milo is gazing at his big brother

This week for Practical Scrappers, I was asked to use at least three ribbons. I used whitewash paper by core-dinations, made the base card from that and distressed the edges. The cuttlebug script folder was used for the centre panel, and again, rubbed with a emery board. The flower was from the walk in my garden cartridge, I cut three at 3", 2 1/2" and 2 1/4", and layered them with silicone glue. A little circle in the middle dotted with shimmer dots finished it off. The ribbons were just knotted together and glued to the card, I tried knotting them around the 'stem' and it just distorted it, so a glue dot came in handy. It's all very monotone, but I like it...

I really love this whitewash cardtock, I never liked the original black stuff, but this white is just gorgeous, this sheet is white, reversing to charcoal grey.
Guess what, my gypsy has arrived. I have managed to do all the computer stuff, and it is up and running. I will let you know what I think when I have had time to get used to using it. At the moment, it's a bit of a faff because I don't know what I am doing. The jury is out...................

Blue Christmas for CDM and a jolly penguin for BBTB

A couple more design team offerings for you today. This first one is for Cute Daisy May, where the challenge is "Blue Christmas". The image is of course CDM, the papers are from last year's DCWV Christmas stack, snowflakes are a cuttlebug die, and the embossing folder is cuttlebug

I put the printed image through the cuttlebug using the snow folder by Kars, I like doing this on snowy images, it makes it look as if the girl is sitting in a snowstorm
Next, the challenge over at Bitten By The Bug this week was to use the penguin from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. I cut him/her at 4" and decided to spice it up a bit by making the outer layer in a black and white pattern, and added a holly leaf sticker I found hanging around in my stuff. I used the same snow folder as before, snowflakes are a cuttlebug die - never seen a red snowflake? Well, who has ever seen a penguin deckout in houndstooth check :)

That's it for today, more design team stuff tomorrow, boy, have I been busy..........

Funky Hand and Lily-Boo Monthly Challenges

Two monthly challenges to tell you about today. First Funky Hand, where the theme this month is

Autumn Woodland

I used papers from the Funky Seasons CD, the tree is cut from the winter woodland cartridge and the owl is a studio G stamp, stamped onto the pattern paper.

I added buttons to the tree to give a bit of a punch. We are taking it in turns to set the challenges over on the Get Funkychallenge blog, and this month is my turn, so I beg, plead, entreat you to enter, otherwise the rest of the team will think I set a rubbish challenge. You have a whole month to come up with something, the only requirement is that you use a Funky hand product (there is a free download still on the blog, scroll right down and you will find it), and the winner will receive a £20 (about $32) gift certificate
On to Lily-Boo, where the challenge is simple - use purple, any card, any occasion as long as it's purple. Again you have a whole month to join in and the winner gets free downloads
I used the Christmas Bauble set for mine, the paper is last year's DCWV Christmas stack and the green velvet ribbon is Martha Stewart


I coloured the holly leaves with a silver pen, and added gems for the berries


It was fun shopping yesterday, lots of people were wandering around in fancy dress for Halloween, I do love the way America embraces these events. So Dracula served me in Dunkin Donuts, his teeth weren't a very good fit and I was more scared that they would drop into my coffee than by the costume! I saw a lot of teenage girls dressed as ??????? - their mothers obviously didn't see them leave the house dressed like that, or they would have been grounded for the rest of the year. I gave some sweets to a couple of adorable little pumpkins, aged about 2, and the highlight of the day was seeing a couple dressed up as a wizard and a witch, who had, wait for it................................dressed their DOG up as the witches cat. Talk about surreal, the poor mutt was obviously having an identity crisis, and looked quite affronted. Quite right too. I tried to give him a piece of my donut (I'll use the American spelling, it's quicker), but the witch got quite shirty and said he was on a diet. Poor dog, didn't have a lot going for him really.