Sailing on a choppy sea.....

Just sharing with you the card that I made for Scrappy-go-Lucky this week, more torn waves from DCWV navy cardstock, and I used the border feature on the Wall Decor cartridge for the boats - I cut them in black for a shadow, then in white, and just coloured the detail in with Promarkers.

The sun is from wildcard, and the sentiment circle is from Craftwork Cards

We have been to a fancy dress birthday luncheon party today, the dress code was the 1940's.......which I found quite hard. I have never seen so many fox stoles in my life - you know, the ones you see in films where the head of the fox is left on, and sort of slung around the shoulders. There was an 'ARP warden' sitting next to me, they kept playing the air raid sirens, and he leapt to his feet each time, blowing his whistle and trying to usher everyone out. It was all great fun, and we had a delicious meal (we were afraid they would serve spam fritters). It was a good job there wasn't a soup course, as there were rather a lot of men wearing RAF handlebar moustaches, I don't think they would have survived a bowl of soup. Me? I wore a vaguely 1940's style dress in the most hideous fabric, it didn't fit very well, and I felt a mess, but the seamed stockings do have a knack of making your legs look quite good, I may adopt these as a new trend

If you look at the top of the sidebar, I have put a poll, I would really appreciate it if you could take time to tick one of the options. I have resisted letting Google put small ads on here - how it works is that if you have ads on your blog, each time your readers click on that ad, you earn a few cents, so it's clickthrough/earn money. I spend quite a lot on postage for various blog candy/mailing stamped images etc, and thought this would help cover those costs. But I want to know what you peeps think first, it's no big deal for me, just an idea, and if most of you hate the idea, I won't go ahead. If there were ads here would you click? Would you still come and see me? Let me know.

On the subject of blogs, my background has gone missing - apparently Shabby Blogs have changed their server, so until I have time to play around and put in a new look for the blog, you will have to put up with boring white........

See you tomorrow

Christmas in July

On Polkadoodles this week, the challenge is 'Christmas in July', so here's mine. I used Polly and papers from the new Christmas CD. Her wings and dress were heavily glittered - what a pity glitter never shows up on photos. The sentiment was printed out from the CD as well, it was already layered, I just cut it out and stuck it on. So if you feel like a challenge, make a Christmas card and join in, as usual, the winner gets goodies......

Do you remember me telling you that Monty had done a photoshoot for Littlewoods catalogue? Well, the autumn/winter catalogue is out and here is our little supermodel, he's the one in blue!

and here he is again, looking a bit pensive on the left of the photo, the little chap in the middle looks a bit cheesed off with all this modeling business doesn't he?

He is off with Mummy, Daddy and Kiki to Portugal on Saturday, so will not be available to put a sticky little handprint in the autograph books for two weeks.

See you tomorrow

Engagement Card

Here's another magazine card I made, I was quite pleased with the sentiment on this one.

I drew a circle in pencil, and punched evenly spaced holes around it, then inserted gold eyelets, and joined up the holes with a gold marker pen.

I added the gems to look like a ring................

I used the gold marker to edge the nestability scalloped circle as well
I use Krylon markers for adding gold edges - did you know the nib has a little wedge in it, slot your paper in there and move the pen around your edge
I have been hearing a lot about the IRock, which is a setter for adding gems, it would have been handy for this card. I think it will be one of my first purchases when I get back to the USA
I got back from London very late last night, totally exhausted. I had a hair appointment at 10am today, and woke up at 9.50! You have never seen anything like the dishevelled mess that walked into that hair salon at 10.05

Squares for Craftwork Cards

Here's the sketch for this week's sketch challenge over at Craftwork Cards.

and here's what I came up with. I used Yummy Scrummy mint and chocolate papers
a lot of stitching, some choc punched flowers and aqua card candy. The square birthday sentiment is a new addition to their range, I really like them

and here's is the link to Scrappy Go Lucky's blog if you want to see the whole of this next card that I made with Wall Decor and More Cricut cartridge

I am in London, doing a bit of babysitting (Max and Milo). I won't get to see Kiki and Monty this time unfortunately. Kiki's 'other' grandma and I were chatting the other day, and Eve told me that she was looking after Kiki for the day, and they were going to bake a cake, so she sat Kiki down with a book of cake designs. Our little five year old fell in love with an elaborate flowery cake. 'how old are you grandma?' she asked 'ermmm, about 40' Eve lied

'well when you die grandma, I'm going to bake you this cake. I think that would be a really nice thing to do when you die'

'well perhaps you could make it before I die so that I get to eat it' said Eve

'oh, alright' said our little princess, wandering off into the garden to play

Happy Birthday Bear

Well I got my magazine cards done, I was quite pleased with them in the end, after all that anguish, so I am a happy bunny now.

This card is another Lili of the Valley image, I used core-dinations cardstock, and some We R Memory Keepers letters - I stuck a couple of them onto a scrap of card before mounting them, it gave it a bit of a different look

The brads are denim covered ones that I picked up in Big Lots in the US

Image - Lili of the Valley

Papers - We R Memory Keepers

Cardstock - Core-dinations

denim brads - making memories
Promarkers -

teddy: vanilla, honeycomb and caramel

Car and clothes - Denim blue, pastel blue and midnight blue

Shadow and detail on tractor, ice grey 1, ice grey 2, warm grey 1, warm grey 4

Sponge - buttercup

Overheard in Costa Coffee today (two twenty-something designer- clad women, wearing false eyelashes and a lot of fake tan)

1st girl - 'He's booked our holiday, we're going all-inclusive to Lanzarote'

2nd girl - 'ooooh luverly. Where's that then? Spain innit?'

1st girl ' dunno really, think it might be somewhere by Ibiza........................

Makes you want to weep doesn't it?

Whooo's Sorry...........

Here's another card that was published earlier this year in the Quick Cards section of Papercraft Inspirations magazine. I think my brief was to make a leaving card for neighbours moving to a new address, or someone leaving work to go to a new job. Although it looks quite complex, it really was quick and easy to make, as all the components were printed out ready coloured from the Polkadoodles CD Back to Nature. You just print, cut and stick.

The big letters are by Papermania, and the little letters are my favourite Making Memories tiny alphas

I have been struggling for the past couple of days, I have a magazine card to make, and my mojo appears to have disappeared, my desk is littered with cards that just didn't work out as expected, the floor is littered with bits of paper thrown down in frustration, it's so annoying. Maybe I need to get away from it altogether, tidy up and start again. See you tomorrow (if I have anything to show you, sob)

Christening Card

This is a Lili of the Valley stamped image, and I kept the card to (almost) white, I just coloured in her face, and the very edges of her dress and the window with a pen, and feathered the line of colour out with a blender pen. The background was embossed with a cuttlebug frame, and the edges of the card rounded, and inked in pale pink versafine ink. I added lots of pearls, as a border to the image, and on the baby's dress

Promarkers used

Ivory and blush for the skin

Pastel pink/blush/dusky pink for the dress /window/shadow

I was in the dentist chair for over an hour yesterday, luckily he isn't the sort of dentist who cheerfully carries on a conversation with you whilst your mouth is full of stainless steel instruments. More the silent type, issuing curt commands to the nurse. Instead, it's always me trying to initiate some communication

oooohhhhbggggggrrrr - translated means, ouch, that hurt

bbbblldyyyyyhllllll - translated means, ouch, that hurt a LOT

and

bbbppppllssshhhhhcnnnIggggghmmmmeee - translated means, can I go home now, please

£129 pounds and a lot of dribble later, I escaped. I wouldn't mind, but the gleaming new filling is in the very furthest, darkest corner of my mouth, that nobody will ever see (unless I inadvertently stray onto the Incredible Hulk rollercoaster in Florida again, in which case the whole theme park will see it, so I am well prepared for such emergencies now)

Polkadoodle Fairy

A simple little card today, for Polkadoodles weekly challenge, which this week is to use stamps, and stamps only, no pattern paper. I cheated a bit, because I like this busy little fairy flutterby Maggie, I just left the background plain.

Promarkers used:

Skin - Ivory, blush and soft peach

hair - warm grey 4, warm grey 5, umber

clothes lipstick red/crimson/holly green/pine green

toadstool: berry red/oatmeal

If you like challenges, be sure to enter Polkadoodles, a prize for the winner each week, and if you are going to the craft fair at Doncaster this weekend, be sure to go and say hello to Nikky, the owner of Polkadoodles, she is exhibiting there

I thought it might raise a smile to share this email with you, from my daughter in law, mummy to Max and Milo

Shock development in World Eating Championship................

After 3 years and 2 months in the lead, reigning champion Max appears to be finally full. Spectators were astonished when he turned down a chocolate mousse and cheese crisps today

Ready and waiting to take the baton is rank outsider Milo, who, today alone, has demolished weetabix, banana, banana crisps, omelette, blackberries, yoghurt, cereal bar and is currently munching a plastic chicken leg

Yes, the boys like their food!

Off to the dentist now, I need a filling I'm told, so I will spend the rest of the day being a dribbly slobbering mess.

Lace.....Real, Paper and Felt

I was tidying up the picture folder on our desktop computer today (I normally use the laptop) and realise that I never shared these with you. They are part of my very first magazine commission for Papercraft Inspirations magazine, published in September 2008. They asked me to produce some cards and an altered book, all using felt lace, paper lace and real stuff.

This first card is a gatefold that I covered with KI Memories felt lace, which I dotted with jewels. The flower was cut from George on silhouette, and backed with a crunchy real lace. I cut one of the flowers from the felt lace for the centre

This baby card uses paper lace, the sort that comes in 12 x 12 sheets, and I found some adorable broderie anglaise pink gingham lace which I cut out to decorate the card. I found out that tall thin cards don't photograph well, I never use them for magazines now unless they specify tall/thin
Here is the altered book, it was a cheap notebook from the $ bin in Michaels. I looked for one with a plain cover and a black wire, then covered the front in the black spotty paper. It was just like being back at school, they used to make us cover our text books at the start of every term. I found some wide crunchy lace and threaded pink ribbon through it, and added three die cut (george, cricut) flowers, with button centres and lace tails.

It was strange finding these photos, I had forgotten all about my first commission, I think I made them in June 2008. Would I do the same again today for the same commission? Actually, I think I probably would, my brief was to make pretty, fancy, cards and I think these fitted the bill. So there you go, a stroll down memory lane with me today

Same stamp - different look............

Once I had found the little girl stamp, I tried colouring her again a different way - surprising what a different look you get with new colours. This time I cut a scalloped circle from the cricut lite cartridge Lacy Labels, and added some shimmerz dots to that. This little cutie is fast becoming a favourite of mine............

Skin - Blush and Soft Peach

Dress - Cool Aqua, Duck Egg, Dusky Pink

Grass - Pear Green

Hair - Buttercup and Sandstone

Sentiment circle - Craftwork Cards

Papers - Martha Stewart

I found a promarker colour chart online, it's on my sidebar, click on that to get the chart, I also have a list of USA stockists, too big to put on here, but if anyone wants it, email me and I will send it to you

It is cool, drizzly and a bit miserable here today, is summer over for the UK? I do hope not. In the meantime, I am going to dig out a sweater and some jeans. Look on the bright side, the garden won't need watering today!

See you tomorrow....

In a nostalgic mood.....

I bought this little girl stamp at the NEC back in March, and have never used it, it was just lurking there, all forgotten. When I discovered it, I immediately thought she had a very vintage/nostalgic look about her, so I coloured her in sepia tones

Promarkers used: Skin - Blush and Soft Peach

Dress and shoes - Ivory, Sandstone and Tan

Leaves - Marsh green, Pear green

Hair - Umber, Warm grey 4, Warm grey 2

Ink - momento Brick

Paper - Martha Stewart

Sentiment Hero Arts

Punch - swiss cheese EK Success

Stamp - Penny Black

Flowers - Prima

We are back at home, having seen all our kids and grandchildren over the weekend. The grandchildren were delighted to see us - could have had something to do with the fact that we came bearing gifts......anyway, it was a lovely time. Our daughter has promised Kiki a trip to the London aquarium. 'You are going to the aquarium with Auntie Alex' I exclaimed 'Well,' said Kiki 'we may go to the park instead Ma'. On questioning, it appears that the child thought that to see the sharks, she had to put her head in the water and was afraid she may get eaten by them! It took a LOT of explaining that the sharks are in big tanks and won't gobble her up. No, there isn't a little door that they can open and get out to eat you....... no, the fish don't jump out of the tanks either, and you don't have to eat them for your tea......

You know what Kiki, you might be right - a trip to the park sounds like a lot of fun!

See you tomorrow

Colouring with Promarkers

I've had a large number of emails from readers in the USA who have never heard of Promarkers.

Let me give you the lowdown:

They are alcohol markers (like Copics)

There is a range of about 148 colours

They hold quite a lot more ink than the Copic markers, so last longer

They are not refillable

They are a lot more reasonably priced - in the UK they sell for about £5 for 5, which is about $7.50 for 5

The US distributor is on a link from the Letraset logo on my sidebar

So here's a card using Promarkers to colour Gracie (a Polkadoodles stamp)

I used:

blush and soft peach (skin)

Apple green

Pale blue and blue pearl

Buttercup and sandstone (hair)

Pale pink and blossom

Orchid and blossom for the wings

Ice grey 1 for shadowing

Edited to say, in response to Debra, I have a set of Tombow markers, they are water based markers, similar to the stampin up markers. In my opinion the difference between alcohol markers and water based is considerable. The alcohol based markers lay down an almost transluscent coat of ink, that you build up and shade, so it is easy to get very professional results. I can't get the same results with water based markers, perhaps my technique isn't that great with them, but I don't find it as easy to shade and add depth as with the alcohol ones. You can get some watercolour markers now, also from Letraset I think, haven't tried those. I do like the sketchy effect you get with watercolour pencils, but since changing to alcohol based markers, I rarely use anything else now.........

The flowers were cut from the pattern paper using Tim Holtz tattered flower die, with a Craftwork Cards pale blue card candy button in the centre
I added some white gel pen dots to her cheeks and boots


Here's the Gracie I coloured for the video below - sorry about the phone ringing and pen dropping..........., she doesn't look TOO bad considering I coloured her in such a hurry!
In case you are wondering where her wings are - as seen on the card above, the wings come as a separate stamp in the set, so you can use them as butterfly stamps as well

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I'll be back on Tuesday

Get Well Soon

My friend Lucy sent me a bunch of these Lili of the Valley stamped images, thanks Lou, I just love them. I covered the front of the card with kraft cardstock, then cut a square of pale blue paper and stitched around that - my little Janome sewing machine took me about 15 minutes to thread, shedding tears for my self threading one back in the USA. I cut a piece of a raffia weave, it's held in place by the image, which I mounted onto a nestability shaped piece of kraft paper

The sentiment was stamped in momento brick ink and is an Inky Antics stamp

I used my new promarkers. I just love working with them, I find the fine bullet nib much easier to deal with than the brush nib of the copics. They are readily available in the UK, but you can get them in the USA - HERE is the distributor who will be able to tell you where you can get them.
I used:
Blush and Soft Peach for the skin
Buttercup and Sandstone for the hair
Pastel blue and Denim Blue for the clothes
Vanilla and Honeycomb for the bear
Shadowed in Ice Grey 1

We are off to London tomorrow for a couple of days to see the family, I can't wait to cuddle those babies. Monty is feeding himself - see new photo on my sidebar. I think I will wear old clothes!

Summer for Polkadoodles

It was my turn to set the challenge over on Polkadoodles this week, and I chose a summer theme. This card is made with PD papers that I printed out from the CD All Around and Everywhere. The boat was cut from the New Arrival cartridge, and the sun from Doodlecharms. I printed the blue pattern onto white card, and tore it to form the waves.

Edited to say, I use the Georgia Pacific card available from Walmart to print out. If you want double sided card, well, just pop the cardstock back in to print the back

As so many of our friends in Florida are fascinated by the differences between Britain and the USA, I thought that if you are from North America you would be interested to see some of them here

It's a LOT more expensive to live here than the USA - gas is $9 a gallon, a good bottle of wine will cost you at least $10. Sales tax is a uniform 17.5% throughout the country, going up to 20% in 2011

Our climate is usually very moderate, we don't have extreme weather, no banks of snow in the winter, and the summer temperature is usually in the 70's, if we do have a hot spell, we all melt because none of the houses have air conditioning. Contrary to popular belief, it is not always raining here, and we don't have fog in the winter either - no hurricanes, or tornado's either, although there was a hurricane once, about 20 years ago, we still talk about it!

We don't have bugs as such, only house flies, bees and wasps, so in the summer you throw open all your doors and windows, and keep a can of fly killer handy to zap the invaders if they fly in.

We walk - unlike the USA where all the stores are generally in strip malls ours are all in town centers, so people wander down 'into town' on foot quite often, which is just as well, to park for an hour in my town centre costs around $4.50

A pub here is not really a bar, it's more of a social meeting place, you can sit and have a coffee in a pub, and pub grub can be really good, so a cross between a cafe, restaurant and bar really.

We don't consider anything to be old unless it has been around for at least 300 years - it is not uncommon for towns and villages to have a church that was built at least 500 years ago

None of our towns are built on a grid system as most towns in the USA, ours in the main follow no pattern, roads wind around all over the place, so you can't really go 'round the block'

The population of the UK is in excess of 60 million, all in a space not much bigger than the state of Florida, so we are pretty crowded, but once out of the towns, there are acres of green fields and country lanes with dog roses and queen anne's lace growing in the hedgerows, and yes, there are still thatched cottages to be seen.

We don't generally have 'afternoon tea' that tradition died out a long time ago, but if you are ever in London, be sure to go to Harrods, the Dorchester or Fortnum and Mason to sample a real English tea, including cucumber sandwiches and scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream

We can hop over to France for the day on a ferry or on a train if you don't mind being on a train under the sea (I do have a few issues with this and have never been on Eurostar)

Our stores don't have sales every weekend, and we don't have coupons in the Sunday papers either. We have sales to look forward to twice a year, January and July, in fact, they are on now, what am I doing sitting here waffling on about the UK when I could be bargain hunting....................see you tomorrow

Winner of CSN Stores Voucher and some 'spares'

The winner of the £60 ($60) CSN Stores gift voucher is

Fiona

Congratulations

Yes, you have won the voucher. Email me with your contact details, tell me what country you are living in, and I will forward them to CSN Stores who will be in touch with you. I hope you find something delectable to buy........you said you needed a treat, well, here it is

Would you believe I am covered in glitter (again) - I have been making some Christmas card samples. It all seems very bizarre, stamping out Christmas images in July.

I have been so busy with these, that I thought I wouldn't have a card to show you today, then I found a folder marked 'spares' with these two cards that I made for challenges last month, and didn't get them posted until they were on to the next challenge

This little miss is a stamp that is back in the USA, I THINK she is by Inky Antics. The papers are by We R Memory Keepers, and the sentiment button is by Craftwork Cards. I ran the blue strip of cardstock through one of those corrugator thingies - I don't know about you, but I can never get them to go through the rollers straight, so my ridges are always wonky

This one was for a Penny Black challenge, again, too late to enter it.
The scallop boders were cut using Plantin schoolbook cartridge on the Cricut


I embossed the pink card with swiss dots
That's it for today, back to work - oh, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.....trudging up to my crafty closet humming festive music and keeping an eye out for Santa as I go......
See you tomorrow

What's on my workdesk..........

No card today, and here's why, a parcel all packed up with my commission cards for Creativity magazine. I realised after packing them up that I hadn't taken a photo of them, not that I can show them until they are published anyway. So this is for What's On My Workdesk Wednesday

Here's something new on my desk, a little forest of Promarkers. I have been asked by Letraset to do a bit of work for them, and these are my lovely new tools. I need to start practising.....
If you haven't already been over to WOYWW, give it a whirl, it's amazingly satisfying to hop around blogs and see what everyone is up to, and so comforting to know that you are not the only one working in a total chaotic mess!

Off to finish a couple of cards that I CAN show you now...........will be back later with the CSN draw winner

Cheers!

Here's one I made just before coming back to the UK, I was packing my stuff, and found the Sparkle 'n Sprinkle frog which I haven't used for ages, so just had to make a quick card with him, the martini paper was given to me by a friend, thanks Debbie, although you can't see a lot of it. I went a bit mad with the stitching, I know I am going to miss my big sewing machine.......................

He was coloured with copic markers, I added a red gem to his olive. The white dots were made with a signo white gel pen. He really does look sozzled doesn't he?
Talking of sozzled..........when my son was at university, a crowd of them went to the pub before going on to a club. One of the lads fell off a wall (don't ask, I don't know) and hurt his leg. Edward and another friend gave him a firemans lift back to the university halls of residence, running like crazy because they only had 10 minutes to get into the club at student rates. So they crashed through doors, using this poor lad as a sort of battering ram, and dumped him on the bed, then ran like olympic sprinters to get into the club. It wasn't until the next day that they discovered that the hurt leg was in fact a bad fracture. The lad hadn't even yelped as they crashed him through the doors. Now this demonstrates two things, one, alcohol is a powerful anaesthetic, and two, it's best not to know what your kids are up to when they go to university
See you tomorrow

Bold Blooms

Well all my stuff is unpacked and put away, so I was able to make a couple of cards yesterday.

Here's a nice happy start to the week, the tulips were cut from the cricut lite Bloom cartridge at 4", and shadowed in black.................

The sentiment is American Craft Thickers, they are felt letters. Papers are by My Minds Eye, and the card was made from Gemstones card from Jo-ann. I added a few doodly black dots here and there. I really like these lite cartridges, the layering is superb on the three I bought.
So today will see me madly trying to complete a magazine commission, and I have some samples to make as well. I need to get them done so that we can get down to London to see those grandbabies. Mike and I went out to a garden centre, he parked the car whilst I dashed inside. When we got out I looked around and walked confidently to a dark blue car 'where are you going?' he asked. Yes, I had forgotten that our car here is dark green, the blue one is in the USA - my body is here, my mind is still somewhere Mid-Atlantic.

Kiki's Birthday Card, and a confession........

I have been busy unpacking all my stuff, so not in the creative swing yet, but I am able to share the full photo of the card I made for Scrappy Go Lucky's blog last week. It is for Kiki's birthday, she will be six at the start of August, so I am in plenty of time for this, as long as I don't lose it before then. ................

I drew Cinderella from the Happily Ever After cricut cartridge at 4" with my Cri-kit black glitter marker, hit the load paper button, changed to a blade, and cut again on shadow, then coloured her in with Copic markers. I really like the way she turned out, I think she looks far prettier coloured than having the features cut in cardstock. What do you think?

I put lots of bling on the letters, she likes glitter, and I have to prise the stickles from her little hands when she comes to stay with me

Now to the confession......................bear in mind, before you dismiss me as a total idiot/senile granny-type, that we do this transatlantic journey a lot, and one journey sort of melds into another in my mind.
All this is leading up to the fact that when we got back to the UK, I opened a cupboard and there was the missing carry-on bag. Can you believe it? I had never taken it with me in the first place!! Of course, as soon as I saw it, it all came flooding back - the fact that when we make the April journey, we are travelling very light outbound, and the fact that Mike hates that carry on, so I decided to leave it at home and buy another one if I could find one on sale in the US. Which, of course, I didn't do, as I had totally forgotten this complicated plan during three months of having fun in the sun.

Mystery solved...................... If I panic about not being able to find Kiki's card in August, can you all remind me that I have put it in the top right hand drawer of the chest in our bedroom. Thanks.....................:)

Funky Hand Challenge - Happy New House

The first of the month means it's time for a new challenge over at Get Funky. This month, the challenge is just that - NEW

so it can be a new baby, new job, new car, new beginning, new husband/wife/lover/cat/dog or just new house as I did.

The papers are all from the brand new CD Colour Me Happy, which will be released this month, there are some fabulous coloured ginghams on there, and you all know how I love gingham. The house was resized with one little click, and I dragged the bird across so that it was joined to the house, then cut it out in red gingham, which I had printed onto cardstock, and the spotty paper. The fence was cut using my Cricut (Lite cartridge, Bloom)

As usual, you have to use at least one Funky Hand product in your design. I often get asked about mailing costs from the UK, Anice gives FREE shipping to anywhere in the world. The winner of the challenge gets a £20 (about $30) voucher to spend at Funky Hand. You have a whole month to come up with a project as well. Good luck!

We have just arrived back, shattered, but had a good (boring) flight, and yes, it was 'chicken or beef'. It will take me a couple of days to sort myself out I think.