Sweet Little Birthday Girl

I made this one with a sweet little Lili of the Valley image - she looks so intent on balancing that huge cake!

I airbrushed around the image, and also airbrushed on top of the paper. The crochet flower is by Stampin Up, base card and sentiment tag by Craftwork Cards

I coloured the image some time ago, so have lost the list of promarkers used - sorry

There is as much excitement about the royal wedding here in the USA as there is in the UK. Loads of TV shows, rehashing anything that's ever being made about the royal family. To my great delight (and amusement) they have a special at Dunkin Donuts this week - the Royal Wedding donut - it has pink icing and white swirls.
If you want a real laugh click HERE to see the spoof video made by T Mobile, it's hilarious - I love the bottom bumps of Prince Charles and Camilla, Princess Anne is a hoot, and I swear that is the real Archbishop of Canterbury! Best of all is Prince Harry.

Video - Polkadoodles CD's

I made this quick little video at the request of many of you who would love to use these CD's but are bothered that their computer skills are not up to it. As this video shows, all you have to do is browse, click and print. You can, of course, resize stuff, I never do - the CD's do it all for me. Do n't forget to scroll down to yesterday's post to be in with a chance of winning a CD

EDITED TO SAY THAT YES, POLKADOODLES SHIP TO THE USA AND SHIPPING IS FREE WORLDWIDE

Win some Polkadoodles goodies

Here's the monthly Polkadoodle giveaway for you. Up for grabs this month is the brand new and gorgeous CD Double Sprinkles of Kraft, full of the most trendy papers and images.......

and the second prizewiner will get the new Wonderland CD full of scrumptious backing papers for you to print
All you have to do is leave a comment under this post, and I will draw random winners next Sunday, 1st May. If you have a blog, I would appreciate you mentioning the giveaway. I will mail worldwide
Big thanks to Nikky Hall of Polkadoodles for sponsoring this prize
See Nikky on Create and Craft TV doing demos - 7:00 PM 1st May, 9:00 AM 2nd May
Here's a couple of cards I did for Nikky - using A Double Sprinkle of Kraft, these were samples for her Create and Craft TV show

I used HUGE scallop card bases (8" x 8"). When you are making stuff for TV, the bigger the better, the cameramen don't often get it right about zooming in for the detail of a card being held by the presenter, so big is good

This first one just used papers and flowers printed from the CD, I handcut the leaves

I love this second card. Again, all the elements were printed from the CD, I used Papermania letter stickers for the sentiment, and added some doodle dewdrops to the cherry trees

I wish you and your families a very blessed and happy Easter, and hope that the chocolate keeps coming and the sun keeps shining,

Polkadoodle Friday

Over at Polkadoodles this week, the challenge is to use three different pattern papers. Yes, there are three different patterns in the card below, all aqua, all printed out from the Wonderland CD. The roses are scallop circles cut into a spiral (MFT rolled rose), I added a pink circle to the centre, and sprinkled that with some white seed beads. Lettering is Thickers by American Crafts, punches are EK success. The leaves are a Sissix die

Tomorrow there will be a chance to win some Polkadoodles goodies - be sure to drop by

I seem to have 'popped into' Michaels and Joanns a few times this week, not for any major purchase, just that I find them irresistible. I spend more time looking at stuff that has nothing at all to do with making cards, and can get quite carried away. I have almost become a knitter, was very close to making myself a cute necklace, had visions of fabulous flower arrangements, and I won't even talk about the wonderful wedding cakes I have (mentally) decorated. Oh yes, I once spent about an hour choosing exactly what size canvas I would need to paint my masterpiece, and carefully selected some sable brushes, before I remembered that I can't draw or paint. Ah well, some people linger for hours looking longingly at diamonds in Tiffanys, I suppose that lusting after a icing turntable is quite healthy (until I remember that I haven't baked a cake for about fifteen years!)

See you tomorrow

Manga girl - Birthday

I had fun colouring this little manga girl, I used strong colours so she really pops

Skin - coral, sunkissed pink

Hair tan caramel cocoa

clothes pear green, moss green, mango, orange, sandstone

I am really into clean looking cards at the moment, so left the base card quite simple. The papers are by SEI

I had to go down to the post office, you don't know how lucky you are here in the USA with your mail service, or perhaps you do of course. The way you get all those free packing boxes.....in the UK you would have to pay about $5 for a small one of those. I always try to get served by a particular guy, he is really jolly, and always makes me laugh. 'Can I interest you in anything else?' he bellows 'packing tape? a nice safe deposit box? I also have a nice line of stamps showing the President with a 'don't mess with me' look on his face...........'
I found out today, after seven years of owning this house, that I don't need to go to the post office at all. Apparently all I have to do is put my parcel by our mailbox, they take it away, and the next day there will be a little envelope with the amount owing, I pop the payment into the envelope, leave it in the mailbox, and bingo, mailing done. Isn't that just the most marvellous service? Mind you, I think I will have to find an excuse to wander into the post office occasionally, just to get a laugh from my jolly postman

Tres Chic

I have been working with the truly gorgeous Tres Chic papers by Craftwork Cards - this is their kit of the month. Click HERE to see all the goodies you would get. The thing I really love about this company is that all the elements of design are covered, so that all your embellishments match perfectly both in colour and style. It really comes over that these are products designed by crafters, for crafters

For this card, I took a scallop edge card and added a bit of wobbly random stitching, and some card candi to add emphasis to the lovely Paris theme paper.......

and since the machine was out, more stitching on this one - I chopped a strip off one of the edge cards and added it with foam pads to the top of the card, all the other elements, apart from the button, are in the kit
and I was totally smitten with this gorgeous grey on white damask pattern paper and decided to make a wedding invitation acceptance card. The pearl stamens in the flower centres were found in a florist supply shop, the little shaped label is another CWC stroke of genius

I concentrated on the subtle colours for these cards, but there is stunning hot pink in there as well, so look out for more Tres Chic from me soon

I am housebound today waiting for a FedEx delivery, just as well maybe, the sun is scorching and you could fry an egg on the road - I wonder if anyone has actually tried to do that? It could be an interesting experiment, and you would save a lot on your electricity bills. 'What's for dinner dear?' 'Eggs a la tarmac'

See you tomorrow...

Thinking of You

I do love this little girl, she is a digi download from Sugar Nellie, my favourite stamps of the moment

Promarkers used:

skin ivory and blush

hair buttercup, saffron and mustard

clothes tan, caramel, pastel blue, powderblue and blue pearl The flowers were found in the wedding aisle at Michaels, I inked them to match the caramel tones of the card. I didn't trust my sewing skills to sew all the way around the nestability label shape, so just did a few random bits of sewing.

This card is for sale on Ebay HERE

It is fascinating to see how much excitement there is on most of the big TV channels here in the USA about the royal wedding. A few of them are running wall-to-wall royal family programmes already. A tabloid gossip paper at the checkout in the supermarket informed me that Kate is really an American. Yes, and I am the Queen Mother.......... It will be a fun day though, I am rather sorry we are not in the UK for it, there is always a great party atmosphere for this type of occasion, and wherever you are from, you must admit that we Brits do the ceremonial pomp and circumstance stuff very, very well. Perhaps I could organise an English tea party outside DD.....no, that would be plain silly

Winner of the Grad Cartridge

First of all, I drew the winner of the cartridge by Random.org, carefully took a photo, and it's come out all blurry and unreadable. So I will just have to tell you that the winner is

SiskiyouSue

Congratulations. Email me with your address and I will get it in the mail to you. If you didn't win, there is another draw starting later this week, this time for some great Polkadoodles products

On to today's card. The image is one I stamped at my craft group - I am pretty sure it's a

Sugar Nellie, coloured with promarkers. I added the little dog stamp. The nestie type shape is one I got at Olympia, by Nellie Snellen , pretty designs and they cost a fraction of the nestability dies.

I punched a half circle on the orange grid paper, and put a small button there as if to anchor it.

Border punch by Martha (notice I am on first name terms with Martha now, well I probably paid for her last luxury vacation, so I feel entitled to a bit of familiarity). The base card and sentiment by Craftwork Cards

Promarkers used:

Skin blush and soft peach

Hair buttercup and mustard

Clothes denim blue, powder blue, coral, sunkissed pink

Has anyone got any tips on the holy grail for papercrafters, the perfect paper trimmer? I have numerous smaller ones like the Fiskars blue one, and a making memories big one that hinges down the middle and opens out, but the grid is wearing off that, and the ruler guide has snapped a couple of times which is irritating in the middle of a project. I don't want a guillotine one, I would probably chop off my fingers. So if one of you has found the perfect, accurate EASY to use trimmer, I could do with a few tips. It must measure up to 12"

Easter Card for Penny Black and DCM

Happy Sunday morning everyone. I had a bit of a puzzle going on here over the weekend - I felt like taking part in a challenge, which I haven't done for yonks, and hopped over to two of my favourite challenge sites, Penny Black and Daring Cardmakers. They were both looking for Easter cards (with the Penny Black challenge you have to use a PB stamp of course). Not a problem I thought, as I started wading through drawers and drawers full of stamps. Was there an Easter bunny to be found? No, not one, nada, zilch...

Of course, once I get an idea into my head, I get determined to carry it through, so I fished out my favourite PB flower stamp, slapped some paper onto a cricut mat, and here is what I came up with.

Yes, I know that the colours aren't typical, the flowers aren't daffodils or lilies, but I am defiant, I really like the look of this one.......

The base card is by Craftwork Cards, border punch by Martha Stewart, and lettering by Making Memories. The egg shape was cut from Create a Critter on blackout, at 4", then cuttlebugged with the d'vine swirls folder. I stamped the flowers onto the egg, then again onto white cardstock and cut out the flower heads after colouring, which I stuck on with silicone glue to lift them I will be drawing a name by random.org later today for the Graduation cartridge, and will announce the winner in Monday's post

Lessons I learnt yesterday

1. Never use black ink when you are wearing a white top

2. If you lose a card element, be sure to check your backside, you are probably sitting on it

3. Microwave dinners do not look anything like the packaging

4. Microwave dinners do not taste like any recognisable food

5. If you think you are going blind suddenly, try cleaning your glasses

Yes, it was one of those days....... See you tomorrow

Polkadoodle Friday and a FREE download

Friday always brings a new challenge from Polkadoodles - this week, we were asked to make a wedding card. I used the Love and Cherish CD which is full of all the images and papers you could possibly need to make all those loved-up cards.

The stamp is by Stampin Up, everything else is from the CD - be sure to head over to see the great inspiration from the rest of the design team

Talking of Polkadoodles HERE is a freebie download for you, in collaboration with Papercraft Inspirations magazine. For this month's issue (on sale now in the UK, available on the 1st May in the USA) I made a little coupon book, each little pocket holds one of these 'promises' - a great little gift to give in these belt-tightening times. There are ready printed coupons for all sorts of promises - a date night, coffee and a chat, walking the dog, looking after the cat while you're away...........plus some gorgeous free papers Full instructions on how the book was made in the magazine.....tip, start eating loads of fibre! each pocket was decorated according to the coupon inside the pocket Finally, here is a birdie card I made for the last issue of the magazine, where my brief was to make four quick and easy bird cards I enjoyed making all the little birds out of buttons

Well, I have been back in the USA for two whole weeks, and don't have a single Dunkin Donut experience to share with you - unless you count the man I saw yesterday (looked like a pensioner/senior trying to recapture his glory days) who was wearing the worst wig I have ever seen, it looked as if he had a dead cat on his head. I stared in fascinated horror at this vision, looking away quickly when he saw me staring. Of course, as soon as he turned away I stared again at this jet black acrylic mass on his head, this time, he caught me staring and gave me a huge smile and a come-on sort of wink. Whaaaat? Not in your wildest dreams wig-man

Win a cartridge.........

Up for grabs today is this brand new cartridge from the summer collection

Happy Graduation

All you have to do is leave a comment under this post, mention it on your blog if you have one, and I will draw a winner on Sunday - make sure you leave enough detail to identify you if you win. As always, I will mail to anywhere in the world

News of another competition, Mandy, the owner of Scrappy go Lucky has a touch of Spring Fever and is giving away

AN IMAGINE!

What a great prize. To see how you can enter, click HERE

Today's card is one of two shoe cards I made for Scrappy go Lucky, using the Formal Occasions cartridge. I am a sucker for shoe cards, and always love making them. The shoes were cut at 3 1/2". I cuttlebugged the soles for a bit of texture. I think this would be perfect for a teenager, the boots look just like trendy Converse hi tops. Because they are so snazzy, I let them do the talking and kept the rest of the card really plain.

See you tomorrow

Welcome Baby

I used the gorgeous little digi image from Sugar Nellie for this one, the papers are old ones from my mile-high pile, and the letters are Making Memories and American Crafts

Coloured with promarkers. I used

Ivory, blush and soft peach for the skin

Blosom and dusky pink for the hat

Talking of babies, my two little men, Milo and Monty will be two soon. How time flies. When we last saw Milo, about a month ago, he was a silent little chappie, pointing to what he wanted, saying 'mama, dadda,' and that was about it. I was so delighted yesterday when he came on the phone and said chirpily 'lello Ma. Lub you Ma. Bye bye.' Grandchildren bring such joy!

Circle Crop in Orlando

Well, the circle crop in Orlando was great fun. The theme was 'April showers bring May flowers'

None of us had much time for crafting, there was a Yudu demonstration, and lots of other demos to keep everyone busy....here is Charity Hassel supervising her really cute make and take....

The room had some beautiful decorations...... I loved this window box full of mushrooms and it was a joy to see some of the design team samples. These are by Cindy Royal, and I can't begin tell you how perfect they were, you know that feeling when you pick up a handmade card, and it's quite heavy in your hands and just screams QUALITY - that's what these were like. Thank you Cindy for letting me show these here

We all had to make a calling card, to swap with the others, here are some of the ones I collected

and here is the one I made...... The flower was cut from Serenade at 2 1/2", 2" and 1 1/2", spritzed quite liberally with water from a mini mister and crumpled up into a little ball when wet. I uncrumpled them and left them to dry, then added some card candi to the centre, and a sprinkling of seed beads. The black leaves are a sissix die

I had some flowers left over, couldn't waste them, so they came in handy for this card. The leaves were cut from the Straight from the Nest cartridge

I won the Yudu in the draw, but gave it away! I really couldn't see myself screen printing stuff, I have enough crafting obsessions going on, so I gave it away to someone who was longing for one.

I was a bit late getting there. The newly installed TomTom on my phone and I had a bit of a disagreement. She kept telling me to turn right, and silly me, with my very warped sense of direction, thought 'no, that can't be right' and carried straight on. So I basically mislaid a thundering great motorway that runs from west to east, and had to pootle along on country roads. Coming home was even worse, it was dark, and I not only mislaid a motorway, I mislaid a whole road and found myself careering along a dirt track in the middle of the very dark, very unlit, very scary countryside. I really shouldn't be allowed out......Still, here I am, safe and sound

Polkadoodles Friday

It's a sketch challenge over at Polkadoodles this week, I forgot to download it, so you will just have to pop over to see it :)

I used papers from the new, and very fabulous CD Double Sprinkles of Kraft, and the image is a digi stamp from Back to Nature, coloured with Promarkers

I added a bit of stitching.......oops, the thread unravelled a bit on the left...

I am off to Orlando today for a Cricut Circle crop. I invested in a USA GPS for my phone, so hopefully that will stop me driving endlessly around the highways and byways of Florida looking for the hotel - well, that's the idea anyhow. Considering that I am having the usual difficulty in navigating my way to the drivers side of the car, it could be an interesting day. You can bet that I will still be striding confidently to the passenger door when it is time to return to the UK - and that I will then do it all in reverse for a while. A lot of people ask if I find it a problem driving on the right rather than the left hand side of the road, and no, I don't. I slot right back into it when I come over to the USA. The only problem is remembering to get into the side of the car that has a driving wheel.... See you tomorrow

Paper Lace and Promarker winners

Frstly, I have had an email from Letraset with the names of the winners in the blending sets contest. There were 309 entries, and random.org picked No 166

Grace Baxter

51 of you posted the contest on your blog, and the bonus prize goes to No 16

Nati Tristan

Congratulations to you both. Email me and I will pass your details on to Letraset so that they can mail out your markers

I finally made it back to my craft desk yesterday, here's what I came up with. The Paper Lace cartridge was a 'must have' when it was released, but I haven't used it much at all, in fact I forgot I had it! After playing with it for a while, it has shot right up to the top of my favourites list........

I decided to cut the delicate patterns in black, and the shadow in white, then colour in the image with Promarkers, rather like a stained glass window. I love the effect, what do you think?

For the first one, I cut the image at 3 1/2", matted in black. The background scalloped mat is from Just Because Cards, cut at 4 1/4" - I cut another one at 1 1/2" for the sentiment. Small scallop strip is also from Just Because Cards, cut at 3". Base scallop card and sentiment circle from

Craftwork Cards. I dotted some tiny beads of pale pink liquid pearls to the roses.

Here's another one, done in the same way. I used a scallop edge card, and folded back the edge. I kept the card simple, as the die cut decals really do look quite striking. I added dots of black stickles to the flower centres, and dotted a few gems around among the leaves, it's quite sparkly in real life. I am off for a day's crafting with my Florida mates today, I so miss that when I am back in the UK. See you tomorrow

Vintage with a twist....

Those of you who pop in to see me regularly know that I don't really do vintagey stuff, but I love this range from Craftwork Cards, they have a very pale duck egg colour in there as well as the more usual brown/cream. I inked the edges very lightly with antique linen distress ink, I didn't want it to look grungey. All the elements on the card, apart from the flower and beads are by CWC, including the lovely shaped base card....

and here is another very simple card made with their Botanics range - it's a pity that photos don't show the gorgeous pearly sheen of their papers

Both of these were made before I left home, I really haven't had a minute since we got here. I spent two days unpacking and putting things in their rightful place, and for three whole days I have been searching for a replacement lead for my Gypsy. It doesn't help of course that I am so hopeless when it comes to anything with a power button..... 'I'm looking for a cable with a sort of teensy thingy on one end, and a small squarish thingy on the other'. Then when you mention 'die cutting machine' their eyes sort of glaze over. You can hear them thinking 'oh, it's a woman thing....' I finally got it sorted in a specialist cable store, where they knew exactly what a teensy thingy looked like.

Along with my Gypsy cord, I seem to have mislaid my mojo as well, if someone finds it hanging around (it will be in either Birmingham, Newark or Tampa airports, or any Dunkin Donuts within a ten mile radius) please send it to me as quickly as possible. I need to stop shuffling bits of paper around and get to work.

I'll see you tomorrow with the winners of the Promarker contest

Isn't this little girl fairy sweet? Sitting there knitting a cobweb, and with leaves for wings....... Another digi image from Sugar Nellie. Label dies are by Go-Kreate, and papers are old ones by DCWV. Coloured with Promarkers

The tiny sentiment tag and scalloped card base are by Craftwork Cards Well, here we are, back in the USA, all unpacked and ready to go. Why is it that however organised and careful I am with my packing, I always forget something vital? This time, I brought over my Gypsy as usual, but have forgotten the lead that hooks it up to the Cricut, so it is unusable for two whole months now. To watch me unpack is hilarious (Mike says). I pluck things out of the case, and stand there looking at it with a bewildered look on my face. 'Why on earth did I bring this?' Luckily I don't have to bring clothes over with me, as I have Florida clothes, and UK clothes, so that avoids more confusion with mismatched outfits........ Now then, Saturday morning sounds like a good time to make a little run down to Hobby Lobby and Michaels....see you tomorrow