Just a quick post

To let you know that Mike my husband has been taken ill and is in hospital. Obviously everything else in my life is on hold until he is better and at home. We were due to fly back to the UK on thursday but I doubt that will happen just yet. If you believe in prayer, I would appreciate it if you can remember us for a moment.
Enfys x

Animal Kingdom Christmas Penguins

I thought I would make a Christmas card using the penguins from animal kingdom. I cut them in white at 5", then again for the layer in a spotty black and white paper. I gave the mummy penguin a gift to hold, decorated with a punched snowflake, the baby is sitting on a bed of punched pine branches that have been glittered. He is only sitting on these because there was a smudge that found it's way onto the card when I wasn't looking, so I had to cover it up somehow. I was too far down the line to start again! I am sure you all know this, but a great way of applying glitter to cuts like this is to run them backwards through your xyron machine, so that the front of the die cut is sticky, cover with glitter then run through again to make the back sticky. The animal faces were stamped using Peachy Keen stamps, the set gives faces for all the animals on this cartridge. Their expressions make me laugh, they look rather disdainful and a bit bored.

Funky Daze Word Book

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANICE

Anice, the very talented owner of Funky Hand is 40 today, she is the sweetest person and I am so happy to be on her design team. She has just released her new CD, called Funky Daze, with a fabulous range of printable papers, alphabets and, wow, wow, wow, the ability to print your own word book. I was really excited to get my demo CD and couldn't wait to see how it worked out. I printed out the word PLAY on a stiff white cardstock (the sort you get in a great big pack from the office supply aisle in Walmart), then printed out some coordinating papers, again on cardstock and backed the letters with those. With the two layers of card, it made a really substantial little book. I don't have a bind-it-all, so used key rings to hold it all together, then tied ribbons to them. The photos are all of Kiki playing in the park and with her doll. This word book has been sent to Anice as she will be showcasing her new line on Ideal World Create and Craft TV in the UK. The CD can be seen HERE - shipping is free to anywhere in the world.

Regular bloggy friends will remember the saga of the black pig which was snuffling around outside one dark night a few weeks ago? Suggestions were gently made that I was demented/drunk/mistaking an armadillo for a pig and so on, and on.................nobody really believed me. Well, I am totally vindicated. Guess what was spotted on US19 this week (a really busy highway about a mile away from our house) - not one, but TWO black pigs snuffling around on the verge. One of them was definitely mine I've decided, but if it hangs around US19 for any length of time it will be going to a piggy graveyard, there are some crazy drivers on that road.

Christmas card of the day

Here is another snowman, stamped with a friends stamp at a crop, so I am not totally sure who made it, but think it was by Stampendous. I decided to use the Martha Stewart star punch to cut a border out all around a white rectangle, bad mistake, huge, because of course when you get to the corners it all goes belly up. By this time I was tired, and the floor was littered with tiny punched out stars, so I gathered some of them up and stuck them on all over the place, including the corners to disguise the mess.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to send me birthday wishes, I really appreciated it. Today we went with friends (another British couple, very old friends John and Barbara) for lunch at a place called Tarpon Turtle, on the river in Tarpon Springs. It was a lovely setting for lunch, sitting there looking out at the little ducks and egrets. 'Oh look' said Barb brightly 'a baby crocodile' - a baby alligator actually Barb, wrong continent. He was about a foot long and stayed there for about an hour, sunning himself and looking thoughtfully at the ducks.

I have finished my latest commission for Papercraft Inspirations, apart from playing around with the text a little, so they are all ready to mail, and looking good. The whole series of cards went really well, except for the last one which I made, tore up, reworked, tore up, reworked...............and so on, ad infinitum. Finally, I changed the paper I was using, and it all fell into place. So now I am a happy bunny, hope the Editor will be too.

Today is my Birthday, look what I got..............

Nothing crafty, just the most precious things in the world. The card is from Kiki, who sang Happy Birthday very loudly to me over the phone, and the photo is of course, little Max.

So whatever else happens today, I have this cozy warm happy feeling.

Wildcard Christmas House

Here is the house from wildcard, turned into something Christmasy. You must all be so tired of seeing all these festive cards by now, but I am a woman on a mission. I cut the house at 7" in red, then again in green and then cut the layers. The door wreath is from a pack I picked up in walmart, the little bell has a little clapper so it tinkles. The snow is white fabric paint sprinkled with glitter. The little door opens, so I stamped Seasons Greetings inside.

Baby Snow Christmas Card

The card was cut from Wildcard in ice blue, then again in a snowflake pattern paper by DCWV at 5 1/4". I cut a nestabilities scallop circle in ice blue for the centre and attached the stamped image to that. The snowman, from Sparkle n Stamp was stamped twice, once on white and once on the snowflake pattern paper and his hat and scarf cut out of that. A pompom, epoxy snowflake brad and a liberal sprinkling of Martha Stewart coarse snow glitter and he was done. The bow was made using a little gadget called the Bowdabara from Michaels, I stuck a silver sequin snowflake and a rhinestone brad in the centre. It's a glittery little card, and I really like the effect.

One thing I am learning about Wildcard, is that almost all the cards look better if you cut the base card out on blackout first, then layer on top of that. That way, you don't get all those little score marks showing on the inside of your card. It really does have the most hopeless instruction book, but the results are so cute I am just learning as I go along. If you just want a plain envelope that will fit your card, cut on 'blackout' and the tiny notches showing you where to fold will still be there. I wish they would abandon that as the notches show when you crease the folds, especially if the back of your paper is white. I swipe a coordinating ink pad around the edges and that disguises the notches.

Lola's Christmas Pudding!

This may not make much sense to readers outside the UK, but when someone is pregnant, we say 'she's in the pudding club'. Of course, the traditional dessert on Christmas day is the plum pudding (which is so rich and heavy that after stuffing themselves with turkey and all the trimmings nobody wants to eat. But tradition is tradition.) So here is Lola, bump and all, for a fun Christmas card. The sentiment was computer generated. I can't imagine who will be getting this one :) Image as before, from Pink Petticoat Oops, just noticed I have left the H out of Christmas. Back to the computer..........................

Expecting - Congrats

I made not one, but two of these cards. Why? You see my adorable Kiki on my sidebar? Well, she is having a new baby brother or sister in May. You see my little pickle Max on my sidebar? Well, he is having a new baby brother or sister in.........MAY! So I am doubling the number of my grandchildren within a week of each other (I'll have to get a longer sidebar). So these cards are winging their way across the Atlantic as I speak. I am so excited. My daughters-in-law have both had their 12 week scans, and are set to enjoy their pregnancies.

Trendy Christmas Cards

Ihave quite a few 'young women about town' to make Christmas cards for, including my daughter Alex, so when I saw this download from Pink Petticoat I bought it immediately. So here's Lola, doing what she does best, dressing up and shopping. All the images were coloured with copic markers and the papers are all by DCWV and Martha's Christmas stacks. Click HERE to go to the site, you just order the images which come as a zip file to your email address. Download, open the file and print. Easy peasy. For all of you in the US, the price works out at $7.50, no tax or shipping. It's a UK company (yeah!) and she is a very talented artist.

Bare Tree Christmas Card

The challenge that was given to the design team over on Bitten By The Bug this week, was to use the 'bare tree' from the stretch your imagination cartridge as a Christmas card. I cut the tree at 5", and ran it through the cuttlebug using the distressed stripes folder. Inked the edges in blue to give definition as it was going on a white background, and applied icicle stickles. The little blue stars are from a snowflake pack by Martha Stewart, as is the large snowflake on the organza bow. The card itself is pre-embossed snowflakes by DCWV. Click HERE to see the other ideas the rest of the team came up with, as always, there is such a great variety of cards to see.

Little Angelique for Crafty Muse

I found a brand new challenge blog called Crafty Muse and for their very first challenge they are giving this sweet little Angelique image away FREE. Just click HERE to download her and start playing. I love downloaded images, you can colour them in without worrying about the ink bleeding, and of course the image is always perfect, unlike some of my stamping where I have to have two or three tries sometimes to get it right. I printed her twice, once onto pattern paper and cut the dress out of that. There is a teensy bit of glitter on the wings, done with a clear stardust pen. The stars are Martha Stewarts new border punch, and the sentiment circle is a wood mount studio G. Ribbon is fabulous Martha Stewart twill, I love this and it has been discontinued. I should have bought it all up when I had the chance.

Christmas Card of the Day

And here's one I made earlier............................ this is the trifold card from the wildcard cartridge, the JOY letters were cut from plantin schoolbood at 4". The branches are Martha Stewart branch punch. The double sided paper of the card is Bo Bunny, the other papers are by Basic Grey (Wassail collection). There is quite a lot of sparkle on the card which doesn't show at all in the photo. One of those cards that is prettier in real life.

Happy Birthday

I do love Penny Black stamps, they are always such fun to colour. I played with my prismacolour pencils, and the sentiment stamp is one I got free from a magazine.

My mojo has gone missing, has anybody seen it? I have some magazine commissions to do, and a deadline to meet and I have just wasted a whole evening messing around with a card that is just not good enough. I tidied my scrap area so that tomorrow everything will be tidy and nice for me to start work, I'll let you know how it goes. Lots of you have asked me how magazine designing works, do I just make the cards and send them in? The answer to that is a definite no. You are given very specific guidelines on what they want, it has to fit in with the whole issue, supplies have to be current and available, and you write the text as well, including a list of materials used and suppliers, plus of course deadlines to meet. My goal is to give every card a 'I would never have thought of that' reaction from the readers. It's fun, challenging and very rewarding to see your work in print. My deadlines are shortened by a week when I am in the USA to allow for the airmail times. So with all this going on, there may be just a slight hiccup in my 'christmas card of the day' project.

Christmas Card of the Day

These jolly little penguins are by great Impressions, I stamped them three times so that they were in a row. I cut the card on an angle and matted it at an angle as well. The border is doodled and the papers are by DCWV

WildCard Candles

Another simple little Wild Card effort. These are the Hanukah candles, but I thought they would be fine for birthday candles too. The button is a cosmo cricket chipboard one, covered, and the sentiment is handwritten with an Inkessentials white pen

Christmas Card of the Day

This is another fun image that I borrowed from a friend at a crop, although I think the snowmen look as if they have been enjoying a little too much Christmas cheer and all look drunk. The stamp is by Stampendous, Martha Stewart papers and Hero Arts sentiment. The scarves were cut from pattern paper.

Two Cards For Men

Yes, one of the most difficult tasks in the world is to produce cards for men who don't golf, sail, enjoy soccer or any other sport, but I think either of these would fit the bill, because of the colours I chose. They are both made with stampin up images, and the papers are Daisy D's. I must say, although they are a challenge to make, they are not as much fun as making cards for girlfriends, no pretty flowers, no sparkles or bling.

We went to friends for a fabulous lobster dinner on Sunday night. Carol and Alicia had made a trip on Saturday to the guy who sells the live lobsters, and had very specific instructions from him as to their care until they made that headlong dive into a pot of boiling water. So they returned home and carefully put them in the laundry sink/washbasin with ice. The lobsters were heard skittering around at about 11pm. The next morning, Carol went to walk her dog to be confronted by Alicia on her drive. 'They're DEAD' she said tragically. Yes, the ice had melted, and they had drowned during the night. No I didn't know that lobsters could drown in fresh water either. A frantic dash to the computer produced the information that they were quite safe to eat. So we did, and jolly delicious they were too, although we did ask each other 'Are you feeling okay?' rather a lot during the course of the evening, and were all quite relieved that we woke up feeling good on Monday morning!

Fabric Card

Have you ever tried using fabric on a card? It's so easy, all you do is find a fabric with clear simple images, you only need a little remnant, swipe the back all over with a glue stick, and stick onto cardstock. Iron out any creases with your bone folder and allow to dry. When it is ready, cut around the image and attach to your card in the usual way. This little tiger is for a child's birthday. I will put the age of the child on the animal print button (in black I think) before sending the card. In this card, the tiger and the grass are cut from fabric.

Christmas Snowman

I 'borrowed' this stamp at a crop and can't remember who made it, I think it was Stamps Happen. I stamped the snowman twice, once on the pattern paper and cut out his hat, and the tiny scarf on the little bird. The colouring was done with prisma pencils. I stuck a little branch (Martha Stewart punch) in his hat. Glitter on the snowflakes and he looked okay.

I layered two black buttons on top of larger green ones for an embellishment, and regular bloggy friends will notice yet another gingham ribbon. I have always adored gingham, even as a little girl.

A Funky Christmas Tree

This is for James, my elder son, who is my biggest critic! He 'doesn't do cute' and really finds most of my cards fall into that category - the boy has no taste, I blame his father. Anyway, this card might just merit a nod of approval, no bling, no cute hedgehogs or snowmen, and not a bit of glitter in sight!

I cut two 6 x 6" sheets of Basic Grey 'wassail' paper into 1" triangles using the george cartridge, then starting at the top of the card and using foam pop-dots on each triangle, worked my way down the card, adding an extra triangle to each row, and overlapping them so that there were no spaces. The little circles are epoxy brads that came in a pack of SEI paper, and the sentiment is by (who else) Studio G. The trunk of the tree is the border that was left after cutting out the triangles. Quite a lot of inking (color box moss green) in an attempt to make him think his mother is arty.

Christmas Car Card for Bitten by the Bug

The design challenge this week was to use the cars from the Mickey and Friends cartridge and use them on a Christmas card, which suits me just fine as I am steadily getting all my cards done. This one was cut at 3 1/2" in Christmassy papers. The tree is the tall skinny one from Christmas Cheer. Sentiment stamp Hero Arts. There is random stitching in green around the edges of the card which doesn't show up very well in the photo. See what the rest of the design team came up with HERE I think this might be little Max's Christmas card, I will write his name on the license plate - he will probably take a look and tear it up straightaway, but hey, I will have made the effort. At 18 months it sounds as if he is pushing his parents a little, if he does something naughty he doesn't wait for them, just takes himself off and sits happily on the 'naughty step', leaving them perplexed and confused. Oh the joys of parenting, and how great it is to be a grandparent and look on with amusement from the sidelines.

Two Christmas Cards Today

It's amazing what you can find for a dollar in the US, both these cards were made using Studio G wood mounted dollar stamps. The santa one was from last year's collection, and the snowman is this year - I stamped him three times. The 'sending love at Christmas' sentiment is by hero arts, and the HO on the santa card are glitter sticker letters by Making Memories. The papers are DCWV or Martha Stewart. The stars at the bottom of the santa card are Martha's new star border. How strange the tricks that cameras play, the green button on the santa card is the exact colour of the backing paper in real life, in the photo it looks very off colour.

I am getting ahead with my Christmas shopping - I usually pack the four suitcases we are allowed full to bursting with gifts and craft stuff. My friend Barbara, also from the UK who has a house here, came over last summer for a two week break and I was taking her to the airport. Her cases were so heavy we could hardly lift them. 'These are definitely over 50lbs' I pronounced. So we drove up to Publix supermarket, lugged these cases inside and weighed them on the scales intended for customers (I don't quite know why they provide this service, a lot of the customers must want to stop eating for a month after they step on the things). Back to the cases, yep, they both weighed over 70lbs. So there and then, in the middle of the supermarket we unzipped and unloaded. She pulled out a tiny bikini she had bought her granddaughter, 'I can leave this' - yeah, right, that weighs all of 3 ozs. Further down I spotted................soup? canned soup? very big tins of canned soup?............she had packed 12 tins of clam chowder. I unloaded, repacked, and she was fine (I can be very bossy sometimes). So we have the delight of the Publix run with the cases before we leave here. As long as I leave the clam chowder behind everything will be okay..............

Drum Roll........and the winners are

Thanks to all the incredible response to the blog candy and for all the lovely comments. I wish I could have sent something to each and every one of you, but since I am not married to Bill Gates, this was the best I could do.

The winner of the Lattice Arch punch and other goodies is

Suzy Sunshine

The winner of the Branch punch is

KatfromUK

The winner of the Inkadinkadoo stamps is

Fi

If you can all email me please, address is over on the sidebar of the blog and give me your addresses, I will mail your parcels on monday. CONGRATS and have fun

Today's Christmas Card

I've been busy this week, so you can't get much more simple than this - the jingle all the way stamp is from Alphabet Soup by Stampin up, and was stamped in green then clear embossed. The papers are all from the glitter stack by DCWV, I cut a few extra little trees out and pop-dotted them on the border to give a bit of dimension.

Challenge on Cropstop

I was asked to think of a challenge for the Cropstop message board, and came up with the idea of asking everyone to make a card using traditional Christmas colours of red and green for any card BUT a Christmas one. Here's what I came up with. The papers are all by K & Co, and the scallop circle is nestabilities. To see what others have made, go HERE

Christmas card of the day

Another card made with scrumptious Basic Grey papers. The tree was cut from christmas cheer at 4" and shadowed in red. The little sentiment is by studio G acrylic.

Owl Card

Another card from the Wild card stable, this little owl is cute. I cut it from Bo Bunny papers, added some stitching and prima flowers. The greeting inside says 'From owl of us'. The finished card is 5" square (well, squarish)

Christmas Card of the Day

This is probably my favourite out of all the Christmas cards I have made so far this year. The stamp is Daisy D, I stamped it three times, once on white, then on two pattern papers, and cut the pieces out of the pattern papers. A bit of shadowing with copics, a bit of glitter and a pom pom and she looked really sweet. The embossing folder is the cuttlebug snowflake, all the papers are by Basic Grey. Sentiment (which fits perfectly with her trendy bright outfit) is by studio G.

I heard that the strawberry card (posted on 24th October, scroll down to see it) won the Poppicrafts contest, and I have won loads of scrumptious flowers, take a look HERE to see a photo of my prize. I was so thrilled (well, we all like to win don't we?), and my prize will be waiting for me back in the UK when I get home next month - I have asked them to mail them to my friend, they will be safe there, she doesn't make cards :)

One Card - Two Ways

Wild card again - here is the 'present' cut. One to make a birthday card, lots of sewing and bling on this one, another as a Christmas card, using DCWV glitter papers and a tiny stocking cut from Christmas cheer. This cartridge is such fun to use.

I have offered to do an 'airport run' for a friend tomorrow, oh dear, what a shame, I have to pass right by a great big mall and a super-Joannes on the way home, may take a teensy little diversion into the parking lot ..................that's tomorrow taken care of then

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Any Occasion Card

This is another one for my 'just in case' box, a card that could be used for get well, sympathy, well anything really. I like to have a stock of these to hand. The tree stamp is an acrylic one from an oriental set by Lakeland UK (they have stopped doing craft stuff now, pity, they used to have some quite original stuff). The little flower is a wood mounted studio G. Papers are Basic Grey. The border punch is cornice by Martha Stewart (who else?)

Christmas card of the day

This card was cut using wild card, I stamped the snowman with a Great Impressions stamp and put him to peep through the aperture. The snowflakes are buttons I found at Joannes. I decided to keep this one simple.

Hey There - Penny Black and Wild Card

I turned this card on it's side, used the porthole for the image and cut the funky looking frame, sticking it on at an angle around the frame. The frog is a Penny Black image, coloured with Copic markers and then coated in diamond glaze. The shape of the card is quite funky, and the matching envelope is a perfect size.

Happy Halloween to you all. We don't really do halloween in a big way in the UK (it's only a matter of time before retailers realise they could be missing a trick or two, then the stores will be awash with orange and black from Easter onwards.) I remember when my children were young having one of those "I'm not a very good mummy" sort of days, and deciding to make an effort and give them a special halloween tea. So I spent the day making little cakes, and hung white sheets all over the kitchen with a balloon inside for a head shape. So No 1 son came home, and with all the scornful sophistication of a twelve year old said 'Mum, why have you hung old sheets with balloons inside all over the kitchen?" No 2 son didn't say anything, I forgot he was going to a halloween sleepover (with one of those irritating organised mummies who thought of these things weeks in advance). No 3 little girl took one look, burst into tears and refused to eat her tea until the nasty ghosties went away, then wouldn't sleep until a thorough search had been made of the whole house for more nasties.

Christmas Card of the Day

Wild card of course, this is the Ornament cut. I decorated it with holly leaves cut from Christmas Cheer and coated in diamond glaze to make them glossy. The red strip was punched, a bit of stitching and stickles.