Funny Female Birthday Card

I don't know who made this stamp, it's one of those mysterious no name stamps that lurk around. I have never used it, then I had a lightbulb moment and decided to make it the focus of the card, and I cut a teensy little coffee mug from Christmas Cheer at 1" to embellish it. The ovals, scallop and plain were cut using my new nesting dies from Go-Kreate

Mothers Day Card for Daring Cardmakers

This week, the dare is to use circles, so I cut this circle card using wildcard, at 5 1/2" - too big to get a matching envelope, but I have some ready made that will fit. The calender circle is a new download from The Cutting Cafe, you can print all the months of the year in circles or squares. Mothering Sunday is on the 22nd March in the UK, I know it's much later in the USA. The letters and parentheses are Thickers by american crafts. Added a huge bow and a paper flower

to jazz it up a little. I do love this aqua colour, it looks great with so many other colours.

Westie Birthday Card for Cute Card Thursday

I have had the animal face stamps from Peachy Keen for some time and only used them a couple of times, so I dug them out and cut the little dog from Animal Kingdom in white at 3 1/2" Her face is peachy keen, the little bone on her collar and the oval sentiment scallops are by

Go-Kreate. Papers are by SEI. The challenge on Cute Card Thursday is an animal card, so this is my offering.

There won't be a shortage of people to send this to, as a family we love Westies. We used to have one called Kirsty, who was a much loved family pet for 16 years. She was always a roamer, if a door was left open she would make a break for freedom. When she was just a puppy, and a bit of an inconvenience to be honest, ( you know the drill, kids want a dog, mum does all the work) she made one of her mad dashes, straight into the path of a car and broke her leg pretty badly. It needed surgery, and the next day we went to visit her at the doggie hospital. She ignored the children, but was so ecstatic to see me that she peed all over the table. Now no other living creature, before or since, has ever been so happy to see me that this happened (I can be quite certain of this), and I fell totally in love with her at that moment, and adored her until the day she died, in my arms, many years later. We still miss her and talk of her often. Boy, do they leave their little pawprints on your heart.

White on White Card

I have wanted to make a totally white card for ages, the problem isn't making the card, but photographing it. I used a cut from Home Accents for the flower, cut at 3", the stem was cut by hand. The butterfly is the gorgeous QuicKutz die that Julie sent me as a gift. I used the cuttlebug swiss dots folder for the background and the bottom layer of the butterfly to give some texture, and added some crystal gems (poundland) to give sparkle.

Get Well Wishes

This card turned into a bit of a marathon. I wanted to use the icon on page 40 of the manual (wildcard) and cut the black lacy sheet at 5". It didn't cut quite big enough to cover my base 5" x5" card, so I scratched my head a bit and put a broad ribbon down the side. It started to look quite pretty, but I really had no idea where I was going with this card. I cut two of the shaped labels from storybook, at 3" in red, and 2 3/4" in white, the sentiment is by Great Impressions.

I had to pretty it up, so I punched three black flowers and added the red gems, the card still didn't work, so I added some red and gold beads strung onto fine gold wire, some tiny gold beads to the centres of the lacy background, and at last it came together. Good grief, I could have decorated the living room in the time it took to create this one!

Penny Black Birthday Card

Got to love this ridiculously indulgent cat and his cute mouse friend in this Penny Black stamp. I added a load of dew drops (by Robins Nest) randomly to look like bubbles. Coloured with Copic markers, I left the design really simple as the stamp is such a busy little image.


It's Pancake Day here in the UK tomorrow - yes it really does exist. The pancakes we eat are similar to the French crepes rather than the more substantial ones in the USA, we eat them with lemon juice and sugar, and jolly delicious they are too. Very more-ish. There are all sorts of ancient customs and traditions as well, some towns have pancake races (no the pancakes don't run, the contestants run holding a pan with a pancake, tossing it as they go). There are probably pancake gluttony contests somewhere as well, now I could be a winner if I entered that one.

Happy Woofday - Birthday card for dog lover

This little chap is another go-kreate die, the papers are by Cloud 9, the letters were cut using the Buckton alphabet also by go-kreate, and the button was punched using Martha Stewarts button punch, I tied a little diecut bone with twine to the centre of the button.

I had called my daughter in law to tell her there may be some photos of Kiki shown on the Create and Craft show - in fact at the very start of the show, the first thing the presenter was leafing through was my word book. Kiki watched it, and spun around to her parents with a look of total disbelief on her face, yes sweetheart, that was you on TV!

Happy Easter Wishes

It's a gorgeous Springlike day here in the midlands today, cool of course, but lovely blue skies and sunshine - the type of day that makes you think that winter may finish soon. This little bird image was a download last Easter from Pink Petticoat. I put some orange stickles here and there so she is quite glittery. The yellow card is embossed with daisies, which don't show in the photo. The spotty paper is called nonsense from We R Memory Keepers.

Decoupage Deco Lady

I have never used these decoupage sheets before, but as a friend printed some for me, I thought I would have a go - thanks Eileen. I used silicone glue to stick all the layers together. The base card is the doily cut from the wildcard cartridge cut in pale lilac, then on shadow in the deeper pink, and the liner cut in black - all layers cut at 5".

Funky Hand On TV Tomorrow

Anice, the lovely designer on Funky Hand has a live TV show on Ideal World tomorrow night, featuring her new Funky Daze CD (the one with the word books, that sold out within minutes last time it was on). She will be doing some demos if you already have the CD, and if not, here's your chance to grab it. Live on Ideal World, 6-7pm Saturday night, be sure to catch it and see all the design team samples as well. One of mine is the PLAY wordbook I did, with photos of Kiki playing with her doll. Those of you not in the UK can see the CD on the Funky Hand website. Good luck Anice!

Springtime Card for Cute Card Thursday

The task this week on Cute Card Thursday challenges is Spring, so I thought of this little gardener Boo bear. The bear, flowers, watering can and trowel are all die cuts from Go-Kreate (stockists listed earlier this week). The black square is embossed with swiss dots, but doesn't show up in the photo.
Not that it feels very springlike yet, still rather cold and damp. I am no gardener, luckily these days we only have a tiny back garden, a patio garden with lots of pots of flowers, I can just about deal with those. We also have a very large oak tree at the end, that is home to what seems to be multi-occupancy families of squirrels, and they love the contents of my pots as well, so I am frequently to be seen dashing out to scare them off. I bought some spray called 'Squirrelgon' and unfortunately they seem to love that as well, just sit on the fence sniffing the air when I spray it around them. Hooligan rodents!

Shopping Card

This cute stamp is by Judith, she looks a bit unkempt after her day looking for bargains, I love the shoes she's wearing! The oval shape and scallops were cut using my new nested shapes from Go-Kreate, papers are Bo Bunny (pink) and Making Memories (black gingham). I have had the saying stamps for ages, but it's back in the USA, so can't tell you who made that.

Just For You - Pink Petticoat

This is a Frillie Millie, pink petticoat image that has now been discontinued, she is coloured with copic markers, papers are by SEI. I like the funky look of this card.

We have been to buy a new laptop so that I can hook it up to my cricut and use design studio. I kept seeing all these fantastic creations, and have had DS for a while, never used it. I am not great on the computer though, so it will be another learning curve. How confusing the whole process of buying a laptop is, all those technical specifications that are like double dutch to me, the young overanxious salesman may as well have been a little green man from Mars for all the sense he was making - although little pound signs were probably flashing before his eyes as he spoke to me..................'Dumbo' he probably thought, and he was right.

Penny Black Challenge

This is the sketch for this week's Penny Black Challenge, you will see that I turned it on it's head...........

The image is one I got in a swap from my Funky Hand team mate Kath, who also happens to be on the design team for the Penny Black challenge site, so lots of PB to play with. Thanks Kath!

When I first made this, I put a black ribbon on the side, it looked so funereal I changed it for the lilac gingham and at least the person receiving it won't be depressed for days. I will probably add a sentiment circle - get well maybe. The stamped image and pale lilac mat were cut using my fabulous nesting frames from Go-Kreate.

Thank You Joan

Look what arrived in the mail, this really sweet card from my online friend Joan. The cup and saucer is made out of fabric which she stitched, and inside the verse reads 'I wish we could sit down together and have a cup of tea, but since we can't, when you have this one, I hope you'll think of me.

Isn't that sweet? Joan lives in Florida, so although we have never met, it's quite within the bounds of possibility that we will one of these days.

Two More Bears

Two more little bears, this time made with the standing bear - Boo to you from Go-Kreate. I have found out that these are stocked in the USA by Scrapping Cottage and Scrapyland and in the UK from Cutting Edge Crafts

For the baby, I used the baby boo dies to cut the nappy (diaper), pin, dummy and rattle and the sentiment is studio G

This one is Fairy Boo, I used one of the cuttlebug border embossing dies to emboss the edge of the card and added some gems to the flowers. A hefty sprinkling of glitter on her wings and wand and she is all glittery and ready to party! The sentiment is again a studio G. I am having a lot of fun from making these cute little bears. Why is it that we find teddy bears so appealing, when the real thing would eat us up given half a chance? Fluffy and cuddly looking I guess, just like a koala bear that will give you a nasty nip if you get too close!

St Patrick's Day Card for DCM

On Daring Cardmakers, this week's dare is to use green on a card, since I had the new download from the Cutting Cafe just begging to be cut in green, I enjoyed doing this one. The papers are a variety that I have had hanging around for ages, the twill ribbon was from the dollar bin at Michaels.

Tilda on a bridge - Happy Birthday

So I was given two Tilda stamps, I have never owned any of these images, and resisted buying them as I felt the craze had been and gone in Europe, without me even being aware of it! Having said that, they sure are cute. So I fancied making a scene type of card, you can buy bridge, fence, bench stamps from Magnolia, but I wasn't about to go there, so I turned to my cricut and cut the bridge at 4" from the Paper Dolls cartridge out in cream, and some grass at 1" in green.

I coloured the bridge in with every colour of grey and brown copic markers that I have, and was quite pleased with the result. I used the bubbles embossing folder to emboss a scrap of blue for the water, added a few flowers. The words Birthday Girl were cut in pink using the Skipton alphabet from Go-Kreate, and again in black as a shadow. The background paper is from DCWV Nanas Kids stack.

So Valentines day has been and gone, I hope you all had a lovely day. I received my usual bunch of flowers bought from the local garage - bless him, he doesn't know you can buy them from special shops called florists. So I suppose this is the time for us to dust off those cute little bunny stamps and stock up on yellow and green paper.

Boo Bear - You're Sweet As Honey

I love bears, and have always wished that there was a really cute bear on a Cricut cartridge, but there isn't, so I found this gorgeous little chap as a die from Go-Kreate. I cut him twice on my cuttlebug, once in cardstock and once in brown mulberry paper. I applied glossy accents to his paws and nose to make them nice and shiny, and gave him a blush of chalk on his cheeks. The word 'you're' is also a die from Go-Kreate, don't you just love this font (Skipton alphabet). The alphabet die, which is the size of a cuttlebug embossing folder has upper and lower case plus numbers on it, so you cut the whole alpha out in just one cut, and the letters are the perfect size for cards. The papers are Cloud 9, and the border punch is Martha Stewart scallop hearts.

Getting Old.............................

Getting old ain't for sissies according to this sentiment, and I am inclined to agree with that. I think the image (Impression Obsession) is hilarious, must get me a pair of those huge bunny slippers. I stamped and coloured the image (with copics) first, big mistake, huge..........make a mental note to always choose your patterns first and colour your image last. She is coloured in quite clashing colours (well, she doesn't look like the sort of woman who would coordinate her nightwear does she, more like the sort who buys it off the bargain rail at Walmart). This plain stripe paper by DCWV worked, and I picked out some of the colours for the little square buttons as an accent.

Speaking of getting old, looking after a 20 month old for four days certainly wore me out. Did I really bring up three of these whirlwind little people myself? He goes at life full tilt, why walk when you can run - preferably running very fast away from Ma who is trying to keep him safe. He is so sweet though, his bedtime cuddly toy is a monkey, and he grabs onto it when he is in need of a bit of comfort during the day, I couldn't understand what he wanted, so he gave me a baleful look, and beat his little chest like a monkey! Oh now I get it.

Thank You Julie

When I was last in the US, I did a bit of shopping for an online friend, Julie, and yesterday when I got home, look what was waiting for me. She had ordered me the gorgeous QK butterfly die that I have long coveted, and sent me this truly beautiful thank you card as well. Isn't it pretty? The thank you circle is dotted with pearls and suspended on a jump ring, so it hangs like a little charm. Thank you so much Julie, I really appreciate your kindness.

Live it Up

Lots and lots of layers on this one, and my favourite papers from the sweetheart range by Bo Bunny. I used my new Martha heart border punch - I can see that I am going to use this a lot, all year round, it's so pretty - and some flowers that I won from Poppicrafts (love them). The live it up sentiment is a clear studio G stamp.

Apple of my Eye

Now you can't get much more simple than this. I printed the apple with sentiment from the Cutting Cafe direct onto a card base, then printed the apple again onto DCWV sparkly cardstock from the pocket full of posies collection and cut it out. Some pop dots to lift it up, a bit of ribbon and a bit of doodling, hey presto, finished, and I really like the effect as well. I am not very good at 'white space' cards, but always really admire them when I see them in stores, or when blog browsing, so this one is a bit of a departure for me, as I resisted the urge to add anything else, apart from a strip of very narrow ribbon, which in hindsight was a mistake, as it upsets the balance of the card with the apple centred perfectly. Hey ho, we all make mistakes, and it still works well enough for me not to tear it up.

One in a melon

Here is the latest download from the Cutting Cafe, a great set of fruity greetings.

I simply printed the melon out and trimmed it into a rectangle, stitching around it before layering onto a black panel. Lots of juicy green, red and black layers - I used the Martha Stewart embossed zigzag border punch and the flowers are from Poppicrafts. My signature wobbly stitching and voila.

Just for You - Twinkle from Pink Petticoat

This little cutie is a new download from Pink Petticoat, isn't she sweet? I coloured her with copic markers, added lots of my favourite sparkling ice glitter (great impressions) and used the stampin up ticket punch on the corner of the panel before mounting it onto black card. The base card is covered with a panel of glossy black and white paper by SEI, then a smaller piece of swiss dotted and stitched red card. Some buttons to finish and she's ready to go.

Love You - for Bitten by the Bug and Colour CreateChallenge

The design team were asked to use the Love cut from the Home Accents cartridge, and to cut it in brown. So here's what I did. The base card is 5" x 7", the LOVE was cut at 4" then run through the cuttlebug using the swiss dots folder. I cut the aqua heart at 3 3/4" and added peach prima flowers with aqua gems in the centres. The stamp is a sitting Tilda by Magnolia stamps, coloured with copic markers and cut out. I put her to sit on the letter L. I punched strips of brown, peach and cream with Martha Stewarts doily lace punch. The word 'you' is done with Heidi rub ons by making memories. Click HERE to see all the design team's take on the challenge. I found a new challenge blog this week called Colour CreateChallenge, and this week they are asking for cards made using aqua and peach, so this one fits the bill perfectly. I so rarely manage to combine challenges, I feel quite proud of myself for combining these two this week, or at least I did until I went back and saw that the only other colour you are allowed to use is cream or white. Hmm, we'll have to pretend that the brown is a very dark cream then.

Basic Grey Challenge

This week the challenge on the Basic Grey challenge site is to use elements from two different basic grey collections. Here, I used papers from the Phoebe and Dasher collections. The butterfly is a kwikutz die borrowed from a friend (isn't it beautiful), the border is done with my new Martha Stewart punch that an online friend very kindly got for me and mailed to the UK. Thanks Jess. The sentiment circle is from the Cutting Cafe, backed with a nestabilities scallop circle, and the black scrolls are by Sandylion.

I am packing my case to go down to London tonight, looking after little Max for four days, so no crafting for me, although I have a word book to make for a friend and plan to take down all the stuff to do that, although it will be a miracle if I remember everything I need. I will probably get set up and realise that I have forgotten something really basic, like my trimmer. Hmmm, I feel a list coming on.....................

Oriental Themed Card for DCM

The dare on Daring Cardmakers this week is to make an Oriental themed card without using black or red. For this one, I used Great Impressions stamps, and the pink and brown papers are from the Huge Funky Love download from Funky Hand. I paper pieced the sweet little geisha and the fans and dotted some gems around.

Two More Cupcakes

Here are two more cards made using Regina's cupcakes from the Cutting Cafe. You can see that I used exactly the same papers for both cards. Some more of my spectacular wobbly stitching on these - I pretend that I am being arty and that it's all by design, but you know better, don't you.

I have had a flurry of emails asking me to be peoples 'friends' on facebook. Of course I said yes, because I only joined at the insistence of my friend Anne, who has about a zillion friends on her facebook. For ages I was stuck at four, Anne, her two daughters, and my own daughter. How pathetic. I got quite paranoid. How could a really nice person like me have so few friends? Then these emails started coming, some of my crafting blog buddies, and some people I have never heard of in my life. ***** ****** has asked you to be her friend, intones Facebook. YES I reply joyfully, although I haven't a clue who she is, at least she is a friend now and I don't look like such a sad and lonely person. I must admit to failing to see the point of social networking sites like Facebook, what's wrong with sending an email to someone if you have something to say to them, or (revolutionary idea this) pick up the phone for a chat. All this writing on peoples walls is totally beyond me. At the last count it said 'Enfys has 30 friends'. Well, in anybodies book, that looks better than 'Enfys is a saddo, who only has four friends in the entire world :)

Huge Funky Love - 60th Birthday

These papers and the 6 0 numbers were printed out from the new download from Funky Hand, called Huge Funky Love. It's just fabulous, all my favourite colours of pinks and browns, and the letters are there just waiting for you to make your own word books. I mentioned that Anice premiered her new CD on Ideal World TV here in the UK, well, it sold out within minutes, so if you were unlucky and itching to make your own word books, pop along to the site and pick up this funky download now. Lots of brown stitching on this one, the brads and sticker letters are by papermania UK. The colours are slightly 'off' the light is terrible here today.