New Cards for Creativity

I was asked to do some designing for Creativity magazine in the UK, in the shops now. The first card is for the designer challenge, where they send two designers identical products and you are asked to make a series of cards with them. I think the readers are asked to vote for the designs they like best, but as I am in the USA at the moment, I have no idea how to do this. If someone can give me a link, I can at least make sure I get my own vote :)

I used a handbag shaped card base by Papermania, and some rather glitzy handmade mulberry papers that were lovely to use, the other product I had to use was mirri card, not something I use very often, but I love a challenge..................

The second commission was to make some New Year cards using the very cute little Forever Friends bear stamp that is being given away with the magazine, this was a joy to use, such a sweet little image. All the papers are by Papermania, and the silver ring around the aperture is a peel off. All the products are available from Docrafts

If you want to see the rest of the cards, I heard that this edition of Creativity is being given away free with this month's edition of Papercraft Inspirations (some of my cards are in that mag. as well), so quite a deal with the freebie stamp thrown in. This was in Sainsbury's apparently, I don't know if WH Smith have the same deal. If you like them, a vote would be nice too (I have no idea how this works, but it sounds a bit scary to me, how humiliating it would be not to get any votes, sniff)
I have been busy busy with design team stuff, so lots of cards to share with you over the next couple of days, in the meantime have a lovely start to the weekend folks...........

Cool Birdie for Polkadoodles

The challenge this week was to make a male card using the new Not for Girls CD, we had to doodle, and use three brads, so this is what I came up with. Okay, so I used five brads, oops, never mind. The branch is cut from Winter Woodlands cartridge on the cricut machine, the tweet word is Thickers by american crafts, everything else is from the CD

Be sure to go and see what the polkadoodle team have come up with for the men, and join us in the challenge - as always there is a prize for the weekly winner, plus you get the coveted blinkie for your blog

Musical Birthday Card and a Sneeky Peek

First, a quick Christmas card, the holly leaves were cut from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge, and Joy is from Joys of the Season. I really do need to make a start on my cards, I am a bit laid back

I had to make a male birthday card in a real hurry, luckily I had my new 'Not for girls' CD fromPolkadoodles handy, and it took no time at all to make this, for a chap that loves music and has been known to get up and sing in pub karaoke nights. All the papers and the topper are from the CD. I embossed a piece of red card with the cuttlebug - allegro folder, I think that's what it's called, and did a shadow on the lettering in the same colour red with a copic marker

and here is a sneek peek at my card for the Polkadoodles weekly challenge tomorrow
Thanks to all of you who have been sweet enough to make kind comments about my first video attempt. I think I am getting a bit carried away, and keep thinking of other projects I can video. A couple of answers to comments, I got the matchboxes in the Dollar Tree here in the US, they were 12 for a dollar, they also have the big ones, two for a dollar. I think they are sold in Poundland in the UK. The big boxes would be quite easy to adapt, and have the advantage of being sturdier, and they would hold quite good sized gifts. Next year, when Max is three, I will make him one, at the moment one of these little ones would last about 10 seconds under his rather robust present opening technique. The little drawers were quite difficult to pull out, so today I waxed the sides of each drawer with a scented candle, they pull out smoothly and easily now, and the boxes smell gorgeous.
What have I done with the matches? They are in a big bag in the garage - does anybody feel like building a model ship out of matches? If so, I'm your new best friend......

Advent Box Video

Well what a palaver this has been. The video we did yesterday was too large because I talked too much, so I did another one which is a bit ropey because Steven Speilberg was getting his haircut, so I was trying to video and do a demo at the same time. I have used a half completed box, so it looks a bit of a mess, ah well, you get the picture.....

I am pleased with the box though, Alex will love it, and I am trying to find tiny things to put in the boxes. Off to Sephora to see if they have any tiny samples they can give me, I have put in lip gloss, tiny mints, eye shadow applicators, cosmetic sponges, earrings..... fun, fun, fun.

Punch card for Practical Scrappers

Over on Practical Scrappers this week, the challenge is to use your punches, well, that was easy, this double loop is one of the new round the block punches by Martha Stewart. I have still to master the complexity of going round corners, but love the punch itself, so it doesn't matter. I punched three rows of coordinating cardstock (whitewash by Core-dinations). The embossing was done on that paper too, and sanded to show the detail. The birds are a MS punch as well, I added a tiny rhinestone for eyes

The rhinestones look like googly eyes, I promise you they are not! Pop over and see what the rest of the design team have come up with, there are some fabulous layouts on there too
Now be sure to come by tomorrow, I have done a video on the matchbox advent box. It has been quite a day, Steven Speilberg (aka Mike) thought he needed to zoom in on me, who does he think I am? Catherine Zeta Jones? Doesn't he know that women of my age are always shot in soft focus? He also kept muttering to himself. 'Don't talk' I hissed 'Just concentrate on what I am doing, and don't show me, just my hands' All this marital discord was faithfully recorded of course, so the editor (aka Mike) is busy deleting his mutterings and my hissings.
Then I was happily burbling on, stating the flipping obvious 'first you need matchboxes' I announce...... well yes, you would really if you are making a matchbox box. Duh! Then we filmed a whole segment - oh yes folks, we did it in segments, and I realised that I had shocking pink and black paint all over my hands, so if you want a good laugh, call back tomorrow, that is if we can ever figure out how to get this spectacular production onto the blog

Advent Box

I have been having a lot of fun making this little advent box out of matchboxes for Kiki. I made a few mistakes, but I have got the hang of it now and will try to do a tutorial for the blog

Santa is cut from Doodlecharms at 3", I gave the first one some eyebrows, he looked so fierce he would have frightened a child, so I had to start again

The best fun was finding stuff small enough to fit into the matchboxes. So I bought sparkly little bracelets and necklace, hair clips and scrunchies, tiny m & m's, and some (UK) pound coins and 50 pence pieces that I soaked in pepsi cola for an hour to get them sparkling and new looking
There are 24 little drawers, so one for every day up to Christmas day, with a little treat in each drawer

It has to travel to the UK, so I hope it arrives intact and that she loves it as much as I loved making it

Polkadoodles Halloween

We decided as it was so close to Halloween that we had to give the adorable halloweenie download from Polkadoodles another outing. You don't have to make a halloween card to enter the challenge though, and there are prizes for the winner

My card is made with the downloads, spooky Jack is so cute, but I had to add some googly eyes, the big ones looked cuter than the teensy ones I put on first.

I added a strip of drippy-goo punched black paper, but the drips didn't show up, so I added a backing strip of orange and doodled around them. A bit of random stitching, a sentiment from the download, and it still looked a bit blah, until I decided to bring Jack's spooky friend into the scene and put him to peep over the sentiment

We had a most super day yesterday with Joan and Tom, our 'new' friends, although from the moment they walked in through the door, Joan and I never stopped talking, it felt as if I had known her for years. We escaped to a stamping store when the men started to talk about car insurance, and I introduced Joan to copic markers. Oh dear, maybe I am not Tom's new best friend after all...... It was a great day, and we are already planning our next get-together. Amazing what blessings you get from blogging!

lily boo orange and black flowers

After the red/orange fiasco yesterday, it had to be an orange card today didn't it? I used one of the Lily-Boo printable digi stamps for the image, and my favourite Making Memories spotty paper. The flowers are by Autumn Leaves. Don't forget, you have until the end of the month to take part in Lily-boos monthly challenge, (and pick up your freebie image at the same time).

I have guests arriving today, about 16 months ago, a follower of this blog sent me an email about something, I replied, we started an email friendship, and found we had so much in common. She and her husband live in another part of Florida, and today, they are driving up to spend the day with us. Isn't that neat! She will have a fit when she sees my untidy scrap space though, the house is tidy, the garage looks like a bomb has exploded in there

Birthday Boy

This image is one of the Kars (UK) ollyphant stamps. I needed to make a couple of boy cards, this is one of those cards that I wasn't at all sure where I was going when I made it.

Does that happen to you?

Stamp and colour an image, look blankly at it, look round everywhere for some red paper to match his shirt, wishing you had coloured it in orange, because the perfect orange paper just jumps out at you. Never mind, here's a scrap of red, it needs something else...., now where's that punch that does the notebook edges................hunt for an hour, remember you lent it to a friend. Go to friends house, spend two hours gossiping and drinking coffee, back home with the punch. A bit of random sewing might add something. Think I'll do" boy" in big red letters............................ I spend another 30 minutes of my life, that I will never get again, hunting for red letters, and find big letters in every colour under the sun, no red (I found some very nice orange ones though, I KNEW by this time that I had made a serious error of judgement when I reached for that red marker pen.........). Never mind, just had a brilliant idea, I'll ink some white letters with a red ink pad. ........have you any idea what a mess a red ink pad makes when you drop it on a pair of khaki shorts? Of course, the really brilliant idea would have been to start over as soon as I found that orange paper. I'll relax a bit and do a bit of blog hopping, the first blog I visit has a most fabulous card with a stunning colour combination, she has combined red and orange, I would NEVER have thought of that

Anyway, here's the card, frankly I don't think it was worth all the hassle, but it's all I have to share with you today as I have been finishing a project I can't share - yet (I do love a bit of mystery, don't you?)

The top right hand corner will have the age of the child, a big orange 6 would look nice........

Office Supplies for Practical Scrappers

Today is my first challenge as part of the design team for Practical Scrappers - a challenge blog specifically for showing cardmakers, scrapbookers and all crafty people how to use those supplies we all have lurking around, what a great idea. This week, the challenge was to use office supplies. For this card I used an adorable new image from Lily-Boos Boutique, coloured with copic markers. The graph paper was torn from a book, I used staples to fix the ribbons, and a label maker for the sentiment

I fixed two of those spiral paperclips in the middle of some looped ribbon

The second card was made using flowers made from a yellow legal pad, I just tore out circles, curled up the edges and layered them together, adding a button in the middle of a spiral paper clip in the centre of each flower



They look really messy, but I love the funkiness of these flowers

another paperclip in the centre of the bow, with a piece of string taken from a manilla postage tag

Whilst we were on the subject of office supplies, I thought this card would stand another airing,
it's one I made quite a while ago, the little paint rollers are made from paper clips, look closely at them and you can figure out how to make them. I rolled black paper strips for handles, and coloured strips for the rollers

You can tell I was in the USA when I made this, look at the way I spelt colour! Why don't you hop over to the site and see more inspiration on how to use office supplies

We were sitting out on the lanai the other evening, and there, sitting on the arm of my chair was this little frog. He seemed quite unafraid, and just sat there looking at me. What a cute little chap, I was quite fond of him by the time he decided to hop off

I was standing waiting to pay at the supermarket yesterday behind a young woman, and her adorable little girl of three - a little golden haired poppet with huge blue eyes. She looked at me, with that serious look little children have when they are weighing you up. "I'm Hannah, and this is my mommy" she announced. Of course, I started talking to her. After a while she said "you talk funny".......................................long pause.........................."MY gramma doesn't talk funny"

Well done Hannah, on recognising a UK accent, and also, depressingly, on being able to spot a gramma when you see one

Lola - Friends birthday card

Nikky from Polkadoodles sent me this little stamp as a gift, and I couldn't wait to ink her up. She is Lola by Rachelle Anne Miller

I don't usually 'do' purple, but I like the way this turned out, the papers are from a DCWV stack, I think it's the Nanas Kids one. The border punch is Swiss Cheese by EK Success. The sentiment is an old one by stampin up, I don't know what set it's from. I stamped the image again onto the gingham paper and cut out just the gift from that.

The flowers are prima, I inked the white one a bit
I have been working hard on some magazine stuff that I can't share with you until February, let's say there are a few hearts sprinkled around on the garage floor...... I find it very disorientating working out of season. I was singing Christmas carols in July and wishing people a happy new year in August.

I am just getting ready to post some blog candy
Be sure to pop back in the next couple of days to see what I am giving away

Polkadoodles Day

It's Friday, time for another Polkadoodles challenge, this week, it's a sketch (which I forgot to put on here, but that gives you a good reason to pop over to the site to see what all the DT have come up with, some wonderful creations on there this week). This card practically made itself, Nikky's designs are so easy to work with. I used my favourite papers from my Candy Doodles CD, and a couple of her new stamps, which complement the range. The tree is a stamp, and I added some buttons, just for fun, and parked the dog at the base of the tree - he looks as if he is debating whether to lift his hind leg :)

The sentiment is from the stamp sheet as well. It comes as a rubber sheet of unmounted stamps, I didn't have any mounting stuff, so I just cut out the stamps I wanted to use and stuck them onto an acrylic block with a glue stick, they stamped perfectly. There are downloads to be won each week, so why not join in the fun, the design team love visiting all the blogs and seeing what you have created
I can hardly contain myself, feel a bit like the dog at the base of the tree, because I know that I have the new 'Not for Girls' CD in the mail, should arrive any day now. I haven't seen the images yet, and can't wait, a whole CD with men's stuff on it. What a great idea

Thanks Rufus for telling us that the stamp from yesterday - still sizzlin - is by Art Impressions, and you are right, the sentiments are great. As well as the sizzlin comment, there is one that says 'smile, it's cheaper than a facelift' - now that is one that I will find a use for!

Still Sizzlin - Anniversary card

I found these fabulous acrylic stamps called Golden Oldies made by a company called Ai

I just love this image, they look quite smug - his apron isn't very clear in the photo, it says " kiss the cook"

Coloured with copics, and I embossed the background with the hearts folder - well, it is an anniversary card, and added a bit of random stitching.


I will be sending the halloween cards to



Jennie (jcscraphappy)



Email me with your address Jennie, and they will be on their way to you



Today is a special birthday for one of my crafting buddies here in Florida



Happy 50th Birthday Cheryl xx

I haven't been able to blog hop and visit you all as I usually do, I will in the next few days, promise, I just have rather a lot on at the moment, some magazine stuff and design team stuff to get done as well, so bear with me, keep the kettle boiling and the hob nobs out, I'll be along soon.......

Baby Girl Card

Isn't this stamp the sweetest thing? I can't remember who makes it, I borrowed it at a crop. The papers are by Heidi Grace, I cut the trees out and popped them on for dimension. The letters are my favourite American Craft thickers, which I got from Big Lots for a bargain $2 a pack - they cost a LOT more in the UK

I stamped her twice, once onto the white card, then again onto the pattern paper and cut her clothes out of that
I get a lot of questions about what size my cards are. My favourite size seems to be a 6 x 6 square, although recently I have been making some 5 x 7 as well. I know that in the US you have to pay extra for postage on square cards, I think it's an extra 20 cents, we don't have the same restriction in the UK - yet. I daresay that somewhere in the Post Office corridors of power, someone will have a light bulb moment any day now, and say 'hey chaps, we can make lots of extra lolly if we charge extra for square envelopes' - it's bound to happen.
.They did recently bring in a depth restriction in the UK, so if you take a bulky envelope to the post office, they solemnly push it through a plastic letter box slot, and always look really disappointed when your envelope sails through.

The Good Girls................ Fabric Card

It's been a while, so here's another Loralie fabric card. If you want to know your nearest stockist of Loralie fabric there is a button on the sidebar linking you to the site, you can't buy there, but there is a 'find your nearest stockist' button

Made in the usual way - roughly cut around the image, swipe the back liberally with a glue stick, stick to white cardstock and smooth down with a bone folder, leave to dry, cut out and use as you would any other image

I really love this sentiment stamp, it's made by Inkadinkadoo. I inked the edges of some white prima flowers, and added a bit of bling

This little lady looks to me as if she has far too much going on in her life to write a diary.......... she's obviously getting ready for a pretty hot night out

I have taken the plunge and ordered a Gypsy - lots of you will know all about the Gypsy, those of you who don't have a cricut machine won't have a clue - I don't have much of a clue either, I have a vague hope that it will put a stop to my lugging cartridges and handbooks backwards and forwards across the Atlantic. It's electronic, you need your computer to get it working, and it is, therefore, an absolute certainty that it's going to give me grief. Even though I have to wait for it to be shipped, I have already been and bought a cute little jacket thingy to put on it when it arrives. No matter that I won't have a clue what to do with it, at least my machine will be well dressed. Another 'watch this space' moment

Does anyone want some Halloween cards?

I have these halloween cards that I have made for various design teams, and they are up for grabs if there is anyone that has a lot of children to send halloween cards to. I am in the USA at the moment, so to allow for the mail, it would be better if you are in the US too! Leave a comment at the bottom of this post, and I will pick a name out of the hat (if more than one person would like them) on Wednesday evening, hopefully get them in the mail to you on Thursday. They will all come complete with envelopes

A Fairy for Cute Daisy May, and a Monster for BBTB

BBTB day today, and Regina (who knows how to set a challenge!) asked us to use the monster cut from the Paper Dolls cartridge. I had found these ready made spiders web cards in the dollar bin at Joannes, so as I was short of time used that as a base. The paper doll and monster costume was cut at 4", once in black, and the head part twice in green, I sandwiched a pair of google eyes in between the two green layers. The spiders were cut from the same cartridge, at 2" and given some googly eyes

The trick or treat sentiment is from the halloweenies download from Polkadoodles

and the inside of the card is lined in another halloweenies download, with a strip of drippy goo at the top


On Cute Daisy May, the challenge was fairies, and I chose this little cutie, coloured with copics and perched on a folded over prima flower









the papers are all by MAMBI, the ribbon is Martha Stewart and I threaded some pearls through the knot

The sentiment circle is a chocolate button from Craftwork Cards in the UK




I always phone home on a Sunday whilst we are here in the USA, to catch up with my kids. Yesterday my little granddaughter aged 5 was in a chatty mood

"I made a fruit salad for my homework Ma"

"Did you darling, how lovely, did you eat it?"

"Don't be silly Ma, I only drawered it"

"Oh right, I see, and what did you draw?"

"A banana, an orange and a pineapple"

"How clever, a pineapple is very hard, I don't think I could draw a pineapple"

"Don't worry Ma, next time you come to play with me, I will show you how to draw a pineapple. The pointy bits are quite hard, but I will show you how to do it"



so watch this space, soon you may see a card with a beautiful hand drawn pineapple, because I am getting a lesson on how to do the pointy bits.............................

Snowman for Lily-Boo and a rather bright card for Colour Create

Over at the Lily-Boo Boutique, Sam has come up with the most gorgeous set of Christmas stamps, lots of different images in baubles

I chose to do the snowman, you can see he is glittered rather a lot, I coloured the image, then covered the whole thing with glossy accents, and whilst that was still wet, sprinkled Martha Stewart snow glitter on it. The stars down the side are a MS punch, and the snowflakes are cuttlebug and sissix dies

He is such a shiny little chappie.........
I found these letter tiles lurking in a clearance bin, well I couldn't leave them there could I?

The challenge on Colour Create is to use black, white, red and yellow, with the optional extras of flowers and checks. I managed everything but the checks. This is a very simple little card, but for some reason, it really appeals to me. I covered the front of a 6 x 6 white card with the black spotty paper, and just cut squares for the house and roof. The floral paper is by autumn Leaves, rather an orangey red, never mind, and the bird is from the 'Peace' Christmas set by Penny Black



more of my favourite little letter stickers by Making Memories, and the sentiment is by Great Impressions (I think)


The weather is very very hot here in Florida, and the humidity is quite punishing. Usually by this time of year it has cooled enough for the humidity to drop, but for some reason at the moment, it is like living in a pressure cooker. A man on the Weather Channel tried to describe the phenonemon, but I was so mesmerised by his backcombed and laquered hair that I didn't take in the detail
Now a knickers story (panties to my USA friends). I have found a brand that are really super comfy, especially in this heat, nothing fancy, plain soft white cotton but they are cut so that they actually have room for your bum (butt), which M & S in my experience sometimes fails to do. They sell them in Walmart at super cheap prices, so off I trot and gathered up armfuls. It seemed logical to buy a size up from my dress size, allowing a bit extra for comfort. Wrong. Big mistake. Huge. If ever I was knocked down by a car whilst wearing them, the paramedics would die laughing themselves before they even got me into the ambulance (I was brought up by a mother who was of the generation that believed you should always be prepared - just in case you are knocked down by a car..... that little life lesson has never left me..). So I put them on, hitched them comfortably under my armpits, and thought, hmmm, I think I may have got the sizing just a little bit wrong here. So now I have to face Walmart again to change the dratted things - or maybe I could tie the 36 pairs I bought together, to make a hammock, and lie in that whilst I try to fathom out the mysteries of the weather man's hairstyle
Have a super weekend