Two I forgot to share

I had to make some order out of my picture files last night, and found these cards that I forgot to share - just as well, as at the moment I am working flat out on stuff that I can't share with you yet.

The first one is a Polkadoodles card, I think the papers and flower are from the Back to Nature CD. I cut out the printed image, added some gems, and splattered some white glistening stuff with a paint brush onto the black background - haven't a clue what it's called, it was one of my mysterious pots...........

The second one was a BIG card I made for a neighbour in Florida, who was having a party to celebrate a BIG birthday. The stamp is Artistic Impressions, got to love them, and very appropriate for Florida. I cut the lettering out with Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. Papers are Martha Stewart
I don't know why the colour is so 'off' in this one, but wanted you to see the sentiment

As well as working non-stop on different craft projects, the house remains in turmoil. When the decorator moved our bed - which is very heavy, it has those storage drawers underneath, which are crammed full of stuff, - I was appalled at the huge amount of dust underneath. 'Don't worry' he said cheerfully 'I've seen a lot worse than this little bit of dust'. Well, I'm sure he has seen some very interesting stuff under peoples beds, but "A little bit of dust?". You could have stuffed a mattress with the stuff, or at least a couple of pillows. So there goes my claim for housewife of the week - not even close.

Fairy for cute card thursday

Over on Cute Card Thursday blog the challenge is FAIRIES, so I had to give my little Lily of the Valley fairy another outing

Papers - WeR Memory Keepers

Stamp - Lili of the valley

Raffia lace - Paper Cellar UK

Labels 1 dies - Spellbinders nesties

sentiment oval - Craftwork Cards

and oops, sorry, forgot to make a note of the copic numbers

I have been so busy this week, the decorator has finished the kitchen and moved into the master bedroom now - well, not literally, but you know what I mean............and of course, a shiny clean kitchen meant that all the cupboards and drawers needed a good spring clean as well, good heavens, I found tins and packets in there almost as old as my kids. What did I think I was going to do with polenta? Did a recipe once call for sour dried cherries? What possessed me to buy FIVE jars of papaya balls? Amazing how much more room you have when you chuck out all the rubbish. So if anybody has a blog award for housewife of the week, I will happily receive it

Girlie girlie card

The papers for this one are really pretty aren't they? I love bag and shoe cards for girlfriends. This one is another Papercraft Inspirations magazine card..............................

I like using this cuttlebug folder for shoes, really makes them look like snakeskin

Papers K & co

Shoes - Cricut Wedding solutions cartridge cut at 3"

Purse - Paisley Cricut cartridge cut at 4"

Tiny sentiment - clear Papermania sticker stuck onto pink card

Martha Stewart floral lace border punch

Inking - colourbox bronze cats eye

We have to strip the kitchen of furniture tomorrow - the decorator arrives on monday morning. I like the idea of having it all sparkling and fresh, hate the process you have to go through to get there. A decorator is a better option than us doing it ourselves, we have learnt that joint decorating in our case is a straight swift road to marital disharmony - so better not to go there! Mike is thorough, painstaking and slow, I am slapdash, messy and hasty. I end up covered in paint, Mike never has the tiniest spot on him (unless he gets too close to my paint brush). Funny how I can painstakingly spend hours on getting a single card just right, and yet have so little patience when it comes to walls doors and ceilings

Another teen card

Here's another Paisley cartridge card. The background papers are from the DCWV generation stack, and I punched a square with one of the new Martha Stewart punches, then chopped the square in half. I cut some tiny notes out of the background paper to put on the screen

How do you like my stitching? It's pretend - I couldn't be bothered to thread the machine, and just ran the empty needle in a herringbone stitch over the cardstock, then drew in the stitch lines. It looks okay - laziness sometimes pays dividends!

I added some rain drop bling to the earphones and a metal dot on the Ipod control.
Cricut cartridge - Paisley. Ipod cut at 4"
papers - Generation stack by DCWV
tiny letters - Making Memories
2U letters - Papermania

After my jokey comment about bugs and the doctor's surgery, it is now apparent that I DID pick up something, so I am achey, coughing and sneezing, I would be healthier if I had stayed at home. Talk about ironic.......................

Hello Card

This is another Funky Hand sample, Anice is showing the new Dreams come True CD on friday at 2.00 PM on Ideal World TV here in the UK

I cut the front of the card in half, and covered front and inside of the card in this gorgeous green paper downloaded from the CD - it reminds me of a garden trellis

The flowers and watering can are digi stamps from the CD, it's so easy to enlarge them to the size you want, just click and it's done. I printed it out onto cardstock that was printed with one of the coordinating patterns from the collection

these little shimmerz dots are really useful as water droplets, and they add a bit of sparkle


More 'watery' drops around the flowers. I do love these colours, they are fresh and springlike, which is just what you need on a cold winter's day Talking about Funky Hand, don't forget this months challenge over on Get Funky - there is a prize really worth winning for the winner of the challenge, the subject is 'spots and stripes', so a fun challenge to do, and you have until the end of the month to get your entry in

Papers and images - Dreams Come True by Funky Hand

shimmerz dots - Papermania from docrafts

hello lettering by Papermania




I have a shhhhh secret to share, I have been asked to be guest designer over on the Christmas with the Cricut blog (recently renamed Calendar Girls). So I am in charge for a whole week in February - which gives me the title of Miss February, which I think is rather hilarious. I made sure it didn't mean I had to strip and sit behind my Cricut in the noddy, with a couple of prima flowers to hide my assets, before I said yes. (If you've seen the film, you will know what I am talking about, if not............put it down to my usual gibberish)

So I am busy working on a whole weeks worth of (I hope) rather special projects, so look out for that.

Wishing you wool - Lily-Boo

First of all, thanks to everyone who commented for the Cutting Cafe blog hop, I used random.org to pick the winner, and the number that came up was

12

that's Nannieflash - Shirley

congrats Shirley, email me and I will email the file to you. Have fun!

On to today's card, over on the Lily-boo boutique, Sam has come up with the cutest new downloads, I fell in love with this little cat and printed him out onto white card, then onto the gingham paper.....................

.................and cut out the wool out of the gingham image. The letter stickers are from a huge box by K & Co that I got on clearance somewhere, the only trouble being that it takes ages and ages to sift through and find the letters you want
Copic markers (cat)
YR23, YR13, R02, shadow prismacolour cool grey 10%
Gingham paper - making memories
brown stripe - paper place
letter stickers K & Co
pinking shears scallops - nestabilities
inking - colourbox bronze inkpad

My friend Joan from Florida is in hospital, she follows this blog faithfully, I know she will be checking in when she can, so sending this card, virtually, just for you Joan, with big get well hugs xx

I was at my doctor's surgery today, aren't they depressing places? Even if you don't feel ill when you go in there, after ten minutes of sitting next to someone who is coughing, spluttering and letting out the odd little moan of pain, you start to feel feverish and a little strange..............oh no, he's given his nasty bugs to me. No amount of logical thinking (that you cannot possibly have symptoms after such a short time) will dispel the feeling of doom. I swear, in 30 minutes, I caught whooping cough, swine flu and possibly smallpox (or maybe the unfortunate youth just had a bad case of acne). I think we should have a national campaign to make surgeries a bit more jolly. Maybe a karaoke machine in the corner, we could all sing 'I did it my way' lustily while we waited. My surgery has a system where the next patients name flashes up in lights on a board when it's their turn, perhaps in between patients, they could flash up bingo numbers, give us all cards when we go in. Excuse me now, must just go and check myself for fever/rash/hypachondria

Another doily card...

Here's another wildcard 'doily' card, this time, I threaded grosgrain ribbon through the holes. The papers are all from Funky Hand's new CD Dreams Come True, and the little branch is one of the icons on the wildcard cartridge

The sentiment oval is by Craftwork Cards, I swiped it with a green inkpad, and I dotted the branch with pearls and green gems. the card was cut at 5 1/2"
I had a good old sort out of all my papers yesterday, now I have them in boxes according to colour, and I have kept the stacks together in another box. I felt quite virtuous when I was done, and I have a huge pile of cardstock/papers to give to my niece as well. How long it will remain organised is anybody's guess, I am a VERY messy worker.

How did I acquire all this stuff? I swear it's reproducing itself in my crafty cupboard. I found tubs and jars of mysterious stuff - powders, pastes, gunky stuff, that I have no idea how to use. I obviously saw some technique using them, somewhere, sometime, had to have them, used them once, didn't like the effect, so back it all goes into the cupboard with the other unused/unloved/unwanted/mysterious stuff. Now, the original purpose of the stuff is lost in the mists of time, and it will sit there until the next time I see a fabulous card made with it. What happens then, is that I forget I have some, go out and buy a new, expensive pot of gunky stuff, and the whole sad cycle starts all over again................

Mental note to self: do not buy any more paper, there is no more room in the boxes

Cheeky Valentine Sneaky Peek

Here's a peek at one of the cards from the quick cards section of Papercraft Inspirations magazine, on sale in the UK on monday.

My brief was to make a simple 'cheeky' Valentine card, here's what I came up with.

I love these sissix doll face rub ons, they have such great expressions.

I gave one of the girlie feet a ribbon bow, she looks very shocked, can't imagine what he's up to.........................

I really need to sort my stuff out, I could do with a secretary/sorter extraordinaire to get me organised. I am sure that even with my limited space I could organise my papers into some system that doesn't involve rummaging around for hours in various boxes to find stuff that matches. Maybe I will try and do it by colour. I do have my plain cardstock in drawers according to colour, that works pretty well, it's the 12 x 12 pattern paper I have a problem with. Then there's the two sided paper - hmmm, now do I file it under blue, or red for the reverse side. Or maybe all my double sided papers can go together. HELP. Anyone got any great ideas?

Dreams DO Come True................

So today sees the launch of Funky Hand's new CD - Dreams Come True, on Create and Craft TV in the UK at noon. Good luck Anice xx

This card was cut with the doily feature from wildcard, at 5 1/2", which fits in nicely with this week's dare over on

Daring Cardmakers, where one of my Funky Hand teamies has set the dare for this week

HOLES!

Well, there's holes all round this one Lythan, I hope it fits the bill.

I printed the pattern onto 140gsm cardstock, then cut out the base card.

I love duckegg and brown, don't you?
For this next one, I printed out the spotty paper for a background, and covered the front of a scallop card base.
The teapot and cups are images off the CD, and the fabulous thing is that with the click of a mouse you can enlarge any of them, quickly and easily, with no fiddling around with photoshop or anything, and believe me, if I find it easy, that means it's truly a doddle...................
I decided against colouring in the images, I rather liked the graphic looking black and white. I could, of course, have printed it out onto one of the pattern papers, and it would have totally coordinated. I added some clear shimmerz to drip from the teapot spout. The large letter T is by papermania, and the rest of the sentiment (cheesy isn't it?) was done on the computer.
The printed elements were stuck on with foam pads, to give dimension, and I finished with a silver brad on the teapot lid




So watch out for more Dreams Come True cards over the next few days

It has started to thaw! YESSSSSSSSSSSS! Now it is all slushy and drippy, but so welcome.

Have a lovely weekend

If it's friday, it must be Polkadoodles........

This week the team were asked to use the new Love and Cherish CD, which is packed full of the most stunning papers and images. Of course, I couldn't resist these owls, I printed them out twice and decoupaged some of them. I scrunched the velvet ribbon a bit to give it some texture, and really quite like the end result

Pop on over to Polkadoodles blog to see what the rest of the team came up with, there are some rather stunning offerings over there this week, and why not join in the fun, as usual there are goodies to be won

Quite what I am going to do with all these valentine cards that I am having to make for design teams I do not know. Mike would probably faint if I presented them to him.................any ideas folks?

I heard a little tale about my nephew's little boy that I must share with you, it really made me laugh. Dylan is a very bright little 2 1/2 year old little boy. His mum organised a hairdresser to cut the childrens hair in their own home. This did not go down well with Dylan, who roared and protested very loudly. 'Nearly finished now Dylan' said the hairdresser soothingly 'I just have to cut around your ears'
"NO! NOT MY EARS" yelled the frightened little boy " I NEED THEM FOR LISTENING"

Lovebirds for the Cutting Cafe - win the file

Regina Easter of The Cutting Cafe has come up with the cutest valentine stuff this year. These little lovebirds are one of my favourite downloads

The paper is DCWV Be Mine stack, I fussy cut around some of the leaves to overlap the image

Would you like to win this download? Regina has kindly said that I can give it away to some lucky person. Leave a comment on this post, I will draw a winner on Wednesday the 20th January and the download will be emailed right to you. I think this would make a great anniversary card as well.

Copic markers used - tree E37,E39

Birds - B 02

Leaves - RV32, RV23

Here's today's sneaky peek at another Funky Hand sample, all will be revealed on saturday........

Running the risk of being boring here, but the snow keeps coming - quite remarkable really, I think Mother Nature took a wrong turn somewhere and thinks she is in Iceland. Hello lady, this is the United Kingdom, we are supposed to have rain not all this white stuff. In the meantime, I am still in dormouse hibernating mode, finding it difficult to get motivated to do anything but curl up by the fire with a bar of chocolate and a good book
Keep Warm!

Paisley Teenager Card - and a Sneaky Peek

Here's a sneaky peek at one of the cards I made from the new Funky Hand CD, Dreams Come True, which is on preorder now on the website, and will be premiered on Create and Craft TV on Saturday 16th January at 12.00, and again on Ideal World TV on Friday 22nd January at 2 p.m

The design team have been beavering away to get the samples done, and boy, you are in for a treat, the CD is full of wonderful papers, word books and extras. Don't forget, if you live outside the UK, shipping is free to anywhere in the world

I will be showing a sneaky peek every day, and will show the whole cards on Saturday morning

At last I found time to play with my new Paisley cartridge, this one is full of girlie images, just what I wanted, but in fact this card would do for a teen boy as well. The colours were determined by the background paper, which I couldn't resist when I saw it - DCWV Generation

The phone was cut at 3 1/2", and the letters were cut with george, at 2". I used red mirri card, very unlike me, but some of the words on the background are red foil, so it seemed to go. I used some black metal shiny dots (Jo-annes) as an accent

Sad person that I am, I had to google to see how teenagers would wish each other happy birthday in a text!!!

I used this particular cuttlebug embossing folder because I think it has quite a strong tech-design sort of feel, it looks like those metal floors you get in trendy loft conversions

You must hop over to one of my Polkadoodles teamies, Brenda's blog, she is organising this blog hop, it sounds like a lot of fun




I promised a photo of my copic storage, here it is.........................works perfectly, and spins round with the flick of a finger




That's it for today, back to the drawing board now, I am working on some magazine stuff, I have done my thinking and planning and am now ready to start seeing if the ideas work out on paper
See you tomorrow x

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

I haven't done the Penny Black challenge for the longest time, but I am loving this sketch (see below)

This is another stamp that I totally forgot I had, I really must have a good sort out one of these days

These papers by WeR Memory Keepers are among my favourites, so bright and cheerful

Papers - WeR Memory Keepers 'over the rainbow'

Stamp - PB 'Gone Shopping'

Sentiment stamp - hero arts

Nesties - mega curved rectangle, and scalloped oval

Copics - face E00, E02, RV13

Hair Y13

Dress and Bags YG23, YG 13, RV06, B93

Shadow - Prismacolour cool grey 10%

I have started putting the numbers of the Copic markers I use down, I don't know if it will help anybody. I have more emails about Copics than anything else. I am no expert - I would love to do a Copic course, and you will see that I have supplemented the markers with some Prismacolour markers that you can buy in Michaels, so when they are on sale, I stock up - I use the cool grey 10% all the time to add a shadow around a stamped image. They are alcohol based inks as well, so work perfectly well with the Copics. I have a mixture of sketch (the oval ones) and Ciao (round), the Ciao are cheaper, they don't hold as much ink, but they are both refillable and have the same nibs. I prefer the sketch, only because they have the number stamped on the cap, so it saves a lot of rummaging for colours. I am going to try Promarkers to build up my colours as well, they are more reasonable and seem to give lovely results.
If you are just starting off down the Copic road, my best advice would be to look online for the best deals, and buy shades that look pastel to start with, you can get a depth of colour by going over the colour you lay down first with the same marker, to add shadows.
Another question I get asked is how I store them. I have a round kitchen utensil holder from The Pampered Chef, it's on a turntable so just swivels round, and has compartments so that I can keep each colour family together. If I remember, I will take a photo of it tomorrow......

Seriously fed up with the white stuff now, I went to the dentist yesterday. 'Oh my' he said, as I rolled in like the michelin man, 'you are well wrapped up against the cold'. Honestly, it took me more time to take off enough layers to sit in the chair, than it took him to scale and polish my teeth.

A Child's Year for BBTB2

There has been a big change over on BBTB - Regina is very busy with The Cutting Cafe and has given up her role as team leader, but luckily, Heather stepped in, so the site continues, under a slightly changed name - Bitten By The Bug 2, the design team is unchanged, so we will be carrying on as before, and Regina will still be joining in with the challenges when she can............

This week, we were asked to use the little girl and boy with flowers behind their backs from A Child's Year. I always find that even though they are quite detailed cuts, that these little silhouettes look better cut small - about 2.5", so they are perfect for mounting onto an oval to look like an old fashioned silhouette picture. See the fabulous stuff the rest of the DT have done over on the site

I cut the figures twice, and mounted the top layer with silicone glue for dimension

The paper flowers were inked, and I used some purple rain drops in the centres


Cricut and A Child's Year cartridge

Paper flowers - Michaels Bridal Aisle (white) and Prima (purple)

Sentiment - Hero Arts

Border punch - Cornice by Martha Stewart

TIP

If you have a little group of flowers, try putting a larger gem in the lowest, and graduate the gems to a small one, as shown, it gives depth and dimension to your project

Two cards to share...........

First of all for Moxie Fab World, I have never entered a challenge on this site before, and these colours were so far outside my comfort zone I just had to join in. Of course, after rummaging around for ages I couldn't find an exact match, especially for the blue, so a compromise was reached...............

The papers are all bits and pieces that I have had hanging around for the longest time, so I can't give you the names of any of them




Butterfly - QK butterfly die

Border punch - double loop by martha stewart

embossing - swiss dots and cuttlebug

Next, on to the challenges at Papertake Weekly and Cute Card Thursday, and By the cute and girly, and Fussy and Fancy all of which specified

NEW

and as this stamp has been lying around lonely and uninked, it counts as my new element, super little image, mind you, just looking at her makes me shiver...............







Inky Impressions stamp - Flower Lili
Mega nesties - curved rectangle
D'vine swirls cuttlebug embossing folder
Copics
face - E00, E02, R12, B93 (eyes)
Hair E31, E36
Jeans and hat - B93, B24
Detail - R29, B02, YG 23
Shadow - cool grey 10% prismacolour
ink - memento black tuxedo and cloudy blue martha stewart
flowers Prima
heart gems - Papermania.UK
Flower paper - DCWV from my kitchen stack
sentiment circle - Craftwork Cards

Have you noticed I have little snowflakes drifting down over my blog? As if we didn't have enough drifting down outside - I think it's snowing all over the world. Apparently parts of FLORIDA have had snow. Whatever next!

Song title challenge for Polkadoodles

The challenge over on Polkadoodles this week is 'Song Title'. I was short of time, so made this card very quickly using the already coloured elements from the Back to Nature CD.

I had Kiki in mind when I made it, so my song title is

You Are My Sunshine

which of course, she is

Shimmerz dots are my new passion, they are less blingy than gems, but add a subtle sparkle to a card


Papers and digi stamps - Back to Nature CD by Polkadoodles
shimmerz dots by Papermania UK

I understand it has been almost as cold in a little town called Hudson, Florida, as it has been here, so no wistful shivering thoughts of 'I wish I was there' from me, although it seems colder than ever today. Don't we all look ridiculous when we walk on snow/ice? There is no elegant way to do it, you either do the ice shuffle, which makes you look as if you forgot to put your skates on and are practising to be a contestant on 'Dancing on Ice', or take tiny mincing steps (as seen yesterday by a girl who was clearly so taken with the thigh high stilletto boots that Santa gave her, that she couldn't bear not to wear them regardless of the weather). I have witnessed a couple of those 'will he.................won't he?............' moments as well, you know, the one where someone suddenly lurches forwards, takes a few giant strides, arms flailing madly, and sort of hangs suspended for a while before landing on the ice.

Keep warm x

Lili of the valley Fairy.........

I won this gorgeous little fairy by Lili of the valley in a challenge, it was waiting for me when I returned to the UK, and this is the first time I have had a chance to ink it up, I just love her. I used my new label #1 nesties as well.

coloured with Copic markers and glamour dust

love these scrunchy flowers........................, I think this is the last of them, I got them on clearance somewhere, I should have bought a barrow load when I had the chance
Papers - dill flowers by SEI
Flowers - Prima
stamp - Lili of the valley
sentiment - Craftwork cards
nestabilities label # 1 dies
colour box bronze cats eye inkpad
glamour dust glitter
pearls - michaels

Well, the cold and snow continues to hold the UK hostage, with more on the way. Apparently it's the coldest winter we've had for 30 years. Theories will abound of course as to the reason why. I was tickled pink the other day when Kiki (age 5 1/4) said 'can you switch the light off please Ma, to save the little polar bears'

Stripes and Scallops for Caardvarks

Caardvarks is one of my favourite challenge blogs, the design team over there are super-talented and I love their creations. This week, they challenged us to use this sketch by Becky Flack, of Pagemaps. To be honest, I struggled a bit with it, but although the result is a simple little card, I do really like it

For the lines on the sketch, I used cuttlebug borders
and I liked the fresh look of the shocking pink and white stripes against the white. The pink nestie circle is exactly the same colour, it looks a bit different in the photo

I am going to start listing the 'ingredients' for each card after each post
pink pattern paper - Paper factory
white scallop cut with zooballoo cartridge/cricut machine
flowers - wedding aisle at Michaels
pink shimmerz dots by Papermania UK
Embossed floral border punch Provocraft

Sentiment circle Craftwork Cards

So here is my tiny patio garden this morning, now those of you who live in the Northern States of the USA, or Canada, will laugh scornfully at this pathetic sprinkle of snow. Believe me, it's a big deal here in the UK, we usually have a light snowfall maybe once a year, the country crawls to a bewildered standstill, it melts, and we go back to grey drizzly days again. This year, we have had a long period of really, really cold weather, and I have made a startling discovery, .................
I think I was once a dormouse!





I feel a definite, almost uncontrollable urge to hibernate, I want to fluff up my duvet and bury myself in it until the sun comes out again. Failing that, I will wrap up in my thermals and try to think sunshiny thoughts.....