Core-dinations, Prima news and a couple of awards.....

Prima marketing has a big surprise to unveil, they are giving away a huge goodies package as well, one to North America and one to an international winner. I love those flowers, especially some of the fancy ones they have come up with lately, you know, the ones with the scrunchy edges. Yummy

No card today - I am trying to catch up with paperwork and stuff in between feeling sorry for myself nursing this cold. I was cheered up though when some blog friends thought of me and gave me this award. I am supposed to pass it on, so I am passing it on to all of you who come over here so regularly and cheer me up. Thank you

It came from

Sheila

Nikki

Theresa

and

Kerry

and this one came from Jess, thank you all so much
I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself, now I can't imagine why anybody would want to read riveting stuff about me, but here goes
1. I once left my firstborn son in his pram outside a shop on my first outing after he was born - totally forgot I had a baby, and walked halfway home without him
2. I seem very organised and tidy in my house, but open a cupboard and you are likely to be killed in the avalanche
3. I frequently buy clothes, bring them home and find the identical item hanging in the wardrobe
4. I have never met the Queen (I know, that's a bit random, but I'm getting bored now....)
5. I would love to go to China
6. If I had to choose one food that I had to exist on for the rest of my life, it would be soup, glorious, tasty, homemade soup......
7. I am sometimes a bit slow on the uptake, I have only just realised that I could have put the most outrageous facts on here, and nobody would have known any different. A bit late now, can't be bothered to go back and make myself more interesting, pity, I could have told you about the passionate affair I enjoyed with a member of the royal family...................

Lastly, please pop over to the Core-dinations site, click on scrapbook blog, they have featured one of my cards there, I have no idea how they found it, but I am pretty chuffed that they did

See you tomorrow

Forever Young - shopping card

I have just received the Forever Young cartridge, this one is just up my street, lots of girlie images on it. I decided to have a bit of fun for my first card, and used just the bottom half of one of the 'girls'. she was cut at 6" in a flesh coloured cardstock, I added a bit of shading with my copic markers, then I drew in her shoes with a black pen.

The lettering is glittery thickers alphas by American Crafts, and some teensy making memories alphas

I have felt a bit like this gal this week, definitely horizontal rather than vertical, with a truly horrible cold. So I am on a go-slow this weekend, hoping I have a bit more energy soon.

Have a great weekend..............

Shaped Card for Polkadoodles

Here's that cake again, this time I made it into a shaped card, and it's huge, really, it's about 10" tall - I can't measure it because it was one of my samples for the TV launch of the CD today. This is one of the templates from the Paper Boutique CD, on sale now at Polkadoodles

Other templates on the CD, to make shaped cards include Mr Twittie (owl), a car, funky monkey, secret garden, a boy cake.................all just fabulous, and super easy to do. I think there are about 20 templates, plus papers, tags, extras on the CD

I wrote the sentiment on the computer onto one of the matching tags, and cut it out, a double ribbon always adds a bit of a pop to a card. The icing scallops were glittered.

Here's the side view of the card, showing all the layers. I forgot to take one of the back, which is a bit daft of me, as the cake continues on the back of the card as well, so totally dimensional

So all you have to do to enter the challenge, is to make a shaped card, and the first prize winner will win a CD, so you could own the Paper Boutique, just for having a go. Go to Polkadoodles to check it out

Easter card

Here's a card I made for Papercraft Inspirations this month, my brief was to make a religious card, rather than secular little bunnies and eggs. I was delighted to be asked to do this, the true meaning of our festivals seems to be lost these days. I cut two rectangles, and ran them through the cuttlebug, using the distressed stripe folder, then inked the edges in bronze ink. The background piece is embossed with the script folder, and the lettering is American Craft thickers, in white, that I swiped all over with the bronze inkpad. The flowers were punched, and the leaves are a Martha Stewart punch.

I have been struggling with a bad cold this week, it's that time of year isn't it? My head feels all woolly and fuzzy - nothing new there then. I have still managed to make twelve cards today - yes, twelve - but they are for a magazine, so I can't share them yet.

I had to pop into town, and parked in a meter zone. Would that machine accept my money? Would it heck. I kept putting the coins in, it kept spitting them out. In the end, I spotted the traffic warden on patrol and said 'the machine won't take my money'. 'Oh yes it will' he said grimly, and put my coins in. Would you believe it, that dratted machine swallowed them and belched out my ticket. Can machines recognise traffic wardens? Do they know that you don't mess with them? I asked him, but he needed a sense of humour transplant and stalked off without answering. Pity that, I would have thought that seeing the funny side of life would have been a great asset in his job..................

Introducing Paper Boutique.......

Here is a card made with the new CD from Polkadoodles - it's a sneeky peek, as the CD isn't being launched until Thursday, on Create and Craft TV. It's full of wonderful templates, this cake being one of them, but instead of making a cake shaped card, I just used the image as a focal point for this card. I put a triple layer border on, using a Martha Stewart border punch. The stitching is faux - I ran the card through my threadless machine, and joined the dots with black pen

The little strips of silver metal beads are perfect, they remind me of the silver balls my mum used to sprinkle on trifles when I was a little girl - I broke a tooth on one once!
the CD has a great feature - you can type your own sentiments into a variety of tags, so perfect for personalising cards. There's lots of decoupage layers, so the card is very dimensional

We are back to normal life here - get up when we want to, eat when we want to, go out when we want to...............and oh boy, are we missing those two little boys.

Exciting News, a Tilda Card and little munchkins.......

First of all, some news, that for me is very very exciting. I am going to be on the design team for Craftwork Cards, my favourite online store for all sorts of goodies, you have seen their name pretty frequently on here, as I use no other cardstock, and the sentiment buttons and card candy feature pretty regularly on here as well. I am joining a very elite band of fabulous designers, and am so very thrilled about it, a bit nervous, but nerves are never a bad thing in my book, gives me an edge...........so wish me luck

Not a typical card from me today, but every so often I get the urge to make a pretty Tilda card, with frills and flowers, and here it is....................

I cut the aperture with a plain nestie circle, then cut a larger scallop circle, with the plain one in the middle, to make a frame for the aperture. The paper is a lovely Bazzill bling, so it has a beautiful sheen. My lovely little Tilda was sent to me by a blog friend, Cheryl, thank you so much Cheryl, doesn't she look sweet?

I had the flowers hanging around waiting to be used, they are white mulberry paper, but I inked them in aqua, and added a couple of strings of little pearls and a scrap of coffee coloured lace

The aqua border is done with a MS punch, the glittery pink one is from a pack of borders by Bo Bunny

Scallop card base - craftwork cards
Magnolia Tilda stamp - sorry I don't have the name
Copics - E00, E02, B02, BG05, E71, E31, E43, R32, RV06 and R20
Martha Stewart dots border punch
Bo Bunny borders
Nestabilities - large plain circles and large scallop circles
mulberry flowers - Wild Orchid Crafts

and on to the main focus of my day, Max and Milo. Boy oh boy, that was exhausting. We saw a lot of little Milo looking a bit puzzled and pensive..............'Where is my mummy?'.........................................

but gradually he accepted us, and was a little angel. Here he is playing peek-a-boo with me, my favourite photo is on my sidebar



Max refused to pose for photos, point blank, couldn't see the point, wasn't going to do it, no way. I managed to sneak this one of him 'reading', it was about the only time he stopped running around. At one stage I popped into the kitchen to get their tea started, and returned to find Max had a great new game - called roll your baby brother all around the floor like a sack of potatoes.................

Every time I visit the grandchildren, there is one intense feeling of gratitude that almost overwhelms me when I get home - I can once again go to the loo (bathroom) without having to organise safety gates or answering questions -'Where you going Ma? Why? You going to do a wee or a poo Ma? Why? Can I come in with you Ma?

Now I am going to take my book and lock myself away in blissful solitude, and don't dare ask what I am doing in there..............
Have a great weekend

Two more magazine cards ............

Since I have had my hands full with little boys for the past couple of days, here's a peek at two more quick cards from this month's Papercraft Inspirations. The first one is a card for Mum - it would do as a birthday card or mother's day I suppose. The circle card is the doily cut from wildcard, cut on blackout at 6", and the papers are from Polkadoodles Sugar Birdies Cd. I cut the flowers from one of the papers, added a bit of doodling and a quick sentiment.

This one was based on a very heavily altered pregnant mummy cut from New Arrival. I really just used the base cut and altered it drastically, especially around the legs, but she turned out looking good - I wish my legs looked like that! The sentiment is from a stamp set by MFT (My Favourite Things). the figure was done in white card, and I used flesh copics (E00 and E02) to turn it into skin tones
The boys were really good yesterday, thank goodness. Milo has got used to us now, and we had a lot of smiles, and even a few chuckles, and as long as any activity revolves around Fireman Sam, Max is happy. He spends his time dashing around putting out imaginary fires. EMERGENCY he yells, dashing past you waving a plastic fire extinguisher. I have taken quite a few photos, so will update the ones on my sidebar over the weekend.

I'm Not Deaf....................

This is another of those Art Impressions images that I seem to be irresistibly drawn too - I had better stop it, I feel uncomfortably like her this morning............... I 'dressed' her in hot pink and purple, she looks to me the sort of gal who would go for these colours.............
The sentiment really made me laugh

How much longer is this baby sitting malarkey going on for - only another 36 hours to go................... and boy, are we exhausted already. Milo is true to form and yelling loudly for his mum most of the day, and Max is the original whirling dervish. All worth it of course when Milo gives us a watery smile in between sobs, and Max flings his little arms around our legs to give us a hug. Mind you, the mum in us never goes away does it? My son went out to his car last night to transfer the child seats to our car, and I found myself saying 'put your coat on, it's cold'. He looked at me in total amazement. In the meantime, if this stamped image was real, that woman wouldn't stand a chance, I'd be pinching that walking frame off her, just to prop myself up.

Use up those numbers.......

First of all today, the blog candy winners. I entered 389 (allowing for the folks who emailed me asking to be included), and the UK winner is

SCRAPPYMAX

and from the USA

STACY (URATOON FROM THE CRICUT MESSAGE BOARD)

Congratulations to you both, enjoy your goodies. Email me with your address and I will get them in the post to you

(what a faff that random generator was, not the site itself, but the photos were a bit of a challenge, slight problems going on here getting used to my new camera, but that's another story..............)

On to the card, I use thickers, and various other alphabets quite a lot on my cards, I love the bold statement they make, but I never seem to use up the numbers, so I had this idea, mix them all up, different fonts, different textures, and here's the result. I like it, some of the letters are felt, some foam, some chipboard, so there's a lot going on here................

and I got rid of all those wasted numbers, plus a bonus, this card would do for a bloke as well. Now I have an idea for all those zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's. Watch this space



We are off to London today to babysit Max and Milo for a couple of days. Milo (9 months) is at the stage where he screams blue murder if his mum dares to leave the room, Max (2 3/4) is at the stage where he constantly asks 'what you doing' and 'WHY?' - so be prepared for an exhausted wail of a post tomorrow

Birthday Birdcage - Serenade

SCROLL DOWN FOR THE BLOG CANDY POST

I have been breaking open my new Serenade cartridge, this is a really pretty one, and of course, the first thing to be cut was one of the birdcages.

The card was a ready made pre embossed one by Laura Ashley, I used quite a lot of gold mirri card, so this card really isn't my usual style at all, but I quite like it

Card blank 7" x5" - Laura Ashley

Cricut cartridge - Serenade
Bird embossed with swiss dots folder

silver beads - Michaels

aqua glitter paper - Papermania
mulberry paper rose - stash

inking - cats eye bronze

A frustrating day on some levels today - I was standing in a long queue (line) to use an ATM. Now, the one thing you know when you are waiting to use these machines, is that you will need your bank card. So how come I was the only person standing there with it in my hand? I swear one woman had to decant the entire contents of her handbag, (that was the size of a small suitcase), on the pavement (sidewalk). People have climbed Mount Everest with less equipment than she was carrying around with her. She practically got a round of applause when she eventually located her card. Then the next man had a bit of a problem, the machine kept spitting the card back at him, I felt quite sorry for him, he was all red with embarrassment, and eventually slunk away, cashless. Of course, the woman in front of me didn't want a quick fiver out of the machine, no, she needed to know her balance, order a new cheque book, I'm guessing that she ordered a Chinese takeaway at the same time.....................

I think it's me, I probably dropped my tolerance on the pavement when I had to rummage in my bag to find my bank card (the card I was holding for twenty minutes was my library card)

See you tomorrow

Tweet Birthday Card

Here's a birthday card made with pre-printed birds from Craftwork cards, I hand drew the extra long legs. The tree was cut from the Winter Woodland cartridge with my cricut, at 4"..........................

and I dotted the tree with teensy buttons and some doodling dots with a white pen

Papers all from Craftwork Cards
Border punch - double scallop dot by Martha Stewart
Buttons - Papermania
Tree - winter woodland
white pen - signo

Here's what happens on a bitterly cold Sunday afternoon in my eldest son's house - Kiki with her face painted beautifully by her mum Annabel, and pretending to be a scary tiger........................

.................and here is what happens when her very long suffering, beautiful mum allows Kiki to have a go with the face paints....................

On balance, I'm glad I wasn't there!

I have been a very bad blog friend just lately, so much on I haven't had time to pop over to your blogs. Bear with me, I will get there........

See you tomorrow

Pagoda Anniversary Card and some blog candy

The winners will be drawn by random.org on Wednesday 17th February at 9am UK time

Here's my card today over on Holidays with the Cricut - lots of 'how to do it' photos over there, and as before, all you have to do is leave a comment to be in with a chance of winning a serenade or sentimentals cartridge

To celebrate my week over there, I am giving away some blog candy, stuff I have used for the cards and projects that aren't available in the USA/Canada. But first, I must give something to my UK buddies, so I have a spare Martha Stewart heart punch, I bought it home with me from the USA, forgetting I already have one. Plus a brand new unmounted stamp set from Stampin Up called Ladybug Picnic. I'll pop in a few of the jewelled flower picks as well. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, and link it on your blog if you have one.
Don't forget to put UK by your name......

For my USA/Canadian friends, (if you live elsewhere in the world, just say which candy you would like to win) here's a package of some of the craft goodies from the UK. You will get

10 sheets of the silver pattern vellum I used today

2 packs of papermania embossed cards and envelopes

A roll of the raffia ribbon by Paper Cellar (on one of todays cards)

6 scallop cards and envelopes (the square ones, see card three below)

3 sheets of craftwork card sentiment buttons (see card three below)

some of the gold and silver jewelled flower picks I used today

A pack of clear rubber stamps by Papermania - Birthday Boy

Papermania tiny spotty buttons in shades of yellow (perfect for Easter Cards)

a sheet of Anita 'handmade by' gold stickers to put on your cards

A pack of Papermania papers in the colours of the buttons (as used on the sunflower card below)

(half of this stuff isn't in the photo, you will have to imagine it as I am camera-less)

close up of the vellum



here's the second card, using the same design layout


and a third one................




and here's one I made with one of the 'buttons' from the Paisley cartridge. I was puzzled as to the purpose of this feature, as only a couple of the cuts seem to be buttons, but now I have had a good look around, it's just another word for icon, and there are some fabulous cuts on there. I thought this flower looked like a sunflower, and cut it BIG at 4". The card is 8" x 4", and the papers are by Papermania.




dotted s0me gems around.....................








the sentiment is Hero Arts, stamped with memento rust ink. The ribbon is a brown felt I picked up from the dollar bin in Michaels





So there you go - leave your name to enter for the blog candy. I will keep this post at the top for a week, and draw the names next wednesday, noon UK time.
Don't forget to tell me which country you are from, and enough information for me to identify you if you win (your message board name, or email for instance)
Good luck
See you tomorrow x

Male Birthday Card for Papercraft Inspirations

Hi everyone, thanks to all of you who wanted to win the heart mini album, I used random.org and the winner is

thkelly (Therersa K)

Congrats! Email me with your address and I will get it in the mail (together with a few surprise bits and pieces) on monday

Here's a peek at a card from this month's edition of Papercraft Inspirations magazine, the Quick Cards section. I was asked to make a colourful card for a male birthday, with a cake theme. I quite liked this one, I cut varying lengths of bright paper, the candle flames are hand-drawn, and the arrow was cut from Going Places. Tiny making memories alphas (whatever will I do if they stop making these?) and the CAKE is spelt using American Crafts felt thickers

I am busy working on some samples for the TV launch of a new Polkadoodles CD on the 23rd February, I have just finished one card, and would so love to share it with you, but you will have to wait. Nikky comes up with the cutest ideas.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, I'll be back tomorrow to wish you a happy Valentines day

Normal Service will be resumed..............Hearts for Daring Cardmakers

Well, it's been a pretty hectic week here, running two blogs and doing multiple posts, videos.........phew! I have thoroughly enjoyed it though, all back to normal after today, just a gently meander around blog land daily.

Here's my card for the Polkadoodles challenge this week, Hearts and Fowers is the theme, not many flowers on this, but hey, challenges are made to be challenged! Both the cards today fit the bill over on Daring Cardmakers - Hearts.

All the papers and sentiment are from the Love Cd by Polkadoodles, I printed extra hearts out, cut them out and popped them up, then added a bit of bling to each little heart to jazz it up

border punch by Martha Stewart (one is up for grabs in my blog candy, go to wednesdays post)

I love the look of tying two ribbons together


and here is my card for fancy card friday over on Holidays with the Cricut - lots of 'how to do it' photos over there


and here's another video, of the quick card I made to round off my week.........


Huge congratulations to my Funky Hand teamie, Kath, who has just become a grandma for the third time, her little granddaughter, Megan, was born yesterday.

I have been playing with my new Serenade cartridge, pop back tomorrow to see what I have been up to, and see who I am sending the heart album to....................

Heart shaped Mini Album

Today is Scrapbook Thursday over on Holidays with the Cricut, and I came up with this mini album, cut from the Sweethearts cartridge at 6"

As I said in the video, this is a bit late for Valentines day, but would make a super little wedding or anniversary card filled with photos of the happy couple, so if anybody can use it, leave your name at the end of this post, and I will pull a name out of the hat on saturday morning, be sure to leave enough information for me to identify you. I will throw in a few more goodies for you as well if you win.

I bought the Serenade cartridge online from CardCraft UK - marvellous service, I haven't used them before and would recommend them, I think I bought the last one though, as it seems to be off the site now. I see they sell pinflair glue as well, so with free shipping I will be popping back there....

This week is going by so fast, but, boy, is doing the posts on two blogs exhausting! Off to have a lie down in a darkened room now.............

See you tomorrow xx