Another Grandma Card

Here's another grandma card, made for last month's edition of Papercraft Inspirations magazine

The stamp is by Lili of the Valley - coloured with promarkers, but made a while ago so I didn't make a note of the colours used, sorry. The lettering is black glitter letter stickers by Making Memories and the punch used is by Martha Stewart

I had a mini coffee shop experience yesterday. A man came to my table, pushing a woman in a wheelchair. He left her to go and get coffee. Engrossed in my paper, I looked up, caught her eye and smiled

'I can walk you know' she announced - well no, I didn't know since I had never seen her before in my life

'Oh.........................good' I replied (well, what else could I say?)

It turned out that she got 'very tired' shopping, so they always used her (late) mother's wheelchair, and she hopped in it, he pushed her around, he reckoned it kept him fit! I don't think it did much good for his wife's fitness levels though.

Can you credit it? God gave her two perfectly good legs and she prefers to sit in a wheelchair.

He came out with the coffee, I looked very carefully, but I didn't see any sign of a halo, mind you, I didn't see a tattoo saying 'stupid' on his forehead either.....

See you tomorrow

Scrapbooking.........

A picture heavy post today - since I haven't been near my craft desk for over a week now, I am sharing some of the scrapbook pages from the book I made for my daughter Alexandra. I am not really a scrapbooker, but enjoy doing the odd project. These pages were done 18 months ago, the book was a surprise for Christmas, she loved it. Looking at the pages now, I would probably do them a bit differently, but all things considered, I was pleased with it.

Here's her page of her university graduation, I used her university colours, the font used was the Stamped cartridge, the small sentiments are rub-ons and the photo is a bit blurry for some reason........

this is her school days page, with those photos that kids have taken each year, the apples were cut from Doodlecharms, I chalked them in red and covered them in glossy accents....... the tiny photo inserted in the D of the word DAYS was taken on her first day at school. Another Cricut font, roly poly from Plantin Schoolbook this time.


This next one tells a story, she had a beloved koala bear toy called Bobby, that her dad brought back from Australia. My mum taught her to knit, and she made Bobby a little yellow scarf. At the end of our first transatlantic flight to Florida when she was just 5 years old, disaster struck and Bobby was lost. All she had left was the little yellow scarf.......the child was distraught. The next day we let her choose any toy she wanted, and she chose the penguin, which she called Ronald Regan (yes, she was only five!). Ronnie wore the scarf, but it wasn't Bobby...... The next time Mike went on a business trip to Australia, he bought back a replacement Bobby, but he just wasn't quite right, a bit too tall, not quite so fluffy......she still talks about her loss! So this page is all about that, I dug the two replacements out of the attic, and took a photo of them for the page. The koala was cut from either zooballoo or animal kingdom, the silhouette lettering is done with the George cartridge


And this page has a photo she took of herself with her mobile phone, when she was camping at Glastonbury (a music festival). I loved it, and had to use it in her book. The cork tiles list all her interests, I stuck them on in quite a random way, I didn't want them marching in a straight line across the page........

and here is Kiki on Saturday in her bridesmaids outfit - the tiny bridesmaids had flowers and butterfly trails in pink and silver painted on their faces, very different, and so pretty.......

Here is Max getting ready to help Daddy cook the barbecue lunch after his baby brother's Christening..... he is at the age when he gets his pronouns mixed up 'Me are very handsome today Ma' he said when dressed in his new clothes for the special occasion......

and here is baby Beatrix, isn't she adorable?

last, but definitely not least, here's the newly Christened little Milo, who was just faintly bemused by the whole thing

So a real family post today, I was so busy taking care of Monty that I didn't take a photo of that little chap, sorry Monty, but we did have fun didn't we?
Back to the craft desk now, see you tomorrow

Polkadoodles fairy

Here's a Polkadoodles fairy Christmas card that I made as a sample for Nikky - she shows the Polkadoodles CD's and products on Create and Craft in the UK. I used papers from the Jingle Jangles CD, and the image was printed from the CD as well. The border punch is Martha Stewart

As write this I am in London, babysitting Monty today whilst his parents and big sister are at a wedding. So far, every time he looks at me he bursts into tears, doesn't bode well for the rest of the day!

Then tomorrow we have Milo's christening, big family get-together, should be a lot of fun

I'll be back on monday

Vintage for Polkadoodles

I totally forgot to post my card for Polkadoodles last Friday, with all the blog candy stuff going on. Here it is - the theme this week is

Vintage

I used the gorgeous little girl stamp, I think she has a very retro look to her. The rest of the card was kept quite plain, with no pattern paper, just a cuttlebug panel, lots of sepia inking, and a crushed velvet ribbon, tied with brown gingham, and a couple of sepia leaf shaped beads......

I stamped her onto watercolour paper, and coloured her with aquamarkers
Here's a new photo of two of my little darlings, Kiki and Monty, taken when they visited me at home last week.

and here is the only photo I took of the Lake District, Lake Windermere, taken from the car, I was all geared up to take some fantastic shots to show you, took this one, and up popped the message on my camera screen

Battery exhausted

Battery exhausted? It had nothing on me I can tell you.......................................

The Lakes are all about outstanding natural beauty, walking and hiking. I have been there many many times, why then did I decide that the only shoes to take with me were a pair of flip flops and a comfortable pair of silver leather flatties, (well, I thought they were comfortable, but of course, they had only been put to the test walking around John Lewis and Marks and Spencer prior to their little jaunt to the Lakes - American readers, think Macy's and Target). So there I was, strolling around the villages in these ridiculous shoes, with everyone else stomping around looking comfortable and appropriate in their walking boots and essential gnarled walking sticks, hand carved from a piece of ancient oak.
Luckily Anne and I didn't plan to do any fell walking, if we had, I would probably be the first person in history to do so in silver leather........ why do I sometimes get it so very wrong?
I had a wonderful time though, silly shoes or not - thank you Anne x

Belated Birthday.....

Can Mahuntington and Mustavcoffee email me with their address

You won!

Here's a card I made with Wall Decor - I had this little sentiment stamp from Stampin Up, and matched the two up. I cut the light fitting at 3", in black, then a gemstone pearly cardstock, then again in a pattern from Que Sera by K & Co - I just cut out the lampshades from that cut to give a bit of contrast.

I used the Martha Stewart round the page punch for the squares, to tell the truth I am not to keen on these punches, I mainly use them for borders. I find the fact that you have to use specific sizes very restrictive. Here, I started off with a 3 1/2" square, and a 5" square before punching

I am still in the Lakes as you read this - this post has been scheduled, if Mr Bloggy doesn't throw a wobbly and mess up my posts. Back tomorrow with tales of my travels

Grandad Card

Here's another Papercraft Inspirations card. The stamp is by Penny Black, cardstock is core-dinations, and I forgot to make a note of the Promarker colours I used - slap wrists.... I just cut two narrow slivers of the blue card and stuck them down each side of the green layer, the 'brads' are card candy from Craftwork Cards.

We had our daughter-in-law Annabel visiting last week with Kiki and Monty. It was such a joy to spend time with them. We headed down to Bicester Village one day - a very upmarket outlet mall, selling serious designer stuff - Jimmy Choo, Vivienne Westwood, Mulberry, Dior - you get the picture. Even at outlet prices you can only gasp at the price tags. So we were browsing in L'Occitane (selling soaps, body lotions and so on), sniffing the samples and comparing the different scents.

'Can I help you?' asked an assistant

Before we could answer, Kiki (age 6) turned to her and said in a very gracious way

'We're not buying, we're only smelling'

That kid is a trip!

Sketch Challenge - Craftwork Cards

Time for another sketch challenge over at Craftwork Cards - if you love sketches, why not join us on this one?

It is quite a busy sketch, and I wondered at first how I was going to get on with it, but I liked the end result....

I used Ivory and Navy colours for this. The papers are all from Craftwork cards of course, the photo corners are simply 2" squares cut diagonally in half. The leafy corners were cut from the Storybook cartridge at 2".

I cut around four of the flowers on the patterned paper. Everything was popped off the card with foam pads. The sentiment circle was put inside a great little frame - I found these in Poundland (a UK shop similar to the dollar stores in the USA). I got six vintage looking 'metal' frames, which are as light as a feather, all for £1. I do love a bargain.


As you read this, I am in the Lake District for a couple of days, far away from any sort of internet connection - I will be back..............................................

Blog Candy Winners

I used random.org to pick the winners, and started to take photos of all the screens, but I was getting so hot and bothered trying to do this, that I gave up trying to be technical and I am just listing the winners

Here we go...............

There are going to be some happy people, and some who think 'darn it, I never win' (that would be me as well :) I wish I could send you ALL something, but I will be having my annual 'best of both worlds' blog candy soon, with a selection of UK products for USA/Canadian followers, and the reverse for the Europeans. Should be fun, I better go shopping.

Drum Roll.....................

Funky Hand Colour Me Happy CD - winner is Sharon (MeeMees Creations blog)

Polkadoodles Creative Christmas Templates CD - Mustavcoffee (Crafty Musings blog)

Polkadoodles Jingle Jangles CD - Kristie Maynard

Scrappy-Go-Lucky's SCAL softweare - Icardcreator (Diane)

Promarkers - Mahuntington (MaryAnn)

QVC and Urban Belles - Glen (no blog or email address)

MS Glitter pack - Sue (Scoopy's Stuff blog)

If you can all email me with your address please - enfysc@yahoo.co.uk

Don't panic if you don't hear back for a couple of days, I am heading to the Lake district until Wednesday, far away from internet connections and computers, I will be in touch later in the week

Congrats to you all, and thanks to everyone for a fun week, I have loved hearing from you all x

Saturday Giveaway - Enfys

Here is the last giveaway (for now)

A set of 12 Martha Stewart Tinsel Glitter

This is from me xx

As always, I will mail anywhere

I was going to make a glittery card for today's post, but ran out of steam and time, but I had to make this card.............

We have a new baby in the family

My stepdaughter Emma had a baby girl yesterday

Beatrix Imola

20th August

Congratulations and much love Emma and Fergus, can't wait to meet her xx

So I grabbed the cute Lili of the Valley baby stamp and this time used pink of course

I used two different Martha punches for the borders. The sentiment stamp is a Studio G. Coloured with my beloved Promarkers.




All you have to do to enter today's giveaway is leave a comment under this post.

I will be turning the old random generator red-hot tomorrow to draw the winners, and will post them on here later in the day

I hope you have all enjoyed this week, I just wish I could give you ALL something, I really value your support.

Huge thanks as well to the sponsors of this week's prizes - Anice of Funky Hand, Nikky of Polkadoodles, Mandy of Scrappy-go-Lucky, Simon of Letraset, and Natalie of QVC - I think you can all see how much everyone enjoys your products.


Good luck

See you tomorrow x

Friday Giveaway - QVC

Today's giveaway is sponsored by QVC

The winner will get

A Craft Caddy

and

A Set of Kanban Urban Belles Stamps

As usual, I will mail to anywhere in the world

You will get this fabulous craft caddy, it has five layers, each with a clear plastic box with compartments, so it is perfect for storing all those small items that we all have - brads, eyelets, beads, buttons. There are enough compartments in each box for you to sort your brads etc out by colour, and because the boxes are clear, you can see at a glance where everything is

Plus, I am giving away the clear stamp set (three stamps as shown) that I used for today's cards

These cute girls are from a set of six called

Christmas Urban Belles

Although, as you will see, most of these stamps can be used year round

Here's my first card, the papers are by QVC as well, when you order the stamps you also get 24 A5 printed cardstock, the scallop circle was cut on the cricut using Lacy Labels (at 5")

The image was coloured with promarkers

Skin blush, soft peach
hair buttercup and vanilla

clothes powder blue, denim blue and pastel pink

I thought it would be fun to show you how the same stamp can be used for Christmas cards - perfect for a 'tweenager' in your family I think

I stamped the holly (part of the set), cut it out and put it in her hair. I added glitter here and there

Promarkers used :Skin and hair as before

Clothes crimson and magenta

Shadowing ice grey 2
Papers by QVC as before

I can't bear to give away all the stamps, so I am keeping one of the sets for myself, expect to see the belles on here again very soon - in fact, I thought what a great Christmas present for a crafty friend, if you buy the set, you get two packs with three stamps in each, give one, keep one..........

In case you don't get lucky, the product code for the stamps is 589848

All you have to do is leave a comment under this post

Good luck

Come back tomorrow for my last giveaway day

Thursday Giveaway - Letraset

The winner of today's prize will receive TWO sets of markers from Letraset

12 Promarkers

and

12 Aquamarkers

I will mail to anywhere

What are Promarkers? Well, they have taken the crafting world by storm here in the UK, and are just moving into the North American market, so expect to hear a lot more about them

In a nutshell, they are alcohol markers (like Copics), with a bullet nib that I much prefer over the Copic brush (easier to colour in those teensy little bits) and the really happy news is that, although you are getting a top quality ink, they are very very affordable. You can get the pens for about $1.50 in the USA (CarpeDiem sells them online, and there is a link to the distributor on my sidebar, with a chart of all the colours), and if you look under labels on my sidebar, there is a video of me using them

The aquamarkers are by the same company, and are water based markers, like the Tombow or Stampin Up markers

Here's a new baby card - this is for Nettie, one of my team mates from Polkadoodles, who has just had a baby boy called Blake. Congratulations Nettie, and welcome to the world little Blake

The image is by Lili of the Valley, coloured with Promarkers

Skin - blush and soft peach

clothes - pastel blue, powder blue and vanilla

Shadowed with ice grey 1
Papers - Craftwork Cards

Sentiment - Marcella for K & Co - Promarker midnight blue used for the sentiment

This next card was coloured using the Aquamarkers. Another Lili of the Valley image, the effect is 'sketchier' and quite arty. You can use a water brush to blend the colours.
The scallops were cut with Plantin schoolbook cartridge
Papers My Minds Eye



To win these super markers, leave a comment under this post. Be sure to leave your name so that I can identify you if you win - I will throw in a few stamped images to get you started
Come back tomorrow for a gift from QVC (UK)
See you then x

Wednesday Giveaway - Scrappy-Go-Lucky

Today's giveaway is from Scrappy-go-Lucky, an online store that has stores in Australia, the USA and UK, and carries everything you need for your Cricut

Pop over there, there is a fun blog with lots of inspiration, Mandy the owner is a very talented scrapper and frequently posts videos, which I know a lot of you love

So today a lucky winner will get

Sure Cuts a Lot

All you Cricut lovers out there who have been waiting to try this programme, here's your chance

Scrappy-go-Lucky sell the Cri-Kits pens for the Cricut, and this is what I used to make my first card today. I drew the hive and branch from the Pooh and Friends cartridge at 5" in black pen, then hit 'load paper' and changed the pen for the cutting blade, then hit cut.

I coloured the image with my Promarkers, I love doing this, as you get a lot more depth to the cuts than you do with just cutting out the various colour cardstocks and piecing together. The elements were put on the card with foam pads, and I doodled a bee trail around the edge of the card
I covered the honey with glossy accents, and put glitter on the wings of the bees. Papers are by Martha Stewart


Next, I made a card using Old West. This pocket cut is really strange, I think it is meant to be a gift card holder or something, but I just wanted to use the pocket with the stitching lines. The white stitches were drawn with a white signo pen, the pocket was cut at 4 1/2", and again at 4 3/4". I found the hammer on Paper Dolls and cut them at 2" - I used glossy accents on the hammer heads. I bought the Old West cartridge for the fonts, they have a couple of great ones on there, including a rope font, and one that looks as if it's made out of wood. This is a great cartridge for male cards.
The sentiment is a clear sticker by Papermania UK, I love these, they make great little labels for this sort of cut



Lastly I used my favourite cartridge at the moment - from Scrappy-go-Lucky - Wall Decor and More
Those of you on the fence about this cartridge, take a good look at the handbook and rush to get it, it is one of the most versatile cartridges I have ever owned.
The shoes were cut at 4" (base) in the mink brown colour, then again (shift) in duckegg. I ran the duckegg pieces through the cuttlebug to add texture, a triple border was punched and layered (Martha Stewart), and I added a lot of bling

Leave your comment under this post to be in with a chance of winning the SCAL

Be sure to come back tomorrow to try for the Letraset (Promarkers) prize

Good Luck

Tuesday Giveaway - Polkadoodles

A CD for two winners today, courtesy of Nikky of Polkadoodles

one of you will get

Jingle Jangle

and the other will get

Creative Christmas

You don't have to choose which you would like if you win, that would make it complicated for me, just enter your comment, I guarantee that whoever gets either one of these will love it

Let's look at Jingle Jangles first, I couldn't resist posting this little tag book again, that I made for my son and his wife last Christmas, all the papers and elements, including those fab letter stickers are from the Jingle Jangle CD - they loved it

And here is a card I made this week, Polly Polkadoodle all decked out for Christmas. The image was already coloured, but if you prefer, you can print them out in black and white to colour yourself, just like a stamp
How about a Christmas tree shaped word book? The template is there for you.............

Need coordinating tags and sentiments?........................




Look at these wonderful card toppers, you could make elegant cards so quickly and easily with these......


Next we have Creative Christmas, which is a collection of creative templates for scrapbooking, cardmaking or 3D papercrafting. Each template has coordinating backing papers and digi stamps
I used the Polar bear, already coloured for this card. I simply printed out, cut him out and added some glossy accents to his nose and a pom pom on his hat
The sentiment tag was already printed, I cut it out and attached with foam pads.
I know that someone will ask about the embossing folder, it's called Snow and is made for Kars in the UK





Screenshot of just some of the backing papers.......

Need a sentiment? You can actually type your own on the sentiment tags in Adobe, then print out

So you could write

Merry Christmas from the Jones family (well, you could if your surname is Jones :)

- what an idea for personalised cards this Christmas

The designs are modern and trendy.... you will love them

So there you go, leave a comment on this post for your name to go in the draw. Winners will be announced on Sunday

Good luck