Spring Cleaning.......

Here's a card I really like, love those little La La Land stamps, they are such fun to colour. I diecut a frame using nestability labels, and stamped a Stamping Up sentiment. 

Marci was coloured with Flexmarkers, but I forgot to take a note of the colours I used, sorry

and this is my current work in progress, the garage where I keep all my craft stuff is being painted, so it has all come into the house, and I am having a really serious clear-out. All that paper! Someone slap me if I ever talk of buying more......

Nightmare!

Back to work now, see you tomorrow....

Jubilee Blog Party

Today is the start of the Queen's jubilee week in the UK - lots of my American friends are wondering what a jubilee is - basically, she has reigned over us for sixty years, and the UK is going a bit crazy for a week to celebrate. There will be parades, parties and a lot of fun stuff going on, it makes me feel quite homesick. Over at the Making Spot, they are kicking off the celebrations with a blog party and they asked me to join in. Here's my project - I cut the crown in a pale primrose colour from Happily Ever After on my Cricut, and stuck it at an angle onto a 6" square card, then I cut away the base card around the crown shape. I added a Martha Stewart punched border, and some  sticker letters, plus a lot of bling - frankly it's a bit more Big Fat Gypsy Wedding than the restrained elegance of our monarch, but hey, it's a celebration and a bit of bling is allowed......

Do go over to the Making Spot, it's a great website, and you can get loads of free downloads from there for your crafting. The downloads that can be purchased are also 50% off this weekend, go HERE to see them


I thought I would celebrate by giving away three little prizes from the very best of British craft manufacturers - the first name out of the hat will win set 2 of the metallic markers by Letraset - go HERE to see how I used these markers

The next name out of the hat will win the fabulous Pretty Tuff CD by Polkadoodles, perfect images and papers for boys and men's cards

and the last name will win four packs of card CANDI by Craftwork Cards - 

lots of metallic glitz and shine with these colours

Just leave your name under this post, and I will use a random number thingy to select three names next Saturday, the 2nd of June. I will mail to anywhere in the world

Doodles and Flowers...

Time for another challenge over at Polkadoodles, this time we were asked to use doodling on our card, so here's my effort, all papers and images from the Sundae of Seasons CD and a nicely fraying piece of burlap

The image was printed out already coloured, what could be easier than that? I did cut some extra blooms out, and stuck them on with foam pads for a bit of dimension. The third birthday challenge, with it's massive prize is still on over on the Polkadoodles blog, take a look.......

Don't forget you have until Monday to pop your name under yesterday's post to be in with a chance of winning the metallic markers I used for my Letraset post yesterday. If you like getting inky, don't miss these. Talking of inky, the Ranger scrubbie thingy took the ink off my fingers, and half the skin as well, so now I have skinless fingers and purple toes, not an attractive look....


Some of you misunderstood my ramble about Pinterest yesterday. I LOVE Pinterest, in fact I find it addictive, and all the recipes look yummy, I just don't feel the need to rush out and buy exotic ingredients to make something new for dinner, maybe my foodie experiment days are over. I would far rather rush out and buy paper!


I'll be back tomorrow with a fun post for a weekend Jubilee party being hosted by The Making Spot, the website of Mollie Makes and Papercraft Inspirations magazine - well worth taking a look around the site, there are loads of free patterns and downloads on there. There may be a Jubilee prize up for grabs here as well. See you then

Metallic Jubilee and WIN

Two posts in one day, must be a record. My metallics post for Letraset is up on the blog HERE - I got well and truly inky. Pop over there for a look, then come back here, leave your name and I will send six of the metallic markers that I used for these projects to one of you. You will get blue, green, violet, silver, gold and red gold markers to play with. I will draw a winner on Monday. Good luck

Two for the men......

Here's a couple of men cards made with Kanban stamps and papers. I used spellbinders gears dies to make a border on the first one, covered with glossy accents, they were just right for the card

and for this one, just a simple stamped image coloured with Promarkers, a bit of stitching, and I made the sentiment look like a road sign.... 

I have been nursing a stubbed toe - who knew that tripping over my own flip flops would cause such agony! I spent yesterday evening with my foot buried in a bowl of ice, watching the very interesting colours of blue and purple appear. Random thoughts that occurred to me while I was bruise watching:

I wonder how birds sleep? If the nest is full of little birdies, where do mum and dad sleep, and if it's on a branch, why don't they fall off?

Why does anyone think that leggings are flattering? Can there possible be a more unflattering garment in the entire world than skin tight lycra which has gone baggy at the knees?

Am I the only person in the world who isn't interested in all the recipes on Pinterest?

Why do people post really personal stuff, like a message to a deceased relative on Facebook, I mean, who is going to read it? Not Auntie Mary that's for sure.....

You can see, the toe agony made me a bit grumpy...see you tomorrow x 

  

Happy Birthday Honey

Today is Polkadoodles third birthday, we are having an extra challenge this week, and a very special one. All you have to do is make a birthday card with three of something on it (ribbons, buttons, gems etc) and our favourite card will win TEN Polkadoodles CD's. In addition, there will be a CD for an entrant from the USA/Canada, another for Europe, and one for the rest of the world. So a chance to win BIG

For my card, I made a scene, using papers and images from the Sundae of Seasons CD and some memory box dies. I cut out three bees, and doodled a trail for them

and the inside of the card, with the honey pot, which I coated with Glossy Accents.......

As promised, here is Kiki on Sunday after her first Communion. 

and Monty, enjoying the party at his cousins house afterwards.......

I have been so busy for the past few days, if you have entered the May challenge, and not seen me on your blog yet, I will be hopping around very very soon. I need a few more hours in my day at the moment..

Rites of Passage

I have had a few computer problems, so I wasn't able to ask you all to support my first effort for the Letraset design team last week, it's not too late, I would love it if you could pop over and see my first effort HERE

Here's a sneak peek at what I did........

 A few rites of passage in our family this weekend, two of our little men have birthdays, Milo is three, Max is five - happy birthday poppets. Here they are playing on their new trampoline which was our gift....

and at their party, Max lost his first baby tooth - he got the idea that the tooth fairy would leave him £100. Inflation may be high, but I don't think so Max. Nice try.....

Today Kiki takes her first communion, so I am very much thinking of her, hopefully I will have a photo to share. I called her yesterday, kids are rubbish on the phone aren't they? The conversation consisted of me asking questions, and her whispering 'yes' in reply. Enjoy your special day sweetheart x

Sweet Sweet Peas

Here's a couple more quick cards I made using Craftwork Cards Sweet Pea collection. I cut an aperture in the first one with a nestability, and a frame to go around it out of the patterned and embossed cardstock. The flowers are diecuts from the collection.....

Nothing could be simpler than this next one - strips of paper cut into banner shapes, with one of the sentiments mounted onto an embossed square 

I have a huge task ahead - the garage here needs to be painted, and it's where I keep all my stuff and desk. Estimated time to clear the space, three days, estimated time to paint, three hours. It will be a chance for me to have a good clear-out and reorganize stuff, so if anyone has some brilliant storage ideas, let me know. The bane of my life is ribbon....

Puns intended...

When I made these cards, I planned to make six cards with punny sentiments to give as a little gift to a friend, but I ran out of steam/time halfway through, so the others will have to wait. They were all made with the Farm Animals set by Kanban

This is a useful little stamp set, the animals don't take much colouring, always a bonus for quick cards.


Overheard in a shop today:
"Her wedding colours are black and orange. I have to make a black cake, they are going to have a couple sitting on a motorbike on the top of it"
thoughtful silence.......
"she will look hideous"


Patio set, dent free and with all screws in place, taking pride of place on the patio. I may even take a photo of it, I am so relieved/exhausted/happy - all in equal measures!

My News.....

I have to share with you, Letraset have put together a design team, and it includes me. I am super pumped about it, but a bit apprehensive as well, because the others are very, very talented, and do amazing stuff with their pro and flex markers - go HERE to get to the blog, and do pop over and see Debbi, Jac and Jessica to see for yourselves why I am nervous! There will be a couple of posts every month from all of us, and look out for some tutorials and tips along the way as well. (I will be picking up a few tips myself)

On to today's card, I made this for Kanban, I paper pieced this Urban Belle stamp with one of their fabulous animal print cardstocks, the sentiment is animal print as well 

 

We have had a hair raising few days, remember me droning on about the broken patio chairs? Well, unrepairable. The following saga has been edited, otherwise today's post would be as long as War and Peace, and you would nod off into your coffee....

Bought a new set online from Home Depot. Tracked it across America as it made it's way to Florida from California. Huge 18 wheel truck arrived and delivered three huge boxes (you could house about six homeless people in just one of them)

Table and chairs cleverly packed like a jigsaw, and wrapped in about three miles of protective wrapping which had to be peeled off....... two hours later, chairs done, on to the table

Placed reverently face down on the carpet, another miserable happy hour with lost screws, pinched fingers......

FINALLY the big moment. Ta da......finished........turn the table over to admire......

HUGE, MASSIVE dents all over the top

Long boring saga about spending half a day on the phone trying to get money back/damaged goods picked up

Another half a day trawling around looking for another set. Got it (I won't bore you with the hair raising ride down US 19 in a hired truck), unwrapped, yawn yawn (have you dropped off yet?). Table fine, a pity the factory in China didn't think to drill holes in the chairs to take the screws they so kindly gave us in triple wrapped polythene........

So there we have it, or rather don't have it - again. Third time lucky?

See you tomorrow   

Shades of Blue

The challenge over on Polkadoodles this week is to make a card using shades of the same colour, so I picked this adorable baby image from the Sundae of Seasons CD, the paper was printed from the CD as well. The letters were white chipboard that I coloured with a pastel blue Promarker. Scallop edge card from Craftwork Cards - if you love a challenge, hop over and join us, we would love to visit your blog to see your creation

I saw the same lady today, with her pink frilly dog carrier and the cat cage. Not in Dunkin Donuts this time, she was just getting into a car outside some shops. So probably not a vet visit then, she obviously takes her zoo pets out for a breath of fresh air every day. I have a feeling that fat marmalade cat would prefer to stay at home, he/she looked totally fed up! I smiled and said hello today, so if I see her again I will stop and admire the zoo pets, and get the lowdown on her routine. People are constantly fascinating!

The crafty garage is in frenzy mode, I have twenty four cards to make for various projects, all with deadlines, all have to be a bit special. The air has been the same colour as my baby card above........

Damask Diva

I made this one with the Damask Diva stamp set by Kanban. All the cardstock and the pretty frame are by Kanban as well. I paper pieced her dress to match the background paper...

Seen in Dunkin Donuts today, a woman with a very very small dog in a little pink frilly basket, (I've seen mice bigger than that dog,) and a very very big fat marmalade cat in a cage. A vet trip maybe? Haven't a clue, but they were both set on the table, and seemed to  enjoy their donuts, especially the big fat cat! Funnily enough, every time the tiny dog squeaked (I think it was barking), the big fat cat scuttled in terror to the back of it's travel cage. It just shows, sometimes size isn't everything....

WOYWW

Time for another amble around the craft desks of the world, it's WOYWW (what's on your workdesk Wednesday) courtesy of Julia, it's great fun, and I have time to join in this week so here we go.......

Do you remember that when I got back to the US, I had lots of parcels from Blitzy waiting for me? I stocked up with Tim Holtz stuff (I have just taken his Creative Chemistry online classes), their prices were too good to miss. The problem was, what on earth was I going to do with them all. I trawled around Walmart, Michaels, Jo-Anns etc etc, nothing really grabbed me, then I found this fabric shelf thingy in Bed Bath and Beyond (on clearance) and you can see, everything fits perfectly

I used my dymo label maker to label all the inks..........

room for the distress stickles and embossing powders as well.......

I haven't got room for one of those twirly things for the foam applicators, so I just put a velcro dot on top of the unit, and stuck some foam pads onto that, so I can just peel them off when I want one. I have one for each colour family, not enough room for each ink to have it's own pad, but hey, Lord Tim just uses one for each colour family as well, and if it's good enough for him......

When I was doing my search around Michaels, I noticed a bin labeled 'grab bags $2. Well, of course, I grabbed. When I got it home there were six 12 x 12 stacks inside, total retail value $95! Result! I was as happy as Larry all day. (who was Larry, and why was he happy? Anyone know?)

See you tomorrow

May Challenge

Time for another challenge. This month, the two winners will each get a set of six Letraset metallic markers. One set for my favourite card/project of the month, and one to a winner picked by random number generator. Thank you Letraset for sponsoring the challenge (you will LOVE these markers, gorgeous metallic sheen, and the colours are lovely too)

So the challenge this month is:

Things with Wings

You can use any image or die cut, as long as there are wings on something, so break out those butterflies, ladybugs and bees. Here's what I came up with - image by Nellie Snellen 

Not many rules. You can enter as often as you like but no backlinking to older posts on your blogs please, the projects must be new ones made for the challenge. Please link back here from your blog post. If you don't have a blog, you can still enter, put your photo in photobucket or similar and link from that, or if all else fails, email me with your photo and I will put it on here for you. The challenge will be open until May 31st.


Good luck x

By email from Marlene Killey

by Marlene Killey via email

From Dean by Email

From Dean by email

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Auto-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
For best results, use HTML mode to edit this section of the post.

Winners of April's challenge

With so many lovely cards to choose from, it was so hard to pick a favourite again, but I really loved all the layering detail on this card by

Cebelica

Congrats, you are my pick of the month!

and the entry picked by random generator was this cute card by

Crafting Vicky

Congrats to you both. You need to go over to Letraset's site to choose which of the collectors sets you would like, then email me with your address and telephone number

Look what came in the mail on Friday, this lovely parcel of goodies from a very faithful blog friend, Sandy Bayles, she made this lovely card, put in some beautiful butterflies and as for the stamp set....well, could anything be more perfect?

Thank you so much Sandy xx

I have been a bit tardy about blogging this weekend - I've had a bit of a crisis. Back in April I posted a magazine commission of four cards. I heard last week  that they never arrived...........gulp. Of course the tracking number is somewhere back in the UK. All was not lost, I had taken photos of the cards before packing them up, and stayed up until silly-o-clock  to reproduce them. Sigh, all done now. Note to postal service, PLEASE don't lose them again

I'll be back tomorrow with the new challenge

More Memory Box

I bought a couple more Memory Box dies (from an online seller called Frantic Stamper, good prices and quick delivery). You may find these dies listed under Poppy Stamps, they are a sister company to Memory Box apparently. The grass border is fun, I used white cardstock and coloured it with Promarkers. I embossed a piece of very pale pink card with an oval embossed window by Papermania UK and attached with foam pads, after cutting out the center with an oval nestability. The tree fits perfectly in the frame

Difficult to photograph the embossing, this shows it a little better....... the tree was cut in white and coloured with markers also 

The tiny flowers were made with the
Martha Stewart hydrangea punch, I
cut them in the pale pink card and
added some deeper pink to the
centers with a dusky pink Promarker
then added a tiny pearl to the
center of each bloom










 Pop back tomorrow for the results of last months challenge, I will post the new challenge for May at the weekend - Letraset are offering two more super prizes for the winners, so get your crafty hats on......