Poppies and Tulips.......

Here are a couple more cards made with some of my new Memory Box dies - tulips and poppies. As always, I cut them in white and coloured with Promarkers. The shaped card bases and sentiments are by Craftwork Cards

I will be sorting out the challenge entries for this month over the weekend, winners on Monday, new challenge on Tuesday

Be sure to pop over to the Papercraft Inspirations magazine website to get links to twelve beautiful blogs - all chosen by me! See the cards that inspired me to choose the blogs in this month's magazine


When I go to my craft group on a Thursday, I call to see if anyone wants anything from Dunkin Donuts. Armed with the order, I went to the drive through.....
One medium hot coffee with cream and two sweet and low please
Do you want sugar in that?
No! Two sweet and low
Okay, anything else?
One large hot caramel latte and one large iced caramel latte, both with whipped cream please
Okay, so that's two medium hot caramel lattes with whipped cream?
NO.......................................(repeat order)
Okay, anything else?
One large iced green tea
Okay, so that's a large hot coffee with sugar, two iced caramel lattes, one large hot green tea?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.................(repeat order in irritated voice)
Pull up and we'll bring your order out
So, ever obedient, I pull up and wait, and wait, and wait....eventually a youth comes out carrying........I can't be bothered to type it all out again, let's just say it was 90% wrong. So back he goes and I wait, and wait and wait......
Eventually he comes out with the right order. Hurrah!
'sorry about the wait' said the hapless youth ' but you talk kind of funny!'

June Challenge

For the June challenge click HERE, this post will stay at the top until June 30th, scroll down for today's post

Way to Go.....

Here's a Cricut card for today, the problem is I can't for the life of me remember the cartridge I used. Anyone know? I used a Craftwork Cards scallop card base and a dot of candi on the exclamation mark. The balloon layer was cut in white and coloured with Promarkers.........

The bite is healing nicely, I am all dried out from the river drama, although we have had a huge tropical storm here - 7 inches of rain in one day! 

I have exciting news for those of you in the USA, you can now buy Aquamarkers and Metallic Markers by Letraset in Michaels. The aquamarkers are $14.99 a pack and you can use a coupon! See how I used them HERE

They are in the artists aisle with the pens and pencils.........

I am really behind with stuff this week, I have some emailed entries to the challenge to put on the blog, if you have emailed me, don't worry I haven't forgotten, they will be done in the next day or so

See you tomorrow...

Pretty Flowers.....

Here's another Memory Box card, I used the birdcage and a new fuchsia die. It's really pretty and has nice tendrils, so it was perfect to wind around the birdcage. I cut them in white as usual, and coloured with Promarkers. I cut a bunch, and layered three blossoms onto each stem, so they are very dimensional. The background was done with a Martha round the page punch, and the shaped base card and sentiment is by Craftwork Cards

Since I last wrote, I have nearly drowned, and been eaten alive by mosquitoes!  We took our friends for a canoe trip on the river. I was in a kayak with my friend Anne. So we paddled around a bend to find three canoes abreast, and in trying to avoid them, crashed into the bank. We pushed hard with our paddles to get the boat off again, and it flipped. We were deposited unceremoniously into deep water, came up gasping and both went down again.......to join the rest of the contents of the kayak; towels, flip flops, sun cream all at the bottom. The guys in the three canoes came to help us and dived for the towels etc. So there we were, sodden, shocked and by this time hysterical, especially when a very nice man came paddling back upstream, against the current yelling that he had found a sandal - shame it wasn't one of ours! The rest of the trip was a nightmare, we had lost the bug spray, so we were attacked by mozzies as we sat there dripping and defenceless. To cap it all, one of the bites on my leg has got infected. Please remind me of this if I ever talk about going on the river again, try to persuade me to take up knitting instead........

Flexmarker Giveaway

Here's another chance to win some  Flexmarkers. All you have to do is pop over to the Letraset blog HERE, and leave a comment on my watercolour post, then pop back here to leave your name. I will draw a winner on Thursday next week. This set is the lovely set 2, my favourite, as it is perfect for skin and hair colouring, you will get twelve lovely markers and a blender pen. Good luck.....

Here's a peep at what I was getting up to with the Aquamarkers.......

and a peep at what else I have been getting up to.........

but today is time for some serious crafting, the jobs are piled up, glue gun at the ready....see you later

Wedding Mini Album

I have been busy making a wedding album for some young friends who got married in an English country garden style wedding last month. The base book is MDF that I picked up at a craft show in the NEC, so it is quite sturdy. I covered all the pages in variations of the wedding colours - lilac, green and white, and brushed all the edges with Martha Stewart pearl white acrylic paint. The letters on the front of the book were cut from Plantin Schoolbook on the cricut, and I tied ribbons and string onto the binding rings.......

their wedding ceremony page........

and a double page showing all the lovely little details from the wedding, the tiny banners pick up the theme of handmade banners at the wedding, and say 'it's all in the detail'.......

and a page showing the gorgeous country garden flower arrangements, I used Memory Box dies to dress it up, and the fence is by Martha Stewart

It kept me busy for quite a while, these books always take far longer to make than I plan for!


I am busy working on Halloween/Christmas cards for a magazine - difficult to get in the mood when it is 33 degrees outside (92 F). I tried a Christmas CD, but it sounded very silly to be crooning along to 'chestnuts roasting by an open fire' so now all my ghosts and spiders and santas are metaphorically wearing their flip flops!

Chillax!

Here's another coffee card, made with the Thanks a Latte Cricut cartridge. I cut the latte mug at 4", added some bead sprinkles and a button for a cherry. The sentiment is a Studio G one I picked up ages ago, I notice it is creeping more into the vernacular now - even the Prime Minister is said to enjoy his chillax time.........

Talking of chillax, that's what I have been doing. Today we went down to St Petersburg to the Salvador Dali museum. I have been many times before, but they have a fabulous new building - I forgot my camera, so this photo is off their website.  As well as being reminded about Dali's life, I learnt a few important lessons:


1. He was as mad as a box of frogs!
2. There is no Dunkin Donuts between our house and St Petersburg
3. Being asked for the zillionth time if I know someone's aunt/penpal/cousin who lives in Staffordshire/Scotland/London/Birmingham gets a bit boring after a while
4. There is something very uplifting about lots of sparkly blue water and sunshine - we ended the day in Hurricanes on the Pass a Grille beach. Lovely!


See you tomorrow, with some photos of a project that's been keeping me busy when I am not chillaxing.........and I promise that's the last time I use that ridiculous word  

Flexmarker winner and anyone for coffee?

Sorry I am late posting the winner of the Flemarkers, time has run away with me this week. I used a random generator, which came up with

SUCOR 

as the winner. Congratulations. Email me and I will get the markers in the post to you.

A coffee card today, I realised that I HAD to have the Love you a Latte Cricut Lite cartridge about a year ago, moved mountains to get it and have never used it. Oops. So here is my first offering. I wanted to make a card that I could enclose a coffee gift card, so I stitched around the panel, but left the right hand side open so that I could slip in an insert........

I ran the band through a corrugator, and embossed the heart.......

and the insert is just a simple card with a stitched pocket that is just big enough for a gift card. I cut a scallop circle and a plain circle to make a 'pull' tab for the insert.......

I have been busy doing stuff with our friends from the UK this week, we visited Homossassa wildlife park to see the manatees, and today we lazed around on the beach of Honeymoon Island, so not much time to craft


I must share a conversation between my son Edward and his three year old son, Milo. They were expecting friends for lunch last weekend......


Ed: Don't forget to share your toys Milo, and always say please and thank you - what must you say? 


Milo: Can I have my toys back ....... please?


 

Tissue box get well....

When I was looking for the jigsaw pieces for Monty's birthday card, I spotted this rather strange little cut on the My Community cartridge. It's a oval shaped label, and I cut it out just to see what it looked like, I thought it could be a useful shape to stamp sentiments on......

I then thought that it looked just like the opening in a box of tissues, here's what I came up with. The tissue is a real one, manipulated a bit and folded into shape. The sentiment is stampin up. Scallop card base and candi by Craftwork Cards

We have friends staying with us for a couple of weeks, so I am taking a bit of a holiday myself, to sightsee with them, and do touristy things, but I will be sneaking to my crafty desk whenever I can. I'll be back with the Flexxmarker winner tomorrow

See you then

Happy Birthday Little Man

Today is our littlest grandbaby Monty's third birthday. Happy Birthday sweetheart! Here is his card, very clean and simple, just the way his parents like it, but with plenty of colour for him. The jigsaw pieces are cut from My Community with the Cricut. Black letter stickers are by Papermania UK

and this is what happens when his seven year old sister asks if she can use face paints on him.......he doesn't look very happy does he? Love the Groucho Marx eyebrows!

You still have plenty of time to put your name down for the Flexmarker giveaway, see yesterday's post.

I almost thought I was back home in the UK today, torrential rain all day, with some pretty spectacular thunder and lightning, then I spotted the difference, it was still warm even in the rain. So it can't be the UK then, we NEVER have warm rain......

Flexmarker Giveaway

It's my turn to do the post over on the Letraset Blog today, and I am giving away a set of twelve Flexmarkers plus a blender pen to one of you. I am going to make you work for this one, go over to the Letraset blog and leave a comment, then pop back over here to leave your name under this post. Easy! I will draw a winner on Tuesday, and as usual I will mail to anywhere in the world. Good luck x

WOYWW

Time for another browse around the craft spaces of the world, yes, it's WOYW Wednesday again (what's on your workdesk?), hosted by Julia, pop over there to join in the fun. Before I show you my lovely, nice clean space, here is a card I made using Memory Box dies (tree and flowers), Martha Stewart round the page punch, and a little fence cut from the Bloom Cricut cartridge. The sentiment is Craftwork Cards.  

I cut the tree in white and coloured it with ProMarkers. The tiny white flowers, all with a pearl center, are the 'waste' circles you get with a hole punch. I love using those for tiny blooms

Ta da....here is my newly arranged and freshly painted garage with all the stuff put back in a nice logical order. Spot the new epoxy floor, which will be easy to keep clean

I love my new ribbon rack, picked up at Jo-Anns with a 50% coupon, so it was only $15, bargain. I probably need another one as well, I have a lot of ribbon. My shelf thing that I bought for all my new distress inks has to go under that, I have to move it over if I am doing inky things. I discovered that if I had it on my table and I was doing stuff like cranking the Cuttlebug, it shook so much that all the inks fell out! 

I reorganised all my plastic chests, and have put dymo labels on each draw to show the contents. The trouble was, in the Florida humidity, they all peeled off, so I had to get a tube of super glue to stick them on again. Trouble was, I stuck all my fingers together as well, so that in the end my hands resembled giant lobster claws. Then I was like a giant snake shedding it's skin for a couple of days, as I picked the glue off...

Thanks........

This card is perfect for today, because I want to say thank you to all those who enthusiastically bought cards from me yesterday, sight unseen, it's a bit of a giant leap, and I am humbled that so many of you were happy to buy cards from me without seeing the goods. One of you said 'I'm excited! It will be like Christmas morning when they arrive' A couple of you were buying them to give as gifts for their mums, and one of you was buying some for her Dad who lives alone, she is adding them to his Fathers day gift, what a thoughtful idea, and what a lovely bunch you are. I hope they are pleased with them. To see what all this is about, click on the 'cards for sale' button above.....

A couple of you asked if I was bundling every card, including the window box ones. Yes, I have had a total clearout, newer cards plus some which were posted earlier. In future I am going to hold monthly sales of individual cards, what do you think?  

I still have about five bundles of ten cards left, including one with this card in it. The image is by Penny Black, the banner punch is by Nellie Snellen available from Scrappy-go-Lucky, base card is by Craftwork Cards, coloured with ProMarkers 

 
That big fat cheeky cat always makes me smile..........

Did you know it was National Donut Day the other day? Neither did I until I popped into Dunkin for my fix coffee and they gave me one for free. Whatever next? National Grill Yourself a Burger day? National Popcorn Day? Perhaps I should look at the calender and start making cards to celebrate these iconic  days. Or even better, I've just had a brilliant idea, perhaps I could start a trend and start decorating the house with giant donuts, it could catch on. In five years time, just as you are wearily lugging the Memorial Day flags into the attic, it will be time to get out the giant illuminated donuts that sit on the lawn.... (don't worry about the expense, Jo-Anns will be  selling them for 75% off  for a month before the big day, just like all the other holidays .....) the more I think about this, the more I think that this is my chance to leave a lasting legacy. Don't forget, next time you are hanging up cute little windchimes shaped like donuts, you heard it here first.........

My First Ever Card Sale and winners of Jubilee goodies

First things first, I am having a big sale of my cards, click on the 'cards for sale' button above to see the details. If you are an email subscriber, you will need to click on the Going Buggy link at the top of your email, which will bring you over to the blog. 

Next, to the winners of the Jubilee giveaways, thanks to all of you who left comments. I used random.org and the numbers that came up were

Letraset metallic markers - Dean

Pretty Tuff CD - Bunny Freak

Card Candi - Sandy Bayles

Congrats to you all, email me with your address and I will get them in the mail to you

On to todays card, a special card that I made this month for Papercraft Inspirations, who are celebrating their 100th issue. I think the first commission I did for them was for issue 27! This month, they have asked their designers to come up with a celebration card, here's mine..... To see all the fabulous ideas in this issue, it's on sale now in the UK, July in the USA. Be sure to sign up from the link above for their website, you get loads of free papers, patterns and sentiments to print out each month

Well, did you see it? I was glued to the TV for most of the day yesterday, loving the Thames pageant, and knowing that my children and grandchildren were there, somewhere in the crowd. I felt quite emotional, and very very proud indeed to be British. I am hoping that all the flags, bunting and lights will be left up for the Olympics, so I can see London all dressed up when I go home in July

June Challenge

For this month's challenge, the two prizewinners will each win a set of the fabulous new summer limited edition ProMarkers - thanks Letraset. As usual I will pick my favourite card of the month, and the second winner will be picked using a random number generator

Here's what I want to see this month,

 make a card using one colour

 (apart from your base card colour). You can use tones of the colour, use different colours for skin and hair, but in the main the impression I want is that of a single pop of colour  - here is my sample

 

Not many rules, you can enter as often as you like but each card must be a new one created for the challenge, no back linking to older posts on your blog please. Please link back to Going Buggy from your blog. If you don't have a blog, and can't upload from Photobucket I will put photos on here for you  I will be visiting everyone to see the creations. The challenge will stay open until the 30th June

by email from Marlene Killey

By email from Maureen Reynolds

By email from Kathy Unger (can't get the photo to show, but it's lovely, take my word!)

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And the Winners Are........

 First of all, the winners of the metallic markers in the May challnege, thanks to all of you who took part (some of you more than once). I had such a hard time choosing a favourite this month.

Before I go on to that, those of you with Shabby Blogs backgrounds on your blogs,  Google is flashing up a malaware notice,  apparently Shabby blogs has been hit by a virus, so if I didn't comment on your challenge card, this is the reason - I managed to get hold of a couple of you with the message, but didn't have contact details for everyone, so this is just a heads up

The other thing is word verification. Can I made a heartfelt plea for folk to turn off this dratted thing. They have recently made it even more difficult, all the letters are now wobbly and strange, and it can take me as much as three tries to get it right. Go to your settings and click off. If you are worried about spam, turn on comment moderation instead, it means you get to vet the posts before they are published. More about that later.......

Now on to the fun stuff. The card I chose as my favourite of the month is this one by

ERET

I am a sucker for these flowerpot cards and I loved the shades of blue that she chose. 

and the second winner, drawn by random.org (#44) was#

Cheryl W

with this lovely bird card, which was also on my (rather long) list of favourites this month, so it was nice to see her number come up....... 

Congrats to you both. Your prize will be sent direct from Letraset, so please go to their site to decide whether you want set 1 or set 2 of the markers, then email me with your name, address and telephone number.

On to the draw for the metallic markers that I used for my Letraset post. the name that came out on the random thingy for them was

CyndiU

Congrats CyndiU, email me with your address and I will get them in the mail to you

I will draw the winners of the Jubilee goodies on Saturday and post them on Sunday, so be sure to pop back then

I am turning comment moderation on again, which means that your comments won't show up straight away when you make them. All of a sudden I am having a lot of idiot messages, and although the spam filter catches most of them, I want to make sure that no suspicious stuff makes it onto the blog, and I don't think many of you are interested in adding inches to a dangly bit of anatomy that 99.9% of us don't possess! Come to that, hands up all those of you who have a relative called Okambo Mutiwashe in Kenya. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but poor old Uncle Okambo has died, the good news is he has left us £31.5 million. Bless him, he always was my favourite uncle......... Here is a message for Sexy Suzes - thank you for the offer Suzes, I am not really interested in having a penfriend, even one who will send me photos to look at. So comment moderation it is I think

I'll be back tomorrow with the June challenge, sponsored by Letraset again (but first I have to go away and think of a challenge to set, and make a card)