August Challenge

For the August challenge, click HERE This post will stay at the top until the challenge ends, for new posts scroll down

Messing Around.....

Here's something to try next time you fancy getting messy and inky. I started with a regular 5 x 5 piece of white cardstock, and hunted down some odds and ends of stuff - a scrap of lace, some garden twine, a piece of mesh, masking tape, and some tiny micro beads........

I covered the cardstock with some PVA glue, then started adding the bits and pieces to it in quite a random way.............

then I covered the whole lot in quite a thick layer of PVA glue..............

and left to dry - it dries clear

then I started dabbing it with various colours of Letraset's alcohol inks. The textures show through in a very satisfying way, and by this time, the piece is quite heavy but flexible........

I haven't done anything with it yet, just sat and admired it, but I think I may use it as the cover of a mini album, watch this space. This really is fun to do, let me know when you have had a go so that I can admire your creations. I think the next one I do may include some metal cogs and keys for a cool look. What do you think?

If you are looking for alcohol inks in a liquid form, do look at the Letraset range, gorgeous colours, and very reasonably priced as well

We watched the opening ceremony of the Paralympic games last night, totally inspirational. Here we go again, GO TEAM GB

Chipboard Cards

Happy Bank holiday Monday to everyone in the UK (for overseas friends reading this, it's the last bank holiday weekend here before Christmas, so eagerly anticipated, and always cold and wet - never fails!)

I have been busy playing with the latest project of the month kit from

 Craftwork Cards, full of gorgeous elements as always. I really like these shaped chipboard cards and ticket shapes. The circles were cut from the George cartridge on my Cricut, using the silhouette feature for the top one. Both were attached with foam pads

I used a couple of the sentiments and cut them to fit onto the tickets......

the swirly flourish is a Sissix die, I cut it from another card base....

and here's one that would make a good card for a friend who is into sewing. I used the Tim Holtz texture fades embossing folder to add a bit of detail to the background. I started to drape the dress form in a very complicated paper design, with pleats and drapes, it was all getting a bit Victoria Beckham here, so in the end I just cut a sliver of paper and attached it with a safety pin.....

I am not a needlecraft person, I once made a dress, way back in my teens. I remember it had large cabbage roses in blue all over the fabric (what was I thinking?). I wore it once I think - I had made one armhole much smaller than the other, so the circulation was compromised, my arm went a funny colour and I decided it wasn't worth getting gangrene for the sake of some blue roses. I seem to remember having a lightbulb moment and thinking I would turn it into a skirt, but that wasn't a success either, my mum had blue rose patterned dusters
for a good few years....

See you tomorrow x  

Win a set of limited edition Autumn ProMarkers

Those lovely folk over at Letraset have given me a set of the brand new limited edition Autumn ProMarkers to give away to one of you. You have to hop to win though - pop over to the Letraset blog HERE to see my post today and leave a comment, then come back here to leave your name. You can enter from anywhere in the world, I will use random.org to draw a winner a week from today, Sunday September 2nd.  

  

 Here's a peek at one of the cards I made for the post about the autumn markers......

While you are over on the Letraset blog, if you haven't done so already, sign up to get an email when new posts are made. Lots and lots of colouring tips and inspiration over there, and frequent giveaways as well, so don't miss out.

Good luck!

In the Pink......

Here's one I made with Memory Box dies. I cut in white and coloured with Promarkers. I used a Martha Stewart round the page punch, then cut an aperture in that with a nestability. I popped an insert of the negative left from a scallop square cut into that.............

the flowers were distressed with a ball tool on a foam pad to shape them a bit after colouring...........

I have been applying new glue to my Cricut mats, it works so well, I can't believe I didn't do this ages ago. The mats I have bought lately seem to have very little staying power as far as stickiness goes, and once the paper starts sliding around, you may as well forget the whole idea. Look for this Zig glue. You wash your mats, some say you should remove all old adhesive, but I didn't do that, just gave them a good dunking to get rid of lint and stuff. 

then you tape the sides of the mat with masking tape, and run the zig pen over the cutting area of the mat. Leave overnight to dry. It really works, I have been using a refurbished one for over a week now, and it's still as sticky as when I first tried it

Lookout for a giveaway post tomorrow, and if you have nothing better to do on a wet bank holiday weekend, get cracking, you have until the end of the month to make a card for this months challenge

Garden gates and little girls......

Here's a card I made yesterday using the fabulous wrought iron fence from the Heritage cartridge, and some Memory Box dies. I airbrushed a sky with a Powder Blue Promarker. The fence was cut at 5" in black. The other elements were cut in white and coloured with Promarkers

Supplies used:

Cricut expression and Heritage cartridge

Memory Box bicycle, grass, ivy tendril, flower mound and butterflies

Craftwork Cards base card and sentiment 

What else have I been doing? Well, we had Kiki to stay for the weekend, which meant trips to the park, lots of crafty fun and laughs. She is such a sweet child, no trouble at all, but boy, don't eight year olds have a lot of energy! We needed to jetwash (power wash) the garden. "I want to help, it's always been my ambition to do that" she said. Bless. And help she did, she was really focused and kept at it for hours, earning herself brownie points and extra pocket money!

and we cut quite a few of these for her bedroom wall. Pooh is for her little brother Monty.

'You are so lucky Ma, to have all this special stuff........' she said wistfully

We are so lucky to have her! 

Oh Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells.....

Well, it's never too soon to think of Christmas...Here's a couple I made with the totally gorgeous Christmas Ornaments stack by Craftwork Cards. For this first one, I cut 1" strips of paper and folded them to make a multi layer bow, then popped it onto a large snowflake, and topped with another smaller snowflake. The embossed background is from the Moorish collection

I really feel that simple is better for Christmas - if I make bulky cards with lots of layers, I spend the equivalent of the national debt of a small country just to get them mailed. This next one is 'popped up' and has layers, so it will go to one of the friends that I hand-deliver cards to

I love these embossed frames, and I hung the ornaments with very fine gold jewellery wire

We are off to London to pick up Kiki, she is coming to say for the weekend. Expect to see lots of her creations, she loves cardmaking with me, but hates giving them away!

Overheard in town today, a couple, obviously shopping for holiday clothes. Irate looking wife with bored looking husband: 
The trouble with you, she snapped, is that you won't try anything on that's trendy
The trouble with me, he replied wearily, is that I am 55, I felt about 45 this morning, I feel 65 now. By the time we get to Spain, if this goes on much longer,  I will feel 85. 85 year olds don't do trendy
I don't rate their chances of a happy holiday judging by the dagger looks from the wife, but I rather warmed to the guy.  

WOYWW

I haven't taken part in WOYWW for a while because I haven't had much spare time to go around all the blogs, but I am fairly organized this week, so here goes... WOYWW? for those not in the know, it's What's on your workdesk Wednesday, a chance to have a crafty peek at the desks of crafters from all over the world. Here's mine, looking a bit messy (you should see my hands!) as I have been playing with alcohol inks. Love the effects you can get, lost count of the clothes I have had to throw out after using them. My green craft mat has become bent somehow, so has great ridges in it. I have had to take it off the table as it was impossible to work on it. Sigh, that white desk isn't going to stay white for long...........

and since what I have been doing is a bit of a secret, here's a card I made for this month's Papercraft Inspirations magazine, follow the link, they have an amazing offer if you sign up, and you get all sorts of freebies every month......

.

Random thought of the day, why do weeds grow quicker and stronger than flowers? I mean, you nurture flowers with all sorts of plant food, watering, deadheading etc. Weeds? No attention and they grow by six inches a day. Now if someone could tap into the weed gene pool, we would all save a heck of a lot of money on fertilizers

More white.......

I seem to be in the mood for white cards this week, here's one I made with the wildflower die by Memory Box, it really is a stencil/outline sort of die (I have plans to use it as a stencil.....). I found some really glittery gold paper, and it sort of evolved into a wedding anniversary card. Perfect for a Golden wedding I think

Look what the postie bought today, my monthly kit from Craftwork Cards, full of delicious goodies. You get such a lot of stuff in these kits...... papers, and candi, and flowers - the list goes on and on............. Here's the full list of the kit

Kit Contains:

10 Straight 6" x 6" White cards and envelopes
10 Fanciful 6" x 6" Chipboard cards and envelopes
5 Chipboard Mannequins
5 Chipboard Dresses
1 Pack Vintage Tickets
12 Sheets 8” x 8” Printed Papers
4 Sheets Printed Embossed cardstock
48 Delightful Blooms
20 Birthday Sentiments Black on Chipboard
20 Birthday Sentiments Silver on Chipboard
1 Pack of Candi Minis – Silver Holographic 
1 Pack of Candi Minis - Chips
Grosgrain Ribbon
Ideas Sheet

I love these chipboard sentiments, and the shaped cards are chipboard as well.........

Cute dress forms, and just look at those tickets........

and as always you get an ideas kit to get you started...........

So you can guess what I am going to be doing today!

What is it with craft supplies? When I am looking for a specific thing - in this case the little amber coloured jewel brads on my card today - I can never find a matching pair. I had jewelled brads in every colour under the sun, but only one amber one. You can bet that next time I rummage through the box looking for two amethyst matching brads, all I will find are matching amber ones (I eventually found the second one hiding with the buttons...)

All White - well almost!

I was in Hobbycraft the other day, getting some supplies for a magazine commission, and I found this really pretty embossing folder, so of course it found it's way into my basket. I wanted a really quick card and this cried out to be an all white card, which I always love.......

the simple sentiment and scalloped card base is from Craftwork Cards, and I dotted a few pale pink pearls about to match the ribbon bow....

I punched some butterflies with a Martha Stewart punch and attached them over the embossed butterflies.......

Well what on earth am I going to do when these Olympics are over? I may be able to get a job somewhere as a worldwide authority on obscure sports. I think I may be a better commentator than some of them - "oh", squeaked one last night, "I don't know what to say, I am lost for words"..............well excuse me dear, aren't you paid to talk? Then there was the guy, also last night, who, as the camera showed an aerial view of the stadium at dusk said "what a view, as you see dark is coming, well, it's getting a bit darkish anyway" Darkish! I rest my case 

Clean and Simple

I am still trying to get in touch with Nancy from Ohio who won the Papercraft Inspirations book last week. Can you email me with your address please Nancy?

Here's a very simple card, striking I think because of the lovely papers and elements, all from Craftwork Cards. The base card is 6 x 6, scallop and plain circle cut with nestabilities, and the little flower is from the Flower Fusion pack 

So we have been doing a spot of babysitting, Max and Milo were good little boys, with bursts of doing what little boys do best.........here is Milo, refining his skill of blowing huge bubbles through his straw into his apple juice................ 

Max had been put in charge, so when I made a comment along the lines of 'no more treats boys, it will be lunch soon', he heaved a huge patient sigh, looked at me sorrowfully and said: 'Ma, you are NOT the government!' Five! He will be Prime Minister by the time he is ten at this rate :)

They turned the garden into a mud bath when we weren't looking.................

Today our sweet lovely little granddaughter Kiki is eight. Happy happy birthday sweetheart

The craft cupboard is in disarray - I am working on some magazine stuff and another project at the same time and everything is getting mixed up as I dash between projects, but I'll be back tomorrow

August Challenge

Another month, another challenge, once again sponsored by Letraset. As always there will be two prizes, one for my pick of the month, and one from all the entries by random draw. If you don't have a blog, email me your photos and I will put them on the blog and allocate them a number before the draw

A few rules, you can enter as often as you like, but it must be a new card made for the challenge please. No backlinking to old posts on your blogs. Please link back to Going Buggy on your blog posts

So what's the prize this month, each winner will get a set of the brand new limited edition Autumn colour ProMarkers. These are brand new, and the colours are gorgeous

So what's the challenge? I am making it easy this month, I want to see girlie cards, for any occasion, any medium, for any age,  but it must be unashamedly feminine and have some sort of feminine icon - shoes as in my example below, a little black dress, handbags, shopping bags, cocktail glasses loaded with umbrellas and cherries, an invitation for ladies who lunch...........you get the picture. 

The challenge will run until the 31st August. Please do a direct link to the blog post showing your card on Mr Linky, if you don't take part in the challenges, please pop around to see the cards and leave a comment on the posts if you have time.

by email from Debra Siddle

by email from Marlene Kiley

by email from Marlene Kiley

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Winners of July Challenge

Thanks to all of you who entered the July 'weather' challenge, as always, there were some pretty amazing entries, and quite a few email entries as well. Before I go onto the winners, can I make another plea for

Nancy from Ohio

who won the Papercraft magazine, to email me again with her address. Due to computer problems, your first email got lost. Thanks Nancy

On to the winners, this is such a difficult thing to do every month, but my pick of the month has to be

mONAmi

Her colouring on this card is so fantastic, and I love the shell details 

and the random draw winner is

Maureen Reynolds (email entry) 

Congratulations to both of you, can you take a look on Letraset's site to see which fine tips set you would like, then email me with your choice, your names, address and telephone number

I'll be back tomorow with next months challenge, which means I have to dream something up today

I can't quite believe that I spent almost a whole day watching Clay Pigeon shooting! That's the great thing about the Olympics, you get swept up and excited about sports you didn't know existed. Team GB is on a roll, they seem to have hundreds of experts commenting on every sport, if they can walk and talk, and have some connection to sport,  they're roped in. Watching two women getting to grips with each other in the Judo, a commentator said 'I think these two will be in the extra large division by next year' - that's a bit harsh I thought, they may go on a diet soon

We are off to London to do a spot of babysitting, a grandbaby feast, we get to see them all, but I will be back tomorrow with the August challenge

Oh dear, computer problems

This is just a short post, I will post some stuff later today, I have had some computer problems and have managed to lose the email from Nancy in Ohio who won the Papercraft magazine earlier this week. Nancy, can you email me again with your address please, it's all packed up and ready to go

Some Elegant Edges

Here's one for Papercraft Inspirations magazine - the quick cards section, my brief was birthday cards with gifts. I used the Martha Stewart present punch. It's well worth subscribing to this site, you get loads of ideas, and free downloads each month. The free papers in the magazine are available to print as well

I saw a post on the Cricut message board about the borders from the Elegant Edges cartridge. Someone was having problems cutting them, I decided to cut them all at 1" to give me a reference as to size. The book gives no indication how long they will be, and as you will see, they vary enormously. I have laid them on a sheet of 12 x 12 paper for the photographs, ten cuts to a page, corresponding to the rows on the overlay 

Row one, cut one is at the top, then cut 2 below it and so on

Row 2

Row 3

Row 4

Row 5

There are some very pretty borders here, I particularly like the loopy one in row 2,  the scalloped semi circles in row three, and the very first one in row one. None of these cuts have been manipulated in the Gypsy, they are straightforward cuts, all at 1". A couple of them tore quite badly, they were very detailed tiny cuts, but on the whole they cut well, and I got a lot of ideas about using them as I went along


I have been glued to the Olympics, watching sports that I have never seen before, and becoming an instant expert. 'Oh no' I groan 'he should have kept his shoulders down on that forward roll, he will be marked down for that'...... It's all very exciting, I am cheering for team GB of course, but loud cheers for the American and Canadian teams from me as well. The commentators do say some idiotic things though. 'A once in a lifetime opportunity that won't happen very often' burbled one. Well no!
 'She started before she finished, so she will have to start again then finish'  chirped another voice. Eh?

It's almost as much fun listening out for ridiculous remarks as it is watching the sport. I am quite exhausted just from watching and listening, I need to get fit to watch the track and field events!


I'll leave Humphrey singing on here for a few days before taking the link off, personally I am loving hearing the children whenever I pop over.


See you tomorrow with the winner of  July's challenge